Summary: While Kitty and Marley try to reach the mount of Doom to destroy the ring, Sam, Blaine and Sebastian try to save Marley from the army or orcs they thinkg took her away. Neither one of those parties can imagine all the perils they will have to confront on their mission.

A/N: Well, thank you all for your support! I didn't know there were so many people reading this nonesense! But please, let me know you're reading every now and then, otherwise it gets very lonely and makes you wonder if there is someone out there :)

So part two is here! Hope you like it too!

CHAPTER 1: KEEPING WITH THEIR MISSIONS

Kitty and Marley were walking on circles, they could feel it. They could see Mordor in the horizon, but they couldn't find the way to get closer to it, even if they had been walking for three days.

"Mordor. The one place in Middle-Earth we don't want to see any closer, and it's the one place we're trying to get to. It's just where we can't get. Let's face it, Madam Kitty: we are lost" Marley said what they hadn't dared to admit until then.

Kitty knew she was right, but she refused to give up. She knew the destiny of the Middle-Earth was resting on her shoulders as the Ring-bearer, and she didn't want to let everyone down. The load of her mission, though, was getting heavier and heavier by the minute, and she even felt a sharp pain on her head when she looked at Mordor with the Ring hanging from a chain around her neck, something that didn't go unnoticed to her faithful friend.

"It's the Ring, isn't it?" Marley asked, worried about Kitty.

"It's getting heavier" was the only thing she answered, knowing Marley would understand what she was referring to.

The journey was becoming much more difficult that they would have ever imagined when they left the Shire what it seemed like centuries ago.

"Their pace has quickened" Sam informed his two travelling companions, while putting his ear to the ground and trying to listen the vibrations of the steps of the orcs they were pursuing. "They must have caught our scent. Hurry!" he jumped from the floor and started running again, not before placing a gentle caress on Blaine's cheek, to which the elf responded with a smile.

"Come on, Sebastian!" Blaine shouted to his back, noticing how the Dwarf kept falling behind due to his dwarvish poor shape.

"Three days and nights pursuit" Sebastian complained, when he saw the man and the elf starting to run again even before he had caught up with them. "No food, no rest, and no sign of our quarry, but what bare rock can tell"

"Come on, Sebastian, stop complaining. Save your energy for running, it's obvious you need it" Blaine joked over his shoulder, eliciting a chuckle from Sam. He was glad to see Blaine in good spirits in spite of everything, and was very happy to see the close friendship developing between the elf and the dwarf, something he would have thought impossible just some weeks ago –yet, it was difficult not to fall for Blaine's generous nature and easy smile, even with centuries of hatred between their two people.

"It's obvious I...?" Sebastian grumbled with mock anger. "Wait 'till I get my hands on you, you conceited elf!"

"At least I made you run faster!" Blaine retorted cheekily, and even Sebastian couldn't help but to laugh wholeheartedly at the young elf's insolence.

The long days of walking, climbing slopes and eating very little by hobbit standards, were taking their toll on Kitty and Marley, who just curled close to each other, underneath the magical cloaks that they had been provided by the elves of Loth Lorien, and slept for a while.

But they were not alone. The creature that had been following them even before they made it to Rivendell from the Shire was alert, and had been for days, now they didn't have the whole fellowship to protect them. And now they were asleep and unaware, it was a very good occasion to steal the thing she was obsessed with.

"The thieves, the filthy little thieves. Where is it?" he mumbled, talking to himself, as he crept on them slowly, careful so as not to wake them. "They stole it from us, my precious. We wants it!" and with that he jumped on them.

Kitty and Marley, though, had not been really asleep, and were very conscious of the presence of the creature, so they jumped from the floor and started fighting. Rachel, though, was very strong, and desperation guided her, so she jumped on Kitty and threw her to the ground, with the only purpose of stealing the Ring from her neck. Marley, though, was not intending to let her attack her friend, so she grabbed Rachel around her neck to separate her from Kitty.

Rachel, though, was not a creature to give up easily, and now it was her who grabbed Marley's neck strongly, not even letting her breathe properly, until Kitty took out her sword and aimed it directly at Rachel's throat.

"This is Sting. You've seen it before, haven't you, Rachel?" she asked Rachel, threateningly. "Release her or I'll cut your throat"

Rachel, seeing she had been defeated, could only start crying as if she was a child, hoping compassion would help her.

After three full days and nights without stopping for a second, Sam and Blaine were aware that Sebastian wouldn't be able to keep up with their pace for much longer –even Sam was starting to feel tired–, so they decided to camp for the night, and searched for a secluded place to spend the night as safely as possible.

They only had some lembas elvish bread to eat, that they had being carrying since Loth Lorien, but it felt great on their empty stomachs. They ate in companionable silence, and it was not much later when Sebastian's snores could be heard all around the camp, to which Blaine could only smile fondly.

The only good thing that had come of their new situation was that it would be easier for the lovers to find some moments to be together, as there was only Sebastian to fool and he tended to sleep very soundly. So when they were sure Sebastian was not going to wake up –the exhaustion the Dwarf must be feeling was on their side–, Sam sat on the floor, in front of Blaine, resting his back on a rock, and patted his own thigh playfully in an inviting gesture for Blaine to rest his head on his lap, which he very willingly did, and Sam lovingly caressed his head as they chatted.

"If we survive this war and succeed in freeing the Middle-Earth from the power of Sauron... Do you think the people of Gondor will accept me?" After a while of meaningless talk, Blaine decided to share a thought that kept invading his mind, worrying him beyond measure.

"Of course they will! How could anyone not want you?" Sam answered, being completely incapable of imagining someone rejecting a creature like Blaine.

"Well, I don't think they'll be expecting a male elf as the King's spouse..." he mumbled, really worried about their future, as he couldn't imagine spending it away from Sam, but he didn't want to be an obstacle for him to fulfil his destiny either.

Sam smiled sympathetically at Blaine, his sweet Blaine, always worrying about the future, always putting Sam's welfare above his one... He extricated his legs from underneath Blaine's upper body and chose to lay at his side instead, thrusting his elbow on the ground to rest his head on his hand and caressing Blaine's cheek with his free hand, looking at him intently in the eye.

"Love, they won't even be expecting a King, so it will just be another surprise to add to the list"

"But what if they don't accept me?" Blaine insisted, lowering his gaze out of fear for the future, but Sam tenderly grabbed his chin to force him to look at him.

"Then I'll just have to renounce to the throne, won't I?" Sam told him, completely honest.

"No! I wouldn't let you do that! The people of Gondor need you!"

"And you need me too, same as I need you. If Gondor can't see that..."

"I won't fight against your destiny"

"My destiny is being with you, and no war or throne will ever change that. And besides, why are we worrying about something that is not going to happen? As soon as they know you like I do, they'll love you just as I do" Sam told him lovingly, playing with the hair on Blaine's forehead.

Blaine smiled widely, too moved by Sam's words to say anything. He lifted his upper body from the floor and captured Sam's lips in a chaste kiss, just before giving him a mischievous smile this time.

"I hope they don't get to love me the same way you do" Blaine told him, eliciting a big laugh from Sam that he had to silence as best he could so as not to wake Sebastian.

"You little evil creature" he told Blaine as he encircled Blaine's waist with his arm and gave him a much deeper and hungry kiss, that Blaine returned willingly while enveloping Sam's neck with his arm.

When the kiss broke, Blaine looked at Sam's eyes, who was looking back at him adoringly, and felt so loved and so secure that it was hard to believe they were in the middle of a war.

"I don't want you to give everything up just because of me, if it comes to that" Blaine told him, his eyes full of a sadness that Sam hated.

"Says the elf who gave away his immortality for me" Sam replied equally sadly, as he wasn't still comfortable with the idea.

"That's different, because there was not a whole country depending on my decision"

"And why should I care about a country that doesn't accept you? My priority will always be you"

"I love you so much" Blaine shakily told him trying not to shed the tears that were threateningly filling his eyes.

"Not as much as I love you" Sam answered with a big smile as he gently pushed Blaine to the ground and climbed fully on top of him to hungrily devour his mouth again, all the way spreading caresses all along the elf's body, eliciting soft sights from the elf.

"What if we wake Sebastian up?" Blaine asked when Sam's lips finally gave him the chance to talk.

"Can't you hear his snores? I pretty much doubt a whole army of orcs marching by his side would be able to wake him" Sam joked as he moved his kisses to Blaine's neck, loving the feeling of the elf's soft skin against his lips, at the same time that he felt the elf's hand making its way into the small of his back. "You just try not to be as loud as that time at your place we were almost caught by your father himself. I thought I was going to die when I had to hide under the bed!"

Blaine couldn't help it and burst out laughing, to which Sam covered his mouth with his hand in an attempt to muffle the noise.

"See? Noisy elf..." he scolded his lover playfully, as he replaced his hand over Blaine's mouth with his lips.

"I would say you were partly to blame too, as you're the one who causes my loudness" Blaine mumbled against Sam's lips, eliciting a groan from him as the elf's hand reached past the waistband of his trousers.

"And you don't know how proud that makes me feel" Sam answered, now being the one bringing out a guttural sound from his lover when he gently bit his sensitive earlobe.

Sebastian's snores ended with a deep sight, to which Blaine and Sam abruptly stopped any loving intercourse and Sam brought his finger to his lips to indicate the need to remain silent. They remained as still and quiet as possible, even forgetting to breathe, until Sebastian rolled over himself to let out the loudest snore and kept sleeping as soundly as ever.

Blaine covered his mouth with his own hand this time when he felt the giggles coming, and Sam smiled at his lover's ingenuous happiness, so clearly shown in his eyes.

"That was close" Blaine said with laughter in his voice.

"Maybe we should just stop it" Sam suggested, but Blaine was having none of that.

"If you think you're going to leave me like this, you've got another thing coming" Blaine answered, making them roll until they had reversed their positions and he was straddling his lover around his hips.

"Someone's feeling playful tonight" Sam joked, but his hands were already making their way across Blaine's thighs.

"I'll try not to be too loud, though I can't really promise" Blaine told him mischievously as he started unbuttoning Sam's shirt slowly, making sure to caress Sam's skin all the way, a procedure that was fastening Sam's breath considerably.

"I wouldn't have it any other way" Sam told him with a voice full of desire, as he grabbed the back of Blaine's head to bring him down to him and kissed him as if it would be the last time, while he started getting rid of Blaine's clothing too.

Kitty and Marley knew they couldn't trust Rachel to be let free, as she could try to attack them and steal the Ring any moment, so they just put Marley's Elven rope around her neck and took her with them. Rachel, of course, was not happy at all with the solution, and kept screaming at them to plead for her freedom.

"It burns! It burns! Take it off us!" she yelled, pulling at the rope.

"Quiet, you!" Marley yelled at Rachel, angrily, and then turned to Kitty in frustration. "It's hopeless! Every orc in Mordor's going to hear this racket! Let's just tie her up and leave her"

"No! That would kill us! Kill us!" Rachel protested.

"It's no more than you deserve!"

"Maybe she does deserve to die" Kitty conceded. "But now that I see her, I do pity her"

"We be nice to them if they be nice to us. Take it off us" Rachel pleaded for them to lose the rope on her. "We swears to do what you wants, we swears!"

"There's no promise you can make that I can trust" Kitty answered her.

"We swears to serve the bearer of the precious. We will swear on... on the precious!" he tried to convince Kitty, seeing as he had more chances than with Marley.

"The Ring is treacherous. It will hold you to your word" Kitty caved in.

"I don't believe you!" Marley yelled at Rachel pulling at the rope to hurt her, to make sure she understood she was not being fooled, as Kitty seemed to be.

"Marley!" Kitty grabbed her, astonished at her cruelty.

"She's trying to trick us! If we let her go she'll throttle us in our sleep!" Marley defended herself, but Kitty didn't want to hear her and moved to Rachel.

"You know the way to Mordor?" she asked the creature.

"Yes" Rachel answered, scared.

"You've been there before"

"Yes"

"You will lead us to the Black Gate" Kitty told her, making sure she understood it was not a request, but a command, and then she freed her.

Next morning, the three remaining members of the fellowship started their way again, refreshed after having something to eat and having been able to rest for the night. Suddenly Sam stopped to look at some distant land.

"Rohan, home of the horse-lords" he informed the others, pointing at the land before them. "There's something strange at work here. Some evil gives speed at these creatures, sets its will against us" he said, when he realised the orcs kept widening their distance with them even if they kept running behind them.

Blaine jumped onto some rocks to give his sight the chance of seeing further away, trying to decipher the mystery his lover was feeling.

"Blaine, what do your Elf-eyes see?" Sam asked the elf.

"The uruks turned North-East" he explained. "They're taking Marley to Isengard!"

"Sue" Sam whispered dejectedly.