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"words" - Japanese, Westron.

"words" - Sindarin

' ' - thoughts

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Sad deep purple eyes stared at the determined crimson ones as one Tomoe Hotaru faced the ancient Guardian of Time whom she had begun call her "mama". The mist swirled around them and the Gate glowed providing the only light in this ethreal realm. Another petite figure lied unmoving nearby. Saotome Ranma hadn´t come here on her own free will.

"Why?" Hotaru asked.

Setsuna sighed "You know why. You and her are dangerous to the formation of Crystal Tokyo. Serenity asked that we outers would kill you but I could not do it. You are alive only because I convinced Haruka and Michiru that I would take care of disposing you two."

Setsuna´s expression softened a bit. "I will send you two to another dimension so you can have a new life. Perhaps you both can find love and acceptance there. Please forgive me Hotaru. I truly wish there was another way."

Unlike most who knew her thought, Meiou Setsuna had a heart. She loved Hotaru very much but her sense of duty would not allow her to let Saturn potentially ruin everything she had worked for millenia. Still she felt she already had too much blood in her hands and she could not bring herself to hurt Hotaru. Leaving her at the mercy of the opportunistic and calculating Uranus and Neptune would have meant death sentence. Also sending Ranma away from the hell of her ordinary life was doing a huge favor for her in Setsuna´s mind. There was an option for not killing the two youngsters and she was going to use it. Unfortunately convincing Ranma had been less than easy and had required a Dead Scream at close quarters and a whack with Garnet Rod to end the argument in Setsuna´s favor.

Hotaru was nearly crying. "I cannot believe Usagi would do this to me. What did I do."

"Nothing. You both just are too powerful for her to control and could prevent our plans."

"What about Chibiusa? I thought we were friends. Didn´t she object at this, tell you that I or her were in the future?" Hotaru said gesturing at the uncoscious martial artist.

"No, I am sorry to tell you this Hotaru but she was the one who initially suggested this. She told us that you would attack the other Senshi sometime in future. Ranma obscures my ability to see the future and I cannot tell anything else except that without you two Crystal Tokyo will be. With you, who knows."

Hotaru´s shoulders slumped and she started crying silent tears. It seemed like no-one was willing to accept her. People just used her and threw awaywhen she had no more use.

"W-why then, why call me a friend? Why pretend like she did?"

"I honestly do not know. Perhaps it has something to do with how she was raised. I know her well enough to say that she ultimately is a rather self-centered little girl. Not many things have been denied from her. Let´s not think about that now. Please give me your henshin pen and go just inside of the gate and I will send you two away," Setsuna calmly said and dragged Ranma towards the Temporal Stream. Hotaru walked behind her and sat next to Ranma hugging her legs and looking miserable.

Setsuna then walked some distance away from the gate, turned facing it and unleashed her powers. The temporal winds started whirling around the two youngsters and soon Hotaru felt herself hurled across infinite distances. She also felt Ranma fly next to her untill they were separated at some point of the flight. Her body felt like it was malleable clay in artists hands and all the sensations she was experiencing soon overloaded her mind.

At the Gate Setsuna watched horrified as the duo vanished. The power surge had been too big and they were not going to the parallel modern world like she intended. It was totally impossible to tell if they had landed safely somewhere or just been obliterated from existence. She collapsed next to the gate and started weeping for the girl she had began think as her daughter.

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Gandalf laughed at Bilbo´s antics as said hobbit had just hurried inside of his house and hastily banged the door at the wizard´s face. An invitation for a tea tomorrow? Why not. He would come and bring some friends too. He inscribed a rune in Bilbo´s door and went looking for Thorin to inform him that he had found a thief for him.

He found the dwarves at the local inn and informed them where and when it would be prudent to enjoy the hospitality of mr. Baggins. After this he filled his pipe and decided to take a walk as he truly enjoyed visiting Shire.

He had not wandered far as his eyes fell on an odd sight. Of all things an elven child in rather weird and somewhat shredded clothes was lying in the middle of the road. Gandalf hurried himself at the side of the sleeping girl and studied her. She was a Noldo if he did know anything of the elves. The raven hair and pale complexion gave that away but what was she doing alone so far away from nearest elven dwelling. Although elves passed through Shire when they journeyed at the Grey Havens it was very rare that any of them showed themselves to the hobbits. And where were the parents of the girl. No elf would abandon their child in such a manner willingly. He decided to wake the elfling up and find out what was going on.

As he touched the girl he received a vision of a tall woman with long green hair surrounded by a mist. The woman looked at him and asked him to look after the girl before vanishing. Several other short visions followed before he saw the girl again, this time floating in space surrounded by a dark aura which felt as it was saturated by loneliness and hopelessness.

The vision faded and Gandalf returned to the waking world. He tugged the girl who stirred, opened her eyes and rose sitting and staring at the old wizard with confused expression.

"Who are you? Where am I?" Her expression changed to very worried. "Who am I? Why I cannot remember anything?"

"Be at ease young one. I am called Mithrandir by your people and I am a wandering wizard. We are right now in the middle of the Shire where hobbits live" He said gesturing around at the various small buildings and several hobbits who were staring at them. "You really do not remember anything, like who your parents are?"

"Father! Mother! No, I cannot remember them but somehow I know they are both dead." The elfling broke into tears.

"Shh, let it all out. We´ll figure out what to do. I´ll take you to see Elrond. He´ll know. In the mean time how about I give you a name if you do not remember what yours was before." Gandalf fell silent thinking about a fitting name. "I think Lúmëntariel is a good name for you. Or Dúriel as it is in Sindarin. Do you like it?"

The elfling thought for a moment and then nodded smiling weakly. Somehow the name was very fitting.

"Very well then, Dúriel, can you speak Westron. If you need to speak with locals it would be good."

Dúriel nodded. "Yes, I can."

"Good, good. Now then, I guide you to the inn I am staying tonight and tomorrow we are invited for a tea by a certain hobbit by the name of Bilbo Baggins. Let us see if we can find you something to wear instead of those shredded clothes too." Gandalf said and guided Dúriel towards the inn.

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A/N: Seeing I had some writers block with Ode to Chaos I decided to dump some clichés together and write this. Lets see, girl falls to ME and rest of the Sailors betray someone. I hope I can cook up a decent story and don´t worry about Sues because I´m actively trying to preserve canon as much as possible. Too bad I haven´t got English version of the Hobbit so I must translate back to english and so some things may change a bit.

Ranma will not be seen during this story anymore but will appear in another linked in this because she (yeah, she´s locked but it will be explained) ends up in different time period in ME.

Hotaru knows Sindarin, Quenya and Westron since she was transformed to her ME-counterpart which just happens to be a Noldorin elf. Her memory is totally in shambles because of the trip and she thinks herself as always having been an elf although she does know nil of any customs etc.. The name Gandalf gave her means roughly "maiden garlanded with darkness" in Quenya and "Maiden of twilight" in Sindarin. The spelling of these may have errors but I like the way they turned up.

Enjoy the story and R/R.