A/N: The idea is that the first few paragraphs begin as canon, but because Sauron is such a thick neck is becomes AU. As you'll no doubt guess if you read the story, I'm going to be dealing with a lot of what-ifs. Oooh, this is going to be fun!
Disclaimer: Only the plot belongs to me. And of course, the Keepers of Time.
Prologue
It would be the last time they were all together, so the company decided to make the most of this day. After all, tomorrow was their parting. King Aragorn and Queen Arwen sat gazing at all their friends and family fondly, and somewhat wistfully, for this would be their last day together. Legolas and Gimli were conversing together. The four hobbits were in one corner sleepily watching their surroundings. Gandalf was speaking to Elrond and Galadriel, and Celeborn was listening in polite interest. Elladan and Elrohir were jesting lightly amongst themselves. The sun was setting but all of them were loathe to turn in just yet.
Aragorn sighed heavily and stood up. He opened his mouth to speak, but what he was about to say was driven clean out of his mind as a strong gust of wind knocked him back in his seat. Arwen glanced sideways at him, an amused smile spreading across her face.
"Do not say it," Aragorn muttered.
" I was merely about to inquire if you were all right," Arwen said innocently.
Aragorn scowled and gazed at the Company once more. His eyes narrowed as he noticed Elrond break off in mid-speech and stiffen, his expression tense. Silence fell across the company at a distant rumble. Aragorn stood once more and made his way to his father- in law as Galadriel asked Elrond a question the king could not hear, Arwen gliding silently beside him.
" I know not," Aragorn heard Elrond reply as he reached his side. The rest of the company drew closer, seeming to realize something was amiss. " Something is changing."
Galadriel's expression changed. " I feel it as well," she said.
"What is wrong?" asked Arwen.
"Something is changing," Celeborn repeated Elrond's words.
The rumbling grew louder and the wind swirled around them, growing more powerful by the minute.
"Perhaps we should go inside," Arwen suggested.
"An excellent idea ," Aragorn agreed, glancing apprehensively at the rapidly darkening sky. " Everyone inside!"
Everyone moved to comply, but Elrond remained where he was, his eyes distant. Celeborn laid a hand on his shoulder. "Come, Peredhil, it would not do to remain as a storm approaches," he said quietly.
His eyes troubled, Elrond sighed and reluctantly agreed, turning to follow his companions. However, before they had taken more than a few steps, all went dark and silence replaced the sounds of an approaching storm.
Suddenly a blinding white light replaced the darkness. They blinked at the bright light, each attempting to make a sense of it. As their eyes adjusted to the light, they discovered that they were enveloped within a curious white mist and they could barely make out the shapes of one another.
"We need to stay together," Arwen said urgently. "No one must get lost."
Her words echoed in the air, as if they were in a large empty room. The others stumbled in the direction of her voice, finding as they did do the the ground felt unstable- the slightest movement seemed to make the ground shift. After losing their footing more than once, at long last the small party was gathered around Aragorn and Arwen. A survey of their current companions revealed some of them to be missing. Elladan and Elrohir were there, accessing the situation with keen eyes. Gimli was using Legolas to steady himself. Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin- the four hobbits- pressed together with an involuntary shiver. Everyone else who was with them but minutes ago was gone.
They began to call out for their missing companions, creating a confused din of echoes. Soon they gave up the effort, realizing at last that their missing companions truly weren't there. Silence fell upon them as they contemplated their next possible move.
"Perhaps we should search for a landmark," Legolas suggested, ignoring the echo his voice made. "From there we should be able to find our way inside."
"An excellent idea!" Aragorn agreed a little too enthusiastically, eager to be doing something to help their situation.
"Yes, but we need to stay together," Arwen repeated her earlier words.
They began to move slowly, for the ground was still unstable. Their progress was delayed even further due to someone continually losing their balance, causing the rest to stop and wait patiently at first for the fallen companion to regain their footing, unwilling to lose anyone in the dense fog. Eventually, patience began to wear thin, not only because of the difficulty of remaining upright, but because they failed to come across any solid landmarks that could tell them where they were. All they could see was one another, and from time to time someone would call out to make sure no one was lost. They even called out the names of their missing companions in vain, but to no avail.
Finally, Aragorn stopped. "This is no use," he said. "We should have run into something by now." He paused for a moment, thinking how odd that sounded. It would have been amusing in another situation, but their current plight was no source for mirth.
"You mean to tell me we are lost?" Gimli exclaimed. "You are the King of Gondor and you are lost in your own courtyard?"
"I don't think we are in Gondor," Elladan said before an argument could erupt.
"Then where are we?" Pippin asked boldly.
"I cannot tell you that," Elladan replied. "I only know that we have never been in this place before."
The hobbits sank to the ground in exhaustion. One by one, not knowing what else to do, the others followed suit. Time seemed to stretch on, immeasurable, for they could not see any sun.
After a while, they suddenly noticed the mist was thinning. And in the distance, a white figure was approaching them. Everyone slowly rose to their feet to meet the stranger, automatically assuming it was one of the missing long last the figure stopped a few feet away from them. They could not tell who it was, because the hood of the white cloak covered the face. Nothing else could they discern about their visitor, except for a sundial hanging from a chain around their neck.
"Greetings," she said.
From her voice, they registered that this was someone they had never met. Also, she spoke as if she had been expecting to meet them. Once all of this was absorbed, they all started talking at once.
"Who are you?"
"Where are we?"
"What have you done to us?"
"Why are we here?"
"What do you want with us?"
"SILENCE!" the figure in white roared, and everyone stopped talking.
"Thank you," the white figure said when the echoes of their voices faded to silence. "I will now answer your questions. I am Talumë, the Keeper of Time. My eternal duty is to insure that the delicate fabric of time remains in balance. I am here because that balance has been thrown off course."
"That's nice but what has that do do with us?" Gimli growled.
"This place is called the Void," Talumë continued as if she had not been interrupted. " It does not exist. You are all here because you have ceased to exist."
At that, everyone burst into speech.
"That is impossible!"
"Ridiculous!"
"She must be insane!"
With a roar, Gimli charged at Talumë, stumbling when he fell right through her.
"You cannot touch me, or anything you will find, because you do not exist, except in your own minds. You cannot even touch each other." said Talumë, a hint of sadness in her voice. She waited quietly as they each discovered her words to be true.
"How did this happen?" Aragorn finally asked quietly.
"The being you know as Sauron has created a tear in the fabric of time in order to change certain events in the past," Talumë replied. "He has chosen to tear down the Fellowship at its roots."
Aragorn thought he understood that, but it sounded improbable. "Please elaborate," he said.
Talumë waved an arm and a shimmering image appeared before them. They saw a group of nearly a hundred or so small beings travelling across a plain. Upon a closer look, they recognized the beings as hobbits. No sooner had they recognized this than they saw a great dragon swoop in upon the helpless party.
"As the hobbits were seen as key figures in the war, Sauron decided to destroy the race when it was still a fledgling," Talumë said quietly. She waved her hand again and the imaged shifted, changing to reveal a very familiar mountain and the same dragon launching an attack on a group of dwarves.
"The dwarves became a race of wanderers, scattered, their numbers alarmingly small," Talumë continued. The image changed again, this time to show a ghost of a forest that appeared to have been through a fire.
"Mirkwood," Talumë explain at their looks of incomprehension. "At this point, the dragon was finally destroyed, but for many it was too late. The Wood-Elves had no desire to remain in this wraith-like forest. They, too, became wanderers. The only place that did not escape destruction was the Golden Wood."
"Rivendell?" Arwen breathed.
"Sauron was not satisfied with cutting the Fellowship down to size," said Talumë. "He also sought to destroy the one who brought it all together."
The image flickered again. They were shown a scene by the Sea, where two small dark-haired boys watched as a woman fell into the treacherous waves. " Amme!" two childish voices screamed. To their horror, the two children ran unthinking after the woman, tumbling into the foaming sea.
"Someone let the young Peredhil loose as the sons of Fëanor were attempting to bargain with Elwing over the issue of the Silmaril," Talumë explained. "Elros' body was never recovered. A moment more and Elrond would have been lost as well."
"So Adar at least survived?" asked Elladan, trying not to show his relief.
"But Elros died!" Arwen exclaimed with a furtive look at Aragorn. "What does that mean for his descendents?"
"They never came to be," Talumë said simply. "Elrond died soon afterward. Grief is named as the ultimate cause. He was but a child and had lost everything he had." Silence fell, and Talumë let them absorb this information before continuing. "The One Ring was never removed from Sauron's person. With so many changes to the world, the Fellowship was never needed."
After a while, Legolas spoke up. "Lady, if we have ceased to exist and we never were, then what becomes of us here?"
"You have some existence here in your own way, but that won't last long," said Talumë. "Soon, you will fade to nothing."
"Then why are you here telling us these things?" asked Elrohir.
"Because there is but one last thing I can do to repair this imbalance," Talumë replied. "In an event like this where a multitude ceases to be, I can send no more than twelve of these said beings back to the time where the imbalance occurred in the hopes that they can set things right."
"Then what are you waiting for?" Gimli roared. "Let's get this done!"
Talumë chuckled. "First, I had to make you understand what has happened to you. You needed to comprehend the gravity of your plight. And I cannot do this without your verbal consent."
A babble of voices rose in a confusing echo. Of course they would give her their consent to proceed! After all they had seen and heard, there was nothing they would not try to set things straight.
Talumë raised a hand for silence. "There are a couple things you must know before you agree to this. First, you must remember at all times is that the world you just left is truly gone. It will never be as you remember it, even if you are able to ensure certain things happen as they are fated to. Remember always that Sauron of this old Age is there as well, determined to distort the past as much as he can.
"Also, if you do not succeed in returning yourself to some form of existence on Middle-Earth, you will fade to a ghost of yourself, doomed to wander throughout time for all eternity. I do not want you to throw yourselves into this without knowing the dangers. Are you still willing to undertake this journey?"
Undaunted, they murmurred their assent.
Talumë raised both arms and murmurred inaudible words. The mist instantly cleared away. They found that they were standing in the middle of a barren wasteland that reminded them eerily of Mordor.
A golden staff appeared in Talumë's hand. "Don't move!" she ordered. She then proceeded to draw a large glowing circle around them about ten feet in diameter. "Do not touch the edge. Stay in the middle," said Talumë as she stepped onto the edge herself. "Who is the leader among you?"
Everyone stared in Aragorn's direction.
"Stand directly in front of me," Talumë directed. "You," she pointed to Arwen, " stand two feet directly behind him. You two"(the twins) "stand on either side of her. The rest of you stand in a half-circle around the four, no closer than two feet apart."
After everyone had moved in the places she had ordered them to, Talumë murmurred so only Aragorn could hear her, "I can send you to the time Sauron appeared in the past, but it would not be wise to send you to the same place he appeared. It is important to remain hidden from him for as long as possible."
"I understand," said Aragorn said quietly.
"If I send you to the First Time Keeper, will you follow my instructions to the letter?"
"Why do you want to send me-"
Talumë interrupted him. "You need further guidance when you arrive in the First Age, and I haven't the time to fully instruct you in what to do. If I send you to the Keepers, will you do what I am about to tell you?"
"I will," Aragorn promised.
Talumë pulled him close to her and spent the next five minutes whispering instructions in Aragorn's ear. Then she pulled away. "Do you understand now?" she asked.
"I do," Aragorn replied with a nod.
Satisfied, Talumë raised both arms and spoke in a language none of them understood. Aragorn saw the sundial hanging from her neck glow briefly before blackening completely. A loud roaring filled their ears and everything turned pitch last thing Aragorn remembered was two hands on his shoulders and a whispered, "Good luck" and he knew no more.
Whaddya think? For it being my first fic?
