Title: Top-earth, Bottom-earth, Middle-Earth
Author: FreakyHair
Summary: Arwen and Aragorn broke their troth before he left with the fellowship.Brokenhearted Aragorn gives up the thought of finding love and focuses mainly on his mission to save Middle-Earth from destruction.But a certain blonde demonhunter might come to heal his wounds. Early season 5. Pre- Dracula.
Pairing: Aragorn/Buffy (duh!) and a tiny hint of Buffy/Legolas
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to either Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Lord of the Rings.
Chapter 1
Sunnydale
The vampire growled menacingly att the little blonde.
She merely smiled at it and then, before it had time to react, she kicked it in the chest.
The vampire fell to the ground and she swiftly pulled out a stake.
It couldn´t do anything but watch fearfully and surprised as it moved towards it´s heart, hitting the mark perfectly.
The girl, Buffy, stood up and dusted off her jeans, seeming satisfied with herself.
"Well, I think that will have to do for tonight", she said out loud.
Then he came running. Riley with his tazer gun and protectiveness.
"Buffy, are you all right?" he asked looking around, frantically searching for any sign of hurt on her.
Buffy sighed, exasparated.
"Yes, Riley, I´m fine."
She was getting really sick with being looked after all the time. Not only did he have to hang around her whenever she was at home, but he also had to come patrolling with her every night. It was really tiring to have to worry about him getting hurt and even moreso by getting followed around everywhere.
He held up her hand in front of her, giving her a disbelieving look.
"Is this what you call fine?" he asked.
The hand was covered in blood after a little tumble she took while fighting off a vamp.
Buffy pulled her arm out of his grip and turned away from him.
"Look Riley, I´m okay, so why don´t you just give it a rest."
"Geez, sorry for worrying about you", he said with a slightly hurt tone. "I just want you to be fine."
Buffy turned around again, irritation clear on her face.
"Well, that´s fine that you want me to be okay, but you´ve been hanging around me every day since we defeated Adam" , she said harshly.
"THAT´S WHAT A BOYFRIEND DOES!" he yelled at her, annoyed.
"NO, THAT´S WHAT A STALKER DOES!" she yelled back at him before calming down.
"Riley, I can´t have you hanging around me all the time. I need to have some privacy" , she spoke quietly.
That left him angry.
"What, are you saying that you wanna break up with me?"
Buffy´s eyes widened and she shaked her head wildly.
"No, No, I didn´t mean...", she trailed off, thinking over it, "Maybe."
Riley looked disgusted.
"I don´t believe you. After all that we´ve been through...Y'know what? Fine. It´s over. Our relationship is over."
And with that he stalked away, leaving Buffy with a mixture of relief and sadness.
It´s over´, she thought. Well, that went fast.´
Middle-Earth
Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli watched as the canoe that Boromir lied in slipped over the falls.
Legolas grabbed another canoe and started to push it into the water.
"Hurry! Frodo and Sam have reached the eastern shore."
Aragorn didn´t move from his spot. He felt empty after the fall of Boromir, a man who he had actually taken liking to, but who had gotten corrupted by the power of the Ring and killed during the attack of an orch-horde. At least he has peace now,´ he silently comforted himself. But who knew who would die next.
Legolas looked at him.
"You mean not to follow them," he said, understanding dawning in his handsome face.
"Frodo´s fate is no longer in our hands," Aragorn answered him. He was on his own now. No, not on his own. He still has Sam to help him.´ That was good to know, that he would have someone to watch over him, even if it was Samwise Gamgee.
"Then it has all been in vain! The fellowship has failed," Gimli sighed resigned.
Aragorn put his hands on their shoulders, feeling his hope slowly return to him.
"Not if we hold true to each other. We will not abandon Merry and Pippin to torment and death. Not while we have strength left. Leave all that can be spared behind. We travel light. Let us hunt some Orc!"
Gimli and Legolas grinned at each other.
"YES!"
Sunnydale
Next morning Buffy walked into Giles apartment, were the Scoobies currently were slacking.
Willow was surfing on the net while Xander was sitting on the couch with a comicbook in his lap.
He looked up and smiled when she came in.
"Hey Buffster, what´s up?"
Buffy gave him a little smile.
"Riley and I broke up."
His eyes widened at that and he rushed over to her.
"God, Buffy I´m so sorry. Are you okay?" he asked, concern in his voice.
"I´m fine, just a little tired I guess," she answered him, still having troubles knowing if she should be feeling sad or happy.
She and Riley had broken up and she knew that it was the right thing to do when she didn´t have any feelings for him whatsoever.
But that alse left her knowing that she once again was alone and one step further from finding love.
"What happened?" Willow asked, hoping for further information on the breakup so she knew if she would have to turn Riley into a pig for breaking her best friends heart.
Buffy sat down in one of the chairs.
"I´m not really sure myself. I was just doing patrol in the cemetery last night when Riley showed up, and we just had this huge fight about personal space and, wham, it´s over. Trust me guys, I´m fine," she added when noticing the concerned looks they were giving her. How she hated when everyone did that. Yeah, she had a good cry when she and Angel broke up, but she was eighteen and Angel was her huge love of her life. She was twenty years old now and a lot more mature than she had been then.
Before they could say anymore, Giles walked into the room.
"Ah, Buffy, there you are. Look what it says in the newspaper."
He handed over said thing to her and she looked at the front page.
ATTACK AT SUNNYDALE MALL - CUSTOMERS DEAD
Yesterday at the time of 1 P:M there was an attack at the Sunnydale mall. Over 20 people, customers and staffmembers,were killed in the assault. According to eyewittnesses the attackers were hairy all over their bodies with horns portruding from their backs and screaming about some 'amulet of yakkid'. The Sunnydale police is comepletely befuddled aboutthis and anyone who knows anything about these mysterious attackers are encouraged to come to the police stationwith this information.
Police Chief, Roland Johnson: "It´s a terrible deed that...
Buffy stopped reading. She didn´t have to read anymore to know that whatever this amulet was, it was important to the demons.
And anything that was important to the demons, was important to keep away from them at all costs.
"So, got any info on these hedgehogs yet, Giles?" Xander asked as he handed back the newspaper to him, he and Willow already having read it over as Buffy had been lost in her own thoughts.
Giles took off his glasses and started to polish them.
"No, not yet. I´d suggest you grab a book and start researching."
"Are you sure we can´t just get Spike to sniff 'em up and then let Buffy beat the crap outta them?" Xander asked, hoping to get away from the joy of researching demons and ancient amulets.
"No Xander, we have to know more about both the amulet and the demons before we go on the offensive."
Buffy sighed, convicting herself to the research mode.
"As much as I hate to admit it, he does have a point, Xander. I mean, what if these demons are like not killable in the old fashioned way. It wouldn´t be so much of the good if we came in there, loaded with swords and axes, only to find out that it´s not that easy to stop them, and get ourselves killed. Nope, I´d rather spend all day here looking through old, dusty books," she concluded before grabbing the nearest book and opening it.
Later the same day:
Buffy swiftly ducked a punch the hairy demon threw at her before swiping it´s legs out from under it. The demon fell to the ground but quickly moved away and, in doing so, avoiding getting beheaded by Buffy´s battleaxe. It got up and sent her flying into a wall. They were fighting in an old warehouse, were the demons currently had their home. All of them were attacking her from all sides and yet she strangely avoided getting hurt.
Buffy threw the demon a glare as she got up and wiped away blood from her bottom-lip.
"You´re not giving up, are ya?" she asked it and it only growled in return.
She started punching and kicking it visciously, blocking and parrying the thrusts it sent her. Things looked good.
Middle-Earth
Aragorn was lying with his ear pressed against the ground, listening intently.
"Their pace has quickened." He looked up at Gimli and Legolas.
"They´ve must have caught our scent. Hurry!"
And with that he ran off in the direction in which the orcs had gone, leaving the others to follow.
"Come on, Gimli!" Legolas called before running after the king-to-be
"Three days and nights pursuit. No food. No rest. And no sign of our quarry but what a bare rock can tell," Gimli grumbled as he ran the fastest he could( which wasn´t so fast) after his companions.Oh, how he sometimes hated to be a dwarf. Even though he could be very dangerous in battle, traveling at foot was not his strength. Why those damned hobbits had to get themselves captured by the orcs was beyond him. Foolish halflings!
Sunnydale
"Oh, Giles, found something!"
Everyone walked over to Willow, wondering what piece of information they had just percieved.
"The amulet of Jah-Cyhd were created for hundreds of years ago by a sorcerer who wished to travel in time. With this he wanted to change history and take over the world. But since it only worked during full moon he had to wait, and during his waiting, bandits attacked the village he was living in and killed everyone in it, including the wizard. In the attack, the amulet was lost and never to be found again."
Dead silence.
"Well, isn´t that good then? I mean the amulet´s gone so why worry?" Xander asked, not really being smart.
Giles sighed wearily .
"Because the demons somehow thinks that the amulet is currently in Sunnydale, and the slaughter at the mall proves that they will kill as many as they need to find it. It doesn´t matter if it´s here or not, because we still need to kill them if we don´t want anymore people to die."
Willow looked at Giles , face serious.
"Their gonna try to open a portal tomorrow night. It only works during the full moon, so that´s when it´s gonna happen. Giles, if we don´t stop them they might do something as horrible as changing history."
Giles took of his glasses and started cleaning them.
"I just hope Buffy will be alright."
He knew that Buffy was adaptive enough to survive and kill these demons, but part of him still worried about the girl he had come to love as a daughter. She was strong and clever in battle and could surely handle herself, but she wasn´t invincible. Hopefully she would get her hands on the amulet before the demons did. But why did he have such a nagging feeling that something might soon go wrong?
Buffy ran from the hairy demons, limping slightly.
"Ooh, not good," she told herself as she cut a corner, hoping to outrun them. But to her disappointment, they still kept gaining at her.
Man, these things run fast!´ she thought, running at slayerspeed towards one of the crypts in the cemetery. Barging in, she shut the door as quickly as possible.
Scratching and pounding, the demons hoped to get in. But unfortunatly for them, the door didn´t budge.
They continued with their pounding for half an hour before finally giving up and leaving. For the first time in a long while, Buffy breathed out. Thank God for graverobber-secure cryptdoors.
But her good mood seemed to vanish quickly when she heard a voice.
"My, my, a slayer coming to visit her dear old archenemy. What do you want, luv?"
God, not him!´
Blowing away a strand from her face, she answered.
"Well, a long life with lots of luvin´ would be really fun, but right now I´m thinking 'keeping my life' is suitable."
Spike only smirked at her.
"I got chased by some demons and I needed somewhere that is demon-proof. But it seems that such place doesn´t exist," she told him before sitting down at a sacrophagus.
"You know, you could have helped out a little."
He leaned against a wall and lighted a cigarette, ignoring her comment.
"So what have you done now to upset 'em, 'cause they were pounding just a little to long to be one of your nightly victims."
"Well, there is this amulet and...," she started but cut herself off, frowning. "Care to remind me why I´m talking to you?"
"Well, because it was my home that you actually came barging in to and therefore you owe me an explanation as to why," he stated matter-of-factedly.
Buffy got up and started walking towards the door.
"Slayer, wait."
She turned around, eyeing him expectantly. Geez, why do I listen to him?´
"Need help?"
She rolled her eyes before turning around again.
"Goodbye Spike," she said and the door slammed shut.
Spike only stood there staring after her. Need help? Now where in the bloody hell did that come from?´
The insult that he´d been planning to give her got changed into 'Need help?'.
"Oh, bloody hell I´m going soft," he muttered to himself. The Big Bad was turning into the Great Good.
"BEEP BEEP BEEP"
Buffy groaned and rolled over in her bed, still in a slightly dazed state. The alarm clock continued with it´s beeping for a while until Buffy finally reached up and smashed it so hard that it broke. Lying in the bed she looked up at the ceiling, not yet wanting to get up from her warm and comfy bed. She realised that it had been a while since she actually felt this relaxed, her slaying and school had kinda made sure of it. And it was actually the first time in a long while that she had woken up alone, not with Riley by her side.
Riley.
She knew that it had been the right thing to do, but somehow she couldn´t stop thinking over it. Why had they broken up? Why had the feelings that she once thought she had, gone away and left an empty space in her heart, still needing to be filled? Why couldn´t life just be easy, why did everything have to be so hard?
Her questions was many to be answered and she didn´t know how to move on, now that she finally was free from the troubles of a relationship.
She held up her hand, looking at it in the sunlight. Not a single scar to be seen, all thanks to her slayer healing. The nails was long and painted in a slight greenish color, perfectly polished and shining. Nobody would guess that this hand had ever held a weapon upon a look at it.
To everyone else she was Buffy Summers, the blonde airhead from California, shallow and bitchy. She had once been exactly like that; the popular girl who only cared about her looks and boys, and who looked down on people who didn´t dress right or act right. People still thought about her like that, but they didn´t know her good enough to know that she wasn´t anything like she used to be.
Getting up she walked over to her mirror. The girl who stared back was only nineteen years old with long blonde hair falling to her shoulders. Hazel eyes set in a tanned, heartshaped face. Yes, she was quite beautiful, even when she was standing there with ruffled hair and PJs and no makeup on her face. But if you would look deep into her eyes, you would see the pain hidden deep beneath a surface of indifference, beneath the happy smile that always covered her face whenever she was talking to her friends.
She wasn´t happy here, and the friendship that she had once had felt with Xander, Willow and Giles, was gone, replaced with falseness and sweet lies. Her friends wasn´t her friends anymore, and the only reason they stayed with her was because of their duty, no, her duty. They wanted to help the world, that much she knew, but the closeness they had then, in highschool, was forever lost. What only remained was the memories of what was.
Once again Buffy came walking into Giles apartment, but this time in a slightly bruised state.
The second she entered, she was swimming in an ocean of questions.
"Did you find the amulet?"
"Are the demons dead yet?"
"Are you all right?"
"Did you bring any doughnuts?"
Everybody turned their incredulous gazes at Xander who asked that last question.
"What?" He held up his hands in defense. "I forgot to buy any myself."
Buffy only rolled her eyes.
"Did you slay the demons?" Giles asked her once again.
Buffy ran a hand through her hair. Whoa, shower very much needed!´
"Couple of them, but they were so many that I don´t think it matters that much. I had to make a run for it. Although, I don´t think they have found the amulet yet."
"Well, that´s always something. Hopefully, the demons will give up and leave," Xander said before plopping down on the couch.
Buffy looked questionly on Giles.
"Have you found anything yet?" she asked him.
"Ah, yes," he said and took of his glasses and started to clean them(yes, once again) before continuing. "Apparantly a couple of hundred years ago, a wizard created the amulet of Jah-Cyhd which granted acess to travel in time, but got killed before he ever could use it. We think that the demons is searching after it so that they can change history into something less good."
"It only works during the full moon, which is tomorrow, so we need to kill them before that or at least steal it until the moon has passed," Willow continued for him.
"So you think that their gonna make their move tomorrow?" Buffy asked.
"If they find the amulet, then yes," Giles answered her and put his glasses back on his face.
Buffy sat down next to Xander on the couch. She still was a little sore after the fight yesterday.
"Odds are that they´re gonna find it, with thespeed their keeping."
And Buffy didn´t know how right she was, because deep down in the earth in one of the many tunnels in Sunnydale, the demons had found what they were looking for.
A small hairy demon walked up to it´s master and handed the precious amulet to him.
"Look, master, what we found. The amulet of time travelling," it hissed to him.
The larger and much more scary demon smiled evily as it looked at the purple stone in his hairy palm.
"Yes, well done my servant. Tonight, we will use this and rule the world!"
That night, the Scooby Gang grabbed all of their weapons and headed to the warehouse were the demons lived and therefore would probably use the amulet there, and prepared themselves for a tough battle.
After showering, Buffy tried to reach Riley, only to find him not answering the phone. He was probably still angry at her and Buffy decided not to bother him. It wasn´t like he was very much needed or anything.
Standing outside the warehouse they had a last quiet talk before making the move.
"So, what´s the plan Buff?", Xander managed to say without hacking his teeth. It was pretty cold that night in Sunnydale, so cold you would almost expect it to start snowing any second.
"Th-There is no plan. O-Only t-to kill as m-many demons as possible," she stuttered. Why couldn´t her slayer powers include resistance for chill.
"W-Well, don´t y-you think we sh-should go in?" he asked, giving her a loopsided grin, which was kinda stiff and forced.
Buffy listened for a second before answering.
"Yeah, let´s g-go get them."
She kicked in the door and walked inside, the others following closely.
The demons had stopped doing whatever they were doing to stare at the intruders.
"Hi, I got your invitation and I figured it couldn´t hurt to bring some friends with me. I´m not late am I?"
And with those words, Hell went loose.
Authors note: Okay, so that was the first chapter. I would really appreciate it if you would review and tell me what you think of it so far and ifi should continue writing this story. Feel free to come with suggestions about what should happen in the story, I always appreciate that when I get a shutdown. The chapters will probably get longer and longer when I finally get really started with the whole writing. And by the way, I´m sorry that you didn´t get to read that much about Aragorn, or get any info on the breakup between him and Arwen. Maybe there will be more of that in the next chapter, but don´t get your hopes up.
