AN- Welcome to story three! This piece fits somewhere quite soon after the girls arrive in Middle Earth in LOTR 2003: The Final Journey. I think Jane would have been extremely upset upon finding out about Aragorn's recent death. I don't think I really showed that in the original story.
.1.1.
"Oh my God..." he's dead." Jane sobbed, her hands covering her face.
Niori's heart wrenched for her friend's sorrow. "I'm so sorry, Jane. It should never have happened."
"You're right." Jane spoke. She raised her head from her hands and began pacing the room. She looked like she had just figured something out. "We messed everything up, do you realize that?" Jane said, as her sadness turned into anger. "Aragorn was not supposed to die -not yet - and he did because we came here in the first place!" Her eyes had become very bright. "It must have been us. You read the books, you know that he was supposed to live a long, wonderful life with Arwen , and his son, and a whole bunch of daughters..." She sighed, her voice harsh. "What if us being here now will eventually kill someone else we love?" She ran her hands agitatedly through her straightened hair.
Niori looked at her solemnly. At Jane's words, a pang of fear had hit her in the heart. But she couldn't think about that. There was no point worrying. It felt very strange for her to be the voice of reason, and Jane be the frenzied one. "Please don't say that, Jane." She said as calmly as she could. "There's nothing we can do about it if that's the case. You know that."
"Well, what about Middle Earth?" Jane said, throwing her arms in the air. "We changed so much when we came here the first time! Middle Earth was supposed to be happy again - the Ring was destroyed! How is it we managed to affect so many other things when the Ring was destroyed?" she paused, closing her eyes. " Besides Aragorn's –" she swallowed, unable to say 'death' "– who knows what else has changed, what else could happen, even while we're here?"
"Jane - I don't know!" Niori threw her arms in the air. "Really. I understand the seriousness of the situation, but there is nothing we can do about it." She said slowly, with emphasis. "I'm so sorry Aragorn's dead."
Jane stared at her, her anger dissolving into tears as waves of sadness washed over her again. "I'm also mad at myself for not staying here." She said, her voice breaking. "Maybe we could have saved him, if we'd been here to fight with him."
"I know, I thought that too." Niori answered quietly. "But Jane, you can't focus on what could have been. It will just drive you insane. I should know." She added softly.
"What do you mean?" Jane asked quickly.
"Nothing. It's nothing."
l. .
An- See you next time!