Greetings guys!
We are already in the third part of the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy and everything is slowly emerging for the terrible battle that will be fought to save Minas Tirith. Let's see what the role of Kitty be in the events we all know, but above all, how much the X-Men are doing in the realm of the Earth in saving Kitty.
I appreciate your reviews Steve993 that have always been very helpful and have been very effective, as well as I want to invite all readers of this story to leave your reviews.
And now ... let's continue with chapter 35 ...
Chapter 35: And the search continues…
It was morning. Gandalf walked towards the top of Minas Tirith accompanied by Pippin while Kitty had been 'invited' by Lord Dénethor to take breakfast with him. The mutant hadn't been pleased at all, Boromir's father wasn't like his son who always had been a good and honorable man unlike Dénethor who it was obvious was nor kind nor honorable and Kitty suspected that very possibly the Steward was… crazy.
Wizard and hobbit walked in silence, trying to go unnoticed, which fortunately they managed.
"Peregrin Took, my lad, there is a task now to be done" said Gandalf "another opportunity for one of the Shire-folk to prove their great worth. You must not fail me" added looking the hobbit straight to the eye
About 15 minutes later, Pippin was at the top of the main beacon of Minas Tirith. It had been a bit difficult evading the guards but Pippin maybe was young and, sometimes, foolish, but the hobbit also was very intelligent and agile, so after a little effort, he had managed to get to the top of the main beacon of Minas Tirith, ready for accomplishing the task that Gandalf had given to him.
With great care for go unnoticed as until now, the hobbit reached the lamp hanging over it and tossed with very good aim onto the wood, which quickly caught fire. Pippin smiled happy that his task had been well done. Again, the Shire-folk had proved to be worthy.
Almost immediately another beacon on a nearby mountainside was lit and soon was another. In matter of minutes, several beacons had been lit.
"Amon Dîn" said to himself Gandalf "hope is rekindled"
Lord Dénethor and Kitty ate in silence. The Steward of Gondor was not the nicest company or most that Kitty wanted to be, but she had no choice. Lord Dénethor had 'invited' her, although the right word was 'ordered' to accompany him to breakfast. As if that were not enough, he had 'invited her', but once again, the correct word was 'ordered' wearing a beautiful cherry velvet dress and had beautiful brocade gold ornaments. The dress was certainly beautiful, more than the one that Éowyn had lent her, but Kitty had not liked it because she had been forced to use it as much as she could not walk or move with ease since every moment she stumbled over the edges of the long and rich dress.
It was obvious that there was a double intention behind the fact that Lord Dénethor had 'invited' her to wear that dress, he knew Kitty could not move as easily as if she wore her jeans and, therefore, any eventuality, they could quickly lock her up. At the thought of this, Kitty scoffed inwardly. Decidedly this man was not a worthy father of a man as Boromir had been.
They were eating in silence, a rather awkward silence when a guard arrived and, hurriedly greeting them both, said:
"The beacon! The beacon of Amon Dîn is lit! "
Lord Denethor's gesture made it clear that the news had surprised and angered him. How dare the wizard challenge his orders in HIS city, the city that HE ruled in his own right?
"Damn you, Gandalf!" He said furiously.
"What do we do, my lord?" Asked the guard.
Lord Dénethor did not answer; he only made a gesture that the guard immediately recognized how to leave as quickly as possible from there because surely at any moment the Steward was going to burst into rage.
"Do you realize, Lady Katherine Anne Pryde? Do you realize? "He said" that damned dare to defy my orders! Who does he think he is? What authority does he have over MY city? Does he really believe that I will accept the help of the one they call Théoden, king of Rohan? I'm all alone! I do not need anyone's help! "
"If I may say, my lord, it seems to me that what Gandalf has done is right," Kitty replied, trying to speak as she had heard among the ladies of Middle-Earth.
The fierce look with which he saw her, surprised and slightly frightened Kitty. The man was definitely not in his right mind. How terrible it must have been to have such a father and realize it and not be able to do anything! Boromir had surely suffered much, more if it was taken for granted that he was a man of honor and that all he sought was the ancient splendor of his city and peace in Middle-Earth.
"What did you say, Lady Katherine Anne Pryde?" He asked in a menacing voice.
"That Gandalf has done well. My Lord, Sauron is powerful and will want to destroy this city by any means, until he leaves no trace of its existence," said Kitty, "he already had tried to do it through Saruman who sent an army of ten thousand uruk-hai against Rohan. Just because we were very lucky, we managed to beat them in Helm's Deep ... "
"And you think that I am less than the king of Rohan?" He interrupted "I am much more powerful than Théoden. We still have Osgiliath in our power, we do not need anyone. Let them come as many uruk-hai as they have ... they will fall under my power and in that way, I will avenge my dear son. It is something that you, Lady Katherine Anne Pryde should take into account instead of trying to make me believe that I am not able to defend my city and my kingdom "
"This time no uruk-hai will come, this time the King of Angmar will come!" Said Kitty "you know who he is!"
"And I am not afraid," replied Lord Dénethor "and I am surprised that you, a mutant, are afraid of him." He paused as he looked at her with contempt. "I wonder what my son saw in you. I thought the mutants were brave, but it turns out they are not, because you fear the Witch King and a small army of orcs. Although it should not surprise me, after all, even if you are a mutant are still a woman "
At this, Kitty was furious. How dare the man call her a coward just because she was a woman? She had long since met someone as macho as that detestable man who believed that he could fight anyone and win ... even in his madness he might think that he could fight Sauron directly and defeat him.
"I am not a coward, I am prudent," she replied with gritted teeth "unlike you, I have fought all these months against uruk-hai, I have saved children in the middle of an infernal siege, I have faced a mutant and I killed her ... and what have you done? You have only been here locked in the safety of your castle, waiting for everyone to do the work that belongs to you as an obligation! You even sent Boromir, your son, to a mortal expedition without you moving a single finger and want to talk to me about cowardice?! "
"Measure your words well, Lady Katherine Anne Pryde," he replied menacingly.
"I do not have to measure them!" Snapped Kitty standing up "because what I say is true and you know it very well. Accept the help, call Rohan to your aid and thereby save not only Minas Tirith but all Gondor, save your life and the sacrifice of Boromir will not have been in vain! "
"Enough!" Lord Dénethor shouted, rising from his chair. "I will not let a woman call me that way. Guards! "
A pair of guards approached him immediately, ready to obey.
"Take this woman to her bedroom and be there until she learns manners! Put a group of 10 soldiers to watch her "ordered" and thank Katherine Anne Pryde that I do not send you to the dungeon, I only have that pity for the memory of my dear son "
Kitty frowned fiercely and followed the two guards who were ready to escort her at the point of the sword. Yes, that man named Dénethor was a plague of ambition and stubbornness in Minas Tirith and that if things went on like that, he would be the ruin of the city and, in short, of the whole kingdom.
Emma Frost and Bobby listened with great attention to Ororo's account of the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. No doubt it was a very interesting work, perhaps not the one they would consider as a favorite, but it had to be accepted that the so-called Tolkien had a great imagination and was an excellent writer. That is to say, to have created a completely imaginary realm, with maps, history, real houses, languages for each of the races that were in that place called Middle-Earth ... it was not anything!
Undoubtedly the mutant loved the novel by the way she described the battles and places that Tolkien spoke of throughout history. Only the Professor would have been able to narrate it better because he seemed to not only know the story, but his knowledge of medieval literature and all Tolkien's work was unmatched, as if he had written it himself. Perhaps that was because the Professor was the most powerful telepath in the world.
For his part, Logan was sick and tired of thinking that it might be that Kitty was in the middle of a fantastic dream that unfolded in an even more fantastic land, or, in the worst case, that was in a realm called Middle-Earth. Logan had listened for the first time to Tolkien's descriptions of Ororo's mouth and had once again reaffirmed his position: this was total nonsense. Where it had been seen, indeed, where it had been heard that an Eye of Fire was the bad boy and all the disaster happened by a simple ring.
When Ororo finished telling the trilogy, there was a long silence. Each of the four mutants were worried in their thoughts.
Logan was upset to hear all that seemed crazy, the madness created by a guy who had probably eaten long before bed or smoked some drug and as a result had written so many stupid things; Bobby was surprised, never imagined such a story, but he was also worried about what Kitty was doing at the time in that story; Ororo was melancholy because she had remembered the first time the Professor had told her and how he had lent his books, those times seemed so far away; But the one that was perhaps most thoughtful was Emma. The mutant was convinced that Kitty was in another realm, but she did not understand the reason why Kitty's mind was in that place called Middle-Earth in the middle of a great war called 'The War of the Ring', while her body was on Earth.
"And do you know what role Kitty would be playing in this story?" She finally asked.
"No, I have no idea," Ororo replied. "It is a fact that she is with the Fellowship of the Ring and, most likely, she is with Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli"
"And Marrow?"
"She would be on Sauron's side"
"That would be crazy!" Said Bobby "just as you say that it was that guy, it would be nonsense to ally with him"
"Maybe not ally" said Emma "maybe thinking to take his place"
"You mean Marrow thinks to take Sauron out of power?" Asked in disbelief Ororo
"Marrow, after Mystique, was one of the most astute mutants in the Magneto's Brotherhood. Why do you think he sent her on that difficult mission with Avalanche to get the location of the antidote against mutants? "
"I have a question," Bobby said. "If Marrow is there, do you think Avalanche is too?"
Ororo, Emma and even Logan looked upset. Everyone knew the story behind Kitty and Avalanche. If the mutant was in Middle-Earth, then Kitty would be in danger. Unless, of course, any of her new friends had enough ability to stop him or, at best, kill him.
"It seems to me that something basic is to know in what part of the story she is," said Emma "in this way we can know how much she will remember the moment that we get her back"
"From what you've seen ... she's probably in Minas Tirith. Probably it was she instead of Pippin who took the Palantir and that's why you saw Sauron "said Ororo" although I do not understand why the two would be talking if the only thing that happened when Pippin took the Palantir was that he saw the Eye of Sauron and the glimpse of the White Tree of Gondor "
"And in Minas Tirith happens ... a battle to save Gondor?"
"And in which Kitty will obviously take part," said Bobby
It was heard that someone cursed under his breath. Everyone turned, it was Logan. The mutant had been pacing the room with a frown, his arms folded and his mouth tight.
"You think Thumbelina is in another realm, huh?" He said, "I ask you: is there any change in the books that shows that Thumbelina is truly in this fantastic place called Middle-Earth?"
Ororo took the books and leafed through them quickly. There was nothing different.
"Think, if she really were in another realm, why the books have not changed?" Logan continued, seeing Ororo's gesture "this is just a dream and that's why her body is here and her mind is trapped in that place. And if you do not believe me, then let us look for different editorials of this fiction and review it. If any of them shows differences to what Ororo just told us, then we will know that she is in another realm, but if not ... we will have to find how to wake her from that fantastic dream "
It had been a few hours since the beacons had fired very much against the will of Lord Dénethor and that Kitty had been locked up in her chamber watched over by ten soldiers, when suddenly they saw galloping, across the plain to an army of men pursued by a gigantic army of orcs and, worst of all, Nâzgul among whom was the King of Angmar. At the head of the army of men that were rapidly falling like flies along the whole plain was Lord Dénethor's younger son Faramir, who after a long and courageous resistance to defend Osgiliath finally had to retreat, especially when the main defense that was the main city wall had been destroyed in a matter of minutes by that supernatural being or, in the words of Frodo, a mutant.
Seeing that no one was doing anything to help those poor fugitive soldiers and that Lord Dénethor was not ordering to do in this situation, Gandalf immediately mounted Shadowfax together with Pippin, and went out to meet the few remaining soldiers to assist them . With the help of a bright white light that came out of his staff, Gandalf succeeded in pushing back the Nâzgul and thus saving the remnant of the Osgiliath army.
Just Faramir saw Gandalf, he walked towards the wizard.
"Gandalf! They broke our defenses. They've taken the bridge and the West Bank. Batallions of orcs are crossing the river!" he said despairingly "we are lost, Gandalf! Not to mention the young man covered with an armor made by stones who destroyed the main wall of Osgiliath! He alone did it in a matter of seconds!" He went on "how can we defeat such powerful beings! How can we defeat a mutant!"
Gandalf and Pippin looked at each other. They recognized immediately about who was Faramir talking about.
"You know him, Gandalf?"
The wizard nodded.
"Not personally but Kitty had told us about him" he answered "his name is Avalanche"
"Kitty?" repeated Faramir frowning "you're sure?"
"Indeed, she's helping us, she's also…"
"Mutant" finished Faramir "her name is Katherine Anne Pryde, her friends call her 'Kitty'. That's what the halfling said"
"So, this is not the first halfling to have crossed your path?" asked Gandalf troubled pointing Pippin
"No"
"You've seen Frodo and Sam!" exclaimed Pippin happily
"Where? When?" asked immediately Gandalf
"In Ithilien, not two days ago" said Faramir while the worry was portraying in his handsome face "Gandalf, they're taking the road to the Morgul Vale"
"And then the Pass of Cirith Ungol" finished Gandalf upset
Surely the face of both, Gandalf and Faramir, have a very worried expression because Pippin couldn't help but ask,
"What does that mean? What's wrong?"
Neither of them answered but instead, Gandalf asked,
"What about Avalanche? What about the young man who destroyed the main wall of Osgiliath?"
"We haven't seen him after that"
Gandalf paled. Obviously, the mutant had gone after the hobbits. Would he had already known about Marrow's death?
"Faramir, tell me everything. Tell me all you know" he said
"This is how you would serve your city?!" was saying Lord Dénethor angrily "you would risk its utter ruin?"
"I did what I judged to be right" answered Faramir
After talking to Gandalf and telling him everything he knew, the youngest son of the Steward of Gondor had gone to see his father to tell him what had happened in Osgiliath. When Lord Dénethor had known about the One Ring and what had done Faramir, his anger had no limits. How was possible that Faramir having in his hands the One Ring, had just let it go in the hands of two stupid and useless hobbits? That was another proof that shown that his youngest son was a stupid and naïve man who would never be worthy of him.
"What you judged to be right?" repeated Lord Dénethor mockingly "you sent the One Ring into Mordor in the hands of a witless halfling! It should have been brought back to the Citadel to be kept safe. Hidden. Dark and deep in the vaults, no to be used! Unless at the uttermost end of need!"
"I would not use the One Ring. Not if Minas Tirith were falling in ruin and I alone could save her"
This answer angered even more to Lord Dénethor. For him, his youngest son was stupid, naïve, weak, he would never be like his golden child, Boromir. Dénethor knew that it hurt a lot to Faramir to be compared with his older brother and so, he said,
"Ever you desire to appear lordly and gracious as king of old. Boromir would have remembered his father's need. He would have brought me a kingly gift"
"Boromir would not have brought the One Ring. He would have stretched out his hand to this thing and taken it. He would have fallen" answered calmly Faramir, however, he felt hurt a lot.
"You know nothing of this matter!" shouted angrily Lord Dénethor
"He would have kept it for his own!" said Faramir for the first time defying his father "and when he returned, you would not have known your son!"
"Boromir was loyal to me! Not some wizard's pupil!"
Suddenly, before Faramir's surprised eyes, Lord Dénethor fell as if suddenly all strength had left him.
"Father?" immediately approached concerned
Lord Dénethor lifted up his head and smiled, but his smile was strange and his eyes were shining with a light of… madness.
"My son!" he exclaimed with choked voice while looking behind Faramir
This one turned to look but saw no one. He was concerned even more, his father was hallucinating. Seemed that Boromir's death and the tense situation were driving mad his father, something that pained to Faramir. But it pained even more when the hallucination had disappeared and the expression of happiness of his father turned into an angry one, the only one he had for Faramir.
"Leave me!" Lord Dénethor ordered
Kitty had heard all the commotion that had caused the Osgiliath soldiers to flee to Minas Tirith. She would have wanted to be in the moment and place of the action, especially if Avalanche presented himself. Kitty wanted to be present as soon as possible to know if her conjecture was true or whether she would have to deal with the mutant. Kitty was worried, the situation she was in, thanks to her little chat with Sauron, seemed to still have an effect on her and Kitty knew that Avalanche hated her and that he would fight with more fierceness and ferocity than Marrow herself.
Kitty had been pacing her bedroom with her arms folded, her brow furrowed, her lips tightly tightened, she felt like a beast caged, especially if one took into account that five soldiers were inside her bedroom and five others were outside. Finally, one of them lost his temper and ordered her to sit down, but Kitty lost hers sooner and no sooner, grabbed a chair and with a clean stroke and using her mutant ability left after leaving the ten soldiers unconscious.
Kitty let herself fall through the floor from one level of the castle to the other. She fell almost quietly and said 'almost' because she just walked quickly to continue her flight in search of Gandalf when she tripped with the flight of her dress and fell on her face without being able to avoid a squeal.
Quick footsteps were heard, and a human figure immediately came to help her, but it took several steps back, gasping as Kitty, who had noticed before the other person's presence, had returned in state of phasing, had jumped up and passed through the person.
Surely Kitty would have run off as fast as the dress would allow, but stopped when she saw who was there.
He was a young man of approximately 28-30 years, of tall stature, medium complexion, hair to the shoulder slightly wavy and reddish color, elegant factions, gray eyes, beard and mustache. He wore a brown leather suit with a black leather bib and his gloves of the same color as his boots. But it was not the physical attractive of that young man that stopped her, but it was the resemblance that immediately noticed between Boromir and that young man. He even had certain features similar to those of Lord Dénethor.
"Lady Katherine Anne Pryde" said the young man in a pleasant voice "are you well?"
Kitty shook her head. How did he know her name? Surely this young man realized what she thought because he added,
"I've heard about you. Frodo Baggins told me that you were his friend and that you protected him and fought bravely to defend him from many orcs; Also, the halfling Peregrin Took has told me that you are his friend and an excellent warrior; And Gandalf has mentioned to me, like Frodo Baggins, that you are a mutant that can pass through things. And from what I see, it's true, even though listening to it seems unbelievable "
Kitty raised a surprised eyebrow, but smiling.
"Apparently, I'm quite famous," she said with such an accent that the young man smiled "and you must be Faramir, Boromir's younger brother" added
Faramir, for he was no other, made a gesture of surprise.
"Boromir told me a lot about you," Kitty added when she saw his face "he said you were his 'little brother', the best brother that could be found throughout Middle-Earth"
Faramir smiled sadly.
"Did you know him?"
Kitty nodded as her eyes filled with tears.
"He was my best friend" she said "he gave me this" and gave him the ring of arms that the nobleman of Gondor had left her
Faramir took it, and when he saw what it was, he looked at her in astonishment. Apparently, his brother had really loved the girl, but Faramir knew that the only thing Boromir would have felt for the so-called Katherine Anne Pryde had been a deep friendship because he knew his brother and knew that Boromir would always have Odalyn in his heart.
He returned the ring with a sad smile.
"My lady, I have been told that you know a certain mutant named ... Avalanche" he said after a moment
"First of all, please, no 'my lady'. I am not 'my lady', my name is Katherine Anne Pryde and my friends know me as Kitty ... so by that name I ask you to call me. Secondly, yes, I know Avalanche "
"Then surely you know the power so great that has that mutant"
"What has he done?" She asked immediately.
"He alone destroyed the main wall of Osgiliath." Faramir shook his head as if he still could not believe what the young man dressed in armor made of stone had "never I had seen such power!"
"Certainly, Avalanche has a great mutant power," Kitty admitted.
"But you know him and you have overcome him?" Said Faramir more as a statement than as a question to see the attitude of Kitty
She nodded. But then, suddenly, she turned pale.
"You say he was in Osgiliath?" She asked.
"Yes, he was helping the Witch King to take the city" replied Faramir surprised at the gesture of concern of the young woman
"And then ... where did he go? Took the city with that infamous King? "
"No, after he destroyed the wall, he disappeared and we have not seen him again"
Kitty started pacing as she spoke to herself in the face of Faramir's astonishment.
"He sure was behind the hobbits. Yes, he sure was behind them. "She stopped suddenly in front of him and asked," Was someone else accompanying the hobbits?"
"Yes, a horrible being whom Frodo Baggins called, Sméagol; While his comrade Samwise Gamgee called him Gollum. He was the one leading them to Mordor "
Kitty closed her eyes. It only needed that Avalanche had gone behind the hobbits not to remove the One Ring, but to protect them from Gollum.
"This gets more and more complicated," she murmured wearily. She turned her gaze to Faramir who saw her in surprise, not understanding the young woman's reaction.
"It's nice to meet you, Lord Faramir," she said with a friendly smile "Boromir talked a lot about you, many good things. He said that, unlike him, you were very kind and chivalrous and the bravest warrior in all of Minas Tirith and Osgiliath. "
Faramir smiled sadly at the memory of his brother whom he had deeply loved as well as had just happened between him and Lord Dénethor
"It's a shame that my father does not see me like this," he murmured, "he preferred Boromir a lot because they both looked alike."
"Probably, though I'm not quite sure about it because I've treated both There is a world of difference. But there's something I'm sure of and is this: you're just as strong as they are, except in a different way ... and one day your father will notice it. " said Kitty smiling.
Faramir smiled. In her own way, but that mutant had encouraged him.
"You know, Katherine Anne Pryde? I always thought that Boromir knew how to choose his friends well ... and once again I see that I was right "He paused" maybe in the future I would have the privilege to consider me your friend. "
Kitty smiled mischievously.
"Of course… if you call me 'Kitty' "said
Faramir could not help but chuckle.
Ororo and Bobby had been given the task of searching the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy both online and in different publishers to compare them with the copies that had Ororo and both, they and Emma Frost, had never found anything different, all related the same story and at no time was mentioned a mutant not even another female character appeared apart from those who were part of the canon.
"Do you realize?" Logan told them when he realized this "Thumbelina is not in another realm, but is in the middle of a dream"
"And why would she be dreaming of something she has never read?" Asked Bobby.
"Maybe Charles managed to convince her to listen to at least part of the novel. You see that Kitty was very attached to Charles "
"Yes, she considered him something like her father"
"The rest of the details that she lacked or the changes that happened and where she took part, would create her mind" said Ororo thoughtfully
"It makes sense," Logan said.
"Okay, let's suppose that such a thing happens," said Emma "although I still think Kitty is in another realm and ..."
"When are you going to realize that you're wrong, Emma?" Interrupted Logan impatiently.
"It's not time to keep arguing about it," the annoying mutant replied. "You think she's in the middle of a dream and I think she's in another realm, the point is the same: why her mind is living all this wherever it is happening and why is her body here? Nobody has the power enough to achieve that, nobody but ... "
"The Professor" finished Ororo "but ... he has been dead for almost a year. You're not suggesting he's alive ... or is he? "
Emma shook her head.
"It is not impossible. What happened was more than evident as if to doubt the contrary "she said.
"Then who would? Who would be able to do it? It has to be an Omega-type mutant"
"Not to mention he or she has to be at least as powerful as Charles," added Logan
"We could look for that mutant, he or she would be the one who could help us rescue Kitty," said Ororo
"Besides he or she would tell us why sent Kitty's mind and not her body," said Bobby
"The fact that he or she sent only Kitty's mind to that place called Middle-Earth indicates only one goal that is to save her mind and not her body, or at least it was more important her mind than her body" Emma said. "This mutant, despite being very powerful, would need to make a great effort to obtain it, reason why for this mutant it was indispensable to save firstly the mind of Kitty "
"And from what would save her or why would he or she save Kitty?" Ororo asked.
Emma shrugged.
"I do not know; the fact is that saving Kitty's mind was of utmost importance to this mutant and that's why he or she sent her to a realm as distant and different as Middle-Earth is"
"Where only a mutant as powerful as he or she could read her mind, or hurt her telepathically" said Logan thoughtfully "because in the melee fighting part Kitty is very skillful and very difficult to beat"
There was silence.
"You say they're probably at the moment when Minas Tirith is being besieged, is not it?" Bobby asked Ororo, nodded. "As far as Emma recovers, we can leave her, after all we know who wins. Only would be for a couple of days "
Emma shook her head.
"We cannot do that"
"Why?" Asked Logan. Not that the mutant liked the situation of seeing a Kitty in a catatonic state for several weeks, but the idea of Bobby did not seem so senseless.
"The more time Kitty spends in Middle-Earth doesn't matter if it's another realm or a dream, her mind drifts further and further from Earth, so there will come a time when it will be impossible to bring her back and she will be trapped forever. We must hurry as soon as possible to save her, "she added seeing Logan meaningful.
The mutant for the first time did not grumble or curse under his breath, perhaps they had to finally find it necessary to let Emma use Cerebro to save his Thumbelina.
This chapter has focused mainly on the X-Men and the deductions they have taken, as well as the realization that it goes against the clock to save Kitty. What will be Logan's decision?
Waiting for your reviews guys!