A/N: Here we are again. On time. As per usual. :P Not sure about this chapter, but we'll see.

Review replies:

Melissa: Yeah, what you've noticed is true. I can't say what effect it will have on the story, but yes, Julia doesn't miss Phillip quite as much as he misses her. This is simply due to Julia's nature; she's just a little less intense than he is. Does she love him less? Maybe. Would it be best if they never met up? Probably. But I can't say how the whole thing will pan out… :B

WickChick6: Idek how Lola ended up angsty! I wasn't planning on her turning out like that… XD

breeeeeeeeeeenna: Like the Homestuck reference… XXXXD

Chapter time!

…..

[11th March, T.A. 3019]

"Peaches," Lola said.

"Plums," Julia replied, turning to Ginny.

Word association. They hadn't played the game in ages, and Ginny was beginning to recall why they had stopped—it had something to do with the fact it was inherently and mind numbingly boring. Even more so as they trekked through the endless expanse that was the Brown Lands, which were in themselves equally as boring, if not more.

Still, the game was better than walking in silence.

"Apricots," Ginny said.

"Dried apricots," Lola responded immediately.

"But… that's two words," Ginny frowned.

"So?" Lola shrugged, slightly irritably.

"Well, it's supposed to be one word," Ginny explained.

"It doesn't have to be," Lola retorted, kicking a stone.

"Well, it's word association, not words association," Ginny argued.

"Guys, does it matter?" Julia interjected, sounding a little annoyed.

Ginny touched her temple, feeling an inaccessible ache developing within in her head. Excellent, now she had a headache. Of all the wonderful things that could have possibly happened.

"No, it really doesn't," Lola scowled.

"I… argh…" Ginny frowned, looking at the ground.

"Come on guys," Julia said, "We're all tired and dehydrated and irritated, okay? Let's try to be nice to each other,"

Of course. They hadn't had anything to drink since last night; the last of their canteens were now empty. Of course Ginny had a headache; of course she was arguing with Lola about the most ridiculous of things. She swallowed, tyring to moisten her dry throat. Alatar had said he was working on figuring things out; but Ginny didn't know how long they could last…

"Oh my god, I'm thirsty," Lola complained, rubbing her eyes.

"Same," Julia agreed.

Ginny frowned again, for a different reason, "I swear Alatar needs to figure out what we're gonna do soon. We can't last forever not drinking anything,"

"Yeah," Lola said.

"Maybe we should go ask him," Julia suggested, "You know, if he has any ideas yet,"

Lola shrugged, "Yeah, okay,"

The blue wizard in question was walking alone, and at the front, and it took the women a little while to catch up to him. As they approached, they could hear him muttering to himself, although none of the words were legible to their ears. Once they were beside him, he looked up.

"Greetings, children," he said, "What might be the reason for your appearance?"

"Um," Ginny, trying to push away the pain that probed within her temple, "We were just coming to ask if you'd decided what we were going to do about the water thing,"

"Oh," Alatar said, "Well, yes, I have been pondering. At this point I don't see any solution but to search for water. It is a desolate place; and there are no guarantees there will be water to be found—however, search for water is a more productive use of our energy than moving forward at this point,"

Ginny felt slightly sick. Glancing at Julia and then Lola, she spoke again, "So… should we start searching now then?"

Alatar let out a sigh, "I have been trying to think of another solution, but I do suppose this could be our only option. We should split up into pairs…"

Suddenly, he raised and voice and called out to the other travellers, "Come travellers! We have matters to discuss; matters of hydration!"

Ginny rubbed her eyes as the other four approached. Her headache was really getting to her now; she just wanted to lie down and sleep…

"Now," Alatar began, addressing the now assembled band of travellers, "There doesn't seem to be much of a solution for our lack of water other than to simply search for a source of such. We shall split into pairs for this venture; Ginny with Tran, Julia with Damien, and Lola with Aiden, while myself and Belegil will make our own search,"

Ginny glanced at Tran, and he smiled at her. She grinned back, through the throbbing in her head.

Alatar reached into his cloak and drew out a brown cloth bag, similar to the one that had contained the fire crystal. From it he plucked a small sapphire glass globe—the size of a marble—whispered some kind of incantation, and rolled it across the ground. When it stopped rolling a couple of metres from where they stood, a column of blue light sprung from it, almost hologram like in nature as it reached into the endless sky.

"We shall meet back in this spot," Alatar announced, tucking the cloth bag back inside his cloak and drawing out another, "Seek the blue light,"

It was the bag that contained the fire crystals. He removed three crystals from it, looking over at them as he handed one to each pair.

"If you find water," he said, "Or are in need of assistance, use this to signal."

Ginny held her crystal between her thumb and forefinger. Surprisingly, it was very cold to the touch; not at all like something that created fire should feel. She glanced up to see Alatar putting the cloth bag once again back inside his cloak.

"Good luck, children," he said, turning on his heel and gesturing for Belegil to follow him.

"We'll need it," Ginny heard Aiden mutter beside her.

…..

[15th March, T.A. 3019]

Phillip grimaced as his foot sunk into a hole filled with thick, muddy water. Glancing up, he could see Olivia just a little ahead of him, making her way with a determination that faltered only slightly whenever she slipped and nearly fell on her face. Looking back down, he pulled his foot out of the hole with a wet sucking sound.

For three days now they had been travelling, and the going had not yet been tough until this point. The journey had been uneventful and rather easygoing, with the only setback being their own weariness.

But now they had entered this stinking expanse of marshland, which crawled on for miles around them. Phillip scowled and pushed forward, swatting away at the flies that clamoured for a taste of his time-travelling, practically immortal flesh. They were everywhere; and nothing would deter them.

The bottoms of his trousers were already slimy and wet with gunk and thick mud, and they were cold and clammy against his skin. A low growl emanated from his throat as he twitched at the mercy of at least five hundred block-sucking insects.

"This," he yelled up to Olivia, "Is not fun,"

She turned around briefly to face him, "No," she replied, "No, it isn't,"

"I don't know how much more I can take…" Phillip said through gritted teeth.

"Well, we're only here because you wanted to be here," Olivia shot back, "This is your journey,"

"I didn't say I wanted to be here, specifically," Phillip replied, "Hell, I didn't even know this was here. I wanted to be in Rivendell,"

"Well to get to Rivendell, we need to go through here," Olivia explained, slightly irritated, eyebrows raised and eyes wide, "Okay? It doesn't go on forever."

"Okay…" Phillip said darkly, yanking his trouser leg out of the mud.

He continued forward, and it wasn't too long before he had caught up to Olivia's stride. "What is this place called?"

"The Midgewater Marshes," Olivia replied, carefully choosing her foot placement so she would not slip, "It's not that big on the map,"

"So we'll be out of here by the end of today?" Phillip asked hopefully.

"Um… I don't know, probably not," Olivia said.

Phillip exhaled in an exasperated stream of air and broken dreams. "Dammit,"

"Probably only two days though," Olivia added, before switching into a relatively inspirational but slightly joking voice, "Maybe we'll get to the end today if we stay positive. Be optimistic, Phillip!"

"Sure, okay," Phillip said.

But as they continued on and on through the marshland, Phillip could feel himself becoming less and less hopeful. He just wanted to be out of here. He just wanted to be back in his old apartment with Julia curled up on the couch eating vegetable lasagne. Bitterly, he wiped the tears from his face with the back of his hand.

Who even said she was even going to be in Rivendell? Who even said they were going the right way? Who even said he would ever find her at all?

Clenching his jaw, these were the things that gnawed at Phillip's mind as the parasites gnawed at his skin, and he and Olivia traced legends through the mud.

…..

[11th March, T.A. 3019]

"This is stupid," Aiden grumbled.

Lola glanced at him from where she walked at his side. She had to admit, she had been momentarily excited when she had been paired up with him (and not Damien, thank goodness); however she was beginning to feel she'd rather have faced the awkward silence than Aiden's temper. They were moving in a direction that was vaguely northwest; and had only been walking for about five minutes.

"What's stupid?" she asked.

"This whole fricking 'looking for water' thing," Aiden scowled, kicking a stone. "It's stupid. There is literally no way there is any water here; nothing actually fucking grows."

"Well…" Lola trailed off.

"I mean, what is the actual point?" Aiden continued, "Even if there is some, there's never gonna be enough. We are going to die. We are going to die of dehydration in this awful fucking place."

Lola's head was aching. "At least try to be a little optimistic," she snapped.

Aiden stared at her from under angry brows, "I'm being realistic,"

"Yeah, well, reality isn't a whole lot of great right now, so maybe you could try to not shove it in everyone's faces," Lola growled.

Aiden let out a string of sharp curse words under his breath and stared at the ground, practically steaming. There was silence for a long time.

Lola felt no remorse as she walked along, hands clenched at her sides. She was pissed off. She was pissed off and tired and thirsty and she hated everything. Especially the man beside her, the man that used to be a boy she loved who had become an adult of a similar description. The man who had broken her heart and saved her life and whom she hated as much as the waterless plains that stretched around them.

It was dry. It was all dry; no liquid of any description to be seen. Lola blinked hot tears out of her eyes. For god's sake.

"Okay…" she spoke once again, trying to keep the hatred and anger out of her voice, "Any ideas of where we could look?"

Aiden, not looking up from the ground, gave her an apathetic shrug. Lola felt something snap.

"For fuck's sake, could you at least try to be helpful!?" she spat, feeling hot emotion welling up inside of her.

Aiden looked up at her, eyes burning, arms folded like a sulking child, "There's nothing to help with,"

"You—" Lola spluttered, "You're so… awful!"

"Shut." Aiden said, "The fuck. Up."

"I will, if you help me!" Lola could feel more tears building in her eyes, her hands clenched into fists at her sides, vision blurry.

"Bitch," Aiden snarled.

Lola stood there for a moment, mouth open, in shock, almost as if he had slapped her. There was cold white silence, icy and domineering, the world seemingly turning somewhat slower. There were a million words fighting to break free from her. A million feelings. Lola began to shake all over, unclenching her fists, and clenching them once more. Then she spun around to face him.

"Oh really? Am I now?" she was almost surprised to find her voice did not waver for a second, her thumping heart sending her body shuddering with ever beat it took, "Well, look who's talking. You asked me out for a joke in year eight, Aiden Winther."

Aiden stared down at her, a sudden flicker of remembrance in his eyes.

"And I still haven't gotten over it," Lola continued, not pausing for him to respond, "You know why? Because you were the first boy who had ever asked me out. And it wasn't even real. It was a joke. My affections were a joke. I was a joke. I pined over you for two whole years, I wrote songs, I was completely and obsessively in love with you. And then you insinuated that for one reason or another, I was never to be the object of anyone's affections. Because I was a joke."

"And then I had to watch you ask out other girls and date other girls for six years knowing the only one who was ever a joke was me." She was crying now, bitter tears that she wiped away again and again with her hands but that would not stop coming.

Throwing her pack to the ground in anger, she turned back to face him, eyes wreathed in fury, "Then you turn up in Middle Earth, don't even recognise me, fail to realize all that you've done and that I'm still completely in love with you despite it all, and then you have the audacity to call me a bitch. So now you can either explain what I've ever done to you, or shut up."

There was silence. Lola stared at the ground, still shaking, unable to look at the man across from her. What had she done? How was he to respond to something like that? She squeezed her eyes shut, wishing for the tiny breeze to blow her away into the fine dust that covered the dry ground in this place.

Then, finally, he spoke, and she looked up.

"Lola," he said, "I'm sorry if my twelve year old self hurt your twelve year old self. But it was ten years ago. Get over it."

Lola stared at him, mouth parted slightly, eyes wide. "What?"

"It's not a big deal anymore, okay?" he said, and she could still see a flicker of anger in his eyes, "And just saying, I don't like being yelled at for something I did a decade ago that doesn't even matter anymore,"

"But," Lola's eyes trained towards the ground, feeling pain pressing against her chest, "But it does," she looked up at him again, face suddenly contorted once more in fury, "It does matter. You hurt me. And it still hurts now."

"But it shouldn't!" Aiden snapped, "You're making a huge fucking deal about nothing,"

"It's not nothing!" Lola yelled, entire body pulsating with rage, "You're still accountable for your actions, even a decade later. You're still accountable for making someone fucking miserable!"

"For fuck's sake," Aiden spat. "It was a joke, a dumb joke, yeah, but it's not like I meant to hurt you!"

"Well you did!" Lola screamed.

"Well maybe I don't give a shit anymore!" Aiden screamed back.

Lola felt everything darken, her body suddenly cold as night. From it blackness began to seep, blackness so pure and so cold and when she looked at him her eyes were so empty and yet so full that he found himself unable to behold them. Fear suddenly took his heart.

Neither of them noticed the water beginning to pool at Aiden's feet, being drawn from somewhere deep beneath the barren dirt, little by little, and then rapidly. It sloshed against his boots, swirling around him like a tiny whirlpool of trepidation.

Meanwhile, the shadows expanded outwards and upwards and downwards and everywhere, filling their vicinity with midnight. In the centre Lola stood, breathing heavily, obscured by the ashen in an unknown form. The man before her could feel every part of him wishing to run, but he could not. The darkness was swallowing up the sky.

"It makes sense," Lola said, and her voice was as murky as the raven black that surrounded them, "It all makes sense,"

"Lola!" Aiden screamed, feeling the tendrils of shadow brushing his face, the liquid at his feet beginning to swell, "Lola, what the fuck is going on?!"

"It's my fate," she said, but she was still speaking to herself.

Aiden's eyes were wide, whole body convulsing, completely terrified—it was as if he was trapped in a kind of waking sleep paralysis. He screamed again. "Lola, what is going on?!"

Her head snapped towards him. She assessed him for a moment, hair whirling around her face. "Of course you're afraid," she said quietly.

"What?" Aiden shrieked.

She seemed to levitate slightly, The Riser's shadow growing and looming, consuming the air and filling it still with more blackness. The water was increasing now, whirling, entangled with the shadow. Water and darkness. Like drowning.

"I am daughter of Mandos. Daughter of doom, daughter of death," Lola looked upon him, twelve years of disappointment pooling in her broken eyes, "Daughter of every man's greatest nightmare."

And with that she fell, her knees scraping the barren ground, the shadows receding around her. When she spoke her voice was barely a whisper.

"So of course no man could ever love me."

…..

A/N: I am so dubious about this chapter it's not even funny. :/ But hey; there's your crazy conflict…

The Olivia and Phillip plot is moving pretty fast as you may have noticed, which is basically because I need them to move fast. Also, in case you haven't taken into account the dates in which these events are occurring, the Phillip and Olivia plot isn't happening at the same time as the other guys; at the moment they're about 4 days ahead. So yeah. Just a heads up.

Remember to leave a review! :)