A/N: Wow. I am so very, very sorry it has taken me so long to update this story. With everything happening last year my inspiration just ... vanished. I had about half of this chapter written before that and have been picking at it for many, many months but nothing was working. Finally, in the last week that inspiration has started returning! I'm so glad I can finally continue Rhae's journey and I really hope some of you are still out there! Thank you to BlondiezHere for the idea of Sauron being the one to bring Azog back to life. :)

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Faron: Thank you for your review. David will be back. :)

Guest: Yup, she needed their help!

Strawberry: She has realized it, finally, but now she's going to wonder if Thorin will still want her.

Petal: I'm continuing and now that my writer's block seems to have crumbled a bit I hope I can get it finished!

DarkRain: Thank you so much for your kind words! I never was going to abandon the story ... I just had to get past that dern writer's block.

cuui: Thank you so much! Your review meant a lot! As I promised in my PM I hadn't given up and here is the next chapter!

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As always, the genius is Tolkien's.

Now that some decisions had been made Rhae was eager to get things moving as she wasn't sure how much her interference had changed the timeline. Having been spared a stay in Thranduil's dungeon certainly had to have given them some extra time but she really had no idea how much. Trying to get Filí away from his brother and from Thorin's suspicious gaze was harder than she'd expected but finally Balin was able to get them time alone to talk. She had still been a bit nervous explaining to him about her past but he didn't question the truthfulness in her story, merely asking a few questions to clarify things. When she'd finished telling him what had been decided on he was ready to join her.

"Thorin's sickness is growing every day. I will do anything to help him fight his way free of it … even if it makes him angry in the beginning."

"I have an idea of how to hopefully mitigate his anger if the need arises," Balin told them with a small smile. Rhae felt it was probably better if she didn't know what he was talking about. They all agreed that she and Filí would slip out that night so they could hopefully meet with Bard in Lake-Town within a few days. Once they'd convinced him to ready his men they would head to the Woodland Realm and Thranduil before heading east to find Dain. It was a pretty straight forward plan but the meeting with the dwarf lord worried her at first; the Iron Hills were quite a long ways away. Balin was able to calm those fears by having Filí send a message to his cousin by one of Erebor's returned ravens alerting him to danger and to please bring as large of an army as he could to meet with him east of the Mountain.

"Hopefully they will be at least halfway here before you get to them," Balin said with a shrug. "That will save some time."

She stared at the large bird and it seemed to stare right back. "Why couldn't you send the message?"

"Only those of the direct line have the ability to speak to and understand the ravens," Filí told her as he gave the creature a small piece of meat. It nodded its head, almost like a bow, before rising into the sky and heading east. "It's a great way to keep pretenders off the throne, don't you think?" he finished with a grin.

Rhae agreed as she watched the bird quickly shrink to a black speck in the sky and then disappear. She hoped this would all work as they were hoping it would. Their biggest hurdle now would be getting out of the mountain undetected. If Thorin saw them …

"Alright. The two of you have some preparation to take care of. You will have to travel light as we can't spare much from the supplies we have remaining. Dwalin and I have watch tonight so you won't have to worry about getting past any of the other members of the Company. Once everyone else is asleep meet us on the balcony over the front gate and we'll lower you down."

"You'll have to move quickly. Thorin has started wandering during the night and you need to be well away so you won't be spotted if he happens to be near here when the sun begins to come up," Dwalin cautioned.

She nodded, running a hand over her braid. None of this felt right but they hadn't been able to come up with any other options. Nothing she had done had stopped Azog's pursuit and so now they had to figure out a way to pull together a force to meet him.

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The rest of the day Rhae felt like she had a big sign on her forehead that proclaimed their plan. She tried to keep busy by helping Bombur and Bofur in their monumental task of cleaning the massive Erebor kitchen. It also kept her chances of running into Thorin low as he was not going to venture down there while the rest of the Company were searching for the Arkenstone. The estrangement between them hurt which in turn made her anger over her own stubborn blindness grow. Why couldn't she have just admitted how she had felt instead of thinking denying it would be best for them both? Would she have been able to keep him from succumbing to the gold sickness? No, her mother had been right. She had realized that night in Lake-Town Thorin would have to overcome that all on his own if he was ever to be free of it. But perhaps if she'd seen her feelings for what they really were and had said as much to him perhaps this current distance between them would never have formed. For not the first time in the past couple of days she questioned her presence in Middle Earth.

"Are you alright, lass?"

She blinked and realized Bofur was standing in front of her with a concerned look on his face. Bombur stood behind him his eyes full of compassion.

"As well as I can be I suppose."

"He'll snap out of it and then things will be okay." Though the words were meant to be encouraging there was a note of despair behind them.

Giving him a small smile she nodded. "Yes. If anyone could free themselves from that curse its Thorin Oakenshield."

Bofur patted her on the shoulder before turning back to the crates they had been sifting through and she tried to be as much help as possible.

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Later that night, as she lay still in her blankets waiting to hear the snores that would tell her the rest of the Company was asleep, she was terrified Thorin would suddenly decide to join them. He hadn't been the deepest of sleepers even before they got to the Mountain. Now he probably would wake if a feather fell on the floor. Finally she heard Filí stir from his spot near the door. It only took him a moment to roll up his blanket, shove it in his pack, and slip out into the darkness of the corridor beyond the room. She knew she had to wait a bit to reduce the risk of the two of them being caught together and as the minutes ticked by she felt sure the rapid beating of her heart would wake the other dwarves in the room. After what seemed like forever she quickly rose, packed her own blanket, and hurried out the door. Moving through the Mountain was not hard and her Ranger skills served her well as she was able to move rapidly but silently to the front balcony.

Rhae breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the low murmur of Balin and Dwalin's conversation. Filí stepped from the shadows as she approached and they joined the Fundins. The tension in the air was thick; they were all listening for the sounds of Thorin's footsteps and hoping not to hear them.

"Hurry. There isn't much time," Balin whispered as his brother pulled a large coil of rope from behind a piece of fallen masonry. "Do you have everything you need?"

"I grabbed what I could," she replied. "Hopefully Bard and Thranduil will be able to give us a bit more."

A few quick words in Khuzdul to his cousins and Filí slid down the rope. Dwalin gave her arm a comforting squeeze as she took her place as the crack in the balustrade.

"Be careful, lass. Don't worry about things here. We'll take care of Thorin. You just get word to the others."

On impulse she leaned over and gave him a quick, tight hug. At first his eyes widened in surprise then a smile peeked out. "I will do my best to fix this mess I've made. I promise," she said. With a nod to them both she slipped over the edge and was on the ground in a matter of seconds. Making sure the rope was pulled back up without incident she and Filí headed south.

With only stopping once to rest for a few hours they were able to make it down to Lake-Town as the sun was setting on the third day. There was no one manning the guard house at the end of the bridge so they were able to cross without delay. Rebuilding had begun but they did not have time to really look at what was being done. After asking a couple of guards they came across if they knew where Bard was they were directed to the Master's House.

"This can't be good," Filí murmured as they hurried down the street. "The Master certainly didn't like Bard and he won't be happy to see us either."

"Hopefully we'll be able to talk to someone," was all she allowed herself to say. Rhae knew the Master was gone though whether it was because he'd been squished under the dead dragon like in the movie or had escaped with the town's gold like in the book she couldn't say. She really didn't care. Filí let her do the talking when they got to the door and had to get by another guard. When asking didn't exactly get the result they wanted she allowed her Ranger voice to slip out and within moments they were ushered inside. Following the sound of voices they found Bard with his children in front of a large fireplace in the center of the house.

"Stryker?" the man said in disbelief when she lowered her hood.

"Aye. I wish I could say we were here just to say hello."

He stared at them for a moment, his jaw tight, then motioned to his children to leave. Tilda gave her a quick hug around the waist as she scurried out the door. Once they were alone Bard's demeanor changed.

"I would think that only the most dire of circumstances would bring you out of that mountain. Why has Thorin sent you?"

Filí glanced at her. "My uncle does not know we are here and if he found out we would probably be exiled from Erebor ... or worse."

Bard's eyebrows rose. "What has happened?"

"You might want to sit down for this," she warned him.

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Their meeting went as Rhae had expected. The man was understandably skeptical of her story at first – very skeptical - but eventually seemed to believe her, even though it was clear he thought it was a bit crazy. The looming threat of an army of orcs he accepted without any disbelief at all. After asking some rather pointed and useful questions about where the army would be coming from and what tactics they would employ in the fight he promised to do what he could but warned them that the people of Lake-Town were not warriors and not equipped for such. Filí assured him that whatever he could do would be helpful. That ended up being the easy part of the conversation. Trying to explain why they were there without Thorin's knowledge while not completely revealing how far he had fallen into the grips of the gold sickness was more difficult. Bard was no fool and he could tell they weren't telling him the whole truth but no matter how much he questioned them they stuck to their story that Thorin was simply very sick. Rhae had a sneaking suspicion he knew what was wrong anyway; stories of the Durins' susceptibility to the gold sickness were no secret. When they had completed their talk he offered to take them across the lake which they accepted gratefully. Anything that would cut down on their travel time was very welcome.

The first half of the trip was quiet giving Rhae time to go back over all they'd said to Bard and consider how they would need to adjust things when they were facing Thranduil. It would be much harder to convince the elf to leave the safety of his kingdom not matter how much he believed her. She might be obliged to reveal a bit more to him than they had to the Bargeman. Thankfully he didn't seem to have the knowledge (or was it wisdom?) Lord Elrond had and what she chose not to tell him should be safe. He was slick, though, and had ways of talking around you until you ended up revealing more than you originally intended. She would have to be very cautious.

"Why were you and your family in the Master's house?" Filí asked, his voice cutting through the stillness.

"Not long after you left we discovered the Master had run off with most of the town's gold. Some how I was elected to take his place. It was not a position I wanted but they would not let me refuse. Once we are back on our feet hopefully someone much more suited to the job will be found."

"Your fellow citizens thought you were suited so that must count for something."

He grimaced. "As long as they don't try to force me into accepting something more long term I'm happy to have their support. We have to be united to survive."

"Aye. Indeed we all do."

The man fell silent for a while, a pensive look on his face. Rhae wrapped her scarf tighter around the lower half of her face; winter was closing in on them quickly. Her thoughts drifted back to the mountain and to Thorin and she wondered how Balin and Dwalin were faring with him. Had he discovered their absence? How had he reacted to it? Her worry must have shown because Filí came and sat next to her, putting an arm over her shoulders.

"Do not worry. I'm sure whatever Balin had up his sleeve will work."

"I just feel so … helpless at the moment."

"Alerting our allies – or potential allies – is not something a helpless person would do."

"Perhaps … but I just feel like I should've been able to do more."

"Like what? Kill Azog single-handedly?"

"That would certainly help matters," she said with a small grin.

"That orc is specifically after you?" Bard asked, breaking into their conversation.

"He is determined to destroy the line of Durin which means my uncle, my brother, and myself all have targets on our backs."

"Why?"

"Darker powers covet that Mountain," she said, meeting his gaze.

He sighed. "I may be a simple bargeman but even I know there is magic in this world that I want nothing to do with. I hope you are successful in your visit with Thranduil, Stryker. The people of Lake-Town are not trained to fight and we'll need the added support."

They hadn't been on land long before a couple of Thranduil's guards appeared before them. She wasn't surprised; he was quite vigilant when it came to anyone crossing over his borders. At least it would get them an audience with the Woodland king quicker. They walked in silence as neither they nor their guides were inclined to talk. Rhae found that she was slightly nervous about this meeting. They had been able to avoid a full confrontation with the Elven king when they'd passed through Mirkwood originally but now she was coming to ask something big of him … something other than taking care of an orc patrol. He had secluded himself and his people in an effort to avoid the encroaching darkness; asking him to send his army into such danger would not go over well. There was no telling what she would have to say or do to convince him because convince him she must.

After being led through the massive wooden doors of his palace and along the paths she'd walked over the first time the guards stopped them on the platform facing a familiar wooden throne. The king was no where to be seen and, not surprisingly, made them wait several minutes before appearing before them. When he did finally deem it time to grant them their audience he virtually glided out of a doorway on their left and stopped several paces in front of them, his familiar haughty expression gazing down at them. She wanted to roll her eyes at the show. Surely he knew it would have no affect on her.

She and Filí faced the king in silence.

"So you come before me again, Ranger of the North."

"Only because circumstances have made it a necessity."

"Who do you have with you this time? I do not recognize this dwarf."

"Filí, nephew of Thorin Oakenshield."

"Ah, yes. How could I have missed the Durin arrogance?"

She felt him tense beside her but Filí managed to remain quiet, a feat she knew his uncle would not have been able to master.

"There is an urgent matter I need to discuss with you."

He raised one eyebrow. "I will speak with you alone."

Filí opened his mouth to argue but she laid a hand on his arm and nodded. "That will be fine."

"But - "

"It's alright, Filí. Just wait here." The last thing she wanted or needed was an argument. Giving his arm a squeeze she followed the elf through a door which a guard immediately closed behind them. She waited for Thranduil to initiate the conversation.

"So, what has happened that brings you back?"

"I told you a battle was coming in our last meeting." He inclined his head slightly. "That battle will soon be upon us however because of my presence here things have been … altered."

"How would you know this?"

"Because I've seen it all before." He didn't say anything but the look on his face clearly said he expected an explanation. "I told you before that the Valar sent me away so that I would be able to return when the time was right to help Thorin and his nephews retake Erebor. What I didn't tell you was that where they sent me gave me the knowledge of everything that has and will happen in Middle Earth."

"You know the future? How?"

"Where I lived this place and all the people in it are nothing more than fantasy stories. A man wrote about everything, the entire history of Middle Earth, from its founding all the way through to the beginning of the Forth Age. How he knew all this I do not know but in those stories Thorin does retake the mountain … only to be killed, along with his nephews, in the battle with the orcs. That is what the Valar want me to stop from happening."

He stared at her for several moments then moved out onto a balcony overlooking the river. She followed, waiting for him to say something.

"So what has your presence done to change things?"

"In those stories Smaug destroyed Lake-Town which forced the survivors to take refuge in Dale. You came to their aid, because of your presence there Thorin refused to negotiate with Bard, and he sent for his cousin's army."

"Why am I not surprised that dwarf would act so impulsively?"

"However because of all that there were three armies assembled when the orcs arrived. Now, because I helped save Lake-Town from destruction there is no need for you to come to their aid, no need for Thorin to send for Dain … which leaves the valley in front of the mountain open for invasion."

"What do you want from me?"

She took a deep breath and sent a quick prayer to the Valar to help her. "We need your army there."

"You want me to send my people out to die?"

"As I've made clear the only way we will defeat this evil is to stand united. I cannot do this alone."

"If the Valar did indeed bring you here to accomplish such a thing what proof do you have besides your word?"

Rhae rolled her eyes and tried not to anger at the condescension in his tone. The question was not surprising; of course this elf would want to see what she could do. Turning she focused on the trees that lined one side of the balcony. At first their movement was almost imperceptible, like they were being touched by the gentlest of breezes, but as she took in a deep breath they began shaking violently. As they fell from the branches they remained suspended in the air until there was a swirling column of green. With a flick of her wrist it shifted to completely encompass the king. To his credit he didn't give any sign of surprise other than a widening of the eyes. With her other hand she motioned towards the basin of water she'd spotted on one of the lower balconies, bringing its contents up to hover over Thranduil's head.

"They have given you the ability to manipulate the elements."

"Yes. It took me quite some time to figure that out for myself."

"All of the elements?" She nodded. "That is a power indeed."

"I can only hope it will prove useful."

He pressed his lips together thoughtfully. "I've seen enough, thank you."

She let the leaves finally settle gently onto the stone cobbles though the water dropped with a splash, spattering the bottom of the king's robes. At his slightly annoyed expression she just smirked and shrugged.

He glided back inside. "Who all is aware of the truth behind why you are here?"

"Lord Elrond, Gandalf, Balin, and Dwalin. While Filí is aware of where I am originally from, that I was sent to help with the quest, and the approaching army I have not been allowed to tell him the complete story, about how in my world he, his brother, and uncle died."

"The Valar have kept you from saying these things?"

"Aye. Believe me, I've tried many times and it's like the words get stuck in my throat."

Now it was his turn to smirk. "Probably for the best. Those dwarves are notoriously hot-headed. They'd probably rush right into something if they were aware of the outcome you have seen." She couldn't argue with that. "I had thought Azog was killed at the Battle of Azanulbizar years ago."

"He was in the story that was written in my world. However a later version of the story had him alive. It seems the truth lays somewhere in the middle."

Thranduil stared out the window as he mulled over her words.

"You said in this other version Azog was being given instructions from a necromancer, one you believe to be Sauron?" She nodded. "Perhaps therein lays our answer. In return for being brought back from the dead and given the opportunity to continue his hunt for the Durins he had to vow complete obedience. If Azog ends up taking the Mountain Sauron then has someone he could control in that vital strategic position."

"It is why Gandalf was so adamant in the dwarves reclaiming Erebor from Smaug. Not only did he not want to give the enemy a potential weapon he also knew it was important to keep Sauron from gaining a foothold in the North. With what will happen in about eighty years his fears are justified."

"What is coming in eighty years?"

She met his gaze. "The battle for Middle-Earth itself."

"You are sure our combined forces will be able to stop the orcs?"

"I cannot say for certain what will happen now as my actions have made alterations to the timeline but I do know this: the combined effort of men, elves, and dwarves did defeat the orcs and, if you don't act, you will lose your son. He's already not pleased with how you have withdrawn your kingdom from the world and a refusal to help will be what pushes him away."

He visibly tensed and his eyes narrowed. "How did you know that? Our conversations were in private."

"Did you really not believe me when I said I've seen all this in stories? Even after I showed you a little of the power the Valar have gifted me you still did not believe me?"

He turned in a huff and stared out the window. Rhae said nothing further. She had made her point and asked for his help. All she could do now was wait and hope.

"I knew there was more to you than appeared on the surface." He turned back to her. "You have been blessed by the Valar and I wouldn't dare get in their way. If what you say about the orcs is true then I will lend what aid I can."

Though she was expecting to hear coldness and condescension in his voice it didn't materialize.

"You came here asking for our help. I suppose you have made the same request to the new Master of Lake-Town?"

"Aye. Thankfully he agreed though I don't know how much help the Men will be; they are not trained to fight."

"What is your next step?"

"Filí and I will head towards the Iron Hills. Hopefully Dain will have heeded the message we sent by raven and will have already begun the journey towards Erebor. We need that army as well."

For once Thranduil seemed a bit surprised. "The Iron Hills are quite a distance from here."

"If only the eagles would magically appear," she muttered.

"Perhaps I can help you there," the Elven king said with a slight smirk.