***The next few parts will be shorter than the first. I had already
written the first six parts when I started sending the fic here. So, now
you guys get them in installments. Hope you enjoy!***
Part Seven
"What are we going to do?"
Willow sighed at the question, turning to face her friends with a pout. The, she didn't even have a word to describe the group of them, had left her and her friends to their decision. Either go face impossible odds to find Buffy in Isengard, and most likely lose their lives, or go with a group of strangers to destroy a ring and most likely lose their lives. What a pair of options.
"I don't have the slightest clue what we're going to do," the redhead revealed, flopping backwards onto the bed provided for them. Xander sat down next to her, a frown on his face.
"That would be less than helpful Wills," he stated simply. "You don't even have an inkling?"
"We need to save Buffy," Dawn interjected. "Let's just go to Isn't- guard and get her. Maybe they were just exaggerating about the army and stuff."
"Because they have all the reason to?" Willow asked her, eyebrow arched at the younger girl. Dawn scrunched up her nose, looking like she had a horrible taste in her mouth.
"Well, they haven't really been all that forthcoming," the blonde shrugged. "And why should we get all involved in their business? We're here for Buffy. Let's find her and get the hell out of this place."
"But their business kind of is our business," Willow broke to the girl gently. "I told you guys this already. This place, Middle Earth, its just plain regular Earth. If we do something here that drastically alters their world, we might not have a world of our own to return to. Besides, don't know how we got here remember? I don't have a clue as to how we would get back."
Dawn frowned, as she thought about it.
"You know, this is really confusing," the blonde sighed, flopping down next to the redhead. "We're not in our world, but we are. And we're trying to get back to our world, without doing any damage to this world. But to get back to our world, we need to get Buffy first. But that might mean that we ruin this world, therefore our world, and everything goes down the drain. It's making my head hurt."
"Try not to think too hard on it," Xander advised. "Be like me, not really thinking much about anything, don't really do anything. And then you can't possibly make any bad decisions."
"That is so backwards Alexander Harris," Willow reprimanded him lightly. "And don't think I don't know where you're going with this. You're not placing this entire decision on me. It has to be a mutual thing, because I refuse to accept that much responsibility for everything."
"But I suck at being responsible," Xander whined. "I can't do this. It'll end badly."
"We all need to be in agreement," Willow told him. "This is some serious crap we've gotten ourselves into. Life threatening crap nonetheless. We have to be making a decision here. Do we want to get involved in all this crap? Or do we want to just sit back and see how it goes?"
"How come Buffy isn't an option in there?" Dawn asked angrily. Willow sighed, rising up and turning to face the little girl.
"We can't go get Buffy, not on our own," Willow told her. "I'm sorry, but I believe that Gandalf guy. There's no way we could make it through all the Ogres or whatever and through that wizard guy before they either moved Buffy or just killed her. I honestly can't say that any of those options is what you want."
"I want Buffy back!" Dawn fumed. "I don't care how. I just want her back. God, we don't even know what's happening to her over there. If this guy Saturn Man is all bad, then we can't leave Buffy with him. We need to get her back."
"Well, I'm going to get her back," Willow promised. "I just don't know how exactly. But I'm going to get her back for you. It's just going to take some time honey."
"I hate waiting," the girl pouted, turning her face away from the redhead.
"And yet again we have family resemblances," Xander quipped, trying to lighten up the mood. "Don't worry about Buffy Dawn. She is the Slayer. Wherever the hell she is, I'm sure she's giving them hell."
*****
Buffy was aware that time had passed. Maybe an entire day or two had gone by. Or was that a week? She honestly didn't know. Her watch had stopped working and there was no window in the room she was kept in, so she couldn't really tell when the sun rose or set. But she knew time had passed. Her friends would try and come for her, she knew that. And she also knew that if they came, they would be overwhelmed. Three people stood no chance against the defences of this place. If they came on their own, they would be massacred.
And she was helpless to stop it.
She was helpless to do anything. Buffy was helpless. She couldn't save her friends, she couldn't save herself, and she couldn't do anything. Buffy was essentially at the mercy of her captors. And it was not something the blonde Slayer liked experiencing.
She had been locked away in some room, not sure where. It wasn't a dungeon per say, but it was no guest room either. It was just a room, devoid of anything except the door leading out and the chair she sat on. It was overly grey and dark, stone walls from what she could tell. Buffy had the feeling she was in some sort of prison thingy. But then again, no chains and no beds for the prisoner. There was in fact nothing at all accommodating for the blonde, except for the chair she sat on.
She couldn't move from that chair. Buffy couldn't move period. And the interesting thing was, there was nothing holding her down. There were no chains, no restraints at all. The chair was just a normal wooden chair, but she could not for the life of her move from it. She had tried numerous times mind you, but nothing. She couldn't even wiggle a finger or arch her eyebrows. Talking was completely out of the question; she couldn't even move her tongue.
Magic was her only answer. She had briefly considered that it was some sort of muscle relaxant, that she had been drugged, but that was brushed off. Not when she felt the power coming from the guy in charge. He had been in to visit her many times during her imprisonment, coming with food and drink. He actually had to hand feed her, seeing as she couldn't move. He usually had to remove some of the spell to do so. Buffy had been tempted more than once to just bite the man's fingers off, but he seemed to know that. He gave her just enough food to keep her alive, but nothing more.
He was very strange looking indeed. Tall guy with a long flowing white beard. And he really seemed to be into white, dressing only in white robes whenever she saw him. He had a power in him that made her think. Really think. She hadn't confronted anything with this much magic before in all her life. Maybe Willow, but the redhead was a very big exception. Which led the Slayer to think he wasn't all human. But whatever he was in particular, he wasn't telling.
And he kept talking to her. He would show up, saying the strangest things. He liked to talk about the Styrofoam guy a lot. Buffy had a feeling that Styrofoam was the big cheese in these parts. And it was frightening to think there actually might be someone stronger than the White Guy out there somewhere. But apparently there was. For the most part White Guy and Styrofoam were on the same page regarding a plan for world domination, or at least she thought it was world domination, she couldn't be sure. But as for the evil guys, well, it seemed like White Guy was only going to be loyal to a point. He had plans after the "war was won", whatever that meant. And they weren't very nice plans.
White Guy also liked to talk about something called the Ring of Power. He seemed really into it, going on for hours at a time about how much he wanted to get his hands on it. He wanted it so he could have leverage over Styrofoam. But also, he just wanted it, like it was some sort of drug or something. Almost every other sentence out of his mouth revolved around the ring. It was riding on obsession.
White Guy was also all about control. He wanted to control the whole of Middle Earth, which Buffy was assuming was the place where she was. White Guy had a bad yen for that control. His eyes seemed to darken when getting on that topic. Buffy knew he was willing to give everything he got for just a chance at ruling this place. White Guy had definite plans on taking over this Middle Earth. And for some strange reason, he thought the ring was going to get him that control. As well, he seemed to have some sort of delusion that Buffy was going to get that ring for him.
He said strange things, stuff like how she should be thankful to him for sparing her life. Buffy was inferring from that that Styrofoam had wanted her killed initially. White Guy thought she had some more valuable purposes. He said she was going to help him win over Middle Earth, whether she liked it or not. And Buffy couldn't agree or disagree. The spell on her was strong, not allowing the blonde to move her limbs at all. She was stuck, she was this guy's prisoner until he saw fit to let her go. And that wasn't going to happen any time soon.
The days or hours, or however long she had been in here, passed in torment. She could do nothing; she couldn't even move her head. Her eyes were still able to move, and she could only dart them to and fro. She had no idea where she was, she couldn't move at all, and she was alone. Buffy would cry if she could. But she wasn't even allowed that. Hell, she couldn't even make any grunting noises. White Guy wanted her completely mobile and completely quiet.
Her mind wondered to her friends and her sister. Where were they? She had seen them jump into the blue thingy with her. But she hadn't seen if they had fallen in or gotten out in time. A part of her knew that they were in this place Middle Earth with her. She knew that no way would her friends allow her to be taken anywhere against her will. They were no doubt out there looking for her right now, and that's what made Buffy even more afraid.
This place wasn't safe right now. There was a war brewing in this place, and it wasn't going to be pretty. She knew that, right down in the centre of her being. A lot of things would go wrong before they even had the opportunity to get better. She only hoped her friends weren't caught in the middle.
But none her feelings, her instincts, or her perceptions helped Buffy out with the most pressing matter at the moment. Why her? Why had Styrofoam taken time out of his busy war making schedule to send three guys through a portal to bring her here and seemingly to have her killed? Why bother with someone who would have never known any of this even happened? Why bring a Slayer into the equation? It didn't make sense, none of it added up. And nothing was helping Buffy figure it out.
She was stuck there, in that grey room, sitting in that chair. She couldn't do anything. For the first time in a long time, the Slayer need saving.
But she knew that it wasn't coming any time soon.
*****
"Have they made a decision?"
Elrond sighed, turning to face out his window. His eyes took in the beauty of his Rivendell, a deep remorse in his heart. His beautiful city, he had fought long and hard to keep it so peaceful and quiet. But it seemed as if the time of Rivendell had passed. Many Elves were making their way to the Sea, tired of having to deal with the evil that lived around them time and time again. And Elrond knew deep in his heart that he would follow them one day. Soon this would not be the land for Elves any longer, whether they won or lost this battle.
"Lord Elrond?"
He turned, remembering his companion and the question asked of him. He fixed Gandalf with a tired look, moving to take a seat by his desk. His study was a wonderfully expansive room. He had finally gotten it the way he liked it. And soon, he would have to leave it all behind.
"They have," he said loudly, forcing himself to focus on the matter at hand. The melancholy in his heart would have to wait for another time. He still lived in Middle Earth now, and he still had things to do here. One of those things was the matter of the strangers.
"They have decided it would be best to accompany the Fellowship on their journey," Elrond revealed. "The witch told me so herself. They will be ready to leave Rivendell with the Fellowship."
"Even the little one?" Gandalf asked, eyebrows knitted together in disapproval.
"They refuse to leave her here in our care," Elrond told him. "All three will make the journey, or none will."
"So it is settled then."
Elrond nodded, eyes going back to his window.
"It is."
*****
Part Seven
"What are we going to do?"
Willow sighed at the question, turning to face her friends with a pout. The, she didn't even have a word to describe the group of them, had left her and her friends to their decision. Either go face impossible odds to find Buffy in Isengard, and most likely lose their lives, or go with a group of strangers to destroy a ring and most likely lose their lives. What a pair of options.
"I don't have the slightest clue what we're going to do," the redhead revealed, flopping backwards onto the bed provided for them. Xander sat down next to her, a frown on his face.
"That would be less than helpful Wills," he stated simply. "You don't even have an inkling?"
"We need to save Buffy," Dawn interjected. "Let's just go to Isn't- guard and get her. Maybe they were just exaggerating about the army and stuff."
"Because they have all the reason to?" Willow asked her, eyebrow arched at the younger girl. Dawn scrunched up her nose, looking like she had a horrible taste in her mouth.
"Well, they haven't really been all that forthcoming," the blonde shrugged. "And why should we get all involved in their business? We're here for Buffy. Let's find her and get the hell out of this place."
"But their business kind of is our business," Willow broke to the girl gently. "I told you guys this already. This place, Middle Earth, its just plain regular Earth. If we do something here that drastically alters their world, we might not have a world of our own to return to. Besides, don't know how we got here remember? I don't have a clue as to how we would get back."
Dawn frowned, as she thought about it.
"You know, this is really confusing," the blonde sighed, flopping down next to the redhead. "We're not in our world, but we are. And we're trying to get back to our world, without doing any damage to this world. But to get back to our world, we need to get Buffy first. But that might mean that we ruin this world, therefore our world, and everything goes down the drain. It's making my head hurt."
"Try not to think too hard on it," Xander advised. "Be like me, not really thinking much about anything, don't really do anything. And then you can't possibly make any bad decisions."
"That is so backwards Alexander Harris," Willow reprimanded him lightly. "And don't think I don't know where you're going with this. You're not placing this entire decision on me. It has to be a mutual thing, because I refuse to accept that much responsibility for everything."
"But I suck at being responsible," Xander whined. "I can't do this. It'll end badly."
"We all need to be in agreement," Willow told him. "This is some serious crap we've gotten ourselves into. Life threatening crap nonetheless. We have to be making a decision here. Do we want to get involved in all this crap? Or do we want to just sit back and see how it goes?"
"How come Buffy isn't an option in there?" Dawn asked angrily. Willow sighed, rising up and turning to face the little girl.
"We can't go get Buffy, not on our own," Willow told her. "I'm sorry, but I believe that Gandalf guy. There's no way we could make it through all the Ogres or whatever and through that wizard guy before they either moved Buffy or just killed her. I honestly can't say that any of those options is what you want."
"I want Buffy back!" Dawn fumed. "I don't care how. I just want her back. God, we don't even know what's happening to her over there. If this guy Saturn Man is all bad, then we can't leave Buffy with him. We need to get her back."
"Well, I'm going to get her back," Willow promised. "I just don't know how exactly. But I'm going to get her back for you. It's just going to take some time honey."
"I hate waiting," the girl pouted, turning her face away from the redhead.
"And yet again we have family resemblances," Xander quipped, trying to lighten up the mood. "Don't worry about Buffy Dawn. She is the Slayer. Wherever the hell she is, I'm sure she's giving them hell."
*****
Buffy was aware that time had passed. Maybe an entire day or two had gone by. Or was that a week? She honestly didn't know. Her watch had stopped working and there was no window in the room she was kept in, so she couldn't really tell when the sun rose or set. But she knew time had passed. Her friends would try and come for her, she knew that. And she also knew that if they came, they would be overwhelmed. Three people stood no chance against the defences of this place. If they came on their own, they would be massacred.
And she was helpless to stop it.
She was helpless to do anything. Buffy was helpless. She couldn't save her friends, she couldn't save herself, and she couldn't do anything. Buffy was essentially at the mercy of her captors. And it was not something the blonde Slayer liked experiencing.
She had been locked away in some room, not sure where. It wasn't a dungeon per say, but it was no guest room either. It was just a room, devoid of anything except the door leading out and the chair she sat on. It was overly grey and dark, stone walls from what she could tell. Buffy had the feeling she was in some sort of prison thingy. But then again, no chains and no beds for the prisoner. There was in fact nothing at all accommodating for the blonde, except for the chair she sat on.
She couldn't move from that chair. Buffy couldn't move period. And the interesting thing was, there was nothing holding her down. There were no chains, no restraints at all. The chair was just a normal wooden chair, but she could not for the life of her move from it. She had tried numerous times mind you, but nothing. She couldn't even wiggle a finger or arch her eyebrows. Talking was completely out of the question; she couldn't even move her tongue.
Magic was her only answer. She had briefly considered that it was some sort of muscle relaxant, that she had been drugged, but that was brushed off. Not when she felt the power coming from the guy in charge. He had been in to visit her many times during her imprisonment, coming with food and drink. He actually had to hand feed her, seeing as she couldn't move. He usually had to remove some of the spell to do so. Buffy had been tempted more than once to just bite the man's fingers off, but he seemed to know that. He gave her just enough food to keep her alive, but nothing more.
He was very strange looking indeed. Tall guy with a long flowing white beard. And he really seemed to be into white, dressing only in white robes whenever she saw him. He had a power in him that made her think. Really think. She hadn't confronted anything with this much magic before in all her life. Maybe Willow, but the redhead was a very big exception. Which led the Slayer to think he wasn't all human. But whatever he was in particular, he wasn't telling.
And he kept talking to her. He would show up, saying the strangest things. He liked to talk about the Styrofoam guy a lot. Buffy had a feeling that Styrofoam was the big cheese in these parts. And it was frightening to think there actually might be someone stronger than the White Guy out there somewhere. But apparently there was. For the most part White Guy and Styrofoam were on the same page regarding a plan for world domination, or at least she thought it was world domination, she couldn't be sure. But as for the evil guys, well, it seemed like White Guy was only going to be loyal to a point. He had plans after the "war was won", whatever that meant. And they weren't very nice plans.
White Guy also liked to talk about something called the Ring of Power. He seemed really into it, going on for hours at a time about how much he wanted to get his hands on it. He wanted it so he could have leverage over Styrofoam. But also, he just wanted it, like it was some sort of drug or something. Almost every other sentence out of his mouth revolved around the ring. It was riding on obsession.
White Guy was also all about control. He wanted to control the whole of Middle Earth, which Buffy was assuming was the place where she was. White Guy had a bad yen for that control. His eyes seemed to darken when getting on that topic. Buffy knew he was willing to give everything he got for just a chance at ruling this place. White Guy had definite plans on taking over this Middle Earth. And for some strange reason, he thought the ring was going to get him that control. As well, he seemed to have some sort of delusion that Buffy was going to get that ring for him.
He said strange things, stuff like how she should be thankful to him for sparing her life. Buffy was inferring from that that Styrofoam had wanted her killed initially. White Guy thought she had some more valuable purposes. He said she was going to help him win over Middle Earth, whether she liked it or not. And Buffy couldn't agree or disagree. The spell on her was strong, not allowing the blonde to move her limbs at all. She was stuck, she was this guy's prisoner until he saw fit to let her go. And that wasn't going to happen any time soon.
The days or hours, or however long she had been in here, passed in torment. She could do nothing; she couldn't even move her head. Her eyes were still able to move, and she could only dart them to and fro. She had no idea where she was, she couldn't move at all, and she was alone. Buffy would cry if she could. But she wasn't even allowed that. Hell, she couldn't even make any grunting noises. White Guy wanted her completely mobile and completely quiet.
Her mind wondered to her friends and her sister. Where were they? She had seen them jump into the blue thingy with her. But she hadn't seen if they had fallen in or gotten out in time. A part of her knew that they were in this place Middle Earth with her. She knew that no way would her friends allow her to be taken anywhere against her will. They were no doubt out there looking for her right now, and that's what made Buffy even more afraid.
This place wasn't safe right now. There was a war brewing in this place, and it wasn't going to be pretty. She knew that, right down in the centre of her being. A lot of things would go wrong before they even had the opportunity to get better. She only hoped her friends weren't caught in the middle.
But none her feelings, her instincts, or her perceptions helped Buffy out with the most pressing matter at the moment. Why her? Why had Styrofoam taken time out of his busy war making schedule to send three guys through a portal to bring her here and seemingly to have her killed? Why bother with someone who would have never known any of this even happened? Why bring a Slayer into the equation? It didn't make sense, none of it added up. And nothing was helping Buffy figure it out.
She was stuck there, in that grey room, sitting in that chair. She couldn't do anything. For the first time in a long time, the Slayer need saving.
But she knew that it wasn't coming any time soon.
*****
"Have they made a decision?"
Elrond sighed, turning to face out his window. His eyes took in the beauty of his Rivendell, a deep remorse in his heart. His beautiful city, he had fought long and hard to keep it so peaceful and quiet. But it seemed as if the time of Rivendell had passed. Many Elves were making their way to the Sea, tired of having to deal with the evil that lived around them time and time again. And Elrond knew deep in his heart that he would follow them one day. Soon this would not be the land for Elves any longer, whether they won or lost this battle.
"Lord Elrond?"
He turned, remembering his companion and the question asked of him. He fixed Gandalf with a tired look, moving to take a seat by his desk. His study was a wonderfully expansive room. He had finally gotten it the way he liked it. And soon, he would have to leave it all behind.
"They have," he said loudly, forcing himself to focus on the matter at hand. The melancholy in his heart would have to wait for another time. He still lived in Middle Earth now, and he still had things to do here. One of those things was the matter of the strangers.
"They have decided it would be best to accompany the Fellowship on their journey," Elrond revealed. "The witch told me so herself. They will be ready to leave Rivendell with the Fellowship."
"Even the little one?" Gandalf asked, eyebrows knitted together in disapproval.
"They refuse to leave her here in our care," Elrond told him. "All three will make the journey, or none will."
"So it is settled then."
Elrond nodded, eyes going back to his window.
"It is."
*****