The Will of the Ring

Chapter Three

by Makura Koneko

Big Thanks to:

Phoenix Wing Star

DT-chan

Fate's Child

Maria

Crazygurl70

Umi (Thank you ever so much for that correction! I never thought to consider maybe the Japanese have another word for their own native language…How very blonde of me… And you're absolutely right about the translation thing…*frowns* I think I meant to, but I must have forgotten… *sweatdrop* I need an proof-reader… Any volunteers? ^^;)

SS Silver AKA Silver Shadows (Did I have him scowl? Oops, my bad…But I did see him scowl once in the movie! Just once, but it was there!!!! I swear!)

Tegasus

Butterfly

HikariTsuki (*laugh and hugglez* You are just so sweet a girl! Thanks so much for your praise!)

Katcin Lee (Thrilled to see SOMEONE liked that I planned on keeping Usa and Mamoru together…as for peer pressure…-.-; Yeah, I'm a sucker when it comes to giving in to that…*tears* But, I swear, I WILL be writing another LotR/SM crossover where Serena and Darien will be ROCK SOLID!!!!!! I promise!!!)

The Kuro no Tenshi (Thanks for the tidbits tips! I suspected as much, but thanks for confirming!)

Sirithdiliel (*grins* I understand perfectly with the 'too lazy to sign in' thing.)

MoonGrlonearth

Amélie

DemonicCatGirl (heh heh…'demonic cat girl?' Chica, that is so me… My nickname is Cat and I can be VERY demonic…heh…. *hugglez* You're review was so uplifting! Thankies!)

Liquid Ice

Starlight (Making the skirt longer….hmmmm….I never considered that, but you're right… That will definitely be a detail I shall ponder. Thanks!)

ChibiTenshi

Let the Legend Continue…

Five days.

Ami sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. The golden haired Moon Princess Serenity, in the form of Serena Tsukino, was sound asleep in Lita's bed, in one of Lita's spare pjs, her hair down and brushed around her to a glossy glow.

It had been five days since the sleepover Luna had organize in preparation for the dream that would have Serena relive the end of the Silver Millennium. But, it seemed that something went wrong…something happened in the Moon Warrior's sleep, but it ended in something far from a simple dream, or awakening of memories.

The first obvious idea that came to them all was Darien…but that had only proved to make their situation worse, for the sadness over the Earth Prince's death, even with it having been almost a year ago, was still too raw.

It had been the week after the defeat of Galaxia…Darien had declared in front of all of them what an idiot he'd been to leave Serena, but she, golden hearted as ever, had forgiven him before he had even been able to finish his apology. They'd been inseparable for the entire next week, Darien determined to make up for all the years he'd been less than attending… It was the last week they would ever spend together…

The attack had been sudden and unexpected. Chaos's last surviving minion had leaped for the Moon Princess out of nowhere…Darien had shoved her out of the way, taken the blow…

Ami clenched her fists as the images bombarded her memory. Raye had had a vision…they'd rushed to the scene…but they'd been too late… There hadn't even been anything left to bury.

And now his absence was felt the worst of all since his death…

Ami shook herself.

The senshi had hardly slept or eaten since that Saturday evening, five days ago. It was Thursday now, and Ami realized it was a school day. For the first time in her life, Ami had skipped school, and not only that, but four whole days. She wondered why she wasn't panicking… Then she looked again at the slumbering Moon Princess, and a tear rolled down her face. How could anyone care about school with the fate of the one who held the destiny of the earth itself was in peril?

It tore at them all that they could do so little to help…but, nevertheless, they were doing all they could. The day before, Serena had begun to show signs of malnutrition, so…

Flashback

"Doctor! Doctor! Somebody help her!" Mina cried in a brilliant performance of a stricken best friend, Lita in her laying lax in her arms. Lita's face was flushed from embarrassment at having to play the helpless, injured damsel, but that only helped further her act.

Mina's skirt was pulled precariously high during her struggle to pull the heavier girl through the sliding doors, giving the security guard a good view of no-little amount of slender leg.

"What's wrong?" A man in a white doctors coat came over, followed by a stretcher. They laid Lita on it, and began pushing her towards the emergency room.

"I don't know!" Mina wailed, and burst into tears and threw herself over the top of Lita, pulling her skirt even higher. Unseen by all, due to the security' guards eyes being…elsewhere, all eyes on the hysterical blond, two figures walked inside and casually went through a pair of swinging doors that clearly said 'Employees Only.'

Raye and Ami, once inside, stuck to the shadows as only they could.

"In here," Ami whispered softly, and the two of them slipped into the room marked 'supplies.' It was in the back of the room, past toilet paper and paper towels and hospital gowns that they found what they needed; an IV bag, and one of those metal 'trees' to hold it up, along with a few needles.

Ami took off all her clothing except for the leotard she'd worn, and stuffed it all into Raye's backpack, along with the needles. She slipped into one of the hospital gowns Raye fished out a box, She messed up her hair, and Raye taped the end of the IV wire to the inside of her wrist as Ami hung the IV bag on the 'tree.'

Looking like a friend helping a friend check out from the hospital, Raye and Ami slipped out of the Employee's wing, and walked slowly, and casually, chatting, Raye supporting a 'shaky' Ami out the door with the stolen goods in plain sight.

No one even noticed, except to smile at the obviously strong friendship between the two. Waiting for them outside was Mina and Lita –whom had made a miraculous recovery, demanded a candy bar, claiming it was diabetes. The girls hoped into Andrew's black mustang convertible, and they were off.

End Flashback

They had gotten home, hooked up their Princess to the IV unit, but the next morning…they'd had to take her off it, because, somehow, she'd begun to have too many minerals and vitamins in her blood stream. But the drip of the IV hadn't been raised, so where had the extra nourishment come from?

Mina, with surprising insight, had suggested the idea that maybe, wherever her essence was, her spirit version of herself had eaten, therefore her real body was sustained as well. It seemed, while farfetched, the only explanation they could come up with. Andrew had supported it.

Andrew… Ami sighed. He'd followed Mina, when he'd seen her more down that he'd ever imagined she could ever be. Mina had accidentally left Lita's apartment door unlocked, and Andrew had slipped inside, and had heard everything. Ami sighed again. She was almost positive the man had figured out by now who they were. After all, they were at his arcade/parlor almost every day, and when Beryl had been attacking, there had been attacks there at least once a week. So Andrew had a lot of sightings of both them and their alternate egos to compare faces, even if the magic was supposed to keep people from recognizing them, even if they got a good long look.

Ami brushed a strand of her princess's hair off her forehead, and put some more chapstick on her lips, which were beginning to dry out again.

That done, she gave her princess one last look before bending over the laptop in her lap, hooked up to her Mini-Data Computer, and began typing and scanning once more.

After a hour of this and still no success on finding a way to either a) bring Serena back or b) go to where she was, the telephone rang.

"Kino residence," Ami said as she set the phone between the side of her head and her shoulder.

"Hey, Ami, Raye here," Raye said. She, too, sounded exhausted. "Found anything."

"Not yet," Ami said with a sigh. "You?"

"Nothing worth reporting. A few glimpses of a forest type place, but that doesn't tell us much. If she's as far back as you say, she could very well be in a time before even the dinosaurs. The entire Earth will be one big garden."

"Your right, knowing she's in some sort of forest does little." Ami rubbed the bridge of her nose once more. "Well, keep working."

"Ami, I've tried every technique I've ever learned, and even some that even Grandpa has trouble performing."

"Maybe you're just asking the wrong questions."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, Raye," Ami sighed. "I don't know."

"I think I might." A voice said. Ami jumped and turned. Standing in the doorway was the tall, lean figure of Seiya Tachunakai.

(AN: Does anyone know the last name of the Starlights???)

"S-Seiya?" Ami stuttured.

"Seiya's there?" Raye exclaimed.

"I'll call you back," Ami told her. Raye reluctantly agreed. They said goodbye, and hung up.

"S-Seiya!"

"I believe you've said that already," Seiya teased. Ami blinked and flushed.

"W-well…welcome back… Pardon my interruptions, but… You were saying?" Ami asked of the foreign Senshi as he sat down on the bed, on the opposite side of Ami. He touched her cheek, his face a mask of sorrow. Ami knew Lita and Raye were going through the same thing. They hated that this dilemma wasn't physical, not like the time Serena had been kidnapped. Those times, there had been something, a bad guy, for them to go after and pound.

But with this…all they could do was sit and wait and hope, and it was killing them.

"Seiya?" Ami asked softly. Seiya looked up from Serena's face.

"You've been trying to figure out a way to get to her, right?"

Ami nodded, wondering how he knew what was going on.

"Well, have you tried just trying to get to the same time as her?" He asked. "Then you could find her. To find a particular pinprick of light across thousands of eons is much more difficult than just locating a specific time. Once were at that time, it would be relatively easy to locate her."

Ami blinked.

So fixated they had all been on rushing to their princess's rescue in one leap, that they hadn't considered the route that Luna and Artimus had pounded into them from the first day of their training; a plan. And plans came in steps. Achievable, reliable steps, not unsure, shaky leaps and bounds that would render you almost sure to fall short of your goal.

With a few quick key strokes, Ami confirmed that to teleport to the time Serena was in would be quite easy, no more difficult than it had been to teleport from one end of Raye's temple grounds to the other, as they had done during practice. Oddly, it was much easier and much less draining to go across time than it was to go across distances or to a different dimension. Except, the reason this was easier, was that there were paths throughout time…problem was, those paths were guarded.

"Lita," Ami called into her wrist communicator. A miniature picture of Lita's face fizzed into view.

"Found anything, Aims?" Lita asked hopefully. Behind her, Ami could see the red of Mina's hairbow.

"Yes, I have," Ami said. She glanced at Seiya; the Inner Senshi weren't going to like this.

"But we need the Outers," Ami said. "Lita, I know you kept ties with Haruka. Contact her. Let her know what's going on. Ignore any jibs she may throw out; this is no time to let our petty differences waste time, do you hear?"

"Yes, ma'am," Lita said glumly. Ami nodded.

"Good. Ami out." She snapped the wrist communicator off, and sighed. "Now we wait," She said softly. Silence reigned, lessened only by the soft breathing of the one that the nine greatest warriors of the universe would die, and had, to protect….

(Author's Note:

Readers at this time should please remember that I have absolutely no idea what happens after the end of 'Lord of the Rings; The Fellowship of the Ring' movie. Therefore I am taking my lead from things implied by events near the end of that movie. I do not know any of what happened during Sam and Frodo's journey through Mordor to Mount Doom, therefore I am giving my own interpretation of what I believed would have happened. I do not claim to be able to ever even possibly come anywhere close to the masterpiece that is J.R.R. Tolkien's work, but I shall try to do the plot justice.

-Makura)

"Seems like an eternity since we left the Fellowship, eh Frodo?" Sam said, his voice forcefully normal; it was out of the question to attempt to be cheerful. Frodo glanced up from staring into the small, smoke-less fire.

"Longer than an eternity," Frodo sighed. Sam handed him a piece of dry bread, the last of it, taking the smaller piece for himself. Frodo frowned at this, but he had given up days ago trying to talk Sam into at least trying to make the portions equal.

For once, Gimli the Dwarf had not exaggerated. Mordor was everything he had predicted. The description of the place Boromir had given at the Council so long ago came to mind. The words Legolas had muttered to him later when the discussion had come up again came to mind, now as well.

"Maybe not with ten thousand men it would be impossible, but with an elf, four hobbits, a dwarf, and a King, it is all but impossible," He'd said to Frodo under his breath. Frodo smiled, then frowned. Perhaps they would have succeeded with all of them, but when Merry and Pippin had sacrificed themselves, bring themselves to the attention of twenty hybred-Orcs, to allow Frodo to escape, Frodo had known then and there that the Fellowship was doomed. Without all its members, it was a broken crumbling of a once magnificent fortress.

Now only Sam and Frodo remained of that fortress that was the Fellowship. Where the others were, Frodo had no idea. He prayed they were all right. He even dared to hope that mayhap Merry and Pippin had gotten away…

He knew that hope was folly, but it was the only one he had. He didn't expect to ever get out of Mordor alive. He never had. He'd just planned on making it to Mount Doom, creeping up to the edge of the volcano, and tossing it in. Maybe even tossing himself in along with it, except he knew that if he did that, Sam would jump right in after him. So for Sam's sake, Frodo planned on at least trying to get out of Mordor alive.

'Trying' being the key word…'succeeding' was hardly in his vocabulary any more.

"M…mother…?" Serena breathed in shock, eyes wide.

"My darling Serenity," The image of the ethereal woman with delicate fairy wings on her back smiled up at Serena with sadness in her eyes.

"A fairy…" Legolas murmured. Fairies, distant cousins of elfs, also called Lunarians because they mainly resided on the Moon, hadn't been seen or heard of since the forging of the Rings of Power.

"I thought they were myth!" Gimli exclaimed.

"Apparently not, if this is any indication," Boromir murmured.

"Silence," Aragorn ordered. "Watch and listen." They obeyed.

"My darling princess," The fairy said as Serena knelt before the image, eyes wide. "If you are watching this, you have finally reached the most powerful stage of the evolution of the Moon Warrior. This identity has no name except the one you give it. You can continue to call yourself Sailor Moon, or Serenity, or anything you wish, for you are the first to reach it alive.

"This stage is special, my darling daughter, because it is not triggered by emotional need or because the fate of the Universe depends on it, but because He Himself has granted it to you. His reasons are not only clear, but I think you can surmise from His giving you this gift that a great struggle is near.

"Do not despair, daughter. You have triumphed over many evils before, and you will again."

"But, mother, my Senshi were always with me, and my Prince! I can't fight anything without them! I'm weak without them!" Serena burst out, tears running down her face. "And Darien…mother, Endymion is gone! How can I ever-"

"I know you feel weak on your own," The image said, and it became obvious that this was only a pre-created message, not an interactive projection. Serena sobbed, then bit her lip and forced herself to listen.

"But you are far from it. Even as a child, I could see so much of your father in you. The few good qualities your father had before he…" The fairy swallowed, and continued. "They are multiplied in you tenfold.

"Daughter, I know you slipped off to Earth the night of the anniversary ball of my coronation, and I know that you met the Prince Endymion. I know you now know the story of the Rings of Power, of Sauron, and the One Ring. I also know that, by now, you may suspect who your Father is…or was. I know now that Sauron was defeated, and Earth returned to normal. I should thank you that I now know this, for in my own fear of what I might see, I refused, for three thousand years, to look down at what was happening on Earth."

"Oh, mother…" Serena murmured, not noticing the shock on the faces of the four that stood behind her.

"Be brave, my darling princess," the fairy said reaching out as if to touch her daughter. "And remember, that for all his evil, what little love he was capable was giving, it was all given to you, as is all of mine."

The image faded, the silver beam of light shrinking. The locket closed, and the music stopped, and all that was heard was the soft sobs of a silver clad girl sitting under a beam of moonlight that streamed down through a gap in the branches overhead.

Boromir stepped forward softly and knelt beside her. Serena, a sob wrenched from her throat, threw herself at him and buried herself in his arms, sobbing. They remained thus, until Serena's sobs had subsided. Boromir looked down at her, only to discover she was fast asleep.

"Should I wake her?" Boromir asked softly. Aragorn shook her head.

"Let the lady sleep," Legolas said.

"I have a feeling we wouldn't get much out of her, anyway," Aragorn said as Gimli went to put out the fire.

"Good thing we already planned on staying the night." Legolas pointed out, as the fire went out, and the camp was plunged into near-darkness. The light of the moon and the silver glow that glanced of the 'fuku' of the sleeping girl gave them just enough light to find comfortable spots. Boromir laid Serena down on the cot, careful of her wings, and pull a blanket up around her before taking up a defensive position beside her, leaning against the same tree had sat against earlier that night. As the night wore on, he never once took his eyes of her angelic, sleeping, tear-streaked face, all the while thinking…

"What cruel fate would bring such an innocent creature into the middle of so evil a struggle as ours?"

"Let me get this straight," Haruka was clearly going to great lengths to restrain her own anger. Michiru's hand on her elbow helped, it seemed, but not by much.

"You," She glared at Luna. "Decided to not only not find a way to protect our Princess from having to relive the most painful day of all our lives, but thought that a sleepover would reassure her? Have any of you boneheads forgotten that once in a dream, you forget it's a dream???"

"The plan was for us to be there for her when she awoke!" Mina growled. Haruka snarled.

"When she awoke? In case you haven't noticed blondie, but she has yet to do that!"

"Hey, watch who you're calling blondie, blondie!" Mina fumed. Haruka growled, and Michiru's light, reassuring touch on her elbow shifted to grasp her partner's arm firmly, but gently.

"They had no idea this would happen, 'Ruka," Michiru said gently. "It's not their fault."

"Oh, so it never occurred to them that maybe, in her dream state –which she would not realize till she was awake was only a dream- that maybe, just maybe, the princess, while watching all her loved ones die, might wish to be someplace else???" Haruka was positively livid to say the least. "And on top of all that, when you drag us half way across the world to dump this on us and expect us to fix your blooper for you, you leave that eechi baka Seiya alone with her???"

"Told you she'd overreact," Raye muttered to Lita, whom was being restrained by Ami.

"Please, would everyone just cool it?" Hotaru said in exasperation. No one listened. The Senshi of Silence frowned as Lita tore herself loose of Ami's grasp and began shouting. Haruka shouted back. Raye joined in and verbally attacked Haruka. Michiru snapped back in defense of her counterpart. Ami responded in kind in defense of her own friend. Hotaru groaned.

"They'll never learn," A voice said with mild amusement.

"Is that an observation, Setsuna-mama, or a prediction?" Hotaru sighed as the tall, forest green haired woman with burgundy eyes stepped out of the shadows of the fire room of the Hikawa Shrine. The Guardian of Time smiled wryly.

"I'm not sure," She said. Hotaru groaned again. They exchanged looks, then, shaking their heads, they stuck two fingers in their mouths and each blew a sharp whistle, simultaneously.

"Owie!" Mina shrieked, clapping her hands over her ears. Haruka glared, Michiru seemed slightly put out, and her pose and expression resembled that of a indignant cat whom had forgot to look where she was going and had run into a door.

"Please, everyone," Hotaru pleaded. "This is getting us nowhere. As Ami said when we first all got here, we have no time to argue! We have got to put our petty differences aside! We can't rely on the Princess to make us get along forever! Imagine how sad and upset she'd be if she could see us now!"

Everyone, even Haruka, blinked, then, after exchanging embarrassed and ashamed glances, they all nodded at once and thus came to a truce. Hotaru breathed a sigh of relief.

"To answer you're earlier…question, Haruka-san," Ami said, her usually polite voice slightly stiff even for her. "We did not call you here to 'dump our blooper on you and expect you to fix it.' In truth, we summoned you because we hoped that Setsuna would be with you, and if not, that you would know a way to contact her." She turned to Setsuna.

"Setsuna-sama," She said. "We have found a way to contact our Princess, but it requires going back in time up to one hundred billion years ago."

"What?" Haruka exclaimed. Michiru and Hotaru gasped.

"We believe that, somehow, the Princess's essence, soul, mind, being, whatever you want to call it, was pulled back one hundred billion years ago, where it formed an outer…crust, shall we say. Just as if one to take off earth's crust, the outer most layer of magna would simply form another one."

"So you're saying Koneko," Haruka asked, using her nickname for her Princess. "Is walking around on a pre-dinosaur Earth in a second body? A duplicate shell of the one she left here?"

"Yes, except that this second body is…temporary." Ami said after a moment.

"Excuse me?" Raye blinked. Ami sighed and rubbed her brow.

"Explain, please," Michiru said calmly. Ami nodded.

"I mean…" Ami sighed. "There's no way to sugar coat it," She said. "In less than a month of her time, Serena's 'second shell' will begin to deteriorate."

"What…what happens then?" Mina asked softly. Ami looked at her, then glanced at the Outers.

"It depends," The Senshi of Ice and Wisdom said slowly.

"On what?" Haruka snapped in annoyance. Ami frowned.

"It depends on whether or not at least three of us are there or not," She said. "If at least three of us are there, when the second shell begins to deteriorate, and her spirit is released, we can pass it through a narrow, very precise time portal of our own, directly to who whoever stays behind. They, the ones that will be on the receiving end of the time and space tunnel here in the present, could then guide Serena's 'core' back to its rightful body."

"And if we're not there…?" Hotaru pushed. Ami fixed her with a solemn look.

"Then she, along with her second body, will fade, and die." She said. Her tone left no room for argument and as much as they all hated it, it was the truth, pure and simple.

And it terrified them all more than anything.

To Be Continued…

*grumble mutter grumble* You guys are deliberately trying to make this as difficult for me as possible, aren't you? *shakes head in wry amusement* *sigh* No sooner do I promise the Legolas/Serena fans they'll get their Serena/Legolas, than the Darien/Serena fans rise up in protest. HELLO? Why didn't you people say something??? Oh, I'm not talking to those of you that read my story after I gave my word, but still….*laughs* Oh, I'm not mad. Just deeply amused…for some reason… ^^;

Anyhoo, to appease those of you that still desire a Serena/Darien, I shall, upon completion of WotR, begin work on another ficcie that has been buzzing around my tiny blonde brain for a while. And, mark my words (I've always wanted to say that. ^^)the pairing in that one will remain Serena and Darien as I promised Katcin Lee and a few others.

Now, as it was with Chapter Two and this Chapter three, I might be a bit slower in getting up chapters from now on because, as I have mentioned before, I am in the process of sorting my belongings and helping do the same with the possessions of the rest of my family in preperation of moving to a smaller house. Ya know, 'get rid of this, keep that, get rid of this, keep that, big garage sale, do it all over, pack what I wanna keep, ect, ect.'

So, all I ask is for patience! I know, I know, kinda hypocritical of me since patience is NOT one of my virtues, but, hey…

Anyhoo, hope you all enjoyed, and ja ne!

Hope Makes the Universe Shine,

Makura Koneko

ALL STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY