The Will of the Ring

Chapter Eight

by Makura Koneko

Big Thanks to:

Okay, since there were simply too many people to thank individually (67, to be exact. ^^;), I'm just putting a

big thank you up to EVERYONE who reviewed!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!! -Makura

"Where do you think we're headed?" The short, dirty, gaunt-faced, heavily bruised hobbit asked his

companion, an equally weary and beat-up hobbit that resembled him enough -at least under all the dirt and

grime- that one would correctly guess they were related.

"Northeast, I know that much," Merriadoc Brandybuck said softly, so as not to attract the attention of the

good twenty or so Orcs surrounding a roaring fire. About half of original fifty had left after a large

commotion stirred up by something neither Pippin nor Merry knew the identity of. For a while they had

been fearful that Strider and Gimli and Legolas had come after them…perhaps a scout had spotted one of

them… But they soon realized that if they had been caught, they would be dead. And since the half of the

Orcs had not returned, they had stopped hoping, although they weren't sure why, only knowing that any

hope of any sort was difficult to maintain for long around such vile creatures.

Pippin shivered. They, Merry and Pippin, were tied to a tree far enough away so that no heat or warmth

reached them on this chilly night, but close enough so that they were clearly illuminated.

"Towards the Shire, do you think?" Pippin asked after a moment, just as softly. The Quest to destroy the

Ring had given the playful, immature and childish hobbit a reason to grow up quickly, and grow up he had.

No more was the 'fool of a Took' that had caused the chain of events that had lead to Gandalf's death.

"In that general direction," Merry confirmed. "I think."

"Do you think the Dark Lord means to take over the Shire?" Pippin asked.

"What for?" Merry shrugged. "We have no weapons, we cannot fight, we have nothing he wants, not

anymore. Why not Gondor, or Eriador?"

"The Shire is in Eriador." Pippin pointed out. "Mayhap they mean to start with the Shire. Build themselves a

headquarters, or something, then take over the rest of the country. You said so yourself, hobbits can't fight.

It'd be an easy place to take over."

Merry didn't have the strength to be surprised at his cousin's startling insight, and only shrugged once more.

Pippin saw this, and tried to blink back tears. It was no use; the salty liquid coursed tiny rivulets down his

face, washing away some of the dirt along with it so that pale, slender streaks of dirty skin were seen

coursing down his face.

They needed help…soon… He didn't know how much longer he or Merry could hold out. Pippin turned his

tear and mud streaked face up to the full moon that was visible above them, like a beacon of bright, silver

hope.

Please… Pippin found himself thinking, as if the Moon could relay his prayer and bring help. Please,

someone come, quick…

The Dark Creature sniffed deeply, a sound that reeked of evil intentions. The massive beast beneath him,

midnight black flank torn and bleeding, nails sticking out of its hooves and caring about neither atrocity of

its condition, snorted and stomped.

The Dark Creature, its multitudes of flowing, ebony black material that was it's cascading cloak of

darkness, turned its head upwards, and hissed at the moonlight that struck it, but did not look away. The

Moon flickered.

The Creature hissed to its mount, and the changed direction, not daring to call out to its brethren that it had

found their prey, for the sake of alerting that same prey to its nearing presence…

"You're certain it was them? Those girls you saw…in the Moon?" Aragorn asked the girl sitting against the

wall of the cave with her knees brought up against her chest with her arms wrapped around herself. She

looked at him with big, round sapphire eyes. Boromir sat down beside her.

"We only want to be sure it was really them and not some…some illusion that your magics conjured up out

of your desire to see them." He said.

"There's another reason you're trying to be sure," Serena said, tightening her arms around her knees. "I can

feel it." Boromir and Aragorn exchanged glances, before the two of them each looked at Gimli and Legolas.

"For another matter, you all got really weird whenever I mentioned mother or Senshi or me being Princess

Serenity, or the Silver Alliance…" Serena looked at them all. "What's with that?"

"I think it is time we tell the Butterfly a bit of our own land's mythology," Gimli chuckled. Automatically

all eyes turned towards Legolas; as an elf, he would logically know the most about what he was about to

explain. Suppressing a sigh, he sat down beside Serena, against the wall, on the other side of her than

Boromir was on.

"Highness-" He started.

"Serena." She said firmly. "And since when have you called me 'highness?' I haven't been a Princess for

several millennia, thank you very much."

"Pardon my error," Legolas grinned. "But do you wish to hear the answers to your questions, or not, my

lady?"

"None of that 'lady' stuff, either!" Serena poked him in the ribs. "But yeah I do. Go on."

"Thank you," Legolas, seemingly quite out of character even to his own friends, returned the gesture of

poking the small girl in the ribs. She squealed and scooted closer to Boromir, who laughed and put a

protective arm around her. Serena smirked at Legolas and stuck her tongue out. Legolas only grinned.

"Among the elves," Legolas started. "We have a theory concerning the events surrounding the creation of

the Rings of Power and the One Ring. Around that time, three thousand years ago, there was a universal

empire much like the one you've described to us. We call it the Silver Empire. I don't know if 'Silver

Millennium' is correct because we have no idea how long the Silver Empire was in existence, and we don't

know if it still exists or not.

"See, around the One Ring was created, all Lunarians vanished at the same time their Queen disappeared.

Their Princess, the daughter of the Moon Queen, we think was either married or engaged or at least involved

with someone close to Sauron, perhaps even Sauron himself. She left, too, and we assume took up her

mother's place. We don't think they died, because when a Lunarian dies she or he leaves magical residue

behind."

 "Boy…that soooo explains why you guys got all…weird when I said my name was Serenity and my

mother's name was Queen Selenity." Serena mussed. "I'll bet the name of that Queen was Selene, and the

princess was Selenity, huh? My mom…weird…so now I know why Mother always feared and yet longed

for the Earth… She knew about the evil dude Sauron and his freaky ring, but she also had to leave my dad

behind because of it… She must have been so sad…" She perked as a thought entered her mind. "Hey,

y'know, 'bout the Lunarians dying thing, Mina-chan did once point out that in every place I'd ever died –the

Moon, the North Pole, the center of where the Dark Crystal Palace had been, and where I defeated Galaxcia-

there was always a single white flower growing. No matter if the ground was cement, stone, or ice." Serena

said in a curiously thoughtful voice.

"You did not know this about your own race?" Boromir asked incredulously. Serena blushed sheepishly and

shook her head.

"I don't have all my memories from my life as Princess Serenity." She said. "Just the important ones. Not

too many details. Well, actually, 'not too many details' was until a few weeks ago, when every night I'd

have a dream that revealed about five hundred years of my life per night, which is super weird…one of

those super-fast mental brain nerve firing thingamajig functions, I guess… Ami-chan explained it to me

once, but I guess I forgot." Again, she grinned sheepishly. "I guessed that, before I'd come here, my dreams

had covered about three thousand years of my life, since the last dream I had was at my three thousandth

birthday…but now I'm thinking I remembered it wrong, and it was probably more like thirty-thousand."

"Th-thirty-thousand?" Gimli sputtered as after recovering from choking on his mouthful of water. Serena

fidgeted, feeling eyes on her, and looked at Legolas to see the most odd look on his face…

"That makes you almost as old as Lady Galadriel." Legolas said in an odd tone of voice.

(AN: I have no idea how old Galadriel is, but let's just pretend she's around fifty thousand, k? -Makura)

"Who?" Serena asked.

"You'll meet her," Aragorn said. "Lothlorien is just close enough to Isengarde that we will probably take

refuge there once we rescue the halflings."

"Cool!" Serena said brightly. "Is she pretty? What's she like? How old is she? Is she related to you,

Legolas? Is she royalty? Is she married?"

Gimli was engulfed in garruffing laughter as Aragorn shook his head, Boromir laughed outright and

Legolas's mouth was quirked an amused grin that reminded Serena strongly of Darien…

Serena swallowed, forgetting her questions, and looked away from the elf's face, blinking back tears.

Even over a year after his death, the thought of him still brought tears…

Oh, Darien, I wish you were here…

The Dark Creature sniffed again; it had not needed to summon its brethren, after all. They, too, had seen the

Moon flicker, and knew what it meant. They, too, had picked up on the scathing scent of Light, and had

followed it. Through the treeline it spotted two of its companions to its right, and to its left, six more.

Their prey was near…

Trying to shake of the foreboding, dark, sick feeling that overcame her -she assumed it was a result of the

depressing thoughts of her deceased fiancé- she never noticed the concerned look in Legolas's eyes, as well

as the glimmerings of something else… But she felt those eyes on her, sure as she felt both the sickly

foreboding sensation grow, along with the trickle of…of being needed, the same as she had felt when she

had first seen Boromir near death… She gasped…a piercingly bright light overtook her…

She screamed.

"Serena!" Boromir cried out as she stood, screamed again as the light flashed brighter. All but Legolas were

forced to look away. Glancing painfully between the fingers of his outstretched hands, even the elf had to

blink rapidly to keep from going blind as he walked through the light to the sobbing, choking girl.

Serena whimpered. "It hurts…" She fell against him, and he caught her, scooping her up tightly and running

outside with her securely in his arms.  The others, grabbing what they could, followed, all of them thinking

the same two things; what was wrong with sapphire eyed princess, and what were the chances of any evil

near by missing that burst of purity? Very low, and they knew it, and so they fled.

They burst out of the opening of the small hedge-tunnel, scratched and bleeding from being careless in their

haste of the thorns, right into the middle of a nightmare.

"Now that we have decided that you are indeed correct in assuming we will all now endeavor to find this

Princess of yours," Gandalf said. "I believe I should raise up my earlier inquiry; what are children such as

you -however well you seem to be able to defend yourselves- doing getting yourselves captured by Orcs in

Mordor?"

"First off," Mercury said. "We may look and physically be children, but technically, we are each well over

three thousand years old. We shall explain how that is on a later date." Her tone said 'no arguments.' And

no arguments were made.

"Second, to get right to the point, as I believe you should have put together by now, we are here for one

purpose, and one purpose only; to find the Princess." Mars said. "We transported ourselves nearby, about a

two days walk in that direction." Mars waved an arm over towards the exit.

"South." Mercury specified. "We think. We do not reside anywhere near here, so we are not sure." Gandalf

only nodded.

"Who exactly is this Princess you speak of?" Frodo asked. "And how did she end up here?"

"Our Princess was…well, she ended up somewhere in one of the nearby lands, we don't know which."

Mercury said, embarrassed at her lack of knowledge. "By way of a sort of…transportation of complex

nature. Because of this nature, we were unable to locate her from our previous location. We hoped that once

we actually got to…well…what do you call the land that this…Mordor resides in?"

"Middle-Earth, you mean?" Sam asked, a curious expression on his face. What an odd question the blue

haired girl asked…

"Yes, thank you." Mercury smiled at him, but a pink lilt stained her cheeks when she briefly caught Frodo's

eyes, and she looked away. "As I was saying, we hoped to pinpoint her whereabouts in a more detailed

fashion once we actually reached Middle-Earth, by way of something similar to that which you saw us use

defending ourselves. We call it Tellesocoteleporation."

"Telocao-what?" Sam sputtered. Mercury giggled at his befuddled expression.

"Short for 'Telepathic Specific Telekinetic Location Teleporation.'" She said.

"We just call it Tassle." Hotaru laughed. "Or at least, we used to. Actually, more like the Inners used to. The

Outers -Setsuna, Haruka, and Michiru and I never really used it."

"We were always using Tassle to locate Serenity when she snuck down to Earth to visit Endymion," Mars

shook her head. "Which was a lot, so we got pretty darn good at Tassle."

"We're hoping that we haven't lost our touch in finding her." Mercury said.

"Interesting…" Gandalf said, rolling a small, smooth stone around in his hands as he looked at Mercury,

then Saturn, then Uranus -who glared- and then Mars -who also glared, and then into the fire with a

thoughtful look on his face.

"Mr. Gandalf?" Mercury asked. Gandalf shook his head.

"Nevermind my old man's wandering attention," He said good-naturedly. "Go on, please. So you're looking

for this Princess, and you plan to use this 'Tassle' technique to locate then transport yourselves to her? I

must ask, how did she get here in the first place? Do you have any idea where she could be? Mordor,

Gondor, Lothlorien?"

"As I said, we have no idea. All we knew was that she was in…Middle-Earth," Mercury shook her head.

"We hoped to locate her once we got here."

"How?" Sam piped up. "I mean, how exactly does this 'Tassle' work?"

The Senshi exchanged glances.

"Now's as good a time as any, I suppose," Mercury sighed. Uranus gave a cry and leaped to her feet.

"'Bout time!" Mars smirked, crossing her arms as Hotaru and Mercury dusted themselves off as they stood.

"Think we can pull enough power to bring them with us?" Mars said, jerking her head towards the trio that

had stood along with them. Uranus glared at her, and Mars glared back. "We can't exactly leave them

behind, not here, not in this place." Mars snapped. Uranus scowled and looked away.

"Only one way to find out," Mercury said. "I can put up some safety parameters to make sure that if we

don't make it to Serena, we'll only be dropped halfway there instead of in the middle of subspace. Then

we'll just rest up and jump the rest of the trip."

"Meaning you're gonna make it so that worse comes to worse we'll have to make two jumps to Serena

instead of one?" Mars asked. Mercury rolled her eyes and nodded. Mars smirked.

"Good," She said. "That I can grasp." Mercury only chuckled and pulled out her data computer once more,

and began setting up the aforementioned parameters.

"C'mon, already!" Uranus snapped. Mercury gave her a warning glance, did a few more keystrokes, and a

string of light sprouted from the computer to loop around them all, flash, then vanished.

"There," Mercury snapped her mini data computer shut, and it fizzed in her hands and disappeared. "Done."

"What do we do?" Sam asked, both a bit frightened/nervous and excited at the same time.

"First off…" Mercury cupped her hands together, closed her eyes, and her hands began to glow that same

misty ice blue… She tipped her cupped hands as if she were tipping a bowl… And crystalline, flowing

water poured out of her hands in thick, steady stream until the fire beneath her hands was completely

extinguished, not even the tiniest curl of smoke to show for the blaze that had been there previously.

"Now can we go?" Uranus growled. Mercury nodded as Saturn giggled.

"Stand here," Mars commanded, pointing to a spot on the ground. Gandalf, Sam, and Frodo obliged without

a word, and the four Senshi formed a tight circle around the back-to-back trio. "Now just stand-" Mars

stiffened, her eyes widening as they filled with an intense fire, her mouth going firm and tight.

"Hurry." She said. "They've found us!" As she said this, the cry of something not human, and not Orc

screamed out.

"Swamp Troll…" Gandalf murmured as his brow furrowed into a frown.

"Let's go!" Uranus snapped, and their arms all snapped out to grasp each other's hands quickly and tightly.

Four heads were bowed, four forms were encased in shimmering shrouds of pale yellow, dark purple, flame

red and ice blue light, four cries of power were whispered on the winds of time, the four lights flashed, and a

portal through eternity and time was opened…

The Wizard Gandalf, the Hobbits Frodo and Sam, and the Four Senshi disappeared just as an entire army of

Orcs and three Swamp trolls poured into the cave.

"The Lunarian belongsss to hhhhim…give her to usssss…." The Dark Rider hissed in a voice that was

sickly familiar.

"She is under our protection, Nazgul filth!" Gimli roared. Discreetly, Boromir, Aragorn, and –all

brandishing their weapons of choice- stepped in front of Legolas, whom still held a now unconscious Serena

in his arms.

"Go back to your Dark Lord and tell him the Lunarian Princess is his enemy, our friend, and beyond his

reach as long as she is so." Aragorn's voice was calm to the point of being deadly.

"Ssssheeee belongsssss to hhhim…" Whether it was the same one that had spoken, or a different one, was

unclear, and didn't particularly matter, as the beast-mounted Ring Wraiths began to close in… One of them

slipped around to the back, blocking any retreat back into the cave.

"Protect the little Butterfly at all costs, elf," Gimli growled to Legolas at his back.

"Have no fear of my disagreeing," Legolas murmured, glancing down at the girl in his arms…

"When I give the signal, we attack," Aragorn murmured quietly, just loud enough so that the others could

hear. "We'll try and catch them off guard. It's our only chance. Legolas, when we do, take Serenity and

run!"

Legolas's only reply was an affirmative nod, his eyes never wavering from the foes that surrounded them.

"Lasssst chaaaaaance, mortalssss…" The slithery hiss bit down to their very souls. "Hand over the Dark

Princesssss…"

"Dark Princess?" Legolas echoed. He glared, his voice precariously near a snarl. "She is light itself! How

dare you call her otherwise!"

"Sssshe belongsss to the Dark Lord…" One of them hissed. "Sssshe hassss evil in her that no one can

sssseee… Hhhhe will bring it out…hhhe will take from her what is hhhissss…What hhher mother denied

hhhim…"

Aragorn frowned, but said nothing, preparing to give his signal…

"Senshi…" Serena murmured, stirring in Legolas's grip. The Nazgul hissed, pulling away as if both her

voice and the word she had spoken was acid to them. They retaliated in the most unexpected way…

Fire erupted from their hands, black fire, rushing to swirl and spiral and rage around Legolas and Serena.

Serena screamed as an evil voice, a voice all of them knew al to well began whispering to her…

"No!" She cried out in tears. "No, it's not true! Leave me alone! Senshi!"

We're here, our Princess… Four voices whispered over the rumble that was the voice of Sauron.

We're coming!

Hold on, Serenity…

Don't you dare give in, Koneko!

Just a little longer, Usa-baka, then we'll kick his Dark Lord butt!

As the last voice faded away, the fire around Serena intensified as Legolas fought to keep his hold on her as

she lashed around, forcing him to go to his knees and hold her tightly against him in an attempt to stopper

her thrashing.

"Senshi…" She whimpered.

"Come one, Serena, stay with me," Legolas told her, touching her cheek. She froze, then suddenly relaxed,

and smiled as four pillars of yellow, purple, red, and blue light flashed into existence, each one of them at

the corners of a square shaped cage of light that suddenly surrounded them.

Serena opened her eyes, and it was the most beautiful sight Legolas had ever seen, and had not the situation

not been so dire, he would have let himself sigh and smile with relief. He settled for scooping her up against

him and hugging her tight. She put her arms around his neck and returned the embrace. She pulled away,

and for the first time both of them noticed she was once again in the frothy, milky white gown with the

golden embroidered strapless bodice.

"Senshi Power Guard!" Four voices cried out, and all four pillars flashed, and the glow of the 'cage'

intensified. The Nazgul screamed and backed off, but did not flee, not even as four women encased in the

pillars of light flared their arms out to their sides, aiding in the formation of the sparkling grid that formed a

shield around them.

"Senshi!" Serena cried out.

"Long time no see, Odango," The woman shrouded in the red light winked at her over her shoulder. "Now

just give us a minute and we'll be out of here. Any place you wanna go?"

"Let my join the Circle, and I'll guide the transportation!" She said intensely.

"No way, Koneko," The woman in the sunset yellow light growled. Without warning, all the Nazgul leaped

off their mounts and lashed forward, swords drawn, at the sparkling wall that separated them from their

prey.

"You gotta let me!" Serena pleaded. Legolas held on to her as she tried to pull out of his grasp to stand.

"We will risk no harm to you, Butterfly," Gimli told her, battle-ax at the ready as the Nazgul, screeching,

threw themselves at the barrier once more.

"Guys, please!" Serenity pleaded. "You don't have the strength to teleport us all out of here! Not with those

guys you brought along with you! Not without me!"

It was then that Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli, and Legolas took notice of the three males that had appeared

along with the four pillars of light.

"Gandalf!" Legolas said, slightly wide eyed at the wizard that looked haggard and worn, two Hobbits,

swords drawn, beside him.

"We meet again, my friends," The wizard, cheerful as always, greeted them as the Nazgul attacked again.

The smallest of the four women, a young girl encased in a pillar of dark purple light, screamed and

stumbled.

"Hotaru!" Serenity screamed. She stood and made to move towards her friend, but again Legolas held her

back as the Nazgul thrust their swords at the barrier, as if attempting to penetrate it. Their swords bounced

back, but the barrier flickered and the woman in yellow grunted, and the one in blue gasped.

"Mercury!" Frodo stepped forward, but Gandalf's arm blocked him. "Do not touch her!" He said. "We don't

know what affect it will have!"

"Senshi, please!" Serena sobbed. "Let me help!" She gripped her locket as she began to glow silver.

"Daaaaughter of Ssssauron…" The Nazgul hissed. "Do not deny your faaate…come with usss, Princesssss

of Darknessss…"

"If anyone's a princess of darkness, it's me!" The one Serena had called 'Hotaru' screamed out. She fell to

one knee, and, with a grunt, pulled her arm out of the shimmering net that was the barrier, and thrust her

arm out behind her towards Serena. Serena, grinning, eyes shining, reached out and grasped Hotaru's hand,

and the four pillars of light flashed as Serena burst into an array of silver and gold light.

"Saturn Purity Power!"

"Mercury Purity Power!"

"Uranus Purity Power!"

"Mars Purity Power!"

"Silver…Purity…Power!"

A rainbow flared into existence in the middle of an unnamed woodland at the edge of Mordor, and deep

inside Bara-dur, Sauron screamed in rage.

A portal was opened, and all Four Senshi, the Moon Princess, and the Fellowship disappeared into time and

eternity.

"Merry!" Pippin screamed as he awoke from a deep sleep to find himself staring at a dream of beauty…five

dreams of beauty, actually, each in the form of a breathtakingly beautiful angel shrouded in multi-colored

light and forming a shield around seven others. And just in front of him…

"Frodo!" Merry yelled as he spotted his friend. Frodo, sword in hand rushed through a hole that formed in

the barrier and ran towards them, grinning.

"Hurry!" He said as he slashed at their bonds. He grabbed them and hauled them up, and together the

threesome stumbled towards the group surrounded by the glowing angels. Another hole formed in the

barrier, and they leaped through it just as they were surrounded by a multitude of roaring, screaming Orcs.

"Hold on! It's going to be a bumpy trip!" The Ring-Bearer yelled to them over the noise of the Orcs.

"Hurry, my Senshi!" An angel in silver yelled, tears running down her face, Legolas holding her up from

behind as she closed one fist around something at her throat, her other hand grasping the smaller hand of the

girl in purple. "One last time, please!"

"Anything for you, koneko," The one in yellow said through gritted teeth. Each in turn, all five of the light

enshrouded women called out a phrase that made no sense to the bound hobbits, but was overflowing with

an ancient power purer than moonlight.

"Here we go!" Gimli gave a roar of exhilerant triumph as they were all pulled into a portal, and the thing at

Serena's throat that she'd been clutching flared with silver light as she raised her hand, a round crystal of

silver hovering above her palm and flashing like a star. At her throat, an open golden locket poured out a

melody that sang in their blood and made all evil on their path through time and space shy away in terror.

A portal raced towards them…

Screaming was heard…

And then there was nothing but blackness.

To Be Continued…

WOW!!!!! I had no intention of having them all get together so quickly!!! But, in my opinion, I think this

was my best chapter yet!!! Phew! I got an adrenaline rush just writing that jump-jump-run-run-yell-yell-

agic-magic in such a fast-paced sequence! I hope you all enjoyed! I sure had fun writing it!

Once again, thanks to all whom helped me get my floppy back!

Hope Makes the Universe Shine,

Makura Koneko