The Will of the Ring
Chapter Sixteen
by Makura Koneko
Middle Earth vs. 21st Century Poll:
Middle Earth: 46(--- Oiy…. 0.o)
21st Century: 5
Big Thanks to:
Ai! There were too many to respond to!!! *buries face in hands* You're all so wonderful!!!!
Meio-chan
PrincessLesse
Cassie-bear01
Reiko
Ray of Hope
Tabbes
Allie
Sunshine Fia
Missie V-DuCaine
Adyen
Chibi Arwen
christina
Azhuraea
Eternalmoonprincess
happy_girl00424
Kousagi Celen
..tyne…
Divine Sorceress
Hikari
alexz
Linauri
star0704
SailorFad64
Serena*
VioletHaze
Taria
makoto-18
Kyuuka-Kaimei
sapphireskies
SerenityLNguyen
Saturnpyroprincess
bee
Solus Nox
Hekate aka Bunni V
Empress
sailor shadowstar
ChibiTenshi
Serenity_C
GJ
Lilaclight
Sailor Star Scream
Serenity Silvermoon
SilverStarlightAngel
Silver-chan
tima
Samantha
CrazyJgirl
leliel
ElberethUndomiel
Sakura-Star-Magick
AngelQueen
Silver Dragonfly
Be'Jammin
Eliza
Silver-Star
Hitori
moon
The Battle has begun… Let us watch for the outcome…
The stars danced. That was what they did. They danced to the music of time, letting their eternal dance be guided by the melodies that the threads of eternity wove for them.
The stars had been dancing, gaily as ever, when they'd sensed a disturbance. They'd looked 'over their shoulders,' so to speak, behind them, to the glowing threads of time that they'd danced over long ago. They glowed even brighter, now; something was happening. Something new. Eager for a new melody to follow, new music that was being woven by this alternate past, they abandoned the present to dance to the music of this paradox of a different history.
They danced over these new glowing happenings, not caring that there would come a time when a decision would have to be made. And depending on the choice made in this decision, the stars would either dance over these new events on to a completely different path than they'd come back from, or they would re-dance the dance they had abandoned to come and explore this alternate past.
They did care, however, that if the choice went a certain way, a paradox would be created… For that meant that there would be two sets of an eternal dance for them to dance to. This made them glad, for the stars loved to dance.
And so the stars danced.
Serena the 21st century school girl slept. And as she slept, Serenity the princess of the Moon and heir to the Galaxy awoke. She felt herself surrounded by evil so saturatingly thick, even the crystal walls around her, the inside of the Silver Crystal, seemed to loose some of its shine.
Serenity felt…different. Stronger. She peeked out of her haven, let herself look out into the physical world. She both felt and sensed her physical body roughly dumped in the middle of a large, circular stone room. The walls were caked with dried magma, and the only light came from a perfectly circular black marble ball atop a roughly hewn stone pedestal not far from Serenity's body.
Serenity sensed Sauron as never before. He was more potent than she could ever imagine him to be, yet he couldn't touch her. He dared not. To seek her in the deepest, most intimate regions of her soul would be to put himself completely at her mercy, and that was what he would not do.
Slowly, so slowly, Serenity let herself slip out of the protection of the Crystal, and settle back into her own physical body.
The vice on her brain had been released. Serenity made a mental not to ask Gandalf, when it this was all over, to help her find a way to prevent it from happening again.
Serenity noted with a frown and a sigh that her gown was completely ruined.
Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Serenity stood, careful of her weary legs; cuts and abrasions adorned them, and she was weak for lack of food and water; she had hidden within the haven of her Crystal for several days, maybe even weeks… She frowned. It couldn't be weeks… Ami had said she'd only had a few more days before her body would begin to deteriorate, so it couldn't have been any longer than a few days ago that she'd been kidna-
Pain lashed up Serenity's body, and a cry of agony was unwillingly released from her throat as she fell to the ground, clutching her abdomen. It hurt! Oh, God, it hurt…it was like…like…
With sickening dread, Serenity realized it felt like she was being skinned alive…like when she had first arrived in Middle-Earth, right before bringing Boromir back…when her soul had been exposed to all the raw power of the world without her body to protect it.
With dreading anticipation, Serenity forced her eyes open, and raised her arm with painful effort…
She could see right through her hand.
Her body was fading.
"This can't be happening…" Serenity sobbed. Her Senshi! Where were they? She needed them! If they didn't come soon, she would die, fade from existence… This wasn't a matter of power or strength or will. This was. You can't kill a shadow by dropping a bomb on it. Only light would erase it. It was the same concept here; no level of power, no crystal, no advanced form of Sailor Moon could save her. It wasn't a matter of power, it was a matter of approach. Only the haven of her own body could save her. Unless…
The Crystal! Could it be that the reason this process had been delayed was because her soul had been safe in her Crystal within her temporary body? No, if that were true, then even though she was inside her crystal, her physical body still would have deteriorated. But what if it had been deteriorating? She just hadn't known it because she'd been inside the Crystal.
Then that meant maybe she still had time…
God, it hurt…
Slowly, tentively, careful of her waning strength reserves, Serenity called on the Crystal. It flickered into solid existence before her, glowing softly, comfortingly. The glow enveloped her, knowing what its mistress wanted. Slowly but steadily, Serenity felt her body solidify once more, the pain lessen.
When she was able to open her eyes without screaming in pain, she did so and glanced around herself at her surroundings.
The room was the same as she had perceived it from within the Crystal's protective confines. The round room looked like it had been formed by magma cooling and hardening around a huge air bubble… As interesting as this fact was, Serenity's attention went immediately to a perfectly round stone made of black and white marble atop the pillar in the center of the round room. A Seeing Stone.
Shaking with weakness, she stood. A crystal staff formed in her hand at the briefest thought. She leaned on it heavily as she limped to the Seeing Stone, her bare feet making not a single sound on the uneven lavastone floor; only the gentle 'clank' of the crystal staff on stone.
She stared at it, daring not to touch it. She shuddered as she felt Sauron's eye on her. Her movements slow, she reached down and tore a large section out of her skirt and flung it over the Seeing Stone.
Slowly she hobbled to the edge of the room, where she sank down to the floor, leaning against the curved wall. Her staff faded and disappeared.
She shivered as she felt that the sensation of being watched had lessened, but only slightly. That was to be expected. Somehow she knew that she was in the very heart of Sauron's hold. The very heart. No Orc had ever been here, in this room. Ever. How did she know this? She had no idea.
Still… Why tempt fate? She was vulnerable right now. Very vulnerable. More so than she had ever been… At least those times when she'd first become Sailor Moon she'd been strong and healthy, even if inexperienced and not very powerful. Now she wasn't even that, and her power reserves were low…very low… she wasn't even sure if she had enough strength to transform… She winced. If she couldn't transform, she was in real trouble. True, she was strongest as Princess Serenity, normally. But right now Princess Serenity was badly hurting. Plus…
Serenity hadn't thought of his before, but in this form, she shared a link with Sauron in the form of blood and flesh. She was, genetically, at least, his daughter. He would use that, she knew, she knew he would find a way to use that against her. But Serena, lately, had been becoming more and more Serenity, plus she was weaker than a newborn babe against Sauron, in more than one way. She had weaknesses Serenity did not.
The Moon Warrior was her only choice, her only hope. But how to transform…?
Sauron was getting things into place, things as he wished it, so he would have the maximum advantage. This she knew to the depths of her soul. He would be ready to challenge, her soon. He wanted this battle out of the way as badly as she did. But he, of course, desired a completely different outcome than she did…
Serenity groaned. She could feel the Crystal waning. She couldn't let it tax out; it was the only thing keeping her alive right now… A body. She needed a new body…
With a snap Serenity remembered the sensations she had felt when she had first transformed into that advanced form of Sailor Moon, so long ago, back at the beginning of this crazy adventure. Celenithil, she had named that form. 'Silver Moon Warrior.' What was it Luna had once said? Back on the Moon kingdom? When she had been explaining why when they –the Senshi- transformed, the wounds they'd had in their normal bodies faded?
"Contrary to what you feel and what you look like, when you first transform you're not completely transformed. It takes up to half an hour for your body to completely switch from your mortal body to your Senshi form. Your Senshi form is a different body, a body that has no injuries, so naturally, as you switch, your injuries fade out of existence, until finally, when you are fully in your Senshi form, your injuries are gone, left behind in your old form. Since you are technically not occupying your human form, your mortal body can spend it's time healing that wound, rather than keeping your spirit hosted. Which is why when you detransform, you injuries are still gone.
"It is also why during times of war, you are required to stay transformed. It may feel like you are at your full power the moment you transform, but since you are actually still transferring, so are your powers growing. You are actually not at your full power till at least ten minutes after you transform, which is why it sometimes takes longer to defeat an enemy if you transform right before confronting it."
It hadn't made much sense then, but now it did, somewhat.
So now it was doubly important she find a way to transform… Both to keep herself alive and to be at full strength for the battle that was approaching.
Serenity shivered.
The rage of the Gray wizard had been great when he had sniffed the potent magic surrounding the place where Serenity had been ensnared with a mind control spell, a spell Gandalf recognized from his years of friendship with Saruman, a spell Gandalf knew Saruman was very, very good at.
When the Companionship had left to try and reach Barad-dur in time to save Serenity, Gandalf had, without explanation, chosen to stay behind, for now. Of course, the Companionship didn't know that his 'for now' pertained to only a few hours in his mind.
As soon as Elves of Mirkwood and found things to occupy themselves to distract themselves from their worry –whether or not Serenity was rescued would, after all, determine the fate of Middle-Earth- Gandalf packed himself a pack of supplies, and then walked out. He was a wizard, and he didn't want anyone to notice his leaving so thus, naturally no one saw him, or any who did wouldn't care to remember an old man leaving the halls of Mirkwood to find his way to a lush field not far.
The sunlight was fading over the trees, the golden light lending itself to add to the spectacular beauty around him. Gandalf hardly saw any of it. A beautifully haunting melody, eerily similar to the tune played by Serenity's locket, flowed from Gandalf's lips in a gentle whistle. While it was soft, it still somehow seemed to be carried to the ends of the earth.
The unearthly white beast that showed itself, stepping out of the woods, at first glance could have been mistaken for a unicorn, for its breathtaking beauty. Even when you realized it was only a horse, the awe still stayed with you, and you knew that no, this was no ordinary horse.
"Hello, my old friend," Gandalf greeted the lord of all horses. "I call you again in need of your help." The horse looked Gandalf in the eye, seeming to say, of course I'll help you, you idiot. You don't need to ask. He pawed at the earth, as if to say, Get on, already, if you want to get to Saruman before he uses that black-tainted white magic of his to do further harm.
Gandalf smiled, and mounted up, grinning. "Thank you, Shadowfax," he told the creature. Staff in one hand, other hand tangled in the horse's mane, he urged his mount forward, towards Isengarde.
Somehow, some way, Serenity, after a while of resting, felt her strength begin to return, and thus was able to regain some sense of logical thought.
She needed to find her way out of here. She couldn't fight Sauron the way she was now. She knew why he had come to get her instead of waiting for her to fulfill her promise of coming after him once the Ring was destroyed, once she could rely on her body. He'd known she'd planned on going back to the future, only to reclaim her own body then use the Crystal to come back at her full strength, and do away with him.
He also knew of her weaknesses; the fact that she was running out of time, and being without the support of her loved ones. He had decided to use those two things against her, of course. She felt so stupid for not realizing that he would, for being so careless as to let herself be caught.
Well, there was no help for it now other than to find a way out, find her Senshi. It wasn't much of a plan, hardly a plan at all, hardly more than a goal, but it was better than nothing.
Serenity forced herself to her feet, and spied an opening in the wall, a doorway of sorts. She walked to it, calling on her crystal staff once more to lean on it heavily as she limped over to it. She was in the very heart of Barad-dur, deep into the fortress, the heart of which was sealed off, a place where, before her, no one had walked for a long, long time, and thus there was much dust, dust that rose with each footstep and clouded the air, choking her lungs. She was forced to call on a bit of her power to blow away the dust before her. It was draining, but at least now she could breathe.
It was eerie, how she knew her way. She frowned. She didn't like not knowing where her information came from. She closed her eyes, tried to trace it…
She smiled as she discovered what was/had happened. Part of her mother, part of her grandmother had been installed into the Moongold Locket. Those parts remained even unto when the Locket had been split, into the smaller Locket and the Ring. Now that knowledge lifted itself up out of the bit of Queen Selenity's memory within the Locket, and settled down into Serenity's mind, so that the white-haired woman knew exactly where everything was. This was, after all, where she had been born, where she had spent her first year of life. Baraduil, now Barad-dur.
For all she, Queen Selenity, had been forced to come here, Serenity sensed that her mother had loved this place, when it had been bright and cheery. Now it was dark and drab, the wall hangings burned away, the floor covered in slimy gunk, blood, bones, filthy threshes. It would have broken the Moon Queen's heart to see her beloved summer palace like this…
Serenity longed to call upon that old illusion spell, that spell that had been among the first Luna had taught her. But her power was low…
Suddenly anger rose up in her heart. How dare he! How dare he kidnap her, how dare he make her weak, how dare he rob her of what little time she had left with the man- er, elf she loved! How dare he! How dare he be responsible for denying her the ability to see the things, the place her mother had loved as it was meant to be seen…
"How dare you…" Serenity hissed, her fist clenched at her side… Her grip on her staff became, despite her weakness, precariously tight…
"How dare you…" Unbeknownst to her, silver light had begun to seep out from underneath her closed eyelids, so brightly were her eyes flashing… Her grip on her staff tightened… Blood dripped from her hand from the gouges her fingernails had made in her palm…
The staff shattered from the force of her grip, and the shards were born on a fierce whirlwind all around her as a wild flush of magic left her body, filling the entire level of the fortress with the silvery golden glow…
A star- no, a golden burst of power the equivalent of a dozen supernovas filled the fortress, engulfing the Eye of Sauron, at the very peek of his own castle, with the pure light. He roared in pain that the purity brought him, and throughout the land his minions hissed in pain as he transferred his agony to them to lessen the damage to himself. It did no good, and he roared in rage as he sensed that his daughter was no longer weak…
The light faded, but the star of purity on the map of life remained.
When she opened her eyes, Serenity smiled. Her eyes were completely silver, flecked with gold. She looked older, somehow. Serenity grinned.
Celenithil had awoken.
She'd done it! She'd transformed!
And, somehow, she felt the affects of her decaying body frozen, paused in time. As long as she didn't detransform, she had all the time in the world.
Smiling with gleefully smug satisfaction, she looked around her, and gasped with delight. The halls were as they had been all those years ago… The stone walls were washed with white paint, gold and yellow and rose pink drapes hung everywhere. The floor was scrubbed clean, a long red velvet carpet running down the corridor. Tapestries depicting goddesses and gods and heroes, along with everyday people and scenic images of both Moon and Earth graced the walls. Sunshine poured in through the slits of windows.
Celenithil took her time, exploring the place of her birth. She found the ballroom, where the reception of her parent's wedding had been held. She found the wedding chamber, where she had been conceived. She found the kitchens, found a window that looked out to where the stables had once been. She found the library, and ran her fingers over the books on the tables, the ones that had never been put away for the Queen had loved those books so.
She found the art room, a painting only half finished, a painting of a rosy-cheeked, golden haired babe on a bed of rose petals with sunlight caressing her face. It was a painting of herself, when she'd been not even a year old. There, beside the painting, was a bassinette filled with dried rose petals. It was where she had laid, sleeping, while her mother had worked on the painting.
Celenithil found the room that was to be her room, when she became of age. She saw the bolts of satins and silks on the bed, the folded comforter and the embroidery waiting to be sewn into the drapes and bedspread, all there and waiting for her to grow up and tell them what she wanted her room to look like.
She found the treasury, filled with mountains of gold and jewels. This was probably the one thing that wasn't a memory-illusion, these mounds of riches. Celenithil didn't care for any of it, and left before she'd barely glanced at it all.
The room she found next was the one that made the Lunarian warrior shut her eyes with suppressed pain. She forced them open, forced herself to look at the room where the world's fate had been sealed. Where Sauron had forced the Queen –whom then had been but a Princess- Selenity to give up her mother's locket, the locket that the Ring would be forged from.
Celenithil touched the smaller locket at her throat. She'd never bothered to wonder why her father had spared some of the Moongold to make a locket; she'd always known why, so she'd never bothered to ponder it. A Lunarian was a powerful being. To control one, and an object made of Moongold were the traits of a powerful being indeed. Evil, vile, but powerful. What his plan had been was as obvious to her as the fact that she was no longer mortal, in this form.
As much as it disgusted her, it remained true that Sauron had planned to raise her as his own, guide her in the path of evil, have her become like him. And, eventually, take her as his wife and merge her power with his.
Celenithil banished these thoughts with a shake of her head and turned to looking at the room around her once more.
The room was bright and cheery, full of memories, good and bad. A canopy bed, to the far right, wasn't as large and foreboding as some of the other beds. It was a comfortable size, piled with many cushions, as was the window seat directly in front of Celenithil. To her left was the vanity, back in the corner was the door to an adjoining dressing room, if Celenithil remembered correctly.
She went to the vanity, running her fingers over the silver mirror an comb and brush… Her mother had sat there…brushing her hair…so many times…
Weariness overcame the warrior, then; her forceful transformation had demanded a toll of her body, for all she was no longer in danger of dying, and that price had come to call. Knowing that her senses would alert her should any evil approach, she went to the bed, and laid down on it.
She smelled a scent, and some part of her somehow recognized that it was her mother's. Whether it was a memory or instinctual didn't matter; she cried to smell it once again, nonetheless. And she let the tears flow, even though she knew Sauron was watching. If he thought he could use these particular tears against her, she was wrong. To taunt her about her mother would only give her strength, because her mother was part of the reason she hated him so much, she, who everyone thought was incapable of hating.
So let him mock her. His time would come. She would make it so. And Serenity always kept her promises.
Always.
And so she slept, letting the tears slid off her flawless face as she dreamed of a time when her promises didn't carry the weight of the world.
They were resting, before making another teleportation jump –transporting eight people at once with only four Senshi was taxing, and only their new, advanced forms allowed them to do it at all- when Frodo discovered it. Panic gripped him, until, just like the other unnatural things the Ring tended to grant its bearers, he knew it was safe. Not in Sauron's hands, but safe. How he knew this, he didn't want to think about. He supposed it could be some trick of the Ring to keep him from seeking it, but somehow he knew it wasn't…
While Frodo was wondering when he should tell them, how he could tell them, and should he even tell them at all when a voice spoke up from the person beside him.
"She'll be dead by the time we get there."
It was Uranus who spoke, with a tone that made Frodo's throat tighten, his heart grow heavy with sorrow for the golden haired goddess...
Across from him, Saturn gripped her Glaive, holding back tears. Never had she heard the woman speak like this, her voice…not hardly even a human voice anymore.
They all knew it. Even if they managed to make it to Mordor, by way of these stop-and-go-then-rest-and-go-again jumps before Sauron had his way with their Princess, they had only a day, two at most, before Serena's body would begin to deteriorate.
"How could we have let this happen?" Mercury whispered.
"We were supposed to be safe in your woods!" Mars snarled at Legolas, who only glared. The act was startling. None of the Senshi had ever seen him glare at anyone before. The act was unsettling in its intensity.
"Until you can think rationally, without your grief and fear for your princess getting in the way, keep your tongue behind your teeth," Aragorn advised. "We are all disheartened. Let that not divide us."
"At least she did not yet hold the Ring," Gimli said. "Then Sauron would have it within his grasp."
Frodo swallowed.
"I'm not so sure she doesn't have it," he said at last, bringing himself to speak. All eyes turned to him. Looking at no one, he pulled the chain out from under his shirt.
The Ring was gone.
Mercury walked up to Frodo, flipped out her Mercury data computer, and scanned the chain. From the residue signals that the little computer found, the navy blue eyed girl felt her face drain of any color.
"It was a transportation spell of some sort," she said softly, her throat tight. "The magic that did the deed was similar to Serenity's, only…" she swallowed. "Only much, much more powerful."
"But…there is no one stronger than Serenity, not when she is at her full strength," Mars pointed out. Mercury's eyes went dark.
"There is now," she said. "And whoever he is, he has the Ring."
There was silence for a moment.
"Then let us hope he is not a friend of Sauron's," Boromir finally broke the silence.
"And if he is, then all the more we should hasten to Mordor!" Gimli roared, and snatched two of the girls' hands and linked them together, then grabbed Saturn's hand. "Let's go already!"
A circle was formed, lights flashed, and the Senshi, along with Frodo, Sam, Boromir, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas, disappeared.
When Celenithil awoke, she knew the illusion had vanished. She sat up, and saw the room as it truly looked; dark, drab, gray. The cushions were torn and stained, strewn about and chewed through by all manner of nasty vermin. The silk of the canopy bed blew in a light breeze that was bitterly cold through the open window. The mirror over the vanity was cracked, shattered, and the reflective shards that remained were covered in dust. The hand mirror was on the floor, the handle broken off, so violently had it been thrown.
She saddened, but the feeling was soon forgotten when she felt it.
She turned, a slight, wry grin on her face as she came about to see Sauron himself. But no longer in the shape of that ever all seeing eye wreathed in flame and shadows. No, instead, a man stood there. He was wispy, transparent, but a man nonetheless. Suddenly, Serenity realized she was looking at the face of her father. The face of the man that had murdered her grandmother in order to infuse her power in the molten lava, allowing him access to a lower level of he power, through the lava. The face of the man that had created the Orcs. The face of the man that taken from her mother the golden locket. The face of the man that had taken that locket and melted it, and from that molten Moongold had created The One Ring and the Golden Locket that was now over Celenithil's heart.
"Father." Her voice was beyond the voice of the woman that defied Sauron when the vile being had tried to take her in her dreams. It was the voice of a Queen who knew her power.
"Beloved daughter of mine," Sauron's smile was as charming as ever, Celenithil remembered from her mother's memories. His eyes…don't look directly at his eyes, she vaguely felt the tidbit of Selenity deep inside her mind warn her. It was how he had forced her to marry him without complaint, forced her to love him, forced her to obey him, forced him to give up the Locket.
"I see my token of affection for you found its way to you after all," his voice was pleasant. As much an illusion as that body was, as the whole, unbroken hand mirror had been, Celenithil knew.
"Who are you?" Celenithil asked. Sauron raised an eyebrow.
"You know very good and well who I am, daughter," he said placidly as he walked towards her, smiling with all the grace of the world.
"You know what I mean. You are not human, you are not maiar, you are beyond evil, yet you understand things of goodness. What are you?"
"I'm your father."
"That is no answer," Celenithil replied. This was going nowhere…
"I'd forgotten what this room looked like," he said casually before she could continue her inquiry. "Looks a mite smaller than I remember…" He glanced at the bed and smiled. "You slept there," he said, jerking his head to the bed. "Your mother refused to put you in a nursery, in the care of other maids. You two were never apart. She would never even let me hold you out of her sight. She was so proud of you."
Celenithil's fists tightened. Stop it! She wanted to yell. You never knew my mother! At all! How dare you speak of her!
"Despite what many believe," he said, leaning against one of the four posts of the canopy bed. "I did have a bit of a soft spot for your mother. She was beautiful, and so trusting, yet at the same time so very fiery…all that fire hidden within such a gentle demeanor. I had hoped…" He shrugged. "But no. Her mother, your grandmother, had taught her too well, had too much influence on her even after death." He smiled, and suddenly Celenithil could see every ounce of evil he possessed in that smile…
And it made her tremble.
"But you," he said. "You I have hope for. You come from a hopeless future. A future where one is more likely to ignore an old lady crossing a road than help her. Where disease and hatred and thieving run rapid. You know the taste of greed and pain. Of hunger and sickness and mortal cruelty."
Celenithil said nothing, and his smile faltered slightly as he felt no change in her soul, no twinge of curiosity, no inkling of doubt in herself. Then he realized that this was because he couldn't feel her soul at all. For the first time, the being behind that 'all seeing eye wreathed in flame' discovered something he could not see, something he could not peer into. His own daughter's soul was beyond his sight. This would be difficult, he realized.
(A/N: For the following conversation about to take place, I again I ask you all to please remember, this is an alternate universe fic, so I will be twisting things the way I like them. If I were to keep this pin-straight in line with Tolkein, this really wouldn't be my story, now would it? Not to mention not as interesting, since you would be able to predict every event. -Makura)
"Let me tell you something," he said, pushing away from the post. "My father was an Istari. A maiar, like your friend Gandalf. He ascended to the White with astonishing speed. But it wasn't enough. He wanted more. He was told there was nothing more. He refused to believe this, and kept looking for a way to gain even more power, convinced that there was a level beyond the White. That was when Chaos came to him."
"Chaos." Celenithil repeated. Her blood ran cold. God, no… She breathed in her mind.
"Yes, Chaos. I never saw him, but my father, whenever he came back from meeting with him was shaken. So I know this being must be of some impressiveness, for my father was not someone to be easily shaken. You could send all the armies of the world against him if you wanted and he would only laugh in your face. So, as I've said, I knew this Chaos to be quite…impressive, to say the least. You've seen him, I gather?"
"I defeated him." Celenithil stated plainly. "He came to destroy me, for his fear of my growing power, and I defeated him."
This Sauron was not expecting. Even he could not see into the future with much accuracy. Suddenly he had another grain of salt to add to the pile of grains of worry building up. But that worry died down soon enough. He was far more powerful than his father could have ever hoped to have been. And he had the advantage of knowing the woman that stood before him. She was the mirror image of her mother...
He forgot to look in her eyes.
"Come," he said, holding out his hand. "I want to show you something." Celenithil walked right past him, pausing at the door to step aside slightly.
"Then lead the way," she said placidly. She was shaking inside… But her voice was eerily…emotionless. Yet at the same time it seemed to hold every emotion there was. It was in that voice that Sauron glimpsed what he was truly up against. He strode past her, leading the way through the maze of corridors and staircases, climbing upwards and upwards.
They said nothing the entire way, but Celenithil knew where they were going.
When at last they emerged into open air, and Celenithil was barely able to withhold a gasp. Inside herself, she trembled at what she saw. But outwardly, Celenithil stood tall, narrowing her eyes at the huge creature made entirely of flame and shadow, suspended between two pikes arching up from the very, very top of the tower. Like the eye of a needle, with the top half of the eye sheared off.
Celenithil's lips quirked as she connected the dots for a somewhat amusing synopsis; Sauron's eye, by something resembling the bottom half of the eye of the needle. Needle, tower. Laughingly coordinated. A single speck of laughingly pitiful amusement admists all this potent evil…
Celenithil realized that Sauron's ghost of a man-form was gone. The eye tilted, staring straight down at her. Celenithil's knees wobbled. Firming her resolve, she squared her shoulders, locked her knees, clenched her fists, and glared up at him with all her might. She, like Frodo, had felt what it was like to have that eye not only on you but on your soul as well. Yet Celenithil felt nothing. As she realized, suddenly that Sauron could not peer into the depths of her soul as he had been able to when she had been Serena or Serenity, she smiled up at him, a smile that was mocking in its sincerity.
Filled with new confidence at this discovery, she turned, and surveyed the tortured land. Her throat constricted at the sight. How her mother would have wept if she had seen this… She had loved his land…and its people…
Fires erupted everywhere. There were no trees, only stone and ash and bogs and marshes. She saw the great marsh lake, and with an inner eyesight, saw the thousands that lay, preserved, beneath the toxic water. Elves and men. She, unlike Sauron, felt the tiniest spark of light within those bodies. Not strong enough to ever be revived, at least not anytime soon, but alive their souls were.
In the far distance, Celenithil spied a glowing mass of evil and fire and smoke and storms swirling around a tower that rivaled Barad-dur.
Isengarde.
She closed her eyes, and reached out… She smiled. She felt Saruman there. She also felt Gandalf. They had a score to settle; she would not interfere.
"I fail to see what purpose you showing me this has, father," Celenithil told the great eye, not looking at him, but her statement was directed at him even without the address, and he knew it.
"If you show me this to try and show me your might, you only succeed in showing me your weakness." She turned, without explaining what she meant, and went back down the stairs. She felt oddly…at peace with all of this. Somehow, someway, she knew everything would be all ri-
Pain, fire, molten lava, shadows, evil, agony, agony, agony… It surrounded her, originating from a whip of fire and shadow that lashed around her ankle and yanked and flung-
And sent her flying, falling over the side of the tower. Down she plummeted as the whip released her to fall to her doom…
With a cry of utter rage and power, wings flared into existence on Celenithil's back. Wings that at first glance appeared to be faerie wings, then angel wings, confusing the eyes as to which one they were. But no matter; they did their job.
"Bad move, father," Celenithil snarled. Gone was the gentle Princess, gone was the sweet Serena, leaving behind the outraged Warrior.
A sword made entirely of crystal and silver and stone appeared in her hand- the Moon Sword, only now with vines of crystal wrapped around the hilt and around the blade just under the hilt.
With the barest of pushes against the air, Celenithil soared upwards. The Eye followed her, and she felt his glee at the fact that the battle had finally begun.
Celenithil grinned ferally. Let him be gleeful. It was the last emotion other than pain and despair he would ever feel…
With a cry, Celenithil exploded into an array of light with all the power and majesty of the cosmos. Her sword held aloft, the Locket opened, the Silver Crystal formed over her heart, Celenithil merged with the power, became the power, the power that was still growing, growing, mounting, mounting, doubling, doubling…
Sauron withered in agony at the purity of the light that nipped at the edges of his shadow and fiery form. He retaliated, a flurry of wild dark power swirling around him, flushing outwards with a massive explosion that swept across the entire land of Mordor. Every grain of dirt and sand in Middle-Earth felt his might and rage and trembled, while every star and planet and nebulae in the danced around Celenithil's power and purity, singing to her, cheering her on…
Sides had been chosen, and the Battle had begun.
To Be Continued…
First off… Aaaaaai!!! BIG thanks to Kousagi Celen!!!! *hugglez* *tears* I haven't gotten such a sweet review in a long time… *bawls* Thank you!!!!
Next… Whoa… Ok, peoples, I am SO glad I decided to rewrite this chapter…it turned out SO much better than the first time I wrote it… Well, I hope this chapter was as exhilarating for all of you as it was for me. This is the chapter leading up to the climatic ending, after all, so it needs to be smashing.
I was originally planning on having the Companionship that went to save Serenity just ride full out for Mordor, but after seeing TTT (*drools* Legolas….*drools more*) I thought better of it. It would make more sense for them to just teleport, in my mind. Also, I get the impression that the distance between Mirkwood and Barad-dur (--- finally figured out how to spell it!!! Pip pip for me! ^^) is a bit too far to ride within the space of a day, even full out.
Also, several people have asked about a sequel. I'm still debating with myself on that. Don't hold your breath, but there is a possibility.
Okies, now for the….
Announcements:
I MADE MY GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*points up to 'chapter sixteen' and then to number of reviews* *beams* 650!!! *does backflips* WAHOOOOOOOOIEEEE!!!!!! I'm sooooo happy!!!!!!! *tears in eyes* *sniffles* I feel so loved… And not a single flame! Well, not really. Only one that I would count as a flame but I don't count it because it had some valid points, rather than just 'THIS STORY STINKS' get my drift? ^^ But that's off subject…
The wonderful and talented Chrissy, the first person to respond to my plea for artists, has completed and sent to me a wonderful image of Celenithil. I have taken the liberty of setting up a website to host The Will of the Ring and my other fanfiction and SM/LotR crossovers (of which I assure you there will be many) and any future art. The address is: http://www.geocities.com/makura_koneko/
Please, everyone, be forewarned that the website is far from finished. But do enjoy what I have up so far!
Also, after I post the Epilogue, I will post a temporary chapter containing three summaries of the three stories I am considering writing next. You will all get to vote on my next SM/LotR crossover. So watch for it!
Until next time, ja ne!
Hope Makes the Universe Shine,
Makura Koneko
*ALL STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY*
