And here is the next chapter.......if you're curious, i don't think i plan on more than 25 chapters; somewhere between 20 and 25, probably. We're getting there!!!

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Chapter sixteen

"At the time, I thought it was the best day of my life," Raymond explained. "I had finally completed my life's work; no one thought I could do it. I had proved them all wrong!! I couldn't wait to see the look on your grandfather's face when he saw my baby in action; that's what I called it, my baby. The space/time distorter was like a child of mine; I had prayed for it, hoped for it, wished for it, studied and experimented day in and day out.

I was ready to try her out. Jordan insisted on setting the dial himself; he wouldn't tell me where we were going. It would be a "surprise", he said. How I let him talk me into-"

For a moment he seemed to struggle with continuing. Jenny gingerly placed her hand on his as tears began to form in the old man's crinkled eyes. He took a breath and firmly went on with his story.

"We arrived here, and, at first, i didn't know where we were. Unless you travel around, it looks exactly like earth. Jordan was delighted. He insisted that we set up a "hideout" here, just for the two of us.

We began to bring things in.....guns, weapons; he said we could hunt game with them. Before I knew it, the place was huge. After a few years, he brought my laboratory here so that I would have a "quiet place to work". It was wonderful...until he brought in the orcs. One day he came in with about fifty of them, which he had scared into following him with his gun. They just couldn't fight our technology. Soon he had them loyally working for him. The place grew huge.

He hid my baby somewhere deep in the heart of his camp; I couldn't find it. Finally, he banished me out here to my laboratory to work. He told me that he needed my help in new chemical technologies. It took me awhile, but I finally saw that he intended to live out here indefinitely. This is my life now." He gestured to the little room.

Jenny flushed with anger. "All that time he was planning on leaving you out here, all by yourself?! Why I ever associated myself with that slug, I-"

"No, no, no! I don't think he always intended so. At one time, I think he honestly wanted it to be a father-son getaway. The lust of the Ring does terrible things to people. Why, look what it did to Saruman! At one time I'm sure he was truely the best and wisest of his order."

"But how could the Ring have affected Jordan? He's never even SEEN it!" Jenny protested.

"Niether has Saruman," Raymond reminded her.

Jenny stopped. He had a point. "So....what did this all have to do with me?" she asked.

Raymond sighed and smiled sadly. "Jordan has always been taken with you, Jenny. I think his biggest temptation with the Ring was to use it in order to win your love. That was how it started; but it has snowballed. Desiring it for that one reason, no matter how innocent his intentions, has brought him to the point where he will do anything to attain it. He probably still thinks that you are his sole purpose for doing all that he is doing; but the Ring is deceptive, and the lust for power blinds."

"So what does he want?" Jenny sighed.

"You know the answer to that, Jenny. To overthrow the wizards; he wants world-domination; and if he attains the Ring, with the technology he's brought and his armies, he may very well get what he wants."

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