Sands of Time
By Lily Martin
Rated R
Category: Romance/Adventure/Supernatural/and a bunch of other things…oh music too
Spoilers: Buffy--the episode before the last one; Lord of the Rings--everything's cannon, but it starts in the Fellowship of the Ring when they're on the watch tower and the Ringwraiths come. For Lord of the Rings, I'm working solely off the movie now, the book has lost my interest, I've moved on.
Summary: Buffy is summoned to Middle-Earth by Gandalf, by some fluke the rest of the Scooby Gang transported also. Then the third slayer Madeline Naur comes after them with Giles, now all we're missing is Faith...wait...nope...she'll be there too...all there just in time to join the Fellowship. Throw in a prophecy and a really messed up plot...
Disclaimer: When I awoke all memory of the night before was gone, as was everything I'd won that night, 'cept my computer was still mine…so I no longer owned all those really cool things I wanted to own, I think I'll go lie down again. The End
Pairings: Arwen/Aragorn in the beginning, Buffy/Aragorn later on, Faith/Boromir while he's alive, Dawn/Frodo very subtle more of a friendship than a pairing, it's definitely going to be Legolas/Mady (my character) that's the only way the future I have for this story will work out, but not right away that would be too easy.
A/N: I want to apologize for it taking a really long time for this to come out, and it will be a long time before the next one comes out, I had Christmas, then finals, SSATs and a boarding school interview, and so many other things, it might be well into March before the next one comes.
I was just rereading what I've written so far, and I found something out that might mess with the idea I had going, that thing about Tári flying back in chapter 5, I'm changing that, I've gone back and revised that, I'll be going over old chapters as much as I can to fix things, so yea, you might want to read things over again 1) to remember what's going on between my ever infrequent updates and 2) I'm fixing up a few things, so it might help. Lol. Please reread chapter 5 and probably the others too, but mostly chapter 5.
A/N#?: I know, I know, it's just, I want to put in a warning, I kind of go away from the time line a bit, mostly they'll stay in Rivendell till December 25 (Middle Earth dates) then they leave, cause I do know that that was the date they left in the book, but other than that, things like the group that went out on the quest, I think they left like two days after the council, but I'm not sure and it's late and I'm too lazy to go find out where I hid my books while I was cleaning, so please forgive me those small timeline faults, they will of course still leave at night, so hopefully I'm keeping up well.
Feedback: wait, can't forget this, thanks Catlimere for reviewing when no one else has, I posted "Alone," but you already know that 'cause you left a review for it (which I also thank you for, lol), the next part for that'll be a while.
Glancing at Buffy, Spike quickly looked away, "I'm sorry Buffy, but I can't do this anymore. We've all had our big fight; we shouldn't have to do it again and again. Anyways, I need a cigarette, been all out for a while now."
"It's alright, Spike," Buffy told him simply. "I understand, same thing I was saying when I got to Sunnydale, 'cept you've got a choice."
"And so it is, thirteen—" Elrond started.
"Isn't thirteen supposed to be bad luck?" Dawn interrupted.
"Faith's on her way," Tári told her, "Though I've always found thirteen to be a nice number, kind of random."
Elrond glared at the two slightly, and they both quieted instantly.
"And so it is, thirteen going to Mordor, you shall be the Fellowship of the Ring," Elrond declared.
Chapter 14: Goodbyes
"What? You're just gonna leave me here all by my lonesome?" Faith asked jokingly, appearing in the entrance way of the terrace that the council had been held on.
"Faith," Buffy nodded once in greeting, her feelings towards the other slayer hadn't been the best since Faith disappeared right after the First without another word.
"Hey, B, long time no see, sorry I skipped out of town so fast, kinda had a job to do for elf girl there," Faith grinned, pointing towards Tári.
"And you've done a fine job," Tári said airily, smiling lightly.
"Not that hard when there isn't much to do, you didn't tell me they were almost all gone," Faith rolled her eyes.
"Something I did not anticipate, but all is as it should be no matter," Tári answered very elf like.
"You are Faith?" Elrond asked, raising an eyebrow.
"In the flesh," Faith nodded, holding back any other comments she could have made. "I'm here to join up and do what I can to help, you got a nice world here, it'd be a shame to see something happen to it, especially since it's supposedly the past of the world I'm from."
"Faith," Tári said warningly.
"Oh yeah, this is your, isn't it?" Faith said, holding up Tári's amulet, before tossing it to her.
"Thank you," Tári nodded, catching the amulet with ease, smiling contentedly once it was sitting comfortably around her neck.
"I know this is not my place, I'm so obviously no where near that place, but I'd like to say that having me along could be a big help. You've already got B.—Buffy and Tári. The three of us were unstoppable together in our battle with the First," Faith said to Elrond, attempting to carefully plead her case, the knowledge of Middle Earth and its species' ways still in her head from Tári's amulet.
"Well then, we mustn't break up such a trio," Elrond said in his noblest of ways, remember what he'd heard of their battle with the First Evil. "Then so it shall be, fourteen going to Mordor, the fellowship of the ring."
The next few days went by in a blur, everything was happening so fast. Aragorn, the twins, and several others went out again two days after the council to find the four Nazgul that hadn't been washed away. On the third day, Gandalf opened the portal for Giles, Anya, Xander, and Spike to go home through. The goodbyes were long and tearful, laced heavily with promises to see one another soon between the three original Scoobies, the little sister, the girlfriend, the vampire, and the watcher; though none were sure how long it would be till they were all together again.
"How're you holding up?" Buffy asked Willow, joining her on a balcony later in the evening after the portal had been closed.
"Alright, it's just strange," Willow said simply, looking out over Rivendell.
"Yeah," Buffy agreed. "It already feels like we're missing a big part of us."
"I mean, it's weird, no Xander this time, we've always had Xander," Willow continued as though Buffy hadn't said a thing.
"Yeah, we have," Buffy nodded. "It'll be strange, but we'll make it. We'll do this, and then we'll go home and be there to stop the next big bad."
"Can barely wait," Willow laughed, though her laugh was tense and filled with emotion, not all of them happy.
"Mind if I join you guys?" Faith asked from a nearby doorway.
"Since when did you start being all Miss Polite?" Buffy asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Since I lived almost two years with a dragon that liked to burn me when I wasn't nice," Faith shook her head, joining the other slayer and the witch at the railing.
They shared a laugh, though soon settled into silence, thankfully a comfortable silence, nothing as tense and uncomfortable as when they were in the high school library years before with Giles going on about something.
"I've missed this," Tári said softly, looking out on Imladris from another balcony than the three women.
"So have I," Glorfindel told her, stepping up behind her.
Slowly he moved her pale hair and kissed her gently on the nape of her neck. She giggled lightly as he continued planting soft kisses on the back of her neck. Quickly, she turned around and met his lips with her own. His tongue traced the seam between hers and she parted them allowing him to explore her mouth. One of his hands found it's way to the small of her back, while the other rested on the back of her head, slipping through her hair. She wrapped her arms around her neck and pulled him closer.
"We have time before dinner," she told him breathlessly, when they finally parted.
"No we don't," he laughed gently, his hands moving to her cheeks as she let her arms come down.
"We can make time," she grinned, and he kissed her forehead chastely. After kissing him quickly on the lips, she added, "It has been fifty years, I've missed you."
"And I you, but we must be at dinner," he smiled, taking one of her hands in both of his and planting a soft kiss on her palm.
"And that was how we got away from the trolls," Bilbo said finishing the story he'd been telling Dawn and the four other hobbits in Imladris.
"I love that story," Dawn grinned, still laughing some.
"Now young Miss, it's about time you told us one of your stories," Bilbo said, wanting to hear more about this other world.
"Alright," Dawn agreed, wrinkling her nose for a second while she thought of a story to tell them. "Um, there was this one time; everyone in Sunnydale had their voices stolen."
"Voices stolen?" Pippin asked in disbelief.
"I don't think Pippin would last a day without his voice," Merry put in.
Dawn had a good laugh before she continued, "Everyone's voices were stolen by these guys, the Gentlemen, they were really tall, their skin was grey white, and they didn't have any hair, they looked like dead bodies, walking around at night. They came to steal hearts, seven hearts, and they'd already gotten four by the time we found out where they were."
She held their attention pretty well with the story about the Gentlemen for a good ten minutes before the sound of hobbit bellies rumbling decided it was time for them to go to dinner.
"Hey, Buffy, tell them about when you and Riley fought the Gentlemen," Dawn told Buffy at dinner, having had a hard time telling that part to the hobbits.
"Oh, no, not while we're eating," Buffy said, shaking her head.
"Oh, come on, I haven't heard that one," Faith grinned.
"It's filled with bloody hearts," Tári said as though that was the whole story.
"You never really did tell us much about the fight, Buffy," Willow commented, urging her to tell the story.
"Not while we're eating," Buffy said again, though bursting out laughing half way through.
"Please, they really want to hear it," Dawn whined.
"After dinner," Buffy finally agreed.
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A/N: Yea, that was short, I know, but I haven't really had that much time to do any writing. Also, last night when I started working on this chapter, I deleted the first few pages I had originally done for it 'cause they killed what tiny bit of inspiration I've got. I'm gonna try to get another chapter out as soon as possible, but don't anyone hold their breath on how fast that'll be, I've got a lot going on with my real life. ^_^