Note from Nikki

Thanks to everyone who has stuck with this story. I really feel like it has gone downhill since my dad's accident. I am just having a really hard time getting everything I wanted accomplished. sigh But thanks to everyone! I hope this chapter is okay!

Nikki

Reveiwer Notes

Aragorn Elessar: You know, I have only seen the extended version of the Fellowship of the Ring? Isn't that completely INSANE? I need to see the other ones too. I'll end up buying them sometime. . .

Princess Snake: Heya! It's great to hear from you again! I'm glad you like all the chapters you've missed so far! Thanks so much for reading!

LoverofLegolas: Yah. . .poor Dan. I couldn't help it! Something bad had to happen somewhere! Hehe!

Vorserkeien: Yeah, people didn't get to know Hanalee as well, so it was easier to kill her. Thanks for the review hun!

Ldssunshinegirl: I really love your reviews! It was so fun to read. WOW. . .you have a BIG family, don't you? That's pretty cool! Thanks so much for your reviews!

Joy4Eva: Hehe, yup, at least I didn't kill Dan. Thanks for the review!

Crecy: LMAO! Yup, it was all fake. Damnit, you caught me. And I'm sure Boromir was very mad that they pushed him over a waterfall. What a rude thing to do! Hehe, thanks for reviewing! hugz

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Aurora pulled on the reins of her horse, staring in awe at the black gates before her. They were enormous, unlike anything she had ever seen in her entire life. And on the other side of these gates, just visible over the top, Aurora caught a very definite glance of Mt. Doom. Was Frodo there yet? What was he doing now?

And next to this volcano was a great, black tower. Aurora could see the Eye of Sauron, darting about from his perch. She couldn't even begin to understand how an Eye could be so deadly and how this Eye could make her feel so terrified. Perhaps it was because a great, evil eye was a joke on earth. Something made up in a story, which, Aurora reminded herself, this was.

"Where are they?" Pippin whispered to Aurora's left. He was on foot and was trying to crane his neck in different positions, hoping to see something other than enormous black gates.

Aragorn glanced at him before spurring his horse forward. Aurora, Scott, Gandalf, Legolas, Éomer and Aragorn's herald followed in his wake, not sure where they were going but deciding that it was the best way to go nevertheless.

"Let the Lord of the Black Land come forth," Aragorn called. "Let justice be done upon him."

Aurora waited in baited breath. Before, she would have questioned Aragorn's sanity. Who in their right mind would walk up to the Black Gates of Mordor and call out for a battle? But Aurora had learned, not so long ago, that Aragorn was a man to be trusted. He was intelligent and even though he put his life in danger on a daily basis, he knew perfectly well what he was doing.

Suddenly, the Black Gate began to creak open. The grating of the heavy gate boomed across the ground and Aurora's horse began to shiver beneath her. She exchanged dark looks with Scott before retreating back, hearing Aragorn's orders, and leaping off her horse.

Uncountable numbers of Orcs began marching their way toward them. Aurora was too stunned to move. There had to be millions! Tens of millions! With a feeble glance behind her she knew that the army of man was weak compared to that of the monsters.

"Oh shit," Scott whispered.

"This doesn't look so good," Aurora choked.

"We're too outnumbered! This is impossible Aragorn!"

"We did not march this way to gain a victory," Aragorn stated.

"Do ya mind telling me why we're here then?"

Aragorn sighed. "I told you already. To take Sauron's Eye away from Frodo and the Ring."

"Oh," Aurora said faintly, watching as the Orcs began fanning out into a large circle around their pitiful one.

Glancing around, the couple could see that they weren't the only ones who appeared unsettled. Soldiers everywhere seemed to lose their courage and were beginning to lean unnaturally back. It was almost as if they wanted to run but their sense of duty was holding sway over them. Just barely.

"Hold your ground! Hold your ground!" Aragorn shouted. He had apparently seen their faces as well.

Every man, or nearly every man, stared at Aragorn with fear and uncertainty. Aragorn rode back and forth in front of their lines, his hair swaying in the wind. He was trying to bring up their courage, trying to make them understand that now was no time to show cowardice.

"Sons of Gondor! Of Rohan!" he said, "My brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!"

The men everywhere drew out their swords, Scott and Aurora included. They were ready to fight. Ready to make a stand.

Aurora felt something that she had never felt before overwhelm her. Pride. She felt pride in herself. She recognized, at this moment, that she was doing something worthwhile. She was fighting for something that she truly believed in. And she was willing to die for the cause.

Back home, she had been a frightened, depressed, and alone teenager. Here she was a brave, powerful, and fury driven woman. She had changed and she loved the person that she had become. Opportunities like this didn't happen back home so much. And even though Aurora might die on the very ground she stood on, she was proud.

"Never thought I'd die fighting side by side with an elf," Gimli said gruffly.

"What about side by side with a friend?" Legolas replied, smiling.

"Aye, I could do that."

Aurora took a deep breath and turned to Scott but she didn't even utter a sound before his fingers were on her lips.

"Not this time," he said. "No goodbyes this time."

"We may never get the chance," Aurora replied, gazing softly into his eyes.

"We will," Scott said firmly. "It isn't over yet and it never will be. I can't say goodbye to you one more time and I can't hear you say it to me again either."

"Will an 'I love you' work?" Aurora whispered.

Scott nodded, then leaned down and kissed her deeply. "Don't leave my side."

Aurora shook her head, smiling faintly. "I wouldn't dream of it."

Reluctantly the couple withdrew their gazes and looked around them. They were completely surrounded by Orcs. They were all growling menacingly but aside from that, the battlefield was completely silent.

Aurora turned to look at Aragorn and was surprised to see on odd look on his face. He was gazing into the Eye of Sauron and appeared to be entirely lost in thought. She thought that she must have dreamed it a moment later because Aragorn turned to look at his friends with a very determined look lighting up his features.

"For Frodo…" he whispered.

He suddenly charged forward, heading straight into the mass of Orcs. With a wild cry, Merry and Pippin took step right behind him. Aurora and Scott looked at each other, smiled fleetingly, and charged.

"ARRRRGH!" Aurora cried, lopping the head off the first Orc that came within her sight.

And then it was war like she had never experienced it before. There was a certain thrill in being the ones to attack, a certain thrill in ducking and dodging and killing.

For that was all she did. She stabbed forward and then spun around to kill the Orc who came behind her. Then it was to the sides. She was really moving in a circle, spinning on her heel and slashing as many Orcs as she could.

Scott was in a similar situation, too intent on stabbing, withdrawing, and stabbing again to notice that he had gotten separated from Aurora. Orcs were slowly pushing them apart and yet they couldn't care because they had to keep every last effort focused on their duty at hand.

"This," Aurora said, stabbing an Orc in the stomach, "is for your buddy who stabbed me in the arm."

She didn't stop there. She found a certain relief when she blamed every scratch and bruise and hair lost on every Orc she killed. It gave her a type of revenge, a small one sure, but revenge at least.

She stopped however, when she heard an odd screeching above her. Feeling her heart sink, she looked to the sky to see a Naz gul flying above her.

"OH MY GOD!" she yelled.

Aurora had never seen one before because she had arrived in Rivendell after the Naz Gul's had been banished. She knew what they were because she had read about them in the Lord of the Rings books and had heard about them from Frodo himself.

They were even worse in real life than they were through hearing about them or reading about them. Aurora didn't have much time to look skyward as she was nearly killed with a sword across her throat. An Orc had crept up upon her unknowingly and Aurora ducked before the blade could be imbedded too deep.

She choked a little after slaying the Orc and felt for her neck. She was surprised to feel a deep cut with blood spilling out of it. For some reason she couldn't feel anything at all. She coughed and blood poured from her mouth.

Stunned, Aurora fell to her knees and dropped her sword, now struggling to breathe. Her hands flew to her chest in panic and she took deep, frantic breaths. They only caused her to cough more though and before she knew it, she was on her back, gazing into the sky that was starting to blur.

"Aurora!" Scott called. His face swam in and out of her vision and behind him, Aurora suddenly saw something new. Eagles. The eagles had come.

"Aurora!" Scott shouted again. His voice seemed so distant. . .

"Damnit! It's just a cut. Breathe with me! You need your body to get over the shock, that's all!"

Scott began taking deep, steadying breaths, his chest rising and falling. Aurora followed his breathing patterns and soon she felt air rush into her lungs again. It was enough that Scott was able to stand her up and wrap his arms around her waist.

"What's happening?" someone shouted as Scott fought his way through crowds of Orcs, looking for a way out. Aurora swayed in his arms and she was still trying to keep herself in reality, willing her body not to faint in shock.

"Frodo is near Mt. Doom!" another person, Merry, shouted.

Suddenly the ground shook beneath their feet. "SHIT!" Scott yelled to no one in particular.

Everyone paused, the entire battlefield simply froze. Aurora watched from her blurred vision as the volcano suddenly spat a burst of flame into the air. The ground continued to shake and suddenly, with a loud booming noise that entered Aurora's body, the tower of Baradur began to collapse. The Eye of Sauron was beginning to fade, growing dimmer and dimmer until it disappeared all together.

A visible wave of power exploded from the tower and rocks crumbled into billions of tiny pieces.

"We won," Scott whispered, shocked.

Aurora would have screamed for delight but she couldn't breath as it was, much less talk. All their efforts, all their suffering, it had all been a success. They had gotten their victory.

Suddenly the ground beneath their feet began to fade away. Cursing, Scott picked Aurora up and ran as quick as he could, a great hole appearing at his feet. Finally he managed to find solid ground and, not putting Aurora down, turned to see what was happening.

The entire land of Mordor was being swallowed up. All the towers, the Black Gate, and every Orc in sight. And in a sudden burst of explosion, Mt. Doom erupted. Fire flew from its base and lava fell down the mountainside.

Aurora wondered dimly where Frodo was and prayed that he would make it off the mountainside safely. She not only felt pride in herself, but in the brave little hobbit who had done more and experienced more than all of them.

She struggled to see but she thought she saw Gandalf hop onto an Eagle (who were much larger than the ones back home) and fly toward the volcano. Aurora wanted desperately to find out what was going to happen but she felt consciousness slowly begin to ebb away. She smiled faintly as darkness overtook her and she fell into the welcome depth of oblivion. They had won.