A/N: I get the feeling that this chapter is going to be unnaturally long... I own Germaine, the Magetrix, a tattered copy of The Hobbit, Nicole (but she has a mind of her own), and that peach frozen yogurt that she was eating... LotR and all of Middle Earth belongs to Tolkien... and if you haven't figured that out already... well. Oh yeah, and the squiggles and stars are POV changes. you should already know that too.

JUST REVIEW!!!!!!!!! And read the story too... BUT REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!! ~M~

Home Sweet Home

Chapter Two- How May I Direct You?

Germaine picked up her clipboard and hurried to the ingeniously named Extraction Room, to extract that girl she'd seen on G-14. She was late as it was, because she had to look through the manual to find out how you were supposed to go through the process of extracting someone. Apparently it wasn't done very often.

"Hustle people, let's move," she muttered under her breath as she encountered a crowd of various species surrounding a couple of dueling pixies, which was blocking the entire hallway. After practically crawling on hands and knees through the crowd, she straightened up and quickened her pace. She turned down one hallway then down another and another. Only working at Magetrix her whole life would get a person this familiar with the whole place. It was huge, and Germaine was lucky to have been living here from birth.

Finally, she pushed open the door to the Extraction Room, and began work with the officer there.

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Nicole closed the book that she'd been reading for the umpteenth time, a tattered copy of Tolkien's The Hobbit. After her version of dinner, she had changed into her favorite pair of jeans and a 3/4 grey t-shirt. She shivered slightly. Though the heat was fully functional in her house, Nicole was always complaining that it was freezing cold. She replaced the cherished book on the shelf in the study/library and climbed the spiral stairs to the second floor. Her room was right beside the upper portion of the library, since she was the only one of her family that ever actually used it. So it was kind of like an extension to her bedroom. She entered her room and dug through her closet until she found a navy zippered sweatshirt with a hood. She pulled it on and turned to head back to the kitchen for a snack, humming 'May It Be'.

Once she came into the kitchen, she headed straight for the fridge. Finding nothing satisfactory there, she opened the freezer part and found her newest source of nourishment, peach frozen yogurt. She opened the container and dug in with a large spoon.

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Germaine watched through her screen, and noticed that the girl was eating, again. It had only been maybe an hour or two since she'd been notified about the problem. She sighed. If only I had the time to eat...

"You ready?" she asked the guy that was working Extraction today. He nodded in response. Another quiet one... Germaine watched as he pressed a couple of buttons, turned some dials, played with his keyboard, or whatever. In the open space in front of them a swirling vortex appeared. Through it they could see the kitchen and the girl, with her back facing them. The girl suddenly turned around, probably because of the inconveniently loud, yet typical, windy noise that came with the vortex. The girl looked frightened, but curious. Well, at least she isn't screaming. Germaine beckoned to her, and surprisingly, the girl smiled. Actually, the girl looked like a heroine or something, with her hair being whipped around by the vortex, and her stance was kind of victorious. The girl, still smiling a little, touch the edge of the vortex with one hand, and pulled it back. Seeing that it wouldn't burn her alive, she stepped through.

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Nicole stepped through the portal, and came out into an open space in a room filled with lots of whirring machines. She wobbled slightly from the passage. Whoa... that was fun! But now... why am I here? She turned to see a woman with short green hair that curled around her face and skin that was a light lilac color, standing beside a normal guy, brown hair, brown eyes, who looked very monotone. They were leaning over some kind of console.

"Hi!" she said, figuring they might as well start talking. "I'm Nicole. Who are you? And why am I here? Not that I mind, of course. Just that I can't be gone for too long. Or maybe they wouldn't mind. Hmm.... but it really doesn't matter, does it? I bet you guys can make those portals go both ways... So where am I anyways?" She paused, but noticing the looks on their faces, realized that maybe they didn't understand English. Oops.

"Um, salve? No, why would the understand Latin? Bonjour! Nope, not French either," she continued trying out 'hello' in several different languages. Their faces kept the same expression. This made Nicole frustrated. "You people! You bring me here. And I come, mind you! Let's not even consider the fact that Nicole won't understand us! Hey, I know, why don't we just piss her off by looking at her like she's psychotic! Yeah, wouldn't that be fun! And while we're at it--"

"If I could just say something--" the woman interrupted.

"No you may not! I believe I was in the middle of raving, here? Honestly, you people disgust me! ...yeah, I have nothing else to say. Hey wait, you understood me?"

"How could we not? There's only one language in the Magetrix, and everyone, even arrivals, can understand it and speak it. Now to answer your questions--"

"You said it wrong," Nicole interrupted.

"Said what wrong?"

"It's called the Matrix, duh. Anyone and everyone knows that. There is no spoon."

"I don't get it..." the woman replied. Nicole just sighed. "Alrighty then. My name is Germaine. You are here because you were placed wrong and the stupid computer just figured it out like... two hours ago. They whoever they are, will have to deal with you being gone, because we can't send you back to your wrong place. And now... we have to figure out where you belong. Does that answer everything?"

"Uh... yup," Nicole answered. She nodded at the guy. "Doesn't he say anything?"

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Germaine looked at the officer. He stayed silent. "I don't think so. Whatever. Follow me." She turned and walked out of the room, heading for a private office where she could look up the placement quiz. A bit strange, but hey, that's why we're putting her somewhere better. Maybe she'll get fixed.

"Ok, so Germaine," Nicole said. "You would be a... what? Help me out here."

"You mean what species am I?" The girl nodded in affirmation. Germaine laughed. "As if I would know! Probably close to a human, so from G sector. But more than that... no clue. My parents never told me... Actually, I never asked." She shrugged. It really never mattered to her.

They reached a hallway full of computer rooms, and Germaine unlocked an empty one with her pass-card. The room was bland. White walls, grey floor. A table with four chairs and two computers with keyboards set into the table top. She keyed the computers and the screens came up and the key boards slid open. She sat in one chair and Nicole sat in another one, across from her.

"Gimme a second. Got to find the program," Germaine muttered as she accessed the database. She found the program (Quiz For Arrivals) and pulled it up. The two computers were networked, so it was easy for Germaine to transfer the program onto Nicole's screen as well.

"A quiz? What is this, math class?" Nicole asked, dubiously.

"It's a test that helps decide what world you belong on. Don't let the name fool you. It's not a quiz, it has about 200+ questions."

"What world I belong on?"

Germaine sighed. "It's way too much work to explain our whole system to you. Just do the quiz." The girl complied and Germaine sat back in her chair, watching as the answers to the questions appeared on her screen. The minutes passed in silence. About 45 minutes later, the girl finished the quiz and sat back, rubbing her eyes.

"Staring at screens isn't good for your eyes, you know," she said.

"Yeah, well, just a few more minutes. Let the computer decide where your going, and we'll be off again."

"I'm letting a computer decide where I'm gonna live for the rest of my life?" Germaine nodded. "Well that's just swell."

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Nicole practically fell out of her seat when the results popped up on the screen. She stared at Germaine incredulously. She didn't seem at all bothered by the information on her screen.

"Hello? Do you see what's on your screen?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" Germaine responded. "It's just your placement. Why, is your screen messed up?"

"IT SAYS I BELONG IN MIDDLE EARTH!!!!!"

"And that's a problem because?"

"BECAUSE IT'S MIDDLE EARTH!"

"Right. Let's just get going," Germaine said, giving Nicole a weird look. Nicole followed her around again, lost within seconds in the sprawling building. Assuming, of course, that it was a building. Nicole had no idea. She was led into a room similar to the one she had appeared in earlier. Germaine spoke briefly with another worker there, who began inputting information into a console. Germaine turned to her with a cookie.

"Eat," Germaine said, and gave the cookie to Nicole.

"Um, ok. Why?" Nicole asked, suspiciously.

"It's a present," Germaine replied sarcastically.

"Aww! You shouldn't have! I would've given you my frozen yogurt, but I left it back on Earth!" Nicole replied, just as sarcastically.

"It's a cookie because it's a familiar food to you. It'll let you speak the main language in Middle Earth, plus basic knowledge of some other languages there," Germaine replied, minus the sarcasm this time.

"Hmmm, this could be a good thing. So I'd know the common tongue, and what other languages? Or actually, to what extent would I know those other languages?" Nicole asked, suddenly fascinated by the chocolate chip cookie.

"Well, in your quiz you answered that you had some basic French and... Latin, was it? Then, it would be the same for the other, less common dialects in Middle Earth. Now eat," Germaine said firmly.

Nicole ate, as she did, Germaine continued working with the officer. This is kinda cool. Cookies, speaking in tongues, going to Middle Earth... I wonder what year it is there? Nicole turned to Germaine and was going to ask her about how she would survive in her new placement, but Germaine waved her away. Fine, be that way. Germaine worked for a few more minutes then came over to Nicole.

"Stand here," she said, directing her to a spot in front of the console. "Well, that's it. You're done. Don't ruin it, kid. This is where you belong, and you'd better be happy, because next time, we might make you stay in the Magetrix." She went back to the console, probably to key in the final start sequence.

"You said it wrong again," Nicole said, about to correct her.

"Bye."

"It's called the Ma--" Nicole was going to finish the word, but suddenly, the vortex appeared again, sucking her in to another world. Nicole had the sensation of flying before she felt the impact of her body hitting something. Ow. That hurt. Stupid Germaine.... Nicole realized that it was done now, and she was in Middle Earth. Here I am... Home sweet home.

A/N: Ha, there I'm done! I thought I would never finish this chapter! I actually wrote the third chapter, then I started this one. Just a hint: never do that. It's hell. Anyways, review. Nicole will kill you with peach frozen yogurt if you don't. ~M~