DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters in this story. They belong to Joss Whedon, J.R.R. Tolkien, and their other respective owners.
A/N ABOUT THIS STORY: As you can tell, I've taken several scenes directly from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings, word-for-word in the dialogue. This is not to rip off any of the real writers because I respect their work and I am not a plagiarist. This is an artistic ploy to put the reader in the mindset of where they are and is essential to the story. The Buffy episodes used were episodes (5.5) "No Place Like Home," written by Doug Petrie and (5.22) "The Gift," written by Joss Whedon. The movies used are, of course, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, written by Frances Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson, based on the books by J.R.R. Tolkien (if you didn't know that, shame, shame).
Another thing - I know nothing of Latin and I'm improvising with French. Bare with me, lol.
"I came as soon as I could," Tara declared, rushing into the Magic Box with a brown paper sack in her arms. Giles, Anya, Dawn and Buffy's boyfriend, Riley, sat at the reference table in the back of the store. "Are you sure?" Tara asked as she put the bag down, her eyes filled with worry. "Are you sure she's...gone?"
"Not to worry, Tara," Giles declared. "Once we locate them, we can begin the process of getting them back. Now, do you have Willow's things?"
"Yes," Tara breathed and she pulled a green spiral notebook full of Willow's notes out of the paper bag. "She always carries this around. I-I also have a hairbrush, a locket and a stuffed bear..."
"I think that's enough," Giles nodded.
"Here's one of Buffy's scarves," Riley declared. "She left it at my house." He placed the tan silk scarf down on the wooden table.
"I have one of Xander's ugly sweaters," Anya announced as she pulled out a plastic bag from behind the counter. "He seems to like it very much. I also have one of Xander's porn magazines. He seems to like that very much, too."
"Uh," Giles cut her off quickly, "thank you, Anya, I think the sweater will, um, do for this occasion." After Anya placed the sweater in the center of the table along with Willow's notebook and Buffy's scarf, Giles turned to Dawn, "Are the salts ready?"
"Nice and salty," Dawn answered, as she stood up with two jars of different colored salts, one blue and one green.
"I'll get the candles," Riley offered.
"Now you must be careful with that, Dawn," Giles declared as he flipped through a thick book of magiks. "When combined with certain materials, those salts have a tendency to become extremely acidic in nature."
"Oh," Dawn blushed as she sat the jars down on the table, "then I guess I shouldn't have spilled some on the floor and swept it under your rug." Giles looked up from his book, shifting uncomfortably as he glared at Dawn's innocent, 'not my fault' expression.
"Right," Giles breathed, slowly releasing his steam silently as his eyes returned to the text.
The Scoobies were gathered in Lord Elrond's chambers, overlooking Rivendell, along with Elrond himself, Aragorn, Gandalf, Gimli, Legolas, Boromir and the hobbits. A handful of elves stood guard inside of the room, at the doors and along the walls, keeping a watchful eye on the strangers.
Elrond sat in his chair, while Gandalf sat a few feet away and smoked a pipe silently. "Let me try to understand," Elrond sighed, touching his hand to the golden headband crown around his aching skull, "you say that you do not know how you arrived here and you are not from here."
"In a nutshell," Buffy nodded, while she and the other Scoobies stood in front of Elrond while the others stood around them.
"Explain to us what you know," Gandalf declared.
"Do we really have to go over this again?" Buffy rolled her eyes, her arms crossed. "Look, I was at home in my room doing this trance dance when all of a sudden my friends and Spike, burst through my door. The next thing I know, my Dead Zone's going all wacky and I'm making like Johnny Smith with the visions."
The people of Middle Earth stared at each other as if she were speaking in tongues. "What Buffy's trying to say," Willow politely piped up, "is that she was performing a spell... of sorts... and then something went wrong. We ended up in the middle of your backyard."
"What sort of spell are we talking about?" Gandalf asked.
"A trance," Willow answered, "it-it was supposed to 'pull the curtain back.' Buffy was using it to see if there were any demons in her home affecting her mom."
"And there are," Buffy declared, losing her patience. "Which is why I need to get back to her. She needs my help."
"Wait," Boromir replied in confusion, "you... fight demons?"
Buffy shook her head slowly with a 'duh' expression, "Kinda weekly now for the past five years."
"Buffy slays," Xander proudly declared, "Willow casts, I pun, and Spike..." He glanced over at the vampire who glared back at him. "Well, he's Spike."
"Which brings up another question," Buffy decreed, turning to the Scoobies, "what were you guys doing there? What's with the going Cops on my bedroom door?"
"It was about the spell," Willow answered in a worried, breathy voice. "Xander and I found out that the trance was unstable."
"Oh," Buffy nodded with a sigh, "something that could have been brought to my attention a little sooner..."
Willow added, "Well, it wasn't always unstable. Just now, for some reason."
"See, that's what happens when you go with the bargain brand spells," Xander nodded.
"I'm not familiar with this 'pull the curtain back' spell," Gandalf announced as he mused over it.
"Are you some sort of mojo-worker yourself?" Xander asked.
"This is Gandalf the Grey," Elrond announced, stunned by their ignorance. "He is one of the greatest wizards ever known."
"Cool!" Willow grinned wide with excitement. "Ooh, do you have a-a cape and staff like the wizards in the books? And a crystal ball, too?"
"He's a wizard, Will," Xander turned to her. "Not Miss Cleo."
"He's got fireworks!" Merry excitedly declared.
"Of every kind!" Pippin grinned.
Merry added, "Everyone knows Gandalf's fireworks are a sight to see!"
Spike scoffed with a laugh, "Please..." He turned to the wizard and the others, pointing at Gandalf, "Is that all Merlin's got? Bloody fireworks?"
Gandalf stared at Spike from beneath his brow and thrust the end of his staff towards the vampire. He was suddenly shoved backwards, but kept his feet on the ground and slid across the floor several feet.
Spike looked down at his feet, and then up at Gandalf, pointing at him again, "All right, I'm gettin' sick 'n tired of you buggers pushing me around, yeah?"
"Returning to the topic at hand," Elrond sighed, "where did you come from?"
"Earth," Willow answered. "Regular old earth."
"From America, more specifically," Xander answered. "Land of hot dogs, professional wrestling, boy bands, HBO... Oh, and vampires, demons, and the occasional Big Bad who wants to throw the world into a hell dimension."
"You're a band of warriors for the forces of good?" Aragorn asked.
"That's one..." Buffy nodded slowly, "...interesting way of putting it. Yep, we're practically knights in shining armor."
"Except we're not knights," Willow responded, thinking that these people would take her words literally.
"Which calls for less armor," Xander added finally.
"Hermes, we call to you!" Giles called out as he, Anya, Riley and Tara joined hands around the circular reference table, littered with items belonging to Buffy, Willow and Xander. Around the items were two circles of salt with thick candles and herbs. Dawn watched in the distance, not being allowed to participate in any 'spell stuff.' "We beseech you to hear our call, by the will of your father Zeus!"
Tara, with her eyes closed, raised her voice as wind began to blow through the shop, "Hermes, we ask of you, god of travelers, to find the lost souls in the distance. Look through the barriers, thick and thin, and show us the path."
"Invenio ceteri," they chanted together as Tara placed a white cloth over the belongings of their friends, two-by-three feet in size. "Invenio alter... Invenio ceteri... Invenio alter... Invenio ceteri... Invenio alter..."
The Magic Box rumbled and groaned as the candles blew out and a massive gust of wind wrapped around them. "Keep chanting!" Giles ordered.
"Invenio ceteri," they continued, "Invenio alter... Invenio ceteri... Invenio alter..."
Suddenly, black marks appeared on the white cloth as if they were burned into the fabric. The marks formed a wide map with names and places they had never heard of. 'Hobbiton', 'Rohan', 'Minas Tirith', and 'Rivendell'... Giles looked down at the corner of the map and read to himself the bold, black letters: MIDDLE EARTH.
Over the howling of the wind, a dark, terrifying voice whispered menacingly.
"I... see... you...."
All of a sudden, a red and orange eye of fire appeared, floating a few inches above the belongings of their friends. In the center of the eye, much like that of a cat or reptile, a black sliver of a pupil narrowed as it glowered at Tara, Riley, Anya and Giles and a massive gust of wind and light exploded from the table throwing them backwards across the room.
Tara and Riley were tossed away with ease, Riley crashing into the ladder leading up to the second level of the store and Tara smashing into a wooden chair. Anya was thrown into a shelf, knocking merchandise off of it as she and the merchandise clamored to the floor. Giles was thrown into the glass casing of the counter, smashing it to pieces. Dawn screamed, terrified, as she made her way to each of them eventually with the franticness of a disturbed wasps' nest.
"Put out the fire!" Tara screamed, pointing at the reference table. Riley jumped up to see that the white cloth was in flames and he quickly patted the fire out.
"Giles!" Dawn exclaimed, as she rushed to the watcher. He pushed himself off of the glass painfully and came to a stand.
"Oh, no," he breathed, looking over at Riley with the cloth. "Not the map..." He pushed himself over to the table as Tara helped Anya come to a stand, Anya brushing herself off in the process.
"What was that thing?" Riley asked.
"Clearly, we tapped into a dimension where we were not wanted," Giles breathed, examining the charred cloth. "That must have been some sort of guardian of the dimension..." He looked back up to the others with worry in his eyes, "Or something that didn't want us meddling in its plans..."
"Can you still read the map?" Tara asked.
"Only a very small portion of it," Giles breathed, struggling to catch his breath. "But I'm afraid it would be to no avail regardless. Whatever set it on fire – the thing that made its presence known – it has probably blocked us out of its dimension."
"No, we have to try something," Riley declared, tension starting to grate at his nerves. "We can't just leave Buffy and the others there, no matter what tries to stop us."
"But the door's locked," Anya answered solemnly, beginning to lose hope. "What can we do?"
"We can break it down," Riley replied, determined.
"Whatever we do," Giles declared, staring down at the charred map, "we must act quickly..." His eyes were thick and full of contemplation.
"What do you mean?" Dawn asked. "What's wrong?"
Giles stared down at the map, "I think I know where they are..."
He gazed down at the only un-charred place on the map and his eyes were dripping with worry. It was a mountainous region simply labeled: MORDOR.
"'A mysterious traveler from another world set foot on our land,'" Elrond declared, reading from a book aloud. He paced back and forth in his quarters in front of the people of Middle Earth and the Scooby Gang as he flipped through the pages. "'He wore the strangest forms of clothing and his speech was unrecognizable at first. He said that he had performed a spell to erase the façade of magic from his sight. When asked of his home, he answered, 'Terre.'"
"'Earth,'" Willow translated in shock. "A Frenchman?"
"'When asked his name,'" Elrond continued to read, "'he answered, 'Cloutier.'"
"Monsieur Silky Knickers?" Buffy abruptly burst out. "No way!"
"You're telling me that this guy got sent back here performing his own trance over five hundred years ago?" Xander replied in shock. "Now there's some fine print that should've been addressed."
"Wasn't five hundred years ago," Spike announced as he stood in the corner by himself.
"What do you mean?" Buffy asked him.
"Oh, look," Xander decreed with faux pride, "our little Spikey's taken to history teaching."
"Think hard, you git!" Spike spat back at him. "We're in a different dimension. Time doesn't move the same here as it does in our world. Probably missed the Manchester United game thanks to you buggers..."
"He is right," Elrond declared, reading the book carefully. "This occurrence happened a very long time ago..." His blue eyes filled with worry as he looked up from the book and out the window.
"When did Cloutier appear?" Gandalf asked.
"Three thousand years ago," Elrond answered with hesitation. He turned to Gandalf as they shared a knowing look, "At the beginning of the first age of darkness."
Giles laid a very old book down on the cleared-off reference table. "Middle Earth," Giles announced as they stared down at the book and charred map. "A dimension very distant from our own. In fact, there's only been one person in known history to have traveled there and returned – Cloutier, himself."
"So when Buffy did the trance it must have triggered the same effect," Tara replied, slowly understanding. "It must have sent her and everyone else in the room to the same place."
"Correct," Giles nodded and then signaled back to the book. "This book is written by Cloutier's son. Cloutier had disappeared for a week and returned to this world over a decade older."
"So time moves faster there?" Riley asked.
"Exactly," Giles replied.
"But I don't understand," Anya declared, her arms crossed. "That spell has been done many times. Shouldn't more people have gone to Middle Earth?"
"That would be the assumption, except for one detail," Giles began. "When Buffy completed the spell, she opened up a hole between their dimension and ours. This is a very rare and powerful phenomenon that doesn't just happen because of a simple trance. There has to be more than one factor at work here."
"Okay," Riley shook his head, understandingly. "Run that by me in English now."
"The Middle Earth calendar and our calendar run at different speeds," Giles explained, "yet the dates and times eventually coincide. When this happens, it makes the bounds of both dimensions weak. The scales begin to tip allowing forces, both evil and benign, a chance to claim their worlds. Cloutier's spell not only pulled back the curtain, but ripped a hole in the dimensional fabric of the universe."
"But the hole's still open, right?" Dawn asked. "I mean, we can... toss a rope or something and get them back?"
"Theoretically," Giles nodded, "yes. Cloutier found his way back; I don't see why Buffy and the others cannot as well."
"Is Middle Earth dangerous?" Tara asked, with deep concern.
Giles looked down at the map and hesitated, "Not all of it. Cloutier spoke of places both heavenly and peaceful." They sighed with relief, and then he added, "But according to Cloutier, there are also places in Middle Earth that are..." Giles took a deep breath, "Quite hellish."
They were silent for quite a while before Riley spoke up, conviction in his words, "Buffy is a fighter. She can handle herself anywhere. And she won't let anything happen to the others."
"Except maybe to Spike," Dawn added.
"Well," Riley answered, "sacrifices have to be made..."
"He's right," Anya nodded, "they can take care of themselves until we find a way to get them out of there."
"We'll have to move quickly," Giles declared.
"Right," Dawn responded, "'cause we don't wanna wait so long that they're gonna need diapers and Metamucil when we pull them out."
"That's not our main problem," Giles replied, removing his glasses and running his hands tiredly through his graying hair. "This dimensional hole will not be there for long. Once the gap of time between the two dimensions widens enough, the dimensions will eventually repair themselves and the path will be sealed until the next time the calendars begin to align."
"We can't let that happen," Tara shook her head with worry.
"That's still not the worst of it," Giles replied.
"Oh, God," Riley turned to him, "there's more?"
He nodded, "The disappearance of the others has left a void in our dimension. People that are supposed to be here are not anymore. The dimensions will ultimately try to fill this void, but it cannot be filled. Instead, reality itself will mend to their absence."
"Wait a minute," Anya replied, "you're saying that—"
"Not only will Buffy and the others never return," Giles looked up at them, "their entire histories in this dimension will cease to exist."