AN: Thank you everyone for all those wonderful reviews!!! And so many pairing suggestions!!! WOW!!!!!! Domo arigato, Hennaid, Diole lle!!!!! Review Responses are at the bottom.

But before I begin, I figured I should clarify the *certain* people (as Loopy Lu put it ;). Firstly, Aragorn and Arwen will not be broken up. Sorry A/OC fans, but it's just too perfect. I have always admired the courage those two have to stand together against the differences of their two races... and I could never bear to end that. Also, this will not be a Legolas/Usagi fic. Sorry, gals, but for what I have planned it just wouldn't work. Legolas will be paired, and thanks to the wonderful reviews I'm debating between whether it will be with Ami or Makoto. Feel free to vote.

Setsuna will also be paired, but her guy is a surprise (besides, only the Silmarillion fans know him ::wink::). It's Usagi that's giving me the most trouble. I know almost everyone wants to see her with *someone*, but as of now no one is fitting with her in my mind. Honestly, the best pairing I can come up with for the way her character will be is with Sauron, but I already have a dark fic on the way that will be kinda like that. Help! Especially to the Silmarillion fans that know of all the powerful elves/maiar in Valinor.

And to the joy of some, the annoyance of others, Legolas will be featured a lot in this chapter. That's just the way certain events had to happen. "..." is talking, '...' is thought (or is it? ;D), [...] is AN or elvish translation, (...) is extra info but part of the fic, ... means trailed off, -- means interrupted. Enjoy!

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"Alright, you dratted beast," muttered the woodland archer as he searched between the trees, his bow taunt. "Where have you got to now...?"

"Cuthalion!" called a voice as another elf came running towards him waving.

Cuthalion cursed under his breath but waited and stood attentive as his prince ran towards him.

"Cuthalion, why are you so far from the post?" asked the elvish prince.

Cuthalion silently cursed again. "Bad news, Legolas," he said out loud. "The beast managed to escape during my watch."

"Again?" said Legolas with exasperation.

"Yep," sighed Cuthalion. "That creature is more trouble than it's worth."

"We've got to track him down," said Legolas. "Which way did he go?"

"This way." They took off at a steady jog southward, their eyes and ears constantly attentive for any strange movements.

"He can't have gone far," said Cuthalion while they ran. "He must have previously loosened his bonds because it only took him a minute, while I was mending my bow, to disappear. Yet I was able to track his fresh prints until just before you found me. Judging by these broken twigs and leaves, I suspect that he took to the trees."

"Wait!" cried Legolas suddenly. "There!" He gestured to the lower branches of a sapling not ten meters away. Suddenly, the wretched creature Gollum appeared and leapt from the branches to another tree.

"He won't get away this time!" said Cuthalion, his bow already taunt. He let the arrow fly.

"No, Cuthalion!" cried Legolas desperately.

But it was too late. Cuthalion wasn't named 'strong bow' for nothing. His arrow found its mark, right in the heart of the beastly creature. Gollum fell from the tree and collapsed on the forest floor, where he moved no more.

With a cry, Legolas ran forward to check the creature's non-existent heartbeat.

"This beast was of great importance to Lord Elrond and Mithrandir! Mithrandir entrusted us to guard it, foul as it may be! And now we have broken his trust, and we ourselves have killed the creature!"

"It is no great loss," said Cuthalion with a shrug.

"Not to us, no," agreed Legolas. "But it may be that there was more to this creature than we know."

Cuthalion was silent.

"I must go to Imladris," [Rivendell] resolved Legolas. "I must tell Lord Elrond what has happened."

With that, he took off at a run back to the palace, never guessing how the fate of their hope hinged on that one creature. Never guessing how that one simple arrow could doom Middle Earth to slavery and darkness.

~*~*~*~*~

The snow swirled angrily around them, and the endless blinding whiteness of Caradhras surrounded them. They seemed to be in a world of only wind and snow, cold and death. There could be no life here.

Legolas shielded his eyes and struggled to hear beyond the howling wind as the others struggled through the drifts. With a gasp, he cried out. "There is a fell voice on the air!"

"It is Saruman!!" cried Gandalf as rocks fell angrily from above. The company quickly moved against the rockface, where they were safe from the falling debris... for the time being.

"He's trying to bring down the mountain! Gandalf, we must turn back!" urged Aragorn.

"No!" cried Gandalf, refusing to submit to his archrival. Gathering his power, he began to chant in elvish, urging the mountain to calm down and return to sleep. "Losto Caradhras, sedho, hodo, nuitho i 'ruith!"

But Legolas could hear the voice rising, crying out even mightier than before. And as he strained his ears, he could have sworn he heard something else. A soft gentler voice, hidden beyond the loud angry one...

With a great crack, a bolt of lightning caused a might avalanche to tumble down. Helpless and with no where to run, the company was overwhelmed in a cascade of snow. Buried alive in a cold icy tomb.

Overcome by the cold, even Legolas' light heart began to despair. With a struggle, he was the first to break the surface while the other remained entombed.

And then he saw her. That strange girl, just standing there on the edge of the deadly cliff. What was a girl doing *here*? Legolas worried. With her indecently short blue skirt, she must be frozen. Legolas wondered if she was even still alive as he struggled to free the rest of his body and help her.

Her skin was paler than the snow that swirled around them; her short hair was midnight blue. Her face- sorrowful yet compassionate. And her eyes... there were no words to describe them. Even from a distance, they shown with an immeasurable depth of wisdom that even the elf failed to fathom.

The others were breaking through. Legolas was relieved to see that they had not surrendered to the icy fate. Turning back to the cliff, he gasped in shock. Only icy snow swirled in the space the girl had stood not a moment before.

~*~*~*~*~

"My liege," hissed the Witchking of the Nazgul as he bowed before the throne of his master in Barad-dur.

"Where is the next crystal?" growled the deadly voice from the throne.

The Witchking almost trembled. "My Lord," he hissed, "we are searching tirelessly. With even the slightest hint, the smallest rumor, we ride to the area and turn it upside-down to find anything. Nothing can pass our thorough inspection and destruction. But most prove to be simply empty rumors--"

"I am sick of your people's excuses," growled the Dark Lord. "Three thousand years! It has been three thousand years since you last found a new crystal, and I am tired of this lack of results!"

"My Lord!" interrupted the Ringwraith. "You must not forget the Seed of Darkness!"

"Ah yes," said Sauron with a mocking smirk. "It has been fifty years since you brought me the Seed of Darkness. (1) You did well, and with its power I was able to slowly grow to power and darken Dol Guldur and Mirkwood. But we must also not forget that the Seed of Darkness was with us in the beginning, and it was the careless errors of your riders that caused it to fall into the hands of those elves!"

"My Lord!" cried the Nazgul desperately. "My Lord, it will not be long now. We have learned that a fifth crystal is named the Seed of the Skies, and we believe it to be guarded by the Eagles. Their nests and breeding grounds will be searched, of course, but rather we believe it is being carried by one of the Eagle Lords. It will difficult to pinpoint this eagle and shoot him down... but we will destroy all the eagles, if we must, to gain this new crystal," he finished hastily, noticing Sauron's menacing expression.

The Dark Lord smirked. "I am glad that you are finally seeing it my way. You will bring me these last four crystals, and finally I will be able to summon the all-powerful ninth crystal, bestowing upon me the power to dominate all of Arda and Valinor and beyond! I will regain the Ring, and none will stand in my way! I will free my master from the Void, though no longer will he be master and I, servant. All the worlds will be at my feet and all shall be enslaved in my darkness!" He cackled madly. "And I will personally see to it that the witch, Galadriel, is fed to my arachnid pet. I'm sure Shelob would delight in such a feast!

He cackled again, laughing insanely, as the Witchking fled to begin the search for the seed of the Eagles and fulfill his evil dream.

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(1) Thank you so much, Kelly Le, for the emails and the suggestion for the title. Your suggestion, "Seeds of Power", inspired me to call the starseeds "Seeds of ____". Hennaid, mellon!

AN: And now, for REVIEW RESPONSES:

Trunks' and Legolas' dream maiden- Thanks for the review! I'm sorry though, but I'm a stout A/A supporter. I mean, Viggo is amazing, but Tolkien worked so hard to create their tragic love.

Loopy Lu- ::cowers:: Meep. And Agent Smelrond!!!! Yes, he really is the evil one! LOL!!!

SilverRose82- Well... as you will see, it won't really be a matter of races. ::struggles to explain without spoiling but fails miserably:: Ack! Hopefully this chap made it make a bit more sense. Thanks!

Andtauriel Longwood Baggins- Mako/Leggy is making more and more sense. I'm wondering why I didn't see it before!

DragonStar- I think you will be pleased with this chapter, then! In actuality, Usagi will be the last senshi to appear. (And she's also the one who I have no idea who/if she will be paired!)

Sunshine Fia- Oh! Gomen nasi for the confusion! And as for Sauron... basically the starseeds entered the LotR realm at the beginning of Time in their world. So the starseeds have always been there. Hopefully I'll weave it in later, but there was a prophecy made ages ago concerning these "Seeds of Power".

Chibi-Cola - yeah, I agree. Though I adore Legolas, there's just too many U/L fics. Honestly, there's so much more you can do, so much more that creativity can open up if you don't start a fic based on a pairing. Start with your ideas and see how the characters interact. Or at least that's my view.

Burning Shaedows - wow!!! Those are some really interesting suggestions! Cosmos/Chaos would make a *very* interesting fic... I'm going to have to ponder this for awhile. Honestly, Usagi is the one who I am most clueless about right now for a pairing. ^_^"

SilverStarlightAngel - Yet another supporter of Cosmos/Chaos, huh? ^_^" Interesting... perhaps I'll have to play with this idea and see how it turns out. And the twins will be making an appearance later, though I'm not positive whether or not they will be paired off. And never fear!!! I have someone special in mind for Setsuna, someone who was 'lost' as you put it.... mwhahaha!!! Thank you for all the wonderful suggestions!

Thank you also to:

Light Heart

JaminJellyBean

Kiwi

Maarja

Serenity Silvermoon

Makoto Silvermoon

Eyes-of-Pearl

Blood Rose077

Also, please check out my original LotR/SM fic, "Niirer en Ithil'Quessir" (Tears of a Moon Elf). It's basically the epic tale (and will be as long as an epic! ^_^") of the first life of the golden soul of Cosmos (before the Silver Millennium) and how her vulnerability made her a key player in the fate of Middle Earth. I guarantee you, it will not be your standard LotR/SM fic. No joining the Fellowship, no senshi taking the Ring on themselves, etc. It is tragic and bittersweet, but it will have a rather happy ending (I admit, I've had the plot for the whole fic and even some for a sequel laid out for months ^_^"). And diehard Tolkien fans will love it!

(Word is screwing up the web address but the storyid=731451).

Please read it! Thank you minna-chan!

Thank you everyone for reading! What do you think about the pairings now that you have a hint what the senshi will be like? Please review! Hennaid! Namarie, mellonae.

~Calli-chan