Chapter3: beautiful dreamer.

They ran until they reached the raft at the Brandywine Bridge. Frodo almost didn't make it. Almost got caught by the black riders that were chasing him. Now the six of them were sitting on a cramped boat with nothing to do but deal with the uncomfortable silence that hung in the air.

"Where are we going too?" Spike asked sounding annoyed. He had woken up shortly after nightfall.

"Bree." Answered Merry short tone. Out of the Hobbits he was the one who knew the path there best, so it was his responsibility to navigate the way through the fog that night.
"When we get to this place, do you think there is going to be someone who could help us get back home?" Buffy asked hopefully.

"Yes, we are meeting a wizard there. Maybe he could help you."

"Wizard? You have wizards here, this should work out perfectly. Spike and I should be home faster than you can say beheading." Buffy's eyes lit up at the prospect of getting home.

They had to get home soon considering that they were suppose to be fighting the First tomorrow morning. Buffy was just hoping time moved faster here than it did in Sunnydale. She was worried something might happen if she were to be gone a moment longer. The destruction that could take place in her absence was a ever present thought in her mind. Her friends and family were in danger and she was not there to protect them. Never have they been without some sort of protection. And now they were at their most vulnerable point, the their biggest bad yet, and she was not there. Her need to get back home grew larger with each passing moment.

" I suggest you get some rest, we wont be at Bree for another three hours." Merry stifled a yawn. Taking the advice from the hobbit, Buffy laid down her head on her makeshift pillow and as soon as she closed her eyes, she was asleep.
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Buffy heard a deep scream erupt all around her, a bellow that was so bone chilling there were no words to describe it's effect on her. All around her she heard sounds of chaos, sounds of hurt and pain. Sounds she should have reacted to. But no, she just laid there, eyes shut and totally motionless. Inside she was having a mental battle with herself. Part of her wanted to help the poor souls who were being tortured and another part of her wanted to just lay there and play dead until it just went away. The coward inside her won out and she waited out until it ended.

As soon as it started it had stopped and Buffy soon gathered the courage to open her eyes. Her eyes were met with total darkness. The kind of darkness where you aren't sure if was in your mind or, if it's right there before your eyes. Either way it's deceiving. She tried to navigate through the black ink that was this tunnel, but with no such luck she stumbled many of times. As she traveled further down the tunnel she saw a light, so bright to her unadjusted gaze. Buffy had to blink a couple of times to have her eyes get use to the blinding light.

Further and further Buffy descended towards this light, she noticed a figure crouching in a fetal position. Rocking back and forth, Buffy soon figured that this disturbed person was a man. Closer and closer she drew nearer to him, recognizing the bleach blond hair that she knew all to well. She urged herself to run towards him, only to find that her legs were like weights, unable to move any faster. Slowly, as she drew nearer, she came to the realization that Spike was naked, and covered in blood. It dripped down his body, his muscles flexing with anxiety. Buffy could only see Spikes back, so he did not notice her presence. She heard his sobs of pain and mourning. She was finally close enough to see what he was crying about.

It was Dawn, blood dripping from her mouth, a shallow cut across her stomach. But what really drew Buffy in was her eye. Dawns eye were blank, staring off into nothingness. Buffy's breath caught in her throat and she dropped to her knees next to her sister.
Was this all the screaming she heard earlier?

"Buffy, I tried—I – I couldn't – He just took control." Spike frazzled speech didn't make sense to her. Who took control of what? How did this happen?
"What happened? Spike what are you talking about, you don't make sense." Buffy was getting frantic, tears burning her eyes. She watched as Spike took a deep breath and tried to calm himself.

"Pretty little thing that ring is, he says it's precious to him. Got inside my head he did" Spike smacked his forehead with his hand very hard "Messed with this here brain, drove me insane. Told me to do things; All for a shiny little thing."

He was crying again, rocking back and forth hugging his knees close to his chest.
"Told me to do things" he repeated again and again.

Realization finally hit the blond slayer.

"You did this to her, you bastard! She trusted you ,and you betrayed her !" Buffy looked away from Spike for just a second and turned back to her dead sister. Only when she turned back, Dawn wasn't there, instead her sisters body was replaced by a familiar Hobbit. Frodos blue eyes stared back, only looking into nothingness.

Confused Buffy turned back to a sobbing Spike, only to find that behind him, further down into the tunnel a red glow illuminated the dark tunnel. It rapidly drew nearer and buffy tried to warn the crying Spike, but no sound emitted from her mouth. Closer and closer it descended, becoming more and more clearer. Buffy could make out that it was a huge red eye of fire. She tried to warn Spike, but yet again nothing came from her mouth.

"Buffy!" Spike screamed out in pain as the flames touched his body making him turn into ash.

And then suddenly as fast as he was gone, the eye was gone, and in it wake stood herself. Only Buffy knew she wasn't staring into a mirror, she was staring into the face of evil. The first, to be exact.

"Looks like I killed your boyfriend. Oh don't worry you'll be joining him soon." It mocked. And then it disappeared.

At that buffy felt a piercing pain go through her stomach, causing her so fall to the ground. The pain was so intense her vision blurred. Nothing could stop this pain some unseen force was causing this. Buffy saw stars as the pain intensified. Clutching her side, buffy slowly closed her eyes.
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A sudden jerk caused Buffy to open her eyes. It seemed that the raft had reached its destination, which meant that Buffy couldn't go back to sleep. This was good considering the dream she had just experienced. The six of them unloaded and marched over to the gate. Merry knocked. A man peeked out of a hole that was a normal mans height. He saw Buffy and Spike and looked at them suspiciously.

"What do you want?" The man asked rudely.

"Hey, no need to be all shirty there mate, all we want is to come in." Spike answered back; obviously incredulous that some stranger was rude to him.

"Fine, fine. Didn't mean no harm there lad, there's strange folk out there, have to keep your eyes open." Said as he was opening the door.

"No harm done."

Frodo scanned the town for the prancing pony sign. When he finally found it he shuffled everyone in. They were met at the door by a scruffy old man who seemed to be the bar owner.

"What can I do for you?" the bar owner asked Spike and Buffy.

"Uh—"Spike didn't know how to answer.

"I would like a round of drinks for my friends here" Frodo answered, getting the bartenders attention.

"Hobbits? Haven't seen one of you folk in here for a real long time. What brings you here?"

"Our business is our own, now get started on those drinks." Frodo answered back harshly, trying to draw the bartender's questions away from him.

"Never meant no harm there mister—"

" Underhill"

"Mister Underhill, have to keep your eyes open for strange happenings around here."

" Really is that so ?" Spike deadpanned.

"Have you seen Gandalf the gray?" Asked Frodo impatiently.

"No, sorry to say I haven't Sir. Would you like some rooms? You six look awfully tired."

"Yes please, that would be very nice." Buffy answered quickly, her eyes shining at the thought of sleeping in a bed.
"Well go find yourselves a table while I get started on your ales." The bartender gestured toward one of the tables.

Everyone in the bar were looking at the six with keen interest. Four hobbits and a woman certainly were not normal in this bar. But soon the interest wore off as everyone got cold stone dunk.

Buffy was uncomfortable in this bar, she felt as if everyone was looking at her as a piece of ass. She normally didn't mind this, hot guys looking at her, that is. But ugly, dirty, disgusting men looking at her, picturing her naked, it made her skin crawl. That's why she sat closest to the wall and Spike right next to her so no one would look at her.

"What's that? " asked Pippin suddenly as Merry sat down beside him.

"This friend is what they call a pint." Answered Merry, looking at his drink as if it was a priceless treasure.

" Pints! It comes in pints? I'm getting me one." And at that pippin left the table on his newfound quest for the pint.

Spike could not help but smile at this exchange of words between the two Hobbits. Never in all his long years did Spike think he would meet someone who could drink him under the table and it seemed that after meeting that hobbits, he met his match.

He felt Buffy shift uncomfortably beside him, causing him to put a protective arm around her shoulder. She looked at him with thankful eyes. He knew she was comfortable here, with all the men looming at her. Maybe they both thought that if he showed some public form of affection they would leave her alone.

"That man over there has been watching you since we've gotten here." Sam gestured over to a man in the corner, smoking a pipe staring directly at the four. Spike made note of this, in case any trouble occurred in the future.

Spike noticed that little hobo – Frodo – he couldn't remember the name, was looking around the pub very nervously. Obviously trying to avoid any on coming conversations from any drunken men. Spike couldn't blame him for not wanting to converse with a man who was in complete stupor. A belligerent drunk was never a fun conversationalist. Spike should know, he was one of them.

"Baggins, sure I know one. Right over there, Frodo Baggins." Pippins loud voice interrupted Spikes thoughts. "You know he's my second cousin, twice removed—"Pippins rather boisterous conversation was interrupted by Frodo, who lunged at him.

This drew a lot of attention to the pair. All the drunks were interested to see a Hobbit fight, but were disappointed to see that no such thing was going to happen. Spike and Buffy watched as the scene unfolded. Frodo slipped on something and fell over, a hint of gold flew through the air as he hit the ground. Sam's eyes widened when he saw this knowing all to well where this would lead if someone found out about the ring. Luckily nobody seemed to notice the scene before them, as everyone's hopes to see a Hobbit fight were quickly extinguished before and they resumed to drinking themselves into a stupor. But what everybody seemed to miss was that Frodo vanished.

"Did you see that?" Spike completely flummoxed turned to Buffy, who merely shrugged. It certainly wasn't the strangest thing she had seen, she did live on the hell mouth after all

" Mr. Frodo ? Mr. Frodo where are you?" Sam was frantically calling for his companion.
Suddenly just as quickly it had happened, Frodo was back in the same place he was. The only people who seemed to notice this were Buffy and Spike who watched as a man came a grabbed Frodo and made his way up the stairs. Sam didn't seem to notice this through his frazzled search for his friend, and Merry and Pippin were too busy chugging pints. It took a couple of seconds for Buffy and Spike to gather their thoughts and alert them.

***********************


"You draw too much attention to your self Mister Underhill." The strange man said through gritted teeth as he grabbed Frodos upper arm and dragged him up the stairs and into a room.

"Who are you?" asked a nervous Frodo.

"An ally." He said simply before continuing. " I know of what hunts you. Are you afraid?"

"Yes"

"Not nearly enough from the looks of it. A Hobbit in your situation shouldn't be bringing friends along for a drink. Do you know of the importance of this mission?" He asked sounding annoyed.

The hobbit nodded.

"I'm Strider, I was told by Gandalf to meet you here if he could not make it. I am to guide you to Riven—'His sentence was cut short by a flash of blond hair tackling him.

"Was this guy hassling you Frodo?" Buffy asked casually from the doorway, watching on as Spike held Strider against the wall.

"No, he was sent here by Gandalf." Frodo yelled looking from Spike and Strider to Buffy who was leaning against the door frame with a confused look on her face.

"Gandy who?" she asked only to hear a hushed whisper from Sam that distinctly sounded like ' the wizard'.

"I thought he was supposed to meet you here? We really need him to be here, we have to get home" Buffy said loudly, sounding frantic.

"Yes, we thought he was going to be here too. What happened to him?" Frodo asked Strider who was still being held against the wall by Spike. He looked rather annoyed at being attacked but nonetheless answered the Hobbits question.

"Don't know, all he told me to do was to lead you to Rivendell if he couldn't meet you here." He said gruffly.

"You can let him go." Buffy said casually.

And at this Spike let the scruffy man go who eyed him angrily.

"Who are these people?" asked Strider, looking from Buffy to Spike with suspicion.

"Hey buddy, our names are Buffy and this here is Spike." Buffy said indignantly. Strider ignored her statement and looked to Frodo for his earlier question.

"They fell from the sky." Pippin beat Frodo to it.

"I doubt it, they are liars, what ever they have told you is a pure lie" Strider spat out looking at the two.

"It's true." Frodo said simply

"They are spies, that was all just mere witchcraft to foil with your minds to make you trust them." Strider hissed.

Buffy rolled her eyes at this; she didn't have the time to deal with this idiots attitude. She needed to get home. Now.

"Well they protected us from those black riders. Maybe you should trust them Mister Strider, they could very well save your life." Pippin said angrily. He liked Buffy and Spike.

Strider scoffed at this. "These two look like they could barely handle a sword."

"Believe me looks can be very deceiving." Said Buffy, she wasn't in the mood to prove anything to this man, he'll soon find out the wonders of her ass kicking powers. It looked like she was going to be here for a while.

"They will be coming with us on the trip to Rivendell." Frodo finally sounded." They need to meet Gandalf in order to get home."

"Yes." Strider said simply before he sent a look that clearly said I'm watching you.

"We shall stay here for the night, and then tomorrow at dawn we shall head out."

At the word dawn, Buffy and Spike eyes met, both knew that they needed to get home. Soon. Worry was in both their eyes, hoping nothing has happened in the past hours.

"I suggest you all should get some rest, it's a long road, very tiring" Strider said to the six.

"Okay, well just go to the rooms that the bartender gave us earlier." Buffy said, starting for the door.

"No, you sleep in here. I want to keep a close eye on you two." Strider said in a gruff tone.

"But I wanted to sleep in a bed…" Buffy whined, she probably wouldn't sleep she knew that after that dream, her mind was spinning and it didn't seem like it would calm down for sleep. But It was the principle of the thing. She had a room, she wanted to sleep in it.

"They are fine Strider, just let them go." Frodo said warily, tired of this mans untrustworthy attitude towards the two people.

"Fine, but don't be surprised if I come in once in a while, just to make sure." He said, shooting an suspicious look at the two.

"Whatever." Buffy muttered.
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"So how do you think we got here?" asked Buffy, while she unmade her bed.

"You said it yourself before, portal."

"No, why do you think we got here? As I have seen, portals don't exactly happen on their own."

"I don't know Buff, the only portal I've seen was when glory---" Spike cut his sentence off, seeing Buffys eyes widen.

"Do you think it was Dawn? I mean she's the only one that I know who has opened up a portal." Buffy asked frantically. What if that strange dream she had was real. What if Dawn was really dead. She did have a shallow cut across her stomach in the dream.

"Yea, but that portal was a hell portal, and you died in that one. I don't feel dead; Well not more than usual, I don't think this is hell." Spike answered quickly trying to ease the slayers worries.
" It could be hell, see how long we had to walk until we got to civilization. God, I would kill to have a big mac right now."  Seeing Spike roll his eyes buffy continued.
"Your right. But that still doesn't answer the question of why a portal was opened." That still didn't ease buffys worries about Dawn.

"Guess we'll find out when we meet this Gandalf guy." Spike said as he layed down. The mattress wasn't very comfortable but it would have to do.

"Yea, I guess. Just hope he's there. We have to get home, to fight the first. Tomorrow morning we were supposed to, but now that's changed. I just hope time moves faster here than it does back home." Buffy said as she laid down in her bed, wincing at the uncomfortable ness of the mattress. Spike didn't answer so Buffy assumed he was asleep. She closed her eye, silently hoping not to have another bad dream. Dawn was her one last thought before sleep took her.

Spike listened as Buffys breathing deepened, which indicated that she was asleep. He silently thanked who ever for making her fall asleep. He knew from experience that a tired Buffy was a Bitchy Buffy and nobody liked one of those. He knew that he was probably not going to go to sleep, what with all of the events of the past hour. He shifted onto his stomach, before noticing a prick on his chest. He sat up to notice what it was. It was the amulet that Buffy had given him before. He lifted it over his head and placed it on the nightstand. It was one ugly necklace he had to admit. But then again he shouldn't be too surprised; it did come from angel after all.

"Bloody Ponce" Spike muttered before shifting onto his left side to look at a sleeping Buffy. He watched as she inhaled and exhaled. He wanted so badly to have her in his arms again. The only thing he could remember before waking up here was falling asleep with Buffy in his arms in the basement. That was probably the happiest he had ever been in all of his long years. He laid there for what seemed like an hour watching this woman sleep. Until he himself fell asleep.



After about an hour, strider decided to go and check on the two strangers. He was surprised to see that the two weren't sleeping in the same bed. He had thought that they had been a couple, but it seems he was wrong. He looked around the room for anything suspicious. He didn't trust these people, their clothes were strange and they had an air about them that he didn't like. He slowly scanned the room until he found something that caught his eye. It was on the man's nightstand, a necklace it seemed. But the stone was unknown to him, but it looked powerful nonetheless. But then again it could just be a harmless necklace of the woman's. He decided that it was probably that. Maybe he should trust the Hobbits words on this one. But Strider couldn't help but be suspicious of the two. These were dark times after all. He slowly made his way out of the room, trying not to wake to sleeping pair. The only thing that was visible to him before he closed the door was the shining stone of the necklace as the moon shone down it.
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Whew ! long chapter…….. Sorry it took a while. Mind went blank on this one. But then I got the idea of the dream , and my imagination went wild. My favorite parts were definitely with Pippin. I love that guy. Merry and Pippin are going to play a greater role in this story than you see in others. I'm going to give them more lines and stuff. Hope you liked it.

I know I'm mostly using the movies scenes, but I can barely remember the book… and the movie was on starz this weekend so I just used that.. I wanted to put tom bombadil in my story because you don't really see him in buffy crossovers and I thought It would be interesting to see. But I didn't and oh well……..next Chapter should be up soon……… its? Haven't seen one of you folk in here for a real long time. What brings you here?"

"Our business is our own, now get started on those drinks." Frodo answered back harshly, trying to draw the bartenders questions away from him.