Hey all! Next chapter will be up next Sunday. :)

Review Responses:

John, Thanks for letting me know that the LOTR stuff is still clear. I appreciate your letting me know when I get too bogged down in unfamiliar stuff. :) Don't worry, Willow and everyone else will find Frodo and Sam soon, just a few more chapters.

melodieeidolem, thanks for the review!

A/N: Because fanfiction. net seems to have issues in allowing special characters used in these fics. When they are speaking Elvish it will look like this. When telepathy is being used, it will look like this.

A/N2: Because I've had problems with the emails sent out about updating I'm discontinuing them. I've had most of them returned saying they were undeliverable. There's, at most, ten more chapters to the fic. They will be posted every Sunday so just check the story then.

Special thanks to my beta, PuNKyCoWGiRL.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chatting and Fighting

Hi honey! Came Dawn's voice in Draco's ears. It had been so unexpected that he nearly fell out of his saddle.

You're ok, he said in relief. What happened? What took you so long to respond?

Sorry about that, she said a little sheepishly. Things got a little tense. We weren't sure what was going to happen so I didn't contact you until I was sure we were safe.

Have you talked to Willow yet?

Tara actually. They still haven't found them. Not like it would matter if they had. We're still spread too far apart to create a portal.

Draco couldn't help but silently agree. Have you talked to Buffy?

Not for a while.

Does she even know that you aren't riding with us? He asked, knowing Buffy would be pissed if she found out after the fact.

Yes. I told her right after we had left Helm's Deep. She wasn't happy about it, but she understood. Hold on a sec, she said.

He took advantage of the moment of silence to let Ginny know he was talking to Dawn and he urged his horse out of the way. Moments later he could feel Buffy through the connection.

Draco, where are you right now? Buffy asked.

All of the Rohirrim are riding to Minas Tirith.

Good. Things are a little tight here.

What's going on? Draco asked.

We're getting ready to try and take back the city of Osgiliath.

Osgiliath? Dawn asked.

It's a city that isn't too far from Minas Tirith, Buffy explained. Orcs took it yesterday. We're trying to take it back. If they keep Osgiliath they can launch an attack onto Minas Tirith from there. They could feel the tension in her voice. What about you, Dawn? Where are you?

Right now I'm on a ship.

A ship? Draco said in surprise. How did you get on a ship?

We took over the fleet of Corsair ships Aragorn had seen in the palantir, Dawn said. It's one less bad guy to worry about, and we've got some friends with us.

What kind of friends? Buffy asked.

An army of the dead, she replied.

What! Draco and Buffy sputtered as one.

Relax, they're loyal to Aragorn. They can kill the living, but the living can't kill them. But we won't reach you for a few days.

We won't either, Draco added.

Alright, Buffy said wearily. Do what you can and be careful. We're in a position so I've got to go. I love you.

Love you, too, Dawn said, and then Buffy broke from their connection.

I should probably go, too, Draco said sadly. He was missing her terribly and this had eased the sadness slightly. But he knew it couldn't last, they had things to do. I don't want to fall too far behind the others. I had to stop riding so I wouldn't fall off the horse.

Dawn giggled and it brought a small smile to his face. As if you could ever do that, she said. How is Ginny?

Better, but she's still not completely herself. You might want to talk to her when we meet back up, he advised. I love you.

I love you, too, she said. Then her presence was gone from his mind and he urged his horse forward once more.

-

Clem shook his head in amazement. Only Buffy and Spike would have friends from another dimension who would unexpectedly show up. He sat down and began composing a letter to send with the owl the Scoobies had given him.

Hey Buffy,

This is Clem. I found two people, actually they call themselves hobbits. So I guess I should say I found two hobbits who say they know you. I found them out wandering in the woods earlier this week.

Once they learned that they were in Sunnydale, they got really excited. They claimed they knew you from your visit to Middle Earth. I would've figured you would've been with them. But I understand the craziness of portals and dimensions.

They're looking for a way to get back home and they knew you know how to get them back. Just thought I'd let you know they were here.

Oh! They're names are Frodo and Sam.

Clem

He tied the note firmly to Marcus', his owl, leg and released him to find his way to Hogwarts and to Buffy.

-

With rage clearly written across Buffy's face, she tried to rally the troops around her. She had known from the beginning that the attack on Osgiliath was a futile plan, even worse than Helm's Deep. The men around here were being systematically slaughtered and she didn't have a high enough rank to order a retreat.

She began searching for Faramir, hoping that the captain of Gondor would give the order. There were several reasons why she had ridden with them. First, being that the slayer inside of her, the warrior spirit, had gone too long without a fight and wanted out.

Secondly, she had watched Faramir as he argued with is father over their next course of action. She had seen in Faramir's eyes that he knew the Steward's orders left little hope of survival, but he followed his father's orders nonetheless. He seemed to be far more intelligent than his slowly maddening father. Buffy could see where he would make a great advisor to Aragorn should they make it through all of this. So wanting to keep the man alive, she had ridden with them.

Fear clawed at her chest as the Nazgûl flew over top of them, but she pushed it aside. The fear they tried to instill in her could not quench her fighting spirit.

She finally found Faramir at the center of the battle and she fired an arrow into an orc that was about strike him from behind. "Faramir! We need to retreat!" She called out. "If we don't go now, we'll all be dead!"
The man of Gondor made no move to indicate that he heard her and continued fighting the orc in front of him. When he finally cut him down, he yelled out, "Retreat! Retreat to Minas Tirith!"

"Finally," Buffy muttered.

About that time, an arrow came from the skies above and struck Faramir in the chest, knocking him from his horse. The slayer caught up to him, just as he hit the ground and she reached a hand out to help him onto her own horse. His weak grip told her that his wound was serious and she hauled him into the saddle in front of her. Then she wheeled the horse around and raced to Minas Tirith.

Around her, the men had already begun the retreat, and her and the wounded Faramir were the last to leave the battlefield. Her horse, suddenly carrying the weight of two, could not keep up with the riders in front of them and began falling behind.

Some of the faster orcs, seeing the weakness, moved in closer to try and kill as many men as possible. With one hand holding the reins and Faramir, she weilded her sword in the other. It was awkward as hell, even with her abilities, and she began to worry about making it back alive.

She saw streaks of colored light flying past her head. Daring a look, she saw Harry standing atop the outer wall, throwing curses as best as he could at the pursuing orcs. In that moment, she felt a lacing pain in her side, but didn't stop to inspect it. Drawing on her own strength and a deeper well of strength she didn't know she possessed, she pressed on.

Harry was able to keep the orcs back so a small company of Gondor soldiers could double back and help fight them off. They cleared a path for Buffy and Faramir, who rode the rest of the distance unmolested.

Gandalf quickly led her to the House of Healing, once they were safely inside the city walls. Faramir had fallen unconscious long before they had entered the city. As several of the healers helped him off the horse, she was surprised as to how ashen Faramir's face was.

"The arrow may have been poisoned," Buffy said as they carried him into the house.

"We will take care of him, my lady," They assured her. "Now come inside so we may tend to your injury as well."

She waved them off. "I've got to talk to Gandalf first."

Gandalf looked up at Buffy, who was still astride her horse. "How bad is it?"

"This city is full of orcs, we don't have the people here to take back the city. In fact, I don't know if we have enough people to hold this city. I saw that they were prepared to move out. They'll have us surrounded by tomorrow morning."

He nodded wearily. "Thank you, Buffy. Now let them look at your wound. We'll need you at your full strength soon."

"Sure." She looked at him with a wry look on her face. "Can you help me down though? I don't think I can do it myself with this arrow sticking out of me."

-

Dawn cried out in pain and crumpled to the deck of the ship clutching her stomach. Aragorn and Elrohir were the first to reach her. They crouched in front of her while the rest hovered behind them.

"Amaurëa," Aragorn said, concern coloring his voice. "Amaurëa, what's wrong?"

"It's Buffy, she's hurt," Dawn said, tears of pain sliding down her face.

"How can you know that?" Elrohir asked.

Aragorn answered for her since she was gasping. "She shares a link with her sister and mate. It's what allows her to open portals and speak over great distances. I was unaware it was capable of this."

"We didn't know either," Dawn said, clenching her teeth. Sweat appeared on her brow.

"How long will this last?" Elrohir asked.

"Not sure... may be if I block her... entirely... might help" She closed her eyes in concentration while everyone looked breathlessly on.

After several interminably long minutes her body relaxed and her breathing evened out. She opened her eyes and smiled weakly up at them. "Seems I'm not the only one who can pull power through the link. Buffy needed to make sure she had enough strength to make it back to Minas Tirith so she unconsciously used me," she explained.

"Will she be alright?" Gimli asked.

"Yeah, with her enhanced healing abilities and with the help of the healers she'll be fine. In fact, she'll probably be healed completely before we get there."

Aragorn smiled at her. "Why don't you rest for a while, Amaurëa."

"That sounds like a plan," she said as she shakily got to her feet.

-

Faith smiled up at the man who was walking next to her. "You know, Wolfman, you didn't have to come with me. I do this by myself all the time."

Remus shrugged. "I figured I should probably see what I was getting myself into."

"Huh?"

"Wesley offered me a job at Angel Investigations once Buffy and Spike come back."

She stopped and stared at him. "Wes did what?"

"Offered me a job. If you're upset about it, I'll turn it down..." he began unhappily.

"No!"She said in surprise. "No, no, no, no! Take the job. We could always use another hand around the place - we can cover more ground. I'm surprised you'd take it, though. You've probably got loads of other offers."

He sadly shook his head. "No, I'm afraid not. Werewolves aren't exactly considered good company in the wizarding world. Most companies will not employ one in fear of spreading the 'disease'."

Faith rolled her eyes and snorted. "It's not like you can catch it like the flu." They started walking again. "So fighting evil, huh?"

"I figured I fit in with your group better than the wizarding world and I get to put my defense abilities to good use."

"Well you'll definitely fit in with us," she said. "There's a half-demon seer, a full demon who reads auras and futures when people sing, a vampire with a soul, a slayer, a former watcher who can kick some pretty serious ass on his own, a genius who was stuck in another dimension for several years, and a streetfighter. Yeah, being a werewolf you're practically normal."

He chuckled softly and then added, "There was another reason why I agreed to the job."

"Really? What was that?"

Before he had a chance to answer they were tackled by several demons from behind.

Faith shoved the demon off of her and jumped to her feet. "Ya alright, Remus?" She yelled as she traded blows with the demon in front of her.

"Still here!" He answered.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw him dodging the demons blows before pulling out his wand and catching it on fire. As it ran screaming into the brush, several more moved in to take its place. She snapped the neck of the one she was fighting in time to get a nasty scratch from another on her right.

"Now that wasn't very nice," she said as she dropped low to the ground and knocked it feet out from under it. She pulled out the knife she had hidden in her waistband and drove it into its heart in one smooth motion.

Rising to her feet, she saw the last demon throw Remus at her before disappearing into the forest. He landed on top of her and she instantly forgot about the demons they had just been fighting.

"You were saying?" She asked, staring into his soft brown eyes that were only inches from her own.

"That there was another reason for me to take the job."

"And it is?" She asked huskily.

Remus stared down at her dirt smudged face and felt torn. On one hand he knew he shouldn't try to push himself on such a young, beautiful creature, but one the other, she had given him all sorts of signals that she didn't mind. In fact, with the way she was wiggling her lower half, he was fairly certain that if he didn't make the first move soon, she'd do it for him.

Instead of voicing his reason, he closed the distance between them and softly kissed her. The dark haired slayer gasped in pleasant surprise allowing his tongue entrance.

She had never experienced such a soft sensuous kiss before and it made all of her extremities tingle. Wrapping her arms around him, she held him close and deepened the kiss.

When he finally pulled back, she looked up at him with glazed eyes. "Wow. I mean wow," she said softly. "I like this reason."

"I like it, too."