New disclaimer: I don't own Lord of the Rings, any of its affiliates or any brand that I mention in this fic. (I only wish.)
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Aaron was brushing his teeth when he heard the doorbell ring downstairs. He glanced at the bathroom clock by the sink. It read 10:30 a.m. He quickly wiped his mouth and ran down the stairs to open the door. Leo stood on the porch when he answered the door.
"You're half an hour early," Aaron told him as he let him in. "For once."
"I got ready faster than usual," Leo explained. He looked at Aaron, who was still in boxers and a loose sleeping shirt. He smiled and pointed to the corner of his mouth. "Toothpaste."
Aaron hastily rubbed it off with the back of his hand and went back up the stairs to finish washing up. Leo followed him and leaned against the banister.
"Take your time, man," he said as he watched Aaron wash his face like crazy. "It's not like we're in a rush or anything." A fly buzzed around his head.
"Yeah. And I guess no one's going to spend their no-school time at a museum because god forbid anybody should learn anything." Aaron left the bathroom and went into his own room to change, leaving Leo in the hallway. "So why are WE going?"
"Well, aside from the fact that we have nothing better to do with our time, that new exhibit looks pretty cool. To me, anyway," he added. He followed the buzzing fly intently and took a rubber band from his pocket.
"You know, sometimes, I can't figure you out," Aaron called from inside his room. "You get into a hell of a lot of trouble with other kids at school, even though a lot of people know you're a pretty nice guy."
"Only when I want to be," Leo interjected. "Just like you." He slipped the rubber band on his finger and drew it back with his other hand. The fly continued to buzz around the opposite wall.
"Yeah, but then you go off and do something that nobody expects you to do like actually volunteer to go to a museum exhibit." He came out of his room dressed in dark jeans, a white tank top and a dark green shirt, which he left unbuttoned. Leo let go of the elastic and the fly was splattered on the wall. He smirked at his near-perfect aim and looked at Aaron's outfit.
"Fashion biter," he accused. He was wearing khaki cargo pants, a black tank top and a dark blue shirt over it.
Aaron rolled his eyes and went back into his room. He came out a second later carrying a chain for his pants and a chain necklace. "Is this okay now, O royal pain-in-the-ass?"
"Yes, commoner." He noticed something as Aaron put on his chains. "Are you growing some face fuzz?"
"Yeah. Do you like it?"
"I think it looks okay on you. At least you don't look like Play-Doh smushed into a rug. But I don't think my opinion matters about it. I mean, I'm not the one who's kissing you. I leave that up to my cousin!" He laughed when Aaron turned a nice shade of red.
"Oh, shut up, Leo!" He scowled at him and went down the stairs to get his car keys.
Leo stayed at the top of the stairs and changed the pitch of his voice to imitate a girl's. "Oh, Aaron!" He ran down the stairs as girly as he could. "Kiss me, Aaron! I love you ever so much. You know you want to."
Aaron burst out laughing at Leo's little act and shoved his head. "I don't know what's going on in that little blond head of yours, but I don't play that way."
"Ah! That's not what you said last night!" Leo joked with him.
"Well, I'm sorry, Leo," he played along. They came up to a new Mercedes-Benz CLK 55 AMG cabriolet. He unlocked it with a key remote as he and Leo came closer. "You're just too femininely fucked up for me!"
"I'm not feminine!" He exclaimed as he got in.
They happily argued with each other in Aaron's brand-new silver Mercedes cabriolet as they drove through the city, which was hauntingly quiet. Almost a week had passed since Jack and Boris' funerals and the city had been on full alert for the creatures ever since.
"I have never seen downtown so quiet before," Aaron commented. They stopped at a red light a couple blocks away from the museum and only five cars passed by them at both ways. The few people that were walking on the streets were on the constant lookout for anything out of the ordinary. "It's so creepy."
"Well, you can't blame them," said Leo. "No one knows what those things are and where they're from. We don't even know what they are, but we've already killed a couple of them." Both of them sat in silence as they remembered the dark memory that happened a mere week ago. The police, of course, questioned them when they found out that they had been involved. They had both admitted that they had killed the creatures and were not charged with anything as of yet. The thought of that day still haunted their dreams at night.
The car behind them beeped at them.
"Oh, green light," Aaron muttered, snapping out of his dark thoughts. They parked in the museum's parking lot and went inside. The museum was still fairly busy. Kids on field trips were walking through the old building; tourist groups were pinning their museum badge on themselves as their cameras swung from their wrists; and, luckily, there were no teenagers in sight. As soon as they noticed this, a crowd moved, revealing a group of four boys.
"I can't believe you dragged me here," Sam complained. "It's not my mom who wants me to come and you've got Pete and Marty to keep you occupied."
"At least I have a good excuse to drag you here," Leo told Aaron. They went over to their group to greet them.
"Actually," Freddie was saying as he pinned the little badge on his collar, "your mom was quite impressed when I called to ask you to come. You would've gotten here either way, judging by the tone of her voice."
Aaron and Leo came up to them. "You see, you guys are lucky," said Aaron. "You guys came here because of your moms. I came here because of this joker can't come all by himself."
They all laughed and Leo pushed Aaron for revenge. He went off to buy the museum pass and the exhibit tickets for him and Aaron.
"You guys going to that special exhibit thing?" Aaron asked the four short boys in front of him as he waited for Leo. They each showed him their tickets.
"Our moms wanted us to get the FULL museum experience," Pete explained. "But, I wouldn't mind seeing some of those artifacts myself. They kind of remind me of something."
"Sure, why not?" Marty teased.
At that time, Leo came back with their tokens and tickets and they all went in together. They took their time going through the museum, examining the treasures the museum had to offer and making various jokes towards different people at different times. After lunch in the museum's cafeteria, they entered the special exhibit, where Dr. Gabriel Lewis' finds were housed.
The group of boys, especially Leo, admired the artifacts that sat behind the glass and behind the velvet ropes. The intricacy of the designs on the artifacts dazzled them as the fine lines winked at them in reflection of the bright lights. The designs, varying in pattern and theme, were on almost every piece in the exhibit. The statues that stood behind the velvet ropes were always graceful and full of nobility.
"Hey, Leo," Marty called as he checked out one of the statues. "These things have pointy ears like yours." There was no answer. "Leo?"
He was looking at a sword that rested horizontally on a wall on the other side of the exhibit. He was fascinated by a certain area of the sword. The patterns of the design weren't like the other ones he saw in the bowls and plates. The patterns almost seemed like characters and words in a sentence to him.
Without him noticing, a familiar feeling washed over him and he saw the design through new eyes.
"Elin berio i min ya iuith si magli," he read aloud. The person on his left looked at him with wide eyes. Leo looked at him cockeyed and pointed to the scripts on the sword. "It says right there: 'May the stars protect the one who uses this sword.'"
The man just looked at the sword for a brief second and walked away with a look of disbelief and thoughts about Leo being crazy. Aaron, who was on the right side of Leo, looked at him with amazement.
"What?" Leo asked when he saw Aaron's expression.
"How did you read that?" He asked in a shocked undertone. "Nobody in history has seen these things before, let alone understand what the inscriptions say! How can you read that?"
Leo looked at the sword again. The writing was still there and understandable through his eyes. "I really don't know, but I just can. The language just came to me. Why are you getting so hyped up, anyway? For all you know, I could've been lying."
"I know because I understood what you said," Aaron told him. Confusion showed through his eyes. "This doesn't make any sense."
At that moment, two men came out of the side door and approached them. They made the boys slightly intimidated because they were a fairly imposing build.
"Dr. Lewis would like to meet with you two," one of the men told them. The other one went to the other guys, who were still looking at the statue on the other side of the exhibit.
"Why does she want to see us?" Leo asked suspiciously. Aaron kept his eye on Freddie's group. Pete was clearly nervous because of the man and was cowering slightly behind Marty. In fact, all of them were quite nervous, but Freddie was the only one who was brave enough to talk to the man. Maybe it was his imagination, but Aaron thought that the man had a small smile on his lips. The man's attention was directed to a newcomer to the exhibit. Leo was busy talking to the man who was with them, so he turned to see who it was.
"This day keeps getting weirder and weirder," Aaron muttered. Gary O'Dell had just walked in and was peering into the glass with interest. The man who was talking to Freddie called Gary over and the whole group started to walk to the side door.
"Okay, fine, let's go," Leo said with finality in his tone. "Only because there's something going on here and I want to know what it is. BUT, if we get into any kind of trouble, you'll be hearing from our fathers."
"This way," the man directed. His lip twitched into a small, amused smile. He led the two boys upstairs to the lounge that Mr. Whitergray had been in about a week ago. Freddie, Sam, Pete and Gary were already there, sitting in the chairs, but Marty was examining the various drinks on the bar. The man who led Aaron and Leo left them in the lounge with the rest of the boys. Gary and Leo locked eyes for a moment and something at the back of Leo's mind tried to surface itself in his mind. He looked away, trying to interpret what was happening.
"Does anybody know why we're here?" Gary asked, breaking the silence. His gruff voice carried a hint of impatience and irritation.
They all shook their heads and shrugged in response. Leo and Aaron took some seats around the glass coffee table.
"This guy came up to us downstairs," said Leo. "Then he told us that Dr. Lewis wanted to see up for some reason. He didn't say why, though."
"Same thing happened to us. He probably doesn't even know," Freddie commented.
Everybody else was silent because they all picked up a sense of importance and urgency in Dr. Lewis' request. To them, it was quite similar to the feeling you'd get when you're waiting for the principal to deal judgment on something you just did.
"Ai, Elbereth," Leo sighed. "I hate waiting."
"You should be more careful of your language, young man." Dr. Lewis' soft voice came from another doorway, hidden in a corner. "And, I would like to ask you not to play with my bar."
"Sorry." Marty immediately stepped away from her bar, embarrassed.
Aaron stood up to introduce them. "Good afternoon, Dr. Lewis. I'm--"
"Aaron Strickland," she interrupted him. "I know what your names are, so there's no need to tell them to me. I'm sorry for my rudeness, but what I need to have done is incredibly urgent. Time is running out before this world is overthrown by Darkness again and the goodness of this world needs to be protected by the strongest holders of Light. I think all you know of whom I speak of."
Nervously, they looked at each other and pieced this part of the puzzle together.
"Are you saying that WE'RE the, umm... 'Holders of Light'?" Marty asked skeptically. "And that WE have to fight a force that's threatening to take over the world? Seven teenage boys against an army of Darkness?"
"Yes. But, you are not alone. A powerful being will be with you to keep the Darkness away. Gandalf the White will once again be joining you on your quest."
"Who?" they all asked at once.
"Me." The person they knew as Mr. Whitergray came out of the door.
"Oh, so we have seven teenagers and a teacher to fight the forces of evil," Marty said sarcastically. "Great. The world is doomed."
"Your mind is too quick to jump to conclusions, Mister Bridgewater," Gandalf said. "You don't even have all the facts to make one."
"Either way, sir, a group of eight people isn't exactly a very threatening enemy to whatever evil that's coming towards us."
"That's why you're here," Dr. Lewis said. She looked at the confused faces around her. She sighed at their ignorance as children. "Follow me if you want answers to our riddles."
She left them and went down the stairs through the door in the shadows. Gandalf smirked at them and went down as well, telling them to come. The boys just sat in their seats in a temporary state of indecision. One by one, starting with Gary, Leo and Aaron, they started to go down the stairs. Sam and Marty were the last ones in the lounge.
"What do you think about this?" Marty asked him.
"Well," Sam said slowly. "I think something is definitely going on and that this lady seems dead serious about the whole evil-taking over-the-world thing. Mind you, I also think that this could be complete bullshit."
"That's what I think," Marty admitted. "But, there's only one way to find out, isn't there?"
Together, they went down the stairs and ran through the shadows to catch up with the group. The only thing that went through their heads was the thought of the Darkness and what it would do to the world if nothing stopped it.