A/N: I don't own anything from BMW either... But I do want to own one someday. Hehe.

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Almost two and a half months had passed since their museum trip when something hastened their plans. Galadriel had long departed from their city and they hadn't received too much news from her. Their search was hindered by the fact that they were still under the supervision of their parents. They had found virtually nothing about the Horn, the Light or the mysterious force in the forest because nothing out of the ordinary happened during those months. But, that was all about to change.

It started a few days after New Year's Day and there was a thick layer of snow on the ground. Frodo trudged through the snow to Legolas' front door and rang the doorbell. A tall woman answered the door.

"Hi," he greeted. "Is Lego-- uh, Leo ready?"

"Not quite," she replied. "He's still putting some last touches to his little project in the kitchen. Oh, come in, come in! Where are my manners?"

"Thank you, Mrs. Grayfield," he said politely. She directed to the reasonably large kitchen and left to do her own work. In the kitchen, Legolas was just putting something into a small paper box. Lost of dirty dishes lay in the sink and various ingredients, like flour and honey, still lay on the counter.

"Wow. I never thought that Legolas knew how to cook," he said, mostly to himself.

Legolas chuckled as he put the ingredients away. "I don't. I've been trying to make lembas for a week now and it still doesn't do the trick. I think Galadriel missed something in her recipe, so I'm just hoping that this batch will work."

"Aragorn's your guinea pig, isn't he?"

"Well, yeah! Would YOU like to be the first to try MY cooking?" he joked.

Frodo laughed. "Good point!"

Legolas finished putting everything back to where they were supposed to be and went upstairs to get his gear. He quickly told his mother that he was going to Aaron's house, grabbed the lembas and left with Frodo.

"Do you think I'd actually stand a chance if we got into a fight today?" Frodo asked. He had to arch his head a little higher than usual because Legolas regained his ability to walk on snow.

"On a one-on-one battle, I'd say you would stand a pretty good chance. This time around, you actually have training from me and Aragorn."

During the past two months, Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas repossessed most of their combat skills and knowledge from their past lives. Aragorn even got his hands on some athelas and was growing some in his greenhouse. Now, in addition to their duty to the world, they had to teach the four hobbits how to properly use a sword.

When Legolas gained some distance ahead of Frodo, he would often stop and turn around to wait. Frodo waited when he was far enough and quickly rolled up a snowball. Legolas turned to check on Frodo and instantly got a snowball in the face. By the time they got to Aragorn's house, they were both out of breath and soaking wet.

"We're teaching him sword-fighting," said Aragorn when they went in and started to dry off. "Not target practice."

"He doesn't need it," laughed Legolas. He flattened his short hair. "Got me every time. But he's still not as good as me."

"Yeah, obviously!"

Aragorn grabbed his jacket and his sword and led them all into his backyard. When they were ready, they started to train Frodo how to fight two opponents. Once he failed horribly, they went back to one-on-one combat.

"So where're the rest of the hobbits?" Legolas asked. He was sitting on the snow and drew his coat closer to him. Although he had regained some of his Elvish qualities, like walking on the snow, he was still part human, so he still got cold relatively easily.

"Stop distracting me," Frodo said as he blocked Aragorn's attack.

"There'll be distractions in real battle," he countered. "Learn how to divide your mind."

"They're at Gimli's," he replied in broken speech. "Him and Gandalf are helping them fight in their own way."

"Why didn't you go with them?"

Frodo hit Aragorn's side with the flat of his blade. Aragorn winced and stopped the spar.

"Because Gandalf hates teaching me," he laughed.

Aragorn motioned for Legolas to get up and help him train Frodo. But, the Elf stayed on the snow with a worried look on his face.

"Legolas?" he called to him. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know. But something's going through the city and I don't think it's here for the New Year's sales at the malls."

He closed his eyes and focused on his hearing. Faint, but distinct, screams could be heard from downtown. His eyes shot open in shock.

"Oh, shit."

Ignoring the confused looks of Aragorn and Frodo, he nimbly climbed onto Aragorn's roof and looked into downtown.

"Oh, shit!"

"Legolas, what is wrong?" Aragorn yelled up at him.

As Legolas climbed down from the roof, Frodo sensed the darkness as well. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of small, skittering beings were flooding the city. He heard a nearby scream of pain and more skittering.

"Things that look kind of like bugs are taking over the city," Legolas told them. "It looks like they have to take over someone's mind and body to do any kind of damage. They're getting closer at a pretty good rate, so I suggest we get the hell out of here."

He ran over the snow as fast as he could to his own house, leaving Frodo behind. Aragorn picked up the package he had left behind and went inside.

"What are you doing?" Frodo shouted. "We have to get out of here!"

"I know." He quickly picked up the rest of his weapons, the green stone, an extra quiver and his car keys. He pointed to the front of the house from inside to Frodo.

Picking up on his directions, Frodo ran to the front of the house. Looking down the street, he could just see the army of what looked like insects coming down the road.

A man came out of his house to get his newspaper and one of the bugs leaped onto his head. As the man screamed in pain and terror, the bug crawled to the base of his skull and wrapped its long tentacles around his neck. Blood stained his clothes from the back of his neck, but he still stood. Like a zombie, he turned back into his house.

Aragorn's garage door opened and his silver Mercedes rolled out. The passenger door flung out at him.

"Get in," he ordered Frodo.

Obediently, he put Sting back into its sheath and got into the car. As they drove down the street well above the speed limit, he heard the voices of the man's family shriek in agony.

"Where's Legolas?" Frodo asked in a panic.

"He's coming," replied a very calm and confident Aragorn.

Just as the army approached Aragorn's house, the garage door of Legolas' house opened. From out of the garage, a BMW F650 CS motorcycle in titan silver roared onto the street. It quickly caught up with their car and kept a constant speed with them.

Legolas' intense blue eyes shone through his sleek black helmet as he sped up ahead of them. With his right hand, he dialed a number on his built-in helmet-phone.

Aragorn's car phone rang instantly and Frodo picked it up and put it on the speaker.

"There's a bunch of Orcs and the things we fought before up ahead on the road. I'm taking a few of them out. It'd be nice if you put down the car top and helped me."

"Car top coming down," reported Aragorn. He hung up and pressed the button for retracting the car top, letting in the icy air of winter.

"Frodo, take the wheel!" he shouted over the wind.

"What? Are you crazy? I don't know how to drive!"

"Just hold it steady!"

Reluctantly, he took the wheel and slid into the driver's seat as Aragorn got into the passenger side.

Aragorn grabbed his bow from the backseat and his quiver from Middle-Earth. Once he was fully equipped, he dialed up Legolas' helmet-phone.

"Legolas," he called through the phone. "I need you to move to the left a little bit I don't want to hit you with an arrow."

"Okay." The motorcycle shifted to the left as they came to the first of a series of paved hills. "Keep back a little so I don't damage your car by accident." With that, Legolas reached behind him and drew out one of his white knives.

Frodo decreased his speed a little and Aragorn readied his bow. As they went up and over the last hill, he stood up and took aim at the bottom.

As if they were expected, a unit of Orcs and Neos were waiting at the bottom. Aragorn took a few of them out with his bow and arrows from the Mercedes. Legolas used his other hand to withdraw his other knife and took off some of the Orcs' heads as he sped through their garrison by momentarily letting go of his motorcycle. Aragorn picked off the remnants of the small group of demons as they left the residential area of the city.

After Aragorn regained control of his car, Frodo looked at the city with horror and sadness. Men and women were running through the streets, trying to escape the killing clutches of a fellow human. The ones with the Parasites cruelly wrapped around their necks slaughtered innocent people with blank faces and bloodstained hands. Yells of torture and anguish sent the city into turmoil.

Corpses littered the streets with blood spilling onto the road. Men, women, children and the elderly all suffered the same fate. Those that had been quick enough to realize what was happening fled the city and abandoned it along with the people inside of it, so the maimed carcasses lay rotting in the open air for all to see. Every now and then, Frodo saw a group of gaunt fiends devour the remains of a human.

"Oh, my God," he said softly. "This is just a pointless massacre."

"I know," Aragorn said.

Then, a group of possessed people appeared on the road in front of them and formed a human roadblock. They braked about a block away from them and they all stared at each other for a moment.

--- ---

"Master."

An Orc approached the dark figure and bowed deeply.

"What is it?" the Master said sharply. It was preoccupied with the invasion that was going on.

"We found something that might prove to be of your interest." He motioned for the other Orcs to bring it in.

"Let me go!" a voice cried out from the shadows. It was presented to the Master.

A stunned silence filled the room.

"Well," the Master finally said. "This just got interesting."

--- ---

The three boys managed to escape the horde of possessed people causing minimal damage and took refuge in an abandoned warehouse/office building downtown. They hid their vehicles in the parking lot under the building.

"I wonder if the others are okay," said Frodo, voicing the thoughts of everyone there.

"Do they have a cell phone on them?" asked Legolas. He took out his own cell phone.

Frodo told him Sam's cell phone number and he tried calling.

"Damn. No reception in here." He eyed the elevator across the building. "Do you think it still works?"

"A cell phone works worse inside an elevator," stated Aragorn.

"I know that. There's probably better reception on the roof. I just don't feel like walking up all those stairs."

"Only one way to know, isn't there?" He strolled to the elevator and pressed the button.

As Legolas and Frodo approached the elevator, the bell dinged and the doors opened. All three of them cautiously stepped into the dull, gray box.

Legolas pressed the button for the top floor and muttered to Aragorn, "If the wire snaps and we fall to our deaths, I'm blaming you."

Except for the loud noises of the neglected elevator, it worked fine. The doors slid open to a small staircase that led to the door outside. Out on the windy roof of the building, Legolas tried calling Sam's cell phone again while Aragorn and Frodo overlooked the deteriorating city.

As they watched the streets, police cars came screeching to a halt in front of a group of possessed people. Gunshots filled the air, making the boys on the rooftop duck out of instinct. The host bodies jerked from the impact of the bullets and blood burst from their bodies onto the street. Once the hosts were truly dead, the Parasites detached themselves from their former hosts. Then, they emitted a warbling sound when saw the armed men and women.

In an instant, a screeching was heard and a group of six Neos came running down the adjacent street. The police shot round after round of bullets at them, but none of them ever hit the demons. Each time a bullet seemed to hit one, it hit a sort of invisible barrier.

"Looks like Galadriel and Gandalf were right," commented Frodo. "Normal people with normal weapons can't hurt them."

Taking advantage of the police's distraction, the Parasites pounced on their necks and began to drill a hole at the base of their skulls to take over their minds. They made the hosts destroy the rest of the cops who weren't controlled. After the job was done, the hosts went back into their cars and drove away.

The Neos started to gorge on the fresh human meat and more started to gather for the feast.

Legolas hung up on his cell phone and went over to the ledge where Aragorn and Frodo were looking at the horrendous event on the street below them.

"The others managed to escape fast enough in Gandalf's car into the woods on the other side of the city," he told them. "They said to stay here at the warehouse. They're going to call back in a couple hours."

Aragorn vaguely nodded and continued to look over the city.

A bitter wind picked up their hair and their coats and waved them into the air. The sky grew darker and large snowflakes started to fall on the dark, deserted city. A tear rolled down Legolas' cheek and onto the ledge.

"Happy New Year."