I CAPTURE THE SUN

Pairings: Buffy/Legolas. I might as well point out that at this point, it will be eventual

Teaser: Buffy ends up in Heaven, which happens to be Middle-Earth. But not everything is as heavenly as it seems as she's come in the middle of a war and finds a piece of Heaven worth fighting for.

Rating: T, by the new fanfiction standards. There is a little blood and gore, but that is about it. It should be suitable for anyone who has ever read Tolkien or watched the show.

Summary: Buffy's version of Heaven is Middle-Earth. When she arrives, she is brought to a clan of fighting women. Seeing this as her eternal reward for fighting and killing on Earth, Buffy is only too happy to return to her roots - until she is captured by the Elves and begins to learn there's a whole lot more worth fighting for... in Heaven.

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon. The 'Lord of the Rings' book series belongs to J.R.R. Tolkien. The plot is (hopefully) my own.

Timeline: The story is currently set approximately fifty years before the start of the Fellowship. The story is currently twenty years and less before the start of the Fellowship.

Gratitudes: The last section was rather depressing. I will even admit it, and I wrote it. But, in the end, things will work out well. I can only tell you of this now, considering right now it looks like I'm out to separate and destroy what fragile relationships Buffy had. Oh, and my apologies for waiting more than a full month to post again. It seemed a foolish decision, but my time has been rather occupied with far more important things than writing.

Sukera – thank you very much.

DracoandBuffyLover – I only did what I did to stop the cliché! Trust me, she will return quickly. As thirty years passed where she was, only five months have passed in Sunnydale. That means that there are six years per month. She will return to see a King return to Minas Tirith. She will return in time to actually fight in the final assault on the Mirkwood forest. I suppose that was a naughty spoiler to pass along, but there will be a happy ending. This is just Buffy's opportunity to see how badly her death affected her friends and how important her new destiny was to her.

Almadynis – Actually, it was Willow's spell. The only reason I thought to use this now would be for Buffy to not spend the next how many years going through the Fellowship, yadda yadda. I decided to go against the cliché and actually put her back into this world in the end. You'll see what I mean in a few chapters. And she –will– get her happy ending.

Marcus aure1ius – I hate to tell you, but the Amazons will return. They have a much larger part in the story, I fear. The only reason why this story will not carry through the great war is because I felt it is a bit too cliché for Buffy to suddenly appear, kick ass and somehow manage to prevent what is such a near disaster from occurring. Buffy was truly immortal, hence a shadow that could have been swayed to join either side. She just happened on the side of good when she was "rescued" by the humans she later took charge of. Buffy will return to Arda once her role in Sunnydale is complete AND once the war is near an end.

Part Summary: The bittersweet aftermath of a tragic spell forces a young Slayer to realize that her destiny has been forced to change, yet again.

Notes: The only reason I did it this way was to ensure that Buffy would not be forced to toddle along with the Fellowship. Had Buffy been in Middle-earth much longer, she would have been recaptured by the Nazgûl. Not only that, but rescue would have been long in coming. Aragorn and the Rangers by now have been holding watch over the Shire and Dol Guldur has been keeping the Elves in both Lothlórien and Mirkwood on their toes. Considering that the extent of this event would be that Sauron would defeat them all, well… Buffy would be better off back in Sunnydale for the time being. She will return to Arda. It is simply a matter of time. This is a series of shorter Sunnydale-touched chapters we'll be visiting. This entire story is twenty parts long… do enjoy!

x-x-x-x

Part XIII

x-x-x-x

The air around her was stifling. It felt as though she were suffocating again. All at once, her senses seemed to rush back, and she felt as though her body was being torn apart by sheer inertia. At last, things seemed to settle as she felt a jarring motion before her eyes opened and she inhaled sharply. Once. Twice. The air was so dank that she felt her lungs protest the dry, dusty air.

All at once, everything seemed wrong. She was still in the forest, awaiting the arrival of the Elves. She just had to be.

Her vision was blurred as she stared upwards. Lifting her hands, she pushed forward, only to come into contact of a hard object about six inches from her face. Blinking, she pushed against it. She tried taking in another breath, but the oxygen wasn't giving inside these close quarters.

Her mind suddenly spun around another possibility: what if she was actually alive? She had not been alive before. She hadn't needed the air before. She had been dead. For some reason, she had shown up in a completely different world at a completely different time devoid of the need to breathe oxygen that she so desperately needed now. She was close to blacking out; the time to escape had come. As her mind tucked away thoughts of Legolas and that wretched Gollum, she pushed forward again, her fists clumsily knocking apart the crudely hewn boards. As she moved, bits of earth and dead things fell into her face, but she made no move to surrender her life again, although the temptation was clearly there. Someone had wanted her out of the way, that much was certain. They had been willing to push her away from those who needed her. Was she that invaluable? Or was she completely and utterly worthless to their cause? She was going to have to kick some asses as soon as she got out of this predicament. And then she was going to have to question why she needed to breathe in the first place.

It was a long crawl from the cold box through the moist earth. When she finally broke through the surface, she took a deep, shuddering breath that left her body exhausted and trembling. Collapsing back on the earth, she pulled herself from the hole in the ground before getting carefully to her knees. It was then she realized what she was wearing. It was black and fuzzy, as her vision had yet to clear, but one thing was for certain – she was no longer wearing her beautiful Elvish things. Where those had disappeared to, she did not know, but there would be hell to pay once she discovered who had removed them from her self. They had been her favorite attire for quite some time now.

Something felt oddly different about standing in this place. Everything was darker. The lights were sharper. The air was thicker. It was so much harder to breathe. She felt her breath quickly catch in her throat and forced herself to inhale as she felt woozy once again. She had to keep breathing if she was ever to figure out what was going on.

This had to be a dream of some kind. Or a trick. Saruman's betrayal had been made known to her. Surely he would have had something to do with this. It was his witchcraft, after all, that turned him to the side of darkness and evil. The Nazgûl would have kept her for themselves she knew. She felt a small smile tug on her lips. At least this way her skills would be impossible for Sauron to attain. Unless, she thought, the smile sliding off of her face, this was Mordor. Could some trick of light actually have sent her the hundreds of miles to the south into the domain of the enemy?

Was this Hell?

She had to know more. All she had to do was place one foot in front of the next. It was as simple as that. Almost as simple as breathing, she thought to herself dryly. As soon as she saw an Orc, she was going to kill it. There was no way she would bend to the might and will of some ancient moron who thought her better a trophy prize than a worthy adversary. She was devoted to the Elves that she had allied herself to. She wasn't going to give into the darkness now, no matter what they threw at her.

Was that fire? She crept closer, her eyes narrowing against the bright contrast of light. Lifting her hand, she pushed it close and winced as she felt the excruciating heat. She should never have been able to feel it. She was supposed to be dead. Invulnerable, but not invincible. This was definitely not supposed to be happening to her.

She felt the first flutter of panic in a long while as she twisted in a circle, her eyes taking in her surroundings. She couldn't quite see the burning houses yet, but the fires set in tins in the middle of the street were more than apparent to her.

This had to be Sauron's doing. And she was going to make him pay dearly.

She took another step forward, but her foot found the inopportune time to find a solid object and Buffy felt herself tripping over an old kid's bicycle. As she landed, she felt towards her ankle and bristled, moving quickly to stand again. This time, she could see the house maybe a hundred yards before her. There was a man in the doorway, holding a stick and threatening to shoot her if she moved any closer. Well, that obviously wasn't the way to go.

Though the fog was still clinging to her mind, she knew something was wrong. Men in Middle-earth did not carry sticks that could sprout fire. They carried swords that could maim and detach limbs at will. They also did not ride bicycles, but horses and moved about on foot. Something wasn't right and it was becoming more and more apparent to her that she was no longer in Middle-earth.

So then… where was she?

x-x-x

Even as more than a hundred Elves had scanned the area thoroughly, Legolas refused to believe that the woman had just disappeared into thin air. Such a thing was not possible, even for Elves of great wisdom or Wizards of great power. He had even called in a favor to Strider, his Ranger friend from the north, who came as soon as he heard of Legolas' desolate plight. Strider and the few Rangers he had brought along quickly moved along the hill towards the river, but found no signs of evidence that pointed to the Nazgûl's responsibility in this disaster.

Strider was somewhat puzzled by Legolas' persistence that Buffy could not have disappeared on her own.

"You know that she is far capable of more," Strider said quietly as he gently cleaned his face with a rag drawn from the stream. "She has powers we cannot begin to understand."

"I saw it with my own eyes," Legolas replied, his own azure gaze scanning the horizon as though searching it for answers. "I do not believe that she would have gone astray."

"She could have gone deeper into the forest," Strider pointed out, gesturing to the wide variety of trees that lay beyond. "She is known for her skill at remaining unseen."

Yet Legolas refused to believe him. Shaking his fair head, he intoned, "She would not abandon my father, whose sole wish was for her allegiance. She is a woman of honor and her word was once held high. For her to leave at such a time would be to break her word and condemn herself as an enemy of the Woodland Realm." As much as he longed to say it, he wished that she would not have abandoned him as well, for he did hold her in highest regards and his feelings for her had been clear in his persistent search. Strider was quite startled to see his friend's reaction to her disappearance and it was perhaps this, more than anything else, that had led him to agree to lend himself and his fellow Rangers to investigate what had happened.

Strider sighed and rose to his feet, tossing the rag back onto the stump at his feet. "You should see that she will not return," he said in what he hoped to be a gentle, yet firm tone. Legolas had the ability to sometimes see things as they were not and felt that at this time he was behaving like so. "If she wishes to be found, she will make her presence known. Until that day comes, we have a creature of darkness to find."

Legolas gave his head the slightest nod. He had a feeling that Thranduil would be much more upset at the loss of Gollum than a certain blonde woman who had yet to reveal her whereabouts. Still, he thought to himself, something was not exactly right. Something was definitely wrong and somehow, he knew he had seen the last of his slayer.

The Ranger and the Elven Prince quickly gathered what forces they had and began the long journey south in the futile search of the creature Gollum. As they continued to move, a solitary figure watched from above, startled at the newest revelation that the Lady of Shadows had departed this world forever.

His Master was not going to be pleased at all. In fact, Sauron would be most angered when he realized his greatest prize had escaped with naught but a scream. They had felt her presence slip away, her darkness ebb to nothing. As strong as she was, she was no longer amongst them. She had departed, perhaps forever.

Turning, the Lord of the Nazgûl fled deeper into the treetops. Far below, the Rangers and Elves moved out of sight.

x-x-x

As her sight continued to return, Buffy found herself wandering around aimlessly. There were the strangest sounds coming from all around her: a horn honking, a gun blasting off, the sound of glass shattering. It was all so foreign to her, she thought miserably as she continued to walk to and fro.

She was starting to feel cold. Breathing was easier now, but every single gasp brought the truth even more painfully closer than she wanted to admit. For the first time in her life, she wished she was back in that forest, where the Elves could befriend her, the Nazgûl could threaten her and the King would continue to mock her.

It was when she heard her own voice did she turn her head. Far off in the distance, her eyes scanned a group of flaming cans and men wearing strange masks standing in a circle around a solitary figure. For a moment, it took her breath away. From this angle, it almost looked like Daire. But the woman was talking with a voice eerily familiar to her own. Her eyes narrowed, as though she were gazing at herself through a crystal ball.

Now Saruman was capable of such tricks, she thought bitterly, forced to watch as an outsider as the figures closed around her. Twelve against one were precarious odds, but anyone that she had trained had been trained to survive. Had this woman had the option, she would have escaped by now. There was the sound of gunning engines as the motorcycles moved.

Enough was enough, she thought, desperation suddenly clouding her better judgment. She had half a mind to reach for her sword, only to feel her empty belt and know it was no longer there. Instead, she found her voice and trusted it enough to scream, "NO!"

But it was far too late. The woman went down in pieces and Buffy felt her voice cut off abruptly short. Finding her own strength was one thing, but watching herself die was something else completely. What she didn't realize was that her voice had caught the attention of the masked attackers. As one turned to her, she felt a shudder rip through her body as she saw that the man's face was not a mask, but some demonic interpretation of something that could only be described as a face.

She took her last option. She ran. She darted amongst the whining machines and twirled and dove beneath swinging arms and chains. Once she was clear, she heard their voices mocking her, but her only thought was to find a nice dark corner and regroup. Her sight was still fuzzy and she needed that above all, as her senses were one of her most important assets. She soon found herself at a wall and easily scaled it, dropping down the other side. It was safer here, she thought, cuddling into the corner and wrapping her cold arms around her trembling body.

She had never wanted to be in Middle-earth more, she thought bitterly, wiping the blood from her lips. Coughing, she dropped her head to her knees and felt the first choke come from within her. Her first words were not of this world, but of the one she had been ripped from, torn from. She belonged there. She was needed there. Surely someone could see that and see that she wasn't where she was supposed to be. Surely someone had to hear her cry, feel the deep torrents of pain that were coursing through her entire being. She wanted ever so desperately to pretend that this was all a dream, but just looking at the loss of her sword was evidence enough that she was not where she wanted to be. A hot tear trickled down her cheek and she quickly brushed it away, already hearing the voices of the Elves as they gently chided her powerful emotions as being her greatest power. They were, along with her senses and her sense of belonging. She belonged there. She didn't know where here was.

Before she could even think about what to do next, she heard footsteps approaching and, through the fog, someone was calling her name. Glancing up, her vision had cleared enough to take in a redhead and a brunet, both of them staring at her in disbelief. What exactly was 'the bot' and why were they talking to her as though she were some inanimate object? She was an immortal object, feared and loathed, cherished and forsaken. She was certainly not inanimate!

The brunet reached for her hand, but she pulled sharply away, sending him her fiercest look. He recoiled, a look of startled realization creeping across his face. "Buffy?" he asked quietly.

"What," she choked out, feeling as though her mouth was full of ashes. "What else… did you expect?" she asked, dragging her long gaze to stare back up at him.

He blinked, startled at her reaction. But her gaze moved back down to her knees and she buried her face into her kneecaps, hiding away from the world that seemed so much like hell to her.

"Buffy…" the redhead spoke, reaching for her, but Buffy's cold arm knocked the other away.

"Don't," she said, lifting her war-weary eyes. "Don't tell me where I am. I will never believe you!"

"Is it really you?" the curvy blonde on the other side of the redhead asked, her eyes widening as Buffy turned her sharp gaze to her.

"Of course it's me," she spat out, coughing slightly. Seeing her bruised, bloody knuckles, she blanched.

"How did…" another blonde asked, staring at her, blinking uncomprehendingly.

Obviously, these people were exceedingly stupid. Even Siri had been more intelligent than this.

"The Wizard," she mumbled, pressing her bruised hands to her lips and shaking her head. "The damned Wizard… he did this."

"The only Wizard is the one you read about in those stupid kids books," the brunet said, now looking worried. He and the redhead exchanged a concerned look.

Buffy shook her head bitterly, but before she could speak, the brunet spoke again.

"It is you, isn't it?" he asked, and before he received another sharp reply, he continued on brusquely. "We brought you out… and we left you right where you were buried."

These words had a strange effect on her. She gave the brunet an inquisitional look before frowning slightly. His name suddenly came to her mind, but before she could say it, it disappeared again. "You…" she whispered, feeling the anger and rage swell. "You did this to me? Are you some Wizard's pupil?"

"Xander, what is she talking about?" the blonde asked, tugging at his arm. She was looking extremely worried, but Buffy was getting to her feet, her fists clenching at her sides.

"What did you do to me?" she demanded, a hint of a sob in her voice. "Do you have any idea what you have done?"

Before Xander could answer her, the demons that had been tracking her caught up with them and they found themselves trapped in a corner with a group of pissed off demons, thrilled at the challenge of fighting off the one true Slayer.

x-x-x

Many days had passed since the blonde woman who had thrived in the forest had briskly departed it. The Nazgûl had been sent down to Mordor with their newest prize, the evil creature Gollum. Although Sauron was thrilled at his trophy, he was angered at the loss of the woman he had counted on.

His Nazgûl would be punished, he thought, his own soul bubbling and scheming within the confines of the single red eye. As soon as things were prepared, they would suffer him.

But things had to be moved forward. Her loss would only mean one thing: that the powers of good still left in this wretched world were caught off-guard. They needed to be taken down. Immediately.

Instead of punishing the old Witch-King, Sauron gave him the biggest task at hand: to bring to him all of his forces from abroad.

And it was in that moment that the Great War began.

x-x-x

After a few minutes in which she had strung a few demons and slaughtered the others, she had gone running. That was when she had seen the Tower.

It was all coming back to her, memory after agonizing memory. She soon found herself staring into the same black abyss below her as she stood atop the platform, watching the entire world become still and heard only her own troubled thoughts.

"Dawnie," she whispered, her sister's name appearing on her tongue. "Dawn… be brave… live…"

She closed her eyes. This wasn't living. This was Hell. She had been somewhere else. She had been safe there. Nothing could hurt her. Nothing could save her. She existed with the purpose to stop evil. The only problem was… she lifted her bleeding hands and cradled them, more tears streaking down her pale cheeks. She longed for the security of the world she had left behind. She wanted it more than anything in this world. She took another precarious step forwards, but it was the scream behind her that startled her. Turning her head, she caught sight of a young woman standing behind her.

"Buffy, don't do it!" the voice begged. "Please… don't jump."

"I have to," Buffy mouthed, turning to glance at the abyss waiting for her. It was her only salvation. She had to do it. She had to get back! "This… this…"

"Buffy, please! I tried to be strong," the voice continued. Buffy was forcibly reminded of a very young Daire and her rather whiny tones. "I tried to live. You said that the hardest thing in this world is to live in it. I need you to be strong now. I need you to live… for me!"

Buffy continued to remain silent, staring into the gaping hole. Her mind was becoming clearer. She was prepared to make a sacrifice again. She wasn't sure what the first one had been, or if there had been more before the "again", but she had to do something. This wasn't her world.

"Please," the voice begged again, this time sounding tearful. "Buffy, say something."

She sounded angry now. Turning, Buffy met the azure eyes of the younger woman before quietly asking, "Is this Hell? Is this Hell?"

"Buffy, no!" the woman said, looking relieved that Buffy was thinking only of a Hell and not of taking the leap her mind was already mentally doing. "This isn't Hell. This is home!"

Home? Her home was in the forest, her solitude remaining in the trees. She wasn't really sure what this was. "No," she said, turning to look at the younger woman. "This isn't home. Not anymore."

"I don't know where you've been or what you've been through, but I've needed you," the woman insisted.

So, this was Dawn, she thought to herself. This was her… sister? She had a sister?

Buffy found herself shaking her head as the platform they were standing on top of began to tremble in a sudden gust of wind. She felt her breath catch into her throat and felt the song of so many promises on the cold wind. I'm coming, she heard herself breathe, I'll be there soon.

But not today.

She had to know more. She had to know who had brought her back and why. Taking a step forward, there was an almighty screech of metal and the platform around them began falling apart. Her Slayer libido kicked in and she found herself grabbing onto her sister and reaching for the last thing she could think of – a rope suspended over a hundred feet in the air. She found herself in a magnificent freefall and nearly fell deaf from the child screeching in her ear. When at last the rope had jerked to a stop, they were well above thirty feet from solid ground. But they had no choice. The metal pieces were starting to fall and she soon released the rope and both women fell to the Earth. The moment they had landed, Buffy dragged Dawn from the falling debris and soon both sisters were safely tucked behind a stack of boxes.

She felt a warm hand on her cold cheek and turned to see Dawn's eyes shining with tears. "Buffy?" she asked, sniffling slightly.

But Buffy didn't answer. She was too busy staring straight forward. As Dawn threw her arms around her, Buffy didn't react. She just stared outwards, feeling lost. It was almost like being a child again, she thought sadly as the sisters parted. Feeling her old self take over, Buffy said that perhaps it was time to return home. Dawn, startled by Buffy's rather formal language, was inclined to follow.

"We need to take care of these," Dawn said, holding Buffy's wrist and examining her bruised, bloodied palm. "You look terrible."

Buffy let Dawn take her arm and lead her through the empty streets. The demons were gone, but the damage and destruction they'd left behind was still burning or littering the streets. Dawn found herself going back to collect her fallen sister. Buffy still hadn't spoken a word, but kept that hopeless expression on her face. She knew that her sister had kicked some major ass, Dawn thought with a fierce smile. She just wasn't sure why Buffy was acting the way she was.

But the Slayer knew exactly why she felt so cold and dead inside. This wasn't her world anymore. They had made it theirs. She had her arena… and it had been her foolish choice to not take her one last opportunity to return to it. She barely glanced at the debris as they stepped around it. Instead, she felt even more like an idiot.

But, she promised herself, she would return. One day, even if it took the rest of her so-called life, she was going to go back. That world needed her.

She had no idea how much this one had, too.

x-x-x-x

In the next section, we find out what happened to Siri and the others. We also discover what happens when Buffy goes back to the one person she may or may not trust.