Disclaimer: The Lord of the Rings is not mine. Independence Day and The Phantom of the Opera, both of which I quote in here, are not mine, either.

Chapter Twenty
The Final Threshold

"Well, Denethor," Aragorn smiled. "I'll have to give you this one: y'all certainly have great food here. Not that it compares to Rivendell . . ."

"And exactly what is so great about Rivendell?" Denethor demanded.

Everyone groaned. For the past hour, Denethor and Aragorn had done nothing but eat and argue, and had done considerably more of the latter. They were all sick of it, but Aragorn actually seemed to be enjoying himself now. While Denethor was still frustrated with being blindfolded, Aragorn seemed a natural, and was eating as easily with one hand as with two.

"The chicken might be easier if you'd just pick it up," Gimli suggested as the Steward picked at the meat with his fork, trying to figure out how to hold it and a knife in the same hand.

Aragorn grinned. "Hey, Legolas, would you throw me a Milky Way?" The Elf tossed it expertly to Aragorn's open hand. The Ranger tore the wrapper open with his teeth.

"That's not good for you," Sam pointed out.

"Which one?" Frodo asked. "Tearing it with his teeth or eating too much candy?"

"Like any of us could complain about someone eating too much candy," Pippin laughed between bites of a Hershey bar.

"Good point," Sam nodded, opening a Snickers.

"This is ridiculous!" Denethor complained. "This is my house! Mine! My own! And I'm sitting here blindfolded and tied to this filthy Ranger from the wild! In my own City! Mine!"

"My Preciousssss," Gollum hissed, and everyone but Denethor burst out laughing.

"It's not funny!" Denethor screamed above the noise. "I demand to be set free immediately!"

Merry yawned. "This is getting repetitive, isn't it, Pip?"

Pippin nodded. "Sure is. What do you think, Gandalf?"

"I think Denethor is right on one count. We should not be here in his City. We should be on our way to Mount Doom."

Groans came from various members of the Company; none were eager to set out again.

Pippin jumped up on a table. "Come on, y'all! Are you telling me you want to stop here and rest when we're so close to the end?"

"Yes!" everyone chorused.

"What?" Boromir demanded, jumping up next to Pippin. "What are you, a bunch of cowards? You want to stay here and wait for the end? No, we must press on, to whatever end may await us! Oh, the road may be dark and long, and none of us may know what we may find at the end, but I believe in my heart, my brothers, that it will be worth it! Let this be the day that will live forever in the history of our City! The day when darkness is conquered by light and Vanilla-Cream! The day when we declare with one voice: We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Let this be the day that our children and our children's children and our children's children's children and their children will forever remember! Let us go forth, perhaps to danger and darkness, but never to despair! Hope is ours! Courage is ours! And we shall win the day!"

Everyone stared for a moment and then burst forth into the loudest applause Pippin had ever heard. Boromir lifted the Hobbit onto his shoulders and shouted along with the rest of them. Even Denethor and Aragorn had stopped fighting, and were hollering along with the rest. Faramir hoisted Merry onto his shoulders and Boromir gave him a hand up onto the table, cheering and shouting.

"That was amazing, Boromir," Faramir grinned, "especially since you didn't agree with us at the start."

"Oh, the idea grows on you. I mean, it's completely unique. How many people would think destroying something like this was a good idea?"

"Well, apparently, all these guys."

"Oh, they're just on a sugar high. Trust me, right now, they'd cheer for anything."

"You even got father to cheer."

"For me, not the idea."

"Still, it's a start."

"I suppose so."

"Just one question," Merry called above the cheering.

"Shoot!" Boromir called back.

"Well, now that you've gotten all these people hyped about the Quest, aren't they gonna want to come with us?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, the entire point of this was speed and secrecy. These guys aren't exactly speedy or secret-y."

"Hmmmm, good point," Pippin nodded. "Maybe we shouldn't bring them."

"How do we tell them that?" Faramir laughed.

"You're right," Pippin agreed. "We'll have to sneak off. Come on!" The four of them crept out of the room.

"Okay," Boromir said. "We snuck off. Now what?"

But Pippin just stared out into the East, wide-eyed. "We actually did it! We snuck away! We're going! Just the four of us."

Merry caught the look of fright that briefly passed over Pippin's face. "You know, if you want, we could go back and get the others."

Pippin looked at his friend, then up at the sons of the Steward of Gondor. "No," he said finally. "If we go back, we'll never get out again, and with all those people with us, we'd have no chance. We have to go on. We've passed the point of no return."

"Come again?" Boromir asked. "We've passed what?"

"The point of no return," Pippin repeated, then began to sing softly.

"Past the point of no return
The final threshold
The bridge is crossed now
So stand and watch it burn
We've passed the point of no return."

Boromir raised an eyebrow. "I liked your other song better. Magic to Do. Corner of the Sky. This was just . . . creepy. Very un-Hobbit-like."

Pippin grinned. "Good, that's what it was supposed to be. Creepy. Spooky."

"Well, it worked," Merry nodded. "Come on, let's go."

"Gandalf!" Legolas shouted. "Gandalf! Gandalf the Vanilla-Cream!"

"What?" the Vanilla-Cream Wizard demanded.

"Pippin – he's gone. Merry, too, and Boromir and Faramir."

Denethor whirled around, twisting his arm. "What? Boromir is gone? This is all Faramir's fault! Where could he be?"

"Cool it, Denethor," Aragorn sighed. "They're probably all together. Did you really think they'd go off to Mordor with all of us on their tail?"

"Well, we'll follow them, right?" Frodo asked.

Gandalf shook his head. "No, at least not into Mordor. Pippin's fate is no longer in our hands. But we could try to create a distraction."

"Diversion," Legolas corrected.

"Whatever. We can go fight the Orcs."

"What Orcs?" Sam asked.

"The ones that will be coming out of Mordor," Gandalf shrugged. "Probably the Nazgul, too, and a couple dozen trolls, and maybe some Oliphants."

"Oliphants?" Sam beamed.

"Yes, Sam, and they should be here any time now."

"How do you know?" Sam asked.

Gandalf grinned. "Well, that would be telling, now, wouldn't it?"

"Precioussss!" shrieked a voice.

Pippin whirled around. "Gollum! What are you doing here?"

"Must get the Preciousss, yesss, Preciousssss. Gollum! Gollum!"

"Well, you're not going to get it, so scram."

"No, no, must stay with nassssty Hobbitsssess."

"Why?"

"We knowsss a way into Mordor."

"Yeah, the Black Gate," Boromir shrugged. "Everyone knows about that."

"No, Smeagol knowssss other way, ssssecret way."

Faramir yawned. "Yeah. Cirith Ungol. Everyone knows about that, too."

Gollum looked panicked. "Well, Smeagol . . . um, Smeagol knows way to candy hoard inside passage above Cirith Ungol, can find candy and treatssss, yess, Precioussss."

Pippin grinned and held out his hand. "Good to have you with us, Smeagol."

xWhit3StaRx -- I haven't reviewed much in a while, either. I've been really busy. My sister and I were cast as Mr. and Mrs. Beaver in a church produciton of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, so now I have lines to memorize and have to put up with here trying out different high, squeaky voices. :) Not that I really mind; it's great. But between that and school, I don't have a lot of time even now that cross-country is over.Which is my excuse for not having updated this in forever. :)

Gir the Insane Flamin Ninja -- Hmmm, Frodo and Sam don't talk much. Will definitely have to work on that. :)

The Mushroom Commander -- Well, I can't blame you for wanting to see it; it's terrible, but it's definitley good for a laugh. If you want to see something really funny that isn't terrible, though, VeggieTales just came out with The Lord of the Bean and it is hilarious how much they took from the movies. :) (I have a four-year-old brother; I'm allowed to watch these things.)

Jedi Knight 247 -- Yes, Pippin's plan is working for the moment. :) Wow. He should have ideas more often.

Ice Ember -- Hmmm, well, things have to get worse before they can get better. Sometimes. Jurassic Park erupted into total chaos before . . . well, that didn't exactly get better. Never mind.