Anna awoke to an empty, dark room. Pippin had been taken by Gandalf as they talked in hushed voices to avoid waking Anna. Pippin had told Gandalf how late she had gone to bed the night before but did not mention the hollowed states she came in. They left her to sleep the morning away and wake thinking it was still night. But she smelled the air and it warned her of a coming storm and carried with it the dry taste of ash.

She moved without knowing she was moving, somehow finding Gandalf after his escapade to burn the beacons. The unnatural darkness on the day, smothering the city in its atmosphere, plus what was happening inside her made her distant. Quite unusual actually when, most of the time, she would be curiously embedded in others business.

She stopped short in front of the wizard. 'Gandalf, what are you doing here?' Ah, the old Anna.

'Nothing,' he huffed. 'Just,' he pointed to the beacon on the mountains, 'just looking at the sights.' Now he turned to her. 'And how is dear Anna doing?'

She looked at him blankly. Never had she realized she was the same height as the dear wizard until now when she looked straight into his eyes. He had always seemed taller before, or she had pictured herself smaller before. 'She is tired,' a deep voice emitted from her mouth, 'and scared.'

She blinked and her pulse raced. 'Gandalf!' Anna reached out a hand for him but found no grasp, nor did she feel the hold around her as she was forced to sit at a bench. Gandalf could see the light in her eyes burning and receding at a faster pace now. Her eyes did not see.

'What did you find? What did you see?' Gandalf asked her.

'I am not that weird elf.'

'The odd elf child?'

'Yes, that, from Hollin. I can not be that girl.' She stood, not being able to sit still because of nervousness. 'She was from a group of dark hair, black hair. Even the higher ones had blonde hair, not brown,' she insisted as she pulled at her own hair.

'Why do you think you keep finding yourself in Hollin?' Gandalf tried showing her as she paced in front of him. 'You are attracted always to your homeland, are you not?'

'But I also find myself near Mordor as well,' she added, quickly getting over the fact that Gandalf knew her stays at Hollin and threw it to the Dwarves' legend on her.

'That is about another matter that we will get to soon enough,' Gandalf replied not wanting to scare her just yet. She looked tense enough. 'And as for your hair, yes, your hair is not as dark as the others but that is the blessing of having a father that is one of the high elves.' Anna looked at him. 'Yes, I was there on your birth day. The politics around your family had not stopped them giving the last elf born of that tribe in Middle-Earth the ceremony she needed.'

As the thought of that girl being her, she cracked again. 'How could they do that to me? How could they just leave me here?'

'To take care of this earth,' Gandalf interrupted. 'To not take away the gift to the Maiar.'

'Why, why would they do that? It was not my decision!' She stood still in front of the wizard. 'Gandalf, she is taking over my body and my voice. I have no control!'

As she rubbed her arms to ward the chill coming to her form fear rather than from a breeze. 'I know,' he said in a most understanding tone. 'It reminds you of when Saruman controlled your body.' This time, Anna did not need to look up. 'That was a mistake. Ilmare was setting you to be open for her to take control. She did not know Saruman had turned and would take advantage of the situation.' He paused. 'She has made you cautious now and for goof reason, too. It is time now, though, and I can assure you, you are in good hands this time.' Anna's pacing continued and Gandalf followed her with his eyes. 'She is more like you than you think. The day you parted from your family, she had protected you and still does. In that way, she has also imparted some of her traits unto you. More times than not, actually, you remind me of her at times, when I know you were not in her control.'

Finally, Ann sat next to Gandalf and a ragged sigh escaped her lips. Gandalf looked up into the black clouded sky blocking out the sun, setting the city in a perpetual twilight. 'Odd weather we are having,' Gandalf said in his usual humor most often found with the hobbits, and there, Pippin was, just escaping in the opposite direction from the rest of the crows. The conversation sounded like just the hobbit conversation he would want to listen in on though when he looked at the two looking out onto the blackened world, he was reminded of all they knew of it because of their travels and in other ways as well. Pippin wondered to himself in what far place and time did Gandalf really come from, for also, the strange gaze of Anna made him think her mind was there as well.

'Nay,' Anna added and Gandalf knew what was coming. 'This is not weather of the world. This is some device of his malice; some broil of fume from the Mountain of Fire that he sends to darken hearts and stars.' Her voice was a little deeper but Gandalf could tell little power was behind any of the words.

'Do you know,' said Gandalf, 'what Ilmare protected? She was the Maiar who protected the stars, through some system of weather and lightning that I never truly understood.' He looked over to her. 'That was what proved to me who had been protecting you all this time. Your mood often times was reflected through to the skies and its ways of crying and shouting.' He looked ahead again. 'I would only hope she has time to stop the stars from ever lighting this Middle-earth again as well as protecting its children.'

Pippin was thoroughly confused as to how such an innocent comment had turned morbid in tone, but in true hobbit fashion, he brought his eyes back down to something at the first gate. 'What is happening down there?'

'The Nazgul,' Gandalf uttered to himself. A bone chilling screech shattered through the air. 'Come on, Pippin.'

By the time Anna could place the recognition of the screech to a memory, she was following Gandalf into the stables. As he headed to Shadowfax, she opened the gate to her own horse.

Slam! 'You are not coming with me,' Gandalf commanded as he removed his hand from the gate.

'You cannot keep me here while the little one is allowed to go, old man,' she responded.

'I can and I will. Pippin needs to go with me so I can keep an eye on him. I cannot keep an eye on two separate horses and their riders.' Anna gave him a smoldering look. 'Wait at the front gate, keep the rest calmed.' She left but only a few minutes later, Gandalf overtook her and she had to run the rest of the way behind him.

It was the light form Gandalf's robes, the hope coming from his upraised staff that the black creatures left and veered away from. They fled away even as Anna still hoped to get closer to them, but they were gone now, only for now.