Allo everybody. The plot thickens dun, dun, dun. ;) Well, this will be the last cha-- ha fooled you there for a sec. :) This will be the last update until Tuesday seeing as Monday is the States Labour day and so my collage is closed...(also I gotta go down to the capital...grumbles stupid family gatherings...) so enjoy the chapter and have a great weekend. :)

Chapter twenty-nine

Captain Tripps

Following a nice cup of hot coca Gwen settled down with a fleece blanket and began reading. After about twenty pages or so she spit out a big gulp of hot coca across the room when she found out that Jack Thompson, Erik Pagnita, and the others were in the story. Now completely fanatical about the story, she dove in and wouldn't talk to anyone. She finished the first book at around four that night and continued right on with the second one. Nobody in the Great Hall could tear her attention away from the book as she dove deeper and deeper.

Sauron and Morgoth still lay sleeping with two heaters blowing on them and Goldberry sat next to them finishing up her needlepoint. At one point Goldberry had tried to ask Gwen when they should give more cold medicine to the two Dark Lords but she gave up within fifteen minutes of trying and ended up giving each one another full bottle.

Kisha decided not to hold the variety show that night, seeing as mostly everyone was not ready. She also knew that Gwen would love to be a part of the show but she was unapproachable at the moment. This gave the campers and staff more time to prepare for the variety show which would be held the next night.

At around ten at night Gwen finished book two and moved on to the last one. Mostly everyone in the Great Hall had fallen asleep save Goldberry who seemed obsessed with needlepoint. She had made Tom a few things to hang above the door and was now working on a set of emblems for the nine Nazgul that would go on their cloaks.

Some of the campers were still up playing cards and watching TV at two o'clock in the morning. They were the first to hear Gwen's frantic screaming that woke up everyone else, save the Dark Lords, from their peaceful sleep. Kisha turned on the lights in the Great Hall and watched as Gwen repeatedly beat Morgoth over the head with The Return of the Queen.

"You batard! I'll kill you!"

Kisha rolled her eyes and rushed over. She pushed Gwen away from Morgoth, who was still sleeping and acted as if he felt nothing. She took the book from her hands.

"Gwen! Stop! What's wrong?"

"His counterpart killed Erik!" she screamed.

Kisha's face contorted in confusion and then realisation. Gwen was talking about the alternate version of The Lord of the Rings that she had found in Connemara.

"Erik? Erik Pagnita?" Kisha asked.

Gwen nodded.

"Yes! Saurian reclaims her necklace and brings Morgatha back and she picks Erik up by the neck and he burst into flames!"

Kisha thought for a moment.

"Wow that sounds awfully familiar."

Gwen cocked her head in a thinking position and mulled it over.

"Well Sauron did that to Gil-Galad at the battle of the Last Alliance," Elrond put in.

"He did?" Gil-Galad asked as he rubbed his neck.

Elrond nodded.

"Sure he did. I was there. Where were you when you saw the lights?" Elrond asked.

Gil-Galad thought for a moment.

"Well we had just entered Rivendell and had begun forging for the Last Alliance."

Elrond nodded.

"I see."

"I get it now!" Kisha exclaimed after a long silence.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"Get what?" Gandalf asked.

"I get it all now! Our friends took your places in history and so they are acting it out, wrongly I might add, because there are no Valar to set it right. I'm sure if you read The Silmarillion you'll find the rest of our friends. Sure they're may be Valar who have taken the place of the ones who are here but because of them history is changing dramatically. Not only did Saurian win her necklace back and kill the fellowship, she also brought back Morgatha. This shows that only in the original circumstance can the ring, or necklace, or whatever be destroyed!"

"What?" Gwen asked.

"You read fan fiction right Gwen?"

Gwen nodded.

"You've read stories that have included a tenth walker?"

She nodded.

"What's a tenth walker?" Aragorn asked.

"It's when the fellowship gets aid from another being and this person is normally perfect in every way type thing. It's completely messed up but any who, these stories can't occur because of the ending. If a writer included a tenth walker, it messes up the story indefinitely therefore the ring, or whatever objects in question, will never be destroyed. It's also the same of killing a character too soon or changing even the smallest thing. The only reason the ring was destroyed was because it followed a strict line. If someone tampers with the line then the ring can't be destroyed. It would be utterly impossible."

"Do you have an example for this?" Gwen asked sitting down on one of the couches. For the time being she forgot about Erik and the others in the alternate book version.

"Well sure. Here's an easy one. Let's say that Gollum killed Sam instead of tricked Frodo into making him go away. How would that change things?"

Aragorn seemed to be catching on.

"Well, Frodo would still have been poisoned by Shelob but the ring would have fallen into the guards hands. Then the guards would have taken the ring to Sauron."

Kisha nodded.

"Exactly, someone else throw out an example I feel as if I'm on a roll," Kisha exclaimed.

By now the whole camp was up and listening to this talk and most seemed rather interested.

"Here's a tricky one for you," someone said. "What if Saruman never looked into the palantír? He would never have fallen under Sauron's spell. Wouldn't that be a good thing?"

Kisha thought about it for a moment and then her face dawned in recognition.

"Yes but then he would never have tossed down the palantír, therefore Pippin would have never looked into it and see the white tree of Gondor. Also Aragorn would have never mastered it. Gondor would have been attacked before anyone could do a thing about it and there might not have been the battle at the black gate which provided a distraction for Frodo and Sam."

"Man that's crazy," Gwen said.

Kisha nodded.

"Yes. I'm sure it works with every scenario. But now back to my point. When the lights appeared and sent our friends to Middle-earth and the Tolkien characters here, it changed the plot continuum. This whole event explains that nothing can change Middle-earth history and still have the ring destroyed. No Mary-Sue can destroy the ring, no character, other then the ones that have to, can die without effecting the destruction of the ring, and most importantly, no group of Earthlings can go into Middle-earth, take on the quest, and destroy the ring."

"What's a Mary-Sue?" Legolas asked.

Kisha and Gwen shuddered.

"You don't want to know…"

"Technically, Gwen, we could be considered Mary-Sues if this was a fan fiction," Kisha added.

"But it's not," she said and then looked around. "Is it?"

Kisha shrugged.

"Who knows?"

Some of the campers had then caught on.

"Wait a second…they're really from Middle-earth!" Kat exclaimed.

The Tolkien characters nodded.

"Well it took them two weeks and two days to figure it out," Kisha said.

"Wow, longer then what I thought," Gwen added.

"Legolas my love!" a camper screamed as she ran at Legolas. Legolas looked horrified and Gwen stood between the camper and the stunned elf.

"Back off Barbie! You've spent over two weeks with them anyway so what difference does it make? If you attack the staff you'll get a baseball bat to the head!"

The campers backed off and Gwen smiled.

"Good."

Sauron and Morgoth started sneezing again and this time Morgoth sat up, yawned and then shivered. He pulled his blanket in close and looked around.

"Why am I in the Great Hall?" he asked in a nasally voice.

"This is the only place that has heat. How are you feeling?" Gwen replied.

He shrugged.

"I don't know. My head feels warm but the rest of me feels cold…"

Gwen stood up and grabbed a bottle of cold medicine.

"Here, take this. Drink the whole bottle it'll make you feel better."

Morgoth looked at the bottle and then at Gwen sceptically.

"Are you trying to kill me?" he asked.

Gwen rolled her eyes.

"If I had been trying to kill you I would have done it while you were sleeping," Gwen replied. "Now drink the damn bottle."

Morgoth looked at her suspiciously again but pulled the camp off the bottle. He took a sip of the liquid and made a face.

"What the hell is this stuff?" he exclaimed taking the bottle away from his face.

"It's called Carrie Capson's Cold, flu, and sinus concoction. Now drink it! You'll feel better! I didn't drive in a snow storm to have you deny cold medication."

"Drink it Morgoth, you don't want to make her angry," Kisha warned.

"Fine! But if I die I'm going to come back and haunt you."

He then downed the bottle and grimaced. Gwen smiled.

"See that wasn't that bad. You know, I was looking in The Silmarillion and wasn't Angband in the north? So why did you catch the cold here? I mean honestly wasn't it colder up there?" she asked as she took the bottle from him and throwing it out in the trash.

Morgoth shrugged.

"I think it's colder here…" he replied.

Kisha laughed.

"Oh it's not so bad. Negative fifty-five is a mild winter," she said.

"You know, maybe the two caught it because their immunities were down due to other events that have happened these past few weeks," Gwen suggested.

Kisha shrugged.

"Don't know. Don't care. As long as they don't get the rest of the campers sick then it's not my problem."

Gwen rolled her eyes and smirked. Morgoth let off a string of sneezes.

"How long is this going to take to go away?" Morgoth asked after he stopped sneezing.

"Oh the common flu should take seven to ten days. Unless you have the super flu, in that case you'll get better but get the flu again. You'll get better a second time and then all of a sudden you'll die!"

Kisha nodded her head and knew what Gwen was doing. Inside she laughed and thought that sometimes Gwen could be really mean.

"Such a scary thought the super flu is. My cousin in Hackensack got Captain Tripps and he was dead within five days."

Gwen nodded and looked sympathetic.

"Do you remember Donny who worked in accounting at the oil company?" she said to Kisha.

"Don't tell me she got Captain Tripps too!"

Gwen nodded.

"I'm afraid so."

Morgoth looked at Gwen and then at Kisha and then back to Gwen. In his eyes Gwen knew that there was some fright behind them. Inside she smirked.

"Is this Captain Tripps real?" Manwë asked.

Gwen and Kisha nodded and sighed sadly.

"Yes, if the two Dark Lords have it then there's no cure. They'll be dead by the end of the week. It's funny how the smallest things can do someone in. The two have survived over two weeks with stupid pranks and now it appears as if Captain Tripps is going to kill them. Sad really," Gwen replied sincerely.

"You're lying!" Morgoth exclaimed.

By now most of the campers had caught on to what Gwen and Kisha were doing and they helped her.

"It's true you know," a camper said.

"Yes my Aunt Mabel got Captain Tripps four weeks ago."

"Is she still alive?" Morgoth asked.

The camper shook her head.

"Nope."

Gwen looked curiously at Morgoth.

"Why Morgoth, you're looking better. Do you feel better?" she asked.

"A little…"

Kisha shook her head.

"Oh he definitely has Captain Tripps," she said.

Some of the campers moaned.

"He has it! I got twenty bucks that in four days he's dead as a doornail!" Dennis exclaimed.

Kash pulled out a twenty.

"I say five days!"

"I'll take next Wednesday," Tammy added.

"Thursday for me." Someone added.

Morgoth jumped off the couch.

"Stop betting on my death!" he bellowed.

Gwen grinned.

"Morgoth you should lie down. I'm concerned about your safety."

It was then that Sauron awoke. His nose was running and he started coughing.

"Oh no! Sauron has an advanced form of it!" Kisha exclaimed.

Sauron looked up at Kisha.

"Advanced form of what?"

Gwen and Kisha looked away.

"I can't bear to tell him. Morgoth you do it. You have it as well," Gwen offered.

Sauron turned to look at Morgoth.

"What's going on?" he demanded.

"Apparently we have Captain Tripps which is a killer flu. They've started betting on when I'll die."

Sauron looked at Morgoth for a minute and laughed.

"You actually believe them? Oh come on they're lying!"

"No we're not Sauron," Gwen said.

Sauron looked at Gwen then at Kisha and then around at the campers. They all seemed to be nodding.

"It's real Sauron and it appears as if you two have it," Manwë said sadly.

Sauron started sneezing again. Kisha then looked down at her watch.

"Boy it looks like you may live for another day or so. Too bad though, we'll miss your crazy pranks," Kisha said.

"I retract my previous bet and say that both will die tomorrow," a camper said.

"Hey, you've already placed your bet. You can't retract it," Gwen replied.

"Damn."

Sauron still looked sceptical.

"Captain Tripps is not real. You may have fooled Morgoth but you can't fool me!" Sauron exclaimed.

"It is real! It may not seem real but it was a world spread epidemic here fifty years ago. We're all children of plague survivors and so I guess the strain is still in the atmosphere and you must have caught it," Kisha explained.

Sauron crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Do you have any proof that it's real?" he asked and then sneezed again.

Kisha knew there was a book called The Stand written by Stephen King but she couldn't think of the name. It was Gwen who remembered it.

"A man named Stephen King chronicled the flu epidemic under a book called The Stand. It was also made into a movie style documentary and it's in the film rack next to the TV."

"Well we should watch it then!" Morgoth exclaimed.

"I'll get the movie ready," Kisha quickly added.

Gwen rolled her eyes.

"Fine, I'll go over to the kitchen and make the popcorn," Gwen said sighing as she walked to the door. She put on her galoshes, coat, and toque.

"I'll join you," Manwë said. He joined her at the door.

Gwen shrugged.

"Okay, we'll bring the microwave and popcorn bags over so we don't have to walk back and forth through the ice and snow," Gwen said.

Gwen opened the door to the Great Hall and was met with a frigid blast of cold air. She shivered and the two ran for it towards the kitchen. Gwen forgot to close the door and the wind blew some of the snow inside.

"Damnit Gwen!" Kisha screamed as she ran to the doors and quickly closed them.

--

Manwë and Gwen trudged through the ice. The temperature had dropped another fifteen degrees and now the snow had hardened into a single big ice cube. They entered the kitchen and Gwen unplugged the microwave and handed it to Manwë.

"Okay just hold that for now. I need to find the box of popcorn, the bowls, and the salt," she said as she began digging around in the cupboards. She found the bowls and put them on top of the microwave and then found the big box of popcorn. She grabbed the salt from the counter and the two began the walk back to the Great Hall.

"As much as I hate to admit it, this joke is pretty mean," Manwë said.

Gwen shrugged.

"They walked into it. I'm glad Kisha caught onto what I was doing though," Gwen replied.

"So I assume Captain Tripps is not real?" Manwë asked.

Gwen shook her head.

"Only in the mind of Stephen King it is. I hope it scares them enough to stop acting like idiots every day," Gwen replied.

They reached the Great Hall and when they entered they saw that Kisha already had the movie set up on the big screen. Nobody seemed to realise that it was only three o'clock in the morning and that it was about negative seventy outside. The heaters made the Great Hall toasty warm and the only ones who needed blankets for warmth were the two Dark Lords. Morgoth looked absolutely frightened and Sauron still looked sceptical.

Gwen plugged in the microwave and cooked the first bag of popcorn while the opening scene of all the plague victims with the song 'don't fear the reaper' played in the background.

"We're going to die!" exclaimed Morgoth.

Sauron rolled his eyes.

"You're such an idiot."

--

An hour later Sauron and Morgoth sat huddled together in fright. It wasn't that the movie was scary, but their overactive imagination caused them to think that their necks were turning purple and that they really had Captain Tripps. Gwen and Kisha sat in the corner laughing at the two idiots but every time they turned around to look at them, the girls would nod their heads sadly and look sympathetic.

Manwë had begun to take a liking towards popcorn and he was already on his third bowl when the first DVD ended. Gwen stood up and stretched as she walked to the player and changed discs.

"You know this is really informative. I would have never learned about this aspect of history if the two did not catch Captain Tripps," he said.

Morgoth glared at him and coughed.

"Well I'm glad we could provide this type of entertainment for you," he replied sarcastically.

Gwen sat back down on the couch after disc two started. Since the second disc did not show Captain Tripps, it began to get a little boring until the scenes with Randall Flagg.

"So this very evil man walked the earth after the plague?" Nessa asked.

Gwen nodded.

"Yup and good thing he was defeated too."

Varda took a handful of popcorn.

"I really like that Larry Underwood fellow," she said.

Manwë rolled his eyes.

"Bloody musicians. You've always had a thing for musicians," he said.

"Great so you're going to bring that up again!" she exclaimed.

"Listen, I'm not the one who fell in love with Maglor alright!"

Varda chucked a handful of popcorn at Manwë.

"It's not like I acted on it!"

"You were going to! But then they all left Valinor and went to Middle-earth. I swear I thought you were going to follow him!"

"Would you shut up? He's in the Great Hall too you know!"

Gwen, sensing this could lead to disaster, quickly directed everyone's attention towards the movie and pointed out that Stu Redman was Kisha's great-grandfather. This caused the 'musician' debate to be dropped for the time being.

By the time the movie ended both Sauron and Morgoth had passed out due to a combination of the flu getting worse and of fright. Everyone else in the Great Hall shared a good laugh and it was then that Kisha realised it was around seven in the morning and so she told the campers to go to sleep. She then took a few staff members and they began chipping away the ice that had formed around the Great Hall. The temperature was still low but there was not a snow cloud in sight and the weather channel said that by the end of the day the temperature should be in the upper single digits.

--

Morgoth's constant sneezing is what awoke Sauron a few hours later. He still believed that Captain Tripps did not exist and that they were just playing a prank on them. He sat up and looked around. Most of the campers were asleep on the couches and some of the staff was outside shovelling ice. He put his fists to his eyes and yawned.

"Oi, you're up. Gwen told me to give you this bowl of chicken soup," Sam said.

Sauron opened his eyes and saw that Sam was carrying a big bowl of chicken soup. He handed it to him.

"Thanks," he mumbled as he slurped down the soup.

"Do you know when he'll be up? Gwen wants to know so she can estimate when she'll make the next batch of soup."

Sauron shrugged.

"Well you all scared him pretty bad with the Captain Tripps prank so I have no idea when he'll be up," he replied.

"Captain Tripps is real Sauron," Sam reminded him.

He rolled his eyes.

"Wow, really carry on a prank there. I know it's not real," Sauron said.

Morgoth stirred and then woke up.

"Am I dead yet?" he asked.

"Yes Morgoth you're dead. Welcome to heaven. I guess Ilúvatar forgave us. Here have a coconut milkshake; I hear they're all the rage in Valinor."

Morgoth opened his eyes and sat up.

"Well you didn't have to be sarcastic about it," he said.

"I'll go get another bowl of soup for Morgoth," Sam said and then left the Great Hall.

Morgoth sneezed and blew his nose in the last tissue.

"I wonder how long we have left to live," Morgoth mused.

"We're not going to die. They were lying to us. The Stand is just a movie."

Morgoth sneezed again.

"But what about Captain Tripps?"

"Fake."

"Would Gwen and the others really lie to us?" Morgoth asked.

Sauron nodded.

"Of course they would. Now I have an idea to get back at them but listen closely alright?"

Morgoth nodded and Sauron whispered his idea into Morgoth's ear.