An- Hey all! So long time no see. No real excuse for that, either than RL stuff and a sheer lack of desire to write anything. Sorry. Anyway, a new chapter! This fits into the first time Carla talks to the dream goddess lady. I did a lot of world building as to how the hell any of this even worked (how was it possible for Tolkien to have written fictional Middle Earth, if it was real? Why did it even happen? Etc), but there just wasn't enough time to fit it into that chapter, and the tone went differently than the rest of it. It would have been out of place. I left it out, but the notes were still written down, so why not throw it out there now? It would have fit after Carla sees the future bits but before she wakes up.

l.l.

Carla had to admit she hadn't thought too hard about the why if it all. She'd wondered, sure, and thrown around ideas about how anything that happened to them was even possible, but she was too much of a realist to spend too much time on it. It had happened -they had somehow been pulled in and out of a supposedly imaginary fantasy word, multiple times-, moving on. Niori and Erin had thought about it longer before having to leave it and go onto other things. It had driven Jane to near obsession until she was forced to throw in the towel and admit defeat. There was just no way to figure how they had come back to Middle Earth in the absence of a magic spell.

It was kind of ironic then, that Carla was the one to find out, that it was the one who cared the least that learned the truth. It was maybe a little hilarious, how wrong they had all been in their guesses, and how it took a goddess-like being -something she never would have believed in before this- to finally tell Carla how everything that happened to them in the past few years came to pass. It wasn't chance or a freak accident, like she had just assumed. No, this was under the guiding hand of some sort of higher being, and maybe had something to do with fate or destiny. Carla wasn't even sure if she actually believed in destiny, but a very compelling case for it was being given to her. Not to mention she had just seen the future, one where her friends were happy and didn't have ghosts haunting their eyes. If she could believe that was possible, then fate was easy enough to swallow.

"So what," she asked the air around her, "you just...made this all happen? You made Saruman make a spell to send the Fellowship to my closet?"

How was that possible? She couldn't even wrap her mind around it. Carla couldn't believe there was something out there with that much power, even after everything she had seen.

"No," the voice replied, "there's no one who has that much power, not even beings like myself," God, how many of these things were there? More than the two she was currently dealing with, apparently. Carla didn't interrupt to ask, "A whispered suggestion in a dream can convince, but we can't make someone do something," those whispers had somehow convinced them all to go home, despite what they were all losing. This goddess trying to downplay her power over people was bullshit. For a moment, Carla almost called her on it, but she let it pass. It wouldn't do any good, "if someone gave the wizard the idea, I don't know. Saruman chose to send that spell, just as the Elf chose to shatter the vial and release the spell."

"Then how did they get to our world? Was that another 'suggestion'?"

"That was nothing but chance. Slipping in and out of your world has been done before, easily enough, but there are still so many more worlds where the Fellowship could have gone. Your world is a thin point, and it has brushed against Middle Earth before, but not even I could force them there," thin point? What? Brushed against? The questions swirled through Carla's, and it must have showed on her face, because she continued, "Your world grazes so many others. Why do you think so many worlds bleed into the stories of your world?"

"Wait, what? Slipped through? Stories of our world? Are...are you telling me other stories are true? That other people have gone into them too?" a pause, a mind blowing realization slipped in, "Oh. You're talking about wardrobes and rabbit holes, aren't you?"

Carla's mind whirled with so many possibilities. She thought of the books she'd read, the movies she'd seen. Were they real? Did a girl name Alice really fall down a rabbit hole, or did a bunch of kids really go through a wardrobe and fight with a lion? Was there a real battle between the light and the dark in a galaxy far, far away? How could these works of fiction be real?

"Narnia, Wonderland, Midworld...they're all real?"

"You seem surprised," the voice sounded amused, "you've found yourself in Middle Earth, and the true existence of your fictional worlds is hard to believe?"

Point taken. It shouldn't surprise her. Tolkien had written all about this world, for all that it had deviated from the book from the moment Legolas broke that spell. This world was real enough that she'd almost died a few times. Why wouldn't other authors be able to pull it off? Just...

"But...how..."

"In every world, there are those who have minds creative enough to feel the worlds around them. They have insight to at least one outside world, and others can see many. Some of them tell the stories they glimpse, sometimes so well they come to life to everyone who hears of them. It's not only in your world, for all it's the middle of a web. In another world, there's a tale of four valiant warriors who magically traveled to another kingdom and helped save it, only to return to their own. Details have been changed to fit the world of the teller, but your story has been passed down for generations, even before it happened to you. Your world is just one of many, and no less real than the two you've seen."

This was too much. Carla felt dizzy, and needed to sit down. She didn't want to know this, because it was too big for her. Carla didn't need these answers. She wasn't the one who cared about any of this. She was fine being ignorant about just how about the world(s) worked. Before Carla could say enough, the voice continued her explanations.

"You're not the first to travel between worlds, and your enemy is not the first to try and destroy or take over other worlds. Some of those tales you already know, and others you've heard nothing of. This is only the first time a door between your world and Middle Earth has been completely opened. It's strong enough for even those from the in-between to cross. He wants your world because there are already so many other open doors," there was a smile in her voice, but it was almost bitter, "he can take them all from there. Then he can take more, because your world is thin and a centre. It's been tried before, but no one has quite succeeded. I fear this one will."

"And we're supposed to stop that? I'm supposed to stop that? I'm not a gunslinger or a superhero. How the hell are we supposed to do that? We're just four barely twenty year olds...ones that are falling apart. We can't even save ourselves, let alone any worlds."

"If you were not meant to do this, then it would never have come to pass. Thin point of not, the chances of the Fellowship coming to that exact door were slim. Saruman sent them hurtling between worlds. For them to land in the exact place where you and the others were, that was even less of a chance. It wasn't luck or chance that brought them to the four of you. It was destiny."

There was that word again. Destiny. Carla was beginning to hate it, the more it was being put on her shoulders. How could this be on her? On any of them? Saving Middle Earth from Sauron had been nearly impossible, and now some goddess expected them to save the multiverse?

"This isn't fair," she snapped, anger hitting her all at once, "you can't put this on us. Fuck destiny," she wanted no part of it, not after all this so called fate had already made them suffer.

"No, it's not. It shouldn't be, but it is. Destiny isn't set in stone Carla. It's a choice. Your choice. It's the choices of your friends, and that will lead to the future you saw. Or you will all ruin it."

Carla was used to guilt by now, but she still grimaced at the reminder at how terribly wrong her decisions had been so far. She would probably only make it worse...but what if she made them better? What if, for once, she did something right? Carla was well aware she was being manipulated again. The voice had guilted her into a agreeing, to looking past the unfair. Carla should have been angry. Instead, she only felt exhausted.

"I can bring that future?" She asked.

"Yes."

Fuck destiny. She still thought that, was still pissed that this was somehow on her now, but the resignation was there. How could Carla fight against it, knowing she could make Niori whole again? That she could heal the rift between Erin and Jane? She could bring them all peace, somehow. It was her destiny, one that would absolve her of her own sins. It was fate...it had to be worth it. It had to.

l.l.l

AN- So I'm not 100% sure about the ending, but it go to the point where I got to 'fuck it, I'm just ending it'. Hope you enjoyed, regardless!