Chapter 29

All rights go to Peter Jackson and Tolkien respectively, I only own my OCs.

Nina woke to a peaceful morning, opening her eyes and adjusting to the light that poured through her window. The birds were chirping cheerfully, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened the day before. As if a girl hadn't returned to the planet the day before. She sighed, sitting up and vaguely realizing she never came back out of her room after changing the night before. She figured her family would understand. She got up and, feeling no need to wear different clothes around her family, went down to the kitchen.

"You're up early," James frowned over his reading glasses as he sat at the table, scrolling through his tablet to see the news. Nina looked at the oven clock and saw that it was six o'clock, shrugged, and sat down next to her father with an apple.

"I'm used to being up early these days," She said. James nodded with a distant look on his still frowning face. She decided to try to change the subject. "How come you're up so early?"

"Used to it from work," He answered absentmindedly as the distant look persisted. "I took off today, so we could…spend some time, as a family, you know?" He stammered uncertainly. Nina tried to be understanding and ignore the way he looked at her like she was an alien, but she couldn't help but dwell on the fact. She nodded.

"Sure, I'd love that." They sat in silence, although it wasn't a comfortable one. It ripped her heart in two, feeling so strange around her own father. It shouldn't have been that way, she knew that, nevertheless he wasn't speaking, and the distant frown was becoming more permanent by the minute. "Dad what's wrong?"

"I just…" He huffed in annoyance. Not at her, of course, but at his inability to explain his feelings. "There's more about your time in Middle Earth that you're not telling us." He was stating the fact, and both knew it was pointless to pretend he was wrong. She was holding back. She didn't tell them anything about her feelings for Kili, or his feelings for her, and most importantly she had left out who Galadriel really was.

"Yes," Nina heaved a heavy sigh. James looked at her expectantly. She wasn't getting out of this. "Do you remember how I said I had powers in Middle Earth?" He nodded, unsure. "I got them, because…" She didn't know how to say it. "Because of my mother."

"What?" The tablet fumbled out of his hands in his shock, and his face went pale. She knew she had to keep going.

"My mother is alive, Dad," Nina pressed, grabbing his hand in an attempt to comfort him in the wake of her news. The attempt fell flat, turning awkward and forced so she let go of him. "I know she was Sarah here with you, but when she died in Virginia she did the same thing I did. She went to Middle Earth, and now she has a life there and is very powerful, and I, being her daughter, have those powers too." He was silent for a painfully long time and Nina waited. She didn't know what else he would want to hear or how he felt about what she had already said. When he finally did speak, his voice was low and detached.

"Is that all there is to know?" Nina was uneasy from his sudden change in tone.

"She is the protector of Middle Earth," She croaked, tears forming in her eyes. She didn't even know why she was crying anymore. "And I was supposed to be the next one after her."

"Was?" The cold tone persisted. Nina nodded, her throat closing in on her.

"I chose to come back here with you guys, and now I can never go back to Middle Earth." She started to openly cry, feeling the weight of her choice now, finally. James saw through her tears. He had no doubt in his mind that Nina loved him and Madison, but he could see it in her eyes. Middle Earth was what she missed, and her loss of it was why she was crying. He didn't know how to feel about it. Any of it. He shook his head.

"I need some time to think," He got up abruptly, unable to even comfort his daughter. He opened the screen door to the kitchen and started to walk. "Don't follow me, Nina, please."

In that moment Nina truly believed she was alone.

Kili truly believed he was alone. The company was preparing for the inevitable battle coming, but Kili only had enough in him to keep building the stone wall keeping them effectively closed off from the world beyond Erebor. He vaguely realized Nina would want him to stop, but physical labor seemed to be the only thing he could do to express his anger. Taking it out on anyone would cause Thorin to most likely brand him a traitor and kill him. That wouldn't help the situation much, he thought dryly. The muscles in his arms were stretching and screaming with every stone he picked up and the sweat beads were now trickling freely down his blood red face. Still he kept on.

Thorin had sent for help from Dain, their kin from the Iron Hills. If Dain came to Erebor, they would have a chance against the Elves and Men, but still many would die on both sides. Kili tried very hard to block out sympathetic thoughts geared toward the "enemy," but, unbeknownst to him, he had a truly good heart. And that couldn't allow him to hate the Elves and Men just because they weren't dwarves. He sighed, finally straightening his now aching back and stopping his work. He reached into his pocket to find the comforting presence of his runestone, but he found nothing in his pocket. Then he remembered he gave it to Nina.

"Why can I not forget you?" He whispered to no one, his voice catching in his throat. He understood how it felt to be told you would never see your family again. His own father had died when he was young. But knowing that Nina had every right to go back didn't stop his heart from ripping in two because of missing her. He never imagined feeling such a way for a person, and he certainly never imagined hurting this much when that person was gone.

"You must stop this, Kili," The snake like voice of his uncle interrupted his labor. Kili turned to him with a renewed anger bubbling within him.

"I thought you wanted us to fortify your wall," He barely hid the biting sarcasm in his tone. He loved his uncle and looked up to him, but this was not his uncle. This was someone entirely different.

"You are upset because of that girl," Thorin clasped his hands behind his back as he spat out the words. Just mentioning her seemed to make him furious. Kili tried his hardest to ignore it.

"Her name is Nina Bailyn, and she was a member of this company, Thorin," He replied softly, trying not to provoke his uncle too much. He didn't want to fight with Thorin, really, but he also couldn't bring himself to let Nina be insulted.

"She was nothing but a traitor and a snake, it is better that she's gone," Thorin growled. Kili took a deep breath. He needed Fili here to calm him down, but Fili was getting his armor deeper in the mountain. He had to stop the anger from rising, and quickly, before he fought with Thorin. "It is time you took your rightful place beside your brother, Kili. You are a Prince of Erebor now, it is time you acted as such. Come and prepare for battle with the rest of us." Kili sighed again, his muscles protesting the movement. He turned and faced his uncle again and nodded, following the older dwarf.

The whole way back, all Kili thought about as he stared down Thorin's back was how many of them were going to die. If Dain did not come, the entire company would be killed because of Thorin, and Kili didn't take to that idea too kindly. He hoped and prayed to Mahal that Dain would come, because if he did, the Elves wouldn't stand a chance. Dwarvish power was something to be reckoned with.

His thoughts were interrupted by Dwalin shoving a chest plate unceremoniously into Kili's hands. Dwalin hadn't been the merriest of dwarves ever since Nina left, either. He pulled on a shirt of chainmail before strapping the chest plate to himself to test its fit. The Elves were marching on the mountain at that very moment, and by tomorrow morning battle would ensue. There was no sense in waiting to find the right armor until the fighting had begun. Everything the dwarves were satisfied fit them correctly and wouldn't hinder their movements too much was set aside in their own respective nooks, with Thorin, Fili, and Kili being assigned the largest and given the most ornate looking armor. Fili and Kili didn't care about these things, of course, as they believed that it didn't matter what your title was, all dwarves shall fight side by side and equally. It was something Thorin had taught them.

Now, of course, Thorin was preaching a different message. As the Princes of Durin, he wanted only the sharpest weapons and fanciest clothing for them and himself. He had even mentioned already that if there be some shortage of anything, Fili and Kili should get whatever they have. Kili had loudly protested this and earned a sound slap on the face for it, while Fili had been wiser and waited to reassure the company that they wouldn't take anything from the others until after Thorin had left to look for the Arkenstone again.

Balin was taking Thorin's new personality the hardest, which was expected, since he had known Thorin the longest. The others tried not to bother him about it. Dwarves weren't too keen on expressing their deep emotions with each other anyway. Bilbo had walked in on him crying privately a few times, but he never complained or showed any great sorrow in front of the company or Thorin. A few sad looks were all he would give them. Although Dwalin, being his brother, was able to get a little more out of him when it was just the two of them.

Thorin frowned, a nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach. He had just told Fili and Kili to prepare themselves for battle. Fili was going to be king one day, it was vital that he take part in the fight to come. And if he was killed, it would be Kili, which meant both brothers needed to fight tomorrow. It made sense. But there Bilbo was again, making the same sad, helpless, borderline disapproving face that he always seemed to make when Thorin spoke. He felt a flush of anger at that. He had done so much for Bilbo, given him Mithril, put all his trust in him, and now Bilbo was making that unexplainable face. He huffed in annoyance. Hobbits.

"You've found your armor, now search for the Arkenstone," Thorin growled to them all. He needed it. "I'll not rest until it is found." He stole a glance at Bilbo and—aha! There it is again! The look made its return, and Thorin felt again something nagging at him. He couldn't quite place the name of the feeling nagging him, but it seemed to be something akin to…guilt? Preposterous, he thought as he shook the feeling away. He was the rightful King of Erebor, and now he needed the Arkenstone and every piece of gold in that mountain to prove it.

Nina sat on her bed, not knowing of anything else to do with herself. Her father had not come back to the house, despite it having been two hours, and she knew Madison would be up and wanting an explanation soon. She took a deep breath and decided to examine her room. After all, she had never seen it before. She looked around at her dressers, seeing the dark wood contrasting sharply against the pale gray of her walls and she marveled not for the first time in the way color could be so interesting. Next she moved to her mirror, a full length standing one, and studied her own colors. Her skin was a tan brown, no doubt from the Middle Earth sun, her hair was golden like the fair Galadriel's, and her eyes blue like the Laketown waters. Her face was dusted with freckles, but her cheeks looked hollow.

Nina had never been the skinniest of girls, and that had never bothered her, nor should it have, but now she seemed thin. And she did not like it. It wasn't healthy eating that had gotten her there, it was scarce food with the dwarves and so much running that had done it. The rest of her seemed thinner too, and it made her feel stringy and awkward, too small for her now baggy clothes. Her modern clothes looked wrong as well, and she eyed the smelly pile of Middle Earth clothes, and almost wanted to put them back on. Even the smell didn't bother her now. She wrapped her fingers around the runestone that hung from her neck and held it tight, feeling, not for the first time, that she didn't deserve to have such a thing.

She pushed that thought aside and moved on to her desk. She rummaged through the many sketch books and school folders in the drawers and shelves, sitting cross legged on the floor as she examined anything that looked important. Finally, she stumbled upon the thing she had subconsciously been hoping to find and picked it up. She ran her hand over the cover, the book feeling heavier in her hands for some reason. She took a deep breath, opened the crisp pages, and began to read.

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit," Her voice was small and shaky as she already fought back tears. Then she shook her head to rid herself of them. The first time she read this book it had been with only half of her attention on it and a begrudging attitude. Now, she thought, she owed it to the company to read every word faithfully. And so, she did.

She sat there on the floor reading the whole book, sometimes laughing at the ways she imagined the company being in each situation, sometimes she almost cried for missing them or for hearing about Thorin's tragedies, and sometimes she was confused at how much she must have changed the story. It took her a solid hour to do, but she finally reached the end of the Battle of Five Armies. The part of the story she had been dreading.

Thorin was laying in a tent, dying of his wounds as Bilbo and Gandalf approached him. Nina had a lump in her throat as she imagined their faces. She also had a sinking feeling when no mention of Fili and Kili being by his side were made. She read the precious words with care. When Thorin made his apology to Bilbo she cried, hard, because she wished so much to have seen the real Thorin once more.

"'Farewell, King under the Mountain! This is a bitter adventure, if it must end so; and not a mountain of gold can amend it. Yet I am glad that I have shared in your perils," She choked out, imagining Bilbo's voice saying the words. "That has been more than any Baggins deserves.'" She whispered. She kept reading, wiping her tears and holding tightly onto the runestone. It wasn't until she read the fact that Fili and Kili were dead that Nina stopped attempting to dry her tears. She let the book fall from her hands and she gripped the stone, simply sobbing.

"Nina! Nina what's the matter?" Madison burst into the room a few moments later, immediately dropping to her knees to hold her little sister. She frowned in confusion until she saw the book laying on the ground, Nina's page still marked, and picked it up. The page was listing the deaths of the company after the battle, and no further explanation was needed. "Oh Nina," She sighed, her grip on the girl tightening.

They sat like that for some minutes until Nina's crying subsided to a faint whimper. Madison pushed Nina up a little so that she could see the younger girl's face and found it to be red and puffy. She glanced down to see what Nina was holding and saw the runestone. She frowned.

"What's that?" She asked, causing Nina to furrow her brows and look down to follow Madison's gaze. Then she knew.

"Oh, this," She tried her best to shrug it off. "It was just a going away present from the dwarves."

"Which dwarf?" Madison pressed, though her face said that she already knew the answer. Nina swallowed nervously, unsure if her hoarse throat would even let her speak after so much crying.

"Kili." It cracked. Madison sighed and nodded, confirming the fact that she already knew who had given Nina the gift. And by the way Nina started crying again, it was abundantly clear that Kili the dwarf had been more to her little sister than just a friendly face. Madison forced Nina to sit up and gave her a determined little half smile, like that of a parent trying to cheer up and distract their child.

"You know, I had forgotten to tell you yesterday that when Erich came to tell me about you being in Middle Earth, he showed me a trailer for the third movie that was coming out," She went back into the memory, recalling the fear and excitement that had gone through her at the prospect of Nina being alive and Middle Earth. "You were in it, you know."

"Me?" Nina sniffed, wiping her face with the back of her arm as she frowned in confusion. Madison nodded enthusiastically.

"I never went to see the movie and I've kept Dad away from seeing it because of that trailer, I didn't know if we'd see you in the movie. I'm assuming everything in the trailer were things you really did," She trailed off, waiting to see how Nina would react. The younger girl sighed.

"I suppose it was," She shrugged. "I'd have to see this trailer to really know," She eyed Madison warily, unsure of whether the older girl would be willing to watch it. She had no idea what would be in it. Madison's eyes were distant for a moment before she nodded, seeming to mentally convince herself to do it, and whipped out her phone to look up the video.

The girls sat on the floor and watched it together, Madison noticing that nothing had changed. Nina watched closely, her tired eyes tearing up once again as she saw each dwarf's face. Madison glanced up at Nina occasionally, gauging her reactions to each line of dialogue, each scene. Soon it ended, leaving them with nothing but an empty black screen as they digested all they had seen.

"It's all true," Nina heaved a sigh. Madison nodded. "Thorin was…he was a good man. He suffered from a sickness that changed him, but I knew him before that, and he was a good man. He always wanted to do what was best for the people he loved. He wanted to protect them, and he never abandoned them…" She stopped, a lump in her throat forming from the wave of guilt that washed over her. Madison wrapped a comforting arm around her and rubbed her arm.

"I'm sure he was, Nina," She encouraged kindly. "And because of that he would understand why you came back to us. He would understand that you didn't want to abandon your family," She smiled. Nina shook her head. Something wasn't right.

"You are my family, Madison, you and Dad, and I love you both so much. You have no idea how much I missed you guys, I thought of you every single day. But," She gulped nervously. "Now I'm here and, I miss the dwarves so much. I'm thinking of them all the time. They are my family too," She started to quietly cry. "And now I've left them and they're going to die because I left! Erich is still there, and I'm gone, and no one knows he's coming to kill them!" She started to panic. Madison felt her heart breaking in her chest at her sister's unhappiness. She knew in her gut exactly what needed to be done, but she wasn't sure she could let Nina go. Nina had to go back to Middle Earth and save the dwarves.

"You have to go back," She said it so quietly, almost hoping Nina wouldn't hear her. But she did.

"I can't, I couldn't just leave you guys again, and besides, Galadriel said once I made my decision I could never undo it," She sniffed again as her crying subsided.

"There must be something," Madison frowned. It tore her up just to be thinking about Nina leaving again, and possibly not being able to come back. "Elves are the good guys, aren't they? Good guys listen and forgive, so she'll understand."

"How would I even reach her? She's in a different world, Madison!" Nina threw her hands up hopelessly. Madison calmed her sister down again.

"That's not something I can answer for you, Nina," She replied softly. "But you're smart, and you survived the quest to claim Erebor blind, so I know you can think of something. Whatever you have to do to be happy, Nina, I'll be behind you." They gave each other sad smiles, and Nina furrowed her brows.

"If I do reach her, and she lets me come back," She shook her head as her heart ripped in two. "Madison I don't know if I'll be able to come back once I've helped the dwarves. I might be trapped again."

"Then you need to think about this very hard," Madison grabbed her sister's hands and squeezed comfortingly. She tried to keep her voice even, so Nina wouldn't see how much it killed her to let her sister go. "If you truly can't be happy until you've seen that quest through to its end, then you know what you need to do. I won't be mad at you no matter what you choose," She kissed her forehead. Nina closed her eyes and sighed, and for a small moment, she felt peace.

"I'll think about it," She complied. "But for today, I just want to spend time with you and Dad. Just in case," She couldn't bring herself to finish the thought. Madison nodded. "Don't tell Dad, Madison. He's had enough of a bomb dropped on him already," She warned, remembering her talk with him earlier that morning. She wondered if he would tell Madison. She hadn't told the older girl, not being strong enough to shatter whatever memories of their mother Madison had. She just couldn't do it, not yet.

"I won't, but if you decide to go then you have to give us proper goodbyes," She chuckled tearfully, trying to lighten the mood. It was a hopeless cause, but Nina laughed with her as an act of mercy.

"I will."

The dwarves peeked up over the stone wall they had built in the mountain entrance. Fili gasped, worriedly looking out at the thousands of elves and the men that had gathered on their doorstep. Dain was nowhere to be seen. Thorin was currently staring down the Elven King while Gandalf tried to talk sense into him. Bilbo was scurrying down their wall into the safety of the elves. Fili admired his courage, though he would never admit it to Thorin. It took true courage to take that Arkenstone and bargain it to save people's lives. Fili would not forget that. Sadly though, Thorin didn't see it that way. He was cursing the poor hobbit as he climbed. Fili, despite his normal desire to look courageous and strong, reached his hand over to his brother's arm and set it there. Kili glanced to him, his deep brown eyes staring into Fili's as they silently came to terms with what was about to happen.

The dwarves of Erebor were going to die today.

Author's Note

Wow that chapter was impossible to write, and I'm still not happy with it. It's been really hard figuring out how I think Nina's family would react to all the things Nina has been through and is thinking, and this is the beginning of those complex feelings that I imagine them having. The dwarves are officially in battle, and Nina has some thinking to do!

I appreciate the kind reviews I've gotten, and please keep them coming! They encourage me and I love the feedback and ideas you give me. Until next chapter!