A/N: My surprise sixth chapter with a few surprising twists. Sekai may have lived, but she has to live every day in fear of getting killed by either the Dark Lord or someone else. But here is the last chapter showing events one year later and how Sekai has been holding up.

Epilogue

Concerning Hobbits

(One Year Later)

Sekai Saionji was working at her family restaurant Radish as she was tending to customers in the middle of Haramihama. The child she carried within her was born months ago, a healthy baby girl Saeko. But one day, which happened to be on the Anniversary of Makoto Ito's death Kotonoha was sitting inside the restaurant quietly, observing her from afar. Her presence was very unsettling for the young woman, but more so was the fact that no one seemed to recognize her.

Kotonoha was slipping from a tea cup visiting Sekai to check on her as well as remind her of her obligation to her child. Once year on the anniversary of Makoto Ito's death Sekai would see Kotonoha Katsura who was now known as Kotonoha Matou to the public thanks to Lelouch using magic and his growing connections to manipulate files and records including memories of key people as well as others of course.

One year had passed since then and Sekai was nervous and fearful of the seemingly cheerful Kotonoha who was obviously in a good mood for reasons the brown haired girl couldn't fathom. She was very hesitant to approach her, but unable to stand her watching her for anything longer Sekai approached Kotonoha.

She was nervous in doing so, but she was mindful to be careful to avoid angering the Dark Lord.

"Can I get you anything?" Sekai asked trying to maintain a professional aura let the toll of lack of sleep was evident having been living in fear for the pass year.

"No thank you I am fine." Kotonoha replied either obvious to Sekai's nervousness around her or was purposely ignoring it.

"Why…why are you here?"

"To check on you and your baby…I was curious to see if it was a girl or a boy." Kotonoha replied before she finished her tea. "Good to see you doing well."

"I wish…I could say the same for the school and the neighborhood."

Sekai began commenting as things in the general area have gotten worse for everyone. One could say it was poetic irony in a cruel sense as some months following the deaths of Kotonoha's parents the neighborhood other wealthy Britannian nobles and businessmen had begun muscling in on the area.

No one realized it until it was too late the fact that the Katsura Family was the glue, the unseen benefactors, that had been keeping out the overbearing Britannian nobles and Government Officials who had since the death of the Katsura Family after being exposed as traitors who were aiding terrorist groups the police and military began putting pressure on everyone else.

Their deaths allowed for more criminal elements to move in such as members of the Britannian Mafia now staking out territory in the area as well as other gangs that had been harassing and mugging Eleven and Honorary Britannian civilizations. There were even some reports of rape happening as well, but either way it was obvious to the residents that the Katsura Family had been covering them.

But thanks to Makoto Ito that protection was gone and the entire neighborhood was in a state of rapid decline.

Because of it the name Makoto Ito was spat upon by the locals with some at least celebrating his death as the only good thing to have happened. A fact that alarmed Sekai as she was fearful that some might attempt to attack her because of the fact that her child was his, but it didn't help matters following her encounter with the Dark Lord who had threatened her with a fate worse than Makoto's fate if she failed as a parent to her daughter.

Even those who had bullied and ridiculed Kotonoha were looked upon with contempt and even Nanami who was still in the mental hospital likely to spend the rest of her life there had been all but abandoned by her family for the rumors and lies she had spread about Kotonoha feeling she had played a part in the Katsura Family's downfall.

Sekai felt some regret for Nanami partly because with no one visiting her she has heard troubling rumors that some of the staff and the guards have been making use of her comatose state for their own purposes to settle their frustrations. Even the three students who died before Sekai's eyes were spoken of with contempt wondering which of them had possibly passed on the rumor of the Katsura Family's dealings with the JLF.

Although many assumed Makoto had known given his father's involvement with the group and the fact for a short time he was Kotonoha's girlfriend, but from whom the rumor had come from no knew for sure. However Sekai, Lelouch and Kotonoha knew that the rumor was a lie made up by Makoto, but tragically it turned out to be true.

With all of this in mind and the constant fearing for her life from both those who might come after her as the one who bore Makoto's child and the matchmaker who brought Kotonoha and Makoto together, but she could not forget the one she feared retaliation the most from…the Dark Lord. The fear proved too much for her to bear so…she thought about suicide.

She came close let there be no mistake…Sekai got as close as having the knife at her neck and her chest, but couldn't bring herself to do it for two reasons. One there was her daughter to think about and second she was still afraid of the fact that death wouldn't offer any escape for her from the Dark Lord. Yet a third reason lingered in the back of her mind.

She was a coward and a terrible person, such she couldn't look herself in the mirror anymore without wanting to break it.

Yet all things considered she had good reason to be fearful, but yet how long could one go on living in constant fear that someone would kill you or worse at any possible time or should Sekai fail as a mother.

"It's been nice, but it's time for me to go."

Kotonoha got up and walked passed Sekai.

"Wait…please…I…I am sorry. I screwed up, but please we are friends right."

Kotonoha didn't turn around, but she didn't smile either as she said the following words without a hint of irony on her face.

"You are my best friend."

With those words Kotonoha left a frightened Sekai behind while waiting a short walk away was Lelouch wearing a black coat with a red collar shirt with the first two top buttons undone and he wore black pants to match.

"Were you waiting long Lelouch-kun?"

"Not at all Kotonoha…I think I am on time." The Dark Lord replied with a smile.

The two walked down the street together holding hands as the two had an appointment they needed to attend to. Kotonoha rested her head against Lelouch's shoulder as they went on remembering the beautiful symphony she experienced from a memory he had shared with her during their lessons as Lelouch taught her ancient sorcery from the forgotten eras of history.

However her talent laid in song sorcery, singing songs of power, which while not as powerful as Lelouch's, but they were powerful in their own right.

But as Kotonoha skills in ancient sorcery and singing songs of power grew, so did the bonds between them. They were much closer now than they had been, but they kept the private details of their relationship secret because they didn't exactly want anyone prying and yet most importantly no one had been really asking them for details anyway.

Making their way across town the two used an entrance into the old subway system as Kotonoha followed behind Lelouch as the two were making their way deep underground. It took them an hour by foot as there were many long winding tunnels and passageways the duo had to pass through until they reached their destination.

"You're late…" A voice from the shadows called out.

"My apologies, but finding our way down to your hidden settlement wasn't easy."

"Of course not."

A guff voice shouted as a torch was lit revealing a short man with a large gray beard wearing crudely made armor using scrap metal and other materials one could find in the tunnels he and others lived in. The Dark Lord was surprise as he didn't expect to find a living Dwarf still alive in this day and age. When Kotonoha and the Witch King told him of their discovery Lelouch was shocked, but that wasn't all.

The dwarf led them through a long tunnel which opened up into a wide open cavern where an underground lake laid before them. The torches dotting the underground settlement before them provided a small amount of light, but yet it added to the Dark Lord's surprise at a colony like this existing all of the way down here.

Stepping out from hiding places were a trio of hobbits dressed in rags and salvaged clothing tatters stitched together. Judging from their smell and look as their faces had dirt and their hair was a complete mess was an obvious sign that these hobbits haven't enjoyed a shower in a very long time. The trio was all male hobbits, but with the dirt and grease in their hair and face it was hard to tell them apart. Even though there was a lake down here it was made up of polluted water so it wasn't a very suitable source of water for bathing let alone drinking.

It was astonishing that these hobbits and their dwarf friends were somehow surviving down here.

The dwarf and one of the hobbit guards armed with an old hunting rifle led Kotonoha and Lelouch through their settlement. The homes they lived in now these days couldn't be called homes and they certainly weren't the hobbit-holes they were used to living in. It was shocking and disturbing at how rapidly the hobbit race had declined in his time as Dark Lord of Mordor.

In fact it wasn't up until a few weeks ago that he hadn't heard anything about the hobbits let alone dwarfs.

Discovering this information alone was pure chance as the Witch King and his followers were exploring more of the old tunnel and subway systems under Japan hoping to find possible passageways for the purpose moving troops and supplies in the same fashion that the old subway lines were being used for, but the much older tunnels existing below them could serve that same purpose in a more covert fashion.

It was during that the Witch King came along some hobbits scavenging the remains of an old train and from there discovered their continued existence. There was some hostility to be sure, but once it was known to them that the Witch King was in fact a Nazgul they quickly threw down their arms inquiring.

"Wait…stay your weapons is your master the Dark Lord Sauron?"

The Witch King confirmed it and the hobbits were quick to apologize, but to the Dark Lord's growing surprise at that moment they wished for an audience with the Dark Lord wishing to apologize on behalf of what one Frodo Baggins had done to him so many eons ago. Lelouch was certain no one had remembered the ages of Middle Earth, but somehow these hobbits did.

Human history may have forgotten him, but it was obvious a small group didn't.

Eager to meet them and perhaps discover more about what happened following his demise as Sauron, Lelouch agreed to their meeting. Even as they walked through their town with homes made out of junk such as old mine carts and scrap metal assembled crudely. As they approached the center of town more hobbits came out of their homes, there were women among them and children.

Anyone would be heartbroken by the scene around the Dark Lord.

They came to a small clearing at the village where the Dark Lord stood at one end while an aged hobbit with a long white beard covered in dirt and grime stepped into the clearing looking at Lelouch.

"Are he…are you the Dark Lord!"

"Perhaps this will answer your question!" Lelouch spoke as the young man's form changed before the eyes of the gathered hobbits and their dwarf friend into that of the towering form of the Dark Lord Sauron. "I am the Dark Lord Sauron, once the Lord of Mordor…I have returned once more."

Instead of fright the hobbits were impressed, but Lelouch sensed hope spark within them which was upon itself surprising yet it piqued the Dark Lord's curiosity even more so.

"You wished for an audience with me, but I confess your request was a surprising one. I know of what Frodo Baggins had done…my power was unmade and I was reduced to nothing more than a simple spirit of malice that gnawed at itself in the shadows." The Dark Lord began, but sensing some troubling thoughts from the hobbits around them he added. "But be at ease I do not hold a grudge for all hobbits because of what one hobbit did."

"You have our thanks Dark Lord, but please we did not realize what your servant was at first…yet he is well known in the story that was written by Frodo."

"Story?"

"Aye my lord he wrote down everything that happened on his journey, the Red Book of Westmarch." The elder Hobbit replied.

"Interesting…no one else in the world knows of me and the old days, but yet you hobbits alone do."

"That is correct my lord…we preserved the books, the copies that were produced over the centuries as well the original we have kept preserved thanks to magical enchantments cast upon it."

The hobbit replied before opening up a locked metal box with a key the elderly hobbit drew from his tattered clothes. Inside laid a surprisingly preserved book with a red leather cover red colored with the signature print on the top, shaped as a shine of light, which including stitch patterns and beautiful marks around the edges.

The elder hobbit handed the book to the Dark Lord who examined it for a moment before passing it to Kotonoha to hold onto until the Dark Lord could have time later to read the book's contents.

"Now we should move to the matter at hand…exactly what kind of help do you wish of the Dark Lord, but I am curious to what happened to your people exactly?"

"Yes I don't doubt you have many questions, but for convenience I should introduce myself. I am Samwise Fairbairns, named for my ancestor Samwise Gamgee the hobbit who had accompanied Frodo to Mt. Doom. Sometime after the third age began my lord, about five hundred years after, a terrible cataclysm struck Middle Earth that caused wide spread devastation through Earthquakes and flooding the Shire and some of the lands around it was separated and we lived in isolation from the rest of the world for many eons left undisturbed. What caused the cataclysm we don't know, but ever since we have kept to ourselves. Some of us ventured out on boats, but no one returned…we were afraid to leave our island home so we stayed and lived in peace for many centuries until humans discovered our island."

"I see…go on."

The elder hobbit took a deep breath pausing for a moment before he continued.

"They came wearing armor and new flags, nothing we recognized, but we welcomed them…but…they attacked us without mercy or pity calling us abominations living on the lands of god and that they were crusaders seeking to reclaim the lands of god in his name."

'From what this hobbit is saying he and his people remained isolated on an island for most of humanity history until the medieval days, during the time of the Crusades.'

Lelouch deduced figuring out the exact time frame humanity's rediscovery of hobbits had taken place.

"We couldn't defend ourselves we had no military and no weapons to fight these crusaders with. Many of us were slaughtered like animals while our homes burned, but those living out in distant villages and other homes fled the island as more crusaders came to claim our ancient home."

"What happened?"

"We made our way to another distant land where we made our way deep into the mountains finding a hidden valley where we made a new home. Others ventured out and founded other colonies elsewhere in the new land we landed in called Europe from those we overheard calling it as we hid from the big people."

Samwise was on the verge of tears as he spoke the next part of their tragic history.

"But it didn't save us from the Holy Church who found our settlement many years later hunting us as demons that needed to be removed from the Earth. We fled again, but we have been forced to hide in dark and deep places of the world like this. All we want is not to be hunted anymore and to live in the sunshine and experience clean water and fresh air again. Our people can't keep living like this."

Lelouch didn't speak immediately as the hobbit elder broke into tears at the tragedy that had befallen their people. The Dark Lord was shocked by this apparent cruel twist of irony as one hobbit among them was responsible for Men taking over the lands of Middle Earth and now they turn around centuries later on a quest seeking the genocide of their entire race.

"How terrible, but what of the dwarfs?"

"They were in decline for a long time since the old days mostly because many of them had never settled down to have children of their own, but the church hunting them accelerated their decline. Now I fear their kind will become extinct very soon."

"I see…very well I shall aid your people and return them to the surface."

Samwise seemed genuinely surprised prompting him to ask

"You would do that my lord?"

"Yes…I do not hold a grudge for what happened eons ago, but seeing the suffering your people have endured, so I will help you. When I liberate Japan I will strike a deal with the leaders of the resistance movements to allow hobbits land to settle upon to rebuild your race and to live in peace." The Dark Lord declared as the hobbits surrounding them were thrilled at the news. "All I ask is that you contribute to the war I shall wage in whatever ways your people chose as either framing to produce food for the solders, fight with the rest of those who would fight for me and justice."

"You can consider it done my lord we want to live in peace…it's all we want."

"Then you shall have it…if there are other colonies tell them the Dark Lord of Mordor has returned and he will help the hobbits and any surviving dwarfs. I call upon any who can fight or aid me in liberating the world from Britannian tyranny."

The hobbits at this point began cheering as the dwarf that had been with the hobbit guards approached the Dark Lord.

"Are you serious?"

"I am…I seek a new and better future for the entire world and any of wish for a better future are welcomed to fight under my banner."

The dwarf was stunned, but his words hearing the determination within them was enough to win the old warrior over as he held his rifle in salute.

"Aye then you count on me my Lord…I'll send a call out to my remaining brethren to come to Japan to fight for the Dark Lord…a call to arms!"

"What is your name?"

"I am Fagben Deepbronze, strong in arms and the last of the best blacksmiths of my clan my lord."

"Fagben I welcome you to my side…if you have friends call them to Area 11, but also if the hobbits have access to any weapons them to bring them along, in due time we shall march to war."

Dark Lord Lelouch basked in the cheers of the hobbits around him as they were willing to fight for even him, but given their current living conditions who can blame them. Yet the Dark Lord also savored the irony of the situation, oh would Gandalf weep if he knew what befell hobbits and he of all people would become the savor of their entire race.

Later that evening after the meeting had concluded Kotonoha and Lelouch were on a train heading to the Tokyo Settlement while the girl sat next to the Dark Lord as the former Britannian Prince was browsing through the red book intending to read it. The dark haired girl moved closer to Lelouch to look at what he was reading. The meeting had concluded well, but Samwise and Fagben told Lelouch it would be quite some time before the rest of their kin could come to Area 11, which worked fine for the Dark Lord since he needed time to prepare living spaces for them and such. Also they would try to bring what weapons they could along with supplies for themselves and others.

"Lelouch-kun, will there be a war?"

"Yes, but not now…when the time is right."

Kotonoha was uneasy and concerned for her sister and Lelouch, but the young man felt her uneasy closed the book for a moment putting down next to him on his left before facing the young woman.

"Kotonoha I will change this world for the better and I'll keep you and sister safe."

"Lelouch-kun…"

Kotonoha said softy as her cheeks reddened seconds before the young man cupped her left cheek with his hand before moving closer. Their lips met in a light kiss, but soon it erupted into a passionate kiss between them as Kotonoha opened her mouth to take Lelouch's as the two young couple engaged in a heated kiss as a light moan escaped the young woman's mouth.

It lasted for what seemed to be forever, but when it ended a blushing Kotonoha looked at the Dark Lord Lelouch.

"I love you Lelouch-kun…"

Lelouch was taken aback by the words, but he was hesitant at first…once he was sure of the fact that his own feelings for her were mutual he replied.

"I love you too…my future queen."

A/N: well that concludes my short story on Kotonoha joining Lelouch as his future queen and it also reveals a surprising twist to the main story in the form of hobbits and dwarfs now looking posed to join him, although it will take some time for all of their kin to come to Area 11. But Lelouch with his human followers will have a strong military to work with.

The rest of the story will be continued in Chapter 8 of Return of the Dark Lord and vote in my new poll to determine the harem line up. 13 so far at the time of this chapter going up have voted and I need at least 30 to make the final decision, so I thank you in advance.

Read and review and tell me what you think

Fin