Disclaimer: As always I own nothing. It all belongs to the marvellous Professor John Ronald Reul Tolkien. I only own my characters and the plot.

A/N: Once again massive, massive apologies for the wait between the updates. Being in my third year of Uni means a lot of work and I've been ill with a kidney infection for the past three weeks so hence why this is so late. You may have noticed the title has changed; I wanted it to have something more to do with who the enemy will be and what the actual story will be about. Those of you well versed in LOTR mythology may have already figured it out by now but I have so many ideas, I can't wait for it all to be unfolded.

Anyway, this is a long chapter to make up for the lack of updates so I hope you will enjoy it!

CHAPTER FIVE

The Prophecy

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Reality hit Maggie (quite literally) like a tonne of bricks when she woke the next morning. Not hearing Caspian calling after her or crawling into her bed to wake up both her and Elrond for cuddles was a weird and unsettling. She had barely spent as much as a day away from her son since that day he'd been born and then all the thoughts hit her. How were they going to get back home to Middle-Earth, how long would she have to be away from Caspian and Elrond? She felt her stomach aching and the anxiety stirring inside her. No Maggie, you can't think like that. You'll find a way back, you always do. She inhaled, counted to ten and then exhaled, just like her counsellor had told her to do many times when anxiety hit her. It might be difficult for her, but all the same, she knew this world unlike Faramir who had never seen anything like this in his life and Laura wasn't there with him so for him things had to feel much worse. She collected her thoughts, went through her wardrobe and put on some of the clothes she'd left behind; a blue chiffon blouse (she had to admit feeling material that wasn't cotton was a strange sensation) and a simple pair of blue jeans. To Maggie's surprise though when she walked downstairs, she found Faramir already sat by the kitchen table, having breakfast with her mother. He was having what she assumed was a cup of coffee and some toast and seemed to be perfectly comfortable having a conversation with her mother.

"Maggie! I'm glad you're up, I was going to wake you but Faramir said you'd had a long journey so I thought I'd let you sleep. Coffee?" her mum said, enthusiastically as ever as she put a ceramic mug on the tabled and filled it up with steaming hot cardamom coffee. For a moment, Maggie was in shock and was just silent when she sat down. Things seemed to be so….normal, like she'd awakened from some bizarre daydream that had lasted for year.

"Maggie, your coffee will go cold." Maggie snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of her mother's voice "You're really pale, are you quite alright?" Susan put the palm of her hand on her daughter's forehead to feel for a fever but just shook her head.

"I'm okay mum, just knackered that's all. Actually, if it's okay for me, Faramir and I need to head into town for a while. Do you need anything?" said Maggie

"Oh no thanks dear, but I'm heading in myself so I'll give you a ride. Is ten minutes good or do you need more time to get ready?" she looked at Faramir for an answer.

"No madam, that should be quite alright." the Steward responded

Susan grinned as she kissed Maggie on the cheek and started heading out the kitchen. "He's so polite, I wonder if they're all like that in Sweden."

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Caspian had immediately noticed that something was going on the next day. He'd been asking for Maggie all morning and Elrond felt a stabbing pain in his heart when he'd told his son that his mother wasn't there and couldn't quite explain why. Despite all his efforts to try and establish a connection with Maggie she was still out of reach which made Felix's suggestion as to her and Faramir's whereabouts even more probably and all the more worrying. Something was wrong and it wasn't just because Maggie and Faramir were gone but all of these circumstances as well as Legolas being shot were far too much of a coincidence to be left at that. And Elrond knew that there was no such thing as coincidence in this world. Some part of him wondered perhaps that with the dreams Maggie had been having recently if it was Riley that had sent them there.

The Elf-Lord knew there was a divine purpose behind it all, he could feel it. Perhaps the Valar had some greater plans in the works and it just hadn't unfolded yet. Elrond knew better than to question the gods but the thought of his son not knowing where his mother was enough to tear him apart. The hobbits had kindly offered to play with the children for the morning and Caspian had taken a particular liking to Frodo and had hardly ever left his side. It reminded him of when Aragorn had been a child and met Legolas for the first time when he'd been staying with them in Rivendell all those years ago.

Though the sun was shining, the air was crisp and chilly that morning and Elrond knew they were going to be in for a cold winter this year. All these signs of things being different and changing had been appearing all around and up until that point Elrond had simply dismissed it as something natural but now it was becoming obvious that it was anything but natural.

Lord Elrond let out a heavy breath, closed his eyes and once again tried to see his wife. Even if Maggie was mortal and human and did not possess any magical gifts, the two of them had always had a bond stronger than any of that and therefore Elrond had always been able to at least sense her but now he could not even do that which made him think that perhaps Felix's theory wasn't all wrong.

"You are frightened." Galadriel's familiar and haunting voice echoed in Elrond's mind. "Things are happening that are out of your control and it scares you. You are worried your wife won't come back."

The thought had crossed Elrond's mind as much as he tried to not acknowledge it. He couldn't let it get to him though, he had to keep hoping Maggie and Faramir would both come and they had always found a way in the past.

"There is darkness once again stirring in the earth. You will face dangerous like nothing you have come across before."

And that's what scared him the most.

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Faramir, whom was usually not a man of many words and chose his conversations carefully, was fascinated by the world around him. He asked Maggie what felt like a million question and even though Laura had told him about their world he couldn't possibly in his wildest dreams have imagine it would be this. He had frowned up the clothes they wore though. Strange materials (jeans) that were somehow meant to be comfortable and considered fashion and then the shirts that went with it. Maggie had laughed when he'd been trying them on but even so, Faramir could tell she was distant and perhaps not a strange thing. She undoubtedly missed Caspian and Elrond as much as Faramir missed Laura. They both knew they had to remain strong and believe that there was a purpose for them being here and after that, they would return home.

Pizza, Faramir discovered, was a particularly peculiar delight. He couldn't quite put his finger on what he actually liked about it but he found it a shame that no such dish existed in Gondor or anywhere else in Middle-Earth. If he could work out how to recreate it then perhaps it was something he could take back with him. Or if Maggie and the others knew how to make it, that would be even better. There were so many strange things about this world he couldn't quite grasp but all the same he could understand why they all loved it so. Even if Maggie wasn't talking about it he could also tell that being away from her son hurt her. Faramir missed Natalie but being away from one's own child, not knowing when they would return, was a different kind of pain entirely.

"Right." Maggie breathed "I am not supposed to show you these but seeing as the War of the Ring has kind of passed and circumstances are a bit different at the moment I figured it'd be okay." she placed three books in front of Faramir. They were entitled The Fellowship of the Ring, the Two Towers and the Return of the King and appeared to be written by someone called J.R.R Tolkien. The steward raised an eyebrow and looked up at Maggie whom nodded at him. He picked up the first book and carefully looked through the pages. There was a map of all of Middle-Earth in the beginning and the story that followed was a detailed narrative of all the events regarding the War of the Ring. When he first saw his own named mentioned he stopped and read it. He put the book down after a while and remained silent until he once again looked up at Maggie.

"How can this be?" said Faramir quietly. "Everything is in here."

"Everything except me, Laura, Felix, Nat and Riley."

"This is impossible. Is it some kind of prophecy? Such things exist in our world."

Maggie shook her head and sighed. "To be honest we still don't know. We've talked about it and tried to work it out so many times but it's got us nowhere. At best, we figured it might perhaps be one of the Valar but there's no way we'll ever know for sure so we decided to leave it alone. More than anything for he sake of our own sanity but some things ought not to be dwelled in too deeply. Gandalf told us that. However, I thought you had the right to see it as you're here now and I thought maybe in them we'd find some kind of sign or a clue. Anything at this point really."

Faramir remained silent for a few moments and as Maggie looked at him, she could understand entirely why Natalie had fallen for him in the first place. When it came relationships and men, Natalie had never been the lucky one and so in the first few months of their relationship she had always been worried that she would do something wrong and he would leave her but as time progressed she soon came to realise that Faramir loved her just as much as she loved him.

"Are you okay?" asked Maggie as Faramir flipped through the pages of the books. He looked up at her and simply nodded in silence.

"I am alright." Faramir replied "I can now understand how difficult it must have been for you to get used to our world."

"Five years down the line it feels like it was always meant to be. It's being back here that's strange. Seeing my mum and I'm not quite sure how to talk to her. It's like there are so many things I want to tell her but I can't."

"You think she would not believe you?"

"I'm not sure I would if I were her. Besides, if I told her I would have to tell her about Riley and that would break her heart. I could never stand seeing that." Maggie sighed heavily and wasn't sure what to do about anything. However, there were more pressing matters at hand.

"Right now, we need to figure out how to get home." She said

"And how do we do that?" Faramir asked

"Every time we've been sent between the worlds it's been for a reason so I figured there has to be a reason for us being here now. Once we find out what that reason is, I think we should be able to go back home."

"There is one problem with that plan though; how do we begin to find out what that reason is?"

Yeah, Maggie thought, there would be that.

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It was late by the time Maggie finally managed to fall asleep after what felt like hours of twisting and turning in the bed. When she opened her eyes Maggie was back in the meadow but this time it was different. Her surroundings weren't as vague as they had previously been and it felt as if she was in a real place.

"Maggie."

Maggie instantly reacted to Riley's voice and when she turned around him was stood in front of her in the flesh and clear as day. She could hardly believe it at first because it had been so long but when the first shock was over she threw her arms around her cousin, not even realising the tears that were streaming down her face. Riley hugged his cousin and for a moment they just stood there until Maggie finally let go and dried her tears.

"This isn't just a dream is it?" she said as she let her eyes wander around the meadow. It was so peaceful, like a perfect day in early spring. There were birds singing in the distance and the breeze was pleasantly cool.

Riley shook his head. There were no battle wounds on him like there had been from the War and the wound in his chest from the arrow that killed him was gone. He was wearing white clothes, almost Elven like robes and he seemed to be at peace.

"No." he said "I've been trying to speak to you for a long time Maggie and sending you to our world was the easiest way to do that."

"So you sent me here to what? Boost the reception?" said Maggie "Here I thought Vodafone were a bad network."

Riley chuckled and shook his head again. "I didn't send you here. They did. As for the connection, it's strongest at home. After all, we were born here."

"They? Who exactly are they?"

Something in the air changed and Maggie suddenly felt a bit afraid. There was seriousness in Riley's voice which she had seldom heard even when he was alive.

"You know how we used to talk about who had sent us to Middle-Earth and why and Felix always thought it was the Valar? Well he was right, they're real Maggie."

The Lady of Rivendell could hardly believe what she was hearing. "You've met them?"

"In a manner of speaking, it's all a bit complicated."

"In my last dream you told me we had to close the gate or he would come through. Who's he? Sauron? That's impossible, Sauron is dead."

"No Maggie, someone far worse than Sauron. In the early days of Middle-Earth, Melkor one of the Valar became the first Dark Lord when he was trying to steal the three Silmarils from Fëanor. The Valar defeated Melkor by casting him into the Door of Night, a sort of purgatory or world between worlds but it's been prophesised that in the last days Melkor will learn how to break the door of night and re-enter the World. That's happening right now Maggie."

Maggie listened closely and though it was a lot to take in, it somehow made sense but she had never heard of Melkor before and the idea that there was a dark lord worse and more powerful than Sauron scared her.

"What are we supposed to do to stop it?" she asked, feeling herself getting more afraid

"Melkor has had thousands of years to gather his strength and return to the world and when he does there's going to be a battle much worse than the War of the Ring. You need to find the Silmarils, they are the only way to stop Melkor and permanently throw him into the Door of Night." Riley explained but his voice was starting to fade and Maggie could feel herself being pulled away from and started to panic. There were so many more questions she wanted answered.

"Where do we even begin to look? And we need to get back to tell the others? How do we do that? Riley! No I can't leave now!"

It was too late though, Maggie's surroundings began to shatter and she felt herself falling into nothingness.

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When Maggie jolted awake she was no longer in her bedroom but covered in mud, with heavy rain falling on her. She looked around to see Faramir lying next to her and once she was able to get a clearer look at her surroundings there was no doubt in her mind that they were back in Middle-Earth. She could see Minas Tirith in the distance and thanked god they were back. Faramir pulled her back up on her feet and looked at her with as much confusion in his eyes as relief.

"We need to get back as soon as possible."

Elrond. Maggie thought. We need you. She wasn't the one with telepathic powers but she knew that Elrond would be able to sense her presence. Maggie wasn't sure how much she understood at all but she knew she was scared and that the others needed to know. Something else caught Maggie's attention though when she turned around and she stood frozen in her face with a look of fear in her eyes.

"What is it?" Faramir asked

"Maggie, what's going on?" the voice belonged to her mother, Susan who had just regained consciousness "Where are we?"

"Mum? Oh god…."

To be continued…

Well they're back in Middle-Earth and they are not alone. What will happen now with Maggie's mum there? How will the others react to the news of Melkor's return? To find out please stay tuned for the next chapter.

In the meanwhile I would be very happy if you could leave a review and tell me what you thought.