Ilene tried to struggle or cry out for help, but the man's hand over her mouth cut off her voice and her struggles were no help at all. She tried kicking her abductor, but he just kicked her back. Although, the sound of his grunt of pain was very satisfying, he kept dragging her out through the door, where a security guard lay on the ground, snoring, and into the parking lot. There, Ilene tried to bite his hand. He just got frustrated and hit her on the head. Sensing an opportunity, Ilene decided to pretend to pass out. Her captor dropped her as she fell to the ground, and stooped over to pick her up again.
This time, he forgot to put his hand over Ilene's mouth. She opened her mouth to draw in a breath to scream, but his hand clamped itself firmly over the scream before it could escape.
"No tricks," he said, looking into Ilene's eyes as a warning.
Ilene gave him her best death glare and resigned herself to being carted off to his car.
Zephyr was too numb to scream and too shocked to try to attack his and Ilene's kidnappers. He walked blindly, following the girl to a nondescript car.
"Don't forget your seatbelt," she said, pointing out the backseat.
"What? Not the trunk?" Not thinking straight, Zephyr said the only thing that came to mind.
"Wouldn't want to draw too much attention to ourselves, would we?" she smiled ferally.
Thanatos was growing impatient with the struggling girl. He had given up on forcing her to walk as soon as they were out of sight of the party goers, and had resorted to carrying her to the car, but still she managed to be what an almost unbelievable amount of trouble. He grunted and shifted her weight on his shoulder and wished for a roll of duct tape.
Having reached the car, he placed her on the ground. Pointing at the door, he said, "Get in," As an afterthought, he added "please."
She glared at him some more until he finally just shoved her in on top of her party companion. He moved over to his seat and sat down.
"Go," Thanatos said to Maia, who was already in the driver's seat.
"Have you seen them anywhere?" Megan asked Lewis.
"No. I even checked the bathroom. Nowhere in this whole building or even anywhere on this street," he responded.
"Are you sure you checked everywhere?"
"Yes. I even looked in the McDonalds down the street."
"And they're not by the car?" Megan's eyebrows drew close together in worry.
"No. You know what this means. He's woken up first."
"Who could have possibly woken him up? What eternally loyal servants does he have?"
"The one who came with him."
"Oh right," she said, "I know we promised Tulkas not to intervene-"
"Megan, we can't use those names."
"Fine. I know we promised not to intervene, but I think we need to wake the other Valar."
"Megan!"
"Nobody can understand us, Eonwe; we're speaking a language that hasn't been alive for centuries," she said emotionlessly, "and it must be done."
"I understand, but we need to call a meeting of the Maiar first. If all agree to speed up our actions, then that is what we will do," he said, gritting his teeth at the use of true names.
"I'm going to call Tulkas to the meeting to see what he says."
"Yes. Tell them it's an emergency and we must meet tonight."
"Eonwe, you know they will hardly ever agree to anything in an official meeting."
"I know. But we must go through the protocol before we even try to rescue them on our own."
"Absolutely not!"
"Why not, Osse? You always protest any forward direction of action-"
"Just because you couldn't manage to keep track of two unawakened Valar for one night-"
"What if your master went missing then? Your protests-"
"We can't just tell them who they are, they'll go crazy-"
"Like there was ever any other choice-"
"This is all a waste of time. I say-"
"ENOUGH!" bellowed Tulkas.
With mumbled apologies and gradual silence, the assembled crowd of Maiar silenced themselves.
"Thank you," he continued, "Uinen makes a fine point. If we tell these people that they are the forgotten gods from ages past, they will never believe us. However, we must also make them aware of their true identity as soon as possible, and move them away from each other so they will attract less attention."
"What if instead of moving them away from each other, we moved them slightly out of the realm of Earth, like we are now?" Melian proposed.
"Do you think they would actually survive the journey?" Tulkas asked.
"It seems highly unlikely."
"But Lord Tulkas," Olorin inquired, "If we move eleven people away from the same area where two have suddenly gone missing, people will definitely notice."
"Hmmm. Yes. This will have to be very carefully planned."
"Perhaps we could arrange it so that they all go on journeys of personal discovery," Ilmare suggested.
"We could use Thanksgiving next week as a cover," said Eonwe.
"What if we kept them together, but moved them, not out of this realm, but to a place where they will not be seen?" asked Melian.
"Much better idea, Melian. I like it," Tulkas said, "We will all work together to move them to a safe house by this time next week. Everybody, form a plan to move your old Valar masters out. Eonwe, Ilmare, come over here."
"Yes, Lord Tulkas?" they inquired as they walked toward him.
"I know what you're planning to do. You cannot go off and rescue them on your own. It's far too dangerous."
"What do you propose we do instead, Lord Tulkas?" asked Eonwe.
"The other Maiar will only search out and rescue those Valar they associated most closely with in ages past. You will help me rescue those not closely associated with any of the Maiar I would trust for such a task, namely Aule, Namo, and Orome."
"My Lord?" asked Ilmare, confused.
"I don't want you two going off to attack Melkor on your own."
"But, my Lord, why would we plan such foolishness?" Eonwe said innocently.
Tulkas looked at him and continued, "To keep you two away from Melkor, I want Ilmare to find a safe house and take Aule to it. Eonwe, take Namo and Orome to the safe house. Don't go looking for trouble, either one of you."
Tulkas watched the rest of the Maiar leave to go find the Valar. Sighing, he allowed his physical form to vanish once more.
"Ah, Varda. If only you thought to share your plans before leaving," he thought, wishing that she would have given him at least a hint.
"Has anybody seen Ilene or Zephyr?" Trista asked the assembled group of people one week after their first meeting with each other.
"Yes," Dustin said very softly.
"Where?" demanded Ryan.
Holding up two missing person fliers, Dustin said, "I found these while I was grocery shopping on Tuesday."
Everybody gasped sharply except Arthur, who just looked abashed.
Noticing his lack of shock, Terra integrated him, "Did you already know about this, Arthur?"
"Yeah. Ilene's roommate found me yesterday and told me about it. She said she'd tell the rest of you at breakfast," he responded.
"That's the creepiest thing ever," Vanessa said.
Helen finished Vanessa's thought, "Yes. I would like to know exactly how she was able to find you and how she knew that Ilene had spoken to you in the past. It could have even been her who-"
"She said she was in league with T."
The silence that followed this revelation threatened to black out the conversation of the people next to them. All of these college students wanted to know more about T, but they also feared him more than anything else.
"Let's go meet her, then," said Penny said quietly.
The rest nodded consent, and they stepped into the cafeteria together.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Ilmare. There can be no going back now," said Aiwendil.
"I know." Ilmare braced herself for the inevitable storm to follow what was about to be revealed to the Valar.
I really don't like this chapter.
Seriously, nothing happens, and I couldn't find a good way to write it. Blegh.
On another note, when I first planned this story, I wasn't going to have so much involvement from the Maiar. But, I like their inclusion. (Will be better next chapter.)
And I got a sum total of ONE update for the last chapter and had a little panic attack that nobody read this story anymore. And then I was sad. And then I was all write, self, YOU read this story. So here is a chapter. Yep.
Disclaimer: Seriously, people, I don't own this.