Chaos Unleashed: Chapter Thirteen

Kathryn's POV

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No!"

"...What about now?"
"Pippin!" I glanced in the rear view mirror as Merry smacked the Took upside the head and laughed.

"Don't worry about it," I said, following Kaia as we turned off the highway. "We'll get there soon, and once you see what it is we're doing, you'll love it."

"Why can't you ever tell us where we're going anymore?" Boromir joked from the passenger seat. "I'm convinced that one of these days you're just going to kidnap us and drive off without a word."

"Damn, foiled again." I smiled, then turned to look at him while wiggling my eyebrows suggestively. "But who says we haven't done it already?" We both laughed.

"And where's Erin?" Sam spoke up from the back. "Why isn't she with us?"

"She's gonna meet us there," I replied. "Jared's giving her a ride so we didn't have to squeeze her into one of these cars with all you guys again." I slowed down as we began to pass through a small, historical old town. The guys fell quiet as we drove down the cobblestone main street, taking in the sights and sounds of a new area as a song by 30 Seconds To Mars played on the radio. Today was supposed to be the last warm day of the summer season, as it was getting close to October, so Kaia, Erin and I had planned one last special day out for us to enjoy. We hadn't strayed too far away from our hometown; maybe a little under an hour at most. This little town was well-preserved, being built on a cliff-like spit of land that jutted out into a wide river. Mountains rose all around us, creating a beautiful backdrop for the area.

A couple minutes later we were parked and scrambling out of the cars to start walking towards our destination. I grabbed a cooler packed with snacks and drinks to last us the afternoon and caught up with everybody else as we began to walk across the massive bridge that spanned across the river.

Sam was trying to stay as far away from the outside edge as possible. "We don't have bridges like these in Middle-Earth," he muttered, keeping his eyes at his feet.

I laughed a bit. "Don't worry. If it can hold up a train, it can hold up all of us." Sam opened his mouth, about to ask what a train was, but changed his mind and settled for hugging the inside again. The bridge really was used for trains, though, with metal fencing separating our boarded walkway from the giant tracks. Luckily there weren't any coming by at the time, so it was a nice little walk over to the other side.

Merry and Pippin were just in front of me, and the former was looking down at the water far below with curiosity. "Why are there so many trees and rocks down there?"

"There used to be another bridge there, a long time ago," I explained. "It collapsed, and those stone islands are all that's left of the pillars that held it up."

Pippin's eyes glittered with excitement. "Are we going to one?" I nodded, and his grin grew even more.

It didn't take much longer for us to get across, and soon we were all headed down a spiraling metal staircase that led to ground level. Kaia and I then turned left, and the Fellowship trailed behind us as we headed down a sloping, rocky hill to a flatter area that ran along the riverbank.

"This is amazing!" Merry exclaimed as we walked back along the water a bit more, headed for the island that was closest to shore "Do you come here a lot?"

"We used to a couple years ago," I replied, "but it's been awhile."

He frowned. "Why'd you stop?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Work, money, doing other stuff instead. But I've missed this place."

"So have I," Kaia cut in from up ahead. She stopped once the nearest island was directly in front of us, and we stood at the edge of a short drop off into the water. "Okay!" she called out, getting the Fellowship's attention. "I don't care if you take your shirts off or whatever, but you should probably leave your shoes and shit on land, cause you're gonna get wet. Does everyone here know how to swim?"

They nodded, but Sam spoke up. "What if we don't exactly want to get wet?"

"Too bad," she winked. "You're getting in anyway."

"But is it all that safe to-"

"GO!" Kaia suddenly shout out and pushed an unsuspecting victim who'd been standing next to her into the water below. Everyone scrambles to the edge to watch as Aragorn tumbled down with a shout.

He resurfaced quickly, laughing, but soon a confused look came over him. "...I feel as though this has happened before."

Kaia and I shared a look before she started laughing hysterically. "Fuck you all!" she yelled before taking a running leap after the ranger. Merry and Pippin nodded to each other once before letting out a battle cry and diving in together, and after that it didn't take much longer for everyone else to follow suit. Boromir managed to snag my arm as he jumped in, and I screamed while he laughed, just barely catching a breath before plunging underwater.

I pushed away from him as the shock of the cold water hit me, twisting around until I shot up and broke through the surface. I coughed up a but of water and gasped as the Gondorian also popped up a few feet away from me. "That was great!" he laughed as I pushed hair out of my face.

I glared at him, but it didn't last. "Yeah, thanks." He simply smiled and started swimming off towards the island.

There was another shout from above, and I yelped as I was soaked by another wave of water from the splash of someone landing nearby. Gimli then came up grinning and wiping the water from his eyes. He laughed and clapped me on the back when he noticed me floating nearby. "Come on, lassie!" I rolled my eyes and swam after him, heading for the island ahead.

oOo

Kaia's POV

"Three...two...one...GO!" I screamed, waving my arm around like a flag as Legolas and Boromir pushed off from the staring point in their third race that day. They were trying to determine who was the faster swimmer by racing between the island and mainland, best three out of five, and currently the elf had two wins in his pocket. I was sitting on a slab of rock about halfway up the decayed column, feet dangling over the edge. My soaking wet clothes clung to my dark skin, and I shivered a bit from the coolness of my dip in the river being coupled with the shade provided by the amount of small trees and overgrown bushes that had taken up residence on the island.

Aragorn was next to me, also watching their shenanigans. "This was a nice place to travel to," he said.

I nodded. "Yeah, I love it here. It's a great place to relax, you know?"

"Very." He chuckled as he watched a splash fight break out between Kathryn and the hobbits below. "I can honestly say that I did not expect to enjoy myself so much while living here with you."

I smiled, then turned my attention back to the water as Legolas and Boromir came back from their race, and I grinned as the elf finished first. "He wins!" I declared, pointing down to the blonde head and laughing. I then looked back to the man beside me. "I'm glad you're having fun. I know Erin, Kathryn, and I love it, too." I saw Frodo get dunked by the latter and laughed again.

After a moment, Aragorn turned towards me a bit more. "Kaia?"

"Hmm?"

"Have you made any progress on returning us to Middle-Earth?"

I stopped smiling and met his gaze. "I...I really don't know," I answered. "Erin's been the one doing most of the research, and I'm pretty sure she found a little bit of information last week, but I don't think it was too helpful to her."

He nodded in understanding. "I do not blame you for keeping us here," he reassured. "It's expected to be difficult when we came here by accident in the first place."

"Yeah, I know," I sighed, "but I still feel kinda bad about it. I mean, you guys have been here for months now." It was quiet for a second before I spoke again. "Do you want to go back?"

I wasn't surprised when he nodded again. "I would like to return home if I can...especially for Arwen," he added quietly at the end.

I winced a bit. "I'm sorry, man. It must be rough."

"It is, though I am slowly growing used to it," he replied. "But I could not forget her if I tried."

"Well, I don't know how long it'll take, but I promise we'll get you back someday."

He offered me a small smile. "Thank you."

I returned it. "No problem. It'll be quiet around here without you, though. I'll miss you guys."

"And I assure you it will not feel the same without you girls as well," he said with a bit of a laugh. "It will definitely be much quieter on our end."

I laughed a bit as well, but my gaze suddenly shifted to a figure that was running down the spiral stairs. "IS THAT ERIN I SEE OVER THERE?" I shouted across the water suddenly, getting to my feet.

"YOU BET IT IS!" I heard her shout back.

"HELL YES!" I laughed. "HELL FUCKING YES!" She came running right down to the water and wasted no time jumping in, clothes and all. Once she came back up, I cheered. "YEAH!"

Erin looked over and gave me a thumbs up before starting to swim towards us, and I smiled as I felt Aragorn nudge me in the back. "You know..." he began, "I feel as if I deserve revenge for the little stunt you pulled earlier."

My brow furrowed in confusion. "Wait, what? What are you – OH NO YOU FUCKING ASSHO-" I was cut off as the ranger lifted me up and tossed me down into the river below.

oOo

Erin's POV

"Yeah!" I pumped my fist in the air as I crossed the finish line in first place again. "That's it, then! I won overall!"

"Oh, damn it!" Kathryn swore from beside me as she dropped her controller after a fifth place finish. We'd been playing more Mario Kart after arriving home from swimming about an hour ago, and the sun had just set over the horizon a few minutes prior. "If it wasn't for that one blue shell..."

I laughed. "Such is the way of Mario Kart."

At that moment, Kaia came wandering into the game room to interrupt us. "Hey, you guys done yet?"

"Yeah," Kathryn answered as I started shutting the game down. "We just finished."

"Cool. You want to have a movie night?"

"What movie?"
"Lord of the Rings, probably. We haven't watched it in awhile."

I stopped and gave her an odd look. "Uhh, Kaia? Did you forget that we've got the Fellowship living with us?"

"Of course not! I never said they had to watch it with us. And from what I can tell they're all pretty much occupied right now."

"True," I agreed. "Alright, I'm up for it."

"I can't," Kathryn said. "I've got work in like, twenty minutes."

"Oh yeah," Kaia said. "Do you want us to wait until you come back?"

She shook her head. "No, it's fine. I won't be home until after nine anyway."

"Okay. Let's do it then, Erin." Kaia turned to me.

I shrugged. "Why not?"

"I guess I'll go get ready to leave, then," Kathryn said. "See you guys in...a couple hours, I guess?"

"Yeah," I nodded as Kaia and I started moving over to the door to get to my side of the house. "See ya!"
Kaia waved as we walked across the front porch. We could hear the voices of some of the guys from the backyard, and stepping into the living room revealed that we were, in fact, along for the time being. I grinned as I jumped over the coffee table and snagged my prized possession: the boxed set of the extended edition trilogy. "Let's do this!"

oOo

Legolas' POV

I stepped back from the shelf that kept all the paints and observed my work. Seeing as I had been unable to find inspiration for a new project to begin working on, I took it upon myself to reorganize many of the supplies scattered around the art studio. It had taken quite a bit of work, but in my eyes, it was worth it.

Glancing outside and seeing that it was nearly dark, I contemplated what to do next. I remembered hearing that a few others had gone outside for awhile. Perhaps I could join them? I walked over to where Erin's laptop was plugged into the speakers and paused the music. I had taken quite a liking to much of the orchestral music that she had shown me, mostly from movie soundtracks. Listening to the songs from the Lord of the Rings was a particular favorite of mine, since many of the of the songs included in it were in elvish. It comforted me to have at least that as a small piece of home in this new world.

Thinking about Middle-Earth caused an idea to form in my head. I should practice archery. It had been so long since I had used my bow... In fact, I could not remember once having it since the girls had stored our weapons away when we arrived. Now where did they put them? Ahh, yes. The closet. I closed the laptop and took one last look around the room to make sure nothing was terribly out of order, then left the studio and walked down the hall to the closet nearby.

Thankfully the door had no lock on it, so I had no trouble getting inside. It occurred to me that I probably could have done this much earlier, but I brushed the thought aside. I smiled a bit as I saw my bow leaning up against the wall, next to Gimli's axe, and reached for it. Just as my fingers closed around the smooth wood, however, my arm accidentally knocked something off of a stack of cardboard boxes.

I set my bow aside and bent down to pick the items up. It seemed to be a...rolled up piece of paper...and a large one, at that. It reminded me of the posters in Erin's room. Without thinking, I unrolled it, but did not expect to see what was on it.

It's...me.

Sure enough, the poster in my hands was a large image of me in a fighting stance, preparing to shoot my bow. But...why would Erin have this? And why in here? Why not on her wall with the others? I remembered the large gaps on her walls. Did she take them down?

It did not stop there, though. There was another poster that had fallen down, and unrolling that one revealed it to be yet another picture of me, though in this one I was without my weapons and had a much more serious look on my face. I was about to simply place them back where I found them and leave, but then I noticed that the box they had fallen off of in the first place was crudely labeled "Erin's Crap" in large black letters. I knew that if it was her private things, I should not be going through them, but...

I sighed and ignored my conscience, reaching for the box and opening it. What I saw was...unsettling, I suppose. It was full of all different types of décor, the majority of which was centered around me. Small things I remembered someone calling 'trading cards,' a few figurines, drawings...even a replicated set of my white daggers. But...I do not understand. Why would she have all this?

And then something clicked in my mind. ...Oh...she...she must have really admired me... I looked over all of the memorabilia again. ...Or perhaps more than admired. Is that why she always seems so flustered when I talk to her? I swallowed, hoping that I was wrong in thinking so. Erin is an incredible friend...but I could never view her as any more that that.

Suddenly, I heard her and Kaia's voices from below and realized they had entered the house. In a brief panic, I quickly gathered everything up and put it back into the box, arranging the posters once more so that nothing looked out of place. Once I was convinced that nothing seemed suspicious, I grabbed my quiver along with my bow and quietly closed the closet door, heading downstairs.

When I came into the living room, both girls looked up at me. It appeared they were setting up to watch a movie, and Kaia raised an eyebrow at my bow. "You gonna go hunt a wild squirrel or something?"

"No, I was just going to practice," I said. "It has been a long time." I glanced over at Erin to see what her reaction would be from knowing I had been in the closet, but she didn't seem to care much.

"Alright, cool," she replied. "Have fun." I nodded and cast one last glance at Erin before heading outside.

oOo

Erin's POV

Over two hours later, Kaia and I were on the couch watching the Fellowship prepare to leave Lothlórien, buried in popcorn bowls and half-empty cups of soda. "I'm still kinda disappointed that they never showed Galadriel giving Boromir a gift," I commented.

"I noticed that!" Kaia said. "I thought that was kind of weird."

"Whatever," I shrugged. "The movie's still perfect."

"Oh, yeah!" She laughed. "Hey, are there still snacks in your kitchen at all?" Now the Fellowship was loading up the boats to take off down the Anduin.

"Uhh...maybe? I'll check." I pried myself away from the sofa and slipped out of the room, beginning to dig through the pantry. Hmmm...well, there's my candy stash...but that's my candy stash...I thought I had Oreos in here. Guess I gotta buy more sometime.

Suddenly, the sounds of the movie playing in the living room went silent, and I paused, only to hear Kaia go "What the hell?" a second later. Frowning, I walked back into the living room to see that the TV screen had gone completely black, like someone had just shut it off.

"What happened?" I asked as Kaia got up and walked over to mess with the TV.

"I don't know," she said. "It just stopped playing."

"Did you accidentally hit a button on the remote?"

"No, it's way over there."

"Then how in the world did it turn off?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out." Kaia ejected the disk, but the TV was still on. "Did it get scratched? Was it some kind of weird skip?"

"I doubt it," I said. "You know I keep those things in mint condition."

She examined it, her frown deepening. "Yeah, nothing's wrong with it."

"Put it back in and see if it plays. Are all the cables plugged in?"

Kaia quickly popped the Fellowship disc back into the slot, then checked the system out. "Yeah, nothing's loose at all."

"What part did it cut off at?"

"Just after they'd left Lothlórien and started boating down the river."

"That's really weird." I looked back to the screen as it booted up, but it was still just a black nothing. "Dude, go. Press play."

"I did."

I looked at Kaia again. "What?"

"Nothing's happening."

"How is nothing happening?"

"I don't know!"

This is so weird. "Take it out and put another disc in, then."

Somehow, they were all the same. Every movie disc, every behind-the-scenes DVD...all gone. Like the material had just suddenly ceased to exist. I was beginning to panic, and Kaia was just confused. "I don't get it," she said, looking over the discs again. "How does all that footage just disappear?"

"I don't know, but this is freaking me out," I said, turning off the DVD player and switching back to the normal cable TV. "What's going on? Seriously!"

Kaia shrugged. "I know as much as you. But that's still really-"

My eyes widened suddenly as I noticed the headline for an upcoming report on the news channel we'd landed on, and I grabbed Kaia's arm as we both read it.

"GUYS! GET IN HERE!"

A/N: Oops look at that I left a cliffhanger...