Author's note: Again, quick reminder that back as a mortal before he became a Nazgûl serving Sauron in this AU, Khamûl had a half Nûmenorian son named Tar-Minyatur because his con-artist to mother claimed to be a descendant of Elros Tar-Minyatur, the twin of Elrond and the first King of Nûmenor. This Tar-Minyatur is currently reborn as Tywin Lannister. / Rogercat

~X~X~X~X~X~X

By the time she woke up, Rhaenys found herself laying on a moveable palliasse inside the bedchamber of Elia and Théodred, with her stepfather looking at her from the bed with a familiar, stern frown between his eyebrows that told said stepdaughter that she would have faced more than just that look, were it not for the current situation with the war and everything else.

"You and Madre are angry at me for using so much magic that I drained myself, right?"

She should not have to ask in the first place, but she really wanted to hear him speak. Just to make her cloudy mind focus on something familiar.

"Because we do not want you to accidentally harm yourself or something even worse, Rainbow Life. "

It warmed her heart to hear his nickname for her, its origins coming from her love of painting and how she would make drawings that could almost be life-like depending on how detailed she made it.

"Are Rhaenys awake, honey?"

Entering the chamber, Elia looked more tired than normal. Not that it was weird, she had to rule Rohan while her husband recovered and the news about her father-in-law being one of the Rohirric men who would never return home to his family again…

"Madre…I know that I did something foolish without telling anyone…" Rhaenys added as she slowly sat up. The Queen consort of Rohan took a deep breath, reminding herself that her firstborn no longer was a young child, but a young woman able to make choices of her own and that Rhaenys had to be treated as the almost-adult she was.

"Just…do not go behind our backs with a plan that looks good on paper and do something that would prove to be a disaster both for yourself and others. You are a clever young woman, and you know that not even the best chessmasters can cover every single loophole in their plans, or even be aware of everything that happens in the world. Do you remember our talks about how easily a supposed masterplan can fall apart because of unforeseen consequences or simply forgetting an important detail that proves to be far more important in the long run? "

Oh, yes. Rhaenys could recall how this "plan that looks good on paper but actually falls apart when it actually is set in motion" was a very good take on her father Rhaegar and his desire to have "the original Targaryen trio reborn" by siring a supposed Visenya on Lyanna Stark as a mistress, from his mistaken belief that Elia would never become pregnant again after the difficult birth of Aegon.

"If I were to forget that important detail or fail to recognize what could go wrong at each step of the plan and not try and fix those with a plan B or anything else to quickly lessen the resulting damage, then I would be alarmingly naive about how the real world really works outside fairy tales with their often very simplified black-and-white view on things. For example, the Free Peoples of Middle-earth are teaming up their last forces to try and become the heroes defeating the Dark Lord in this war, but…what if we are the villains for the other side?"

Again, Elia could not help but think that her daughter must have gotten her intelligence from the Martell side of her family alongside having so many good role models to learn from, because it was words like this that proved Rhaenys to be so superior in using her brain than Rhaegar. Yes, Rhaenys could make mistakes as well, but she knew how to learn from those and try to not repeat mistakes, or at least have a plan B that could be more successful.

"You would have been a fine successor to Elia as the new ruling Princess of Dorne, had she been the oldest sibling instead of the middle one," Théodred said with a gentle smile, reminding himself about trying to match Rhaenys up with a good husband or wife, if she wanted to get married as a legal adult and had found out her own sexuality since Rhaenys had wanted to focus on the war first and her personal life second.

"Feder!" Rhaenys protested light-heartedly, and then her siblings arrived in the door to see how it was with her.

"Rhae!" Andréth called in joy over seeing that her older sister was awake and even sitting up in bed.

"Aunt Mellario said that you collapsed, are you really tired?! You never do that normally!" Aégnor asked, looking between his oldest sibling and their parents, as if non-verbally asking the King and Queen to confirm it.

"Yes, she has not slept well over the past days, and sometimes our normal sleeping scheme gets messed up because of stress and grief," Théodred spoke, indirectly admitting that he had not slept that well since the news that his father had died in battle.

"Um…" Aegon started, then his eyes went blank in a manner that his family had learned to recognize that he probably saw a glimpse of the future.

"Aegon, what are you seeing this time?"

He shook his head, as if to clean his mind from the vision, before answering:

"I think…it was those two Hobbits, Frodo and Samwise, I just saw. They…were northwest of Mordor, I think? Trying to enter through a pass to get in without being noticed?"

Ok, that at least confirmed two things, namely that 1) both the two Hobbits were still alive and together, 2) they had reached Mordor.

"Both good and bad news, together…" Elia summoned it up, because there was a high risk of Frodo and Samwise being captured now when they had literally entered enemy territory. If there was any state on the secret mission to bring the One Ring to Mount Doom and cast the cursed thing in the fires, where it was the highest risk of capture and Sauron getting the One Ring back, it was there in Mordor.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Much to his shame at first, Merry had been declared too injured to be able to join the Army of the West towards Mordor, for as Aragorn had explained, a broken arm would be a serious handicap that would only make fighting more difficult for him. But Éomer had tasked the Hobbit to help keep a eye on his sister, just so the older brother knew that someone was ensuring that she was well, outside her trusted betrothed and the men who would remain to protect Minas Tirith.

Ere noon on March 18th the army came to Osgiliath. There all the workers and craftsmen that could be spared were busy. Some were strengthening the ferries and boat-bridges that the enemy had made and in´part destroyed when they fled; some gathered stores and booty; and others on the eastern side across the River were throwing up hasty works of defence.

The vanguard passed on through the ruins of Old Gondor, and over the wide River, and on up the long straight road that in the high days had been made to run from the fair Tower of the Sun to the tall Tower of the Moon, which now was Minas Morgul in its accursed vale. Five miles beyond Osgiliath they halted, ending their first day's march. But the horsemen pressed on and ere evening they came to the Cross-roads and the great ring of trees, and all was silent. No sign of any enemy had they seen, no cry or call had been heard, no shaft had sped from rock or thicket by the way, yet ever as they went forward they felt the watchfulness of the land increase. Tree and stone, blade and leaf were listening. The darkness had been dispelled, and far away westward sunset was on the Vale of Anduin, and the white peaks of the mountains blushed in the blue air; but a shadow and a gloom brooded upon the Ephel Dúath. Then Aragorn set trumpeters at each of the four roads that ran into the ring of trees, and they blew a great fanfare, and the heralds cried aloud:

"The Lords of Gondor have returned and all this land that is theirs they take back."

The hideous orc-head that was set upon the carven figure was cast down and broken in pieces, and the old king's head was raised and set in its place once more, still crowned with white and golden flowers: and men laboured to wash and pare away all the foul scrawls that orcs had put upon the stone. Now in their debate some had counselled that Minas Morgul should first be assailed, and if they might take it, it should be utterly destroyed.

"And, maybe," said Imrahil, "the road that leads thence to the pass above will prove an easier way of assault upon the Dark Lord than his northern gate."

But against this Gandalf had spoken urgently, because of the evil that dwelt in the valley, where the minds of living men would turn to madness and horror, and because also of the news that the men serving under Faramir had brought. For if the Ring-bearer had indeed attempted that way, then above all they should not draw the Eye of Mordor thither. So the next day when the main host came up, they set a strong guard upon the Cross-roads to make some defence, if Mordor should send a force over the Morgul Pass, or should bring more men up from the South. For that guard they chose mostly archers who knew the ways of Ithilien and would lie hid in the woods and slopes about the meeting of the ways. But Gandalf and Aragorn rode with the vanguard to the entrance of Morgul Vale and looked on the evil city.

It was dark and lifeless; for the Orcs and lesser creatures of Mordor that had dwelt there had been destroyed in battle, and the Nazgûl were abroad. Yet the air of the valley was heavy with fear and enmity. Then they broke the evil bridge and set red flames in the noisome fields and departed.

"I don't even want to be anywhere close to that place…." Oberyn thought for himself, wondering if his feeling of unease was a echo of knowing that nearly all the souls of the original wives and children of Khamûl had been held as prisoners there, and how Quentyn and his father Ihsan had taken a great risk in bringing the trapped souls to Dorne.

"Lord Suleiman? Is something wrong?"

The Sultan had a look of unease on his face, and he pulled back his sleeves to show them the bracelets from Kemet, passed down all the way from Princess Neith to him though her descendants, revealing that they gave off a strange light that was only visible now in the dark of the night.

"Listen. Or am I just imagining a sound coming from them?"

Thanks to him being an Elf with far better hearing than the Men around him, Legolas did hear the sound perfectly well as if it had been someone singing in the distance, and it was the same for the twin Sons of Elrond.

"I can not say why we are hearing this eerie singing, though," the older twin said, and no one else could explain it either.

Deep within the dungeons, Tywin Lannister had been left hanging in the chains, alone and without protection, because his torture from earlier had ensured that he could not move any of his broken limbs or do anything else by himself. At first, he had thought that it was someone coming to rescue him, only to be faced with a ghostly image of a Targaryen-looking girl whose long face revealed her to be of Stark lineage. And the way her eyes glowed…terrified him more than anything else, just like that wraith who had broken his body like this:

You are nothing but an aged and weakened human monster to me.

Less than nothing thanks to my Master now, you are not worth my pity.

Not even one of your pathetic children is a rival of what I can do,

if they were here to try and save you.

Underestimated her all this time, don't you get it?

This is all my design to make the Sun princess outshine everyone

who never looked past their first impression of her!

I have made my moves to protect her and her family from you,

and now you will die, seconds from the truth.

This is all for her, the reborn Princess of Kemet

and those of her other half-siblings who escaped the claws of Sauron,

by sheer luck on that day your previous life took away everything

from their shared father and caused his fall into evil!

You have hunted her across so many lifetimes in that other world,

wanting to kill her without knowing why, but this is the final end of you!

You will remain here in the darkness, dying all alone,

praying in vain for a savior that will never come or even know where you are kept prisoner!

Harbinger of doom to your entire family, across every rebirth

Lord Tywin Lannister, of Casterly Rock and Warden of the West!

Once known as Tar-Minatyr, the half Nûmenorian son of Farao Khamûl!

With this song echoing in her ears, Tywin was left all alone in the darkness again as Visenya vanished with a mocking laugh over his fate.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

The day after, being the third day since they set out from Minas Tirith, the army began its northward march along the road. It was some hundred miles by that way from the Cross-roads to the Morannon, and what might befall them before they came so far none knew They went openly but heedfully, with mounted scouts before them on the road, and others on foot upon either side, especially on the eastward flank; for there lay dark thickets, and a tumbled land of rocky ghylls and crags, behind which the long grim slopes of the Ephel Dúath clambered up. The weather of the world remained fair and the wind held in the west, but nothing could waft away the glooms and the sad mists that clung about the Mountains of Shadow; and behind them at whiles great smokes would arise and hover in the upper winds. Ever and anon Gandalf let blow the trumpets, and the heralds would cry:

"The Lords of Gondor are come! Let all leave this land or yield them up!"

But soon Imrahil offered a alternative:

"Say not the Lords of Gondor. Say the King Elessar. For that is true, even though he has not yet sat upon the throne; and it will give the Enemy more thought, if the heralds use that name."

And thereafter thrice a day the heralds proclaimed the coming of the King Elessar. But none answered the challenge.

Nonetheless, though they marched in seeming peace, the hearts of all the army, from the highest to the lowest, were downcast, and with every mile that they went north foreboding of evil grew heavier on them. It was near the end of the second day of their march from the Cross-roads that they first met any offer of battle. For a strong force of Orcs and Easterlings attempted to take their leading companies in an ambush; and that was in the very place where Faramir had waylaid the men of Harad in the months before the death of his father, and the road went in a deep cutting through an out-thrust of the eastward hills. But the Captains of the West were well warned by their scouts, skilled men from Henneth Annûn led by Mablung; and so the ambush was itself trapped. For horsemen went wide about westward and came up on the flank of the enemy and from behind, and they were destroyed or driven east into the hills. But the victory did little to enhearten the captains and the rulers when they all knew it to be little worth.

"It is but a feint," said Aragorn; "and its chief purpose, I deem, was rather to draw us on by a false guess of our Enemy's weakness than to do us much hurt, yet."

And from that evening onward the Nazgûl came and followed every move of the army. They still flew high and out of sight of all save Legolas, and yet their presence could be felt, as a deepening of shadow and a dimming of the sun; and though the eight Ringwraiths did not yet stoop low upon their foes and were silent, uttering no cry, the dread of them could not be shaken off.

"Bloody things from hell," Robert muttered under his breath, wishing that he could send his warhammer flying at one of the fell-beasts above them but the distance was too great.

"At least they are not flying after our children now…" Stannis thought for himself as he too glared upwards, praying that Shireen and Rhea had not been taken prisoners again alongside their royal cousins a second time right under their noses.

So time and the hopeless journey wore away. Upon the fourth day from the Cross-roads and the sixth from Minas Tirith they came at last to the end of the living lands, and began to pass into the desolation that lay before the gates of the Pass of Cirith Gorgor; and they could descry the marshes and the desert that stretched north and west to the Emyn Muil. So desolate were those places and so deep the horror that lay on them that some of the host were unmanned, and they could neither walk nor ride further north. Aragorn looked at them, and there was pity in his eyes rather than wrath; for these were young men from Rohan, from Westfold far away, or husbandmen from Lossarnach, and to them Mordor had been from childhood a name of evil, and yet unreal, a legend that had no part in their simple life; and now they walked like men in a hideous dream made true, and they understood not this war nor why fate should lead them to such a pass.

"Go!" said Aragorn loudly so many could hear him, "But keep what honour you may, and do not run! And there is a task which you may attempt and so be not wholly shamed. Take your way south-west till you come to Cair Andros, and if that is still held by enemies, as I think, then re-take it, if you can; and hold it to the last in defence of Gondor and Rohan!"

Then some being shamed by his mercy overcame their fear and went on, and the others took new hope, hearing of a manful deed within their measure that they could turn to, and they departed.

"It is not cowardly to feel fear in a situation like this. It is human nature, and for many, they just want to go home and return to their everyday life."

And so, since many men had already been left at the Cross-roads, it was with little over thirty-five thousands that the Captains of the West came at last to challenge the Black Gate and the might of Mordor.

They advanced now slowly, expecting at every hour some answer to their challenge, and they drew together, since it was but waste of men to send out scouts or small parties from the main host. At nightfall of the fifth day of the march from Morgul Vale they made their last camp, and set fires about it of such dead wood and heath as they could find. They passed the hours of night in wakefulness and they were aware of many things half-seen that walked and prowled all about them, and they heard the howling of wolves. The wind had died and all the air seemed still. They could see little, for though it was cloudless and the waxing moon was four nights old, there were smokes and fumes that rose out of the earth and the white crescent was shrouded in the mists of Mordor.

It grew cold. As morning came the wind began to stir again, but now it came from the North, and soon it freshened to a rising breeze. All the night-walkers were gone, and the land seemed empty. North amid their noisome pits lay the first of the great heaps and hills of slag and broken rock and blasted earth, the vomit of the maggot-folk of Mordor; but south and now near loomed the great rampart of Cirith Gorgor, and the Black Gate amidmost, and the two Towers of the Teeth tall and dark upon either side. For in their last march the Captains had turned away from the old road as it bent east, and avoided the peril of the lurking hills, and so now they were approaching the Morannon from the north-west, even as Frodo had done.

The two vast iron doors of the Black Gate under its frowning arch were fast closed. Upon the battlement nothing could be seen. All was silent but watchful. They were come to the last end of their folly, and stood forlorn and chill in the grey light of early day before towers and walls which their army could not assault with hope, not even if it had brought thither engines of great power, and the Enemy had no more force than would suffice for the manning of the gate and wall alone. Yet they knew that all the hills and rocks about the Morannon were filled with hidden foes, and the shadowy defile beyond was bored and tunnelled by teeming broods of evil things. And as they stood they saw all the Nazgûl gathered together, hovering above the Towers of the Teeth like vultures; and they knew that they were watched. But still the Enemy made no sign.

No choice was left them but to play their part to its end. Therefore Aragorn now set the host in such array as could best be contrived; and they were drawn up on two great hills of blasted stone and earth that orcs had piled in years of labour. Before them towards Mordor lay like a moat a great mire of reeking mud and foul-smelling pools. When all was ordered, the Captains rode forth towards the Black Gate with a great guard of horsemen and the banner and heralds and trumpeters. There was Gandalf as chief herald, and Aragorn with the sons of Elrond, and Oberyn of Dorne, and Sultan Suleiman of Rhûn, and Éomer of Rohan, and King Robert Baratheon of Westeros, and Boromir and Imrahil of Gondor; and Legolas and Gimli and Peregrin were bidden to go also, so that all the enemies of Mordor should have a witness.

They came within cry of the Morannon, and unfurled the banner, and blew upon their trumpets; and the heralds stood out and sent their voices up over the battlement of Mordor.

"Come forth!" they cried, "Let the Lord of the Black Land come forth! Justice shall be done upon him. For wrongfully he has made war upon Gondor and wrested its lands. Therefore the King of Gondor demands that he should atone for his evils, and depart then for ever. Come forth!"

But in reality, this was but a mere distraction as the adult Sand Snakes and Arash dropped the last barrels of Aerys's hidden amount of wildfire in front of the Black Gate and set those on fire.

"Keep the distance, everyone!"

"Up with the magical barrier to protect everyone from the impact and sound waves!"

"Try and make that barrier for Frodo and Sam too, wherever they are right now, so they are not knocked out by the impact!"

Indeed, a powerful explosion was let loose as the wildfire successfully caused the Black Gate to collapse, by ruining the very ground the Gate was built upon. The Ringwraiths screamed as their fell-beasts instinctively avoided the spreading explosions as a lesson learned from the battle of Minas Tirith yet burning pieces of stone and rock fell upon them. Judging from the screams and what seemed to be visible confusion from the other side of the fallen Black Gate, quite a huge number of the gathered armies of Mordor had been killed in the shock wave as they had not been protected in the same manner, especially those who had been standing right behind the closed Black Gate.

" You…MERE MOOOORTALS! "

One of the Ringwraiths proved to be a fool as he flew forwards on his fell-breast, and narrowly avoided being shot out of the sky by a scorpio bolt that one of the Dornish troops aimed at him with.

"Do not waste those bolts and arrows like that!" Harmen Uller snapped at his men, knowing how important those weapons would be against trolls and other huge monsters.

And then a golden-white flame suddenly surrounded Khamûl on his fell-beast. It did not hurt him, and yet he could tell that it was magical in nature.

"A transportation spell…?! "

In the next moment, he had been teleported away from the Black Gate.

~X~X~X~XX~X

It was a desert landscape, with its unmerciful sunlight and heat, where Khamûl landed. And yet, the far too familiar ruins of ancient temples built out of sandstone and a palace ground around him told him where the place must be. The place in Rhûn which once had been known as Kemet.

"What are you planning…Mara? "

For it was Rhaenys who stood a safe distance away, surrounded by various painting brushes, color jars and even what seemed to be a half-finished portrait of someone. But she had the spear of Mara held in her dominant hand, ready for defending herself if it was needed.

"A theory of mine was proved true some days ago, as the Army of the West left the capital of Gondor. If I paint a portrait of you as you truly looked like in the past back when I was your daughter Mara, instead of the wraith which you are now… will I be able to break you free from Sauron, I wonder? "

This actually shocked the currently most powerful Nazgûl, that she was actually going to try something that was impossible.

"Forget it, girl. I have served him for over three thousand years by this point. Do you honestly think that you can break the power of the Dark Lord, who is a Maia, second only to the Valar? "

But Rhaenys showed no fear for him.

"I know that you are not the type to accept being redeemed by a single good deed, Father of my past life, but…right now you are living a mockery of the powerful Farao of Kemet you once were. For all your powers and abilities, you are a wraith without a living body, a soul tied to the living world by that cursed Ring of Power Sauron somehow was able to give you, and I can not bear to see you, the almighty ruler who I remember from my past life, be a servant of someone else!"

He did not show it under the black hood and cloak he wore, but Rhaenys did not doubt that Khamûl was already being affected by the strong sunlight here in this area. She had not only chosen the spot for the memories it would hold for them both, but to try and even out a battle between them.

"Enough of this nonsense…I will bring you to the Temple of Shadows, and then return to the Black Gate! "

As he drew his sword, Rhaenys blocked it with her spear, proving that she had been training for combat and was stronger than she seemed at a first look.

"If I can bring back the man you once was, out of the monster that Sauron has twisted you into, it will be worth it!"

Rhaenys meant every single word as their weapons crashed once again, and she intended to give all of herself into that attempt.

Far away in the Temple of Shadows, as all the Consorts could sense the crashing of magics in the distance, Visenya knew that she had come to face the biggest choice of her young life so far. It was time to choose:

Aiding her Master, or the girl who was her half-sister in this life and who had been his beloved daughter in a past life.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Author's note: Visenya's song are inspired by Lydia the Bard's take on a Villain song for Belle in Beauty and the Beast