Fic: The Ring of Power: Journal 1 (Part 2 of 4)
Title: The Ring of Power
Category: Pendragon and Lord of the Rings
Pairing: none, at the moment.
Rating: T overall, but most chapters will be about PG-13 or so.
Warnings: Spoilers for all of the Pendragon series and probably most of the Lord of the Rings series as well. There might be violence in some parts, and it'll probably be somewhat graphic. I'll try to warn for it on a chapter basis, though.
Summary: Pendragon and the rest of the Travelers thought that their job was done. They were wrong. The battle for Halla isn’t over. After the events on Third Earth, the universe changed. It couldn’t go back to the way it was, and so instead it expanded. There are more territories now than ever, and all of them are heading toward their turning points. In response, the Travelers have changed as well, and are headed for the first of the new territories, Middle Earth.
Disclaimer: I really don't own any of this. I wish I did, though.
Author’s Notes: I have no idea what I'm doing, but it seems to be working out so far.
Previously on: The Ring of Power
Journal #1: 1, 2, 3, 4
JOURNAL #1 CONT.
MIDDLE EARTH
Yeah. Let me say that again: Saint Dane’s back.
Don’t ask me how- I don’t really understand it myself. All I know is that he’s back, and he’s causing trouble again, and it’s our job to stop him. At least, that’s what Uncle Press told us once all of us had entered Solara for what we thought would be the last time.
It was shortly after I’d said goodbye to you two. We traveled to Solara one by one, wondering what was ahead of us, and all of us almost certain that once we reached the land of our birth that we’d disappear.
That’s not what happened. Obviously.
The others had headed out several minutes before I’d made what I thought at the time to be my final journey, but when I landed in Solara, it was clear that no time had passed between their arrival and mine. Time can be weird like that, as you know.
That wasn’t what I’d expected. I’d expected that the instant I made the trip, I’d stop being Bobby Pendragon, and would become part of the larger collective of Halla… or something. Okay, I’ll admit that in reality I had no clue as to what was gonna happen to us Travelers after we got to Solara, but I sure as hell hadn’t expected it to be nothing.
Looking around, I saw that all of the others were there, not including Uncle Press. By the looks of confusion on the others faces, I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t alone in my thoughts- obviously this wasn’t what they had expected, either.
Elli was the first to speak. “Well, this certainly wasn’t what I was thinking was going to happen.”
Finally taking the chance to look around, I nodded in agreement. Our surroundings were different than I had expected them to be, as well. Solara looked a lot better than it had the first time around, but not nearly as good as it did when Kasha and I returned after the battle on Eelong. This time, however, I could see that the changes went through the entirety of the mysterious landscape, instead of just being localized.
“Weren’t we supposed to, like, rejoin the spirits of Solara again?” Spader questioned, raising a hand to scratch at his head in puzzlement, “Because I gotta tell you, mates, I certainly don’t feel like I’ve rejoined any spirit.”
“I agree,” Loor said, furrowing her eyebrows together as she shifted slightly, “This is not what we were told would happen.”
“That’s because when I told you those things, there were things I wasn’t aware of,” Uncle Press announced from behind me. I spun around to face him, and saw the others do the same from the corner of my eye.
“What do you mean?” Siry asked, eyes narrowed. It was in his nature to be suspicious of people, especially those in authority.
Uncle Press smiled and made a pacifying gesture with his hands. You know, hands out, palms up? Like that. It made me suspicious. He never did things like that. I looked at him more closely and realized that while he looked calm enough on the surface, it didn’t hold up. There was something going on here, and I had a feeling that whatever it was, I wasn’t gonna like it.
“At the time that I told you about what would happen when you returned to Solara, I had yet to return here myself. I hadn’t reestablished my connection to Solara and Halla. As such, all the information I had was based on conclusions I made about things that I could see. I wasn’t able to see the whole picture,” Uncle Press began, “And because of that, the information I gave to you was faulty.”
“So… we’re not going to return to being spirits?” Gunny asked. I could hear the faintest hint of hope in his voice, but only because it mirrored my own. None of us had been too excited about becoming a part of the collective or whatever, so to us, this was good news.
Uncle Press didn’t see it that way. “Unfortunately, no.”
“What do you mean, ‘unfortunately’?” Kasha’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“Yeah, isn’t this good news?” I said.
Uncle Press shook his head. “It would be, if not for the reason for it,” he said.
Uh oh. That didn’t sound good. Despite my elation at the news that we wouldn’t be losing our identities by assimilating into the Borg or whatever, I didn’t think I’d like where this was going.
“We cannot return you to your previous forms because there is still need for you,” Uncle Press’s face was incredibly serious as he spoke.
That did not sound good. I thought I knew what he was getting at now, and I was right; I didn’t like it. By the mix of despairing and crestfallen looks on my friends faces, I was pretty sure they were thinking the same thing.
Aja was the first to voice it. “He’s not gone, is he?”
“No,” Uncle Press answered, and just like that, things pretty much fell apart.
“What?!” Spader shouted at the same time Elli and Patrick let out cries of despair.
Aja’s face shut down, her expression going blank, as it often did when she learned something that displeased her.
“This cannot be!” Alder and Loor exclaimed a second later, while a thunderous expression crossed Gunny’s face.
Siry swore, Kasha growled, and I said, “But- but we saw him disappear!”
Uncle Press nodded. “Well all saw him disappear, Bobby,” he said, “But while we thought that that meant that he was gone, it turns out that was not the truth. He had only grown too weak to maintain a physical presence. But he’s not gone.”
“How do you know this?” Patrick asked.
“When I returned to Solara, I was immediately reconnected with the spirits here,” was his response, “They know all that goes on in Halla, and they informed me of the recent changes with in it.”
“Changes?” Spader jumped on the new information, “What changes? I thought we were talking about Saint Dane.”
“I presume the two topics are related,” Aja told him, then turned her attention back to Uncle Press, who nodded in her direction.
“They are,” he said, “When the Ravinians rebelled against Saint Dane, and we thought him to be destroyed, there was a sudden influx of energy back into Solara. Things… were changed.” He paused.
We waited. Uncle Press remained silent. His eyes were unfocused, and he looked kind of far away, as if he was listening to something we couldn’t hear.
“What kind of changes?” It was Aja who ran out of patience first. She was always eager for knowledge, and she didn’t like having to wait for it.
Uncle Press’s eyes focus again, and he smiles apologetically. “There are many more territories now,” he said simply.
What.
My mind froze, and I’m pretty sure everyone else’s did, too. Territories were something we were familiar with- they were the seven worlds on which intelligent life had evolved in the universe, but we had always been told there were only ten of them- seven worlds, with multiple times from two of them. How could there just suddenly be more?
“Did-” my voice cracked, “Did you say that there are more worlds?”
He nodded. “Solara had been deprived of energy for a long, long, time. When all that lost energy came rushing back, there was too much to handle. But the energy had to go somewhere. So it went out, into Halla, and everywhere it went it created more worlds, more times, more intelligent beings.”
“How many are there?” interrupted Patrick. His eyes were wide and shinning.
“We don’t know,” Uncle Press shrugged.
Loor raised an eyebrow. “How can you not know?”
Uncle Press quirked a smile. “There are still more being created as we speak.”
Well, didn’t that just blow my mind. New worlds… new territories… it was almost inconceivable. But then again, wasn’t pretty much everything I’d seen and done in the last four years?
It was at this point that someone finally remembered our original topic.
“Well, that’s spiffy and all, but what does it have to do with Saint Dane?” Spader had a small frown on his face as he brought up the topic we all simultaneously dreaded and couldn’t wait to find out about.
Uncle Press went serious again. “Ah,” he said, “Yes. Saint Dane. As I have told you, despite what we had thought, he managed to survive his loss. At first, it did indeed seem like we were rid of him, as there was no sign of him anywhere in all the worlds. But then things started happening.”
“Things started to go wrong,” I concluded. Uncle Press nodded.
“Yes. On different worlds, things started to go awry. It was small at first, just little things here and there. I can only assume that in this way, Saint Dane was once again gathering his power, once again manipulating people so that they would make choices that were not in their best interests. At first, there was so much going on, what with the newly formed worlds, and these instances went largely unnoticed.”
“But something happened,” Siry scowled.
“On one of the new worlds, things have started to go drastically wrong. The world has fallen into chaos, and if nothing is done, it will almost certainly descend into ruin. By the time the spirits took notice, it was too late to stop it, but the situation did serve to prove that Saint Dane was not gone.”
“Sounds like the typical work of the demon,” Gunny said.
I agreed. The situation did sound exactly like something Saint Dane would cause. But there was one thing I didn’t understand.
“Why?”
“Why what?” Uncle Press asked me.
“Why is he doing this? He already tried to prove that people would be better off if they could make their own decisions, but was defeated by the very people he tried to control. And he knows that. What does trying it again accomplish?”
Uncle Press looked pained. “I don’t know,” he admitted, “Maybe he thinks that his loss was just a fluke? Or that mistakes were made that he can fix this time? I can’t pretend to understand how he thinks anymore. But he is causing trouble. We know that much.”
We all paused a moment to digest that.
“But what does this have to do with us?” Elli asked suddenly, speaking up for the first time in a while, surprising pretty much everyone.
“What do you mean?” Gunny asked her.
Elli frowned. “I mean, yes, Saint Dane is causing trouble. He always does. But what does that have to do with us? We already defeated him on our worlds. We’ve lost so much-” here her voice wavered, and I knew she was thinking about Nevva, “-and worked so hard. But we won. Our jobs are done now.
“So I repeat; what does this have to do with us?”
Uncle Press looked confused. “Saint Dane must be stopped…” he offered.
“Yes,” Elli agreed, “But why must we be the ones to do it?”
“Are you saying that you no longer wish to fight against the demon?” Loor asked, and her entire being was stiff with tension. I knew that that meant that she was trying to restrain emotion.
Elli nodded. “You said that he was causing trouble on the new territories,” she said to Uncle Press, who nodded, “Then why do we not let the travelers of these worlds take care of him?” she turned back to us.
“He can no longer set his sights directly on our territories,” she said, “If he tries, the people will be ready for him, and they will not tolerate his attempts. As such, why must we continue to fight? We did all that was asked of us- and more. Surely we deserve rest now?”
The rest of us looked at each other, uncertain. I can’t speak for the others, but I know that while I certainly didn’t look forward to heading back into the fight, I couldn’t stand by and let him cause trouble, either.
“The new territories do not have Travelers,” Uncle Press said, and all our attention snapped back to him.
“There are far too many. Creating Travelers takes energy, and to try and create a Traveler for each new territory would only deplete the energy of Solara. We had to be selective, and only create Travelers on territories where we knew for certain Saint Dane to be.
“But there are far too few of them to stand up to Saint Dane on their own, and they are untrained and untested. They need help, or their territories will fall.” He turned his gaze to Elli. “They need your help.”
Elli returned his gaze, and her eyes softened. “Maybe,” she said, “But I am only an old woman, and I am tired. I do not think I have any help left to give.” She looked sad and disheartened.
“Then you do not have to, Mother,” a calm voice said from behind us.
That voice! I’m pretty sure we were all stunned into silence. I know I was.
That voice… I knew it. I turned around slowly, not certain if I was hoping or dreading for it to be who I thought it was.
It was.
Standing there, calm as could be- alive as could be- was Nevva Winters.