grundyscribbling

Title*: TBD
Rating: FR13
Crossover: LotR/Silmarillion
Summary: Anariel needs a plan.
Word Count: 1900

Anariel crouched down behind the rocky ridge.

Staying out of sight probably didn’t matter much – she could both hear and feel Morgoth rampaging inside her former hideout. As long as he was still in there, he wasn’t going to spot her way up here. Putting in all those tunnels had turned out to be a good idea. For someone who had once had an underground fortress himself, the great dope had no sense of direction whatsoever once he wasn’t out in the open.

But it would be a shame to waste her hard-won (and sorely needed) recovery time getting smashed by debris a second time, so she was in the safest place she could find. Of course, ‘safest’ was entirely relative. She couldn’t exactly guarantee Morgoth wouldn’t eventually bring the whole damn mountain down. Sometimes there was only so much a girl could do.

She had also discovered two things, to her consternation.

First, and extremely irritatingly, she had lost her last chance at boxed mac and cheese. When she had explained it to them once, her brothers had declared that no one in Middle Earth would consider it food. They had flatly refused to help her recreate it. But despite Arda’s collective insistence on real food, it was the taste of her childhood, and she missed it. It had been an unexpected delight to find it in her food stockpile. (And yes, seeing as this was something like a glorified nightmare, it’s not exactly real, but it felt real and tasted real, so this was as good as she was likely to get. She had no idea how to recreate the taste of the ‘cheese’ – her brothers were adamant about the quotes – and wasn’t likely to find anyone in Aman to help her with it.)

Second, and probably more importantly in the grand scheme of things, she wasn’t the only one who had figured out how to force the terrain, or at least to limit it. Morgoth had channeled enough power into the area to keep her from pulling her complete change of scenery trick a second time. It also took way more effort to change the landscape in anything but minor ways now – energy she couldn’t afford to waste unless it got her some real bang for her buck.

Once Morgoth finished venting his temper on what was left of her fortress, she wasn’t going to get another breather like this. When the fight started up again, it would go until someone can’t get up again. Unfortunately, odds were ‘someone’ was going to be her.

All in all, she’s pretty screwed if her brothers weren’t getting her to Aman. She’d concluded that was the only way she could expect backup with enough punch to make a difference. She had some hope that crossing into Aman might be enough to boot him out without anyone else getting involved. It wasn’t quite the same plane as the rest of the world, and supposedly protected from mortals and Morgoths alike. (There’s a slight lopsidedness to that equation – one of those things was not like the other. She couldn’t see why mortals not part of an invasion force were on the ‘keep out’ list. Especially since it’s not like exceptions haven’t been made a time or three already…)

She needed a plan – a plan other than ‘hide for as long as you can’.

She might be able to work with what’s left of the mountain. She’d already ruled out playing cat and mouse inside, partly because she’s not sure if she’s the cat or the mouse in that scenario, but mostly because the risk of getting trapped seemed pretty high. Also, because while she didn’t quite believe it, there was also the off chance that Morgoth was faking the bumbling around in an attempt to lure her back in. (She didn’t think so, but in her current state, ‘better safe than sorry’ were words to live by.)

She did not curse as she felt a rumbling that sounded suspiciously like one of the lower levels collapsing.

The next round of the fight was not going to be fun.

It sucked to admit it, but she wasn’t sure how long she was going to be able to hold out. Time to rest and recover in Fortress Anariel had done her good, but she wasn’t going to kid herself that it had been enough to put her back to one hundred percent. She was starting at maybe ninety, and she wasn’t counting on Slayer healing being full speed again either.

Sooner or later, he was going to get the upper hand. And at that point, it became everything she hadn’t wanted to tell her brothers about. Torture. Slayer healing, assuming it was still working at that point, wouldn’t be a help. It would actually make things worse. If she had any confidence that she’d actually get a pass to Mandos, she would take that option. But in this strange battle, she’s not sure that would work.

More importantly, she’s not sure what happens to the spirit of the Slayer if she dies.

Speaking of which…

She concentrated.

It took a few minutes, but the Slayer – in the form of the First Slayer she’d encountered on that weird vision quest thing – eventually materialized.

The Slayer looked around curiously.

“This is a strange place to fight,” she announced.

“Sometimes you gotta go with what you got,” Anariel shrugged.

“The enemy below is beyond your power,” the Slayer noted. “He got in. Sooner or later, he will get you as well.”

She might have been commenting on the weather for all the concern in her voice.

“Wanna tell me something I don’t know?” Anariel snorted.

“We have been one for many years, longer than any of the girls before. I will miss you.”

“That was… strangely heartwarming.”

“It will be disconcerting adapting to a new host after so long.”

“Yeah, about that,” Anariel said, suddenly feeling more Buffy than she had since Xander died. “I hate to break it to you, but there isn’t a new host. We’re not in Kansas anymore. There are no Potentials out there waiting to have the weight of the world dumped on them. If we’re where I’m hoping we are, there aren’t even any mortals out there. It’s just you, me, and him – and I think he might be very interested in you, too.”

The Slayer looked furious.

“Him. You would allow us to be defeated? After all this time?”

That gave her the spark of an idea.

“Yeah, well, like you said, I can’t win,” she shrugged.

She let that just sit for a minute.

The Slayer paced around her in a circle. It was like a predator sizing up prey – or would have been, if they weren’t both predators. Maybe more like two porcupines. Or skunks. Whatever animals would approach each other with extreme caution.

“Sooner or later, he’ll take me prisoner. At which point, I’m going to have a very bad day.”

Buffy paused. She could see the Slayer was agitated by what she was saying.

“You don’t feel pain, though, do you?” Buffy asked. “Not anymore.”

“Pain is irrelevant. Pain is yours. I care only about victory and defeat.”

I thought so.

It was all Buffy could do to resist breaking out in a dance then and there.

“What if I tell you I can beat him – just not today, not here?”

The Slayer’s head turned to focus completely on Buffy. It was a bit like watching the turret on a tank come around.

“You cannot lie to me. You may be older than any other host, but I have been here since the beginning.”

“Yeah, you have. Waiting all this time to win, right? Must be annoying that it never actually happens. Some girls get a few good years in, but some only make it a few days. Frustrating, huh?”

“Either explain or stop wasting my time.”

“How is it wasting? It’s not like either of us have long left,” Buffy asked with a grin.

“You offered victory.”

Yep, she so had her.

“I did,” Buffy agreed.

“How?” the Slayer demanded.

“I can beat him. I have a plan. But it has to be in the real world – out there, not in here. I can end him. Make sure he’ll never hurt anyone ever again. That’s what you want, isn’t it? You recognize him, same as I do.”

The Slayer scowled.

“He is the Oldest One,” she snarled. “The original Enemy. To beat him is to achieve our goal – to protect.”

“Yes he is,” Buffy agreed.

Now it was her turn to be the one prowling around.

“But like you said, I can’t beat him. And I can’t get away from him in here. He’s going to be so excited to play with me. Probably make the deaths of any of the other girls you’ve ever seen look easy.”

The Slayer whipped her head around so she could keep her eyes on Buffy as she moved and spoke.

“Pain is a problem for me,” Buffy continued. “But not for you.”

The Slayer looked surprised, for the first time she had ever seen. This just might work.

“What do you expect me to do?”

Buffy turned to face the Slayer. If she looked closely, she could see Kendra. And India. And every girl she’s ever seen in a Slayer dream. The Slayer remembered them all, had been them all. Which meant she’d been Buffy Summers, too.

She focused, and as she did, the Slayer morphed from Sineya to Buffy. She grinned at the almost suspicious look on ‘her’ face.

“Ever heard of tag teaming?”

The Slayer nodded.

“I know what any of them knew.”

“I tap out, you tap in. Feign everything hurting for a while so I can take a breather. I’ll tap back in when I can.”

The Slayer looked at her with something like respect in her eyes.

“You do understand that to do this, you will lose other advantages. Healing will slow, or even stop.”

“Calculated risk,” Buffy shrugged. “Also, if you have any better ideas, I’m all ears, because this is me thinking out of the box.”

“It will work,” the Slayer admitted. “At least for a time. But I do not know how long.”

“Every minute you can buy me helps.”

“You had better deliver victory, girl who refused to stay dead.”

It wasn’t a threat exactly. But then, it didn’t need to be.

“I’m a girl of my word, in case you hadn’t noticed,” Buffy said evenly. “Or did you miss my trick with the balrogs?”

The Slayer’s thunderous expression suddenly turned to a grin.

“A fireman when the floods roll back. Though you are not a man.”

She cocked her head to one side, and Buffy found it just a little unnerving to have herself giving her such a piercing once-over.

“Just what are you?” the Slayer asked curiously.

“A real pain in Morgoth’s ass, I hope. Not too sure about anything more than that right now.”

The Slayer crouched down to peer over the ridge toward what remained of the fortress.

“I look forward to finding out. And to victory.”

“So we have a deal?” Buffy asked, needing to be sure.

“I will be there when needed,” the Slayer replied, fading out of sight.

It was good to have a plan.

It was better to have an ally.
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