Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
By Wolfram_and_Hart
Chapter 1: The Taming of Smeagol
“You cannot pass!” Giles said, raising his staff and sword. The Balrog spread its wings and stretched its arms, releasing a burst of flame from its body. The light from his staff brightened, encircling the wizard in a ball of light. “I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udun!” The ancient evil formed a fiery sword in its hand and swung down on Giles. The Balrog’s sword shattered on the light from the wizard’s staff, it roared violently. “Go back to the Shadow!” The Balrog would not be denied; it formed a whip of flames, snapping it against the stone ledge. “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” With the last of his strength, Giles drove his staff into the bridge as the demon stepped on it, causing it to collapse beneath its feet. As Giles turned, the demon’s whip lassoed around Giles leg and pulled him off the Bridge.
“GIIIIIIIIIIILLLEEEEEES!” Buffy shouted as Angel held her back. Giles grabbed at the edge of the Bridge, but he couldn’t hold on. He looked at Buffy and said one final message.
“You’ve made me so proud.” Giles said almost whispering, letting go of the Bridge. The Fellowship watched in shock and horror as Giles fell into abyss and out of sight.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Buffy screamed, her body wracked with pain at loosing the closest thing to a father she’d ever had. Giles fell faster and faster down the dark chasm, the Balrog not far below him. As he falls, he reaches out and grabs his sword and begins hacking at the demon. They plunge into the depths of the mountain, both trying to inflict as much damage as they can. The Balrog grabs Giles and is about to crush him in his hand, but it hits a rock ad it loses it let’s go of him. Giles reaches out and grabs onto one of the monster’s horns and starts stabbing again, they continue tumbling over and over at unimaginable speed. They fall towards a huge underground lake, and they hit it with such impact it shatters the mountain!
“Giles!” Buffy called, being jolted out of her sleep.
“What is it, Buffy?” Spike asked, also waking up.
“Nothing,” She said, realizing it wasn’t real. “Just a dream.” It had been three days since they left the Fellowship, and things weren’t as bad as they thought it would be. The endless crags of rock that was Emyn Muil wasn’t bad, they hadn’t seen any sign of an Orc since they’d been there.
“Can you see the bottom?” Spike called down to Buffy as they climbed down a large rock with Spike’s Elven rope. Buffy looked down from her place on the rope.
“No, this fog is to thick. Just keep going.” Buffy called back. As they continued, a pocket on Spike’s pack came open and a small box fell out.
“Catch it!” Spike called to Buffy. Buffy reached and grabbed at the box as it fell by her, but she lost her grip and fell. “BUFFY!”
“I think I found the bottom!” She called up, seeing that she had only fallen three feet to the ground. Spike breathed a sigh of relief as he climbed down to her.
“Thank God, thank you luv.” Spike said, taking the small box from Buffy.
“What is that anyway?” She asked, curious to what Spike was so afraid of losing.
“My Old Toby’s. Can’t bloody well be expected to go this whole quest without nicotine.” Spike said, taking out a cigarette.
“CIGARETTES?!” Buffy shrieked, exasperated. “You almost killed me for cigarettes!”
“Killed? You fell three feet.” Spike quipped, receiving a punch in the arm from Buffy. “Besides, it’s a little bit of the Shire, and God knows when we’ll be back there again.”
“I suppose.” Buffy said, feeling a little homesickness. “We can’t leave the rope here, someone could follow us.”
“Who the bloody hell is gonna follow us here?” motioning to the uninhabitable terrain. “Real Elvish rope that is, what a shame to leave it.” He said sarcastically, a little bitter that Andrew and Dawn got the weapons and he got a sodden rope. “But that’s one of my knots and it won’t come undone easy.” He said tugging it, causing it to drop down to them. Buffy smirked at Spike’s glared at her, daring her to make fun. They hiked for the next few hours up a few rocky hills before taking a break. Off in the distance they saw the shadowy mountains that stood as the borders of Mordor, a flash of red indicated that Mount Doom was erupting.
“Mordor, not exactly the place you take the wife and kids.” Buffy said, trying to lighten the mood.
“Yeah, the one place in Middle Earth we don’t want to see any closer and it’s the one place we’re trying to get to. And we just can’t seem to get there. Face it pet, we’re lost. I don’t think Giles wanted us to go this way.”
“Giles didn’t want a lot of things to happen, Spike but they did anyway.” She said, looking back towards Mordor. As she looked, she got a flash of the Eye of Sauron in her mind sending her falling to the ground.
“Buffy, what’s wrong?” Spike asked, seeing her fall. “It’s the Ring, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it feels like I got a brick around my neck.” She said, taking a sip from her water bottle. “What food do we got?”
“Well let me see.” Spike said, looking into his pack. “Lembas bread, lembas bread and, what a shock, more lembas bread.” He said, throwing a piece to Buffy. “I’ve never been one for foreign food, but this Elvish stuff’s not bad.” He said, as it started pouring rain on them. They ran and huddled under a rock while it rained.
“Remind me never to go on a quest again!” Buffy said, shivering. Spike wrapped his arms and his Elven cloak around her as they sat there under the rock, while the rain poured. They continued walking the next day, but a huge patch of fog descended on the rocky place and they became even more lost. They walked around till what felt like midday and they looked around.
“This place looks familiar,” Spike said, looking around. “Oh bollocks we’ve been here before!”
“I know, there’s the rock we sat under when it rained yesterday.” Buffy said, recognizing the area.
“Ugh! You smell that?” Spike asked, smelling a rancid stench. “I think there’s a swamp or something near by. You smell it?”
“Yeah, I smell it.” She said, glancing around. She looked at Spike and dropped her voice to a whisper. “We’re not alone.” They fell asleep almost immediately that night, not seeing the dark shape on the cliff above them. A small, frail creature crawled down the cliff towards them. It was the creature Gollum.
“The thievesss! The thievesss! The filthy little thievesss! Where is it?” Gollum hissed. “Where isss it? They stole it from us. My preciousss. Curse them! We hates them! It’s ours it is and we wants it!” but as Gollum reached for them, the two Hobbits reached up and threw him to the ground. Gollum struggled with the Hobbits, but he got free and dove at Buffy. Buffy fell down as Gollum clawed at her, trying to reach the Ring. Spike grabbed Gollum from behind and threw him off Buffy, but he turned and bit Spike on the neck. He wrapped his arms and legs around Spike, trying to strangle him, but Buffy pulled out the Elvish scythe, Sting, and held it to Gollum’s throat.
“This is Sting, you’ve seen it before, haven’t you Gollum?” She said fiercely, holding the blade close to his jugular. “Let go of him or lose your head.” Gollum let Spike go and Spike tied him up. They couldn’t take a step without Gollum’s shrieking since Spike put the rope around his neck.
“It burns us! It freezes! Nasty Elves twisted it! Take it off us!” Gollum howled.
“This is bloody perfect, we bring him along and we’re dead. Every Orc in Mordor’s going to hear that bloody racket! I think we should just tie him up and leave him.” Spike said, throwing a hateful glance at Gollum.
“No! That would kill us! Kill us!” Gollum begged.
“And yet I’m paralyzed with not caring.” Spike said, rolling his eyes. Gollum began writhing on the ground squealing and crying.
“Maybe he does deserve to die, but now that I see him I pity him.” Buffy said, her heart breaking a little for this miserable creature. She remembered her words in Moria, and now wondered how she thought that. But the creature and the memory of what he tried to do to her mother still repelled her.
“We’ll be nice to them if they be nice to us. Take it off us!” Gollum pleaded, clutching Buffy’s feet. “ We swears to do what you want, we swears!”
“And what promise can you make that we can trust?” Buffy asked, skeptically.
“We swears to serve the mistress of the preciousss. We’ll swear on… on the precious. Gollum! Gollum!” the creature coughed out.
“The Ring doesn’t like people who break their word. It will hold you to your promise.” Buffy said.
“Yes, on the preciousss. On the preciousss.”
“I don’t trust him.” Spike said to Buffy. Gollum tried to run, but Spike pulled him back, hard. “He’s trying to trick us, first chance he gets I’ll wager he tries to kill us in our sleep.” Buffy walked over to Gollum, who cowered away from her.
“You know the way to Mordor?” She asked, glaring at him. “You’ve been there before.”
“Yes, yes.” Gollum nodded. Buffy took the noose from around Gollum’s neck, much to his relief.
“Take us to the Black Gate.” Buffy ordered. Gollum began to crawl away from them, the two Hobbits following.
“To the gate, to the gate. To the gate, mistress says. Yes!” One of Gollum’s personalities said, but the other responded. “No! We won’t go back! Not there! Not to him! They can’t make us! ‘Gollum! Gollum! But we swore to serve the mistress of the precious. No! Ashes and dust and thirst there is and pits, pits, pits. And Orcses, thousands of Orcses. And always the Great Eye, watching. Watching. Aaaaarrrgghhh!” Gollum hissed as the Hobbits came closer. Gollum turned and ran as fast as possible, until Buffy and Spike lose sight of him.
“Great, told you he’d do something like this.” Spike growled, looking around for Gollum. “I trust that little bugger’s promises as far as I can throw him.”
“Hurry, this way Hobbitses!” Gollum said, reappearing behind a rock. “Follow me!” Buffy and Spike turned and followed their new “guide” towards Mordor.
Author's Chapter Notes:
The second part of the trilogy begins! Please read and review.