Title: Ten Visitors Arda Never Had

Author: Jedi Buttercup

Rating: PG to PG-13.

Summary: B:tVS/A:tS/LotR. What it says on the tin.

Disclaimer: All your Buffy are belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. All your Tolkien are belong to the Master and his estate.

Spoilers: B:tVS 7.22 "Chosen", A:tS 4.5 "Supersymmetry", A:tS 3.17 "Forgiving", B:tVS 2.22 "Becoming Part II", A:tS 4.1 "Deep Down", B:tVS 5.22 "The Gift", A:tS 3.22 "Tomorrow", the LOTR, and the Silmarillion

Notes: TtH #424, Transplanted Scoobies drabble challenge. Several of my references may be obscure, especially to movie fans; check the afternotes at the bottom. My imagination got away from me trying to keep these somewhat original.

Heavenmouth: First Stop, Valinor
Buffy Summers

Buffy ran up the stairs, tears in her eyes, as Spike's soul-light filled the crumbling cavern. She couldn't afford to break down now; she had to get out of the Hellmouth before--

The light flared brighter as the Slayer ran. Then the stairs disappeared beneath her.

Abruptly, Buffy found herself stumbling up a white beach, facing a strange green land in the clear light of sunrise. Shock immobilized her; then she gasped in recognition.

Heaven! Not hers, judging from the pointy-eared people approaching, but someone's; the ambient sense of peace was unmistakable.

She couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry.

Broken Symmetry: 10th Walker
Winifred Burkle

Fred thrashed in the grasp of the many-tentacled monster, trying to free herself as her boss and boyfriend battled it from below. It wasn't fair! Her first professional success after being freed from Pylea, and this had to interrupt it!

A dagger flew by-- was Wes here?-- and hit a thick neck; the monster jerked, pulling backward, and she screamed as it dragged her into its world.

The grip loosened abruptly and she fell onto a rocky beach, behind a line of ragged people also fighting it. "Not again," she moaned, then picked up a rock and moved to help.

When All Hope Has Failed
Wesley Wyndham-Price

So much research, scrying, searching, all in vain; every source, every reference said Quor Toth was unreachable. All but one. This little gold ring-- it looked so plain, despite all the legends of death and power and destruction associated with it.

Before the debacle with Connor, and his friends' accusations, he'd never have risked it. But what was left to lose?

We can bring him back, it whispered.

We can punish those that hurt us, it suggested.

We can make it so nothing bad ever happens to us again, it promised.

Yes, he answered, and slipped it onto his finger.

The Price of Arrogance
Kennedy

Kennedy fought gleefully, enjoying her new Slayerness as Turok-Hans fell before her. Even the arrival of the First did little to slow her down.

"Oh, I'm scared," she taunted. "You don't have any real power. You don't even have a body. I wish I'd been there when you did, so I could kick its ass!"

She was elsewhere before she realized her mistake, facing a new opponent. Before her stood a vast man-shape like a tower, iron-crowned; his vast shield, sable un-blazoned, cast a shadow over him like a stormcloud.

"Shit," she whispered.

Grond swung, and Kennedy was no more.

Relaxing Between Jobs
Whistler

Whistler looked up from his drink as a new patron entered the inter-dimensional bar, then smiled as he recognized a fellow meddler-in-the-Balance.

The old man appeared only human, but all the other species present gave him a wide berth as he moved to Whistler's booth. He wore a long coat and pointed hat as always, but his staff was not in evidence today.

"Gandalf," Whistler nodded in greeting, and signaled the bartender for another drink.

"Whistler, my old friend," Gandalf nodded, accepting it.

"What have you been up to lately?" the demon asked.

Gandalf sighed. "It all started in Bree..."

A Different Road to Recovery
Angel

The metal locker lay several months on the ocean's floor before it was discovered. The seas of the world were vast, and Ulmo, Lord of the Waters, retraced his steps infrequently.

Curious, then dismayed, the Vala lifted the object carefully and bore it to one who might better confront its maddened contents. He rose from the sea at the edge of Valinor in his accustomed form, dark helm foam-crested and raiment of mail shimmering from silver down into shadows of green.

Olórin was waiting. "Another Champion gone astray," he sighed, after examining his new guest. "I'll do what I can."

Energy Given Form
Dawn Summers

Glory was gone; the Key no longer needed protection. Dawn Summers, grieving her sister's death, worried about what that meant; if her purpose here was gone, would the spell that had made her un-make her?

147 days after Glory's defeat, she was answered. The Slayer woke screaming in her grave, to a world that had forgotten why she'd jumped-- and in the Land of Shadow, Sauron paused in his secret work to register the presence of a strange, powerful spirit in the ether. He reacted swiftly, weaving many enchantments into the perfect golden trap.

Thus was the One Ring created.

Murphy's Law in Action
Andrew Wells

It had been years since Andrew had summoned anything non-human, but the guys he'd met at this Stargate convention were cool beyond words, and they'd begged for a demo.

Carefully, he pulled out his flute and got to work. He didn't know if you really could summon Elves, but it couldn't hurt to try, right?

All was going well-- portal open, energy moving-- when suddenly, the spell reversed. He barely had time to gasp before he found himself... elsewhere.

He'd found an Elf, all right. Tall, dark-haired, gorgeous, wearing a blue glowing ring... and boy, did he look pissed. Oops.

Same Job, Different Dimension
Cordelia Chase

Skip hadn't told her when he'd asked her to move on that her new job would be so boring. Sure, there were gorgeous Elves around to look at twenty-four seven, but she couldn't interact with them! No, she was stuck being Vision Girl again, long-term. At least here she got to project the visions in an Elf Lady's birdbath instead of Seeing them herself.

Cordelia sighed as Galadriel poured more water in, and a hobbit approached. Cute, but way short. He leaned over the basin, and--

Yowch. The Eye again. It had become a theme, lately; not a good sign.

Similarities and Differences
Faith

Faith adjusted the neckline of her gown uneasily as she rode. She still wasn't used to the clothes women wore here, and it had been six months since she landed in Elf-world. She'd felt really awkward in the El-man's sleepy valley; maybe things would go better for her in the more citified Lindon. Assuming the court manners or the language barrier didn't kill her first.

Or this famous warrior Elrond wanted her to meet. Glory, or whatever his name was. The dude twinkled every time he mentioned him. "Dagnir" this, "Dagnir" that, "much in common." What was with that, anyway?

Afternotes:

1. Valinor, the place Buffy stumbled into, is the Heavenly realm the Elves (plus Bilbo, Frodo, and Gandalf) sailed off toward from the Grey Havens at the end of "The Return of the King".

2. The being Kennedy encounters is Morgoth, literally the first evil in the Tolkien universe. He was Sauron's boss before he was cast out of the world, and caused the Elves much grief in the First Age. His description is plucked straight from "Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin" in the Silmarillion; Grond was his weapon, the Hammer of the Underworld.

3. Ulmo is one of the more powerful Valar, the deity types of Middle-Earth. They live in Valinor. His description is from the "Valaquenta", in the Silmarillion. Olórin is the name Gandalf uses in Valinor; he is the wisest of the Maiar (the angelic class of beings).

4. The Elf that Andrew encounters is Elrond, of course. I know most people can't see Vilya (Elrond's Ring), but then again, most Men of Middle-Earth aren't magic-wielders of any kind, either.

5. Faith fell into the latter half of the Second Age, when Gil-Galad was still king in Lindon, but after Elrond had left that seaside realm to found Imladris (aka Rivendell). "Dagnir" means slayer or bane in Sindarin Elvish, which means Elrond is amusing himself comparing titles: Balrog Slayer vs. Vampire Slayer.

(This assumes, of course, that the LOTR Glorfindel is the same as the Glorfindel of Gondolin -- there are competing theories. But if they are one and the same, he'd have had to catch a ship back from Valinor at some point, and Elrond would have heard about it).

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© 2005 Jedi Buttercup.