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"We cross the lake at night fall, hide the boats, and continue on foot. We approach Mordor from the North," says Aragorn, as Legolas finishes dragging the last of the boats onto the shore.
"Oh, yes," Gimli mutters, "Just a simple matter of finding our way through Emyn Muil, an impassable labyrinth of razor sharp rocks. And after that gets even better..."
But Legolas has no sympathetic ear for his friend this time. No, as the others began to unload, the Elf scans the trees round about. The wood is too quiet, and yet the trees whisper of warning. Cautiously, fearing again what he might find, he expands the reach of his mind once more––and there it is, that ever-looming shadow. It has gained on them since last he looked. For a moment, he trembles, then Legolas turns toward Aragorn.
"Our doom draws nigh. We must make our crossing now, or risk facing the threat in full," he murmurs.
All around them the company stills. Gimli holds a hand out mid-sentence to stop a wandering Frodo. "Should we be off again, then?" Despite his earlier complaints, his words hold only urgency.
Aragorn takes one look at Frodo, who even now peeks paranoid back at the wood.
"Yes, that we shall. We'll cross now," he says.
There are twin groans from Merry and Pippin at the news. But the groans are half-hearted, for indeed the cousins have also been prone to nervous glances toward the trees. Together the company reloads the boats and prepares to leave.
Staring absently at the thundering falls to the South, Boromir murmurs something unheard.
"Boromir," calls Aragorn.
Boromir turns, eyes clearing as they fall upon the Fellowship's haggard captain. "Yes, let us depart."
They leave the shore in silence.
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Aragorn kneels stricken, as the shuddering chest rises no more. Around them, the ravaged wood returns to life, but Boromir lies like stone.Bitter tears run down a gaunt and weary face. An old soul bears much loss, it seems. He cannot let go of Boromir’s hand, though it lies slack in his own.A bed of Athelas now wreathes the son of Gondor. Would that his hands knew healing strong enough for this hurt… Aragorn chokes on the thought. He rues Mithrandir’s faith in him. He has only lead their band into ruin.There is no comfort to be had now––only swift action will save the young Hobbits. The son of Gondor had fought valiantly for their protection, and Aragorn will not see his sacrifice wasted.He allows himself one last wan smile. Then, cradling gently that dear, bloodied face, he presses his lips to Boromir’s.Light bursts into the air, blooming vibrant from both mouths, and Aragorn startles backward. Just as suddenly as it came it vanishes, leaving him breathless. He glances around, seeing no elves for such enchantments, nor any of the Valar. But they could be hiding anywhere, really. He chooses not to focus on that, and stares back at his beloved Boromir, who lies still–A twitch.Just a twitch of the mouth. But after the twitch comes a cough, and after the cough, Boromir lurches forward.Aragorn scrambles forward in time to watch the arrows shimmer into air and wounds become whole and clean. “Boromir,” he cries, spirit brimming with the sheer overwhelming force of his relief.Eyes that had gazed unseeing come back into focus, yet the Son of Gondor weeps.“Boromir? What ails you?”“I have been bestowed so great a gift, after so great a betrayal. I should have died, and yet here I lie, having failed to protect our charges. Am I never to be redeemed?” His heart gives a sudden pang for Boromir––and for Frodo and Sam, now alone on their path. But he finds himself unwilling to cry for his companion so returned.“Dear Boromir, whatever hurt you have caused you will make up,” promises Aragorn, finding again his strength. Through the exhaustion, beyond the pain, there blooms hope and comfort. “You called me King, and I command you to live on, Son of Gondor.”
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Round 2:
The first time Merry comes back, he really has nothing to work with. One moment he’s oozing, spitting curses at the Orc looming over him with its blade buried in his gut. The next moment he’s back on the eve of dear Frodo’s last birthday party with Bilbo.“You have work yet, Meriadoc,” says a strange voice in his mind, and he has no idea what it wants from him.He has no idea how to live anymore. The Shire will be overrun with Orcs in just a couple short decades. Saruman’s reign had been even crueler than Lotho’s, and made for a backbreaking life among Hobbits. Surely he’s been sent back to stop it all, but he can’t figure out how.He tries to lead a revolt against Lotho, and wins back their land. It all goes to waste when Saruman comes. The wizard swiftly cuts the rebellion off, and Merry spends the rest of his short life in a cell.Round 3:
Merry had a lot of time to think in the cell. He militarizes the Shire early on, takes away Lotho’s influence through sowing vicious rumors and creating scandal. Pippin grows distant, and everyone in Hobbiton whispers about how young Master Meriadoc has changed ever since that party at Bag End. Frodo slips away quietly, not a word to his cousin.Then there are rumors of riders in black, and the other hobbit-folk stop complaining as much.“Looks like there’s some use to his Brandybuck’s band of fighters after all,” they say, trying hard to ignore the screeching at night.Merry’s band doesn’t succeed in warding off the riders. Nor do they win against the infinite armies of Isengard.Round 4:
He doesn’t want to be alone anymore. He talks to Pippin, tells him the truth for the first time, and Pippin doesn’t believe him. Still, his cousin remains by his side as he tries to organize an underground revolution against Lotho. While Merry plots, Pip convinces their neighbors to stand against the White Wizard. Frodo and Sam still disappear in the night.He feels good about this round, thinks they finally have a shot to take Saruman down, then he leads them into an ambush.Round 5:
Guilty, he tries his best not to involve Pippin this time. Of course, that makes Pippin even more suspicious so he’s even more involved by the time Merry is caught sabotaging enemy supplies.Grima Wormtongue cries foul, greasy lies to a shaking crowd of Hobbits in the town square.“Behold your kinsfolk! They resist the advancement of civilization, the great machinations of Saruman. They even commit crimes against the good of the Shire. Beware! Treason against the White Hand will not stand!”Merry spits at him once the sack is removed from his head, so they make him watch Pippin first.Round 6-11:
Merry tries to lead revolts. They fail. He finds himself going numb to it all, and new terror takes him. He cannot watch his friends and family die under orc-whips for another thousand cycles.Round 12:
He spies on Frodo, who for all eleven rounds, has never once been in the Shire during their captivity. His suspicions about old Bilbo’s ring are finally validated. Together with Fatty, Pippin, and Sam, he plans to protect their dear cousin. Of all the secret teams Merry has arranged over the past 12 lives, the Conspirators are the most successful by far.He ends up going with Frodo on a strange and desperate quest with the strange and despicable heirloom. They make it through Bree and to Rivendell. Boromir’s warning to turn back goes unheard over the storm, and then Merry freezes on Caradhras.Round 13:
They take the road to Moria instead, because Frodo can not be swayed to turn to Gondor for help.Gandalf dies, and Merry is struck by a goblin arrow soon after.Rounds 14-19:
It takes him another few tries––and eventually, the wizard himself tells him this––to realize that Gandalf’s fate in Moria is painfully set in stone.In Lothlorien, Galadriel only smiles, whispering into his mind. “What should be, shall be.” Of course, this is utterly impractical advice for anyone with a lifespan less than one thousand years.But after Lothlorien, when Frodo wanders away, when Boromir comes back subdued and shaken, when Orcs pour in from all sides and Boromir falls pierced by so many arrows and Merry and Pippin are taken away–He takes a hit to the back of the head.Round 20:
Merry wakes up still weeping, turns over in his bed and wails for Boromir. It did not take many lives at all to love each member of the Fellowship. Gandalf knew his fate, but Boromir’s death is just cruel.This time, Merry warns them about Amon Hen, but nobody listens. He warns Boromir of the arrows, but there is no time to dodge. He fights off some of the orcs himself, but in the end, the Son of Gondor falls, and Merry and Pippin are taken.Just as raw as the first time, the grief hardens cold in his chest. He will not let this be Khazad-dum again. He will find a way to save Boromir.But this round, he and Pippin survive. They survive orcs and Fangorn, and even are reunited with Gandalf, who chuckles as Merry’s incredulous face. They meet their companions again, and Merry can’t help but laugh as Pippin points out Gimli and Legolas’ new closeness. They keep surviving, and Merry keeps fighting, and Aragorn calls him by name, pulls him from the darkness that seeks to take him after the Witch-King. For a while he is choked by exhaustion, but finally the Ring is destroyed, and Frodo and Sam come back and they’re safe and Merry is happy, relieved that finally, finally they can go home and there will be peace but… it just doesn’t seem fair. The Fellowship lived, all except Boromir; and Merry, in the end, has seen so, so much death.He finds himself spending time with Faramir, feeling out the empty spaces Boromir left behind. Aragorn approaches him. “Merry, dear friend, I do not ask you to forget your grief, but do not let it darken your heart. Let shadows lie in the past, take with you only wisdom.”Merry knows better. But there’s nothing left to do in the fragile postwar peace.He spends time with Pippin, and with the Lady Eowyn, who somehow found her own peace fragile in the Halls of Healing. She is a comfort to him, as she works with kingly hands to bring back others who would have fallen.Eowyn’s wedding is empty on both sides of the couple. Still, Faramir’s smile is brilliant as he looks upon his bride. Merry has no need to quell his tears this time; for once he cries for his beloved friends in happiness.Upon his return home, he and Pippin finally lead a successful charge agains Saruman, and the Shire is free for good.He spends several years living in the peace of the Shire. As he gazes upon the rolling green, where nineteen hobbits were buried after the Battle of Bywater, he wonders where he himself lies. For the war took a part of him, and it surely lies dead some place he cannot see.When Frodo leaves for the Undying Lands, a part of Merry wishes he could have gone with, to find peace. Over time, his heart grows forgetful, and Merry dies at last in Gondor, where they call him Master Perian.Round 21:
And then he wakes up in the Shire, again. September 22nd, 3001. Again.He blinks, slow, startled. He starts to sob.Another chance.Merry watches carefully, observes every factor that he knows leads to Boromir’s death. He overturns the boats twice on their journey, turning them away from Amon Hen, but by the time they make it to the Dead Marshes, Rohan falls and Gondor with it.Round 22:
Then he tries keeping Frodo close so that neither hobbit nor man can wander into the enemy’s trap, but the Ring still wiles its way into the hands of the orcs and Merry dies to an Uruk sword.Rounds 23-27:
Next he tries fighting the Uruk-hai, over and over again, but he and Boromir suffer the same fate, and it’s all reset.Rounds 28-37:
Merry gets creative. He packs different foods, tries giving different members indigestion to slow them down, or pointing out routes that take them faster past those cursed woods. Each time something gets them back on the same path, the same day with the same Uruk captain.Rounds 37-44:
He tries telling every member of the party what will happen. Aragorn and Boromir don’t believe him in time, Legolas and Gimli don’t understand in time, Sam and Frodo have no choice but to flee. The only one who always, always believes, is Pippin.Round 45:
In his series of weird tries, Merry gets an idea. The day after Frodo’s birthday party, he makes a game with Pippin of throwing rocks. The goal is neither distance nor weight, but accuracy.“Pip, I’ll give you my share of the mushrooms if you can hit that acorn.”“Bet I can hit that pumpkin before you can.”“Frodo wagers you can’t knock out Lotho without anyone seeing from here.” (He uses that one a couple times, still bitter about Lotho’s betrayal of the Shire.)Finally, Merry reveals the truth to Pippin again. To make extra sure that Pippin believes him, he recites word for word what Legolas and Gimli will argue about the whole way through Moria, and their eventual coupling by the end of Lothlorien.“Alright, I get it. You can see the future. Now what is it you want me to do?”Merry hesitates. “Just… Can you trust me, Pip? I’m going to ask you to do something. You’re going to think I’m crazy, but it will save someone’s life.”And then Pippin goes quiet, and says “Why didn’t you tell me about Gandalf?”Merry closes his eyes. “When it first happened, I tried five times to save Gandalf, Pip. He told me to stop. His fate is different,” he says, pausing. So many things are different this time. Pippin deserves something, at least. “In the best life we lived, Gandalf came back. I don’t know, but I hope he still will.”Pippin nods, brave and determined. In every life, Pippin had been brave. Merry thinks that Galadriel may have said a lot of true things, but Pippin had never needed to find his courage.The time comes, they are surrounded by orcs. Pippin and Merry fling stones, felling orcs left and right as Boromir bashes and beheads.“Pip, when I say, you need hit Boromir hard enough in the head to knock him out,” Merry tells him.“What?” Pippin gapes.“Peregrin Took, you promised! Do it, now!”Pippin throws.The stone strikes him in the temple with what Merry is hoping is the perfect amount of force. Boromir’s head snaps to the side and he falls, stricken. As Pippin cries out, Merry takes out another few orcs with much harder throws. Finally, they are overrun and taken away.“You made me kill him,” sobs Pippin.“He’s not dead, Pip. I promise,” says Merry, praying that he’s right.Six days later, he is relieved to see the Son of Gondor among the Hunters, of which there now are four. Boromir smiles, ruffling Pippin’s hair in forgiveness, though he does give Merry a strange look.Merry himself can only smile in weak finality, and prepare for the rest of the battles ahead.