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Middle-earth.

* * *

Gandalf watched in surprise as a blinding white beam burst from the arm of the armoured man, knocking out two orcs and embedding them in the ground. The orcs, however, were advancing and there were many of them.

Steve drew his sword and switched it on and started slashing the orcs one by one, while Peggy preferred to shoot back. Pretty soon all the orcs ran out - the arrows were pounding the armour of the knights, however, there was no use for it, so the orcs ran out. The largest one, with a white palm pattern on its muzzle, stepped out in front of the group. However, Steve smashed its skull with one blow, leaving it no chance. It was all over.

The scene of the battle was most picturesque. Steve even admired it, in between dealing blows to the orcs. A mountain lowland, a stream, and old, gnarled trees that somehow miraculously grew right into the rocky terrain, on the thin layer of earth that the winds had deposited there. Peggy didn't share his calm, and even less so the two hobbits who were walking with them, the smaller ones hiding in corners and keeping a low profile.

- Is that it? - Steve looked around, -What faces these people have...?

Peggy turned to Gandalf:

- Who are those freaks?

- They're Orcs. We've been hunted down, which is not a good sign. We must hurry!

And the group moved on. Rogers had no trouble carrying several rucksacks, but Peggy was having a hard time. The flight suit was the only thing keeping her from overexertion.

* * *

For the first time in his non-life, Nazgûl met a worthy opponent. A powerful blow from an armoured hand knocked the Nazgûl down and dragged it a few more metres along the ground. A blinding white ray struck him, throwing him back against the wall of the ancient fortress. However, the nazgul did not die, but only became more angry. As soon as he stood up, another nazgul flew at him with a huge black bolide. Peggy was hovering above the battlefield in her costume. She was angry and ready to fight, which she successfully did. As the nazgul unravelled and launched, it sent its fellow nazgul tumbling backwards into another wall. The old wall couldn't take the nazgul throwing and collapsed on top of the two of them.

- Peggy, why did you throw him?

- What else can I do with it? The creature's really unkillable. I've been beating it this way and that, cutting it, shooting it... and it just keeps getting up and up.....

Steve shook his head and drew Peggy's attention to the fact that Aragorn was desperately fighting off the other nazguls. Peggy flew towards them and grabbed the nazgul firmly by the head and tossed him aside.

- Ara, what is it? You didn't get hit?

- No, luckily," Aragorn breathed tiredly, "it would have been over in a little while....

Peggy pulled her multi-energy pistol from her spatial pocket:

- Are they afraid of fire?

- Yes, these things are afraid of fire and light in general.

- Hey, Steve, you hear that? These things are afraid of fire and light. Hit the spotlights on full blast, you got a flamethrower?

- Nah," Steve followed Peggy's advice and two streaks of light lit up the shoulder pads of his armour. The light from the searchlights travelled for kilometres and was designed to illuminate a battlefield. It could blind the unprepared, and the entire old fortress was as bright as a sunny day. The multi-energy gun could also shoot fire at the enemy - Rogers took the gun Peggy had thrown and pointed it at the nazgul. A powerful jet of fire struck the black rider, the fire melting even the stone of the old fort. But Steve's suit didn't even get hot. In the bright light of the searchlight, the fire was visible as a bright white blade, the temperature of the flames was very high. It was enough to turn the nazguls to ashes and melt their physical shells into stone.

Steve exclaimed approvingly:

- Peggy, these things could be incinerated. Or better yet, you could burn them into the rock with a flamethrower, they won't get out... if they're alive.

Peggy looked predatorily at the approaching, previously discarded nazgul. It squealed as the spotlight fell on it, even crawled backwards.

Gandalf watched the carnage, standing on the castle wall, ready to engage at any moment. The Black Rider was turned to flee, but Peggy and Steve did not let him escape - like a projectile from a catapult, they flew towards him and grabbed him, Peggy throwing him back towards the fortress. The rider was sandwiched between the wall of the old fort and two warriors, from whose shoulders the most blinding light was coming out. There was a roar and then a whoosh of fire, a blaze as hot as a dwarven forge, and the wall of the fort began to melt away. The nazgul that tried to lunge at Steve was kicked and thrown back, his sword clinking senselessly against his armour. The rider fell straight into the molten rock, bringing the wall down with him - the rest of the wall fell on top of him. Peggy and Steve continued to hold their fire until the nazgul was firmly sealed in the stone. After that, they holstered their pistols, the lights switched off.

Taking off his armour and breathing in the smell of heat and burning earth, Steven walked over to the group. He looked at Gandalf, who was standing on the wall.

- What were those hooded men? And were they dead?

- 'I think not,' Gandalf walked down the stairs, leaning on his staff, 'but they will not recover from their defeat for some time.

Aragorn came up to them, still affected by the battle, and the frightened hobbits came running up.

No sooner had they finished talking than they heard a noise in the distance. Only Peggy and Steve heard it, the former because of the implant, the latter because of his heightened senses. Peggy pointed her rifle, which was immediately retrieved from subspace, and Steve took his shield and pistol.

However, things turned out to be more trivial. A rider was coming towards them, not even black, but on a white horse. Carter saw the girl and lowered her rifle:

- I don't know who it is. A woman in her thirties, big-eared," she put the rifle back in her inventory and glanced at Steve, "lower your shield. No need to show hostility.

Steve obeyed silently, and Gandalf waited for the rider to approach and greeted her in Elvish:

- Good evening, Undomiel, daughter of Elrond....

- And good evening to you, Mithrandir. Lady Galadriel sensed the black riders and sent me to help. Did you fight? - she gracefully descended from her horse and approached the old wizard. The wizard smiled into his beard:

- 'Our friends fought,' Gandalf immediately introduced them: 'This is Stephen Rogers and his fiancée, Peggy Carter.

Stephen and Peggy looked at each other, then Steve surprised Gandalf by asking in Old Elvish:

- Introduce us, Gandalf, for we do not know who is Galadriel and who is Undomiel.

Gandalf only understood him, Undomiel, aka Arwen, only understood a couple of words, the rest of his language was a mystery to her. Next, Arwen shifted her gaze to Gandalf, who also answered Stephen in a singsong, Talisk-like language. Peggy joined in the conversation. Having spoken briefly to Gandalf about who Arwen was, Gandalf also brought his companions up to speed on where they were all going now. Not even old Gandalf wanted to refuse Galadriel.

- What are you talking about? - A look of confusion appeared on Arwen's face, "And what language is that? It sounds like an ancient Talisk tongue.....

- No, My Lady, this language is much older than that. It was spoken by the first Elves when they first came into the world," said Gandalf, grinning into his beard, "now among your people it is known as Old Quendian," he turned to Stephen, "do you not speak Quenya? And why did you switch to that language?

- I don't know. And the language you speak, I don't speak. It seems that those who compiled our dictionaries were here long before this language existed.

Gandalf looked at Peggy and turned to Arwen:

- 'The Black Riders have been beaten and melted into stone by fire,' he pointed with his staff at the shapeless piles of melted stones, 'but they will gain strength from this defeat. Their world is the world of spirits, the physical shell is not so important to them.

Arwen looked around the battle site, then asked:

- How were you able to do that?

- It was them," Gandalf smiled into his beard, "our friends.

* * *

The journey to Rivendell was a long one. Steve and Peggy periodically donned suits and soared like falcons, soaring through the blue sky, soaring above the clouds and surveying their surroundings. They served as both an aerial reconnaissance and a rapid response team. Peggy enjoyed flying more than Steve - she enjoyed somersaulting through the air and plummeting downwards, braking at the ground, making Rogers' heart bleed. Arwen had broken elven records for bulging eyes the first time they'd taken off to reconnoitre the situation. Deafening armour made of the strongest metal, plus the ability to fly faster than the wind... Steve and Peggy flew over a large area at nearly three and a half thousand kilometres per hour. In ten minutes, they flew to Rivendell, memorised the road, chose the most convenient paths. And ten minutes later - they flew back to the group, informing them where they had flown to. Arwen didn't believe them:

- Rivendell was still a day away!

- Yes, what's the speed of our suits there? - Peggy looked at Steve.

- Three hundred and two hundred. And the travel speed, including breaks, is about three kilometres per hour. So we're a thousand times faster, plus we're not constrained by roads.

Arwen looked at them in surprise:

- You mean you can get from here to Gondor in one hour? - She looked at Steve doubtfully.

- Most likely, how would I know where Gondor is located here? - Steve shrugged his shoulders. He wasn't wearing his helmet, but he kept the rest of his armour on. Not only did it protect him from surprise attack, but it also allowed him to float above the ground. He did not feel like walking, to put it bluntly.

Gandalf, who was walking beside him, holding the reins of his horse, noticed:

- I have never seen such magic. Nor the magic you used to defeat the Nazgûl. Powerful magic and great armour. Where did you say you came from?

Steve looked at Peggy.

- Far away. To be precise, we are not from Arda at all.

Gandalf looked at Aragorn and the hobbits listening to them and quoted:

"After the Valar, who had previously been the Ainur of the Great Song, had entered Ea, the noblest of them, who had learnt the thoughts of Ilúvatar more than the rest, began to search the immeasurable spaces of the Beginning for the place where the Kingdom of Arda was to be founded in due time. Having chosen it, they began the necessary work there. There were other Ainur, innumerable to us, but known to the mind of Ilúvatar. They laboured in other realms and stories of the Great Tale, among the stars of the distant and worlds beyond thought. But of them we know nothing and can know nothing, though perhaps the Valar of Arda know them all."

Peggy commented thoughtfully for Stephen, however, in the local vernacular:

- So there was, on a galactic scale, an Ainur civilisation that wandered the galaxy, or perhaps the entire universe, then they settled on this planet and adapted it for life here. You don't have to tell me how - most likely - they put up heavy-duty floodlights that gave constant light, planted trees here, and started critters. The lights provided food for the plants, and those in turn - grew giant forests and transformed the atmosphere of the planet. The animals provided the plants with propagation and food in the form of fertile soil. After the transformation of the air, the lights were removed and the giant forests, not adapted to the change of day and night, dried up. The most resilient plants adapted and are now the Flora of Arda, many animals died out as well, though they had an easier time adapting. After that, you could say the colony was established, but the Ainur metropolis continued to search and colonise planets... The Valar are most likely colonists. Only one thing I don't understand - if the Ainur spent so much effort on this planet - why didn't they leave their power here? Why don't they colonise it further? Or did they want to create an entire civilisation by leaving the Valar here? And then how did humans come to be here?

Gandalf shook his head:

- You know a great deal. Not all of it even I know, but I can tell you about the humans. Men were awakened in the east of Middle-earth. They were awakened before their time...

- I see. So, according to Ainur's plan, the humans brought here were in stasis and were supposed to awaken when the other races were already on their feet..." nodded Stephen, "What about the elves?

Peggy, with the look of the wisest of those present, spoke, as Stephen, Gandalf and the hobbits even listened to her, keeping behind Arwen who was listening:

- Elves, or Alves, they are of the Dominion of the Nine Worlds under the Golden Throne of the world of the gods, the Ases. Elfheim is a separate planet where the Elves originated. Light ones, at least, the dark ones haven't been heard of in a long time, after they were crushed by the Ases. For all intents and purposes, at least physically, Arwen corresponds to the light Alves, though the two differ greatly in terms of culture. The Alves are unlikely to be directly related to the Valar - Elfheim has no dominions of its own. Elfheim itself is a dominion of Asgard.

Arwen looked at Gandalf thoughtfully:

- Alfheim? Mithrandir, have you heard of it?

- No, Arwen, this is the first I have heard of it. I am not old enough to remember the awakening of the elves, though I am not young. However, it explains much that I was not aware of before," Gandalf tousled his beard thoughtfully, "but then who is Iluvatar?

Here it was time for Peggy to chuckle:

- Which one do you mean?

- Ilúvatar, according to our legends - stood behind all the Ainur, trusting them to act, he is also known as the Father of All or the supreme deity of Middle-earth. Elves and Humans were created by him.

- 'Iluvatar is one of the royal clans of Alvheim,' Peggy enlightened the wizard, 'they ruled and still do on the largest continent of Alvheim. Yes, in a way they, like the Asgardians, are gods. They can summon a soul from the hellholes of Helheim - the realm of the dead, as well as do many things...

- Eru Iluvatar, maybe the name will tell you something?

- Eru... - Peggy thought for a moment, - Eru Iluvatar, the youngest prince of House Iluvatar, born in the sixth month of the seventy-three thousand two hundred and forty-second year from the foundation of Asgard, the twenty-sixth son of the ruler Loriel Iluvatar, the seventeenth prince of House Iluvatar. That's all I know of him....

- By the way, how do YOU know that? - Steve suddenly asked, "You're just a simple man, aren't you?

- My dear, except for fights, it does not interfere with self-education. The moon base has Internet access, and this is all the knowledge of three hundred worlds of the galaxy, available at a moment's notice. Didn't you just look it up out of curiosity?

Stephen shrugged his shoulders:

- I'm somehow not used to surfing the internet yet. Otherwise, Bersih made me a selection on all the topics I was interested in.

- It's a waste. By the way, our world, like Alvheim, is one of the nine worlds of Asgard, you could at least study the politics of Midgard and Asgard..." Peggy shook her head and looked at Arwen. Arwen, however, was in deep awe. This amount of information could not fall on everyone overnight. Gandalf stroked his beard thoughtfully and remained meaningfully silent. However, it was Frodo who was ahead of them all:

- Mistress Peggy, do you know where the Hobbits came from? I wonder.

- That's something I can't say for sure. There are none like you in nine worlds or in the whole galaxy. More likely Hobbits came from mixing the blood of local races, like humans and dwarves," Peggy shrugged. Aragorn shushed the hobbit and together they stepped aside.

Gandalf, having decided something for himself, asked suddenly:

- So you say you are from another world, which is as much a part of the Asgard Empire as the Elves' homeland?

- Well," Peggy shrugged her shoulders, "you could say that. The Ases call our world Midgard, in all other worlds except the Nine Worlds we are known as Terra.

Arwen sighed sadly:

- Unfortunately, we don't get to see the Alves of Alvheim... And we have too many problems of our own to waste time on this research, but I would like to visit there someday....

- I will," Gandalf assured her, and immediately asked Peggy: "What do you know about Asgard? After all, they rule over the Elves, which is already a very specific knowledge....

- The Asgardians are an ancient civilisation. It is not known when they appeared, but for more than five hundred millennia they have been living in an artificially created world - Asgard. They've colonised seven worlds. Many of them, the Asgardians, wield the Great Power. I mean what they call magic. Magic is just as prevalent in the eight worlds, so they are similar in some things. Jotunheim is the home of the Jotun giants, Muspelheim is the fire world where the fire giants, the demons, live. Huge fiery creatures that are fuelled by fire, they are ruled by a certain Surt. Niblheim - home to the ice giants, a world completely encased in ice, with ice floes the size of mountains. Svartalfheim is the home of the Zwerg, that is, the dwarves. This world has many mountains and almost no plains and Helheim is the realm of the dead, the spirit world where the souls of the dead in the nine worlds reside.

- And your world?

- Our world - just happened to be within their interests. And in Midgard there were often wars, both for the world itself, and simply used it as a convenient platform for military operations between the nine worlds. Asgard is the dwelling place of the Ases, and I know little about them. They live for a long time - the oldest of the living have been alive for many hundreds of thousands of years, they are ruled by a king - Odin. He has two sons - Thor and Loki, now grown men. Ases are skilful in magic, capable of doing things incredible in their complexity, as well as strong warriors. Ases are almost impossible to kill with simple weapons, except to burn them so that no ashes remain or to cut off their heads. The magic of the Aesir allows them to travel between the nine worlds and to do incredible things.

Gandalf interrupted Peggy:

- I would certainly like to talk to you, but in more favourable surroundings. Our rest is over, I think we should move out. It's getting close to sunset and we might not make it....

- It's okay, I think we'll have plenty of light," Peggy smiled, "let's go.

Arwen walked behind everyone else, thinking about her own things. She didn't even notice Aragorn walking beside her, and Gandalf leading the procession. The hobbits were pulling their ponies under the reins - the horses were carrying supplies in saddlebags and it was impossible to ride on horseback - the hobbits were getting tired quickly.