Epilogue: Open World

It wasn't until they had left Minas Morgul and reached the crossroads that Quinn felt it was safe to speak.

"All right, you wanna tell me why I just agreed to work with that sketchy ass wizard?" she asked.

"He is right. Finding the One Ring is our only chance to defeat Sauron. But the others of the White Council are correct in their doubts as well." Belekur gave her a meaningful look that still managed to look like a glare. "Sauron is a being of evil, and his devices carry that same evil within. The Ring will corrupt those who choose to use it. If Saruman finds the Ring, he will fall to darkness before he can use it against the Dark Lord."

Quinn's eyes widened as they spoke. "Okay, so why did we agree to help his ass if he's just gonna be corrupted?"

"Saruman has resources, power. If one such as him is actively searching for the Ring, he will find it first."

She grimaced slightly. "Makes sense. I just don't like going behind everyone's back about this."

"That does not matter. We must do whatever is necessary to destroy Sauron."

"And that's something I want to talk to you about." Quinn jabbed a finger in their direction. "You're a fucking kamikaze. You went in there, without backup, knowing you were going to lose, knowing you couldn't beat Sauron without the Ring. You knew you couldn't even beat the Nazgûl, and you still fought them. Those people back in your world taught you to fight like a badass, but they also told you to basically kill yourself if you can't win. If I hadn't gotten in there and ran our ass back through that door, we'd both be toast."

Belekur stared at her coldly. "Were it not for you, I would still be alive."

"Fair point. But you still gotta reel it in. Do it for my sake. And since I get the feeling that doesn't convince you, just do it so you don't get bitch slapped with a giant mace again." She felt the injury with a wince. "I gotta figure out how to fix this dent in my face, anyway."

The same went for her armor, too. Besides the dent from Bolg's hammer, there was now a giant puncture where the Witch-king had stabbed them, and her friends would probably freak out if she came back like that.

"All right. First order of business: find an armorer. And try not to scare the townspeople." She looked over to the city in the west, which was visible next to the shiny ribbon of a river. "And second…" She turned her gaze north. It had been months since she'd seen her friends. She hoped they were doing all right.

"We must begin our search for the Ring," Belekur said.

"Yeah, we'll get to that." She turned to them. "You know, if we're going to be sharing a body a while longer, we probably should be working together. Compromising and all that, so…" She held out a hand. "Soulmates?"

Belekur glanced at her hand.

"You know, like roommates, but our souls are...eh, whatever." Quinn withdrew her hand and started walking. "Let's go be heroes."

And with that cheesy ending, we are finally done with this fic! I was tempted to call this last chapter Blatant Sequel Bait, because of course there is potential for there to be a continuation to this story which would take place in the LOTR era.
A huge thanks to everyone who read, commented, favorited, and followed this story. Special shoutout to olddanfucker for leaving a comment to own the libs or something. And of course lots of love to drwatsonn and mercutios for all the lovely comments and sticking with this story despite all my bullshit.

The sequel should be up in like 5 minutes, so keep an eye out for that!