While I'm a big fan of assassinations playing ironically,I find the twist you chose for this mission to be really interesting too. On a more personal note, I also like the way the part before the mission went.

I'll admit that I read the teaser a long time ago,but I remember Ave's lecture by Dawn, though fully deserved, was a more one-sided one, and appreciate the nuancing done. Oh, and of course, congratulations to the first supervillain of Middle-Earth, Sauroman. A clear win for him to brag about to Morgoth.

And discovering more abouut the other agents written by Zingenmir was also something I liked. Juggling with many characterrs and giving each of them their own identity is something really impressive.

Baby Elf, Ent-queen
This mission had a few little details that I really liked. Firstly, you guys did a good job of continuously reminding the reader of the disguises the agents were wearing at any given time. This is especially important for me, as I have a tendency to keep reverting agents back to their normal appearance in my mental image of the story. (Which gets especially silly with Zeb; no need for blue ion lions wandering around in Middle-earth!) I also like the detail of having the notepad, writing utensil and weapon change forms between the Orc and Elf disguises.

I also really liked every time Agent Dawn started sharing things about Arda. I'm far from being a Tolkien expert myself, so I found all the knowledge and facts shared here interesting and informative. The details about Elvish names at the end I found particularly fun.

The absolute best thing about this mission is the assassination fake-out. There's not a single thing in the whole rest of the mission that made me think anything but a standard assassination was coming, which makes the surprise all the more wonderful and funny. Even better than subverting the usual violent moment, you guys even turn it into an opportunity for some genuine cuteness, which helps to keep the three agents distracted from the awkwardness of their personal situation. It's just a creative and fun twist, overall; well done, guys!

Happy Error List Time! You may have already fixed some of these, 'cause I pulled this mission up on my phone days ago and only got to read it yesterday at lunch. Anyway:

"When it did down, a pair of fair-haired Elves were standing in their places."

"The Sue stumbled to her little feet and promptly fell over, tripped by her the giant green dress . . ."

"The child thought about it, leaning her head against Dawn arm and frowning."
(Did a bottle of Dawn detergent just grow an arm?)

Also, this may have been intentional just to make that ending scene less complicated, but Gwilithiel switched from being in Zeb's RC at the start of the mission, to being back in Dawn's at the end. I haven't read any Pern yet; I do know fire-lizards are pretty dang intelligent, but would it be able to get back into Dawn's RC on its own? I don't think the Aviator knows where Dawn lives to help it . . .

Anyway, off to read the interlude . . .
/reads interlude

Meeting the Exes
Oh. Looks like fire-lizards can teleport. Ignore that last comment in the previous section, then . . .

I enjoyed this mainly because it was almost a study in character interaction. Exposing Zeb to new and unfamiliar personalities makes for all kinds of fun and unique dialogue interactions. It just goes to show the wide variety of characters in Headquarters, and helps to make HQ feel like the bustling, populated place it ostensibly is. Nothing majorly fancy or plot-changing happened, but I like it just for how down-to-earth and realistically conversational it is.

The one thing here I didn't get was the two separate references to Dawn not wearing nail polish. It's been a while since I read other Dawn stories, so sorry if I'm forgetting something already mentioned, but is the significance of her having plain fingernails?

—doctorlit, always plain-nailed

My imagination went immediately to a superhero in a dinosaur costume, or being an actual anthropomorphic dinosaur, haunting the mountains until the word world realizes that he is supposed to be Saruman and at Orthanc. I’m not fond of the inflationary spawning of minis at any opportunity, and the mini manifesting at Moria when Gandalf spoke its name at Caradhras is I bit too convenient for my taste. The need to catch the mini (and then watch Sauroman the raptor instead) might have been a reason to follow the fellowship, or to quickly portal there and back again. But then, Dawn and Zeb had more important stuff to do.

The agents trailed after the Fellowship until they came to a stop at a short staircase. The Lady of Light appeared in front of them.
...
"Why did they bring the horse up so many stairs? ... "
What’s going on here? In the book, the fellowship climbed a long staircase to meet Galadriel and Celeborn. Since I don’t remember what was shown in the movie, the fanfic’s short staircase may actually be accurate to movieverse. But then, I don’t know much about horses, and even this might be too many steps. But then, it’s not even clear whether The Lady of Light appeared upstairs or downstairs. (Hey, it’s the Department of Inaccuracies trying to break through; don’t blame me.) Unfortunately, I didn’t take notes of a previous occurrence where Dawn appeared to base a comment on her memory of canon rather than on what had been told in the fanfic, and now I don’t find it again. Anyway, I’m snickering about the canon expert not actually paying attention to the boring fanfic, but I’m not sure whether I’m supposed to. Zeb wondering what "many stairs" Dawn is talking about might have helped to clarify that this is intentional – if it is.

Also, some typos:

The Sue stumbled to her little feet and promptly fell over, tripped by her the giant green dress ...
You need either "her" or "the", but not both.

Zeb hesitated, them gingerly picked her up, unsure if he was supposed to cradle her or hold her at arm’s length.
"them" should be "then".

The child thought about it, leaning her head against Dawn arm and frowning.
"Dawn" should be "Dawn’s".

Overall, this was a fun read. The end of the mission was unexpected but sweet, and I liked Dawn and Zeb’s pre- and post-mission interactions with the Aviator.

HG

And all I caught was a possible missing scene break. You might want to add a scene break before the paragraph starting "Inside the fic, Zeb ran a tongue over his protruding teeth and grimaced."

Also, are we seeing a possible Zeb/Dawn ship, or is it well and truly torpedoed?