A/N: Hoo-kay, I finally got this chapter done! Sorry this one took so long. Basically it chalks up to a bunch of factors the big two being 1: I was gone during the weekend on a big manly campout thing that involved eating steak and shooting skeet (it rocked!) but the #2 reason was bigger: I got really busy writing another story. It's an original fiction story. So I might post it sometime on Fictionpress.net. If I do I'll inform you. Now my only other thing that I have to say is that I am still waiting for suggestions on how far this story should go. Until the fall of Isenguard or the return of Gondor's King. Keep in mind if I write the latter this story could get really long, but I'm prepared for either so it's up to you guys. Thanks!

Nienna of Sorrow: Hey I'm glad you approve of the way I'm writing our favorite weather-wielding mutant. As far as her hooking up with Legolas, I'm not sure, as I explained in the last update it's hard to get human and an elf together. I'm still considering it though.

LDSsunshine girl: Yeah it seemed appropriate to me for Beast to get a caffeine high. Glad you liked the story and thanks for the e-cards. I tried to send you a fricken hilarious LotR music video but the file was to big. Do you have a win-zip or something? If you do I'll send it to you. Anyway thanks again

Zammy: Haldir and the troops eh Zammy? Okay I'll see what I can do.

Mia: Hey thanks for the kind words you had in your review! I'm glad you understand the whole Jubolas- ship thing. As far as who she's hooking up with all I have to say is. Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies. But I defiantly agree that Jubilee has been through a lot and is mature for her age, she's just not…like a thousand years old mature. Thanks again

Also thanks to Ms.L.P.Weasly for her review.

Chapter 4

Sinister meetings

"Hurry up!" Gollum cried, looking behind himself to see the group of mutants still following him. Though they were some distance away, "Oh very nice precious very nice indeed," he muttered to himself, "Nasty monsters find us and now they wants us to take them to the nasty elveses,"

"But they will kill us!" he moaned in higher voice "Nasty human with shiny claws will eats uss!"

"But the nasty elveses will kill us too!" he countered himself "They knows that we wants the Precious and that the nasty little hobbitses haves it!"

"We've got to run away!" he moaned "We've got to hide! The elveses will hurt us!"

"Patients my Precious, my Love," he said "If we run now we will only get caught again."

"Who are you talking to?" Gollum heard one of the mutants growl at him, the one with the claws, the same one who was always first to catch up to him. "Don't go trying to run off on us again cause if you do we'll catch yeh and then I won't be so nice." The mutant popped his claws out, causing Gollum to shriek

"Don't hurt us, Precious," he pleaded "We doesn't wants to die, We are your friend, yesss, precious!"

"Friend," the mutant snorted "right…I warn you that if you try anything I'll…"

"Wolverine," Storm's voice came from behind "Leave the creature be, The Goddess knows how much suffering it has gone through."

"Just making sure that it doesn't try to escape again," Wolverine responded quickly, then looked concerned at his teammate "You okay?" he asked

"I will be fine," She panted, though she did not look it. It had been almost three days since they had left the mountain they had arrived in. They had been on the constant move ever since, and while they had plenty of water due to the river that they were following, none of them had eaten in their entire journey. They had been too aggrieved at first with the loss of Jean to even think about eating and the woods, seemed to be devoid of game; the orcs having frightened them away, Wolverine had guessed. Then there was their "guide", after they had captured Gollum, he had promised to take them to the woods where the Fellowship had fled, but his word seemed to be as slippery as the fish he always talked of eating. Several times he had tried to sneak off, only to be stopped by Wolverine who could track him, or by Storm who would fly above and spot him making a break for it. Storm had reported that they were nearing a different kind of forest, the trees began to take on a different shade of green and be much larger. With every mile, Gollum became more and more nervous.

Storm looked behind her to see Cyclops and the others still a good distance away, "We had better wait for them here" she said, Wolverine merely nodded then looked around sniffing the air,

"I'm going do a bit of hunting darling," he said "See if I can't find us something to eat, You going to be okay with him?"

He indicated Gollum who was perched on a rock, staring at them angrily.

"I will be fine," Storm said "I pray that you find success," Wolverine was gone in a second, leaving her alone with the creature that was now following Wolverine unswervingly with it's eyes.

"You will not be able to abandon us even with him gone." Storm said matter-of-factly. "I will be able to spot you from above, so unless you can turn invisible, running away won't do you much good."

Gollum suddenly turned to her and gave the mutant a smile that made her very nervous. "Run away?" he said the smile growing even wider "US? Run away!?" the creature let out a disturbing laugh "No, No, No, We doesn't wants to run away, We just doesn't likes nasty hairy monster with clawses. We wants to help you!" Storm almost shuddered at the way he had suddenly become so eager-to-please.

Gollum bounded over to her until he was less than a foot away from her face. "Yess, Precious, we wants to help," Storm looked at the creature angrily trying to warn him not to touch her. Yet he did not move one way or the other "Why does it wants to go to see nasty elves We wonders? Does it like nasty cruel elveses? Nasty, cruel, wicked elveses who will hurt you. Yess that is what they will do Precious."

"I am positive that no elf would ever do such a thing to us," Storm replied confidently, though she admitted she had only ever met one elf before. She had no idea if other elves were as kind-hearted and well mannered as Legolas had been, but something inside her indicated that the majority of elves did share the same admirable attributes.

"They are trixy!" Gollum said "We knows! They had us, they hurt us, and beat us. You will see. They will come at you with arrows and kill you, hurt you, cut you, beat you, and torture you…"

Before Gollum could continue Cyclops, Jubilee, and Nightcrawler immerged from the foliage, looking very worn out, their clothes ripped and torn from the sharp bushes near the river. Their faces dirty from the day of travel. Upon looking at them Storm realized that she too, more than likely had a similar appearance.

"Getting chummy with the freak?" Jubilee asked upon seeing Gollum so close to Storm,

"Jubilee!" Nightcrawler scolded, "You should know better that! How many times have we been called freaks?"

"Sorry," Jubilee admitted suddenly becoming very interested with her toes.

"Where's Wolverine?" Cyclops asked while he stretched slightly.

"He's gone looking for food," Storm replied "He should be back soon."

"Great," the mutant leader muttered, "It would have been nice if he had done that the first night we got here instead of trying to carve away the entire forest."

"We can help!" Gollum chirped as he trotted over to Cyclops's side. "We can catch nice fish! Yes nice, juicy, sweet fishes! At the river! We was looking for fishes when nice people found us!"

Cyclops didn't respond he merely eyed the creature with his arms folded. Gollum almost seemed dog-like in its enthusiasm to help.

"We will go!" Gollum smiled as he edged toward the direction of the river "and come back with big fishes!"

"No you won't," Cyclops finally said unfolding his arms. "At least not without me. Lets see if you can make good on your promise."

Storm watched as the pair disappeared from view behind the thick blanket of vegetation. She felt a breeze which seemed more ominous than refreshing to her.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Another sleepless, nightmare-filled night had done very little to change Professor Xavier's mind, as he wheeled toward cerebro, with Beast in tow. Each night the dreams had become more clear, Jean was in grave danger, and no one on middle-earth could help her. He knew now that he had but one choice.

"Sir," Beast cried "I really must protest! This is much to risky! Think of the consequences! Think of what might happen if you do this!"

"Think of what will happen if I don't!" Xavier replied suddenly halting and looking the other mutant in the eye, "Every night I see Jean's fate! Do you really want her to die? Do you really want to risk losing your teamates: Logan, Scott, Ororo? Do you want our friends in the Fellowship to die?"

"No, Sir," Beast admitted "But even if these dreams are some sort of psychic omen how do you know that we are not too late? How do you know that Jean and the others aren't already dead? You know just as well as I do that we can't trust Sinister."

"I know Hank," Xavier said putting his hand on the other mutant's shoulder "But I also know that we are not too late and I would never dream of trusting Sinister. But I am willing to bet that he will be quite eager to help us with both Scott, and Cable missing, he will have lost two of his favorite genetic construction kits. Don't worry I will not let him know exactly where our teammates are and I will not let him know of the Ring."

"I certainly hope that you are right about this sir," Beast sighed "Because with that Ring, Sinister could possibly be even worse than Magneto if he had it."

"Believe me no one knows better than I how dangerous that Ring is," Xavier replied beginning to move again "When I find him, we'll prepare the team so we can be ready for anything when we try to contact him."

Beast sighed again, as he watched Professor Xavier make his way to Cerebro's large doors and begin to pass the security checks. The more he thought of it, the more terrified he became.

"Mr. Sinister with the Ring of Power." He muttered "Now that is a nightmare would keep one up at night.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Gollum splashed loudly through the water, even managing to spray Cyclops who was some distance away. The mutant rolled his eyes wondering how the creature intended to catch all the nice fish that he was scaring away. Gollum suddenly sloshed his way over to the mutant leader, a stupid smile on his face.

"We can't find any fishes!" he said in exasperation

"I wonder why?" Cyclops growled "I hope that Wolverine is having better luck."

"It doesn't like hairy, clawed, monster does it Precious?" Gollum suddenly said making Cyclops wonder if he was being addressed or not.

"No my love it doesn't," Gollum said in a deeper voice "We can see it in it's face. It hates the clawed monster. Like us."

"Clawed monster?" Cyclops asked "You mean Wolverine?"

"Yes, we does," Gollum replied appearing to have just realized that Cyclops had been there, "We've seen nasty monster hunt. Looking for food for you then killing and eating, bringing nothing back for his friends."

"What?" Cyclops said.

"Oh yesss," Gollum oozed "We've seen him with our own eyeses. Killing animals, eating them raw even with fur…not very scrumptious."

"I don't believe you." Cyclops said with less confidence than he had intended. Knowing full well that the possibility of Wolverine doing such things could not be excluded considering how hard he had taken Jeans death.

Upon seeing this moment of doubt Gollum splashed toward him. "One eyed man is sad!" he said "We sees it. The clawed one wants to hurt Us, every time he talks to Us he tells us that he will kill Us and then kill you. He is wicked and he is false."

Cyclops studied the creature before him. He knew that Wolverine had indeed been threatening it, of that he had no doubt. Just as Wolverine had threatened to kill him. Normally he would have shrugged it off as one of Wolverine's many personality flaws, yet here alone in some unknown woods away from most of the things that kept them united: Professor X, the full team... Jean; the mutant leader could almost imagine the other mutant crossing the line.

Gollum was groping at Cyclops's arm trying to get his trust, "You can't let nasty clawed one kill you. Kill him first. We've seen the red lightses that you has, It would only take a second. Yes Preciousss, only a second,"

The mutant looked down at the creature, suddenly coming to his senses. "Why you twisted little toad!" he growled causing Gollum to shriek and fall backward into the water. "I almost believed you! But all your trying to do is get us to fight so you can run away!"

"NO!" Gollum screamed "We swears that we tells you the truth! Wicked clawed one wants to kill us! He wants to hurt you! You will see and you will weep for us Precious! Yes as we've seen you weep when you think nobody's looking."

Cyclops made a disgusted sound then looked at the water, now sure that they would catch nothing "Let's go," he growled. "I think that I've been alone with you for to long. You're actually making sense to me."

The pair made there way through the foliage and trees until they came to the rest of the group. They sat looking quite miserable, only perking up at seeing them return, but the excitement soon died as they saw that they had not returned with food. Wolverine had still not returned and the sun was beginning to dim in the west. Cyclops knew that they would not be able to cover anymore distance that day. Gollum crept to a tree near them trying to avoid eye contact with Storm. Jubilee was busy trying to bandage a scratch she had received during their trek and quietly groaning about her "luck"

Cyclops sat next to Nightcrawler who was humming gently to himself. The blue mutant looked at his leader quietly.

"No luck then." he said more commenting than questioning.

"No," Cyclops responded exasperated "Though I doubt that Gollum took me there to showcase his fishing skills. Now I know why he's so sickly thin."

"Well give us a few more days," Nightcrawler smiled "and we'll look just like him! Maybe the Fellowship will think that he's got five twins! All trying to get the Ring."

"Except Wolverine of course," Cyclops snorted "He seems to be doing quite well for himself."

"Chalk it up to his healing factor mien fruend" the blue mutant responded.

"Are you so sure?" Cyclops found himself asking "He's been very resentful ever since we got here, even a bit feral…you don't think…"

The mutant couldn't finish his sentence, the calm of the woods was shattered by an inhuman roar. Gollum hopped up frightenly looking ready to bolt at any second.

"What was that Precious?" he said "Is it orcses? Is it trollses?"

"I think that it was Wolverine!" Storm said, the roar came again followed by the crashing of trees.

"He sounds like he's in trouble!" Nightcrawler added jumping up. Jubilee was already running toward the sound.

"What are we waiting for!?" she yelled.

"Jubilee No!" Cyclops hollered but it was too late she was already pressing into the woods toward the sound. The mutant leader sighed heavily and ran after her with the other X-men behind him. Ignoring the pain as a low branch swipped him across the head. He could feel warm trickle of blood coming down the side. They could tell that Wolverine was not far as they could still hear him roaring. Suddenly Cyclops whirled around; they had left Gollum alone. He looked to see Nightcrawler and Storm following them but could tell that the creature had taken it's opportunity escape. He turned again and stopped dead in his tracks.

Before them, Wolverine emerged from the trees covered in blood, with arrows protruding from his back and side.

"Run!" he roared, but suddenly an arrow whizzed out of the trees and caught him in the small of the back knocking him over.

"Wolvie!!" Jubilee shrieked. Cyclops looked to his fallen comrade and then turned to see where the arrow had come from.

The answer was pointed right at his face. The mutant jumped upon seeing an arrow aimed at him, not less than two inches from his visor. The owner of the arrow belonged to a blonde elf who was looking at him menacingly. More elves suddenly appeared each with a bow drawn. Cyclops looked to see one elf come out of the woods clutching his side, blood seeping from the wound obviously inflicted by Wolverine's claws. Nightcrawler who had at first smiled upon seeing the elves now had his hands up. Many of them were talking amongst themselves in their own language, pointing at them with a mixture of curiosity and disgust.

"Where have I seen these looks before?" Storm asked bitterly, holding her hands up as well. Jubilee was kneeled before Wolverine trying to get him to stand up. The mutant moved a little but otherwise made no sign that he was still alive.

A tall elf with blonde almost white hair approached them. "So these are the creatures that Lady Galadriel sent us to capture." he said looking at Cyclops. "Creatures with claws," he indicated at Wolverine, "creatures of fire, and light."

"Who are you?" Cyclops growled angrily "Who's this Galadriel? Is she that evil witch that we've heard about?"

The elf looked as if he had been slapped in the face, He approached Cyclops fuming "You will watch you tongue, monster!" he snapped "and if you ever speak that way about Lady Galadriel I will personally see that you get you just punishment for the offense!"

"Listen," Storm said "We are not your enemies. We only came here looking for the Fellowship of the Ring."

The elf turned to her and smiled happily as if he was getting some joke that they didn't "We know that," he said "but you are too late, the Fellowship departed from our borders this morning. They are well beyond your reach now... Servants of Sauron!"

"We are no servants of your Dark Lord!" Nightcrawler said "and we mean you no harm!"

"Is that why your partner attacked Elros?" the elf said motioning to the elf that was clutching his side.

"Well if we are here to destroy you then why not kill us instead of boring us with your theories," Cyclops said his hand moving smoothly up to his visor.

"Because we are here on behalf of Lady Galadriel and Lord Celeborn and they wish you to be captured alive. I only lament that we were unable to carry out their instructions completely as we had to kill the clawed one"

As if on cue slowly pushed himself off the ground slightly. Several arrows suddenly pointed at him.

"Iluvatar maer!" the elf suddenly exclaimed upon seeing the mutant who he thought was dead "I see now that Lady Galadriel was not mistaken upon how powerful and dangerous you would be."

"If you are not going to kill us," Storm said "Then what are you going to do."

"That will be for my Lord and Lady to decide," the elf said suddenly turning to his companions "gwedh ti, a toba"

Several other elves suddenly produced robes and blind folds. Storm looked to Cyclops who merely nodded to her, "Lets try to see if we can reason with this Lord and Lady of theirs," he said quietly as the elves began to bind his hands behind his back.

The lead elf turned to another of his kind, and began speaking in his own tongue.

"Well if you've got us captured at least speak so we can understand you!" Jubilee hissed, The elf turned to her with eyebrows raised, a mischievous smile suddenly played across his lips.

"Tell Lady Galadriel and Lord Celeborn," the elf finished in the common tongue "That Haldir has captured the spies and is bringing them as we, speak to their presence."

………………………………............................................................................................................................

"How very interesting." the sinister voice said from the shadows. Glowing red eyes shining brightly from the seat he occupied. Havoc merely nodded trying as hard as he could not to look intimidated. Though he had every right to be. He was alone in the headquarters of Mr. Sinister. Although he knew that the X-men were flying high above him in a Blackbird Jet and would come to his rescue by a mere thought, which would trigger Cerebro to alert them. Alex Summers still had to admit to himself that he was in the serpents den. Professor X hadn't liked the idea of him coming alone, but in the end the mutant leader recognized it as the best. Sinister was obsessed with the Summer's bloodline and had tried time and again to control either Alex or his brother Cyclops. The mutant had volunteered to enter Sinister's hideout, the moment that Professor X had located it.

"So you've lost your dear friends." Sinister said quietly sounding pleased with himself "and you need me to get them back for you?"

"All I want is for you to give me one of your teleportation devices and I'll go and find Scott and the others." Havoc said making sure that Sinister knew that he was not being invited to go along for the ride.

"and in return?" Sinister asked curiously "What shall I receive? You know that I would never give something that valuable to someone like you. No doubt your Professor would like to use it as well."

Havoc held his breath this was the moment of truth to find out if their plan would succeed "A sample of my D.N.A." he finally said.

Sinister suddenly stood up. His pale face coming in the dim light, looking like the cat that had just made a meal of a nest full of birds. "Now that is something!" he smiled "Summers D.N.A. You do realize what I might do with that don't you?"

Havoc nodded.

"and you still wish to make the trade," Sinister concluded "My then, you must be worried."

The room went deathly silent, as Sinister appeared to be considering the trade, rubbing his chin slightly, glancing at the X-man before him. Havoc again tried to keep his face neutral, with his hands behind his back.

"Then it's a deal!" Sinsister finally said with a wicked smile.

"You can have a sample after I am sure that the device you gave me works and isn't sabotaged." Havoc said.

"but of course!" Sinister smiled, then turned and pressed a commlink on his wall "Creed, get up here and bring a portable teleporter with you!" the enigmatic villain smirked at the mutant who still stood before him. After a few minutes the doors behind him open, Havoc heard a low growl as he turned and beheld Sabertooth entering the room, carrying a metal object that looked like an armband.

"What brings you here, pretty boy?" Sabertooth mocked his fangs almost gleaming in the muted light. "I didn't know that Sinister accepted softies now."

Havoc gave a look of pure venom to the clawed mutant but said nothing.

"Give Mr. Summers the device, and then escort him out the door." Sinister commanded, Sabertooth complied immediately handing the metallic object to the other mutant. Without a word Havoc turned and made for the door. Sabertooth bowed slightly and held out his arms in mock reverence.

"After you!" he smirked

"Mind you, Alex Summers!" Sinister said as the mutant exited the room "If you double cross me and don't send my reward. My wrath will be swift and decisive!"

Havoc merely nodded as the door shut behind him. Before him was a hallway and at the end was freedom. "Don't worry big brother," he thought "I'm coming for you"

In the darkness his office, Sinister sat at his desk contemplating the deal he had just made. A malignant smile dancing on his lips. Suddenly something stirred in the blackness, a blue mutant immerged from the shadows.

"Then it's done," Mystique said.

"Oh no." Sinister responded with a look of pure delight on his face "It's only begun! That Ring that you told me of will be mine!"