Disclaimer: See chapter 1.

Review Responses:

invisigoth3: You won't believe where I'm going. Just wait. You'll see.

manveri mirkiel:

Healer 9: No plot bunny this time. The blind thing just came to me. It wasn't originally intended, but it does tend to make things more complicated don't you think?

Healer 10: Yes I am going to write you that email. Just got distracted by a cranky website. And no Atavus is not psychic, just very perceptive about people. And yes she tries to be optimistic. I see her as the sort who when they are doing their worst and nothing else can go wrong, she tends to overcompensate by encouraging others. Tissues, tissues and more tissues for manveri.

Brother 1: Well Atavus is going to have something else to occupy her time. Yes that's a hint, and no I'm not going to tell anymore. (Ducks as twin starts throwing stuff.) So yes Ugluk is all yours.

Brother 2: I just had to. It's such a good torture method. Okay your squeamish about blood but you'll chew on an orc. That's just gross. Anyway yes Atavus vs. Ugluk, plus the appearance of a couple of new characters.

Karone Evertree: Yes I'm afraid our poor Atavus is still blind. But she's still Atavus too. Yes ffnet is beginning to try my patience. I was so relieved that it let me post the last chapter. I was just sure it wouldn't.

Lintered: Yes I do have an odd mind. Thank you. Don't ask where it came from. I don't know. But I can take almost any statement and turn it into an evil plot bunny, as my reviewers have discovered. Active imagination, and too much time on my hands I guess.

First Encounters

"I forget brother, what exactly was it you wanted from me? Was it the location of Rivendell? No wait a minute that was last time. I don't remember you telling me what it was this time." She said in a quizzical tone. She knew that if she did not show her pain it would infuriate the orc, and at the moment it sounded like a good idea. She blocked the pain from her mind using her old trick of imagining killing him over and over again. My that was satisfying, even if it wasn't real.

"I want to know any information you might have learned about why you are the way you are. What is it that makes you a throwback?" The orc repeated the sentence yet again.

And she gave him the same answer as before. "How the hell should I know?"

"You have to know something. You've been living with those elves. They are smart, and they would want to pick you apart like an experiment. You have to have learned something." The orc growled at her approaching to within inches of where she was pinned to the wall.

"It's all in the blood, brother." She hissed back, knowing that it angered him to be called that.

"That is no answer freak." He said backhanding her. She could feel the blood running down her chin from her busted lip.

"Well it's the only one you are getting from me." She whispered.

"You'll change your mind, eventually." He also whispered.

"What makes you think that?" She said chuckling. "You killed the elf who accompanied me, so you have no leverage to use against me this time. You know I won't break no matter how much damage you do to me."

"I don't need your friends. I have even better leverage this time, but that will wait until later." He stepped back motioning for two orcs to remove her from the spikes holding her to the wall. She slumped to the floor when her own legs would not hold her there.

"Manveri you take care of her." He ordered and then left the room.

"Yes master." She heard a feminine voice say. Her arms and legs refused to move. The muscle tissue would need time to heal.

She heard a door open. "Van bring me water and bandages." She heard the voice say to someone in the hall.

She could feel the cool water on her bruised skin and it felt good. "Why don't you just tell him what he wants?"

"If I knew I would." She said sarcastically. "Then again, no I wouldn't, but since I don't know it doesn't matter now does it?" Atavus smiled when she heard the snort from the other woman.

She gathered enough strength to reach up and touch the woman's face. "Your not an orc." She said surprised.

Manveri had the urge to move away, but stopped it. What could it hurt? "No I'm not." She answered continuing to clean the wounds and bandage them.

"Manveri is she going to be okay?" A small voice to her right asked.

"Yes Van she will be okay. She has the healing gift." Manveri explained.

"Oh. I see." The child's voice said again, as if it did not surprise him. "So she's one of us."

Those words shocked Atavus more than anything else she could have learned. "What does he mean?" She asked.

"Did you really believe you were the only one?" Manveri asked, making a tisking noise. "No there are many actually. None as old as you I believe, but we are many."

"But how? I was told that my kind had faded out over the years." She said in confusion.

"Well there are a few of us like me who are only a several hundred years old, but there are many more like Van here. Something has happened in say the last hundred years. Many more of us are being born, and since the demise of the great eye just a few months ago no orc child has been born. All new ones are like us." The woman explained. That was the last thing Atavus had expected to be told.

"Yes and the orcs are angry." The boy said in a small voice.

"I understand why." No matter how much pain she was in, the thought of Ugluk being told that all new orc children were like her, brought a great sense of warmth to her heart. Nothing she could have ever done would have vexed him more.

"But what does he think to accomplish by information from me?" She didn't understand what he needed her for.

"He said that he saw one of us change once. He said her eyes turned black, and her skin changed. He must have been speaking of you. He believes that he can learn from you a way to change us all into orcs." Manveri explained.

She remembered it then. When she had stabbed him in the Misty Mountain caves. He must have seen her eyes changing before she even knew it herself. She did have the information he wanted, but she knew she must never give it to him. "I see." She answered, not ever intending to discuss it further.

Against the better judgment of the Captain of Gondor Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli went ahead on horseback to scout out the area around Minas Morgul. A group of Gondorian Warriors, and a few of the Rangers that were Aragorn's kin were to follow at a walking pace.

Minas Morgul was surrounded by the woods of Northern and Southern Ithilien on three sides, and was backed by the pass of Cirith Ungol leading into the land of Mordor. It was still very well guarded seeing as how the orcs who survived the destruction of Sauron had retreated there. The three friends scouted around the sides that were surrounded by woods, keeping well hidden in the shadows.

"I have a plan." Aragorn suggested when they had met back up.

Legolas looked to Gimli with one eyebrow raised. Usually Aragorn's plans ended with someone getting injured, but they were willing to listen. "Yes."

"On the southern side of the fortress the Morgulduin runs from Mordor. There is a drainage tunnel in the base of the wall. If we can manage to get inside that tunnel, we could get in and try to free her." Aragorn suggested.

"And what happens when your men arrive and we are nowhere to be found?" Gimli asked seeing the flaw in his friends plan.

"That's where you come in Gimli. Legolas and I will go in, and you will stay out here to give my orders." Aragorn smiled brightly.

"And what orders might those be?" Gimli asked not sure if he liked the idea.

"I want them to lay siege to Minas Morgul. I want it completely destroyed." Aragorn said quietly.

"But you'll still be in there." Gimli said flustered.

"Ah but the siege will give us what we need the most." Aragorn winked at Legolas.

"And what might that be?" Gimli said knowing he definitely did not like this plan.

Legolas answered for him. "A diversion."

"You like that word, don't you?" Gimli accused. "And if you are caught, and this little diversion gets you killed."

"Then you have to explain it to Gandalf." Legolas suggested.

"Oh no, not me."

"Yes you." Aragorn insisted. "But don't worry it will work. A siege can last for several days. We will have plenty of time to get out."

"When do you plan on sneaking in to that place?" Gimli asked.

"At nightfall."

Author's Note: So what do you think of the two new characters? Oh and it felt so good to have Atavus smarting off to Ugluk again. I missed that.