Hey guys! I'm really happy you are all enjoying this; this chapter was personally my favorite. I hope you enjoy. Review responses once more at the bottom.

Chapter Three

She was having a bad day. First thing in the morning she is woken up by a trumpet that one of the newbies had brought along just for the sake of annoying her. Then she gets a call that the electric box outside the gates is not working… seemingly all the wires connected to it are malfunctioning. She blamed the wires. Then some moron in security messed with the coordinates in the Main Control Room and now Aragorn and Legolas were missing. She hoped that the security guard was severely punished. Maybe by being assigned 'Sue guard duties… she smiled evilly.

And now, the coffee maker was broken. Trumpets, wires, and missing people she could handle, but when she didn't have her coffee, she went mad. She needed her coffee. She couldn't live without it. So now, she sat upon the front steps of the replica of Rivendell, trying to fix the coffee maker.

She was alone, for once. All of the writers were gone in search for the elf and ranger. She assumed that all the readers of Mirkwood were searching as well; after all, they did read the stuff. She shook her head. She couldn't care less if the Heads suddenly went missing. All she wanted was her coffee.

In her busy state of mind, she failed to notice two figures sneaking up on her. She did not fail to notice, however, herself being lifted up by two strong figures and being pushed against the wall. She also did not fail to notice that they had made her drop the coffee maker, which fell down to the ground and broke beyond repair. If she was angry before, now she was furious.

She was about to give the two who had picked her up a good tongue lashing when she found a hand to her throat, and keen, silver eyes piercing into hers. She gulped, all thoughts of coffee and tongue lashing gone.

"Who are you women and what do you want with us?" growled an irate Aragorn, not letting her go. He was weaponless, she noticed, but looked deadly. By his side was Legolas, who also was weaponless, but just as deadly. She gulped once more.

"Please, sir, I'm just the technician! I swear I don't write, or even read the fan fiction! Honest!"

Legolas stared her in the eye, and she turned her head away. Bloody elf had a stare that could make the dead rise. She turned to Aragorn, who had the same expression as Legolas. It irritated and frightened her.

"You shall answer our questions, and you shall answer them truthfully. Do you understand?" Isildur's heir commanded. She nodded meekly, and Aragorn finally let go of her throat. She took in a deep breath and gently massaged her neck as the two stared down at her.

"What is your name?" asked Legolas.

"I've got many. People here call me 'Tech Girl'. But you can call me Mandy."

"Alright, Mandy. Now, where are we and what do you want with us? Why do you invade our dreams?"

"You're in an alternate universe, if you want to be precise. Not in Middle-earth, nor in my home world, Earth. Right in the middle, it seems. And I don't want anything with you guys. It's the authors and reviewers that want you. I could care less; I'm just here because it pays well."

"Explain."

"Well, I don't know all the details, but one day a couple people came together to form this place. These women wrote stories about you two and constant adventures, angst, and tortures you went through. With fellow writers and reviewers, they built this place a couple of years ago. I wasn't here yet, so I don't know all the details. But somehow, ever since they came here, their stories somehow came to your dreams. I don't know how or why, but they just started to. By the time the Heads found out about this, it was too late to move back. So the writers are all under strict regulations not to mess around too much, and to make sure that not too many people are writing around the same period of time in which the story takes place. But someone in security messed with the control system and it looks like you two accidentally came here. That's pretty much about it."

"Explain more about these 'authors', 'reviewers', and 'fan fiction'," the elf said.

"Fan fiction is pretty much stories based on char- people that we did not create. In this place, it is mostly for you two. The authors are the people who create and write these pieces of fan fiction that you two dream about at night. The reviewers read the stories and comment on them. The reviewers and writers are like a fuel and car relationship… you know what I mean?"

"Well-"

"Good. Well then, I'll just be on my way then." Mandy hastily went up to her feet and tried to get past them. She miserably failed.

Legolas looked at Aragorn. "It looks like we must destroy the authors."

"No, no!" protested Mandy. "That wouldn't be good at all! Who would give me my paycheck?"

"What then would you suggest?" growled Aragorn in frustration.

"Easy. Go to the source of the problem. The fan fiction itself."

"And where could we find this 'fan fiction' of yours?" Legolas asked.

"In the main hall, on all the computers. They're all stored away on the computers."

"Good," said Aragorn. "You shall lead the way and show us these 'computers'."

Mandy groaned, but was given no chance to argue. She reluctantly led the two friends to the main hall, where the heart of this place rested… within the fan fiction.

Aragorn stared at the wondrous horror that filled the main Hall. In Rivendell, this is where everyone usually ate breakfast and supper. Here, however, the tables were covered in many of the odd 'wires', and those wires were all connected to a bunch of large silver and black boxes. Some of the boxes were under the tables, and they were covered in many buttons. The ones on top were either large or flat and all had a black square on the front of it.

Even these odd devices, however, did not add up to the shock and horror of seeing pictures of himself and Legolas plastered all over the place. Some stances were just portraits; others had him and Legolas fighting orcs, wargs, or other types of evil, and some had him and in his friend in the worst type of situations- many, oddly enough, that looked like scenes from his dreams. He shuddered, and looked to Legolas. Legolas had a similar expression of horror on his face.

"Okay, those are the computers under the tables. Those are the monitors on top. To put it simply, the computer is like, the brain of the whole system. Monitors make it possible to actually do something with the computers. Whatever you make on the monitor is stored onto the computer."

"There are many," muttered Legolas. "Is there not one main 'computer'?"

"Yea, but it's in the Head's Quarters. No one but select people have access to it. I'm not one of them," Mandy explained. "So, if you want to slow production down to pretty much a stop, you've gotta destroy all of these."

"How?" asked Aragorn.

"How? I dunno. Throw them across the room or something?" She shrugged. "I wasn't hired for my creativity."

"They can be destroyed that simply?" asked Legolas.

"Yea. They aren't like the Ring or nothing."

"The Ring?"

"Crap. Forget I said that, ok?"

"Erm, sure-"

"Great. You two have fun." Faster than thought possible, she ran out of the Main Hall.

Legolas and Aragorn looked at each other. "Shall we?" asked Aragorn.

"After you."

Responses:

Sweet-haret179: Thinking on a Saturday? That's impossible... anyhow, I am very glad you are enjoying this story :-D

Meluvian Indil: It's the smaller details that make something good, IMO. I hope you like this chapter as well.

Imbecamiel: I'm in the exact same state of mind; when I wrote this, I realized how mean I was to them... and then I realized that it was much too fun being mean to them to stop. Besides, they'll have their fun...

Legolas's Girl 9: Two thumbs? Not like... five? Aww... hehe, j/k. I'm glad you like it!

Easternelvenlady: Cute... hmm. Yes. That's a word that can be used; wouldn't you say so, Aragorn?
Aragorn: -mutters dark threats under his breath-
-pats him- I'm glad you like it :-D

SmilingDragonGirl: Ooh, one of these type of reviews! I love these! I write the same type of reviews... long, humourous, and utterly pointless. -grin- Well, we all knew that they'd come sooner or later, right? ;-) Big boy? -bursts out laughing- He's a coward!
Aragorn: -grabs Anduril and starts after her-
Gah! Peace, ranger! Peace! -throws him a bag of cookies- Rangers love cookies. It works every time.
Anyhow, I tortured the ranger a bit in my last fan fic... and I entered a nice torture-fic in a contest a few weeks ago... it is soo much fun! Oh, and of course, there is the pissed off horse... can't live without that. Caves? Let me in those caves! I need a place to hide too! Ooh, but not with the horse... no, I don't want an angry elven horse at the moment, thankyouverymuch :P Indeed, I'm quite happy steedless... but speaking of torture-fics, I really need to work on this one that is a sequel to my last one... thanks for the entertaining review!