Hey guys, I'm sorry this chapter is short, and I also regret to inform you that I will be putting this story on hold. I know, please don't hate me. I HATE when author's do that, and come back to it three months later, and no one cares about it anymore, but I just can't bring myself to update for a while. Things are going horribly wrong, and I don't know how much more my family can take. My great Uncle died on Thursday, my Grams is in the hospital, and my dog just died this morning. Plus, I'm sick and stressed as hell right now. So, I'm very sorry, but this will probably be it for a while. Please don't forget about me, and I can't apologize for this enough. Answers to ALL reviews, including those for chapter 4, will be at the bottom of chapter 6. Couldn't bring myself to do them here, but know that I appreciate all of your reviews, and I am really sorry.

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Legolas was stripped of his tunic, and his hands were retied, one to each pole. The attention of every man was on him, but he refused to look any of them in the eye.

He hissed through his teeth as a whip was unexpectedly and harshly brought down against his shoulders. Another stroke fell across his right side and lower back. The abuse went on this way for a few minutes, until the prince could feel the blood running down his back.

"Hand me the torch," Sherock's cruel voice said from behind him. The prince hid his fear well. He had no idea what was happening, but he was not going to let the fear of it satisfy these men.

Then he felt it, a burning sensation across his back. They had lit the whip on fire. How it stayed lit, he would never know, nor did he need to know. All he knew was the pain.

He looked up and locked eyes with Aragorn. The man remained perfectly still and did not break eye contact.

Legolas felt like vomiting, he was so repulsed by his own misplaced trust in the ranger. He had felt such a rise in his spirits when the man entered his cell twenty minutes ago, and now he was slowly accepting that no man could be trusted.

Aragorn used all of his will to stay where he was. It killed him to see Legolas in such agony, and he too felt like vomiting from the repulsion of it. If he was going to save the prince, though, he needed to stay undercover for a bit longer. He felt ashamed, and desperately wanted to look away, but he owed his friend enough to look at him.

Legolas finally broke the eye contact as Sherock held the torch up to the prince's skin. He bit his lip so hard that he drew blood from it. Aragorn had to hold on to a table to keep himself where he was. He looked away, no longer able to bear the agony in the prince's eyes.

Finally, Sherock pulled back and wordlessly left the courtyard. Much to Aragorn's surprise, all of the people followed him.

A couple of the men who had witnessed the punishment walked to Legolas, spitting on him, working his wounds cruelly, or adding new ones. The last man to leave the area knelt to Legolas' level, wrapping his fingers in the blonde hair. He pulled back, forcing the prince to meet his eyes. Keeping the eye contact, the man reached around the slender body and raked his nails across the prince's back. Legolas clenched his eyes closed, knowing that his soul was very vulnerable right now, and he did not want the man to see into him. He finally cried out in pain.

Aragorn fought to keep from killing the man; just ripping him apart with his bare hands. Finally, the man left, laughing, and Aragorn was alone with the prince.

"Legolas?"

The elf would not look at him.

"Are you okay?"

"Get out," Legolas growled in a low whisper.

"Legolas, please,"

Legolas lunged forward, as far as his restraints would allow, which was not far enough to reach his friend. "You betrayed me. I trusted you, and you betrayed me."

Aragorn reached out, but the elf jerked away from him.

Aragorn winced. It wasn't supposed to be like this. His friend was not supposed to recoil at his touch. "I can't help you if I'm in the cell too."

Legolas looked at Aragorn, but the man was walking behind him. Legolas tensed, frightened of what was to happen.

He felt water running over the fiery lacerations on his back. "Estel?"

"I am sorry that I could not help you, mellon nin. It killed me to stay put, but I need Sherock to believe that I'm on his side."

Legolas nodded, but Aragorn could tell that the elf still felt betrayed. "I will help you escape. You will see."

He touched the elf's back, but the prince shuddered violently. "It's not that bad, really."

"I know," Legolas snapped. Aragorn sighed heavily. The elf was not reacting to the pain. He was emotionally dead now, feeling nothing but the anger and mistrust he had in humans. All humans.

"Legolas, listen to me," he went to the front of his friend, putting his hands on the elf's face. He needed Legolas' attention. "Listen to me. Sherock has every intention of torturing you until you tell him where Mithfalas is. He doesn't want to kill you. I have a plan; we'll escape as soon as I can get to you. Maybe even today, but we will be gone by the sun's setting tomorrow. Do not let Sherock or the Lady ruin you. Make yourself wake up just one more time. Promise me."

Legolas said nothing.

"Please, I need your word that you will still draw breath when I come for you."

"I will live."

Aragorn paused. "What are you thinking?"

Legolas locked eyes with the young man. He didn't have to say anything; Aragorn knew that Legolas did not trust him now, nor would he for a while.

"It's okay. You'll see. But for now, you just have to take my word for it. I will be back for you."

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Sherock looked at his prisoner in the courtyard below, then to the person standing beside him. "He will break in a short time, and then you may have him."

The other smiled. "I wanted to kill him, but now I think it is too easy of a way out for him. You will contact me when he is ready?"

"Yes, milady." Sherock watched as the woman retreated, no doubt leaving for her own home. He smiled at the thought of how much money the elf was going to bring him, and how much closer it would bring him to power in Gondor.

He would use the elf to get to Mithfalas, then sell him to the Lady. After that, he would never have to worry about either of them again. If all went according to plan, Thranduil would be dead as well, and the entire family line would be terminated.

"Do you mean to leave him out there this night?"

Sherock turned to Aragorn. "I do. I think it's the least he deserves."

Aragorn chuckled. "Is he that misbehaved?"

Sherock smiled and nodded. "But we shall soon change that. I will see you in the morning. We have a lot to teach the elf tomorrow. It will be a long day."

Aragorn nodded his goodbye to the man, but stayed on the balcony looking down at his friend. "Hold on, my friend. I will save you from whatever fate awaits you here. Please just hold on. Do not abandon me now."

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Legolas sighed, shuddering against the cold that he shouldn't feel. He heard Aragorn's words, though he was not sure he was supposed to have. He knew, somewhere deep in his heart, that he needed to trust Estel. Even if his friend had betrayed him, he needed something to trust to keep him alive.

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Estel bent in front of his friend early the next morning. Legolas looked at him through half lidded eyes, all life within them dull and unresponsive. The young man sighed, untying the elf's hands from the poles.

"You understand, don't you?"

Legolas did not bother responding. He was cold, tired, and finished. He admitted the inevitable to himself: he was done with this, and was quite content to close his eyes and never open them again.

Aragorn pulled him to his feet. "Come, you can lean on me. Let us go back inside. Sherock has quite a day planned for you."

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Legolas sat against the back wall of his cell, hugging his knees to his chest in a vain attempt to ward off the biting cold he felt. Aragorn noticed this, and knitted his brows in concern, but did not say anything.

Sherock was leaning against the bars, questioning Legolas, but getting nowhere. The elf would not even look at him. "How can I find Mithfalas?" He asked again, the irritation growing.

He again received no answer.

"I'm going to ask you one more time. You don't want to know what happens if you don't answer me. Where is he?"

"Up your extremity."

Sherock's jaw dropped. Aragorn got over the shock quickly and actually laughed out loud. Sherock shot him an angry look, and he quieted, but smiled at Legolas all the same.

"That was not wise, elf. Tell me what you know."

"Mirkwood is a forest."

Sherock narrowed his eyes. "What?"

Aragorn shrugged from behind the man. "He told you what he knows."

"That's it, elf! I am done with you! I don't care what the Lady wants, I am finished!" He rubbed his eyes and Legolas shot a glance at Aragorn.

"I am taking you to my Lady. She wanted someone else to break you, but if this is the way you wish it, so be it. By the time she is finished with you, you will wish you had obeyed me." He stormed out, more than likely on his way to make arrangements for Legolas' "lesson."

Aragorn took a deep breath to keep from panicking. He needed to throw his plan into action, and he needed to do it now.

"It's time, Legolas."

The elf looked up, tears in his eyes. Aragorn's heart broke. "No, no. Do not give up on me." He shook the elf gently to get his attention. "Don't you dare, Legolas. It will not end like this."

Legolas looked away again, only to have the human take his face in his hands. "I will never forgive you if you give up on me."

Confused, and still feeling slightly betrayed, the elf nodded. Aragorn felt horrible. He knew that he had just added guilt to the elf's conscious, but if it kept him alive. . .

He pulled Legolas to his feet and wrapped his cloak around him.

"There are too many unanswered questions and far too many dangers in waiting any longer. We are going home, Legolas."

He turned a corner, pulling Legolas behind him.

"Where are you taking him, Cemendur?"

Aragorn started. "You said you were taking him to Her. I am taking him to clean him up. Surly you don't want him sent like this?"

The man had told the lie so quickly that Legolas wasn't sure that it even was a lie. He didn't know what to believe anymore.

"It matters not how he appears. I am taking him now." There was a pause in which Aragorn's eyes widened. It was not supposed to happen like this.

"You may go. I will find you again when you are needed. I have a feeling it shall be soon."

Aragorn nodded, and began walking down the hall. He did not turn back to look at Legolas.

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Legolas fell to his knees. This was not possible. The Valar had to be playing an evil trick.

"He betrayed you, Legolas."

The prince held his head in his hands, trying to ignore Sherock's voice.

"Do you honestly think I would have hired him if I thought he would help you? Oh, you did not think that he fooled me for one second, did you? Come, for it is time. The Lady will not be pleased to have to take the time to teach you."

If he had been in livelier spirits, sarcasm would have come easily. Even still, the elf could not help himself. "If such is the case, I think we should not bother her."

Sherock backhanded the elf. "You will keep your filthy tongue behind your teeth, lest you want it ripped out and fed to the dogs."

He pulled the prince with him until they reached large oak doors. Sherock pushed them open and shoved Legolas inside.

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"I will see you soon in a place where no shadows fall." –Babylon 5