Disclaimer: Not mine, are they yours? No, well so sorry.

Author's Note: I know my chapters are coming farther and farther apart. I'm sorry, but I'm working on a couple of projects that are taking up all my time and imagination. So just as a warning, I'm not sure when the next chapter will come. I have one project, which will be finished in a couple of weeks, and then hopefully I'll be able to dedicate more time to writing. Anyway, on to the story.

Dark Discoveries

"Van, please explain yourself." Legolas asked not understanding why the twins would want them to go back to the cave.

"It's Elladan's plan, not mine." Van said defensively. He didn't like the plan any more than the elves would.

"What exactly does Elladan want us to do?" Veri asked, knowing the direct approach worked the best with Van.

"He says we must go back to the cave, and stop it." Van answered just as if his words made complete sense.

Legolas sighed in exasperation. He wondered if he had made this little sense as a child himself, and pitied his Ada if he did. "Stop what, Van?"

"The cave." Was his simple reply.

"The cave is just a place, Lad. What exactly are we supposed to stop it from doing?" Gimli broke in seeing that his Elvin friend was losing his patience.

"Whatever it's doing to Atavus, of course." Van answered.

Even though the child's words exasperated him, Legolas took any threat towards his friends seriously. "What is the cave doing to Atavus, Van?"

"They wouldn't tell me. And Atavus wouldn't look at me. She said she couldn't. Something is very wrong with her. I can feel it when I think about her. Whatever is wrong with her is being caused by that cave." Van tried to explain.

"That makes no sense, Lad." Gimli said thinking the boy might be making up a yarn.

"Wait. Maybe it does." Orophin spoke up after listening to the boy's words. He stepped forward, but not too close to the warg, who was still standing protectively next to Van. "Van, you say you feel something, when you think of Atavus. What do you feel?"

"Emptiness, mostly. Almost as if her soul is gone." Van answered.

Orophin nodded slowly, and a thoughtful look crossed his face, as his past memories came to the forefront of his mind.

"What is it, Orophin?" Legolas asked knowing the elf was holding something back still, concerning the cave.

He seemed to snap out of his memories and began to speak. "The night that my brother's and I spent in that cave, something happened. Something we had all put behind us. You knew Haldir, Legolas."

"Yes, I considered him to be a great friend. He died fighting beside us at Helm's Deep." Legolas said solemnly.

"But you didn't know him like I did. Before we entered that cave that night, he was a happy young elf. He enjoyed every part of life. But he had been injured, in a rockslide. That is the main reason we decided to wait the storm out there. That cave did something to him, Legolas. It drew the happiness out of him. After that night he became very serious, and gloomy in a way. No elf, not even Galadriel could discern what had happened to him. When we asked him how he felt, he said he felt empty. He learned to live with the emptiness as he grew older, but it forever changed his outlook on life." Orophin finished his story.

"No one ever connected his condition to the cave?" Legolas asked.

"No. I think he might have suspected it, but he never wanted to go near that place again." Orophin answered.

Legolas looked to the south longing to go find his friends, but he knew he would have to turn back and face the evil of the cave.

"Do you think we could be so fortunate as to run into a patrol of the Rohirrim?" Elrohir mused.

"I don't believe much in luck, Gwador- nin." Atavus said staring out to the plains of Rohan before them.

"This coming from one of the luckiest beings I've ever met." Elrohir quipped back.

"How do you figure that? Look at my life, Elrohir. I was born in Mordor, as a slave. Most of my family was killed before I was more than a babe. Then I became the plaything of the Lord of the Nazgul, not to mention my demented brother. I almost became an orc. Then I managed to blind myself, and get captured, yet again by my demented brother. And now look at me, soulless and cursed. What part of my life do you consider to be, oh so lucky?" The sarcasm literally dripped from her mouth.

"Well for starters you left Mordor. You have the most amazing healing ability that I have ever witnessed. You have overcome the Lord of the Nazgul, and your demented brother. And besides, look who you are stuck with on this little trip." Elrohir said trying to lighten her mood.

"Elladan, how have you managed not to throttle him up to this point?" Atavus asked not looking directly at the elf.

"Yes his undying optimism does become tiring at times." Elladan agreed with her.

Elrohir gave his brother a dark look, and then nodded to Atavus. Elladan knew what his brother was trying to accomplish, but he wasn't sure he could play along with him. But then he took another look at Atavus. She was staring down to the ground, not wanting to see the rotting, decaying world before her.

"He's right this time, though." Elladan spoke up. "You have made it through too many hardships to let a bunch of slavers, be your end."

"Elladan, my end will not come from these slavers, or even from the slave owner they are taking us to. My end will come from within. I already know this." She looked up at him and he could see the beginnings of the madness creeping into her eyes. "But you know what the truly ironic part of all this is. I promised Ugluk that I would not allow any other being to kill me. It was our own private joke. But I guess the jokes on me. I'm not being killed by another being, but by a place. So I guess I'll be able to keep my promise to him, yet." With those words she began to laugh.

Elladan and Elrohir looked to each other, neither knowing what to say.

She just continued laughing, but instead of the beautiful laugh they remembered it was a frightening thing to hear. Some of the men around her even seemed disturbed by it's haunted quality along with the look of madness in her eyes.

"Up. Come we don't have very much further to go." Kellet commanded, ignoring the woman's maniacal laughter.

The elves both looked to each other in confusion. "But Harad is still far from here." Elrohir spoke up.

Kellet sneered at the elf. "Who ever said we were taking you to Harad? Your new owner is a little more than a day away from here."

"In Rohan." Elladan could not believe that anyone in Rohan would dare to collect slaves. Éomer had taken the throne after the death of his uncle, and was a good kind ruler. Surely he would not allow slavery to flourish in his realm.

"Have you not heard that Isengard has been rebuilt? Your new owner resides there and lives under the protection of the King of Rohan, and now that the Ents have gone he is free to do as he pleases." Kellet smirked enjoying the incredible looks of the elves.

"Saruman is dead. Whom could he be speaking of?" Elrohir wondered under his breath only loud enough for his companions to hear.

"And if this person is so evil, why would Rohan be protecting him?" Elladan wondered.

Author's Note: Okay I know I'll get these questions so I'll go ahead and answer them now. Why wasn't Haldir affected in the same way as Atavus? There are actually many reasons. Number one. She is a throwback, who is closer to evil because of what she is. Number two. He wasn't hurt too badly. The more your hurt, the more the cave affects you. I had a few more in my head but I've forgotten them now. I hate when that happens. But anyway you get the gist of it. And who is the mysterious slave owner at Isengard? I'm not telling. You have to read on to find that out. Nah, nah, na, na nah. (Ducking flying objects again.)