Disclaimer: Right now I wish Haldir were mine. He needs a great big hug. Let's all give him a hug.

Author's Note: Okay for my friend that says she no longer likes Haldir, you will again soon, just not quite yet.

Must Obey

"Did you hear what I said, Haldir. A Child! There was a child with them. He was like a son to her." Elladan said motioning to Atavus.

"Let go of me, Elladan." Haldir said pushing the other elf's hands away, and standing quickly. "Why was there a child with the rescue party?"

"He was traveling with us to Lorien." Atavus said wiping some of the tears from her face. "He and my friend, Veri, they escaped from these men, and then continued on to Lorien to get help. Van knew they would leave him behind, so he struck out on his own across the plains. We have a special bond. He knew where to go to find me. He found us the night before we were brought to Isengard. I made him go back into the mountains to find the rescue party. He was to tell them to go back to the cave…." Her voice broke at that moment.

"I'm sorry, Ata." Elladan said moving over next to her. "It was my idea to have them go back there. If I hadn't suggested it, they would have came this way instead."

"Why would you send them back to that accursed place?" Haldir asked in frustration.

Elrohir had, had enough of the Dark Elf's accusation. He stood quickly and placed himself directly in front of his former friend. "To save her life. To try to break this curse that is afflicting her, and apparently you also."

"This curse, as you call it, will end up being the death of us all, and all of Middle-Earth." Haldir shouted. "What difference does it make if a few die now. They will be spared the evil that is to come. They will be spared his wrath."

"What are you saying Haldir? Whose wrath?" Elrohir asked in confusion.

Haldir began to open his mouth to answer, but the words died in his mouth. He turned away from them staring off to the north again.

"Melkor." Atavus whispered, closing her eyes, hating the very sound of the word. "Fifteen more Elvin lives taken in the cave, and it becomes a doorway into the Void itself." Atavus explained, knowing the time for secrets was over. "That is why we are heading there now. We are to be sacrifices."

Elladan couldn't believe what he was hearing. He stood quickly and the only thing that held him back from strangling his former friend was Elrohir's arms holding him back. "You are working to bring Him here. You will bring on the destruction of our world. What kind of monster have you become?"

Haldir swung around at his words. "Do you think this is what I want? Don't you think that I would not rather turn you all free, and sail to Valinor, as Atavus suggests? If I could, I would. But he controls my words, and my actions. If I attempt to even utter a phrase he does not like, it dies in my mouth. If I try to turn my legs from the path he has set for me, they do not work. His voice screams in my mind. This body is no longer my own. Even now as we speak, I feel as if the very breath is being choked from me, for uttering these words to you." And indeed his breathing was becoming difficult, and his lips were taking on a blue tinge. "I must obey."

"Have you tried to fight it?" Atavus asked in a quiet voice.

"Of course, I have. But the …longer I am here, …the more control …he has over me." He was truly gasping with those words. He quickly turned back to the north, and started walking in that direction. "Kellet. Let's move." He ordered in a strained voice.

"You three, back in line." Kellet ordered as his men began tying the captives together again.

After they had started moving again. "Ata, maybe Van survived. You know Legolas would not allow harm to come to him." Elrohir suggested.

"He's probably right, Ata. After everything Legolas and Gimli went through during the Fellowship, I can not see them being beaten by a cave, and they certainly would have done everything possible to protect Van." Elladan agreed with his brother.

"That is one hope that I wish I could cling to." Atavus said stumbling along, with her face down. She no longer watched Haldir. She was wrapped in her own pain and misery.

"But your bond with the boy. If he can sense you, you should be able to sense him too." Elrohir said wanting to instill some hope in her.

"I used to feel it, Ro. But since the cave, my senses and feelings are confusing. Let's face it. I am losing my mind, just the same as he is." She said motioning ahead to where Haldir walked before the group. "If I live too much longer, I will not be able to distinguish friend from foe." Atavus said bitterly.

Haldir stopped for a moment and glanced back at them, hearing her words, but started moving forward just as quickly as he had stopped. If they had been walking near him they would have seen him mouth six words. "I know who my friends are."

"It is decided then." Legolas said sitting next to a fire that he and Gimli had built earlier.

"Yes. I will go back to Lorien, and bring back more help." Orophin said staring at the open mouth of the cave. He wanted more than anything to enter that cave and destroy the monsters that had killed his friends.

"I don't know why we don't just collapse the cave mouth. The Wargs will never survive that." Gimli suggested lighting his pipe.

"No, Gimli. We have been over this already. I need to spend some time in that cave, and hopefully I will have a vision, that will give us some idea as to how to cure Atavus of whatever is afflicting her." Veri argued.

"Oh, it is a waste of time, and possibly life." Gimli said shaking his head as a large cloud of smoke surrounded him.

"It is a risk we must take." Legolas said throwing a stick into the fire. He was as tempted as the dwarf to just end this all. They had lost too much already, but he could not risk damning Atavus to a cursed life.

"But is it one we should ask other elves to take? She is my friend too, and I would face those beasts a hundred times over. But she is nothing to them. How do you know that they would want to take that risk?" Gimli suggested

"I know my people. They will not allow an evil such as this to remain in Middle Earth." Orophin argued gesturing to the cave. He stood then and made his way to a bedroll that he had spread out earlier. "I leave at first light."

Two days later Veri stood close to where Van was removing the bandages from Bala's wounds. "Why doesn't she wake up, Veri?"

"I'm not sure, Van." Veri answered kneeling next to the boy and wrapping an arm around him.

"It has been two days. She should have woken by now." Van said rubbing the wounds with a healing salve that Legolas had brought with him.

"Van, I know you love Bala, very much, but she has so many wounds. You must prepare yourself for the prospect that she might not make it." Veri said knowing her words would break the boys heart, but also knowing that it would hurt more if he had no warning.

"I know, Veri. But she deserves better. She saved us all." Van said putting the bandages back over a large gash in her side.

"Yes she does. Yes she does." Veri answered laying a hand on the wargs back and running her fingers through the bristled hair there. For a moment Veri felt something tingling through her fingers, and then her face took on blank look, and her eyes clouded over.

Van watched this happening and knew that Veri was having a vision. He had seen it time and again. He wondered what it was like to see things that haven't happened yet, or to see into the minds of others.

After several moments Veri shook her head, and looked directly at Van. "I have a feeling your friend here will be just fine, Van."

"What did you see, Veri." He asked giving her his full attention.

"She is just exhausted. But she is healing. The fight took so much out of her. But she had to fight for you, just as she had fought for her cubs." Veri tried to explain the feelings the Warg had conveyed to her.

"I had forgotten her cubs. Does their memory still hurt her?" He asked reaching down and stroking Bala's head.

"Yes, it will always haunt her, but she has accepted you as her cub now, which eases the pain. And she has avenged the death of her cubs. The large male was the animal that killed them." She said staring down at Van. "She used to be a member of this pack."

"But why would he kill her cubs if she was part of the pack?" Van wondered not understanding.

"Well, one of the cubs had a paw that wasn't right. It was born deformed. In the case of pack animals, well they don't accept cubs that aren't born right." Veri explained.

Van sat for a moment thinking about Veri's words. "Sort of like us." He finally said.

Veri hadn't thought of it that way. It was true that Throwbacks were not accepted by the orcs, because they were born different, and she knew that in a lot of cases throwbacks had been killed at birth. "You remember one thing, Van, no matter what you are wanted. You are very much loved by both Atavus and I."

"Ata. Oh no, I haven't thought of her in a couple of days!" Van said suddenly feeling quite guilty.

"It's okay, Van. You've had your hands full with Bala. Ata would understand." Veri tried to reassure the boy.

Van sat for a moment and concentrated. He suddenly turned to the south. "Legolas!" He called out suddenly.

Legolas had been watching the cave entrance for any movement from the Wargs inside. He immediately made his way to where the boy sat, with Gimli following close behind.

"What is it, Van?" Legolas asked seeing the concern on the boys face.

"It's Ata, she's moving this way. She's not very far away now." Van said still frowning.

"Coming back. But why would the men be bringing the back?" Gimli asked his own face twisted in a frown.

"Maybe they have escaped." Veri suggested.

"I don't think so, Veri. She's so sad." Van said standing and walking towards the south.

"Van, what are you doing?" Legolas asked.

"She needs me. I'm going to her." Van said not turning back.

Legolas was up in a moment, and had crossed the distance between them. He kneeled quickly and wrapped both arms around the boy. "No, Van. You must not. It is not safe."

"Legolas you don't understand. She is giving up. She doesn't want to live anymore. I can feel it." Was Van's reply, as he struggled in the Elf's arms.

The words seemed to drive a knife to Legolas' heart. There had been times during their friendship that he had worried that she would give up on life, but she had always proved his worries to be unwarranted, until now. "I promise you, Van. I will not let her give up. She will not die." Legolas vowed to the boy.

Author's Note: Well we only have a one or two more chapters left. (That is unless I get attacked by another plot bunny.) So get ready for a severely emotional ending to come.