Hey everyone! Wow, this chapter for me was really difficult to write and I hope you guys have an easy time reading it! There are flashbacks and such, memories. Enjoy and I hope you don't get too confused.

P.S. There is some Elf torture so; if you're squeamish you may need a bucket. Don't worry if you are, it's not overly gross. Mainly just implied, gruesome, painful torture.

Overthrown

Chapter Seven

Of Dungeons and Sons

"Legolas." Thranduil whispered into the dark around him. A small bit of light seeped in through a crack near the ceiling. Thranduil could tell it was day but couldn't remember the days since the attack on his people. He'd been brought here, bound and gagged, unconscious for most of the journey and couldn't even tell where here was. He was alone, isolated from everything around him and the loneliness allowed him to dwell on the most important thing in his life…his son.

"Ada!" He could hear Legolas' small call from outside in the courtyard. He'd left his chair by the book shelf and moved to the window. His son, barley a few years old, was sitting on the back of a large white pony, his small pale legs hanging feet from the ground. He could still see the shimmering joy on his face as he sat on the back of that pony. "Ada! Look what I got!"

"Where did you get that from?" Thranduil had called, barley containing his own glee.

"A gift for my birthday, from Rivendell!" Thranduil had nodded and left the window. He set his book down on his empty chair and moved through the castle and down into the courtyard. Legolas was trotting around, jumping small logs that one of the Elves had set up as deliberate obstacles. Thranduil watched him trot around and grabbed the pony as it made to pass again. He pulled his son off and into his arms.

"It is beautiful, son. You will have to take care of it." Thranduil said. Legolas smiled brightly and nodded. "Now, take it to the stables, brush it down and find it a stall. Tomorrow, I promise, we will go riding." Legolas' blue eyes lit up and he squirmed out of his father's arms. Holding out his hand, he used his Elven grace to lead the animal from the courtyard and towards the stables. Thranduil hadn't made good on that promise.

Sighing, he let his head fall back against the cold black stone behind him. He hadn't made good on many promises over the past few thousand years. He'd been so busy with the dark shadows moving into Mirkwood and his own people, Legolas had grown up without his watchful eye or much participation.

"Ada," His son's sweet deep voice filled his mind again, older now and more mature. Thranduil closed his eyes and saw the image before him. His parchment was stretched out on his desk. He turned in his chair and watched his son bow and move further into the room. "Ada, we found it."

"Where?" The king had asked. Legolas remained silent and grim. "Where?"

"South. There is not much left of the party, or the bodies." Thranduil felt his stomach clench. "We were ambushed. We lost three warriors." Legolas turned to go but Thranduil stopped him with his name.

"Three? Three of our number is significant, ion-nin. How were you ambushed? Did you not pay attention?" Legolas looked away which made Thranduil angry. "Look at me." Legolas scrunched up his nose, breathed through it deeply and then turned a wary eye on his father. "Someday you will be king, if you cannot lead your people while fighting beside them then you have no hope of controlling the situation when you are so far away and have to use your head only for strategy."

"The chances I will ever be king are remote, Ada. You know this." Legolas replied bitterly. Thranduil nodded in understanding.

"But we mustn't hope that it will never be." He replied. "Learn to lead your people, spiders are nothing compared to the horrors this world will throw at you." Legolas visibly shuddered. "Now go, and tomorrow you will train harder. We mustn't lose more warriors."

Legolas had nodded to his father respectfully and left. Thranduil had watched him go.

Now, as he sat in the darkness, he realized what he had done, his error. He should have told his son what he had really felt, though it had been hidden from him at the time. He had been relieved, glad his son was not counted among the dead. A warrior Prince was no laughing matter for if Thranduil died, Legolas' warrior spirit would endure…

He should have told him he was happy he was back. He'd never given him words of comfort. Not even after the War of the Ring…

He closed his eyes. Trumpets sounded, cheers rose outside his window. Thranduil had gone to the sill and looked out through the golden rays of light escaping the thick tree's leafy clutches. There was his son, Legolas, riding through the homes, up the leaf strewn street and into the heart of the Wood-Elf kingdom.

Thranduil had dropped his books and papers, running from his study like a madman…like a human. News had reached them slowly of the war and the destruction of Sauron. Legolas, his son, was home…

As he had entered the courtyard he had stopped, walking slowly and measured from the hall and into the sunlight outside. Legolas, who was being greeted enthusiastically by Melithor, stopped, his face falling as he watched his father.

Thranduil had motioned grimly he come forward, his own sense of duty and dignified pose outweighing the joy he now felt for his son. Legolas' fearful face, mixed with his welcome hardly fazed his resolve. Inside the study, Thranduil had exploded into a tirade about duty and stupidity on his son's part for going off on the doomed quest.

"But we were successful, Ada!" Legolas had cried. "We won, Aragorn has his kingdom and we are free to drive the evil from Mirkwood!"

"You did not consult me first!" Thranduil had then shouted. Legolas had sank into a chair in front of his father, seemingly exhausted. "I would have liked to have been warned ahead of time, by you! Not by some messenger sent from Elrond telling me my only child and the heir to our throne was gone and likely never to come back."

"I did though. And I had no time to tell you in person. It all happened so fast." Legolas answered. They'd fought for another hour before Legolas had been allowed to go. He could still hear his son and Melithor outside the room.

"I want every detail, from the beginning." Melithor had said.

Now, as Thranduil brought himself back, he realized he'd only heard second hand accounts of his son's heroism whenever he had been able to get it. He would have liked nothing more then to grab Legolas and shake him, make sure he was not a figment of his imagination. That would never happen now.

A wheezing outside and the clank of keys on a metal ring signaled the guards coming back for him. As the lock was opened and light spilled in, Thranuil squinted at the large, ugly men standing in the doorway, the cell master behind them, cowering.

They pulled him roughly to his feet and he didn't fight, he had no more strength left to fight. As always, they brought him to the small room at the end of the dungeon's dim passage, strapped him down on the torture table in the middle of the room and secured the thick leather straps to his arms and legs.

One of the guards bent over him and tonight he smelled different, cleaner. "Have you finally taken a bath?" Thranuil asked. The man smiled as he slowly undid the King's bloodstained robes.

"You noticed?" He asked. Thranuil smiled and shrugged as best he could with his arms pulled up over his head. "My wife demanded it."

"The females of any kind are like that." Thranuil answered. The guard made a strange sound in his throat and began preparing the tray of torture tools. "Have kids?" The guard shook his head.

"Want them." He answered, opening a cupboard and extracting disinfectants. He set them on a table in the far corner, as they were only used at the end of this coming hour. "My wife wants ten but I'd like a little less, seven maybe."

"I wish I had had more." Thranuil sighed. The guard, who was in the middle of pulling out a large jar of salt from the bottom cupboard, turned.

"You have one, right? I think you said it before." Thranuil nodded. "We don't really know much about you. I only do this kind of work. I'm not in the know." He said. Thranduil rolled his eyes. It was true, this guard was only the front man, like a servant, setting up the torture tools and always leaving the room before the gruesome stuff began. He was always the one to clean up the wounds and help the king, however roughly, back to his cell. "What is its name, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Legolas." Thranuil said, the sweet name rolling off his tongue. He felt his heart clench. "I don't know if he's even still alive."

"That name sounds awfully familiar." The guard said silently, re-arranging the tools. When he was done, he stood over Thranuil as they waited for the torturers to come. "Nice name, very Elvish. He'll be fine, I'm sure, though he is not in this keep. I handle all the prisoners." He seemed to have a self disdain in his voice.

"Maybe you might look for him, for me?" Thranduil asked. The guard smiled.

"I may." He answered. Sighing, he stared around the room. "How did we ever get into this mess?" Thranduil shrugged again with difficulty. Suddenly, the door opened and the men who brought on the pain entered. They motioned the guard leave the room and, as the door shut, he stood outside waiting to be useful.

Inside, the main man, Aron, picked up a hook and held it to Thranuil's slim white face. "What do you know of the mining operation under your halls in Mirkwood? How do we access them?" Thranduil said nothing and gave no hiss of pain as Aron dug the tip of the hook into his skin, near his eye. "We know you take white jewels from there. How do we access them?" The hook ripped down his face slowly before being pulled out at his chin. Thranuil said nothing still.

"You have a very beautiful home." Aron said, moving to the trey and pulling out a thin rod. He fingered it lovingly, black gloved hands moving up the shaft. "The windows are magnificent. Maybe I could take the idea and redecorate." He motioned to the dungeon and the men around them laughed. "Or maybe I could take your child's head and stick it on a pike in the middle of my square."

Thranduil tensed. Aron continued. "Paint the walls of your cell with his blood. Then you'll talk." Thranduil shook his head. "No? He's very handsome. Looks a lot like you, as it were." He came forward slowly, menacingly. "I especially liked his eyes, playing with them between my fingers, didn't I men?" The men nodded, laughing.

Thranduil's panic now was outweighing his senses; he couldn't even sense the lies coming from this man's mouth for what they truly were. The guard had said he had not seen Legolas but the name had sounded familiar! Maybe he was lying; he was after all an enemy.

The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a jar. Holding it up, he showed Thranduil the green see-through liquid inside and the two severed eyeballs floating in it. The blue of those lifeless eyes shone in the dim candle light around them.

"His screams were fascinating." The man muttered indulgently. Thranduil began straining against his bonds, trying to get lose with only the thought of ripping out Aron's eyes in exchange for his son's but no matter how hard he pulled the straps would not let go. They were meant to hold trolls and no amount of effort would free the light Elf King. Aron handed the jar to a man behind him and smiled at the instrument in his hands.

"If you even touch another hair on my son's head…" Thranduil growled. Aron laughed, halting his threat. He clasped a lever on the side of the instrument and two sharp prongs shot out the tip of it. They arched to the sides and then up in such a violent manner, Thranduil was hushed.

"Hush, King. You need not worry about your son. You should worry about yourself. Little Legolas…well, let us not go there. Soon, our plans will be in effect and Middle Earth will fall to us."

"What do you mean?" Thranduil spat. Aron now had the instrument, prongs pulled back inside, on his skin, ready to release the prongs into his abdomen.

"I mean, your small and pathetically weak kingdom was hardly our only target. Soon, very soon, our armies will mass on all our enemies. Mirkwood was simply a diversion. One to get them as far away from where the army my king has sent out to destroy and eradicate. Traps will be sprung, Rohan and Gondor will fall…as will the Shire and the Dwarven halls and Rivendell…" Thranduil's eyes widened. "Oh yes, rulers of all we shall be. Do you want to know a secret?" He leaned down and began whispering in Thranuil's ear. At the news Aron whispered, the King began to pull on his bonds harder.

Outside, in the hall, the kind guard waited. There had been silence for so long that he jumped when an anguished, pain filled elvish cry filled the hall, coming from the room. Between pained screams, the chinks of metal and snapping of leather ropes as their occupant tried to break free, the guard could only make out three constant words. "Ion-nin and Legolas."

TO MY REVEIWERS ( I HOPE THAT WASN'T TO HARD TO UNDERSTAND)

Zammy: I'm sorry to hear about that. If there was anything I could do I would…maybe I could put a bit more humor into this fiction for you? Can they cure that? Will it ever go away? I don't know a lot about it. I really hope you liked this chapter.

Jedi Padfoot: Well, I'm not sure if this chapter really qualifies as action but I think it does in a way. I've already written the next chapter and it has some major action so I guess you really can smell it. That's kind of creepy…lol.

Shadow: Hey! I'm glad you like it. It will get better, I promise. I always try to out do myself.

Elessar-Lover: Yeah, I wanted fair representation and by writing that chapter I accidentally opened up a whole new path that I'm now taking. It was slightly startling so now I'm scrambling around changing all my notes and everything. I like the hobbits. They're short and so am I so I feel close to them. Lol. I wasn't sure how to spell it but I'll change it, if your sure. I looked it up everywhere and I found both spellings. Thanks.

Faerlas: I hope you haven't figured out that tunic! Then my clues would all be for nothing. I'm trying to hide them here and there. Now that I've told you that though you'll probably figure it out. LOL. I hope you liked this chapter.

Deana: I hope Legolas survives to but knowing my twisted little mind…wait, I don't even know my twisted little mind! My mind works in weird ways so what may happen today wont work tomorrow. We'll jut have to wait and see.

Slayer3: This whole world is one big conspiracy! There are evil bunnies everywhere! LOL.

IwishChan: Well, your answer to the King Thranduil thing…here it is. Please don't kill me. LOL.

Ilana Starr Yeah, I tend to like a good mixture of action and dialogue but so far my fic is mostly dialogue. I have a lot I wanna put in, you know? Pippin will be in the story soon, I like him, he's cool with a touch of curiosity.

Moonyasha: Your review made me laugh. I hope the ground was okay. LOL. You were wearing a helmet I suppose? When you take over the world, could you please make me second in command or something? I'd rather not be a slave. Thanks bows

AND TO ANYONE I MAY HAVE MISSED OR IS READING AND NOT REVIEWING, THANK YOU.