A/N – I'm finding myself repeating certain plots of the story a lot due to information needing to be relayed to various other characters. I'm going to try and limit this going forward. Hopefully everyone remembers the events in the other story and who the characters are. But then again, there is a lot happening, and some of it may be complicated enough to justify repeating.

Chapter 10 – What Could Be Worse?
Gondor

Arwen methodically packed several articles of clothing in a satchel, all the while thinking about the moment she would see her family again. In all the years that passed since she had made her choice to be mortal, she knew that once her family departed to the Undying Lands, she would never see them again, even after her death. The souls of mortals were never restored to life. She only knew that mortal souls resided in the Halls of Mandos and from there she knew not where they went. Her only consolation was that she would eventually be with Aragorn in those Halls. Despite the gravity of the situation, that it was the dreaded aliens that brought this profound opportunity to see her family once again, she could not help but feel overjoyed.

The door to her bed chamber opened and Aragorn stepped inside. His face was ghostly white.

"Eldarion," she whispered. Arwen immediately thought something had happened to their son.

Aragorn stepped aside and turned back to the doorway as Legolas entered.

Arwen turned her attention to Legolas. He wore a similar expression as Aragorn. But he would not have been the one to bring news of her son, if something had happened to him. She studied his face, to see if she could read the ill news he obviously bore. All along she had known that something was not well with Legolas. He exuded an unconditional sense of sorrow and despair. After hearing the news of the aliens earlier, she had assumed it was the creatures that weighed heavily on his mind. But now she knew there was something else…and it had to do with her. "What is it?"

Legolas slowly made his way across the room and he felt a knife in his heart as Arwen collapsed onto the edge of the bed. He could tell that she knew he was the bearer of bad tidings. There was just no way to hide his sorrowful expression from her. "Arwen," Legolas began. Then he knelt down before her, taking both of her hands in his.

Arwen felt tears beginning to sting her eyes before she even knew what it was Legolas would say to her. In her attempt to stem the flow of her tears, she sacrificed her steady breathing, which soon became harsh. The news was horrid, she knew it. She was witnessing Legolas's usually solid resolve deteriorate before her very eyes, along with her own.

"Arwen, I had not the heart to tell you during the morning meal." Legolas took a deep breath. "Your brothers…" His voice faltered, the words hanging in the air before he finally managed to force them out. "…have been slain."

Arwen continued breathing heavily, letting the news sink in. Tears quickly filled her eyes. Elladan and Elrohir. It could not be. Without warning, anger surfaced from within her. "Nay, it cannot be. You are wrong!"

Legolas remained still, knowing Arwen had not meant the words. To believe it made it true. He knew the feeling so well. He had so often denied what his mind's eye saw in the visions and dreams that plagued him. To believe it made it true.

She wailed out in misery and Legolas wrapped his arms around her, fighting with every bit of strength in him to hold back his own tears.

Aragorn would not remain left out. Elladan and Elrohir had been his foster brothers. He had known them all of his life. It had been bad enough to know that he would never see them or Elrond, his foster father, again after they sailed to Valinor. But to know that they were slain. It was too much for him to bear. He sat on the bed beside his wife and wrapped his arms around her and Legolas.

Valinor

Upon the mountain of Taniquetil, within the safety of the high walls of Ilmarin, Celeborn stood with Elrond, their faces grim as they stared at the lengthy parchment that contained the names of those reported missing. It was worse than they had originally thought. Thousands had disappeared.

Gandalf's expression was just as dismal. He knew the true depth of the meaning, aside from the fact that they were gone, it meant that same number of alien creatures now walked the once peaceful lands of Valinor. Nay, they did not walk…they stalked. Their only purpose was to find hosts for the continued growth of their species…until all manner of life vanished from existence and the only species to survive would be the aliens themselves. What then? Would they kill each other for food? It would run out eventually…in a year, perhaps. And then Arda would be no more.

The voice of Galadriel broke him out of his disturbing thoughts. "It has become increasingly difficult to seek the souls of those departed. I fear that the longer they wander, the more likely we will lose them forever."

Elrond swallowed the lump in his throat, unable to spill out the question he had wanted to ask since Galadriel had returned several hours earlier for some much needed rest. His sons.

Galadriel felt his unease and raised her brilliant sapphire eyes to Elrond. "If they passed indeed, then I would sense their lost souls, but I feel nothing."

"Do I dare hope they are alive somewhere?" asked Elrond in almost a whisper to no one in particular.

Galadriel frowned. It was an expression her face was simply not used to. Elladan and Elrohir were her grandchildren and she loved them dearly. To lose hope was to condemn them to their death. "So quickly do you lose hope, Elrond?"

Elrond had always been a sentinel of strength and serenity, a blend that many Elves envied. To see him so broken was painful for those that knew him well. He was plainly on the verge of losing control of that solidity. All that he once had was now lost to him. His wife Celebrían, daughter of Celeborn and Galadriel, ravaged by Orcs, had never found her way to Valinor when she died and thus he had come to grips that he would never set eyes upon her again. His daughter Arwen, whom he cherished more than life itself, had chosen a mortal life. And for that she could never set foot in Valinor and thus he would never set eyes upon her again either. Now his sons… "I will hold onto hope for as long as I breathe."

Gandalf thought the air felt thick with sorrow and quickly turned the conversation to another topic. The more serious topic. "The lights of the Istari hold back the alien creatures from advancing upon the safehouses. But their numbers are large. We cannot possibly continue to hold them off indefinitely. If there are no hosts for their breeding purposes, then hunger will force them to take chances and soon they will come over the walls, despite the lights.."

Celeborn turned to Gandalf. "What do you propose?"

"We must dig a moat around the walls, far enough away. Then we must fill it with oil and set it aflame. It will be an added measure of security." His lips formed a thin line for he knew that his next statement was farfetched, at the least. "With any luck, if enough time passes, they will just kill each other off and we will be rid of them."

The others appeared skeptical, but the thought of hope clung in their minds. If one did not have hope, then there was nothing. A black void.

Galadriel reached for her husband's hand and he looked up at her. "I must return to my task. Varda summons me forth."

Celeborn was reluctant to release Galadriel's hand. He sensed a dark omen and hoped it did not spell disaster for his beloved.

Osgiliath
(Ariedel's POV)

I knew where he had gone. It was the one place he sought out whenever he was depressed or wanted to be alone in the busy white city. That was the one thing that bothered me about Legolas. Whenever he was depressed, he never wanted to show it in front of me. I asked myself why all the time. I was supposed to be the closest person in his life. His wife. But he still kept things bottled up inside him, afraid to show his weaknesses. It pissed me off to no end.

Mounted on my trusted horse, Blade, I followed the wall of Rammos Echor that surrounded the Pelennor Fields, heading northeast where I knew it ended at Osgiliath. As I slowed Blade down to a trot, I spotted Arod right where I knew the horse would be.

The city of Osgiliath, once a thriving metropolis, was in ruins and had been for hundreds of years, according to Legolas's stories. It reminded me of some cities on Earth that had been destroyed during the wars of the 22nd century.

In Osgiliath there was a certain broken down piece of a building that Legolas liked to climb. On the rooftop, he would stare at the sky until the sun set and then he would stare at the moon. Frightening, to say the least, because I could only imagine the thoughts twirling around in his head. Did he think about all the battles he had fought during his twenty-nine hundred plus years of life? Did he think about the one battle like no other, where he single-handedly killed a queen. Not once, but twice. Besides the one in Middle Earth, there had also been the one on Gateway Station, the one extracted from him, with her tiny Elven ears. He had been the one to kill her in the end.

I dismounted from Blade's bare back and skillfully climbed the broken pieces of stone pillars to the portion of the broken rooftop that was still upright. Legolas was there, sitting at the very edge of the roof, legs dangling over the side. He was staring off at nothing in particular, brows crinkled together. He didn't acknowledge me, but I knew he knew I was there. His acute hearing would have warned him of my approach when I was probably still a mile or so away. I took a seat on a piece of stone, staying behind him. If he wasn't going to talk to me, then I was just going to sit there and be with him, like it or not. Besides, the sun felt good and I needed to work on my tan anyway.

I realized I must have drifted off to sleep when something woke me. It was a hushed, but harsh voice. When I glanced forward I saw Legolas still sitting as he had been when I first arrived. The sun had moved a bit, so I imagined an hour or more might have passed.

"Nay…you cannot…"

His voice had been so faint I thought there might be someone below. But then I heard him again.

"…Leave them…leave them be…"

"Legolas," I called out to him first before I started to move toward him. If he forgot I was there and became startled, I was afraid he'd fall forward off the rooftop.

"…You have no remorse. Why must you be so cold-blooded…"

His voice was taking on a menacing tone. "Legolas," I called again, moving closer.

"I hear you, Ariedel."

His response startled me. I thought he had been asleep or in some weird trance. He slid away from the edge of the roof, much to my relief, but still kept his back to me. I came up behind him, wrapping my arms around him and burying my face in his hair. "Come back to Minas Tirith with me. I hate when you come out here by yourself."

"The solitude invigorates me," he said quietly.

"That is such bullshit," I said light-heartedly. "You came out here because you didn't want me to see you cry." I knew he had earlier gone to tell Arwen about her brothers and it had been a huge weight on his shoulders.

Legolas wrapped his arms around mine. "If I shed tears before you, what kind of ellon would I be?" (male Elf)

"I'm glad you didn't say 'man' because then I'd really worry."

"Why do you love me?" he asked unexpectedly.

"What?"

"Why do you love me?"

I let out a half-laugh. "That's a stupid question, Legolas. You're asking me this eleven years after I had our first child?"

"Would you still love me if I were different?"

I moved around to face him and sat straddling his lap. "Whatta you mean different?" When he remained silent, I put my hands on his face and turned it toward mine. "Hey…"

His eyes finally shifted to meet mine. They looked haunted and even more so because of the circles under his eyes. He was still so exhausted from lack of rest, even though he had gotten a few hours the night before.

"What's going on in your mind, Legolas? Please tell me."

"If I knew it…if I could identify it, I would tell you." He swallowed hard. "I simply know that if I did not have your love…I would fade."

I leaned my forehead against his and he closed his eyes. "You never, ever have to worry about that, baby. I love you now," I kissed his face in different places. "And forever." I kissed him on the lips. "I don't care if you cry or swear or throw a tantrum."

Legolas pulled back and raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow at me. "Even if you knew that I wear your undergarments when you are not around."

I smiled because I knew he was pulling my leg. He always seemed to know when to lighten the mood. "Mm, sounds kinky." I kissed him on the lips again. One kiss led to another and before I knew it we were making out on the broken rooftop.

And we would have kept on going if a very distinct sound hadn't forced us apart. It had started as a low drone and soon escalated until Legolas covered his ears. My eyes automatically searched the sky. There were things I could have imagined to make such a noise, but what I saw made my jaw nearly hit my chest.

It was a Dropship.

"Holy Christ Almighty!" I didn't know what else to say.

The Dropship hovered about fifty feet from the ground and then circled slowly, probably looking for a safe place to land. Both Legolas and I stood up and stared at it. I recognized the type. It was from an A Class starship, a long distance vessel. But why was it landing in a populated section of the planet? If a Dropship was here, then a starship had to be orbiting the planet. Why was the pilot breaking the rules of not allowing the planet's inhabitants to see technology that was beyond their comprehension? And more importantly, what the hell was he or she doing here?

Legolas and I quickly climbed down from the rooftop. While he started in the direction of the horses, I went the other way, following the movement of the Dropship. I ran across the bridge over the Anduin River to the other side.

"Ariedel! Where are you going? Ariedel!"

I heard Legolas call me, but I kept running. While the Dropship slowly settled on the ground, I ran behind some fallen arches. Legolas caught up and I noticed he was now wearing his weapons. We both peered out from behind our hiding place. Then he decided he was going to step forward, but I grabbed his arm before he could do so. "No. Wait until we see who it is."

Legolas unsheathed his twin long knives. We watched as a ramp of steps lowered beneath the belly of the Dropship. The person that hopped down was perhaps the last person in the universe I would have thought to be visiting Middle Earth.

"Freak!" Without any regard to Legolas's apprehension, I rushed over to the tall black man and threw myself into his strong arms. "Holy shit!" I released him and stepped back to get a good look at him. "What in the hell are you doing here?"

Freak gave me one of his gut-wrenching smiles. "Hey, Princess," he said and mock-punched me in the jaw. "A certain brother of yours is a bit concerned about his little sister."

Before I had a chance to say anything further, a silver blade appeared from over my shoulder and the tip of it touched Freak's throat.

Freak froze, but didn't appear phased.

I turned to Legolas. "Legolas, no. I know him."

Legolas had an angry look on his face and didn't remove the blade from Freak's throat. "How dare you touch my wife?"

"Whoa, whoa, easy there, Lego," said Freak in amusement.

I reached up and removed Legolas's knife from Freak's throat and gave Freak a warning glance. He was so notorious for his nicknames. I didn't think Legolas would appreciate his name shortened. In fact I found Elves didn't like that at all. "His name is Legolas," I corrected Freak. Then I turned to Legolas, who had not taken his eyes off Freak. "Legolas, this is Dane Truman, a very good friend of my brother and I."

Freak held his hand out to Legolas with a smile. "Nice to meet you, man. You can call me Freak."

Legolas stared down at the hand held out to him and hesitated only for a moment before he finally reached out to shake it. "I am not a man. I am an Elf."

Freak raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, I think I got that."

I couldn't believe he was here. "How did you find me?"

"AIC," Freak said as he lightly tapped my left shoulder.

Avalon Identifier Chip. Every resident on Avalon had one implanted on their left shoulder, either at birth or upon becoming a citizen. The chip recorded the person's identity and on certain occasions, a record update was required. The last update on my chip was before I went on the transmutation assignment to Middle Earth. "So you flew millions of light years just to see how I was doing?"

"Well, yeah, there's that. But I came for a couple other reasons."

I glanced over at Legolas briefly before turning back to Freak. "Let me take a wild stab. We've got some aliens on the planet."

"Yeah, you've got a hell of a lot of aliens here and something even worse you're not gonna like hearing about."

"What could be worse?"

"Weyland-Yutani."

I frowned at the name that just plain made my skin crawl. "What? How? When?"

"According to my calculations, they've been here over a month."

I instinctly reached for Legolas's hand. "Here? Why?" Even after I asked it I somehow felt that I already knew the answer.

"We're certain they're cloning impregnated Elves."

When Legolas shook his head in confusion, I felt I needed to explain. "They're taking a blood sample from an Elf who has been impregnated with an alien. Then they can grow an exact replica of the person from the blood."

"For what purpose?" asked Legolas.

"I'm thinking it's to see if the clones can communicate with the aliens."

Legolas's eyes widened. "Where are these people?" His voice sounded urgent.

Freak glanced from Legolas to me and then back to him. "Near the eastern coast of the continent on the other side of the ocean, out west from here."

Legolas turned to me. "Valinor."

My heart sank. First the aliens, now The Company. What more could those poor Elves be subjected to?

Legolas suddenly turned in the direction we had come. He was listening, which meant that someone was approaching. "Horses, two of them, coming this way."

I glanced at the Dropship. "Looks as if we weren't the only ones that saw you coming, Freak. You better take off." Just as he was about to turn to run back to his Dropship, I remembered something and reached out to grab his arm. "Wait a minute…shit, I've got it."

"What?" Legolas and Freak asked at the same time.

I turned my attention to Legolas. "This is it. This is exactly what we need to reach those people in Valinor. There's a ship the size of a city floating in orbit." Then I turned to Freak. "How many more Dropships do you have?"

Freak shook his head. "Now wait a minute, Princess. Whatever it is you're thinking of, get it out of your head. It's bad enough Lego here saw the ship. You know the directive. I can't let anybody else see any of this. I'll take the two of you and nobody else."

"Too late now," said Legolas.

And it was too late. Coming toward us from across the bridge were two horses. Mounted on one was Aragorn and the other was Thranduil. Aragorn's look of surprise matched the one on my Elven father-in-law's face.

"Damn, I am in such deep shit, it's not even funny," Freak whispered to me.

I knew what he was referring to. By allowing the inhabitants of this planet to see technology that they didn't even know existed was breaking a major rule in the United Systems. But only if someone told on Freak.

"Legolas, what goes on here?" asked Thranduil in a voice only reserved for the times he acted the king that he was.

Legolas took a deep breath as the two kings pulled up before us and I could read the frustration on his face at how he was going to explain this one. "This is…Freak." He hesitated before continuing. "He comes from the stars. Or rather…from another star."

Thranduil turned his eyes toward the Dropship. "What is that?" He was obviously not buying Legolas's explanation. Heck, if I had been Thranduil, knowing someone came from the stars would have blown my mind.

Freak decided to do his own explaining. "That, my friends, is my chariot." He seemed pleased with himself. But his smile dropped when he realized nobody was smiling with him. Then he leaned closer to me and spoke from the side of his mouth. "What the fuck do we do now?"

In Orbit Around SR-682 (Arda)

Legolas and the two kings followed Freak, while Ariedel brought up the rear. Freak was leading them through the main corridor of the starship and they all stared in awe-struck wonder at everything around them. It had been a traumatic trip in the Dropship. Thranduil thought it was some illusion he saw in the small window nearby as they lifted into the sky, passing through numerous clouds of various heights.

Freak stopped at a large window in the corridor, allowing them an opportunity to look down at their planet slowly circling below them.

This was in fact the first time Legolas was seeing Arda from space as well. The blues and the greens and the browns, some cloud cover here and there. It was a spectacular sight and something he would remember for all eternity.

Even though Aragorn had been to Gateway Station, he had never once thought himself not on his own planet. He had assumed it was someplace he had never been to in Arda. Now he stared at his world, clearly seeing lands he knew from the maps made of them. "Tis true. We are among the stars then."

Thranduil seemed reluctant to believe, but he could not deny what his eyes saw and he gave Legolas a harsh look, which soon softened as he realized that none of this was his son's doing. So why should Legolas be the brunt of his suspicion?

After the view from the window, Freak continued leading them through the main corridor and then through one of three corridors that branched off to other parts of the ship. Along the way he explained that he had been called upon to aid in the efforts to destroy the aliens. He told them that story for the time being, even though in truth he had been sent to deal with The Company research base.

"How did you know they were here?" Aragorn asked Freak.

"We've got devices that tell us where they are. Which planets and so on."

"So they are also on other stars?"

"They spread around pretty quickly somehow. Most of the time some person unknowingly impregnated by them ends up somewhere and I'm sure you know the results of that. It doesn't seem to be indigenous to any planet. It just manages to somehow find its way around and causes all kinds of havoc."

Thranduil shook his head in bewilderment. "What I do not understand is how this creature came to be here in Arda in the first place. If it is not indigenous, as you say, then where did it come from? How did it get here?"

"Let me show you," said Freak, indicating for them to continue following him.

Although Ariedel had never been on this class of ship, she knew Freak was taking them to the Bridge, which contained most of Operations. She wondered how the others would react to all of the equipment, remembering how Legolas had reacted on Gateway long ago.

Freak motioned to an open doorway. "In here, if you please."

Legolas walked with his father, quietly trying to explain some of the things the older Elf was seeing. Even though Legolas was not familiar with all of the equipment, he explained it to his father as machinery that had special functions much like a wizard's staff or a palantir. Thranduil listened intently to his son, his wide eyes staring at the colored lights and balking at the occasional voice that came from the computer.

Freak moved to the control station, the same one Zion and Lipinski had been working at earlier. He waited for the others to gather around before he punched some data into the keypad on the side. An image appeared on the large viewer at the center of the tabletop. Everyone jumped at the sudden image, even Legolas. Ariedel was the only one not surprised by the colorful map.

"You probably recognize this formation of mountains, right?" asked Freak.

"The Mountains of Shadow," said Legolas as he pointed on the map. "And here is Mount Doom, or whatever is left of it."

"So this image represents a map of Mordor," concluded Thranduil as he stared at the image.

"That's right." Freak pointed to another place on the map. "I'm going to enlarge the image of this formation over here." He quickly punched more keys on the keypad and the image moved and expanded on what appeared to be hills and craters situated in a ragged circle. "This is what remains of a Class A-type starship, similar to the one we're on. It crashed here some two thousand years ago, according to the accumulation of rock around it. Two thousand of your years, to be precise. In my years it was about a hundred. I wasn't even born yet, cause if I was, then I'd be pretty old by now, right?" He laughed, but then coughed when he realized no one else shared in the joke. "I've calculated that for every year that passes on my planet, approximately twenty years pass here. But anyway, I was able to find the transmission records of this ship. The crew had gone down to a planet known as LV-426 to confirm the destruction of an atmosphere processor which had been overrun by the alien species." Freak didn't think they understood any of that, but he forged on. "Apparently one of the bugs had survived and managed to steal aboard the transport back to the orbiting ship. The captain began to report that the crew was disappearing one by one. Through visual devices, he discovered the creature in one of the ship's compartments, encasing the crew it had captured. The captain also saw an egg in the alien's possession. Knowing the significance of the alien's intentions, the captain set out to kill the creature and probably got himself captured as well. Without a pilot or crew to program the ship, it eventually came in proximity of your planet and was dragged in by the gravitational pull." Freak pointed to the circle where the ship had crashed. "Parts of the ship were burned away as it entered the atmosphere and then of course it crashed here."

"This captain had no weapons in which to destroy the creature with?" asked Aragorn.

"Yeah, well, the alien coincidentally created its hive inside the weapons room, as it was reported by the captain. And being a simple survey ship, the crew didn't carry any weapons on them all the time. They were all stored in the weapons room. These bugs are a lot smarter than people give them credit for."

"So the alien and the egg survived the crash, while everyone else on the ship didn't," Ariedel said. "How ironic."

"Are these creature's immortal?" asked Legolas suddenly as if the thought had only just occurred to him. If the ship had crashed two thousand years ago, for how long did the alien live?

"We have nothing to base their longevity on." Freak shrugged. "There's just no way to study them for any great length of time. Everytime one of these things is kept in captivity for research, something bad always happens, resulting in a hell of a lot of deaths. It's just inevitable."

Aragorn sighed heavily. "For all we know, they can live thousands of years."

Freak nodded slowly. "That seems to be the case with the bug that came here on that starship. But then again, there's also been speculation that they can go into hibernation for extended periods of time, so I'm laying my bets on that theory. The alien probably found himself a hiding place and went into hibernation until something came along for him to use as bait for the egg. The resulting chestburster turned into a queen and with the drone, they started their family."

Legolas frowned at the idea of the creatures being immortal and closed his eyes, recalling a time in his life when in his younger days he quite possibly had seen the creature that had crashed in the ship. He had been traveling with his mother and father in Udun, heading for Mirkwood, which was known as Greenwood the Great back then. He had seen the creature in the snowy valley.

"You said you have devices that tell you where to find the creatures," said Thranduil.

Freak glanced at Thranduil and nodded. He punched some buttons on the keypad and the image changed to the land of Valinor. "Each red blinking light represents an alien."

Thranduil stared open-mouthed at the image and raised a hand to his forehead, unable to utter a single word to express the thoughts running through his mind. He had imagined there would be many aliens to deal with, but not this magnitude. If they had been Orcs, Thranduil would not have blinked twice at the numbers. But these creatures were not Orcs. They were worse than any Orc or troll put together.

Legolas's mind came back to the present and he also stared at the image, his brows crinkled together. He knew there had to be thousands, which meant that many Elves had lost their lives in Valinor. Thousands of souls were drifting, desperately trying to seek the path to the Halls of Mandos and unable to find it. Thousands. These creatures were threatening the existence of his race and all life on Arda.

Even Aragorn seemed to be in a state of shock, staring at all the red blinking lights. "How are we to slay this many when our weapons are barely enough to ward them off?" His thoughts went back to the time the aliens had attacked Minas Tirith so long ago and his army had barely managed to hold them off then when there had only been no more than three hundred aliens. "We need an army of ten thousand."

Freak shrugged his shoulders. "I don't think an army's gonna really be necessary. We've got weapons that can kill a lot of these fucks…I mean…these aliens, all at the same time."

"That's right," exclaimed Ariedel.

"Then let us go forth to Valinor," commanded Thranduil, "and be rid of them before they take any more lives."

Freak held his hands up to curb Thranduil's sudden enthusiasm. "Yeah, but let me just mention one other thing, something that concerns me a hell of a lot more than aliens." He waited for everyone to give him their attention. "We've got some people taking up residence in the coastal region over there. They're not there to destroy the aliens. They're not there to make nice and be all neighborly and stuff. Their purpose is to conduct research on your kind after they've been impregnated by the aliens."

Thranduil had a headache for once in his long life. Everything he had seen and heard was enough to put him into a mental coma for the rest of eternity. "What are we to do then?" he finally asked, directing his question mainly to Freak.

The fact that Freak had broken the main directive was already besides the point. 'Do not allow inhabitants of a world without technology to ever see what they cannot understand.' That rule went right out the window when the two kings had ridden up on their horses and saw the Dropship. It didn't matter anymore. "Infiltrate the compound and sabotage their efforts."

"How many will it take?" asked Thranduil.

"Besides myself, I have five others in my crew. I don't need anyone else."

"I wish to be part of this," Legolas jumped in.

"As do I," added Aragorn.

"Okay." Freak accepted them. It was their planet afterall. Then he turned to Ariedel. "I suppose you want a piece of the action, too?"

"You bet your sweet ass I do." Then Ariedel glanced at the curious looks she got from Legolas, Thranduil and Aragorn. "It's just an expression. Really."

Freak called his crew to the Bridge. They each filed in within minutes of each other and introductions were made.

Then Bishop entered the Bridge and Legolas's eyes widened in surprise. "Bishop!" He rushed over to the android, whom he had known on Gateway. "You are alive."

Bishop allowed the Elf to squeeze his shoulder, but was a bit embarrassed by it, for an android. "Do I know you?" he asked quietly, wondering if one of his crewmates was playing a joke on him.

Ariedel tugged Legolas away. "Legolas, that's not the same Bishop from Gateway."

Legolas looked at Ariedel as if she had completely lost her senses. "What then? A twin?"

"Remember what I told you about him? You know, not being human and all? Well, there are many like him and they all have the same face."

Legolas didn't bother to ask because he knew it would only prompt a hundred questions from his father.

Zion, who was standing beside Thranduil, studied the regal robes on the Elf, noting the array of colors that didn't necessarily match very well, the suede boots and then the crown of thorned reeds on the Elf's head. Nothing about the Elf made any sense to him. To Zion, Thranduil looked like someone wearing a bad Halloween costume. "So what's your story?"

Ariedel covered her mouth to conceal her smile.
Here's my commercial plug for my Yahoo group. It's called Black Shadow Acres. The group contains pictures of the actors/actresses I envision playing the parts of the characters, other than the obvious ones (i.e. Legolas, Aragorn, etc). I also have all of my completed fics and one that's not completed (that I haven't updated in awhile). Plus I created some manipulated Art that I've only started to play around with. I'll add more when I get better at it. Forsome reason the groupdoesn't come up when you do a Search in Yahoo Groups, so if you're interested in joining, please include your email address in your review or email me separately (marisap7 at direcway . com --- with no spaces) and I will send you the URL.

Hope everyone is well out there. I'd love to hear from you. Please push the little GO button below.