A/N: I can't remember where I read it, but it was mentioned somewhere that Valinor could only be seen by the Elves and was invisible to everyone else. But if Valinor was invisible then there would be no story. I tried to work it in, but it was going to be too complicated, so I gave up. And so, in my version, Valinor is not invisible to humans.

Chapter 13 – Demolition Team
Somewhere Over Valinor

Eldarion and Anwar huddled together in the cramped space occupied by the rear strut of the Dropship. Both felt nauseous because of the constant bouncing and jarring of the vessel. Several times they had to hold on for dear life to something stable to prevent them from getting tossed about. In all actuality, they had no idea that the vessel was traveling through the atmosphere. When they had first hidden in the compartment and then found themselves in the starship's docking bay, they had assumed the vessel had just taken them to another part of Arda.

"What is happening, Eldarion?" asked Anwar.

"I wish that I knew. Let us hope it ends soon."

"When it does, I am getting out and returning to Minas Tirith. As much as I desire an adventure, I feel that we do not belong here."

"Agreed. We shall return to Minas Tirith."

Somewhere Over Valinor
(Legolas's POV)

I knew the moment we were approaching Arda. The whisperings of the aliens quickly came to me and I tried to ignore them by gauging the reactions of the others as the ship continued its motion of falling. This was the second time I was experiencing the trip. The craft in which Ariedel and I had escaped Gateway Station and then returned in was far more comfortable of a ride. Ariedel called it a shuttle, whereas this vessel was a Dropship. The name itself said much about its intention.

In all actuality, the moment the Dropship left the belly of The Rebel, one felt as if their stomach had been left behind. The sensation of falling was disturbing, as was the intense jarring of the vessel as it entered the space above the clouds. Ariedel had explained it all to me the first time I had experienced the drop. It was not something one could easily get used to.

Gimli looked very pale in color, with a tinge of green. He looked about to lose the meal he had eaten onboard Freak's ship. I wanted to ask him how he was feeling, but I knew he would only snap a response, not wanting me to see his weakness. Aragorn had his eyes closed tightly. This was also the second time he was experiencing the trip and the king of Gondor was not finding it to his liking..

"Why is the trip going down far worse than the one going up?" asked Thranduil, his voice coming over the devices attached to everyone's ears. He was on the other ship with Arwen.

"Dropping from the ship saves on fuel." I recognized the voice. It belonged to the woman named Sanchez. "Once we're through the atmosphere, then we engage engines to steer."

A moment later I felt the surge of power as the Dropship engines were engaged. A screen hung near the doorway leading to where Freak steered the ship. The image on it revealed our decent. At the moment all I saw was white, which meant we were within the clouds. In the next moment the clouds vanished to reveal a large body of water. It had to be the Sundering Seas. At first it appeared as though the vessel was about to crash into the water, but at the last moment it leveled. Straight ahead was a faint image of land.

"Let's keep this course and speed, Zee," came Freak's voice.

"I copy, boss," came Zion's reply.

I stared wide-eyed at the land mass on the small screen. "Valinor."

"It hurts to look upon it," said Arwen, her voice also coming through the device. She was obviously watching the screen on the other ship. "I feel as if I am endeavoring something completely forbidden. Tis not the will of the Valar that we approach the land."

"Nay, Arwen," I replied into the device. "The Valar have given permission for us to come."

"Aye, but not in this manner. Are they aware of these flying vessels we come in?"

I had no answer. When the Valar had come to me in my dream, it had been before I met Freak and not known that we would be approaching Valinor in a very different kind of ship.

"Zee, let's swing wide to the left to keep out of sensor range of the Company base, just in case they have a tracking system in place," said Freak. "Then we'll come up north to where most of the bugs are concentrated."

"Swinging wide to the south," replied Zion.

The ship pulled to the left and the motion was felt by us all. I glanced at Rhovan beside me on my right. The poor beast was strapped uncomfortably to a seat not meant to be occupied by a full grown tiger. His mouth was open, teeth slightly bared, breath coming out in great gasps. I reached out to grasp a handful of his fur, just below his ear. "Na sîdh, Rhovan." (Be at peace)

"Yo, Lego, I'm gonna need you up front here in a minute," came Freak's voice in my ear device.

I grimaced at the shortened version of my name and witnessed Ariedel rolling her eyes. She knew I abhorred my name shortened in any manner. I unbuckled the straps holding me to the seat and ruffled Rhovan's fur once more before I stood and moved carefully down the short aisle to the door in front. The movement of the ship made it difficult to maintain my balance and twice I nearly toppled over Aragorn and Gimli. "I am here," I said to Freak as I entered the small space. There was only one other seat and it was occupied by Takashi. The man immediately left the seat and motioned for me to take it. I quickly strapped myself in while Takashi went in back with the others.

Freak glanced over his shoulder briefly. "Yeah, I'm hoping you might be able to fill me in on the lay of the land." He turned forward again.

"The lay of this land? Tis not familiar to me. Except perhaps the name of the tallest mountain over there." I pointed into the distance to the mountain in question. "That is Mount Taniquetil, where the most powerful of the Valar lives. His home is Ilmarin."

"I can't say I understood any of that, but that's okay."

"I was told that many of the people went to Ilmarin to seek sanctuary within the walls. Perhaps that is where my father will find Gandalf."

"Let's hope whosever there is safe." Freak pushed a variety of buttons on his console. "Bishop, what've you got for me?"

Bishop's voice came over the device on my ear. "I'm picking up a large concentration directly west of that mountain."

"Any other life forms?" asked Freak.

"None above ground. Just xenomorphs."

"Okay, time for a little mood music." Freak touched the controls of a device attached to his seat. "Music helps me concentrate on the task ahead," he said over his shoulder in my direction.

I shrugged indifferently.

"Let's see, I'm in the mood for some Chevelle. An Evening With El Diablo sounds like an appropriate tune." He punched several buttons and the cabin was suddenly filled with loud music. "Zee, let's move in for the kill." Then he moved the controls and the ship turned inland.

Although I was not familiar with the specific song blasting through the cabin, I was in fact familiar with the style. Ariedel had played a lot of it during our stay in Tahiti, but not at the volume Freak had it.

I glanced out the window and saw that we would soon pass within close proximity of Manwë's mountain. I wondered if anyone could see us approaching.

Mount Taniquetil

Gandalf stood on the balcony of a tall tower. His gaze was not on the land which the aliens continued to ravage, but out to the sea. With the sun slowly setting in the west, the sky was a mixture of purple, pink and orange. The Valar had told him to look to the sea at precisely this moment. They had been enigmatic as to the reason for it, only that he needed to set his eyes in that direction.

Celeborn stepped out onto the balcony and moved to stand beside the Istar. "Galadriel has not returned. I sense something has happened to her."

Gandalf did not remove his eyes from the sea, but he acknowledged Celeborn's presence with a slight tilt of his head. "Have faith, my friend. Something is about to occur."

Celeborn frowned and looked in the direction the Istar looked. "Why do you look to the sea?"

"It comes now."

"What comes?"

"Salvation." A smile graced Gandalf's aged features. "And it comes in the form of great metal vessels that fly through the air."

Seconds later two black objects flew from the direction of the sea and headed inland. They were moving so fast that Celeborn could barely distinguish what they were. And then the vessels slowed and circled around a quarry of rocks. "What are they?"

"I cannot fathom it, but they are here to rid us of these hideous creatures that have threatened our peace and existence."

At the end of Gandalf's words, a flash of light was emitted from both vessels. The lights touched the rocks and the ground was immediately engulfed in flames, followed by a deep rumbling in the earth

"Woooohooooo!" Freak cried out. "Look at them bugs burn, man!" He spun the Dropship around in a narrow arc and let several more missiles loose. From his view he could see hundreds of aliens scrambling to run from the onslaught of destructive arms. Damn, he felt good whenever he killed them. He was actually getting high off of it as he loudly sang along to the song blasting through the Dropship. "Wish I had your faults. Nothing seems to phase you." He hovered the Dropship and panned around in a circle, letting loose hundreds of rounds of artillery. Alien body parts scattered all over the ground as they were hit with the hollow-pointed arsenal. "Yeah, eat that shit, mother fuckers!" And Freak continued to sing. "Some say we can never know. From just how far down this beast has come."

Legolas watched with wide eyes. With this ship and its weapons, they were able to kill hundreds at a time. He could hear the aliens screeching in his head and it ached relentlessly. But he knew there was panic infiltrating into their collective minds. Their only instinct was to flee and it gave him a sense of satisfaction.

"Hey, Lego, you want a piece of this action?" asked Freak. He knew the Elf had had a rough time with the aliens in the past.

Legolas turned to Freak in surprise. "Aye, I do."

Freak reached behind his seat and pushed a few buttons on a panel in front of Legolas. A handle raised up from a hole, startling the Elf for a moment. "Okay, see that little screen right in front of you? All you gotta do is move this stick around until that small box in the middle is over a target. Then squeeze that red button on the tip of the stick. Got it?"

Legolas nodded and mimicked his words in reply. "Got it." He concentrated on the small box as he moved the stick. When the box was directly over a retreating alien, Legolas squeezed the button. The alien seemed to burst apart from the inside. Legolas grinned and aimed for another target.

"That's it. You got it." Freak faced forward again and programmed in another tune as the Chevelle song came to an end. Coldplay's Speed of Sound soon filled the cabin. "Oh yeah, baby." Freak spun the Dropship in a wide arc and sent another missile into a herd of aliens running for their lives.

The other Dropship chased hundreds more, using its automatic guns to chop them to pieces. In contrast to the loud rock music playing in Freak's Dropship, Zion had another tune playing.

"Feelings. Nothing more than feelings. Trying to forget my feelings of love," sang the mild-voiced singer over the cabin's intercom.

Thranduil and Arwen turned to look at each other. Then the Elven king turned to Sanchez.

Sanchez shook her head. "Don't ask."

The two Dropships circled the immediate area, searching for targets. From Freak's Dropship, a gun mounted just below the right strut flashed as artillery was fired. The rounds made triple lines on the ground as they finally hit two aliens, tearing into them, acid blood spraying in every direction.

After awhile nothing moved. Not anymore. But Freak wanted to make sure, so the Dropships slowly flew in grid-like patterns.

"Bishop, you picking up anything?" asked Freak after turning down the music.

In the back, Bishop was sitting in front of a computer console and he typed into a keyboard, his eyes glued to the screen. Hundreds of lines of script scrolled upward. "I'm scanning a five kilometer radius. Negative on any xenomorph signals in the immediate area. The next signals are coming from the south, thirty of them. I'm also picking up signals north, east and west, but a little further away from our vicinity. Other than that, the next big concentration is the hive."

"Zee, you can go ahead to the mountain."

"Aragorn, be careful," Arwen said into the microphone of her communication device.

"I will see you soon," replied Aragorn.

"6-pack, you can disable their comms," said Freak. "They won't need to be on line anymore."

"Will do," said Sanchez as she unstrapped herself from her seat and went to retrieve the com units from Thranduil and Arwen.

"Keep in touch, boss," said Zion. He turned Dropship Two around and aimed it in the direction of the tall mountain several kilometers away.

Legolas felt elated after so easily killing dozens of the aliens. He felt as if he was going to jump out of his skin with excitement. "Let us pursue more of them, Freak."

Freak chuckled. "You like that weapon. Kind of addicting, isn't it?"

Legolas wanted to wrap his hand around the weapon stick once again, to fire more projectiles. He wanted to kill more aliens. And then suddenly his vision blurred. Too late he realized he was having one of his spells. An image emerged in his mind's eye and he saw a slender figure encased in alien resin. As quickly as the image came to him, it vanished. His eyes widened and his mouth opened to speak. But nothing would come out as he took several gulps of air before turning to Freak. "She…she has been taken! We must hurry!"

Freak turned to look at Legolas. The Elf had a look of desperation on his face. One minute he was fired up and ready to kill more bugs and the next he was panicking about some girl being taken. "What's up with you all of a sudden?"

Right at that moment Ariedel appeared in the doorway of the cockpit. "Legolas, what is it?"

Legolas grabbed Ariedel by the arms. "Galadriel. I just saw her."

"Where?"

"In the hive."

Ariedel turned to Freak. "Freak, we have to get to the nest right away."

Freak pushed several buttons, deciding that it was just easier to agree than to try and figure out what Ariedel's Elf husband was jabbering about. He'd ask Ariedel about it later. "We're on our way. Go strap yourself back in, Princess."

Dropship One, with its four missile launching wings still unfurled, spun around in place and headed northwest.

Valinor
Weyland-Yutani Research Base

Leland stared intently at his computer screen, which was nearly twice as large as any of the others. Right beside it was another screen, this one smaller. Both screens were flowing with images as he suddenly had an idea and began typing feverishly on the keyboard. Then he stopped typing and tapped a finger at the image on the larger screen. "This is the strand right here. It has to be."

No one else was in the room, so he was talking to himself. At least no human was in the room. Four aliens occupied four of the attached observation chambers. With nothing of interest for them to see, they were currently dormant and camouflaged within their resin walls.

Leland grabbed a pencil and jotted something into a spiral notebook. He stared at it for a long time, then turned back to the large screen. For the next few minutes his eyes jumped from the large screen to the small screen and then down to his notes. "If these dictate the skin structure…what would happen if…" His thoughts were like scrambled pieces of information that needed to be put together. In an instant it all began to make sense. His brilliant mind knew what the pieces meant. But could it possibly work? Maybe if he used the cryosleep chamber, the one he had modified to create an accelerated growth tank for the clones. "Yes, yes…it'll work."

The cloning had been a wasted effort. With the correct modification to the cryosleep chamber, the right programming, a restrained alien and another Elf, he could create something far better than a clone. So now he had a new plan…an exceptional plan.

Valinor

Freak softly landed Dropship One on the ground, its missile launching wings slowly folding back over the top of the body. Two kilometers north was the hive. He wanted the Dropship to be safely away from the nest in case the alien queen happened to get out before they could exterminate her. An alien queen was capable of quite a bit of damage when she was pissed off and he didn't want to lose a Dropship. "Bishop, let's get everybody into the APC."

Bishop quickly finished his task of switching control of the computer to the APC cradled inside the hold of the Dropship. Then he got up and jumped down into the hold. As everyone else followed him down, Bishop slid open the door to the APC and motioned for everyone to get inside. Freak was the last one in after the tigers and he slid the door closed.

"Am I driving or you?" Freak asked Bishop.

"I'll drive." Bishop went in front and took a seat on the left side of the APC's cockpit. He punched several buttons and moved levers. The APC engines started and a larger ramp lowered beneath the Dropship. Bishop spoke into his com. "Hold tight everyone."

The APC pulled out from the Dropship and moved over the smooth terrain ahead.

Freak got up and glanced out a small portal, checking to make sure the ramp of the Dropship went back up. Then he took a seat next to Ariedel and motioned with his head toward Legolas. "You mind telling me what's going on?"

"You know what's going on, Freak," replied Ariedel.

"That's not what I'm talking about. Lego said he saw her in the hive. Saw who? And how did he see her if we haven't even been to the hive yet?"

"Legolas is able to communicate with the aliens."

The others in the APC, including Legolas, listened in on the conversation.

"Yeah, I know. Seth told me about that," said Freak. "But there's more, isn't there?"

"The aliens project images to him."

Freak turned to Ripley. "Does that happen to you, too?" he asked her as an afterthought.

Ripley shrugged indifferently and shook her head. "Can't say that I've received images from them. All I get from them is a constant temptation to join with their hive."

"Which is why you're staying in the APC," Freak pointed out to her.

Ripley shrugged again with a smile. "Fine by me."

Freak was always unnerved by her carefree attitude. But he had worked with Ripley before and at certain critical times, she had been a wealth of information when he needed answers. He turned to Legolas. "So what exactly did you see?"

"Galadriel, the Lady of Light," exclaimed Legolas, as if the human should have known who the infamous Elven maid was.

Freak figured it wasn't really necessary that he know who she was, so he decided not to ask for an elaboration. "Is she still alive?"

"She is."

"Bishop, how much longer?" Freak shouted toward the front.

"Three minutes."

Freak turned back to the others. "From experience, the hive will probably be scattered in different caverns, so we'll have to split up into two teams when we're down there. Lego and Princess, you're with me. Loop and Sushi, you've got Awgie and Kibbles."

Aragorn frowned at the name Freak called him.

"What about me?" Gimli asked quickly when his name had not been mentioned.

Legolas grinned at the Dwarf. "You are Kibbles."

Gimli did not have a chance to react to the name.

"You all decide which tiger goes with who," added Freak.

"I will take Rhovan while Cail should go with Aragorn," said Legolas. "Can you not tell them apart?"

Freak looked from one tiger to the other, noting that the one closest to Legolas did have a slightly thicker coat. "Yeah, okay, Tiger 1 and Tiger 2. Just keep them close. They're no good in a fight against an alien. If they try to bite into limbs, they'll only get sprayed with acid blood." He glanced at the white handles sticking out from the quiver on Legolas's back. "You really need those knives?"

"I do not leave home without them," was Legolas's response.

"I should've known you'd say something like that."

Two minutes later Bishop announced, "We're fifteen seconds from the target."

Freak clapped his hands together. "Okay. Let's go kick some alien ass."

When the APC rolled to a complete stop, Freak slid the side door open and motioned for the others to get out. Then he turned to Bishop and Ripley who were both remaining in the APC. "Keep the engine running. We'll be out in a flash."

Valinor

Eldarion and Anwar walked together through the grassy terrain.

"Where can we possibly be?" asked Anwar as she stopped and scanned the unfamiliar environment in every direction. The sun had gone down and the only light came from the moon up above.

Eldarion also stopped. He crouched down to inspect the blades of the grass. "This grass might belong to the Gladden Fields."

Anwar shook her head. "Nay, it cannot be. We would see the outline of the Misty Mountains to the west and the trees of my realm to the east."

Eldarion glanced back at the distant image of the Dropship they had vacated. "If I knew which direction our adanadar went, we could follow. But I see no tracks…except…" He stared at something strange. The grass was crushed along two identical lines running parallel, as if something heavy on wheels had passed. (fathers)

Anwar crouched down beside him and inspected the same tracks. "They obviously went in a wagon with extremely wide wheels." She stood up and began to run between the tracks on the grass.

"Anwar, wait!" When she didn't stop, Eldarion ran after her.

Valinor – The Alien Nest
(Legolas's POV)

I walked in front with Rhovan. Ariedel was directly behind us, with Freak bringing up the rear. The interior of the underground labyrinth was pitch black and it was deathly silent, except for the sound of dripping water, Rhovan's heavy breathing and the constant pulsing of the Motion Sensor in Ariedel's hands. Freak held a beam of light that illuminated the path ahead of us for about ten feet, but I was able to see into the darkness even beyond.

When we had first entered the hive, we discovered two passages that seemed to go in opposite directions. Freak, Ariedel and I took the one on the left, while Lipinski, Takashi, Aragorn and Gimli took the one on the right. Along the way, we come across dozens of corpses, each encased in alien resin, chests blown out from the inside, faces contorted in the pain they had undoubtedly felt. After seeing the first one, I avoided looking into the faces of any others, afraid that I might recognize someone.

Rhovan sniffed each one for signs of life, even though it was visually quite evident they were dead.

"Loop, you copy?" Freak asked into his device.

"Yeah, boss."

"How's it going? Find the bitch yet?"

"Negative, but we came across deceased encased in the walls and a bunch of empty eggs."

"Yeah, same here. Over and out." Freak pointed to something up ahead.

I had seen it well before he had. The passage narrowed and dipped ahead.

Rhovan stepped in front of me as we entered the passage one by one, having to duck to avoid the jutting stone ceiling. He bounded forward, growling deep in his throat.

"Rhovan, dartho!" I did not want him to attack an alien and burn his jaws on its blood. But the tiger continued on. (wait)

It was not but a moment before the passage opened into a large chamber. Freak's beam panned around to the corpses hanging from the walls and the giant eggs in the center.

I searched for Rhovan and found him resting his front paws on the wall beside a faint glow I was able to see even in the darkness. It was Lady Galadriel. "There!" We rushed forward and I unsheathed one of my long knives to immediately start hacking at the material holding Galadriel to the wall.

Freak pulled out a device and ran it over Galadriel. "She's clean. No embryo."

"Whoa, whoa, Freak! We found her! Repeat, we found her!" came Lipinski's voice. "Mother fucker!" The sound of heavy weapon fire followed over our communication devices.

"Loop!" Freak waited for a response. "Loop, you copy? Sushi, you copy? Goddammit!" He turned to Ariedel and I. "The others found the queen. We haven't seen any aliens around here because they're probably all over there protecting her."

Ariedel took the long knife from my hand. "Go. I'll get her out of here and into the APC." Then she activated a beam similar to the one Freak held.

I motioned for Rhovan to stay with Ariedel. Then I briefly exchanged a glance with her, not entirely sure it was a good idea to leave her alone. But the alien queen needed to be destroyed. I turned and followed Freak as we rushed out of the chamber.