A/N: Hello hello, my many readers! I'm typing this from my school computer so pardon any mistakes on my part. Also I seem to be coming down with that nasty stomach bug everyone's getting. My laptop is once again infected with the same virus so bare with my choppy updates. Hope all of you are excited about this upcoming chapter! These chapter titles upcoming are from the song The Space Between by Dave Matthews. J

Disclaimer: Nope!

~~~Chapter Nine~~~ Out of the Night That Covers Me

Valo was on cloud nine as he walked idly through the woods nearby their camp sight. Legolas had given him one last tender kiss on his forehead, belying his affections before they had had to part. The elf had gone to speak to Aragorn about something while the teen had swooned off on his own. He couldn't be happier than he was right then. It just wasn't possible. Maybe one day Legolas would decide to keep him? That he loved him? And then he would take him to his home in Mirkwood to meet his parents and they would bond! They would live happily ever after with little elf younglings of their own and no one would care that he was Morgul because they would trust his mate's devotion and love. It was just too much happiness to exist! It may not happen, of course, but the possiblity was there! He had something to hope for. The voice in his mind gave an enraged hiss, bringing his thoughts back to the here and now. The truth came crashing back to him as viciously as a thunderous tidal wave. He was his Master's Key…He was created to assist in the Dark Lord's ascension to power. He was Sauron's Consort…There was no way that they would be able to be together. Not long term at least. Not unless the Dark Lord was destroyed and for that to happen he would have to…His lip trembled. Here he was wishing for his Master's demise! He was a twisted thing of the worst kind! Had he no loyalty?! Would he eventually think of Legolas the same way? No. He would never! But he had once thought the same about his Master. What was the difference? Valo put his head in his hands, miserably wishing Gandalf was here with all of his wisdom. Once again, he felt the stab of loss for the Istari. The loss of the sense of safety he had presented.

He was pulled from his dark musings by the sound of words ahead and the shuffling of leaves. There was Boromir and Frodo talking ahead. Judging by the hobbit's unhappy face, Valo could guess what the conversation was about. He had felt the dark pull encircling Bormir like a noose ever since the journey began. The Ring ensnared the Man with its charms. Valo empathized with his situation though Boromir did not know his plight. He knew what it felt like to be trapped by darkness, unable to shake it's effects. It happened every time something with great evil neared. Every time the Witch King approached. Every time his Master willed him to feel it. Valo stepped closer, sensing Frodo's unease and the spiking evil around the warrior. Something terrible was going to happen. He hurried up to the two when he saw Boromir grab the Halfling harshly, the words he needed already on his tongue.

"Expelliarmus!" He cried and like magic the Man flew backwards, tumbling head over heels down the leaf covered embankment.

Valo rushed to the shaking, confused hobbit and seized him around the waist. A creeping, cold feeling washed over them both and he lead Frodo away quickly and quietly. Boromir was shouting behind them and despite the fact that they tried not to listen, they couldn't help but cringe inside at his malicious words. He lead his companion to a stone outcropping that used to be the foundation for some great building in Ages past now forming the slopes of Amon Hen. He willed the cold feeling away and slowly, warmth began to trickle back into their bodies. They were silent for a long moment, catching their bearings after the experience.

"That's the second time you've saved me on this journey. Thank you." Frodo whispered as if he feared that his attacker would hear him and return.

The Morgul teen gave him a half-smile, unsure whether it was Boromir or he himself who was the biggest threat to the kind hobbit in front of him. Maybe he should slip off in the night…Wouldn't it be safer for everyone if they weren't taking both of Sauron's possessions to Mordor in the same party? And there was also the hidden fear that he refused to face. That they would throw him into the fires of Mount Doom with the Ring if they were to ever discover what he really was. Legolas would hate him...Aragorn would too. They would think he had betrayed them. There was no thought more terrible in his mind that that. He would rather go back to his Master and face the punishment should Sauron ever find out of his betrayal. There was no way he could win. If he was accepted wholly into the Fellowship after they discovered his origins, then he would face his Master's wrath. If he returned to his Master, then he was a traitor to the people he loved. Either way, he would not come out of this unscathed. Frodo's soft eyes reminded him of the Ranger who cared for him, the Elf princess who believed in him and the Elf that he had fallen in love with. Their caring eyes were enough to shake the grim thoughts from his mind. It was worth it. For them , he would face all of the punishments his Master deserved to give him.

Aragorn appeared over the lip of the outcropping, a frown on his handsome face. He must have been scouring the forest of Parth Galen for dangers or signs of recent travelling. The shore of Nen Hithoel was a shining beauty on the landscape.

"Frodo? Valo?" The Ranger questioned with concern lacing his voice heavily.

Frodo shuddered at his side and Valo felt sympathy swell in his heart. Poor hobbit…He never asked for this quest. He never asked for the burden of the One Ring. Had Valo himself asked for his fate? Had he once upon a time made some grave error in judgement and put himself in the place of Sauron's Consort? Had he once upon a time…loved the Dark Lord? Perhaps before he became the thing he was now?

"The Ring has taken Boromir. I pushed him back and we ran." Valo said softly, touching the hobbit's shoulder in an attempt to give him some sort of comfort.

Aragorn's eyes narrowed in urgency and he stepped closer to them, forcing the shaky hobbit back two steps in fear.

"Where is the Ring?" The Man demanded even as his eyes swept Frodo's person for any sign of the tiny instrument of evil.

Frodo, poor frightened Frodo, recoiled from the Ranger. Aragorn's eyes softened in pity and regret. He loved Frodo. Perhaps not in the way that Valo loved Legolas but in the way that a protector loves a small child he looks after. Valo stood back to watch the exchange with a sadness in his heart. He knew what it felt to be chained…He had once been in Frodo's place, darkness filling his vision and the hopes of so many resting upon him. Had his Master taken that feeling of overwhelming responsibility from him? Had he showed Valo that one great compassion and that's why he had become his Consort? Had his Master even loved him once? Only the Dark Lord could know for the knowledge was gone from Valo's mind. Each memory slipping away like droplets cast up into the air, falling through time and space effortlessly, only the earth knowing their eventual destination.

"Frodo! I swore to protect you." Aragorn said in dismay, trying to ease the small hobbit's mind.

Frodo looked lost and hurt, unsure of who to trust. Valo knew that feeling well. That's how he had felt when he had woken up without his Master, on the banks of some strange shore. For one small moment, in the depths of his mind, he had thought that his Master had finally tired of him and abandoned him. After all, wouldn't it have been crueler to leave him alive?

"Can you protect me from yourself?" Aragorn's eyes showed truth. Even he wasn't sure if he would eventually succumb to the Ring's power. Valo hoped to the Valor it was so. If Aragorn failed, then the race of Men would follow. Frodo's palm slowly opened revealing Isilidur's Bane. Valo felt that familiar tugging in the depths of his soul, the feeling he felt each time he saw the Ring. It was his Master's Call…Could Sauron command him through the Ring? He shuddered at the thought of ever touching it for if he did, he would surely discover the answer, "Would you destroy it?"

The tone of the Halfling's voice, the dark look in his eyes, told Valo all he needed to know. Frodo, like him, had been touched by the Dark Lord. Not to the extent he had, for Sauron owned him body and soul, but just briefly. Just enough to have an effect. To leave him susceptible…Aragorn approached slowly and Valo had half the mind to call out to him, to beg him not to touch it. He reached out for the accursed thing. Sauron's voice began to fill the Morgul teen's mind, the soft whispers of the Black Tongue intertwined with serpent-like hisses that danced down his spine, making his every nerve sing. Valo shuddered, biting back a tender cry as the pull on him intensified. Neither of his companions noticed his struggle. The voice faded into nonexistence as Aragorn folded Frodo's small hand back over the Ring. His voice was so sincere, so full of emotion that there was no doubting his words.

"I would have gone with you to the end. Into the very fires of Mordor…"

Valo would have left them to their moment but the pull on him suddenly intensified. It was here…Aragorn jumped up, drawing his sword with all haste. He looked between us desperately, already slipping into the role of the fighting warrior.

"Valo, take Frodo and run! Go!"

There was no time to lose. Sting, Frodo's trusted sword, was glowing blue. Orcs. They were being tracked. Valo grabbed the hobbit and ran, already hearing the lous stomps and the clash of metal on metal as the Orcs made their way up the embankment. These were not Morgul orcs though. Their screeches were not in the Black Tongue or any of the Morgul Orc dialects he had become accustomed to over the Ages. These were new. He and Frodo raced through Parth Galen, the enemy already spilling over the sides of the hill behind them like ants scurrying away from their demise. They ducked behind a tree as Boromir jumped out in front of the Orc closest to them, already hacking away at the villains. Valo wracked his brain trying to come up with whatever it was that had helped them become invisible not long ago but it was no use. Whatever magic he possessed seemed to be completely unconscious. Nothing but their wits and their friends could save them now. Several Orcs clopped by fruitlessly, missing them by mere feet and their own stupidity. A blonde curly head popped up in the bushes across the way, joined by it's near twin. Merry and Pippin spotted them immediately and gestured over to them both. It didn't take much for them to realize what they intended to do. The Orcs were coming their way. They would be caught for sure if something didn't happen soon.

The two rascals jumped from their bush bravely and started to shout and run, distracting the Orc's from the Ring Bearer. Like the unintelligent race that they were, the Orcs all began to follow without question. No doubt they had been told to apprehend the Halfling though which Halfling they likely didn't know. Valo jerked Frodo out from behind the tree once the majority had passed. He could at least try to make it to the river! There they could take a boat and Valo could use his memories of his homeland to get the hobbit safely through Mordor. Another pang of guilt for defying his Master coursed through him but he shoved it down. He couldn't let Frodo die. For if he failed, it meant certain death for them all. That tingling was running below his skin once more as they ran, the adrenaline of fear bringing it to the surface. Yes! Before he could cast the invisibility of Frodo, an Orc came from nowhere and slammed into the small magic weilder, sending him crashing to the ground.

R&R