A/N: Alrightie guys, so sorry I hit a bit of a slump. However, I am still updating this story so have no fear J. In apology for all of your long waits and diligent patience, here is the next chapter: The Battle At Helm's Deep! :D

Disclaimer: You are more off your rocker than I thought. More shock treatment!

~~Chapter Eighteen~~~ The Days Have Gone Down In The West

Legolas stood at the top of the Keep, looking down into the approaching Dark Army. His insides shuddered in revulsion at the sight. They were an abomination on this Middle Earth, a creation made of hate and malice. Something twisted and corrupted to the Dark Lord's fancy. His hand clenched as a sly voice in his mind whispered to him.

But are they much more different than Valo? Are they really so much different? He was a creation of Sauron's as well, his very existence orchestrated from the beginning. A tool to bring the Dark Lord back to power…

His hand tightened on his arrow and he cast a sideways look at Haldir who stood not far off with the archers from Rivendale and Caras Galadhon. The Elvish General had been repulsed by Valo's very being, much like Legolas himself was when faced with the rabble of Orcs ahead. In truth…was Valo not much worst than the Orcs? At least the Orcs were upfront about their purpose. Valo's own had been so hidden beneath deceit and darkness that not even the poor young wizard himself knew his purpose. Was there more to him than just being the Dark Lord's consort? Was there more than just being the Key to Sauron's resurrection? If so…what could be so terrible that it was worst than what he had already discovered? The Orc army stopped before the Keep wall, various roars of threat echoing from the black mass. Now was not the time to think of these things. Even as the first arrow split the air, embedding itself into the soft exposed flesh of one of the enemy horde, he couldn't stop thinking of Valo and what his existence could really mean for the success of their mission.

~ o ~

The world was a moving blurry mass. He blinked his eyes open slowly, trying to regain some sense of himself through the fog of unconsciousness. What had happened…? All he could remember was the sound of the Elf horn and then Legolas's tight desperate embrace…Valo shot up from the course pallet he'd been laid in, everything coming into reality at once. The sobbing women and anxious elderly around him. The dank caves. The sounds of battle raging above. The sharp sting of hurt and betrayal. He let out a hissed swear in that strange hissing tone that had several of the civilians nearby backing up, clutching their children warily. He was too upset by his beloved's duplicity to let mere superstitious townsfolk bother him now. There were two guards posted near the lone door to the rest of the Keep. His hurt was a stinging pain in his chest but even worst than that was the fear. The fear that this time it would be Legolas to fall in battle and unlike Gandalf and Aragorn, this time he would not be getting back up.

He's going to die anyways. Whether it be in battle or at the hand of your Master. Would it not be much kinder to let him fall with dignity as a warrior? If your Master did not kill him right out imagine what he could do to an unsuspecting Elf. After all, you remember how the Orcs came to be…You were there.

No! Shut up! Valo shook his head, fighting back the frightened furious tears that began seeping into his view. Sauron couldn't get ahold of Legolas! He didn't even know about the two of them!

But he will. He always knows. After all he is-

Panic gripped his soul and he slammed his fist into the floor in an attempt to silence whatever it was that the voice was about to say. Something told him that he was not meant to know that yet. That his Master did not want him to know whatever it was just yet…Whatever that key piece of information was held Legolas and the whole Fellowship's lives in the balance. Pain spiked up his wrist as his hand came away from the floor bloody. He had to help them. He couldn't leave them out there alone to die! Valo's eyes darted around, searching frantically for some way to get to his friends, any way! All he found was that one barred door that kept him from his beloved.

Your Master will discover your treachery and when he does, Legolas will beg for death before the end.

Valo shoved the voice away furiously, his panic getting the better of him as he ran to the door.

"Legolas! Legolas, don't do this!" He cried, trying to shove off the two guards' sudden grips on his arms.

Without warning, an explosion rocked the very foundations of the Keep. The women and children were sent screaming, scurrying as much as they could to the back of the caverns while the din above only increased in volume. There was a woman nearby sobbing on her knees, praying to be anywhere else but here. Her plea struck something deep inside him. A faraway memory from a different time and place.

'We're nearly there...I can Apparate us both back...don't worry...''I am not worried, Harry'... 'I am with you.'

Apparate. Apparate. Apparate. Valo's eyes widened and his magic seemed to explode from inside him, bursting through his body like the waters of the Anduin that took him into Lady Arwen's arms so long ago.

"Apparate." He whispered and with a spinning sensation that made him halfway reconsider his actions, he was suddenly smack in the middle of the battle above.

It was chaos. He had been deposited on the top of one of the high walls and from his place, he could see the Uruks swarming into the great hole in the Deeping Wall. And down in the center of the space was Aragorn and Gimli. The two were fighting off orcs with all they had. He could see Legolas down below, joining the two as they fought. He had to help them. Valo spotted a fallen Elf's swords and seized them without delay, allowing the training that he could no longer remember overcome his senses. He knew how to fight. Perhaps he didn't know how he knew but he did. In that instant he began making his way down the stairs towards his comrades, slicing into any enemy he found along the way. His swords cut into orc flesh with the ease of a blade through hot wax. Every few moments, he would use the magic he had leftover from his apparition to send a curse flying into a group of Uruk-Hai nearby. He set the remaining ladders ablaze before he jumped down into the pit made by the explosion. King Theoden shouted something to Aragorn before his face disappeared behind the board that reinforced the main gate. The Ranger did not waste any time. He was a true commander.

"Nan barad! Nan barad! Pull back to the Keep! Haldir! Nan barad!" He ordered and began making his way back.

Both at once, Legolas and Valo both grabbed the still spitting mad and excited Gimli, pulling the Dwarf away from the battle ahead. It took until they had fallen back that either of them realized who had joined their midst. Legolas's eyes alighted on him and his blood stained figure and the Mirkwood prince's eyes widened.

"Valo!" He yelled furiously, already notching another arrow into his bow.

Gimli grinned viciously, patting him on the back.

"Eh laddie! You escaped after all!" He laughed.

Valo ignored him in favor of turning blazing angry eyes on his beloved. He would give Legolas a piece of his mind after this battle was over.

"Don't you even start with me, Legolas! You hid me away like I was a child and just expect me to take it? Well you have another thing coming!" He hissed and threw a blade to stick in the forehead of an orc that had slipped through their defenses.

Gamling carried the wounded King off into a side chamber as Aragorn and Gimli slipped off through a door. Valo and Legolas tensely turned back to the battle at hand. The teen felt that calling slowly rising inside him, whispering for bloodshed. Urging him to test out his hidden skills on the battlefield. It demanded that he shed blood, whose it did not care. When the first Uruk came through the door, Valo's eyes were tinged with red and he was already at the ready, his swords twirling in his hands eagerly.

He and Legolas fought alongside Men and Elves alike, time slipping away in the heat of the battle. Despite his distaste for the bloodshed and the carnage, Valo felt a deep surge of lust at the sight of so much destruction. It made his very blood sing within his veins, speeding and tugging him towards more enemies than before. Before long, he was running on instinct alone, his very being seemingly programmed to do such damage. Every sound seeming to fade in the background, over powered by the blood rushing in his ears, the fog on his mind. His sword bit into an exposed throat before it came to a halt, clashing against an all too familiar curved blade. His eyes clashed with wide silver. Valo could hear in some vague distance, someone calling his name. Far off as it was, the familiarity of it seeped through the blood haze surrounding his mind and he frowned, starting to let his surrounding come back to him. He was standing near what had been the gate of the Keep's inner sanctum, now a pile of rubble and dead orcs. His sword was in hand, pressed dangerously against another.

"Valo?" Legolas whispered, his own face creased in a frown, a streak of blood on the side of his cheek from some fallen enemy.

Legolas. He had attacked Legolas. He could have killed him! The Mirkwood Prince didn't seem to register his inner turmoil because he tugged him onto a steed that had been brought up by a handler. He pulled Valo up behind him and began to ride out with the King and Aragorn to meet the horde head on. A loud horn was sounding through Helm's Deep seemingly to shake the very stones beneath their feet.

"Fell deeds, awake. Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red dawn. Forth Eorlingas!" Thoeden cried and together they road out into the dawn.

Valo tried to put the fear in the back of his mind but even in the midst of battle, he could feel his efforts failing. Exhaustion, guilt and fear weighed him down heavily. What was happening to him…? A bright light shone on the horizon over the next hill, a light surrounding a figure on a horse.

"Gandalf." He heard Aragorn say with a relief that echoed in his own heart.

Behind the Istari rode the great mass that was the Rohirrim. 1000 good men and chargers rode down the side of the mountain, charging the remaining horde with everything they had. The Uruks never knew what was coming at them. They knew that they were overtaken, faced with enemies on every side. Those that were not immediately began fleeing into the imagined safety of the trees of Fangorn, not seeing the trees themselves shifting angrily, waiting for their prey to approach. The moment the last Uruk-Hai disappeared into the brush, there was the sound of a great rustling and crunching and the armies of Isengard were no more.

The soldiers headed back inside to bury their dead and pile the Uruk bodies. Legolas lifted Valo down from the steed, his hand lingering warmly over the Morgul teen's cheek. They found Gimli sitting upon a dead Uruk as if it were the very throne of Moria, his pipe in his mouth happily.

"Final count. Fourty two." The Mirkwood Prince said in a smug tone, stroking his bow affectionately.

Valo could see the smirk in the dwarf's eye.

"Forty-two? That's not bad for a pointy-eared Elvish princeling. I myself am sitting pretty on forty-three." He said with an offhanded air that left Valo snorting.

Legolas frowned before knotching a bow and releasing it into the body of the Uruk chair Gimli had claimed. The teen rolled his eyes at the two's antics, looking around suddenly feeling very anxious.

"He was already dead."

"He twitched."

"He was twitching because he's got my ax embedded in his nervous system!"

Valo walked across the ground littered with stones and bodies to where Aragorn and Gandalf were speaking with the King. His eyes flicked to Theoden, immediately finding the source of his anxiety. Something about the King sent warning bells through him for no reason at all, put him on the defensive. The King's eyes found his figure at Aragorn's side quickly.

"You fight like a true warrior, Little Wizard. You should be proud of such a skill on the battle field. You fight as one of our own." The man said in an odd display of pride and gratitude.

Aragorn laid a hand on Valo's shoulder, his eyes smiling in pride. The teen found himself smiling sheepishly back, ducking his head in embarrassment and inwardly, guilt. They did not know what had almost happened inside the Keep. They did not know that he had almost killed his own beloved for a weak loss of control. Legolas and Gimli found them and they all climbed the hill, staring out at the firey explosions in Mordor. Valo felt the harsh tug on his soul, urging him to flee these Men and make his way back home where he belonged. He tried his hardest to ignore the call, clutching Legolas and Aragorn's hands with all that he was. Valo's greatest fear was that one day he would not be able to resist and he would cut down anyone and anything to get back.

"Sauron's wrath will be terrible, his retribution swift. The battle of Helm's Deep is over. The battle for Middle-Earth is about to begin. All our hopes now lie with two little Hobbits…somewhere in the wilderness." Gandalf said, his voice strong and solid.

End of Volume Two! Next Chapter: Volume Three begins! Next chapter you will see the party, Isengard and the consequences of Valo's aid! Enjoy!