Chapter One Summary: Ronnie wakes up to find himself inside a cart, traveling to Darth Freya's Tower. He is sent to the Underground Prison, from which a dreadful fate awaits him.

Warning! This chapter is Rated M for gore and swearing.

I'm terribly sorry for the five-month delay. I was reformatting my fanfics on my end, as well as reposting fanfics on this site as well as on AO3. Now that the reformatting is done, story ideas sparked for this story, as well as my memory coming back as to what is happening in this story and in the previous stories for my fanfiction series, The Long Series: Version 2.

That said, enjoy! :)

Chapter One:

The Underground Prison

Ronnie awoke, feeling the strangest sensation he ever felt. He knew he had been sleeping inside a wooden cart, one that would lead him to Darth Freya's tower and the Underground Prison in all the Villains' World combined.

But it was the strange dream he had that morning that drew his senses back to where he was and why he was being imprisoned. Before, it wouldn't have made much sense, but now it did, which led Ronnie to believe that Frodo Baggins and his wife, Bethany Baggins, had doppelgangers and doubles throughout the Ages.

Ronnie was Frodo's double, but did that mean Elijah Molvaro was also Frodo's double? Then there was Bethany, whose doubles were Sandria Wolff and Darth Freya. Frodo's doubles had all but gone, some long dead, while others reincarnated, but then the same could be said for Bethany, too.

So, did this mean Ronnie and Elijah were Frodo's doubles for the Third Age? It certainly meant that way. And now, Elijah was Tobias reincarnated, same as Amethyst was Janet reincarnated, and Amethyst was Eretria's double.

It was so confusing, but it did make sense. The only part Ronnie needed to worry about was whether he could bring his own personality out. He loved wearing his black tunic and black knee breeches, as well as his black suspenders. So, maybe he should keep that attire on, as well as the black jacket, which he wore to keep himself warm in frosty conditions.

Ronnie had been so fortunate to find a black jacket to wear, shortly before he was dumped onto the cart. So, he'd better keep it on for good measure.

"Move it, whelp! Darth Freya would like to have a word with you," one Orc with greyish skin and a crude complexion, donned in brown leather armor, laughed, as Ronnie brushed himself off. The Orc pushed him forward, forcing Ronnie to collide with the ground for a second time that morning, even as the cart wandered off to a different spot.

Ronnie recognized this part of the Villains' World: it was Freya's tower. A dark, spiky, iron tower, nestled next to a large glass cave with a long rectangular stone arch. The further Ronnie looked at this place, he knew beyond the glass walls the cave possessed lied the Underground Prison.

He feared going in there! He feared what would happen if any of his friends ended up there. The things prisoners suffered through inside those cells was just awful! Ronnie didn't want to experience that.

And yet, Ronnie looked at his wrists: there were iron shackles over them, along with a silver chain keeping hold of the shackles.

"Here we are. Move!" one Orc leader said, grabbing Ronnie's chains with a fierce thud, sending Ronnie hurtling towards the pebbled, dirt road. The Orc leader laughed, pressing him forward, "There's no escape for you now! You may as well accept it. Once you enter the Underground Prison, you can never leave it."

"Oh no! No!" Ronnie felt his lips. Fresh drips of blood protruded off the skin. He couldn't do this. He couldn't be here now.

And yet, he looked up at a fair woman with blonde highlights in her hair. She was donned in a silvery red dress and looked positively wicked. All at once, she knelt next to Ronnie, moving her hand over his lips to stopper the blood. Her healing spell worked: it stopped the blood, but the wound was still present over Ronnie's lips.

The woman laughed. It was truly Darth Freya.

Ronnie seethed at her, asking her, "Why would you do that?"

Darth Freya looked at him now in wonder and compassion, saying to him, "Yes I did this. But you followed evil, didn't you? Hmm." She looked up at one of the Orc leaders, telling him, "Put Ronnie in with the Scarred Lion named Tack. They'll make wonderful company together." She chuckled sinisterly, "That is, if Tack doesn't chomp on you first."

"What?" Ronnie asked, right as he was forced onto his feet by the Orc leader, who grabbed his chain and started pulling him into the cave. Ronnie looked last at Freya, as the Orc leader advanced inside the Underground Prison.

There was no going back, was there? How was he to get out of there? Oh no!

Freya chuckled, saying to him, "I'll see you later!" She whispered to herself. "That is, if you can help it."

~o~

The Orc leader brandished a lit torch from off the grey stone walls. The torch's light was a sickly lime green color, enough to make Ronnie sick. Nevertheless, the hobbit was forced to follow the Orc leader past the first room of open cage cells made from an iron metal, only found within the Villains' World.

The torches there were lit in their typical orangish-yellow glow.

"Come on now, whelp! It's time to meet your fate," the Orc leader announced, laughing to him.

"Where exactly is this Tack?" Ronnie asked, knowing all too well about a scarred lion who suffered in the Underground Prison for years, centuries. The only problem was: was this scarred lion still alive? Where exactly was Tack located, within the Underground Prison?

Onwards, the Orc leader took Ronnie past the first room, making their way down a stone walled hallway, where more cells were located.

To Ronnie's horror, some of the prisoners there had been zombified and were stretching forth their arms and hands at him. Ronnie winced in pain, doing his best to avoid the zombie hands protruding from their cells.

Would this be Ronnie's fate? To become a zombie in this desolate underground prison? Ronnie felt sure he was doomed, the further down the hallway the Orc leader took him.

Out the Orc leader dragged him into a smaller antechamber with blue light protruding off the walls. They made their way past a large catacombs with dark brownish-grey dust kicking off into the air, as the abyss lay below them.

They passed through another hallway and into a massive spiraled chamber, leading into the abyss, where several unholy, deep, as well as sharp voices barreled their screams miles beneath the surface. While there was the abyss, the tall walls protruding the end of the wide ledge helped keep the prisoners safe from what lay beneath the jet-black, inky darkness that made the abyss the way it was.

Orangish-yellow and red torches lined the brown stone walls, next to the cells.

Ronnie had to ask the Orc leader, as he was guided towards the cell three stories down into the spiraling abyssal chamber, "Does Freya keep the high security prisoners here? Why am I here?"

The Orc leader laughed, grim but satisfied, "Yes, this is where the high security prisoners are located. You'll go mad here or eaten by Tack, if you're not careful. Ah! Here we are." He pulled out a set of iron keys, opening one iron cell door leading into a wide cavernous room with only one window, barred in irons and reflecting the skies towering above their heads. He pushed Ronnie within the cell, not bothering to check and see if he was all right.

Ronnie's shackles were torn off aggressively by the Orc leader, leaving a few scars and bruises against Ronnie's wrists, shortly before the Orc leader slammed the prison cell door shut and locked it up good and tight.

It was then Ronnie saw a wide silver bench protruded against one end of the room, standing up against an arched brown stone wall, as well as a bed lying on the ground at the other end of the cell.

Just as Ronnie was about to find sleep, he was met by a terrifying sound. A creature with red eyes loomed in the shadows, terrifying Ronnie to the very core.

Thanks for reading. More to come. :)