Gollum held the ring high in praise of his success. He beheld his precious as Frodo lay on the ground with his fresh wound. The pain was so great his vision began to blur. Sam lay on the ground unconscious and Gollum shrieked with laughter and danced with joy. Until at last he felt his glee turn into a compelling urge to put the ring on once again. It slipped over his finger like an old glove meeting a familiar hand and to Frodo's poor sight the wretched creature had disappeared.
Gollum has not been idle long. As soon as the ring was upon him he quickly dashed toward the door out of Mount Doom. He ran on all fours and saw the great door that would lead to his freedom once again. As soon as he passed out of the great mouth of the volcano he was unexpectedly met with an unpleasant sensation. As soon as he felt the warm air of Mordor upon his face Gollum felt the ring's weight intensify to high degrees. His arm seemed to go limp from the ring's change. A painful burning sensation came over his body and for a moment Gollum saw, or thought he saw, a large eye of Flame and anger. Waves of fire licked its dark pupil and wreathed in anger. Gollum then found that he couldn't move. He was trapped in pain and old memories of the torture devices came to him from past days. He felt the will of Sauron in its strongest form now and his body submitted to the pain that now swirled over him. He tried to take the ring off but it would not budge. Gollum let out a shriek of misery and regret until a new pain found him. A long pale blade seemed to strike his arm, cleaving it off entirely. As Gollum became visible once again, and now in more pain than he ever thought, he looked up only in time to see the pale blade strike at his throat and ending his miserable life. The cries stopped and Gollum fell limp on the coarse ground. There standing over the wretched body was one of the Nazgul. If he had name once it was lost long ago and he now had only one purpose. With the ring now at his feet he only had to return it to his master and they would win the war against Middle Earth. The Nazgul stopped and claimed the ring, climbing back onto his fell Beast he flew to the dark tower nearby, the tower of Barad-Dur.
Aragorn stood for a moment in the midst of battle. A great shadow fell upon his heart and he felt despair settle in his heart where hope once stood. There was a strange sense in the air and all felt it as they fought. Aragorn looked eastward toward the Black Gate and saw now that even much of the ranks of the Orcs had stopped their vicious fighting. From behind their ranks came a tall dark figure clad in armor as ancient as Gondolin. He was a full man and a half in height and as he passed through the orcs they cowered away from him, and so did the ranks of the Gondorian soldiers. They held their shields up and spears towards the figure, but he cared not for on his hand shined the one ring. It glowed a beautiful and bewildering yellow as if it were excited to brace its master's hand once more. Up Sauron came from Barad-Dur. Behind him stood the nine with their swords at the ready for striking. Aragorn's eyes widened with horror, as did all upon the fields afore the Black Gate. Aragorn raised Anduril and it shone like the finest silver in the sunlight. A sudden laughter came into the air from Sauron.
"Long I have awaited this moment," came the dry and fairly evil voice of Sauron, "the end of Elendil's like is today."
"If I die today then may the rest of Middle Earth send you and your armies back to the abyss," replied Aragorn in anger. He knew now that Frodo has failed, and the poor little halfling had probably met his doom. Aragorn felt a swirl of anger rush through him and he charged with Anduril towards Sauron. Anduril found its mark on the breast plate of Sauron's armor, but it was useless. No sooner did it collide with the old breast plate, that it shattered and splintered up to the hilt and Aragorn was thrown back. The once proudly reforged blade of Elendil was destroyed once more. The men of Rohan and Gondor watched in horror as their leader was uselessly tossed away from the enemy, the orcs and Sauron laughed. Then Sauron said,
"If you submit yourselves to my army, then I shall spare you and you will all join the glorious reshaping of Middle Earth. Refuse and you die."
There was silence for a moment until Gandalf said loudly,
"No. Take up arms and fight to the bitter end. We shall die if we must for his world. You will not take us for slaves of your own bidding."
There was much reassurance among the men of Rohan and Gondor as they tightened their grip upon their weapons.
Sauron let a small and hoarse chuckleescape his helm.
"So be it," he said and raising his mace above his head a large Flame seemed to run through the length of his arm and swirl around his mighty weapon. The sky above darkened and thunder roared in the air. The orcs returned to fighting the men suddenly, Gandalf and the remaining members of the fellowship began holding off the nine wraiths as best as they could. Sauron had one target he wanted to end first. He would cripple the morale of his enemies by finishing off their new king. Sauron advanced towards Aragorn, who now had just recovered to his feet. Aragorn lifted himself up just in time to find large metal fingers grab his throat and lift him off the ground. Aragorn struggles for air as Sauron tightened his grip and, raising his mace, he was about to deliver the final blow when something all together unexpected happened.
A strange booming sound came forth, not that of thunder but of something else entirely. A large shadow now passed over the armies fighting and the Black Gate was cast in a long shadow. The fighting once again halted and everyone looked into the sky. They saw now that a strange, and overly enormous, object was floating above the world. It was long and rectangular shaped with a great big sphere, caving inwards, on the long sides, in the center, of the strange object.
The large object hovered over the plains for a few moments until finally everyone who had been fighting moments ago saw a strange shape take form just outside of their own armies. It looked like a black ball of churning oil that seemed to hover in the air and have a could light inside of it. Suddenly the ball grew in size and with a deafening blow it exploded with a bright flash and then everyone saw something new took its place. Standing on the other side of Aragorn's armies was a large creature never before seen in Middle Earth. He stood tall in his armor and his black cape hung to his ankles. The same black liquid seemed to leak from his very body. His head was that in the shape of a "T" and he had three menacingly glowing eyes. A large dark sword was in his right hand and his left hand glowed an eerie white. Behind him stood two large creatures with green skin and three eyes. They were small compared to him and shrieked loudly as they raised strange looking crossbows in towards Sauron and all the others. Then the tall dark one came forward and said for all to hear.
"I am Oryx The Taken King. I feel a great power here in this land. I am here to take it no matter the cost."
Sauron tossed aside Aragorn, who had passed out from being choked for so long.
"My power is mine to control no others," said Sauron angrily. He continued, "none but I may wield it and I command it. Nazgul kill this false king and usurp this great object that looms above."
At this came a deep laugh from Oryx. The Nazgul raised their blades and moved silently towards him. It was here where Sauron would meet the true rival of his age. For Oryx was a God of an unknown race. Oryx raised his glowing hand and in a loud voice he commanded.
"I am a servant of the deep. King of shapes and blade of the void. I take what I need and you are what I need oh mortals of this world."
With these words Oryx closed his hand and raised it high in the air. The Nazgul stopped for a moment for they heard a cry of pain come from their master. As the crowds attention turned to the noise they saw a dagger had pierced a small opening in Sauron's armor. But the dagger was thrust inwards by an Orc. Though upon looking at him he was Orc no longer. Its body was bathed in the blackness that covered Oryx's cape and its eyes were white. Its body twitched like it was being tortured and suddenly Sauron realized that he and his Wraiths were surrounded by an enormous army of these defiled beings. The men of Rohan, Gondor, the orcs, all were subdued by the words of Oryx.
"I have taken them," said the Taken King, "and now I'll take you and your power. For the first time Sauron felt fear. His entire army, indeed all who had stood before and against him had been transformed and taken, even Aragorn. Though the wizard it seemed could not be found amongst them.
"What kind of sorcery is this. Did my master send you," shouted Sauron.
Oryx smiled evilly and said, "so there is someone more powerful than you. Delightful, I shall make note of that. This is not sorcery, this is the power of the deep." Then Oryx raises his hand again, but before he could speak his commands Sauron and the nine had vanished. They escaped the might of this new threat for now. Oryx looked about and seemed to approve of the sight in front of him.
"A fine place to start our dominance here," he said, "there is darkness seeded in this land." Oryx then ordered the two behind him,
"Hang the ship above the volcanic region." Then he looked at his new recruited men and orcs. In a clear command he called,
"This is our home for now. My armies march into this land and we shall take what's left. From here we will push towards the west. We shall take all that we can. For the deep, for the darkness within."