Author's Note: I hate short chapters. But eh. Characterization is a nightmare, because I written out some future scenes and some things aren't jiving at all. So… I'm stuck. And I'm playing with the idea of taking this entire fic down, readjusting some things, while at the same time hoping I don't have to, because I'd love to come up a logical reason for the discrepancies first.

I've actually written a lot for this story, and have a ton of stuff to post, but I haven't come up with a good way to build bridges between important events. (I have four notebooks full of the exploits of Lin and Ziggy) I just suck at logic and I can't stick to outlines to save my life. That's what up.

The costume for Sauron? Written

The Festival? Written. However I'm not pleased with part of it and I'm going to redo that. (Characterization issues. STILL)

Morgoth's return? Written.

Sauron's reaction to Morgy's return? ((So you know in the first chapter how I said there wouldn't be any Morgoth/Sauron action? There's been a change of plans! And you will see why. It's not how you think it's going to be.))

The 'camping trip:' WRITTEN

At this rate I'll have the entire story finished before I figure out how to coherently segue from one point to another and write a character that's not horribly wishy-washy.

So while all this stuff is pending, have this shitty measly chapter, while I put this jigsaw puzzle of a fic together. I hate writing. Sometimes I really hate writing. And I'm terribly sorry that it's not worth the wait.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Needs a Title

(maybe I'll name it Bob.)

Chapter Bob

'My Precious One…'

The darkness hidden within Linaer's closet was a writhing howling mess, as Sauron lapsed into another self-destructive fit.

He felt like he was burning, or being eaten from the inside out, and he couldn't make it stop. He couldn't! He couldn't! And everything: the endless years of travel, the loneliness, the uselessness, the powerlessness, and the memories of what had been, the dashed hopes of what could have been, and the destruction of what should have been and never was- it all boiled over into a sea of blackness, a void that he couldn't escape. And he wanted to. He wanted to. So desperately he wanted to.

A cry, a scream, a plea for help constricted in his throat, though it mattered not because there was no point in screaming when there was no one to hear it. He wanted to be saved from the encroaching darkness, prowling the edges of his consciousness like a beast. He didn't deserve to be rescued, but that didn't stop him wishing for it.

He knew and yet didn't know what it intended to do to him once it had him. It would drag him into the darkness, the void that stole away his very sense of self and offered him some semblance of p eace. But always, when he was finally released he was more ruined than before.

So Sauron scrambled and fled before it, struggling to crawl away from the gaping chasm it would shove him into. And yet, for all the damage it inflicted upon him, it took away his pain. He knew not, how it accomplished that. He didn't know if it was in his mind, or if it was real, or if it was him or he was it, or if it was some 'Other' sent by Eru to torment him.

He thrashed and flailed, keeping it at bay, unaware that in his struggles he was slashing at himself. His efforts were futile. They always had been, but still he had to try.

'My Precious One, how wonderful thou art…'

He jerked and moaned as that voice conjured up the sweetest pleasure and excruciating torture. The deep melodious voice, rang in his ears, and phantom fingers ghosted over flesh he did not currently have. "Go away!"

He swatted away the tender fingers, and gentle hands, as something inside himself twisted with sickening mix of longing and revulsion. They shouldn't have made him feel as he did. He shouldn't have been haunted anymore. He was past that.

The dark creature slunk closer.

From the blackness green hills rose as if to mock him. He could see himself sitting them, but the person he was looking upon was not truly him. Not anymore. The golden creature idly sitting in the grass, watching the beautiful visage of the person next to them with those smiling eyes. Those horribly familiar and simultaneously alien amber eyes. He recoiled, curling away from the image, because it hurt too much to look at, and he silently cursed the girls' orange cat.

The beast was there, looming like a cloud waiting engulf him, and he wished it already had.

'I wish thee to be mine.'

In memory his heart leapt, sputtering sporadically and filling with radiant heat.

"Stay the fuck away!"

He shuddered violently as a very sharp pang lance through him. The dark was so close. That dark void within himself and around himself was slowly luring him in, hungry to devour him. And Sauron at that moment wanted to be devoured, if it meant he didn't have to look at his younger self smiling with such innocent joy, as his fingers nervously caressed the petals of a nearby daisy.

He uttered a soft, nervous, breathless laugh. And Sauron tried to plug his ears, tried to drown out the sound, because he knew the words that were coming. He wanted to throttle the young Maia he'd been.

'Then I am thine.'

The words were so honest, so stupidly naïve, so meaningful in every way they could have possibly been. A nervous silence reeled itself out, as the young Maia nervously tilted his head so that his golden hair fell to conceal the hesitation marring his smile.

'My precious.…'

Those two words undid the Fallen Maia. He coiled upon himself rigid and trembling.

"Nonononono! Stop! Stop! Go away! Goaway!" The Maia begged for the voice to stop speaking and the pain to stop hurting, and then he was just begging, welcoming the beast as trotted toward him.

Screaming, shouting, yelling, cursing, he fled the beast as an ounce of sense returned, but the rest of him reached for it. Anything to take him away. He cared not what happened after, so long as he could avoid hearing that voice uttering those words ever again.

With tooth and claw the dark leapt upon him, tearing and biting with wild abandon, as every ounce of fear and pain bled from him. He seized and twitched under the onslaught as conscious thought faded into oblivion.

His pleading screams as he begged it to stop and begged it to continue were reduced to slurred raspy whispers and those become incoherent mumbles until those too were replace by such an exquisite silence, as the Maia lost all sense of self and only the darkness and his fea ripping itself apart remained.

It was like waking up, Sauron had long ago decided after stirring from a similar fit, except he never felt rested upon coming too. He felt tired, sore, and drained, but the burning and anxiety were mercifully absent. It wasn't a good feeling, but it was better than suffering the pain. Anything was better than that.

A sickly tremor wracked his battered fea, and he made sure to avoid looking upon himself as he turned his head to observe his surroundings.

The bedroom he was immensely relieved to find it empty and devoid of Linaer. She still wasn't back from the shopping trip her mother had dragged her on, which was good. He didn't really want to think about how shameful it would be if an adolescent Edain found him in such a state.

Something in him tried to twist and burn, but he forced the feeling back, unwilling to confront it.

The girl's absence left him wondering how much time had passed and how much more would slip by before she returned. He hated losing track of time. He hated losing consciousness during his...episodes. He hated how far he'd Fallen, and he hated that he would never again be what he once was. And he hated the mockery and humiliation that was sure to come when he approached his master as a bodiless fea.

It reminded him of a threat to made him by a half Maia long ago. And that made him shudder for another reason entirely as he recalled the scars that had marred him in the aftermath.

Part of him couldn't wait for Morgoth's arrival, so that he could once again take a physical form. And part of him. Perhaps a more logical part of him could wait several ages more the Dark Vala to reappear. Either way Sauron couldn't win.

It wasn't a reunion he was happily looking forward to. He couldn't wait to hear just what the Dark Lord thought of his former's Lieutenant stint as a dark lord, especially when that lowly Lieutenant had gotten closer to success than the great Vala had.

Sauron supposed he could try to write off his bid for power as nothing more than an attempt to avenge the Dark Vala. There was probably enough evidence he could garner to create an alibi that would seem plausible, but he doubted the Dark Lord would be wholly convinced. And if Sauron's story didn't convince him, or worse Morgoth caught him lying, he was doomed.

If Morgoth could just keep from learning of it, that would be best, but the Dark Maia couldn't imagine being so lucky.

If Sauron had been in the Void, and one of his most powerful servants came crawling back to him in such a pathetic state he'd be very eager to learn why. And it would not have sat well with him to learn his servant had become a dark lord in his own turn. That taste of power would have made his servant ambitious, and even if that servant swore fealty time and time again Sauron would never have been convinced of that servant's honesty. The threat of betrayal; of rivalry, would always be there until such time as he could afford to remove that servant form his services.

That would be what awaited him if he rejoined Morgoth.

He could decide not to rejoin Morgoth, and save himself a great deal of embarrassment and possible death, and roam the world as a bodiless entity, doomed to be a thrall of the wind until Arda was destroyed, and he was found by either Morgoth or the Valar and then he'd be killed or sent into the Void. And he wouldn't even have a body with which he could fight back.

A vicious tremor swept through the Fallen Maia, making the ragged darkness churn and boil. The burning gnawing sensation from before returned, accompanied by a terrible fear.

Morgoth was his best option even if it was a terrible option. The latter was just unthinkable. He'd served the Vala before, and that could work in his favour certainly. There wasn't a choice to make: under Morgoth he stood a better chance of surviving than he did on his own. That was it. He just wished there was a good option. One that ended with him taking physical form and surviving and not being thrown into the Void.

He was doomed! He was doomed! He was doomed! He was going to die! The Maia curled in on himself, as another tremor tore his frayed fea even further. He didn't want to be thrown in the Void. He didn't! He didn't-!

The gnawing and burning and pain returned full force, while his fear turned into utter panic that lashed at him like a whip, leaving him breathless, shaking, and cowering as that darkness that proceeded most of his fits rose mighty all around him, until it bent upon itself like a wave.

He wailed and seized, unconsciously gauging gaping furrows into himself as blackness crashed upon him.

Linaer shivered as she stepped through the front door, feeling the gloom and oppressive darkness that hung in the air and clung to the furnishings. Immediately she knew who the culprit was and with her new dress in hand she made directly for her room, very intent on asking just what the former dark lord who was intent on hiding was trying to do.

The air got darker as she approached her room. There was no visible difference in the air or any changes to the house. It was just a feeling of oppressive weight, and as she approached her door her bravery waned with every step, until she was frozen right outside questioning whether or not it was a good idea to walk in.

She glanced toward the wash room and hung her dress up, as she waited for her spine to re-grow, before daring to approach her door again.

Very disturbed by the heaviness of the air and afraid of the darkness she, the girl carefully pushed her door open, doing so as gently and softly as she possibly could. She waited for a sharp voice or sudden flare of heat to greet her or something else, but all that met the ajar door, propped open by her toe was the sound of Zigûr's voice faintly muttering.

Closing her eyes, she sucked in a breath stealing herself, and risked opening the door enough to poke her head in.

Zigûr was there. The darkness was seeping out of her closet writhing, churning, and tendrils of it were stretching themselves thin until they split before doing it again and again. All the while his voice emanated from within that darkness, muttering and sometimes moaning.

Horribly unsure of what to do she dared to slip into her room, closing the door open behind her. She was the only in the house as her mother had gone to Elwin. And without the risk of Zigûr being found Linaer had interest in sealing herself in a room with a distraught evil Maia.

"Zigûr?" Her voice was little more than whisper, and he didn't respond.

Licking her lips to relieve them of their dryness she called to him again, daring to step closer as she did. "Zigûr?"

Her only response was the Maia's continue mumbling and thrashing. The darkness was splayed out across the floor, overlying her shoes as it convulsed, and she knelt down a fair distance away hoping to catch whatever it was he was saying.

The only word she could catch, was an occasional 'no' or 'please.' The rest of it was either too quiet for her to make out or spoken in completely different languages. Some of it sounded elfish and some it sounded downright foul and sent shivers coursing down her spine, and other words seemed to be neither.

She crouched there, worried and unsure of what to do. She wasn't sure she could help him, and she really wasn't sure that this was something he would want her to see.

"Zigûr?"

She reached out as if to touch the churning darkness. But caution stayed her hand. He might react very badly to any contact especially since she wasn't sure he was aware of her. Her hand, little more than a foot away from him, could feel the heat emanating from the former dark lord.

The darkness convulsed, fluttering and churning, as it seemed to rip itself apart in the throes of a violent spasm. For a moment the Maia's mumbling grew louder, Linaer could suddenly hear what she assumed were words in a language that scraped abrasively against her ears.

Gathering her skirts the girl fled, trying block out the unmistakable sound of a sob as she flung herself into the hall and quietly shut the door as quickly as possible.

Leaning against the wall Linaer waited for her breathing to slow down. She had no idea what she had seen, let alone how to respond to it. He hadn't even known she'd been next to him. And Linaer suspected it was best that he never found out.

'What could make a dark lord cry?'

The air still felt incredibly heavy and that needed to be dealt with before her mother and sister came home. She bit her lip, unsure of how she was going to accomplish that. The Fallen Maia was completely out of it, and rousing him just to tell him off for darkening her home seemed like an incredibly bad idea.

She looked toward the kitchen, and the sunlight streaming in through the widow, as if mocking the darkness about it.

It was nice outside….

'Maybe we can eat lunch on the porch…?'

Linaer frowned suddenly determined to open almost every single window in the house. Letting in the breeze and sunlight might help dispel the gloom from the house, and it might do him some good too….

So I'm doing this thing. It's a Q&A. Basically, every person is allowed to ask the characters or the writer questions.

The rules for this are simple:

1. I will allow up to three questions to be asked. (Please bear in mind that I will be screening for appropriateness and spoilers, so if a question isn't answered then one of those reasons is likely why.)

2. In you're review put a little 'Q&A' over the questions so I'll know they're supposed to be posted at the end of the following chapter.

3. Only characters who have been introduced in the story may be asked a question. (Sorry, but Morgoth is currently in the Void and unable to speak with anyone at this time.)

4. Multiple characters may be addressed in a single question.

5. There is a potential risk for spoilers depending on the nature of the questions that have been asked. Some people love spoilers, some people hate them. I will try to keep as few secrets from the light as possible.

6. All questions and answers will be anonymously posted at the end of the next chapter. (I will be posting usernames.)

7. I will not answer repeat questions. (I'll be keeping track of all the questions and their chapters, so that I can point people toward them.)

8. Don't hassle me about the questions. (Hassle me about updates, please. But not the questions.)

I thought I'd try this because I thought it'd be fun for you (and me), and it might encourage me to update faster. If this works out I'd like to continue doing this for the rest of the fic, or as long as you all are interested. No one is obligated to do this, nor does anyone have to continue asking questions if they don't want to. And this will not be a first-come/first-served deal. Everyone who asks a question will get at least one answered. (Again, I will be screening for spoilers and appropriateness.)

So ask your questions.