Disclaimer: I own nothing of Tolkien's works, however all original characters and story concepts solely belong to me. The Grigori and all documented characters associated with them belong in the public domain. Any references to the original book, The Serpent and the Peacock are copyrighted to A Selby. Any references to the worlds created by Joss Whedon belong to him.

Author Note: Sorry for the delay again, horrible horrible flu from which I am recovering slowly.

ooOoo

"This goes all the way through to the other side. So, I figure, there's a bloke somewhere around New Zealand standing on a bridge like this one, looking back down at us. All the way down. There's a hole in the world. Feels like we ought to have known."

- Spike, Angel the Series, The Deeper Well

The Hellmouth

Chapter 6 – The Old Ones

Previously in Valinor...

Even though Ossë's sense of time was not the same as that of mortal man, he was still aware of a sense of urgency surrounding his mission. While sitting in the cell in the remote Scottish Highland town his mind had flown back a few days earlier when his Lord had summoned him and told him to prepare for a voyage across the Straight Road. Things were not right. Valinor was now in a state of alert and cut off from everything. The Valar were preparing for war, but the signs that had been thought would precede the battle to end all battles and remake Arda were not in the correct conjunction. Some were there but some were not, and some who were meant to take primary positions in the battle were conspicuous by their absence.

The Doors of Night had been thrown open that much at least was certain. Earendil himself had witnessed it, yet neither sight nor sign of Melkor had been detected. The impenetrable darkness of the Void hung stark and black behind the open doors, but there was no huge outpouring of the miseries that were supposed to be attendant on the arrival of the First Evil. A very puzzled Mariner had gone to report to the Valar.

"They are free and massing their armies." Manwë had said grimly. Lady Varda had shuddered and the faces of Orome and Tulkas were as grim. "We may not have much time."

"What of Eönwë? Should we not try to contact him?" Irmo asked hesitantly. "He at least should be here."

Manwë sank bank into his chair and rubbed his temples wearily. "I cannot sense him in my thoughts and the window to the East is clouded. It has never been clouded before. To all intents and purposes, I am now blind as to what might be happening in Endore."

Ulmo stopped his pacing abruptly and glowered at the Elder King under fierce sea-green eyebrows. "Then we must send someone from here across the Straight Road to let those who reside there know what has happened. My Maiar tell me that the barrier between the dimension of Valinor and that of Middle-earth is still in place. We can cross over still."

Manwë frowned. "That is true, but I suspect that coming back may not be so easy. In fact whoever goes may not get back at all. They must understand this and therefore it must be voluntary. I will not send anyone from Valinor into that situation without their full knowledge as to what they are letting themselves in for."

A pale-faced Ilmarë, dressed now in a blue and white surcoat embroidered with an eagle and mithril armour with a long sword girt around her waist rather than her usual white robes entered the room with a tray of refreshments. Varda smiled at her.

"Thank you Ilmarë. How do the children on the slopes of Taniquetil fare?"

"They are confused my Lady." Ilmarë said quietly. "Lord Ingwë is doing his best to keep everyone calm. We do not know about Tirion and Alqualondë. Olorin has not yet returned from the cities of the Noldor and the Teleri."

Varda nodded. "Very well hinya (1), we will see him as soon as he returns." She turned to Manwë. "I take it that once all the Kings are fully apprised of the situation we will start to prepare? They will need to speak to their people. Once the darkness is finally here, the children will be sorely afraid. Ingwë and the others need to prepare them and their armies for the battle to come."

Manwë opened his mouth to reply but was forestalled by Namo, who up to this point had said nothing. He had stood sombre-faced and silent in the corner of the room and had refused all refreshment.

"I am a little concerned about this whole situation." He said quietly. "The Doors of Night lie open, but where is Melkor and where are the hordes from the Void? Why is all so silent within?"

Ulmo stroked his beard, but remained silent. Yes the Doors of Night lay open, but he knew that Melkor had not stridden through them with his dark armies at his back. In fact the only sensation emanating from the Stygian blackness within was one of fear, breathless expectation and perhaps a touch of confusion and curiosity from Melkor himself. Whatever the threat was, it was not from the dark Vala or any of the many hell dimensions within and for Ulmo that was worrying all on its own. If hideous and powerful evil demons from a hell dimension were too afraid to pass through the door, then whatever was causing the threat was formidable and even more hideous in its own right.

Somebody else had set a train of events in motion which more or less resembled the run up to the Dagor Dagorath which effectively separated Valinor and the actual Void from Endore and the Timeless Halls. As far as Ulmo knew those orders could only have come from somebody in the Timeless Halls itself. What he didn't understand was why Manwë and the others, with perhaps the exception of Namo, were in such denial. He had tried to tell them of his conversation with Melkor and his subsequent denial of the knowledge of any of the events, but the other Valar had declared it to be part of his usual trickery.

Ulmo was not so certain. It was quite obvious to him that whoever it was that had instigated all of this, they were operating on the premise of divide and conquer. With Valinor fully occupied with preparations for a battle that would not happen, at least not one that was meant to happen on the anticipated battlefield, and facing a stand-off against an enemy that apparently would not show itself and Eönwë and his people cut off and in ignorance of the events unfolding in Valinor, whatever was being planned from the Timeless Halls or whoever was responsible would have no opposition.

It was clear to Ulmo that not only the fate of Earth but that of the entire universe hung in the balance.

Ulmo could have pounded the walls in his frustration. Should he try to tell Manwë again what had transpired when Melkor has summoned him or should he remain quiet? He gazed searchingly around at his brother and sister Valar and saw doubt, fear and uncertainty. He withheld the deep sigh that threatened to blow everybody to the outer walls of the chamber. Perhaps sending Ossë over to Middle-earth would be the best bet. If more than just Valinor was in danger then the Herald definitely needed to know what was happening. He came to his decision.

"I will send Ossë to see if he can make contact with the Herald." He said firmly but quietly. "I do not know why Melkor has not come forth, but I suggest that one of us should step through the doors and speak with him again."

Manwë stood up abruptly and the goblet he had been holding shattered on the marble floor making everyone else wince. "I do not see the need for more speech with Melkor. He was ever adept at the dulcet lie. The signs are clear, the Doors of Night are open and we must prepare for the end as was written so long ago. The Timeless Halls were never meant to be involved in this. The fate of Arda was our remit, given to us alone by Eru and it is our sole task to see it through until the end. We will prepare for the last battle and if it has to take place without Eönwë then so be it." He turned to Ulmo. "Send Ossë if you must, but you must impress on him that there may be no way back."

Ulmo watched as the others nodded in assent, then he nodded briefly to the Elder King before dis-incarnating himself. Only seconds later he reappeared inside the arbour of New Imladris to a very startled Lady Galadriel, her husband Celeborn and their grandson Elrohir who were busy discussing the events as had been laid out by Olorin who had now gone to Alqualondë to give the same message to King Olwë.

He was so intent on setting his own plans in motion that he did not see the appraising look that Namo sent him as he de-materialised.

ooOoo

Inside the Void...

Melkor floated quietly within the Void awaiting the signal from Ulmo and the Senior Partners to separate his feä from his hroä . The voices from the various Hell dimensions were at last stilled. Some had been all for piling through the open doors and rampaging through, killing everything they could find. Others suspected that other elements were at play and some, who had actually ventured to the open doors had sensed a massive power outside and a light so powerful that they knew deep inside whatever served for a heart in their species that they knew they would just burn up.

The arguments for and against rushing the Doors of Night had rained violent and hot until finally the representative from the Senior Partners had silenced them all by calmly and coolly decapitating the most vociferous of the demon bosses. He then turned to Melkor.

"What do you think?"

Everyone looked at Melkor. They were all aware who and what he was of course...a Vala now dethroned and de-clawed. He claimed allegiance from none and none demanded his allegiance. Mostly they all ignored him or pretended he wasn't there. Unlike them, he had sprung from the ultimate goodness in the Universe and he was not a demon, despite his many crimes. He didn't belong. The Senior Partners did not defer to him, but neither did they treat him with disrespect.

Melkor pointed to himself. "Me? You're asking me?"

Amusement creased Lindsay McDonald's blue eyes. "That's the general idea." He smiled ingenuously at the former Vala. "After all, you're the one with the connections out there." He waved a negligent hand in the direction of the Doors of Night and the dimension of Valinor.

Melkor straightened up and his lips pursed. "I spoke to Ulmo, Lord of the Waters, that is true. I was merely confused as to why Lord Namo had not made his usual visit. I have the ability to summon one of the Valar but only Ulmo answered."

A combined hiss of fear was drawn in by all present. Even given that some of them were the most hideous monsters ever spawned, they all knew who the Lord of Mandos was and what his powers were.

"The Valar think that I have thrown open the Doors of Night." Melkor continued, examining his nails casually. "I imagine by now that they're beginning to wonder why none of us have forged through and decimated everything in our path."

"Could...could we do that do you think?" A creature who was a cross between a lizard and a bull with a large ring through his nose and red eyes asked tentatively. Hisses, grunts and snarls of assent and approval followed the question.

Melkor raised an eyebrow and shook his head in disbelief. "Yes, I suppose you could, if you can withstand the light from the Blessed Realm. Maybe we ought to test it out by pushing you through the doors and see if you end up extra crispy." Sarcasm dripped from his words and Lindsay chuckled.

"Nobody said that the minions of hell had to be intelligent." He drawled. "So the Valar believe that the Dagor Dagorath is here?"

Melkor's head lifted up. "You know about that?"

"The Senior Partners know everythin', which is why they know that this ain't the time for the endgame. What they think is that someone wants your Valar buddies to think that it is."

"Buddies." Melkor said bitterly. "I rather think they would object to that term. They are no friends of mine."

Lindsay moved closer. "And yet the Lord of the Waters took the time to have a nice little parley with you did he not?"

"Yes he did." Melkor huffed a sigh. "We both believe that something else is going on, we are just not sure what it is. What I am sure of is that there are now Maiar warriors outside the Doors of Night and if anyone so much as puts a tippy-toe over the threshold they'll be shish ka-bobbed and char-grilled. As much as I hate everything the Valar and the Maiar stand for, they are beings of the Light, a light that we cannot withstand."

"Well now... drawled Lindsay. "That ain't exactly the truth is it? You wouldn't be fried by the light."

Melkor let out a harsh laugh. "No, but if I did walk through then it would kick the whole battle off and it's not the right time. I am not ready."

"And the Senior Partners agree with you. Somethin' else is going down and now even they are cut off from earth. Their conduits through the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart have been silenced. How about if you summon Lord Ulmo again?" Lindsay asked. "Would he be prepared to come in and listen to us?"

"He might do." Melkor pursed his lips. "But with what aim in mind?"

"With the aim of lettin' your friend the Herald of Manwë and the Slayer and her people know that someone's plannin' a takeover and makin' sure that everyone who possibly could step in and stop it is busy doin' somethin' else?"

Melkor cocked his head onto one side. "Isn't this a situation that you want though? After all, with the Valar busy thinking it's the final battle, the Timeless Halls are out of contact for whatever reason..."

"And earth is left unprotected except for the Herald of Manwë and the Slayer..." Lindsay continued. "Yeah, yeah, I get it, the store is left un-minded and yet here we are kickin' our heels behind an open door." He stepped closer to Melkor. "Look, if we wanted earth overrun and turned all evil, we'd have done it centuries...millennia ago. An earth populated by nothing by evil entities and half-demons runs contrariwise to our whole raison d'etre. For evil to abound, there has to be good. Take away the good and what are you left with?"

Melkor blinked. "I get your drift. You don't want humankind to be obliterated because it takes away your reason for existing in the first place. So who..." he stopped dead and stared at Lindsay with realisation in his eyes. "Half-demons?"

"Now you're gettin' it."

Melkor went a little pale. "That's not possible...those of whom you speak were brought down not long after the time of my first captivity at the hands of the Valar. You...your Senior Partners filled the void left by their demise."

Lindsay coughed delicately behind one tanned hand and Melkor glared at him. "Well now...I wouldn't exactly say that they were dead as such."

Melkor goggled at him. "Not dead? You're trying to tell me that they survived? Why in the name of everything good and evil in the Universe and Eru aren't they dead? Are you out of your collective, lame-brained evil minds?"

"Sticks and stones buddy...sticks and stones." Lindsay looked unconcerned even as everyone else present drew back at the acerbic tone in the former Vala's voice. "They were taken care of." He looked uncomfortable for the first time in the conversation.

Melkor drew in a deep shuddering breath. "The Deeper Well...please don't tell me that you put them into stasis and then dumped them in the Deeper Well."

A slightly shifty expression flitted across Lindsay's handsome, tanned features. "All righty then...I won't tell you that. In our defence none of them have broken out of there, except perhaps for...Illyria." He said the name under his breath.

"Illyria as in the God-King of the Primordium?" Melkor asked silkily. "The creature who called itself "Shaper of Things?"

"Well, yeah, I guess that didn't go down too well with you now did it, bein' that you pretty much wanted to shape things as well. How'd that work out for you by the way?"

Melkor fought down the urge to crush this minion of the Senior Partners. He ignored the question and posed one of his own. "Is the Illyria creature still at large?"

Lindsay's expression shifted again. "We're not sure. We kinda lost touch with her after that Circle of the Black Thorn fiasco in Los Angeles. We think she survived the onslaught but then she went right off the radar...but it's okay...Illyria is trapped inside a human vessel, a female once known in life as Winifred Burkle. Her primordial powers are restrained within the human shell. Her Qwa'ha Xahn got it wrong when he broke her out."

"You're babbling. Get to the point." Melkor cut him off. "So one of the Old Ones has already been restored from the Deeper Well? What of the well's guardians and the remainder of the Old Ones? Has anyone thought to check the well?"

Things were becoming so much clearer to him now and the amount and level of inefficient meddling was beyond ridiculous. One didn't keep powerful creatures alive in any shape or form, one destroyed them so they couldn't come back to bite you on the ass. On the other hand, perhaps neither the Senior Partners nor anyone else left behind had the kind of power that it took to destroy the full demons and he had been far too busy with his own affairs to even take an interest at the time. Go me, he thought bitterly, yay for forward planning. He remembered earth under the rule of the full demons. They had allowed him a great deal of space simply because they knew what he was and were afraid to come onto his radar as an enemy, then the next he knew they were gone and only a few pathetic half demons, like the vampires, were left behind. The Senior Partner had held some control over the supernatural population, but had not tried to exercise it fully at the time. The Elves were no fools and they were superb and prodigious warriors. While they fought alongside the humans who also had their own warrior, the Slayer created by human Shamans from demonic essence put into a girl child. The Senior Partners were content to leave earth alone during that time. It was only as the Age of Men began in earnest that they had turned their attentions back to that small green planet revolving serenely in the cosmos.

Lindsay had the grace to look slightly ashamed. "Jix and Artrode, the demon guardians were defeated by Spike and Angel, two ensouled vampires. Unfortunately Drogyn the Battlehand, the Keeper of the well was also destroyed by Angel in his attempts to infiltrate the Circle of the Black Thorn. There are now new guardians and a new keeper whose name is never spoken."

Melkor slumped slightly. "How did I not know of this?"

Lindsay shrugged. "Well, you might have been a bit distracted given that you were busy tryin' to open the Sunnydale Hellmouth and tryin' to defeat the Slayer and her slayerettes at the time."

"The incident that nearly levelled Los Angeles?"

"There ya go. Yeah, you were firmly defeated by the time the whole thing went down, but we're digressing. I take it that ya'll agree that someone is trying to resurrect the Old Ones?" Lindsay was back to his chirpy Texan self, leaving Melkor with an overwhelming desire to wipe the grin of that handsome face of his.

"It has to be." A very humanoid looking demon dressed in what looked for all the world like a Calvin Klein business suit from the Klx'Hal Dimension spoke up warily. He too remembered the time when full blooded demons strode the earth and cut a bloody swathe across dimensions to create their sovereign states. None of the dimensions had been safe. As half demons, the only thing they would be used for were as slaves, entertainment and canon fodder. "Someone wants to bring back hell on earth."

"They know that with the Herald of Manwë resident on earth at this time, the Valar would step in if the Old Ones appeared and just tried to take over, so they manufactured this false Dagor Dagorath to keep them busy and leave Eönwë without an army of Light to help him." Melkor frowned. "There are some elements of the whole thing that don't make sense. The Timeless Halls..."

"... are as ignorant of the true events as we...and you... are." Ulmo's deep voice broke into the conversation and hundreds of demons squealed in fear as they realised that they were surrounded by Ulmo's Maiar and couldn't escape the net surrounding them.

"Speak. Speak quickly and speak well." Ulmo said in his deep voice and those who dared to even try to look into his eyes and the eyes of those accompanying them found their expressions to be implacable.

The only ones to withstand the sudden appearance of beings of Light in the Void were Melkor and Lindsay whose only facial change was that his blue eyes narrowed to slits.

ooOoo

The Loch Mairie Police Station

Ossë opened his eyes after recounting the events that had led to him, Earendil and Celeborn being transported to Middle-earth to find that Eönwë, Jim and Finrod staring at him in consternation and disbelief.

"Melkor is free?" It was all that Finrod managed to say. He felt as though all the breath had been crushed from his chest. His children and grandchildren, Amme...all of them...they could be fighting for their very lives at this very moment in the battle for the end and he was here in Middle-earth.

"Where is Melkor?" Eönwë asked quietly. He too had always assumed that he would meet the former Vala on the battlefield alongside Tuor and Tulkas, but for him something smelled a little off.

Ossë shook his head. "You're not listening. He's not free, at least not in the bodily sense. Lord Ulmo and the Senior Partners made an agreement that his feä is allowed to leave the Void and assist us here in bringing down the plan to resurrect the Old Ones. It's the only way, since they cannot get out of the Void and Valinor is preparing for war. He is the only one who can make his feä leave the Void. He can inhabit the body of someone either dead or has been dead but he cannot take corporeal form." He caught hold of Eönwë's arm. "If the paperwork is completed then we need to go. Melkor will have gone straight to his former second in command and pupil Sauron, who is now Dr Rupert Giles and the Head Watcher for the International Watchers and Slayer's Council. I have reason to believe that we will also find Celeborn and Earendil there, although they may be a little worse the wear from their encounter with the Slayers."

"Can we go back to Valinor?" Finrod asked.

Ossë shook his head regretfully. "Alas not Findarato, the Straight Road is now closed to all, either coming from or going to Valinor."

The Desk Sergeant appeared in the cell doorway. "Er...the paperwork is complete. Mr Ossy can sign for his belongings and here are his clothes. He'll need to sign discharge papers though at the front desk if you don't mind."

Eönwë thanked him and handed Ossë his clothing. "We will see you out at the front desk once you're dressed Ossë."

Ossë took the clothes and started to dress himself without preamble.

The Desk Sergeant cleared his throat. "I should tell you that there's a Dr Rupert Giles out at the front desk. Apparently he came to get your friend out of jail as well, along with a few of his...er...young ladies.

Eönwë and the others exchanged speaking glances. It looked very much as though whatever forces of light left on earth were beginning to come together.

ooOoo

Hinya...My child