Bolts of lightning danced around Melkor.
The elements raged around him, burning and shattering the walls.
The winds roared like a titan charging into battle.
And the scar shined brighter and brighter as Melkor's arm reached further and further into the rift of the world.
Melkor could hear her, she called to him.
He struggled to stand afoot, but he knew he was close.
He could hear her voice echo in the dungeon below the tower.
"My love, where are you!" He roared
Then he felt it
His hand interlocked with another inside the rift
"AINA!"
Melkor tried pulling whoever had grabbed him out of the rift, but as he pulled it felt like something was pulling him in with the force of a giant.
Melkor was slowly being pulled into the rift.
With as much strength Melkor could muster he pulled back, but he was not the god he once was. His powers had been all but taken, and all that was left was a mortal in the great game of life.
Melkor was enveloped in the rift, and all that was left in the room was a scar, a scar in the world.
....
'Where am I, my head, am I laying on something... soft?'
Melkor opened his eyes, he was lying facing up on the ground, but instead of finding a ceiling, he found another pair of eyes, bright orange eyes staring right back.
"I know those eyes, I know your face," Melkor whispered
He reached up to touch her, for he did not believe what he saw was real.
The woman grabbed his hand and pulled it to her cheek.
"My love, My Melkor, you've found me." she smiled
Melkor sat up embracing Aina in a hug that could break bones.
They locked lips like it was their last moments together.
Breaking the kiss, Melkor stared at Aina with wonder
"How is this possible?" Melkor asked
Aina's smile was gentle as she looked at her husband, whom she had thought she had lost forever.
"I thought I had lost you forever, but here you are" Aina chuckled with tears falling, her happiness shined upon Melkor like a star in the night sky.
"What happened after I chained and cast into the void, how long was I gone from Eä?"
"I don't know. We've been here for so long, but we were imprisoned here shortly after your banishment by Eru himself."
"That makes no sense, you never took action during the War of Wrath."
Melkor was lost in thought as he stared into the eyes of his beautiful wife.
His eyes widened in realization.
"What do you mean 'WE'?"
Aina chuckled "Look behind you."
Melkor turned around and locked eyes with someone he had thought dead.
"Carcharoth?" Melkor's eyes widened in surprise, unable to believe his once mighty beast now lay alive and well after witnessing his death at the gates of Angband.
Melkor finally started to realize where he was. It was an endless sea of blackness, with a floor or nothingness covered in a lair of water. Wherever the eye could see was just nothing.
Melkor turned back to Aina. "Why did father send you here?"
Aina shrugged. "I'm as lost as you are. All I remember is watching you be cast out into the Door of night, there was a light that surrounded me, and then I ended up here with Carcharoth, who I thought had died.
"Eru did not send you here lady Aina, we brought you and your beast here." A voice resounded through the blackness of the unending realm. It sounded beastly and human at the same time, man and woman, the voice gave off a wave of uncertainty as it spoke.
"Come Melkor, come, Aina, we have much to discuss."
As the voice beckoned for the pair a light parted away the darkness. It was not a light of holiness like that of Eru, but a light of terror, eyrie, wariness waned of the light. It was dark and green as a swamp.
The newly united pair entered past the light and were greeted by a dark and ominous forest.
Aina clung to Melkor's side, afraid to lose him again.
They found themselves in a small circular clearing, and atop rocks in that circle were dark figures that gave off a Presence of dread, and death, but also life, and prosperity.
They were more animal than man, more beast than human. They reminded Melkor the the Greenmen.
Melkor looked to the centermost figure.
The best way to describe him was emotionless. His face looked to be made of Weirdwood. He had eyeless sockets that bled black sap. Out of his scalp, Melkor thought was hair but it was dead roots and vines that hung low. The most prominent feature on him was the crown of horns that grew out of his head. Unlike Eoghan's horns which were animalistic, this stranger's were like thorns on a bush.
"Who are you?" Melkor warily watched the figures around him and his wife.
"Our names do not matter for now, what matters is what happened to you Morgoth Bauglir."
Melkor eyes were alit ablaze
"How do you know that wretched name."
The figures around them laughed "Because we have been watching you, from before your beginning to your end we have been watching, and you are exactly who we have been waiting for... Brother."
The wind around Melkor stirred. "What did you call me, we are not brothers, I have never seen you before in my entire existence. And I have existed long before CREATION!"
The head figure was the only one to laugh this time.
"Yes, you have been around since before YOUR universe's creation, but we have been here far longer than you."
Melkor calmed himself down with the help of his wife, who soothed him, with her touch.
"What do you mean by, 'Before your universe's creation', exactly?"
The figure's eyeless sockets glowed alight like Amber, barely seen only by those with the sharpest of eyes.
"Do you really believe you and your brethren were the first creations of Eru, do you truly think he did not go through some sort of trial and error."
Melkor's eyes began to widen as the information began to sink in.
"Impossible. WHAT YOU SPEAK OF IS IMPOSSIBLE!"
The figures around them began to laugh
"We were the first creations of Eru Illuvitar, the first gods to bring life to this universe. But we were deemed an unsuccessful experiment by our GREAT CREATOR, and abandoned along with our home, our creation, our universe."
Melkor and Aina couldn't believe what they were hearing. They weren't the first creations of Eru. There were so many questions flying through Melkor's head he didn't know what to ask first.
"Why... Was I sent here?"
"This universe is where Eru sends all of his failed experiments and mishaps."
Aina perked up. "You said 'all', does that mean there are others."
The figure nodded, There have been hundreds of different gods and pantheons sent to this land, always something different about them, but the only important thing about us is that we were here first, we are the creators of these lands, and we, the creators, shall remain in these lands."
Aina had no clue about what lands these strange gods claimed to live on, "These lands, where are they?
"Your husband and daughter were sent to these lands many moons ago. But you, Eru did nothing with you, for all he knows, you disappeared without a trace."
Aina's eyes widened "Did you say... daughter?"
another of the figures groaned out in annoyance "What is with all the questions, just tell them what's going on already."
The figure seemed humanoid in all but his head. His face was like a mask of weirwood, with only two blankness eyeholes, and atop his head were a pair of horns of a water buffalo.
Melkor turned Aina to him. "When I was in the void I was visited by Eru. He told me He would give me a second chance in a new world."
The head figure interrupted Melkor's explanation
"Over the course of our time here the different gods banished to our lands, we have heard the same story. Eru tells them he wishes them a second chance but is just an excuse for him not to worry about them anymore."
Melkor had many questions but needed to explain what had happened to him to Aina.
"When I had woken up in a strange land outside this realm, I wondered until I came upon a man who calls himself Beorn, and he is who showed me her, our daughter."
Melkor smiled as he told Aina his short tale of his adventures with Beorn, and how he often looked after their child.
Aina cried tears of joy hearing about her daughter she had only held once.
"I thought her lost. She was taken by the Ainur soon after your banishment."
Melkor embraced Aina as she cried, letting her have this one moment of peace before the coming storm he foresaw.
Melkor turned back to the figures. "Why did you bring my wife here, and how did you bring Carcharoth here, he should be dead."
It was a different figure that answered this time. The figure was cloaked in a green poncho covering the entirety of his body but his hands. His head was a skull of a deer, antlers and all.
"His body died, but we were able to bring his soul to this world before he was killed. His powers have been drained because of it, and is not the powerful beast you remember.
Melkor looked at the head figure "I'll ask again, Why did you bring them here? Do you wish me to do something for you, or did you simply bring me here for your amusement?"
The head figure shook his head. "We do not wish for you to do something for us nor is it for amusement. But it is to find a way back to your world."
Melkor raised a brow "Are you not able to do that yourself? did you not bring my family here from my world?"
The head figure nodded "We did. we can reach into your world if they are close enough on the edge and pull them into ours, but we can not leave our own, a curse upon this universe by our shared creator.
What we want you to do is find a way out of this prison and open a hole big enough for us to take our revenge against the one you hate so much."
"What of my powers, or my wife, or Carcharoth's? HE stripped me of what power I once had." Melkor asked.
"They will return in time. so will your beasts. But for now, you must find your allies we have pulled from your world, they will be the key to breaking the lock that holds us here."
"Others?" Melkor asked
The head figure nodded "Others. We brought powerful allies and servants of yours to this land but were locked within rifts like your wife. They would be too unpredictable should they walk free in our home. They have been weakened like you but also shall return to their peak once again."
A new figure spoke. She was as pale as Aina, hair white as snow, and had a blindfold that covered her eyes. And just like the others, she too had a pair of horns sprouting from her head.
"Our time is coming to an end. We must send you on your way with a warning and one last gift."
"Nothing good can come of this." Aina commented
"The other gods sent here by Eru are not on good terms with us like others. One in particular we hate more than the most.
"Most?" Melkor asked
"Most gods we don't agree with, claiming this land as their own. But you are different. You will be the one to aid us, work with us. Your power exceeds all others when you were first born. And we shall work together not as master and servant, but as allies."
Melkor nodded. "Who's this god I need to be wary of then?"
"He calls himself the Great Other, the god of ice and darkness, he wishes for the same things upon our land you had done upon your own land. But we do not care what you do to your land, as long as you leave our land in a state of wholeness we shall not find ourselves at each other's throats."
Melkor nodded "I can agree to that."
"What you need to be warned of is that this god's servants march south towards you."
"And I'm guessing this gift your supposed to give me is going to help me fight back against them?"
None of the figures answered him. What they did instead was lift their hands towards Melkor.
A great light began to emanate around Melkor "We sacrifice our powers to empower you, remember our agreement Morgoth Bauglir, break the lock, be our key."
The light disappeared and Melkor and Aina found themselves in the room where the scar once was. Above them stood Carcharoth.
Melkor looked around him feeling reinvigorated
Aina looked at him "Is something wrong?"
Melkor looked up at her and smiled. "My powers, I can feel them returning. Nothing near what I wielded at the end of the War of Wrath but now I feel something returning.
The tower they stood in shook. Melkor looked up "Looks like they haven't broken the siege yet."
Aina smiled at him. "Good, you can test your powers against them."
Melkor stared into her eyes. His crimson eyes lit aflame, and a wicked grin spread across his face. "You know me so well."
Melkor raised his arms and began to chant in a dark tongue. As he spoke it the small weeds growing in the cracks of the tower died, and the walls decayed. And in his hands, two black flames emerged.
And as Melkor finished his chant the flames went out, and there was nothing but silence. But as the silence grew it was followed by shaking. It was as if the earth itself would give out. And was followed by the rushing of water, then screams.
Aina raised an eyebrow at him with her arms crossed. "And that was?"
Melkor smirked at her as he lowered his arms. "Why don't I show you."