Adar blinked. His eyelids were heavy, and he could tell he'd been asleep, and dreaming of the past. Adar didn't remember why he'd been unconscious, but guessed it had something to do with Sauron's magic. Usually, Sauron liked to drag Adar places while he was awake, kicking and screaming. Adar looked around. He was sitting in a chair on one end of a dining table, and there were cuffs on each of his wrists, connected to the ground by a long length of chain. Long enough that he could move around a bit, but not escape. A show of Sauron's 'trust', and Sauron's absolute control.
Adar waited for a few moments before Sauron inevitably showed himself, dressed the way he was before, but his hair was braided back. Sauron looked uncomfortably pleased with himself, and Adar didn't want to know why. "Greetings." Sauron said. "I see you're back to the land of the waking." Adar frowned. He could have been out for half an hour, or half a week. He wouldn't give Sauron the satisfaction of asking. "Why am I here?" Adar asked again. Sauron chucked, and reached across the table to grab Adar's face. "Now now, my strange Persephone." He said. "That's no way to talk to your husband."
Adar glared daggers at Sauron. When Adar was much younger, he'd been taken by Morgoth's forces. Morgoth had experimented on Adar since he was a child, trying to turn him from an elf to an Uruk. Well, he'd halfway succeeded. However, when Adar came of age, Sauron had been complaining and rebelling against Morgoth. And so, Morgoth decided to give Adar to Sauron as his 'bride.' Sauron brought up the marriage thing whenever he got the chance, even though it wasn't something Adar had ever really had the chance to agree to. He'd just been shoved at Sauron like an object to possess, because he'd been some kind of curiosity back then. As a result, Sauron still felt like he owned Adar, even now.
"You're no husband of mine, and you know it." Adar said. Sauron smirked. "I'm pretty sure the terms of our marriage are binding by Morgoth's laws." Adar clenched his fists. "Morgoth is dead. You made sure of that." Between Sauron and Morgoth, Adar would have chosen Morgoth to be the evil boss he was forced to serve. Morgoth at least could be kind to Adar, and would sometimes read to him, or take him into town for an outing after a particularly painful experimentation session. Because Adar had been taken from Lindon at such a young age, he didn't really remember his birth family. Morgoth, as scary as he could be sometimes, had been the closest thing Adar had ever had to a father. And Sauron had split Morgoth open in front of Adar.
"Quit lording his death over me." Adar said, then took a strike. "We all know you'll never be the king Morgoth was." Sauron tightened his grip on Adar, and slid his hand down slowly, so he was strangling him. "We both know that man tortured the two of us, trying to break us down into more useful minions to his empire." Sauron said, mere inches from Adar's face. "Stop lording that man's evil over me." Sauron lifted Adar up as far as the chains would allow, pulling him out of his seat. Adar struggled to breathe as Sauron's grip tightened, and his boots left the ground. Adar looked Sauron dead in the eye, and choked out his most cutting statement. "At least Morgoth treated me with some kindness."
Sauron's eyes flashed red, but he dropped Adar back into his chair. Adar started coughing, and gasping for air. He put a hand to his throat. One of Sauron's rings had dug into his skin, and he was now bleeding slightly. Sauron shook his head. "Now look at what you made me do to you." He said, and brushed a strand of Adar's hair behind his ear. "Whatever you do, you do of your own accord." Adar said. "Stop blaming me for your own cruelty."
It had taken Adar a while to be able to stand up to Sauron, and he felt stronger now that he finally could. Sauron would always seek Adar out, seek to twist him, seek to own him. But Adar had almost killed the demon once before, and if fate favored him, he was going to do so again. But this time, Sauron was going to stay dead.
"Adar, Adar, Adar." Sauron said, and got up to circle the table. "If you wanted kindness, all you had to do was ask." Sauron rested his head on Adar's shoulder, and stared directly at his prisoner. "I can be a very kind man when I want to be, as you well know. Even if you don't always give me what I want."
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My Strange Persephone
FanfictionWhat happens if Adar didn't actually die at his children's hands? Sauron decides to spare Adar's life, both because he wants his former subordinate back, and because he wants to use him to draw out Galadriel. Can Galadriel come to Adar's rescue and...