#mandos had to stop a one man revolution the little man was PISSED and so where all of his brothers

[youareunbearable]

A fun little idea, what if Maedhros CANT die?

Hes captured by Melkor and Sauron for likem, 30 years, hanging by his hand on a cliffside which by all accounts he should have died from exposure, his wounds, or neglect like that. Sauron is also literally called The Necromancer, what if he DID something to Maedhros, to make it so he couldn't die, as a way to torment him more?

Maedhros gets stabbed in the heart, his throat slit, chained naked to a cliffside in the frigid north for years. Nothing can kill him, Mandos' horn never rings in his ears. But after he was rescued, he thinks that curse was left behind in that prison with his right hand. But over and over he hears "you were very lucky, you should have died" and the doubt seeps in.

You can read this on A03 if you'd like

Maedhros gets stabbed in the heart, his throat slit, chained naked to a cliffside in the frigid north for years. Nothing can kill him, Mandos' horn never rings in his ears. But after he was rescued, he thinks that curse was left behind in that prison with his right hand. But over and over he hears "you were very lucky, you should have died" and the doubt seeps in.

One by one everyone he loves dies around him yet Maedhros knows he can never follow them. He should have died in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad with Fingon, yet here he still stands-- haunted, broken, defeated. He goes through two more Kinslayings, watching with apathy as his foes look at him with dawning horror as they realize no matter what wounds they give him, he keeps walking towards them. Dior's eyes filled with terror as Maedhros, pulling the sword out from his chest, swings that same sword in a great arc that kills two of his guards in one blow. Elwing spits curses and, without giving her children a second glance, throws herself out of the tower balcony to escape the monster riddled with arrows that reaches a hairbreadth too late for her.

He's tired. He doesn't feel alive. How can a hroa keep going when the fea screams for release?

Once he gets the Silmaril, he throws himself into a lava pit because surely this will work. If he completely destroys the hroa, maybe he can finally go visit Mandos Halls and repent and be reborn like his siblings and kin.

But instead, he opens his eyes and he's nothing more than a shade, a flicker of his white fiery fea without a hroa. A desperate look around shows that he's stuck on what is left of his fortress on Tol Himring, a lone abandoned castle surrounded by ocean on all sides. He screams and rages and weeps because not even the complete destruction of his body will free him and it's Not Fair all he wants is Peace. He tries his best to will himself into Mandos Halls, at first just as his grandmother had done and then using his ghostly hands to tear himself apart, but no horn call ever comes. All he can hear are seagulls and the waves along the shore.

Once he tires himself out, he discovers that his fea isn't houseless, but instead its tied to a ring, one that was left behind when the fortress was abandoned after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. The ring was simple, gold, had a small red gem in the middle, and had a clumsy eight pointed star engraved into the inside of the band. The first and only ring Maedhros ever made with his father back in Valinor, when his father was trying to teach him the importance of putting bits of one's fea into their work. He messed up the ring, pouring a bit too much of his fea into the gem, making the red stone shine with an unnatural white light. His father was proud of it anyways and carried it until the day he died. That lesson was the only thing that allowed him to wake up in his abandoned fortress then in the earth's depths with the lava or wandering unbound and houseless in the world.

(Later, when he heard of Sauron's fate, he laughed and laughed. It felt poetic.)

So he spends the next couple years alone, watching the remains of his fortress crumble around him to the sands of time. Then one day, a small boat comes to his island, and a mortal Man comes out. He snoops around, pocketing a couple of lingering trinkets that look like they could be worth something once cleaned up. He wasn't the first Man to come to the island, but most could feel Maedhros' anger and fled shortly after and all those that came after talked about the island being haunted. This was the first Man to visit after Maedhros calmed, doing nothing but following the clueless mortal as he scavenged his former home. The Man discovered Maedhros' ring in the remains of his personal office, the rotten oak desk drawers easy to open. He let out a low whistle and slipped Maedhros' ring onto his finger, eyebrows raising in surprise when the ring adjusts itself to fit his slimmer finger. He takes the ring back with him, unknowingly taking Maedhros along with him.

All of the trinkets get sold except for Maedhros' ring. The former Elven lord just watches and talks to the Man as he grows, gets married, becomes a fisherman, and starts a family. No matter what, Maedhros is never heard or seen, he has no way of letting this Man know that he's there and something breaks a little more within what's left of him.

He's broken and old and tired, yet watching over the Man and his growing family makes him feel something again. He has always felt better when near children, something about their chubby little cheeks and pudgy little fingers and toes makes something warm and happy and domestic rise up and heal some wounds in his heart. He sings and tells stories to mortal children as they sleep, and is pleasantly surprised when their youngest daughter, a babe basically, can see and babble at him and laughs when he makes silly faces at her or tells a funny tale. She grows up and her ability to see Maedhros fades with age, which is sad. She ends up taking his ring with her when she starts her own family.

The woman is surprised when she learns that her children have the same imaginary friend that she had growing up: the tall, scarred elf; whos red hair licks and twists like fire at the ends; whos dressed in big fluffy furs and crimson robes that smoke and smolder like a dying fire at the hems; whos only sporting one hand, the right one ending at the wrist. As scary as he looked, he always had the warmest smiles, his low growly voice always sang the best lullabies, and he was promised that he was scarier than any nightmare or boogeyman, so she always felt safe to fall asleep under his protective gaze.

She thinks and looks down at the ring her father said he had taken from an old Elven fortress, which sparkled with a strange type of white magic as her imaginary Elf did. She swallowed, staring into the little gold gem that fit snugly on her right ring finger. Her ghostly Elven protector doesn't seem bad, and has never shown her or her children any ill will, so she keeps it.

She makes sure to tell her children this theory when they grow up, as its the only reason why all of her children saw and played with the same imaginary red haired Elf growing up. One day, when the children ask his name, for they learned about manners and it would be rude to call him Elf all the time, he was silent for a long time before they could hear a whisper in their ears: "Russo"

It goes on like this, Maedhros becoming a family heirloom, a ghostly nanny of human children and a comfort to their parents. Generations pass like this until one day, one of the sons marries a Númenórean woman. When they are given Maedhros' ring as a wedding gift, she gasps in shock once the ring slips onto her right ring finger and she suddenly sees a tall, foreboding, Elven warrior made of smoke and fire. Everyone, including Maedhros, is surprised that the woman can see him, but soon everyone agrees that it must be because she has Elven blood in her ancestry.

She grows to love Maedhros just as the children do, teasingly calling him "uncle" and it makes something in heel. It isn't until now that he realizes that he has made a family with these mortals. That if he looks down at himself he doesn't seem so faded, he feels solid and as whole as he felt in a while.

The Númenórean woman has a son, and he can see Maedhros just as all the children do, but this time he never stops seeing the Elven lord. He becomes the newest holder of his ring ater he declares he wishes to travel the world beyond their little northern fishing village. Maedhros goes with him to keep him company and to keep him safe. The boy reminds him of Elros, so sure of himself and always ready to stick his nose in where it doesn't belong.

This is evident when he passes by a trope of Elves heading away from the Misty Mountains towards the Western Sea. Maedhros makes himself vanish into the ring when he sees who's exactly in the party, his fea trembling with shame. The boy invites himself up to their stately party and asks if they can tell him anything about this ring that has been in his family for generations. All he knows is that it's Elven and everyone who grew up with the ring always had seen an Elf with red hair and scars and fire as a child. He's at least smart enough not to mention the name Maedhros gave the mortals, as surely these Elves would know who owns the name Russo.

At their shocked and horrified faces he tries to backpedal and explains that the ghostly Elf was always very kind, singing songs and comforting them when they woke from nightmares, he just wondered why Elves would make a magic ring like that. It seems very lonely to make a ring with a caretaker that can only be seen by those with Elf blood, then not keep the ring with Elvenkind.

Celebrimbor, who was on his way to meet with this Annatar in Lindon after hearing about him from Elrond and Gil-Galad's letters (they hope to use him to know if this Annatar is what he says he is, as neither of them were old enough to be born in Valinor, and Galadriel never spent time in Alue's forge to recognize his Maiar) throws all his plans out the window.

Erestor, who was sent by Elrond to make sure that Celebrimbor actually read the letters and didn't leave them untouched in the disaster that is his office, grips his cousin's arm and sways slightly on his feet.

Both remember the last time they saw their uncle alive, how haunted and broken he looked, and they both heard how he cast himself into the fire of the earth. Neither expected to hear anything about their uncle Maedhros lingering in the world, as he should have surely been in Mandos Halls after that stunt.

Erestor swallows and asks the Man if he could hum one of those bedtime songs his magic ring sings to him. After hearing the first couple of notes that his own uncle Maedhros used to sing to him as a child back in Valinor, Celebrimbor sobs openly as he looks at a simple gold ring that hums with his uncle's brilliant white fea in time with the tune.

Celebrimbor, as the eldest of the two cousins, is given that ring. The Man says that if it belonged to his uncle then he surely should have it, since it was his ancestor that stole it from the Elf's family home to begin with. When Celebrimbor wears Maedhros' ring he can feel his uncle and see a flicker of his image, he can hear his strong, and almost forgotten, voice whisper in his ear. He learns about the curse Sauron has put on the eldest of Feanor's sons, and vows to undo it. Erestor travels with the mortal Man back to his village, horse laden with gifts of gold, silver, and gems of every colour to gift the family as a thanks for keeping their wayward uncle safe. Then he rides as fast as possible back to Lindon and whispers urgently in Elrond and Gil-Galad's ears, out of earshot of their Maiar guest. Uneasy and hopeful eyes turn to Eregion, and no matter what one might think about the Feanorians and their crimes, all agree that being barred from hearing Mandos Call is a punishment enough.

This is the real reason he designs the Elf Stone, not for Galadriel and her weary of a world that passes by too fast, but as a way to turn back time to fix his uncle. Because of this, he is too busy to visit Lindon and see Annatar, or to entertain him when he visits, heeding Maedhros warning whispers about how similar he feels to Sauron to be trustworthy. Suddenly, when Eregion's gates very firmly shut behind an exiled Annatar, suddenly all the other Elven strongholds have barred their doors as well, and arrows become notched when he comes into view.

(Sauron steams in fury once again over Maedhros, for of course he saw the flicker of fea tied to a golden ring on the finger of the Lord of Eregion. He keeps that idea into the back of his mind for later as he retreats back to his stronghold to devise another strategy)

Eregion never falls and stays as one of the last Elven cities that linger into the Third Age, except instead of hidden and secluded as the others, this city is a melting pot of cultures and peoples. "The Free City" as some have called it and Maedhros weeps as his nephew accomplishes something that was once his dream.

Celebrimbor gifts Maedhros’ ring to Elrond after the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, claiming that Maedhros will be a better comfort for him after the death of Gil-Galad. He also winks and informs the Half-Elf that when he came upon Maedhros ring, he originally was helping a mortal family as a ghostly nanny. He laughed at Elrond's red face and frantic glance at Celebrian, who snuggled up at her fiancé. With the little gold ring on his right ring finger, Elrond is also able to hear Maedhros' gravelly chortle to echo Celebrimbor.

His foster father smiles down at Elrond, his scars pulling his lips to make that smile a little crooked, something that as a child, Elrond desperately tried to see aimed at him whenever he could get it.

So the Lord of the Hidden Valley can speak with his father once more. Time has done a toll on both foster son and foster father, but they have each other now when neither thought it was possible before. Elrond has someone to walk him down the aisle at his wedding, has a parent to ask advice from about raising his three rambunctious children. He has an experienced lord and advisor to turn to when it comes to diplomatic meetings with mortal kings or the other Elven realms.

When Celebrian gets taken, Maedhros is on the finger of one of Elrond's twin sons, and his fea burns as bright and hot as his father's which sends all of Sauron's fell creatures screaming and their eyes fried within their skulls. After that, it is Celebrian that wears Maedhros' ring constantly, even when she visits her mother and father in their realm. Galadriel and Celeborn grit their teeth knowing that a Son of Feanor is within their borders, but neither can so anything, as he is the best there is to help their only daughter heal from the trauma of being captured by the Enemy and tortured.

In the end, she didn't sail West, but it was a near thing. It was only thanks to Maedhros' brilliant and warm comfort, and the songs he taught Elrond, ones that Maglor invented and used to sing for him after he was freed from Thangorodrim. Celebrian was changed, more distant, but she was there for her daughter and sons and husband, and that was enough.

When Celebrimbor comes knocking at Elrond's door while the Lord is away on a patrol with his sons, laughing with a trope of thirteen Dwarves, one Hobbit, and a Wizard behind him, Maedhros himself can't help but laugh with Celebrian at the tight and annoyed expression on Erestor's face. Their laughter becomes louder as Erestor tries to scold his cousin in Quenya, who only responds in a petulant Westron which only rallies up the Dwarves in defend of their favoured Elvish Lord, one who not only opened his gates to the refugees of Moria, but also to those of Erebor centuries later.

(Maedhros was loaned back to Celebrimbor when his nephew foolishly joined in when the Dwarves tried to retake Moria in the Battle of Nanduhirion. He gladly burned his fea brightly to scald the Enemy as his nephew cut them down in a flurry. They managed to chase the Goblins back into the dark from whence they came, but at too high a cost as there were many bodies of loyal Dwarves and Elves scattered on the battleground. They couldn't even recapture the fallen city properly, as Maedhros recoiled in dread as he felt the lingering fowl magic of a Balrog in the depths of the mountain. He shuttered and urged his nephew and the remaining Dwarven lords to leave, as they would need more than two exhausted and lessened armies to take down one of Morgoth's foul creations. He refused to see another one of his loved ones fall to those fiery beasts. Moria still remains sealed, but Celebrimbor, Maedhros, Glorfindel and Thrain II meet every once in a while to see what can be done about the foul beast.)

Celebrian delights at their short guests, and it is so amusing to see the shocked looks on the Dwarven leader's face as Celebrian sweeps into a low curtsy at him as she gives thanks to the heir of Durin, as it was his ancestor that allowed her mother to seek refuge in Moria as she fled from Sauron's attack on Eregion in the Second Age, and it was his ancestor that worked with Celebrimbor and Galadriel towards recapturing their lands and fortifying their two kingdoms.

It was fun to watch their guests drive Erestor up the wall, until he looked just like his father, Caranthir, when Angrod entered his field of vision. When the Dwarves and their little Hobbit were gone it was quite once again, but not for long. If there was one thing that Maedhros knew, it was that great periods of peace never lasted.

When, once again, Hobbits and Dwarves graced Elrond's halls, Men also joined in the gathering. A fellowship was made and a war was fought and suddenly, there is a collection of ring bearers and his remaining family on a dock and Maedhros, whose ring is still sitting snug on Celebrian's right ring finger, is nervous. He has never heard Mandos Call, and Sauron was thoroughly defeated, yet his curse remained. He might not even be allowed onto Valinor's shores again. He refused to be the reason why his family couldn't sail home.

Erestor didn't think that the Valar would sink their ship, one son of Feanor surely didn't outweigh those who wore the three Elven Rings of Power and saved Middle Earth. Elrond quite agreed with him, Galadriel promised him sweetly that she was more than willing to toss his ring into the ocean if it looked like their way was being blocked. Celebrian just rubbed the warm metal with her thumb and said that he has done much to repent for his sins, surely the Valar can see this and will allow him to return. Celebrimbor and Elrond's children hugged their family goodbye, as they wanted to linger longer in the world with those they loved and cared for that couldn't or didn't want to sail. Celebrimbor offered to house his Uncle in Eregion if he didn't feel like sailing yet.

Maedhros refused; he would take this chance to sail. He has been ready to return to Valinor and Mandos Halls since the First Age. He longs for the peace he was denied all those Ages ago. He takes the chance.

When Celebrian steps off the boat after her husband, the moment her feet touch the sand Maedhros' ring burns with a brilliant white light. The light grows and brightens until all have to shade their eyes from the glare. When the light dims and it's safe to open their eyes again, there, standing on the beaches of Valinor is Maedhros, fully reborn.

His hair is the same fiery red it had been as a ghostly fea, and the breeze played with his wavy locks which made them look like they were flickering with flames. His scars were still present on his face, pulling at his lips and cheeks with each facial movement. His right hand was still missing, and his robes were still singed with ash but the ever present smoke was dying out for the first time in Ages.

Elves gasped, Maedhros gasped, and there was a tense moment where those gathered on the shores remembered the last time a Son of Feanor was on it's beaches. Everyone was still.

Then a cry rang up in the crowd, and suddenly Maedhros found himself bowled over by a sobbing Amrod. Apparently, Amrod was the only of the Brothers to be reborn, the others still repenting from their sins or refusing to leave as they were all told that Maedhros could never join them. Amrod was reborn before Maedhros had died, during the War of Wrath though he never took part. He was only informed of Maedhros fate when a Maiar from Mandos visited him and their mother, telling her that her eldest son would never hear Mandos Call, that even though his hroa was destroyed he would never be able to come home without help. They had both despaired, for who on those shores would be able to find him, and who would be willing to sail West with him? They all thought he was lost forever.

But that wasn't the case anymore, as Maedhros hugged his younger brother and wept, hugged the brother he first lost all those Ages ago, and knew that things would be better. His family was here, scattered but here and one day after a lot of healing, they can all come together again.

Finally, Maedhros would be able to get his peace.