prompt: silverfisting because I'm still a bit upset I didn't ask that for the longfic but the feanope was strong that day >.>
Have some more from the sci-fi AU - and once again they wound up separate. Maybe someday I’ll manage to write them together in it. Anyway.
Celebrimbor moved quietly through the empty station, closing the viewing ports one by one as he left; it shut out the stars and the faint after-jump trails of Eregion’s escape craft.
This was the main discussion hall, where people had gathered to debate and raise suggestions to improve Eregion - and Annatar had ever been ready with a suggestion, some clever solution or kind word for another’s idea. Celebrimbor closed his eyes, stilling memories of a sweet voice and amber eyes, and went through the empty room. He needed to get to the bridge quickly.
There, he made some quick and careful calculations, and sent out three craft - tiny things that could barely make five jumps through space. But they would serve their purpose, and be undetectable to most searches.
Then he sat in the captain’s chair, looked away from the co-pilot position that Annatar had occupied in the past, and waited, cradling a pulse gun to his chest. He couldn’t do the last thing he needed to do yet; Annatar - Saruon, rather - had to be on shipboard first.
But he was confident he would come.
It was exactly an hour before space split open, revealing burning wreckage in the place it was opening to, before Sauron’s ship slipped through the opening and it closed again. Celebrimbor’s mouth was dry, but he closed his eyes and made calculations in his head, feeling the tremble of the station as Sauron’s ship attached itself, hearing the sizzle of broken connections as cameras and communication ports were broken all over the ship.
One, however, remained intact; Sauron’s voice, terribly like Annatar’s, came softly through the speaker attached to the deck just below.
"Celebrimbor… surrender and I shall not have to harm you, dearest."
Celebrimbor let out a low sigh, and, his wait over, reached out and pressed the ship’s self-destruct. The muted countdown began as he stood up and opened the communication link.
"I will meet you at the door to the bridge," he said, feeling very tired, "but I will not surrender."
