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Falling --COMPLETED	By : jinx1764 Category: G through L > Labyrinth Views: 10231 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I don't own Labyrinth, don't make any money, this is a work of fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 25
- 26
- 27
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Chapter 26

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Jareth kept his arm snug around Sarah, holding her against his chest until he heard her breathing even out and slow. He smiled. Sleep would be divine but, given the circumstances a short while ago, he was far too keyed up to grab more kip. Adrenaline raced through his veins, making his heart pound and his senses hyperaware regardless of how he forced his breathing to ease. Aftershocks continued to zap through his torso, parts of his anatomy throbbed and Sarah's gentle shifting of her hips into his… Jareth inhaled cautiously, teeth grinding. She would torture now. But he couldn't—wouldn't—loosen his grip, and his fingers spasmed reflexively, digging into the muscles of her arm.
While this position was mildly challenging to his peace of mind, he appreciated being awake while Sarah slept. Otherwise, he realized in retrospect, he wouldn't have heard the scrambling, which jumped his adrenalin from medium hum to full buzz. "Sarah." He shook her sharply.
"Wha-?" She jerked upright, using her hands on his chest to support her upper body.
He sat up with her, throwing a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Shh, I'm here." Her breathing hitched in the dark, and she relaxed into him. The scent of her surrounded him as he part her hair with his nose.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"There's someone approaching. Listen." Their heartbeats thrummed between them as they waited.
"I don't hear anything," she said, her fingers gripping his shirt as her spine straightened.
"Vultures."
"You can hear them?"
He nodded, remembering his fae hearing was more acute than hers. "Yes, they're not close yet, but we should hurry nonetheless."
"Agreed." Sarah shuffled about, then her flashlight clicked on. "I'll see if I can wake Toby. You get our things."
"Alright."
They worked their way back to Toby, and Sarah knelt by her brother, her hands hovering over his forehead with nervous expectation. Jareth gathered their belongings as he watched and listened.
"Toby? She clutched his arm, rolling him from his side to his back. "Toby?"

Arms failing—"Sarah? What… Where?"
"It's okay, kiddo," she said and Jareth heard the joy in her quiet voice as she helped him sit. "How do you feel?" Toby held his head and blinked repeatedly in her narrow beam of light as his mouth worked to form words. Sarah turned and looked at Jareth. "He's still too warm."
Jareth set the gear down and squatted next to her. "And he appears to be in great pain."
"Toby, can you understand me?" she asked.
Watery eyes stared back, then he nodded carefully, as if the motion hurt.
"Can you tell me how you're feeling?" Toby grimaced and grunted, his eyes pleading to explain until Sarah patted his forearm. "It's okay." Toby's shoulders dropped and his trembling muscles relaxed.
"Interesting," Jareth said, "it seems my assumption may be correct."
"Do you think he'll continue to improve?"
"Possibly, but we haven't the time speculate." Jareth held out a hand to Toby. "Can you walk?"
Toby's hand shook as he gave it to Jareth, who enclosed his larger one around the teen's, then gently guided Toby to his feet. Stumbling, Toby was caught and steadied by Jareth.
"Can you manage him?" Sarah asked Jareth as she rubbed Toby's back.
"I'll have to."
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Jareth's 'have to' became a test of his endurance as the three of them struggled through the dark maze of the underground caverns. The scuffling behind them varied in its intensity, occasionally fading then rearing back stronger until even she could hear it. Sarah's heart raced every time, yet they never saw any Vultures. They never found an exit either.
"Wait," Jareth said, "I need to … rest." Both he and Toby staggered and fell to their knees before Sarah could catch them. Toby moaned, cried out, then curled into a ball on his side and shivered.
Sarah knelt next to her brother, laying a hand on his forehead. "He's burning up!"
Jareth nodded, panting. "I felt that."
"Do you think he's getting worse?"
"Don't know." Jareth take a deep breath and sat back on his heels, his hands resting on his thighs. "It's possibly part of the healing process."
"When will we know?"
"We'll have to wait it out I'm afraid."
Frowning, Sarah wiped her brother's damp bangs from his eyes. Toby moaned and squirmed, batting at her hand. "You don't know how long?"
"Sarah," he sighed, "this is an unusual situation for me as well."
"Right. Sorry."
"No matter. I know how worried you must be, but for now we need to focus on discovering a way out." He looked back where they had come, his profile highlighted by the flashlight.
Turning from him, Sarah scanned the light over the caverns, hoping she might find indications of an exit. But only more rock, dirt and a continuation of the narrowing path, which look to go deeper into the mountain. Where did it end? Did it?
"We can't go on like this," she said.
From behind her, Jareth's hand slid over her shoulders causing her to jump. "We'll figure what lies between us in time, love," he said, his hand squeezing her shoulder as he pulled her against him.
"Figure what out?" She shined the light into his face and he blinked and squinted.
"Um, the…" His Adam's apple bobbed. "The situation that we talked about earlier."
"Oh… OH!" Sarah dropped the light from his face, laughing. "I wasn't talking about that."
"You weren't?"
"No." She arced her free arm around in a half circle. "I meant this. We can't go on wandering and hoping to find a way out. Sooner or later they'll find us and then what?"
"Ah," he said, head drooping to his chest.
"I didn't mean it like that." She set the flashlight on the ground, shifted to kneel in front of him, and then laid her hands on his chest.
He covered her hands with his. "It's fine. I understand."
"I do want to sort out what's between us, too, but…"
"You're absolutely correct, love." He caressed her hands as he smiled. "Now is not the time to discuss such things."
"If only…"
"If only what?"
Sarah leaned forward, resting her chin on his shoulder, and Jareth wrapped his arms around her. "If only things had been different earlier." She watched Toby over Jareth's shoulder. Her brother rolled onto his back with a groan, arms flailing. He looked to be in pain, and Sarah closed her eyes to block out his suffering for a moment. It felt good to rest against Jareth, to allow him to take her physical and emotional weight. Even if it was only temporary.
"Things can still be different, love. It's not too late."
Toby's moans grew louder prompting Sarah to open her eyes. "How can you be sure?"
Jareth's hands rubbed her back sending tendrils of calm through her muscles. "Because I have faith."
"In what?"
"In us."
She pulled back to meet his eyes. "You're serious."
He cupped her chin lightly. "Of course. You think I tell women such things every day?"
"I won't know," she said as Toby cried out and thrashed so violently that loose stones went skittering into the dark to ping and plunk. His shouting echoed through the cavern, and Sarah and Jareth sprang to restrain and comfort him. Unfortunately, Toby slipped from their grasp and, with a horrid scream, ran from them back towards the Vultures.
"Toby, no!" Sarah lunged and missed his leg as he gained his footing. Without pause, she grabbed the flashlight and ran after him with Jareth immediately after her, weapons in hand.
They quickly lost sight of him in the dark, but they could hear his crying and wailing as he ran back the way they'd come. How far behind were the Vultures? How well did sound travel? Sarah's heart climbed into her throat as they raced to catch her brother before the worse happened. Already she was exhausted, hungry and beyond thirsty. How much longer could this last?
"Toby!" she whispered as she ran, hoping he might answer with his last shred of sanity, or maybe he'd stop once he remembered. "Toby, please!" She heard Jareth behind her, not far; he sounded no better than her. His ragged panting made her hurt in sympathy. He'd looked weak as they'd spoken. Weak with something she didn't understand. There was a lack of spark in his eyes that she'd recently noticed. She wanted to ask, but there was too much yet unsorted between them and she felt it was prying.
"Sarah, watch out!" Jareth shouted, and she slid trying to stop before tripping over her brother who lay in a ball on the ground. Air exploded from her lungs taking her yell of surprise as she landed face first onto the jagged rocks. Dizziness and nausea swamped her, overwhelming the sharp pain radiating from her nose to her brain. Warm fluid gushed from her nose, and she vaguely realized it must be blood.
"Sarah!" Jareth's blurry form gently turned her onto her back and untangled her legs from Toby. Her brother!
"Toby…" she said in a croak, trying to lift her head.
"Don't move, I'll check."
Jareth left her view and she stared into the darkness. The flashlight was out or gone or broken. She fished her hands out, but found only dirt and rocks. Rocks dug into her cheekbone, but she didn't dare move her head from its position. Pain increased and replaced the dizziness and made the nausea far worse. And the blood, it poured from her nose to puddle on the ground. She could taste it as it dribbled over her lips.
"Well, lookie what we have here." Sarah's stomach almost revolted at the new voice emerging from the dark. Flittering light for numerous torches lit up the area a moment later. "I wondered if we'd ever catch up with you three. Looks like you did the work for us." The Vulture laughed and must've given some signal that Sarah couldn't see because the footsteps and rattling of more people was loud near her. Soon she could see from the corner of her eye that they were surrounded by Vultures, all with weapons pointed at them.
Jareth's hand found hers and, chancing the pain and nausea, she delicately moved her head to see him. He squatted between her and Toby, a hand on both of them and he had an expression of resigned fatalism. She understood the sentiment. He glanced at her and his lips twitched as he was trying to smile. This was their last chance, their final battle. Whatever occurred here would decide their fates and he was accepting it. His fingers tightened around hers. She squeezed back.
Jareth focused on the Vulture leader. "You think you've beaten us?"
The leader laughed again as he slung his weapon over his shoulder. "I think your escape is over and the fun is about to start. Right, boys?" he asked, glancing around to his men. Whoops and hollers bounced in the cavern, and Sarah decided she'd rather die by her hand than suffer one minute in captivity with these Vultures. She'd take Jareth and Toby with her. She was certain they felt the same.
Teeth chattering in pain and shock, she clenched Jareth's hand and said, "Fun … it … is then," and released her power. She opened herself to every pulse and trickle she could find, uncaring what happened to the three of them as long as every Vulture fried. Power blasted from her in hot waves. Every time it pummeled someone she felt it. She felt each bit of rock. The mountain shook and groaned. Vultures screamed as a pulverizing flash consumed them.
And still Sarah poured herself into more surges. Nothing could be allowed to survive. Nothing could be allowed to stand. Her shriek joined Jareth's and Toby's as they were battered and punished by the scorching heat. Molten rock pooled around them.
Gritting her teeth, Sarah felt the well of power coming to an end along with her strength and hoped her death would be quick. She hoped Toby wouldn't suffer, nor Jareth. She hoped for many unspoken things, here, at the end.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, barely able to feel Jareth's hand in hers as she searched out his beautiful, unique eyes. His fingers twitched and he mouthed three words around the blood trailing from his lips.
Her power receded and a peace settled over her.
I must be dying, she thought as she saw a glimmer of sunlight and inhaled the sweet scent of fresh air. Thank you…she told whatever god that was granting her this gift before she lost consciousness and nothingness took her.

A/N: Sorry it took so long. Life has been stressful. My job has been taking a lot of my time lately and not in a good way. Lots of sleep deprivation and other things I'm not going into here. Personal things have been on the negative side and my grandparents died this month, both in the same week. They were married 70 years. So my family has been under a lot of stress and time to write has been limited and my mind has been distracted. Plus, that's not including the time I'm still devoting to my original fiction, as I have about a half a dozen projects I'm working on. Two novels I'd like to publish later this year. Things seem to be calming down this week though and I was able to focus on some fanfiction. I've also got two fanfic shorts that I'll be posting in a few weeks after the Labyrinth Gift fic exchange is finished and all the mystery authors are revealed. So in a few weeks y'all get two fluffy shorts from me. So things have been happening but I haven't been able to post them all here. You will all soon get lots of lovely work.
Falling's original version is coming along nicely too. I'm rewriting over 50% with a whole new back story. I'm currently on chapter nine (approx 2000 each average) and it's nothing like this story or Labyrinth other than faes and fairytales. It's really coming together and I'm enjoying the characters immensely! I'm considering how I can write in the world more than just one book. It's called Fairytale Apocalypse for those not aware of my alterations.
Anyhow, thanks so much for reading and for your patience! You know I love hearing from you, so any comments and reviews are always appreciated!
Read, Enjoy and Review!
Jinx
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Falling --COMPLETED