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Worlds Of War	By : Lasski Category: G through L > Labyrinth Views: 16038 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Labyrinth, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Chapter 7: Things are not what they seem; other things just don’t want to follow the rules.

                Much to Sarah’s own disgust, she did take up Jareth's suggestion and took a bath. After all, it had been so many years since she had been in a pool of clean, unadulterated water and the almost unbearable heat seemed to wash away her life in the sewers. Stretching out of the bath before the water had a chance to get cold, she wrapped herself in a thick, dark forest green towel and felt as though she had a new lease on life. It was wonderful. Jareth was a bastard.

                Moving back into the bedroom, she searched a nearby wardrobe for something suitable to wear, all the while her mind was working. To make an escape from this god-forsaken room, she would call upon Hoggle – he did always seem to have a way with doors. Hopefully the offer to come whenever she called was still in place. She hadn't used it since the war started - perhaps because she didn't want them in danger, or perhaps she hadn't wanted them to see what had become of her and her world. Something deep inside cruelly whispered that she didn't want anyone to tell her that she should have taken her dreams and left the screaming babe to the goblins, that her trip through the labyrinth meant nothing in the big scheme of things, that is was all pointless.

                If, on the other hand, she couldn't get help and get out of the room, she would have to wait until Jareth returned and to get this deal discussed once and for all. Negotiations would hopefully delay him bedding her for a minute. She now knew that Jareth would indeed take her to his bed – why, she didn't quite know, but her body was her bargaining tool and she intended to use it well. God, even thinking about it made her nauseous. But, if she learned nothing else from her years of reading fantasy and history, she knew that it wouldn't be the first time that a deal had been made via a woman's body. Arranged marriages were a perfect example, a union between two people that would benefit both parties. But again that raised the question of why Jareth wanted her. It seemed to benefit her entirely - she gained protection for her family, help against the Superiors, possibly even a victory. Surely if he just wanted someone to warm his bed he could have chosen someone more beautiful and more experienced. It just didn't make sense! And why had he waited until now? Why not come years ago?

                Sighing in frustration, Sarah pulled out one of the dresses and put it on. Another thing that she hadn't done since the war was put on a dress, touch a dress. Smoothing the silky material down her thighs, she took a breath and called for Hoggle. For a second nothing happened and a moment of panic swept through her, but then his familiar form shimmered into the room and his gravelly voice questioned, "Sarah?"

                Sarah fell to her knees and hugged the surprised dwarf, "Oh Hoggle, I've missed you so much. It's been so long since I've seen you."

                Hoggle struggled free, "Now none of that missy, I’s not want Jareth to piff me to the bog again. He's... he's not here, is he?"

                Sarah grinned at him, "Nah, his royal pain in the butt isn't here. He's... well I don't really know where he is, but he isn't here. He had some 'urgent business' to go deal with." Sarah moved back to slump against the bed. "Hoggle, I'm in trouble. I really need some help." She dropped her head in her hands and spoke through her fingers. "Jareth dropped out of nowhere and has made this mad proposition that I sleep with him in exchange for help in the war against the Superiors. Oh yeah, earth has been at war for the past few years and we really need some help. Anyway, he's left me in this room and I really need to get out and find my friends - well they're more like my family - because they have no idea what's happened to me." Sarah paused and Hoggle remained conspicuously silent. She peered up at him. "Hoggle?"

                Hoggle glanced at Sarah before quickly turning away and poking his foot into the floor. A white-hot emotion slowly filled her. "You know," she whispered, "You know about all of it, don't you." It came out more of a statement than an actual question,

                "I’s was never a good liar Sarah."

                Sarah stood up and towered over the little man, her voice slowly rising, "Don't give me that cryptic shit Hoggle. You know about everything. Did you know before or after I was kidnapped to this room?"

                "Before."

                "And you just let it happen!" she shouted, "you didn't even give me a god-damned warning."

                Hoggle took a step towards Sarah, hoping to reason with the angry woman, "You knows Jareth, he would have knowns about it and stopped me." Then he said more quietly, "he's my king Sarah, I can't-"

                "Oh yeah, that’s just you, isn't it Hoggle" Sarah cut him off sarcastically, "always the damn coward. I don't want a traitor for a friend. Get out."

                "Sarah, I’s-"

                "I said get out!"

                Hoggle looked hopelessly at Sarah's back now that she had turned her face from him, unable to look at him, “ I’s sorry I’s can’t help you Sarah.”

                “Just go, Hoggle,” she made her voice a soft, dangerous tone, hating the betrayal that spread through her system and hating that Hoggle had put it there.

                “But Sarah?” came Hoggle’s voice and she turned partly to indicate she was listening, “Yous gotta remember that nothing is what it seems.”

                Sarah felt rather than saw Hoggle leave. She couldn't believe that Hoggle had betrayed her... but then thinking back to the peach incident maybe she could. There was also that time in the oubliette as well...   How could she be so stupid! Sarah ran her fingers roughly through her hair.

                "OK Sarah," she told herself, "this is getting you no where. Calm down." It was not like Hoggle had come to her and not told her Jareth’s plans. True, she had not seen him or Ludo or Sir Didymus, so Hoggle appearing out of nowhere would be kind of weird. Would she have really believed had he told her that Jareth, who she had also not seen in years, had plans to whisk her away and make her his lover? Putting it that way, it sounded unbelievable even to her. It was just that the friends that she had Aboveground she expected complete loyalty and trust between them. Therefore, she expected the same from her old friends in the labyrinth. Yet, it was true what Hoggle had said, Jareth was his king.

                Sarah groaned and fell back onto the bed. What a mess everything was! She had royally screwed up – with her only parting words were her telling him to get out of the room... to get out of her life. While his parting words were... Sarah head shot up. Nothing is what it seems. Perhaps Hoggle had helped her. Sarah jumped up from the bed and raced to the wall. She slid her hands up and down franticly searching... searching... searching....

                Suddenly, her fingers bumped up against something. Touching the area to explore it, she felt the smooth round shape of the invisible doorknob. Further exploration revealed an invisible crack that was the opening of a door. Heart beating faster in excitement, she carefully turned the doorknob and pushed. The door slammed open and wind roared into the room, almost pulling Sarah out of it, but she held her ground and her eyes grew round at the sight outside. There was no room, no sky, no ground. Just inky darkness that stretched on forever, as if there was nothing, simply nothing there at all.

                Sarah fought the beginnings of panic. The room suddenly seemed too small and the nothingness outside was too big and both made a strange, frightening mixture of claustrophobia and agoraphobia. She squeezed her eyes shut and whispered to herself, "it's just an illusion, it's just an illusion, it's just an illusion..." She stepped out into the darkness... and fell... and screamed...

                ***

                Johnny was beginning to worry. True, Sarah had not been gone for long but any time she spent with that... Goblin King was dangerous. What an outrageous concept it was - a magical being stealing away younger siblings. If he hadn't witnesses the magic firsthand, he doubted that he would have believed it. What were fey capable of anyway?

                "There's no point worrying about it, Johnny," said Mac laying a hand on his shoulder. "Sarah can look after herself, and besides, I personally don't think this Jareth guy will hurt her." Johnny snorted in disbelief and Mac shook his head. "What can you do about it anyway; we don't even know where Sarah is. Stop worrying about what you can't do and come worry about something you can."

                Mac led Johnny to the conference table where Kate and Michael were already leaning over maps of Seattle. Kate waved a hand over the bay area, "Force Groups are starting to concentrate over in the west, but we can't figure out whether reinforcements are coming in or if supplies are arriving. Either way, if we arrange an attack when it comes in it should be worth it. The shipment is arriving within seven days, so that's plenty of time to arrange an offensive. Harold is gathering more information as we speak."

                Johnny nodded, "We should keep up out usual movements as much as possible though, we don't want them to get suspicious."

                "Speaking of supplies though" said Mac, "we're staring to run low in all areas. If this shipment isn't supplies then we're going to have to do something about it. As it stands, if it is supplies, it won't be all that we need. The scavenger hunts of the city grounds are yielding less and less and I hate the idea of sending people to steal from the Force Group base itself. They will come to expect it and it'll make our job so much harder. And they’ll know we’re getting desperate."

                "What about this Jareth guy?" Michael said, leaning back in his chair, "whether you like it or not, Sarah’s going to make the deal. If you had the choice you know you'd do the same. So we have to remember that this guy is on our side - surely with all his power he can whip something up."

                "Michael's got a point," agreed Mac, "the question is how do we contact him?"

                The meeting was brought to a halt by one of Johnny's guys running up to them, "Sir, something is coming this way through the south entrance, we can't stop it and when we tried to shoot it, the bullet didn't really seem to affect it."

                Johnny looked confused, "What is coming this way? Is it Force Groups?"

                The man shook his head, "I don't know what it is, sir, but it's big and orange. I don't think it's human."

                "And the fun keeps rolling in," quipped Kate.

                "Go rally the others and start a blockade over in the south entrance. If we can lure it into here, we can surround it and deal with it from there. Kate, can you get some of your people to scour the rest of the sewers for any more of these orange things?"

                "On it," nodded Kate.

                "Mac-"

                "I've got the kids, Johnny," said Mac as he turned to start ordering his people towards the safety of the children.

                "And I'll back you up," added in Michael.

                Gunfire could be heard in the distance and everyone froze for a second as an inhuman roar echoed through the tunnels. Johnny grabbed an automatic thrown to him by Michael, then ran over to the south entrance. Three people were running out of it with one turning around to fire back into the tunnel. The loud roar sounded again and the freedom fighters took a collective step back as the beast emerged. It stood well above any of the humans, not resembling any of the animals on Earth. Its long shaggy orange coat covered its whole body and its eyes rolled wildly around, looking like something come up from hell – with all that had happened, they weren't quite convinced that it wasn't indeed just that. Someone fired to keep the beast back and its intelligible roar sounded out horribly, but the bullets didn't seem to penetrate its tough hide.

                "Fall back and surround," yelled Johnny, "No one fire, we don't want to shoot each other. Peter get the tranquilizers. Everyone just… poke it or something to keep it where it is." Despite the situation, there were a few chuckles and snickers.

                The orange beast looked at Johnny and took a step towards him. Johnny took a matching step back and raised the automatic threateningly. The beast stopped and let out what sounded suspiciously like a whimper before moving forward again. It held out one giant massive paw that could easily crush skulls and groaned out long and slow "heeeeelp". Johnny visible hesitated and the beast took another step forward.

                Michael darted forward and jabbed the butt of an automatic into the hip of the orange monster to get its attention away from Johnny. The beast roared in pain and swung wildly in the direction of the attack, knocking Michael back. Johnny leaped forward to beat the beast back, but it anticipated his attack, grabbed his gun, and threw it back before pinning Johnny to the ground. Everyone froze.

                The beast leaned down and sniffed Johnny while he held deathly still. The beast whimpered again and said, "Sawah friend?" Johnny could see Michael stiffen at the words and hold a hand to stop Peter from firing the tranquilizer at the strange creature. Something triggered in the back of Johnny's mind as Sarah's amazing story came back to him.

                Moving very carefully, Johnny put a hand lightly on the shoulder of the beast and asked, "Ludo?"

                The beast's mouth seemed to widen impossibly in something barely recognizable as a grin.

                "Sarah fwend?" Ludo repeated.

                "Yes, I'm a friend of Sarah's."

                "Ludo fwend!" Ludo suddenly proclaimed and proceeded to lift Johnny up in a great bear hug. The surrounding freedom fighters stood around unsure what to do. They were pretty sure this Ludo creature wasn't there to hurt them after all, but the way he was hugging the team leader looked like he was about to crack ribs. Johnny gasped for breath and frantically patted Ludo to put him down, which the orange creature quickly complied with once it realised that he hurting the human. "Ludo sorry," he rumbled.

                "I'm ok, just be a bit careful next time ok big guy."

                Ludo nodded.

                Johnny wondered if he had fractured bones.

                ***

                Half an hour later. The Resistance leaders still had gaping mouths when looking at the monster… at Ludo. After Johnny, it was the children who were the first to go near Ludo. In amongst the disbelief, no one had reacted fast enough to stop a few of the children from racing fearlessly up to the beast and beginning to play tag with him. Linda has almost stormed in there and dragged the children away when Mac put a warning hand on her armed and whispered to wait. For a creature that size, he was displaying incredible gentleness towards the little ones. Perhaps they recognized the innocence in each other.

                “I can’t believe he’s real, I’ve never seen anything like it.” Mac couldn’t take his eyes away, sure that the moment he did Ludo would vanish and he would be left wondering were the hallucination had gone to. “But every time I look into that huge mouth I’m made a quick believer.”

                “Should we be letting him this close to the children?” Linda whispered with her heart in her throat as Tasha, her little baby girl, climbed over the orange beast as if it was a jungle gym. She kept waiting for the moment Ludo would snap and toss the child too easily against the wall.

                “Look at him. He’s being so gentle. Jareth must have sent him,” Melinda watched with gentle eyes.

                “Just why I don’t trust it,” Linda said.

                “Speaking of which, Sarah should have been back by now,” Johnny looked once again to the entrances of the sewers.

                Melinda bit her lip and looked at him, “If Ludo is here, then it stands to reason that Sarah made the deal for Jareth to help us, which means she’s probably-”

                “Don’t say it,” Johnny hissed, “I hate the thought of that bastard touching her. I hate that we even let her contemplate it in the first place.” He could still remember the agonising pain as the table legs shoved bluntly into his skin and his life bled away. That bastard was going to hurt Sarah. He just knew it.

                All the Resistance leaders looked shamefaced at his words. Each one of them felt guilty for letting Sarah enter into the deal without nearly enough of a fight. But they had all lost so much, and if there was even a small chance that the future could have a future… One thing was for sure – no matter which way you looked at it, the situation was fucked.

                “Mac! Mac!”

                Half of the Resistance leaders reached for their own weapons before recognizing one of their own. Everyone was still on adrenaline.

                “Mac!” the man called for a third time, “Force Groups! In the sewers!”

                Mac swore. “Let’s move it people!” he yelled out, “Code red, code red!”

                The call spread like wildfire. The children were snatch up from their play, Ludo looking confused at the sudden action. The kids knew instantly what was going on and went very quiet, leaving behind any toys and carrying nothing.

                “I’ve got the kids” Melinda said, and ran to lead the small group of adults guiding the children to safety. Everyone else fifteen years and above made sure they were armed and started to scatter in small groups out through every entrance of the sewers. Mac, Johnny, and a few more senior members stayed right where they were, ready to fight to the death.

                Linda grabbed the man who had first warned them and started to drag him towards one of the tunnel openings. He was tired from running to give the warning and wouldn’t be up to the first line of defense.

                Suddenly, he stumbled and fell. Linda stopped short to pick him up, grabbing him by the upper arm. She yanked at him to pull him up, but he felt unusually heavy and his arm slipped from her fingers. Then she saw the blood seeping out of his back. He had been shot, must have been dead within the second. Fearfully, she turned to look behind her.

                From the shadows stepped two Force Group guards, weapons drawn, ready to kill.
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Worlds Of War