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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
- 7
- 8
- 9
Chapter 8: Underground.

                Linda was not fast enough in reaching for her weapon before an ill-aimed shot wrenched her shoulder back as a bullet shot ripped through it. She stumbled to the ground and thought she heard someone cry out her name. From a distance she thought she heard the scream of a child and hoped to God it wasn’t Tasha.

                Johnny and Mac saw Linda fall and before either of them could do anything, Ludo roared making everything around them vibrate. Out of instinct and training, one of the Force Group men turned and shot at him.

                The first shot that hit Ludo seemed to surprise the huge creature rather than hurt him. The second, third, and fourth made him stumble back a step. The next two shots seemed to be the last straw for him.

                Ludo bellowed out a noise, gave a roar so tremendous that it shook the tunnel walls around them. Dust and dirt from the ceiling scattered down, the water on the ground rippled, and the echoes of the sound roared back at them, overlapping the deep sound again and again. Many people coughed and sputtered as the falling dust got caught in their lungs. Ludo stopped his cry and there was an eerie moment where the echoes continued in the tunnels and seemed to take forever to fade.

                Either these were the same Force Groups that had been there with the snakes or they were warned of odd things that could happen, but they didn’t hesitate for long.

                “Kill it.”

                “No!” Johnny screamed and sent a spray of bullet at the enemy, but it wasn’t enough. Bullet rounds from at least six people hit the shaggy orange creature, the force alone sending Ludo falling back to land heavily on his behind.

                No human could have survived the attack but Ludo did. He roared again, and this time when he stopped the rumbling around them didn’t fade and end. It increased in volume until it sounded like an avalanche was tumbling furiously through the tunnels. No one could hear themselves yell above the noise. Both sides took advantage of the confusion to take shots at the other team, but the ground suddenly started jumping beneath their feet, rolling and jabbing in strange ways – making it impossible to take aim.

                Rocks and boulders from who knows where came rolling full speed from every entry tunnel as if the land was suddenly tipped up at an angle with everything was stumbling downhill. The first of the large boulders hit the Force Group with a sickening mixture of thuds and cracks as heads were smashed in and bones were broken, then shattered by repeated stone attack.

                It seemed chaotic that the rocks were going to tumble madly at anyone in their way, but as Ludo continued to roar the rocks bounced erratically sideways and around the Resistors. Their only problem was choking on the dust rising around them from the earth shifting. Scarily, the concrete beneath their feet suddenly cracked and split open. Force Groups and rocks fell down into the abyss. The Resistors only managed to save themselves because they weren’t being attacked by rocks as well… but there were a couple who slipped and fell, tumbling from sight. One of the enemy gripped the edge, fear in his eyes as he struggled to pull himself up and out. A particularly large rock jumped up and straight down on his head – some of the Resistors actually saw his life blink away before he dropped down into the black hole.

                The earth rumbled again, and the crack widening and lengthing right towards Mac. He scrambled to get out the way, found himself too close to the wall, and tried to half climb it, half cling to it as the ground beneath his feet vanished. Ludo roared again. Mac slipped from his precarious hold down into the abyss.

                Then, the world stopped. It was as if someone has pressed pause on a movie and everything suddenly ceased to move. Rocks hung in the air, Force Group people were frozen in action, some of them running from the rocks, others in mid-collision ultimately on their way to death. The Resistance groups, too were frozen, strange and almost funny looks on their face as they watched the terror around them. In fact, the only movement was Johnny bent over and breathing hard near an exit and Mac still hanging by one hand onto the edge of the crack in the ground, scrambling to keep hold.

                “Well,” a voice mocked right next to Johnny, “Aren’t you going to save him?”

                Johnny looked in disbelief at Jareth standing clear as day over him with a raised eyebrow.

                “Ah, so you prefer him dead,” Jareth said calmly at the moment of Johnny’s hesitation.

                “No!” Johnny bit out on a breath and stumbled towards Mac, “No, I’m saving him.” There was an eerie silence as Johnny scrambled around and under the frozen scene until he reached Mac.

                “What the fuck is happening?” Mac panted, struggling to get a foothold to save himself.

                Johnny grabbed Mac’s forearm and clothing to pull him up, “Jareth.” And really, that explained it all. The strange silence continued as Johnny dragged Mac over the edge to safety and then they both lay panting staring up a boulder hanging above their heads. Despite how out of breath they were, they thought it prudent to move, especially with that bastard fey around who would do something so cruel as to let them live this long and kill them at the last second.

                Johnny struggle to sit up to look at Jareth, expecting him to have vanished, but the blond man was still there. Then Jareth smiled. Johnny and Mac stared at him.

                Time started again.

                Every rock that hung in the air came crashing down and it seemed a number of them landed on the two men – none of the big boulders, but anything that was big enough to hurt and leave cuts and bruises without doing serious damage. The large boulder that had been above them when they were lying down smashed to pieces inches behind them. The noise started up again and over the top of it all came a rising whine from Ludo, who seemed to be in pain.

                The smell of blood seemed to be thick in the air as Resistors found themselves surrounded by only dead Force Group people, cracks in the ground, and far too many rocks. Ludo whined again.

                Johnny and Mac shook dust from their hair and wiped it from their faces before looking around to assess the damage. Though a couple were missing – having fallen into the dark abyss – no one remaining seemed to be hurt, at least-

                “Johnny, Mac!” someone called, “Linda, she’s… over here!”

                Both men scrambled over rocks and saw Linda. The blood was still fresh on the ground with a cover of dust over the top, giving it a bleaker look than it already was.

                “She’s dead,” the man who had called them over said, his fingers still lingering on the pulse point at the neck as if in hope that it would suddenly start beating again.

                Mac knocked his hand away and checked for himself. After a moment, his fingers drifted up to her cheek and stroked the skin once.

                “We have to tell Michael,” he said quietly, knowing that the other Heart squad leader was going to be devastated, “We have to tell Tasha”.

                Johnny hissed to himself. How many more children would become orphaned before… before what? The war ended? They all died? Became slaves to the Superiors? He blinked away the fogginess in his mind and forced himself back to a more useful task, looking after the living. He started giving orders for looking after the wounded – a pair to check over Ludo who was still making pitiful noises, more to find out the safty of the hidden children, others to check security of the tunnels and to recover what they could from the area.

                It took him a moment to notice Jareth standing right next to him staring at Linda’s dead body. “Don’t look at her,” he spat at the fey.

                Without blinking, Jareth’s eyes shifted to look at the mortal, “Do not seek to order me. You owe me lives today. Without my creature you may have all died here, that or captured.”

                Johnny thought of Sarah, “We owe you nothing; we’ve already paid your price.”

                At that Jareth smirked, a slight tilting to the lips. He looked back at the dead woman and in one fluid motioned stepped towards her and knelt in her blood.

                Johnny growled and shot forward to wrench the fey away from Linda. Mac grabbed his arm and jerked him back.

                “Wait. Let him help.”

                Johnny resisted the urge to spit on the ground, to rip out the throat of the blond bastard. Help? Surely not even this thing could bring someone back from the dead?

                They watched as Jareth leaned forward, his white gold hair trailed forward over his shoulders and hid his face from the onlookers. He touched his lips to Linda’s and breathed once. In, then out. A second time – in and out. When the third breath came and went, a soft breath passed across Linda’s lips. The longer Jareth breathed, the more life slipped back into Linda, as if he was breathing for her, giving her back the ability to live. Her skin rosied from the ashen grey of death and her eyes fluttered as if her body was shivering from the impossible miracle happening.

                “Jesus, what are you?” Johnny whispered as Linda opened her eyes. Alive. Wholly healed.

                Jareth stared at him, his eyes darker, the pupils larger, “Some have called us gods and worshipped us. Others have named us demons of the darkest nature. We are the oldest and most knowledgeable of all living things. We are eternal. I am known as the Walker of Worlds; there is no dimension that can deny me entry.” His cold eyes watched a bit of dust threatening to land on him and spoke softly, “Not even death.”

                There was a shimmering in the air – like intense heat shifting up – and the Freedom Fighters that had fallen down into the cracks appeared, a little worse for wear but alive. Jareth rose and stepped back before anyone could regain their composure, stunned as they were in the face of such power. It wasn’t until Melinda and Michael came jogging through a tunnel that they snapped back to it.

                “The children are safe for now,” Melinda said, “I found Michael on our way here… what’s going on....?” Both Michael and Melinda looked at the shocked faces.

                Michael reached Linda’s side and pulled his partner to her feet. “What happened?” he asked looking suspiciously at Jareth.

                Linda shook her head, “Later. We have work here first, but I’m safe, I’m… alive.”

                Michael took her at her word silently but stayed protectively close.

                “Let’s go check on Ludo,” Johnny suggested. They found a couple of woman with pliers working on the orange creature.

                Mac parted the orange fur to look for the source of the pain. He now saw that where they had thought the bullets had bounced off Ludo, some of them had in actual fact lodged themselves in the flesh, though thankfully not too deep. He internally winced as he knew some of those bullets were probably from when the Freedom Fighters had first shot at him.

                “Your creature. Ludo. Will he be all right?” Melinda asked.

                Jareth didn’t spare Ludo a glance, “He is one of mine. He will not die until I let him.”

                Ludo let out another pain-filled whine that had Melinda wincing. Mac had a pair of pliers and was trying to remove most of the bullets as best he could and stop the blood flow. She choose her words and tone carefully, “Are you going to let him die?”

                Jareth gave a deliberate smirk meant to unnerve. “Not yet. Sarah has agreed to the deal but has yet to uphold her end of the bargain. Should she renege then he can die, They can both die” he said looking at Linda. “It will let you know that my protection is no longer offered.”

                There was a short silence and they all wondered why the fey was hanging around them this long. No doubt he enjoyed their plight.

                “We need to find somewhere new,” Mac brought to light their new problem, “Our hideout has been discovered.”

                “Where? The tunnels are the only place we can hide in Seattle,” Melinda said.

                “The tunnels are large enough that we can find a new place for a time, we’ll just have to keep moving around so the Force Groups don’t find us,” Mac suggested. It was careless of us to stay in one place for as long as we did.

                Michael shook his head, “We have too many people to constantly pack up all the time, especially with children.”

                “Perhaps we can split into smaller groups, hide in different parts of the city. Each of the four teams can take some people,” Mac said, “at least that way if this happens again we won’t all be discovered.

                “What about you?” Michael looked at Jareth. So far he had had little interaction with the strange man and felt no real fear towards the King, though he had a healthy dose of respect for the power the blond man obviously had. “Part of our deal was to keep us safe. To help us survive.”

                Jareth nodded, “So it was.”

                Everyone suddenly felt a falling sensation and the world spun for a moment. When everyone could see straight again, they found that the entire population of free people still left in Seattle in the one place in an enormous cavern with many tunnels leading out.

                “What is this place?” Linda asked. They had searched out every inch of the tunnels and had never seen anything like this.

                It was the Seattle underground tunnel… yet not. It couldn’t be – a soft moss seemed to be covering certain areas and the further they went in the more they found green vegetation. Against one section of the wall there shimmered a lake of clear water.

                “I’ve blurred the edges between my world and yours. Just enough to have powerful shields protecting this area. It should be enough to house all your people, the few of them that are left.”

                There was also movement darting around the pool and the flowers that were there.

                “Are… are those fairies?” Linda asked in awe as one of the things stopped long enough in front of her for her to get a look at it.

                Jareth raised an eyebrow mockingly and watched with amusement as the mortal reached out a hand to touch one. The tiny creature darted forward and gave her a good hard nip. “Ouch!” Linda cried and snatched back her hand, “it bit me!”

                Jareth smirked and had a slight faraway look in his eyes as if remembering something. “What did you expect fairies to do?” he drawled.

                “I don’t know. Grant wishes?”

                He shook his head mournfully “Where do you mortals get your ideas from? Next, you’ll be expecting things to be fair.” He chuckled at some private joke.

                “This is incredible,” Linda whispered to herself, but then it didn’t hurt to say a few polite words. “Thank you” she turned to Jareth, not quite sure what to address him as, “Thank you for this.”

                He stared emotionlessly at her for a moment, then drawled, “If you want to show your gratitude, I prefer my subject on their knees and you shall address me as my lord. After all,” he smirked, “you are my subjects under my protection. Now I must leave.” He looked at Johnny. “Sarah and I have a bargain to seal.”

                Jareth disappeared in a show of light and glitter before Johnny could respond. Johnny’s anger changed to look quizzically at the spot where Jareth dematerialized, noting that not all of the glitter had disappeared with the man; he bent down to inspect the sparkling stuff. It shimmered on his fingers and sent a tingling sensation up his arm, “Don’t suppose we can analyze this stuff do you?”

                Mac grinned, “This is the 21st century, we can do anything.”

                It was Linda who pointed out their more immediate problem. “Which part of Seattle are we in exactly?”
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Worlds Of War