Jareth looked around at the five Stellas that stood or sat in the room that Lisa had shoved him into. Lisa, WHY did you have to leave me here? I'll be slobbered on by that grey haired one...
An awkward silence fell over the room and then 5 spoke up.
"Step into my TARDIS?"
"...said the Spider to the Fly..."
"No, 'said the Timelady to the Goblin King with Poofy Hair...'"
Giggles came from 2 and 4...
"No, really.."
Jareth looked over to 5 suspiciously, one eyebrow raised. "Why?"
"Why not?" 5 shrugged. "Better than sitting around here..."
"No."
"You don't want to dodge this popsicle stand?" 5 asked.
"There's a TV and Nintendo right there," Jareth gestured. "How much more fun do you need?"
"*I* have an entire movie theater with surround sound...of course, I have to *find* it, but..."
"I'm not going anywhere..."
5 looked towards 4 and 6 who quickly nodded and grabbed for his arms. "You're coming whether you like it or not..."
"No, I most certainly am NOT!" he bellowed. He could have easily overpowered them, but did not want to hurt any of them...
"Lisa wouldn't want us to leave you here by yourself...and we were planning on leaving, now, anyway..."
"I can take care of myself..."
"Yes, of course you can." 5 mocked. "What would Lisa say if we left and something were to happen to you, hmm?"
"...that I was a complete idiot..."
"That settles it, then... 4, 6...bring him on..." 5 said, turning towards a door that had been there all this time, but it had only just been noticed that it wasn't attached to the wall in any way... Jareth growled, but allowed them to guide him through the door led by 5 and flanked by two very confused selves, 1 and 2...

*****

"What's going on here?" Jareth asked as he took in the spacious Greek ampitheater-like console room.
"Surely you know about the Doctor and of Timelords in general?" 2 asked.
"Yes, of course, but...why is there an entire laboratory in the corner, there? And...why does your 5th self have a needle and syringe???"
"All I want is a little blood..." 5 said, approaching him gingerly, brandishing the syringe and needle in front of her...her other hand hidden behind her back.
"If you had asked Lisa to ask me, you would have probably gotten some without going through all of this..." he said, voice beginning to waver slightly in fear as he realized that he wasn't exactly as strong as he thought...
5 grinned. "Temporal Grace...my dear old TARDIS won't let you hurt me, nor will it let you do anything against my wishes...sorry," she said, stroking his cheek with the backside of her outstretched hand... "Will you roll up your sleeve? Or should I?"
"You'll regret this..."
5 smirked. "No, I won't..."
4 rolled up his left arm sleeve after having removed the glove from that arm's hand...
"You see, as long as I have the opportunity to study you, I shall take every opportunity to do so..."
5 waited patiently as 4 tied the rubber tourniquet just above his elbow...and then held out his arm for 5, who took a sample of blood from him with one hand, and then producing another syringe, filled with a greenish-blue liquid, in the other. "Something to calm you down?"
"I'm not the one who needs it!" he shouted, struggling against the two that held him there...
"Too late now!" 5 chuckled. "Take him over to the table..."
"No! Release me at once!" Jareth yelled, digging his heels as firmly into the slick marble floor as he possibly could, but to no avail... They soon had him on top of the table and strapped down...and then drugged...
1 and 2 came over to check up on him before the drug actually took effect.
"We won't let them hurt you..."
He looked at 2, head beginning to loll to one side. "Get me out of here..."
"I'm sorry, I can't... I won't let them do anything to harm you in any way...well, not in any permanent sense, anyway..." 2 said, moving the stray hairs that were getting in front of Jareth's face.
"Hate..you..." he said, rather slowly.
"Shh...I know...but two of us against three of us isn't going to getm uch done..."
"2's right," 1 said. "All we can do is prevent them from harming you...potentially damaging you for life...or...worse." 1 noticed the pained look he gave her. "Not to worry...I won't let this get out of hand..." She quickly squeezed his ungloved hand. "Promise..."
5 had already started separating the blood that she had taken from him, the machines humming happily... After she had set the machinery into motion, she sat down at the large computer over to the side of the rest of the lab equipment and took in as much of the information that it was spurting out as she could... Everyone heard her mutter, "Fascinating..."
6 went to open the front of his shirt, then nodded approvingly, glad to see that his chest was completely void of chest hair. She quickly hooked him up to an EKG monitor and then removed his necklace, laying it down upon the top of the computer 5 was using...
1 was getting irritated by this point and she peered over 5's shoulder. "Why are you doing this?"
"So I can understand his structure and DNA..."
"If you didn't 'understand' him, why are you trying to go fiddle about with him?!" s1 shouted. "Do you remember what the High Council exiled me for?? You've told me MANY times...he's not a lab rat, 5, why aren't you listening to me?!"
"You're shouting in my ear..." 5 said calmly, waving her away.
4 and 6 grabbed 1 and pulled her away from 5. "Come on, old one..." 4 muttered, guiding her to a chair.
"I will not be ignored..." 1 said, noticing that Jareth's breathing had started becoming labored "5, listen to me! Look at him! You don't understand him then you give him a potentially dangerous drug that is OBVIOUSLY having a bad effect on him!"
"Nonsense...t'was only a few CC's of Dilithium Oxygnate...nothing to fret over..." 5 said, getting up and walking over to stand beside 2, who was still watching over Jareth. "He's quite all right, you know...doesn't need you to hang over him as if he were dying..."
2 gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes. "He is a human being, capable of feelings and emotions and intelligent thought... He doesn't deserve this!"
"By my studies, he is NOT human, 2...you can look and see for yourself," 5 gloated. "Triple Helix Double Standard DNA makeup is clearly NOT human..."
"I don't care what he is, you have no right..."
"I have EVERY right!" 5 shouted, beginning to lose her professional calm.
"I know I shouldn't have majored in genetics while at the Academy...but no, 'Go for your strengths' they all told me...look where I've gotten..." 1 muttered.
"Shut up, or I'll shut you up..." 5 hissed. She was beginning to worry, no of her other selves over powering her, but worried about her specimen lying there on the table. Jareth's labored breathing had turned into small seizures and he would have most definitely fallen onto the floor and shattered a few bones if he had not been strapped down...
5 undid the bonds on his left arm and took it up to give him another injection, but 2 stopped her before she could go any further.
"If you don't let go of me right now, I shall give this to YOU..."
"You wouldn't dare..." 2 whispered.
"Try me..." 5 said, a tinge of a threat lying on her words.
2 let go of 5...and 5 went about busily trying to find a vein in the writhing man's arm. "Help me," she muttered to 2, unable to keep his arm steady.
"No, you have every right to do that on your own..." 2 mocked, before she even realized how much feat shown in 5's eyes.
"Help me, now, or you can bet that Lisa will be told that YOU were the cause for her not having Jareth around any more, now come over here and hold his arm still!"
The blonde haired Stella reluctantly helped with this duty, letting 5 inject him with a dark amber colored serum...
"What is that, exactly?"
(((hehe ;) 5: 'Dunno, was given to me by the props man from the left wing...')))
"A glucose derivative (*note at end*) ...not much, but enough to substantially decrease the seeming toxic nature of what I gave him earlier..."
5 went about to busy herself with other things around the lab, not even bothering to look twice at Jareth to be sure that his spasms were going down...
...they were not. If anything, they seemed to become more violent and it took all that 2 had just to keep him from knocking his head against the table too hard.
"FIVE!"
"What?!"
"It's not working!" 2 yelled, panic rising in her voice. "You said that it would work!"
"I said nothing of the sort, 2..."
"Do SOMETHING!"
"Stop this infernal machine!" 1 shouted, trying to have her voice heard over the racket of breaking glass and falling metal as anything that was not bolted to the floor came crashing down.
The TARDIS had been on pre-set coordinates... ((don't you hate it when that happens? *grin*))
6 left 1's side to control the rapidly moving TARDIS, pushing what seemed to be random buttons on the console...
"The one on your left, 6!" came 5's voice...
"5! He's not like us! If you don't do something soon, he's going to die!"
"I'm TRYING!"
"Don't TRY! DO! If you don't do something soon, he's not going to make it..."
5 searched about through bottles upon bottles until she found one marked with curious lettering... "Last chance," she muttered, unstopping it and pouring in a fine powder writhing. The liquid didn't change colour, but the powder dissolved instantly, to 5's satisfaction.
"You can't expect him to be able to down that in this state!" 2 cried.
"He'll have to make do..." ((How inconsiderate 5 is, hmm?)) 5 made her way over to him, kicking away stray things that had fallen, and motioned her helpful other self to tip his head back. "Jareth...Jareth, if you can hear me, you must drink this, or you will die..."
As 2 was holding him, she could easily feel him say that he understood perfectly. He was just terribly afraid and had no control over his body at the moment, the poor bugger...
"Hurry, 5...he understands..."
She tipped the vial so the liquid ran into his mouth. 2 rubbed his throat to get him to swallow it... They were both relieved to know that he had actually been able to get it down. ((*author extends delete button to erase rest of paragraph, for it had much useless knowledge that one Lisa Fagan would prolly not understand...because it is known well by this
shepherdess/author...and it is a sheep related clause...*))
A few moments passed and went, leaving Jareth no worse for the wear and getting better, it seemed, by the second...
2 sighed. "Now will you release him?"
"And not tag him first?" 1 chuckled. "That's not her style at all..."
"Very funny," 5 huffed, knowing, now, what she must do. She waited, thought, until Jareth regained himself completely, watching his chest heave from the exertion...
"Feeling better?" 5 finally had the nerve to ask, walking over to him, where she promptly began to unhook him from the monitor that 6 had set up...
"Get...away from me..." came his whisper.
"I'm only getting you back up to your feet..."
"NO!" came a more forceful command.
"Fine! I'll let you stay there until you die from...from...well, Time itself!"
"...don't trust you...get away..."
"You can't stop me."
"Stay away..."
2 laid a hand on his cheek. "She's only trying to help you."
Even though he was still so very weak, he grabbed her wrist with the hand that had been unbound just before...
"Don't defy me...keep her away..." ((had to *grin*))
"Aren't you the commanding one, now? Only a minute ago you were thrashing about uncontrollably and now you want to tell me what to do...kings..." 2 sighed. "Keep away, 5...don't want him to over do it," she warned.
5 glared at both of them. "I will do no such thing..." she huffed, coming over to undo the bonds at his ankles.
Jareth's grip tightened upon 2's wrist, making her wince. "Jareth, you're hurting me..."
"Make her stop..." Jareth hissed.
"Jareth, I'll do no such thing! You obviously don't know what you're saying..." 5 retorted, moving on to the other ankle...
"He's hurting me! Jareth, stop! I haven't done anything to you!" 2 cried, trying to tug her arm away from him.
"Typical of scared, wild animals, isn't it?" 5 mocked. "Get a seemingly gentle one caught in a corner and he'll fight back..."
"Well, he's fighting back against ME!" 2 screamed, the pain in her wrist becoming unbearable.
"5, Back Off!" came 1's voice. She had been helping with the TARDIS after 5 went back to deal with the Goblin King...
"Almost done," 5 called back over her shoulder.
"And what will you do once he's been freed?" 1 asked, noticing that the man had started trembling in fear. "He's scared, 5, back off or he may do something drastic in that corner you're putting him in..."
"Jareth," 2 said, trying to reason with him. "Jareth, don't force me to tickle you...I do have another hand, you know..."
"Get her AWAY from me!" he shouted at 2.
"Fine..." 2 huffed. SHe dug about in her pocket and produced a feather quill pen. "You leave me no choice..."
At that moment, 5 finished with the third and last bond. Jareth knew this, and flung 2 into 5. As they were getting themselves out of their small tangle and began rubbing small places where bruises would soon be, they noticed that Jareth was no where to be seen, but a snowy white owl was now standing upon the table, clicking it's beak fiercely at the two sitting in the floor.
2 lowered her eyes to him, ashamed of her future self...yet all 5 could do was look upon him with wide amazement. "Unbelievable. Come here, Jareth...let me look at you..." she said, getting herself up at once and then began moving towards him.

He flared his wings at her in warning, trembling from wing tip to wing tip. He kept up his noisy racket of beak clicking, trying to warn her off...
2 grabbed at 5's ankles, holding her there so she would not bother Jareth... "No, 5, leave him..."
"You can't tell me that you aren't intrigued with the possibility that this...alien has the power to change shape...to a very realistic looking Terran owl to who knows what else?!"
"You will NOT exploit him...I won't let you..."
"Who said I wanted to exploit him?" she asked, turning to 2. 2 watched the bird from the corner of her eyes as he found a new perch that was out of the way (and out of sight) upon one of the grecian columns that went around the entire room...
"I did..."
"Well, you're wrong. I only want to learn about him..."
"You're going about it the wrong way!"
"And what way would you propose?" 5 asked, rather impatiently, becoming madder every second that her younger self held her there...
"It's too late to do this the way that I would propose, 5...its too late..." 2 said, sadly...
1 had the coordinates set for the room that they had left before going into the vortex, and decided it best if they were to arrive only a minute of so before Lisa would return, not wanting to give Jareth a heart attack, all of Stella's selves in the same room with him waiting for Lisa to come back...
The familiar sound of a TARDIS dematerializing became obviously evident inside the room, though no one was there to hear it.. Each of the Stellas filed out, in turn, to regain their original positions...2 stayed in the temporal threshold, waiting for Jareth to decide to come out...
...he reluctantly did so, only pausing briefly to nip 2 gently on her ear in a sort of apology for pushing her down earlier.
2 just smiled in understanding and took up her part at the video game with 1...
A minute and a half later, the door opened and Jareth was instantly his poofy haired self again, bolting away from Stellas 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6, hugging Lisa as hard as he could possibly hug her, whimpering, "Please don't leave me with them anymore!"......

(*) the, er...'glucose derivative I was speaking of, ideally, would prolly be Propylene Glycol...very useful booster of energy in very weak animals...tisn't for injection, though...so I didn't say that that was what it was... Dairy Cattlemen swear by it, or so my books all tell me...and I have saved many an animal by it...mum keeps it at the farm at all times and usually mixes it with a liquid mineral solution called 'Nutradrench"...

*shrugs*