Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
A/N: IMPORTANT!
I have a few things I want to state about this fanfiction.
1: Bastion does NOT exist.
2: Atreyu does NOT exist.
3: Sarah will be taking BOTH of their places.
4: Sarah was fifteen during the events of Labyrinth. (She was fifteen in the old script and book, I believe. Also, In the movie, Sarah is sixteen, but her actress was fourteen. So, meeting in the middle, people.)
5: I have not yet read The Neverending Story written by Michael Ende, but I have bought it the other day and am in progress of reading it! :)
6: I shall be combining Neverending story and Neverending story II: The next chapter. Both shall take place at the same time.
Thank you for your consideration!
"Goodbye, Sarah." The lumbering beast spoke lightly, and Sarah felt her heart clench with sadness. She had to get her brother back, so it could have not ended any other way, but that didn't stop the pain. She didn't want to say goodbye. She felt like she wasn't ready, but she knew the adventure she had taken had taught her many things. She matured and became a better person along the way, thanks to them.
"And remember, fair maiden, should you ever need us...", Sir Didymus began kindly and confidently, and Hoggle joined in, appearing in the mirror.
"Yes, should you ever need us…", Hoggle's blue eyes twinkled as a sad smile broke across his Dwarven features, "...for any reason at all…"
Tears filled Sarah's eyes as she looked down in thought. She has never felt "ordinary". She's never fit in, and none of her friends in school were truly her "friends". She has always longed for magic to take her from a world that wasn't meant for her, but when magic has taken her from a world that was…. Sarah had to stop herself from crying.
Her gaze fell upon the various items in her room. It was obvious. None of it, none of them, were real. Everything she has gone through on her journey has been a representation of her innerself. All the objects in her life have contributed to the images, places, and people she has met.
She understood it perfectly.
Then, why did hurt so much? Why was saying goodbye so hard?
"I… I need you, Hoggle."
"You… You do?"
Sarah nodded softly and sniffled. "I don't know why, but every now and again in my life, for no reason at all...", Sarah spoke happily through her tears, "I need you. All of you."
"Y-You do…?", he repeated, not believing his ears. Hoggle shook his head in a happy manner, before he lifted it back up. All it took was a bit of magic and they could visit her as much as they pleased. So, if the little lady needed them there, they would always heed her call. Hoggle had a feeling that by now, almost each of them would gladly die for her. He laughed slightly at that thought. 'Jareth at least got that part right. She would have made us a hell of a Queen.'
Hoggle grinned, moving forward and opening a portal to pass through the barrier that separated their worlds. "Well, why didn't you just say-" Hoggle words suddenly left him, as well as his smile. His breath caught in his throat as his whole body locked up.
Sarah watched his expression change in the mirror, she whirled around to look at him worriedly, only to find that he wasn't there. "Hoggle?" She faced the mirror again, trying to see her friend, but an empty bedroom shown in the reflection.
"H-Hoggle?" Her voice broke as it came out. "What just happened? What's wrong?"
She was met with silence. "Ludo? Sir Didymus?" Her eyes were wide and her mouth agape.
"Sarah, please come down here for a few minutes. Your stepmother and I want to talk to you, sweetie." Sarah flinched at her father's voice. She didn't understand, but she had a very, very bad feeling. It was a feeling kin to making a steep drop on a roller coaster too quickly, without the enjoyment. Her stomach felt like it was curling in on itself. Her eyelids fluttered from a mix of shock and sadness. Where did they go?
"Sarah, please. Can you just hear us out?", came Irene's agitated voice. She forced a smile on her face, and made her way out of the room. Sarah's thoughts were going a thousand miles a second, so she couldn't stop her eyes from gazing out her french windows. 'Maybe, just maybe…'
The hope that welled inside of her died when she saw the moon-soaked branches of the oak tree outside of the house that were devoid of a certain barn owl.
She left her room and trekked down the stairs like nothing was wrong, but the feeling of unease set inside of her like concrete, quickly hardening and becoming ever more powerful by the second.
She could sense the truth, deep down inside of her soul, and it hurt more than she could ever, say-more than she could ever tell anyone.
She was never going to see them again.
And she was never going to see him again.
~ 5 years later ~
"What do you mean I can't have this book?", Sarah asked once again.
Frustration was clear in the twenty-year old's voice, along with annoyance. This was becoming a really crappy day for her. First it was missing the bus after waking up late for work, then it was the rain that decided to drench her from head to toe. Finally, add the snickering pair of women who "accidently" shoved her down into a muddy puddle, and she was having the best day ever!
Sarah had decided just to call in sick to her office job, and spend the day in her favorite place; The Bookstore. Here, she could escape all of the responsibilities, the disappointments- just escape all of the noise. She was about to leave the establishment and rent a book that particularly caught her eye. It was called "The Neverending Story", which has been the only book to truly interest her since "The Labyrinth" upon seeing it.
The senile old man re-adjusted his glasses as spoke with the same annoyance, "I already told you, little girl", Sarah winced at the insulting name, "That book ain't for your eyes. It ain't for anyone's eyes. They say it's cursed. You best leave it alone." She audibly scoffed. "Like how you said 'The Labyrinth' cursed? I may have had some funny dreams after reading it, but it sure as hell wasn't cursed." This was only half true. That book caused a lot of issues with her family when she believed it was real. In the end though, it was proved to just be a story. She had grown up a lot since that day, and let go of her foolishness. Her imagination was wild when she was younger, that's all.
"Dreams? Is that what you tell yourself they were?", he asked quietly, a little appalled at her behavior. He may have seen as a bit grumpy, but this girl came in and out of his bookstore many times, ever since she was small. She was one of the most imaginative and open-minded people he knew, so he was sure she would have understood.
Sarah shook her head. Oh no, she was not going to let him mess with her mind this time. "Yes, Dreams, Mr. Coreander. That's it. All that stuff in that book is impossible. It never happened."
The old man smiled knowingly and asked in a smug tone, "But, not everything you 'dreamed' was in that book was it?"
This stopped Sarah cold. The story told about a princess in medieval times saving a child that the goblins had taken. Her adventure was slightly more complicated. She quietly spoke. "No. Not everything…." The masquerade ball that Jareth made for her, along with the warmth of his touch flashed in her mind like a lightning storm. His heated gaze… It was like he would have died a hundred times over just for one night with her. She couldn't fight back the shiver just at recalling it.
Though, she would not admit to any living soul that it was not a shiver of disgust.
She shook her head vigorously to get the thoughts out. "Anyways, none of that matters. It's a book. It can't be real, or cursed, as you say. It's a piece of dead tree with words scribbled on it."
He simply stared at her in response, squinting in confusion at her behavior. She brushed the glare off, placing the free hand that was not holding the book on her hip. "Besides, if you're not selling it, then why did you put it out here on the shelves?" She gestured around the store for added effect.
The old man chortled at that, making Sarah jump slightly. "I didn't. That book does what it wants. You don't find the book, the book finds you."
The brunette went quiet for a minute, thinking. "Well…. The book found me. Doesn't that mean I should buy it?"
Mr. Coreander sighed, giving up. "Fine, if you want that book so much, take it. Your funeral, lady."
Sarah firmly nodded with a smile over her triumph. "Thank you. So, how much?"
The child-like empress smiled softly at the vision of the earthling girl talking with the elderly shopkeeper. Although, this smile was laced with sadness and an abnormal weakness. The pool of sight reflected in the small girl's beautiful blue eyes as she watched the shopkeeper hand Sarah a receipt. Sarah ran out of the bookstore, afterwards, and the pool followed her.
"Nexarius." The empress didn't turn her head as she was too wrapped in the image of the young lady running through the freezing rain, whom had tucked the book under her shirt to keep it safe.
"Yes, Milady." Her servant stepped forward from the wall, dutifully. The floors of the tower glowed and illuminated the woman's' dark grey skin. Typical fae makeup covered her face, sparkling white eye-shadow was painted over her eyelids, and stretched down from her inner eye to wing down her nose. Piercing lavender eyes looked upon the empress with the utmost loyalty, awaiting their next order.
"Gather our citizens. I think now I can finally tell them what is wrong with me." The empress, which was sitting cross-legged, attempted to get up from where she sat.
She staggered once she was halfway standing, and began to descend ungracefully back to the floor. Her servant rushed forward and caught her, helping her to sit back on the floor softly.
"... Your majesty, Please forgive the insubordination, but what has spurred your decision?"
"That girl…", the empress reached back to the pool and touched the surface around the area of Sarah's face, currently tensed up from the onslaught of rain. The cool water rippled against her fingertips, but in subtle manner from the empress' steady hand. "Nexari, come here. Look."
The woman gathered around the bowl, to the left of the empress, her eyes widening at what she is seeing. "A human? What about her has grabbed your attention, my lady?"
"She's just whom we need. She's been here before, you know."
"She has?! An earthling has come to fantasia? Why weren't we notified?" The fae woman stiffened up in her golden armor, feeling very distressed that she missed this.
The empress smiled knowingly. "Calm down, Nexari. We were notified. I just kept it quiet." She announced her next words proudly, "She is the first, and only person, let alone human, to solve Jareth's Labyrinth."
"The Goblin King's Labyrinth….. in the Underground realm?", disbelief colored her voice, but the empress nodded in affirmation. "Now, that's something. Wow… I didn't think it was possible to solve that damn maze." The empress turned her head to glare at her comrade for her foul language. The fae coughed nervously and continued, "So, anyways you're saying that…. The Neverending Story…"
"Yes." She turned her head back to the pool, watching as the girl ran inside of her apartment. The water's vision focused on the book as Sarah sat it down on the counter, particularly on the amulet that was embedded into the book. "The Auryn is in the book, and the earthling has the book. So, the Auryn is in her grasp. It's time."
Nexarius let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. "Finally."
Sarah ran a hand through her damp hair as she stared at the leather bound book with uncertainty. Silence may have filled the apartment, but the bookstore owner's words rang in her mind loudly.
"Dreams? Is that what you tell yourself they were?"
Damn that old man. He was making her doubt herself. But it couldn't have been real. She once believed that it was, with a passion, a few years ago. Her father and Irene had made see some doctors, which all had told her pretty much the same thing: That it was something she imagined as a "representation of her maturity flourishing and her process through puberty." The doctors always loved using fancy words to tell her that she simply had a weird, romantic teenage dream when she was fifteen. Eventually, though, she found it to be true. She has never seen that strange owl again, and none of her friends with it.
So, if that's the case, then reading this book should be fine. Sarah shouldn't be so frightened, but in all honesty, she was terrified. What if Mr. Coreander is right? Could it be that she didn't dream everything that happened five years ago? The Labyrinth? The monsters?
In a flash of intense inner turmoil on what was reality or illusion, Sarah gripped her head with both hands.
'No. It can't be real! What am I thinking?! It's just a book! I'll be fine…'
Her hands retracted from her head as she calmed down. Her green eyes fell upon the book again, this time, softened.
She reached her hand out and brushed her fingers over the double snakes carved in gold. She felt the ridges of it, absent-mindedly.
'And besides… Would it be so bad if…?'
Her hand retracted from the book and moved to the fabric above her heart. She bunched her fingers into the material as her heart skipped a few beats when she thought of the man whom's mismatched eyes haunted her every dream.
The man whom was just a figment of her imagination.
"In any case, I need to put this to rest. So, I can move on with my life." Sarah said firmly to herself.
Maybe this will bring her some closure, and bring an end to her restless dreams.
She exhaled slowly before picking up the book and moving across to her living room/bedroom. The light grey walls and dark grey carpets of her home always seemed dull to Sarah. Especially on rainy days like this, it all just seemed lifeless.
Her apartment was pretty much empty seeing how she wasn't exactly allowed to keep anything when her parents kicked her out. She hated the emptiness. She wanted the comfort of clutter- of knowing where everything is, without someone disturbing it. Though, Sarah knows that in the end, it doesn't matter. Her possessions were all junk, anyways. Still, there's just something about having one's dreams scattered around them. In Sarah's eyes, that's what made a home… Well, a home. A bed, a desk, and a few books don't exactly encourage her dreams, but then again, neither did her parents.
"Life goes on, Sarah. You need to get your head out of the clouds before you die there.", Irene would reprimand her. Her father, for the most part, wrung his hands and agreed with Irene quietly.
Sarah sat down on her bed, and leaned against the wall it was pressed into. She used the rain splattered window for natural light, so she could see the book. Her apartment was rather dim, and she didn't like skyrocketing her electric bill when she didn't have to.
She got relatively comfortable, before flipping open the book.
The Ivory tower glistened beautifully, it's floors and walls pure white, spanning as high as it could possibly reach. It was rooted in the very heart of fantasia, and no one dared touch it. Many had attempted to take it over, using all manner of armies, magic, and darkness itself to try and corrupt it's light, but none have come close to succeeding. It was a beacon of hope for all, no matter where you have come from, no matter what race or origin you were born of. For, It housed the empress, whom was said to be kind, wise, and undeniably strong. Despite being child-like, she was immensely powerful, but in these coming days, her power was waning. She gave no one an answer as to why this was so, only that she would have to take drastic action to protect fantasia from what she has foreseen.
It became evident though, that the visions came too late. The people rioted and protested as their homes were taken, and removed from existence. One day, she decided that she could watch them suffer no longer. Her people needed guidance, but her powers were fading more and more everyday. It was as if a thousand lit candles were left to withstand the wind, and when all the candles were blown out, then the darkness could take fantasia, destroying it entirely. Even the most evil and mischievous had sought the tower for the empress' help, with good reason. This destruction was not normal. It wasn't chaotic… It wasn't fiery… It wasn't anything at all. They called it: "The Nothing". It swallows everything in it's path, not even leaving a shell or carcass of what it takes.
It was an enemy of all, so everyone's strength was required, and soon, the empress wasn't enough. The empress accepted that she could no longer watch over fantasia as she had at the beginning of her rule.
The empress reached a compromise with the people, and made a difficult choice. She separated fantasia and provided leaders for each, to watch over her land where she could not.
She split the land into five parts; the south, the east, the west, the north, and finally, the underground.
The south was arid and desolate. It was a wasteland of deserts, with many ancient ruins buried beneath the sand. In the day, it was surprisingly cool, and you could transverse it's rocks and plains safely. Many nighthobs called this their home, as well other creatures. A few scientists have traveled out to learn about the southern gate of the universe; "The Southern Oracle", which was located at the edge of the desert. It is said to house a goddess with prophetic powers, but very few have passed through the gates and lived to tell the tale. A valiant Dark knight by the name of Vistaros, who travels by night-hawk across the skies was given the title of guardian and king, for this realm.
The east was known as the "woodlands", and consisted of deep forests and caves. It was dangerous at night to roam, but beautiful to behold at daytime. After the dawn, sun filters through the trees, and all manner of fairies come out to play. These fairies are mischievous, but everyone in Fantasia can agree that they protect the woodlands fiercely as their home.
Sarah half-smiled and rested her head on the wall as she curled up further. "They bite pretty hard. I can see them putting up quite the fight." She continued reading.
The Queen of the Fairies, Fianu, gladly took over seeing to the order and safety of the eastern realm, despite being childish and lighthearted.
To the west, was the beautiful (yet deceiving) Silver City. Floating in the middle of an acid lake, It's a dazzlingly place with it's many citizens living luxurious lives. However, their citizens were naturally cowardly and fearful, making the appointment of a scholar, Berkin, as their king, a welcome change.
The icelandic people of the north, felt as they did not need a king. It's villages were hardy and strong, said to be molded by the blistering winds. They were a stubborn but simple people, understanding that the Empress' words were law, and that she only meant the best for them. The empress appointed a huntress as their queen, a tough-as-iron woman by the name of Nikora, whom had caramel-colored skin and amber eyes.
Finally, the underground realm which had already had leadership. Deep under Fantasia's surface, lives various species of creatures, all of magical origin. Seeing how It's the same size as the entirety of Fantasia itself, it is overseen by the Fae council. However, under the empress' new decree for a change of power, the underground needed a single leader that would be strong enough to defend them. The empress handed this role to a Fae, Jareth, The King of the Goblins.
Sarah froze in place, her blood running cold as ice. Her eyes darted to the beginning of the paragraph over and over again as she tried to see if she misread the words. Her hands which were holding the book open began to tremble violently.
'No, that can't…'
She desperately tried to calm her nerves and think of the situation logically, but she was quickly approaching the brink of full-on panic. As her thoughts fired rapidly, she began remember bits of her adventure that she had years ago.
"You're horrible!"
The short, stumpy man snorted and flicked his chin back towards her apathetically. "No, I ain't. I'm Hoggle!"
"That's no way to treat someone who's helping you. Don't you want me to help you down?"
The large beast went quiet, before nodding sadly. "Ludo… Down…", he spoke, his kindness evident, and his words filled to the brim with hurt over being treated like a monster by those goblins.
Sarah rushed forward and frantically tried to quiet the strange fox-veteran. "Please, Sir Didymus, for my sake, hush!"
The small furry creature, halted and slowed down his words. His eyes oddly shone adoration for the fifteen-year old, "But, of course. For thee? Anything."
~
"I ask for so little."
The older man, whom's cloak resembled the feathers of an owl, held up the crystal ball, almost pleadingly. Sarah didn't pay the crystal any heed as she kept her eyes trained on The Goblin King. She wasn't going to give up, not now. Not while her baby brother is in danger.
His voice wavered from lethargy, but he held a firmness in his voice, showing that he meant every word.
"Just let me rule you, and you can have everything you want."
The fourth memory caused a surge of pain to run through Sarah's body starting in her mind and ending in her heart. The book slipped from her fingers and landed on the carpeted floor with a muffled thump.
Sarah tucked her knees into her chest, cradling her head in her hands. Her breathing became labored as she was beginning to feel overwhelmed.
It was too much. There had to be an explanation for this. Maybe, this book was written by the same person, or a collaboration between two authors.
Summoning what courage she had, she shakily picked the book back up. She hesitantly opened it's pages to the place she left off.
Though Jareth was a cruel king at best, the empress knew that if the worst came, he would be prepared to lay down his life to defend his kingdom.
And now... She has finally announced the reason for her weakness, the people gasped in shock. She revealed something no one had guessed;
She is dying.
"Yes. And, I need your help."
A/N: Thank you for reading!
If you liked this story, the please, spread the word! This is a crossover, meaning that I WILL NOT get main traffic from Laby fans. So, I need your help to reach out to others! Thank you for your time! Rate and Review! I would love to hear what you think!
Attention! The following belong to me: Nexarius, Vistaros, Nikora, Fianu, and Berkin.
Fun fact! Fianu means free in Elvish! [BOLT]
