Title: Limbo's Labyrinth
Author : Miya Morana
Fandom: Supernatural
Beta : morganoconner on livejournal
Pairing: Jo/Lucifer
Rating: PG-13 because it might be a little bit creepy?
Summary: "Come with me, be my queen. Soon I'll have established my dominion on Earth and we'll reign over a world of demons, together."
Disclaimer: I own nothing, blah, blah, blah, you know the rest.
Word Count: 5384
A/N: Loosely based on the movie Labyrinth.
Jo's eyes flutter open. The sky above her is a fiery orange, and she's fully expecting to see a sunset when she sits up, but there isn't one. There isn't even a sun. It's not that it's hidden behind clouds, no, it's just not there. Nothing is. The sky is as empty as the endless meadow in front of her.
"Hello, Jo."
She turns around, her hand flying to her belt in search of her father's knife, but it isn't there. Something's wrong, she never parts from it. Well, of course something's wrong, she's in the middle of nowhere and has no idea how she got there. Last thing she remembers she was in that store in Carthage...
"Who are you?" she asks, defiantly.
The man smiles, slowly, like he has all the time in the world and is genuinely amused by her. The way her mother used to smile at her when she'd ask impetuous questions as a child, before Bill's death made her so hard.
"You know who I am," the man says, and his voice is warm and cold, infinitely rich and plain ordinary.
"Lucifer." The name falls out of Jo's mouth before she even notices it, and the corner of the devil's mouth seem to soften, just a little bit.
He raises a hand and she braces for anything he might throw at her, but Lucifer just makes a strange gesture, and he's now hold a ball made of dark red glass. It's about the size of an apple, which Jo doubts is a coincidence.
"For you," he says.
Jo eyes it warily. "What is it?"
"Just a crystal," Lucifer tells her. "But if you hold it just right, it'll show you your dreams. Of course, it's not a present for an ordinary girl stuck in Limbo, now, is it?"
"Limbo? Is that where we are?"
Lucifer looks at her like he's slightly disappointed she hadn't figured it out already.
"It is where you are, yes. You got killed by one of my hounds, but your soul was too pure for it to drag you all the way down to Hell. Well, at least for now."
He smiles again, and Jo suppresses a shudder.
"What do you want from me?"
"Come with me, be my queen. Soon I'll have established my dominion on Earth and we'll reign over a world of demons, together."
"Are you completely out of your mind?" Jo blurts out. "There's no way in Hell I'd do that!"
Lucifer sighs, like he was expecting her to say that but is disappointed anyway.
"I'll tell you what," he says slowly, "since I love you that much, I'll give you thirteen hours to change your mind. I'll even be nice. If you can get to my castle in the thirteen-hour window, I'll give you your soul back, bring you back to life on that Earth you care so much about. But if you fail, and believe me you will fail, your soul will be mine forever, and you'll end up in the Pit, where you'll eventually turn into one of my devoted demons. You can give up at any time, just tell me yes, and you'll stay yourself, stay just like you are now."
"Where is that castle of yours?" Jo asks, raising her chin. She never backs down from a challenge, and being dead isn't about to change that, especially not when her soul's at stake.
"It's right there," Lucifer points over Jo's shoulder.
She turns around, and where there used to be a flat, endless meadow the ground now goes downhill to a gigantic wall, beyond which stretches the biggest labyrinth Jo's ever seen. And at the center of it, what appears to be miles away, there's a tall, dark edifice that seems to loom over the labyrinth like a bad omen.
Jo frowns. "Why is your castle in Limbo, anyway? Shouldn't it be in Hell?"
"It is," Lucifer shrugs. "But it's here too, has been ever since Samuel opened the door. Limbo is halfway between Earth and Hell, so it's only logical."
"If you say so," Jo mumbles. She's about to start towards the labyrinth when there's suddenly a cold hand on her shoulder.
"Don't do this Jo. Come with me. I can make all your dreams come true."
"No," she spits out, jerking his hand off her.
Lucifer sighs loudly as she walks away from him.
The wall is even more impressive from up-close. It's about ten feet high and seems to have been carved out of one giant piece of rock. It's cold under her fingers and there are wild plants growing on at, though she doesn't know how they can find purchase on the flawless smoothness of it.
She walks alongside it, looking for a way in and finding nothing but rock. The wall curves to the left at some point, and she discovers a small pond. There's someone sitting by it, their back to her, busy throwing stones into the water.
"Hello?" Jo calls, hesitant.
The man turns around, revealing a distorted face. Jo does her best not to look away. The man in front of her is ugly, yes, but she knows well enough not to judge anyone by their looks. Besides, he might know how to get inside the labyrinth.
"Oh, it's you," the man says and she can't say for sure if he's smiling at her or making a face.
"You know who I am?" Jo asks, frowning.
"Of course I do. We all do. The girl who's been offered a second chance. Instead of being stuck here in the Nomansland like the rest of us, you get to lose your soul trying to get your life back. Of course, you can always become Queen of Hell before that happens."
He gets up, throws another stone in the pond.
"I'd rather burn in Hell," Jo snaps, and the man laughs, a quick, disbelieving bark of amusement.
"No, you don't."
He starts walking away, so Jo runs up to him.
"Wait!" she says. "I'm Jo. What's your name?"
The man pauses. He looks at her, appears to frown, though it's hard to tell what the twist of his features really means.
"I don't remember," he tells her after a moment. "You tend to forget unimportant things like that, here. The longer you're in Limbo, the more you lose yourself. Some people's faces even get all twisted. I'm lucky I still have my good looks."
He flashes his teeth to her in what is probably meant to be a grin. Jo doesn't say anything to contradict him. Instead, she looks at the wall again, and asks:
"Do you know how I can get into the labyrinth?"
The man grunts. "You don't want to go in there, believe me."
"Yes I do," Jo counters, her piercing eyes back on him. "Is there a door or something?"
"Yeah," the man sighs. "It's right there, behind you."
She turns around and sees it, a small opening half-hidden amongst the vegetation.
"Oh, thanks!" she says.
"For what?" the man asks.
"For showing me the way into the labyrinth."
"You shouldn't thank me for that, that's no favor I did you."
He sits down, then, just a few feet from where he was when she arrived. Jo watches him pick up a rock, weight it in his hand then throw it into the pond.
"Poor soul," she says under her breath.
She doubts there's anything she can do for him. Jo takes a deep breath, then walks through the small opening in the wall and into the labyrinth.
Jo's feet are starting to hurt. She doesn't know how long it's been since she started navigating the maze, but if she had to guess she'd say a couple of hours already. It's hard to judge how time passes when the light doesn't change at all.
This labyrinth thing is rather boring, Jo thinks. She's been etching arrows on the walls with a pointy rock she picked up earlier, and she tries to go as much in a straight line towards the castle as she can, but again, without the sun or the stars to help her out, Jo has no way of knowing for sure if she's actually still going in the right direction. She really hopes she is.
There's another intersection and she decides to go left since she took a right turn a bit earlier. She quickly scratches an arrow on the wall and walks into the narrow alley. It turns to the right about ten feet away and Jo smiles, walks a bit faster.
But it ends up being another dead-end. She sighs and traces her steps back to the intersection. Jo's about to scratch off her previous arrow when she notices it doesn't point in the right direction.
"What the...?"
She's pretty sure she didn't draw the arrow pointing the wrong way. How is that even possible?
"That's what happens in the labyrinth," a voice croaks behind her, and Jo jumps.
She turns around, and instead of the narrow alley there used to be there's now a square court with two doors and an old couple sitting on a bench between them. Their faces aren't as twisted as that of the man outside the labyrinth, but they aren't quite human either.
"I don't understand," Jo says. "This was a dead-end."
"And now the dead-end's behind you," the old man smirks.
Jo looks back, and there's no intersection anymore, just a wall.
"Things keep changing here!" she shouts out, anger rising in her. "How am I supposed to make my way to the castle if everything keeps moving? That's so unfair!"
She throws her stone against the wall. It's not like she ever needed it anyway. There's no point marking her path if the maze just rearranges itself after she does so. The old man coughs, drawing Jo's attention back to the two doors. One is dark red, like old blood, the other one an even darker blue, covered in brownish spatters of what looks like mud.
She steps towards the blue door and the old lady gets up, slowly, like her muscles aren't used to it anymore. Jo thinks she can hear the bones of her back groan in protest.
"Not so fast, young lady. One of those doors lead to a certain death, so be careful, choose wisely."
"Where does the other door lead?" Jo asks, carefully brushing her fingertips against the dark blue wood.
It's wet and squishy, like a dead thing left into the water on a warm day, and she wipes her hand on her jeans.
"More or less straight to the devil's castle," the old lady answers. "Not much of a choice, if you ask me. Not that anyone ever asks me anything."
The man snorts at that. He's still sitting on the bench, long fingers wrapping and unwrapping absentmindedly. Jo goes to the second door, presses her fingers against it. The wood is warm, almost pulsing under her hand, like a living thing.
"How am I supposed to choose?"
"There was a riddle," the man croaks. "But we've forgotten it." He shrugs. "It doesn't matter. Nothing matters. No one ever pushes the doors."
Jo looks at the old lady. Maybe she remembers the riddle? But she doesn't, Jo can tell by the empty look in her eyes.
She starts thinking. One door leads to certain death –whatever this means in this place. One door feels like a dead thing under her touch. She decides to go with her instincts.
The metal handle is cold, but it feels like nothing else than metal as she pushes it down. The red door creeks as it swings on its hinges. It reveals a long corridor that seems to turn to the left about fifteen feet away. Nothing explodes, nothing gruesome jumps at her. No certain death, it seems.
Jo starts running then. The castle can't be much farther, if she believes what the old couple said, and she can't wait to see the look on Lucifer's face when she'll push its doors open and demand he keep his promise.
She's almost reached the turn when the ground gives out under her feet. Jo grabs desperately at the earth around her as she falls in the dark hole. There are roots jutting out but she can't manage to grab them, she's falling too fast.
She wonders fleetingly what the fall will do to her when she reaches the bottom. After all, she's already dead, isn't she?
She never finds out, because her fall is stopped by some kind of elastic net. She bounces back on it for a bit before it settles. There's a light sound, like thousands of small voices giggling at her.
Jo looks down through the net. She thinks she can see the ground now. It seems to open into a large cave, or something similar, and there's a faint light coming from down there. Then she looks up, all the way to the tiny square of what passes for daylight here. It seems so far away.
The giggling sound grows louder, until Jo can hear words mixed up in it. Three words, repeated over and over, making her head spin.
"Up or down, up or down, up or down..."
She thinks it's a question. She knows her answer will be important, that she has to choose carefully, but she can't think properly with this giggling ringing in her head.
"Down!" she shouts to make them stop, and because it's closer.
The giggling turns into a cruel laughter as the net suddenly breaks under Jo. She was right though, the ground wasn't so far, but it still hurts when she lands on her side. She pushes herself up with her arms, blinking away tears of pain that threaten to burst. She cut her lip, she knows because she can taste blood in her mouth, sharp and metallic.
Jo looks around. There's a burning torch set in the wall, casting a bright. yellow light in the cave. Jo's heart sinks in her chest. There are no doors, no tunnels, no openings of any kind, nothing.
She's trapped. She has failed. The thirteen hours will pass and she'll go to Hell.
Time trickles by, precious minutes or hours of Jo's being herself inexorably passing, and Jo has no way of counting them. There's nothing much in what she comes to think of as her cell, just a clutter of rusty metal crockery and a few wooden planks, too small to help her climb her way out of here. She knows. She tried.
"You know, you can always say yes, and I'll get you out of here."
Jo turns around. Lucifer is leaning against the wall, impossibly there. The torch light plays on his face, makes it sharper, more alluring. She doesn't say anything.
"What, don't you like this oubliette?" Lucifer smiles. "It's cozier than most. Look, you even have some light down here!"
"You know I'll never say yes to you," Jo spits. "My time is almost up, right? That's why you're here? Offering me one last chance to save my soul, except that's no salvation at all."
"You still have a bit over eight hours actually, you know?" the devil says, and Jo hadn't expected that. Her time down here had felt much longer. "Plus, I really don't want you to go to Hell. I'll do you a favor, to prove to you I'm not lying when I say that I love you. I'll let you out of here."
"In exchange for what? I'm not saying yes, I already told you that!"
"It's a favor," Lucifer shrugs, "it doesn't have to be in exchange for anything."
He pushes himself off the wall, and Jo takes a step back, wary. She watches him pick up the largest wooden plank and prop it against the wall. Lucifer flashes her an amused smile before swinging the plank as if it were a door.
Except that it is a door now, and there's a tunnel opening behind it. Jo stares until the devil clears his throat.
"After you," he says with the polite gesture of a man holding the door to his date.
"This place is insane," Jo mutters, but she steps forward. "Could... Could I have done it, too?"
"I don't see why not," Lucifer tells her as she enters the tunnel. She hears him close the door behind them. "Though you'd have had to know exactly where to put the door, otherwise you'd have just found the broom closet."
Jo shakes her head, disbelieving. They make their way through the network of tunnels, some of them large and some of them very narrow. Lucifer walks right next to her, guiding her. His arm brushes against Jo's more often than not, skin unnaturally cold, but for some reason the contact is sort of reassuring.
They take a right turn into a large tunnel when it occurs to Jo she has no idea where they're going.
"Where are you taking me?" she asks, stopping, and the devil turns to look at her. "Are you taking me to the castle?"
The look he gives her is gently chastising, like she really should know better than that but he still thinks she's cute for asking.
"Of course not," he says. "I'm taking you back to the beginning of the labyrinth."
"What? No! You can't do that, I've come so far! This is so unfair!"
"You use that word a lot, don't you," he scowls her. "You still have plenty of time my love."
"No," Jo decides, and she turns on her heels, starts running in the opposite direction.
She knows it's foolish, Lucifer can probably catch her in an instant, but she has to try, can't give up without a fight. There are no footsteps behind her, just Lucifer's calm voice calling for her.
"This is not a good idea, Joanna Beth!"
She takes a right turn, then a left, then she loses count as she tries to put as much distance between her and the devil as she can. She only stops running when she's out of breath, and she's still surprised when Lucifer doesn't catch up with her. Jo bends down, taking slow, deep breaths. The air smells like earth and rot. She has to get out of here, to find a way back up. Leaning against the damp wall, Jo looks up, wondering how far down she is. And she sees it.
There's a trap door in the ceiling, right above her. Jo lets out a bewildered bark of laughter, not believing her luck. She jumps, catches the latch, and the trap door opens, a rope ladder tumbling down.
Climbing up isn't easy, and her hands hurt by the time she finally reaches the surface, but she breathes out relief when she does make it. The alien orange sky almost feels reassuring after the oppressiveness of the underground.
Jo feels like her luck really is finally turning. She's standing at the top of a small hill, from where she can actually see the dark shape of the castle. Brushing dirt off her clothes, she looks around, estimates she must be about half-way there from what she can see. This is good. She can beat this labyrinth, she's sure of it now.
Jo smiles and jogs downhill. Soon the maze's rock walls are surrounding her again, tall and imposing, but it doesn't lower Jo's spirit one bit. She just keeps going, confident, until she reaches a bridge.
It's made of old stones and, to be honest, doesn't seem very solid. It arches inelegantly over some kind of gorge, at the bottom of which slithers a river that looks very much like some sort of swamp, its waters a sickening muddy green. As Jo bends down to get a better look at it, the foulest, most repulsive reek she's ever smelt in her entire life drifts up to her and she steps back, raising a hand to her nose.
Jo eyes the bridge warily. She's pretty sure she's been going in the right direction, and who knows how long it would take her to find a better pathway across the deep? Carefully, she steps on the first stone. It seems to hold.
"This is reassuring," she tells herself, and takes another step.
The second stone doesn't bulge either. She takes five more steps before the bridge starts to shake. Jo looks behind and sees the stones start to fall one after another.
She runs then, trying to make it to the other side but the rocks give under her feet. She jumps, manages to grab a twisted root jutting from the cliff-side. Jo watches the stones fall down all the way to the swampy river, and the awful stench gets stronger as they splash into the greenish water.
"Joanna?" Lucifer calls from above her, and if there's just a hint of worry in his usually calm voice Jo is probably imagining it. She raises her head and he's just there, leaning over the cliff-side, one arm stretched out towards her. "Jo, grab my hand."
"I can climb up on my own," she says, stubborn.
She puts her foot against the wall and pushes up, trying to grab a root a little above her, but the dirt just crumbles under her shoe and if it weren't for her hunter's reflexes she would have fallen right there and then. Her legs dangle dangerously under her.
"Please, my love, give me your hand. Please."
There's definitely an edge to Lucifer's voice that hadn't been there before, something sharp that says hurry, something that says please more than his words ever could. Jo tries to meet his eyes, but his face is darkened, the orange light emanating from the sky not reaching it.
"What happens if I fall?" she asks in a whisper, a new fear insinuating its way under her skin. "I can't die, I'm already dead, so what would happen if I fall?"
"It's not so much the fall," the devil tells her in a quick rush of words. "It's the water. The River of Eternal Oblivion will shred your soul into pieces so small even I won't be able to do anything to save you. This thing, it's death for the dead, it's nothingness."
"Why would you even have a thing like that," Jo snaps, tightening her grip on the root.
"Believe it or not, I don't make most of the rules here, I can just bend them a little bit. Joanna, grab my hand!"
Jo doesn't really have a choice, she thinks. She holds on tight with her right hand and lets go with the left, reaches out. Her fingers wrap around Lucifer's wrist as he grabs hers and pulls her up with inhuman strength. She almost feels like she's flying for a dizzying moment before she on her feet, back on solid ground and pressed against Lucifer's chest, clasped in his cold but comforting embrace.
She holds her breath, wonders fleetingly if she actually needs to breathe, but she's distracted by how right being in the devil's arms feels. Why is she fighting him? Why is she fighting this strong embrace, full of love and acceptance?
Because he's evil, she reminds herself, finally pushing out of his arms. Lucifer lets go easily, and now she can see his face, and it's almost worst. He's smiling at her, a smile so soft and gentle, that goes all the way to his beautiful, all-knowing eyes. Jo bites her lip and looks away.
"Thanks," she mutters. There's an awkward silence before Lucifer takes a step back.
"I guess you'll want to keep going, all the way to the castle, right?" he asks, and Jo just nods. "Then I won't stand in your way. Just... be careful?"
Jo takes a quick look at his face, but it's smooth and unreadable. She takes a few steps forward. Her arm brushes against Lucifer as she passes by him. When she reaches the turn she looks back at him. He's still there, hasn't moved except for his head, turned in Jo's direction. She takes a shaking breath and keeps going.
Her feet hurt and her stomach is growling when Jo finds herself in a new part of the maze. Here, the walls aren't made of stone anymore. Instead, they are hedges, made of somewhat wild plants that grow twisting around themselves. Some have thorns, some have small flowers, sometimes red, sometimes blue, sometimes white and some just have large, bright green leaves.
It's a nice change, one that Jo welcomes with relief after the endless hours navigating the high and narrow stone alleys. She wonders if the plants here bear any kind of fruits, but then she isn't sure she would trust something that grows in the labyrinth. After all, she's come to think that things are never what they seem around here.
She walks for a while. It's almost nice, and she finds herself taking her time, strolling almost aimlessly amongst the plants. There's a pleasant scent in the air, and she stops every once in a while to smell the flowers. Isn't there some saying about smelling roses and enjoying life?
There's a small wooden bench against a bush of huge, beautiful purple flowers. They look like some kind of orchids and their scent is heavy in the air. Jo's feet are killing her. What harm could it do to just stop for a while. There's a voice at the back of her mind telling her she has to keep going, that this is important, vital even, but what does the voice know?
This bench is very comfortable, she thinks as she leans back against the bush. She stretches her legs in front of her, wiggles her toes inside her shoes. She tries to count them, but it's not easy when you can't see them. One, two, three... There's a flower next to her face, on her right. It seems to be dancing in the wind. That's weird, because Jo can't feel any wind on her face.
"Wake up."
Jo shakes her head. It makes the leaves ruffle, and she giggles, does it again. She feels a bit light-headed, but it's probably all the walking. Why was she walking again? Where was she going? Did it even matter? Probably not. She caresses the flower's petals with a fingertip. It comes back glossy and wet, and she wipes it on her jeans.
"Wake up!"
Jo's eyelids are heavy, and she struggles to keep them open. She doesn't know why it's so important she doesn't close her eyes, but there's a voice in her head that's growing louder, and it insists she mustn't fall asleep.
"I am awake," she groans, glaring at her feet. Her shoes are covered in dirt from all the walking inside the labyrinth. The labyrinth?
"Yes, the labyrinth. Remember."
She remembers. The labyrinth is huge and unfair, it keeps changing or trying to trap her, like the stone bridge that had held just long enough to start falling when she was right in the middle of it. Jo shakes her head again, but this time the rustle of the leaves is sharper, less amusing.
The fog in her head starts to lift, and she realizes she's just sitting there when she should be walking towards the castle, towards her one chance of escaping the Pit.
"Well, not your only chance, but close enough."
She gets on her feet, and fights back the dizziness that accompanies the movement. Slowly, with much more difficulty than she should have, Jo puts a foot in front of the other, taking step after step. The voice in her head guides her through the maze, keeps her focused.
She finally reaches a stone wall, walks alongside it until she find an opening. She walks out of the vegetal labyrinth and her head finally clears up completely. Jo takes a deep breath, contemplating how close she's just come to give it all up for nothing. Then she looks up and notices the dark height of the castle.
She's almost there.
She starts running.
In her haste, she probably takes more wrong turns than she would normally have, but adrenaline's pumping through her veins, making it a bit harder to really take the time to think. She has no idea how much time she spent in the garden area, but probably longer than it felt like. She's pretty sure her thirteen hours are almost up.
She makes it to the castle's outer-wall, and from there it's much easier to find the entrance, she just follows it. She's out of breath when she finally pushes heavy wooden doors open and penetrates inside the black edifice.
Jo doesn't know what she was expecting, but the bareness of the place surprises her. Somehow she'd have thought the devil's castle would have been grandiose, one way or another, there's no vanity here. This place isn't made to impress its visitors.
There are dark shadowy figures standing –or floating, she couldn't say– around, and she suspects them to be demons. She stops running when she notices them, but they don't attack her, don't try to stop her in any way. In fact, they part before her, clearing a path through the great hall she's standing in.
Jo carefully makes her way through the strange crowd, trying to ignore the shivers running up her spine. She holds her head high, almost regally, and walks calmly towards a new set of doors. These are massive and black, made of a stone so polished she can clearly see her own reflection in it.
Her clothes are dirty, even ripped in places, and her hair has never been so disheveled in her whole li– existence. She could run a hand through it to try and tame it some, could wipe some of the road's dirt off her clothes, but none of it matters anyway.
The stone is cold under her hands as she pushes the doors. They should be much heavier than the wooden castle doors but they swing easily open. They close without a sound behind her once she's inside what has to be the throne room.
Lucifer stands up from his imposing seat as she enters, smiling softly. He lets her walk up to him, extends his hands to her when she's close enough to put her hands in his. Jo doesn't. Lucifer's smile wavers, and he cocks his head on the side.
There are words flowing in Jo's mind, words that aren't Lucifer's, words that she lets roll off her tongue, words that make the devil's smile slip off entirely and make sorrow appear in his too-bright eyes.
"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered," she says, "I have fought my way to the castle to get back the life that you have stolen from me. Will you honor your promise, Lucifer, and grant me the fate I choose for myself?"
The devil sighs. "I will," he breathes out. "But first I will ask you one last time. Be my queen, stay by my side and I will be your slave, do your bidding. I only ask of you that you are mine just as completely as I am yours."
Jo thinks of the opportunity to get her life back Lucifer is giving her. She thinks of how he took her out of the oubliette and didn't stop her when she ran away, of his strong arms around her after he saved her from the terrifying waters of the River of Eternal Oblivion, of his voice urging her to get up and out of the garden area.
She thinks of all of this as she takes one more step and puts her small hands into Lucifer's.
The devil's eyes sparkle with surprise and pure joy as he stares down at her, gently squeezes her hands with his cold fingers.
"Yes," she says, though she doesn't really need to. She steps farther into Lucifer's space and presses her lips against his. The kiss takes her breath away more surely than the run had managed to.
As she winds her arms around Lucifer's neck, she hears loud bells ringing thirteen times, and smiles against the devil's mouth.