The stranger smiled and, with a burst of golden light, transformed. Before them now, stood a man with a dancer's body and a cherubic face. He was clothed in a garment of ivy leaves, a ivy wreath atop his head and a light staff in his hand, ivy leaves winding up to a pinecone top.

"Stand, Ceramus. Your job is not yet done." The god spoke in a voice of honey, deep and rich. Ceramus did as his father bade, and turned back to his men.

"Right then, we need a plan." he crouched down, picking up a stick. The drew a simple sketch of the land's layout, with the maenads clearing in the center.

"Ok, what do we know?" he asked the croup collectively.

"An aerial ambush would be nearly impossible, not enough trees close enough to them." Kyrian started.

"With all this sand, it would be impossible to dig a stable tunnel." Fiona added.

"So we face them head on then." Will commented. Ceramus nodded, seeing no other choice.

"What weapons do we have?" he questioned, looking pointedly at Fiona who grinned like the fox who'd killed the hen. She reached into her backpack, pulling out several packs of cycle-four, three handguns, extra fuse, and a lighter. Jack, seeing all the things being pulled out, grew curious of what else she may have in the bag.

"Don't suppose you've got some rum in there luv?" Fiona just shook her head at the perpetually drunk captain.

"Alright Fiona, I want you and Jack to sneak over to the opposite side of the clearing and place the explosives where you think it will cause the greatest confusion. Jack will stay over there, giving you enough time to get back before he tries to sneak into the clearing and get the grapes that way. When they catch him I want you to set off all the explosives. Jack, when they panic, grab the grapes and run. We'll take that time to come out, spread in a semicircle, and cover you. Everyone got it?" Ceramus asked.

"Hmm, go around, stay out of the wench's way as she puts up bombs, wait for her to go back, sneak in, get caught, scare them with explosions, grab the grapes and run while you guys fight them. Got it." Jack summarized as the others nodded. Fiona gathered up what she needed and she and Jack crept quietly along the tree line, staying out of sight. Jack watched bored as she began wiring the c-4, attaching them to trees and such. With one last twist she nodded and him and began heading back. Jack counted to sixty before beginning to shimmy from rock to fallen log, to whatever next random object he could find that was out of sight of the maenads and could at least partially cover him. He made it all the way to the back of the giant tree when his arm was caught by a long-nailed woman. She cocked her head at him, observing him slowly. Then with no warning, she pushed him away from the tree, taking him around to the front of it where the others were. They all stopped what they were doing, giving him the same alien stare that the first one had. It was eerie, having them all staring fixedly at him, and he could only hope that Fiona would set off the explosives soon. His hoping seemed to help because, as soon as one of the maenads started for him, savagery in her wild eyes, a large explosion went off behind him. The maenad holding him let go from surprise and the others looked around wildly for the source. A second explosion went off, sending them into frenzied disarray. Jack took his chance and grabbed up the golden grapes, not even looking at them as he shoved them into a sack and ran for where the rest of the group jumped out, rushing forward to cover his retreat. As soon as he hit the tree line he heard Ceramus calling for everyone to fall back, then the distinctive sound of footfalls. Jareth lead them to the Silvers, the only spot that guaranteed them safety with the maenads on their tails. They barreled in, one by one, trying not to bump into any of the other Silvers inside. Not seconds after Boromir entered they could all hear repeated thumps as the maenads tried to follow them in.

"Is everyone here?" Ceramus asked, doing a quick head count. All were there,

"Wait, where is Dionysus?" Jack asked, noticing that the god was no longer among them.

"He went to get my mother. The grapes cannot pass into an immortal plane so he has instructed me to bring the grapes to Olympos." Ceramus answered, a touch of pride in his voice.

"Well then, to Olympos we go." Jareth commented, beginning down a seemingly random corridor. As the adrenalin that had been pumping through all of them settled, their minds began to wander. Each eyed the sack the grapes were in discreetly. Even Jack, who carried them, was prone to glancing down. Just to make sure they're still there, he assured himself, denying any and all impulses to reach in and grab just one juicy, firm fruit. He shook his head violently as if to shake the thought away altogether. It was Boromir though, above all others, whose gaze rested on the sack. Each time he looked at it, the pain thrumming through his arm seemed to lessen. He began thinking about what Dionysus had said. The juice, or the skin of just one could stop the pain completely, and it wouldn't turn him mad. Why shouldn't he be able to use them? He selflessly chose to go on this quest, so why shouldn't he be able to use the fruits his labors? He got so lost in thought that, at one point, he stopped walking completely.

"Boromir." someone tried to get his attention, which stayed fixed on the sack.

"Boromir!" the shout finally snapped him out of it. He raised his head quickly to see everyone else had stopped as well and were staring at him.

"Sorry. My wound was jus-I was just…" He trailed off, eyes momentarily drifting back to the sack, before coming up again.

"lost in thought." he finished elegantly, as if he hadn't been mumbling and trailing off. Ceramus nodded, looking suspicious,

"Right well then, why don't you come up here and talk to me? Tell me of your thoughts…?" Ceramus offered. Boromir silently added, 'keep me away from the grapes' but outwardly smiled.

"No, thank you, I am in present mind once more." he tried to make himself sound assured, but more than anything it sounded longing.

"I would be more alright healed." he muttered under his breath, but Kyrian seemed to catch it.

"Would you take them for that purpose?" he demanded defensively. Boromir started, again having been getting lost just staring at the sack.

"I would never!" he roared.

"Oh please, I see the way you look at that sack, like a gay boy with a crush." Fiona added in scathingly.

"Oh and you! Little miss innocent are you? I think not!" Will gave his two cents, only to have it returned to him by Boromir. All the while the din grew, Jareth stared on, wondering what was happening.

"Yes…rahh…how dare…" Jack added quietly every now and then, inconspicuously slipping his hand into the sack. From it he drew a single grape. It felt cool in his hand and firm like a pearl. A tiny squeeze though, revealed it too be eatable and juicy. He inched his hand up, little by little, slowly drawing the fruit to his mouth.

"Come on, just a bit more…"

"What are you doing!" Jareth yelled, horrified. He rushed to Jack, grabbing the grape from his grasp, as well as the sack, before he could react. This exchange had apparently caught the groups attention, for the corridor grew quiet as they gazed at the grape in Jareth's grasp. They stared as if hungry dogs being taunted with a large slab of meat.

"Enough of this!" Jareth commanded, dropping the grape back in with the rest.

"These will tempt you no more!" he then summoned a crystal to his hand and pressed it to the sack. With a small pop, both disappeared. Boromir, cure snatched from his grasp seemingly forever, gave a battle cry and charged Jareth only to bounce of harmlessly nearly a foot from him.

"Regain yourself Boromir! Is this how a son of Gondor acts?" he tried to snap him out of it, but Boromir didn't even seem to hear. Instead he drew back several feet and charged again, crashing into the barrier with all his might. Jareth's eyes widened as Boromir bounced off with great force, straight into a Silver. He started after him but Faethe's voice in his soul stopped him.

"Stop! She pleaded.

"Stop! There is no life there. The world beyond cannot support carbon-based life!" Jareth hung his head in sorrow. Boromir's death, coupled with the absence of the grapes, sobered the group.

"Is there nothing that can be done for him?" Ceramus asked Jareth quietly, getting only a shake of the head in response. They soon started back on their way, subdued. Infamously curious, Will broke the silence after a few moments.

"How did you resist the grapes. I would like to think we all have a great deal of self-control, yet we all behaved as animals. You were the only one to keep your head." Jareth gave a short, bitter laugh.

"There was a girl, Sarah. She was born to the mortal world, but never really belonged there. Her imagination was vast, her will vaster. One night she wished her baby brother away, thinking nothing would come of it. However, her imagination attracted my goblins, and therefore me. I granted her wish, thinking it a favor. She on the other hand, saw it as an evil king committing an evil deed. I saw deep within her a longing for adventure, so I played the role of villain. I gave her thirteen hours, as everyone gets, to run my maze and find her brother or he'd be mine forever. I may, of course, given her some silly notion of turning him into a goblin but nuances correct? I played my role well and in the end she made it in time. I gave her one last chance though, offering to make her my queen, but she refused. She quoted, verbatim the last lines of the book I had written for her, a book playing out a situation like the one she was in then. With those words she unknowingly cast a spell upon me, for in the underground, the word is the deed. She said: Your will is as strong as mine, kingdom as great. You have no power over me. With that my will was amplified, I had my own and her own will of stone, a vaster kingdom, and of course it made it so that I really did have no power over her anymore. She banished me from her heart and her thoughts. It was that though, that amplified will, that kept me from being tempted by the grapes." After that no one spoke, they reached Olympos in silence and found Dionysus, Ariadne caged beside him, without a word.