Chapter Twelve

Jareth poured himself into his throne, draping long legs over one arm and resting his head against the throne's back. His brow creased in thought as he considered Loki's situation. The God clearly had some unresolved issues with his brother that ran far deeper than has so far been revealed to Jareth, however he worried that if Loki continued down this path it would be a lonesome one that lead to nothing but suffering. It was a path Jareth knew all too well and a choice he had wished he could take back for more years than he could recall anymore. Jareth admired Loki's passion and drive and could only hope he had now left him with enough reason to reconsider the value of cruelty and vengeance.

A sly, satisfied smile graced his face and his cheeks flushed as he let his mind wander back to his encounter with Loki only moments ago. He let his eyelids flutter closed and breathed in deeply as images of himself with Loki replayed in his mind.

"Your majesty…" a small goblin started timidly as it crept into the throne room.

Jareth cracked one eye open and glared menacingly through it at the goblin who had dared to disturb him.

"You had best hope this is important." Jareth hissed through clenched teeth as he struggled to control his anger.

The goblin stood frozen in fear in the doorway to the throne room. Luckily for it another goblin came racing in past it and headed straight for the window.

"Jareth! Jareth! He's here! The challenger is almost at the city gate!" The goblin shouted breathlessly as it pointed a long bony finger out the window towards the city's walls.

"WHAT!?" Jareth bellowed as he leapt from his throne.

The Goblin King raced to the window, shoving the goblin aside he slapped both palms flat on the window's ledge and leant his upper body out of the void. He focused his attention on the figure running at pace down a straight section of his maze towards the gates to the Goblin City. However, where he had expected to see Loki Jareth was instead presented with the large blond God he had challenged only hours ago.

"How did he get here so quickly!?" Jareth was furious and confused.

No one could complete the Labyrinth that quickly. God or not it was impossible, there was no way that Thor could have come so far so…

"Curse that infernal caterpillar!" Jareth roared as realisation struck him. "No one listens to him! Why would anyone take the advice of a caterpillar?!"

Whipping around Jareth swept up the trembling goblin in one hand and held it before his face.

"Bar the gates to the City and assemble the Guardian. I will not have that man breech the city walls!"

Jareth tossed the goblin to the floor before storming from the throne room and hurrying down the tower stairs. The goblin raced past his feet as it hurried off to carry out the King's orders. Jareth's mind was a haze of red and he smashed a candelabrum to the floor as he wound his way down the tower stairs.


Thor's footsteps echoed along the stone corridor as he ran towards the castle at the centre of the Labyrinth. He would have to be sure to thank that caterpillar again, his directions really had been right on track and it was just such a shame his wasn't small enough to fit into his home in order to stop for a quick cup of tea with him and his wife. Thinking back though he probably shouldn't have stopped for tea anyway, given that his focus should be on his current task of defeating the Goblin King and winning Loki back.

The castled loomed closer and closer as Thor picked his pace up. He was determined to prove to his brother that he was a loved member of their family and had not been cast out without thought or heartbreak.

Rounding a corner Thor slid to a halt on the loose sandy earth that covered much of the cobbled stones of the Labyrinth. Before him loomed the enormous gates to the Goblin City. He raised his head to take in the full length of the huge gateway. The immense doors to the city were shut but Thor was certain that was a situation he could rectify with a few well placed swings of Mjölnir.

He raised the powerful hammer over his head and as he was about to charge the gates with a roar his eyes widened and Mjölnir fell to his side, clutched in his fist at the end of a limp arm. An enormous metal giant took several huge steps to place itself between Thor and the city's gates before staring down at the God of Thunder with red electronic eyes.


Jareth had ensured that a number of upgrades were made to the enormous metallic robot that served as the guardian to the gates of the Goblin City since the last time it had failed to prevent a breech by a group of intruders. He felt confident that the Guardian would be able to fend off any challenge from a mortal or being who resided within the Labyrinth. However, he was not entirely confident that it could stand against the God of Thunder.

He had to get to the gates quickly to ensure that he was able to prevent them being breeched. Casting a spell to enhance the strength of the Guardian was his only hope of keeping Thor at bay but a spell of the magnitude needed required his presence at the site. He only hoped he could reach the gates before Thor turned his metallic cyborg into a pile of metal scraps.

While his primary focus was on Thor and his impending advancement upon his castle, Jareth couldn't help but hold at the back of his mind a thought or two of Loki and where he currently found himself on his quest to reach the castle.

The Goblin King had never allowed two to challenge the Labyrinth at a time before and he was beginning to realise why he had never felt compelled to. But he had fallen into this situation with no possible way out. When he had encountered Loki he had assumed, as the God had been banished to the Underground, that there would be no sibling to challenge his Labyrinth so he had allowed Loki to challenge the Labyrinth himself because, let's face it, he had grown bored and Loki promised to provide a delicious source of entertainment. However, when his brother arrived he was bound by the rules of his realm, set by its creator, to offer the sibling a chance to win his brother back.

Growling under his breath Jareth reached the entrance to his castle and with a frustrated wave of his hand he disappeared from sight, leaving the various goblins who served him running about in a fear induced panic.


"Well, it's about time this Labyrinth posed a challenge for me" Thor said as he swung Mjölnir up over his shoulder and prepared to bear down on the hulking metal robot standing between him and the gates to the Goblin City.

The Goblin King suddenly appeared before him and Thor was forced to hold back the mighty swing he had been preparing for.

"I think you've had an easy enough run as it is God of Thunder. Let's see how you deal with this blockade!"

Jareth turned to face the Guardian and threw his arms wide open, bathing the robot in a brilliant white light while he chanted something that Thor could not understand. The robot glowed, enveloped in dazzling white light for a moment before it's menacing red eyes glowed brightly and seemed to focus on Thor.

"That should keep you busy for awhile." Jareth grinned menacingly at Thor before disappearing as quickly as he had appeared.

Thor tossed his head from side to side, desperately looking for any sign of the Goblin King but quickly realised that he had left him alone with the clunking metal robot, which suddenly didn't seem so clunking…


Loki sat bolt upright, all of his memories flooding back to him in an uncontrollable tide, only to find himself sitting in a collection of junk piled higher than the dunes he had seen at the entrance to the Labyrinth.

A long string of foul language erupted from Loki's lips, mostly directed towards the absent Goblin King, followed by a roar of frustration. His chest heaving as he drew in each breath, his body trembling with rage Loki slowly managed to calm himself and allow his thoughts to collect themselves into some sort of useful order once again.

"I will kill him once I'm done defeating him."

Loki was furious at Jareth for distracting him for what he could only assume was a substantial amount of time. Truly though, he was far more angry with himself for allowing himself to be distracted so easily and in such a primitive and obvious way. He was the God of Mischief after all and he had allowed himself to fall for such an obvious trick.

He vowed he would get one back at Jareth before their time was out but for the moment Loki decided he wasn't making much progress sitting on a pile of refuse.

Picking himself up he cast his gaze far and wide, searching for any landmark that seemed familiar to him. His eyes settled on the forest he had struggled through earlier and turning through 180 degrees he was relieved to see the Goblin King's castle rising up from the middle of a cluttered looking city. Despite the rage Loki currently felt towards Jareth he was pleased to see that the junkyard into which he had been deposited was at least a little closer to the castle than he had been when he remembered eating the tainted peach.

Suppressing a raging battle of emotions for the moment, Loki began to wade through the garbage he was up to his knees in. Heading in the direction of the castle in the centre of the Labyrinth holding both arms stiffly at his sides with his hands clenched into fists so tight his knuckles were turning white. If any person or creature had seen him pass they would not have needed to look twice to know not to interrupt his slow progress through the swamp of trash for the God of Mischief had the most menacing, sour, hateful look he could muster plastered across his face. It was a face that said 'go on…I dare you to ask me something because I will enjoy ripping your head off when you do'.

Loki was now more determined than ever to reach Jareth's castle and he intended to stop at nothing to do so before the thirteen hours were up. Though he had no real idea any more of how much or little time he had left he would now stop at nothing to be sure he did not fall at the feet of the Goblin King in the end.

Wading his way through the garbage Loki thrust a path up the rise of another dune of garbage, grumbling under his breath about the fates of the world and how his punishment far exceeded the small amount of mischief he had caused on Midgard. He suddenly stopped dead as he came almost to the top of the pile.

"You!"

Loki threw himself upon the figure before him, knocking the Goblin King backwards off his feet and sending the two of them tumbling down the other side of the garbage hill.

The tumbling duo landed with Loki sitting atop Jareth and his hands wrapped tightly around the blond man's throat.

"I will destroy you Goblin King!"

Jareth smirked playfully up at Loki, which only served to infuriate the God further and cause him to tighten his grip around his neck.

"While I'd love to play…" Jareth drawled "I am only here to inform you that you have one hour to reach my castle or you belong to me forever."

The sight of Jareth's pointed teeth behind parted pink lips was enough to blind Loki with rage and he positioned himself atop Jareth so that he could lean his full weight into strangling the Goblin King.

Then, in a less than a moment, shock and confusion passed across Loki's face as he suddenly found himself sitting on rubbish with empty hands.

"You really should know better than that by now." Jareth remarked as he brushed himself off.

Loki turned his head slightly to find Jareth standing beside him looking somewhat less composed than usual.

"Here, you have no power and I have all the power. It's as simple as that."

Loki glared at the Goblin King through narrowed eyes and was about to tell him exactly how he felt about his dirty mind games and how he choose to wield his power when Jareth held up a hand to silence him.

The Goblin King's attention snapped off into the distance somewhere and he cursed under his breath. Then, as quickly as he had appeared he was gone.

Loki rolled his eyes upward and let out a long frustrated sigh. One hour. If he reached the castle in one hour he would win this silly game and be freed of this godforsaken place forever.


Thor braced himself as he brought Mjölnir down upon the enormous metallic robot before him. It bounced of its surface with a deafening clang and the entire contraption shook and rattled with the force of the impact. The robot seemed to glow with a strange blue energy and Thor's brow creased as he attempted to understand why his hammer was having so little effect against his foe.

The God of Thunder widened his stance and dug his heels into the gritty earth beneath him, bracing himself for his next attack against the giant metal contraption.

With a roar Thor spun on his heel and brought Mjölnir crashing into the knee joint of the robot and was rewarded with the sound of crushing metal yielding beneath the power of his mighty hammer. The enormous robot's left leg buckled and the whir and screech of gears filled the air as it tried to stabilise itself. Shifting the majority of its weigh onto its right leg meant that it did not go crashing to the ground, managing instead to stay upright and prevent its fall.

The dome-shaped head of the robot turned slowly until its bright red eyes stared down at Thor from behind frosted glass. The robot attempted to take a step towards him, shifting its weight temporarily off its strong leg. Thor immediately seized the opportunity presented and swung his hammer round in a long ark, smashing it a second time into the left knee joint.

This time the metal joint crumpled completely and the bottom half of the robot's leg went flying in one direction as the enormous metal contraption came tumbling to the ground.

Thor leapt out of the way of the falling heap of metal, hitting the ground hard and rolling to the side. The earth beneath him rumbled violently with the impact of the heavy robot and Thor looked over his shoulder to see he had missed being crushed by mere centimetres. The battle was not won yet though and Thor had to roll quickly to the side to avoid the enormous axe blade that the robot brought down upon him, striking the ground instead of its intended target.

As the robot lay on its front tugging at the axe which it had embedded in the earth instead of Thor's flesh Thor took the opportunity to pick himself up off the ground and retrieve Mjölnir from where it had flown from his grip.

"Let's finish this off old friend" Thor mused as he picked the hammer up and turned to face the struggling robot.

With a mighty leap Thor landed on the robot's back with a reverberating clang. The robot began to slowly turn its head through 180 degrees to face Thor but before it got past half way Thor smashed Mjölnir into its dome-shaped head. The metal separated with an ear-splitting metallic scraping noise that reminded Thor of his childhood teacher's fingernails raking across the chalkboard as she attempted to gain Thor and Loki's attention.

The robots head rolled off down a small hill revealing that its interior had been hollow. Thor rested Mjölnir at his side as he edged closer along the now stationary robot's back until he reached where its shoulders would be if it were made of flesh and blood. A hideous looking goblin sprang fourth from the hollow inside the robot, causing Thor to take a startled step backwards. The goblin shrieked as it raced towards the gates to the Goblin City. Tugging on a metal handle embedded in one of the enormous gates it pulled the gate open a crack and slipped through into the dusty city.

Mjölnir hung limply at Thor's side as he started vacantly at the spot where the goblin had slipped through the gates, one eyebrow raised in disbelief. Shaking his head Thor gathered his thoughts and leapt down from the back of the immobilised robot; landing heavily on the compacted earth. A few long strides brought him to the gates of the Goblin City where he threw his head back to gaze upon the immensity of the iron gates before him. In a move he had witnessed the goblin do only moments before Thor pulled roughly on the iron ring, wrenching the gate open wide enough so that he might enter.

The God of Thunder poked his head cautiously around the corner of the gate to check that the coast was clear. Once satisfied that no threat to him lay directly behind the gates Thor entered the Goblin City, stepping out onto the cobblestones of the city street. He suddenly let out a loud bellow of laughter as he spotted the Goblin King's castle atop a hill in the centre of the city.

"Well this labyrinth has certainly been the easiest challenge I've ever been presented with!" Thor's voice echoed throughout the Goblin City's empty streets.

Then with a single step forward Thor found there was no long a cobbled stone street beneath his feet and then he was sliding down into a black emptiness as the light above him closed over and plunged his world into darkness.