The White Queens Woe

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Tired and worn from two days straight travel was taking its toll and Sarah was starting to wonder if she was going to even make it to the castle this time. She didn't know if it was that lack of adrenaline keeping her going, but she was drained and ached from head to toe. Already she had to stop a handful of times to rub the knot that had set into her calf and it seemed to be taking up a permanent residence at the rate it was going.

"Ten minutes… and we can go forward some more. We are almost there right?" Sarah looked down at the haggard little goblin that had been depressed from his 'fainting' earlier. He'd woken an hour or so later and was deeply concerned with his abilities to succeed in his mission. Another hour had been spent explaining that there was no one better before they could make some serious headway towards the goblin city.

"We can be there by nightfall…" She somehow how doubted that though. With every mile they covered more and more traffic on the roads seemed to slow them down. Goblins traveled all over. Some flew, so swam, but most followed then well-worn paths of Labyrinth.

"And you know exactly where the Hall of Prophecy is?" Skub gave her promised word and she took it for face value. He was trying his best for her and Toby and she wouldn't get frustrated if things didn't go her way… That was who she'd gotten here in the first place years before. "Good… then I need you to do a very important mission." Skub looked so eager and so willing to do her bidding that she kind of felt guilty. He didn't seem to understand that once she got hold of Toby, that they would be leaving Labyrinth. Not staying. "We are getting close to the city right? I need you to go into the city when we get close enough and I need you to find out what all the commotion is about and figure out if we can get around or through to get to the Hall." Skub tilted his head sideways and laced his fingers together.

"If you'd like to get into the Hall without being seen…" Skub moved closer to her and she bent over to hear him. "… I can take you in a secret way…" Sarah swallowed frustration and ran her hand through her hair. After rubbing her temples in small circular motions she found the energy to thank him without screaming.

"That would be perfect… if you have any other short cuts that can make this easier and safer… feel free to tell me right away. Please." Instantly Skub shuffled forward and shooed her back and away. He then backed up to get a better look at the spot she'd been standing and then lifted a stone up.

"Then we should drop down here… don't want to get caught now do we?" Skub ushered Sarah to the hole from which she could see no bottom.

"You sure about this?" In an attempt to show it was safe he tugged her pant leg and she dropped into the hole with a scream. The darkness consumed her instantly and ever her shouting dimmed. The hole bent gently and she began to slide rather than fall until the ride ended in another drop. Sarah plunged feet first into shockingly cold water. It punched the breath out of her lungs and she struggled to coordinate herself and swim up to the surface. Shortly after she pulled herself out of the water and onto the shore Skub followed. His splash was small and he looked just as wretched when he got out that it made her feel better about the situation.

"That's not supposed to be here!" Dripping wet and shivering, Skub pulled his out and removed his coat and wrung it out as best as possible.

"What's not?" Skub pointed angrily at the entire room.

"That water! I shouldn't be here at all… something happened to make it flood." Angrily he kicked a stone in to the water and sufficed with his petty revenge he continued leading Sarah by hidden pathways towards the goblin city. It was only after a short period of time had passed was she willing to question the water again. He'd been so irate over such a small thing that she hadn't wanted to upset him.

"Were do you think that water came from if it didn't belong here? I haven't seen it rain or anything since we got here." No sooner had she asked did the tunnel they were in open up wider. The sound of things moving about above them made her squint to see. Luckily the new room had a handful of vents of some kind that she could see the surfaces once more. "Look, were close to the top again. Looks like you did get some rain…"

Outside a vent to her right Sarah could make out what appeared to be a person sitting down with an umbrella over her head, dark clouds above her roiled, heavy with rain… then she realized that the person was human. Not goblin.

"Excuse me!" The person was so startled that they moved away from the vent and out of sight for a moment. "Wait! Can you please help me? Are we close to the goblin city?" A minute ticked by before she got an answer.

"You are almost directly under it. You are just outside the gates of the city… Who are you and what are you doing down there?" The person tried to see better, but to no avail.

"Just a traveler… what news of the surface?" Sarah thought it was a good chance to get some information seeing as the last thing she'd heard was from goblin town and it had been about her Goblin Revolt.

"The city is in chaos. Mizumi has taken Labyrinth by force… some have been lost…" The voice stopped. "Are you with queen or against her?"

"Against… She stole something from me…" Sarah answered back angrily and narrowly avoided saying something that could have given her away.

"I see… Toby has been taken prisoner, but he has escaped since along with the Goblin King, Jareth… I heard it from Goblin's and from the Queens men that are searching for them… The goblins are coming together secretly… they plan to fight the Queen, but it is hopeless… They are only simple goblins and she is a witch… a powerful witch… She took my sister."

"I promise you… I promise on all the things that Queen had taken, stolen and destroyed. I will help the goblins win back Labyrinth. You will see your sister again." The rain lessened for a moment and compounded. It roared down all the vents in rivers and torrents.

"That's impossible. She's dead now…" Sarah's throat thickened and made it very hard to breath. To her knowledge the queen hadn't actually killed anyone yet… This had been the first she'd heard of it, but thankfully for now both Toby and Jareth were out of her grasps… She just had to find them.

"I found the way to the surface… follow me. Let's get out of this water…" Skub pulled her over to a ladder that went straight up and looked a great deal like the ladder she'd climbed with Hoggle years ago and so she was careful going up.

"Come on Skub… We are almost at the city…" Sarah opened the hatched above her which was heavy before it swung wide open.

"Here…" Sarah took someone's hand and when she stood up she witnessed a most strange person.

"You…" The girl pulled away from her like she'd been burned. "…But you're not Moppet." The girl with the cloud hanging over her head looked frightened to no end.

"Moppet. You know Moppet?" Skub closed the trap door which disappeared into the garbage around them and pointed with recogniztion.

"The Queens daughter" He hissed and Moulin turned to run, but Sarah grabbed her before she could even try. "That's the Queens daughter! Moulin!" Moulin panicked and tried to pull free.

"Please… I don't want to hurt you!"

"Don't take me back! She'll kill me too!" Sarah pulled hard on Moulin's arm and she turned.

"I won't… You said she took your sister? I am against the Queen…" Sarah lowered her voice. "She took my brother… You should know him and I'm going to say this because I don't think you will get me caught… Toby is my little brother. Help me find him and defeat the Queen." Moulin gawked at Sarah with her eyes wide open in while everything sank in.

"Then… You're not Moppet… You're not with the Queen…" She took in shallow breaths to steady herself. "You're Toby's sister; you're Sarah." Reality of the situation sank in the rest of the way and she realized just who she'd stumbled upon. "You're the reason Jareth came to Mizumi for an ablation… Moppet looks just like you."

"I know… Toby told me."

"How did you get here?" Sarah let Moulin's arm go and stood out of the rain cloud.

"Skub helped me get all the way here. Toby sent him to get into Labyrinth by secret." Moulin was dumbfounded. The very chance of her escaping her mother had walked almost into her arms… Hell, It hand grabbed her!

"Mizumi doesn't know you're here yet… She can't have else she would have her men looking for you as well. I'm sure of it… especially with Moppet missing too…" Moulin began talk almost to herself with Sarah listened anyways. "I have a chance…"

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The Black Queen Rages

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Inside her rooms in the castle beyond the goblin city, Mizumi destroyed much of what once had been Jareth's personal rooms in search of Underground. Esker stood as guard at the door, lucky as he was to still live after letting both Toby and Jareth go.

"Where is it!? Why is it not here!?" Her once perfectly composed demeanour eroded further with Jareth's disappearance. She had been in Jareth's rooms for the greater part of half the day. All the wall hangings had been pulled down and removed from the room. Trinkets of a world not his had been trampled underfoot in her desperate search. "Any word of the Jareth and Toby yet? Give me good news Esker." But there was none to be had and she knew it without him saying a thing. "I have to find it! I must find it!... She is coming, don't you understand?!" Her voice grew thin with her high pitch, her plans were all ruined and lay at her feet. All her best attempts had all drowned and she knew not how to pull everything back into her favour.

She had lost her ablation and without knowing where it was she could not risk bring it back to her. It if lay in someone's hands and it quite honesty could be in Jareth's for all she knew, then they might injure the ablation and thus herself. Both Jareth and Toby had escaped Esker who had his voice taken for having told her such news while Sarah, Jareth's precious little human girl roamed Labyrinth.

Oh yes, she knew that girl was here. She should have killed her rather than buy Jareth's with it. It had happened hours ago, just before Jareth's escape, when everything decided to self-destruct around her… She'd been looking at the orb which was used to make Moppet when it suddenly went dim and without magic. Seeing as Esker had just left then, she knew Jareth could not have met with his ablation and taken it back… instead with woman with whom the ablation looked identical must have found her… and she know knew Jareth's secrets… all of them. That love that she know understood perfectly was on her way here for sure to take back Labyrinth… stupid humans were…

"I can still take that little witch out… She has nothing and nowhere to go, but here… she will come… and I will great her…" Mizumi smiled for the first time in hours and sat down in the wreckage that was Jareth's room. "I will destroy her things time without hesitation…"

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Apart from the World

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"This place… is so beautiful… no wonder Jareth kept it hidden…" Hana looked around at a scene that was clearly not Labyrinth any more. River ran clear down green hills and the sun was not threatened by a single cloud. The scene twisted in the center though and the sun could not pierce that darkness.

"I know this…" Moppet looked at a woman, she was dark haired and fair, her eyes shone with defiance and radiance that Moppet could never hope to match and across from the woman was a man. His face pale was almost ghostly around his clothes of white and… he was also beautiful as they faced each other in the moment she thought she knew, that lay frozen. They stayed silence watching each other, unmoving, speechless.

"What is it? What is this…? Who is that person?" Moppet let the tears at her eye fall down her face.

"It's me… In a place where wishes come true… dreams live in this place. I wish I understood…" But she could not disturb the dream or the moment frozen in time as much as her heart told it had to. It must change.