Chapter 18: Aid from an Ancient Source

He growled.

Anger etched clearly on his fine face, the Lich released a flurry of black fire at a nearby servant. It always relieved his frustration when he could vent his fury on those poor wretches living in this Territory. Jareth smirked as he watched the Lich's floating disc of light the told them Alex's whereabouts. A second disc floated off to the side, all but forgotten, showing the Labyrinth and the renegades therein.

"How?" asked the Lich of the air. "How has she managed to get this far? Her friends. Her friends have given her the tools that she has needed. But now she has left her friends behind, no one can help her now. She will die. Amazing, really, that one human could have bested my two greatest servants, even with help. But no matter… I will end her."

"She is strong." Jareth observed.

"Silence, fool!" said the evil man sitting in his black throne. "She is not that strong."

Jareth looked back at the disc floating in front of them. Emerald eyes searching the caves, purple hair ratty and dirty, soot and blood covering her face: she looked terrible. And yet… yet Jareth saw her beauty shining through all the more. He could only sit and despair. Alex. Dear Alex would find her doom at his hands. Tears ran down his face as he watched her search for her death.

The Lich simply smiled, pointed teeth glinting in the dim light, scarlet eyes blazing with fire, coal-dark hair floating randomly about his handsome face like fine silk in water. Jareth's despair fed his power, so let the poor, love-sick fool watch the girl come. Power was everything, love was a foolish deception.

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The dim tunnel was hot, wet, and stuffy. Alex wiped a grubby sleeve along her forehead to keep the stinging sweat out of her eyes. It didn't help much. The smell of sulfur hung in the air and soot and ash were abundant. Her eyes were rimmed in red and leaking involuntary tears because of the acidic quality of the air around her. Green fires blazed in mockery of warmth and comfort and a sense of dread filled her mind, clouding her senses. She was in his lair, a veritable hell.

Turning a corner, she saw a guard room filled with grotesque creatures like mutated goblins. She picked her way carefully through the shadows, not a one of them seeing her, or catching her scent. It was incredible, really: no deviations from her current path seemed to arrive. Alex figured that the reason for that was the Lich. He wanted her to find him-- he was guiding her toward him, like Jareth could do with the Labyrinth. He knew what she wanted, and he would agree to the duel. He wanted her dead.

She threaded her way through countless posts of guards, and yet… Every time she passed them, she could have sworn it was the same group, until at last, when she came across the bracelet she had left, she was convinced. She had to fight the guards. The Lich didn't want her to find him that easily. Alex sat in the shadows and waited, listening to what little conversation there was. Eventually she decided that the easiest way to defeat them would be a quick, stealthy, and deadly attack from the shadows-- there were twenty of them!

Sidling over to the left of the nearest creature, she slipped a knife deftly into the spinal column at the base of his neck. He twitched a few times and while he was falling, she repeated the maneuver. It repulsed her to take the life of something, even a creature as foul as this, but she did it anyway. She took five of them out before a single one noticed, and three more before they did anything about it. As she killed one more from behind, she wiped her knife on its filthy tunic and drew her twin katanas from their wooden sheaths. Her dance was perfect: eleven creatures fell in a few minutes with but a few scratches to her arms and hands, one to her waist.

Dirty tunics of her victims were used to wipe off her faintly glowing swords before she stood to study her surroundings. There had been a door blocked by the goblin-like things. A sickly green fire was burning high and bright as a wall in front of that door, blocking her path. That hadn't been there while she was fighting. She sat on a mound of stone and thought. This seemed very much like a hostile version of the Labyrinth, all she had to do was keep her wits about her and solve the riddles, fight the battles, and thread the maze and she would find what she was looking for. The only problem was: what if it couldn't be solved?

She shoved that thought out of her mind and examined the wall of fire. There was no way to go around it, she had to find a way to go through it, or get rid of it. Minutes of fruitless searching and thinking only served to make her more aggravated. She finally jumped through the flames, ready to bat out any fire on her clothing, and noticed no heat at all emanating from the sickly green fire. An illusion? This was going to take forever.

She followed the current tunnel for what seemed like an hour before she reached a crossroads of sorts. Five other tunnels, not counting the one she was in, branched off from a room like spokes on a wheel. As she stepped into the center of the room, green fires flickering along the walls, she could swear that she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Brushing the eerie thoughts of ghosts aside, Alex trudged along a path chosen at random and focused only on finding the Lich.

The Lich suddenly became the last thing on her list of worries as two dimly burning coals stared at her from a thick shadow standing before her. She summoned up some fire of her own to light the area and saw a ghostly figure loom up before her, its incorporeal body flickering like a shadow in the firelight, but those burning eyes staring at her with hunger. She screamed and struck him with a gleaming white sword. A piercing shriek was its reply as the blade sliced through the insubstantial form and blue-white flames sparkled and danced along the metal's edge.

The specter reached out a long arm and swiped an answering blow at Alex. She dodged the brunt of the attack, but the creature's arm brushed against her own. All feeling left her right arm, it seemed dead. She hastily grabbed her sword back up while mentally throwing a fireball at the thing. It shrieked as fire burned through it, and summoned its own power to put out the light in the room. As Alex replaced the sword in her scabbard, she decided that the insubstantial being could not be fought.

She fled down the tunnel, not caring where she went, as long as it was away from this thing! Her arm still felt dead, no feeling in it at all, but still she ran. Her sides began to ache and her breathing was forced, and still she ran, the angry shrieks of her pursuer still to close behind her for her liking. She tripped and fell, rolled back to her feet and continued to run. How long had she been running? How long had she not known where she was?

Finally, she collapsed and allowed her grief and fear to overtake her. Lilly, Luc, Mathis, Jareth… All of them… gone? She sobbed quietly. She was so afraid, so alone. How could she ever hope to defeat the Lich? She was one girl, a teenager thrust into a situation that she couldn't fully understand. Maybe she had never meant to kill the Lich… maybe she just wanted to kill herself, but was still afraid of death. Her sobs grew a little louder, she was so lost, so hungry, so tired, so alone, so scared… She couldn't do this! She'd die down here in these accursed caves while the Lich laughed himself silly.

She cried herself to sleep. She didn't care if something caught her, she'd rather die quickly while she was asleep anyway. Two hours later, she changed her mind. That growl sounded a little too ravenous, she didn't want to be ripped to pieces just yet. She didn't run this time, she crept slowly along the dank corridors of the natural Labyrinth, avoiding the cave dwelling creatures she heard, and making her tedious way onward. She didn't know where she was going, but she wouldn't simply sit and wait to die.

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"She didn't fall to your little beastie." Jareth mused.

"I would have been extremely disappointed if she did."

The younger fey stared at the Lich, "You wish to fight her?"

"You have no idea what I wish. I'll not tell you, either."

"She will make it here."

"Oh, of that I have no doubt. In fact, I'm pushing her along the path to take. You see, she's coming straight this way." he smiled as he gestured to the magic disc hanging in the room that showed Alex walking along dark tunnels, heading toward a lost city. The lost city.

"She will fight you."

"Of that I also have no doubt."

"She will win."

The Lich laughed, a full laugh that seemed lukewarm and icy cold at the same time, "Now there, I believe, you are wrong."

Jareth sniffed, "Believe what you will, she will end your life."

"Not if I make her an offer she couldn't refuse."

"What could you possibly offer to her? Her life? She'd laugh at you. Riches? She'd find no end of amusement as she died. I see nothing."

"I have no doubt that her life means little to her. But that would be because she believes that she has already lost it. You see, if I were to promise her your life, she would do anything."

Jareth frowned, "Not anything, she would never join you."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that, my friend. I wouldn't be too sure of that at all."

As he glanced back at Alex's timid form creeping through the darkness, Jareth wondered if she would truly give that much of herself for him. His thoughts didn't last long. He realized that he would do the same for her. Love was a cruel thing, indeed, but it gave strength. Perhaps Alex's common sense would win through; perhaps she would listen to her heart, and not the Lich. But, as Jareth watched her, he wondered how strong this girl really was.

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Alex watched in wonder as the cave walls around her began to change to the walls, ceiling, and floor of some constructed corridor as she wound her way onward. She came to the end of the majestic hallway and found a large and ornate double door. She pushed and pulled and tried everything that she could, but the door simply wouldn't budge. She kicked it, screamed at it threw rocks at it, but nothing happened. How to open the door… how to open a door… She thought of all the ways one would go about doing things in Dungeons and Dragons, a role-playing game back home, and started looking around for secret stones to push, chains to pull, or statues to sit on. Still nothing.

She sat down on the floor and sighed. She had gotten away from the thing that wouldn't die, threaded her way around outposts of goblin-things, bashed some old boxes in and found food that might be edible, but she was stopped by a bloody door. She swore. And cursed. And swore again. Finally, she stood up; at least she had feeling in her arm again. She still couldn't use it to fight, but it wasn't really dead. It hurt.

She kicked the base of the door with her foot, getting hurt rather than accomplishing anything. A few minutes passed in silence as she thought about what to do next. She didn't want to go back, she had come too far! As she stared at the door, she noticed a pattern in the carvings on the wood. All in all, nothing was very peculiar about it when she focused on the door, but when she let her mind wander and her eyes un-focus, she seemed to see something completely different. It depicted a person's hand pressing the crack where the two doors met. She reached up her hand and shoved on the door, right where it showed her, and the door swung open.

There was a huge chamber filled with glittering gold and gems and all manner of riches. That, however, was not what caught her eye: the towering dragon that matched his gleaming hoard, complete with ruby eyes and onyx claws, demanded her attention. He stared at her for what seemed like ages before emitting a long, deep rumble.

"A little human," he chuckled. "It has been long, little one, since I have seen your type here."

"If it please you, your Excellency, I am called Alexandria Rose." Alex said as she dipped a low curtsey.

The dragon rumbled again and sat down in the middle of the room, "It does please me, little one, that you have your manners. Many come in here and forget. Especially that Lich! I wish I could teach him a lesson, but I cannot reach him, he has sealed me in here."

Alex stared at the monstrous form sitting before her, "You have trouble with the Lich, master dragon?"

"He took this realm from us, from the dragons. Most of my kind are dead now, as we were some of the only things to be able to stand up to him."

"I search for this Lich, master dragon, and a way to destroy him."

The dragon stared hard at her, "Indeed?"

"Yes, master dragon. The Lich has taken everything from me."

"You live."

"My heart has been murdered."

Another long and deep rumble escaped the dragon as he settled down as if to go to sleep. "I suppose, then, that he is watching us?"

"I… I don't know, master dragon."

"Darigonalilian. That is my name. You may call me Master Dari. Let us speak, you and I. You will tell me your story, and I shall listen. When you have finished, and if you have pleased me, I will think about aiding you."

Alex sat down hesitantly and began her story, "It all really started last year, I guess, when my parents died in a car crash…" She told the story of her life, weaving her words like Taliesin the Bard. She told about the car crash, her life in foster homes for a year, moving in to the last house, meeting Sarah, meeting Jareth, and all the crazy events that had taken place since then. She told him about Lilly's death, Jareth's death, Luc and Mathis' as well. She told him about her pain and her anger, her sorrow and loss. She told the dragon everything, as if she could hold nothing back.

When she was finished, the dragon closed his eyes and hummed a part of the lullaby that Alex was beginning to know so well. "You have lost all you loved. Now you seek revenge, or death trying. Admirable, yet misled. You should seek justice, not revenge. Are you going to kill the Lich to free yourself from hurt, or to save the Underground?"

Alex stared at the ruby eyes that opened slowly, their cat-like slits seeing deeper than just her eyes, seeming to see her soul. "I… want revenge."

The dragon rumbled, and she sensed sadness in him, "Then you will lose."

Alex studied the floor, "How can I change what I want now?"

"If you see where revenge will take you, you can abandon that path. You can choose justice in its stead."

"Revenge will not ease my pain." she whispered.

"Neither will justice."

"Justice will not add to my guilt."

He seemed to grin, "You learn faster than most humans."

"Master Dari…"

"Yes, little one?"

"How will I defeat the Lich without my anger to guide me? That was how I defeated Elena, and fought Deram."

"You have pleased me, young human, and so I will tell you a secret. The Lich will try to turn you to him, he must have many secrets that you will be revealed. You must deny him, no matter what he offers. Even if he were to show you your true love and promise life in return for your servitude. You must attack him with justice, for he thrives on revenge. And, I will give your weapons some extra magic. Hold out your swords, little one, and close your eyes, things are going to get very hot, and very bright."

Alex did as she was commanded, held out her swords and conjured a wall of her own fire to keep the dragon's at bay. He whispered some guttural words and she saw her blades begin to glow bright white. Red fire leapt from his jaws as a tornado of flaming fury was unleashed against her weapons. When all was through, they seemed stronger, lighter, sharper, and brighter than they had been before.

"Words cannot describe my gratitude, Master Dari!" Alex managed to splutter. She could feel power pulsing through the weapons in her hands.

"I need no words. Destroy the Lich, and I shall go free. Hurry, little one! Not much time is left. I will open a gate for you, if you are ready. You will be but a doorway away from the man you seek."

Alex glanced at the swords in her hands, and then up at the dragon. "I am ready, Master Darigonalilian. I will bring justice to this man who has escaped it for so long."

The dragon nodded in appreciation and glanced to the side, where a silvery portal appeared. Taking a deep breath, Alex sheathed he swords and stepped through. It was about to end, one way, or another.