"You've got to be knidding me." Scrub badly joked. Sarah glared at her, then returned her gaze out the scene down below was chaotic. The thing was so big that the walls were barely high enough to stop it from simply entering the castle. It was a giant, but not The Jolly Green Giant sort of giant..it was indescribably huge. In fact, Scrub thought, it was so huge that it deserved a Latin name. "Magnus Rex of the Knids." She breathed.

Sarah slapped her arm. "Confucto! This is not the time for pet names." To the others, she turned. "What are we going to do now?"

Jareth shook his head. "I don't know, but I think it's only a matter of time befo-" A grand rumbling shook the castle and nearly knocked Mirwana to the floor. Jareth sighed and grimly rubbed his forehead. "Before they ram the walls."

Willy looked out the window over Sarah's shoulder and gasped. "Hey, I know him!" He announced in a rather annoyed voice. "He tried to eat the Elevator!" Then he took on a smug expression. "But he couldn't because I planned ahead and not only made it fireproof, waterproof, bombproof, and bulletproof, but I also made it Knidproof!" Scrub clapped enthusiastically, but she was the only one who bothered.

Mirwana, shaken from her stumble, frantically cried out. "We've got to think up a plan!" This was a strange sight, for none of those in the room had ever seen her lose her cool. With the exception of Jareth and Hatter, who had both been present on the Frabjous Day. She peered worridly out the window at the fortified stone that surrounded her castle.

"Obviously." Said the butterfly in a dry voice.

"Can't anyone come up with something?" She asked of no one in particular.

He landed gracefully on the end of Scrub's nose, causing her to look cross-eyed and down her nose at him. "The question is really how do we subtract them from our lives?"

Willy snapped his fingers, making Sarah jump and shoot him a dirty look. "That's it!" The others watched him in bamboozlement as he went through the numerous pockets on his jacket, pants, shirt, and even on the inside of his hat. His fingers brushed a small lump in his breast pocket and he fished out a small bottle of pills.

Now the bottle itself was completely ordinary, however it was it's contents that made the others stare in disbelief. For in the humble container were minute pills that vibrated and changed colors from violet to yellow and back again every few seconds. "What are those?"

Willy smiled at Sarah. "These are Wonka-Vites, they make you younger by twenty years for every pill you ingest."

"And how will making Magnus Rex , as Scrub so fondly refers to it as, an infant reduce our problem by any degree?" Grumbled Jareth. "Babies eat more often than adults."

Willy grinned. "Not an infant, Goblin king." He shook the bottle proudly. "A Minus, and preferably not just him, but the rest of them, too!"

"Please, explain." Jareth raised one eyebrow expectantly and crossed his arms, leaning a bit to the side. This noble position was jerked from him as another Knid-quake made the castle shudder to its foundations. He flailed and grabbed for the nearest sturdy object, which just happened to be Sarah's shoulder. However, this turned out to be a mistake, as he inadvertantly pushed her forward and she ended up slamming into Scrub.

Scrub fell backwards into Hatter's arms. Smiling sheepishly up at him, she said. "Yohla, how nice to bump into you." He grinned back at her, tightened his hold for a second, then hoisted her to her feet. But to be sure, he kept one hand on her arm.

Willy ground his teeth and glared at Tarrant, who instantly replaced his gloating smirk with a look of innocence. The chocolatier huffed. Had he mentioned how much he dislike competition? "Anyway, as I was about to say, a Minus is a being who has negative years. They exist in Minusland, a horrid, misty world full of Gnoolies. And, unfortunately or fortunately, whichever way you want to look at it, all Minuses are eventually subtracted."

"Subtracted?"

"Yes, they are bitten by Gnoolies, which begins the process of subtraction, from there they are divided and it is long division, so it is especially painfull. " He sounded slightly guilty. "After they have been successfully divided, they themselves become Gnoolies and attack other Minuses."

"So, I think I see what you're saying..." Remarked Scrub, holding onto Tarrant for dear life as another shake rattled the stones beneath her feet. "We give Magnus Rex and company a ginormous dose of Wonka-Vites and they turn into Minuses, then into the other thingymaboberinos so they won't bother anyone any more."

"Precisely." Willy exclaimed brightly, then he fingered the bottle sadly. "Only I need more Wonka-Vites and there are definitely not enough in here. " He shook it pointedly, the small amount of pills tinging as they hit the plastic inside of the container. "And I don't have the ingredients with me to make more."

"What's in them?" Mirwana piped up. Willy peeled off the label from the side of the bottle and handed it to her. She read the ingredients list and mouthed them to herself. When she looked up, her eyes were shining and she was grinning like a loon. " , get ready to create the largest batch of Wonka-Vites you will ever make."

{~Later~}

"Okay.." Willy read down the list. "Finally, I need the venom of the Deadly Vindshield Viper." Mirwana pushed aside some vials containing blue and green liquids until she came upon an orange decanter. She handed it to him and watched as he added a drop to the sludgish mixture in the pot. The drop hit the top of the brown muck and hissed menacingly. Then, a second later, it flashed purple. Willy got up and turned up heat.

"Now what?" Asked Jareth from his tense position as lookout next to the window. "The walls won't hold for much longer, sister."

"We realize this, brother." Snapped Mirwana, then her eyes softened and she appologized. "I'm sorry, Jareth. It's just that the stress is getting to me.." She sighed heavily. There seemed be a lot of that happening, Willy noticed. The stress was definitly getting to him, as well. He needed chocolate and missed his Oompa-Loompas..and the Buckets, Charlie especially. At least Scrub was trying her best to lighten affairs by being her usual romanticly idealed self. She was currently entertaining the other occupants of the palace with fairy stories from their world.

It seems that the people here had never heard of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, or even The Frog Prince. So she had taken it upon herself to teach them the tales while the others were relieved of the burden of having the constant interference of worried servants and such things as that. "To answer your question, Goblin King, now we wait for the mix to harden."

"Wonka, if we live through this, you can call me Jareth." Willy grinned, but he was facing his concoction, so the royals could not see him. The kings and queens here were much less stupid than some other royalty he had met. Prince Pondicherry had been the ultimate ditz, live in a chocolate palace indeed! And in the middle of India, no less! He had certainly gotten his just desserts, pun intended, when his palace had melted down around him. Willy snickered, he was still recieving threatening letters from that guy.

{~Meanwhile~}

"And then they lived happily ever after." She concluded. "Now.." She thought for a moment, tapping her finger against the side of her face. "How about Thumbelina?"

"What's that about?" Asked one of the butlers, he was a hare, like Thackory, but was a darker brown and was less mad. Oh, and he didn't throw teacups. She smiled at him and began to explain.

{~Off in another part of the castle~}

Sarah walked alongside of Tarrant. She and the madman were assigned to watch out for Knids that may attack from the back of the castle. "So what's up with you and Scrub?" She asked suddenly, catching him off guard after being silent for the past hour.

"W-what do you mean?" He asked, his lisp appearing.

"You and Scrub...what's up with you two?" She repeated.

"Ummm..."

Sarah bit her lip. "I mean, you both like each other...so why not?"

He still insisted on playing dumb. "Why not what?"

"Get together!" Came her frustrated answer. "The romantic tension between the two of you is thick enough to cut with a knife!"

He drew a deep breath and mumbled his answer. "..."

"What was that?"

"Because of Alice." Sarah stopped to stare at the man beside her. Jareth had told her about Alice, the other Champion. The other one hadn't run the Labyrinth, but she'd known about Underland for her whole life and had come the final time to relieve Underland from the clutches of the evil older sibling of Jareth and Mirwana. "She left, said she was coming back..but she never did." He said sadly. His normally green eyes had gone to a sickly grey. "Ah knew Cricket since sh' was a wee bairn...sh' was th' bes' tea gues' Ah ever 'ad." He chuckled, but the sound held no humor. "Sh' never even threw th' dishes."

"But she didn't come back."

"No, nawht even after sh' sait sh' woult."

Sarah's heart hurt for him. So she did the only thing she could think of. She moved closer and patted him soothingly on the back. "Look, Alice isn't here. From what you tell me she might not ever come back at all. Is that really a good reason to give up on a great thing you could have right now? Scrub's a goofball, but she would understand if you explained."

Hatter smiled at her. "You've a gift, my dear. You give wonderful advice."

"Oh, thank you."

He shook his head. "No, thank you. You're right. I've pined for Alice long enough."

"And?" She encouraged.

"I..I.."

"Go on..." She grinned.

"I'm in love with Scrub." He whispered. Sarah smiled and gave him the thumbs up. "I'm in love with her." He said again, a little louder. "I'M IN LOVE WI-" He started to yell, but she clamped a hand over his mouth.

"That's enough for me, Loverboy." She pushed him in the opposite direction. "Now go, find her and tell her how you feel."

He started eagerly enough, but looked back. "But..but what if-" He began fearfully.

"She does..." Reassured Sarah. "She has since before the ball." He grinned ecstatically and beat it towards his lady love. Sarah stared after the lovestruck miliner and sighed forlornly. "Now, if only I had the courage to do the same with the object of my own affections."