Chapter Twelve

Case turned away from Ratter's long-winded explanation of the oubliette when he heard the crash. Jareth had stood up and the remains of his crystals were smashed on the ground on the opposite end of the throne room. He looked furious. A couple of goblins rushed over to take care of the mess.

"You alright Mr. Jareth?" called Jenny.

With an annoyed look on his face, he turned towards the brother and sister. He strode towards them, and said, "Of course, I am. You'll become used to the sound of a crystal smashing."

"We shouldn't be here that long," said Case. "Elisa's going to be here soon."

Jareth went down on one knee and he was eye-to eye with the now shrinking Case. "Do you not pay attention?" He asked quietly. "Your sister just fell into an oubliette. She'll not make her way out of it."

"Sure she will," said Jenny – but she said it almost as if she was starting to doubt. "The dwarf will come and then you'll send the spinning things after her."

Jareth raised his eyes to the sky for a long moment. Case didn't quite understand why he did that, so he looked up too. There was nothing interesting there. He looked back at Jareth who was now shaking his blond head. "Though that is what happened when the Last Champion ran the Labyrinth it isn't necessarily what will happen as your sister traverses it. Hogbrain vanished years ago as well," he added almost as an after-thought.

Case didn't quite understand that but just repeated his earlier statement. "Elisa's going to be here soon."

"When is it going to get into your little scrawny head that Elisa is not going to make it here?" Jareth hissed. He stood and began to pace. "Only a handful have defeated the Labyrinth – your sister isn't made up of the same substance. Even if she did make it here – she wouldn't make her way out."

"Yes she will!" pressed Case. "She knows the words – she's not going to forget them like the other girl." He nudged his sister. "Right, Jen?"

"Yeah – she does," she hesitantly added.

"There are reasons," Jareth said flippantly and continued pacing. "Other reasons why Elisa would fail." He stopped facing the two. "But that isn't important right now. We have other things to take care of."

He strode towards them and went down on one knee again. With a gloved hand, the King grabbed Case's chin and stared intently at his young face. Case squirmed but the grip was strong, not digging in, and he couldn't move. Case tried to not make eye-contact with the King – but the boy was gripped in such a way that he couldn't help but meet his bi-colored eyes. In the movie he had never noticed that Jareth's eyes were two different colors – but now could see the left was a clear blue while the other was darker – nearly black for the pupil took the eye over.

Jareth didn't just examine Case's face though – he gripped at his lips and pulled them back so he could see his teeth as if he were a rescue dog and poked him in the stomach a few times. After this odd procedure he turned towards Jen – who had been staring at the whole thing in confusion – and began the whole thing again on her.

Case rubbed his chin and grimaced once he realized that Jareth was intent enough on Jenny. She looked a little scared but Case couldn't really do anything for her. At last when Jareth had finished with his actions – he stood and walked back away from them. Jenny repeated the rubbing chin gesture that Case had performed and they stared at the King.

"How old are you?" he asked suddenly. The goblins were still in their normal state of mischief making around him and Jareth barely noticed them – and the goblins didn't seem to notice as well that something different was going on.

"Ten and nine," Case said.

Jareth tilted his head for a long moment of contemplation. At last he nodded, sinking back into his throne easily. "You'll do nicely."

"What?"

"As heirs of course," Jareth said lazily.

"What does that mean?" questioned Jenny. Case was thinking though. He'd heard it before, hadn't he…

"Next in line for the crown," Jareth said. "Adopted children if you will."

"No way!" shouted Case. The blond man shifted his glance towards the male wished-away, eyebrow quirked.

"No way?" he mocked. "Pray tell, how so?"

Case felt slightly unsure, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Jenny. She wasn't right. This spurred him on. "First, we have parents. We're not going to become your kids."

Jareth snorted. "Do you think I care?"

"And," Case continued fiercely. "We're not little kids. Do we look like we want to be…" he tried to find the right word. "Royalty?"

The Goblin King smirked, shifting his position. "Yes, you do." His tone changed. "Wouldn't you like to be a princess, Gwenhwyfar?"

"Her name's Jen!" shouted Case. He turned to his sister. "You tell him, Jenny."

Jenny stood still, before saying, "It's kinda pretty isn't it Case? Better than Jenny or Jennifer…"

Case's eyes widened in horror, but Jareth broke in. "It's a perfectly lovely name, isn't it? Suiting for a beautiful young girl like yourself."

Case watched Jenny blush, and wring her hands in her nightgown. He felt suddenly protective. "Don't listen to him, Jen!" He hissed near her ear, hopefully too quiet for Jareth to hear. "Elisa said he lies! It's a trick!"

Jenny looked to him and said just as quietly, "What if Elisa's wrong? What if we're wrong?"

Jareth's voice cut into their confiding. "Of course, if it is too unsatisfactory of a living – having everything you wanted, and powers beyond what you have dreamed of – I suppose I could always turn you into goblins."

Goblins. The word echoed in his ears. How bad would that be? To be stuck like them constantly arguing and squabbling. Not knowing much. Stinking. Never seeing Mom and Dad and his sisters again. NO!

Case came back to the present, and raised his chin defiantly to the King – braver than he actually felt. Case realized that Jenny had nuzzled herself into his chest and had his arms around him. This wasn't the only thing that worried him (though Jenny and Case were close and Jenny was affectionate – she never hugged him or anything. Their relationship consisted of tattling, warily getting along, and hitting the other when the older ones weren't looking.) What really worried him was the mantra Jenny was muttering:

"Please be telling the truth -- don't wanna be a goblin - Elisa isn't coming - please be telling the truth – don't wanna be a goblin – Elisa isn't coming…"

Case pulled her to the edge of the room, a place mostly devoid of goblins, but still having a good view of Jareth who suddenly had started yelling for the goblins to detain Elisa. Case's heart beat furiously, but the more quiet side of himself that hardly came into place warned him he could do nothing but take care of Jenny now. As about half of the goblins – and more from the city, he could hear – rushed out, he tried to calm Jenny and get her to listen to his side of things but she didn't seem to be listening to anything he said.

It was much later on, when the two siblings were leaning against the wall, bored, when the goblins stopped their revelry abruptly. Case looked up to see why it was so quiet - this was the quietest he had probably ever heard them. They all seemed to be listening to something only they could hear.

Jareth didn't seem to be paying any attention to this far off sound except for the quickened thwacking of his stick thing against his throne. He had that same look of grouchiness that had been on his face for the past hour so when he had heard that Elisa had escaped the goblin army and had them dumped in an oubliette. There was also something about a dragon but Case wasn't really paying attention to that – Jenny was starting to worry him. Jenny never daydreamed, and never lost focus. Not always a good thing – but she was always there, never in the la-la land Elisa lived in.

"Can you hear it?" she whispered to Case.

"Hear what?" he asked.

"A girl," she said.

Case strained his ears yet heard nothing. He grunted and asked, "How come you can hear it?"

"Don't know," she said. "Shh…"

Allison ignored her sister's begging to get on the computer. She kept typing her email that exclaimed over the zaniness of Jareth, The Goblin King's clothes.

"Leave me alone!" Allison shouted – still typing yet somehow managing to elbow her little sister in the nose.

"Ow!" her sister cried. "I'm calling Dad!"

"No you won't," said Allison smartly. "You're just saying that – you're too chicken."

Still having a hand over her nose her sister said, "Watch me," and then rushed out of the room.

Allison shrugged and moved back to her computer and continued typing. She had just hit send when her sister marched into the room smugly and handed the house phone to Allison. Then she was graced with her father scolding her for hurting her sister, hogging the computer, and not being responsible while they were home alone.

At the end of the long winded speech she was able to get him to stop once she had agreed to apologize to her sister and give up the computer. And no tricks allowed.

"Fine!" Allison exclaimed and hung up. She got out of the computer chair and her sister slid into it immediately.

"Dad says I have to say I'm sorry," she said. "So fine then – I'm sorry you're my sister. You're a brat. You're annoying and you never do anything you're supposed. All you do is cause trouble." A stroke of inspiration hit her. "And you know what? I wish the goblins would come and take you away right now."

Suddenly something must have happened then that Case couldn't hear, for the goblins were groaning amongst themselves yet again

"Movie words!" cried one with a blue, round nose

"Movie words," another one agreed sadly.

"Why don't she say the words like the Last- " something must have clicked then. "But the new girl said the words!"

"Yeah!"

"Yeah!"

"Yeah, that girl said the words!"

There was a great pause as all the goblins turned to one another in confusion.

"Who is the girl?" Ratter asked.

None seemed to find an answer so Case piped up, "She's Elisa. She's my sister."

"Yeah, yeah, she Elisa – who is she?" said Nog.

"She's Elisa," said Case slowly. "She's my sister. She's Jenny's sister."

"Nah," said Morag. "Last Champion was the girl-who-ate-the-peach-and-forgot-everything. Who she?"

Case didn't quite understand that so he turned to Jenny and shrugged. She was staring off into space daydreaming like Elisa sometimes did.

But Jenny never did that. Never, ever. If Case was worried before he was really worried now. But what could he do? It wasn't like Jenny would listen to him if he told her to do something. But what was he supposed to do?

What if Elisa didn't make it?

Case took a deep breath and turned back to the goblins. He said, "She's the girl-who's-going-to-make-it."

As the goblins whispered in awe at their new discovery, Case noticed Jareth out of the corner of his eye. His face was as deep in thought as Jenny's was – and the tapping of the stick thing had slowed completely. He was staring into the crystal at the top of the stick where Case knew only one person could be: Elisa.

A/N: Whew! It's out at last. Sorry for the long wait - next chapter should be out sooner. Mainly because I don't think I'm going anywhere for a while...

Reviews are always appreciated - I love to hear what you're thinking and what worked and didn't work for you.

Posted: 7-6-08