Cara stepped forward to see around Jareth. Seeing the silhouette against the window, she realized where she had seen the room before. Black against the pale curtains stood a slender cloaked figure with spiked hair. If Jareth had not been standing next to her leaning on the crib, she might have thought he was standing there. Looking closer, Cara could see that the figure was female to match the distinctly feminine voice she had heard.
Alia, who stood between Jareth and his counterpart, backed away from the woman.
"Leaving so soon, Alia? But we have so much to catch up on."
Jareth laughed. "Imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery, Caereh, but is this really necessary?"
"Absolutely," Caereh said as she began to slink and sway toward Jareth. Cara could see, as the dark-haired woman came closer, that she wore much the same costume Jareth's character had worn in the movie. She had even cut and styled her hair to match his and wore long black gloves.
"But this isn't flattery, darling." She reached out to run a finger along Jareth's pendant. "It's revenge."
"Revenge on whom?" Jareth demanded, swatting her hand away.
"Tieran. And Alia here, of course. And this must be Cara." Caereh turned her attention from Alia who now stood behind Jareth. "She must be included – I wouldn't want her to feel left out. You are a bonus, as I said. I never expected you to show up, so you were not included in my original plans, but they can easily be expanded to accommodate you as well as the other three."
"Do not presume to threaten me, Caereh. You have no power and are no match for me."
"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure of that, Jareth. Hadrian is quite a match for you and he is working for me. He was able to capture Tieran quite easily and I think you will find that he has you as well. If you think you can, by all means leave now, don't stand on ceremony."
Jareth paused a moment then glared at Hadrian still reclining on the bed. Hadrian smiled with cruel amusement.
"Having technical difficulties, Jareth?"
Jareth flicked his wrist as though to produce a crystal, but with no results.
"Now that we've established that, let's get on to business, shall we?" Caereh began to prowl back and forth in front of the doors still opened onto the night, then stopped in front of Alia.
"Because of you and Tieran, they kept me in the hospital for over a week before I could persuade them that I was sane. That was when I began making my plans." She walked over to Cara.
"And you destroyed my computer and ruined my company. I don't know how you did it, but it had to be you. I don't think it was Tieran and it certainly wasn't her." She dismissed the possibility that Alia had the ability to even use a computer.
"I had help," Cara said.
"Then I will find them and punish them, too."
"I think you will find that difficult," Jareth told her.
Caereh wheeled on Jareth. "Don't you worry about her. You have the most to account for. If you had done as I asked, none of the rest of this would have mattered. What would I care for an animation company and imitations of the Labyrinth if I had the real thing? And I would never have been taken to the hospital, never subjected to that humiliation."
She resumed pacing. "The one thing you forgot to consider was the possibility that I might have my own personal computer with its own copy of the programming. A program with even more capabilities than the one you destroyed. A program able to animate a human from our world and place him into the computer or take a character or scene from the computer and make it a reality in our world."
"That's not possible," Cara protested.
"Isn't it? Have you looked around you? Where do you think you are right now? You know the room didn't look like this when you came in."
"What did you do with Tieran?" The words came out in a rush as Alia found the courage to speak up for the first time.
"Oh, don't you worry about him. I won't let him come to any harm. He's mine. Unless..." A thought seemed to occur to Caereh. "Unless a substitute cares to volunteer?" She looked significantly at Jareth.
"He'll never volunteer for that," thought Alia. "And I can't blame him. But then how do I get Tieran back?"
"I have another idea," Hadrian broke in as he rose from the bed. "You were putting the two young women in the computer to go through the Labyrinth anyway, weren't you?"
"Yes. So?"
"And you expected them to make it through in the thirteen hours in order to win their freedom. Correct?"
"I expected them not to make it through in thirteen hours and not win their freedom, but close enough."
"So up the stakes. Send the three of them," he gestured to Jareth, Alia, and Cara, "through to win the freedom of all four of them or remain trapped forever. Or until you tire of them, whichever comes first."
"I don't see what I get out of that."
"You get the Goblin King," Hadrian spoke in a low voice directly into Caereh's ear.
Cara recognized that tone – he was leaning on Caereh, just as he had leaned on her. Why would he do that?
"What are the chances of him making it through your Labyrinth without his powers? He's so used to relying on them I'll bet he doesn't even dress himself without them anymore."
"That's true," Caereh agreed, then turned petulant. "But why should I risk losing what I already have?"
"But it's not a risk. You said it before. They won't make it. You know it, I know it, only they don't know it yet. You have to give them something to reach for or they won't play. How much fun would it be if they just sat there? None at all. Give them an incentive and they'll be much more satisfying."
"Oh, all right. We'll do it your way. But I'd better not lose. You'll regret it," Caereh threatened him.
"Go ahead and threaten me, you self-centered primate. I'll enjoy seeing you try to back it up," Hadrian thought then turned to the objects of the discussion. "Is everyone clear on the rules? Just as in the movie, make it to the center of the Labyrinth in thirteen hours or become a member of it."
"Forever," Caereh added.
"Such a pity," Cara muttered.
"We have no choice in this?" Jareth asked.
"Jareth!" Alia exclaimed. "You wouldn't!"
"No, you don't," Caereh responded.
"When do we start?" Cara asked as she started walking for the French doors.
"First you have to be transferred to the computer."
"Then what's this?"
"This is constructed by the computer in the real world, but the Labyrinth is too large. It would require too much space and too many resources."
"Oh." Cara faced the prospect of being transferred into the computer with trepidation. Jareth had survived it, but he was, well, whatever he was. And he had had his magic.
"Let's get it over with, then," Alia said.
The next thing Cara knew she stood on the hill outside the Labyrinth watching the sun rise. She looked herself over to make sure all of her had made it. As far as she could see she still had all of her parts, though she felt as though she had left something behind. "I feel all hollow inside. I guess that makes sense. Why animate it if you can't see it?" she thought and looked down at the long skirt she had worn to the opera. "I wonder if that means I don't have all of my legs?" She took a few steps forward. "Works like I do, anyway."
Cara turned to Alia, who was also exploring her new condition. "How do I look?" Cara asked, posing like an action figure.
"Pretty cool," Alia answered. "Except for the dress. Lara Croft wouldn't get far in these things." Both of them had worn dresses to the opera, highly appropriate for that setting, but just as highly impractical for the task at hand in this setting. Jareth on the other hand, wearing his usual wardrobe, could get by easily.
"Yeah." Cara looked around. "Um, Caereh, could we have a costume change? Please?"
"Oh, I suppose. You have thirteen hours," Caereh answered irritably and vanished.
Instantly Cara found herself dressed in jeans, a blouse, and a vest, just like Sarah's character in the movie. "Cool, thanks."
She looked over at Alia, who now wore the exact same thing. "We're twinkies!"
"Yes, how nice," Jareth answered dryly.
Cara and Alia looked at him. His wardrobe had been changed – he now wore computer-generated jeans, an ivory blouse, and a floral vest, as well. He scowled and Cara tried to control herself, but almost lost it. "Hold still," she told him with a cough to try to cover it.
She reached up and removed the barrette from his hair and then could not hold it any longer and burst into a fit of laughter.
"It could be worse you know," Cara told him when she caught her breath. "She could have dressed you as Toby. Or Hoggle. This really isn't much different from what you usually wear."
"I am glad you find my taste in clothing so amusing." He was in a foul mood and not about to let them get off easily after laughing at him.
Cara groaned. "Caereh, could you please do something for him? We won't get anywhere as long as he's like this and you'll want to keep him happy later."
A put upon sigh shivered through the air around them and Jareth's clothing changed colors.
"I think that's all you're getting. Happy?"
Jareth looked down at himself now dressed completely in black. "It will have to do," he grudgingly admitted and began to tuck the loose shirt into his jeans.
.….
Tieran found himself surrounded by impenetrable darkness, completely isolated, unable to see, hear or feel anything around him.
"Where am I then? What did he do to me?"
"It's really quite simple. I have transferred you to a computer," Hadrian's voice told him.
"A computer?"
"At this point you are a collection of electrons in the bowels of Caereh's computer."
"Caereh's computer?" Aside from the initial disorientation, Tieran found the whole transfer process much less painful than he would have expected – had he expected to be converted to bits and bytes in a computer's memory which, of course, he had not. Trust Jareth to overreact melodramatically "Why am I here? How long are you keeping me here?"
Hadrian did not answer. Tieran was alone again.
Hours or seconds later – he had no frame of reference for the passage of time – the computer loaded him into an animated setting, a stone-walled room that, after a moment, he recognized as the throne room of Jareth's castle. Remembering his last arrival in the real version of the room – Jareth had unceremoniously dumped him on the throne room floor – Tieran congratulated himself on a smoother arrival this time.
Surprisingly, it had been a much cleaner throne room floor, he noticed as he looked around him. Apparently even computer-generated goblins created computer-generated filth that Caereh couldn't control. He turned to face the throne, where Caereh sat with none of Jareth's ease or nonchalance.
She sat rigidly upright on the throne with her arms resting on the curved horns forming the smooth sweep of the arms and back. She wore a version of Jareth's costume from the movie, the animation allowing her to paint the armor and tights on a computer-enhanced figure. "Why miss an opportunity to make yourself look good?" thought Tieran.
"How did you get your computer back?" Tieran demanded. "I thought Cara disassembled it."
"I am doing fine, thank you, Tieran. And how are you?"
"A kidnapping is no place for pleasantries. Why am I here?"
"Because I want you here, of course."
"Of course. And why do you want me here?"
"Revenge."
"Revenge?"
"Revenge on you and your accomplices. As I told your companions, I spent too much time in a hospital as a result of your little stunt. You will not humiliate me and take my company and computers from me without paying for it." Caereh leaned forward on the throne.
"You rejected me before, now you will have no choice. You will stay in this computer simulation. You will do as I want. Run when I say, walk when I say, eat when I say."
"Unless his companions win."
Tieran looked to his left to notice Hadrian leaning against an archway in front of a flight of stairs.
"Which they won't," Caereh asserted.
"Alia and Cara? Win what?"
"Isn't that obvious?" Hadrian scoffed. "You're in my Labyrinth. Unless they find their way through it, you will remain here forever."