Title: That's What Friends Are For
Author: Yodeladyhoo
Summary: Aftermath
Genre: Fantasy
Pairings: Jareth x Maurasoon ( OC )
Rating: T
disclaimer (dĭs-klā'mər): noun
1. (law) a voluntary repudiation of a person's legal claim to something
2. denial of any connection with or knowledge of
syn: disavowal
c.1986, 2007 The Jim Henson Company.
LABYRINTH is a trademark of The Jim Henson Company.
Labyrinth characters c.1986 Labyrinth Enterprises.
All rights reserved, but not by me.
All rights are reserved, but not by me. This short story is a work of fiction. All original characters in this story are fictional. Any similarities to actual persons, either living or deceased, are purely coincidental. Permission for the use of the non-original characters and song lyrics has not been requested by the author or granted by the licensor. This short story was written for your perusal and pleasure. No compensation, either financial or actual, has been collected or requested.
Maurasoon is mine.
Plea for Reason: And now the time has come, and so I face the final curtain. My friends, I say to you…
The metallic clanging was supposed to wake her up. Groaning, Mary flailed around to find the alarm clock to silence it, if only for another fifteen minutes. In her mind's eye, she could see herself, lying in bed, Gary oblivious to the world, snoring, as she batted her arm in widening arcs. Twisting within the sheets, Maurasoon realized that she was dreaming of her previous life. There still was that annoying metallic clanging ringing around her head, though. She opened her eyes to a room that was dim with the dawn's light.
Stretching while rising from the bed, Maurasoon cleared her mind of the haziness the short sleep had left. She padded over to the entry to the room from the viewing platform and pulled back the heavy drape that helped to keep out the sun's light. It was difficult to find the source of the tinny reverberations as they bounced off the walls of the goblin's homes. Leaning over the balustrade, she peered about until she noticed a commotion within one of the gates. This did not bode well.
Reentering the room, Maurasoon quickly made her toilette and dressed in her own clothes that she wore when she arrived at the castle. No sooner than when she was finished, she heard the clanging of a bell sounding within the castle walls. Opening the door to her suite, she was accosted with the sight of a stream of armored goblins rushing through the halls, some entering other rooms to summons more of their comrades, but mostly heading towards the main portal to face the enemy.
'She must've gotten through the city gates!' Maurasoon thought to herself as she quickly shut the door to her sitting room. She stood against it with her back bracing the door, as if the encroacher were right outside, forcing her way in. Biting her lip, she tried to think of the best course of action. Jareth was more than preoccupied with the defense of the castle, the movement of troops and the welfare of the child. Where could she be of most service? Since he did not summon her, she thought it would be best to stay out of his way until called for. She nervously paced around the room, twisting the hem of her vest within her fingers, before she sat down on a divan, waiting for something to occur.
The din was weirdly muted within the walls of the room. The cacophonic clatter of arms and ricocheting bullets seemed surreal to the battle that was being waged outside of the castle and within her mind. Maurasoon kept her hands busy with the smoothing and placement of her skirt panels and tracing the weave of the material. This did nothing to allay her fears of where the challenger was and what Jareth was planning to do for his endgame.
'He never did have a good endgame,' ran through her head, thinking back to some of the stratagems she had seen him use with Devlin. Devlin won most every time, except for the times that even Maurasoon could see that he allowed Jareth the victory.
Then, silence. Complete lack of sound, much like before a wild storm when even the insects were too busy in their preparations for the expected onslaught to sing their usual songs. Maurasoon stilled her hands, not by her own thoughts but rather by the general presence of anticipation. Looking up, it appeared that even the dust motes floating in the new morning's light seemed frozen in their places. By some outside volition, the short hairs on the back of her neck raised--a sure sign of the use of deep, powerful magick. The kind of magick that taps into the very land itself. The kind of magick that could create or destroy with just an utterance of the right words.
"Dear Goddess, Warrior Woman, Mother of All," she murmured. Maurasoon was not one for prayer, but she knew that the Ancient One worked in her own fashion. She fervently hoped that the Powers That Be would consider her plea, "Assist my King in his objective!"
Quiet reigned. Without a sound, Maurasoon felt a shift; she could not quite place what it was that moved, but there was a definite movement. Looking around anxiously, she noticed that the dust motes were swimming again within the beams of sunlight. They were joined with a fine powder of rock that was starting to sift from between the stones of the walls.
Rising swiftly from the divan, Maurasoon felt the plane of the floor shift from perfectly level to a minor incline. The shifting stones were marring the smoothness of the walls. A groan emanating from within the walls accompanied her exclamation of, "By all that is holy Above and Below, what is going on!"
The rumbling was felt more so than it was heard. Now it became apparent that the large blocks that constructed the castle were becoming unmoored from the cement that kept them together. Chips and chunks of the wall joined with the dust and lime powder in the beams of light. For all that it seemed improbable, it certainly felt as if the entire building was being torn apart. Thinking quickly, Maurasoon realized that she had to get out of the building before it collapsed on her. She ran to the archway leading to the viewing platform. Her room was on the second floor overlooking an expanse of lawn. It was a parched tan, just what it should be for this time of the year; not such a good cushion to land on when jumping out of a balcony. She had no choice; it was either jump or be taken down with the castle. Biting her lip in nervousness, Maurasoon clamped her eyes tightly shut and leapt out into the air as the balcony crumbled beneath her feet. After that, she did not know what happened.
The first sensation that Maurasoon experienced was dry warmth upon her forehead. A groan was wrenched from her throat and her mind rejoiced, 'I groan, therefore I live!' Brown eyes flutter open to the bright, morning light as it filled the Underground as if it were to be like any other day. Now her brain was wondering if living was such a good thing given the amount of pain that was registering from all the different parts of her body. She winced as she gingerly tested her limbs for any breaks or lameness--none that she could find or would hinder her motion. Something felt thick and cloying underneath her hair, just below the crown line. Putting her hand to her head, she was not shocked to see it come away sticky with her own blood. 'Well, at least I survived the jump,' she thought ruefully. But, what of Jareth, the challenger, the babe?
Standing up was only the first challenge. The next became the ability to find level footing amidst the rubble. Barely one stone was left atop another; the only thing rising was the dust from the debris as it lifted in the bright, late morning sun. Staggering upon the shifting mass beneath her feet, Maurasoon wandered in the general direction that the Throne Room used to reside. Apprehension filled her when it appeared that she was the only entity standing. Not even the dragons took to the air in the mayhem. Apprehension turned to panic upon sighting a feathery, white expanse sprawled out amongst the stones.
Maurasoon made her way to the other casualty. She breathed a small sigh of relief to notice the shape was man-sized. If Jareth were injured in his spirit form, there would be very little for her to do to help him. She dropped to her knees, almost grateful not to have to walk over the jagged fragments of the castle any longer. "My Liege?" She called to him, hoping that the ruffling of the feather cloak was his shallow breathing and not just the wind playing with her eyes.
"Jay?" A timid hand reached out to touch the downy white where his shoulder blades should have been. Ever so gently, imperceptible to the eye, her hand moved, and not on her own accord. The king lived, if only by just.
"Jareth Mac Righ Erwain, King of the Goblins, Lord of the Labyrinth, Guardian of Finias, Protector of the Underground. Arise!" Maurasoon called upon the most basic of magick to help her king. Within seconds, a groan erupted from underneath the mop of platinum blonde hair.
Catching Jareth from underneath his arms, she maneuvered his body into a reclined seated position to ease his breathing. The effort, along with her own ordeal, tired her out. She wiped some hair from her face, smearing her forehead with stone ash and blood.
Neither one knew for how long they rested against the stones warming in the late morning sun. She, lending herself to support him, not questioning him for a lack of energy as well as decorum; he, with his eyes closed and creased with pain, his face drawn with effort. It was his voice that broke through the unnatural silence.
"She rejected me."
Maurasoon did not respond; she did not move, she did not acknowledge. There was nothing to say or do that would heal his pain or rectify the damage that this human inflicted upon his kingdom.
Jareth continued on. "She rejected and denied me access to her."
"She didn't know what she was doing." Maurasoon found her voice saying through a parched throat. "She's too young and there is no one Aboveground who would know of any way to cause this sort of damage."
Even in his weakened state, Jareth's voice carried the steel that could cut her down to the quick. "Are you defending her?"
Maurasoon shifted her weight, sitting up taller once Jareth's indignation gave him strength to support himself. "No, just explaining her. What has been done here is a grave injustice." Looking into his face, she asked; "How did it occur?"
"I offered her dreams to her," he said within a sigh. "The dreams of the imagination. The ones that she can not even admit to herself." Now, his voice turned bitter. "She rejected them and me at the same time. Any suggestions now, my paramour?" His eyes flashed an accusatory glint as he looked her down.
His inflection and tone spoke far more of his ire than the words ever could. She had never felt so terrified in all of her life than at that moment when Jareth was asking for accountability. Could all of this have been avoided with different advice from her? They would never know. "What else is there to do, my Lord? Look around you and see."
For the first time since regaining consciousness, Jareth gazed upon what was once the seat and the power of his kingdom now reduced to rubble. "All this destruction..." The sound of his anguish mirrored his expression as he took in the scene. "It wasn't enough to destroy me; she had to destroy my castle?"
"She didn't know, Jay..."
"No, she didn't know." His head whipped around to face the woman who nearly cowered beneath his glare. "Nor did you. But, ignorance is no defense." Jareth gathered his long legs beneath him so that he might rise with the dignity and grace of his station. "In time, that girl will pay for her crimes against the kingdom." He held out his hand to Maurasoon. Tentatively, she took the offered assistance, but Jareth yanked her up roughly and she nearly stumbled into him. "And me. In the meantime," his voice barely audible if it was not for her close proximity, "You have your own situation to concern yourself over. No longer will you need to worry yourself about your King or of the affairs of Court. I will notify you when your assistance will be required at Court, Maurasoon." With that, he released her wrist with enough force to cause her to stagger backwards.
Maurasoon gaped at her king in shocked silence. Did she understand him correctly? Was she no longer welcomed at Court? Blinking in incredulousness, she closed her mouth to swallow her pride and to gather her courage. "What are you going to do now, My Lord?"
Jareth had started to walk away, off of the unlevel surface of the ruins of the castle, but turned to regard her and her question. "You should be more diligent about finding shelter for yourself. Night will come soon enough and the goblins have their own troubles to deal with than to have to put up a 'noble'." With that, Jareth tilted his head back and sang out a note holding one word. By the time he reached the flat surface of the square that once was outside the main entrance to the castle, a large shadow was being cast by the dragon looking to land.
She watched, numb with disbelief, as Jareth mounted the beast bareback and without a bridle. He gave her one final, baleful look before singing out to return home. As she observed the dragon lift into the bright sky, Maurasoon realized...
She was on her own.
Author's Note: I've done it for you. Now, please return the favor. Review. Thank you.