For weaverofhopes, who asked.
Unbeta'd.
I own nothing, but if I owned Jareth, Loki, or both, I would make them my hot love slaves.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Darcy wandered around the maze for a good 15 minutes before she decided to start marking where she was walking and what paths she had taken. She picked a bright yellow flower nearby and began rubbing it on the stone-covered ground, pleased to discover that the dye inside the flower showed well against the pale cream color of the stone. She rubbed an arrow pointing in the direction she was about to go so. After picking as many of the yellow flowers as she could (only god knew when she would stumble upon more of them, she figured) she continued working her way through the maze, marking an arrow to show her path every so often.
She marked a bright yellow arrow before turning a corner to find that the corner only held a dead-end. She turned around to head back the way she came when she saw that her bright yellow arrow, the one she just drew, was facing the wrong way.
Realization dawned on her.
"Someone has been changing my marks!" she said and threw down the flowers. "What a horrible place this is, it's not fair!"
"That's right, it's not fair," said a man's voice from behind her, "And that's only half of it."
Darcy turned to the voice and saw that two guards stood in front of two doors. The dark-haired man wore Asgardian golden armor with a bow in his hand and a quiver of arrows strapped to his back; a woman with fiery-red hair wore the same armor and held a white-and-gold handgun.
"This was a dead-end a minute ago," Darcy said in wonderment.
"No," said the woman coolly, "That's the dead-end behind you."
Darcy whirled around the discover that the woman was right- there was nothing but high wall behind her.
"What the hell, it keeps changing! I feel like it's my first day at Hogwarts," Darcy moaned and put her face in her hands. She was already so done with this place. "What am I supposed to do?"
"You could try one of these doors," said the man.
The woman said, "One of them leads to the castle, and one of them leads to-"
The man interrupted, "Dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnn,"
"Certain death," finished the woman, her eyes narrowing at her cohort.
"Spooky," said the man.
Darcy looked between the two of them. "How can I tell which door leads to where?" she asked.
"We can't just tell you," said the man.
"You have to ask us," said the woman.
"But-" interjected the man, "you can only ask one of us."
"It's in the rules," said the woman.
"Always with the rules," said the man. The red-haired guard shot him a dirty look.
"And I should warn you," said the woman, "that one of us always tells the truth, and one of us always lies."
"Of course," said Darcy, "because that only makes sense."
"He always lies," said the woman.
"I do not, I tell the truth!" said the man.
"Sounds like a lie to me," said the woman as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, looking away in a seemingly innocent fashion.
Darcy studied the curious pair for a moment. One only tells the truth, and one only lies. Awesome. But suddenly Darcy was struck with her answer, and she immediately approached the archer who was guarding the door on the left.
"Okay. Answer yes or no- would she tell me that this door leads to the castle?"
The archer gave her a quizzical look, not entirely sure if this was a serious question.
"Uh…" he said, and thought for a moment. "Um, what do I think? Uh, um… yes?"
Darcy narrowed her eyes and grinned. "Then the other door leads to the castle and this door leads to certain death."
The man thought for a moment. "But she could be telling the truth."
"But then you wouldn't be. So if you said she said yes, I know the answer is no."
"But I could be telling the truth."
"Then she'd be lying, and the answer would still be no," Darcy surmised.
The archer scratched his head. "Is that right?"
The woman with the gun sighed. "I've never understood it."
"No, it's right, I figured it out!" said Darcy, "Shortcut to the castle, hell yeah!"
The woman moved aside and allowed Darcy to proceed through the door she guarded.
"I think I'm getting smarter!" said Darcy with a laugh, "This is a piece of cake!"
Darcy let out a scream when the floor beneath her disappeared and she felt herself falling down, down, down a deep black hole. The only light was the dim lighting from the trap hallway from where she fell. She couldn't keep from screaming, her breaths coming a quick, short bursts from her terror. She flailed her hands outward, reaching out to see if she could gain purchase on anything to keep herself from falling to her own death, and she felt-
Hands?
Hands.
Hundred of hands protruded from the walls of the narrow hole and they grasped at her, and she at them. She grabbed hold of one hand, which slowed her, but she still kept falling and grasping, falling and grasping, until finally she was able to grab a firm hold and keep it.
"Oh god, help!" she screamed up at the light.
"What do you mean?" came a voice from behind her, and when she turned her head she found that some of the hands were pantomiming grotesque faces, and to her horror they moved with the sound of the creepy voices, "we are helping!"
"We're helping hands," said another hand-face.
"Helping hands, very funny," said Darcy without a hint of amusement, "but you're actually hurting."
"Would you like us to let go?" a voice asked, and she felt herself falling once more.
"No!" she shrieked.
"Well, come on then," said one.
"Which way?" said another.
"Which way?" repeated Darcy.
"Up or down?"
"Oh," said Darcy. She glanced up at the light and down at the seemingly bottomless pit below her. She hesitated- where would the hallway that she just fell from lead her? Would the door she came through even still be there?
"We haven't got all day," said a hand-face.
"Oh, you haven't got all day?" asked Darcy, "What, do you have work to get to? Grocery shopping? Because it looks like you guys are a bunch of arms hanging out of a wall for some reason."
"Waiting for your answer…" said one.
"Well, it's a big decision," said another.
"Which way do you want to go?" asked still another.
"Yes, which way?"
"Down, please," said Darcy with confidence.
"She chose down!" jeered one.
"Yeah, after I thought about why-"
"She chose down," echoed another.
And all at once they let her go and she plummeted to the bottom of the pit, landing hard on her knees. She squinted as she looked up into the one beam of light as a hand closed the hatch above, leaving an even dimmer cross-shaped patch of light that trickled down to her.
All around her was a smothering, damp blackness.
X
X
X
The king sat atop his throne peering into his smooth spherical crystal, surrounded by the nobles of Asgard who joked and drank around him. All along the king never took his steadfast gaze from the depths of the crystal.
"She's in the oubliette" he said suddenly.
The nobles burst out in riotous laughter at her plight.
"Quiet!" said the king, and the room immediately became silent, "She shouldn't have gotten that far, she should have given up by now."
"She'll never give up," came a voice from the group of nobles.
"The inventor will lead her to the beginning," the king said softly, then he grinned. "She'll give up when she realizes she has to start all over again," he said, laughing.
He looked around at the silent room in disgust. "Well, laugh," he commanded.
The nobles looked at one another for a sliver of a moment and laughed. Relief flooded them when the king finally began to laugh along with them.
The king turned his attention back to the crystal, his face softening at the sight of her. His brows knit together with a worry that no one but he knew.
And he knew it all too well.
X
X
X
The silence of the oubliette stabbed at Darcy's eardrums, and just when she would start to get used to it she heard a drip here, a drip there. She smelled the damp decay of the pit and the terror of the possibility of starving to death alone, in the dark, was starting to set in, when suddenly-
Footsteps.
"Who's there?" she asked, half hopeful and half terrified that it might be the king again.
She heard a laugh from the darkness and the sound of something electric powering up.
"Me."
A soft blue glow appeared in the darkness that grew steadily into a bright white light. Darcy squinted as her eyes got used to it until finally she was able to see.
"Oh, it's you!" Darcy said, recognizing the man from the beginning of her journey into this maze.
The man adjusted the light's brightness and he looked up at her, appraising her dusty, dirty clothes and turning back to adjusting the light on his brown gloves.
"Yes, well, I knew you were gonna fall down a rabbit hole somewhere, so I've come to give you a hand. This place is…"
"Really fucking weird?" offered Darcy.
"That one," Tony agreed, and he took a seat on a nearby rock. He watched her take in her surroundings - the oubliette had low dirt ceilings, cobwebs everywhere, and chains and shackles hanging off of the walls.
"Ah, you're looking around now, aren't you? I suppose you noticed that there are no doors," he said, and pointed up at the light coming from the middle of the ceiling, "Only the hole. This is an oubliette; the labyrinth's full of 'em."
Darcy ducked her head when she stood. "Really, I didn't know that," she said. Her mind was turning and she was starting to feel the mental wear from the stress she had been under, but she kept her focus. The man got in here somehow, so there was clearly a way out.
"Oh, don't sound so smart. You don't even know what an oubliette is."
"Do you?" Darcy shot back.
"Yes," said Tony, and he slipped the flask out from under his vest, unscrewing the cap, "It's a place to put people to forget about them."
Tony took a drink and slipped the flask back in his pocket. His eyes stared off at something only he could see for a moment, and it was only when Darcy cleared her throat that he spoke again.
"What you've got to do is get out of here," said Tony, "And it just so happens that I know a shortcut out of the labyrinth."
Darcy's eyes grew wide. "No, I'm not giving up now! I've come too far. And seriously, SHIELD will find me- even here in this weirdo place- if I lose their equipment. And god knows what information is on those computers, it might be used to save lives. So no, I'm gonna keep going. Besides, I'm doing OK I think."
Tony raised a disbelieving eyebrow and looked around the oubliette. "Of course you are," he said, "but it's going to get a lot worse from here on in."
Darcy narrowed her eyes at him. "Why are you so concerned about me?"
Tony ran a hand through his disheveled hair. "Uh, what- well- I just am, that's all! Nice young girl… terrible, black oubliette…" he said, his voice trailing off.
Darcy thought for a moment, appraising the man before her. His gloves and chest glowed, but the rest of him was quite plain - vest, shirt, pants, shoes. Normal stuff.
"You like technology, don't you?" Darcy asked him suddenly, and his face lit up a little bit at the mere mention of the word.
"Why?"
"If you help me solve the labyrinth, I'll give you this," she said, slipping her iPhone out of her pocket. She pressed the only large button on it and it lit up, showing a picture she took of a duck at a park on the background. Tony practically salivated at the sight of it and he held his hand out to reach it. Darcy snatched it back. "You like it, don't you?"
Tony suddenly became very aware of himself and changed his facial expression to one of nonchalance immediately.
"Uh, so-so," he said.
"Oh," said Darcy, but she didn't buy the act for a second, "Okay."
She slipped the phone back into her pocket and folded her hands in front of herself, watching Tony and enjoying seeing him squirm. The corner of his mouth ticked up twice and he took a deep breath, bringing a hand up to his mouth while he debated what to do.
"How about you give me the… the… thing," started Tony.
"Oh, the cell phone?" she asked, pulling it out of her pocket once more.
"Yeah, the sell fone," he said, "And I'll show you the way out of the labyrinth."
Darcy took in a huffy breath. "You were going to do that anyway," she said flatly.
Tony smirked. "Well, that's what would make it a particularly altruistic gesture on your part."
Darcy rolled her eyes and appraised the man in a new light. "Take me as far as you can into the labyrinth and then I'll do it on my own," she bargained.
Tony pursed his lips and peered at the iPhone again.
"What is that, anyway?"
"What, the phone? Um, glass and metal, I think."
"Oooooh," said Tony. The guy had no poker face. "Tell you what honey, I won't promise you anything, but I'll take you as far as I can. Then you're on your own, right?"
Darcy grinned. "Right."
"Right."
Darcy handed Tony the phone and she allowed him the gratuitous minute to play around with it.
"Glass and metal…" she could hear Tony say to himself. When he seemed to be satisfied, he slipped the phone into his vest and marched toward a blank wall on the opposite end of the oubliette. She watched as he pulled a wiry remote control out of his vest (which Darcy was beginning to think was enchanted or blessed or something) and pointed it at the wall. The wall itself began to glow in that blue hue that Darcy was beginning to feel strangely accustomed to when suddenly a metal door appeared. Tony gave a half-grin, clearly pleased with himself, and he pressed a button on the side of the door's metal frame. It slid easily open and on the other side was what looked like a huge metal robot with a single arm.
"Oh, it's you," said Tony, "Sorry, Butterfingers, I don't need you right now."
Tony pressed the button and the door closed. "Can't be right all the time."
"Did you make that?" asked Darcy while he fiddled with a light panel on the side of the door.
"Indeed I did. Stuff like this is why they call me the Inventor."
The inventor seemed satisfied with whatever he was trying to do and he pressed the button again. This time when the metal door slid open it revealed a pathway out of the godforsaken oubliette. Tony stepped through the door and Darcy followed closely behind, relieved to finally be out of the tiny enclosed room.
"This way," said Tony.
The new pathway was entirely underground, and the floor to the ceiling was made of beautiful sparkling white stone with dotted sconces for lighting here and there. Unlike the rest of the labyrinth, there was only one pathway that seemed to usher the pair around straightforward corners and corridors. There were intricate statues and brilliant tapestries all along the walls, all of which featured single people that reminded Darcy of stained glass church saints, and Darcy was startled when one of them spoke in a booming voice.
"Don't go on," said a statue.
Darcy gave it a startled look, but Tony kept walking, so Darcy followed suit.
"Go back while you still can," a tapestry called, its voice a deep baritone.
"This is a not the way," another statue called like a crying warning. The pair kept walking.
"Take heed, and go no further!" said a tapestry from across the room.
Darcy could feel all of their eyes on her and Tony.
An especially large tapestry right next to Darcy whispered, "Beware, beeewaaaaarrrreee…"
"Soon, it will be too late!"
Tony scoffed and glanced back at Darcy. "Ignore them, they're just false alarms. You get a lot of them in the labyrinth, especially when you're on the right track."
"Oh no you're not!" said a statue.
"Oh, just shut up," answered Tony. Darcy bit back a laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.
"Sorry, I'm just doing my job," said the statue indignantly.
Tony and Darcy passed by the statue and walked down a corridor with a single large golden tapestry. Just as Darcy suspected it would, the tapestry shouted its warning at them.
"Beware! For the-"
"Forget it," said Tony.
"Aw, please," whined the tapestry, "I haven't said it in such a long time."
Tony rolled his eyes and looked at Darcy for approval, who waved a dismissive hand.
"Oh, all right," said Tony, "But don't expect a big reaction."
"No, no, no, of course not," said the tapestry, and it cleared its throat, "Beware, for the path you take will lead to certain destruction!"
Darcy clapped for the man in the tapestry and he gave her a smile.
"Thank you," said the tapestry man.
Darcy and Tony continued on the path and found that the pathway led into a dark, dingy little tunnel. Spots of light shone from above and Darcy continued to follow the inventor in silence until she heard an odd, tinkling noise behind them. She turned to find one of the little crystals that the king had shown her earlier was rolling its way past them and she froze, as did the inventor. Her brain told her that, according to the laws of physics that she knew, the ball couldn't keep rolling at such a steady pace, at that angle, for as long as she watched it. She realized with a wary fascination that it was headed for the cup of a man sitting against a wall.
"What have we here?" asked the man in a familiar voice.
Tony took a quick step back, which sent a thrill of fear through Darcy.
Shit.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks for reading! Please favorite, follow, and review if you are so inclined.
I am also on Tumblr and I post updates on all my fanfiction. My username is JessiokaFroka.