Disclaimer: Do not own Marvel, The 100 or Jim Henson's The Labyrinth
Inspired by ArsLionessGhostFang's stories that center around the plot of Jim Henson's The Labyrinth.
In the grip of the labyrinth
It had been eight years ago. They hadn't wanted to manipulate her in the way that they had. But they were desperate.
Eight years ago, when their soulmate, Clarke Griffin was fifteen, they had first entered her life. They hadn't known who she was to them until they met her eyes and felt the connection.
Clarke had been so young; she hadn't understood what she was feeling when she felt the connection go into place. How could she have known?
Clarke's mates, a group of beings that were part demon, part vampire, some part vampire some part god some part demon some part god, had felt the connection with Clarke, and had understood that that meant only one thing. Clarke had blood like theirs in her veins.
They could sense her power.
Somehow, that young girl of only fifteen had been separated from the demon world and had ended up in the human world.
And in doing so, she had ended up being adopted by a human couple. The father of the couple had died years ago.
The mother still lived, though she was barely any sort of loving parent. Abby Griffin was her name, and she had never so much as one time, treated Clarke like her feelings or opinions mattered.
As soon as they saw her, they felt the connection and they knew that Clarke felt the connection too, but she didn't understand what she was feeling.
And when they had obeyed her wish? The wish she had made to take away the abusive siblings that were living with her, because her mother had adopted them, preferring them over Clarke? They knew they had the chance to show her the demon world where she belonged.
A world where she could be happy and be with them one day when she was of age.
They hoped she could come to understand why they were doing what they were doing.
Had she been a normal young human, and had no connection to them? They would have just taken her siblings, and told her to be happy they were no longer in her life. Maybe give her a home in the demon world if it made her happy, but she'd have no such connection to all of them.
But she did.
And they wanted to be with her. So much.
Unfortunately, she was fifteen at the time, and so, they could not come near her in any way like that.
They would not be predatory to her in that way. There was a term for those who interacted with those below eighteen before entering a relationship with them. It was called "child grooming."
They would not come anywhere near her, except to bring her to a new possible home in the demon world and leave her with her caretakers, until she was eighteen, then explain the situation to her one day when she was old enough.
That was the plan, at least.
But since when did perfect plans ever pan out?
Clarke had evaded them. Had solved the labyrinth and had escaped, getting her adoptive siblings out.
So, her mates had erased the memories of those disgusting siblings of hers.
They had no memory of the labyrinth. Clarke was the only one that remembered.
They would come back for her, they decided. When Clarke was a full-grown adult.
And then they would kill all of those that ever hurt Clarke, including that horrid adoptive mother of hers, Abby Griffin.
And that time was now; eight years later.
They saw the group of the adoptive siblings that Clarke had left, going to college to leave them behind.
That was fine with them. They could grab her anywhere in the world, anytime they wanted to.
But first? They knew they needed to offer her something to make her happy. For her, to encounter the same thirty demon lords that had frightened her when she was young, when they had stolen her siblings? It most likely could be called traumatizing.
So, they just wanted her to know that they would do anything for her, and that she had nothing to fear.
They would bring her the sliced apart corpses of the people that had treated her as if she were nothing.
They would start with Abby Griffin.
They watched from their portal from their world, as Wells Jaha, Finn Collins and a few others that actually had treated Clarke like a person; Harper, Fox, Roma, Sterling and Monroe, left for the day.
That was good. The demon lords wished not to kill anyone that had treated Clarke well. And the group that had just left, had treated Clarke well.
The demon lords moved in then, when the group that treated Clarke like a person, were far from the house.
And the demons flew out of their portal into the house, presenting themselves to the people still in the house.
They received the understandably startled expressions, and then they attacked.
And that was when the screaming began.
When they were finished, the entire room was stained with dark and dried blood.
The bodies had been slashed up. Almost all of the bodies looked like farces of human bodies after what the demons did to them.
Their faces however, were in no way harmed.
The demon lords wanted Clarke to be able to recognize the faces of the people that hurt her.
They cleaned themselves up magically, then they flew themselves out of the house and into their portal and opened a new portal to Clarke's college.
They opened up the portal and they shared a grin, seeing Clarke walking down the sidewalk not far from her college. She was coming back from the town near the college. She was carrying one of the bags from the grocery store with her.
They braced themselves.
They knew that it would affect her deeply to see them.
All these years, Clarke had been trying to ignore the connection she felt with the demon lords.
They had felt her pain all that time, they had felt her torment.
She felt her connection to them, didn't understand it though, and couldn't act on it. So, it had been a torment to her, for years now.
Exhausting to her.
Her mates, they despised anything that hurt her. Even if it was something like this that could connect them, they loathed that it hurt her.
They dropped down in front of Clarke, standing before her, as she stepped back, gasping, seeing thirty demons that had haunted her dreams and nightmares for years and years now here after all this time.
"Did you miss us, Clarke?" Tony asked, smirking devilishly.
Clarke stared at them, and they heard her heart thundering in alarm, confusion, fear and lust.
"What…how?" Clarke practically whispered.
"Oh, Clarke," Melina practically purred, the sound of her accent making Clarke shiver, "Shouldn't you have realized ages ago, that we will never let you go? And isn't that reassuring to you, Clarke? Haven't you yearned for us, as much as we have yearned for you?"
Clarke shuddered, and the demon lords knew that Melina had seen the truth.
Clarke shook her head, fast to deny what she was hearing. "No," she said urgently, "I never missed any of you." Even Clarke didn't believe those words when she had said them.
Those eight years ago, in the labyrinth; a mammoth structure of twisting and turning halls and corridors that never seemed to end and that always changed, when Clarke had been fifteen years old, she had thought that these lords of the labyrinth were just her enemies. Were vile demons of unknown origin.
But she knew even then that that wasn't the case.
She had felt it.
They were more to her than that.
And it hurt her to know that she knew. That even then, she had known.
But some part of her had known even then. And it hurt that she couldn't be with them.
It had been eating at her. For years now, it had been eating at her.
Eight years was a long time to carry that around. She had only been fifteen and she had felt like her heart wasn't just hers anymore. What was more? It had felt like there had been thirty other strangers who were tied to her. Whose hearts she could almost feel beating inside her chest, as well.
It had been torment, for eight years.
She closed her eyes, trying to deny what she had felt so strongly for these thirty rulers of the demon world who she had met and desired.
And who she had spurned when she had beat them.
"It's a trick," Clarke said weakly, "You're lying. To hurt me for beating you."
"No, Clarke," Natasha sighed, "That's not it. That's never been the reason. We always have been tied to you. We were meant to love you."
"And I was meant to love all of you?" The question came out as a sneer, as she glared at the rulers of the demon world.
"Yes," Peggy answered, smiling with those sensual lips of hers, "We will give you the love that you've yearned for, for years. And we wish for you to give us the chance to give you that love. That is how you can show us your love. By allowing us to love you."
Clarke pushed the word out, even if it was exhausting to say, even if it hurt to say.
"No," she practically snapped, jaws tight.
Stepping back, hearing this, several of the lords of the demon world, needless to say, appeared dissatisfied.
Frank growled quietly. Barney, Laura, Simone and Clint stared dangerously at Clarke. Natasha, Elektra, Stephen, Christina, Wanda, Pietro, Hela, Pepper, Sylvie and Melina's eyes narrowed. Tony, Rhodey, Steve, Sam, Bruce and Maria all looked bereft. Jessica's jaw tightened, looking like she might curse-which was an actual possibility for her.
All the others reacted accordingly as well.
"Fine," Peggy said finally, "For now. But we're not going to give up and you know this. We won't give up, because we know how painful it is for you to be without us. It's been as painful for us to be without you, as well. We know how much pain you have been in, beloved. And we will not leave you. To show you how much you mean to us? We've left you some presents at the house where you used to live. The people that hurt you? They won't be able to any longer."
Clarke's eyes widened as she stared at the lords of the demon world, claiming to be her mates.
"What did you do?" She whispered.
"What we had to, to make you happy," Tony said.
Clarke shook her head, ignoring the feeling of her heart clenching, her heart hungering for the beings in front of her, and she moved away from them, running down the road, to her dorm, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her phone, calling the house where she used to live, quickly,
She had no love for her mother, or for any of the others.
But she couldn't just let them die.
If there was any chance they were still alive or that they hadn't been attacked yet, then she had to help them.
She called.
No answer.
She called again.
No answer.
She then called Abby Griffin's cell phone.
No answer.
She called Kane's cell phone.
No answer.
She grudgingly called some of the others' cell phones.
No answer from any of them.
Then Clarke, desperate, called Wells's cell phone.
Wells picked up, and Clarke could practically hear the smile in his voice when he spoke.
"Hey, Clarke," he said, "Good to hear from you-"
"Wells," Clarke said quickly as she put the things she had bought from the store away and didn't bother taking her jacket off as she spoke, "I'm sorry to ask, but are you at the house now with Abby and the others?"
There was some silence, then Wells said, "No….why?"
Clarke took a deep breath and began, knowing she couldn't tell Wells or anyone about the demon world or its lords, "I don't know. I just…I called them, because I wanted to check something at the house. I called everyone. But no one's answering. Don't get me wrong, I'd love not to talk to them, but I called literally everyone and there's been no answer. Wells, someone should have answered by now."
"You think something's wrong?" Wells asked quietly.
"I do," Clarke said, "And I think maybe I should call the police so, I'm just alerting you and the others."
After a few moments, Wells sighed. "Okay," he said, "I'll tell Sterling, Monroe, Fox, Roma, Harper and Finn. Take care, okay? Be careful."
"Thanks, Wells," Clarke said, smiling, "You too."
Clarke hung up.
It didn't surprise her even remotely that Wells, Finn, Sterling, Monroe, Roma, Harper and Fox were at work, and no one else was.
Abby and her new husband, Marcus Kane, both had jobs.
But the other adoptive children they had taken in; John Murphy, Atom Worth, Jasper Jordan, Raven Reyes, Dax Summers, Octavia and Bellamy Blake, Nathan Miller and others, they would never work a job in their lives, if they thought they could live off of the hard work of others.
Others worked hard, so that they could live life happily and effortlessly. They'd act like you were an absolute waste of space if you ever even suggested that they so much should apply for a job.
But if someone who they intended to exploit did the same? Well, then all hell broke loose, because Bellamy and Octavia Blake, Raven Reyes, Murphy, Miller, Jasper and the others intended to exploit that person and take advantage of the money that person made.
And Abby of course, being Abby, took their side every time over Clarke and the people that cared about her back at the house.
Clarke called the police quickly, told them that she had called the house several times and no one answered and that was uncharacteristic of the people that lived there and that someone should go check it out.
The officer on the other end assured her that he would send people out and Clarke waited.
She got a call several minutes later.
It was from the same officer and he sounded disturbed. Extremely disturbed.
He told her what the officers that had been sent out, found.
Bodies. A load of bodies. On the floor.
Cut up horrifically. Stomachs torn out, lower jaws torn off, fingers broken in literally every inch of the finger, feet cut into at the soles, bones cracked, teeth torn out, the skin of peoples' backs sliced right off, and then hearts torn out.
Clarke almost dropped her phone when she heard that, feeling her stomach turn.
The lords of the demon world, had killed all of the people out the house, save for the people that had treated her well.
The officer said that they would need to question her at some point. Clarke assured him that she knew that and that she would be ready to answer them when they asked for her assistance.
She hung up then, not knowing what else to do.
She knew who had done this.
And they had done it for her.
But she could never tell the police. Or Wells and the others.
She loved Wells and the others, unlike her mother, Kane and their dear favored adoptive children. She couldn't endanger them by telling them about what happened. Even if they believed her? She couldn't tell them.
Clarke sucked in a deep breath, hugging herself, shaking.
The demons that had abducted her siblings years ago and had lured her into the demon world, were back in her life and she could feel that hunger for all of them, sharper than ever.
It was tearing at her, killing her slowly.
And she knew it.
In the demon world?
The thirty demons who ruled their world, watched Clarke through the portal, saddened expressions on their faces.
They remembered what had happened eight years ago, just like Clarke did.
They remembered it like it was yesterday.
When she had toppled their plans, had freed her adoptive siblings from her mates' grasp, and had spoken the words that had freed herself.
"You have no power over me."
But Clarke wouldn't be able to speak those words now. Those specific words were designed to be used, only under a certain set of circumstances.
And these were not those circumstances.
Clarke could yell those words all she wanted.
It wouldn't make a difference.
They remembered the anger in her eyes when she had looked at them, eight years ago; a defiant, strong-willed fifteen-year-old girl who wouldn't bend to thirty demons who she had known she should fear, but hadn't.
Those blue eyes, full of strength, looked at demons who ruled their world cruelly and without pity, for centuries, without fear.
But she hadn't hated them, as she wished she could have.
She had wished also that she could feel nothing for them.
But she couldn't manage to do that, either.
All she felt for them was endless need, and the anger that she was able to maintain for years.
Now? She barely could hold onto anger all this time.
They could feel her need for them, seeping away the anger.
Clarke's fingernails practically dug into the flesh of her arms as she felt her need and want tearing her apart from the inside out.
Now that she knew her mates were here? She couldn't deny them.
"Please," Clarke whispered, "You can hear me, can't you? I can't anymore. Please, Just come and get me. Please, all of you. I need you."
The lords of the demon world moved in unison. They drifted through the portal and ended up in Clarke's dorm.
The dorm was small, but they were all able to get into the dorm.
"Clarke," Steve said softly, causing Clarke to turn around and face the demons that had haunted her dreams, filling her mind and heart and soul with longing every single second for the past eight years.
Clarke stared at her mates, borderline despair filling her face.
"What the hell did all of you do to me?" She asked, voice broken, her blue eyes beginning to be filled with tears, her pale blonde hair having been freed of the ponytail she previously had put it in, her pale cheeks flush with color from how upset she was.
All of the demon lords hurt seeing her like this.
They wished never to cause her pain.
They were not in control of who mate to who. But if they were? They would never undo the connection they had with Clarke. They could never undo such a connection, even if they had the means to do so.
"Clarke," Bruce said, stepping forward, his right hand reaching out in offering.
Clarke swallowed. She understood damn well.
If she took his hand, they would take her to the demon world.
And she would never leave it again.
She had escaped the demon world eight years ago. She had escaped the labyrinth all that time ago. But if she did this, she would never escape it again.
Clarke knew she didn't have a choice either. They might not be forcing her. But she didn't have a choice.
If she stayed, what was there for her? Her friends would likely move on one day. And she wouldn't be able to be with them.
And this world had never been anything but cruel to her.
Clarke closed her eyes and let out a pained breath, releasing the years of sexual frustration and need she had felt.
She reached out and took Bruce's hand, allowing him to take her into his arms and allowed him to hold her to him as he cuddled her, whispering to her that it was alright and they were here now.
She felt at least two of the others huddle in on her, hugging her close as they did.
She heard Natasha's voice purr against her ear, "We'll take you to the world where you belong now, Clarke. With all of us."
Clarke nodded against Bruce's chest, knowing that she didn't have the strength to do anything else as they carried her away, through the portal.
She didn't even need to open her eyes to know they were going through a portal. She could feel it.
It was like static shooting through her, except it didn't hurt.
As they landed in the demon world and Clarke at last opened her eyes, looking around her.
She knew the walls and halls all around her. Recognized them.
These were the walls and halls of the castle of these demon lords' home. Their castle. The castle that overlooked the rest of the vast land of the demon world. Full of demons who had never been anything, except good and compassionate to Clarke.
Wasn't it funny, that in a world where Clarke was mistreated, it was full of supposedly compassionate humans, but in a world full of demons, a species that supposedly were cruel, she had been treated with nothing but respect.
Clarke hesitated, feeling the eyes of her mates on her and she slowly turned, and she wished she could hate herself. Looking into the loving faces of these demons that had longed for her, she hated what she felt next. Healing. Like the pain that had existed all throughout her, was slowly being repaired, being in her mates' arms.
Peggy cupped Clarke's chin and raised her face up, a satisfied smile on the demon's face as the possessive words came out, words that sent both a thrill of dread through Clarke, but also a shiver of excitement and happiness, "Welcome home, our queen."
Author's note
This was very rushed and last minute. Not exactly the best story. Just really wanted to write it, that's all.