Disclaimer: Labyrinth's plot and characters don't belong to me, they belong to some other person whose name escapes me at the moment.

Chapter 18: Team Effort

"I'll team up with you, Sera," Ailis offered after a moment's pause.

"Yay! Thanks, Ailis," Sera said, embracing the blonde quickly. "Now, who else?" She asked, looking around the table eagerly. Kellyn and Raisie looked away, not wanting to establish eye contact with Sera. Shrugging, Sera moved on to the next person. Aithne rolled her eyes and rose from the seat.

"This is stupid. I work better alone," The redhead said, and stormed off. But, gracefully. Everything she did was eloquent and beautiful, which was remarkable to Sera, for her to do it in such an elegant way even while angry.

"Um, Saoirse?" Sera prompted the Nymph Princess, shaking her head, trying to get things running again.

Saoirse looked Sera up and down, from head to toe, clearly judging her on every single physical characteristic the human had. Then made a soft snort of derision. She turned to Kellyn and Raisie pointedly, ignoring Sera. "How about we team up?"

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," Kellyn said quickly. Almost too quickly. Raisie nodded about as eagerly, and the three left the table, discussing what the next event might be composed of.

Ailis and Sera were left at the table. They looked at each other and giggled.

"I guess it's just you and me," Sera noted.

"I guess so," Ailis said with a soft giggle, which she hid behind her hand. Sera wondered if it was considered unladylike to laugh.

"What do you think we'll be doing?" Sera wondered aloud.

"I don't know but... I'm really glad to be in the same team as you, Sera," Ailis said.

Sera couldn't take it. She flung her arms around Ailis. "You're the best, Ailis! I love you so much!"

"Aww, Sera," Ailis giggled, hugging Sera back.

Sera drew back and looked Ailis in the eye. "Don't worry, Ailis! I promise - we'll win this for sure," She said with full conviction.

Ailis's face softened, her face forming a sweet smile that made Sera melt inside. "Thank you, Sera."

Of course, Ailis didn't realize that Sera had yet to figure out how.

As he entered the room, Jareth nodded at the women as his usual greeting. Sera looked around, noticing that Saoirse, Raisie and Kellyn were standing further away from her and Ailis than usual. Aithne maintained the usual distance, but when she noticed Sera looking at her, she shot the sixteen year old an intense glare. Sera quickly looked away nervously, sure that Aithne had it out for her. "Today's task is simple. I have hidden five of these-" crystal balls appear within his palms, which spun as if each of them were possessed by a poltergeist. "-within the goblin village. Once you have three, each of your team members must approach me with one of the crystal balls. Nothing more, nothing less. I'm sure you have figured out, there can only be one victorious team,"

Aithne looked at Sera pointedly and gave her a dirty look, as if everything was her fault. Sera, for the life of her, could not figure out what was with the blatant animosity.

"If you encounter each other during the hunt, you may steal each others' treasure. Magic is allowed. But please keep it civil, ladies," He said. "You have... five hours," Jareth's eyes flickered towards the clock, and the suitors' followed his gaze to it. When their attention was back on the Goblin King, he nodded. "Begin,"

The properly formed team promptly leave the room, whispering their strategies amongst themselves. Ailis and Sera look to Aithne, wondering what the elf noble's next move was. Her amber eyes fixed on the two, causing them to shudder involuntarily.

Then she spun on her heel and marched out the room. Ailis and Sera exchanged a look, before racing after Aithne.

Jareth sat on his throne and watched them leave, before pulling out a crystal ball so that he could observe them in a more covert manner.

"Aithne!"

"Aithne!" The strawberry blonde stopped dead in her tracks and glances over her shoulder at the two chasing her.

"What?!" She snapped.

"Uh, um..." Ailis found herself befuddled as Aithne's eyes bore into her.

"You heard Jareth, right? We need to team up!" Sera said, coming to Ailis's rescue.

"Yes, I know. I'm not deaf," Aithne said impatiently, continuing her long strides down the hallway.

"So we're a team?" Ailis tried to confirm.

"Yay! The three of us on an adventure!" Sera said excitedly, relieved that Aithne was finally willing to cooperate with them. This caused the elf to halt again, and glowered at Sera.

"Don't forget this, brats. We are not allies," She enunciated each word with emphasis. "We have a common goal for now, but this doesn't mean we're partners, and it definitely doesn't mean we're friends," With that, Aithne turned around again and continued her walk through the castle and on to the village.

Ailis looked to Sera for help. Sera shrugged.

"What are you two doing? You want to lose? We've already fallen behind because of you two," Aithne barked from the end of the hallway. Her team members hurried behind her.

"Ah!" Ailis jerked backwards as a swarm of maggots wiggled around in the innards of a dead chicken, like a dark jack in the box that the gnome princess was not expecting when she lifted the lid of the crate. Sera snatched up the lid that Ailis had dropped and quickly closed the box before any of the maggots could escape.

"Whoa, creepy," Sera commented.

"Stop playing around, you two!" Aithne hissed at the two. Ailis jumped again, and seemed in near tears.

"We're trying. Yeesh," Sera said as she inspected each of they continued to go through the wares of the fruit stall in the marketplace. Half an hour had lapsed, and they had yet to find a single item.

"You're obviously not trying hard enough,"

"Well, it's not like you've found anything either!"

"What was that?!" Aithne leaped to her feet, her stance rigid and ready to take on the human.

"Please don't fight here! You're scaring away my customers," The goblin attending the stall grumbled.

"Sorry," Sera apologized. Aithne just continued rummaging through the items. Two tiny beings started backing away from the stall, wary of the scene the female suitors were making. Until one caught Sera's eye.

Sera began stumbling towards the fairy, tripping over Aithne and a couple of boxes until she got to her friend. "Cap!" She gasped, a grin spreading across her entire face.

"Sera?" Cap's eyes bulged in his tiny face. "No way! Sera?! You're okay!" Cap flew in spiral around Sera's head, that was how overjoyed he was to see his friend.

"Of course I'm okay! I'm so glad you're fine too," Sera said.

"I'm more than okay! You really came through. The goblin king started allowing us to trade with the goblins again. It's such a relief for us fairies, since they used to be our major customers and all that. And they sell some good chicken. None of this would be possible without you," He landed on Sera's shoulder and patted her cheek. "What are you still doing here, though?"

"I'm competing to be Goblin Queen," Sera answered casually. "And who is this?" She asked, looking to the pretty little fairy whose silver wings were practically vibrating, beating furiously as she stayed in the air, staying out of the reunion, content to just watch. She smiled at Sera merrily, and Sera instantly decided that she liked her.

"Wait, what?! Sera, what did you say?"

The redhead blinked. "I asked who that was?" Sera pointed at the fairy. Cap glanced at the other fairy, before looking back to Sera.

"That's Peri. But never mind that! What is this about being Goblin Queen?"

Sera looked to Peri, wondering why the name sounded so familiar. Then it clicked. "Oh! She's the fairy that you-"

"Shhh!" Cap gasped, waving his arms in the air frantically. Sera's smile widened as Cap went red. Peri floated over to join Cap on Sera's shoulder.

"So the Goblin King is finally going to get married? I guess he'll be ascending to High King soon then," Peri commented.

"Well, it's about time," Cap huffed. "I still don't get how you ended up from being one of the runners of the Labyrinth to being in the running for being Goblin Queen," Cap frowned.

"I don't either!" Sera laughed. "But it's the only way I can free my brother, so I'm going to give it my all,"

"What are you doing now, then?" Cap asked. "The marketplace doesn't seem like a queen-like place for you to be,"

"We're competing!" Sera gestured to Aithne and Ailis, who, after witnessing the reunion for a short while, continued their search for the crystal ball. "We need to work together to find three crystal balls and get it to Jareth before the other team does,"

"Crystal ball?" Cap blinked. "What, you mean like the one hanging under the table?" The fairy asked, pointing to the table on which the fruit vendor displayed his produce.

"Wait, what?" Sera knelt, causing both fairies to fly off her shoulder, and looked under the table. Sure enough, there was a crystal ball hovering under it, just barely in contact with the table. She grabbed it and stared at the item in wonder, before staring at Cap in amazement. "How did you know that was there?"

Cap rolled his eyes. "Fairies are small, so we get to see things most people don't usually,"

"Also, Cap dropped his coin-purse earlier and had to retrieve it from below the table where it had fallen," Peri added.

"Peri!" Cap groaned. The fairy giggled at her partner's embarrassment.

"Thank you so much, Cap. You're the best!"

"Of course I am," Cap huffed. "Make sure you win, okay, Sera? Then we can see you all the time in the Goblin Castle,"

"You mean the Royal High Castle. The Goblin King's going to be there after the coronation," Peri corrected him.

"Oh, right," Cap said, then noticed that Sera's smile had slipped and she had gone quiet. "You need any more help, Sera?" He asked, concerned.

"No. That okay. You two go on with your date," She winked at Cap. "The two of you are adorable,"

Both fairies blushed.

"Sera!" Cap growled as Sera made shooing motions for them to leave. "Fine. I'll see you later,"

"It was nice to meet you," Peri added, her face still pink, which made her look all the more lovely and picturesque.

"See you," Sera said, waving at the fairies as they flew off with one hand. With the other, she gripped the treasure.

"I wonder if that counts as cheating," Aithne said from behind her, seeming a little miffed.

"Why? Jareth didn't say that fairies couldn't help," Sera shrugged. "Right, Ailis?"

"Right," Ailis nodded, ever-supportive.

"Ugh. Let's just go. We need to find two more," Aithne said with an eye roll, a gesture that Sera barely even noticed now, Aithne did it so often. Then again, most people did that around Sera, the sixteen year old noted.

"Isn't that Kellyn over there?" Ailis asked suddenly, looking beyond Sera and Aithne to the brunette that was walking briskly through the marketplace, a grin on her face. Their eyes were all drawn to the other item she had in her hand.

A crystal ball.

Aithne reacted first. A circle of fire appeared around Kellyn, trapping her and causing the other people milling about the marketplace to hurry away, yelling in terror as goblins were prone to do. Kellyn looked around in her panic, trying to find her attackers, the people ambushing her. Her head spun in all directions. A pair of arms and legs then appeared on the crystal ball and it started sprinting away. The fire receded slightly, making a gap for the crystal ball to run through. Kellyn cursed and leaped through the wall of fire and started chasing after the crystal ball but she was too late.

Sera, who had been running towards her the entire time, scooped up the crystal ball and started heading towards Ailis and Aithne.

As she did, she felt a sudden urge to turn back and give the crystal ball back to Kellyn. Sera glanced back and noticed Kellyn's arm outstretched towards her, working her magic on Sera. Sera, who had been absent during most of the magic round, had no idea what was going on, but she could guess.

So she did what was logical. She tossed the crystal ball at Aithne, who barely had time to react. Luckily, the elf was as spry as she was graceful and successfully caught the treasure. As soon as the crystal ball had left Sera's hand, the spell had been lifted. Kellyn's surprise at the bold move had shattered her control.

Sera managed to make it back to her teammates. Kellyn stopped a bit away from the three and realizing she was outnumbered, whirled around and ran off with her tail between her legs.

The three left over panted, slightly out of breath from the ordeal.

"We work surprisingly well together," Sera pronounced, voicing out what she was sure was on the minds of the other two, grinning at her teammates.

"You idiot! What if I didn't catch the crystal ball?!" Aithne yelled at Sera, having caught her breath sooner than the other two. "What if it hit the ground and shattered?!"

"I knew you would catch it," was Sera's explanation, delivered with full conviction. She sounded so certain that Aithne paused and most of her wrath seemed to disappear.

"What about your other crystal ball? What if you fell and dropped it?" Aithne asked, examining Sera for the treasure she had earlier obtained.

"It's over there," Sera said, pointing to Ailis, who as if on cue, raised the item into the air, causing light to enter the item and be magnified through it, nearly blinding the other two in the process. Aithne found herself unable to argue any further. Sera strolled towards Ailis. "Good job, Ailis! That magic of yours is so great, I mean, controlling inanimate objects? Man! And you timed it so perfectly!"

"Not at all," Ailis said shyly, blushing from the praise. "I couldn't have done it if not for Aithne's magic trapping Kellyn and distracting her,"

"Yeah! We should work together more often!" Sera said excitedly. They really had something there, Sera knew it for sure. They were a great team.

Aithne did another eye roll. "Don't get too excited. We still have one more to find," She said as she started moving on to the next stall. Ailis and Sera followed, spirits much higher than before.

They could do it. Together.