Cara, to her surprise, had stopped falling. The world fell apart around her, the steel plate mirrors of the room flying about her, slow motion shrapnel. Alia and Tieran drifted by. But in the eye of this cyclone of debris she did not move and neither did Hadrian behind her.
He had caught her around the waist just as she slipped and now she did not know whether to thank him or fight him off.
"Just let me go," she told him, turning to face him and push him away. "We made it to the center. We won."
"Not yet you haven't and you didn't do it alone."
"No, the three of us did it together. Let me go. What do you want? The words? 'You have no power over me.' There, does that do it?"
"There's more to it than that."
"You didn't care what Caereh wanted before."
"Oh, didn't he?" Caereh demanded. Cara whirled around to discover that the confrontation scene had assembled around her unnoticed. Caereh stood a few feet away, a deep crimson blot against the colorless surroundings. Alia and Jareth stood just beyond her.
"Don't act so surprised, Caereh," Jareth said. "You're the only one who doesn't already know that you get no respect from anyone. Now let's get this over with. Send us home. You have no power over us."
The key words triggered the end sequence of the simulation. Caereh swirled and vanished. The next thing Cara knew, she and Alia stood in Sarah's room.
"Now what?" Cara demanded, sitting heavily on the bed. "This is just another set! We're still animated! We should have known better than to expect them to just let us go that easily," she ranted.
"Where's Tieran? And Jareth?" Alia interrupted her tirade.
"I don't know. They're probably around here somewhere, stuck like us." A heavy thud and crash sounded in the next room and footsteps ran up the stairs. Alia and Cara looked at each other a moment, then went to the door and peered around the edge of the door frame.
Jareth and Tieran walked out of the room next to them. Alia threw herself at Tieran before he cleared the door.
"Why did you two land in there? What was that noise?" Cara asked as they reentered Sarah's tiny room.
"I didn't," Jareth answered. "He did, in the crib. I appeared downstairs."
"Why?"
Jareth shrugged. "That's the way the computer interpreted our roles. He was Toby and I was Sarah, therefore that is where we should appear."
"Then why weren't we down there with you?" Cara wanted to know as she sat on the bed again.
"Because we were Hoggle and Ludo and we appear up here," Alia told her. "You know animated hugs just aren't the same," she added with a dissatisfied sigh.
"Please, spare us the sappy romantics," Jareth groaned from the chair in front of Sarah's dressing table.
"Oh, leave them alone, you old grouch," Cara scolded. "It's been a very trying ordeal. What I want to know is what we have to do to get out of this animation."
"What makes you think she's going to let you out?" Hadrian asked from behind Cara on the bed.
"A naive sense of fair play, I suppose," Cara said as she immediately got up to close the window where a cold rain had begun to blow in. As she reached up to pull the sash down a pale bird flew in through the window, flapping wings wildly in her face. Cara reflexively swatted at the deranged creature and it lurched across the room.
Jareth ducked in the desk chair and turned in time to see Caereh replace the damp bundle of feathers.
"You should have learned by now that there's nothing fair about the Labyrinth," Caereh said.
"Oh the Labyrinth's fair, it's the people running it that aren't. The Labyrinth is impartial. You're the one holding the grudge," Jareth pointed out.
"Whatever." Caereh shrugged it off. "You're still out of luck. I'm not going to let you get off that easy. I still have full power over you and I'm going to use it." She made a show of pondering her options. "Let's see what shall I do first?" She broke into a showy pleased grin. "I know. I'll start with you," she said, pointing to Cara.
"Since you're so good with the computers, I think I'll let you get up close and personal with them. We'll just make you a permanent resident. Doesn't that sound like fun? Hadrian, get rid of the data necessary to turn her back into a solid."
"No." Hadrian casually lay on Sarah's bed staring at the ceiling, with his hands behind his head.
Caereh frowned. "What do you mean, 'no'? Do as I say!"
"No."
"I demand to know why not!" Caereh yelled, fists clenched at her sides. Alia expected a foot stomp and a temper tantrum to follow.
"I don't feel like it. I prefer her the way she is," he told the ceiling.
"Then I'll do it myself."
"I doubt it," he answered blandly.
"What do you mean? You've put some sort of block on it! How dare you interfere!"
"I dare a lot of things, in case you hadn't noticed," he said, finally turning his head to look at Caereh instead of the ceiling.
"You'll regret this."
"You keep saying that, but the thing you keep forgetting, Caereh, is that you have no power over me." He got up off the bed. "You never have. I went along with your little scheme because it amused me. It doesn't amuse me any more. I think it will be much more fun to watch you squirm. You're on your own."
"Fine. I don't need you anyway."
"Oh, don't you?" Hadrian asked as he removed the magic barriers he had erected around the game. Immediately they heard a roar and a tearing, rending sound overhead and the ceiling and walls began to crack.
Huge black talons ripped through the plaster and lath of the ceiling and down the walls. Bits of plaster and wood as well as shreds of energy from the disrupted animation showered down on them until an invisible barrier shielded five of them. Caereh stood in the middle of the room screaming as she covered her head against the debris still raining down on her.
The room shifted slightly as everything in it became solid and real once again. Hadrian grabbed Cara's arm and headed for the door. "Come on. Let's get out of here while we still can."
With a few more passes Arten'barad had ripped away most of the ceiling and all of the outer wall, exposing the room.
"Let go of me," Cara said
Arten'barad, eyes glowing brilliantly, lunged and snapped at Hadrian. He released Cara.
"Go on, get out of here. That door will take you out of the simulation now," Hadrian said, pointing at the bedroom door and ducking as Arten'barad snapped at him again, then pinned Caereh to the floor.
"You wanted to live in a world of fantasy? What do you think of a real dragon, hmm?" the dragon asked Caereh.
Jareth, Cara, Alia, and Tieran stood watching the show.
Hadrian said to Jareth, "Get them out of here before the dragon tears apart the whole house. I can only hold her off for so long."
Jareth smiled and said, "Come on. Let's get out of the way." He herded them out of the room and they found their way out of Caereh's house. Once they reached the driveway they turned to watch the oddity of a dragon tearing apart a house in their world.
"Do you think she'll kill them?" Cara asked.
"No, I doubt it. She's only scaring them a little before trapping and binding them so they can't cause any more trouble," Jareth explained. "I should go and see if she needs help."
"Will you need my help?" Tieran asked.
"Have you had much experience with this sort of thing?"
"No."
"I doubt we'll need you then. Keep an eye on things out here." Jareth ran back inside.
"You carried that thing around in your pocket?" Cara asked Alia incredulously as the dragon roared again.
"She's not always like this."
"If she could do this, why didn't she rescue us earlier?"
"I can think of several possible reasons," Tieran said. "Whatever the reason, I would not recommend questioning her about it."
"Why not?"
"Because you're crunchy and taste good toasted," Alia said.
"She wouldn't eat me, would she?"
"No," Tieran reassured Cara. "Arten'barad is not that sort of dragon. All the same, it is best not to question their actions."
"Whose actions?" Jareth asked, returning in the middle of the conversation.
"Dragons. Is everything under control?"
"It's all right here," Jareth said, holding up a crystal.
"Isn't it dangerous putting them both in the same place?"
"Hadrian was gone when I got back. This is just Caereh. We put her back in her simulation, then put wards on the computer and put the computer in the crystal."
"So what is Arten'barad doing?" Alia asked pointing at the dragon still nosing around in the remains of Caereh's house.
"She's going to take care of the house. Perhaps we should stand back."
The dragon sat back on her haunches and ignited the house.
"I guess that's one way of taking care of evidence," Alia said, watching the flames spread. "Now it's just a case of arson." She felt something rub against her ankle and looked down. Tieran's kitten twined itself between her legs weaving in and out from under the skirt of the dress she had worn to the opera.
"Are you ever going to give this kitten a name? You've had him for months." She picked him up and rubbed his chin. "He's helped save our lives. I think he deserves a name. Cara suggested a name for him. What was it again, Cara?"
"Hook. He's got a mean set of claws."
"No, I think I have the perfect name for him," Tieran said.
"What's that?"
"Since he seems to have a way with computers, I think Pixel would be appropriate."
"I have not had fun like that in ages," Arten'barad sighed as she wandered over from the fire, interrupting the naming. "Ah, the kitten has reappeared. How is the little changeling?"
"Changeling?" Alia asked.
"Obviously he is not a cat from this world. Is he? Things have not changed that much have they?" Arten'barad asked Jareth.
"No," he answered.
"Then he must be something else."
"What then?" Tieran looked at the kitten, wondering just what would be wandering about his house in a few years.
"Wait and see. When he grows up, then you will know," the dragon said.
"We should leave before someone investigates that fire," Alia pointed out.
"Good idea," Jareth seconded.
"Yeah, and where's our party?" Cara demanded as they walked to Alia's car. "If we were playing roles in the movie, we should get a party now."
"All right, Party Animal, you can drive home," Alia said. "All I want to do is sleep for a week."
"Well, if you want to do that, you shouldn't be going back to the apartment. You've got classes. Damn!" Cara swore as she put the keys in the ignition.
"What?" Alia asked mildly, head resting against Tieran's shoulder.
"That ring. The one I gave the Wise Man and his bird. Remember?"
"Yeah. What about it?"
"It's back." Cara held it out for Alia to see before chucking it out the window.