Consequences of Thoughtless Wishing

Dark Lady Devinity

An: The goblins in the Labyrinth movie always reminded me of different ethnicities. The goblins attacking Ludo in his first scene, for example, were Japanese. But there's dialogue to support that. For some odd reason, the goblin that was piloting the robot at the gates to the Goblin City always looked like an odd, tiny Mongolian to me. Just pointing that out.

And I finally saw a live performance of Weber's Phantom of the Opera so I now know what actually happens in it. Although I really wanted the Persian to be in it even though I haven't read the book so I know nothing about him.

Last chapter!

Five

Christine yawned. The soprano couldn't remember the last time she had gone this long without food or a proper rest. No one wanted to take a nap when Jareth had such skill with manipulating dreams and everyone remembered Sarah's many rants about drugged food.

"We're here." Hoggle said, interrupting Christine's thoughts about food. The singer looked up to find herself outside the gates to the Goblin City.

"And with five hours to spare." James said. "Hopefully a goblin battle doesn't take long to fight."

"We would have had more time if the three of you hadn't fallen into three separate oubliettes, all at the same time." Hoggle muttered. "Or gotten into a fight with a horde of guards. And then there was Erik's fight with the wise man's hat. I'm too old for this."

James and Erik both looked embarrassed. Yet Christine looked merely thoughtful.

"It seems like the more runners in the Labyrinth the more chaos. Jareth must be working extra hard to eliminate any advantage to be found in large numbers." The woman said.

Hoggle sighed. "The Labyrinth was always a tricky place if you weren't familiar with it. But it had never known defeat until Sarah either. The Labyrinth itself is trying to be substantially more treacherous now. I cannot say if it's possible to solve the Labyrinth any more. It's even got the goblins trying their best."

"Well, then it's a good thing Sarah had Ludo and Sir Didymus go on ahead." Christine said nervously.

"You have obviously never met Didymus." Hoggle groaned. The dwarf was extremely pessimistic.

James looked at the worried soprano and gave her hand a quick squeeze. Erik did the same. Then both men silently went forward and pushed open the gates. Christine and Hoggle followed close behind. A few feet ahead of them lay another gate. Pieces of debris littered the space between the gates.

James stepped around the decapitated remains of a giant robotic head. It was now, when they were this close to the castle, that things would be the most dangerous. Everyone would have to be prepared to keep Christine safe until she reached the castle. If Ludo and Sir Didymus had managed to secure the city then that part of the journey should not be too hazardous. But James could hear a constant noise, a dull roar, which suggested otherwise. He hoped it was another chicken rebellion as that would keep both Jareth and the goblins occupied. As he was thinking, James was suddenly attacked. A sharp pain pierced his ankle. James swore and stepped back as he quickly realised he had been assaulted by a goblin.

"Are you alright James?" Christine asked.

"Fine." James gritted out. "Erik, help me get this thing off of my leg."

The sailor swung his leg around so that the others could see the Mongolian-like goblin with its teeth buried into James' ankle. The goblin was dressed like a pilot. Erik was already rushing to James' aid when the goblin let go and pointed at Hoggle, gasping "You! You broke my robot!"

Hoggle barked, "You! Do you want me to throw you out of another robot?!"

The little goblin squeaked and ran away, fearing for its life.

"That was anti-climactic." Erik commented.

"Expect the un-expectable." Hoggle said, sighing. Then he added, "Just to be on the safe side, expect the expectable too."

"That's helpful advice." Erik said sarcastically.

Christine merely shook her head and walked straight through the gates and into the city proper. Then she promptly ducked to avoid the cannon ball that was headed straight for her.

XxX

Sarah swung her body around a precarious pile of junk. Javert followed behind her with less grace. It had been a while since the duo had last seen their companions. If they were lucky, Ludo and Sir Didymus had already secured the Goblin City while Christine, Erik, James and Hoggle were on their way towards the city. Jareth had ignored Sarah and Javert and appeared to be letting the small team do whatever they wanted. They certainly hadn't seen the king in some time. Still, it was possible that Jareth was just as confused as Javert as to what Sarah was up to. Sarah had insisted on finding the junkyard even though she didn't know the way. Sarah had simply found herself in the junkyard the first time upon waking up from her drugged peach induced dream. They had lost a lot of time searching for the place. Yet Sarah was triumphant now that they were there.

"Drugged or not, I can find anything in this Labyrinth a second time." Sarah had proclaimed, pleased.

"I just hope we didn't waste too much time coming here." Javert murmured. Now that they had arrived at their destination, Javert wanted to know why they were there. He quickly asked Sarah what she was looking for while narrowing avoiding a pile of junk that had turned out to be a person.

Sarah blinked at the question, ignoring the swearing bag lady. "Do you remember the junkyard scene in my movie? There was a replica of my bedroom." The woman barely paused long enough for Javert to nod. "Hopefully, there's a replica of my current room here. Although it's most likely it will be Christine's if there is. I can work with that though."

"Why?" Javert asked.

"If there is a replica of either room then there are replicas of our mirrors. My mirror has frequently been used for travel to and from the Labyrinth so it has more magical properties. Although the Darkness did use Christine's to visit her. My Labyrinth friends can use any mirrored surface to travel between the two worlds but I'm not sure if I can do the same. Still, my proper mirror should work." Sarah said. She looked at Javert. "I want to use my mirror to contact the aboveground. I saw how Hoggle took us through the mirror and at least Legolas should be waiting in the apartment for our return."

"Why would you want to contact Legolas?" Javert asked.

Sarah grinned. "It's not about contacting Legolas. It's about whom we can get Legolas to contact. I want to talk to Dresden."

XxX

The streets were already rowdy with violence and the typical silliness of a goblin battle. And Christine hadn't even arrived yet. Jareth was impressed. It was, of course, Didymus' fault that such an intense fight had already broken out. He wanted to spare Christine, a delicate lady, the troubles of honourable battle. Jareth still did not know how one tiny creature could annoy a whole city so quickly. Ludo and his rock friends were once again proving a nuisance. Still, Jareth had learned from the last battle with the large, orange monster and had had the city fortified against rocks when he was fortifying it against rebellious chickens.

Soft footsteps alerted Jareth to the fact that a non-goblin had just entered his throne room. The king looked up to see a sleepy Frenchman with serious bedhead standing in the room's entranceway.

"What's all that noise?" Raoul asked, yawning.

"Just a battle. It is of little concern." Jareth said.

Raoul frowned. "You're not concerned about fighting in your streets?"

"It's part of the story. But the heroine isn't here yet so there's no need for my act yet." Jareth explained.

The information did not faze the viscount. Once Raoul had decided to pretend he was trapped in a disturbing dream he was not bothered by anything his captor said. It made the Frenchman almost pleasant to be around. Jareth vaguely wondered if that thought counted as a betrayal of his friendship with Erik and then decided that he didn't care. Erik shouldn't have kidnapped Sarah if he didn't want his roommate to be on friendly terms with his rival.

"You talk like this is some story book." Raoul said, settling down on the edge of the pit in the throne room.

"More or less." Jareth said. The goblin king had moved on to thoughts about how Christine and Raoul would handle the Escher room, if the story progressed that far. Toby had been an infant and thus was not made frail by knowledge of gravity. And if it did get that far… what was Jareth going to sing for Christine as she tried desperately to reach her lover? He would have to be present for that part of the tale, of course, and his tale was a musical. So far he had been avoiding his friends. Although it would have been amusing to toss Raoul into the air for a goblin to catch.

Suddenly a goblin burst into the room, weaving about frantically. Raoul jumped in shock but Jareth merely raised an eyebrow. He wondered if the goblins were going to do this every time someone made it to the city.

"The girl is here! And she has the sailor, the dwarf and a very creepy man with her!" the goblin cried. "There was rope!"

'Thank you Erik for terrorizing the goblins.' Jareth thought sarcastically. Aloud he said, "Well? Stop her."

"What girl?" Raoul asked.

"Oh, it's not that important." Jareth lied.

XxX

"So you'll contact him?" Sarah asked.

Dresden nodded. "Yes. It shouldn't take long to do as you asked."

"Good." Sarah said.

Dresden's image faded from the mirror. The reflection of Christine's room never left. Sarah had found a false room for Christine and had been able to contact someone from the other world.

"Do you think this will work?" Javert asked.

Sarah shrugged. "I don' know. But we can't just assume that Christine is capable of defeating Jareth either. And that's the part she has to do on her own." Sarah said. "We're not far from the Goblin City now. I just hope we can get by that bag lady quickly. They're pushy."

The whole time the duo had been in Christine's fake room a bag lady had been banging on the locked door screaming "This isn't your illusion! Get out! Get out! Get out!"

XxX

"What did Didymus do?!" Hoggle cried.

The quartet had emerged into the city proper only to be faced with a long line of soldiers awaiting them. One of the soldiers had brought a cannon along with him.

"He must have announced that we were coming." James said, wishing he had his sword. Apparently that was a wish that Jareth was choosing to ignore.

"I hate this place." Erik grumbled.

Then James and Erik launched themselves at the soldiers. Christine winced but she didn't have the time to help. The moment an opening appeared in the fight the singer ran through it with Hoggle had her heels. The dwarf grabbed her hand and started to pull her in the direction of least fighting. A loud roar rumbled from farther inside the city and a neat line of rocks rolled in through the gates that Christine had just left.

"At least Ludo is doing something sensible." Hoggle said.

"How am I supposed to get through all this?" Christine cried.

The dwarf shrugged in response. The rocks were doing their best to help but the Goblin City had been ready for them. Christine would have to come up with a different solution.

In the dust and confusion, Christine didn't even know which way to turn. She felt desperation growing in her mind but she couldn't give up. A small rock came and nudged her foot before rolling away. The soprano blankly watched as the rock rolled down a path and landed deliberately under a goblin soldier's foot, tripping the goblin. Then she realised: Christine would have to play a role that always belonged to men in her time period. She would have to cast aside the damsel in distress and fight with the determination of the hero.

At least she wouldn't have to wield a sword. No sense in accidently stabbing herself.

XxX

Filthy and badly scratched up, Christine finally made it to the castle itself. James, Erik, Hoggle, Ludo and Sir Didymus all came to join her side. A silence had settled on the city.

James looked at his watch. "We spent to long fighting. There's only five minutes left."

Christine swallowed. "I'm still going in. Maybe I'll find Jareth in time."

She didn't know that that was not nearly enough time. For she didn't know the right words to defeat Jareth. And then the first cry of a clock striking twelve- or thirteen as the case may be- rang across the Labyrinth.

XxX

Christine may not have known the right words or have the time to find them but Sarah knew what to do. Although she tried to play down the amount of attention she gave Jareth, Sarah had still learned from him. Therefore she wasn't surprised when Dresden pulled through and a white mage stood before her.

"Hello Merlin." Sarah said and Javert nodded a greeting.

"Good day my dears." Merlin said good-naturedly. "What can I do for you?"

Sarah smiled. "I'd like to reorder time please."

XxX

Raoul was freaking out while she was trying to think. Finally, Christine couldn't take it anymore and, without her thinking on it, the words "I wish the goblins…" had started to slip out of her mouth.

"Stop!" yelled a strong French voice as a delicate hand slapped itself over Christine's mouth.

"No wishes for you." Sarah said tiredly before removing her hand from Christine's mouth.

Christine and Raoul both blinked at the sudden appearance of Sarah, Javert and an old man in wizard's robes.

"Sarah? But I thought that Erik kidnapped you?" Christine asked.

"Yes he did. Go save me." Sarah responded quickly. "I'm still tied to a post on the roof right now."

"And do not make any wishes while you're at it." Javert responded.

"Huh?" Christine asked. None of this was making any sense.

The magician in the middle of the living room just smiled cheerfully. "I think this worked out rather well, don't you? Anyway, we'll know our little time spell has done the job when you two disappear from this reality. You can't exist if the events that caused your existence did not happen after all."

As soon as the wizard finished speaking, Sarah and Javert started to disappear. When they were gone, Christine and Raoul shared a bewildered look. The magician just laughed merrily before teleporting away.

"HUH!?"

XxX

Jareth watched it all in his crystal ball, untouched by time in his kingdom. Others may have been able to reorder time in the Labyrinth but they could not do so to the king himself without his permission. The Goblin King approved of Sarah's plan to contact Dresden and have the wizard contact any associates with time altering magic. As Christine had never made her wish due to Sarah's supernatural intervention then no one needed to run the castle to save the viscount. Jareth stood, pleased with events, and prepared himself to actually go and save his beloved.

And perhaps those foolish mortals will someday learn the consequences of thoughtless wishing.

END

An: I think this seems a little rushed but I have no idea how to write action scenes. So no Goblin City battle for you. Feel free to imagine as many battle shenanigans as you want.

I really believe in the whole 'only Sarah can beat the Labyrinth' idea. Because it's a story and stories never change how many times you read them. Therefore, the only one who can beat the Labyrinth is someone who the Goblin King loves: that was the story Sarah told Toby and then the story she lived. As the heroine had to face the king alone, Christine couldn't take Sarah all the way with her. But I wanted a happy ending. So I hope magic time-altering adventures don't seem like too much of a cop out. I personally rather like Sarah's solution.

Thanks for reading.

Also, loving the current Girls Next Door arc.