Aeris looked at the group before them for a long while. They all demanded her attention, from the strange woman who seemed so calm and confident, to the two women who at once looked the same and infinitely different, to the man who could be none other than the son of Jareth and Sarah.

The strong one came forward first. "I am Beauty. This is Estella," she said, introducing the first of the red-haired girls. Aeris saw something in her eyes that immediately drew her, a quality of innocence that was missing from her mirror image. "Charlatan, Estella's doppleganger," said Beauty, indicating the twin. "And Jerin," she said at last. Aeris heard Jareth's breath catch at the sound of the man's name.

"I must assume then that you know who I am," said Jareth. "And this is Aeris."

"We have come from a different world," began Estella. "We seek someone."

"Indeed," said Jareth. He walked slowly forward, closer to Jerin. "But first...tell me about your world."

Jerin nodded. "I live in the Labyrinth. I am the Goblin King, and Estella is my wife. I am the son of Jareth and the creator of the Labyrinth, Sarah."

"Sarah did not create the Labyrinth," declared Aeris.

"But she did..." insisted Estella.

"Excuse me," the Herald replied, bristling under the insinuation that she was merely the creation of Sarah Williams' teenage mind, "I have always lived in the Labyrinth. It has always been. Sarah came later, and only then because I painted her."

Charlatan tossed Aeris a bored glance. "And just who are you? God?"

"I'm the Herald."

"What's a Herald?" asked Estella.

"What do you mean what's a Herald?" cried Aeris. "What kind of world do you live in, anyway!?"

Beauty held up a hand. "Stop this." She waited for the silence to hold for a moment, and then went on. "The Labyrinth they come from was created by Sarah Williams. It did not exist before."

Jareth nodded. "And so what am I there? Another creation of her mind?"

"You are the son of an evil force, one of the cursed children from the rape of the force of magic."

Jareth recalled his dream with a start. So his nightmare had been someone else's reality. He found that he pitied his other self.

"You're not taking this seriously, are you?" Aeris asked him.

"Herald...hush."

"But it's different here?" asked Jerin.

Beauty looked at him. "Listen for your answer. The voices of history abound. There are layers of things that came before. There is a past beyond what we see here."

"I am descended from a line of goblin kings, not forces," said Jareth, a little proudly.

"We can stand here and talk about how different your worlds are all day," Beauty interrupted impatiently. The point is that someone from our world has crossed into yours and we must find her."

"Her?" asked Aeris.

"My daughter, Livia," said Estella softly. "She...she is cursed. She must drain emotion to live, and she has come here seeking fresh energy."

Aeris shivered. "It's worse than that. She's made a friend." Jareth noted that she was again holding that thread tightly in her hand, but said nothing and Aeris continued. "I have an old enemy. His name is Necrodemos. Your Livia has freed him. And now he will come looking for me."

Estella took one look at the girl and saw that her fear was not groundless. This Necrodemos was a force to be reckoned with. And she knew Beauty saw the same thing.

"Then there is no time to lose. We must..."

Estella's voice died away as Jareth produced a crystal. "Something is wrong," he said. "My goblins..."

In the crystal, they saw the image of a goblin. It sat, dull and lifeless, with gray, unblinking eyes.

"Livia," whispered Estella.

*****

Livia walked with Necrodemos to the small house. Quaint as it was something about it made her quiver.

Necrodemos was about to ask but found he didn't need to, "They were here." she sneered.

He became even a bit more surprised as she seemed angry. "Who?" he asked thinking Livia was one without emotion.

She growled as her grey pupils almost rolled over in the back of her head, "Can't you sense them!" she yelled, "Can't you sense the goodness? The power?! It was Estella and my mother...and the protector."

"You know I don't know them." he huffed, "And I thought you were immune to emotional distress."

She narrowed her eyes upon him and for a brief instant a red hue tinged her pupils, "I am immune to happiness!" she shrieked. Slowly her aura began to radiate with shades of gray and red. She walked toward him, her hand outstretched, "Would you like to feel my pain?"

Necrodemos was not easily intimidated by any means and narrowed his eyes at her in return, "I thought we would be helping each other. Believe me my dear, I can be a force to reckon with."

Livia began to look more ghastly as her skin began to wrinkle, "Let me steal your feelings."

Necrodemos' eyes began to turn a deep red, "Let me steal your fear."

Livia began to breathe deeply and concentrated on her companion. "I have no emotion, my fear would not sate you." She began to concentrate, feeling a desire for sensations she didn't have. Would it be worth going up against him to satisfy her craving? A fight might weaken her so it was best to seek easy prey.

But the need for emotions was too high for rationality. Then she heard footsteps nearby. Her eyes red she turned around and there was a small goblin walking into the area. He seemed oblivious to danger and she knew this was her chance, "Listen and learn friend." she said as she sprang forward and grabbed the little creature.

He screamed in surprise but only for a moment. Livia was holding him tight and focusing upon him began to drain his emotions. "The first thing you need to do is sense 'feelings' within others. Then as you do draw it into yourself." she smiled widely as the goblin stood stiff. Then it turned pale and looked at her with gray eyes that couldn't blink.

Livia moaned in ecstasy and jumped up to look Necrodemos in the eye. For a brief moment her eyes were beautiful and entrancing just like Jareth. They glimmered as her skin took on a peach colored tint. He was surprised as Livia became very beautiful.

"YES!" she said in euphoria, "What a fucking rush!" With red lips she smiled, "See what a little emotion can do?"

Necrodemos stood in awe. Upon first meeting her she looking nothing like this, "What happened to you? A creature as myself is not easily surprised."

"This is my curse but as long as I have emotions I am completely. I have no emotions of my own, so I must steal them." she cooed with a voice sweeter than honey, "But it won't last long, want to see me practice on someone else?"

He looked at her with a wishful smile, "Yes." he said as he ran a finger along her cheek, "I would like to see more. Much, much more."

"Then let's go. Goodness has been here and I must feed from it, but I wonder..."

He sensed a thought on her mind and smirked easily, "Wonder what?"

"I'll drain every living thing here if I can but perhaps there is someone who I should drain above everyone else."

"And that is?"

"Beauty, the protector of Akerion. She is immortal and invulnerable, but if she's not invulnerable to me I can drain her forever."

They made their way into the Labyrinth.

Necrodemos smiled almost fondly, watching as Livia drained another goblin. Its fight died, the terror slipped out of its eyes, and it went that ghastly gray color. But Livia…she was beautiful, laughing, filled with life again.

The goblins had been few in the forest, though they hadn’t bothered to search for them there. Livia had said with a small, secret smile, "There will be many in the Labyrinth." And she had been right. When Livia and Necrodemos saw another goblin, one of them grabbed it, taking the emotion. The drained creatures had followed them along, stumbling almost comically—that is, except for the fact that they were frighteningly lifeless, a trail of gray goblin zombies.

Necrodemos concentrated on his own goblin, feeling the pulse of fear and horror as he pulled it from out of the little creature and into himself. He shivered as he lifted his hands away. He had taken much from these goblins, almost too much. He felt glutted with power. There was a great resource here in what Livia did. But even as he felt he could take no more, Livia was insatiable.

"Oh, give me that," she said, taking the creature out of his hands. "You never get all of it," she half-chided him. She finished off the goblin greedily, and it fell in with its companions.

"Won’t Lucas know his goblins have gone missing?" asked Necrodemos once, thoughtful.

"Lucas?" asked Livia, frowning confusion.

Necrodemos rolled his eyes in annoyance. Her universe was truly strange. There was little concept of the history that filled the Labyrinth he knew. He had preyed on Heralds for many, many centuries, but she had no idea what a Herald was. "Lucas, the Goblin King," he answered. "Although…" Necrodemos pondered. He had been away for some time. "Perhaps his son is now the king. That brat Jareth. This should be interesting."

"Jareth is the king," Livia confirmed. "And he is my father in my world." She sighed. "How I’d like to take him."

"How I’d like to see you do it," he said, touching her face. "How lovely you’d be, draining all that unspent emotion."

"You dawdle like an old man," Livia laughed, taking his hand and pulling him down the path they followed to the castle. "We will have our way with all of them," she promised. Just then, she spotted another goblin, and eyed it with hungry delight. "All of them."

*****

Jareth twitched as he paced his throne room. He knew something was wrong when his servants were not populating the castle and carousing like they normally do. With a sigh he finally decided to produce a crystal ball to see what was happening.

As light shimmered and formed a round orb in his hand Beauty tensed and quickly grabbed her sword, "Danger!" she said, "By Akerion it's everywhere." the goblin king tensed as he saw a large army of goblins banging at the door. Behind the gray figures were two people shouting out orders in full confidence.

"Get the hell out of here!" Kirakah shouted, "They're coming!"

Jareth stood still, "I'm not leaving without a fight."

Aeris glanced at him and then back at Beauty. She knew there wasn’t much she could do to help, but if Jareth would stay, she would too. She reached into her pocket and fingered the thread Euphoria had given her.

Estella trembled unsure what she could do. She didn't want any harm to come to Livia but perhaps this had gone too far. "I don't want to leave." she trembled. Managing to speak with what courage she could she replied, "In fact I won't."

Beauty growled but didn't have time to argue. Moving quickly she began to tie a few trip wires at the main entrance of the room. "You may have dug your grave Storyteller; just be sure you find a way out."

Estella became frightened by her words but Jerin moved quickly to her side. Not to much surprise Charlatan followed.

In a short moment a loud boom was heard and emotionless goblins ran through the main hallway of the castle. Jareth peered into his crystal ball opening as many Oubliettes as he could but there were not enough to catch them all. "Forgive me majesty." Kirakah said as she heard them down the hallway, "Sometimes a protector must kill."

"Then don't miss." came the reply. He had plans to use his magic, but sometimes magic wasn't fast enough.

The entrance to the throne room was suddenly flooded by the goblins. As they entered a large mass was stopped by the trip wire. Kirakah took advantage and jumped upon them and stunned many others with wound from her sword. She moved too fast to be seen by anyone's eye and already Estella began to move towards to entrance to the Escher room.

Then Kirakah sensed intense dread as Livia and Necrodemos came closer. She winced and found herself stomped under the feet of the goblins. Screaming in surprise she managed to fight her way through and get a clear view of the scene before her.

Her eyes first fell upon Necromedos who had Aeris in his grasp. The black eyes focused on the blue, and he began to become insubstantial, half reality, half strange blue smoke. "Oh, Aeris, the dreams I’ll make for you this time," his voice whispered like night wind in trees. "When I’m through with you, you won’t even know your own name…"

Aeris shook her head, nearly paralyzed with fear, unable to even take a breath. "No…" she mouthed.

"Oh, yes." He put one hand on the white streak he’d given her hair. "Who’ll save you now, sweet Herald?"

Kirakah leaped into the air and kicked him aside. In surprise he fell back and Aeris was released. "Don't you understand when a woman means no!" she said as she brought the tip of her sword to his neck. Necrodemos was frozen but something else caught Beauty unaware. Estella screamed and began to walk closer to Livia, "No please!" she screamed as Jerin was held tightly. Little by little she began draining his emotion and the Storyteller could feel it.

Kirakah kicked Necrodemos to the side. The impact of the blow was intense as he was knocked to the wall beside Aeris. In less than a second she took her sword and sliced Livia on the wrist to force her to drop Jerin.

Jerin fell to the ground and Beauty glared at her. Sword upon her neck she asked in fury, "Give me a reason not to end your miserable existance!"

Livia looked up at her with gray eyes and began speaking a language no one could understand. In an effort to comprehend her words she peered into Livia's mind to learn the language in less than a second.

It was then Beauty felt dread so intense that she could do nothing but scream. Overwhelmed by Livia's madness the protector was not ready to sense such anger. At that moment she was weak and Livia grabbed her sword.

Necrodemos grabbed Aeris and licked his lips as her fear came to surface again. He started the strange transformation once more, and slowly, surely, he was nothing but a swirling blue cloud, wrapping around the Herald. She looked at Jareth, too frightened to scream, her eyes wide pools of terror.. Finally, as the smoke that Necrodemos had become moved into her, she whispered, "The innocent one…protect her..." Then he was completely within her. For one moment, she stood, completely aware of what had happened to her, that she was now his. Her face was filled with blank awestruck horror and understanding. Then she slipped into unconsciousness, into a sleep filled with Necrodemos’ nightmares. Jareth could only watch her, his helplessness and frustration overpowering.

But the goblins were advancing on them all again. Jareth had no choice. Remembering Aeris’ warning, he and Jerin tried to move Charlatan and Estella into the Escher room.

"No one will find us in there!" Jareth shouted, "Move!"

Estella was almost to the entrance when a mass of goblins grabbed Jerin and pulled him back. Livia smirked while she began to drain Kirakah's emotions, "Hold him!" she yelled.

Jareth was almost dragging Estella into the Escher room while Charlatan screamed, "No! God damn it he's mine!"

Livia drained Beauty and began to stand up. Her body filled with new life and emotion she smiled, "Ok Mother I'll make a deal with you. Join my side and you can have him."

Estella shrieked hearing this but Jareth pushed her into the room. He shortly followed and Livia shouted, "Find them!" to a troup of goblins. Knowing Necrodemos was quite busy in Aeris’s mind, she turned her attention back to her mother, "I'll have him put in chains and you can visit him whenever you like." she said, "You can order the goblins to do with him as you will."

She fell to the floor in tears, "I want him to love me, I want him to love me freely."

Livia cast another glance at the captured Herald, "Freedom is something we all want, isn't it?

Main/Threads of Fate/Previous/Next