Labyrinth 1. Tah'rina Durinae

**Title: Destiny Reborn**

**Fandom: Labyrinth**

**Stars: Along with the normal cast, there's a host of original characters.**

**Summary: ****Something is happening to Sarah and the Labyrinth... they are somehow connected.**

**Author: Queen Serenity**

**Disclaimer: Okay, listen. Anyone whom you recognize, they belong to Henson and Co., okay? But anybody else, ESPECIALLY my elven princess, Tah'rina Durinae, belong to ME. However, if you ask me nicely, then I would be happy to let you use her, or whoever else belongs to me. Okay? But if you do NOT ask first, then I will have Sailor Dark Dreams use her whip on you. (If you want to know who she is, check out durinae dot deviantart dot com) ;) :)**

_**Title: Destiny Reborn**_

_**Author: Queen Serenity**_

_**Fandom: Labyrinth**_

_**Chapter: One – Tah'rina Durinae**_

Sarah Williams grimly stared at herself in the mirror. She had bags under her red-rimmed eyes and her skin had taken on a color rather sickly lately.

It had been a month since she had returned from the Labyrinth and her life had only taken a turn for the worst. She and her stepmother were always fighting now, and Sarah's father never took her side . . . and now Karen had just announced that she was pregnant AGAIN! That meant another child to care for! She and Toby got along well enough now, but that was her only relief.

And the dreams . . . the dreams confused her, and left her drained. When she dreamed, she saw through someone else's eyes, to what she felt was a long time ago.

Sarah's thoughts were interrupted by her splitting headache. She groaned and buried her head in her arms, willing it to go away.

Tah'rina Durinae, glaring, refused to give in to her enemy's will. She had made her decision, and wouldn't go down without a fight.

"Tah'rina, you are the princess of this kingdom, and as its king and your father, I decide what's best for you. My decision is FINAL!"

Tah'rina wanted to strangle her father. Instead, she put on a mask of serene calm and curtseyed gracefully. "As you wish, my lord father."

She left her father's study and went to her chambers. When she entered, the mask dropped and she choked back a sob of frustration. Why did her father have to be so STUBBORN?

Magick in the world was dying, and so were those creatures with it in their blood. People just didn't believe anymore in magick, and, because of this, many races were near extinction. The nymphs, the dryads, the fairies, and even Tah'rina's own race, the elves. They were all losing their magick and dying. The gods and the goddesses themselves seemed to have died, too, never showing themselves anymore.

Tah'rina couldn't just let her people die, nor could she allow the other races to fade out, either. There was a legend about a magickal labyrinth which appeared only to those whom were worthy. It moved from place to place, never staying in one location for very long. The legends said that if you were to make it to the center of this labyrinth, you would find ambrosia, the food of the gods. This would, of course, make you a god if you ate it. The labyrinth, however, held many dangerous traps, even if you did find it. You had to be very cunning to make it through. Many people had tried, but none had succeeded. Now, Tah'rina herself was determined to try. If she were able to become a goddess, she would have the power to save everyone. But no. Her father did not want to risk his precious daughter.

She opened her chest and a pile formed behind her as item after item was expelled from it. Well, she didn't care. She was going to save her people, whether her father liked it or not. She had to at least _try_, if nothing else. Finally, when the trunk was empty, she lifted out the false bottom, revealing a wrapped bundle. Unwrapping it, she revealed a pair of breeches, a loose-fitting shirt, a vest, a pair of soft leather boots, and a loose fitting cap. She cleaned her face of all make-up and, dressing in these clothes, she was pleased with the results. With her hair braided and up in the cap, she now looked like any other youth. Any other _male_ youth.

This was a common disguise of hers, which had started as nothing more than a game when she was little. Then she had noticed that no one had noticed that the rather scruffy-looking elf boy, "Kah'rel", was truly the regal Princess Tah'rina, and she had become addicted to her disguise.

Only one person knew about it, and she had sworn him to absolute secrecy. This was Althor, her father's oldest and most loyal soldier. The poor old elf had been shocked when he'd uncovered the princess's secret, but he was very fond of her and she had been able to persuade him to help keep her secret safe.

He'd agreed, but tried to talk her out of it, pointing out that all the boys in the castle had to learn how to fight. If "Kah'rel" didn't, there'd be trouble, and she'd be found out anyway. Obviously, he'd hoped to scare the girl into quitting, but it had not worked. Tah'rina never gave up without trying.

"Fine," she had told him, "Then _I_ shall learn to fight, too."

She had had to really push Althor to agree to that, and the only reason that he had in the end, most likely, was because he had thought that she would do so badly that she would give up and back off.

Everything had not gone according to his plan, however. She practiced with the elven boys and went on to become the best fighter of all the boys, proficient in everything clear from sword to bow and arrow.

She had overheard that Althor was being sent by her father to find the labyrinth from the legends, and had thought that she might be able to help in some way. And so she had gone to ask her father for permission to accompany Althor and his party. Well, we all know what his answer was to this.

Her plan was that she would follow Althor's party at a distance for a while, and then, when they were far enough from the castle, she would reveal herself to him. There would be no way he could himself go back, and he would not be able to send her back because it would be too dangerous for her to go alone.

However, she would have to prepare this evening, if she expected this to work. First thing was to gather her supplies.

She packed one more boy outfit first of all. She would need weapons, but that would be no problem. She reached under her mattress and pulled out the sword which she had convinced Althor to give her a year ago. Next, she took out her knife, which she slipped into the top of her right boot, and then wrote a note to pin to her door that stated that she wished to be left alone. Picking up her pack, she left her room and snuck into her father's study, which she knew would be empty at the moment. She looked in his desk until she found what it was that she was looking for; to save time, her father kept a sheaf of papers already signed with his seal on hand. Taking one, she wrote a note and stuck it into a pouch which she had tied to her waist.

Then she left the room, careful to leave no evidence that anyone had been there.

Next, she went to the armory and opened the door to it with a duplicate key which she had 'borrowed' from Althor. Slipping inside, she found a longbow and some arrows, which she slung across her back. She then took a water skin and a pouch of dried meat. With those, she would be able to follow Althor's party for a week before she would have to join up with them.

Having everything gathered, she went back to her room and hid all of her supplied in her wardrobe, slipping into her nightgown afterwards. It was early, but she would be going to sleep now, as she would need plenty of rest . . .

**Queen Serenity: Well, I dunno how it is so far, but I'm working hard on this… I hope you guys like! Hey, I need a beta-reader for this fic. Any volunteers?**

**Sere G: *stares* So, when you said earlier that you own Tah'rina, you mean she's your slave?**

**QS: Ummm… No. I mean that I made her, so I own her.**

**SG: Uh huh. Slave owner.**

***QS pounces on SG and they start strangling each other***


	2. Fading

_**Title: Destiny Reborn**_

_**Author: Queen Serenity**_

_**Fandom: Labyrinth**_

_**Chapter: Two – Fading**_

The girl awoke slowly, and sat up, letting out a groan of annoyance as her neck cramped up. She looked around, her eyes taking in her surroundings, and was confused. _Where am I? _she wondered. _This is not my chambers…_

Standing up, she wandered around the room and caught sight of herself in the mirror, and a slight tremor went through her as she remembered who she was. Sarah swept her dark hair away from her face, frowning.

"That was strange… for a moment there, I actually thought I was that elven girl… strange…"

"Yer Majesty, yer majesty!"

Jareth rolled his eyes. "What is it now?"

"Another messenger's been sent from th' faery glade! She is demandin ta see yer Majesty 'mediately, she says it be most important, yer Majesty!"

"Send her away, as you have the others."

"Yes, yer Majesty."

Jareth sighed irritably and went over to lounge by the window. He had been bombarded day and night by messengers sent from all over the labyrinth, ever since about a week after 'she' had gone… and he knew why. Looking out the window, he felt a deep sadness as he observed the pale, lifeless sky, and, under it, the labyrinth's old walls.

Jareth knew that if he went down there and touched one of those walls, pieces of stone would crumble easily away. He knew that the vegetation within the walls was turning brown, that the trees were bare. Even the peaches on his tree in his garden were all shriveled, no life left in them. Looking about, it was obvious.

The labyrinth was dying.

And what the worst of it was was that, as far as he knew, there was nothing he could do about it.

It had started almost immediately after Sarah had defeated him, and taken her leave of the place. It was almost as though the magick had gone with her.

The breeze from the window stirred his hair as he closed his eyes and exhaled, thinking of the girl and her beautiful hair and eyes. Unfortunately, she had also taken his heart with her… but she had made it obvious that she did not want him.

He knew that he should be trying harder to find a way to save the labyrinth, but he just didn't have the will to… he was just going to let it fade and, inevitably, he would fade away along with it.


	3. All Goes Black

_**Title: Destiny Reborn**_

_**Author: Queen Serenity**_

_**Fandom: Labyrinth**_

_**Chapter: Three – All Goes Black**_

Sarah walked to school, yawning. She was so tired, you would never guess that she had fallen asleep at 6PM the night before, and had slept through a half hour of her alarm blaring.

She stared blearily at her feet as she trudged along, shoulders and head slumped, one foot in front of the other.

_Oh, I'm so tired… I just want to go to sleep…_

She didn't even look up as the sound of a car's honking broke through the air. The driver slammed on the brakes, but the slowed car still hit Sarah, causing her to fly backwards.

Her head hit roughly against the concrete as she landed and then all was black.

When the sun rose, Tah'rina was all ready to leave. Making sure her 'leave me alone' note was secured to the door, she left her room and made her way to the castle's exit.

One of the two guards saw her and grinned. "What are you up to today, Kah'rel?"

She grinned, patting the sword strapped across her back. "It looks like maybe my blade will finally be blooded. I've been ordered by his Majesty to scout ahead for Uncle Althor's party. Maybe if I'm lucky, we'll be attacked along the way and I can test my skills."

The other guard, one that was older, gave her a stern look. "Don't let your arrogance get the better of you. It's the worse thing that could happen. Now, just show us your note showing his Majesty's permission and we'll be happy to let you out.

She did so and within a minute, she was outside and walking away from the castle.

As she walked, she looked around, trying not to look awed. She had only been outside the castle a couple of times, and never on her own… but she was not worried. She knew she could handle herself…

Once she was had put a little distance between her and the castle, Tah'rina set down her stuff and squinted towards the castle. She could just barely make out the gate. She would wait until she saw Althor and his party leave, and then she would follow them…

Even Jareth himself was now sickly-looking, and he could feel his magick ebbing away slowly as he weakened. All in the Labyrinth was silent, as it had been for a few hours now. Jareth had happened to look over just as one of his goblins collapsed, and the others followed it one by one. Looking out, he had seen that the rest of the citizens of the Labyrinth were also on the ground, unconscious.

Unconscious. Not dead. Looking at them, you would think they were all asleep, except that Jareth could not rouse them. At the same time that this had happened, he himself had felt weakness suddenly slice right through him.

And now… now, Jareth felt the weakness tugging at him, and so he did as it urged… he closed his eyes and fell asleep right there, standing up, and his body crumpled to the floor.

And so the Goblin King lay at the foot of his throne, and the last light of magick in the Labyrinth flickered…


	4. First Battle

_**Title: Destiny Reborn**_

_**Author: Queen Serenity**_

_**Fandom: Labyrinth**_

_**Chapter: Four – First Battle**_

Tah'rina watched as two men snuck up on Althor's party's camp. Obviously, the two were elven bandits, since there was no other reason that they'd be sneaking up. Well, she was battle-trained; she would take care of them.

From a distance, she took down one of them, but the second one heard his comrade fall and jumped out of the way of the next arrow she shot. She drew her sword and she and the other man approached each other, each wanting to kill the other.

There was a clash as their swords met, and they battled for several minutes, rather evenly matched; him with more experience and strength, seemingly, and her with more speed and agility. Finally, though, somehow she messed up and was knocked to her knees as his sword sliced across the back of one of her calves, her sword kicked from her hand in the next moment. The man moved in for the kill, grinning, so sure of his victory…

…And, in the next moment, his sword dropped from his hand as the grin slipped off his face and he looked down in horror. Quick as a flash, Tah'rina had retrieved her dagger from her boot the moment her weapon left her hand, and now she twisted it and pulled it from where she had stabbed him in the stomach, both her hands and her blade covered with blood. Seeing that he was bleeding to death anyway, she decided to be merciful as the man fell to his knees, and stepped forward, sliding her blade cleaning across his throat.

After he was dead, she wiped her blade on a clean patch of his clothing before returning it to her boot, and retrieved her sword, resheathing it after cleaning it, too.

As she moved towards Althor's camp, planning to be there when he awakened, she winced and fell to her knees again. Lifting up her hands, she could see the blood on them, and it sunk in what she had done. Tears filled her eyes, and she hastily wiped them on her sleeve. _It had to be done, _she said to herself silently. _They would have killed Althor and the rest of them if I had not…_

It was the first time she'd taken even one life, and she unfortunately was sure it wouldn't be the last. The thrill of the battle was intoxicating, but when it was over…

Ripping a strip of material from the bottom of her shirt, she bound the wound on her thigh and quietly slipped into Althor's camp, finally falling asleep there…


	5. Comatose

_**Title: Destiny Reborn**_

_**Author: Queen Serenity**_

_**Fandom: Labyrinth**_

_**Chapter: Five – Comatose**_

It was confirmed. Sarah JoAnn Williams was in a coma.

When the ambulance had brought her in, the ER doctors had done what they could. They had stopped the internal bleeding, among other things.

The doctor went out to the waiting room to give the family the news. "We have her stabilized, Mr. and Mrs. Williams, but I regret to say that she's slipped into a coma, having sustained a head injury. We have no way of saying when or even if she'll wake up. I'm sorry."

Henry Williams nodded. The poor man looked stressed. "Thank you, Doctor. Can I go in and see her?"

"Sure."

Karen stayed in the waiting room when the man went to see his daughter. When he saw her, laying broken and battered in the bed before, he could feel his heart break. Instantly, he felt pangs of regret for how he'd been treating her lately, and hoped that she'd pull through this so that he could apologize.

A little later, when he returned to Karen, he found the woman going through the contacts list on her cell phone. "What are you doing?" he asked.

She didn't look up from her task. "Huh? Oh, I'm trying to find the name of that girl who watched Toby that one night Sarah had that thing at school."

"…Why?"

"Well, obviously your daughter won't be able to watch him when we go out to dinner, so I've got to find someone else who can."

The look he gave her was incredulous. "Please tell me you're kidding."

She looked up finally. "Huh? About what?"

He shook his head. "I can't believe you thought we'd still be going out. The only place I'll be tonight is at home by the phone, waiting to hear if there's any changes in my daughter."

Karen glowered at her husband, but said nothing; she had a feeling she'd not win this battle.


	6. Makes Sense

_**Title: Destiny Reborn**_

_**Author: Queen Serenity**_

_**Fandom: Labyrinth**_

_**Chapter: Six – Makes Sense**_

Tah'rina awoke to find herself being shaken. When she opened her eyes, she found herself staring into two very anxious and angry-looking eyes which looked familiar.

As she got to her feet, she looked around to see that there were eleven other elves around her, a couple of them older, but most not much older than her. She looked at Althor and met his steely gaze.

"Kah'rel, may I ask what you are doing here? That I know of, you weren't asked by me to come…"

To anyone watching him, Althor looked calm. Quite calm. But Tah'rina (I'll call her Kah'rel when she's in disguise), she knew better… Althor was very angry with her, and was worried, too. Most likely, he was thinking about what her father would do when he found that she was missing.

Kah'rel grinned, and scratched the back of her head as she let out a chuckle. "Did you really think that I would let you go on this journey without me, Uncle? If that is what you thought, then I am sorry… but you should know me better than that…"

Althor nodded. "Aye, I do… come speak with me for a minute…"

Leaving the others to eat their breakfast of rations, Althor led the disguised princess out of earshot. He glared at her. "You should not be here, Princess. When your father, the king, finds you to be missing, you know that he will send out a search party. If they find us, there is always the chance they shall somehow find that you are not a commoner nephew of an old soldier, but rather the royal princess in disguise. If this happens, it shall be figured out that I covered for you these past years when I said you were my nephew… and then I would be either thrown in the dungeons, exiled, or killed… none of which I would like to happen."

Kah'rel smirked. "Alright, first of all, Althor, you do not have to worry about a search party… Think, okay? I just got into an argument with my father. Tell me, Althor, what do I do whenever I get into an argument with my father?"

Althor frowned, thinking. "You… lock yourself into your room, refusing to speak with anyone, until you actually have to eat… which can usually be anywhere from two to four days."

Kah'rel nodded, smiling. "So, most likely, it won't be until five days have passed that he will have someone break my door down. When he realizes that I am missing, it will take a few hours to get a search party together… all in all, unless every one of us breaks our legs, then it is very highly unlikely that they will catch up will catch up with us… and that is without even taking into account the fact that they will not know our exact route, and would have to have very good trackers with them to follow our footprints.

"Second of all… even if they could find us, there would be next to no chance of them finding out that I am Tah'rina. I have been using this disguise for several years now, and everyone is familiar enough with me that they would not be suspicious of me."

Althor frowned, but nodded. "You are right… It is too late anyway. We are already too far away from the castle."

On the way back to where the others were, Althor thought of something. "By the way… one of our scouts found a couple of bodies not too far from here. I do not suppose you had anything to do with that, did you?"

She smiled innocently. "I noticed the bandits approaching your camp, and I needed the experience in real fighting, anyway."

Althor gave her a stern look. "I am glad that you stopped them, but that was not smart of you, Kah'rel… there were two of them, and you were not experienced."

Kah'rel nodded. "I know, I know… I shall be more careful, Althor, I promise. Just… don't treat me any differently from anyone else here, okay?"

"Agreed."


End file.

Labyrinth, Adventure