Labyrinth

“Sir!”

Jareth looked up at the small goblin that was now standing at attention in the doorway. The King had been sitting on the bed next to Jack, who was still asleep… the mirror was still showing Ianto and his companions, who were now approaching the Goblin City.

“Ianto Jones is almost here,” Jareth whispered as he stood and walked over to the mirror, snapping his fingers to turn it back to normal before he headed towards the main rooms of the castle. “So it has come to this… a final battle,” Jareth muttered to himself before he looked down at the goblin. “Call the guards.”

The little goblin ran ahead of it’s King. “GUARDS! GUARDS!” It screamed as a bell began to toll somewhere in the Castle.

Jareth shuddered as he felt the magic of the Labyrinth move, creating a new nightmare from the collective memories of Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones. Pausing for the briefest of moments, the Goblin King gestured back to the room where Jack lay, sending a tiny thread of magic towards the immortal…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As Ianto passed through the streets of the deserted Goblin City, he was slowly growing more and more uneasy… Janet didn’t seem to notice, and while Donna noticed she didn’t seem to care. However Ianto was sure that he could sense something… something that was horribly familiar.

“Well look what I found… fresh meant.”

Ianto froze in terror. In front of his little group was the Family, the one from Brecon Beacons… the cannibals.

“No,” he whispered, quickly backing up, not noticing that he’d stumbled and was now scurrying backwards on all fours as fast as he could. All he could see was the group that was stalking towards him, the man who’d beaten him to within an inch of his life, the woman with her shotgun, the son who was a member of the police, who’d tricked Gwen…

Softly, as if coming from some far off distance, Ianto could hear Donna calling out for him and Janet whimpering… but all that mattered now was that the Family was approaching him, their faces lit up with terrible smiles, the man and woman practically licking their lips.

“Jack!” Ianto found himself calling out, unable to protect himself as the leader of the Family stepped forward and started raining blows down upon him… the Welshman was unable to protect himself against these figures which seemed to have been taken from his nightmares.

High up in the castle, Jack Harkness looked down at Ianto Jones. He had woken to find that the door to his room had vanished once more, but the window remained… although it now had bars, as if someone had come up with the idea that death by falling wouldn’t really stop a man who could just come back to life.

He could hear that there were still a few goblins outside his room and could see that Jareth’s army was gathering in the town below… but for some reason the numbers seemed oddly small, as if they were just keeping up appearances. The goblins that were there were frozen, as if they were waiting for something. Only a few seconds after that, Ianto had appeared in the largest open are in town, followed by… Jack blinked Donna Nobel and a Weevil?!?

Before the strangeness of this could sink in, the doors between the Goblin City and Jareth’s Castle suddenly opened. Jack watched as three goblins moved away from the rest of the army… only to have their appearance suddenly shift form so that they appeared to be four humans, four very familiar humans.

Jack screamed out in rage as the goblins, wearing the faces of the Cannibal Family from Brecon Beacons, raced towards Ianto. Jack grabbed hold of the bars, trying desperately to escape and help his beloved… but the heavy bars didn’t even budge.

“IANTO!” Jack screamed, praying that the Welshman would hear him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“IANTO!”

Ianto’s eyes, which had been closed, snapped open as he heard Jack calling out for him. For the shortest of moments the faces of the Cannibal Family were replaced by four very average goblins.

“It’s a trick!” Ianto realized as he grabbed hold of a rock which had been lying on the ground next to him. Not paying any attention to the fact that the goblins had once again been “replaced” by the Cannibal family, Ianto swung up at his attacker, screaming in rage.

In quick succession the goblins fell to the ground, where they returned to their normal form. Without stopping for a second Ianto picked up a sword that one of the goblins had dropped and raced towards the army, as Donna and Janet ran to follow the Welshman into battle.

“JACK!” Ianto screamed as he made his way through the goblins. “I’m coming…” he whispered, not really thinking that Jack could hear him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Jack smiled down at Ianto, even though he knew that the younger man could not see him. Jack turned away from the window and made his way over to where the door appeared whenever Jareth wanted to enter the room. He stared at the seemingly solid wall and bit his lip… and it was then that Jack remembered a story the Doctor had told him.

“The Goblin King wills a door into existence…” Jack whispered to himself, before squaring his shoulders and glaring at the wall.

Without really thinking, Jack placed his hands on the wall and pushed, concentrating all his physical and mental powers on the ‘wall’… for a few seconds it seemed as if nothing was happening, but just when Jack was about to give up, the wall suddenly changed back into a door, sending Jack falling head over heels in to the hallway.

(Author’s Note: The above is a sort vague reference to The Three Doctors I always thought that Jack might be the kind of person that the Doctor would have told stories or who would have sought out stories about the Doctor.)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ianto didn’t notice that the Army seemed to practically be flinging themselves out of his way. All he knew was that soon, with a little help from Janet, he was inside the Castle. Again, he did not notice Donna and Janet fall behind him, he was too busy concentrating on finding Jack…. It seemed like everywhere he looked there was that clock, revealing he only had a few minutes left before time was up and Jareth won.

Ianto skidded to a stop in a room which could never have existed in “real life”… it was like an MC Esher drawing, with staircases going every which way, making it impossible to tell what was up and what was down. On the other side of the room was the Goblin King, standing upside down, as if the laws of gravity obeyed his will… for some reason Ianto knew that it was the Goblin King, despite the fact that he had a different face, with long blond hair and two different colored eyes.

“Where’s Jack?!” Ianto practically screamed.

The Goblin King seemed… somehow sad but joyful at the same time. “It is not over yet, Ianto Jones,” Jareth replied.

“JACK!” Ianto screamed, looking around the strange room and struggling not to cry.

“IANTO!”

There, standing in another doorway was Jack, staring up at Ianto with a huge smile on his face before he started to look around, trying to find a way to get to Ianto, as the Welshman did the exact same thing…

Jareth was leaning against an archway, as if all his energy had been stolen. He gestured to another clock… revealing that Ianto had only a few seconds left. I am sorry, Ianto Jones… Jareth’s voice seemed to be whispering into Ianto’s very mind.

“Oh my dear Ianto… it would seem you are out of time!” Emerging from the darkness next to Jareth was Rose, who laughed at the predicament of the Welshman… before a dark glare from the Goblin King had her begging to understand why her lord was displeased with her.

Ianto could see no way of reaching Jack before the clock ran out, the room was simply too twisted, unless… seeing no other option, Ianto ran towards his lover and jumped off the walkway, into the empty air, his hands reaching out for Jack.

Jack screamed when he saw his lover jump… for a terrible second he watched Ianto fall, before the Goblin King was suddenly behind him, pushing him forward as he whispered in the immortal’s ear “I am sorry.” As he fell through the air, Jack reached out, and as the clock began to toll out the final hour, Jack managed to grab Ianto’s hand and pull the younger man in close.

The two fell through the air, the only sound they could hear was that of the wind rushing past them, the tolling of the clock… and beyond it all Rose screamed out that she had been betrayed, while the Goblin King just laughed, as if he’d managed to beat fate. Through all this Jack held Ianto into his arms. Jack didn’t know how long the two had been falling, how far they had fallen or how long it would be before they hit the ground… all he knew was that Ianto was there, safe in his arms.

“Ianto…” Jack whispered, not knowing if his beloved would be able to hear him. “I love you.”

Everything stopped… it was as if time itself had frozen, leaving only Ianto and Jack, awake and aware, staring into each other’s eyes. Jack wasn’t sure if he blinked, or if the world simply went dark for a second… but everything around him vanished, only to be replaced with his room in the Hub.

Jack shot up, it was as if he’d been sleeping on his computer, his face typing a long line of random letters. In a matter of seconds Jack was up, on his feet and climbing out of his personal quarters. As soon as he got off the latter, Ianto was in his arms, sobbing as the two embraced, falling down on the floor in each other’s arms.

“Ianto…” Jack whispered.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” Ianto sobbed, clinging desperately to Jack. “I didn’t mean it! I didn’t mean it at all!”

“I know you didn’t,” Jack whispered, pulling back just enough so that he could tilt Ianto’s face up so that the younger man was looking at him. “Ianto… it wasn’t your fault.” Jack laughed softly, which drew a confused stare from the Welshman. “If anything it was mine.”

“What do you mean?” Ianto asked.

“When I was gone.” Jack explained. “I need to tell you what happened… it’s a long story,” Jack sighed, helping Ianto up and moving towards the couch.

“But you were only gone for a week!” Ianto protested as they sat down on the old couch.

“Ianto… there’s something you should know about time travel. For you it was only a week… but for me it was an entire year.”

“A year?” Ianto whispered.

“Yes… the Year That Never Was.”

THE END