Maze of Darkness

[RedPiggy]

The skies had not a single light – only darkness. The trees of the forest could barely be seen, but Mizumi, Queen of Moraine, watched from her goblet as a young boy in peasant’s clothes ran smoothly. He was panting hard and sweat flew from his face as he clasped some small object in his hands.

Esker, a muscular guardsman with the skin of his face so taut that it was more skull-like in appearance, entered the throne room in all its icy glory, and bowed. “Has hydromancy given you the answers you seek, Your Highness?”

Mizumi frowned and refused to look up. “I see a human child, a boy, running from darkness. He has acquired an object from fairy folk.” She glanced up at Esker, her eyes glaring. “Find the boy.”

Esker nodded and disappeared in an icy mist.

Mizumi stood and threw the goblet mindlessly to the ground. She walked through the halls, decorated with large mirrors and flowing fountains, and stopped by a gigantic mother-of-pearl set of double doors, etched with designs of aquatic animals. The doors opened as she waved a hand.

Inside her bedchambers, on a bed flowing with glistening white linens, lay a truly sad sight indeed.

Mizumi sat on the side of the bed and caressed his forehead. “You need to eat, my love.”

He turned from her, breathing erratically, sweat glistening on his face. “There is nothing to consume.”

“Jareth,” she curtly responded, “there is nothing I shall not provide for you. You are my king and love. I took you in when the universe forsook you.”

Jareth slightly turned. “Can you provide me dreams, Mizumi?”

“Dreams?”

Jareth sighed. “There is a dearth of dreams coming, a dearth of magic. I can only see darkness. I can only smell nightmarish terrors.”

Mizumi’s eyes watered and she caressed him, kissing his cheek. “There is a boy, my love. There is a boy fleeing from the darkness. Fairies have offered him a chance to flee such horrid things.”

Jareth chuckled weakly. “If darkness wins, no curse can keep my nightmarish self from re-emerging.”

Mizumi stood, offended. “Maldis shall never break free of the prison. My own hatred of his attempts on this kingdom and on the world shall bind him forever.”

Jareth smiled, relaxing before closing his eyes. “So you have dreams after all.”

[Author’s Note: I can’t help it any longer. I NEED this fic. It calls to me. I haven’t watched the second season of Once Upon a Time, as I rely on Netflix so I apparently won’t see it until mid-August, but I love those characters so much and I can’t express how much it’d be awesome to have the Underground included in part of that universe.]

 

[The Count]

And here I thought you were trying out a completely other crossover. I was this close to calling that item a keyblade. Found one on fanfiction.net that does have your two fave sorceresses teaming up, but it's one of those old haulted fics and I haven't read it yet.

Tell the truth, I'm waiting to find out when the new spin-off Once Upon a Time in Wonderland will start.

Please post more when you've got it ready.

 

[RedPiggy]

Well, Sora would've been a good guess, LOL.

Someone really pitted Regina versus Mizumi? Daaaaang. As I was lying in bed last night, I realized those two have a lot in common. Both have evil parents and aloof parents, both started out nice before the turn to darkness, both have lost loves, both are irritated that some normal woman from another world are thwarting their plans, etc.

I know season two of Once Upon a Time will come out on DVD in mid August. According to their facebook page, Season 3 will begin filming in a little over a week. All I can find is that Wonderland will on Thursdays this fall. Nice and vague, no? At least Cora will be in it.

 

[The Count]

No, not Regina... The other sorceress, the one that's being portrayed by Joli.

This fall huh? Vague indeed. But I am looking forward to how they treat Wonderland, can't be worse than Hallmark's 1999 TV movie version.

 

[RedPiggy]

No, not Regina... The other sorceress, the one that's being portrayed by Joli.

This fall huh? Vague indeed. But I am looking forward to how they treat Wonderland, can't be worse than Hallmark's 1999 TV movie version.

*finally gets it* Ohhhhhh .....

*sniffles* I have been a bad, unfaithful Disney wench, I am afraid. Maleficient has been my supreme joy, my bad girl to end all bad girls. Upon seeing Once Upon a Time however, I find myself cheating on her with ... with ... *hangs head* Regina. She is so nuanced and cursed and wonderful .... I honestly find myself wishing she gets her happy ending, even though Emma's the heroine. Poor girl's been through a lot. I can't help but love her. Maybe the Dark Phoenix side of me empathizes with her.

At any rate ...

Mizumi shut herself in a small room in the castle. For this, she wished to be alone. A strong mist surrounded her and swirled around the room. The room was filled with mirrors of many designs. They helped her see things from any angle.

It had been Jareth’s idea, for she found he enjoyed being ten steps ahead of everyone else.

In one mirror she found blue smoke swirling around, mixing with her own mists. A giant blue male face with a goatee appeared, his voice booming.

“Milady is not here, I’m afraid. You’ll have to contact her tomorrow.”

Mizumi frowned. “She is wherever you are, as I hear it,” she retorted, folding her arms across her waist and tapping her foot impatiently.

He chuckled. “Still, I am not to permit any communication. Milady is very busy.”

Mizumi stomped up to the mirror and slapped her right palm on the mirror. The face screamed and contorted in agony.

“Stop! Stop it!”

“Your mistress,” Mizumi hissed. “I shall not demand an audience again.”

“She’ll kill me!”

Mizumi laughed heartily as the face twisted and stretched. “Has she turned so merciful? I shall speak to your queen or I myself shall enter that mirror and drag you out into another lamp – for all eternity,” she added, letting go.

The face panted, his eyes widened. “You – you know about that?”

Mizumi smirked. “I know the caves near Agrabah need another lamp for the collection,” she replied icily.

“I can’t go back to that.”

Mizumi shrugged and laughed. “Think of all the treasures you could sleep next to.”

He looked downwards. “I can’t spend another eternity in the Cave of Wonders.”

“Perhaps I shall obtain a pet to keep you company. Do you like parrots?” she asked him. “I hear they are quite the conversationalists.”

He shuddered. “She has agreed to speak with you,” he noted glumly, before his image was replaced with a slim woman dressed in a flowing black dress, her long black locks of hair spilling out of a black headdress on top of her head.

“It’s unusual for sirens to speak to women, is it not?” the woman asked in a catty tone.

Mizumi smirked. “I have the man I want, Regina. I’m sorry you –.”

“DON’T YOU DARE SPEAK TO ME IN THAT TONE!” Regina roared, the mirror vibrating with the sound of her voice.

For several minutes the women just stood there silently, measuring each other by their very own glares.

Finally, Mizumi looked away. “Forgive me, Your Majesty,” she said in a subdued voice.

Regina’s voice also calmed, her eyes watering. “Did you call me up just to mock me in my pain?”

Mizumi’s eyes also watered. “I know what it is like, to know the truth.”

“What truth?”

“The truth that we are bred of nightmares and darkness – that we shall ever be considered flawed by all those meant to love us.”

“Get to the point.”

“Regina, your frustration could doom the universe.”

The queen smirked. “Fortunately, ours isn’t the only ones,” she told Mizumi as the image disappeared.

In its place, Esker’s horrid visage appeared. “The boy is gone, Your Highness.”

Mizumi fumed. “Did the darkness get him?”

“It does not appear so. The local fairies say the Dark One cried out in anguish, digging pitifully in a pile of dirt. The boy has left the world … literally,” he added.

“Have they mentioned his destination?”

“A world without magic.”

Mizumi laughed. “Such ignorant nonsense!” She turned to hide her reddening face, flushed with laughter. “However can faes and fairies be related?” She held out her hand as it formed a sphere of flowing water. “Magic is a function of the will … of the heart … and as long as hearts beat … as long as dreams are dreamt … we can craft any path we like through the darkness.”

“As you wish, Your Highness.”

Mizumi finally stopped laughing and turned to Esker’s image in the mirror. “I most certainly do wish, Esker. I wish for you to send someone at once to the Dark One. He must be made to see how nothing good can come of this ordeal. He has no right to cause so much trouble over such a little thing as a boy.”

“We shall likely never see the one I send ever again. His cruelty knows no bounds.”

Mizumi grit her teeth and clenched her fists. “I am daughter of the embodiment of nightmares. There is no dark enchantment I can’t handle. He shall heed my call … or I shall personally grant his most fearsome nightmare.”

 

[The Count]

*Chuckles, Dark Phoenix, empathize.

At least there's enough in that Wiki walk I took a whiles back to know the servant of the mirror's true origin as well.
Frankly, I tend to agree. A world without magic? Uh-huh, and please do alert me when Elvis has arrived back in this plane of existance.
That's enough from Remulak. Would much rather vacation at my fave holiday realm.

It's thanks to fics like yours I've come to respect Dinosaurs and Labyrinth/RTL. Post when there's more please.

 

[RedPiggy]

Jareth awoke groggily in bed, the warm sunshine pouring through the windows of the royal bedchambers. His dreams had been filled with images of glory and pride and honor. The last image he had seen before awakening had been himself, covered in thick metallic armor, standing above a large pile of slain enemies, their bodies contorted to the extent they looked like flayed goblins. All around him were roars of approval.

He looked to his side. Instead of finding Mizumi, he saw a thin but muscular man with scruffy hair and a scruffier goatee, garbed in sleek and elegant armor so silver it looked almost blue.

The man nodded his head, sighing wearily. “Have you rested thoroughly, Your Majesty?”

Jareth sat up, blinking. “Have you … have you fed me your dreams?”

“By order of Her Highness, Your Majesty. She shall be relieved to find you well again.”

Jareth stared at the young man. “You certainly dream large. Do you find violence so appealing?”

The man bowed, still too tired to stand. “I must certify my willingness and my talent to approach the Dark One in battle. To feed you my dreams of glory is but a small taste of the terrors I shall experience. Still, Your Majesty, any chance to prove my worth to the House of the Cup of Moraine is a welcome one.”

“The Dark One …”

The man nodded, finally wobbling up to a standing position, using a broadsword as a cane. “A vile horror from the Land of the Enchanted Forest, far northwest of even the fetid swamps and the Gorgish lands.”

Jareth frowned, standing up and stretching. “You have some gall to fight such a creature. What gives you the arrogance to think you’ll survive?”

The soldier shrugged. “As you are fond of repeating, ‘once said is said,’ Your Majesty. That I approached him at all shall show the might of Moraine.”

Jareth smirked. “You remind of me of young Esker.”

The man frowned and looked away.

“You disapprove?”

The man sighed. “It is not my place, Your Majesty.” He paused. “I am loyal to the House of Moraine, but ….”

“Yes?” Jareth asked. At first he was bemused but was quickly finding himself irritated.

The man glanced at his king. “It is a poorly kept secret that Esker is … rather loyal … to the Cup of Moraine, Your Majesty.”

“What of it?”

Sighing, the soldier continued. “He fancies himself the water within the Cup, Your Majesty.”

Jareth burst out laughing, in genuine amusement but also to hide his growing fury. How could he have blinded himself to such a concept? From what he remembered, Esker had been a powerful warrior in Moraine, inheriting the water-manipulating powers of all those citizens “touched” by Maldis.

Maldis was enchanted by Mizumi as she took the crown of Moraine. He was one of three aspects of the ancient King of the Universe. Jareth was also a mere shard of this, one of the most powerful entities in the universe. Whereas Jareth fed from dreams, Maldis fed from nightmares. The only thing Jareth feared worse than returning to the status of King of the Universe was to have Maldis somehow become the dominant personality should the three aspects fuse once more.

“Your Majesty?” the man asked aloud, shaking the king from his fit of laughter.

Jareth inhaled several times to regain his composure. He forced himself to smirk and wink. “What makes you think I fear such a broken, horrid-looking man?”

The soldier cleared his throat. “Nothing, Your Majesty, though I wish to impress upon you I respect the chain of command. To blur the distinction among professionals, among superiors and inferiors, is to court disaster.”

Jareth stared out of the light-filled window for what seemed like ages. “Yes … yes … it is.”

 

[RedPiggy]

For a little over three hundred years, the Dark One has had a single obsession: he must find his son. Baelfire had loathed the fact his father, the peasant Rumplestilskin, had killed Zoso as though it were child’s play, bringing upon himself the powers of darkness. All Baelfire could do was wish upon a star, the Blue Star, that he could find a way to restore his father to his former good self.

He found a way.

Rumplestilskin, however, chose power over his son.

The Dark One sat alone, spinning on his spinning wheel, watching with disinterest as the straw lengthened and softened into a yarn of golden thread. Gold meant nothing to him. He lived in a resplendent castle, with artifacts from all over the world. You couldn’t open your eyes without seeing some important magical object.

Yet Rumplestilskin avoided looking at a small, blue and white chipped cup he had placed on a pedestal some time ago.

He stopped … and smiled.

Looking up, he found a thin yet athletic soldier, dressed in battle finery.

Rumplestilskin began to spin again. His voice was carefree, almost playful. “So dressed up. What’s the occasion, dearie?”

The soldier nodded. “I am under orders to protect my kingdom.”

The Dark One, his greenish-yellow skin nearly glowing in the dark room, chuckled. “You’re going to find it hard to kill me….”

“I am willing to undertake the challenge. None shall live to endanger my people.”

Rumplestilskin stood up and bowed formally. “And what people might that be?”

The soldier drew his sword. “I shall always fight for the Cup of Moraine.”

“Moraine? Can’t say as I’ve ever heard of it, dearie.”

The soldier lunged, but Rumplestilskin disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke, reappearing near a distant wall. The soldier roared and jumped over a table, slashing wildly. “Die, vile imp!”

The Dark One swerved out of the way as the blade came down hard against a pedestal, holding the tiny blue and white chipped cup. He roared in fury and whisked his hand, sending the soldier flying through the air, knocking a candelabrum off a small wooden table.

Dazed , the soldier wearily looked up to find the Dark One standing over him, his green teeth bared, reaching for the candelabrum.

“Don’t … you … dare … break … that … cup!” thundered Rumplestilskin as he slammed the golden object again and again against the soldier’s body. Every spray of blood just enraged him further, as though the mess was an insult to his station in life. He flicked his wrist again and the soldier, bloody and bruised, flew up into the air, his body rapidly encased in golden wax.

Rumplestilskin panted as he dropped the candelabrum onto the marbled floor, glancing around desperately as he tried to calm himself. Just as the wax grew up to the soldier’s head, the Dark One suddenly returned to his playful self and bowed. “You’ve certainly managed to liven up the place, dearie! You truly are a light shining for your kingdom.” His voice transformed to a more deadly tone. “Let’s see just how long a burning candlewick can shine,” he growled as the soldier’s head burst into flames, the flickering of each flame matching his bloodcurdling screams.

The Dark One stared at his spinning wheel and soon forgot his torture. The burned soldier disappeared in a plume of purple smoke.

That night, in the cool air of a swamp, the soldier grasped at mud and crawled inch by inch toward a small pool. In the moonlight, he found his face was not burned at all, but scaly and gray. Bright eyes surrounded him in the darkness. They belonged to a horde of goblins of every size and shape. “Soldier, soldier, soldier,” whispered the crowd.

The soldier grunted as he stood, realizing through his busted armor that his entire body had been transformed, melted wax dripping from his battered form.

“I am Candlewic,” he told them in a gruff voice. “We shall ravage the countryside until no force in the world would dare stand opposed.”

 

[The Count]

And so it begins... I know the chipped cup was given to Rumplestiltskin in his supposed "former" life by Belle, but I can't help thinking that maybe it's meant as a reference to the Potts family as well. Also, I'm thinking that the swamp Candlewick got tossed to might be the initial patch of the eventual Bog of Stench.
Thanks for posting.

 

[RedPiggy]

Oh, his castle has TONS of references from multiple properties, including a scythe from Buffy, LOL. I didn't think it was possible to improve Disney's B&B story, but I can't help feel attracted to Rumple and Belle's relationship.

I remember I wanted to have a prequel that addressed Candlewic, but I kinda forgot what the plot was and when I decided to break tradition and include Once Upon a Time in my stories (in that I've been avoiding the Disney stuff, not including Muppets and Dinosaurs, as they were co-owned), I decided to forget whatever plot I had forgotten (LOL) and make Candlewic a victim of Rumple's wrath, much like Gaston was. I wanted to make him someone who grew up in Moraine, because in RTL I found it strange that he was rather humanoid for a goblin. Everyone else had really crazy designs but he just seemed to be a guy in make up. He also didn't seem to share the bizarre notions of Goblin humor and other sensibilities.

The Comeback King Saga is a trilogy where my universe is set up and everyone has a happy ending (well, not for everyone).

I consider this the last of a new trilogy, one that destroyed the Comeback universe and we see the process of trying to set things right. The second trilogy is Maybe It's Not Too Late After All, From the Waters of the West I Come, and Maze of Darkness. I realized a little while ago that maybe I was subconsciously influenced by the plot of the Back to the Future video game I played on my PS3, where you have the standard past, screwed up present, and the attempt to fix it by jumping back and forth. The main influence, if I had been thinking of that game, is that the main antagonist is someone that Marty and Doc end up thinking that maybe it's wrong morally to fix the timeline to normal, as that would leave the antagonist unhappy, when all she wanted was love or whatever. At any rate, at the end I hope to have set things up so that the timeline has been roughly restored back to the Comeback King timeline, with the exception that Mizumi doesn't nearly destroy the universe trying to make Jareth pay because she'll be more mellow. That's what I'm hoping for, anyway.