erinm_4600
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Fic: Family Reunion 8/?
Title: Family Reunion 8/?
Author: Erin (erinm_4600)
Characters, Pairing: Cain and DG (mention of Jareth, Sarah, Az, Jeb, Adora, Cain's parents and some random OCs and Labyrinth denziens)
Rating: PG *Cain has a mouth*
Summary: Cain and DG get stuck on the way back to the door and discuss the "way" of the Labyrinth. for moony_blues: Happy Birthday!!
Warning: Crack, crack and more crack. Oh, and did I mention the CRACK?! o.O *Takes place during Part Seven, before DG's grand Longcoat plan (aka the last drabble).
Disclaimer: The original characters belong to L. Frank Baum and their respective actors. The current characters belong to Sci-Fi, the movie folks and their respective actors. The Labyrinth and Sarah belongs to Jareth, who's borrowing it -and the knockers- from Jim Henson, George Lucas and Terry Gilliam. The OCs are mine. The idea came from buffybot76.
Family Reunion: Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six | Part Seven | Part Eight | When Is a Door Not a Door? | Two Cains are Crankier Than One
Kans-Az: First Meeting | Azkadellia's First Barbeque | Laundry | Bar Queen
As Cain noticed that the hedge maze had gone back to stone, he was slightly concerned. He knew exactly where he was, but he was a little fuzzy on just where he was. DG smacked into Cain, not realizing he'd stopped, and backed away while watching as he turned slightly and then looked down the passage. She didn't hear anything, but he had that 'be quiet, I'm listening for something'-look.
He'd specifically taken the long way out of the city so that they wouldn't end up in this part of the maze, yet here they were. Turning back to DG, Cain caught her by the elbow and pushed her back the way they'd just come from. If they made it to the old twins, they'd be stuck - even he and Jareth hadn't been able to get out of choosing a door - because the walls trapped you there. He'd never understood why they did, nor did he understand why the doors changed every time.
That bit of information, the young princes also learned the hard way.
"But, we just came from-" DG protested as Cain pushed her along. "Okay, we're going this way," she huffed. Catching a wayward vine, DG lost her balance and fell forward, but Cain caught her and threw another look over his shoulder - the stone wall had closed behind them and they were now in the courtyard near the fountain, which was where Cain had been trying to get to in the first place.
DG moved over to the fountain and dipped her fingers into the water for a second then followed the pattern of the paver stones beneath her feet. Cain moved over to the rim of the fountain and sat down with a heavy sigh. He had forgotten how tiring it was to leave the sanity of the castle.
DG glanced up toward the castle in the distance and then spun around to give the surroundings another look. And she really thought that the Outer Zone was weird? She wondered if they were in the vicinity of the man Sarah had mentioned, but soon forgot when she noticed that they were boxed in.
"Whoa," she exclaimed and raised both hands, fingers pointing in opposite directions. She turned back to Cain, who sat up straight and shrugged.
"Might as well get comfortable," he said, leaning back again, "we'll be here for a while."
DG opened her mouth to respond, but instead simply nodded and looked around again. After a minute, she rocked back on her heels and swung her arms. "So," DG trailed, "Your Highness," she added with a bit of sarcasm. Cain rolled his eyes but didn't look at her. "When you filled out the Tin Man application, did you put down 'kidnapping kids' as a skill or a crime?"
"No one was kidnapped," Cain snapped with a huff. "No one was stolen, no one was taken. Okay, they were taken, but-" he quickly retorted then shut up. Taking a deep breath, Cain looked up to DG and held up a hand. "The only way to get here, other than that door," he started, indicating the direction the door to the Zone was supposed to be in, "is to be wished away. No kidnapping. No stealing."
"But you were taking children away from their homes," DG replied. Cain pushed himself up and waved a finger in her face.
"No, Princess. The goblins took the children after someone else wished that the goblins would come and take them away." Cain stepped back and made a few motions with his hands. "Someone decides they want to wish their brother or sister away and they say 'I wish the goblins would come and take you away, right now.' The goblins then come, and take away whoever was just wished away. They bring them to us and we take them back." He stepped back and sighed, putting his hands on his hips.
"Whose great idea was that?" Cain looked up and shrugged.
"My grandfather's grandfather. I don't know," he replied, throwing up a hand as he moved back to the fountain, "that’s the way it's done, so that's the way we did it." He sat down again and looked at his reflection in the water.
"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," DG said, shaking her head as she moved to sit next to Cain.
"Well, it was supposed to be a lesson in appreciating what you had, or something," he mumbled as a finger began drawing a pattern on the surface of the water. "No one ever got hurt, DG."
"There's no way anyone would ever intentionally wish anyone away!"
"That's the point, Kid," Cain sighed. "They say it in the heat of the moment, the kid's gone and then the kid's back after an hour of letting them simmer."
"Sarah said she had thirteen hours and that your brother took half her time away-"
"That's..." Cain sighed again and frowned as he stared at the ground.
"What?" DG asked, surprised that the former Tin Man almost looked guilty. Cain winced and looked straight ahead. Then he laughed.
"All right," he said, letting out a deep breath and turning to DG, "what you have to understand is that, for us, returning the kids was a punishment."
"What, heirs to the throne don't usually do the grunt work?” DG snapped then blinked when Cain’s icy-blue gaze caught hers. Cain looked back to the water and pursed his lips.
“When we were younger... Jareth and I were..." He took a deep breath and frowned as he tried to think of the right word.
"Spoiled?" DG offered. "Stuck up? Snobs?"
"Bullies," Cain replied.
"Wyatt Cain? A bully?" DG replied sarcastically, thinking back to the short time they spent outside Central City with DeMilo. "No..." she said with a slight smile. Cain gave her a look and forced a smile.
Turning slightly, Cain leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "A friend of ours... fell... near the Bog," he said slowly.
"Fell?" DG asked, wondering if the fall was preceded by a shove.
"Yes," Cain said sharply, turning to look at DG. "He fell." She could see the truth of it in his eyes. "He wouldn't even have been there if we hadn't-" Cain looked at the ground again and let his head drop in shame. "Near where I found you, earlier," he nodded, "up above the Bog, there was a-" he continued, making another motion with his hand as he tried, again, to think of a word.
"The wall gave out and he fell down into the forest."
"Was he all right?" DG asked quietly. Cain nodded slowly.
"Eventually." The boys had been goofing off on top of the wall, throwing rocks into the Bog and trying to come up with new dares for each other. A shoving match began and, the next thing Wyatt and Jareth knew, the large boulders were gone and so was their friend. By the time the boys managed to get down to the ground, help had already arrived - a group of guards had been patrolling the woods, rounding up Fireys - and they took the boys back to the city.
"Jareth and I had a month of goblin duty, a month of junkyard duty... kitchen duty, laundry duty... and we had to feed the chickens," Cain continued after a moment of silence. "There are an awful lot of chickens in the Labyrinth," he nodded. "And, with goblin duty, it's not a month by the calendar," he explained. "Some days, we'd have five kids to return, and some days none."
"So it was thirty days worth of kids appearing?" DG assumed. Cain nodded.
"The last day, by the calendar, was eight months and four days," he continued. "And I was ready for it to be over."
"What happened?" DG asked with a grin. Cain glanced up and caught the infectious smile, then looked away.
"A little smart-ass pissed me off." DG's eyes widened at the Tin Man's sudden change in language and she laughed, imagining a young and pissed Wyatt Cain - best she could come up with was Cain's son, Jeb. She turned and pulled her legs up so that she was sitting, facing Cain.
"Tell me more, Zuko." Cain moved to copy her pose and nodded.
"All right," he said and laughed, amazed that he was about to admit this to anyone. Ever. "So, when the kids came in, we would wait about twenty minutes - y'know, just long enough to make them panic - and then we'd return the kids with a warning. 'Don't wish your brother away.' 'Be nicer to your sister.' That sort of thing." DG nodded.
"Well, this gremlin of a teenager wished his little brother away three times, because he was bored. So, the last time, I told Jareth to take the kid back to the castle and get him some cake. I went back to the brother and waited a little longer. When I showed up without the kid, he started to panic. I told him that he wouldn't be getting his brother back - third time's a charm - and he wanted to know what he was supposed to tell his mother. I told him it wasn't my problem and started to leave."
"But you were going to take the kid back," DG half-asked.
"Of course. Though, there were a few times the kids would have been better off not going back. But, my mother told me it wasn't my decision to make," Cain replied with a frown. DG leaned back and smiled slightly.
"The career choice is really starting to make sense." Cain stuck his tongue out and shifted slightly.
"Anyway, the kid started to panic," he repeated, "and told me he was sorry and he wouldn't do it again. Next thing I knew, I'd dropped the kid at the front gate and told him that his brother was in the castle. Good luck." He gave DG a guilty shrug and let out a deep breath. "I went back to the castle and the three of us watched this kid walk around in circles for over an hour."
"Did he make it?" Cain snorted and shook his head.
"My mother found us." DG grimaced and Cain nodded. "She sent them both home, played with time a little so that they were only gone for about ten minutes and then she came back..." he trailed off.
"And just how much trouble were you in?" DG asked.
"I had to sweep, scrub and shine the maze. Top to bottom, start to finish." He held up a finger and added: "Without magic."
"How long did that take?" she asked, having seen the view out of the castle windows.
"Forever," Cain replied with a forced smile. "And, when I was done, I was on permanent goblin duty."
"And your brother?" Cain shook his head and turned back to a regular seated position.
"He only did what I told him to."
"So you took it all?" DG asked. Cain nodded and threw a glance over his shoulder as he felt the prickle of magic that was moving the wall again. Turning back to DG, he clapped his knees and pushed up.
"Time to go, Kiddo," he said, waving for DG to stand up.
"So, you only threatened the kid with not getting his brother back?" she asked, noticing that the walls surrounding them had changed. She wasn't sure how, but they were different. Cain turned and looked at DG with a raised eyebrow. DG shrugged and nodded toward the castle. "Sarah said that your brother told her that, if he could keep her brother, he could make all her dreams come true."
Cain snorted and turned away to hide the smile. "What? That's what she said," DG exclaimed. Cain turned back and held up his hands.
"I don't doubt that," he explained, "I just can't believe that Jareth actually said it." He was trying not to laugh at the absurdity of the whole thing. Their magic was nothing more than parlor tricks, they had no real power. Okay, there was a little power... but nothing that substantial.
"You can't just give a person their dreams without some sort of catch, DG." Cain shook his head. "Dreams are something to aspire to, to work for. The realistic ones, anyway. What did Jareth promise her?" DG shrugged.
"I didn't ask what her dreams were, Cain. I don't know, maybe she wanted to fly!" Cain shook his head.
"That's not a realistic dream," he chided. "People can't fly."
"Delta might disagree," she replied with a forced smile.
"My point, DG, is that your dreams are only limited by your imagination, and you can imagine a lot of things. But what you can imagine and what can actually happen are vastly different. I can imagine that I could fly. I can imagine that my father will come around that corner," Cain said, pointing behind him. "I can imagine that the Zone will go back to the way it was," he continued quietly. "I can imagine that I'll take over the Mystic Man's floor show. Which one do you think is more likely?"
"So, if I wished myself away, right now," DG started, making a face at him. Cain shook his head and a finger in her direction.
"First, you can't wish yourself away. Second, you're already here."
"Okay, what if you wished me away?" she asked, waving to him.
"I'm not going to wish you away, Princess," he said gruffly. "And, again, you're already here." Seeing the wheels beginning to turn in her head, he stepped closer and grabbed her elbow. "And if you wish anyone away..." he warned in a quiet tone.
"What?" DG asked, looking up at him with a blank stare. Cain didn't answer, but the look he gave her did leave her mind plenty of room to come up with a possible outcome to his threat. "Humor me, Tin Man. I'm trying to understand here," she grumbled.
Cain groaned and shrugged. "Fine."
"Good," DG nodded sharply as Cain let go of her and stepped back. "So, for whatever reason, I wished Az away. So," she waved to him, "you've got Az. Sales pitch?" Cain rolled his eyes and shook his head. How did she keep managing to talk him into these things?
"All right, if," he said, holding the word, "I had the ability to offer you your dreams, in exchange for your sister - which I don't," - DG wasn't impressed by his acting, at all - "-which would you choose? Your dream or your sister?”
"Well, what's my dream?" DG asked him with a frown. Cain looked up and gave her a look.
"I don't live in your head, Princess. How am I supposed to know what your dream is?"
"You're no fun," she muttered and moved over to the new opening in the wall and spun around. "Wait, you have magic?" Cain squeezed his eyes shut and dropped his chin to his chest. He'd been hoping she missed that admission. DG moved back to his side and spun him around. "Seriously?" Cain shook his head and pointed to the opening.
"Not anymore, Princess."
"But you did have magic?" she asked.
"Once upon a time," Cain replied as his eyes fell on the fountain again. 'I wonder,' he thought for a moment, but decided not to entertain the thought.
"What could you do? Why can't you do it now?" Cain knew that she wouldn't let the topic go until he'd given her some answers, so he moved back to the fountain and sat down again.
"I haven't been home in a long time, Kiddo. Look at how much trouble you had," he nodded to her.
"Hey! I made the doll fly," she said defiantly. Cain laughed and leaned back so that he could reach into the water, hoping it wouldn't work, but also kinda wishing it would. DG moved closer, wanting to see what he was looking at and peered over his shoulder into the water.
Cain rotated his hand a few times under the surface of the water and frowned slightly, then pulled his hand out. DG's eyes went wide at the sight of a perfectly clear ball in his hand. "Catch," he said and tossed the crystal to DG. She flinched, but caught it. He smirked and reached into the water again, then pulled out a second crystal ball and tossed it her way, as well.
"Hey!" she screeched and made a rather ugly catch of the second one, then glared at Cain. He shrugged and reached into the water again and soon pulled out a third. At the look in his eyes, DG's eyes went wide and she shook her head. "Don't you dare," she warned and squeaked as he threw the third. In order to catch the third one, she dropped the first two. As soon as she realized she was dropping them, DG dropped the third to try and catch the first two.
She started to apologize, but realized that the three crystal balls hadn't shattered. Leaning down to pick two of them up, she glanced at Cain, who was picking up the third, which had rolled toward him. "Why didn't they break?" she asked as he held out a hand. Moving over to him, DG looked into the water to see how she'd missed the orbs in the water and Cain took one of the crystals from her.
"I'm a little rusty, but," he said, holding two of them in his right hand. Cain winced, shifted both crystals to his left hand and gave his right hand a good shake. Returning the two crystals to his right hand, Cain began to spin them around slowly. DG watched as he tried to get them to move together, but he wasn't having much luck, she noted, with whatever he was trying to do.
"Oh well," he shrugged and dropped one of the crystals into his left hand. Standing up, he dropped one into each pocket of his duster - the right, with more care as he'd already hidden a fourth in the pocket - and then he reached for the one DG was staring at.
"How did you do that?” she asked, amazed at the perfection of the surface. DG wondered if it was like a crystal ball, but the only thing she could see was Cain's reflection. Cain took the crystal from her and gave it a bit of a flourished juggle then winked.
"Magic." DG's eyes narrowed slightly as she tried to decide whether or not he was pulling her leg. "Come on," he said, nodding toward the opening again. Cain hoped that he'd been home long enough to play with time - assuming he remembered how to do it at all - so that DG wouldn't have been gone from her family for very long.
Much later that night, on one of the many balconies of Finaqua, Wyatt Cain sat back and looked out over the hedge maze. From where he was sitting, the moon was reflecting off the lamppost and he could almost make out the section of wall where the door stood. A second or two later, he wanted to laugh at the realization that he was sitting in a palace, looking out over a maze - just the life he'd run away from. In his right hand, the three crystal balls were being expertly rotated while the fourth balanced on top of them.
Cain looked down to the crystal and let a sad smile slip as he saw Adora standing in the doorway of the old cabin, giving him the same wave she did every time he headed for the city. The feeling went right down into his stomach, and he wished that what he had told DG earlier had been a lie. Because, at that moment, he would have traded everything just to have his wife back. Everyone needed dreams, but, some dreams, Cain knew, had to be let go. And, as much as it hurt, he had to let Adora go. She would always be in his heart, just as his mother and father were in his heart, and the three of them had made Wyatt Cain into the man he was.
He still had Jeb, his new friends, and his brother. Cain could feel the tears forming and quickly glanced up to the sky, laughing slightly. Looking back to the crystal, the image had changed to another view of Adora - this one from a much more private moment - and Cain smiled. The memories, he couldn’t lose, no matter how long he was in the suit.
Taking the crystal in his left hand, Cain held it up for another moment, took one last look and blew the crystal away.
Author: Erin (erinm_4600)
Characters, Pairing: Cain and DG (mention of Jareth, Sarah, Az, Jeb, Adora, Cain's parents and some random OCs and Labyrinth denziens)
Rating: PG *Cain has a mouth*
Summary: Cain and DG get stuck on the way back to the door and discuss the "way" of the Labyrinth. for moony_blues: Happy Birthday!!
Warning: Crack, crack and more crack. Oh, and did I mention the CRACK?! o.O *Takes place during Part Seven, before DG's grand Longcoat plan (aka the last drabble).
Disclaimer: The original characters belong to L. Frank Baum and their respective actors. The current characters belong to Sci-Fi, the movie folks and their respective actors. The Labyrinth and Sarah belongs to Jareth, who's borrowing it -and the knockers- from Jim Henson, George Lucas and Terry Gilliam. The OCs are mine. The idea came from buffybot76.
Family Reunion: Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six | Part Seven | Part Eight | When Is a Door Not a Door? | Two Cains are Crankier Than One
Kans-Az: First Meeting | Azkadellia's First Barbeque | Laundry | Bar Queen
As Cain noticed that the hedge maze had gone back to stone, he was slightly concerned. He knew exactly where he was, but he was a little fuzzy on just where he was. DG smacked into Cain, not realizing he'd stopped, and backed away while watching as he turned slightly and then looked down the passage. She didn't hear anything, but he had that 'be quiet, I'm listening for something'-look.
He'd specifically taken the long way out of the city so that they wouldn't end up in this part of the maze, yet here they were. Turning back to DG, Cain caught her by the elbow and pushed her back the way they'd just come from. If they made it to the old twins, they'd be stuck - even he and Jareth hadn't been able to get out of choosing a door - because the walls trapped you there. He'd never understood why they did, nor did he understand why the doors changed every time.
That bit of information, the young princes also learned the hard way.
"But, we just came from-" DG protested as Cain pushed her along. "Okay, we're going this way," she huffed. Catching a wayward vine, DG lost her balance and fell forward, but Cain caught her and threw another look over his shoulder - the stone wall had closed behind them and they were now in the courtyard near the fountain, which was where Cain had been trying to get to in the first place.
DG moved over to the fountain and dipped her fingers into the water for a second then followed the pattern of the paver stones beneath her feet. Cain moved over to the rim of the fountain and sat down with a heavy sigh. He had forgotten how tiring it was to leave the sanity of the castle.
DG glanced up toward the castle in the distance and then spun around to give the surroundings another look. And she really thought that the Outer Zone was weird? She wondered if they were in the vicinity of the man Sarah had mentioned, but soon forgot when she noticed that they were boxed in.
"Whoa," she exclaimed and raised both hands, fingers pointing in opposite directions. She turned back to Cain, who sat up straight and shrugged.
"Might as well get comfortable," he said, leaning back again, "we'll be here for a while."
DG opened her mouth to respond, but instead simply nodded and looked around again. After a minute, she rocked back on her heels and swung her arms. "So," DG trailed, "Your Highness," she added with a bit of sarcasm. Cain rolled his eyes but didn't look at her. "When you filled out the Tin Man application, did you put down 'kidnapping kids' as a skill or a crime?"
"No one was kidnapped," Cain snapped with a huff. "No one was stolen, no one was taken. Okay, they were taken, but-" he quickly retorted then shut up. Taking a deep breath, Cain looked up to DG and held up a hand. "The only way to get here, other than that door," he started, indicating the direction the door to the Zone was supposed to be in, "is to be wished away. No kidnapping. No stealing."
"But you were taking children away from their homes," DG replied. Cain pushed himself up and waved a finger in her face.
"No, Princess. The goblins took the children after someone else wished that the goblins would come and take them away." Cain stepped back and made a few motions with his hands. "Someone decides they want to wish their brother or sister away and they say 'I wish the goblins would come and take you away, right now.' The goblins then come, and take away whoever was just wished away. They bring them to us and we take them back." He stepped back and sighed, putting his hands on his hips.
"Whose great idea was that?" Cain looked up and shrugged.
"My grandfather's grandfather. I don't know," he replied, throwing up a hand as he moved back to the fountain, "that’s the way it's done, so that's the way we did it." He sat down again and looked at his reflection in the water.
"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," DG said, shaking her head as she moved to sit next to Cain.
"Well, it was supposed to be a lesson in appreciating what you had, or something," he mumbled as a finger began drawing a pattern on the surface of the water. "No one ever got hurt, DG."
"There's no way anyone would ever intentionally wish anyone away!"
"That's the point, Kid," Cain sighed. "They say it in the heat of the moment, the kid's gone and then the kid's back after an hour of letting them simmer."
"Sarah said she had thirteen hours and that your brother took half her time away-"
"That's..." Cain sighed again and frowned as he stared at the ground.
"What?" DG asked, surprised that the former Tin Man almost looked guilty. Cain winced and looked straight ahead. Then he laughed.
"All right," he said, letting out a deep breath and turning to DG, "what you have to understand is that, for us, returning the kids was a punishment."
"What, heirs to the throne don't usually do the grunt work?” DG snapped then blinked when Cain’s icy-blue gaze caught hers. Cain looked back to the water and pursed his lips.
“When we were younger... Jareth and I were..." He took a deep breath and frowned as he tried to think of the right word.
"Spoiled?" DG offered. "Stuck up? Snobs?"
"Bullies," Cain replied.
"Wyatt Cain? A bully?" DG replied sarcastically, thinking back to the short time they spent outside Central City with DeMilo. "No..." she said with a slight smile. Cain gave her a look and forced a smile.
Turning slightly, Cain leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "A friend of ours... fell... near the Bog," he said slowly.
"Fell?" DG asked, wondering if the fall was preceded by a shove.
"Yes," Cain said sharply, turning to look at DG. "He fell." She could see the truth of it in his eyes. "He wouldn't even have been there if we hadn't-" Cain looked at the ground again and let his head drop in shame. "Near where I found you, earlier," he nodded, "up above the Bog, there was a-" he continued, making another motion with his hand as he tried, again, to think of a word.
"The wall gave out and he fell down into the forest."
"Was he all right?" DG asked quietly. Cain nodded slowly.
"Eventually." The boys had been goofing off on top of the wall, throwing rocks into the Bog and trying to come up with new dares for each other. A shoving match began and, the next thing Wyatt and Jareth knew, the large boulders were gone and so was their friend. By the time the boys managed to get down to the ground, help had already arrived - a group of guards had been patrolling the woods, rounding up Fireys - and they took the boys back to the city.
"Jareth and I had a month of goblin duty, a month of junkyard duty... kitchen duty, laundry duty... and we had to feed the chickens," Cain continued after a moment of silence. "There are an awful lot of chickens in the Labyrinth," he nodded. "And, with goblin duty, it's not a month by the calendar," he explained. "Some days, we'd have five kids to return, and some days none."
"So it was thirty days worth of kids appearing?" DG assumed. Cain nodded.
"The last day, by the calendar, was eight months and four days," he continued. "And I was ready for it to be over."
"What happened?" DG asked with a grin. Cain glanced up and caught the infectious smile, then looked away.
"A little smart-ass pissed me off." DG's eyes widened at the Tin Man's sudden change in language and she laughed, imagining a young and pissed Wyatt Cain - best she could come up with was Cain's son, Jeb. She turned and pulled her legs up so that she was sitting, facing Cain.
"Tell me more, Zuko." Cain moved to copy her pose and nodded.
"All right," he said and laughed, amazed that he was about to admit this to anyone. Ever. "So, when the kids came in, we would wait about twenty minutes - y'know, just long enough to make them panic - and then we'd return the kids with a warning. 'Don't wish your brother away.' 'Be nicer to your sister.' That sort of thing." DG nodded.
"Well, this gremlin of a teenager wished his little brother away three times, because he was bored. So, the last time, I told Jareth to take the kid back to the castle and get him some cake. I went back to the brother and waited a little longer. When I showed up without the kid, he started to panic. I told him that he wouldn't be getting his brother back - third time's a charm - and he wanted to know what he was supposed to tell his mother. I told him it wasn't my problem and started to leave."
"But you were going to take the kid back," DG half-asked.
"Of course. Though, there were a few times the kids would have been better off not going back. But, my mother told me it wasn't my decision to make," Cain replied with a frown. DG leaned back and smiled slightly.
"The career choice is really starting to make sense." Cain stuck his tongue out and shifted slightly.
"Anyway, the kid started to panic," he repeated, "and told me he was sorry and he wouldn't do it again. Next thing I knew, I'd dropped the kid at the front gate and told him that his brother was in the castle. Good luck." He gave DG a guilty shrug and let out a deep breath. "I went back to the castle and the three of us watched this kid walk around in circles for over an hour."
"Did he make it?" Cain snorted and shook his head.
"My mother found us." DG grimaced and Cain nodded. "She sent them both home, played with time a little so that they were only gone for about ten minutes and then she came back..." he trailed off.
"And just how much trouble were you in?" DG asked.
"I had to sweep, scrub and shine the maze. Top to bottom, start to finish." He held up a finger and added: "Without magic."
"How long did that take?" she asked, having seen the view out of the castle windows.
"Forever," Cain replied with a forced smile. "And, when I was done, I was on permanent goblin duty."
"And your brother?" Cain shook his head and turned back to a regular seated position.
"He only did what I told him to."
"So you took it all?" DG asked. Cain nodded and threw a glance over his shoulder as he felt the prickle of magic that was moving the wall again. Turning back to DG, he clapped his knees and pushed up.
"Time to go, Kiddo," he said, waving for DG to stand up.
"So, you only threatened the kid with not getting his brother back?" she asked, noticing that the walls surrounding them had changed. She wasn't sure how, but they were different. Cain turned and looked at DG with a raised eyebrow. DG shrugged and nodded toward the castle. "Sarah said that your brother told her that, if he could keep her brother, he could make all her dreams come true."
Cain snorted and turned away to hide the smile. "What? That's what she said," DG exclaimed. Cain turned back and held up his hands.
"I don't doubt that," he explained, "I just can't believe that Jareth actually said it." He was trying not to laugh at the absurdity of the whole thing. Their magic was nothing more than parlor tricks, they had no real power. Okay, there was a little power... but nothing that substantial.
"You can't just give a person their dreams without some sort of catch, DG." Cain shook his head. "Dreams are something to aspire to, to work for. The realistic ones, anyway. What did Jareth promise her?" DG shrugged.
"I didn't ask what her dreams were, Cain. I don't know, maybe she wanted to fly!" Cain shook his head.
"That's not a realistic dream," he chided. "People can't fly."
"Delta might disagree," she replied with a forced smile.
"My point, DG, is that your dreams are only limited by your imagination, and you can imagine a lot of things. But what you can imagine and what can actually happen are vastly different. I can imagine that I could fly. I can imagine that my father will come around that corner," Cain said, pointing behind him. "I can imagine that the Zone will go back to the way it was," he continued quietly. "I can imagine that I'll take over the Mystic Man's floor show. Which one do you think is more likely?"
"So, if I wished myself away, right now," DG started, making a face at him. Cain shook his head and a finger in her direction.
"First, you can't wish yourself away. Second, you're already here."
"Okay, what if you wished me away?" she asked, waving to him.
"I'm not going to wish you away, Princess," he said gruffly. "And, again, you're already here." Seeing the wheels beginning to turn in her head, he stepped closer and grabbed her elbow. "And if you wish anyone away..." he warned in a quiet tone.
"What?" DG asked, looking up at him with a blank stare. Cain didn't answer, but the look he gave her did leave her mind plenty of room to come up with a possible outcome to his threat. "Humor me, Tin Man. I'm trying to understand here," she grumbled.
Cain groaned and shrugged. "Fine."
"Good," DG nodded sharply as Cain let go of her and stepped back. "So, for whatever reason, I wished Az away. So," she waved to him, "you've got Az. Sales pitch?" Cain rolled his eyes and shook his head. How did she keep managing to talk him into these things?
"All right, if," he said, holding the word, "I had the ability to offer you your dreams, in exchange for your sister - which I don't," - DG wasn't impressed by his acting, at all - "-which would you choose? Your dream or your sister?”
"Well, what's my dream?" DG asked him with a frown. Cain looked up and gave her a look.
"I don't live in your head, Princess. How am I supposed to know what your dream is?"
"You're no fun," she muttered and moved over to the new opening in the wall and spun around. "Wait, you have magic?" Cain squeezed his eyes shut and dropped his chin to his chest. He'd been hoping she missed that admission. DG moved back to his side and spun him around. "Seriously?" Cain shook his head and pointed to the opening.
"Not anymore, Princess."
"But you did have magic?" she asked.
"Once upon a time," Cain replied as his eyes fell on the fountain again. 'I wonder,' he thought for a moment, but decided not to entertain the thought.
"What could you do? Why can't you do it now?" Cain knew that she wouldn't let the topic go until he'd given her some answers, so he moved back to the fountain and sat down again.
"I haven't been home in a long time, Kiddo. Look at how much trouble you had," he nodded to her.
"Hey! I made the doll fly," she said defiantly. Cain laughed and leaned back so that he could reach into the water, hoping it wouldn't work, but also kinda wishing it would. DG moved closer, wanting to see what he was looking at and peered over his shoulder into the water.
Cain rotated his hand a few times under the surface of the water and frowned slightly, then pulled his hand out. DG's eyes went wide at the sight of a perfectly clear ball in his hand. "Catch," he said and tossed the crystal to DG. She flinched, but caught it. He smirked and reached into the water again, then pulled out a second crystal ball and tossed it her way, as well.
"Hey!" she screeched and made a rather ugly catch of the second one, then glared at Cain. He shrugged and reached into the water again and soon pulled out a third. At the look in his eyes, DG's eyes went wide and she shook her head. "Don't you dare," she warned and squeaked as he threw the third. In order to catch the third one, she dropped the first two. As soon as she realized she was dropping them, DG dropped the third to try and catch the first two.
She started to apologize, but realized that the three crystal balls hadn't shattered. Leaning down to pick two of them up, she glanced at Cain, who was picking up the third, which had rolled toward him. "Why didn't they break?" she asked as he held out a hand. Moving over to him, DG looked into the water to see how she'd missed the orbs in the water and Cain took one of the crystals from her.
"I'm a little rusty, but," he said, holding two of them in his right hand. Cain winced, shifted both crystals to his left hand and gave his right hand a good shake. Returning the two crystals to his right hand, Cain began to spin them around slowly. DG watched as he tried to get them to move together, but he wasn't having much luck, she noted, with whatever he was trying to do.
"Oh well," he shrugged and dropped one of the crystals into his left hand. Standing up, he dropped one into each pocket of his duster - the right, with more care as he'd already hidden a fourth in the pocket - and then he reached for the one DG was staring at.
"How did you do that?” she asked, amazed at the perfection of the surface. DG wondered if it was like a crystal ball, but the only thing she could see was Cain's reflection. Cain took the crystal from her and gave it a bit of a flourished juggle then winked.
"Magic." DG's eyes narrowed slightly as she tried to decide whether or not he was pulling her leg. "Come on," he said, nodding toward the opening again. Cain hoped that he'd been home long enough to play with time - assuming he remembered how to do it at all - so that DG wouldn't have been gone from her family for very long.
Much later that night, on one of the many balconies of Finaqua, Wyatt Cain sat back and looked out over the hedge maze. From where he was sitting, the moon was reflecting off the lamppost and he could almost make out the section of wall where the door stood. A second or two later, he wanted to laugh at the realization that he was sitting in a palace, looking out over a maze - just the life he'd run away from. In his right hand, the three crystal balls were being expertly rotated while the fourth balanced on top of them.
Cain looked down to the crystal and let a sad smile slip as he saw Adora standing in the doorway of the old cabin, giving him the same wave she did every time he headed for the city. The feeling went right down into his stomach, and he wished that what he had told DG earlier had been a lie. Because, at that moment, he would have traded everything just to have his wife back. Everyone needed dreams, but, some dreams, Cain knew, had to be let go. And, as much as it hurt, he had to let Adora go. She would always be in his heart, just as his mother and father were in his heart, and the three of them had made Wyatt Cain into the man he was.
He still had Jeb, his new friends, and his brother. Cain could feel the tears forming and quickly glanced up to the sky, laughing slightly. Looking back to the crystal, the image had changed to another view of Adora - this one from a much more private moment - and Cain smiled. The memories, he couldn’t lose, no matter how long he was in the suit.
Taking the crystal in his left hand, Cain held it up for another moment, took one last look and blew the crystal away.