Maybe It's Not Too Late After All

[RedPiggy]

Chapter 21

(201PK)

Aeryn panted as she crouched low behind a boulder that balanced precariously on top of another. Holding her pulse rifle tightly against her chest, she tried to silence her heavy breathing.

A piece of gravel crunched beneath boots nearby.

She whipped around and fired, a plume of gray-brown dust exploding into the air. She crouched back down, but Scorpius’ twisted visage salivated a hair’s breadth from her nose. His gnarled, scarred lips drew back, his tongue grazing the tip of her nose for only a microt.

“You blew up my Leviathan!” he announced in a mockingly surprised voice. Standing erect, he sighed and paced back and forth a few paces just in front of her. “Congratulations, Captain Sun. Most minds would melt when defying me.”

Sun stood and wiped the drool from her face in disgust. “You tried to have me killed, Scorpius. You blew up the cave entrance.” She held out her pulse rifle, a ball of energy crackling at the tip. Her eyes pierced through him. “I’ve lost nearly a quarter of my workers down here.”

Scorpius didn’t even bother to look at her, completely disinterested. He stared at a small glob of moss sticking up from a sharp rock. “I merely gave you impetus to complete your mission without retreat, Captain Sun. Do not persuade yourself I single-handedly provided every ravine, every carnivorous creature, or every cloud of toxic dust.” He stopped and turned toward her, grinning again. “Still, I appreciate the thought I can cause so much damage relying solely on my own skill.” He chuckled briefly. “Might I quote you in propaganda speeches?” he asked in a light-hearted tone.

She fired, though the pulse flew right through the chip-induced hallucination, shattering a rock column nearby.

Scorpius tsked her. “Now, now, Captain Sun. You’re in no position to defy me. Stop playing games.”

“You’re the one who wants to throw the game into the trash and start over like some petulant juvenile,” she hissed, firing again with the same result, the rock column pulverized completely.

Scorpius scowled at her. “Have you ever wondered what would happen if a battle simulation were repeated from the very beginning? Would the exact same events unfold? Would Captain Sun be leader of a fearsome contingent, or some crying outcast moping in the dank hallway of a half-dead Leviathan in the far corners of the Uncharted Territories? Would Scarrans threaten the universe or would Sebaceans rule the universe?”

“Would Scorpius exist at all or would he be some sniveling slave of the Scarran Emperor?” Aeryn retorted.

Scorpius smiled. “Would John be a human leader, a Sebacean breeding stud, or a smattering of goo on the bottoms of my boots?”

Sun scoffed, firing at Scorpius as he paced, shattering another rock formation like glass. “I wouldn’t dare to attract myself to the air he breathes,” she sneered. “Let that little blonde drannit corrupt her genetic line if she wants. Kill him for all I care. You can’t get me to plead for that greebol’s life.” She held the pulse rifle at the tip of his nose, furious at his bemusement. “I just want to see you dead. You’ve gone completely fahrbot. Stopping the Scarran menace is one thing, but your strategies get more and more kinkoid.”

Scorpius roundhouse kicked Captain Sun across the cave floor, sending her sprawling. Scoffing, he loudly announced, his frightening voice reverberating through the air, “I thought you had such potential, Captain Sun. Instead, I realize that, no matter how I try to fix the universe, you’ll always end up a pathetic, writhing little slimy marjol, encased in a too-tight shell and fall prey to whatever dominant male you come across.” He growled triumphantly, “I’m not the one so fahrbot as to fire a pulse rifle on a chip-induced image only your mind can see.”

Aeryn laughed resignedly, staring up at the ceiling of the cave. Panting for several moments, she began to nod. “I … I … never thought … I could … s-seriously … harm you, S-Scorpius,” she said finally. “Your ego knows no bounds, forcing yourself upon the universe as if you were someone like Djancaz-Bru, the ancient Sebacean Goddess of War.” She fired her pulse rifle at the spot right above her just as Scorpius grabbed her by the throat, his steamy spittle spraying over her face.

“I do what I do because I can,” he hissed at her, tightening his grip.

Aeryn batted her eyes as dust and grit began to fall from the ceiling. She glanced into Scorpius’ dead eyes. “Then frell you.”

With that, the entire cave collapsed, its supports having been blasted away throughout the conversation, sending Aeryn plummeting into a black abyss, the only sound being her strained chuckling as the image of a horrified Scorpius dissolved into a falling spray of pixels.

<><><>

The massive cave structure began to rumble all around them. Jareth stared deeply into a single tunnel, as though trying to see the end of the journey from right at the beginning. John tackled Sarah as a large chunk of rock dropped from the ceiling, causing it to just barely miss them. He glanced at Jareth. “Have you noticed there’s a little instability here?” he shouted.

Matthew trembled as the ground split open in front of him. Mokey snatched his tail and dragged him backwards to safety.

Jareth finally snapped out of his determined pose. “He’s there,” he announced softly, perhaps only to himself what with everyone else concentrating on the crumbling cave, “in that castle.” Snapping his fingers, the others found themselves drawn toward Jareth inexplicably as he firmly planted his right palm on the arch leading into the tunnel.

The ceiling crashed down just as everyone found themselves thrown into the tunnel like rag dolls, a flash of bright blue light enveloping them.

 

[The Count]

*Needs more fic. Please?
*Is whooshed away through the tunnel. You know, I wonder if the T. Matt Fraggle Room influenced the idea of the doors found at the Hinterlands... Once you pick to open a holiday's door, you get sucked into it's tree's hollow by a swirling colored cyclone and dumped into that particular holiday world. Post more when possible.

 

[RedPiggy]

Chapter 22
(201 PK)
“Wait … a … microt,” John panted as he, Matt Fraggle, and Jareth landed in a small stone hallway. “W-why … couldn’t … we just … walk through the creepy tunnel?”

Jareth chuckled, straining as he righted himself. “I never thought to ask.”

Matt Fraggle looked around. “Why aren’t little Mokey Fraggle and that Sarah creature here as well?”

Jareth stood and dusted himself off, frowning. “I have no use for them,” he replied coldly. “We must hurry to the chamber where the crystal once stood. The universe will soon be at an end.”

<><><>

Meanwhile, Scorpius entered a small tunnel by himself. Looking around, he decided to just head forward. For some reason, he was convinced that something powerful was taking him to the truth, the reason for his terrifying existence.

A rumbling far to his left made him grit his teeth. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply and slowly.

A doppelganger of himself appeared, battered and bruised. “Scorpius,” it growled weakly.

“Ah, I was afraid you would not be able to reach me through this confounding rock,” Scorpius replied, still with his eyes closed. He didn’t have to see his alter to know that something frustrating had happened. “Disclose Sun’s whereabouts.”

The doppelganger threw up blood and doubled over, panting heavily. “She … she … tricked … me.”

“She cannot harm you,” Scorpius noted with a tinge of bitterness in his voice. “Any attempt to destroy you will destroy her, and I will not allow my slaves to be destroyed.”

“She … she … hid …her … thoughts,” the image panted, his flesh beginning to melt in the black leather suit. “She … aimed for … structural weaknesses in the … cave. The ground gave way. She … we … I … won’t … live … much --.”

Scorpius sighed and began to walk again, toward the strong pull of something in a far-off cave. “Pity.” He found a small tunnel leading toward a barely flickering light source.

“Such a pity.”

<><><>

Jareth and John ran toward what would have been the Crystal Chamber, with Matt hanging on for dear life on John’s back.

“Are – are we there yet?” Matt whimpered, clutching John’s shirt tighter.

“Just don’t get my back wet and we’ll be just fine,” John shot back. He ran faster to catch up to Jareth and tapped his shoulder. “Hey, if those tunnels can somehow just starburst us to this big important planet, then why the frell didn’t we just shoot straight to the chamber?”

Jareth growled, “This is how it must be done!”

“Says who?” John retorted indignantly.

“Aaarrrrggghh!” Jareth cried out as he crumpled to the ground, making John and Matt tumble over him. Jareth clutched his arm, which began to bleed profusely. He stared at it. Despite the immense pain, the feeling of something sharp and yet invisible piercing his flesh, he could not help but wonder how he’d escaped such a fate for so long.

“Uuunnnhhh,” John groaned as he got back up, rubbing his head. He glanced at the disabled Jareth. “What’s wrong?”

Jareth leaned back against the hallway’s crumbling wall, gasping for breath. A smile formed on his face. “Single … shines,” he began, “trip – triple … sun … sundered and undone … shall be whole --.” He laughed, wincing in agony. “What … what does this mean?”

John grabbed Jareth and yanked him up off the floor. “Oh, no … you got us into this dren of a mess, and you’re gonna get up and go grab a mop and clean it up!” John huffed as he half-dragged, half-carried Jareth through the hallway, the light of the broken chamber enlarging in his field of view. How can such a skinny guy weigh so much? he thought to himself.

<><><>

Scorpius walked for what seemed like an eternity as the tunnel twisted and turned so much he couldn’t tell where he was going anymore. At last, an array of sharp crystal spikes obstructed his view.

“Dren.” He tried to push, but the moment his hands touched the crystals, they flickered, sending shockwaves into his nervous system, forcing him to cringe worse than when Scarrans used their mind-reading skills to violate one’s inner sanctum. Words creeped out of his mouth like slugs: “The universe … is … is real … b-but … n-no one will … r-r-reveal … how wide, how far … how real … it is.” His voice softened as darkness overtook him, the cylindrical coolant tube in the side of his head popping out of the mask, glowing red hot.

<><><>

Jareth gasped, grasping desperately at John’s arms, forcing them to stop, his eyes wide.

Maldis sat near the shaft where the crystal used to float above, wincing as he clutched a bleeding arm. He took no notice of the new visitors, however. Instead, he kept his hateful gaze forward.

They tracked his gaze to the far side of the chamber, where the Halosian Yoz defiantly held a crystal shard against a very short, heavily wrinkled, graying old man with a bulbous nose and large round ears. His left arm was bleeding and they could see blood dripping from the shard.

Yoz cackled victoriously. “Yoz … Yoz the Magnificent! Yoz the Powerful! Yoz Empress of Thra! I, I Yoz did this! I, Yoz, hear the heart of Thra call me!” She cackled some more, her wings flapping in ecstasy. “I learn true meaning! I rule the universe with sacred knowledge!”

<><><>

Scorpius found himself in an ash-covered plain, stark black clouds swirling overhead. The bodies of frozen reptilians, somewhat smaller than he imagined, blanketed the gray ground.

A small group of bipedal reptilians sobbed and grovelled as they walked through the throngs of the dead, their wailings the only sound to be heard.

Suddenly, a shaft of light burst through the darkness. A tall being, appearing as though it were made of light itself, appeared out of thin air and beckoned for the survivors. They glanced at each other warily, but despite failing to respond, disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Scorpius found the landscape fading to the Scarran homeworld. Not a single Scarran could be seen.

Before Scorpius blacked out again, he saw a small green reptile with what appeared to be the sharp angles of a Crystherium blossom in its trembling chubby fingers….

 

[The Count]

O-o, the prophecy! It's really happening! We're in it now, up to our necks. More please?

 

[RedPiggy]

Chapter 23
(201 PK)

Sarah stood before the entrance to the tunnel, gawking at it in silence for several moments. At long last, she turned to Mokey, who twisted her robes in her hands warily. “What the dren just happened?”

<><><>

In a far-off cave, Captain Aeryn Sun, a Peacekeeper now without a sense of purpose, sat bleeding next to mounds of darkened crystals. The only sound was her breathing irregularly.

It was hot … so hot ….

Tears started to trickle down her face. Biting her lip, she looked up, where spikes of crystal draped from the ceiling of the roof. Only a gap in the crystals implied where she fell through a hole, for there was so little light, she could see only as far as her feet clearly.

A few microts ago, she heard something like someone trying to crawl into the cave. Maybe there was a side-entrance somewhere. However, after living for cycles with Scorpius’ technological spectre in her head, there were doubts as to what was real, really real.

Still, after all this time of hearing him inside her head, the sudden silence wasn’t welcome but strangely disturbing.

She was alone, so utterly alone.

<><><>

Jareth, clutching his bleeding arm, glared intently at Maldis, who either still hadn’t noticed them or was ignoring them.

The girl could not come here, he thought briefly. Maldis fed on fear, on nightmares, on pain.

Clearly, Maldis would sense Sarah now represented all of those things to him.

There were traces of the whispers of Sarah he heard inside his head, the headstrong, spoiled little girl who dared to deride others while taking no responsibility for herself. However, this Sarah was far meeker, willing to succumb to that black-clad creature’s abusive relationship, just to feel dominated in a world where she had no control.

Was she so different than the other Sarah? After all, there were the sketchy images of an adolescent Sarah, much more well-off than now, a girl who imagined herself to be his equal, become instantly servile when faced with the reality of her dreams.

As someone who fed off the dreams of others, such whimpering made him cringe, as though poisoning the broth of an otherwise delicious stew. How could one desire and then not --.

He lowered his head and sighed silently.

Is that what drew him to her?

<><><>

Scorpius lay dying. As half-Scarran, he could tolerate heat better than the average Sebacean, but he was still at risk for heat delirium.

So, for about sixty million cycles, this world spawned the Scarrans, all thanks to some energy being who felt a need to rescue a species that by all rights should have died miserably.

He chuckled once, finding himself unable to sustain anything other than a microt or two of comfort. So, this world truly was the source of this universe. It created the Scarrans, who evolved from a failed biological experiment using flowers to manipulate their genomes, and it later, as though attempting to correct the mistake, drew the attention of the Eidelons, who used the mammalian survivors called humans to create the Peacekeepers.

Now the universe found itself ripping apart at the seams, all because of this remarkably short-sighted and spoiled little world.

He began to breathe irregularly, skipping whole respiration cycles.

Off in the distance, he could hear sniffling.

He perked up, driving himself by sheer force of will to try to peek over the crystals surrounding him.

Was she here?

Maybe it … maybe it wasn’t too late, after all.

With just the barest of energy levels left within him, Scorpius managed to creep his hands to the tops of the crystals and peek over.

Scorpius smiled in relief.

<><><>

Mokey clutched her tail, twisting it into her robes. “Maybe we lost.”

Sarah, meanwhile, caressed the arch of the tunnel with her hands, trying to locate some trick, some hint, as to how to activate the teleportation property. She didn’t glance back at the young Fraggle. “Even if we have, then there’s no point in staying here. We have to get out.”

“But there isn’t an opening!” Mokey protested, beginning to sob.

“It’s right in front of us,” Sarah noted, shaking her head, gritting her teeth in frustration.

“But it doesn’t go anywhere.” Mokey sat down, drawing abstract doodles in the dusty cave floor. “Jareth doesn’t need us.”

Sarah finally found herself able to smile.

<><><>

Aeryn laughed, her amusement strained from the pain of physical exhaustion. She glanced to her right and saw herself standing amongst the crystals. However, her image had longer hair, bloody scars all over her body, wearing a dark long tunic over dark pants, all of which were slashed so as to leave little to the imagination. Blood dripped out of her mouth. She carried a sword nearly as tall as her own body, as well as carrying several weapons attached to her tattered clothes.

The image snarled at Sun. Her voice was gravelly and it reverberated throughout the cave. “Can you truly be a Peacekeeper when you so readily wish to put down your arms?”

Sun frowned. “You’re not Scorpius.”

The image scoffed. “I am the embodiment of destruction. You know me as Djancaz-Bru.”

“I find it unsettling that you look like me,” Sun responded with a resigned sense of humor.

Djancaz-Bru held out her sword, grazing Sun’s chin. “I am war. I am death. I am you, just as I am every other Peacekeeper.”

Aeryn weakly pushed the tip of the sword away, not even wincing when it drew blood against her skin. “Well, you stink at keeping the peace, don’t you?”

The goddess growled and lunged toward the dying Peacekeeper, bringing down the sword hard and fast, but stopping just as it touched Aeryn’s skull. “You resent that I create death, but you do not fear your own.” She pulled away the sword, amazed of Sun’s imperceptible reaction to such a threat … and impressed.

Aeryn smiled. “I find it comforting that you’ll be dragged down with us too.”

The goddess scoffed with a smirk. “You die alone, Aeryn Sun. I live as long as death remains.”

Aeryn chuckled, trying to get up to face this pathetic excuse for a goddess, but finding she was far too weak to stand. “And when everybody dies, what do you do with your time then?” She clenched her fists defiantly. “The standards of the Peacekeepers aren’t what they’re supposed to be. We do not die alone,” she continued, her voice rising, not noticing the faint flicker in the crystals. “We work together to accomplish our missions!” For several moments, she could feel her pulse quickening, even as she was getting weaker. This was the end, after all. Might as well defy the goddess to the last – what was she going to do, kill her? “I reject you, Djancaz-Bru!” she screamed, her voice shaking the entire cave as the room began to lighten. “You can only be death … but I can be so much more!”

<><><>

Yoz picked up and threw the small bleeding creature across the ancient ruins of the Crystal Chamber back on Thra.

The elderly creature shrieked in terror as he found himself hurled through the opening of the shaft, only to have his screams cut short. His tiny hands appeared at the rim and he was apparently being pushed up from behind.

Following him was Sarah, with Mokey clinging to the back of her neck.

Yoz squawked in agitation, her wings flapping haphazardly. “You must die!” she snarled in alarm. Other Halosians began to surround them, chasing Jareth, John, and Matt closer to Maldis.

Maldis smirked and cringed as he tried to stand, clearly weakened by the attacks they had not witnessed. He glanced finally at Jareth, nodding. “My greatest fear is to lose and your greatest dream is to win. So, the question remains, former King of the Universe … if you succeed, do I do so, too?”

Jareth kept his eyes glued to Sarah. Regardless of the pain he felt, he felt his skin redden with fury.

Maldis chuckled as he glanced at Sarah. “You tried to hide her from me, an understandable strategy on your part,” he told Jareth. “Still,” he sighed with a shrug, “like you, she has a talent for not sticking to the script, just making things up as she goes along. You are hubris personified. Such a man does not require rescuing.” He laughed, suddenly groaning as he felt himself getting stronger, though he was still too weak to return the favor handed him by the Halosian. He nodded toward the elderly creature who shivered and trembled and quaked behind Sarah, who glared defiantly at Yoz. “But that one there, our insecurities, he needed rescuing. Amusing, is it not?”

Sarah snatched the jewels from Mokey and threw them at Yoz. “Take your crystals and go! Save your world and leave us the frell alone!”

Yoz growled under her breath, only Jareth, Maldis, and the elderly creature able to hear her. “Crystals … nothing more,” she replied coldly.

“That’s not true!” Sarah countered. “We of the Seek have all seen that this universe needs this pervo crystal to stay alive! Now fix it so we can break free and live again!”

Yoz shrugged, her voice calmer. “Never find all crystal pieces. Never of real importance anyway.” She nodded toward Jareth and Maldis. “All his fault, this one. Like Crystal, split.” She glanced up at the sky. “Millions of cycles … suns conjoin on Thra … each time, important things happen.” She stared at Sarah. “Thra tells me things. I, Yoz Empress of Thra, hear the heart of Thra. Thra tells Empress of Thra that Universe King hid his heart here. No one thinks of Thra. Heart safe. UrSkeks learn to live off heart. UrSkeks break it. Universe gets dark. Life happens. Death happens. Ten thousand cycles in past, crystal shattered by shattered King … now no one happy. Now universe dies itself. Only pieces remain across Universe, but not enough to sustain it in pieces.” She glanced at Jareth, her dark avian face barely able to express what might very well be submissive pleading. “Universe ask so little. Not fear of us. Not love of us. Just let us live.”

Jareth’s upper lip curled. “I move the stars for no one.”

Yoz scoffed in indignation, her wings beating a few times. “Stars move. Universe at good temperature. Stars stay put. Species burn or freeze, even you. Save us. Save you.”

Maldis laughed, inhaling deeply as Jareth’s trepidation strengthened him. “He can’t save himself. He just wants to be alone. He would rather devise an entire maze around him to ensnare his visitors than connect to even just one person.”

<><><>

Aeryn gasped as another image of her appeared. It was Aeryn, clad in a grey body-hugging suit. This Aeryn was unsettled. She stared into empty space as though seeing someone there. “Why are you doing this?” she asked.

The dying Aeryn chuckled. “Because I love you,” she replied, feeling the words swell within her as though bidden by some other, unseen force. She was completely at peace, feeling no pain as she found herself standing, even though she couldn’t remember getting up. “I get it, now. That’s what these crystals are. They aren’t the right answer, they’re the endless possibilities, each version of your heart stored, there if you truly need them.”

The grey-clad Aeryn sighed, staring at the floor. “It’s a mistake – you for me.”

Aeryn gently took the grey-clad Aeryn by the hand. “I’m not substituting anything or anyone.” She placed her free hand on her heart. “We’re all connected, Aeryn Sun. I’m me. You’re me.” She nodded briefly toward the bloody goddess. “Even that fahrbot thing is me.”

The grey-clad Aeryn’s face sparkled as tears trickled down from misty eyes. “I’m not worth believing in. There’s no reason to live. My universe is going to die. There’s nothing I can do.”

Djancaz-Bru chuckled. “In any universe, I am the result.” She playfully tapped the bloody sword against her shoulder. “There is nothing you can do.”

Captain Sun smiled warmly for the first time since she could remember. Her voice softened and became more melodic, her words beginning to sound like the slow start to a relaxing rainfall. “If just … one … person … believes … in you … deep enough … and strong enough … believes … in you,” she sang as the crystals began to glow more steadily in soft warm yellow and orange tones, the occasional sparkles of light acting as though responding to an unheard musical accompaniment, “hard enough … and long enough … it stands to reason … that someone else will think, ‘If she can do it, I can do it,’ making it --.”

The grey clad Aeryn chuckled and shrugged, continuing the song along with Captain Sun as the faint sound of instruments began to trickle into hearing range in the background, the crystals’ glow pulsating to the rhythm, “—two whole people, who believe in you … deep enough and strong enough … believe in you … hard enough and long enough … there’s bound to be some other person who believes … in making it a threesome,” they sang, glancing at the gory deity, who tapped her sword ceremoniously against the floor of the cave in rhythm to the song, the scowl on her face masking what, for her, would be a sense of peace and compassion, “making it three … people who can say, ‘Believe in me!’”

<><><>

Back on Thra, Sarah suddenly plunged to the ground, holding her heart. Something within her swelled, forcing her heart to beat faster, forcing her to see a radiant light surrounding them. Unbidden, she began to sing in an ever louder voice, “And if three whole people – why not four?”

Mokey gasped and stared at Yoz, without fear or hesitation, but with a strength she had never felt before, singing, “And if four whole people – why not more?”

<><><>

In Seashore City, General Red stared longingly at a small card she had received several cycles ago, after her campaign against the monsters had begun. It was from before that time, having only then arrived.

A card from Gobo Fraggle, saying he understood and respected her sacrifice.

As tears flowed from her muzzle, a small, timid voice began to sing, though she did not quite understand why she was singing such strange words that seemed to come from another place far away, “And more?”

<><><>

The caves and tunnels that formed what was once called Fraggle Rock were fully illuminated by this point, several rockslides reversing themselves as pink and blue and green tones swept through the air, painting the harsh gray-brown stone in wondrous hues, a chorus of disembodied tiny voices singing, reverberating through the entire system, “And more …”

<><><>

Everyone in the Crystal Chamber, which had begun to repair itself as crystal shards began to appear from what seemed like every direction: east, west, north, south, from above, from below … they all began to stare at Jareth, Maldis, and the elderly creature.

They sang in complete unison, not a single voice outshone the others. “And when all those people, believe in you, deep enough, and strong enough, believe in you … hard enough … and long enough … it stands to reason … that you yourself will start to see what everybody sees in you,” they continued, warm smiles appearing, even on the Halosians for as much as they could try with such inexpressive beaks, “And maybe even you … can believe in you … toooooo.”

At the song’s conclusion, a blinding white light showered into the ruins of the chamber, as though the three suns of Thra finally joined and poured out all their spirits into that one room. The Crystal of Thra, a tear-drop-shaped object of brilliance, threw out beams of light that pierced the three split hearts before it, Jareth, Maldis, and Hoggle. Their facial expressions alternated between surprise, fear, and relief as they were drawn closer to the Crystal as though reeled in by a fishing line or tractor beam.

A flash of light dropped the others to the ground.

For several moments, nothing but a strange resounding tone could be heard.

Finally, as everyone in the room began to get the courage to open their eyes, adjusting to the perfect white cylindrical room, they saw a large male being with sweeping glowing white hair and a robe of remarkable brilliance as scores of jewels of every color glimmered in the combined light of not only the three Thra suns, but also the light coming in from the entire universe. This being was stockier than Jareth. He sported Maldis’ devious grin and Hoggle’s gentle eyes. A silver crown rested on his head.

It was as though he were made of white crystal himself, glowing from within just as the Crystal did.

A black crystal sphere and a white crystal sphere twirled just above his hands in a playful dance.

He smiled and nodded gracefully. His voice reverberated. “None of you are like those who tore me apart deep in the far reaches of the universe’s past. You wish me to be whole, not ripped into idolatrous mirrors that merely reflect your own selfish desires. Because of this, as I am whole, so too shall be the universe. So much trouble over such a simple thing.” The two crystal spheres merged and exploded….

<><><>

The lights shown upon the two pigs as they strolled confidently down the long red velvet linear stretch of carpet towards the theatre. The female had long curly blonde hair, a dazzling dark green dress and purple elbow-length gloves. In her hand was a much taller, stockier pig with dark black eyebrows and a bemused expression. He looked up at the marquee, smiling as “Guest-starring Miss Piggy and Robert Vegan” welcomed them amidst applause from a growing and cheering crowd.

<><><>

Red Fraggle, holding a small double flute in her hands, crept warily up to the large tunnel in the Matthew Fraggle Room, a cave with seemingly infinite tunnels. Deep within the shadows, she saw a graceful blue, bald, scantily clad creature with yellow eyes chant slowly amongst a field, watching in awe as tremendously huge fruits, vegetables, and herbs grew with each intonation.

<><><>

A large yellow bird sat listening amongst his parents as a nearly two-foot-long frog with a funny spiky collar offered them a brochure, expounding on a program he and some dog were planning, where children of all ages and species could come together and promote learning.

<><><>

John Crichton leaned happily against Aeryn as she cradled a small infant. He sighed, a big goofy grin spreading across his face as the stars flew around Moya, who wanted to see the universe in all its glory.

Aeryn kissed the infant’s forehead. “I never thought I’d create another life,” she said softly.

John kissed Aeryn’s ear and chuckled. “I guess it’s never too late, after all.”

THE END

 

[The Count]

*Applauds at everything. Nice work with the different Erins in the Crystal Chamber. I can definitely imagine Claudia Black singing the first verses of that song. *Realizes it was Hoggle who was the elder figure Yaz brought to the edge of the crystal pit only because his name was revealed. Red as a new minstrel meeting Zhaan was interesting. And you managed to get references to the three main branches of the fandom. And the ending that John deserved as well.

Thank you so much for this story and for sharing it with us.

 

[RedPiggy]

Thanks. I decided that since I couldn't decide how to play the prophecy, I decided to do all three of my ideas. One was that the three suns of Thra would join again. The second was a play on Aeryn's name, having three versions of her become one. The third one came in late in the muse department, but I figured having Jareth's three personalities merge would fix the universe as a whole.