Author's Note: To everyone who has read what I've so far witten of "Be Careful What You Wish For", this is Jareth and Tebras' backstory.
To those who haven't, I'd like to point out that this will not be a pleasant story. It will contain dark, mature content and sexual themes in later chapters.
But anyway, if that doesn't put you off, I hope you'll enjoy it! :)
The usual disclaimer applies. I own nothing except Susannah, Lianna, Lauren and Tebras. Oh, and Fowler comes from Brian Froud and Terry Jones' "The Goblins of Labyrinth". :)
Please R&R! :D
Kit xx
"I wish the goblin's would come and take you away right now!"
The words had been said. The Goblin King sighed and, in a shower of magic and glitter, vanished from his throne room. Yet another wish had been made by someone ungrateful who didn't deserve the child that they'd fancied away. Jareth made a grand entrance clad in his magnificent black armour, as he always did when called, to another human not worth his time.
But when he appeared in the room, there was one more person than he'd expected present. As he stood before them, hands on his hips, Jareth observed the two women who were seemingly mid-argument. He watched as their eyes flickered up to look at him, wide and, in the case of the slightly older-looking woman, horrified. That's a new one... Jareth thought, one eyebrow rising.
"You idiot," the slightly older woman whispered to the younger woman.
Jareth held back a frown and dismissed the sudden notion he had that the blonde woman knew more than she should. This time should be spent wisely and he needed to conduct the business he was brought there for.
"Who the Hell are you?" the younger, darker haired woman asked.
"He's the Goblin King, you idiot- and you brought him here," the blonde hissed through clenched teeth.
Jareth's eyebrows rose higher. Of the two women, he knew it was the younger that had wished the child away; but it seemed that the blonde was the one that realised the situation the pair were in.
"I want my daughter back," she continued, this time speaking directly to him.
So she's the mother, he thought. Well, that does make this interesting...
Before Jareth could answer that to just give her the child back would be impossible, the other woman cut in, her voice confused, "Wait... you... you don't mean that when I... He took her?"
"Indeed, I did," the Goblin King said, a smirk playing on his lips.
"Bring her back," the child's young mother said.
"I- I didn't mean for... I didn't mean what I said-"
"What's said is said. It cannot be undone," interrupted Jareth sneeringly at the woman who'd made the wish.
"But- but it's just a story! You're not real!"
Both the Goblin King and the blonde woman's heads snapped towards the other woman.
"Are you stupid or something? How blind are you to say that someone right before you is not real?" the older woman shouted.
"He's not... I didn't mean it..."
"What does it matter if you meant it? Lianna's gone, and it's your damn fault, Lauren!"
Jareth cleared his throat and both women turned back to look at him.
"I want my daughter back," the blonde quickly repeated as evenly as she could force her voice to respond with.
"Forget about the child," Jareth started.
"I can give you your dreams; I can give you everything you've ever wanted if you just forget about her."
"My daughter is the only thing I've ever wanted!" the woman retorted angrily.
"Really? The Goblin King replied evenly, the smirk still lining his features.
"What about you?" Jareth asked, turning to the darker haired woman he'd heard called Laura.
Laura blinked. It didn't take long for the confusion to lift from her face. Her eyes flashed to the woman at her side and she already knew her answer. It seemed that her older sister figured it out at just the same time.
"I'm so sorry, Susi," the younger woman whispered before turning to the Goblin King again.
"I accept."
"Lauren, no-!" the horrified blonde started, but the other woman was gone before she could finish her plea.
With a shower of magic, an empty space remained where Lauren had once stood, and Susi was terrified. Her sister had just wished her daughter away to the goblins and abandoned her. But she had no time for her fears; she knew she had to push them back as she looked to the Goblin King.
"Please give me my daughter back."
Jareth observed the woman for a moment, before replying, "The only way for you to get her back was to have had Lauren run my Labyrinth. Since she's already agreed to forget both you and the child, it seems that getting your daughter back is impossible-"
"I'll do it. I'll run your Labyrinth," Susi said as evenly as she could manage.
"You?"
She nodded, straight blonde hair swaying with the movement.
"It's not your place to run what Lauren should have."
"She's my daughter! Please- give me a chance to get her back," she basically pled.
With a frown, the Goblin King considered the woman. Would it really be so much of a stretch to allow her the chance to beat his Labyrinth? Few had ever triumphed- it would be likely that this woman would not be among them. And something nagging at the back of his mind was telling him how interesting it would be to watch this woman try. At least she cares enough perhaps not to give up, Jareth thought.
"One chance. You're no match for me so it shouldn't matter anyway."
The woman rolled her eyes and answered, "She's in your castle, right?"
Jareth's frown darkened slightly.
"How is it you know so much about me and my Labyrinth?" he questioned, watching her carefully.
"I read the book," Susi said, pointing to the small red book that rested on a table in the room's corner.
"And unlike my sister-" she almost spat the word.
"-I paid attention."
Jareth's frown lessened somewhat and he replied simply, "Indeed."
"So where is this castle, then?" Susi asked after a brief and uncomfortable silence.
With a wave of his gloved hand, Jareth indicated behind her. Gusts of wind followed as she turned to face the direction he pointed in. And then she saw it. The Castle beyond the Goblin City. It was beautiful- just like she'd always dreamed it would be. But the Labyrinth that lay before it was the most entrancing sight by far. Even that though, could not daunt Susi. She was set in her purpose.
"Turn back, Susannah."
Susi blinked. Did he just call me Susannah? How does he know my name? But she'd much rather he call her that then the name she allowed her friends to call her. Because the Goblin King was certainly no friend of hers. He had taken her daughter away, and she had to give everything she had to bring Lianna home again.
"No. I'm taking my daughter back from you, no matter what it takes," she replied calmly.
"That's a harder task than you're imagining," he said, a sort of amusement lining the edges of his voice.
"I know exactly how hard it will be," she sighed.
"But I'm not giving up."
Intrigue piqued, Jareth couldn't keep the smirk from remaining in control of his features. She is determined, he thought. She may actually make it in time.
"Well then, you have thirteen hours in which to complete the Labyrinth, before your daughter becomes one of us forever."
Susi turned as the Goblin King's voice faded into echoed silence and she saw that he vanished as if into the wind. She had no time to think about where he had gone though. Thirteen hours. That was all the time Susi had left to get her daughter back. And she was determined that she would save her daughter. At any cost.
Jareth sat in his throne room, one leg thrown casually over the arm of his throne. He was surrounded by Goblins; screaming, laughing, shouting. But all he was looking at was the baby that bounced ever so slightly in his lap. She had her mother's eyes, a deep brown that caught that light as she giggled at the magical wonder around her.
The Goblin King waved a hand and summoned a crystal. He was a lot more interested in how this woman was getting along in his Labyrinth than he was with the other runners who'd previously tried to reclaim their children. And that was because he had a lot more respect for this woman than those who usually ran his Labyrinth.
Those people were always the wishers; the ones who never appreciated what they had until it was too late. Susannah was different. She was just running damage control to get back a daughter she seemed very much to love. A daughter that her sister had wished away.
He wondered how it was that Lauren had ended up wishing away her niece with her sister so near. What had led her to choose those words that meant that her sister would lose what seemed to be most dear to her? Jareth frowned as he observed the woman's passage throughout the Labyrinth.
She was already inside, and he had only left her ten minutes ago. She really is determined, he thought. Best to put a few more obstacles in her path.
Susi had been walking down the same long and seemingly endless path, running, in fact, for nearly ten minutes. And she had gotten nowhere. How does a Labyrinth with no turns make any sense at all? she thought, frowning to herself. But she carried on running anyway; she couldn't afford to stop- she had too much on the line.
After another ten minutes though, frustration overwhelmed her. In exasperation, Susi stopped and leaned against the stony wall. Only, where she thought she would hit the wall, there was merely air; and Susi fell right through the unseen hole in the wall.
She let out a slight squeal as her bottom hit the dirt floor, the sound echoing through the empty corridors of stone. Looking up through the blonde locks that had fallen in front of her face, Susi quickly realised the trick of the eye that she'd just unwittingly discovered. Who knows how many passages I've missed? she thought, slightly irritated.
Pushing herself to her feet again, and turning to face the new back wall that she'd discovered, Susi had to make the choice between whether she should go left and right. She turned to right, making the conscious decision that trying to go back in the direction she'd come from. Now more aware of the hidden passages once hidden, Susi was finding her way far more easily.
In fact, she was soon out of the few long corridor-like paths and into a lighter section of the Labyrinth. From there she could see the castle. She could see where Jareth had her daughter. And she could see exactly where she needed to get to. But finding her way there was proving to be harder than it looked.
Every turn she took, it seemed, led to a dead end; but, unlike in the long passageways, pushing against these walls made no difference. Scowling, she slammed a fist against another wall blocking her path. I have no time for this! she thought angrily.
"Well you don't have to hit us."
Wide-eyed, Susi stepped back from the wall, her head snapping around to look for the owner of the voice. But when she turned, there was no one there.
"Who said that?" she asked, frowning.
"Us, of course," came the voice again.
"Over here, girly," another voice chimed in.
Susi turned again, back to the wall she had just moments ago slammed her fist against. But the wall wasn't there anymore. Or it was, but there were two doors in the centre of it.
"You weren't there before," Susi whispered sceptically.
"'Course we were."
"But I didn't see you..."
"Well then you weren't looking right, were you?"
"Wish these people'd pay more attention," grumbled the second voice.
"Wait, I know this is magic, but... you're doors. Simple, wooden doors. How can you talk?"
"The nerve of the girl! Doors,"scoffed the first voice.
"Simple doors," the other corrected.
"Seems to me like she's the simple one."
Susi frowned. Talking to disembodied voices was simply wasting valuable time.
"This is just a waste of my time."
"Wait!" one of the voices called.
And she had no choice but to, because the passageway that had just been behind her was now closed off by another changing wall. Typical. She turned back with a frown and stared at the two newly-appeared emblems that covered the doors. The bronze circlets were engraved in patterned swirls that twisted almost to look like branches curling into spirals.
But it wasn't the patterns that she was looking at; it was the two protruding faces at their centre that caught her attention. Susi sighed and placed her hands on her hips.
"So, am I supposed to just pick a door, or what?" she asked impatiently.
"Oooooh, isn't she in a hurry?" the one with rather larger nose asked.
"Of course I'm in a hurry; I have to get my daughter back!"
"So she wants her daughter back?"
"Shouldn't have wished her away then, should she?"
"But I didn't!"
"-Mean to. Yes, we know."
"It's what they all say," the one with the smaller, pinched-looking nose chipped in.
"Urgh, enough!" Susi finally said, aggravated by the distraction these two emblems were proving to be.
Instead of waiting to find out if either of them actually had got anything to say; Susi pushed open the door to her left. She stepped through into the next passageway, its high walls looming over and almost meeting overhead. Only a thin strip of light slipped down to cast its shine along the floor.
And as soon as Susi saw the figure that it almost illuminated she was ready to turn back and take the other door immediately. That proved impossible though, as the door she'd entered through was gone with a slam and only a tall wall stood in its place. I hate this Labyrinth, she thought as she faced the Goblin King once more.
"Wrong door, I guess," Susi muttered so quietly that the Goblin King did not hear her.
"How are you enjoying my Labyrinth, Susannah?" Jareth asked.
"Well, it's not on my list of top ten things that I'd love to be doing," she replied quickly and coldly.
The Goblin King smirked.
"You're not the first person to have answered that way. Though normally, I would say that they deserved it," he said, staring at the tall blonde woman before him.
"If you think that I don't deserve to be put through this, then why am I running it? Why can't you just give me my daughter back?"
"That's just not how it's done, Susannah."
"Well then, would you mind not wasting my time? I'm on rather a strict deadline."
Something flared in him as she brushed passed him. He'd had ignorant runners that had tried the same, but this woman seemed to have known something about him as soon as she'd seen him. Should she not have known how bad an idea offending or ignoring the Goblin King would be?
Jareth was gone in a moment, his vanishing unnoticed by the woman who had taken off at some speed away from him. She came to abrupt halt though- she'd had to- when Jareth reappeared straight in front of her.
"What the Hell? How did you-?" Susi said, looking back to see how he could possibly have overtaken her.
"Magic," Jareth replied knowingly, still smirking at her.
A small silence gripped them as they stood in the enclosing and winding passageway; but it didn't last long. Because in that short pause, Jareth watched as her thoughts of pushing passed him again flitted across her face. Stick to persuading her, he told himself, almost scolding himself as his thoughts turned to darker things. You can't hurt the runner, he reminded himself finally.
"Give up, Susannah."
She blinked.
"Yeah, like that'll ever happen," she answered with a scowl.
"I can still give you your dreams. All you have to do is forget about the child. It's not as hard as it sounds; just a wave of my hand and you'll have everything you ever wanted."
"But I wouldn't have my daughter, right?"
Jareth gave a simple inclination of his head, which only made Susi shake hers.
"No deal, then," she answered in a whisper.
"This is the last time I make this offer to you," Jareth warned.
"Good. I'd hate to have to refuse you again," she said with a sad smile.
"By all means, keep running then, Susannah."
With a gesture of his gloved hand, an array of sparks glittered and fell as the Goblin King faded out of the thin strip of light that shone from above. Sighing, Susi started off again aware that her time was dwindling. She wondered how long it had taken her to get where she was, and she wondered how long she had left to save her daughter.
"I'm coming, Lianna," she whispered, knowing that her daughter could not hear her.
As Jareth reappeared in his throne room, he sat down in his throne again. Somehow, after some time, the child ended up in his lap once more. Not that he minded; he liked children; this girl, especially. In fact, Jareth almost wondered why the child's aunt had even wished her away in the first place.
She was actually one of the best behaved children that had ever been wished away. None of that loud and whiny crying that the children often tended to do when they found themselves wished away by someone who supposedly loved them. The Goblin King gave the girl a small smile as she started playing with a strand of his long hair.
"Let's see how your mother's getting along, shall we?" Jareth said to the little girl.
With the hand not draped around the back of the child to keep her from falling over, the Goblin King conjured another crystal. And through it he spied the blonde woman having made it much further than he'd thought she would in so short a time. She'd made it into the garden-like section of the Labyrinth.
Jareth glanced at the clock floating somewhere off to his right and saw that she had made it there in just five hours. Too soon, he thought. If she continues like this then she'll win her daughter back. But Jareth started to wonder, would giving Susannah her child back be all that much of a bad thing?
Usually, the runners had wished away their own child, or something of the like, and it was far better for their children to end up living in the Underground. To be under the control of someone who would uncaringly wish them away was never a fate he wished for the children that came to him. It was one of the reasons that he fought so hard to keep them.
But Susannah did care. And she was giving all that she had to get back her daughter. Shrugging away those thoughts, Jareth watched as the woman ran down another tall hedgerow. She wasn't taking nearly as many wrong turns now as she had been in the beginning, and it was frustrating the Goblin King.
That feeling was relieved though, when she came upon her next challenge some time later.
Susi stopped at another dead end, between a tall wall and a thick hedge. She frowned as she came face to face with another pair of doors.
"Not more doors?" she said in an aggravated sigh.
"What? What'd she say? Mordor? Wrong universe," one of the knockers shouted at her.
She stared at the two knockers as the other one muffled something that she didn't understand in response. That one had the knocker rung in his mouth, whilst the other in his ears. No wonder I can't understand him, she thought.
"Sorry?"
The mumble that came was once more unintelligible.
"I'm sorry, I can't understand you," Susi said apologetically.
"Hey, hmm, what's that?" the other one shouted.
"So I just go through one of your doors then?"
"Will you speak up? Can't hear you," the one with his ears blocked bellowed.
More of a mumbled response led Susi to understand that she would get no sense out of the two knockers. So instead of waiting around again, and becoming distracted by more senseless doors, Susi knocked on the door with the knocker who couldn't hear her.
It swung open and, as soon as she stepped through, the door swung shut and virtually disappeared behind her. Not again, Susi thought, annoyed that she couldn't turn back and choose the other route should she want to.
She found herself standing in the middle of a long stone corridor that stretched both in front and behind her for what could have been forever. Susi set off before her, very much disliking that there were no turns in sight.
Eventually she came across a door on her left. She almost missed it, so set was she in the direction she was headed. But when Susi saw it, she couldn't help but take it. She'd spent too much time dallying on this straight route for her liking.
"You don't want to do that," chimed a sing-song-like voice.
Susi looked around and before saying to the disembodied voice, "Yeah, right, sure."
Fed up of listening to voices without owners and doors that tried to confuse and distract, Susi pushed open the door and a gust of wind from her right had her clinging onto the door to stop from falling. Below was something she'd never smelled the like of before. Something awful that it was impossible to describe.
Focussing on what task was at hand, Susi pulled herself up and grabbed hold of the wall. She thanked whoever there was to thank that she was good at climbing as she found her way up the wall she'd almost tumbled down. And when she climbed over the top of the wall, she was glad that the smell had slightly receded.
Susi dusted herself off slightly and carried on, not caring to dwell to long beside the source of that horrid stench. But she soon found that the wall she was running across just ended. And below, a forest was all that seemed to span between her and the castle where her daughter was.
So, Susi set herself to climbing down the wall into the tree line below. It seemed, though, that even random bricks liked to play the same game as the walls earlier in the Labyrinth, as her hand and footfalls occasionally withdrew and she almost slipped. Susi held on though. Because she was determined to not let anything stop her from reaching her daughter before these thirteen hours were up.
Susi had been making her way through the twisting forest for what felt like quite some time- and she couldn't even tell if she was going in the right direction. The enclosing trees towered overhead in crisscrossing patterns, blocking off the sky and her view of her destination.
But just as her foot hit the ground after having to jump over a fallen tree branch, Susi's world was turned upside down. Literally. Something had managed to wrap itself around her left ankle and yank her upside down. With her hair in front of her face, Susi struggled to understand what had happened.
"Yes! Fowler catched yer!"
Susi looked confusedly around until she finally caught sight of a little creature that she suspected was some type of goblin.
"What the-? Let me down!" Susi shouted, scowling at the goblin.
Though it just seemed to ignore her as it danced in a circle around where she hung, swaying.
"Let me down!" she repeated.
The creature looked up at her and gave her a sharp-toothed grin as it shook its head.
"Nope. Nu-uh. Fowler's catcheded yer an' 'm not gunner let yer go," Fowler replied, gloatingly.
"Seriously?" Susi asked, staring at the weird goblin that had her held captive.
"Now... How's I gunner fit yer in ma bag?" he pondered, scratching a long, clawed finger behind his horn-like ear.
"If you don't let me down right now, I will shove you in that bag and then shove that where the sun doesn't shine; got it?"
Fowler pulled a face and said, "Stupid girly. Too fat fer ma bag anyways..."
And that was the last thing the creature said before scuttling off into the shadows of the trees, leaving Susi alone and upside down, hanging from the snare she hadn't seen. With a sigh, she realised that she'd have to find her own way out of this mess- before it was too late.
Jareth had been watching almost amusedly as the woman had dealt with Fowler. In millennia's of runners taking up the challenge of running the Labyrinth, Fowler had only caught a few runners. Eventually, he'd always given up on getting them into his small bag to take them away to... who knows where; and he'd leave them as he'd left Susannah now.
But she had succeeded far more speedily than any of the others to get the goblin to give up. And now, he thought, she was doing quite a fine job of freeing herself from the snare that held her suspended in the air. Somehow, she actually managed to squirm her way out of the trap and drop to the floor.
The Goblin King was almost pleasantly surprised at how quickly she'd done it too, though he had no idea why. He'd never before wanted a runner to succeed; but there was something about Susannah's love for her daughter that had him reconsidering with her.
Jareth shook his head of those thoughts and continued to watch the woman, who was pausing only to let her blood begin to circulate properly again. And then she started walking. She would have run, but she cursed as she realised that her ankle had been twisted when she'd been caught by the snare.
But she carried on walking regardless of the pain there. And with just two hours left, Jareth wondered if Susannah would actually make it through the forest and the city beyond in time to take her daughter back. Despite himself, he almost hoped that she would make it.
Little did he know then that he'd be disappointed.
Susi stood in the Goblin King's throne room, which was now empty of goblins, and she stared at him as he held her daughter- her Lianna- on his knee. The clock that showed clearly the time she had taken floated at their side and stayed frozen on the time that she'd found her daughter in. Thirteen hours and one minute. She was one minute late. One minute.
But that one minute meant that it would be impossible for Jareth to let her daughter leave the Underground with her. Even he could not change that rule- no matter how much he might have wanted to in this case.
"It's one minute," she whispered, staring pleadingly at the Goblin King.
Jareth sighed at the sight.
"You lost. I cannot change that-"
"Please! You can't!"
"I can and I have to," Jareth replied evenly.
"She's all that I have," Susi said, tears starting to prick at her eyes.
A silence took over the room as she waited. And as each second tolled by her heart sank deeper and deeper as if she knew the answer that she would receive. Susi's eyes turned to her daughter; the daughter that she knew was fast fading away from her. But Susi refused to let go. She couldn't.
"Please," she whispered.
"Your daughter cannot leave the Underground," Jareth replied.
The Goblin King watched as the utter devastation sank into her deep brown eyes. He watched as the love there shattered into the tears now rolling down her pale cheeks. Almost as if taking pity on her, though he knew it was more than just pity, he continued.
"Susannah, I am prepared offer you a deal."
Susi looked up, something flickering in her eyes. It could just have been hope, Jareth suspected. But there was something else there; because Susi knew that the only bargains that the fae made were when something was in their favour. And she had no idea what that would be in this situation.
"I'm listening," she replied anyway.
"I'll let you keep your daughter," he paused, judging the expression of the desperate woman before him.
"Under the simple condition that you stay in the Underground too."
Susi blinked. In an instant, many thoughts flickered through her mind. If she stayed, what she do? Why would the Goblin King want her to stay? What would it mean if she did agree? But one look at her daughter's beautiful little face had her answer on the tip of her tongue.
"As long as my daughter and I stay together, as we are; I agree."
She loved her daughter; and that had been what had convinced her to agree. Though soon that love wouldn't be all that was keeping her there. Soon there would be so much more.