Author's Note: I would just like to thank Tessa for the original idea behind this fic. Please enjoy!
"You have no power over me!" Sarah said with a mixture of conviction and awe. As she faded from view and his life in one fell swoop, the words echoed in her wake. Jareth wanted to scream. Instead, his foot connected with the nearest waddling goblin.
He had lost her again. More than two hundred years ago, he had failed to win her. All of this time and experience, everything he had been through since, and he still could not claim what was his to hold.
Was she sorry that she had broken him again? Did she even know what she had done? He had to know; it would tear at him if he did not find out. Without this knowledge, he could not determine to what length he would have to go to finally have his Holy Grail.
In a puff of smoke and feathers, he transformed into an owl and made the transition to the Aboveground. He arrived as Sarah did, his previous reflection taking up mere seconds instead of the hours of torment that he had believed them to be. As quickly as he good, he flew from her living room to perch outside her bedroom window. It was not an unfamiliar place for his weary wings to rest, but it was tiresome now because he did not have the luxury of hope that he had had prior to Sarah's encounter with his Labyrinth. She followed him soon after and began to speak with her friends, Hoggle, Ludo and Didymus, though Jareth could not see the bumbling idiots that had assisted his eternal love in ending his hold on her for a second time.
"I need you Hoggle," Sarah said. She appeared almost ashamed to admit that she could ever need friends that she now seemed to believe were little more than figments of her imagination.
"You do?" he asked in surprise.
"I don't know why, but every now and again in my life, for no reason at all, I need you. All of you," she said, looking nearly melancholy since she had defeated the Labyrinth. The expression was swift, and carried away by the joy at seeing all of her friends from the Underground fill her room.
Jareth watched her with interest from the window. He was suppressing the nearly overwhelming feeling of loss by taking joy in her need for him, even if he, the King of the Goblins, was lumped in with her various less impressive friends. She still needed him, and that gave him fresh hope, though it was feeble, fragile plant, too near to the frost for any conscious gardener's tastes. It was best if he withdrew it from the possible source of harm. Also, as a result of the over abundance of happiness within the house, the despondency within him threatened to break free, locked out as he was of both her bedroom and her heart, withdrawal from the scene seemed to be the best course.
Though the party had barely begun, he marked himself as the first deserter. It was far too much to know he had nearly had her, that he had laid his heart out in front of her, offered to bend to her every whim, and still she refused him. It hurt too much, too much to think about, too much to bear. As soon as he was out of human sight, he transported himself back to his throne room and paced. The goblins recognized his behavior and skidded out of his way as fast as they could, lest they become the target of his angry foot.
All of his planning was destroyed, years upon years wasted in the vain attempt to follow her family line and win her, no matter how he had to do it. The play, Labyrinth, had been the perfect means of reaching his goal, and it was simple to slip it into her locker during her freshman year of high school. She had long since developed into the fanciful sort, and it became all too easy for Jareth to play to her preferences. The birth of her half brother had been what truly sealed the scheme. The girl had played right into his hands, right up until she claimed that he held no power over her.
His heart, so painstakingly mended, was again shattered.