Disclaimer: I own nothing of the source material.
Savior
Ch 1
A pang of regret seized Sarah's young heart as the face of a stricken, sad but beautiful Jareth haloed in white, frothy feathers dissolved from her vision. She wondered if she should have said yes. Too late now.
Images of the Underground flashed before her as she felt herself sucked away from his world. In them were creatures of beauty and grace—horror and nightmares. A mermaid spun out of the water, droplets skimming across her glimmering scales and out in a fan of spray as it arched to dive down. A small gremlin crouched in a rocky alcove, picking at the inside of a snail shell, licking his prize from the tip of and long, snarled finger. The images became fuzzy but, just when she thought they would end, there was a spark of brilliant color. A lean, sure-footed woman sprinted through sinewy trees towards what looked like the Labyrinth's boundary walls.
The last image disappeared but it reverberated in her retinas, the woman had looked human, stunning and ferocious, but humanly so. Sarah's curiosity was blazed to life. She yearned to be the woman in that image, sleek and powerful. After all, Toby was safe, and she didn't really want to go back to the life she'd been living, to high school, to her bumbling awkwardness and worst of all— the loneliness. Nothing would be different, only herself. How could she live there after all this, all the wonders she experienced or glimpsed in those tantalizing images but would have to be kept secret? It would be even worse than before when she just imagined a world like this could be real.
Thoughtlessly, to distract herself from her dejection, she closed her eyes to fill her mind with the covetous thoughts of transforming into that woman dashing through a sun dappled forest, not the lonely girl that felt so shunned back at home.
With an alarming jarring sensation, her feet landed on solid ground and the familiar smell of wind swept through trees soothed her face. Opening her eyes to take in the view of her yard, she gasped when she saw the very woods she'd watched the mysterious woman sprint through. With a sinking feeling, she turned to see the familiar, imperious stonewall peaking through the tree trunks.
-6 years later-
Sarah pinched her fingers against the nervousness that bit at them, like always, right before a run. She'd helped so many successfully traverse the Labyrinth over the years but with every new challenge came the apprehension, the fear and the elation. Her success rate had hit nearly ninety percent these days, but she knew better than to get cocky. Her improving skill was fueling anger in the fey city and it was affecting the Labyrinth and its maker. With each victory something about the maze would change, just different enough to explain her ten percent failure rate. Each loss burned more after a string of successes.
Her brooding thoughts evaporated as Jareth appeared at the crest of the hill, beside him stood a small boy whose dark, honey colored hair whipped about his head as the ever present wind buffeted them.
Sarah frowned. The young ones were always harder to help. Some would cry and cling to her while others ignored her, pushing her away in shame for what they had done to end up there. Either way, it was just easier when the runners were older.
Jareth circled the boy and her eyes followed his path. He would speak, the boy would a few times, but he mostly just stood, resolutely scanning the expansive view of what was to come. Eventually, Jareth stopped talking and simply examined the boy, expression flitting through so many emotions; a storm incapable of interpreting.
She wasn't used to him spending such a long time with a runner. Usually just a few choice words, enough to stir anxiety and anticipation, a gesture towards the clock and they were off in their separate directions. But this time the two had been there long enough for Sarah to lose the edge of adrenaline buzz.
Just as the moment seemed it would expand indefinitely into time, it snapped away and only the blur of color imprinted on her sight showed the spot Jareth disappeared from. Blinking the after image away, she panicked for a moment when she saw the boy was gone. Tempted to run directly over the hill to catch up with him, she restrained herself, knowing Jareth always checked on runners immediately after reaching his castle. Sure enough, she spotted the translucent orb appear in the sky above where the boy must be. It's existent revealing itself only by the flash of reflected light.
Taking the longer route through the forest's edge, she caught sight of the boy as he passed, unaccompanied, through the front gate. The doors thudded behind the boy and Sarah saw the orb dissipate. Bursting from the tree line into the open grassland, she pumped her legs until she reached the wall. Scaling over she dropped to the other side, spinning the balls of her feet she saw the boy disappear into the wall. This was the first time someone had found an opening so quickly and without help. Taken aback, she made her way after him, scanning the sky before turning the corner.
His steps were steady and assured, only hesitating when stepping over branches just a little too high for his short legs. It seemed to her he wasn't at all frightened, until he stopped to inspect a wall for another opening. His profile exposed the strain on his face, and Sarah saw a glistening streak on his cheek as he hesitantly patted the craggy wall. She slowly moved forward, not saying anything but making sure to step on dry leaves and scrape her shoes.
He spun and Sarah saw his eyes widen to expose the whites of his blue eyes as they swam beneath his tears.
"Are you a monster too?" he demanded, his voice playing at strength but a crack betraying his fear.
She smiled gently and shook her head. "No."
"I think you are."
She shook her head again and crouched down when he started backing away. "I'm here to help you with that bad man."
He eyed her. "Really?"
"Yes. I know how to save whoever you wished away."
His eyes widened. "How did you... I didn't mean it. I didn't really want Sammy to go away." Tears trickled faster down his plump cheeks.
She moved closer and crouched beside him, patting his head as he tried to suppress the sounds of his weeping with clenched fists. "It's alright. You wanna know why I can help you? It's because I wished away someone I loved too."
He lowered his fists from his mouth and gazed up at her. "Really? You did that?"
She dried his face as she nodded. "Yep, and I felt so horrible and sad inside," she whispered, "but I made myself feel better by beating that bad man."
"I wanna beat him too then. I want my Sammy back."
She smiled down at the boy's earnestness, he cheeks blotchy from crying. "Well then we'll just have to get him back. What's your name hun?"
He hesitated and then tentatively smiled up at her. "Simon."
"I'm Sarah."
His smile wilted slightly. "Umm…"
"What's wrong?"
He shook his head.
"Alright, come on Simon." She stood and took his hand. "Let's go get him, but you have to do just as I tell you, and I can't always be with you so you have to listen really hard so you'll remember when you're by yourself, okay?"
"By myself?"
Squeezing his hand she said, "Sometimes, when the bad man comes to check on you, I'll have to hide. Do you understand?"
The worry began to creep back into his expression as she checked around a corner before leading him down another path, counting each connecting hall they passed. He nodded slowly as they walked hand in hand.
"And you have to promise not to tell that bad man, or anyone else that you meet, about me."
"So, I get to keep a super secret again?" He perked up. "Like when momma lost daddy's signed baseball and went crazy making the house all messy-messy looking for it, then got a new one and wrote on it with a marker, just the way she tells me and Sammy not to do on the walls?"
She laughed and grinned down at him. "Yes, just like that."
Jareth's mind strayed momentarily to the boy running the Labyrinth. He smirked as he ran a hand through the bright blond hair of the boy's brother who sat at his knee rolling crystals around so they'd crash into each other.
"Jareth?"
His eyes snapped back up to the man gritting his teeth and glowering at him through the crystal.
"I would think that taking the trouble to speak to you would at the very least warrant your full attention."
"You have nothing less, Bassir." His voice was soothing, calming the child who had jumped at the harsh tone.
The grimace showed he knew the truth as his eyes followed Jareth's arm down, though he couldn't see the child, he knew it was there. "I hope to see that little creature and it's partner in our hands soon."
"Unless he get's lost on the way to the City, I don't see why not."
Bassir's face tightened at the implication. "My trade routes are guarded. Anyway, Goblin King, it would seem that is less of an issue now that the transporter's trips are so few as of late due to a dwindling supply of humans to transport. The populations at the finishing schools have diminished to their lowest since you rose into your position. What have you to say for yourself?"
"I am taking the opportunity with every new runner to work on this issue."
"The whispers that you have not recovered from that original defeat grow stronger every year as this problem worsens. It all started so soon following it, after all." He grinned, as if savoring some secret thought.
Jareth did not respond, he knew what words passed from lips to lips in the courts.
"Does your pride overwhelm you to the point of ineffectiveness?"
"Not at all," his tone was light, as if not bothered at the slight to his pride. "I make changes and improvements to my Labyrinth constantly. I was not affected as severely from that single loss as many seem to suspect."
"It is far more than a single loss these days, Goblin King. What, then, are you doing about these forest dwelling runaways that plague our exchange routes?"
"The exchange routes are outside of my jurisdiction." He lifted an eyebrow. It was one of Bassir's duties to protect the transporters once they left the protection of Jareth's boundaries. "And, therefore, my worry. "
"Are you sure they are not also the ones responsible for sabotaging with your little game along with the trade routes?"
"I'm not sure if what plagues me is even human." His eyes were pointed and his tone cutting.
Bassir's face darkened at the implication. "You need to take control of your kingdom."
Jareth's eyes narrowed. "Yes, but it would be a comfort if I could be assured that the children I do send will make it to their destination safely."
Bassir huffed and waved his hand as if shooing an irritating fly from his face. "Fix what ails you, Jareth. We are a patient people, but that patience will be gone the day we suddenly have no humans to do their jobs. The transporters will receive more guarding for future trips, but it will be useless without trips to make."
The image snuffed out, then the globe teetered as the boy threw a crystal hard at the base holding it up. The ball hit at just the right angle to ricochet back and smack his cheek as it flew past. He wailed.
Jareth bent down and swung him onto a hip as he glided from his throne to a vast window. He pressed a cheek to the hot, bright pink one of the boy's that surely stung. "Now, now Sammy boy, no crying."
The child quieted as he pushed his upper body as far away from Jareth as the arms holding him up allowed, and stared. "Where's Simon?" his little bell voice asked.
"He's a busy boy right now, so I'm watching you." Jareth slid onto the wide ledge that looked over the Labyrinth. "I'm afraid I won't be loosing you back to the Above, because your little star player down there won't make it through." He lowered the boy to sit in front of him, where he gazed up, wary.
"What? A precedent has been set in your case. Bad luck, Sammy boy, but what I saw of your family when I was with your brother told me enough to know how to choose my weapons."
He twisted his fingers and a bauble appeared before the child's eyes. Sammy snapped it up and giggled, instantly distracted and contented.
"So save them, your precious tears, you'll use plenty where you two are going."
Sammy slammed the bauble down experimentally and almost followed it over the edge of the window trying to catch it when it bounced out and plummeted away.