Authors Note: I wrote this story... wow... a really long time ago. I wanted to
explore Jareth's feelings about his position a bit more and to show how he
really is trying his hardest to what he knows how to do... even though that
may not be right. I don't own Jareth or the Labyrinth storyline... I own THIS
story and Diana however... and I wouldn't mind owning David Bowie... *winks
suggestively*
centerA Whole New World/center
How did it happen? Only a second ago he was in his castle, arguing with and tormenting the only girl to ever solve his Labyrinth... He had been trying to convince her to stay in his world but had lost... he had started to cast the spell that would send her back to her home when something happened... the next thing he knew he was... here...
The Goblin King looked around him at what seemed to be a forest. This was a thriving forest that didn't look anything like those that were in his Labyrinth. So where could this be?
"Are we... still in your world?" Diana asked in wonder as she scanned the surroundings herself. The looked like something from a fairy tale forest... she nearly expected to see Robin Hood. However something about this place unnerved her.
"I don't... think so..." The King replied as she voiced his suspicions. "This isn't your world either..."
"How do you know?" Diana turned to him for a second before returning her attention to the forest.
"I can't use any of my powers here..." The King confessed in a low voice and cursed at himself. All he had was his staff and his clothing... nothing more than that. All his abilities were apparently lost to him. He turned to the girl and saw that she was staring at the forest.
"Right. Well... please tell me you can fight without your powers..."
"What-" Jareth turned and met the sight Diana was watching. About a dozen men were glaring at them with bows and swords ready to attack. Judging by the looks of them they were bandits...
"What business do you men have in our forest?" The leader of the bandits demanded, brandishing his sharp sword before Diana. This man, tall, thin and muscular with long brown hair tied back in a pony tail was taking in their appearance.
"Men?" Diana repeated in a low voice. "I'm not a- Ouch!" She turned to look at Jareth angrily.
"Don't say anything, play along." The Goblin King spoke in a low but deadly serious voice. Diana opened her mouth to protest but he shook his head and silenced her. "Look." He nodded his head at something behind the group of men.
Diana looked curiously out at a horse drawn caravan on a nearby dirt road beyond the trees. There were more bandits there as well as a few carts, carriages and two groups of prisoners. One group, the men, were chained together in pairs and seemed to be in decent shape. The other group, the women, were chained onto a cart and looked as though they had been beaten and abused. Diana's eyes widened.
"Understand?" Jareth whispered. "You can either speak up and end up like them... or you can play along and let me keep an eye on you."
"Keep an eye on me?" Diana scoffed. "I don't need you to keep an eye on me; not when you nearly killed me earlier!"
"Listen Diana... you don't have a choice right now-"
"Well?!" The bandit interrupted and moved the sword closer to Diana threateningly. Jareth narrowed his eyes at the blade and turned towards it's owner.
"We got lost." He lied. At this the bandits began to chuckle and the sword was moved away.
"Is that all?" The leader questioned and when no response came he sheathed his sword in one decisive movement. "Well it looks like you chose the wrong forest to get lost in. Chain them up men! We'll let his majesty decide their fate for them." At this a few bandits came up and quickly shackled Jareth and Diana together, leading them to the other male slaves.
As the caravan began to move once again Diana heard one of the nearby guards talking. "Too bad we couldn't find a girl. Then we could have had a little fun. His majesty would never know if we took an extra girl for our own enjoyment."
"At least we know they aren't bandits..." Jareth mumbled.
When the caravan arrived inside the large stone castle of it's king the male slaves and female slaves were almost immediately led away in different directions. Diana and Jareth however were left behind and the leader gestured that they should follow him. Left without much of a choice the two did as he said and were led straight into the throne room. Once inside the room the guard knelt before his king.
"Sire... I, Sir Mathews, leader of your guard, have come across these two foreigners in the Black Forest. They say they have gotten lost and I brought them here so you could decide how the intruders should be dealt with." The leader of the would-be bandits announced.
"Very good... were there any females with them?"
"No sire."
"Ah... what a shame... I haven't tasted a foreign girl in so long... I find them much more pleasurable then our maidens..." The king shook his head. Diana shivered a bit and took a step closer to Jareth as the king looked over the catch. He had long black hair that fell halfway down his back and was a few inches shorter than the Goblin King.
Without a word the King stood and walked a bit closer to the pair before him. " I think..." he began with a cruel smile, "...that we should lock them up in the dungeons... torture them a bit... then we can kill them. It's no good to have a couple of weak young gentlemen from a foreign land for slaves; why they don't even look strong enough to be hand servants." He mused and watched his guards drag them away.
After the shackles around their wrists had been removed Diana and the Goblin King were thrown into a small, single cell dungeon together. "You two are stayin' here together. You get one meal a day... if I remember..." The guard cackled and slammed the door.
"What was that?!" Diana yelled at nobody in particular as she stared after the man. "That's not-"
"-fair?" Jareth offered. He dusted himself off and sat on a rock where he proceeded to stare at Diana. She simply glared at him. "Well that's something to the affect of what you were about to say wasn't it? Am I right?" He prompted. When Diana didn't respond he sighed. "I told you... didn't I Diana?"
"Told me what?" She frowned and walked over to stand nearer to him. It was growing cold in the stone cell.
"I told you that I had been generous." He answered her. "I bet you thought I was the cruelest, most horrible creature you'd ever met didn't you?" He wondered.
"You left out a few things... like arrogant, self centered, careless..." Diana began to count them off on her fingers. She stopped suddenly as the Goblin King took her hands in his to warm them.
"That's not the point." He smirked. "The point is... you were wrong. I did not try to kill you earlier... I was testing you. I thought you would give up; I did not expect you to go through the Labyrinth."
"But you did nearly kill me... many times. And you're horrible to the goblins you rule over. Just because I haven't seen you hurt a human doesn't mean I haven't seen and heard what you do to the other creatures. You don't deserve to be their King... not when you treat them like that." The blonde pulled her hands out of his.
"I am not a cruel person Diana." Jareth stood so that he was looking down in the girl's eyes. "I did not ask to be the King of the Goblins. I did not want to be the heir to that title... or anything else for that matter... but I did not have a choice in the matter. If I were to be the cruel Goblin King that I was expected to be however you would not be alive right now. I may have to accept what I am... but at least I can choose how I act when I rule over the Goblins... at least I didn't have to kill you."
"But you choose to rule the Goblins like they're your slaves... you treat them like crap and that's not right-."
"That's the only way I know how to live!" Jareth snapped. Diana was silenced immediately as he looked into her eyes. "That's it. I've never known kindness and I've never known anything about love or trust. There is nobody around my realm that can keep up with me enough to be my friend and those that are some-what suitable are all afraid of me. So I don't understand things like that... I never have before and I still don't. How can I base my actions on something I don't understand?!" His eyes held a pained and pleading look in them.
"You can't..." Diana sighed as she considered his words. "So until we get out of here I'll just have to teach you all that I can about friendship..." Jareth gaped at her in surprise. "But you have to agree to try to control yourself, be friendly with me, and try to learn."
"I-" Jareth couldn't find the words as Diana gave him a hug.
"Now listen up... here's the plan..." She sat on the ground and, when Jareth didn't follow her, pulled him down. "Sit close to me and we can stay a bit warmer." She explained.
"Um... alright..." Jareth was confused as he let the girl lead him. Cautiously he moved closer to her and almost immediately began to feel somewhat more thawed.
"Now... tonight... when all the guards are asleep we two are going to break out of this place." Diana announced.
"And how to you expect to do that with no power or tools between the two of us? There's a door to worry about as well as the risk of getting caught... we'd have to be armed to get anywhere." The Goblin King laughed in curious amusement.
"Look... you leave the door to me... I can take care of it. The problem is the weapons... we're going to have to go through a series of dungeons to get out of here and we'll need something to fight with... not to mention when we make it outside-"
"If we make it outside you mean." Jareth shook his head.
"Like I was saying... WHEN we make it outside we'll need it to survive; we'll be fugitives and they'll likely be trying to find us. Our main concern is weapons and the rest will be taken care of after we're escaped. You understand? Just focus on that. And I really hope you can use a weapon by the way..."
"Yes I can." Jareth assured her. "But I still think you're insane."
"Well would you like to stay down here and rot your highness? Perhaps you enjoy pain?"
"Well actually..."
"You know what... I don't want to know." Diana shook her head and Jareth laughed at her.
Later that evening Jareth watched intently as Diana pulled a key off of a necklace from around her neck. Reaching around through the bars there was a soft click as the key unlocked the door and Diana stood back.
"Skeleton key... works every time..." the girl chuckled at Jareth's impressed look. "Now come on... you know your part..." Diana muttered as she led him down the hallway carefully.
"Diana!" Jareth suddenly whispered.
"What?" The girl replied softly and turned just in time to catch the whip he had tossed to her. Without a word she hooked it on her belt and assisted him in his search through the nearby supply closet. They managed to walk off with several shackles, whips of different lengths, and Jareth found his confiscated cane. "Let's go." Diana prompted and they hurried through to the dungeons exit.
"There they are!" Called a stern voice from behind. Diana and Jareth spun around in time to see half a dozen guards charge at them from the direction they had come from.
"I'll handle them..." Jareth held out the staff and with great skill used it to disarm and knock out each one of the opposing guards. His movements were lightning fast as he spun it around and flipped swords out of their hands and brought the other end down to knock them off their feet.
"Nice..." Diana marveled at his handy work.
"Now is not the time to be impressed... you can tell me how great I am later but-" Jareth was cut short as Diana clamped a hand over his mouth.
"Shut up," She grinned. "You aren't all that great..."
"And I suppose you think you can do better?" Jareth mocked as they continued through the corridors, running into the shadows as the guards came close. They had almost reached the exit.
"No." Diana replied as she suddenly dodged an attack from a guard. She spun around and pulled the whip out in time to whip the guards sword from his hand and then to once again swing it back to knock his feet out from under him. After she had the guard down she wound the whip up and leapt skillfully into the shadows again. "I know I can."
Jareth gawked and followed Diana with a new sort-of respect and curiosity as she lead them through the door and out of the castle. As they ran through the town towards the edge of the forest he took it as an opportunity to ask something that was now bothering him.
"Exactly... WHERE did you learn to use a whip like that?"
"I happen to enjoy whips." Diana told him and quickly grabbed his hand to pull him through some trees and into the darkness of the thick trees.
"Is that so..." Jareth chuckled, "I would have never thought that YOU of all people were into that sort of thing."
"Oh grow up." Diana rolled her eyes, "I mean that my friend and I back home bought them for costumes and we like to play around with them. Not on each other mind you... we just like to practice with them for fun." Seeing the kind of look Jareth was giving her Diana simply sighed and ignored him. She didn't really care what he thought anyways.
centerA Whole New World/center
How did it happen? Only a second ago he was in his castle, arguing with and tormenting the only girl to ever solve his Labyrinth... He had been trying to convince her to stay in his world but had lost... he had started to cast the spell that would send her back to her home when something happened... the next thing he knew he was... here...
The Goblin King looked around him at what seemed to be a forest. This was a thriving forest that didn't look anything like those that were in his Labyrinth. So where could this be?
"Are we... still in your world?" Diana asked in wonder as she scanned the surroundings herself. The looked like something from a fairy tale forest... she nearly expected to see Robin Hood. However something about this place unnerved her.
"I don't... think so..." The King replied as she voiced his suspicions. "This isn't your world either..."
"How do you know?" Diana turned to him for a second before returning her attention to the forest.
"I can't use any of my powers here..." The King confessed in a low voice and cursed at himself. All he had was his staff and his clothing... nothing more than that. All his abilities were apparently lost to him. He turned to the girl and saw that she was staring at the forest.
"Right. Well... please tell me you can fight without your powers..."
"What-" Jareth turned and met the sight Diana was watching. About a dozen men were glaring at them with bows and swords ready to attack. Judging by the looks of them they were bandits...
"What business do you men have in our forest?" The leader of the bandits demanded, brandishing his sharp sword before Diana. This man, tall, thin and muscular with long brown hair tied back in a pony tail was taking in their appearance.
"Men?" Diana repeated in a low voice. "I'm not a- Ouch!" She turned to look at Jareth angrily.
"Don't say anything, play along." The Goblin King spoke in a low but deadly serious voice. Diana opened her mouth to protest but he shook his head and silenced her. "Look." He nodded his head at something behind the group of men.
Diana looked curiously out at a horse drawn caravan on a nearby dirt road beyond the trees. There were more bandits there as well as a few carts, carriages and two groups of prisoners. One group, the men, were chained together in pairs and seemed to be in decent shape. The other group, the women, were chained onto a cart and looked as though they had been beaten and abused. Diana's eyes widened.
"Understand?" Jareth whispered. "You can either speak up and end up like them... or you can play along and let me keep an eye on you."
"Keep an eye on me?" Diana scoffed. "I don't need you to keep an eye on me; not when you nearly killed me earlier!"
"Listen Diana... you don't have a choice right now-"
"Well?!" The bandit interrupted and moved the sword closer to Diana threateningly. Jareth narrowed his eyes at the blade and turned towards it's owner.
"We got lost." He lied. At this the bandits began to chuckle and the sword was moved away.
"Is that all?" The leader questioned and when no response came he sheathed his sword in one decisive movement. "Well it looks like you chose the wrong forest to get lost in. Chain them up men! We'll let his majesty decide their fate for them." At this a few bandits came up and quickly shackled Jareth and Diana together, leading them to the other male slaves.
As the caravan began to move once again Diana heard one of the nearby guards talking. "Too bad we couldn't find a girl. Then we could have had a little fun. His majesty would never know if we took an extra girl for our own enjoyment."
"At least we know they aren't bandits..." Jareth mumbled.
When the caravan arrived inside the large stone castle of it's king the male slaves and female slaves were almost immediately led away in different directions. Diana and Jareth however were left behind and the leader gestured that they should follow him. Left without much of a choice the two did as he said and were led straight into the throne room. Once inside the room the guard knelt before his king.
"Sire... I, Sir Mathews, leader of your guard, have come across these two foreigners in the Black Forest. They say they have gotten lost and I brought them here so you could decide how the intruders should be dealt with." The leader of the would-be bandits announced.
"Very good... were there any females with them?"
"No sire."
"Ah... what a shame... I haven't tasted a foreign girl in so long... I find them much more pleasurable then our maidens..." The king shook his head. Diana shivered a bit and took a step closer to Jareth as the king looked over the catch. He had long black hair that fell halfway down his back and was a few inches shorter than the Goblin King.
Without a word the King stood and walked a bit closer to the pair before him. " I think..." he began with a cruel smile, "...that we should lock them up in the dungeons... torture them a bit... then we can kill them. It's no good to have a couple of weak young gentlemen from a foreign land for slaves; why they don't even look strong enough to be hand servants." He mused and watched his guards drag them away.
After the shackles around their wrists had been removed Diana and the Goblin King were thrown into a small, single cell dungeon together. "You two are stayin' here together. You get one meal a day... if I remember..." The guard cackled and slammed the door.
"What was that?!" Diana yelled at nobody in particular as she stared after the man. "That's not-"
"-fair?" Jareth offered. He dusted himself off and sat on a rock where he proceeded to stare at Diana. She simply glared at him. "Well that's something to the affect of what you were about to say wasn't it? Am I right?" He prompted. When Diana didn't respond he sighed. "I told you... didn't I Diana?"
"Told me what?" She frowned and walked over to stand nearer to him. It was growing cold in the stone cell.
"I told you that I had been generous." He answered her. "I bet you thought I was the cruelest, most horrible creature you'd ever met didn't you?" He wondered.
"You left out a few things... like arrogant, self centered, careless..." Diana began to count them off on her fingers. She stopped suddenly as the Goblin King took her hands in his to warm them.
"That's not the point." He smirked. "The point is... you were wrong. I did not try to kill you earlier... I was testing you. I thought you would give up; I did not expect you to go through the Labyrinth."
"But you did nearly kill me... many times. And you're horrible to the goblins you rule over. Just because I haven't seen you hurt a human doesn't mean I haven't seen and heard what you do to the other creatures. You don't deserve to be their King... not when you treat them like that." The blonde pulled her hands out of his.
"I am not a cruel person Diana." Jareth stood so that he was looking down in the girl's eyes. "I did not ask to be the King of the Goblins. I did not want to be the heir to that title... or anything else for that matter... but I did not have a choice in the matter. If I were to be the cruel Goblin King that I was expected to be however you would not be alive right now. I may have to accept what I am... but at least I can choose how I act when I rule over the Goblins... at least I didn't have to kill you."
"But you choose to rule the Goblins like they're your slaves... you treat them like crap and that's not right-."
"That's the only way I know how to live!" Jareth snapped. Diana was silenced immediately as he looked into her eyes. "That's it. I've never known kindness and I've never known anything about love or trust. There is nobody around my realm that can keep up with me enough to be my friend and those that are some-what suitable are all afraid of me. So I don't understand things like that... I never have before and I still don't. How can I base my actions on something I don't understand?!" His eyes held a pained and pleading look in them.
"You can't..." Diana sighed as she considered his words. "So until we get out of here I'll just have to teach you all that I can about friendship..." Jareth gaped at her in surprise. "But you have to agree to try to control yourself, be friendly with me, and try to learn."
"I-" Jareth couldn't find the words as Diana gave him a hug.
"Now listen up... here's the plan..." She sat on the ground and, when Jareth didn't follow her, pulled him down. "Sit close to me and we can stay a bit warmer." She explained.
"Um... alright..." Jareth was confused as he let the girl lead him. Cautiously he moved closer to her and almost immediately began to feel somewhat more thawed.
"Now... tonight... when all the guards are asleep we two are going to break out of this place." Diana announced.
"And how to you expect to do that with no power or tools between the two of us? There's a door to worry about as well as the risk of getting caught... we'd have to be armed to get anywhere." The Goblin King laughed in curious amusement.
"Look... you leave the door to me... I can take care of it. The problem is the weapons... we're going to have to go through a series of dungeons to get out of here and we'll need something to fight with... not to mention when we make it outside-"
"If we make it outside you mean." Jareth shook his head.
"Like I was saying... WHEN we make it outside we'll need it to survive; we'll be fugitives and they'll likely be trying to find us. Our main concern is weapons and the rest will be taken care of after we're escaped. You understand? Just focus on that. And I really hope you can use a weapon by the way..."
"Yes I can." Jareth assured her. "But I still think you're insane."
"Well would you like to stay down here and rot your highness? Perhaps you enjoy pain?"
"Well actually..."
"You know what... I don't want to know." Diana shook her head and Jareth laughed at her.
Later that evening Jareth watched intently as Diana pulled a key off of a necklace from around her neck. Reaching around through the bars there was a soft click as the key unlocked the door and Diana stood back.
"Skeleton key... works every time..." the girl chuckled at Jareth's impressed look. "Now come on... you know your part..." Diana muttered as she led him down the hallway carefully.
"Diana!" Jareth suddenly whispered.
"What?" The girl replied softly and turned just in time to catch the whip he had tossed to her. Without a word she hooked it on her belt and assisted him in his search through the nearby supply closet. They managed to walk off with several shackles, whips of different lengths, and Jareth found his confiscated cane. "Let's go." Diana prompted and they hurried through to the dungeons exit.
"There they are!" Called a stern voice from behind. Diana and Jareth spun around in time to see half a dozen guards charge at them from the direction they had come from.
"I'll handle them..." Jareth held out the staff and with great skill used it to disarm and knock out each one of the opposing guards. His movements were lightning fast as he spun it around and flipped swords out of their hands and brought the other end down to knock them off their feet.
"Nice..." Diana marveled at his handy work.
"Now is not the time to be impressed... you can tell me how great I am later but-" Jareth was cut short as Diana clamped a hand over his mouth.
"Shut up," She grinned. "You aren't all that great..."
"And I suppose you think you can do better?" Jareth mocked as they continued through the corridors, running into the shadows as the guards came close. They had almost reached the exit.
"No." Diana replied as she suddenly dodged an attack from a guard. She spun around and pulled the whip out in time to whip the guards sword from his hand and then to once again swing it back to knock his feet out from under him. After she had the guard down she wound the whip up and leapt skillfully into the shadows again. "I know I can."
Jareth gawked and followed Diana with a new sort-of respect and curiosity as she lead them through the door and out of the castle. As they ran through the town towards the edge of the forest he took it as an opportunity to ask something that was now bothering him.
"Exactly... WHERE did you learn to use a whip like that?"
"I happen to enjoy whips." Diana told him and quickly grabbed his hand to pull him through some trees and into the darkness of the thick trees.
"Is that so..." Jareth chuckled, "I would have never thought that YOU of all people were into that sort of thing."
"Oh grow up." Diana rolled her eyes, "I mean that my friend and I back home bought them for costumes and we like to play around with them. Not on each other mind you... we just like to practice with them for fun." Seeing the kind of look Jareth was giving her Diana simply sighed and ignored him. She didn't really care what he thought anyways.