It's quiet in the throne room, he muses as he bounces the child on his knee comfortably. He ignores the sense of dread that is impending; being a Goblin King is much like being the parent of toddlers. When things are quietest, things generally are not quiet at all.
Trouble.
He dutifully ignores the sharp tang of danger in the air; it makes the atmosphere crackle until the acrid smell of burnt metal hangs every-so-subtly in the room. He's safe; the girl - he spits the thought - and her companions have been dealt with. The Forbidden Forest is nearly as confounding as the stone maze, and with Sa - the girl - peacefully trapped within her dream, slowly fading away on the forest floor, hidden behind twisting trees and vines that seem to purposefully trip up those who tread their path, her friends will not be able to reach her in the time still left on the clock.
He does not look over his shoulder as the hands tick away the seconds.
He does not keep glancing at it, breath bated with every minute that passes quietly.
He does not pay attention to the acrid smell of Trouble that is beginning to get under his tongue, and he does not curse his sharp senses born to his kind.
He certainly Does Not wish a crystal onto the tips of his fingers to watch that Girl dance with the dream version of him, ensuring she is still far away and far from him.
Which is why, when the guard that comes clattering into the throne room in a mess of ill-fitting armor and heavy breaths, he does not curse the very existence of the Labyrinth that conspires with and against him from whim to whim.
"Yer Highness! Yer Highness!"
The goblin clang-clatter-crashes to the stone floor, raising a ruckus that Jareth can feel coalesce into a headache behind his eyebrows.
"Yer Highness, the girl...!" The goblin rights itself and the panic in its eyes does not do Jareth's nerves any favors.
"What?" Jareth bites out, careful to maintain a calm demeanor.
"The girl! The girl who ate the peach and forgot everything?"
Jareth does not want to ask. Jareth does not want to know. Jareth would like very much for this pitiful excuse of a guard to leave him and the infant be. Jareth, Master of Music and Time, would like so, so very much to reorder said time once more, but even as the next words come unwillingly from his lips, he can feel the Labyrinth itself gently but heavily laying a hand on his heart, preventing him from using any sort of time-related ability.
He swears mentally as the Labyrinth leans into him and says softly into his mind, It is time. Fight no longer. The battle is won, and you have Lost.
He grits his teeth, steels his resolve, and allows the Labyrinth to pull the words out of him, following the script to the letter.
"What of her?"
"She's here with the monster and the dwarf who worked for you!"
The rage that escapes Jareth's cold heart is so great that he feels the hold of the Labyrinth slip away, but even without its heavy hand over him, he can feel the futility of his next actions as he stands in royal furor, baby Toby still safe in his left arm.
"What?!"
"They got through the gates and they're on their way to the castle!"
Curse it all, he can Feel the pull of the script on his heart, claws sunk deep into his chest as he is tugged along on this twisted plotline, knowing all too well that his orders fall in vain on the ears of his loyal goblins.
(Okay, so they're not loyal, per say, but they are always itching for a good brawl, and this at least brings him a slice of comfort knowing that at the very least, Sarah will have to put up a decent fight to make it through this last obstacle.)
(And then he chuckles drily, ruefully. Let's see how you deal with this little slice. The cleaners had been a particularly inspired effort on his behalf, really; and then this twice-damned Labyrinth had given them a Secret Door, of all things. In their meager combined strength, she and the dwarf had hardly needed to shove to escape just in the nick of time into a Convenient alcove that Conveniently contained a ladder that Conveniently led quite far into the hedge maze that Conveniently was full of helpful little friends to Conveniently guide her on her way. He thought bitterly of the Wiseman, the Night Troll, even the Door Knockers that technically should have been much more confusing than they had been. All too Convenient, and all the doing of this infernal Labyrinth.)
"Stop her!" Jareth bellows, the words Pulled from his throat into the acrid air, moving them all merrily right along. "Call out the guards; take the baby and hide it." He's careful when handing the child to the nearest somewhat-motherly looking goblin; despite his careless airs and righteous fury at the baby's sister being allowed to waltz into his kingdom and kick his goblins and cause all sorts of general mayhem before crowning herself Champion and stealing his power and heart in the meantime.
(To be fair, he kicks them plenty; he's just irritated that someone else is doing the kicking. He's the King; he does the kicking!)
"She must be stopped!" he bellows finally, swirling his cloak about him and hurrying rapidly to the best vantage point as the goblin army clatter-clang-bangs out of the throne room, shouting orders of "Move! Move! Move!"
(If he'd have paused in his anger and fear and panic, he'd have noticed how unusually obedient the goblins had been as they dutifully filed out of the castle, ready to defend it at a moment's notice, while they were nearly always discombobulated, disorganized, and generally inclined to a more mayhem-style attack. Perhaps they felt the Change, too. Perhaps they felt the Pull. But in his fear, in the bitter Bog-like bile rising in his chest and throat at the thought of his inevitable defeat, he paid no heed, and merely hastened to the window ledge that afforded the best view of the ensuing battle.)
And battle the goblins do. The fight lasts at least a bit longer than he expected, simply because of the idiocy and cowardice of the girl and her companions. He watches gleefully as the army corners them in a tiny goblin-sized house, as the fox-knight is knocked from his fearful steed, as the dwarf ducks and runs from the mortar cannons.
The fight lastes all of six and a half minutes before that thrice-crused night troll howls for the rocks and the goblin army, always up for a fight but never for long, flee to their homes and nearby shelters, and Sarah is at the gates to the Castle Beyond the Goblin City.
He doesn't stay to watch the goblins fall all over themselves at their defeat as a victorious smile appears on Sarah's face and she enters his castle.
Fleeing from his vantage point high above, the Goblin King prepares yet another last challenge, desperately hoping to trap Sarah in the Escher Room. He knows in his heart of hearts that it will not deter her, but perhaps he hopes to buy time. He is the Master of Music and Time, he moves the stars, he can stall long enough for the thirteen hours to run out. And as that - that - child in her peasant blouse and peasant shoes runs loop after loop and climbs stair after stair, passion and belief and duty flooding her body with energy and adrenaline as she solves the Escher Room, Jareth, King of the Goblins, sings.
He sings in desperation and longing, unable to contain the words being Pulled, Coerced, Yanked from his mouth, confessing a love he does not truly feel and pouring his heart into a final plea. He stalks the hallways, walking through her as if she is made of nothing, holds a gloved hand and a crystal out to her and stares her down, and he sings.
I can't live within you.
For he knows that if - when - Sarah finally escapes his traps, finally pulls herself free of his sultry, otherworldly voice, and becomes once and for all Champion in her own right...that's what he will become.
A king living within the shadow of a mere girl, as he now hides in the shadows of the Escher Room and stares, broken, at her out of the corner of his mismatched eyes.
And then she leaps, leaps in faith and courage and the love of her baby brother, and his heart, tied to her victory, shatters.
And the room crumbles, falls away, and they are pawns on a chessboard about to reset, at the very heart of the Labyrinth, a queen poised to vanquish the king.
Sarah lands softly on the crumbling stone, staring in wonder at the seemingly endless void she has fallen into, strangely calm despite the floating pieces of the room. The power of the Labyrinth surrounds her, breathes peace into her, as it has finally found someone Worthy of its crown - the king's equal in every sense.
He nearly cries out as he is Pulled into existence beneath a crumbling archway and the green eyes of the Champion bores into his. No longer is she the cowering damsel, unsure but with confidence sparkling in her eyes in the low light of the tunnels as he towered over her. Now, she nearly seems to draw herself up higher, meeting his eyes with a defiance that speaks of the Labyrinth's attachment to her. She is in control, and she knows it.
He appears to her as gentle, clad in soft white, a force to appeal to rather than to defy. He knows it will do little good.
"Give me the child." Her voice is soft, but it is firm and steady, and he can sense the strength of the Labyrinth itself in her words. The Labyrinth may be controlling the outcome and the script, but her natural determination is only amplified in the words it Calls to her lips.
He fights. He rails. He screams.
"Sarah, beware." He struggles to maintain tranquility, desperate to at least hang onto the image of someone to be feared, to be not trifled with. "I have been generous, but I can be cruel."
"Generous?" Oh, how he hates her! How he despises the way she scolds him like a child, the way her words are not accusatory nor genuinely curious. They are patronizing, as if she is the masterful monarch and he the petulant child! "What have you done that's generous?"
"Everything!" he bites out, the fragile hold on his temper slipping. No matter; the Labyrinth will not allow him to unlease the full extent of his fury on its Chosen. He inhales and attempts to regain his control. "Everything that you wanted, I have done. You asked that the child be taken; I took him." He circles her, leaning in, leaning back. But despite his best attempt to appear the dangerous shark circling the scent of blood, he instead feels the pull of her power as if she were the sun and he the planets. He orbits her, caught in her gravitational field and unable to extricate himself. "You cowered before me; I was frightening." She spins as he circles, showing no signs of fear, holding his gaze as he stares her down from beneath strands of feather-white hair. "I have reordered time, I have turned the world upside-down, and I have done it all for you!" He punctuates the last sentence with a fierce glare and the dregs of his anger soaking down into his words. And then he leans back, listing dangerously to one side, furrowing his brows so that the lines of pain and age are quite visible on his otherwise porcelain face, and speaks the truth.
"I am exhausted from living up to your expectations of me."
For who had controlled this from the very beginning? The role of the villain, her friends, the ever-changing Labyrinth, the trauma of loss and the excitement of playing the hero - Sarah's expectations have driven the Labyrinth, and it in turn drives him. He is drained of power, starved of recompense.
"Isn't that generous?"
And yet, the creature before him draws herself up and stares him down, and almost detached, speaks the words he knows will be his undoing.
"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the Castle Beyond the Goblin City."
She takes a step towards him and another, and despite himself, her advance causes him to retreat back, down steps until she is level with him.
"For my will is as strong as yours, and my - "
He can't bear it. He fights against every instinct in his body and gathers up every shred of will he has left and plants his feet and leans forward, almost frantic in his fear. "Stop!" he demands on a desperate whisper. "Wait."
It had tempted her before, and it may tempt her again. The Labyrinth may be in control, but desire is the one thing it cannot rip from any being's heart. He whispers the crystal into existence and holds it, outstretched, on the tips of his fine white glove. "Look what I'm offering you. Your dreams."
His willpower aches as she merely holds his gaze. "...And my kingdom as great."
Oh, but her words burn. He is forced to relinquish his control and again forced to allow her advance. "I ask for so little," he pleads, finally desperate enough to make the only request he can think of. Perhaps if she accepted, he may be allowed to maintain his control, to keep his power, to not be forced to share. He nearly shudders at the thought. "Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want."
Is that...hesitation he senses in her? Her gaze breaks from his, seemingly shaken by his proposal. Was the Labyrinth's hold waning? The glassy look in her eye diminishes, and hope rises in his chest, despite the ache of the Labyrinth's claws holding him to his words.
"Kingdom as great..." she whispers to herself, almost as if in forgetfulness. He seizes the opportunity and attempts to draw her eyes to the crystal once more, leaning in and tilting his head as she turns away and back again. "Damn! I can never remember that line."
Forget, Sarah, forget! He holds her dreams out further and pleads, "Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave." His brows crinkle in open distress, begging her to reconsider.
"My kingdom as great, my kingdom as great..." Sarah continues murmuring, and the glassy look of the Labyrinth's control fades entirely. That stubborn sense of hope rises further, Jareth daring to hope that the Labyrinth has perhaps released its hold on both of them. He tests it, but it does no such thing.
He understands when, raising her clear, green eyes to his, Sarah's words coming only from her heart and through no control of the Labyrinth, that this is the Labyrinth's last cruel action. His undoing, at the hand of the child before him, will come purely and unadulterated from her and her alone.
"You have no power over me."
And Jareth falls.
A/N:
Soooooo I blame this on my friends because if it weren't for them I wouldn't be as obsessed with a sparkly David Bowie as I am right now. Mainly this was a bit of a worm in my ear because, and don't get me wrong, I've been in the Labyrinth fandom for approximately two months and my knowledge of canon may be lacking, but it seems to me that the Labyrinth fangirls have decided on several things consistently when it comes to this insane movie: First, that Jareth was only "playing his part" as the villain, i.e. the "living up to" Sarah's expectations of him that were so clearly exhausting; second, that he genuinely wanted her to win Toby back; and third, he was utterly crushed when she rejected his marriage proposal because he was totally and completely smitten.
Parts of this ring true. The constant "terrorizing" and throwing obstacles in her way and living up to her expectations was definitely exhausting; I mean, just look at him at the end confrontation. There was one fic I read that seemed to have the most logical explanation regarding this; that Jareth was bound by the Labyrinth itself to fall in love with Sarah and that greatly distressed him. Made a lot of sense to me, so I started thinking about the scene in the throne room when the goblin guard comes in and tells Jareth that Sarah is on her way and he reacts almost angrily, throwing goblins aside and demanding that Sarah not succeed. Seems a bit harsh and knee-jerk-reaction for someone who's smitten by choice. So here's my thought: what if Jareth knew the Labyrinth's schemes? Based on how easily Sarah defeated the Labyrinth (I mean, come on, if the Labyrinth really wanted her gone, it would have taken care of it), and how no matter what obstacle he threw in front of her, they all failed, it seems as if Jareth is doing anything possible, desperately trying to keep Sarah from succeeding - and he thinks he's won, with the peach dream and Sarah trapped - which is why he's suddenly so unsettled by how close she's actually gotten. (Any other runner - and there have been runners, but they are few - has never made it through the Labyrinth because the Labyrinth doesn't want them there.) Because he knows that once she wins, once she says the words - and he's not stupid enough to have not read every inch of that cursed red book on Sarah's desk - he'll be forever tied to her, forced to share his power, forced to answer to somebody. Because the Labyrinth knows Jareth has been alone for far too long, and it knows he will continue to grow in power, unchecked, until someone uses that power against him in equal measure.
Hence, the look on his face when Sarah says those words - not the look of a brokenhearted, lonely man, but the tired, resigned defeat on the face of a powerful king who knows his days of being peacefully left alone are over.