Labyrinth and all its characters are not mine, and neither are the gods of Mt. Olympus.
Once upon a time, there was a great and vast kingdom. Ruled by the High King and Queen of the Fae, the Underground existed in a world parallel to that of the human realm. The two worlds did not overlap or connect, in fact, they barely touched at all. The only thing holding them together was something so seemingly small and insignificant.
It was but a mere babe.
But one young fae had noticed something odd about this babe. This babe had extraordinary power.
However, when he tried to tell the other fae of this wondrous babe, they became frightened, and they decided such power could not exist. And so the babe was sacrificed, for the good of all mortal and fae. And the humans celebrated this sacrifice, for the death of one had saved them all.
The young fae had grown fond of the babe, and he felt great sadness. In his mourning, he surrounded himself with the things faeries hated most—the ugliness of their troll cousins. Dwarves, goblins, ogres, beasts. They all swarmed to the grieving young prince, and he became bitter. He resented the fae who had killed this innocent babe. He resented the humans who rejoiced at the babe's death.
When the fae prince refused to dispel his newfound subjects, the High King and Queen threatened to banish him.
But he resented these wretched creatures now. He cared not for their idle threats.
And so he banished himself. He built a great tower, in which he gathered his precious, stupid goblins to keep them safe from his more graceful and deadly relatives. He built a castle to surround his tower and then a city to surround his castle. Over time, great walls grew from the very earth.
The young fae needed a name for the lands surrounding his great Goblin City. But no structure like this had ever been built, so he had no basis for comparison. He called upon the Ancient Fey, seeking their advice. All save one ignored him. She gave him the name of this great architecture—Labyrinth. And so he asked her advice again. What should he do with this Labyrinth? Upon consulting her Great Brothers and Sisters, she charged him with this task—to take all the wished away children of the world. Turn them into the creatures of his world and give them to families where they would be wanted.
Remembering his own fondness of one particular babe, he gladly accepted.
And so he became King of the Goblins. Lord of the Labyrinth. He cast aside his given name and his patroness gave him a new one. Jareth.
Over the millennia, Jareth became more and more antisocial. The fae wanted nothing to do with him, and mortals believed less and less in the power of wishes. His goblins became stupid, amusing themselves by torturing cats and chickens. Most of the dwarves returned to their mines. His beasts and creatures became wild and uncontrollable. He was forced to trap them in different parts of the labyrinth for fear of them tearing each other apart. And he himself became bitter, even though he had great amounts of magic at his disposal and could return to the High Palace at any time he liked.
He found himself longing for the babe. For those few precious moments when he'd held the babe in his arms. Such power. Such innocence. Such cruelty. He would show them. He would show them how cruel he could be. He would take their children, but to get them back would be near impossible. He would offer the children to the fae, but to take them would be unthinkable.
And as she watched over King Jareth, the goddess Athena wondered if, in her confidence of her wisdom, she had made a grave mistake.
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"Blast. Damn that bloody girl!"
Jareth knew he should have concentrated his energy on healing himself, but all he wanted was to curse the girl who had crushed his labyrinth. His heart.
After Sarah had defeated him, his power had weakened considerably. Unfortunately, that meant any fae with a grudge against him had the chance to come and inflict a good deal of damage. Jareth had many enemies, and few allies willing to stand up to those enemies.
Which was why he now rested deep beneath his castle, covered in wounds new and old. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth and down his chin where it mixed with various wounds covering his body. A dark pool formed beneath him and stained the nearby underground spring, but at the moment he wanted to wallow in self-pity.
"I offer her everything. Everything! And what does she do? She has the nerve to say I have no power over her. Oh, if Artemis could see me now, reduced to this by a mere maiden," he grumbled.
A giggle echoed off the walls of the underground cavern. It came from nowhere. Everywhere. Inside. Out. Jareth tried his best to ignore the sound, but he should have known better.
"Now, now. Jareth," the voice purred, "you know better than to ignore me."
She appeared before him in nothing but a slip of a gown. Her flowing hair flamed back and forth between red and gold. The flames of desire.
"Well," he drawled, "if it isn't the great Aphrodite."
The goddess of love knelt beside the broken man, trying her best to hide her disgust as his blood stained her dress.
"Dear me. What on Mt. Olympus has that girl done to you?"
"You are the goddess of love, are you not? I'm sure you can bloody well figure it out."
Aphrodite pulled back, offended. In all his years, Jareth had given in to her once, and after that never again. Athena had granted him the gift of cunning. He had gotten what he wanted from that one night, and had tossed her aside the next morning like some silly nymph. Ares, her usual lover, had never forgiven him for that injustice. It was why Jareth only used magic and never a weapon to fight his battles.
"Jareth," she said, "I'm willing to make you a deal."
"Oh?"
"If you do something for me, I'll help you get this little…nymph…you're after."
Jareth took a moment to consider. He knew better than to jump right into a deal with a deity, especially one as vague as this. However, he also knew how to make the goddess keep up her end of the bargain.
"I hereby swear to do what you ask of me until Sarah is mine—" Aphrodite opened her mouth to speak "—so long as you swear that she'll be mine upon the River Styx."
An inhuman screech left the goddess' lips.
Somewhere on Olympus, the three virgin goddesses smirked as they heard the shriek of a banshee.
Aphrodite wanted to throw something at Jareth, but settled for slapping him instead. He said nothing and took the goddess' fury with unprecedented calm.
Once her anger had passed, she ground out through clenched teeth, "I, Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Beauty, hereby swear to repay Jareth's service by returning to him his love, Sarah Williams. I swear it upon the River Styx."
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Sarah bolted upright in a cold sweat. That nightmare. It had been so real. She hadn't dreamed about the labyrinth in a long time.
Glancing at the clock on her bedside table, she groaned. 4:30. An ungodly time to be up in the morning. Thunder in the distance made her realize she would never get back to sleep, so she quietly made her way down to the kitchen.
Sarah loved returning home during vacation, if only for the fact that she could cook whatever she wanted. Mr. Williams had insisted she go to college, but frankly, college life didn't suit her. Even Karen agreed life seemed better with Sarah at home. Toby didn't fuss and she and her husband had more time for each other.
But Sarah knew. Or she had a hunch. Lately she'd been having strange dreams. She assured her father and stepmother it was just from all the mythology books she'd been reading, but when Toby started having the dreams too, she couldn't deny it. The labyrinth was calling them. Something told her it was a trap, but each day the call grew harder and harder to resist.
She watched the sun rise as she mulled over her latest dream. She'd still rather think about that than the fact that she had to return to the university today.
The morning hours passed too quickly for the Williams, and before Sarah knew it, she was back on school grounds. The gray stone building had always struck her as dreary and the uniform trees that lined the drive reminded her of the soldiers at Buckingham Palace. Sarah wished with all her heart that she could return home and be with Toby, but she knew better than to speak out loud. What's said would be said, but fae had a way of twisting words around.
Up she climbed, to the top floor of her dormitory. The school had already informed her that the girls' numbers had dwindled, which meant she had the whole floor to herself. It was a little odd, not hearing friends squealing after vacation, but she knew she'd come to appreciate the peace and quiet.
Opening the door to her room, Sarah smiled at the thought of how much space she'd have now. Her joy was short-lived, though, when she glanced at her ex-roommate's old bed.
There, lounging on the tattered old mattress as if it were a throne, lay the man of her dreams. Dangerous. Cruel. Beautiful. Jareth hadn't changed at all.
"Hello, precious," he smirked.
Sarah opened her mouth to scream.
AN: Soooooo….yeah. No clue where I'm going with this. How this evolved out of the original idea, I couldn't hazard a guess.