Title: Red Diamonds
Author: Palla
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Jareth unwittingly messes with a pair of Aboveground residents when he kidnaps the female and her male companion goes on a journey to rescue her.
Keywords: Jareth, romance, friendship
---
Part One
---
Anger is more powerful that love, friendship, or anything kind. An off branch of that emotion is rage, and rage is the maelstrom of the mind.
Jareth, King of the Goblins, was the Prospero of the Underground at this moment, bringing down the rains and hail that poisoned his mind. For years he had been like this, destroying his kingdom in an attempt to alleviate the sorrow he felt over the loss of Sarah seventeen years ago. This was a rather long time to hold a crush on someone, but she had been different, the only one, human or Fae, to ever have beaten his labyrinth.
Today, he strode down the hallways of his castle, looking for something, anything, to distract him. The few goblins that had the misfortune to cross his path were kicked out of the way, scrambling off to see to their wounds. It was typical for Jareth to do this, but lately he had been hurting them a lot more, causing an overflow in the healer's office. The healer had half a mind to talk to Jareth, but the other half of his mind told him this would be a grievous mistake.
Having paced around the entirety of his castle at least twenty times, Jareth decided to retire to the Escher room, a pleasant pastime. Of course, this might be a bad idea, since this was where he had last seen Sarah in the real world. He dismissed this thought; he would not let this phantom woman rule him anymore. Reluctantly, he had to admit; it was time to leave her where she was and think no more on the subject.
"Having an off day, my dear friend?"
Looking up, Jareth saw a man standing on the ceiling. Or, maybe, the floor?
"Dannos, how nice of you to drop in. Might I ask what this visit is all about?"
The man, who for all appearances looked no more than sixteen years of age, frowned. "Haven't you missed me these past centuries?"
"Not really. Your magic caused me quite a bit of trouble when you were last here. Speaking of which," Jareth chuckled as he walked through an arch, "weren't you banished from the Underground for your prank on the High King?"
A red tinge appeared on Dannos's cheeks. "Truthfully, I was, but the king has said that, as long as I don't stay here too long, I am allowed to return to my home for periods of time."
"Is this recent?"
"Quite."
"And your first visit was to an old friend? Something is amiss in this. You were never much for friends unless you were trying to get them to join you in some troublesome adventure or prank. What is it this time?"
Dannos descended the stairs in front of him and met Jareth at the bottom (or the top?).
"I am offended that you'd think such a thing of me. We were best friends once, weren't we?"
"Before you used your magic to put gallons of the Bog's water into my bedchamber, yes, we were friends. Which is one of the reasons why I am not sending you into an oubliette at this very moment."
"The other reason?"
Jareth smiled. "Maybe it is because I am intrigued. I must admit that many of your escapades were quite interesting. Am I correct in assuming that you are here to propose a trick? A prank of some sort?"
"Not so much a trick as the bringing someone here for some fun."
Jareth's eyebrow rose at this. "You cannot be serious. Do you not know what happened the last time that a human was here? You wouldn't, though; you were still Aboveground at the time."
Dannos shifted uneasily at the mention of this.
"What?" Jareth questioned, noticing the all too familiar expression of nervousness. "What do you know?"
"It's not so much what I know, but rather what every human in the Aboveground knows."
Jareth's confused look proved that he had very little to do with the affairs of Sarah's world and therefore knew nothing of what had happened when Sarah had returned home.
Dannos sighed. "In the human year 1986, a film was released which told the story of Sarah's journey here. I believe Sarah may have acted in the movie under an alias. How else could someone know the tale in such detail?"
This was an overload. Jareth sank down onto one of the steps.
"She.she's told the world our secrets?" he whispered, shocked that the woman he had thought he loved would do something like that.
Dannos could see that his words were affecting Jareth more than he would have thought, or liked for that matter.
"Come on, old boy. You can't let this disturb you. Tell you what; how about if you and I go Aboveground and have a little fun?" He snapped his fingers. "I have the perfect idea."
Jareth leveled a cool gaze in his direction. "What, my dear friend, might that be?"
A mischievous glimmer appeared in Dannos's eyes. "You'll have to wait and see." With a wave of his hand, the five-hundred-year-old Fae vanished, knowing that, seconds later, Jareth conjured a crystal and followed him. To the world above his own, to the world of humans.
To Sarah's world.
