Title: In Love And War
Author: waking_epiphany (Jamie)
Rating: PG-13...for now ;-)
Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me; they belong to Jim Henson and Brian Froud.
Pairings: Jareth/Sarah. Duh.
Timeline: Five years since the end of the movie.
Summary: Five years after Sarah Williams destroyed the Underground and its king she finds herself once again fighting for the people she loves. A decrepit, crumbling carnival is the setting of Sarah and Jareth's final showdown for not only her friends' freedom, but Sarah's own. Is thirteen hours enough time for Sarah to solve the riddle of Goblin King's labyrinthine heart?
Author's Note: Finally a literary foray into my very first fandom. I get an "A+" for alliteration! This story has been a long time coming and has been inspired by a great many things (the L.J. Smith book series, "Forbidden Game", the band Nox Arcana, the "Madame Endora" tarot deck, the "Madame Fate" video game, David Bowie's considerable area, etc.) but especially by all the great Labyrinth fanfiction out there. Thank you for keeping Labyrinth in our hearts all these years...as well as in our loins. Amen. Check out the soundtrack downloads at: h t t p : / / waking - epiphany dot livejournal dot com /
Two brothers stare at each other across a chessboard.
"Stalemate," the lighter haired sibling states in an icy tone. He is tired of this game, tired of always losing. This game ends in a draw, as they always do, but if he doesn't win its always considered a failure. He rakes a hand through his wild, blond hair and breaks eye contact. His brother grins wickedly at him, his amber eyes flashing like a cat's.
"There must be a way to see who is better," the darker haired brother pouts. His blond brother rolls his different colored eyes. The black haired brother clenches his fists in momentary rage. Jareth's eyes are what give him away as an imposter, as a peon, as less than royalty.
"You have everything, Ash," Jareth points out. There is an almost effortless movement of his hand, quicker than Ash can see, and a crystal appears. Ash looks into the crystal, resentment coursing through his veins. Though he suspected the flaxen haired Jareth was only of his father's blood and not of the royal union between their father and his mother, the Queen, the golden boy has always been more skilled in magical arts and first in their father's eye. Until their father's untimely death, of course.
Ash sees his kingdom inside the sphere. As the eldest son he is High King, ruler of not only the Kingdom of the Fae, but of the smaller, less prestigious realms. He is sovereign to the almost extinct Empire of the Dwarves, the proud and nomadic Coalition of Centaurs, the overpopulated Fen of the Fairies, the fierce and territorial Brood of Dragons as well as dozens more. There is only one kingdom he does not reign over.
The Labyrinth is small, filled with smelly but loyal goblins that do his brother's bidding. It is a beautiful land, but that is not why Ash wants it. He wants it because it was his father's favorite kingdom, where he would go to escape his mother and play with his precious humans. He wants it because it was the only thing refused of him in the will when the old man died. He wants it because it is Jareth's and like all things Jareth has, Ash wants it.
"I deserve everything," Ash replied loftily, leaning back on his throne. The chess board is set outside the gates of the Labyrinth, in the orange, barren wasteland known as The In Between. It is a place of more or less neutral ground on which the brothers can sit as equals for at least a game of chess. But they will never be equals.
"No one person deserves everything," Jareth says softly, almost to himself. There was a time when he believed that. Now, there was one person who did deserve it all; everything he had to give and everything he didn't. He laid himself at her feet and she destroyed him for it. It has been five years since Sarah ran his Labyrinth and he was still picking up the pieces of his broken world.
And yet...he waits. He bides his time, holding out until it feels like torture. Only then will he indulge himself, using a looking glass to catch a glimpse of her living her normal life. He used to use her friend, the spineless dwarf; pumping the fool for information when he came back through the mirror after she had summoned him. Jareth had tried sending the great beast and the fox-knight, but they were...less willing to cooperate. Alas, after a few years even Hoggle could not cross between the two worlds, for Sarah had stopped calling for him.
Sometimes Jareth would take flight in his predatory form, his white feathers catching the wind and he would somehow always find himself perched outside her window. This is the only way he can enter the human realm without being wished there. Without a summons he is forced into this constricting form, of feathers and of flight. Jareth finds that it is only when she is near that he feels truly at home. He can still watch after her, be a slave to her whims and know she is well...even if he is not the one at her side.
Jareth has used his influence in the Aboveground, the name that the Fae had given the human realm. From the safe confines of the Labyrinth, he sends her wishes to her from his bedroom window, the crystals floating and undulating in the wind until they find her through the veil between worlds. He knows others envy her inexplicable good fortune, as well as her comely looks. There is no getting by the fact that she has blossomed into a beautiful woman; maturing into her figure and face in a way that seems sweetly agonizing to Jareth. She keeps her dark hair long and silky like he likes. He does not want to dwell on how she has matured in body; that line of thinking leads him to a place in which he finds it difficult to control himself.
Ash has noticed his younger brother has gone still, his mind clearly somewhere other than The In Between. He knows this look; the faraway, wistful mask that takes over when his brother is thinking about the one that got away. Ash knows very little about the girl except that her name is Sarah and she somehow bested the man who had never been bested. He caught a glimpse of her image in a crystal Jareth had conjured once. She was pretty, in that ordinary, human way, and he simply could not see what held his brother in such fascination of her.
Ash also knows Jareth became despondent after the encounter and that the Labyrinth was almost completely destroyed. He thought he should be thankful to this human girl for so thoroughly breaking his younger brother but there is no victory for him in it. Ash was not Jareth's ultimate undoing, it was this lowly human, this Sarah that crippled the golden boy.
It was in this moment that Ash knew how to rule his brother, completely and utterly.
"I know a game we could play," Ash suggested lightly, as if this held no importance at all.
"Oh, and what game would that be?" Jareth asked in a bored monotone. "I'm afraid I left Trivial Pursuit in my other pants." He longed for this sorry excuse for a reunion would end already. He was thinking of the paperwork that lay on his desk in the study. He was to hear grievances of the goblins in an hour's time and hold a full court for the evenings' dinner...none of which he wanted to do. What he wanted was to send a wish to Sarah, today of all days, and watch it come to fruition. After all, birthdays are days for wishes to come true.
"A game of cat and mouse," Ash suggested slyly.
"I think I am bored of your games," Jareth replied, standing up. "Who wants to play a game if you can never win?"
"How about a game that you have to win?" Ash asked, who swung his feet up on the chess board, knocking pawns off the board and onto the sand below them. "A game with a prize so great you could not resist playing?"
"There is nothing of yours that I desire," Jareth said drolly. With this, he turned from his brother and began walking to the entrance of the Labyrinth. True, he was not High King, but he had never wanted to be. He was content with his small patch of land and everyday rituals. What he desired was not of this world and certainly nothing his brother could give him.
"There will be, if you do not play with me."
Jareth stopped. There was no mistaking the menace in his brother's words. A chill worked down Jareth's spine and stopped his heart. He felt the cold noose of his brother's intentions work their way around his throat and he knew. He didn't know how, but Ash knew about Sarah.
"What do you propose, brother?"
"The rules are simple," Ash started, removing his feet from the table and leaning forward, his hand reaching out and palming once of Jareth's white chess pieces. He played with it, his fingers caressing the smooth white marble as he spoke. "You will play a game of cat and mouse with an old adversary of yours. If she defeats you, I win. If you defeat her, you win. But you cannot make it impossible...you have to give her a chance to beat you as well as giving me the chance to help her along the way. Then we will finally know who is the best. Simple enough for even you to understand, I'd think."
Jareth was frozen. He didn't know how Ash knew but he knew. He didn't want to even say her name, for fear it would expose him so completely.
"What would we win?" Jareth asked as neutrally as he could manage. Inside he was ice; unmoving in his determination and something akin to fear.
Ash shrugged his shoulders, his finger tracing the cold curves of the chess piece. "Sarah, of course. Should you win, she would be yours to do whatever you please. But if I win...well, then I could do whatever I wanted with her. And trust me, brother, I have a very vivid imagination."
With some effort, Ash conjured up a crystal of his own. Where Jareth's crystal's were light and air, Ash's where dark and murky, with greasy, shifting colors like an oil slick. He blew it over to his brother, where pictures of what he would do to Sarah floated over the sphere's surface. They were images of hate and control, of bondage and submission, of humiliation and slavery.
Something shifted inside Jareth. The fury was so great that he radiated with it. Ash dropped the chess piece he was holding in the one, infinitesimal moment that he was truly scared of Jareth. The magic surrounded Jareth in an electric shield of anger and power, until Ash realized he had the upper hand.
"If you choose not to play, well then, that's just as good as a victory for me," Ash said, picking up the chess piece again and stroking it in a sensual, almost obscene way. "Because you have no control Aboveground unless you are wished there. As High King I can go into all kingdoms I choose...including the human realm. Sarah and I could become good friends. Very, very good friends."
"She would never have you," Jareth said in low voice.
"She would have no choice," Ash replied with a smirk. "So, will you play for her? In our final game?"
To Ash's surprise, Jareth smiled. It was a feral, predatory thing with a life of its own. Those sharp teeth, the eye that was all pupil; he'd never seen his brother so alive.
"I think I'll play your little game," Jareth said icily, the cold smile still playing on his thin lips. "And I think...I think it will be a piece of cake."
Ash turned up his nose at the human turn of phrase. He was so like their father...and no doubt like the human whore his mother unquestionably was.
"Then let the games begin," Ash said delightedly, standing up. He threw the white chess piece to Jareth, who caught it deftly. With a turn of his heel he disappeared into the sand-swept breeze, leaving only a few tendrils of oily smoke and an impression of a polished boot in the sand.
"And let the best man win," Jareth said to the space where his brother used to be.
For years he had been content to hover in the shadows, watching Sarah, waiting for the night she'd wish for the Goblin King once more. He'd tried to take care of her in his own way...a strange thing to do for someone who had beaten him so completely. He thought of it as his punishment for losing: to love his enemy so completely he was a slave to her. How he could love someone and hate them in such equal measure? He wanted to be free of her influence, but in truth she was with him every moment of every damn way, just out of sight until he couldn't stand to be without her any longer.
Jareth looked down at the white chess piece. He held the white Queen in his hand. She looked so small but she was so powerful...the most powerful of them all.
He'd play Ash's game, all right. To save Sarah he'd have to destroy her...as she destroyed him.
And Jareth knew just how he'd do it.
* * *
Sarah heard the carnival before she saw it. At first she thought it had been the radio, a stray static-filled station picking up the faint strains of a melancholy calliope piece. She looked to the car's center console for the radio to change it to something else but found it was already powered off. She had forgotten that Jeremy never drove with the radio on. Puzzled, she leaned forward to the speaker but found it without life. The pipe organ sounded incredibly far away...and at the same time, Sarah heard something inexplicably like soft laughter in the car with them. She shook her head to clear her mind and peered out the window, noticing for the first time that her boyfriend had not turned off the right exit for the movie theater. She peered over at her boyfriend, who had a silly, knowing smirk on his face.
Sarah groaned. She hadn't always dreaded surprises. There was a time when she longed for something glorious, scary, and beautiful to cross her path...untilit actually did. She knew a lot of her maturity and setting aside of childhood fantasies stemmed from that night that lasted for thirteen hours. Now, looking back, she saw the Goblin King as a catalyst, a spark that set her off in the right direction. Even though, five years later, she could never be quite sure how much of her trip to the Labyrinth had been real and how much had been fantasy.
So when Jeremy missed the exit for the movie theater, and then again the next one for the turnaround, Sarah crossed her arms in front of her chest, feeling a chill of doubt creep up her spine.
"Maybe you should let me drive," Sarah said smartly, squinting her eyes against the setting sun. "I know exactly where the theater is."
"Sarah, I hardly trust myself driving this car, let alone someone who has never driven a stick shift before," Jeremy said with a laugh, pushing the Porsche into high gear. "Not that I doubt your excellent driving skills, of course."
"Of course not," Sarah murmured, not really hearing him. She heard it again, the soft undercurrent of laughter, mixed with a swirling and eerie tune. But following the minor-keyed melody, as off-kilter as it may be, was like catching smoke. As soon as she found it, it became silent once more.
The Porsche was a gift to Jeremy from his parents for his 21st, and this had been the first time he'd taken her for a spin. He'd promised a low-key movie and dinner date for her 20th birthday, but Sarah was beginning to have her suspicions about that.
She peered out the car window, not recognizing the turnoff from the highway onto a bumpy, country road. Red and orange leaves swirled around the vehicle, enveloping them in an autumn shower of foliage. The sky had that strange, gray green tinge to it that indicated an October storm was coming. The trees grew closer and closer together as they traveled down the dirt road and suddenly Sarah had a flash of something; a memory or a fantasy, she couldn't tell, of a dense and dark forest, sparkling with shimmery fairy webs and the taste of peach on her tongue.
She closed her eyes against the image. When she decided it was safe to open them, she was bombarded with flashing lights, sirens, inexplicable honking, bright colors and that music, that damn circus tune.
It was a carnival, except...it was empty. The lights were on, yes, but there was certainly no one home. The Ferris wheel made its revolution slowly, seemingly on its own volition. A lonely, decrepit roller coaster ran on rusty tracks. Tiny tents boasting games, treats, and tricks were faded and worn. It was a sad, eerie scene that stole Sarah's breath away.
"Come on!" Jeremy said excitedly. He practically jumped out of his seat and ran over to open her door. His brown eyes were alive with anticipation and he practically dragged her out of the car.
"I rented out the entire carnival for your birthday," Jeremy exclaimed, clearly pleased with himself. Sarah couldn't shake the feeling of unease as she inhaled the sickly sweet smell of cotton candy and buttery popcorn. There was something wrong here, something unworldly about this place. It was so empty and desolate, completely devoid of life.
"Jeremy, there's no one here," Sarah said warily, resisting slightly when he attempted to lead her toward the carnival. "I don't want to ride anything that doesn't have someone at its controls. I'd rather not spend my birthday in a roller coaster car that is careening off its rails. A trip to the hospital is not in my plans."
"That's not exactly true," Jeremy said, his face lighting up like a mischievous little boy and Sarah couldn't help but smile. With his light brown hair, dark eyes, and sweet disposition, Jeremy Grey was just the kind of boy she should be with. She let him steer her toward the midway.
"A trip in the hospital is in my plans?"
"No, weirdo," Jeremy said affectionately. "There are carnies here, just out of the way. The ringmaster told me they were very discrete, as to enhance the carnival experience."
"That's not exactly normal," Sarah said skeptically. Man, was this place creepy. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but there was hopelessness in the broken bulbs and decrepit booths. It felt haunted...but whether it was the carnival that was haunted or herself, she could not be sure.
"Well, there were these other people who just happened to show up..." Jeremy's voice trailed off and Sarah felt something latch on to her leg.
She yelped, only to look down and see her six year old brother, Toby, sitting on her foot with his little arms encircling her leg. She reached down and ruffled his wheat colored hair.
"Hi," Toby said succinctly, looking up adoringly at his older sister.
"Hey, kiddo," Sarah replied, smiling at him.
"We might have performed a minor act of kidnapping," Sarah heard a familiar voice call to her. She felt something inside her relax. Jon Sherlock was her best high school friend, whose witticisms and easy laugh always made her smile. They met after Sarah finally got up the courage to try out for her high school play, instead of simply playing make believe in the park near her home. He was always cast in the lead of whatever play was being put on that year because of his ability to transform into any character as well as his beautiful, melodic singing voice. Technically, he had been her first kiss, though he says it did not count because: A) it had happened in a play and B) he never counted kisses from girls as anything of any importance. She had been a dark haired Cinderella and he had been her gay Prince Charming and she treasured their continued friendship even after they had gone off to separate colleges.
"Oh really?" Sarah asked him, accepting his hug.
"Yeah, we stole into your home and took your brother," Jon said amiably. "And maybe some fine linens and the good china."
"We?' Sarah asked, looking around.
"I've been corrupted!" Sarah turned to the wounded voice and found her college roommate, Cassandra Kane, holding her hands against her considerable bosom in mock outrage.
"I certainly wasn't the one to corrupt you," Jon said, holding his hands up in surrender. "I think the Reed University lacrosse team took care of that one."
"I resent that remark," the buxom blond retorted.
"No, you resemble that remark," Jon smartly replied, slinging an arm around Sarah's college friend. "Anyway, bringing Toby was her idea, but one I quickly seconded."
"We'll try to keep the sexual innuendos to a minimum," Jeremy promised, his fingers raised in scout's honor.
"Sexual in-your-end-oh's." Toby repeated in singsong voice.
"Oooooh," Jon and Cassie said accusingly, pointing at Jeremy. Sarah laughed long and hard.
Sarah looked around at her sweet boyfriend, her funny best friend, her thoughtful roommate, and her mischievous brother and couldn't help but smile. Why was she so anxious about this whole thing? Obviously Jeremy had spent a great deal of money on this present...well, his parents' money but a lot of money nonetheless. She enveloped her boyfriend in a hug.
"Thank you," she said, smiling. "I have a feeling this is going to be an amazing birthday."
"Me too," Jeremy agreed and watched Sarah take her brother's hand. Toby led Sarah at a run, pointing out all the rides he wanted to go on and all the treats he wanted to eat. Jon went chasing after them, but Cassandra held Jeremy back by his sleeve.
"So?" She asked him, a smirk on her face. "Did you get it?"
Jeremy padded his pocket, his face breaking into a huge grin.
"Well, let me see it!" Sarah's friend exclaimed, putting out her hand. Jeremy reached into his pocket and handed Cassandra a small, black velvet box. A huge diamond ring glittered against its casing in the setting autumn sun. It was a single, princess cut diamond set in a platinum band and it was gorgeous.
"Give me a moment," Cassandra said, handing him back the box and then putting her hand over her eyes. "I've been momentarily blinded by this huge rock."
"Do you think she'll like it?" Jeremy asked, his voice tinged with anxiety.
"Like it? She'll love it," Cassandra stated confidently. "Why wouldn't she marry you? You've been going out since freshman year. Maybe this way she'll finally have sex with you."
"You know it's not about that," Jeremy said seriously, though in his own mind that was certainly a part of it.
The truth was he loved Sarah, she was his first love and he wanted her to be his last. But there was always something different about her, something hidden and strange that he desperately wanted for himself. He knew it was weird, but Jeremy felt Sarah was never quite with him, like he was sharing her with someone or something that made her unable to commit to him fully. He might have told others something else when they asked, but in truth...Sarah had never reciprocated when he told her he loved her. He hoped to change that today, so he could start telling her he loved her every day of the rest of their lives.
"Whatever you say, champ," Cassandra said, shrugging her shoulders. "Come on, let's catch up."
* * *
The two humans starting jogging toward their companions and the goblins began to relax slightly. One relaxed so much that he farted in the enclosed space of the roller coaster control board, making the other goblins open the door and start to pour out.
"Damnfart! You idiot! Why did you do that?" the smartest goblin there, Bor, asked angrily. The smallish goblin had been wedged closest to Damnfart, near a giant cog in the mechanics of the coaster board. As leader of this group of seven goblins, he felt he should set the rules...at least, until the Goblin King was around to tell them what to do.
"Damnfart sorry," Damnfart apologized, though he did not feel very sorry at all. He had been holding it as to not make a sound when the humans were around like the King told them and he did feel so much better now.
"Do you think we should tell the King about the big, shiny rock that boy had?" asked Kweeble, a rather large goblin with lots of tiny, sharp fangs. His ferociousness was off-set by his large, basset hound like eyes and his ungoblinlike tendency to think of others before himself.
"No," Bor decided. "King said nothing about no rock. He said to watch the portals to the Underground he conjured in these big, mechanical whooziwhatzits rides and that is exactly what I am going to make you do."
"That rock sure was pretty," Snix, a greedy, sinister looking goblin with long pointed ears, said. She rubbed her slimy hands together covetously.
"Girl not bad either," her mean spirited brother, Mudbog, said. He held his clawed hands out as far as he could in front of his chest. "Had big bazoombas. You could hide in them and the King would never find you to do chores."
The goblins laughed, or at least pretended to, except for Smeekin, who was trembling slightly with fear.
"King scary," said Smeekin, a tiny goblin no bigger than a softball. He was perched in Kweeble's shoulder and moved in the crick of his neck to be closer to him. He pulled his large, floppy ears down over his watery eyes, as if to shield himself from the Goblin King's wrath. "We should do exactly what he says."
"We will," Bor decided, puffing out his chest. "He said we couldn't let the Lady win."
"I'll put boogers in her pretty hair," Snix said delightedly, sticking a finger up her nose as if to prepare.
"I'll trip her and then bite her ankles," Mudbog said with malicious glee.
"I'll...bite her ankles and then trip her," Lemmie, the dumbest one, said. He could never come up with ideas himself and usually just copied off of someone else.
"Then Damnfart will fart on her!" Damnfart exclaimed, glad to contribute something.
"Then I will fart on her!" Lemmie said triumphantly, pumping his fist in the air as if he had invented something new.
"I will...say something...mean...about her...mom!" Kweeble said with some difficulty, though he doubt he really would. He didn't like when other goblins said mean things about him and found it hard to say mean things about others.
"No!" Bor said angrily, bopping each of the goblin on the nose. "We will watch each of the seven portals on each of the seven rides and makes sure the Lady goes after her captured friends."
"Even the ones from the Labyrinth?" asked Kweeble, unsure he wanted to be a part of this mission anymore. He had once skipped stones in the Bog of Eternal Stench with Ludo, a big beast with bushy orange hair, and Sir Didymus, the little fox knight with the friendly dog. He didn't really know the dwarf...Hogbutt, he thought his name was, but he was probably nice, so Kweeble didn't want to hurt him either.
"Especially the ones from the Labyrinth," Bor said with emphasis. "They disobeyed our king, and they need to be punished."
"Yeah, punished," Snix agreed.
"Yeah, punished," Lemmie repeated, nodding his head vigorously.
"Oh...kay," Kweeble said reluctantly, not wanting to make Bor mad.
"So," Bor continued, filled with self-importance. "Snix, you will guard the Haunted Dollhouse ride and that girl with the big jahoobies."
"Yes, sir!' Snix said, saluting her superior.
"Damnfart," Bor said, pointing at the goblin. "You will guard the freak show and her man friend."
Damnfart nodded and let out gas in a sound vaguely reminiscent of a trumpet.
"Mudbog, I'll let you look after the dagger toss and the big orange beast, but no stabbing anyone!"
"Damn," Mudbog sighed, but nodded.
"Lemmie, you can ride the carousel with the little fox."
"Weee!" said Lemmie.
"Smeekin, you will watch over the riddle booth and the dwarf."
"Meep," Smeekin squeaked in concurrence, hiding behind the flap on Kweeble's aviator cap.
"So, what goblin has two thumbs and is the most trusted enough by the King to watch the boyfriend?" Bor asked the group. All the goblins looked down at their hands.
"Only one here, sir," said Snix, holding up her one thumb for him to see.
"Three for me," said Mudbog, counting his digits.
"Could I possibly have five?" Lemmie asked confusedly, not sure which fingers he had were thumbs.
"This goblin!" Bor said triumphantly, pointing his two thumbs back at himself with pride. "So that leaves you, Kweeble, to watch the little one, the brother, in the corn maze. Think you can handle that?"
Kweeble was decidedly not sure, but he didn't want anyone to be mad at him, so he nodded feebly.
"We can't let our King's ugly mean brother win," Bor said conviction. "He would take away pig fighting and our mead parties. Jareth is scary but he takes care of us."
The goblins all nodded and muttered in agreement.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Bor asked, exasperated. "Serve your king and serve him well!"
The goblins scattered, squeaking and squawking, groaning and farting, trying to dodge the few fat drops of rain that fell from the gray green sky.
In Love And War Chapter One Soundtrack
1. David Gahan, "Saw Something". Listen to when: Jareth and Ash play chess and the game is set.
Lyrics: You and I have come so far
We've reached beyond the farthest star
Time and time and time again
I want you back
You were myfriend
We can't pretend
I saw something in your eyes
I'm sure
(Oh baby) I saw it
Something in your eyes
I wanted it for myself
2. Nox Arcana, "After Hours". Listen to when: Sarah hears something in the car.
Lyrics: Instrumental
3. Nox Arcana, "Calliope". Listen to when: Sarah and Jeremy arrive and the carnival.
Lyrics: Instrumental
4. The Kills, "Sour Cherry". Listen to when: The goblins plot against Sarah.
Lyrics: Shout when you wanna get off the ride
'Cause you crossed my mind, you crossed my mind
I'm a penny in a diamond mine
We could be movers,
We could be shakers