Disclaimer: A renunciation of one's right or claim, denial. (Sourced from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fourth edition)

No I don't own the Labyrinth so don't ask damn it.

Defeated

She had fought her way to his castle, beyond the goblin city, to take back the child that he had stolen. Her will was as strong as his and her kingdom was as great…

He never knew where those words came from. There had been no real battle, goblins couldn't fight to save their lives, or his for that matter. It had always been more of a race, and it always would be. Running the Labyrinth was a race against time, and time had always run out. As long as there was someone to run the Labyrinth she would exist and they would never ever make it in time (the current exception excluded) to save said stolen child.

He refused to even think about the fact that the child had always been wished away, never stolen. That gave him a headache every single time he thought about it. The only ones who stole children were fae and saying that he would steal brought him down to their level. He was above those conceited, base creatures that had as much heart as they had soul. He just took what was offered to him, and he didn't even keep it, he had to give it to the goblins and let them change it.

Goddess, he was thinking about it again.

Though he still wondered where the whole kingdom idea had come from. There was no way that any of the mortals who had ever walked his Labyrinth had rule of a kingdom. Though one had to admit, it took a pretty strong will to walk the Labyrinth and win. Only one human had ever succeeded, and she now stood before him.

Linda. Beautiful Linda, with her proud stance and triumphant smile pressed onto her ruby lips, stepped forward, she showed no outward sign of fear; foolish of her really. Perchance she underestimated him? He doubted it, she had seen his power and not once had she cowered before it, yet she could not know that while she walked within these walls as a challenger he could do little to her. Her long hair that shone in sable waves was brushed away from her porcelain-pale face. She was the perfect picture of fae beauty: she seemed so sensual, but like them she was as dull and boring as they were. A pretty shell.

Jareth looked on her beauty in undisguised disgust as she moved into the light. This cold, guileful, and cruel creature that stood before him, a creature that thought itself in every way his equal, but was absolutely not, dared to stand before him without fear. She was too much like them for his tastes, even if she seemed to think that she was indeed good enough. She needed to be put in her place, but that was a husband's job, one that her husband had failed.

He watched the arrogant creature and waited for her to make the first move. Initiate the dialogue that would end it. That was how things were done here. The words were simply a formality in the final confrontation. How he knew this he could not say, call it instinct.

She was only a few feet from him when she stopped walking. It was then that she parted her soft full lips and said, "Okay, I beat the Labyrinth, you're not turning Sarah into a goblin, I can leave now. Right?"

Jareth raised his eyebrow coolly, what had happened to 'give me the child'? He began his part as he was meant to despite the fact that it did not seem that she would be following her part. He told her how generous he had been, how he had done everything for her. His speech received careless replies of 'Like I care.' and 'Great for you.'

When she told him that she 'would like to turn his world upside down and see how he liked it.' He began to become severely annoyed with the worthless mortal before him. He paused in the middle of his speech and eyed her quietly. Mrs. Williams returned his stare in a rather base imitation that openly mocked him. She was so cruel and narcissistic she probably did things only for her own benefit, she'd most likely never thought about anyone else once.

Then again there was that little something that made her seem not quiet mortal. What was this vile creature that stood before him? It looked like a beautiful woman until it opened its mouth. Jareth sneered. That was when it's hideous nature showed and tarnished the beautiful mask it wore.

Jareth cleared his throat and asked Linda as calmly and politely as possible, "Is there anything you could possibly want, Linda?" through clenched teeth. Why he should offer this conceited creature anything was beyond him. He was infuriated by her assumption that she was above him, not to mention the headache that was coming on due to the harsh resonance of her voice. For the sensitive hearing of the Erlking it was most discordant and grating.

"Yes, for you to send me home now." She replied curtly. Her demand sparked another flare of anger. Did she presume that he was so below her that he was subservient to her will? He most certainly was not.

"Fine, I shall send you and your girl-child home." Jareth spat back as he conjured the crystal to send them home.

"I believe that we have a misunderstanding." She said quickly. A little too quickly he realized. There was something she wanted, she was going home, but not without it. Maybe he could use this morsel to shake her unwavering pride.

"What?" asked Jareth. He added a seductive tone that was laced with mockery to his next words. "Do you want to stay with me? In this… what were your words, Goblin infested heap of rubble?" His tone turned biting as he finished, recalling her arrogance at the beginning of her trial. He had little doubt that she, in her arrogance, would turn him down. Which was a decent relief; at this point he couldn't wait to see the back of her.

"In this Pigsty? No." Amazing how she could look like one thing and, in reality, be something completely heinous. In fact she seemed colder than any fae he'd had the misfortune of meeting.

Finally, his headache and badly damaged pride got the better of him. "What do you want you blasted woman?" She dared to be so demanding, vain, and selfish he loathed her. He prayed that she would make her demand, and he would grant it thus shutting her up. He knew that if he gave her something he had the right to keep her, but he was hoping that if he did this for her he would be more likely to never see her again. He did not believe that she could prove herself to be colder than she had already proved herself to be. She did though, her next words were so brutal, distant, and so completely heartless that they put him in a stupor.

"I don't want it."

Her words rang out echoing on nonexistent walls, in the room where unreality was reality. Where there was no ceiling and yet, there was. Where there were no tangible walls and in the distance the approaching dusk painted the distant sky. It seemed as though the cold hateful hunger in her words would destroy this piece of the Erlking's kingdom and take the rest of his world with it. It did not though, for the Labyrinth had plans. Ones that involved tricks and traps; she knew that this first act of betrayal would lead her into her golden age of power.