The next day Jareth's parents returned to the Labyrinth. None of them had managed to get any sleep, all worrying over whether Jareth could actually achieve what he intended to do. Not only did he have to protect Sarah and protect the entire Underground from invasion, but he had to do that as a divided soul, all of which was dependant on his being able to successfully complete the ritual in the first place.
A strained silence reigned when the newly made High King met with his parents in the throne room. The only words that were said were his parents explaining every detail of the dividing ritual again, and Jareth asking endless questions about it. Eventually everything was ready, the day was getting late and they could put it off no longer.
As the ritual was splitting him, in the most basic terms, into a human and a Fae, two humans were needed to assist. These came in the form of Kara, Sarah's friend and Jake, another human slave who Sarah had rescued from Gerard. The ritual began with Jareth sitting cross-legged in the centre of his throne room. His parents and the two mortals stood around him, forming a square of Fae, mortal, Fae, mortal arrangement. The first step was for Jareth to collect his essence to him, draw all the power he possessed into himself. This was not an easy step, Jareth's power came directly from the Labyrinth, his essence made up part of the Kingdom itself, and in drawing it into himself, he withdrew it from his Kingdom. All throughout the Labyrinth Goblins stopped what they were doing and watched the land change around them. The sky went dark, the air turned cold and a wind began to blow throughout the land. Things began to decay, garden's withered visibly, all that was lush and vital began to die. Jareth's magic was a part of the Labyrinth itself, and when he took it back into himself, the Labyrinth lost its vigour.
The process of gathering his essence took hours, the four surrounding him waited until it seemed as though he was almost finished, and then the two Fae began building barriers between them and the mortals. When Jareth had fully collected his power, the barriers suddenly shot into being, visualized as a wall of white light, effectively creating a cage around the High King.
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the barrier began to condense, moving closer to the Goblin King. Eventually it became a ring of light, so bright that the four surrounding Jareth had to cover their eyes lest the light blind them. They felt a tremendous heat began to emanate from the ring and the mortals were forced to take steps back, it was only at the point that Kara and Jake thought they couldn't stand any more, that suddenly both the light and the heat vanished. Blinking, all four of the witnesses looked back and stared in shock, for no longer was Jareth alone in the centre, there were two of them, both sitting cross-legged, heads bowed, eyes closed.
For a few seconds the two Kings stayed motionless allowing the witnesses to get a better look at them. There were immediate differences, but they were subtle enough that they would not be noticed unless the two were next to each other. This was a good thing, as it was not anyone's intention that Gerard find out what had happened, in case he should find a way to use the split against them. Yet the differences were there, one Jareth had the same white blonde hair he'd always had, but the other's was darker, still blonde, but a dirty blonde now. The darker haired Jareth had a skin tone a few shades deeper, almost like he'd spent a few extra hours in the sun. The clothes had changed too, the darker King having more leather than cloth in his outfit, the armoured shoulder being black instead of gray.
Suddenly both of the King's opened their eyes and therein lay the biggest difference. The mismatched eyes were reversed, one had a dialated left pupil, the other had a dialated right pupil. Both still had blue eyes, but again, one had darker eyes than the other. It was obvious instantly, that the lighter King was the mortal man, the darker was the Fae. For a while silence reigned as the witnesses stood waiting for a reaction from the men in front of them. Throughout the Labyrinth, the magic was being restored, but it was not quite as great as it had been, part of its essence was now separated from it and all the creatures with the Labyrinth felt this absence and wondered as to its cause.
After only a few moments, the darker Jareth began to smirk before jumping lightly to his feet. The lighter Jareth stood also, but his movements were less fluid, more human. They continued to stare at each other for a while longer, until finally the darker Jareth opened his mouth to speak. Whatever he had intended to say was lost as both halves were assaulted by the vision of their Sarah in danger. The bond between Sarah and Jareth was so strong that when Sarah caught sight of the car racing towards her, both Jareth's saw the exact same thing. It was this vision that halted the darker Jareth's words, and instantly the lighter one transported himself Aboveground. When he reached there he didn't even have time to think, he simply reacted, throwing himself bodily at Sarah and moving them both out of the path of the car.
They hit the ground hard, all of Sarah's old injuries shooting pain throughout her body. The pain in her arm was so severe that it took her a few seconds to ascertain that it wasn't broken again. Once the initial pain had passed it gave her a chance to assess what had just happened. It was over so quickly she could barely get her head around it. She'd gone from walking down the street, to seeing a car moving towards her at an increasing speed, to being bowled over by someone who had just saved her life.
She looked up to see a fair man stood in front of her, holding out his hand to help her to her feet. Without even thinking she reached out for it, but the second their skin touched her fear of men came to the fore and she snatched her hand back before climbing to her feet by herself. Now stood facing the stranger she could study him properly. He was a few inches taller than her, slender, and very fair of skin and his blonde hair was rapidly becoming plastered to his head with the rain that had begun to fall. Sarah had to force herself to pay attention to what he was saying. Her mind was so consumed by the vision of him, that she missed the first half and had to get him to repeat it.
Jareth couldn't help but smile as he asked again whether she was hurt. In fact it took all his restraint not to take her in his arms and smother her with kisses. To finally see her again was a blessing he feared he'd never have, but to not be able to touch her was a true test of his strength. If he scared her now he'd lose her, he knew this, he had to go slowly. To protect her he needed to be close to her, he couldn't do that if he scared her away.
Sarah meanwhile had regained her wits enough to answer that she wasn't seriously hurt, just a few cuts and bruises. She was of course shocked by almost being hit by a car though, and now there was a man stood in front of her who was a complete stranger, and yet her instincts were not telling her to be afraid of him. In fact she felt a familiarity with this man that was just not possible. Once again her mind was wandering and he had to repeat his suggestion that they should get her checked out at the hospital as she'd hit the ground pretty hard. Immediately terror shot through her, she'd spent too long in hospital, she couldn't go back there. Quickly she reiterated that she was fine, thanked him for his help and made to leave.
As Jareth watched her begin to walk away he felt his heart sink, he couldn't lose her, not so quickly.
"Wait." He called out after her.
Almost instantly she stopped and turned back to face him.
"Please, at least let me buy you a drink, I don't like the idea of you walking home by yourself when you might be injured."
For a second Sarah was tempted to carry on walking, she may not fear this man, but she certainly didn't trust him, her attack had left her more than a little paranoid when it came to men. Yet he had a point, and in the end her fear of walking home in the dark alone, especially after almost having been run down, overrode her fear of this handsome stranger and she decided to take him up on his offer.