Disclaimer: All references to the characters Jareth & Sarah and the film Labyrinth belong to Jim Henson Studios and other pertinent parties. I do not claim ownership to the characters and / or the original source material.

A/N: This (long) chapter was the hardest to get right hence the three-month delay. Hopefully the pay-off is worth it. Two more chapters (and maybe an epilogue?) to go, and then this story is done, dear readers. Happy reading! – p.s.

King, Queen, Rook, Maze: Chapter 24. Confrontations (30 minutes left)

The Goblin King regarded his prey. Her hands, bare and trembling, curled into fists to hide her fear. Plastered to the side of her glistening temple, a single strand of raven hair attempted to mimic a wrinkle on her brow. She looked disheveled in the outfit Rook had given her, but she also looked regal, unsure yet sure about her situation. The Goblin King suppressed the desire to grin lasciviously. Having his heart so close marred his judgment. Mentally, he steeled himself from those feelings swelling and swirling behind the hidden door. He would not be defeated; he would not let her win. Not this time.

Slowly, Sarah walked around the pit in the center of the Throne Room. Her luminous green eyes never left him, and he enjoyed her undivided attention. However, he forced himself to look away from her and to the pristine red orb on the table beside him. The Goblin King gave the crystal another tap with the glimmering silver hammer. It rang out, clear and true, and Sarah stopped. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed her strange expression. Her belief in this false object supposedly filled with her dreams and desires was… disappointing to say the least. Yet the longer she believed, the easier it would be for him to regain control of what was rightfully his. When the sound had faded, Sarah began her slow approach once more.

"Once upon a time," he began in a mocking tone and she paused mid-step, but only for a moment. "There was a beautiful young girl whose stepmother always made her stay home with the baby."

"I know the story," Sarah snapped at him. His rakish grin widened. The harshness of her voice stayed. "You don't need to tell it to me."

"Oh? Then tell me, precious," he replied setting down the silver hammer next to the crimson crystal ball. With the slow ease of a languorous cat, he re-adjusted himself in his throne. His feet became planted on the ground, his hands on his knees. He leaned over as Sarah approached the dais. Limp blond hair framed his face, but he watched Sarah's eyes being drawn away from the black cloak of starlight enveloping him to the crystal ball beside him. The Goblin King leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "How does the story end?"

Sarah's gazed shifted back to the Goblin King, but the grin faded. There was only anger. Either it was her imagination or not, the room felt colder as if a layer of frost covered everything including herself. Sarah cringed as something swept by her like the freezing artic wind gust from Boreas himself. When she opened her eyes, the throne was empty. The crystal ball was unattended. Yet something, or in actuality, someone dark and cold and angry stood behind her. A black gloved hand with long fingers wrapped gently around her neck. She tensed at his touch and swallowed her fear against the slight but commanding pressure on her person.

"You haven't answered my question, love," he stated with such nonchalance that Sarah almost didn't hear the implied malice behind his words.

"It ends…" she breathed, but more words would not come. Her thoughts left her for the moment, and she felt a slight pressure against her larynx increase. As the seconds ticked by, Sarah took a deep breath through her nose and collected herself. She was an actress. She could make him believe. Whatever hunch she had about Jareth, the Goblin King, and Rook, it wasn't going to help her now… and she had no idea of how to fix that dilemma in the first place. This "story" would either end with her death at his hand here and now or be postponed for a moment. She hoped and calmly gathered her thoughts before speaking in a quiet voice that didn't waver.

"In the end, you give me my life and dreams back because I give back to you what is rightfully yours. You let me leave your kingdom, you rule as you see fit, and you'll never have to see me again."

She heard him breathe through his mouth and huff a puff of air out of his nose. Instead of drawing away, he drew in closer. Sarah stiffened, unsure of this new move by the Goblin King. Lazily, his hand slipped away from her neck and reached for her shoulder. His arm, wrapped around her, drew her closer to him so their bodies pressed against each other. Instinctively, her right hand flew up to grab his forearm while his other hand grabbed her left forearm. Captured and caught, they stood still as stone as Sarah continued to speak.

"In return for giving back to me what I want, you may take those certain powers back."

"You really are naïve to think it's that simple," he muttered against her neck and she shivered at the touch of breath and lips. He sounded tired and annoyed at how simply she stated the ending. "And you have no idea how to give them back to me, do you?"

Sarah remained silent and tensed.

"I thought so…" he breathed in a disappointed tone of voice that began to fade away. "You would have me do it the hard way, would you?"

Still beautiful and fey, dark and dangerous, Sarah blinked and the Goblin King no longer pinned her to his body. Now he stood back at his masculine throne of bone, hide, and sinew. He stared down at her, a cold shadow of what he once was. His normally wild blond hair hung limply around a face paler than the norm. He looked drained and fatigued with dark circles under his eyes as if something had been leeched out of him. Yet his posture spoke of anger, defiance, and coldness. All of which was directed at her. Cloaked in swirling dark shadows that sparkled in and out of view, he looked at her and smiled as if he had won the war.

"Go on. Take it from me, Champion," he commanded of her in utter disgust. He gestured with his and suddenly the vermillion crystal was in his fingertips. Sarah hesitated. His lips curled into a sneer. "Very well."

His hand flexed, the crystal slipped into his palm, and gloved fingers tensed. The crisp sound of crystal glass cracking would have echoed in the throne room if Sarah's cry had not masked it. When the Goblin King unfurled his fingers, her eyes went wide seeing the faint, white tendril of fracture on the red orb.

"Don't…" Sarah begged. She wavered. Did the crystal mean anything? If the orb was a part of her, why did she… Sarah shook her head. She had offered to him to take back the powers… Why did he insist on her giving them back? He acted as if the orb didn't matter in the equation between them when she told him how the story ended. Could… Was…

Sarah swallowed and asked in a tight voice, "If you hate me so, why do this to me?"

"You have something that I want."

Sarah hesitated. She felt trapped. Her gaze drifted to the clock behind the throne just as the minute hand drew closer to the hour of her doom. The red crystal ball floated into her vision, and her eyes followed it back down into that damned, black gloved hand.

"Come now, sweet Sarah," the Goblin King coaxed. "You know I can't simply take the powers back from you. They must be given. Why do you persist in fighting against me rather than with me? As I said before, all you have to do is give up."

"Why do you persist in making me go through all of this?" she retorted hotly. Something burned through her chest and to her fingertips. His admission suddenly made things became clearer. Sarah's back straightened, and she lifted her chin. She held out her hand, steady as Greek kore sculpture demanding an offering.

"Give it to me," she demanded. The gloved hand tightened once again, and white tendrils danced across the red surface of the crystal.

There was no pain. She knew there wouldn't be. She felt warm. She felt sure. She knew now what she should do. "I will not say it again, Goblin King."

Fury burned in his mismatched gaze as he descended the stairs woodenly. His black starlight cape swirled with renewed vigor… or like a cat's tail twitching in irritation. Or at the sight of a prey, readying to bounce and deliver the killing blow, Sarah's inner voice suggested, but she ignored it. Sarah remembered this villain, the darkness behind the Goblin King she had once loved. Something fluttered in her chest, but she chose to ignore it, too. Yet her hand unconsciously went to her chest. The Goblin King stood before her with the cracked red crystal in his outstretched hand. Her eyes wandered past the edge of his glove to see burn scars across his delicate skin.

"Take it from me," he commanded a third time but with less vigor. His voice was leaden as if restrained. "Take back your hopes and dreams and life…. and give me what I want. Give back to me what you took."

Sarah stared at the Goblin King's face – all cold lines and malice. He truly hated her. A few more thoughts clicked into place. If he had no power over her… unless she let him… the crystal ball didn't matter, did it? Furthermore, this wasn't the Goblin King she had fallen in love with as a child. Something had happened to split the Goblin King from Jareth… and somehow Rook was a part of Jareth. Whatever had happened… had happened because of her. She knew that now, but she didn't know how to make it right again. The warmth inside her seemed to flutter once again. Blue and brown focused on her, and a grin began to spread once more across those fine features. For Sarah, this wasn't the man who had haunted her life and dreams…or was he?

"Tell me, Goblin King…. and tell me true…" Sarah whispered before taking a deep breath. She raised her green-eyed gaze back to the Goblin King, and the warmth returned full-force. "You loved me once… didn't you?"

The Goblin King faltered. He felt something resonate in the Escher Room. He felt something, or someone, lift their head from behind the wooden door in the secret passageway. He turned to look towards the Escher Room, and the spot where the deed had been done. They felt a wash of affection for the woman standing before him, a woman whose innocence of who she had been and the mature knowledge of who she was now mixed and mingled. The sound from the Escher Room could not be heard but merely felt by the two men forever joined but separated. Sarah shuddered as if she had felt that toll, and at the same time, the Goblin King seemed to grimace.

"I never stopped," she admitted truthfully, and she looked towards the secret passageway that led to the Escher Room. "You really want to know how the story ends?"

She continued without even his prompting as if compelled to admit the truth. "After all was said and done, the Champion had defeated the Goblin King. She returned to her former life with her younger brother in tow."

Without a glance at the crystal, Sarah stepped closer to him. Her hands came to rest upon his chest, and she felt the shifting magic of his shadow over a clothed and firm chest. It felt like a bubbling creek of cold mountain water running over and under her hands.

"Yet the Goblin King still loved the girl, and in his defeat, he lingered in his castle, waiting for the day she would return." Her right hand brushed a strand of his blond hair out of his face and along his jawline.

The Goblin King took a breath. "Stop."

"Years passed. The girl grew up into a beautiful woman he could only watch from afar. She forgot about her adventure in the Underground. She had moved on… and yet the King hadn't. The memory of her beauty, confidence, and innocence haunted him. But unbeknownst to him," she paused for a moment. "Always, always she found that she could not love a mortal man. The Champion found that she yearned for something, someone that she could not remember…"

The Goblin King glared at her, and spoke through gritted teeth. "Don't say it."

Sarah ignored him. She hoped there was still a shred of Jareth left in the Goblin King, a small piece of the fey man she had met years ago. His other gloved hand gripped the nape of her neck beneath her braid. He held her but almost gently this time. Sarah looked up at him and hoped her eyes did not give her away. She needed to believe; she needed him to believe that she loved the Goblin King, even this version of the Goblin King that she found detestable. She thought back to how she had felt on stage with him, when he revealed himself, and how she felt seeing him as Oberon and she as his Titania. Her words came back to her, No, my lord and love is here.

"For her heart had been stolen by the King of the Goblins."

With half-lidded eyes, Sarah attempted to close the gap between their lips. Perhaps if… Perhaps… But she stopped upon seeing the Goblin King's cold, angry gaze.

"You're a liar," he growled at her before smirking maliciously.

"I'm not lying," she protested.

"STOP LYING!" he shouted at her. His other gloved hand yanked hard on her hair and Sarah cried out in pain. He threw her to the ground and Sarah sprawled on the slate floor. He loomed over her as he railed.

"You don't love me! You can't love me! I'm just a figment of your childish imagination."

Tears stung her eyes, and a biting remark that would be spoken like a whiplash was upon her lips when she heard the Goblin King say, "Catch."

The word caught Sarah off-guard and she gasped instead of speaking. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as she lunged forward to no avail. The red crystal ball with its spider webs of white cracks shattered into dust. Stunned, Sarah stared at the remains of the crystal ball.

"No…" she whispered. Her eyes didn't leave the small spot of fine red dust where the crystal ball had hit. Her question came out as more of a dejected statement. "How could you…"

"I am what you want me to be," he replied with a sneer. "And I am the Goblin King."

Sarah heard his boots on the stones. She felt his hand in her hair as he pulled her up roughly. He threw her up against the wall, and she gasped as all of the air left her. Slumping to the floor again, this time he chose to grab her by the neck to drag her to her feet. All Sarah could think about… was how she hated the Goblin King. She began to struggle, but his grip tightened. In her struggling, Sarah noticed the mass of scar tissue, red and white and painfully taut, on his exposed wrist. Yet she didn't feel pity for him. She only felt anger as both of his hands joined in the effort of choking her to death.

"ENOUGH!" shouted a familiar voice. "Let her go!"

He stopped and looked to his right. He loosened his grip enough for Sarah to breathe. It hurt but she did it. Eventually, her gaze fell on Rook standing in the throne room. In white, he stood as the stark contrast to the dark and ominous Goblin King. Sarah couldn't help but smile.

"So nice of you to finally join us," replied the Goblin King with a malicious grin. "You dare to command the king?"

"You are no Goblin king," responded Rook. "Let her go."

"Why not take that mask off? Here, let me help you."

With a flick of the Goblin King's wrist, the mask on Rook's face vanished. Sarah stared at Rook… and looked back at the Goblin King. The similarities were unreal. And yet…

"Jareth?" she croaked out from her sore throat. Both men turned to look at her – one with a look of anxiety underneath his bravado, the other with a look of loathsome delight. The Goblin King chuckled and cuffed her chin playfully.

"Ah, love… Thank you for bringing him. It is time I was rid of my pesky heart, don't you think?"

Before she could protest, the Goblin King was striding away from her towards Rook. But Rook had come prepared. He pulled a knife from his back pocket and took up a defensive stance. The Goblin King stopped and simply smiled at the display.

"You can't kill me, Goblin King, and I you. There is another way," urged Rook.

"Is there?" the Goblin King asked feigning curiosity. In an instant it was replaced by anger, "How would you know?"

"Because I do!" replied Rook hotly. He glanced at Sarah. "I trust her. I love her… as did you once."

"Did I ever?" the Goblin King retorted. "She ruined our kingdom. All that we had built. No, what I had built and protected for so long. She threatens all I hold dear… and if she will not return my gift, I will take it from her by force."

"Why do you think I separated you from me? Why do you think I brought her back? It wasn't to fall in love with her all over again; it was force her to give up what we had given her. Why do you choose to jeopardize our chances of regaining the glory of our kingdom?"

Rook seemed non-pulsed by this tirade from the Goblin King. He only said, "Touch her and you will die with me."

"Will I?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "Why don't we test that little theory?"

But before Rook could move or say anything, a dagger with a black blade appeared in the Goblin King's hand. Long and sharp, the blade shimmered in the fading light of the throne room. Then the dagger found its sheath in Rook's chest.

"No!" cried out Sarah as she watched both figures gasp and grimace at the pain. The Goblin King gave the hilt a twist and a jerk upward to make sure before black and white tumbled to the floor.

"Jareth!" she called out rushing to Rook's side. She dropped to her knees just as the Goblin King propped himself up on an elbow. He watched and sneered as Sarah half cradled the dying Fae in her lap.

"You… owe me," he choked out with a lopsided grin. With a grimace, his blood covered hand reached up to wipe away her stream of tears. Rook's eyes – No, Jareth's eyes – carried all of his love and warmth for the woman who held him. She clutched his hand and pressed it towards his wound in a vain effort to stop the flow of blood. The dagger's hilt of silver and ivory made it difficult, but Sarah knew if she pulled it out, Jareth would be gone in a matter of heart beats.

"Don't leave me. Please," Sarah begged. She felt Jareth's heartbeat slow with each pump of blood through his veins. "How was I supposed to know that my words would bind your heart to me? If I had known… I didn't know what love felt like then, what it felt like to find it and lose it. How tenuous it was. And I had a duty. I couldn't love you then. Not thirteen years ago. I gave up on believing you loved me, if you ever did… If I had known, Jareth… Why did you do this?"

A faint smile tugged at Jareth's lips. Blood stained his clothes a shade of maroon, hinting at the blue blood trickling out of his veins. Slowly, the stain of blood grew darker, pooling on the sandy stone floor underneath him. Blood smeared his lips and a small bubble of bloody spittle burst as he drew another breath to speak.

"Say…the right words."

"Please, Jareth. Don't leave me now. Not after all of this, please," she pleaded with him. She watched in horror as more blood seeped out from around the dagger. "I'm sorry. I should've told you then I wasn't ready. I can't change the past. I'm sorry for making you love me and forcing you to change."

"Say… your words," breathed Jareth as his eyes began to flutter shut. He breathed one final word, a mere whisper on his blood-stained lips. "Love."

And then he was gone.