Disclaimer: I do not own the Labyrinth or any character belonging to the Labyrinth. I do; however, claim all original characters in this story as my own.
Chapter 36 – Retributive justice
Sarah walked to where Luxiour was lying. His mind would be forever trapped in her prison; however, she would take no chances – she lifted her hands and attacked his body, scorching it until nothing remained but ash. Then she turned to Jareth.
Her body felt so weak, the amount of power she exhausted battling Luxiour was immense and she wanted to simply collapse; however, she would not allow herself to do so until she ensured Jareth's safety. Luxiour had said that he poisoned him. Sarah could only hope that she was not too late.
She knelt on the ground and lifted Jareth's body into her arms. Gently stroking his hair, she lowered her hand until it was positioned over the spot where Luxiour had poisoned him. She sent her power into him, small surges of electricity entered his wound and attacked the poison. It had spread throughout his body and she had to fight to maintain her concentration.
It seemed like hours before she had successfully removed every trace of Luxiour's dark magic from Jareth. As she willed every last bit of her energy into him, her hair returned to its natural black hue, her skin once again appeared human and her eyes shone like emeralds. She looked on his face one more time, knowing he would be alright. Then she collapsed.
Jareth woke up on the floor of his throne room. The light in the room scorched his eyes and every part of him hurt. He immediately tried to jump to alert, remembering how he had come to be on the floor in the first place, but his body was too weak to respond to him and he only sunk lower to the floor.
He saw a pile of ash in one corner as well as several black markings throughout the room. It was evidence that there had been a great battle in this room. Jareth began to fear for Sarah, recalling that he had left her alone here when he went to gathering his goblins. His fear quickly dissipated as he felt something move behind him.
He lifted himself off the ground and turned around to see his Sarah unconscious on the floor. He touched her forehead and breathed a sigh of relief as he could feel her life force strong within her body. Without wasting another moment, he stood up and sent for his warriors. They quickly entered the throne room. They had indeed planned a seige to reclaim their King from the dark creature. Commander Gurtie showed relief that the deed had already been done and bowed to their once and future King.
Jareth struggled to walk to the throne but he did so in a royal fashion. Once he had made it to the throne, he turned to the goblins and said, "I reclaim the Goblin Throne in the name of my family who has ruled the Underground since the dawn of time." Then he sat down. A burst of light filled the room, centering on the throne. As it did, the darkness that had fallen on the castle was lifted and it returned to its former glory.
Jareth stood up and went to the window, "Labyrinth," he called out. He felt it respond, "where do your loyalties lie?"
"To you my King," the Labyrinth responded, "I am but your humble servant and all is restored."
Jareth smiled, then he addressed his goblins, "destroy every exile, I want no prisoners and remove any evidence of that witch from this castle."
"Aye, sir," Gurtie responded with pleasure as he directed the others to carry out the Goblin King's orders.
Jareth went to where Sarah had been lying and he gently lifted her into his arms. He carried her to his bedchamber where he laid her gently down on the bed. He smoothed his hand over her body and wiped away all evidence of her fight with Luxiour. As he touched her, he felt her weakened condition. He could do nothing to restore her energy; he could only heal her physical injuries. Her energy would return on its own, he only had to wait.
Patience was not a virtue the Goblin King was known for possessing. He could not simply wait at her side for her to heal. He would have to occupy himself with another activity lest he go mad with anxiety. That is when he noticed the black hematite spheres on the mantle of his fireplace. There were close to ten of them. As he lifted one up, he saw the child inside, running from a monster of some type. The child looked so weakened and so afraid. He remembered Hoggle telling them of what Vasivitha had done to the children and he trembled. How long had these children been trapped in their nightmares?
Jareth gathered every sphere and took them into the garden. He did not want the children to disturb Sarah, although he doubted she would have been disturbed had he released them in his bedchamber. He set each orb on the grass and lifted his hand over them. Slowly they shattered and the children were free.
He squatted to the ground so he could be eye-level with the children. They all trembled with fear and most of them were crying. Jareth could see the terror in their eyes; they had been forced to live out their worst nightmares and there psyche's would be permanently scarred. He had to tread carefully to avoid causing any additional harm, "my name is Jareth," he spoke softly, "you are safe now."
One child looked a Jareth, "what about her?"
Jareth knew she was referring to the witch, "she cannot harm you anymore."
Another child, a little boy, whispered, "can we go home?"
"If you want too," Jareth sighed, "you have all been wished away by someone, you may not want to go home and the time for the challenge has passed. So I will give you a choice. You may stay here with me with where I can grant one wish or you may return home to be with your family. It is up to you."
For most of the children this was not a difficult decision. They had all come from different families. Some of them vame from loving and caring homes while others were extremely dysfunctional and abusive. Naturally, a majority of the children chose to stay. Jareth showed them their dreams and allowed them to pick one to live with. Once they had all been settled, he turned to the remaining four children: Gabe, Matt, Molly and Annie.
He gestured to the latter three to wait while he picked up Gabe and took him home. For each family, he reordered time and erased the child's memory so that they would return unaffected from their time Underground. He then returned to his garden where he gathered Matt and returned him to his home. He came back for Molly and then for Annie.
Jareth watched as Annie's brother sobbed in his father's arm, "I didn't mean it," he repeated over and over again. The father looked grief stricken as he tried to console his son.
"That's my dad and my brother," Annie said, "Jack is a meanie-butt and I hate him!" Annie looked on the verge of tears. Everything was Jack's fault. She could still hear the boogeyman chasing her, his roars and her screams. She wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to forgive her brother for that.
Jareth stroked Annie's head, "he is just acting like a brother, look at him, child, do you see how much he loves you?"
Annie started crying, "then why did he wish me away. He wanted to the bogeyman to get me and then the goblins."
Jareth held her close to him in a paternal embrace, "the goblins weren't all that bad were they?"
Annie giggled through her tears as she thought of the silly goblins that were dancing and jumping around her while she waited for her turn to go home, "no, but the boogeyman was very scary."
Jareth kissed her tears away, "people often say things they don't mean. Your brother didn't really want anything to hurt you except his words. Now it is time to forgive. Do you think you can try to forgive him?"
Annie nodded and they appeared in the living room. Annie ran to her dad and hugged him. Her father stared at his daughter in disbelief for a moment. He was sure she was a hallucination, but when Jack saw her he jumped from his father's lap and hugged her tightly, "Annie, I am so sorry!"
"I know," she whispered as she returned her brother's hug. Their father finally broke free from his grief as he lifted his daughter into the air and embraced her tightly.
Jareth almost regretted having to turn back time and erase their memories. They all learned valuable lessons that he was sure would serve them well; however, he could not allow the torment Annie suffered to one day destroy her just as it had destroyed Sarah. He lifted his hands and the scene before him shifted until right before Annie had been taken.
"Annie, there is no such thing as the boogeyman," but before Jack could spit out the apology, a better idea came to his head, "but goblins are real and I wish they would take you away, right now!"
Jack was laughing as Annie began crying and hugged her father tighter. He tried to sooth his daughter who was visibly upset. He turned his attention back to Jack, "Go to your room, young man. You are grounded for a week and absolutely no video games!"
"Dad, I was just messing with her, I didn't mean it," Jack pleaded.
"Now!" his father roared. Jack knew better than to argue with his dad. He marched up the stairs and went into his room. Annie continued to cry into her father's chest until she fell asleep and dreamed of magical creatures and fairy princesses.
Jareth smiled as he saw Annie's dreams, so sweet and pleasant. His smile quickly turned into a scowl as he thought of what he and Sarah had been through and everything he had seen in her mind. He conjured a crystal, "Sarah," he whispered. The crystal swirled until it showed his beloved still unconscious on his bed.
His face contorted into something resembling a smirk but much more sinister. "It looks like I have time for one more visit," he said to himself before disappearing.
"Do that again and I will rip apart a lot more than just your ass, bitch!"
Frank shivered. He had only been in prison for a couple of weeks, but he had already become someone's bitch and the regular attacks were wearing him thin. He had tried to fight off his assaliants, but they overpowered him. He had gotten the upper hand this time, but he knew his small vistory would equate to more pain for him next time.
Frank thought for a moment of what brought him to the this hell. He had never been a bad man, just foolish and irresponsible, but definately not evil. He had been convicted of vehicular homicide. He loved to party with his friends; one night he got carried away and in a drunken stupor he chose to drive. His friends had tried to take his keys, but he fought them off and drove anyway. That night he claimed the life of an eighteen year old girl. He had swerved into oncoming traffic of a two lane highway and struck the side of minivan. The brunt of the impact hit the rear passenger door on the driver's side. The impact was rough, it totaled both cars and fortuantely the family within survived with the exception of their daugher, who died on impact.
He had wished he could take back what he had done. But it was too late, she was dead, he was responsible and he had to pay for his foolishness. It was some type of justice he thought as he was raped again by the man known only as 'The Whip.' This man, along with his friends tormented most of the newbies by paying them a visit at least once a week.
Collin dropped the pitiful man to the ground, "till next week," he said and walked away. He went into the courtyard of the state penitentiary, he would converse with others like him until they found some other ripe piece of meat to torment.
That night as Collin laid on his bed he felt a strange sensation wash over him. He felt as though a fire was burning all over him, the sensation tickled as well as singed. He tried to rub various parts of his body to stop the feeling but it continued. Then he heard screaming, a woman's scream and he recalled the sweet surrender of Sarah.
He smiled to himself as he thought of that day - her struggle and his domination. Her surrender was so delectable; the memory of it made his prison sentence worth it. "Ah, my Sarah," he said, "so innocent until I came along."
"My Sarah," a cultured voice spoke behind him.
Collin jumped from his bed and stared at the man before him, "Who are you?" He said, his voice a little shaky.
Jareth smirked, "I believe you know me as Jareth."
Collin recognized that name, but he could not remember where he had heard it before. Jareth conjured a crystal and blew it into the air. It burst and as it did, Sarah's voice filled the cell; it was an echo of her voice from that night, screaming for Jareth to come to her. Collin now remembered where he had heard his name.
Jareth reveled in the look of fear Collin pathetically tried to hide. He walked up to the mortal man and scowled. How would he kill him? Jareth circled him thinking of all the different methods he could employ. His smirk turned into a feral smile as he devised his plan for retribution.
Collin began to tremble as fear overwhelmed his senses. He had always been the agressor or the 'Alpha Male,' and he was not accustomed to fear. Usually, he was the one to inflict fear on others. Yet the man before him was obviously not human and Collin could not contain the terror within him.
Jareth stopped moving and stared into Collin's eyes and then he vanished.
When Jareth reappeared he was in another cell staring at a man who shared a common enemy with him, "Frank," Jareth spoke, startling the man awake.
"Who are you," the man yelped.
Jareth looked at this man with pity. "I understand that you murdered a young girl, Frank."
The man looked down and closed his eyes, "I did, I was drunk and it was an accident."
"What if I could make it go away, make it so that it never happened, what would you do for me?" Jareth asked. He maintained his powerful stance as Goblin King but he did try to intimidate him. He wanted this mortal to be fully aware of his choice.
"To reverse it…I would do anything to make it so that it never happened," the man said honestly, "I would sell my soul to the devil if it would bring back the girl." Frank paused, then looked at Jareth with a glint of recognition, "are you the devil?"
Jareth scoffed, "perhaps some may think of me as such, but I assure you, I am not him nor do I want your soul. But I can reorder time and I will...if you do me one small favor."
"Anything," Frank begged.
"There is a man in this dungeon whom you know as 'The Whip.' I have a vendetta with him but I cannot harm him. I can only take what has been freely given. Will you give him to me?" Jareth stared at Frank intently.
Frank smiled, "what will do with him?"
"No less then he has done to you, but to a greater degree and his punishment shall last till the end of time," Jareth's voice dripped with contempt, he was eager to exact his revenge.
Frank's smile grew bigger, "How do I give him to you?"
"I thought you'd never ask."
Jareth and Frank reappeared back in Collin's cell. Jareth looked at Frank. Frank smiled one more time before he spoke, "Collin, I wish the goblins would take you away, right now!"
Frank vanished from the cell as Jareth kept his end of the bargain. He returned Frank to just before he got into his car to drive home. At that moment, a friend grabbed Frank by the arm, "dude, you are too wasted to drive, let me call you a cab." Frank recalled fighting his friend, getting into the car and driving off. Frank sent a praise of thanks to the mysterious man he had bargained with and freely handed his friend his keys as he got out of his car and changed his future.
Jareth grabbed Collin's arm and transported them to an Oubilette. Collin trembled again but struggled to hide his fear, "you gonna leave me here? I'll get out and get that tasty bitch again."
Jareth never realized how stupid mortals could be, he conjured a crystal and flung it at Collin. When it hit him, Collin began to deevolve. He shrunk until he was no older than six years old. Jareth threw another crystal at him and Collin turned into a girl.
Collin looked at himself with disbeleife as he struggled to hit Jareth. He easily caught the child's hand and then opened the portal into the Cavern. "Vincent," Jareth yelled, "I have a present for you." Jareth dropped Collin into the Cavern as Vincent and the other ravenous adults descended upon the child. Collin's screams for mercy was the last thing Jareth heard as he closed the portal and returned to Sarah.