Title: Say The Words (Part Seven)
Author: Amber
Distribution: Email me first (Arrilyn@hotmail.com), but other than that, all I ask is that my name and email addy be left attached!
Disclaimer: Same as each time before! Labyrinth and all its characters belong to Jim Henson and Lucasfilm(s?).. I own nothing, and I'm not looking to get any profit from this story! Heh...like anyone would wanna pay to read this! The only characters that belong to me are Hetta and Rilum!
Summary: Another 'alternate ending' fic, but I hope you enjoy it anyway! And, in regard to this part, I REALLY hope you like it anyway, LoL!
A/N: If you didn't read the past 6 parts, I suggest you go do that RIGHT NOW before you read this part (especially considering this is the last part of the story)! Things happen rather quickly (and all at once) in this part, but I felt the story needed to be wrapped up because it was starting to not really go anywhere! I lost parts 1-6 because my other computer went schizo on me, so maybe this part won't make much sense? Anyway, I hope you like it, and thank you to EVERYONE who's reviewed this story! Even those of you who have read but haven't reviewed, thank you! ;)
Say The Words
"The necklace is gone," Sarah spoke up, quickening her pace to keep up with the Goblin King's longer strides.
"I know," he replied calmly, not bothering to slow down for her.
"I don't know where it went or what happened to it--you know?!" Sarah stumbled on a protruding cobblestone, and Jareth was there immediately to steady her. "How do you know? Did Hetta give it back to you?"
"I told her to," he explained. "Apparently, it has been having some ill effects on you."
"Not true! There was nothing wrong with me! If anything, I've been happier in the past days than I've been since you made me stay here in this awful place!"
Jareth stopped suddenly, causing Sarah to bump into him. He turned around and faced her, his jaw clenched in an attempt to hold back his irritation. How did she manage to irk him so easily? "Let's get one thing straight," he ground out. "I gave you the chance to go home. You were the one who wanted to stay; I did nothing to force you."
Sarah's own frustration was rising. They always seemed to get into the same argument: he'd say something to make her bring up Toby, and then he would reply that she had been the one to wish her brother away, and finally they both just got so angry that one of them stalked off. She wasn't going to let it happen this time, but how could she make him see what he was doing to her?
"You might not have given me a direct order," she said at last, wearily realizing that what she was about to say was just as bad as the words she'd been trying to avoid, "but you knew I would stay if you kept Toby here. Why can't you understand? You didn't need to force me to stay…keeping Toby was enough to ensure I wouldn't leave!"
He understood her perfectly. He'd known from the time he turned Toby into a goblin that it would force Sarah to stay. In fact, that was the only reason why he had turned the baby into a goblin in the first place! It had been a pathetic way of keeping her with him, he knew, but at the time, he had thought it to be the only way. Now, however, if he'd had it to do all over again…but he didn't. What happened was in the past, and it was irreversible. If nothing he had done so far was enough to make her stop hating him, then there was nothing more he could do. But he refused to go back on his word and let her return to her own world; his pride was rearing its ugly head again.
"I'll see that your bath is drawn when we return to the castle," he replied quietly, releasing her arm as he continued walking. Sarah shook her head slowly and sighed, watching his retreating figure with bewildered hazel eyes. This man was so full of complexities that she knew she'd never understand him. However, she no longer needed to understand him; she had the one weapon she'd been searching for, and all she had to do was wield it…
Sarah sank deeper into the steaming water of her bath, luxuriating in the warmth that seeped into her skin. The nightmare she'd had the night before-a swirl of gruesome images and incoherent words-had left her with a cold chill, and discovering the absence of her necklace hadn't helped matters. To finally be able to relax was something she needed desperately, and it seemed as though everyone was set on giving her her space, because she hadn't seen a goblin come within ten feet of her since she came back to the castle. She hadn't even seen whoever it was that had drawn her bath!
Pursing her lips thoughtfully, she looked at the object couched within her cupped hands. The crystal, glittering now with beads of water on its surface, had been plucked from its golden-clawed stand, and as she looked within it, she could see faint shades of blue and silver swirling in a sluggish whirlpool. She lifted her hands higher, so that the crystal was at eye level, and continued to stare. Suddenly, she realized that the warmth seeping into her wasn't from the water at all.
Her power had been returned to her.
"But how…" Sarah murmured in surprise, her gaze growing distant. She was finally starting to realize something that she'd been ignoring since she first received the gift from Jareth.
Abruptly, her door was opened, and a small goblin marched into the room. "King Jareth says to get ready for dinner," it said in an obviously male voice. Sarah screamed and sank herself further into the water, so that her head was all that showed above the surface.
"Get out of here, you little beast!" she shouted, hurling the crystal at him. It hit him square on the forehead with a satisfying thunk, and before she could find something else to throw, the goblin was half-scurrying, half-staggering out of the room. As the door was slammed shut, Sarah found herself giggling, replaying the image over and over again of that crystal colliding with the goblin's furry little head. Served him right, though; didn't he have any sense of propriety?
After finishing with her bath, she clothed herself in a dress of silvery blue, and then pulled her long hair back with a simple ribbon of the same color. She wasn't out to impress anybody tonight-this dinner was simply going to be a matter of duty, and nothing more. As she walked downstairs, a tiny smile played on her lips.
Jareth stood respectfully when she entered, but only nodded in greeting. Sarah could tell that he was still in poor spirits over what had happened earlier. She gave a polite nod of her own, and then proceeded to seat herself at the opposite end of the table. The last time they had dined together, he had been sitting at the head of the table, and she at the chair next to his. There would be none of that friendliness this evening.
"I trust you enjoyed knocking my goblin senseless," he remarked dryly after several minutes of uncomfortable silence. Sarah couldn't sense the humor behind his words, and thus had no idea how to respond to him.
"If you wanted to let me know that I was supposed to eat dinner with you," she replied, "you should have sent a female goblin! He deserved to be hit like that! Don't your goblins have any manners?"
"I haven't been able to hire an etiquette teacher for them." He was obviously in a sarcastic mood, and probably just so he could watch Sarah become more indignant with each passing minute. Did he know what sort of dangerous ground he was treading on? No, of course not…how would he know that I've remembered the words?
"Then maybe it's you who…" The food was served, interrupting Sarah's heated retort. Her meaning came through clearly, though, and Jareth smiled amusedly at her before he began eating.
Several more minutes of silence passed, broken only by the sound of silverware clinking, and then there came a hesitant knock on the large doors to the dining hall. Jareth looked up, as did Sarah, but whereas she was wondering who could be on the other side, the Goblin King was looking expectant. Had he invited guests? Her question was answered as the doors open and Hoggle, Hetta, Sir Didymus and Ludo entered. Sarah snapped her head around to stare at Jareth.
"What are you scheming?" she demanded. "We made a deal, and if you're planning on breaking it-"
"Relax," Jareth said. "I thought you might like the company of your…friends for dinner." He gestured to the guests, who were still waiting in the doorway. Of the four of them, only Hetta seemed unruffled at being so deep within the Goblin King's keep. Sarah almost opened her mouth to scold the goblin woman for her betrayal, but kept silent. After all, Jareth had admitted to ordering Hetta to take back the necklace. Still, that didn't mean that she'd had to listen…
"Sarah, how are you feeling?" Hetta inquired, taking a seat next to the young woman. "I'm sorry about everything that happened…I was just worried about you."
"It doesn't matter." Sarah waved off the apology and then smiled at her other friends. None of them fit very well at the table, Ludo because he was so big, and the others because they were so small. Despite their discomfort, though, they smiled back at Sarah.
Jareth watched them from his empty end of the table, feelings of jealousy suddenly rising up within him. He'd been jealous before, when he'd caught Hoggle going back to help Sarah, but that was nothing compared to this. His queen was surrounded by friends who cared for her, while he was left alone…and the worst of it was, none of them seemed to care that they had excluded him from their happy little world. Before he made a fool of himself, he pushed himself away from the table and stood.
"I have business to attend to," he announced brusquely. "Have a good evening, everyone." As he walked past, Sarah stood up and approached him, intending on asking him what he was doing. He pushed her callously aside, saying only "Go away" before exiting the room.
Suddenly, Sarah was seething. How could he go from treating her kindly and begging her to let their feud end, to pushing her away and treating her no better than one of his goblins? She needed to get herself and Toby away from him, before he completely destroyed their lives! Turning back to the table, she sat down and leaned forward in a conspiratorial manner. This nonsense was ending, now.
"I've remembered the words," she said simply, watching as her friends' eyes widened.
Sarah closed the door to her room quietly after the others had filed inside, and then walked over to her bedside table to retrieve the crystal from its stand. When she again faced her friends, they were watching her with expressions of both anticipation and confusion. Hetta's face was wearing a frown of disapproval; of them all, she was the only other person who truly understood what it was that Sarah was about to do.
"Are you sure about this, girl?" she asked in her gravelly voice, eyes piercing. "Is this what you really want to do?" Sarah looked down at the crystal in her hands as she pondered Hetta's question, and before long, memories came racing back to her mind…
Flicker.
"Don't you know anything about friendship?"
"I have no need for friendship…"
Flicker.
"If you would just change him back, then I could leave and you'd be rid of me!"
"Did you ever stop to think, just for once, that I didn't want you to leave?"
Flicker.
"You have the power to do anything you dream of, Sarah."
"Do I?" She toyed with the pendant around her neck. "I can do anything with this?"
"Anything. Go ahead, Sarah. Make a wish. What do you want?"
"I…I don't know what I want…"
Flicker.
"He loves you…"
Realizing that there were tears trickling down her face and splashing against the crystal's smooth surface, Sarah banished the thoughts plaguing her. "No, it's not what I want to do," she admitted suddenly, a sad smile curving her lips. "But it's what I have to do. Toby was pulled into this because I was being selfish; he doesn't deserve to suffer for my mistakes. I'm going to set things to rights."
Hoggle stepped forward, finally realizing just exactly what he was losing. "I'll miss you, Sarah," he said quietly. Sarah leaned down and hugged him.
"I'll miss you too, Hoggle," she whispered tearfully. She quickly embraced Ludo and Sir Didymus as well. "You were all the best friends I ever had." Turning to Hetta, she chuckled softly. "Take care of Rilum, and don't let the goblins take him away again…I won't be here to rescue him this time!"
Hetta laughed despite herself and wrapped her plump arms around Sarah. "I still don't understand why you're doing this, but I'll miss you, girl. You've acted more like a queen than Jareth has acted like a king. I think he'll miss you, too."
Sarah had nothing to say in response to that. Thinking of how coldly Jareth had treated her that evening helped to steel her resolve, so that she could do what she had to do. He couldn't care one way or another what happened to her; his treatment of her had proved that. In fact, he would probably be elated to find out that she was gone! Taking a few steps away from her friends, Sarah inhaled deeply and brought the crystal up to her face. She willed Toby's goblin features to appear in the icy surface, letting her anger continue to build up inside her. She'd need that anger to do what she had to do next.
After her brother's image had faded from the crystal, she began to will a completely different set of features into existence. She imagined those mismatched eyes, those lips that were so predisposed to smirking in condescension, and that voice which could bring pleasure and terror all at once. When the image of Jareth sprawled on his throne appeared within her crystal, she used her anger to buffer her against that forlorn sense of pity she felt for him. Her mouth opened, and she began speaking.
"Through hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way to this moment, to this final confrontation." She didn't know where the words were coming from, and only subconsciously realized that this wasn't a true confrontation, because she wasn't giving him a chance to defend himself. "I have proved that my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom is just as great. You will give back the child that you have stolen."
Her breath caught in her lungs, but she forcefully pushed out the final six words.
"You have no power over me."
The earth lurched from beneath her, and suddenly she was falling through space. Hoggle, Hetta, Ludo, and Sir Didymus were suddenly gone as she fell further into the darkness. The sound of a crying baby-Toby-could be heard, but all she could see were those mismatched eyes staring back at her with fierce sadness. Even when she blinked, the image never faded. "You have fought unfairly, my love…"
Suddenly, all was still. She was back in her room. Sarah looked around for several dazed minutes, at first not realizing where she was. She had become so accustomed to her room in Jareth's castle, with its cool gray stone, canopied bed, and richly varnished furniture that seeing her more childish room was startling. Everything was just as it had been before she left, from the posters on her wall, to her white playacting dress discarded on the floor, to the empty place on her shelf where Lancelot should have been. She stared at that empty spot, wondering why the thought of her bear was making her so anxious.
Toby. Is he safe? Picking herself off the floor, Sarah dashed out the door and into her parents room, where she found both her father and her stepmother sound asleep in their bed. Stepping quietly, she moved toward Toby's crib and saw that he, too, was sleeping peacefully, once again in his human shape. Satisfied that her errors had been corrected, she stole silently out of the room and went back to her own.
The first thing she saw upon reentering her bedroom was her music box. Picking it up, she wound up the player and watched as the white-clothed dancer inside twirled around to the tinkling music. The tune was hauntingly familiar…
I'll paint you mornings of gold,
I'll spin you Valentine evenings
Though we're strangers 'til now,
We're choosing the path between the stars,
I'll lay my love
Between the stars...
Sarah sank weakly to the floor, the music box falling from her hands to roll across the room. As she stared, the floorboards became blurred and obscured as tears clouded her eyes. She finally dropped her face into her hands and sobbed freely, as the music box played on mercilessly.
"What have I done?" she whispered brokenly. The dancer in the little music box twirled on blithely.
As Jareth sprawled on the throne, the hairs on the back of his neck began to prickle. Someone was watching him. He almost sat forward to look for the spy, but in the end made no movement. He didn't feel like doing anything except just sitting there and…brooding, as the goblin woman would have put it. A rueful smirk quirked his lips; imagine the Goblin King, brooding over some girl…
The smirk vanished abruptly, and his heart started pounding loudly in his chest. This time, he did sit up, his back so straight that it looked as though a metal rod had been placed in his spine. Something was suddenly going terribly wrong.
Sarah...
He could hear the words then, the sound of her voice ringing sweetly inside his head. Each word further damned him to a life without his queen, for the more she spoke, the closer she came to gaining her freedom. As those last six words were spoken-the words she had forgotten in their first confrontation-the world around him began to tremble. But no…as he looked down at his hands, he realized it was he who was trembling. Sarah had gained her freedom.
"You have fought unfairly, my love," he whispered, and then she was gone. He could no longer feel her presence in the Underground.
Jareth was sure at that moment that his Labyrinth was falling apart, mourning the loss of the woman who had unconsciously brought so much life to it. He scrambled up from his throne and somehow made it to a window, dreading the sight he was sure he would find. As his eyes scanned the surrounding sprawl of passages, however, he didn't see any changes. The Labyrinth would go on, just as he would.
But it wouldn't be the same. His love was gone.
"I'll find you again," he murmured fiercely to the red-orange sky, his gloved hands tightened into fists at his sides.
Behind the castle, where the ground had once been barren and ugly, a lonely wind whispered through the wildflowers.
THE END! *frantically attempts to dodge the rotten peaches being thrown her way* I can't imagine many of you are happy with this ending...but I've had this ending in mind from the very first part of the story! I love to write stories like these, with the unconventional endings, but to actually read stories like that...well, it would inspire me to write my own fanfic about the fanfic, LoL! But fear not, I stuck with this ending (even when I desperately wanted Jareth and Sarah to just make amends and live 'happily ever after') so that I could write a sequel! And that's what I'm in the process of doing now! :) Expect Part One to be out within the next week or so!
Author: Amber
Distribution: Email me first (Arrilyn@hotmail.com), but other than that, all I ask is that my name and email addy be left attached!
Disclaimer: Same as each time before! Labyrinth and all its characters belong to Jim Henson and Lucasfilm(s?).. I own nothing, and I'm not looking to get any profit from this story! Heh...like anyone would wanna pay to read this! The only characters that belong to me are Hetta and Rilum!
Summary: Another 'alternate ending' fic, but I hope you enjoy it anyway! And, in regard to this part, I REALLY hope you like it anyway, LoL!
A/N: If you didn't read the past 6 parts, I suggest you go do that RIGHT NOW before you read this part (especially considering this is the last part of the story)! Things happen rather quickly (and all at once) in this part, but I felt the story needed to be wrapped up because it was starting to not really go anywhere! I lost parts 1-6 because my other computer went schizo on me, so maybe this part won't make much sense? Anyway, I hope you like it, and thank you to EVERYONE who's reviewed this story! Even those of you who have read but haven't reviewed, thank you! ;)
"The necklace is gone," Sarah spoke up, quickening her pace to keep up with the Goblin King's longer strides.
"I know," he replied calmly, not bothering to slow down for her.
"I don't know where it went or what happened to it--you know?!" Sarah stumbled on a protruding cobblestone, and Jareth was there immediately to steady her. "How do you know? Did Hetta give it back to you?"
"I told her to," he explained. "Apparently, it has been having some ill effects on you."
"Not true! There was nothing wrong with me! If anything, I've been happier in the past days than I've been since you made me stay here in this awful place!"
Jareth stopped suddenly, causing Sarah to bump into him. He turned around and faced her, his jaw clenched in an attempt to hold back his irritation. How did she manage to irk him so easily? "Let's get one thing straight," he ground out. "I gave you the chance to go home. You were the one who wanted to stay; I did nothing to force you."
Sarah's own frustration was rising. They always seemed to get into the same argument: he'd say something to make her bring up Toby, and then he would reply that she had been the one to wish her brother away, and finally they both just got so angry that one of them stalked off. She wasn't going to let it happen this time, but how could she make him see what he was doing to her?
"You might not have given me a direct order," she said at last, wearily realizing that what she was about to say was just as bad as the words she'd been trying to avoid, "but you knew I would stay if you kept Toby here. Why can't you understand? You didn't need to force me to stay…keeping Toby was enough to ensure I wouldn't leave!"
He understood her perfectly. He'd known from the time he turned Toby into a goblin that it would force Sarah to stay. In fact, that was the only reason why he had turned the baby into a goblin in the first place! It had been a pathetic way of keeping her with him, he knew, but at the time, he had thought it to be the only way. Now, however, if he'd had it to do all over again…but he didn't. What happened was in the past, and it was irreversible. If nothing he had done so far was enough to make her stop hating him, then there was nothing more he could do. But he refused to go back on his word and let her return to her own world; his pride was rearing its ugly head again.
"I'll see that your bath is drawn when we return to the castle," he replied quietly, releasing her arm as he continued walking. Sarah shook her head slowly and sighed, watching his retreating figure with bewildered hazel eyes. This man was so full of complexities that she knew she'd never understand him. However, she no longer needed to understand him; she had the one weapon she'd been searching for, and all she had to do was wield it…
Sarah sank deeper into the steaming water of her bath, luxuriating in the warmth that seeped into her skin. The nightmare she'd had the night before-a swirl of gruesome images and incoherent words-had left her with a cold chill, and discovering the absence of her necklace hadn't helped matters. To finally be able to relax was something she needed desperately, and it seemed as though everyone was set on giving her her space, because she hadn't seen a goblin come within ten feet of her since she came back to the castle. She hadn't even seen whoever it was that had drawn her bath!
Pursing her lips thoughtfully, she looked at the object couched within her cupped hands. The crystal, glittering now with beads of water on its surface, had been plucked from its golden-clawed stand, and as she looked within it, she could see faint shades of blue and silver swirling in a sluggish whirlpool. She lifted her hands higher, so that the crystal was at eye level, and continued to stare. Suddenly, she realized that the warmth seeping into her wasn't from the water at all.
Her power had been returned to her.
"But how…" Sarah murmured in surprise, her gaze growing distant. She was finally starting to realize something that she'd been ignoring since she first received the gift from Jareth.
Abruptly, her door was opened, and a small goblin marched into the room. "King Jareth says to get ready for dinner," it said in an obviously male voice. Sarah screamed and sank herself further into the water, so that her head was all that showed above the surface.
"Get out of here, you little beast!" she shouted, hurling the crystal at him. It hit him square on the forehead with a satisfying thunk, and before she could find something else to throw, the goblin was half-scurrying, half-staggering out of the room. As the door was slammed shut, Sarah found herself giggling, replaying the image over and over again of that crystal colliding with the goblin's furry little head. Served him right, though; didn't he have any sense of propriety?
After finishing with her bath, she clothed herself in a dress of silvery blue, and then pulled her long hair back with a simple ribbon of the same color. She wasn't out to impress anybody tonight-this dinner was simply going to be a matter of duty, and nothing more. As she walked downstairs, a tiny smile played on her lips.
Jareth stood respectfully when she entered, but only nodded in greeting. Sarah could tell that he was still in poor spirits over what had happened earlier. She gave a polite nod of her own, and then proceeded to seat herself at the opposite end of the table. The last time they had dined together, he had been sitting at the head of the table, and she at the chair next to his. There would be none of that friendliness this evening.
"I trust you enjoyed knocking my goblin senseless," he remarked dryly after several minutes of uncomfortable silence. Sarah couldn't sense the humor behind his words, and thus had no idea how to respond to him.
"If you wanted to let me know that I was supposed to eat dinner with you," she replied, "you should have sent a female goblin! He deserved to be hit like that! Don't your goblins have any manners?"
"I haven't been able to hire an etiquette teacher for them." He was obviously in a sarcastic mood, and probably just so he could watch Sarah become more indignant with each passing minute. Did he know what sort of dangerous ground he was treading on? No, of course not…how would he know that I've remembered the words?
"Then maybe it's you who…" The food was served, interrupting Sarah's heated retort. Her meaning came through clearly, though, and Jareth smiled amusedly at her before he began eating.
Several more minutes of silence passed, broken only by the sound of silverware clinking, and then there came a hesitant knock on the large doors to the dining hall. Jareth looked up, as did Sarah, but whereas she was wondering who could be on the other side, the Goblin King was looking expectant. Had he invited guests? Her question was answered as the doors open and Hoggle, Hetta, Sir Didymus and Ludo entered. Sarah snapped her head around to stare at Jareth.
"What are you scheming?" she demanded. "We made a deal, and if you're planning on breaking it-"
"Relax," Jareth said. "I thought you might like the company of your…friends for dinner." He gestured to the guests, who were still waiting in the doorway. Of the four of them, only Hetta seemed unruffled at being so deep within the Goblin King's keep. Sarah almost opened her mouth to scold the goblin woman for her betrayal, but kept silent. After all, Jareth had admitted to ordering Hetta to take back the necklace. Still, that didn't mean that she'd had to listen…
"Sarah, how are you feeling?" Hetta inquired, taking a seat next to the young woman. "I'm sorry about everything that happened…I was just worried about you."
"It doesn't matter." Sarah waved off the apology and then smiled at her other friends. None of them fit very well at the table, Ludo because he was so big, and the others because they were so small. Despite their discomfort, though, they smiled back at Sarah.
Jareth watched them from his empty end of the table, feelings of jealousy suddenly rising up within him. He'd been jealous before, when he'd caught Hoggle going back to help Sarah, but that was nothing compared to this. His queen was surrounded by friends who cared for her, while he was left alone…and the worst of it was, none of them seemed to care that they had excluded him from their happy little world. Before he made a fool of himself, he pushed himself away from the table and stood.
"I have business to attend to," he announced brusquely. "Have a good evening, everyone." As he walked past, Sarah stood up and approached him, intending on asking him what he was doing. He pushed her callously aside, saying only "Go away" before exiting the room.
Suddenly, Sarah was seething. How could he go from treating her kindly and begging her to let their feud end, to pushing her away and treating her no better than one of his goblins? She needed to get herself and Toby away from him, before he completely destroyed their lives! Turning back to the table, she sat down and leaned forward in a conspiratorial manner. This nonsense was ending, now.
"I've remembered the words," she said simply, watching as her friends' eyes widened.
Sarah closed the door to her room quietly after the others had filed inside, and then walked over to her bedside table to retrieve the crystal from its stand. When she again faced her friends, they were watching her with expressions of both anticipation and confusion. Hetta's face was wearing a frown of disapproval; of them all, she was the only other person who truly understood what it was that Sarah was about to do.
"Are you sure about this, girl?" she asked in her gravelly voice, eyes piercing. "Is this what you really want to do?" Sarah looked down at the crystal in her hands as she pondered Hetta's question, and before long, memories came racing back to her mind…
Flicker.
"Don't you know anything about friendship?"
"I have no need for friendship…"
Flicker.
"If you would just change him back, then I could leave and you'd be rid of me!"
"Did you ever stop to think, just for once, that I didn't want you to leave?"
Flicker.
"You have the power to do anything you dream of, Sarah."
"Do I?" She toyed with the pendant around her neck. "I can do anything with this?"
"Anything. Go ahead, Sarah. Make a wish. What do you want?"
"I…I don't know what I want…"
Flicker.
"He loves you…"
Realizing that there were tears trickling down her face and splashing against the crystal's smooth surface, Sarah banished the thoughts plaguing her. "No, it's not what I want to do," she admitted suddenly, a sad smile curving her lips. "But it's what I have to do. Toby was pulled into this because I was being selfish; he doesn't deserve to suffer for my mistakes. I'm going to set things to rights."
Hoggle stepped forward, finally realizing just exactly what he was losing. "I'll miss you, Sarah," he said quietly. Sarah leaned down and hugged him.
"I'll miss you too, Hoggle," she whispered tearfully. She quickly embraced Ludo and Sir Didymus as well. "You were all the best friends I ever had." Turning to Hetta, she chuckled softly. "Take care of Rilum, and don't let the goblins take him away again…I won't be here to rescue him this time!"
Hetta laughed despite herself and wrapped her plump arms around Sarah. "I still don't understand why you're doing this, but I'll miss you, girl. You've acted more like a queen than Jareth has acted like a king. I think he'll miss you, too."
Sarah had nothing to say in response to that. Thinking of how coldly Jareth had treated her that evening helped to steel her resolve, so that she could do what she had to do. He couldn't care one way or another what happened to her; his treatment of her had proved that. In fact, he would probably be elated to find out that she was gone! Taking a few steps away from her friends, Sarah inhaled deeply and brought the crystal up to her face. She willed Toby's goblin features to appear in the icy surface, letting her anger continue to build up inside her. She'd need that anger to do what she had to do next.
After her brother's image had faded from the crystal, she began to will a completely different set of features into existence. She imagined those mismatched eyes, those lips that were so predisposed to smirking in condescension, and that voice which could bring pleasure and terror all at once. When the image of Jareth sprawled on his throne appeared within her crystal, she used her anger to buffer her against that forlorn sense of pity she felt for him. Her mouth opened, and she began speaking.
"Through hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way to this moment, to this final confrontation." She didn't know where the words were coming from, and only subconsciously realized that this wasn't a true confrontation, because she wasn't giving him a chance to defend himself. "I have proved that my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom is just as great. You will give back the child that you have stolen."
Her breath caught in her lungs, but she forcefully pushed out the final six words.
"You have no power over me."
The earth lurched from beneath her, and suddenly she was falling through space. Hoggle, Hetta, Ludo, and Sir Didymus were suddenly gone as she fell further into the darkness. The sound of a crying baby-Toby-could be heard, but all she could see were those mismatched eyes staring back at her with fierce sadness. Even when she blinked, the image never faded. "You have fought unfairly, my love…"
Suddenly, all was still. She was back in her room. Sarah looked around for several dazed minutes, at first not realizing where she was. She had become so accustomed to her room in Jareth's castle, with its cool gray stone, canopied bed, and richly varnished furniture that seeing her more childish room was startling. Everything was just as it had been before she left, from the posters on her wall, to her white playacting dress discarded on the floor, to the empty place on her shelf where Lancelot should have been. She stared at that empty spot, wondering why the thought of her bear was making her so anxious.
Toby. Is he safe? Picking herself off the floor, Sarah dashed out the door and into her parents room, where she found both her father and her stepmother sound asleep in their bed. Stepping quietly, she moved toward Toby's crib and saw that he, too, was sleeping peacefully, once again in his human shape. Satisfied that her errors had been corrected, she stole silently out of the room and went back to her own.
The first thing she saw upon reentering her bedroom was her music box. Picking it up, she wound up the player and watched as the white-clothed dancer inside twirled around to the tinkling music. The tune was hauntingly familiar…
I'll spin you Valentine evenings
Though we're strangers 'til now,
We're choosing the path between the stars,
I'll lay my love
Between the stars...
Sarah sank weakly to the floor, the music box falling from her hands to roll across the room. As she stared, the floorboards became blurred and obscured as tears clouded her eyes. She finally dropped her face into her hands and sobbed freely, as the music box played on mercilessly.
"What have I done?" she whispered brokenly. The dancer in the little music box twirled on blithely.
As Jareth sprawled on the throne, the hairs on the back of his neck began to prickle. Someone was watching him. He almost sat forward to look for the spy, but in the end made no movement. He didn't feel like doing anything except just sitting there and…brooding, as the goblin woman would have put it. A rueful smirk quirked his lips; imagine the Goblin King, brooding over some girl…
The smirk vanished abruptly, and his heart started pounding loudly in his chest. This time, he did sit up, his back so straight that it looked as though a metal rod had been placed in his spine. Something was suddenly going terribly wrong.
Sarah...
He could hear the words then, the sound of her voice ringing sweetly inside his head. Each word further damned him to a life without his queen, for the more she spoke, the closer she came to gaining her freedom. As those last six words were spoken-the words she had forgotten in their first confrontation-the world around him began to tremble. But no…as he looked down at his hands, he realized it was he who was trembling. Sarah had gained her freedom.
"You have fought unfairly, my love," he whispered, and then she was gone. He could no longer feel her presence in the Underground.
Jareth was sure at that moment that his Labyrinth was falling apart, mourning the loss of the woman who had unconsciously brought so much life to it. He scrambled up from his throne and somehow made it to a window, dreading the sight he was sure he would find. As his eyes scanned the surrounding sprawl of passages, however, he didn't see any changes. The Labyrinth would go on, just as he would.
But it wouldn't be the same. His love was gone.
"I'll find you again," he murmured fiercely to the red-orange sky, his gloved hands tightened into fists at his sides.
Behind the castle, where the ground had once been barren and ugly, a lonely wind whispered through the wildflowers.
THE END! *frantically attempts to dodge the rotten peaches being thrown her way* I can't imagine many of you are happy with this ending...but I've had this ending in mind from the very first part of the story! I love to write stories like these, with the unconventional endings, but to actually read stories like that...well, it would inspire me to write my own fanfic about the fanfic, LoL! But fear not, I stuck with this ending (even when I desperately wanted Jareth and Sarah to just make amends and live 'happily ever after') so that I could write a sequel! And that's what I'm in the process of doing now! :) Expect Part One to be out within the next week or so!