A/N: Uh, nothing new. Enjoy!
From Bad to Worse
"You're real…"
Sarah couldn't keep the cockiness from her voice. "So is that how you got the throne, Your Highness, on your incredibly accurate ability to state the obvious?" Her face took on an exasperated expression. "Of course I'm real."
She had expected a jab back at her, a spiteful comment or a taunting insult. Instead, she received a crucial examination of her person. It appeared to her that Jareth had suddenly stopped everything to look at her, really look at her. No detail went unnoticed, and she began to feel uncomfortable under his fierce scrutiny.
"Sarah…"
His voice brushed over her like soft velvet, warm and embracing; a stark contrast to his earlier demeanor, leaving Sarah momentarily stunned at the sudden change. "How did you come here?"
"The details are not important, but let's just say I was made an offer I couldn't refuse." Menacingly she stepped forward, knife at the ready, and she took much satisfaction when Jareth took a step to the side, keeping himself from being pinned to the wall. Seeing him retreat was a silent pleasure.
Still gripping his arm, he backed away carefully, his eyes and face neutral. "What kind of offer?"
Sarah's head tilted to the side, mocking Jareth when he used to give her the same look. "Isn't it obvious?" and with one finger she smeared the bit of blood along the blade.
"And what do you get in return?" he asked, flinching slightly at her gesture.
"What makes you think," Sarah smiled sweetly, "that this isn't what I get in return?"
He stopped in his retreat and stared down at her, his mismatched eyes ablaze. "Because I find it hard to believe that you've developed such hatred from your little expedition here that you find it necessary to come back and kill me."
"For everything you've done to me and everyone else, I consider it a fair exchange," she batted.
Now furious, Jareth laid into her with reckoning force. "After 17 years, you still blame me for your foolish actions! I took Toby because you asked me, and still it is my fault! So, I suppose, after years of obsessing, you've finally decided to put yourself out of your own guilt by killing me?! Ignorant girl, you are as pathetically blind as last you came!"
"You would accuse me of obsession, when it was your games, your taunts, your madness that has driven me back here! All just because you couldn't handle losing to a foolish girl, right?!" she snarled back. "And to think you could get away with it, you are the ignorant one!"
"Get away with what?!"
"Everything! First taking Toby from me, and then those six children from three years ago, each with brown hair and green eyes like me, and now the six that look just like Toby! My, my, weren't we so talented with subtlety there? You didn't think I'd catch on, did you? Thought that I wouldn't figure you out?! You take me too much for granted. You will pay for your crimes, I will see to that." She stepped forward, her knife raised to point at his throat. "Now…" she growled softly. "Give me the children."
"In case you failed to notice," replied in kind, his voice on edge as well, "I have no children here, and what the hell are you talking about?"
Her eyes went frigid along with her tone. Now as dangerously low as he own, she threatened, "I'm not going to ask you again."
"I only take children that are wished away and you know that! So everything that your screaming about is coming off as nothing more than nonsense, and leaves me wondering just how mentally sane you are anymore!"
"Liar!" She swung at him in rage, but her lack of control made her movement all too obvious, and Jareth easily sidestepped the attack. Before she could counter, his hand caught her wrist firmly and twisted it, making her drop the knife with a cry. Then, before she could try anything else, he spun her around and rammed her against the wall, keeping both wrists pinned beneath his.
"Let me go!" she screeched, trying desperately to loosen the vice round her wrists. "I'll kill you, goddamn it!"
"Not if I kill you first," he hissed in her ear. "And if you continue to be a threat, I will be forced to do so."
"Ah, yes," she spat wildly, "Because you are just so talented at taking lives, aren't you? Just like those miles of corpses outside your walls, hmm?"
The shock was reflected clearly in his eyes. "What corps-"
But Sarah was too far gone to hear him, and she rambled on, her voice increasing in force with every passing word. "Just like the six innocent children you ruthlessly tortured and killed? Just like you murdered my brother?!"
"ENOUGH!" he roared and threw her from the wall, putting so much force that she rolled with the momentum when she hit the floor, but not enough to hurt her. "How dare you accuse me of such things! I have done nothing to you since you last came, and I would never, NEVER, murder any child, including your brother!" His face suddenly paled and he looked like he'd been kicked in the stomach. "Toby's dead?"
Sarah bared her teeth as she got on all fours, looking so much like a wildcat on the verge of pouncing for the kill. "Don't play the innocent, Jareth, it doesn't suit you," she snarled. "I know you took him, that you killed him just like the rest. You told me in the hallway, remember? You told me you knew where he was, that he was dead with the rest that you kidnapped, and you had better pray to whatever god you worship down here that I find those children alive, or so help me-"
"How could I have told you anything when I didn't even know you were here?" he argued hotly, cutting her off abruptly and his momentary grief for the baby brother lost in the crossfire.
"Oh, you didn't?" She stood up to her full height. "That's why you greeted me as being late, isn't that correct?"
"That's because I didn't realize it was really you!"
…you're real…
"What are you talking about?" she hissed.
"I find it rather amusing that you keep mentioning something happening three years ago, because it was at that time when you started haunting me everyday! Always you'd come in here, taunting me about my defeat and how worthless I am, because I never had power over some little 15 year old! And at first you would cut me deep, right to the core, Sarah, until I couldn't take it anymore, and I managed to be cruel right back. That's when you'd go away, and let me be until the next day, when it would just start all over again."
Sarah found his story hard to believe, and called him on it. "How could something like that possibly happen? Couldn't you whisk it away with your magic? Or did you just enjoy living in self pity so much?"
"I don't know what caused it! I just had to deal with it, and so it was rather unexpected to see you come waltzing in here with murder on the mind, harping about lost children and corpses outside the castle, which, if you'd actually use your eyes and looked out the window, you would see nothing there! So where the hell you are coming up with such nonsense is clearly beyond my level of understanding!"
Sarah paused herself from flinging a comeback about leading her to the window just so he could push her out, simply because his words didn't sound right. The arrogant Goblin King wouldn't hide what he'd done, he'd revel in it. So why was he backing out now? Then she remembered the hint he had left when the last child was taken.
"You honestly expect me to believe you innocent after leaving a crystal at the scene of the last kidnapping? I mean, it is your trademark thing, right?" her question dripped with sarcasm.
Jareth became very still. "What crystal?"
"The one that brought me here. The one you left to mock me like before, to lead my here in your little quest for revenge for beating you," she spat.
Slowly, he shook his head, and carefully stepped toward her. "A crystal can't do that on its own. It needs someone to fuel the magic. Someone sent you here." He peered down at her, his voice cutting her like the dagger strewn carelessly on the floor. "Who made you that offer, Sarah?"
She stared back, unmoving.
"Sarah, you know I don't take children unless they are wished away. I didn't harm you or Toby or any of your friends while in the labyrinth. I haven't invaded your life once for the past 17 years, and suddenly you are hearing voices in your head, you're seeing images outside the castle that aren't there, and your hell bent on killing me because of accusations you can't even prove. Look around Sarah, and tell me where these children are? They are certainly not here, and do you really think I would let them run loose in the castle with goblins about? And six, Sarah? One child is hard enough to handle alone, but to take on six at a time?" He suddenly stepped right up into her face, harshly forcing his chilling eyes on her. "And if I had wanted revenge, Sarah, believe me, I would have taken care of that long ago."
"So why didn't you?"
"Because maybe I'm not the really the enemy you're against." He stepped away, and circled her once, letting his words sink in. "I don't want revenge Sarah, and I don't think you want it either. Who sent you after me?"
They stared at each other for an eternity-or was it really just a breath-yet either way it was unbearable until Sarah broke the silence. "A man named Ariman."
Sarah had time to register the horror that registered on his articulately chiseled face before a savagely intense heat overwhelmed them, and a roar deafened all sounds inside the castle walls.
Growling low in his throat, Stutz threw the pictures down on Sarah's desk in frustration. Taken from the crime scene three years ago, he didn't find anything with the white haired man, there was nothing in Sarah's private files on the case, nor did anything come up on the database. Also, he had come to a dead end when he tried every angle of investigation on that crystal found earlier, which had disappeared from Sarah's apartment as well that night. There was nothing left for him to go on, and he was ready to pull his gun and start firing wildly, just to blow off some steam.
Of course, that would blow him off the case as well to develop a sudden fit of insanity, and it would do Sarah no good if he found himself behind bars before the night was through. "No," he shook his head ruefully, "if anyone will be behind bars, it'll be the kidnapper." Stutz thought again to the apartment. Maybe there would be something in there, something left behind that didn't catch his eye the first time around…
"God, Stutsman, you look awful!"
The bleary-eyes agent looked up to see a fellow comrade in arms, Shabnam, undeniably the most beautiful and dangerous Persian Special Agent, leaning casually against the door frame. "You're taking too hard to this case, my friend. You should take a break."
"No, not while he's still out there, that bastard," he huffed and pushed himself to his feet. In the process, he pushed the desk back a couple of inches causing a few of the stacked books to topple over each other and knock his files to the floor. "Fantastic."
"Are you going to bring Williams in on it?" Shab walked over to help him gather the pictures and scattered papers.
Stutz flinched. "Well-"
"Hey… did you notice this before?"
"Notice what?" Stutz said, stopping his sentence and following her gaze to the floor.
"These are the new ones, right?" At his nod, she took her files and placed them out in a row. Isberque, Argano, Myrra, Arket, Nicst, Restone. And then placed the other six below. Ionvinkski, Alise, Miller, Arya, Netter, Rellman. "The first letters of the names are the same," Shab surmised.
Stutz gaped. "I don't believe it."
"What do you think of the pattern?"
Stutz stared carefully. "It could be his 'note', that hint that will lead us to him. Perhaps a place-"
"Or his name," Shab offered.
Stutz grinned. "And something we can put with a face." He noticed Shab's frown. "I think I saw the kidnapper tonight… and I think he's playing a game with Sarah."
"What?" Shab's voice went up a few notches in surprise.
"When I went to her apartment, they were both there one minute, and then gone the next. They disappeared right in front of me! I can't explain it," he glowered.
"What did he look like?"
Stutz gave the best description he could remember, not noticing Shab's sudden uncomfortable expression. He also told her exactly what happened when he had entered the room, leaving her as flabbergasted as he. Until she looked again at the files, and her face went pale.
"Oh, Sweet Jesus," she whispered, and began arranging the files, until they settled in a new order. Arket, Restone, Isberque, Myrra, Argano, Nicst. And then using the other files, she covered all but the first of each letter.
A-R-I-M-A-N.
Shab's eyes left the files and fixed steadily on his. "This is bad… and if it's really him, you, Sarah, and the children are in more danger than you could possibly imagine."
Oh my god, time for bed. :::flops on bed:::: Must stop staying up after midnight writing!!!