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It was an evening several days later. She was in her apartment bedroom, pacing once again. As much as Sarah tried not to think of it, she couldn't help it. Everything was a reminder of the vague thing that she couldn't answer. She hated even wearing shorts, because her flawless legs reminded her of something that wasn't explainable by this world.
Why had he given her what she wanted so easily?
"I wish to speak to Jareth." She couldn't wait any longer.
"Yes, Sarah?"
Sarah spun around on him, breaking right in. "I want an answer."
"Answer? To what question?" he asked smoothly.
"Why have you done everything that you have done?
He sighed. "When will this become obvious to you? Because you wanted it, Sarah. If you would be mine, I would give you everything you want. And I believe you are mine now."
She narrowed her eyes.
"Is that not a satisfactory answer?"
"I mean everything, from the beginning. I did some research, on the Labyrinth," she continued. "There are several legends and stories about it. And it seems to be a remarkably twisted, evil place to outsiders. Yet I don't remember it as such. Why?"
"Because you wanted it, Sarah."
"I won back Toby merely because I wanted it?" she asked unbelievingly.
Jareth leveled his gaze at her. "You don't think that those pompous words from that ridiculous play actually have power over me, do you? You don't think that you solved the Labyrinth because you were so gifted?" A sudden chill shook Sarah. "You don't think that if I had wanted it, I could have kept your brother (whom I personally attended to, by the way) and sent you back in failure?"
"Then why?" she asked in a small voice.
"Because, Sarah," he said, exasperatingly, "because you wanted it."
"How?" Sarah found herself sinking to sit on the bed.
"I told you: I can hear, and I can watch. Some things I hear more than others. I saw you playing your games. No one ever before possessed so much passion and conviction, so many far-flung dreams. And when somehow you found that old play-- And then I heard you reading the lines, believing and wanting all of it so badly. I couldn't make you say the real words, of course, but when you did--! I took the opportunity, if only to have you for those thirteen hours."
"And what would have happened if I hadn't remembered the line at the end?"
"I would have made some other fatal mistake, naturally. It was all for you! Everything I've done, I've done for you. I turned my entire kingdom upside down because you wanted it to end that way. I destroyed my castle because you wished it."
"But why?" Sarah whispered, a sickening feeling settling in her stomach. It was slowly making horrible sense.
"To bring you to me, Sarah. You were the perfect age for dreams; any younger and you wouldn't have believed any of it later, any older and you wouldn't have accepted any of it then. And I have no power here except to watch, unless called. Once you did, I gave you everything you wanted, everything you expected it to be--if only to give you a memory, so that you would be drawn back. But even then I did all of it, even knowing that you might never come back, knowing I might never be able to speak to you again."
"Then all of it was fake?" she asked, disbelieving. "All the things I saw, all the people I met?"
"No. But the dangers, the outcomes--all were done to suit you. I abandoned my ways--tailored the Labyrinth to you, gave you back the baby--only because your games were that way. It was all for you."
Sarah was silent for a long while. Then she stood up. "Then what you're saying," she said slowly, "is that you did everything in your power to make sure that I would never be happy with my life."
"Were you ever happy, Sarah?"
"I don't know!" she shouted. "You never gave me a chance to know! If I hadn't gone, maybe I would have grown up, without all this--this baggage! It's almost driven me mad, you know!"
"I've seen. However, there was nothing I could do until you asked."
"Did you close my connection with the Labyrinth itself, my friends?"
"No. Such magic simply cannot remain open."
"Why didn't you just give me Toby back when I asked in the beginning? That was what I wanted."
"Was it? Weren't you wishing for some grand adventure?"
"Fine, an adventure then. But no--you set your sights from the beginning to do everything that you could to steal me away just as you steal any other child!"
"I cannot take but what is offered, Sarah." Jareth said boredly. "You think other children wanted to come? Someone wished them, they didn't have a choice."
"I know that! But no one wished me away! You had no claim on me! But still, you waited, you watched, you chose--like going into a doll shop, pointing, and saying 'I want that one!' You did everything to make yourself happy!"
"I will do everything in my power to make you happy, Sarah. It's what I've done from the very beginning. Everything you wanted, it was done! What more could you ask?"
"How could I know what I wanted? I was only fifteen! My god, you're right about the age--I couldn't forget it and I couldn't deny it. And nothing else could ever compare to it. You ruined any chance I might have had of being happy here!"
"Sarah, we were fated, you and I," Jareth said, sounding oddly genuine. "You deserve everything that this world can give and more. And I can give it. We need each other. Everything! I have done everything you ever asked! I offered you your dreams then; I'll give them to you now, give them to you forever."
"How could you?" she said under her breath. "You stole my life!" she whispered. The she screamed it. "YOU STOLE MY LIFE!" Sarah felt tears rising in her eyes. She looked down. "Just leave now."
There was a long silence, before Jareth spoke.
"You did wish yourself over to me," he said, suddenly cold. "Regardless."
"I know," she said, staring at the ground. "And I can't change that. However, it remains to be seen whether you will receive a willing companion or a lifeless doll." Sarah looked back at him, and felt the tears washing down her cheeks. "You might have broken me, Jareth. Now go."
A look akin to regret or defeat passed over his face. Then he was gone.
