Disclaimer: I only own Bothis, and he's a creep
Jareth jumped from his seat. "Quickly!" he said, "Show me where this clearing is!" He headed towards the open window when Buffy grabbed his arm and stopped him.
"You're not going alone." She said determinedly.
Jareth looked at her patiently. "This is not your fight." He said.
"Anything that happens in my town is my fight. Besides, she came to me for help, I can't turn my back on her." The look on her face was enough to tell him there would be no dissuading her. He sighed and looked to Giles for assistance, but he saw the same look of resolve on the Watcher's face.
"I'm coming, too." Giles said. Xander and Willow moved to either side of Giles.
"We're all going." Xander said. "That's just the way things work around here."
Jareth sighed heavily and looked back to Buffy. To his great annoyance she was smiling, obviously quite pleased with herself. "It's nice to have friends." She said.
Jareth turned away and headed once more towards the window. "I wouldn't know." He growled. Reaching the window he turned back around to face them. "Well if you all insist on coming, come on. We haven't got all night." Gesturing toward Jenny he said "You, there, concentrate and think of this clearing we're going to." Jenny did as she was told and Jareth closed his eyes. After a moment he opened them and nodded. "Got it." He said. "Now the rest of you, gather round me and hold hands."
Giles, Willow, Xander, Oz, and Buffy moved quickly to join him at the window and joined hands in a circle around the Goblin King. From across the room they heard a frustrated sigh and Cordelia made her way across the room to where they stood. Pushing her way between Buffy and Xander she caught the stares everyone was giving her. "What?" she asked in obvious annoyance, "There's no way I'm staying in this creepy library all alone in the middle of the night."
Xander smiled and said "We're glad to know you got our back, Cordy." Cordelia rolled her eyes but said nothing.
Jareth turned in a slow circle, looking the group over. "I'm not sure what we'll be facing when we get there, but if this being knew to shield Sarah from my sight, then he must know that I'm here. The fact that he was powerful enough to shield her makes me worry about what other powers he may have."
"Are you sure you can defeat him?" Buffy asked.
"I'm sure of nothing." Jareth said simply, "But I'm willing to bet my life on it."
Buffy nodded, understanding completely. She was learning to like the Goblin King more and more. Underneath his gruff exterior he was just a guy in love, and she knew from experience that love was a powerful weapon. She nodded again, and smiled. "Okay, then." She said. "Let's go kick some dead Gypsy demon guy ass!"
Jareth looked at her quizzically and smiled in return. He had never seen such a concentration of courage in mortals, and he found it put him slightly out of sorts. These people, most of them children, were willing to risk their lives and face unknown dangers to save a girl they barely knew. It went against everything he knew of humans, but he welcomed the change. He reached out with his hands, putting one on Giles' shoulder and the other on Xander's. "Everyone close your eyes." He said.
They felt a rushing feeling, like a strong wind whipping around them in every direction. When it stopped they heard Jareth whisper "Okay, open them now." They were in the woods, and it was very dark.
"This isn't a clearing." Willow whispered.
"No, I took us a little ways away from the spot the apparition showed me." Jareth answered, his voice low. "We may still have the element of surprise."
"Surprise is a good element," Xander agreed, "one of my favorites. Right up there with fire and water."
Jareth ignored him and continued. "My hope is that when we find them, Bothis will be far enough away from her that I can transport in and remove her without him knowing it. Then I can deal with him knowing that she is safe. Unfortunately, I don't hold much hope that it will be that way. More than likely, I will have to confront him directly, distracting his attention from her. You can then rescue Sarah and take her as far away from here as possible."
"They can rescue her." Buffy said. "I'm staying with you."
"No!" Jareth hissed, and then his voice softened. "She will most likely be chained, and they'll need your Slayer strength to free her."
"Okay." Buffy said, and Jareth turned away. They both knew she had no intention of leaving him to face Bothis alone, but Jareth had neither the time nor patience to argue with her about it.
"Everything's dark." Xander said. "Which way do we go?"
Jareth closed his eyes and reached out with his mind. He sent his thoughts out in every direction, trying to sense Sarah. Suddenly he had her. She was utterly terrified, and Jareth could feel her terror washing over him. But what made him weak in the knees was the pain. His Sarah was in terrible agony. The Scooby's watched as he clenched his fists in rage. Buffy and Giles looked at each other and then back at the seething Goblin King.
"Jareth?" Buffy said. "Are you okay?"
"She's this way." Jareth said darkly and began walking. "And he's hurting her."
-
Sarah had awakened confused and frightened. She tried desperately to remember what had happened and where she was. She remembered being in the library with Willow and the others. They had been trying to find a way to call Jareth. She had run to shelf looking for the "Labyrinth" book, and she had found it. What had happened after that? Willow had screamed. Why?
Then she remembered, and began looking around in horror. The creature! She had forgotten the drawing of Jareth that protected her, and she had gone too far away from it. The creature had taken her. Her heart began to pound in her chest. She didn't know where she was; it was cold and dark. She was laying on something rough and painful and there seemed to be rocks digging into her back. She tried to move and realized her hands and feet were chained. The more she tried to move, the harder the bits of stone beneath her bit into her flesh. Her bare flesh, she realized. She seemed to be covered with a sheet of some kind, but beneath that she was completely naked.
She looked around but could see no sign of the creature that had brought her here. She struggled once again to free herself from her bonds, but only succeeded in causing her chains to chafe painfully against her wrists and ankles.
Suddenly she was overwhelmed with a feeling of cold dread. He was here. Her eyes darted around, looking for the creature, but she could find him nowhere. Nevertheless, she knew he was close by. Her heart was beating so hard she thought it would escape her chest, and she was having a hard time breathing. She knew she had never been this terrified in her life.
She felt hot breath against the skin of her neck and turned her head to face it. She screamed as she came face to face with the glowing red eyes that had haunted her for weeks. She felt her mouth being covered, though it was so dark she couldn't see what was covering it. She continued to scream through the obstacle, but she made no sound. Finally she calmed enough to stop screaming, but her eyes were wide with terror.
"So, you've decided to wake up, pretty one?" The voice seemed to slither in her ear and a moan escaped her lips unbidden. "Yes, more of that!" he said and she felt a burning pain in her shoulder. She realized he had touched her with something very hot. She stayed quiet and this seemed to anger him. In one fluid motion he pulled the sheet from her naked body and burned her again, this time in the more tender flesh of her neck and she cried out. She felt, more than saw, his smile.
"He will be here soon, my pet. And I want him to hear you moan, and scream, and cry. I want him to see you writhing in pain!" With that he burned her again, this time in the unblemished skin of her left breast. Although she tried desperately to remain quiet, the pain was unreal and she couldn't hold back her scream. He laughed, and continued to burn her.
"Why are you doing this?" she cried, tears of pain and humiliation rolling down her cheeks. "What have I done to you?"
"Don't flatter yourself, sweet one." He sneered. "You are nothing to me. However, you are everything to him, and that makes you quite valuable."
"Him who?" she demanded, and was rewarded with another burn, this time to her belly. She screamed again and again he laughed.
"Why, the one who gave you all that delicious magic." The creature said, touching his heated torture device to the outside of her thigh, eliciting yet another scream. "He'll come for you, pet. And when he does, he will watch you die!" She expected this pronouncement to be punctuated with another burn, but instead she felt a cold hand caress the inside of her knee. This was much, much worse, and she cried out again.
"I don't know who you're talking about!" she screamed, sure that she would lose her mind if this went on much longer.
Suddenly her eyes were assailed by an unearthly light as a bright orb formed above her in the air. Now she could see the creature, and he spun around looking for the source of the light. Then she heard another voice coming from the darkness at the edge of the clearing, an achingly familiar voice that both soothed and frightened her at the same time. "I believe he's referring to me." The voice said. She turned in the direction of the voice and felt a sudden jolt of relief as the Goblin King stepped into the clearing.
A/N: Okay folks, I'm working for the next seven nights, so I hope that will hold you all for a while. Thanks for the wonderful reviews, please continue to leave them. They make my world go round.
PS: I knew the "flower picking" happened on her seventeenth birthday, but sixteenth worked better for this story. A little artistic license on my part that I hoped no one would notice. Thanks for noticing, lol!
