DISCLAIMER - I don't own Sarah or Jareth or the Labyrinth (unfortunately) they belong to Jim Henson & Co, and I'm definitely not making a profit from this. (Bummer) All other NPC's are a figment of my own imagination.

Chapter 25 - Checkmate

"Jareth?" Sarah gasped as he turned and glared at her, automatically bouncing the tiny baby who was still wailing in his arms.
"You should not go to that place." He hissed.
"I just talked with him. What wrong with that?" She asked taking the tiny infant from his arms and cooing at it. Jareth snarled at her and stalked away towards his study. Sarah sighed and followed moving the child into a better position on her hip.
"Jareth, what have I done that's so wrong?" She asked again, touching his arm as he stopped to open the ornate doors. He paused and sighed before tossing his hair out of his eyes and looking at her.

"Nothing. It has been a trying day, forgive me."
"You don't need forgiveness, you are my King, but you have explain things to me." She said softly, following him into the study. Jareth frowned took down a large leather bound ledger from a shelf and opened it, muttering to himself as he scanned through the pages.
"What are you looking for?" She asked curiously, never having seen side of the process.
"The next Fae family in line to receive a child." He grunted, finally stopping and making a note at the back of the ledger. He summoned a crystal to his fingertips and muttered to it before making it disappear with a pop. "They should be here shortly." He said replacing the ledger and walking out onto the balcony. Sarah sat and amused the tired child, noting with sadness the bruises on the tiny girls arms and face.
"You'll see, your new family will take much better care of you." She said whispering to the child, jumping as a young Fae woman and older man walked through the veils in front of her.

"Oh she's so beautiful!" The woman cooed stooping to take the child from Sarah's arms.
"Are you willing to abide by the rules of the exchange?" Jareth asked, appearing like a dark fog at the balcony door.
"Of course. We are honoured to have been chosen. Where must I sign?" The Fae nobleman asked nodding to the Goblin King before turning to watch his young wife admire the child. Jareth produced an aging scroll and rolled it out across his desk, waiting whilst the Noble Fae signed his name in several places. Only when he finally replaced the quill back into the ink did Jareth nod and summon Lucia.

"Your art is needed Sister." He said before walking back out onto the balcony in silence. Lucia said nothing as she took the squalling child from the woman and sat down next to Sarah, making sure the child was secure in her lap as she began to work her magic. The bruises and marks on the child disappeared, and her fair skin turned paler, her dark hair forever changing to the palest blonde to match her new parents.
Casting a quick look at the new father she changed the child's eyes to a penetrating green, and elongated her nose slightly to match her mothers. As Sarah watched in awe her ears grew to a delicate point and the whole child became less chubby and more willowy and graceful.

"The last is up to you. You will need to give her a name and teach her well the laws of our land." Lucia said finally standing up again and passing the now dozing child into her mothers arms.
"We can not ever thank you enough." The Fae said before escorting his wife and child away though the veils. Lucia sighed and turned to Sarah.
"He needs you." She said smiling wearily at her before stepping away into the veils. Sarah stood and walked out onto the balcony, circling the impossible tower until she found him at last, grimly watching the Labyrinth.
She stood next to him in silence, listening as he did to the Labyrinths heart beating in time with their own. The magical flux eddying around them teased Sarah's mind, inviting her to create her wild garden in the moonlight. She ignored the soft calling and concentrated on her bond with Jareth, feeling the suppressed anger and bitterness.
"You could just ask instead of poking your nose in where it isn't wanted." He snarled removing his hand from hers where she had unconsciously placed it.
"Jareth, please tell me whats wrong!" She begged touching his arm as he turned to leave her.

"It does not concern you." He spat pulling his arm from her grasp. Shocked she stepped back from him.
"I shall leave you to your thoughts then Your Majesty." Sarah said curtseying and backing away from his outburst.
"You do that." He said stalking away indoors.

More upset than she had been for a long time she shut him away from her mind, severing all but the lightest contact she could bear before walking away through the veils to the wasteland. If he wanted to be alone, then she would give him what he desired, even if it cost her to do so. In her silent mind she summoned the image of her garden by the river, smiling as the Labyrinth created it easily without the need for her to complete the vision.

"You know what I wish for before I do." She said out loud to the Labyrinth, smiling again as its ghostly form appeared next to her.
"It is my nature to know what you wish for." Sarah nodded and began walking through the garden, the Labyrinth floating by her side in companionable silence. "Do not brood over him. It is also his nature to be as he is, and for all you wish for it, I can not, and will not change him."
"I know. Its just hard to understand, I don't know why he is so angry, or even if its something I've done."
"Do not understand, just accept." The Labyrinth replied. "Build with me. I long for your dreams Selindé. Show me a world of beauty and love instead of bitterness and sorrow." It said turning to face her as she paused.
"To build, is to have a plan, to have a plan is to have prepared and considered. I have none of those things." She said as the images flooded her mind, sweeping out around her as the Labyrinth laughed in delight at her dreams.

"None of that matters. Now I know why you were chosen." It crowed as she created wild walled gardens filled with roses, and meadows of long grass, sweeping mountains, crystal waterfalls and ice blue lakes. Snow fell as they willed themselves into a land of ice and frozen dreams, and then back again through crystal caves and green valleys to the goblin city, dark and dirty amidst the beauty of the Labyrinth surrounding it.
Sarah stopped and watched the sun rising, casting golden shadows across the giant fortress that was the Castle.
"I can not change this." She said sadly, her laughter and merriment gone. "I need him here with me. I can't bear to be here without him."

"There is always another side." The Labyrinth said enticingly as it swept them away to the west.
"Show me what true beauty is my heart. Show me the castle of your dreams." Sarah smiled fondly as the billowing figure next to her and held out her hand. The Labyrinth paused before creating an appendage that might be considered a hand from its floating form and placed it in her own, feeling her very soul within it as it fed on her, filling itself to the brim with her essence, touching, tasting her immortal soul.

"I will not let them take you away from me. You are mine." It said as it built a glowing white castle of soaring towers from the Fortress of the Goblin King.
Sarah said nothing, simply gazing up at the white towers in appreciation.
"It will look beautiful in the sunset." She said at last feeling strangely lethargic.
"Shall I show you?" The Labyrinth asked, desperate to please her, to make her give more of herself to it. Before she could reply it had sent the sun spinning across the sky so that it hung as a red orb on the western skyline, casting a pink glow over the newly created towers. Sarah gasped in surprise, and then clapped her hands.
"I think that I…" Sarah began suddenly feeling sick, something was wrong but she couldn't understand what it was, didn't notice as Jareth pulled her away from the Labyrinths form snarling at it.

"Put the fucking sun back where it belongs you cheating bastard." He roared.
"Temper Jareth, I wanted to show Selindé what her castle would look like in the sunset." The Labyrinth said mildly floating back towards Sarah.
"Time does not belong to you. Taking my powers to steal away my wife, how low will you stoop?"
"She belongs to both of us. It is only fair that she should complete me also. Why should you have all the fun?"
"She is not a toy Lost One." Jareth spat keeping Sarah behind him as the Labyrinth tried to get to her. "Look what you have done!" He shouted pointing towards Sarah who stood behind him, trying to keep her balance as the world seemed to shift beneath her feet. The yelling continued until she could bear it no more.

"Stop this both of you!"
"Stay out of it Selindé, it does not concern you, and I will deal with your… antics later." Jareth fumed folding his arms across his chest.
"Very well. If this does not concern me then I shall leave you to fight over me like a prise, for all the good it will do you." She said trying to draw herself away from them, taking back her magic from the Labyrinth, letting all the things they had created together fade back into nothingness.
"Stop!" The Labyrinth cried reaching out for her as Jareth did the same, fear in his eyes, too late to stop her from stepping away through the veils.

"Now you have done it." The Labyrinth snapped at Jareth who turned and waved his hand, destroying the creature before him.
"That was just petty." The Labyrinth said, reforming itself behind its King. Jareth turned and ground his teeth and frustration. Watching as the Labyrinth stared back at him though his own mismatched eyes.
"You steal my powers, and now you steal my face? Its time you got some of your own imagination Lost One. How long do you plan to play the ungrateful child?"
"As long as it takes for me to get what I want."
"I will not let you have her. She is too fragile to bond with you."
"I shall be the judge of that."

"No. You won't. You force my hand. Return to the cage of your making and do not speak to my wife again." Jareth snarled creating a room around him filled with mirrors and glowing ivy, the same room where Sarah had first spoken to the Labyrinth.
"Don't do this Jareth, she will release me."
"Be that is it may, but for now you will remain here without her dreams until I believe you will not hurt her through your own greed. There are more than enough children being wished away for you to glut yourself on should you wish it."
"Elindah will kill her if I am not able to escape. Will you have that on your conscience as well as the fate of all the children you give away?"
"ENOUGH!" Jareth bellowed striding through his own image and away through a mirror to find Sarah.

She was sat on a stone bench overlooking a small stream and arched bridge in what seemed to be an imitation of a park from her childhood. She ignored him and sat looking out over the lake. He took flight and perched upon the same stone obelisk, guarding her solitude until she finally gave up ignoring him.
"If you're going to shout you'd better do it now. I don't know what I've done, but I know something is not right, and you are angry with me." She said glaring up at him. He ruffled his feathers and glared right back. Knowing that she couldn't win a staring competition with an owl Sarah shook her head in frustration, turning back to the view deliberately, pushing her hair back from her face.

Jareth took flight and changed form as he sat down behind her, turning her back towards him into a crushing embrace, capturing her lips in a hard, desperate kiss. She responded in kind, wrapping her arms around his neck and climbing into his lap, holding him, desperately needing to feel safe.
"I don't understand whats happening. Why are you so angry with the Labyrinth?"
"I will not share you with it."
"Share what? Doesn't it already share my dreams?"
"You are MY wife. It may share your dreams Selindé, but it cannot have your love like I can."
She said nothing, instead releasing her mind to him and revelling in the renewed contact, reaffirming her feelings.

"The fact remains is that we are linked with the Labyrinth whether we like it or not. There are many different types of love, and the love I have for you is the greatest I can offer, I don't want you to be jealous of a friendship with the thing that shapes our very lives."
"The Lost One thinks it is more than just a platonic friendship. Don't preach to me about love Selindé. I have experienced every type."
"I guess that is where I differ from you then. I have only one way to love you, and that is with all types." Sarah said tightening her embrace.
"The Labyrinth seduces me with its sweet talk of building worlds and making dreams reality. Its hard to resist the pull of all that magic."
"Then you will have to learn. If I hadn't have come between you when I did you might not have come back at all."

"I'll always come back."
"Not if you don't know which reality is real."
"So long as you are there, then that is my reality."
"Why are you here then?""Hiding from your temper. I always get the feeling that you're cross with me, even though half the time its not my fault."
"I'm only ever angry with you because you…" Jareth stopped, listening to the cry for help, the essence of the half formed wish shimmering in both their minds.
"I must go." He said with a sigh.

Sarah nodded releasing him from her embrace and concentrating slightly as something made her check the origin of the wish.
"Go back to the castle and I'll join you as soon as I've answered this."
"Wait Jareth, somethings not right, I know this person!" She gasped.
"How do you know this?" He asked, an uneasy tingling feeling from the Labyrinth that made him pause, and watch her carefully.
"I don't know." She replied, worry touching her voice.
"Come with me then, you may watch, but do not interfere." He took them both though the veils.

They stopped in the shade of a tall building on the side of a dirty street, Sarah noting with concern at the rundown neighborhood. Arguing and screaming from the house on the other side of the street explained the need for a wish, and she flinched as a chair flew through the dirty window, smashing the glass and sending glass shards skittering across the pavement. Jareth turned silently and motioned her to follow him.

Entering the house through the veils they looked on in mute horror as the man smashed his fist into the young woman's face who was desperately trying to protect the new born infant in her arms, pleading with the man to stop. Without waiting for Jareth, Sarah stepped in between the man and the cowering woman, preventing him from attacking her again.

"Who the fuck are you bitch? Get out of my way!" He snarled throwing a punch in her direction which only just missed the side of her head.
"Enough!" Sarah shouted, fear and anger making her use far more magic than was necessary, pushing him across to the other side of the room. "What gives you the right to treat somebody like this?" She cried turning to the sobbing girl.
"Take my baby, please take my baby to safety." She whimpered, trying to wipe away the blood from her face so she could see.
"Flicken!" Sarah gasped recognizing the girl from her uni classes.

"Jareth please help her!" He was by her side in an instant, muttering under his breath.
"She didn't say the words!" Sarah said putting her hands behind her back as the woman held out the screaming baby to her. Jareth motioned her to silence and turned to the man who was getting back to his feet.
"You." Jareth said, commanding the man to look at him. "You will not remember her, or the child you have unfortunately spawned." He said quietly his eyes smoldering in rage as he dropped a crystal at the mans feet who began to curse them all to hell.
"Take the girl to James. He will help her." He said shaking his head.
"What about the baby?"

"Please take her! I can't do this alone! I can't!" The young woman wailed holding the infant out to Jareth again since Sarah refused to take her. Jareth nodded silently, pausing as Sarah tried to stop him.
"She didn't say the words Jareth! She could play the game, win against the Labyrinth to get her back!"
"The cry for help is sometimes enough, but I cannot make her face the Labyrinth to win back a child she does not want." He replied not looking at her before walking away into the veils carrying the screaming infant.
Sarah turned to the young woman who was still sobbing, watching her with pity.

"Flicken, you need to come with me." She said holding out her hand and helping the woman to her feet. Pulling them both away into the veils Sarah hoped that James had gotten over his issues with her enough to help as she took them right into his apartment. "Stay here." She said sitting the woman down on a kitchen chair and handing her a glass of water and a cloth for her face which was still bleeding.

"Where's James?" Sarah asked as she ran down the stairs to the ground floor offices and Karolyn who was sat typing away at her desk in the reception.
"In with a client… oh, its you." She said glancing up with a frown.
"At least he's working again." Sarah replied with a grim smile as she walked into his office, ignoring Karolyn's protests. "Forgive my interruption, James, I need you urgently upstairs." Sarah said before closing the door on his shocked face.
"Karolyn, do you know any first aid, or anything for shock?" Sarah asked, looking at the receptionist.
"Why?"
"Yes or no Karolyn please!"
"Then yes, I've had training."

"Good. I need your help." Sarah nodded pulling the girl up the stairs by her hand and into the apartment. "She's in a bad way, and I don't know what to do with her." She said pointing at the young woman who was sat slumped across the kitchen table, still bleeding.
"Good god!" Karolyn gasped and rushed to help her. "What happened?" She asked looking up at Sarah who leant her thrumming head against the cold wall.
"Her partner. All I need to know is that she will be OK."
"Why didn't you call the police?"
"I couldn't. Its complicated, but will you tell James when he gets up here? I have to go, but I'll come back soon, I hope…"
"Wait, you look like you're about to pass out!" Karolyn said standing up and reaching for Sarah.
"Its OK, the noise… never mind. I'll come back when I can, send my apologies to James. Flicken, you're safe here, stay with James and Karolyn, they will look after you." Sarah said to the girl before backing away and stumbling into the veils.

The sun hung as a golden globe on the horizon as Sarah found her way back from the Aboveground.
"Jareth?" She called, trying to ease the throbbing in her head with little success. "Jareth!"
She sighed in relief as he appeared by her side and helped her to a convenient bench in the rose courtyard. "My head!" She wept, as he placed a cool hand across her forehead, easing the pain in seconds.
"You should not have gone. I should have known it would have been too much for you." He said bitterly, holding her against him.
"What did I do?"

"The blasted Labyrinth." He said, assuming that the clarification would be enough. He sighed as Sarah continued to look at him blankly.
"Last night and this morning, it was sucking you dry magically. You've over exerted yourself and your magic and now you'll be paying for it for some time. Magical hangovers are very, very hard to get rid of. No more magic for you for a good few days." He said picking her up and carrying her to their bedroom. Helping her out of her clothes he wrapped her up in bed and made to leave her.

"Don't go." Sarah whispered pulling him back to her and propping her head on his chest. "I feel funny."
"You feel fine to me." Jareth smirked running a hand across her exposed arm. Sarah rolled her eyes.
"Why did you take that baby? If Flicken had left, then she would have been OK."
"She did not want the child, and ones so young are in desperate need in the Underground."
"Why aren't Fae able to get pregnant?" She asked as he gently touched her slowly growing bump. She was suddenly overwhelmed by the emotional link they shared, his fear of them being hurt.

"We used to be a race that reproduced without a problem, but something changed, or the Underground changed us. The women began to conceive less often, and pure blood families began to die out. Children from mixed race families are stronger and healthier than their pure blood cousins, so the introduction of new blood has become a must."
"I'm glad that I could give you children then." She muttered drowsily.
"More than one I hope. That is something only you and the children of Shayene have that no other Fae race has been able to keep hold of." Jareth said frowning to himself.
"What we're all half breeds?" Sarah scowled indignantly.
"No. That you have kept in touch with the true nature of the Underground. What you take away, you also replace."
"Oh."
"You won't have to worry about having more than one." She said confidently.
"Preparing for your second before you've even had your first?"
"No," She smiled in delight. "Listen." She placed her hand over his on her bump, stilling the world around them so he could really concentrate. She waited and then grinned as he gasped and looked up at her.

"Twins!" He laughed as he crushed her to him, suffusing her with love.
"Of course we also have another factor on our side." He said some time later as she drowsed using his arm as a pillow.
"What's that?"
"I can bear to be in your company long enough to have sex… ouch!" Jareth winced as she jabbed him in the ribs.
"The Labyrinth is happy I'm pregnant too." She whispered.
"Only because it means that its closer to getting its own heir."
"What do you have against it?"
"Nothing apart from the fact that it's an arrogant, self centred, egotistical, bodiless pain in the ass."
"Wow. Do you say that to yourself in the mirror too?"
"Enough. Sleep else I won't stay."
"I love you."

"Good."
"You're meant to say it back." She said huffily.
"We are your ruling sovereign, we love every single one of our subjects." He said in a posh voice.
"Liar."
"Fae can not lie." He said glibly. "I love all my subjects equally, well, the pretty ones anyhow."
She laughed turning over as Jareth pulled her back to him and buried his face in her neck.
"Sleep." He mumbled.