Disclaimer: This is getting pretty redundant, don't you think? Y'all know what's mine and what ain't.
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"Well, well, well. What have we here?"
Jareth shot to his feet, standing before Sarah like a guardian statue. Lumini's eyes were locked on Sarah's. Everything he'd ever done to her surfaced in her mind, and it took all of her self-control not to whimper in fear.
"You have no business here, Lumini. Get out." Jareth spoke in a neutral tone of voice, but Sarah could feel his rage. The Lord of the Dark smirked arrogantly.
"What's the matter, Jareth? Can't keep your own kingdom under control?"
Jareth wisely did not take the bait the words were meant to be. Sarah stayed on the ground, watching her fate unfold before her. The two may be all talk, but she knew Jareth would fight for his love just as fiercely as Lumini would fight for his revenge. Sarah held perfectly still, the childish thought that movement would break the veil of calm barely concealing the deep animosity between the two of them.
"I do have business here, Goblin King," Lumini sneered, "and she crouches behind you like a worm."
Sarah's lips curled back in a snarl. If her body would let her, she would have launched herself at the Lord of the Dark and torn his cocky head off his egotistical shoulders. She could barely hold her head up at the moment, however, so she contented herself by releasing an animal-like growl.
To which Lumini only laughed.
"I like that, my little love."
"Sarah," Jareth spoke only her name. Sarah stilled below him and composed herself. She refused to give the man reason to taunt if she could help it. Lumini's attention shifted to Jareth. He held up the stump of his hand.
"I have a revenge to collect, Jareth," he said viciously.
"She does not belong to you. You have no claim over her."
"But I do. Just ask the little bitch. Sarah, show him your chest."
Sarah shrugged and opened what was left of her shirt, exposing herself to both men. Jareth's eyes darkened in appreciation. Lumini's eyes darkened in rage. Sarah's chest was now an expanse of flawlessly pale flesh. The brand Lumini had placed on her had disappeared completely, along with many of the scars inflicted because of the torture. The scars were now pink raised ridges, fading into Sarah's natural peachy skin tone.
"I marked you," Lumini growled.
"Apparently not," Jareth said, amused, "but I have." Jareth turned Sarah and pulled her shirt down past her shoulders to show the tattoo of his crystal. It was still there, perfect in every respect save one. One of her new scars split the crystal in half, directly down the center.
"She belongs to me!" Lumini snarled, composure slipping to show a far less pretty sight: his ire was gruesome on his features. Sarah calmly slipped the remnants of her shirt back over her shoulders. That serenity drove Lumini to rash actions.
Jareth was knocked out of the way with the force of Lumini's leap. The Lord of the Dark landed on top of Sarah, his hands around her throat. His grip tightened at her stifled screams, effectively cutting off her air flow for the second time in ten minutes. Jareth tackled Lumini, knocking the Lord of the Dark off his love. Sarah gasped for air, bolting upright. Lumini growled as Jareth pinned him.
"Enough!"
Jareth froze mid-punch. Sarah rushed to Jareth's side, but Lumini wrenched her to him, nearly pulling her arm out of the socket in the process. Jareth's eyes followed the progression, the only part of him not affected by Lumini's Holding spell. Lumini smirked more arrogantly that Jareth himself ever had been. Sarah was struggling weakly in the Shadow Lord's arms. He was all but holding her up, though, so there was nothing she could do to help herself. She locked eyes with Jareth, terror at being captured again and love for the Goblin King pouring into her gaze.
Jareth, do not follow me.
The Goblin King's eyes widened in shock. She couldn't possibly think he wouldn't come after her!
Jareth, I am going to die. He will take a slow-
Sarah's thoughts stopped for a moment, and her eyes closed in the imagery brought to her on the mention of her rather unsavory death.
He is going to kill me the slowest way he knows how. I don't want you to see that.
I won't let him win!
"So, the great Goblin King has fallen at last. He fell at the feet of a woman. And now he falls at the base of inevitable defeat."
Jareth, there's something I have to tell you-
"How easy it would be to kill you, Jareth. One wave of my hand, and you would drop with the weight of death. But I won't. Because I want you to live."
-something I should have told you a long time ago-
"I want you to live with the knowledge that you were rendered helpless while I took the one thing you ever cared about in this life. I want you to live knowing that you could do nothing while I killed her."
-the reason for everything; why I took lovers-
"You will lie awake at night with the knowledge that the one thing you ever wanted was taken from you as easily as one picks a flower."
-rather than just settling down-
"You will scream her name long after her mangled body lies moldering to dust, knowing you could do nothing to stop her death."
-none of them meant anything-
"And I will smile at your torment, knowing that the unshakable Goblin King was brought tumbling down because of a murder so easy it will take me hours to savor."
-because none of them were you.
"Take one last look, Jareth. Remember her as she is now. Because when I bring her back to you from beyond the Veil, you will not know her corpse."
Jareth looked Sarah in the eye, drinking in her words; drinking in the emotions she was setting forth for him to feast upon. Lumini's arm tightened around Sarah, and the two of them began to fade into shadow. The spell on Jareth loosened as slowly as the Shadow Lord and the love of his life were vanishing.
I love you, Jareth.
The Castle of Shifting Shadows
Sarah cried out as Lumini tossed her casually away from him when they appeared in his castle. She instinctively curled into a sphere. Lumini laughed.
"Oh, we aren't staying here, little love. I just could not teleport us to where we're going from the Labyrinth." She heard him rustling around in the darkness, then felt his hand clamp over her wrist.
"Shall we, then?"
The Grotto
Jareth felt himself being torn in two. His love had just been taken to be executed after torture. He could never get her back! Wait….
Lumini's words floated across Jareth's mind.
"…when I bring her back from beyond the Veil…"
Lumini wasn't going to kill her at his castle! Lumini was taking her to the surface to die!
On the Shores of the Pacific Ocean
Lumini threw Sarah unceremoniously on the sand. It was near midnight, from what Sarah could judge by the full moon. They were nowhere near anything- just a blank stretch of beach, unmarked by human contact. He must have brought them miles from anywhere. Sarah took in a deep breath. She was going to die- and she was going to die alone.
"You have a lot to answer for, little love."
Sarah looked up at Lumini, not giving him the satisfaction of seeing the fear she felt.
"I have done nothing wrong," she stated boldly. Lumini growled something unintelligible and made to hit her. He checked himself before his palm made contact with her skin and pulled back instead.
"Don't speak," he said. Sarah felt her vocal cords seize up at the spell. "I am going to kill you tonight, under your full moon."
