Disclaimer: Redundancy should be a sin.
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Jareth sat rooted in place by the audacity shown in the move Lumini was taking. Taking Sarah to the surface could potentially expose him. He could be killed by humans on the surface- humans that feared his power. Anybody that had studied human history knew they were terrified of what they themselves did not have. Lumini's powers were a dead give away that he did not belong there- and they could kill him for it.
The Goblin King quickly rose to his feet, growling curses at Lumini for taking his love for a second time. It was easy enough for him to shift to the Veil. He didn't know where to go on the surface, but if he scanned for the Shadow Lord's power, he should find him. So, for lack of a better place to go, Jareth slid through the Veil to Sarah's home.
On the Shores of the Pacific Ocean
Sarah's scream was thrown back at her mockingly as it rolled back toward her on the waves of the ocean. Fire raced along each and every vein, ice following in its wake. She could actually feel the air bubbles in her microcirculatory system. She could feel the touch of Death, but she also felt Lumini keeping her final lover at bay.
"Do not pray for Death's Kiss so quickly, little love. We have much farther to go before this night is through."
Lumini's calm words elicited tears from Sarah. Already her muscles burned from the abuse she was receiving. The only thing she knew anymore was pain. Two thoughts occupied her agonized, haze-filled mind: the pain, and Jareth. She knew what Lumini was trying to do. Before Sarah died, he was going to force Jareth out of her mind. Part of her told her to let go of Jareth's memory so that she could die and no longer endure anymore of the torture. But a louder half told her to hold on.
Pain is only momentary.
Sarah's Bedroom
Jareth stood at Sarah's windowsill, eyes closed. His mind was scanning the coastline for Lumini's presence. He knew he would have to take on the Shadow King alone, but that didn't bother him. Two thoughts resided in his mind: Sarah, and Revenge. His love for Sarah was just as strong as his need for revenge against the wrongs done to her. He would kill Lumini on this night, beneath this foreign moon. He just had to find him first.
On The Shores of the Pacific Ocean
"Such a pity…" Lumini imitated Jareth's voice.
"You will never be him!" Sarah growled. Her show of bravado was rewarded with a knife dug into her thigh. Sarah's battered body couldn't take too much more abuse. A slow grin slid over Lumini's face as he knew what he could do to most hurt both her and Jareth. He withdrew the dagger from Sarah's thigh and used the edge to cut off the remainder of her threadbare clothing. She could hardly move at this point, let alone fight him off. The edge of the dagger trailed down her body, drawing blood in strange and secret patterns, lines drawn together, crossing and linking to create everything and nothing, etching into her flesh a design of life and death- a pattern of meaning and nonentity, carved and drawn out of blood. She released small squeaks of pain and an occasional moan as the knife slid deeper.
She was too far gone to see Lumini slipping the knife steadily lower on her body.
Sarah's Bedroom
Jareth growled curse after curse in frustration. His mental scan was doing relatively little. He could not find Lumini- which should have been impossible. No one else in the Aboveground could possibly have the amount of power the Shadow Lord possessed. It should have been a cakewalk to find his adversary. But he could not pinpoint the power. So he did the only other thing that could help him find Sarah. Jareth entered Sarah's mind. The emotions she was exuding flooded his system, rubbing his entire system raw with pain and need. Strangely, there was no fear.
"Oh, my love. My brave little love."
Jareth continued to feel what Sarah felt. Quite suddenly, there was a spike of fear. It disappeared almost as quickly as it had come, but Lumini had done something to frighten her. What was it?
On the Shores of the Pacific Ocean
The dagger in Lumini's grasp steadily slid deeper into Sarah's flesh, drawing more and more blood. The sand beneath Sarah was slowly staining red. The drops of blood marred the clean lines the Shadow Lord had made, and the pattern slowly began to look like his crest. As the mark was finished, the knife trailed through the cuts, moving downwards to Sarah's entrance. She felt fear for the first time that night.
"I can take only one thing from Jareth now," Lumini snarled, "and that thing is your ability to bear his children. You will never see him again. You will be found when the sun rises, unrecognizable and undeniably dead."
The tip of the knife parted her slick folds, somehow managing not to prick her in the process. The breath she drew in seemed to stop all of time.
Sarah's Bedroom
Jareth swore well enough to make a dozen sailors cover their ears. Every molecule in his body screamed for him to get to her, to take her back from Lumini. How could he sit there and do nothing as his love was…was….
What was Lumini doing, dammit! Sarah refused to open her eyes. That was understandable, Jareth told himself. The final image burned into her eyes would not be her tormenter. But if she didn't open her eyes, he would not be able to find her.
Where are you?
Jareth?
The Goblin King breathed a sigh of relief as she answered him. She was still conscious enough to speak to him mind-to-mind, if nothing else. That was definitely a good sign.
Tell me where he took you, Sarah.
I told you not to follow me, didn't I?
The tone Sarah used was final. She was prepared to accept her fate. She would die this night, without lifting a finger to save herself. Jareth was not going to let that happen.
Where ARE you?
I-
Her reply cut off as her mind screamed with the pain. Jareth's ears were ringing with an echo of her shriek.
On the Shores of the Pacific Ocean
Lumini gently slid the knife in, mocking Sarah's persistence with almost gentleman-like grace. Sarah tried to keep her muscles loose to prevent the pain, but they clamped automatically onto the foreign object.
"Oh I'm sorry," Lumini's tone was pseudo-soothing, "did that hurt?" His words mingled with Sarah's scream. The knife was removed just as slowly as it had been inserted. Sarah's relief was short-lived as the knife was rammed back into its makeshift sheath. There was no gentility this time. Sarah's scream tore out of her raw throat, cracking at the end.
"Is that better?"
Sarah's Bedroom
Jareth felt he was going insane.
Sarah, please! Please tell me where you are!
His only reply was an agonized sobbing. He sensed she was beyond communication.
Anything! Where are you!
He finally received a sound that he could go on, a sound he could find her with.
Ocean waves.
On the Shores of the Pacific Ocean
The knife finally stopped carving into Sarah. Her relief was palpable. Lumini snickered. He placed the dagger reverently back in its sheath without bothering to clean it off. Sarah's sobs rolled back across the waves, amplifying them to sound like she was multiplied by three million.
"Where is your Goblin King now?" Lumini snarled, sprinkling sand onto her body. The salt in the grains made the wounds burn. Her cries became softer but no less intense in levels of pain. Lumini smiled, then pressed the length of his body up against her writhing form. Tears cascaded down, darkening the sand that wasn't already red with her blood. Lumini gently, mockingly, ran his fingers through her hair. Sarah had to stop herself from curling into him and his tender embrace. She felt his lips descend to hers and bit back at his kiss- hard. He swore and pulled back. She managed to smirk at the blood smeared there. He retaliated with a slap. Lumini drew his knife one final time.
Somewhere Above Lumini and Sarah
Jareth hovered in his owl form somewhere above Sarah and the Lord of the Shadows. He was silently promising all kinds of levels of Hell on Lumini as soon as he could get Sarah away. He screamed at himself to go to her now, to stop this assault before she was beyond his help. But he knew he couldn't. If he wanted to best Lumini, he'd have to fight dirty. A mental grin grew in Jareth. Fighting dirty was his favorite way to engage the enemy. He watched, waiting for his chance.
On the Shores of the Pacific Ocean
Sarah's entire body trembled now. Not from fear, though- from exhaustion. Her loss of blood would make any mortal have passed out long since. Lumini kept her awake with a simple spell. She could not feel the pain if she was not awake. The knife's edge dragged carefully along a pale patch of skin: just at the base of her neck. Her chest stopped moving to take in breath. Her eyes stayed firmly shut: she knew death was there.
"Sarah," he whispered almost reverently, "do you know why you are going to die?"
"Everyone dies," Sarah managed to whisper, "perhaps this is my time."
"Pretty words for one bound to Death. You are going to die because you no longer amuse me. You are going to die because Jareth loved you. You are going to die because I wanted you more than anything. You are going to die for all these reasons, Sarah, and nothing that will happen now is going to change my mind. You will die alone, with no one to weep for you. The way that I will die when my own time comes."
With those final words, Lumini drew back the knife and slashed open Sarah's throat. He stood back, pocketing the knife as she grew still as death.
"You are my one great love, Sarah. That you chose him is why I decided neither could have you."
Lumini strode away, not once looking back. Jareth picked that moment to dive. Lumini never heard his nemesis coming. Jareth didn't waste any time with pointless moves. Fury coursed through every micro-molecule in his body. He used that anger- before Lumini had any comprehension of what was going on, Jareth tore off the Shadow Lord's head.
"Never mess with the Labyrinth," Jareth snarled.
The Goblin King turned away from Lumini's corpse, abandoning both his enemy and his ire, turning to the second corpse on the beach.
"Oh, Sarah."
Jareth gathered her limp form to his body, murmuring her name over and over, as though calling to her might bring her back. Although he didn't realize it, tears coursed down his cheeks for the first time in his existence.
"Oh, my love! Please come back to me!"
Jareth's cries rolled back at him, bourn on the waves.
