More expletives followed but even Didymus recognized the *gravity* of their situation and chose to ignore them.
When their descent was stopped by firm grips, the hands began to form faces and spoke. "Welcome friend or foe."
"Do you wish to go up or down?
"Yes, which way do you want to go?"
"What soft fur you have," remarked one pair.
"Thank you for noticing, sirrahs. 100 strokes a day," replied Didymus beaming.
"We were talking about the dog." The hands all laughed. Ambrosius yipped.
"And what firm crystal balls you carry," offered another.
"Those are NOT crystals!" hissed a decidedly pissed off Goblin King.
Struggling in the grasp of the hands, Jareth felt one squeeze his ass and roared. "Unhand me you cretins!" only to gasp as he felt himself dropping like a stone down the shaft.
Above him Didymus yelped. "Stop!" Jareth cried, then grunted as the hands grasped him firmly once more - including one once more fondling him rather intimately. "Blast it all... the only creature I want doing that is Sarah!" he hissed.
********************
Sarah watched from the crystal and laughed triumphantly as she saw Jareth drop into the tunnel leading to the oubliette.
She hoped that would also hold him up a bit, but being that he knew the Labyrinth well she had the feeling that he might figure out his exit much faster than she had during her run in the Labyrinth.
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"Well, which way then?" a set of hands asked The Goblin King, now that they regained their grip.
"Across" Jareth told them with a smug grin on his face.
He knew his Labyrinth very well indeed. Only he, the hands, and the Labyrinth itself knew about the third option. It lead to a shortcut back to the surface, and far from Sarah's dragon hybrid.
The hands were stunned for a moment.
"How'd he know about that?" a particularly moldy pair asked.
"None of your damned business, now open the passage you blithering idiots!" he yelled at them.
His patience had hit it's limit. The hand that was getting familiar with his royal jewels had gained a friend, and he was eager to be rid of them.
A puff of dust set him coughing, as hands to his left parted, revealing a dark hole in the wall. Still smirking, Jareth felt the cool breeze from the tunnel waft across his skin, then roared again as he felt himself being sucked forcefully into the crevice, his body rushing through the twists and turns of the passage.
The grey walls flashed past, making his all too human stomach lurch with the unfamiliar sense of vertigo, his head swimming. Without thinking he shut his eyes tight and groaned, his jaws clenched tight against the bile that rose bitterly into the back of his throat. Swallowing heavily, he felt his body twist, before being shot upward.
In a flash he saw piercing white light behind his eyes. Snapping them open he saw he was high above the Labyrinth, having been shot out of the side of a cliff-face with the force of a cannon.
Jareth hung in the air for the faintest of moments, only having time for the unsettling understanding that things that go up must eventually go down to briefly flicker through his mind, before his stomach lurched upward as his body began it's sudden descent.
********************
Sarah watched him in the crystal, her eyes squinting in confusion as she saw his large lithe form squeeze and contort to travel through the narrow passage. "That looks painful." She whispered to herself.
As he shot out of the passage way like a cannon, two thoughts crossed her mind; one, "Crap! He's closer to the Goblin City." And two, "Shit! He's human, if he falls from that height he'll die!"
While she wasn't sure how she truly felt about the smug bastard, his death wasn't something she wanted on her conscience.
With out even thinking it through, Sarah tossed the second crystal with all her might out the window, praying silently it reached him in time.
********************
Even as his body hurled toward the ground, Jareth felt as if time were stretching, a power he would have given anything to have at that moment.
His thoughts cast back to the first time he saw Sarah and the way she baited and defied him at every turn. Ironic that my scheme to have her back will prove my own undoing...even still the woman defies me, he mused, even as the stench of rotting garbage surrounded him.
I'm to meet my end in the Junkyard of the Forgotten...how appropriate, he thought. A quiet peace stole over him, as he let his body go limp.
"Forgive me, Sarah," he murmured, before landing with a bone-jarring thump in a nest of soft cushions.
Around him he heard laughter and music, the sound of crystal flutes being touched together, blending into a sparkling, yet haunting melody that spoke of lusts long denied.
"The ballroom," he gasped, opening his eyes.
Jareth regained his feet and brushed himself off. Straightening his clothes he then looked around for her.
Eyes searching longingly through the crowd. "Where are you Sarah? I know you are watching me as I watched you then. Show yourself! Let's have a dance Precious! For old times sake?"
His eyes spied a head of dark hair, but he was fooled. It was not her. "Come on Sarah..."
"Turn about *is* fair play, Jareth," she laughed, the sound lilting over the heady sound of music and voices that filled the ballroom.
Stepping around a couple in the throes of passion, Jareth pulled himself out of the pillow pit, his eyes scanning the crowd for the brunette minx. "Cat and mouse is it, Sarah? Here mousie..." he purred, gliding easily through the dancers, while wishing fervently that he had his owl sight back.
"What's to say I'm the mouse, Goblin King? I think you'll find, this kitty has claws and you haven't been playing fair. You set me up in this game...again..." He heard over the crowd.
A couple parted their lascivious embrace to reveal Sarah resplendent in a tailored jacket, the hint of a daring corset, skin tight breeches, polished boots that reached her thighs, and her hair elaborately styled around a horned headpiece.
She took his breath away, more than the near death experience had.
A goblin queen. *His* goblin queen. Though he supposed she wouldn't care to hear that.
He recovered and held out a hand. "No dress this time."
Sarah canted her head. "For either of us," she answered, slipping her gloved hand into his. "Lucky for you."
They fell into step as though no time had passed. "So precious, was that... two crystals you've used then?"
Sarah wasn't fooled by the innocent question. "Mmm, there was some fine print to that, wasn't there?"
"I can't imagine what you mean." He dipped her suddenly so that when he drew her back up there was no space between them.
"Lies don't become you, Jareth," she tsk'd breathlessly.
"While leather very much becomes you, Prescious," he growled into her ear. "I owe you some payback..." his lips brushed her neck. "What say we call it a truce. I'll shed my lies if you shed your leather..."
Her laughter swirled around him, purring against his ears like a caress. "Do you take me for a fool, Jareth? You manipulated the game...again and you expect me to believe you?" she asked.
To his surprise she made no move to escape his embrace, as she shifted closer, the curve of her leather-bound breasts pressed against his chest, as he easily guided her through the throng, their steps sure as if they had been dancing together for decades.
"Pity," his eyes roved down with blatant interest. "This ballroom has uses you... wouldn't have appreciated the last time you were here."
Sarah leaned in, her eyes daring. "Oh? Tell me more. Perhaps I'll like what I hear."
Jareth's eyes strayed to her mouth, his lips now inches from hers and for a moment he looked completely enthralled. Until a turn out a clock in his line of vision. He only had two hours left.
"As tempting an offer as that is, and it is very tempting, what I plan to do to you is best done in private. Because I know that you are baiting me right now, wasting my precious time." His hand tightened on her waist.
"I'm playing for keeps, Sarah. When I win, and I will, we'll have forever for me to *show* you exactly what I want to do." He pulled back and bowed, still holding her hand. He turned it, peeling the glove back and pressed a kiss against her wrist. "Just try and stop me, Sarah."
The last time Sarah had broken the dream with a chair. Jareth simply grabbed a glass from a passing waiter, raised the glass in a salute to a now frowning Sarah, and downed it. He then tipped the poor servant, tray and all, into the wall.
Everything shattered and down they all fell...
Jareth floated down gracefully, landing softly on his feet just outside the junkyard.
"Nice try, Sarah." He smirked. "I almost gave into the temptation, but you'll have to try harder love."
As he didn't enter the ballroom through the use of a magic fruit, his mind was clear and focused upon his departure, unlike poor Sarah who had forgotten everything. His goal now in his view, he hurried through the piles of trash, forgetting to watch where he was going.
*********************
Arriving back at the castle in a puff of glitter, Sarah sat herself on the throne with a thud.
The ballroom was meant to be a distraction for Jareth, but here she was, the one being distracted.
"Why does it always come down to the way he looks at me? Why can't the words coming from his mouth just, for ONCE, match the emotion in his eyes?! Why do those eyes make me actually *want* to be won?" She said to herself. The goblins milling about paid her no mind.
Oh she had tried to put on the bravado that she would be happily going back to her own world and happily be done with Jareth forever, but not so unlike the labyrinth itself, things are not always as they seem.
She no longer had stepmother problems, but then again she no longer had sibling problems either. Two years after Sarah had won back Toby, Robert had been in court defending a known mafia boss. The constant stress of such a high profile case came to a crescendo when Robert had suffered a fatal heart attack an hour before the verdict had been read.
Karen had tried to be a good step-mother and be there for Sarah but that also fell apart after Sarah graduated. Feeling that her step-daughter was now an adult and able to strike out on her own, Karen stopped refusing the advances of her boss at the bank she had taken a job at, eventually marrying for a second time.
Sarah had not minded the new husband until it was announced that he was promoted to the international accounts team and they would be relocating to Italy.
For the last year and a half Sarah had been well and truly alone with only her coworkers at the coffee shop to keep her company.
No, being won did not sound entirely bad to her at all, but she would be damned if she was going to make it that easy on the cocky, smirky, glittery king!
********************
"Why don't you watch where you're going, hmmm?" Huffed a pile of refuse in an admonishing voice.
On second look it wasn't a pile of trash but a lady covered in it, like a junkyard turtle. Jareth didn't have much call to venture into the trash heaps and sometimes even his creatures surprised him.
For her part the lady was getting rather tired of all the ne'er do wells who seemed to fall from the sky onto her every other year or so.
"And where are you going in such a hurry, young man?"
Jareth looked down at the disgusting creature but felt an uncharacteristic moment of magnanimity in his elation to win. He smiled beatifically at her. "I'm after a bride."
The lady, who'd assumed he was the typical shiftless fellow who frequented the trash heaps, eyed him and up down with renewed interest.
"A bride you say?" She licked her lips and waggled her brows in a way, Jareth recognized with mounting horror, was meant to be flirting. "My name is Agnes. I like collecting treasures, ballroom dancing, and cats - though fried never boiled, they lose all flavor otherwise."
He tried not to show his revulsion. "Agnes, while I thank you for that offer, I am on quest from Queen Sarah. I need to complete her Labyrinth and have less than 2 hours left. If I do, she will be my bride."
"Well why didn't you say so?!" Agnes' harsh voice said. "Hoggle! Quit looking for treasures and baubles in my heaps and come help the nice gentleman get to the castle."
"Well shit," mumbled Jareth when he caught sight of the familiar red leather cap hobbling in his direction. Jareth knew that Haggle had been told by Sarah to divert him from his quest and was in no mood to listen to the little scab go on and on about whatever it is that little scabs go on about.
"Agnes was it?" Jareth asked with an evil sparkle in his eye, having just come up with a plan so diabolically evil it would be hard to top later on. "Well Agnes I have it on very good authority that the fine fellow headed this way happens to love ballroom dancing and fried cat and has been heard lamenting his lack of treasures in his home. Perhaps HE would be a perfect mate for you as I, unfortunately, only eat boiled cats and have two left feet."
The look of disgust that crossed Agnes' face was almost Jareth's undoing when the laughter bubbling inside of him nearly slipped out.
Turning towards the gates to the goblin city, Jareth thought better of it and swung his head around to face the junkyard turtle once more. "Oh and Agnes, he likes to play hard to get so do give it your all Ol' Girl!"
With a most satisfied smirk Jareth headed from the junkyard to the castle, he did have a bride to claim after all!
Scrabbling over the heaps, Jareth ignored the grunts and cursing from the stooped hobgoblins carrying the vast piles of junk. When he finally reached the edge of the junkyard, he stretched, a slow smile curling his lips as his eyes glittered.
The gates to the Goblin City were within site. "Now...let's see...where was the shortcut to the castle," he mused, trailing his fingers along the stone wall to the right of the vast metal doors that led to 'Humungous'. "I don't particularly fancy dealing with the mechanical behemoth today. I have a woman to woo and I'd rather get to the castle and freshen up a bit before I take my bride."
Finding the stone he was looking for his smile grew. His slender fingers pressed along the crevice, triggering the secret door. The rocks began to shift and spin, a rumbling growl of stone against stone, nearly deafening him before a dimly lit passage appeared, flickering blue flame torches lighting the way.
"Nearly mine, Sarah Precious. I do hope you are resting up, because you won't rest for days once I have you."
Sarah stared at the image of Jareth's smug grin disappear into stone and then at the clock, and finally cursed in the only language she knew, but did so with such passion and such conviction that the eavesdropping goblins dropped the chickens they were cuddling to applaud.
They would certainly be able to brag to all the other goblins in every land that they, and they alone, were subjects to the filthiest-mouthed Goblin Queen that ever lived.
Panicking, Sarah pulled the remaining crystal from her pocket and considered it. The warning words of Linda rang in her head.
How much magic had she used already? Was she damned either way if she dared?
Never one to accept defeat gracefully when she could still eke out a win and remain the reigning champion, she took a steadying breath and released the final crystal.
Walking swiftly down the corridor, certain that he was moments away from claiming the one thing he wanted above all others, Jareth came to an abrupt halt just millimeters away from a glass barrier that threatened his perfect face.
"Now just what the hell is this?!" He cried out in frustration. Stepping from the shadows, Linda appeared before the agitated king/runner at the same moment Sarah came into view through the barrier.
Jareth watched as Sarah's form collapsed in a fit of sobs on the floor of the corridor. "Sarah?" Sarah what in the Underground is wrong Precious?" Jareth asked.
"She can't hear you," spoke Linda at his side. "What is wrong with her?" he implored the embodiment of his labyrinth. "Jareth did you ever stop to ask yourself if she would be happy coming here, leaving all that she knows behind, just to be your Queen?"
At Jareth's blank expression, she answered her own question. "No, I don't suppose you did. Tell me Jareth," the labyrinth continued, "What exactly would YOU be willing to give up to make her yours? Would you give up your immortality? Your Kingdom and subjects? Would you give it all away just to be with her?"
Unbeknownst to Jareth, there was someone waiting with breath held, waiting for the answer that she hoped would come from his heart.
Striken, he looked at the sobbing woman and stopped, his fingertips grazing the glass. "I'd give anything to ease her fears," he murmured softly. "I just... " leaning his forehead against the glass he groaned.
"I've bollocks'd it up again, haven't I. I'd give her anything she wanted to prove that I do love her. My heart. My kingdom. My power... I just... " shutting his eyes, Jareth shook his head. "Being near her, no matter what I may say, being near her makes me feel...whole."
"Do you actually mean that Jareth?" Sarah asked, stepping from her hiding spot in the shadows.
Surprised and no little bit confused, Jareth spun around to find Sarah standing behind him. For a brief moment Jareth thought about playing it out with his usual arrogant attitude but after the trials of the labyrinth and this final, as he slowly came to understand, test, he thought perhaps it was time to just lay all of his cards on the table.
One way or another he knew that this was the final confrontation and he would either be the happiest king in the Underground or doomed to be the most unhappy.
"Every last word, Precious." he replied while staring into her emerald green eyes. "Every. Last. Word."
"Will you love me...?" she asked.
"Yes..." he murmured, his eyes upon hers as he took a single step forward.
"Will you fear me?" she asked.
"As my equal in deviousness and power...yes," he replied, taking another step forward.
"Will you do as I say?" she asked, her green eyes glittering with wicked delight at the possibilities of his answer.
"Only if you will do your share of obeying as well, darling," he purred in reply, as he slipped his arm around her waist drawing her close.
"Will you promise not to run off with Agnes?" She teased and pressed a hand to his chest, just over his heart.
Jareth winced but then laughed, "Tempting but with any luck she's got Hoghead tied to a bed already... speaking of tying..." he finished darkly.
Sarah sobered for a moment. "Would you let me go?"
Jareth looked at her, so tempted to lie as was his nature.
Apparently being mortal, however briefly, had weakened him. He didn't. "It would destroy me but if you truly wanted it, I'd move the stars for you."
Sarah bit her lip on a smile, his heart a steady thrum beneath his hand. "You know you could have just asked me."
"And miss almost getting eaten by your dinosaur dragon monstrosity?" His hand was drifting lower. "Which I think I still owe you for."
The hand stilled. "The question is, do you wish to stay?"
For a beat there was only silence. He'd never wanted to hear her say the right words so dearly.
"Yes," She leaned in and breathed against his mouth. "I have it on good authority your goblins like me better anyway. You'd be overthrown without me."
Jareth groaned at teasing the contact. "Then back to that tying and the bed..."
Sarah didn't need to know that it was probably too late for her to return; that she'd used too much magic.
Fine print. She'd chosen him. And that was somehow far more powerful.
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