The throne room was magnificent indeed. All around, tapestries and glass windows had arts of the Greek Gods and their magnificence. All had brilliant colors and amazing art at each of them. Jareth knew it would take months to make them. Leading up to the throne was a carpet black as night. Underneath the throne, there were black rams that seemed to hold it up, eyes glowing red. The throne itself was a rich black color with gold trim.

But as impressive as the throne room was, nothing was as impressive as the man sitting on it.

Lord Hades had a black crown adorned on his head, gilded and regal. He was wearing the same clothing as in Jareth's vision, black with the same gold trim as his throne. His eyes were electric grey, piercing and stern. His mouth was in a tight line, and yet, somehow he looked almost amused.

Jareth gave a gracious bow, being conscious as to let his cape billow behind him for dramatic effect as he often loved to do. He kept his face straight and took Hades's outstretched hand to kiss it, honoring him as the king of this land just as he had kissed Persephone's hand.

He knelt down and waited to be spoken to.

Hades stroked his chin. "Goblin King. I know what you are here for? What makes you think I will give you back your wife? She is dead, and belongs with the dead. Do you not want her to be happy in Elysium?"

Jareth rose up. He tried to keep his face just as stern, but a hint of sadness speckled in his blue and brown eyes. "My Lord, before I answer your question, I implore you to answer mine first."

Hades raised an eyebrow. "You dare bargain with me, while you are at my mercy?"

He still looked at Jareth with great unbelief, almost confusion as to how someone could just walk in and demand him things. He was the god of DEATH. Messing with someone like that isn't what most people would do.

Jareth looked at him defiantly. "When you have lost the thing that has made your life happy, you'd stop caring and do whatever it takes too. Now tell me, why is her soul here in the Underworld and not in the Summerlands?"

Hades's eyebrows raised up even higher than Jareth's. "You have gumption, that I give you." He stood up, and walked down, also letting his cape billow behind him, annoying Jareth. Billowing capes was the Goblin King's thing and he knew Hades was doing this to annoy him on purpose.

He stood directly in front of Jareth. It annoyed him how the fae king was in fact taller than he. No matter. He was a god, and could still strike him down. He had heard of Jareth, a man of temper but not unintelligent.

The God of Death waved, and a ping pong table appeared. Now it was Jareth's turn to raise an eyebrow.

Hades threw a paddle at the fae king, who caught it with ease. The god stood at one end. "Let's have a little game, shall we?"

A black ping pong ball appeared in Hades's hand, and he made the first serve. Jareth hit it back without hesitation, still thinking about why Hades had resorted to playing this game, getting angrier by the moment.

Hades kept his face calm and serene, annoying the hell out of Jareth. After a few games played in silence, Jareth couldn't take it anymore. "Are you going to answer my question or not?" He growled through clenched teeth.

Hades chuckled, making Jareth pissed off. He tried to keep his temper under control, avoiding flipping the table over and smashing Hades with his paddle. He knew that somehow, Hades knew that this was a game that Sarah and he loved to play. It wasn't a coincidence.

Hades just kept on laughing at Jareth fuming. "Oh you. Why don't you just tell me why I should give her to you? She is DEAD. She's not yours to command, to decide her fate."

Jareth hit the ball so hard that it made a dent in the table. "She is my WIFE, not my PROPERTY. I love her! Her life was too short to be taken, and she doesn't belong here, she should go to the Summerlands! Stop hiding from me, Hades. Tell me now why you have brought her here!"

Using his magic, Jareth transformed the paddle into a sword and smacked the ball out of the way. He grabbed his sword that he brought with him from his bag and lunged out at Hades, jumping into the air above the ping pong table.

Hades, of course, saw this coming. He also jumped up, meeting Jareth mid air with his own swords. Both were blocked, and Jareth chose that moment to speak. "You vile thing! WHY HAVE YOU TAKEN MY WIFE DOWN TO THIS PLACE!?" He pushed Hades and the god spun around with grace and landed on the ping pong table, Jareth taking one spin only to be blocked by the god again. Yelling in pure rage, Jareth once again brought down his sword to strike the man that took his wife.

"You lost her once she died!" Hades bellowed out. "She is MINE! I have right to claim her as mine as I SEE FIT!"

Now that did it. Every muscle in Jareth's body tensed up. He ripped the cape off his shoulders and stood still, not moving, breathing deeply. His hair was more wild than it had ever been, yes, even more than when he was grieving for Sarah and went wild. His eyes were large and full of conviction and his teeth were grinding so hard it was a wonder they didn't pop out of his skull.

Now, he had something to fight for. Or rather, someone. And he wasn't going to let anyone, even a god, to get away with it!

He roared again and did a new move. Instead of using his sword to do anything, he used his foot to knock Hades over. Once on his back, Jareth stepped on his chest and pointed his sword at his face, victorious. Amazing how such a simple move would be what made him win this fight.

Hades chuckled once more. "You think you can hurt me? I am a GOD! The only weapon material that could hurt me is-"

Just then, Jareth tipped the sword just so it would graze upon the god's cheek, drawing blood. Hades looked at the sword in horror.

"-celestial bronze, yes?" Jareth said smugly. His infuriating smirk clearly was showing in his face, and he didn't give a goblin's mustache about Hades's feelings. Angry and hot tempered he may be, but Jareth was a man who was prepared. Speaking of being prepared, he would kill Hades here and now if he needed to.

He leaned in close enough to where their noses were almost touching. "Oh Hades. Don't you realize? I'm a family man. I also am a king. Sarah is both my family and I am her king, doubling your mistake. You have messed with me enough. Answer now. Why have you taken her? Is this what you did to Persephone?"

Hades closed his lips tight, just glaring at Jareth. The Goblin King pressed his feet even more on his chest, tightening the amount of air in him. Though Hades wouldn't die, he could be tortured like this if he wasn't careful enough. He started to choke, and Jareth wouldn't relent. "I can do this all day! ANSWER ME!"

Hades nodded and Jareth loosened a little, but the sword was still poised at his neck. Hades coughed once, and began to speak. "I want someone new, someone who can challenge me and be my equal. Persephone is beautiful, and boy, am I glad to have her, but she is nothing but a whore. She skips around with her flowers. Sarah, on the other hand, is feisty. I saw that her life was being cut, so I took her here. I was going to take her whenever she died but she died earlier than I had expected. I will let her stay in Elysium for a while, maybe a few centuries or so, until she was bored. Then, I would bring her here. No doubt by then, she would've been over you. I am a god, after all. I can give her riches, I can allow her to see her family and give her a life of pleasantry that you could never have given her as a queen of a bunch of goblins and a kingdom of misfits! She belongs with ME!"

Jareth was honestly perplexed. Did this god really know and respected women so little? No wonder Persephone was depressed all the time.

"What of your wife? She just wants a chance to fall in love with you and for you to love her back." He said quietly.

Hades scoffed. "Love? How can I love her? She is nothing, just Zeus's daughter. A prize to win in retaliation to him for banishing me down here. I give her everything she ever needs. Don't worry, she will still be fine as my mistress when Sarah agrees to be my queen. Maybe I'll even turn her and Sarah to have a threesome with me, just me and my gorgeous whores. I'll even do it in front of you, seeing as you're so fond of Persephone that you didn't even notice it wasn't your wife when she kissed you! Imagine that, you watching me make love to both of them" His eyes were full of lust and possessiveness as he thought such deplorable things.

Jareth dug the sword into Hades's neck, not killing or even really hurting him but to remind him who he was dealing with. "I will NOT tolerate you reducing my wife to some sex object, or any woman for that matter! This is where you are wrong. Sarah is someone to be respected, to be treated as the person that she is. She is strong, and has much work to do. You don't see her as your equal, you see her as an object to amuse you!"

He dug the sword even deeper, blood leaking out at a faster rate now. Hades gasped a little, more worried for his life than he had ever been. How was this fae able to do so much?

Jareth leaned forward and snarled again. "Here is what you will do. You will tell me where Sarah is and how to find her and bring her back as we were before she died, none of that stuff about her wanting to be dead again once she's back. If you don't, I will strike you where you stand. I don't care about the consequences. You already kidnapped one woman that I know of and I'll be damned if I let you take another."

Hades still didn't respond, trying to remain defiant. Jareth pushed the sword in once more, this time, making the god cry out. "What will it be, O great Lord of Death and Riches? Will you die by the hand of a fae? Or will you be reasonable and let me take my wife and go?"

This time, Hades didn't hesitate to answer. "Alright! Let me up and I will tell you what to do!"

Jareth relented a little, but still kept the king under his grasp. "Answer first and I'll let go. I don't trust people anymore, don't you know that?" He seethed.

Hades breathed a few times before answering. "You will go into Elysium. There, you will find your bride. Sarah is happy right now, don't you doubt that. It will take much to convince her to leave. Elysium was meant for someone to have peace from the troubles they had in life. She may even resent you for trying to take her out. You cannot force her to, only she can make herself leave. If she does love you that much, then she will rather go through the worst of life with you than comfort in paradise. Remember that."

"I'll do whatever it takes!" Jareth hissed, angry that everyone wanted him to fail. "Anything else I ought to know?"

"Oh, and that was the easy part!" Hades laughed heartily. "You must come out of Elysium and not look back. You must have faith that she has chosen to follow. She could choose to go back at any point up until you are out of the Underworld back in that bar. You won't be able to see her, hear her, know that she is there. If she is anyways. If you DARE look back, she will immediately be sent back to the Underworld and be with me forever. Say goodbye to the Summerlands or the afterlife with her, for I can choose to accept or reject faes. You will end up in the Summerlands while she is with me forever, and will be my queen one day." He grinned, feeling that Jareth would lose.

This was a lot for Jareth to take. To have such faith would drive him crazy. It would take all he could to not look behind him, and his instincts of survival made that even more difficult. He was a king who always had to watch his back.

However, he and Sarah had done worse. She had forgotten about him and literally went and set up a resistance within a few hours and fought a fae queen while she herself was still human. She had restored his kingdom and thawed his cold heart, winning him just as he won her over.

He leaned back, letting Hades have some room, and finally, he withdrew his sword from the god's neck. "You underestimate me, Hades. I will succeed. I will win her because of the love we have for each other. And as for you, the more you keep having this illusion that you're the greatest thing that has ever lived, the less satisfied you will be. So I suggest that you not try to kill me or do any of these stunts ever again. You WILL pay for it."

BADASS JARETH IS MY FAVORITE JARETH. DO NOT MESS WITH THE GOBLIN KING UNLESS YOU ARE SARAH. This scene was also kinda hard to write as I suck at fighting scenes. They're important but I suck at them man. I try my best though!