A/N: In which we (finally) have a Jareth, and they all get their first inkling of just what this war is really about. And, God help everyone, he and Betelgeuse actually meet. XD
Full night had fallen before Sarah ventured out into her backyard, a carved walking stick in one hand and a mix of anger and terror in her eyes.
"I know you're out there," she said to the darkness. Her yard backed up onto a greenbelt of oak and aspen, and outside the yellow circle of the porch light all was pitch-black shadow. The waning moon had not yet risen, but she had a feeling it wouldn't do much about that blackness even when it did. "Talk to me already."
Her eyes caught a flash of white - the great snowy owl, perched high in an aspen just beyond the circle of lamplight. "'The owls are not what they seem'," she said softly, "so if you're not what you seem, what are you?"
The bird stared at her in silence, tawny eyes glowing, refracting what little light there was. The loud flutter of wings when it took off startled her so much she almost dropped her stick. It swooped down into the undergrowth, and then other eyes were watching her, very close, though their owner was only a dim silhouette. She realized with a lurch that she knew them - they'd haunted her dreams and nightmares for the last three years.
"Jareth?" she breathed, and her grip on the stick tightened even though she knew it would be useless against him.
"Don't sound so surprised, Sarah." His voice was just as she'd remembered it, rough like smoky bourbon. "You knew I would find you eventually."
"Then why the books?" she asked, refusing to back away even though he was closer than she liked. "Why now? Be - Lydia's ghost said you're going to war with some other…something. What's going on here?"
He stepped forward, his face moon-pale above the high collar of his cloak. "It's already started," he said. "I need access to your world, Sarah, and the books will give it to me, if anyone says the words."
She still held her ground, though she really, really didn't want to. "You're here now," she said. "What do you need the books for, if you're already here?" She'd grown quite a bit in the last few years, to the point where he didn't tower so much over her, so why was he still so intimidating?
"I can't stay," he said gravely, taking another step toward her. "Not for long. I must have access to Earth, or I will be sorely outmatched." He gave her what was almost a sneer. "You told me I had no power over you, but you took some from me, and I need. It. Back."
Something in her faltered a moment, but only a moment - her resolve steeled itself, and she glared right back at him. "Fine, I'll give it back. You can't stay here, though, you'd mess up everything. The Neitherworld wants to kill my friend because you're trying to - to do whatever the hell it is you're doing." He was still scary, but she was in her own world now, not his Labyrinth, and even if the confidence that gave her was illusory, it was there nonetheless. No matter that the way he looked at her made her shiver.
"I have no quarrel with Earth," he said, "nor with the Neitherworld, whatever that is. My only quarrel with your world, Sarah Williams, is with you. You can't simply give back what I lost - you took it without knowing what you were doing."
Something in her went cold at that, but she still didn't back away - half because she was nearly paralyzed now. "What does that mean?" she asked, somehow keeping her voice even. "What is it you want from me, exactly?"
He took another step toward her, until he could have reached out and touched her. "You must return to the Labyrinth with me," he said, so quietly she almost couldn't hear him. "Darkness of the world of Legend threatens the whole of my realm, and without what you have I cannot hold him back forever. I have no allies, Sarah - I must do this on my own, and without the power you took from me I can't. And if he overruns the Labyrinth, Earth will be next."
"Could he - do that?" she asked, uncertain whether or not to believe him.
Jareth actually sighed. "He has access to powers beyond even me," he said, clearly not wanting to admit it. "For now. With what you took from me, I might hold him off for decades."
"But not defeat him?" she said, almost a whisper. The idea of Jareth not being much stronger than…well, anything…was completely incomprehensible. Whatever - whoever - this Darkness was, he must be scary as hell.
He shot her an annoyed look, clearly irritated she'd mentioned it. "No. Not yet. I don't yet know enough about him to know how he will fight, or where, or even precisely when." Those strange mismatched eyes seemed to hold her half hypnotized - that at least hadn't changed from the last time she'd seen him. "If I could use your world, though - if I could draw on its power - I would have the advantage. I would not be alone, with only my own resources."
"Do you want me to fight with you?" she asked, trying to figure out what exactly it was he wanted from her - what it was he had to do to her in the Labyrinth. She wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the idea of going back there, no matter how many times she'd dreamed of it.
"No!" The sudden fierceness in his reply startled her. "It would be much too dangerous, Sarah. I don't want you anywhere near that creature, or anything he controls." He actually reached out and grabbed her shoulders. "You have no idea what it is I face, and I would keep it that way. If Darkness learns of you…." He shook his head. "No. I won't allow it. He'll not have anything to hold over my head."
His touch made her shiver so much he had to feel it. It wasn't just the warmth of his hands, it was the strength - he'd never actually touched her before, and she wasn't prepared for the sheer, inhuman strength she sensed even from that light contact. He could break her in half if he wanted, without so much as breaking a sweat - assuming goblin kings even could sweat.
His words, though, just made her mad. "Too dangerous?" she said, a little incredulously. "Too dangerous? I made it through your Labyrinth, didn't I?"
"This isn't the Labyrinth, Sarah," he said harshly. "It's very much worse. Perhaps you could handle it, but I will not risk it."
"Excuse me, but I think that's my decision," she snapped, trying to keep her voice down. "You want me to go back to the Labyrinth with you - you expect me to trust you, then you try to act like my stepmother? It doesn't wash, Jareth."
"You're still far too stubborn, aren't you?" he said quietly, though there was something very much like respect in his voice. His next words, though, chilled her. "Sarah, I could have killed you in there any time I chose. The minions of this Darkness creature would have no such compunction, and I will not let that happen. I'll put you to sleep a hundred years if I have to."
"With what?" she said softly, danger in her tone. "A peach? If I have some of your power, it can protect me, right? If I learn how to use it?"
He went very, very still, and she knew she'd guessed correctly. "Here's the deal," she went on, in a tone that would brook no argument. "I'll help you with this, because in some damn way it seems I owe you, but whatever it is of yours I took I won in a fair contest. You're not going to treat me like a child this time, do you hear me?"
Jareth looked at her as though he were just now seeing her for the first time. "You've changed," he said at last. "Perhaps I had more influence on you than I thought, you infuriating girl. I cannot take back what you have by force - it would break your mind. But Sarah," he added, his tone shifting to something a little alarming, "you don't know what you are getting yourself into. I can only protect you so far."
The fact that he'd even want to threw her severely off-balance - he had changed too, it seemed. "Then let me try to do it myself," she said, to cover her confusion. "Maybe I have that power of yours for a reason. Whatever that reason may be, though, I won't sit on the sidelines like some useless little girl. After all," she said, with a little twist of her lips, "that wouldn't be fair."
She'd expected him to laugh, or at least call her on her choice of words, but he did neither. He looked, somewhat disturbingly, as serious as Lydia's poltergeist had.
"This will not be a fair war," he said. "But I underestimated you once - perhaps I should not do so again. But if you would fight alongside me, you must be prepared to listen, to do what I say. You can have no comprehension of what is to come, because even I am uncertain."
Sarah paused, still far too aware of his hands on her shoulders. The wheels in her brain were turning fast despite the distraction of his touch and his equally disquieting proximity. "How long can you stay on Earth this time?" she asked slowly. "Before you have to go back to the Labyrinth, I mean."
"If you would agree to anchor me here, I would not need the books," he said, clearly wondering what she was thinking. "I could stay much longer than I would otherwise - perhaps a week of your time, before I must return. I can't leave the Labyrinth much longer than that. What are you thinking, Sarah?"
"The Neitherworld wants to kill Lydia because of this war," she said, even more slowly. "Her poltergeist is pretty scary determined to not let that happen. Maybe…the two of you should meet. Pool resources, ideas, that kind of thing. Lydia says he's normally pretty lazy, but I think - and you can't tell her this, it would just weird her out too much - I think that for her he'd do almost anything. He's…creepy-attached to her." She had absolutely no idea that she might as well have been describing Jareth himself, in relation to her. The thought of Betelgeuse and Jareth meeting creeped her out on seven different levels, but it might be useful, and Sarah was nothing if not practical. Amazing as that might seem to Jareth. "I mean, I'll have to ask her so she can ask him, but…it might help." Or end absolutely terribly, but she was willing to take that risk.
Jareth regarded her a very long while in silence. "When?" he finally said, surprising her a little; she'd expected more protest than that.
"I'll call her and ask - it's not too late. She can ask him, and if we're all on the same page, we could meet by the graveyard sometime once the moon's up." And pray nobody sees either one of you. An ambulatory dead guy and another guy who looked like a glam-rocker…no. Definitely did not want to have to try to explain that.
He seemed to consider this, and finally nodded. "Very well. Until then - be careful, Sarah."
She nodded in affirmation, and he released her shoulders, leaving her feeling unaccountably cold. Without ceremony, in the space of a blink, there was suddenly a lack of Jareth but the presence of a huge white owl, which soared off over the trees. Only now did Sarah really let herself shudder, wrapping her arms about her torso.
What the hell have I just gotten myself into? she wondered. Half of what she'd said had just been to bait Jareth, but she'd been quite serious in her refusal to be sidelined. She really did believe there had to be some deeper reason why she had whatever power of his she did, and…she didn't want anything to happen to the Labyrinth. Not to her friends, but not to the place itself. It had changed her, and dangerous though it was, she didn't want it gone.
She drew a deep breath and turned back to the house, wondering how Lydia - and Betelgeuse - would take her idea. Only one way to find out, she thought.
Lydia, for her part, was ready to start throwing shoes at Betelgeuse.
He'd 'helped' her with her homework, which basically amounted to pestering her whenever she got an answer wrong in math, and pelted her with suggestions for her essay on chapter two of The Labyrinth. Obviously he was bored out of his mind, for which she couldn't exactly blame him, but when she suggested he go out and entertain himself for a while, all his joviality had vanished in an instant.
"I'm not leaving you alone until the Maitlands have talked to Juno, Babes," he said, perching on the edge of her desk. "I don't know yet what the royals have planned, but I'm not going to go out and let something sneak in here and kill you."
His utter seriousness about the whole matter disturbed her greatly. "Are you really that worried about what they could do?" she asked. "Jeeze, Beej, I'm not exactly helpless in here, and can't you - I don't know, teach me something? No offense, but I don't want to have to entirely rely on you to make sure I don't get killed."
He regarded her with those ungodly green eyes, much too closely for her peace of mind. "Maybe," he said, "but I don't think you'd much like the consequences."
Lydia leaned back in her chair, matching his peculiar and rather unsettling stare. "What exactly are we talking, here? Both the teaching and the consequences?" She really didn't think she liked the sheer intensity with which he was looking at her, but she'd eat her own shoe rather than admit it.
"This wouldn't be small-time stuff, Lyds," he said. "I don't know that what you'd have to trade would be worth it to you."
Her eyebrows rose. "Well, I won't know until you tell me, will I?"
"I could take a piece of your soul," he said bluntly, "and give you a piece of mine. If anything really hurt you, I'd take the hurt myself - I'm dead, it's not like it can do anything to me. You'd have as much of my power as you could handle, which wouldn't be a whole lot, since you're still alive and too much of it would kill you. Which would pretty much defeat the purpose. You'd be able to defend yourself, though, to a point, but this sort of thing wouldn't be easy to handle - you'd need a lot of practice to use it right."
She stared at him, wide-eyed, quite glad she was already sitting down. "What's the catch?" she asked, knowing it had to be huge, given a deal like that.
"I'd own you, Lyds," he said quietly, still far too seriously for her liking. "Literally. Though to be fair, you'd own me, too - it's what happens when you swap even part of your soul. There's a reason the Handbook's section on making deals with the living basically says 'don't'. You can't undo a bargain like that - once you've made it, it's forever. And," he added, and here she knew he was about to relay something even worse, "you'd quit aging, you'd never get sick - but you'd also never die, unless I killed you." He was still watching her much too closely, as though trying to take her apart from the inside by sight alone.
It was almost a minute before she could dredge up a response that, and when she did it was a very quiet, "…Holy shit." That…really was an impressive set of consequences, wasn't it? She'd be immune to harm, yeah, and she'd have defensive powers beyond anything a normal human would be capable of, but she'd also literally belong to a half-crazy poltergeist who would have to kill her to keep her from living forever.
And yet… "Why didn't you tell me this before?" she asked, a little unevenly. "When you first told me the royals wanted me dead?"
"Would you really have believed me, Lyds?" He shook his head. "You didn't trust me and you still don't, because you're not stupid - I haven't given you any real reason to trust me. Yet."
A very good point. That was…well, hell, that was possibly the most massive decision she'd ever have to make in her life, and she wasn't about to rush into it one way or another. "…Let me think about it," she said at last, and quite obviously the fact that she even would think about it startled the crap out of him. "I don't want to die, Beej," she said, by way of explanation, "but that's…a hell of a lot I'd be trading." She could kiss any semblance of a normal life goodbye, but on the other hand, a 'normal' life had never been something she'd particularly craved. Office job, suit, nine-to-five then home to an apartment or little house, trapped in a routine that would never end. Even if she managed to get a job in photography, doing something she genuinely enjoyed, the fact that she saw dead people would always be a silent, invisible, isolating wall, cutting her off from people content with their prosaic lives. It was already happening - much though she liked Bertha and Prudence, there was a certain distance that could never be breached. Sarah was the only person who actually understood, and she had a whole catalogue of her own problems.
But then, if she took Beej up on his offer, she'd really never have a chance at normalcy. The fact that she saw the dead gave her a barrier, true, but if she couldn't die or even get hurt, she might as well not be human anymore. She wouldn't be, not really. Once upon a time she'd wished she could be special, but now, irony of ironies, as soon as she became content just being Lydia, 'special' seemed to be trying to pound her door down.
"How…would you kill me?" she asked slowly. "I mean, whenever I decided I did want to die?" She couldn't help but ask, despite the fact that she probably really didn't want to know.
He picked up one of her pencils and leaned forward, laying the edge lightly against the left side of her throat, an inch or two below her jaw. "External carotid artery," he said, very quietly. "Painless, and you'd bleed out in about three heartbeats."
Lydia went very still, wondering how the hell he knew that. It hadn't really occurred to her to wonder just what being a bio-exorcist entailed, or what on Earth it was he actually did in the Neitherworld. Shit. "Is that…what your royals would do?" she asked, staring at him with rather horrified fascination. "Cut my throat like that?"
Betelgeuse took the pencil away from her neck, but didn't lean back. "I don't know," he said. "I do know that they'd exorcise you, just to be safe."
Barbara and Adam had told her about the Lost Souls room, the place where all ghosts who had been exorcised on Earth went. She'd thought that was the only way you could get in there, though - she hadn't thought other ghosts could do it. All this sounded worse than awful, but…well, how much did she trust what he was saying? She believed he was telling the truth when he said people in the Neitherworld wanted her dead, but the rest of this…of course it was in his interest that she stay alive, and not being able to die would definitely ensure that.
"What's in it for you?" she asked, after a pause that seemed to stretch for hours. "Would you not need me to say your name three times to get out into this world?"
He snorted. "Nothing can lift my name curse, Lyds. I'll always need someone to call me out."
So it wouldn't get him out for good, not on its own. Huh. "So - I guess my next question is, would you actually kill me when I asked you to? You wouldn't make me stay alive just because it's more convenient for you?"
He looked away. "That's asking a lot of me, Lyds," he said. "But if we have a contract, I have to."
Why the hell was she even considering this? It was insane - it was a horrible idea, but it was also…well, really fascinated, in a gruesome sort of way. "Has anyone - ever done this before?"
"I wouldn't try it on you if it hadn't already been done," he said, sounding a little insulted.
She chewed her lip thoughtfully. This was idiotic and crazy and might well be the worst mistake she would ever make, but - well, if this war or whatever it was did spill over here, she was damned if she'd be helpless. "I don't actually have to marry you, do I?"
He gave her a slightly crooked grin. "No," he said. "This kind of binding - it wouldn't keep you from being able to put me back, but if you didn't I could stay out as long as I wanted. Nobody else could send me back."
She looked up at the ceiling, turning the whole idea over in her mind. If she didn't do it now she'd chicken out, and something told her if she refused she would really, really regret it.
"Okay," she said, looking back at him.
Betelgeuse stared at her, clearly floored she'd actually said yes. "You realize this is for eternity, right, Babes?"
"I don't know what's going to happen with this war, or whatever it is," she said steadily, "but I don't want it to kill me. I don't want to always be afraid something from the Neitherworld will, either. I'm not a hiding kind of person, Beej, and I'd have to hide."
She held his gaze, daring him to look away first, somewhat startled at her resolve to go forward with this lunacy. Finally he shook his head, and gave her another half-smile. "I hope you don't regret this, Babes," he said, standing up. "C'mere."
Lydia hoped she wouldn't, either. Intuition was all well and good, but that didn't mean she wasn't a little afraid, and she tried not to let it show when she stood, too. "How does this work?" she asked, somehow keeping most of the nervousness out of her voice. Is it going to hurt?
"Only a little," he said, apparently reading her mind. "And you can't hit me with a book just because I'm touching you, either."
She rolled her eyes, but took a small step toward him anyway, very carefully not thinking about the two earlier nights. This was too big a decision for distractions, anyway, dammit.
"Not quite close enough, Lyds," he said, with a real grin this time, hooking his arm around her waist and pulling her to him so quickly it actually took her a moment to be startled. "This is the part where you remember you promised not to smack me," he added, pulling aside the collar of her shirt and laying his cold hand directly over her heart. "This is gonna be like getting a shot - don't think about it and it won't hurt so bad."
Of course now she couldn't help thinking about it, wondering if it was too late to give up and wuss out. But she wouldn't, dammit, she wasn't going to let fear of pain - even a little, whatever 'a little' was in Betelgeuse's book - stop her doing something that might save her life if it came down to it. She wasn't going to count on anyone else to save her if she didn't have to.
"You're still thinking about it, Babes," he said, with that disturbing little smile.
"Well, shit, of course I am," she said, wondering why the hell the feel of his cold dead hand was as…not-unpleasant as it was. "You might know what you're doing, but I don't."
"True," he admitted. "Well, if you really need me to distract you-"
Once again it took a moment for her brain to catch up, but when it had she realized rather belatedly that he was kissing her. God, was he ever kissing her, and it threw her so far off-balance she didn't try to stop him - nor, after a moment, could she keep herself from returning it, grabbing the front of his jacket in an attempt to stay on her feet. He took advantage of her startled gasp to deepen it, and she could feel him smirk when her back arched without bothering to ask her permission.
She bit his lip, a little too hard, when brief but agonizing pain stabbed through her chest like an ice axe. She did stumble then, her knees threatening to give way, but the arm at her waist kept her upright. After a few fractions of a second the pain was gone, though a faint sense of cold lingered just above her heart.
"Beej," she said, trying to catch her breath before he kissed her again. "Um, Beej, you can stop now." While she still had use of her brain, preferably.
"You sure?" he said, with a truly, obnoxiously wicked grin.
"Yes, Beej." She glared at him a little, and he grudgingly released her.
"Right words, wrong tone," he muttered, and she almost hit him with her math book.
"That was cheating," she said, touching the little cold patch on her skin, feeling her heart flutter like a butterfly beneath her fingers. "You promised you'd behave yourself."
"Distracted you, didn't it?" he said, not bothering to hide his leer when he stole her desk chair. She resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him on the grounds that he would certainly ask if it was an invitation.
"Pervert," she said, shaking her head. "You stole my chair." She was feeling decidedly…weird. It wasn't just the little chilly patch above her heart, it was…all of her, her skin tingling faintly like a limb that had fallen asleep and was just now waking up. It too was a chilly feeling, but not unpleasantly so - it made her feel, ironically, even more alive.
Betelgeuse raised an eyebrow. "I'm willing to share," he said, and now she did throw something at him - only a pencil box, but it hit him square in the chest.
"I don't think so," she said, sitting on her desk instead and inspecting her hand, as though she actually thought it ought to look different. Gingerly she rubbed her fingers together, and was startled when something very much like static electricity zapped her, a momentary arc of blue. "Um," she said faintly. "Beej, what the hell?"
He swung his feet with their dusty boots up onto her desk. "I told you it wouldn't be easy to handle at first," he said. "You won't make anything explode, but you might blow out a few light bulbs. Your body's got its own natural limitations - it won't let anything fuck you over."
Lydia wasn't entirely sure that was precisely encouraging. "What can I do with it, exactly? Aside from blow out light bulbs."
His expression was unreadable when he regarded her with those impossibly green eyes. "Cut yourself," he said, tossing her compass across the desk. "Or stab your hand, anything like that."
She eyed him back, wondering if he was joking and eventually deciding he wasn't. With a slight grimace, she drew the sharp pointed end of the compass across the back of her hand, and was surprised to find it didn't hurt nearly so much as it ought to. It did hurt, in a way, but not with the sharp insistence such a thing should have produced. Blood immediately welled through the split skin, but stopped a few seconds later, coagulating into a thick, dark scab.
"…Wow," she said, looking closely at it. "It doesn't even hurt now."
Betelgeuse caught her fingers, drawing her hand toward him, and wiped at the scab with a handkerchief that probably hadn't been washed since before Lydia was born. It came away with a rather sickening rip, but beneath it was smooth skin, marred only by the barest trace of a white scar. "That ought to fade pretty soon," he said, running his thumb over it, and she tried not to shiver. "The worse the injury, the longer it'll take to heal, but it always will. Something could gut you and you wouldn't die."
"Nice mental image, Beej," she said, making a face. "So I can heal and I'm a static-magnet - what else?" She'd been right - this was most definitely fascinating, even if the sheer enormity of what she'd just done hadn't even come close to hitting her yet. That would happen later, probably at three o'clock in the morning, and leave her twitching with doubt.
He stood, tightening his grip on her hand and pulling her off the desk. "You should be able to feel things a little like I do," he said, twirling her like a dancer until her back was against his chest. "See them, hear them - you're a breather, your brain's limiting your own perception."
Her eyes narrowed when he laced his fingers through hers. "You're just looking for an excuse to feel me up without breaking your promise, aren't you?" she asked, trying not to jump at the downright peculiar feel of his hand against hers.
"Well, not just," he said into the top of her hair, and she could hear him grinning. "Not gonna lie to you, Babes, I'm not minding this at all."
Neither was she, though she wasn't about to say so even if it meant it would keep the sky from falling. Stupid pervy poltergeists, and stupid her for not caring.
"Shut your eyes," he said, as soon as he'd made her as uncomfortable as it was possible for her to be.
"…Why?" she asked warily.
"Because your eyes lie to you, Babes." He laid his other hand over her eyes, and she wondered when he last washed it. She was probably better off not knowing. "Now just stand still."
She did, feeling a little idiotic, but after a few moments of darkness she realized she could hear all sorts of things - the faint ticking of her watch, the slight scrabbling of night animals outside - even her heartbeat was loud in her ears.
"What the-?" she whispered.
"It gets better, Lyds." He took the hand that held hers and ran her fingers along the wood of her desk, and her fingertips picked up every line of the grain, every tiny irregularity in the surface.
"Now your eyes." He led her to the window and took his hand away, and the distant moon seemed to sear itself into the back of her retinas. She winced, squinting, but after a moment her vision adjusted, and she realized she could not only see the moon, but the aura of energy around it.
"Holy shit," she whispered, turning to face him. "Is this - how you see all the time?"
His own eyes seemed greener with this new sight of hers, a little too much so. "'Course, Babes. I'm dead - don't need any nerves to see or hear or, uh, feel." He still hadn't released her hand, and almost seemed unaware of what he was doing when he ran his thumb along her wrist. It felt…weird, but definitely not bad….
The phone jangled, making her jump, and after a moment her father's voice floated up from downstairs. "Lydia, Sarah's on the phone."
"Okay," she called back, her voice a little strangled, and pulled her hand away.
"Better let me get this one, Babes," Betelgeuse said. "Dunno what you might do to your phone if you picked it up now."
She wasn't sure she liked the idea of that, but he grabbed it before she could protest. "Lydia's Den of Iniquity," he said, ignoring her choked cry of outrage as she followed him. "No, she can't touch her phone right now, she might short it out."
Sarah's voice, tinny and uncertain, was quite audible to Lydia's suddenly-sensitive ears. "Um…okay. I wanted to ask her a question - both you guys, I guess."
"Go ahead," he said, waving a hand at Lydia.
"Uh, I talked to Jareth - the Goblin King - and he…I…yeah, I thought maybe we should all meet. He knows a little more about this war, or whatever it is, and…it might be a bad idea but I think it's actually a good one." A rather garbled speech - she had to be more nervous than Lydia had ever heard her.
"Ask her when," she murmured. "And where."
"Getting to it, Babes," he said, and did.
"Near the graveyard - I told him sometime after the moon was up, so whenever you can. Will, uh, will you?"
"Weeell, I don't know, I was kind of enjoying myself here-"
"Beej. Of course we will!" Lydia said, overriding him. "We'll be there as soon as we can." She glared at Betelgeuse, daring him to comment. All he did was smirk at her.
"…Okay. See you soon, I guess. Um. Bye."
"You really are horrible," Lydia said, when the receiver went down on Sarah's end. "She sounds freaked out enough already. God, I don't know if this is a good idea…."
"Says the girl who just traded away part of her soul," he mused, and she smacked him. That might be going to come back and haunt her later, but she couldn't let it right now. "Just…ugh, the thought of the two of you in the same place is enough to give me a migraine." She grabbed her coat, grateful for the warm swath of fabric.
"You can't get those anymore," Betelgeuse said, when she opened the window and swung herself over the sill. "No headaches, no colds - no excuse to stay home from school."
She paused. "Dad and Delia don't need to know that," she said at last. "The Maitlands don't need to know about any of this either, yet, so don't tell them." She'd think of some way to explain it, surely…if it had sounded like a stupid idea to her, it would seem completely lunatic to anyone else, but it wasn't like they could talk her out of it now.
"I think I'll leave that to you, Babes," he said, watching her descend the side of the house with what she considered to be far too much amusement. "You gonna take all night getting down there?"
Only Betelgeuse, she reflected, could make innocent conversation sound ridiculously dirty. She scowled at him, but after a moment her expression turned thoughtful. "If I just let go, what would it do to me?"
"You'd drop," he said, arching an eyebrow, and did not need to add 'duh'.
"I meant would it hurt me?" She had to move or let go soon; her fingers were going numb.
"It wouldn't kill you. Here, try it and find out." He leaned out the window to unhook her fingers, and she plummeted to the lawn below with a stifled, strangled shriek.
"Ow," she said, staring at her wrist, which looked broken even if it didn't hurt like it should. "You asshole." She tried to kick him when he landed next to her, which is next to impossible when one is sitting down, and winced when something went click in her ankle.
Betelgeuse laughed. "Well, you did ask," he said, kneeling beside her. "Probably be a few minutes before you can walk again, though." He picked her up and she tried to smack him again, outraged and more than a little embarrassed.
"I'd kill you if you weren't already dead," she muttered. "Try to grope me one more time and I might try anyway."
"That's the spirit, Lyds." Surprisingly, though, he was staying more or less true to his word and wasn't actively feeling her up. Which was just as well, since her peculiar quasi-heightened senses were having a hard enough time processing everything. The air was cold but for once it didn't bother her, the stars almost intolerably bright-this must be a little like being on acid, she thought, sans hallucinations. It was still a little unsettling being so close to someone with no body heat, but, perhaps dangerously, she was getting used to it. Betelgeuse was still a sneaky bastard; she'd have to try to guard against that as much as she was able, no matter what bizarre gifts/curses he gave her.
Halfway there she said, "Put me down. I want to see what walking is like. Even if it hurts." She felt a little like a child first discovering the world.
Somewhat to her surprise, he actually did as she asked. Her ankle was sore, but definitely not broken, and she tested it with fascination. This warranted all kinds of testing, if she could bring herself to do it.
"You gonna fall over?" he asked, still holding her arm.
"I don't think so." And indeed she barely limped as they made their way through the dark trees. She was starting to really, really question the wisdom of this, given Betelgeuse's ability to annoy absolutely anyone, but Sarah had suggested it, and Sarah presumably knew, at least a little, how her Goblin King might react to Beej. What Lydia couldn't be so sure of was how Beej would react to him.
The trees opened onto the graveyard, rendered silver in the moonlight, and there, as promised, were Sarah and Jareth. Lydia regarded him appraisingly - he didn't seem much taller than Beej, and his blonde hair was just as wild, but his face was that of a fallen angel. He wore some kind of black, high-collared coat or cloak, and Lydia didn't wonder why Sarah stood a little apart, and looked slightly uncomfortable. The man - or whatever he was - radiated a kind of disturbing sensuality like a sun. It was only Betelgeuse, who still held her arm, that kept her going.
"Uh, hi," she said, mostly to Sarah.
"Hi," her friend returned, and Lydia wondered how the hell she was keeping her voice so steady when she stood so close to the guy. "Jareth, this is Lydia and Be - uh, Beej."
"You can say my name, Sarah," Betelgeuse said, a little smugly. "It won't send me back now unless Lyds here says it."
"What in the name of all the gods that ever were did you do to that girl?" Jareth asked, without preamble. His mismatched eyes seemed to nail Lydia where she stood, but damn if she wouldn't be equal to it - she stared right back, unaware of just how intense her black eyes were.
"She said she didn't want to have to count on me to protect her," Betelgeuse said, more smugly still. "I just made it so she didn't have to."
Jareth moved toward her, circling them both. "I hope you know what sort of bargain you've struck, child," he said, and Lydia tried not to glower at him. Sure, she was short, but she was just as old as Sarah.
"Believe me, I do," she muttered. "This isn't the first time I've dealt with Beej here." Somehow, his hand on her arm steadied her against this regard that was far too close for comfort.
"So what the hell's up with this war of yours?" Betelgeuse said bluntly. "I never even heard of your Labyrinth or this other place before, and I've been around a while."
Jareth's lip curled in distaste. "I had never heard of the Legendverse, either, nor of your Neitherworld. Our realms are meant to be separate, I think, but one of the creatures of the Legendverse clearly thinks otherwise. I know relatively little of him, save that he's a creature unlike anything I have ever encountered. Then again," he added, now fixing Betelgeuse with that gimlet stare, "so are you."
"Makes two of us." He still hadn't actually released Lydia's arm, and she wasn't sure whether or not she wanted him to. Given her newly-acquired senses, Jareth was a little more distracting than he should be, but on the other hand…so was everything else. The moonlight. The faint breeze. The bizarre sheen on the few marble headstones. She was having a hell of a time concentrating on anything, which was quite unfortunate, really. "I dunno how anyone in the Neitherworld even knows about any of this, since it's not there yet-or even here." He pulled a cigarette out of his coat, his eyes flicking to Sarah, who had sat down on one of the headstones and was watching them all with an expression of intense curiosity.
"So here's the deal," he said, finally releasing Lydia's arm. "Neitherworld's only worried because Lyds here knows Sarah, who knows you, and they're apparently a bunch of fucking paranoid pansies who'll actually lose sleep about a connection that weak. What're the odds of it actually even getting here?"
For the first time, Jareth looked discomfited. "I don't know," he admitted. "Better than I think any of us would like. I still know far too little about this Darkness creature, save that he's unfortunately powerful. Without Sarah I can't hold him at bay forever."
Lydia cast a startled look at her friend, and edged away from Betelgeuse, abandoning him and Jareth to one another. "What the hell is he talking about?" she asked. Sarah shook her head.
"Tell you later."
"If it goes through your world, it might hit this one, and I don't want this one fucked with. Not when I've finally got a way to stay out, as long as I don't piss Lyds over there off too much. Maybe you and Sarah need a few more allies."
Lydia nearly choked. "Beej, are you actually volunteering for something?" she said, incredulous.
"It's been known to happen," he returned, a little annoyed.
"I doubt that," she muttered.
"If this world goes down the shitter there'll be no point in my getting into it. The royals are pussies and the rest of the Neitherworld's too lazy."
He had a point. Scarily.
Jareth was looking at him very thoughtfully. "I don't know how well Sarah and I can do this alone," he said, after a long pause. "I loathe the idea, but if you're offering help I can hardly refuse."
What was Beej getting himself into? Correction, what was he getting them into? She'd never dreamed he'd actually offer to help. And thanks for consulting me, by the way. Though even if he had, she'd have said yes anyway, but still. It was the principle of the thing.
"I guess I am, yeah," Betelgeuse said, sounding a little surprised at himself. "I think it's worth getting off my ass for."
Lydia rubbed her temples. "Well," she said to Sarah, "at least this ought to be interesting. Even if it probably won't end well."
"No kidding," Sarah muttered. The idea of Jareth and Betelgeuse teaming up was downright terrifying. Lydia almost felt sorry for this Darkness character - she certainly wouldn't want to face both of them. Good grief.
"Sarah and I must return to the Labyrinth for a time," Jareth said. "If you have any resources in the Neitherworld, it would be well to gather them now."
"Oh, I've got all sorts've tricks," Betelgeuse grinned, and Lydia was pretty sure she didn't want to know what that meant.
"Not to break this up or anything, but we've got school tomorrow," Lydia said. "We'll just, um, leave you two to it." She glanced at Sarah and shook her head, hoping they weren't going to completely regret all of this.
"Yeah, we do," Sarah added. "We'll have to talk to you later." She made a beeline for her bike, clearly wanting the hell out of there, and when Lydia started off for the trees she was glad her ankle seemed to have entirely healed itself.
"Nah, wait up, Lyds." She tried not to wince when Betelgeuse followed her. "I need to talk to you."
"Oh great," she murmured. "What the hell did you just volunteer us for?" she added, once they were out of earshot. "I have to keep this secret from my parents somehow - Sarah does, too, and that's not going to be easy if you offer something that blatant."
He caught up to her easily, walking beside her through the shadows. "Babes, parents are about to be the least of your worries," he said. "For both of you. I still want to talk to the woman who wrote that book, if we can find her in the Neitherworld. I want another opinion about that Labyrinth, and she might be the only other person who's ever been there."
Lydia paused. "What do you mean, if 'we' can find her?"
His grin in the darkness was like a Cheshire cat, green eyes almost glowing. "You can go to the Neitherworld too now, Babes. All part of the package. I don't see why you think you still have to go to school, but once you're out we can go find her ourselves."
She stared at him, dumbfounded, and he laughed - no, he cackled. "C'mon, Lyds, you need your beauty sleep. You're still human enough for that."
She really was tired. "Okay," she said. "But stay out of my dreams tonight, you hear me? I - yeah." Those were something she'd very gladly forget, especially if she was going to be stuck so often in the poltergeist's presence. Thank God it was so dark it didn't matter how red her face turned.
"I've got your reality now," he said, slinging an arm around her shoulders. "You can have your dreams."
"Creep." She shrugged off his arm and scowled, grateful for a chance to be irritated at him. She didn't say anything more, even when he followed her on her climb back up into her room. "You are so not staying here tonight, either."
He tried to look hurt, and mostly failed. "I'm sure I can find something else to do," he said, watching her while she turned on her lamp and rubbed her eyes. "I won't kill anyone, I promise."
"You'd better not. Now out, I need a shower." She grabbed a bathrobe and some towels from her closet, and almost elbowed him when he followed her. "Out."
"Fine, fine. You don't know what you're missing, Babes." Lydia didn't even have to look at him; she could feel him leering at her.
"And I'm perfectly happy not finding out," she said, pausing at the bathroom door. "Good night, Beej." And before he could reply she'd shut the door in his face.
A/N: Poor Lydia and Sarah…things will get fun for them soon enough. XD Next chapter has both Beej and Jareth POV's, God help everyone.