Heal Me, Hurt Me Part II Chapter 4, a labyrinth fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own Jareth, the Labyrinth, or any of its inhabitants. I do own anything/ anyone/ anyplace that I created in this fanfic… which I also own… XP nah!

Summary: War is brewing in the Underground and it seems as though Sarah's favorite Goblin King is in the center of it. Alliances are being formed quickly but also broken just as fast. Tension rises in the continuation of Heal Me, Hurt Me!

Warning: Jareth is totally out of character. So is Sarah.

Last Time:

Kira and Alan were sitting in the library, enjoying a quiet chat with Kara and Evie when screaming was heard. Sarah tore into the room, a water gun in her hand and hair sopping wet. "Don't tell him where I am!" she shouted and tore out the opposite door.

They all blinked after her then turned to the first door as Jareth tore in and looked around. "Where is she?"

Kira pointed to the door she'd disappeared through and he raced after her.

There were a few seconds of total silence then, "AUUUGH!! KIRA YOU JERK!!"

Kira smirked as Kara and Evie shot her a grin and Alan sighed heavily. "And people say I'm nothing like my brother…"

Heal Me, Hurt Me – Part II

By: Kadasa Mori

Chapter 4 (January 25th)

Staring out the window at the snow covered mountains far off in the distance, the Lord of the Realm of the Sun sighed heavily. He tapped his fingers against his chin, other hand playing with his long hair, a habit he'd picked up from Kira after spending so much time around her family. Nothing had been happening in his lands recently, but the killings had stopped, thank the goddess. It was not a happy time to hear that your citizens were dying due to an unknown enemy that you couldn't catch in time to save them.

Enough morbid thoughts. He leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms above his head and feeling every bone pop and shift into place before he yawned widely and wondered what was for dinner. He hoped that it wasn't fish… the past two weeks all the chef wanted to cook was fish… At the thought of fish he made a face. Wonder what Jareth's having… maybe I'll eat there…

"Jason." He turned towards the door to find Kara walking in, a book in one hand. "I found it."

He'd needed to find a specific book, one on barriers and safety nets. He would protect his people till his dying breath but if he didn't have to die and could use spells instead, it was a definite bonus. Unfortunately he was not library compatible so he'd needed someone who was. Unfortunately for Kara, she was the only one he knew (besides Evie and a few others but they didn't count at the moment).

He grinned widely. "Oh thank you Kara my love!"

She rolled her eyes. "I only agreed to help because I'm the one who had to help organize the library."

"That and you love me!"

"Do not."

"Do toooooooooo!"

She rolled her eyes and dropped the book on his desk. "Do not. I'm heading back to Jareth's place."

He leapt to his feet. "I'll walk you to the apparition mark!"

"No need."

"I'll do it anyway."

"Jason. I sai-"

"I don't care. You're in my lands and it is customary to be polite to your guests." His tone indicated the conversation was over.

She sighed heavily but nodded. "Fine. Let me just grab my coat and we can leave."

"I'll meet you at the entrance."

She turned left and he turned right, walking towards the main doors. He told several people he'd be back later and to contact him immediately if there were any problems. Used to this, they just nodded and went on their way. Before a few months ago, he was usually never around. There was peace in his lands and many people would come to vacation. He spell locked everything he didn't want them to touch and allowed them to use his castle as a temporary home away from home.

But once the killings started, he'd closed his lands to outsiders to first attend to his people before daring to let them in. It had nearly killed the economy for awhile but… at least his citizens weren't dead. He leaned against the door, snapping buttons into place on his coat and waiting for Kara to come down the stairs.

In the Realm of the Sun, it was almost always a beautiful sunny day. That didn't mean it wasn't cold though. During fall and winter, they were at low temperatures but hardly any snow for it would simply melt away the next sunny day. He scowled outside. He hated the cold. He'd much rather live in warm temperatures forever than in this. It chilled him to his bones… he couldn't figure out how Jareth could stand it at his castle in the bitter cold. It was… disgusting. The snow was beautiful for the few days it was there but after that, just frozen barren ground. He held back a shudder and pulled his coat tighter.

"Jason!" He turned quickly and found Kara standing there, hands on her hips. "Did you hear a word I said?"

He blinked then grinned sheepishly. "Sorry Kara my love! What was that?"

She sighed irritably but turned, heading out the doors. "Never mind."

He bounced after her, waving to a few people he spotted facing the cold temperatures. "So! What's new?"

"Nothing. You?"

"Not much here. Quite boring if I do say so myself."

She snorted and stuffed her hands into her pockets. "Be glad it's boring. When it's not, there's usually blood being shed."

"True, true."

She glanced at him. "You're not going into repeat yourself day are you?"

"Huh? No… that was last Monday!"

"Good. Besides, that was annoying."

"Was not, not!"

She scowled. "Jason…"

He grinned wickedly, putting his hands behind his head. "Yes?"

She scoffed and crossed her arms irritably. "You're a jerk."

"I know!"

She rolled her eyes as they walked out of the gates to the town and down the path towards the apparition mark. "So I heard from Jareth that Sarah mouthed off at Ambitio and the herd at that meeting two weeks ago."

Jason chuckled. "I would've paid to see that!"

A grin spread across her face. "Maybe we can borrow someone's memory orb and watch it."

"Ooo! Good idea! I know Toroku has one… and I think Washi might have one too."

"Toroku's probably a no so let's ask Washi."

He suddenly blinked then grinned widely and hopped in front of her, walking backwards. "My dear Kara, you just agreed with me on something!"

She blinked then scowled. "Shut up."

He cackled. "Kara agreed! Kara agreed! Hahahahaha!"

She pushed him, sending him into the ground. "Jason! Shut up-" She let out a shriek as an arrow whizzed past her ear, landing a foot away from his surprised face.

Spinning, she instantly smacked her hands together and pulled them apart, a thin sword glowing strawberry gold appearing between them, quickly turning into metal. Jason reached behind him, pulling his sword from its sheath strapped to his back. He swung forward, grimacing when metal bit metal. Pushing forward, he pulled out the dagger at his hip and used it to block an attack from his side.

When that solider was blasted away by a pink wave, he shouted his thanks over his shoulder to Kara who had a sword in each hand, battling ferociously. He quickly disposed of the several soldiers who'd leapt at him and turned to make sure Kara was alright. She was battling against one, doing quite well and pushing him back before she thrust the sword forward, catching him in the chest. He went down quickly and she smirked triumphantly, not seeing the one swinging to take off her head.

"Kara!" She turned, seeing the sword headed for her face. Jason tackled her, then spun, sword embedded in the enemy's chest. He kicked the soldier's chest, the man falling away before he turned to her. "You all right?"

She sat up quickly, flustered. "I'm… I'm fine!"

"All right." He held up his hands in surrender, getting to his feet.

She scowled and realized there was something golden on the ground. She picked up a handful and blinked then gasped and turned quickly to Jason who was watching her warily. "Your… your hair!"

He fingered the chin length golden locks. "Ah… well…" His eyes crinkled, a smile spread across his face. "Well I was ready for a change anyway…"

She swallowed roughly before spinning on her heel. "Well… good then."

"Aye… good…" When he was sure she wasn't looking, he raised a hand and touched his hair, wincing at how short it was. Damn it…

They got to the apparition mark and she turned to him. "I'll see you later. I'm sure Jareth will want to talk to you."

"What are you talking about?" He looked confused.

"You said you'd walk me to the apparition mark. Here it is. Here we part."

He let out a bark of laughter. "You've got to be kidding me Kara. As if I'd just let you go off on your own after we were just attacked!"

"I expect you to do just that. I'll see you later Jaso-" He grabbed her bicep and the world swirled around her, the Goblin Castle appearing in the distance. She snarled. "Who gave you permission to-"

"Kara… quiet… please." She frowned but headed for the castle, Jason following after her. The sudden sound of a sword against a sheath, she spun, hands already moving to create a weapon. Jason raised an eyebrow, hand slowly retreating from the handle of the replaced sword.

A slow grin spread across his face. "Jumpy?" She scowled and turned bright red, spinning back around. An arm draped around her shoulders. "I apologize for making fun of you."

"Yeah right…" At a snort of laughter she elbowed him. "See! You can't just apologize for laughing then start laughing! Jason!... Jason, stop it!!"

Sarah yawned and stretched as she entered the kitchen, the usual crowd, plus Samra, Toroku, Venus and Meta already seated and eating a late breakfast. "Morning…" She hugged Jareth's head, the blond sighing, just holding his fork in the air.

"Sarah?"

"Yeah?"

"Please release my head."

"Mm… kay…" When she didn't move his eyebrow twitched and Kira snorted.

"Sarah? Come here. I've got muffins."

"Muffin?" She wandered over and sat beside Kira, gnawing on the muffin. Jareth sent his sister a thankful look and finally got to eat the piece of egg that had been taunting him.

"Hello all!" They turned together, ready to mumble greetings to the newcomers only to gasp.

"Jason!" Kira cried, getting to her feet quickly. "What happened to your hair?!" Kara unsuccessfully hid her flinch.

He laughed nervously, putting a hand on the back of his head. "I uh… wanted a new look but… can't really work well on myself. Think you girls can give me a hand?" Kira nodded and stood dragging Jason along, Samra and Venus following after them.

As soon as they were gone, the rest turned to Kara. "Kara?" Jareth asked softly. "What happened?"

She shifted uneasily. "A few soldiers got to us on the way back."

"What happened to Jason?"

She shrugged. "He wanted a new look." When Jareth opened his mouth once more, she stretched her arms above her head. "I'm really tired. I'll see you all tomorrow." She turned on her heel and quickly disappeared.

Jareth frowned. "What just happened?"

Toroku and Meta shrugged and Alan sighed, shaking his head. "I feel sorry for Jason… and for your table."

"My table?" He turned and found a disaster of crumbs in front of Sarah, the brunette building a castle out of them and putting a blueberry on top. He sighed heavily. "Why do I let you out of your room before ten o'clock?"

Frowning slightly, he ran a hand through his short hair. Kira had made it look nice, spiked up a bit and highlighted a little. But… it was so short. He'd been growing his hair out for 300 years now! He'd been able to sit on it and now… it was an inch and a half long! He ran his hand through it again and sighed heavily.

A younger Kira pouted, putting her hands on her hips. "Leave me alone Jason!"

He grinned. "Aw! I know you love me!" He hugged her and she squeaked and batted him away. He ran a hand through short hair. "See! Doesn't my hair look nice?"

She crossed her arms irritably and looked away. "I like guys with long hair Jason."

He blinked then grinned widely. "Then I'll grow it out! Just for you!"

"Jason?"

He quickly pulled his hand from his head and turned finding Kara looking guilty. He stuck the offending hand behind his back and grinned widely. "Ello Kara! How are you doing?"

She crossed her arms. "I'm… I'm fine. You?"

He nodded. "I'm good." She didn't say anything and he cleared his throat. "Did you need someth-" He froze as she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly, crying.

"I'm sorry!" she wailed.

He blinked then hugged her back. "It's… it's okay. I'm fine, Kara. Really." He winced as her arms tightened and accidentally let out a hiss of pain.

She froze then pulled away. She looked up at him. "Jason…"

He swallowed and grinned sheepishly. "Uh, yeah?"

Her face darkened and she pointed to a stool. He sighed and walked over, sitting down with a slight pout. She lifted up the edge of his shirt and gasped. "Jason!"

"Yeah?"

"How long have you been walking around with this?!"

"Um… since I got cut?"

"When?!"

"When I pushed you out of the way." He immediately snapped his mouth shut as her mouth thinned and her eyes got watery. "I-I mean…"

She turned away irritably. After a moment she turned back, wiping at her cheeks. She pulled a chair over, commanded he get rid of the bloodstained tee shirt and rubbed her hands together. When she pulled them away from each other, they were glowing a warm strawberry gold color. He watched in slight amazement as she carefully traced the deep puncture wound in his side, the pain fading. She reached back and pulled out a strand of her hair. It glowed for a moment before it turned into a spool of thread, a needle attached. He blinked as she glanced up at him then back at the wound quickly. She carefully sewed it shut.

She placed her palms together then slowly pulled them apart about a foot away. A piece of gauze appeared where her hands had been and she placed it over the wound. She pulled away once more and took the spool, squashing it into one hand then using other hand to spin the glowing pile. It turned into a long piece of bandage, which she wrapped around his waist and ran a finger over the end, taping it to the other pieces.

She sat back with a heavy sigh. A hand on her cheek startled her and she looked up at Jason who smiled and brushed away tears she didn't remember crying. "Thank you." He stood, walking over to his dresser and pulling out a shirt.

She swallowed and wiped off the other cheek before taking a deep breath and heading for the door. She glanced over her shoulder at Jason who was looking in the mirror.

"Jason?" He looked back at her through the mirror. She gave him a weak smile. "I'm not just saying this but… I like the new cut." His eyes widened and he spun to look at her. She grinned this time then disappeared.

He blinked at her then turned and looked back in the mirror before he grinned widely and stood straighter. "Then why the hell should I grow it back out!" he chimed and heard her laughter echo down the hall.

Sarah hummed to herself as she made her way to the kitchen for later that day. The last few hours were a blur of muffin crumbs, sleep and lounging in front of the fireplace with no will to do anything but lie there. She vaguely recalled a lot of shouting… and something about someone getting in trouble… but other than that, sleep was all that filled her mind. As she turned the corner to the dining room, she blinked then froze, staring at the unknown person in her kitchen. She felt like she should know who he was… but… who was he?!

"Sarah?" Kira asked in confusion. "What's wrong?" The man hadn't noticed her yet.

She glanced at Kira then back at him. "Who is that?"

Kira raised an eyebrow. "Who is who?"

"The man talking with Alan and Samra."

Both eyebrows rose, a hint of a smile twitching on her lips. "Oh. Him? Well his name is… Rodriguez."

"Is he from the underground?"

Kira nodded. "He's been friends with Alan since… birth almost."

"Is he nice?"

Kira barely muffled her giggle threatening to burst forward. "Very."

Sarah's eyes narrowed then she grinned brilliantly. "I'll go say hi!"

"You… you go do that," Kira barely managed to get out as Sarah skipped over and tapped 'Rodriguez' on the shoulder.

"Hi!" she chirped. "My name's Sarah and I-"

She was enveloped in a bear hug. "Oh Sarah! I have missed you! I have seen the wonderful muffin castle artwork you created and wanted to congratulate you on destroying that muffin with all of your wonderful mauling goodness!"

Her eye twitched as she was set back on the ground. "JASON?!" she shrieked.

He blinked then grinned brilliantly. "Yup! That's me!"

"JASON!"

"What'd I do?"

"YOU… YOUR HAIR?!"

He grinned, hands on his hips. "I chopped it off!"

"Why?!"

"Boredom… and Jareth threatened me to."

Jareth jerked and swung around as a deadly aura was directed at him. "…what?" he asked when Sarah glared darkly at him.

"How dare you?!"

His eyes narrowed in confusion, Toroku and Meta both raising an eyebrow, eyes flickering between the two. "How dare I what?"

"You… you're horrible! His hair was awesome and long and pretty! How could you make him cut it off?!"

Both eyes widened. "What?!"

"Jason told me what you did! I can't believe you!"

"I didn't tell him to do anything! He's the one that tried to chop it off and had to get Kira to fix it for him!" Her eye twitched and she slowly turned to glare at the other blond who giggled nervously and waved. Snarling, she raced for her, the blond shrieking and taking off. Jareth rolled his eyes and turned back to the other two only to blink and find another face.

Daederath smirked. "Having girl problems?"

"No." he ground out. "What do you want?"

"I've found two people that may help your cause. I just have to collect them and bring them here. Interested?"

"Aye… we'll meet before dinner?"

"Sounds good. See you then Goblin King."

He turned and disappeared. Jareth sighed heavily and rubbed his temples. He found Meta and Toroku smirking at him. "Not. A. Word." They just grinned as he gathered up Alan and Jason and marched them all out of the room.

Sarah panted, completely and utterly lost within the labyrinth of hedges behind the castle. She'd lost Kira nearly two hours ago and tried to get out, only to realize she was hopelessly lost. There was no snow in the hedges so she couldn't follow her way back out and she had nothing to mark the ground with this time. She'd tried creating an object (a pineapple) and setting it pointing towards the way she went but when she returned… it was gone…

Sighing heavily, she flopped onto a bench and stretched weakly, trying to regain feeling in her limbs and wondering if she should just give in and call Jareth now, only to have him laugh at her for the next week because of it.

A dark shadow floated across her vision and she looked up, frowning. There's… a shadow? But the sun's not out… When the shadow turned, crimson eyes meeting her own she inhaled sharply, nails digging into the bench's armrest as fear overtook her, her mind connecting what the shadow actually was and brain recalling the pain that it had gone through the last time it met up with the shadow.

The incubo slowly floated her way. Her mind was racing, waiting to feel that familiar pain and fear. It stopped in front of her and slowly bent its face towards her. Are you Sarah Williams? She swallowed then slowly nodded. It straightened, just staring at her before it reached a clawed hand out. Perfect…

"But the mountains are still icy there!"

"Which means the enemy can't follow us! If we go south they'll have better footing."

Jareth sighed heavily and rubbed his forehead. "All right… let's recount supplies once more then call it a day. We've been arguing since lunch and I don't think-"

"Hey Jareth!"

He turned with another sigh. "Sarah. Now's not a-" His heart leapt into his throat, eyes widening and paling dangerously as Sarah trotted in, an incubo right behind her.

She grinned brilliantly. "Can I keep it?"

To all Heal Me, Hurt Me Readers and Reviewers,

For all those JasonxKara lovers, this chapter probably made you giggle insanely. For all those that aren't, you can have a copy of Sarah's Blueberry Muffin Crumb Castle as a forgiveness present.

Omg! Jason's actually serious in this! For like two seconds, but still!!

And I was gonna chop off the end of the chapter at where Sarah met the incubo but the "Can I keep it?" line was too good to pass up.

Wow, this is a short author's note…

Sorry for the long wait everyone. This was supposed to be up a few weeks ago (checks last update) er… a month ago… ouch… so I'm VERY sorry for the long wait and I will be replying to reviews soon. Got a test nearly every day this week and all this random stuff to get around to… le sigh… I can't wait for summer…

And also sorry about the weird divisions, 'o's instead of dots. Dots weren't working... le sigh...

Kadasa Mori

Next Chapter Preview: Chapter 5

Sighing heavily, the Goblin King of the Labyrinth watched as two of his council members bickered back and forth angrily. They'd been arguing for two hours now and it was starting to give him a headache. Toroku and Taka need to chill out. He frowned as that thought went through his head. I've been spending far too much time with Sarah…

A sudden sense of dread filled his veins and he held back a visible shudder. Half of him wanted to leap out of his chair and find the brunette quickly but the other half told him she'd probably broken something and was trying to hide it from him, like last week with the vase. He'd felt uneasy and hurried to locate her, only to come across the brunette trying to hide the shattered vase beneath a chair in the hallway. She'd just laughed nervously and took off.

Sure enough, the dread wore off rather quickly and he sighed at the thought of having to fix something else sharp and breakable. Taka let out a particularly loud shout of aggravation and he turned back to the scene at hand, Sarah forgotten for the moment.