DISCLAIMER - I don't own Sarah or Jareth or the Labyrinth (unfortunately) they belong to Jim Henson & Co, and I'm definitely not making a profit from this.
All other NPC's are a figment of my own imagination.
I can't believe its been 4 years I've been writing this damn fanfic on and off. I'm sorry to everyone who has read it at any point during those years wanting an end to it! I'm getting there I promise! Lanny
Internally Jareth, King of the Goblins, Lord of the 7 realms and one time Champion of the Labyrinth sighed. He sighed out loud for good measure too making the rotund Goblin councillor look up from his papers in terror.
"Continue." Jareth waved a hand negligently as he rose from his throne and crossed to one of the large open windows to stare out over the Labyrinth.
Like him, it brooded. Waiting for... something. Things stirred in the gloom, and somehow Jareth could feel the Labyrinth twisting in agony. He dared not think about her... and sighed again, having just automatically thought about her.
"Your Majesty?"
"I'm sorry you were saying Councillor."
"Urh... urm. Thats err.. quite ok Your Majesty." The goblin stuttered completely dumbfounded by the all be it sidetracked apology the King had just given him. The King never apologised.
"How much food do we have stored?" Jareth asked pacing back to his throne and slumping into it.
"3 maybe 4 months if we start to ration now. If the crops had been better... everything fails Your Majesty. We've tried everything we can think of. Some of the fields, they yield, but once harvested the crop rots instantly. Other fields just will not sprout. Pigs and chickens die for no reason..." The goblin continued making the most of his time before the King.
"I see." Jareth simply said.
The Goblin stood there, nervously shuffling his papers in his trembling hands, but the King said nothing further. Moments passed and the Goblin almost sighed in relief as High Lady Anyetta appeared at the doorway to the side of the throne frowning at the King before stepping forward.
"The King thanks you for your report. I shall see that we send out for more food in the meantime, and will have the King issue a proclamation about rationing food." She said gracefully accepting the papers from him.
"Thank you High Lady. Majesty." The Councillor mumbled bowing low then scurrying from the throne room.
"Your Majesty." Anyetta said turning to him in concern. He sat there, silent, brooding. "I will …"
"Do as you wish Anyetta. Send to my brother for additional food if we start running very low." Jareth said suddenly focusing on her.
"You look exhausted. Perhaps you should rest for a while." She said walking forwards and gently brushing stray hairs from his face.
"How can I rest Anyetta. I can not stop this destruction. My world is turned upside down and there's not a damn thing I can do. No magic in the land is strong enough to change this. Not even mine."
Anyetta with her hand still on his cheek bent down and kissed him on the forehead. One time lovers she understood what few women did about the mysterious Goblin King, and she loved him for it. Devotion was not an adequate enough word to describe Jareth's link with the labyrinth. Other Kings claimed they were one with their lands. Queens had proclaimed they were married to their realms, and Princes had spilt blood over boundaries for nigh on centuries. Yet none compared to the bond between the Labyrinth and its King. When he bled, the Labyrinth bled too. When he dreamt of something, the Labyrinth in turn created it from dust for his pleasure. The fae court had once speculated that she might marry this enigmatic King. Yet she knew she never would. She loved him, but he would never be able to love her the way he did another. Yet he hid that even from himself. For years after the Labyrinth had been defeated by a child named Sarah the world was forbidden to utter her name. The destruction, and breaking had been absolute. Yet Anyetta did not hate the girl, for she knew that Sarah had been too young to understand what had been offered.
"Rest Jareth. It will do you some good. Shall I send you some wine to your rooms?" She frowned in concern as he sighed again, letting her draw him from his throne and towards the grand staircase to the upper parts of the castle.
"Thank you." He said walking off up the stairs, almost in a daze.
Turning to make her way to her office she silently cursed the cruelty and capriciousness of the fates for the events that had lead to this. What they aimed to achieve she could not fathom, yet she still hoped for salvation from the Labyrinths suffering. For as he was bound to the land, so his subjects were bound to him, his magic protecting and nurturing the entire realm.
Eventually returning to his apartments with wine and crystal glasses she found him asleep on his bed, boots still on.
It rained, seemingly endless rain in the shattered remains of the Labyrinth, but it suited his mood so he walked on. Ignoring the cold water dripping from his hair and down his neck and the slithering sound of his cloak no longer swirling around his feet but dragging along the ground in a sodden mass. He cared not that his perfectly burnished boots were covered in mud and autumn coloured leaves. Absently he stopped at a crossroads ignoring the broken walls around him and the massive blocks of stone he constantly had to step around until a broken wall, scattered across the path barred his way.
Jareth stopped and bent his will to the obstruction, seething that anything should get in the way of his melancholy. The bricks and stone blocks floated almost gracefully from the path restacking themselves haphazardly into a semblance of walls either side of him. Satisfied he walked on, oblivious to the crashing sounds of a wall tumbling behind as he turned a corner into another corridor. Once it had all seemed so perfect, organic and, alive. Now, like his heart it was twisted and broken.
He walked on, ignoring the whispers in the back of his head with a persistent stubbornness. He knew all too well what those whispers said, knew that if he ignored them he could carry on pretending to be the jilted King, the wronged one, the victim. He found himself once again in the small courtyard with the broken wall in the center. The pale roses had spread, tendrils weaving themselves into the stones of the new walls he had created, wrapping tender shoots around the tops of the pillars and once settled burst forth with the beautiful flowers, shining with a milky white haze in the gloom and rain, weighing down the vines til they almost sagged to the floor on the outer side of the walls. Jareth felt like a vine, the heaviest burden on his shoulders making him want to sit down and howl with agony. He knew his subjects felt some of what he felt, but could not make himself reach the obvious conclusion.
He supposed he could have unmade them, but then, they were part of the Labyrinth too, and their unmaking would hurt him far more than having to bear their whispered cries.
A deft flick of his hand and the stone wall in front of him, shifted. Stone flowed, creating an archway into the courtyard. Around the new opening the vines shifted too, allowing this opening into their midst.
He stepped into the courtyard and breathed in deeply, almost intoxicated by the scent of the roses as he brushed past them into the centre, and suddenly knew what he should do.
"Hoggle." He spoke quietly, weaving magic around him to summon the dwarf to him. He waited as the magic did its work, and behind him heard the shuffling footsteps that betrayed the dwarfs location.
"Majesty" The dwarf croaked, fearful of being summoned.
"Your opinion of these roses Gardener." Jareth said turning to him, plucking a single glowing rose from its vine and handing the flower over.
"Exquisite." Hoggle murmured, examining the rose delicately in his thick fingers. "Reminds me of..." He stopped and looked up at his King warily.
"Speak."
".. reminds me of hope Your Majesty."
"Indeed." Jareth turned away from Hoggle, contemplating something whilst the dwarf stood there carefully holding the rose.
"Could you create a perfume from them?" Jareth asked at last.
"Of course Your Majesty..."
"I hear a "but" in your tone Gardener."
"There are some other things I would need to collect, but they are in dangerous areas now..."
"You will be given safety. Find the Knight and the Stone Caller."
"As you command Your Majesty." Hoggle said bowing as well as he could trying to keep his delight at being allowed to see his old friends again hidden.
"Here." Jareth said conjuring a crystal perfume bottle and handing it to Hoggle.
"Majesty... it won't hurt her will it." Hoggle asked, making the most of his scant store of courage.
"No. Not this time." Jareth sighed, absently waving the dwarf away and walking over to the broken wall. At one side lay a large foundation stone that made a convenient seat. Jareth sat, and returned to his brooding.
She stood looking at the wet canvas in a feverish state. She'd woken up in the middle of the night with this image in her head, and she knew from experience that unless she sketched it out somewhere she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. Strangely instead of reaching for the sketchbook and pencils she kept in the top of her dresser by the bed she had gotten up and on bare feet padded over to her studio. The paintbrush in her hand felt natural as did the soft repetitive strokes of glistening oil onto the previously primed canvas. The painting had practically drawn itself and as she looked at the results of 3 hours of painting in the middle of the night she felt sick.
The scene was one of destruction and desolation, the dark umbers and tepid grey greens of a wasteland broke her heart. This was the remains of the labyrinth, how it would be if she didn't find some way to fix it. Her hand throbbed and throbbed and she sank back into her worn but comfortable chair and buried her head in her hands, weeping with sadness and grief that seemed to belong to another.
"Sarah!" The voice belonged to another time, another world, it insistently drew her back from where she stood in her dreams. "SARAH!"
"wha.."
"Oh you're here." Toby chirped poking his head into the studio with a half eaten slice of toast in his hand.
"Yes. I'm here. Where else would I be?" She groaned stretching and trying to massage feeling back into dead limbs.
"Coffee?"
"Ohh Tobe, yes please!" Sarah sagged back into her chair and made an attempt to wipe sleep out of her eyes so she could review her work in the morning light. In the kitchen it seemed that Toby had to make the loudest crashes and bangs possible as he rooted through the cupboards and dishwasher.
Rain made miniature riverlets down the French doors that lead out to the balcony and seemed to cast strange shifting patterns across the dark canvas on her easel.
"Change." She whispered trying to envision the Labyrinth basking golden in the warmth of the sun but the brooding vista remained stubbornly unmoved. She sighed and got up, throwing a much used linen cover over the canvas hiding its sad painting from view.
"Out of sight but not out of mind." She murmured.
"What was that?"
"Nothing Tobe, thank you." She said walking into the kitchen as Toby turned and handed her a steaming mug of coffee. She watched him as he opened a new loaf of bread and stuck another batch into the toaster to watch them brown. On top of the fridge Gob sat swinging his short stubby legs over the side eating a crust with liberal amounts of strawberry jam smeared on it.
"Karen had a go at me last night. So tired of her taking her shit out on me." Toby groused ignoring Sarah's splutter as he swore.
"Show her a little respect Tobe, she's still your mom no matter what she's going through."
"I wish.."
"DON'T"
Toby stopped mid statement and turned to face his sister, taken aback by her shout and by the terrified look in her eyes.
"Don't ever wish for anything against your family Tobe." Sarah whispered.
"What gives, I didn't really mean it." He shrugged turning back as the toaster coughed out the now toasted bread.
"Words and wishes have power Toby. Don't ever use them lightly." Sarah sighed feeling the scar aching against the side of her coffee mug. She put the mug down feeling sick. "You'd better run, you're going to be late for school."
She gasped as Toby turned and hugged her tightly.
"Sorry." He mumbled before letting her go and walking away to collect his school bag. "See you tonight?"
"Sure thing." Sarah smiled, the hard knot in her stomach gone with Toby's uncharacteristic gesture. She watched amused as Toby left the apartment, Gob trotting at his heels like a dog.
"You're an idiot Sarah. Calm down." She told herself as she headed across the living room to go and have a shower.
The phone rang, and carried on ringing until Anita had managed to run all the way up the stairs from the main gallery to her office muttering under her breath.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Anita?"
"Yes, Toby is that you?"
"Sorry to bother you"
"No bother Tobe what's up? Everything ok?" Anita asked pausing to sit on the edge of her desk to catch her breath.
"Its ok just..."
"Toby honey what is it?"
"Its Sarah. She's just, she was acting really weird this morning."
"She's been under a lot of stress, and she's hurt her hand so the doctors given her some tablets."
"I know I just. I'm worried she's on her own. I said I was going back tonight after school. Will you come over? She always feels better when you and Chris come over."
Anita smiled at his concern.
"Sure thing sweety, I'll get Chris to order take out for us. Don't worry, she'll be ok."
"Thanks Anita. I'll see you later then ok?"
"Yes you will. See you later Toby."
Putting the phone down Anita sat and chewed on a fingernail for a moment.
"Everything ok?" Chris asked walking past her open doorway with a box of catalogues in his arms.
"Toby."
"Toby what? Is this a riddle?"
"No, that was him on the phone. He's worried about her, wants us to go over after work. I said we'd order takeout."
"Ooh night in, sounds cosy! Shall I find us a film to watch?" Chris clapped his hands in excitement.
"If you want!" Anita grinned walking with him back down to the front desk.