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.
Whilst she had been stood staring at the map the wind had picked up, whipping the mist into pinky grey froth and making the leaves on the tree rustle forlornly. Staring out into the wide sky she felt cold and clammy as her heart gave her an unsubtle reminder about her precarious position and she was running to a deadline somebody else controlled. She sank down onto the seat of the book throne gasping, her vision blurring in and out of focus making her squeeze her eyes closed. The pains in her chest slowly subsided leaving her sat there dazed.
She didn't really know what she was doing, didn't really have a hope of saving the Labyrinth, did she? She had no magic, she wasn't some immortal mystical fae. She was just Sarah, a perfectly ordinary human, wasn't she? She looked down at the scar on her hand wondering about magic and believing in the impossible. He'd said it himself, maybe it was just about making the Labyrinth remember what it was, giving it back its forgotten memories. The shards of mirror shone in the lines of the scar dazzling her for a second, even Anyetta has said it, her memories were important.
She looked past her hand to the floor where her sketchbooks lay holding down the edges of the map and frowned. Everything she drew, all of the creatures and pathways and scenes, were all memories. Even as she looked one of the sketchbooks flapped open in the wind, like a caged bird trying to find a way to be free, and in that instant she knew. She stepped down from the throne and took up her sketchbooks, letting the map roll back into a tube and made her way across to the end of the sundial, right to the edge of the platform.
She stood on the 13th numeral and took a deep breath. Opening the first sketchbook she began to methodically tear out each page, haphazardly ripping the pages so that each sketch she had made was on its own strip of paper. Without another thought she threw each piece into the wind to be carried away in its cold gusts. She carried on, muttering about each sketch, recalling her memories of what she had drawn, sending them all out on a stream of consciousness into the growing storm. She had to stop before she reached the end of the last sketchbook, she lost her grip on the papers and fell to the floor sobbing in pain as her heart seemed to burn through her chest. Without a shadow of a doubt she knew she was nearing the end and the thought terrified her.
With shaking hands she tore the remainder of the pages free and scattered them to the wind which seemed to tear them out of her grasp into the maelstrom that now encircled the platform. It was like standing in the calm spot inside a tornado as she looked up. It was not enough, it was still missing a vital component which only one person could give.
"Jareth, if you can hear me, the Labyrinth is dying. You have to remember." She cried slowly clambering to her feet, holding onto the sundial. She yelped in pain as the sharp bronze edge sliced cleanly once more through the scar on her hand scattering droplets of shining red down the the intricately decorated metalwork highlighting the details in crimson. She stared at it in fascination as her heart tried to burst from her chest once more.
"You are the most foolish, obstinate, disobedient girl I have ever met. How dare you summon me here like this. I should send you to the deepest oubliette I can find for your presumption. I am your KING."
She staggered, leaning against the cold metal and leaving more bloody hand prints on it as he walked up behind her and spun her around to face him. She looked up at him mutely as the pain in her chest made her want to be sick. He looked her up and down scornfully, taking in the blood dripping carelessly from her hand and down her bare leg, the torn and dusty dressing gown and her scratched knees and legs from her journey with Hoggle to reach the sundial.
"I warned you I would tolerate no disobedience, and yet at every turn you defy me. You are reckless and thoughtless. This is your mess, I should leave you here to drown in it." He spat.
"Please don't go, I know you are angry, but the Labyrinth…"
"Enough! I'm not interested in any of your excuses! I am done. I am done with you Sarah."
"Please Jareth, please don't go, I need you to…"
"LIAR! You lie to me to my face. You must think I am a fool!"
"I'm not lying!" Sarah sobbed the strength leaving her abruptly as she sagged to the floor. "Please…"
"NO! You are just like the others. You say you need me, the Labyrinth needs me but you're lying Sarah. You NEVER needed me. Not once! You needed your friends, you needed Toby, you needed to go home, but you never needed me." He turned away from her, his eyes dark with rage.
"Oh Jareth. I am a fool." Sarah covered her face with her unbloodied hand. "There has never been a single moment where I have NOT needed you. Its why you must remember, its why you must be able to…"
"There is nothing for me to remember. There are no memories I need to remember." He snarled talking over her.
"I'm not a child anymore, I'm not 15."
"Yet you still act like the same petulant..."
"Stop, stop and listen to me please, I have no time left I…"
"You are so selfish, do you know that. Everything I did for you."
"Please Jareth, please try and remember the last 6 months. I need you to remember that I.. that I love you!" The world span away from her, falling into blackness and blurred vision leaving her coughing up blood on the stone floor.
"A sacrifice…" She whispered sadly understanding at last what Anyetta had meant.
"I'm so sorry I never told you." She wept, taking advantage of his momentary silence to try and explain.
"All that time I was too stupid to tell you how I felt, but I love you Jareth, and I need you to remember that. I need you the same way I do my friends, and the way the Labyrinth needs its King, more than air and water, more than I can explain. Please don't leave me I beg you." There didn't seem to be enough air left in her lungs to say anything else so she stopped speaking.
Everything was so wrong, so messed up there didn't seem to be any way to make it right.
"I'm sorry. You should read your letter,.. all of the time we've spent together I… just want to make this right, I want to help you save the Labyrinth, I don't want you to be angry with me." She tried again with just as little success.
He stood there with his back to her, his hair and midnight black cloak caught in the swirling wind in silence.
"Please forgive me." She whispered leaning back against the sundial, her arms and legs feeling like dead weights pulling her down.
He turned then and stared at her. She didn't want to look at him, at the distrust and rage in his eyes but she had no choice. How did you adequately explain to somebody that they were your entire world, your heart and soul when you were breathing your last few moments.
"My memories… you will need to take them. Heal the Labyrinth then you will know, that what I'm trying to tell you.."
"Why? Why have you done this?" He asked shaking his head in disbelief.
"Because, some things are worth saving. Because I love you." She closed her eyes as she coughed feeling icelike fingers creeping through her, shutting down and freezing her insides.
"Do it now. Before its too late."
She gasped and opened her eyes as she felt herself being picked up, held in warm arms. She tried to draw his strength around her, safety but knew it was already too late.
"You would do this. For the Labyrinth. You would give up your life to save it. You are the most conceited…"
"Not for the Labyrinth, for you. To repay my debt, to give you back what you cherish, to heal you." Sarah croaked coughing up more blood. She could feel the warmth of it on her lips, the hot copper tang in her mouth. Then like a whisper his fingers brushed across her lips, wiping away the red stain. Touching her scarred cheek and then the knot of poisoned lines that ran to her heart listening to the erratic failing beat of her heart.
"You are an idiot." He said again.
"All idiots die for love."
"Only in trashy romance novels aimed at sexually frustrated middle aged women." He said, some of his dark humor returning.
"I'm frightened." She whispered raising her good hand to touch his amulet hanging against his chest.
"Don't be afraid, its time to go to sleep Sarah. " He took hold of her hand and kissed her. Somewhere in the maelstrom of pain and wind he seemed to be with her, in her mind replaying every moment that had ever existed between them. Binding her over and over again to him through blood and flesh and mind.
Around the sundial the wind reached a crescendo tearing away everything in its path, spreading out from them in a tsunami across the Labyrinth carrying with it their combined memories. Tiny fragments of paper settled themselves on the broken land and using the last of the life force she had sacrificed they took root, merging with the earth and dirt and broken rock and tore it asunder.
The fabric of the Labyrinth feeding on the primal magic spun itself anew, feeding from Sarah's memories and Jareths magic forcing themselves into age old patterns and lines in a working that was greater by far than its destruction had been. The tsunami reached the very borders of the land and turned back inward on itself, carrying with it a wall of magic that crashed up and around the sundial like waves breaking over a jetty. They crystallized in a myriad of tendrils and fingers cradling and framing the sundials stone platform in a magnificent visual display of raw elemental power.
It took a long time for the dust to settle in an eerie silence, for the Labyrinth Jareth remembered to emerge like so many ghosts from a fog. All that time he held her, whispering to her with reassurances. As her last breath left her broken body, all his memories were restored along with her own that he had inherited.
"A sacrifice worth far more than that which you saved, my beloved Sarah. Sleep my precious, and dream of walking in my gardens with me, I will wait for you even if it takes forever." He said as her body seemed to fade from view, gone from his sight and his touch. He was left kneeling alone on a blood stained stone and brass sundial above his restored Labyrinth, knowing what it meant to be lost and returned to everything you called home.
"It is done."
"So it was willed."
"So it will be remembered."
"Unless each of you want to be a head shorter I recommend you leave my land. Immediately." He snarled not turning to face the 3 sisters which had appeared behind him.
"Dearest Jareth, you know we can not hurt our own. You knew this had to happen." The maiden said walking forward to touch his shoulder.
"There were other ways. Do not think to try lulling me with your words, witch."
"No other way would have worked King of the Goblins. You know this, and yet still you hoped. You belief in her is fascinating. She is after all, just a mortal." The mother said sitting calmly in the book throne and touching her stomach unconsciously.
"It was for you to misjudge her not I." He said shaking his head and slowly rising to his feet. "It was for you to completely forget what blood magic means in my lands. Just a mortal." He scoffed turning to face them with fire in his eyes.
"You should have looked more closely before you tested her. She was never just anything. Not mortal, far from just mortal."
"Yet also, not immortal." The crone said. "You place too high a regard on this girl, and far too high a regard on the ancient edicts."
"Edicts you ignored and overlooked in your desire to pull her down, to see her fail. To see me fail. Leave my land now and I will leave this matter as it stands. Stay and I will destroy each of you til there is naught left but dust in your place, and do not think to even dare try punishing Anyetta. If you harm one hair on her head, place one curse on her soul I will do the same in return."
"Such anger Jareth. What in the lands makes you think we would interfere now? The deed is done, the results are as they have been decided. You should be happy. You are free, your land restored."
"Happy?" Jareth questioned bitterly.
"Happy is far wide of the mark from what I feel right now. Go, have I not already spoken my will? You are banished. Tread no more upon my lands and meddle no more with my life." He waved his hand and muttered under his breath twisting his words into a command sick of the sight of them. Their faces registered shock as clearly they had not expected him to have the power to banish them, but as soon as he released his will they were gone instantly leaving him mercifully and painfully alone.
He stepped over to the bronze sundial, still glistening with her spilt blood and drawing a knife from the air he deliberately cut his own palm. He watched as blood welled in the cut before placing his hand palm down on the same place where Sarah had cut herself. Memory was not the only thing she had given him. Blood and memory. Power beyond reckoning.
Given in sacrifice, selflessly, and in full knowledge of what she gave. A gift and a legacy. He knew instinctively that his blood mixed with her own, bound him in the same way. It was a promise, of sorts, and now all he could do was be a king to his people. Guard the Labyrinth and guide the unloved children of the mortal realm to a safer world. All he could do was wait, and hope that he was strong enough.
Removing his hand from the cold brass he stared at the white scar in satisfaction. Within the white line lay fragments of the Labyrinth, like tiny stars they sparkled when he moved his hand. Satisfied he stepped through the veils to return to his castle, leaving a small rose bush to lazily twine its way up the sundial, growing and blooming with delicate white roses.
Darkness crept over the Labyrinth which stirred with joyful sounds of life as Jareth stood on the balcony of his study watching the sun ebb towards the horizon. Casting a golden hue across the landscape it healed wounds he had not known he carried, allowing the fragments of memory that had distressed him when he had discovered them in his mind to settle peacefully.
He had gone to the long gallery and stood looking with dismay at the damage he had apparently done to the beautiful sculptures Ambrose had painstakingly crafted. He had carefully traced his fingers across the damage, healing away the cracks in the stonework, but the silent gaze of the statue that resembled her far too accurately had torn his heart in two, so reluctantly he had covered them all back over, her loss far too fresh to bear the sight of them.
Now he stood leaning against the railing as he had done countless times in his lifetime and tried to soak in the peace and tranquillity the Labyrinth exuded at the moment of sunset and sunrise. Promises whispered, chances to take, opportunities and dreams and yet, there was something still missing. The wealth of memories he now possessed seemed to swirl endlessly through his mind until he could no longer tell where his began and hers ended.
In the last rays of sunlight, like a lasting beacon of her sacrifice stood the towering glory of the crystallized sundial which shimmered with elemental magic. It was quite a sight and dominated the landscape far more than his castle did. It seemed fitting somehow but also another reminder of what was missing and there was absolutely nothing he could do but hope and hold out against the sorrow in his heart.
"Jareth."
He turned and regarded Anyetta through narrowed eyes as she nervously walked across his study to join him on the balcony. She sighed and leant against the railing just as he had done.
"Well?" He said at last folding his arms in irritation.
"I had no choice. You know I had no choice. You can't choose your family."
"Yet you can choose who you are loyal to."
"I did. I chose you. Its always you Jareth."
"Thats not what it looks like from here, and you'd better not let my brother hear you say that."
"I can't help what it looks like. I did what I could to help her, and I betrayed my sisters for you, for.. for Sarah. Is she really,.. gone?"
Jareth didn't respond. Instead he turned away from her and walked over to his desk where the torn remains of his map lay across the expanse of his desk. With a touch of magic the map rippled, tears mending themselves and obscured lines and markings restoring themselves. Another ripple and a depiction of the floating sundial appeared in the eastern quarter of the Labyrinth. He smiled with grim satisfaction, the sundial would remain, forever a permanent feature of his world to greet each new day he must endure in solitude. He picked the map up and carefully replaced it on its usual wall then walked back to his desk to reclaim his chair.
"Doesn't my brother need your presence?" He asked randomly shuffling papers around.
"Probably, but he knows what happened." Anyetta said as she left the balcony and walked to the door, pausing by his desk as she did so with glazed eyes.
"Greatest King of Goblin Realm must not fail, nor crown or pathways fall. Blood and promise restore, with a gift given freely. Debts, repaid in full. Fey realms secure once more for the price of mortal life. Beloved of all take heart for sacrifice made in love is the truest and bravest and thou shalt reap its rewards henceforth."
"What rewards, security for fey realms who would spit on her grave for being "just" a mortal." He muttered in response to Anyetta's gift of truth.
"Her will as strong and her kingdom as great, they will all wait with bended knee for the Queen loved most dear, and will bow their heads in shame and respect when she comes before them." Anyetta gasped, clutching her head as the truth passed her lips and then looking back at Jareth in astonishment she shrugged, crossing the room and closing the door behind her leaving Jareth, King of the Goblins speechless.