Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Im so so so so so sorry its been like a month >_< I was busy moving house, then didnt have the inspiration, and I always want to give you something great cos I love this so))

He couldnt help but crack a sadistic smile as she ranted and raved at him, his lips pulling into that infuriating and smarmy smirk. Her words were strong enough it was true, and he was impressed to see how she'd grown, their delivery, perfect, no tantrum in her any longer. It seemed Sarah had gone almost full circle from taking everything for granted, to knowing everything in its own place, and adding a little pessimism. It was strange too, that she was apologising to him. He knew very well that he had done her more wrong than she him, the difference being, he didnt care. Or rather, his love for her showed him no wrong; he would do anything to have her.

The anger within her was more beautiful than she knew, the flush it brought to her cheeks, the way it made her breath more heavily, the fury in her eyes...

She was so right and so wrong at the same time. Yes he was cruel, and yes his own happiness was paramount, but other girls. He shook his head, and allowed his laughter to come forth, it was harsh and open.

"You think you know everything Sarah!" he issued, his voice using those same tones it had done so long ago.
"But my happiness is nothing without you. Since you defeated the labyrinth, it has been dying, because I am nothing without you"
the words might have sounded sentimental, had his voice not been so cruel, so intense.

"you have become older, you have learnt about life, but have learnt nothing of pain"
his face was a mask of some emotion between anger, love and hate. Strange how often the three coincide.

(( well thank you, I hope you've been the same :3 ))

Jareth found a new seat in his anger as she replied to him. He may be cruel, but had never done anything she had not either wanted, nor expected of him. There was a crackle in the air, or rather the taste of it on his tongue, the prickle of his skin. Magic. So, Sarah had inherited something from her time in the Labyrinth. Conquering him had been a bigger achievement than Sarah knew, perhaps she had taken something of him with her.
His brows were shadowed over the storm of his eyes as he stepped forward towards her,

"I have never lied to you Sarah"

he insisted, and it was true. Not once had he told her an untruth, or misled her.

"You knew nothing of the pain of the Labyrinth. You defeated me, crumbled my towers and fractured my mind; but it empowered you. That was the gift I gave you. You have gone through your life knowing that you can conquer anything"

"Exactly!" he let out, almost excitedly, his eyes bright, a hint of fierceness in him, something pressing. He turned to face her fully, stepping forward a little, with one knee length scuffed boot. Leather worn and stained in places.
"You were on the cusp of womanhood Sarah. A child can often see what adults cannot, can see through veils and guises. The truth about the world- no preconceptions or precursors. The woman in you was powerful though, knew that you had to save Toby, the spark in you that is yourself, is what allowed you to beat me in the end. I wont leave it like this Sarah. You're no longer a child. I have aged." he hadnt aged a day in years, it wasnt clear if Jareth was immortal with his kingship- his clothes however, and his eyes, told of weiriness. "The Labyrinth craves the strongest beings. I am watching it die, and you are letting it"
This was partly true. Sarah was the last child he had asked to the Labyrinth, without belief a fairytale dies. No new children were seeing the world, and so it was fading. Jareth was letting it, he could be strong enough himself to rebuild in the wave of hand if he felt so inclined. He never had. Sarah was growing up, as her childhood left her, would the Labyrinth eventually leave her too?

Jareth laughed, low and cruel, his eyes sparkling with both mirth and malice. She wasnt afraid, he thought he should change that- but there were more important things to deal with right now.

"Think about your words Sarah!" he warned, his voice was that dark lecturing tone, from many years ago.
"You say you know nothing of my world, then berate me with knowledge of how the Labyrinth works." he laughed again. "You still think you know everything Sarah. Tell me then, why am I here?" he asked.
It was a strange question, and something he wasn't even entirely sure on himself, but he wanted to know what she thought.
She used to be like her mother...used to believe. He'd make her believe again even if that involved forcing her back to the Labyrinth in chains.
"And tell me, if you dont believe....what exactly am I?"
he wondered how she'd logic her way out of that little slice.

She seemed tired, so tired, and something inside him broke, and there was so little left of him to shatter. His eyes cast for a moment, across the broken glass around them, it seemed all too fitting. He concentrated for a moment, and with a wave of his hand, and a slight marring of his brows, called forth the Labyrinth.
Its image was protrayed in the mirror that it always had been, but now it too was fragmented, strewn across the floor under their feet and reflected in sharp shards at the edges of the empty frame.

It was a dark image, without the shattering it would still be terrible. The walls of the Labyrinth were crumbling, no fairies flitted about its gardens, the streets of the Goblin city were empty and dirty, the castle, Jareth's castle was becoming overgrown with thorns tipped in black- perhaps the same that had snagged his cape on his way out.

He wanted to be angry, wanted to scream at her to help him.

Something.

He would not be so weak.

"What would you have me do?" he asked, his eyes grey and distant, but his brows arched into malicious arches.
"I could take another, find myself a pretty young girl or brave young boy who wants to believe in fairies and far of castles, take them with me to its heart?"

He didnt know if it would work, perhaps Sarah would either want to save the others that might take her place, perhaps instead she would be jealous at the thought.
He was not sure which, and he did not care.

Her reactions were unpredictable in her older state, she wondered if she still took things for granted, he suspected she took him in such a fashion.

As he watched her every movement, a hawk in the night circling for pray, a lover from across a crowded room, a king and his long forgotten princess, his eyes became wide.
His eyes for once, became matched in their dilation.

The air tasted of sour candy and damp earth.

Magic.

He should have known, and his eyes cast down for a moment, his hands flexing into fists, tattered gloves creaking with the effort of it. He did not have long to think, he turned, a little startled as he watched, she was piecing the mirror back into its frame, section by section to see the true horror of the labyrinth in all its glory, or lack there of.

Her magic was fuled by pure emotion. It was rare, so rare that magic was run on something so whole, and so, in that, became the purer for it itself.
Sarah probably had no idea how powerful she was, Jareth however did. He was determined now, more than ever watching her, that she would be his, and more importantly, she would belong to the Labyrinth.
He cut back to the reality of this world with snap, her mirror, her room, her clothes, her aged self, and eventually to what she was saying.

"The labyrinth was never really a dangerous place"

She had no idea. Delusions of a dreaming girl. He had loved Sarah. She had gotten away lightly.
She was continuing however, admitting things he already knew- she wanted another adventure. How could she not? He had been drawing her to him since the moment she had left, calling out to her both in anger and pain. The labyrinth had paid for his sins.

Real help? Did he want that. He wasn't sure in the slightest. Sarah however he did want, that was a chance he would not let slip.

"Yes"

his voice was low and gruff.

"I want your help"

he admitted. He gave into her. So it would seem.

"I cannot take it. It is not my place. I need you to say the words."

words she had never heard, never spoken before, had known in her heart, possibly feared in her mind, probably since she set eyes on his face, that first night, so many years ago.

Jareth moved, feline grace installed within his very limbs, and he was before her. His hands clasped around her wrists in one swift movement, what was left of his gloves creaked around his knuckles as he held her. His fingers were not cruel, she could have broken from him easily, simply by stepping backwards. For a short moment it seemed as if any movement however, might force him to crumble to the ground, fall ashes to ashes and blow away in the wind. His eyes caught hers with flaming passion, his pupils matched for once in their dilation, forcing them somehow to seem all the more alien. There was a tiredness there he had not allowed himself to show before this moment. When he spoke, his voice sounded older, weary and wanting.
"Sarah" he implored now "You are the magic I am missing"
such simple words could mean so many things, and as soon as he had spoken them in horse tones, his façade was firmly slipped back into place, as if his mask from that ball, so many years ago.

He was, for all intents, getting a little desperate. Sarah was his blessing and his bane and the Labyrinth was suffering heartily for it. Jareth was the lord of narcissism, and he let it run his life and his domain at times. He cared little that he had been beaten, it was what he had wanted from her. She had spurned him however, he had offered a child everything, her dreams, only to be loved, and she had denied him.
Simple human pleasures such as love, were perhaps off limits for a king of something so unseemly as goblins.