The Lost and The Lonely

Thank You to all of my Reviewers!! You all make me all feel welcome. I've tried to make this as original as possible seeing as I am dealing with fanfiction!! And a fandom that has been around for a long time. Don't however get used to an update every day I only have one more chapter already written and it is still at the beta reader. But please keep up the feedbacK it is the coin of the realm! Thank You Aewnaur


Chapter Two
The Problem


Zekiel stood on the rampart under the blaring sun. Not a cloud was in the sky, there was no wind to offer relief from the scorching heat. Yet he stood as still as the stone under his feet. His eyes never leaving the figure standing equally as still in the distance. The servants had finally become worried and called him home, he agreed after seeing the blond figure. Jareth had been standing in the same position for several days if the elfish servants were to be believed.

Jareth stood in his loose fitting black clothes with a long flowing black cloak billowing out behind him. He was standing on the archway above the great black doors to the Labyrinth. His feet were spread wide, bracing himself against the torrential winds that the magic he was attempting to manipulate called up. His spine was straight as he refused to bend to the will of the great maze before him. His raised hands and arms were the only parts of his body that were moving. They were trembling with exhaustion, but he refused to lower them until he had no strength left. His fight with the wild magic of the Labyrinth was the only thing on his mind. That is until he felt another’s presence nudge against his mind. His concentration broke and the energy that had been sustaining him flowed back out into the natural energy lines that crossed the whole of the Underground.

Zekiel knew the instant his brother felt him. He watched as the King faltered and the moment he began to fall Zekiel transported him to the royal bedchamber. He took a deep breath, steeling himself against the tirade he knew was coming, then went in to attend to his King.


*


Sarah sat in front at her vanity and told her friends goodbye for the night. It had been a long week since her adventures in the Labyrinth. She hadn’t slept very well and with only a month left of school before summer break she felt her mind was about to explode. Unfortunately her relationship with Karen had not improved, if anything it had grown worse for Sarah’s new devotion to little Toby. It wasn’t that she minded watching him any less than she had before, she still resented that due to what she saw as Karen’s selfishness she had to give up all of her free time to watch him. However since her adventure in the Underground she no longer took her anger out on the child.

As she stared into the now solid mirror at her own reflection, she studied the dark circles under her eyes. Her dreams had been strange, the echo of His words haunted her. ’I will be your slave’ She had almost faltered when he had said those words. She was there, at the end of her journey to take back the child he had stolen. She had fought her way through the labyrinth and those five words had made her falter. How? Why did they have this strange effect on her? Like he had said them before. The vision of his mismatched eyes floated before her. They were filled with an emotion she knew she had never seen in them while in the Underground.

It was a look that made her knees weak and her heart pound. Inexperienced she might be but stupid she was not. She knew what those eyes said just as she knew how they affected her, but why? Why now that it was over, when it should be no more than a memory. If not for Hoggle coming when she called each night she might pass the entire thing off as one horrible dream. She absently brushed her hair as she tried to recall the details of her last confrontation with the Goblin King. Jareth, that’s what Hoggle had called him. Her hand trailed through her dark hair catching the ends in a twirl of fingers. As she slid her hands through the length her hand grazed the tips of her breast. She gasped as a shiver ran through her. She repeated the gesture as her eyes flew down to watch her hands. The image of white silk gloves threading through her fingers massaging her breasts came to her. She snatched her hand away from her body and stood, backing away from the mirror.

‘What the hell was that?’ she thought. No one had ever touched her that way before. Hell this was the first time she had thought to touch herself that way. She paced beside her narrow bed as her thoughts jumbled together. Finally she sat on the edge of her bed and noticed her hands where shaking. She brought them up to cup her breasts through the long t-shirt she slept in. ’That’s it love. Just rub them a little.’ Her whole body trembled at not only the voice going through her head but the sensations that came with it. Oh Gods, it was him. He was doing this to her, but how? She had said the words, he had no power over her. She knew the rules. Fantasy was an addiction of hers, she knew that if she said the words he would never be able to bother her again. That meant he should not be able to make her see things that were not there. He shouldn’t be able to affect her dreams in such a way. So what was going on.

Without realizing it her hands had kept up the little massaging just like in the vague dream. She moaned a bit when she felt the liquid sensation between her legs. ’Oh God!’ she thought mortified at her actions but unable to just stop like her mind told her she should. She wanted him! Jareth! Her breathing quickened as she heard him whisper her name in her ear. ’Oh Sarah.’ Her mouth was dry, like cotton as she melted back onto her bed. She bit the inside of her lip as she willed her hands to stop moving. After a few minutes of just holding her breasts her breathing finally calmed and she moved her hands to her bedspread.

‘Just sleep Sari girl. Just go to sleep and forget all about the obnoxious Goblin King. He is so not the person you want to have a crush on, let alone,’ her body shivered with the thought, ’whatever else you want from him.’


*


Zekiel watched as his brother paced in front of the open window in his private study. Jareth had hardly left the window in the last month since the Labyrinth had begun to fall apart. Everyone in the Kingdom was beginning to get worried. No one understood what was going on with the possible exception of the King and he wasn’t sharing the information.

“Jareth, Your Majesty, please. What is going on? What is wrong with the Labyrinth?” he asked, not for the first time. Zekiel was growing quite frightened for his brother the King. The rumors at the Seelie Court were running rampant although most thought the Goblin King was dieing. And the contrary man was keeping his silence and staying away from Court which left Zekiel to try and deflect the many rumors. He glanced to the latest missive sitting abandoned on the great desk. Whatever it had said had set the King off again.

Jareth cleared his throat. How could he admit what he had unknowingly done to his Kingdom to his baby brother? He knew that his time of silence was nearly up but to actually admit it out loud set his teeth on edge. Now with this latest threat to his Kingdom, he would need his brother’s council more than ever. He poured himself a double shot of peach brandy and downed it in one swallow. He grimaced at the flavor, damn would he never escape the girl, even his favorite drink reminded him of her. Her and that damn peach. That peach induced dream that should have remained a dream but, damn it, it hadn’t.

Bare minutes after throwing her into the Junk Yard and pitching his fit he had calmed down and begun to notice some things. Things like he was still wearing the elegant blue coat from the illusion dream. Things like the fact that there was blood on his pristine white gloves. Her blood. Her Maidens blood. It should not have been possible, damn it! He crushed the delicate snifter glass in his hand at the memory.

“Jareth! Sire, this has to stop. Talk to me please,” Zekiel pleaded. “If I am to help you, to really be an advisor for you, you must tell me what is going on.”

Jareth swept his left hand over his right and magiced the glass pieces away to the garbage bin. He sighed as he stalked back to his desk and snatched the latest letter from a neighboring Kingdom from on top of the growing pile of such letters. He turned it and held it up to his baby brother’s face.

“King Leeto is demanding the human settlement on the north side of the Kingdom. It is his contention that I am no longer able to control the Labyrinth and therefore will no longer be able to supply his Kingdom with the human ’pets’ he requires. ’Pets’ he says,” Jareth seethed. Slavery had been outlawed in the Underground for a millennia but the practice of keeping ’pets’ was over looked as long as they were humans.

Zekiel took the parchment and read it over, by the end he was seething as much as the King. His dark blond hair and deep blue eyes may have made him look vastly different than his fair haired brother but anyone looking at them now would know by the same rage filled expression that they were related. Their father had been human, a wished away child that their grandparents had kept after centuries of trying to reproduce on their own. He had never held the Goblin Throne, as a wished away child could never hope to attain that kind of power in the Underground and it took a vast amount of power to control the Labyrinth, but he like his second son Zekiel had never really wanted the responsibility of ruling. Neither son however liked to think of their father as someone’s ’pet’. And the practice of keeping ’pets’ was an affront of the highest order, which was probably why King Leeto had included it in the letter.

Zekiel stood and willed the missive to ash as his anger got the better of his good sense.

“Damn it, I’m sorry Jareth, you could have taken that to Court to prove your case,” he sighed and sat back down as the ash fell through his fingers.

“No matter. I can’t take this to Court. I will have to deal with this threat on my own,” Jareth said quietly as he walked back to the window overlooking the massive maze that surrounded his castle and the goblin city.

“What!” Zekiel exclaimed. “Why Jareth, that makes no since. This is what the Court is for. If you don’t bring this to their attention you will be at fault as much as Leeto if war breaks out.”

“You think I don’t know that? Do you for one instant think that if I could go to the Courts with this that I wouldn’t. No. I can’t. I won’t,” Jareth crossed his arms over his chest as he felt another pull on his magic. He leaned against the window sill as he felt the slight tingle of the strange bond. ’Sarah, what are you doing to me?’ he thought to himself as a wave of dizziness assaulted him.

“Jareth, please. Talk to me. Help me to understand what is going on here. Because from where I am sitting right now it seems that perhaps Leeto is right. You no longer have control of the Labyrinth. Ever since the last silly chit won it has been falling apart,” Zekiel modified his tone a bit as Jareth sent a glare his way, “as have you, brother.”

Jareth grabbed two goblets and the large caste of brandy then gestured to his brother. When they were settled down in front of the fire he conjured a crystal and threw it at the door. Every Castle had spies, even in times of peace, and this was one conversation he didn’t want circulated under any circumstances. After downing an entire goblet of the fiery liquor to fortify himself, he took a deep breath and turned to look his brother in the eyes.

“Her name is Sarah,” he noted the quizzing look in the other mans eyes and clarified, “the little chit, who won, her name is Sarah. Sarah Williams,” he found he couldn’t hold his brothers eyes. Not and admit the cruelty that he had fallen too.

“You know that I am bound to the role the Wisher envisions, until their time is up. As soon as she touched the book she received the power, just like all of the others. The book you know has a mind and a will of it’s own, it only goes to the eldest child, but in Sarah’s case something happened. Her mother aborted the new baby and left her family to pursue her own dreams. Leaving Sarah with the book and the power for far longer than usual. Her father remarried and a new child was born, but by now the power had changed. She had made it her own, it wasn’t active, not until she said the words. It stayed here connecting her with the Underground until one night, ’when she could stand it no longer’, she wished the child away,” Jareth sighed at the memories.

He shifted until his back was against the armchair and his legs were stretched out in front of him, he gazed deep into the fire as he remembered.

“You should have seen her Zekiel. So beautiful, so innocent, so, so desirable,” he sighed and took another large swallow of brandy before continuing his tale. “Like so many others, she cast me in the role of Villain. So Villain I was. I took the child and offered her the dream crystal. She defied me at every turn, called the Labyrinth a ’piece of cake’! Such fire, such a strong will. I just had to win. I wanted to keep her here, with me.”

Zekiel couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It almost sounded as if his brother the Great Goblin King himself was.. In love with the girl. He had a sinking feeling in his stomach, this could be bad. This could be very bad.

“Jareth,” he cleared his throat to keep his voice from shaking and started over. “Jareth, what did you do?” he watched as his normally controlled brother take a deep shaky breath. Zekiel downed his own glass of brandy and poured himself some more. Somehow knowing he was going to need it before this night was over.

“It was supposed to be a dream, an illusion damn it!” he took a deep ragged breath. “She did something unexpected. Others have made it to the end, yes. But she made friends along the way. They were helping her. If I hadn’t delayed her, she would have made it here in five, six hours tops. That ‘silly little chit’ would have made it here that quickly. I couldn’t allow it, I had to slow her down. You see don’t you. I was the Villain. Under her compulsion to stop her, anyway I could,” he looked to his brother, imploring him to understand actions he, himself could not understand or condone. He sighed and downed his third glass of brandy before turning his gaze back to the fire. Unable and or unwilling to see the condemnation in his brothers eyes at what he was about to reveal.

“Jareth, what ever it is. I will help you. Brothers to the end, remember,” Zekiel attempted to sound reassuring for his brother but that sick feeling in his gut just would not go away. What ever he had done, it was tearing his brother apart.

“I drugged a peach, and bid her dwarf friend Hoggle to give it to her. It sent her into a deep sleep. Then I sent the dream sphere to her. Her dream, her illusion. Again I had to play the role she cast me into. She dreamt the last masquerade you threw, I don’t know how or why, but it was ’that’ ball. I can only surmise that she dreamt a ball and the Labyrinth supplied the image. She was that connected to it by then,” Jareth sat up and turned to his brother his eyes full of fire.

“Do you know what she did, when she reached the oubliette?! She chose down! The first person to ever get that, you know,” Jareth turned back to the fire, “she chose down,” his voice was becoming ragged by then. He buried his face in his hands and rubbed the bridge of his nose, when he looked back up at his brother his eyes were full of defeat.

“She dreamt the ball and cast me in the role of seducer. And I, in my arrogance and desire to delay her arrival at the castle,” he sighed and his voice broke, “fulfilled the role.” He sat in silence sipping his brandy and avoiding his brothers gaze.

Zekiel sat stunned at his brothers confession. He couldn’t think, his brother had broken one of the few Old rules. He had had relations with a wisher while still in the Labyrinth.

“When you say that you ’fulfilled the role’, you mean..?”

“Yes, I mean.”

They sat in silence for a while, both trying to take in the revelations that had been divulged this night. Jareth sat in self contempt, yet playing the memories of that night over and over in his mind. He knew if he was to go back and reorder time he would most likely choose to do it all over again. Although this time he would not have thrown her into the Junk Yard, damn the Old Rules, he would have kept her.

Zekiel sighed, something still bothered him. So far Jareth had told no one but himself about this incident and yet the Labyrinth was falling apart. That should not have happened unless there was still something Jareth was holding back. He turned slowly to his brother, needing to see his face to gauge his reaction.

“What else did you do?”

“What else did I do? Isn’t that bad enough?” Jareth winced at the question.

“Bad enough to lose your crown. Yes. Bad enough to destroy the Labyrinth. No. So tell me, Your Majesty. What else did you do?”

Jareth clenched his jaw and refused to even look at his younger brother. When Zekiel got this tone to his voice Jareth had to wonder who would have made the better King. But damn it He was the King, and he did not have to answer to anyone.

“Damn it Jareth, answer me. Sleeping with the chit can be covered up. No one ever needs know about it. I would do this for you because I never wanted the crown you know this. If this comes to the attention of the Court they Will strip you of your crown and give it to me. By the Bog, Jareth say something! What else did you do?” he was near to yelling as he finished. He stood and paced the length of the room. His brother was so stubborn!

Jareth stood and silently made his way to the window he had been staring out of for days. When all of his magical attempts to rebuilt the fallen parts of the Great Maze had failed, he had no choice but to stand here and watch as the exact path Sarah had taken crumbled to the ground. His brother came to stand beside him but he still refused to speak. As dusk turned into night and the chill of it was upon them, Jareth still refused to move.

Zekiel gave up his vigil at his brothers side and made himself comfortable in the small arm chair in front of the fire.

“Okay, let us go back over this like adults. Monarch to Advisor. I need to reason this out because there are still some points that I am unsure of.”

Jareth’s shoulders slumped for a moment before he joined his advisor back in front of the fire.

“Point one,” Zekiel started out as Jareth settled in. “It was inside a dream sphere, an illusion. It didn’t really even happen did it? It was her dream.”

“I don’t have all of the answers, Zekiel. But it happened. It did. Her maiden’s blood was on my gloves and my breeches,” Jareth answered raggedly. He didn’t want to talk about Sarah this way but Zekiel was right. This needed to be discussed. “It happened. You might as well say I raped her. In the Aboveground what I did to her is considered rape. I drugged her, made love with her, and she doesn’t even remember it,” he clenched his jaw to keep from saying anything else.

Zekiel was in shock, not only at what his brother had just admitted to but also at the anguish with which he spoke.

“Jareth, you were under a compulsion. Don’t let this girl tear your Kingdom apart,” he tried to keep the appalled and disgusted emotions from his voice. He had to gain control of himself. His King needed him.

“There is no proof that this even happened. If the girl ever does remember, what is she to do? She is banished Aboveground, would she even know how to go about bringing charges against you?”

Jareth chuckled at his brothers attempt to hide the disgust in his voice. He couldn’t hide it from Jareth because he was disgusted with himself enough for the both of them.

“You’re forgetting something, brother mine. She has had the book for much longer than anyone else. Ever. She has formed some type of bond with it. It has been a month since she said the words and I returned her Aboveground, and yet she still has the book.”

“When you returned her to her world, you let her keep the magic didn’t you!” Zekiel accused in outrage.

“You stupid imbecile, have you been listening to anything I have been saying? I can’t take the magic away from her, she is bound to the Underground through that book!” Jareth threw his crystal goblet into the fire, not even stepping back at the burst of flames as the alcohol flared up.

“Then I will go above ground, and get the book. If I destroy the book surely..”

Jareth’s brittle laughter stopped Zekiel cold. “I always thought you were smarter than that Zekiel. She defeated the Labyrinth, she said the words. I, The Goblin Kingdom, have no power over her. You can not go to her. Only if she calls us can we interfere with her life,” Jareth laughed his achingly harsh laugh again and flung himself down in the chair behind his desk. “And that girl, will never call on me again. Of that you can be sure. She hates me, and if she remembers what I have done to her she would hate me even more. She might want revenge, yes, but I believe that she would be too afraid to call on me again. She is cruel, My Sarah. If anything, she would call the Seelie Court. Enough of our Lore is bound up in that book. She could do it if she choose to.”

Zekiel sat stunned for a moment, then spoke quickly. “The book, if I remember correctly acts like a portable keyport, yes?”

“Yes. It forms the connection between the Labyrinth and the above ground. It must gather and retain small amounts of magic at all times in order to find the next owner, protected itself and so on,” Jareth looked up at his Advisor, his eyes narrowing at the other mans tone. “Why?”

“Well, I was just thinking. We can’t go there and destroy the book, what if we just cut off it’s supply of magic? There has to be a way. I can sense and manipulate the energy lines as well as you can, and you’ve worked with the main keywards for the Labyrinth, so you know how they work. We could do this. Destroy the book by severing it’s connection with the magic.”

Jareth fell back in his chair his mind working furiously. Would that truly work? Would it break the bond between Sarah and himself? No, he didn’t think so, but it might break the connection between Sarah and the Labyrinth. He hadn’t told his brother about the bond between himself and the mortal girl. It was the actual reason he didn’t want to take these matters to the Seelie Court, the very existence of the bond would condemn him. What he was beginning to suspect was a heartbond could not form without physical intimacy. There would be no way he could deny bedding the girl while she was still running the Great Maze. He tried to put that matter out of his mind, there would be time enough to deal with an unattainable heartbond after he dealt with the threat to his Kingdom.

Keywards were notoriously difficult to work with, it was one reason no human could rule a Kingdom, they simple would never be powerful enough to control one. A Keyward was a sort of magical receptacle for the magic of the energy lines. Where two or more energy lines crossed paths a pool was formed. Think of two small streams meeting, where there paths crossed the waters were swifter, more dangerous, but also there was naturally more water there. Same with energy lines and magic. Now continue down this same comparison and a keywards would be like dam. And anyone who has seen the great Aboveground dams knows that maintaining and manipulating the waters bound by a dam is no simple task.

Jareth sat in thought for a while simply staring into the fire, could it be done? Could the two of them cut off the magic to a keyward? If they could, would it be enough? The book was spelled to protect itself, be that from damage in the physical world or the magical one, but if cut off from it’s supply of magic would it be able to fight off a magical attack? Finally deciding it was worth trying he looked up to his brother and smirked.

Zekiel sighed in relief at the look on his Kings face. They had a plan then. Finally maybe order would be restored and he could go back to just being the brother with no imminent danger of being handed the crown.


Tbc…