Fae Council

Authors Note: I need some advice children. Should I change the title of this fic? Would people mind too much? You can vote if you like. What do you think it should be?

Disclaimer: I have forgotten to do this, but usual disclaimer applies. Jareth, Sarah, Hoggle and the Labyrinth don’t belong to me. Ondine is mine.

(YAY! My first original character makes her début. Tell me what you think, ok? I got tired of playing with other children’s toys. Even if they were super ones.)

Chapter 4

It was a sleepless night that followed for all involved.

Jareth lay still on his bed, knowing he would be unable to get comfortable, and so didn’t bother moving around. Thoughts plagued him, had he been too harsh in his retelling of events today? Had he pushed too hard, told too much?
“Stop questioning yourself, Jareth.” He told himself cuttingly. “It needed to be done. You only did what was necessary. And now you are talking to yourself.” Looking around the room nervously, Jareth made sure no one had witnessed his moment of insanity. The room was empty of life. Jareth sighed, wondering how Sarah was coping. He hadn’t seen her, nor expected to see her, since brunch that day. Hoggle had suggested that he go and see her, to make sure she was alright, but Jareth had felt it better to let her thrash out her emotions and frustration before going to her.

He was currently regretting his decision.

He absent mindedly twirled his wrist, making a faintly glowing crystal appear in his hand. Embossed inside the crystal was Sarah, visibly as awake as he was. She had been crying, he could tell by the way her eyes were red and slightly swollen. It looked like there were several broken things lying around the room. Actually, it looked like a small hurricane had ripped through the room. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed later though.
He was shocked to see Sarah glaring at him through the crystal.
“Jareth,” She hissed warningly. “Stop spying on me.” And with that she reached out a delicate finger and punctured the crystal, causing his connection with her to be severed.
He stared in shock at his now-empty hand.
“Did I know she could do that?” he mused to himself. It was then he became aware of another presence in his room. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end; he could feel that he was the object of someone’s observations.
“Who is there?” He asked, with all the arrogance at his disposal, which was an awful lot, considering the terrible day he had had. There was no answer, but a grey shrouded figure drifted into sight. Its face was covered, and appeared to be without mass, or body. Jareth noticed with uneasiness the certain similarities it shared with the members of the Fae Council.
Then the figure spoke, and its voice was light and soothing, and somehow completely sexless.
“It is only I, Ondine. We have met before, but never on this plane of existence. I am a manifestation of sorts, a guardian if you will. I guide your dreams, and your fate.”
Jareth did in fact now recognize the being, and knew what it said to be true. Dreams were the soul’s way of exploring the situations the physical body experiences, and such a guardian was a necessary for the protection of the psychic form for a Fae.
“But why have you appeared to me now? You have never manifested before me while I was awake before.” Jareth said uncertainly.
“But you are not awake.” Ondine said, flicking its fingers at Jareth. In an instant his eyes felt heavy, and he closed them for a brief moment.

Ondine vanished from the room, taking Jareth’s soul with it.

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Sarah wasn’t having any luck sleeping. But then she had never gotten to sleep easily, not since her initial visit to the Labyrinth. It had changed her imagination, warped her dreams, so that she could no longer close her eyes without remembering.

But she hadn’t known the extent of the true impact it had on her life until Jareth had told her this morning. She had tried to stay as calm as she could when she had returned to her room, after Jareth had vanished before her eyes. But all the years of loneliness, the rage, and the frustration just came pouring out of every pore on her body as soon as she was alone.

With tears streaming down her face she had blindly struck out at everything, destroying everything she could lay her hands on, until she had physically exhausted herself. She hazily remembered dropping to her knees amidst the rubble, screaming out her anguish even as she bruised her fists against the unforgiving floor.

She didn’t know how long she had stayed like that, but eventually she had regained some semblance of control, and had half stumbled, half dragged herself over to her bed, and sat down, trembling all over.

All cried out, she lay back on the bed, quietly mumbling to herself
“The bastard. That total bastard! He probably enjoyed telling me, seeing how it affected me.”
But she knew that wasn’t true. She had seen the look in his eyes; he had forced himself to keep talking.
And to make it all worse, he had been so…gentle, about telling her. She could have coped with it if he had yelled it, or said it spitefully, intending it to hurt. It would have seemed less real. But it was real. She had seen his obvious reluctance to continue talking as he reached the most painful parts of the tale.
A silvery orb appeared in her room in front of her. Inside she could see a miserable Jareth, his mismatched eyes focusing on her, then on the destroyed wreck of her room, then coming back to settle on her again. She saw his eyes widen in surprise as he saw her looking back at him.
Jareth,” Sarah hissed warningly, at the end of her emotional rope. “Stop spying on me.” And with that she reached out a long boned finger and sharply punctured the orb, causing it to disintegrate in a puff of glitter.

Suddenly she felt so tired. She lay back in exhaustion, her thoughts dulled by a combination of physical pain and mental fatigue. Sleep, though it was a long time before it claimed her, came as a blessing.

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When Jareth opened his eyes again, he knew he must be dreaming. He was in a seamlessly spherical room, filled with an ethereal mist that clogged his senses. A scene was being acted out in front of him, but there was some form of invisible barrier standing between him and the motionless picture. There was his Sarah surrounded by the Fae council, hooded, colourless, cloaks drawn high over their heads, pale, sightless eyes glinting maliciously out of each dark opening, making Jareth’s skin crawl. He was there too, he could see that now. It looked like he was trying to talk to Sarah, but she had turned away from him. Suddenly the picture came fully into focus.

She cast a weary look at the man standing behind her.
“A life without love, Jareth? That is no life at all.” She said sadly, looking up once more, waiting for the inevitable pain the creatures would bring upon her. “I can not commit to becoming Fae, and I can not bond with you.”
Jareth too, cast a look at the creatures, silently begging for more time. How could she not know? After all he had done for her, did she honestly think he didn’t love her? Why hadn’t he just told her?
“Sarah…” He started, stepping towards her.
“Just don’t Jareth. Don’t make this any harder for me then it already is. I have made a big enough fool of myself. And if my decision means I have to die at the hands of those creatures,” she spat the word out as though if it lingered it would leave a permanent and terrible taste in her mouth. “Then so be it. I had no home away from the Labyrinth anyway,” or away from you, she silently added.
The Fae council bristled warningly, they would wait no longer. They could sense the fear rolling off Sarah, and they were starved for revenge.
In an instant they converged on her.
“No!” Jareth cried, desperately reaching out to stop them. But it was too late. As soon as they had arrived he had known Sarah’s fate to be sealed. And now, as her broken body lay on the floor of the Labyrinth, devoid of any life, the bodiless figures turned their sightless gaze on Jareth. He felt his own will to live draining away.

From the outside of the barrier Jareth watched; face an emotionless mask, as he met the same fate as Sarah had earlier.
“Is this the only possible outcome?” He asked of Ondine, feeling it’s presence behind him once more, although he could no longer see it.
“Down the current path, yes. But there is a fork in the road ahead. The situation you find yourself in there,” the creature gestured beyond the barrier, “can be prevented, delayed, or halted at the last moment, depending on your actions from this point. But, out of curiosity, do you ask this for the girls sake?” the disembodied voice taunted him. Jareth tried to wake up, wanting this clashing of realities to end, but it wouldn’t release him, it wasn’t finished with him yet.
“Or your own?”

It was then Jareth woke up.
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Authors Note: Did you like it? Recommend me to your friends! I am trying hard to update quickly, but I might need a little encouragement to keep writing. This story is getting a little temperamental. Sorry if this chapter is a little shorter then usual.
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