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Remembrance

Chapter 7.

-x-x-x-

Sarah carefully opened the door to her hiding place and looked into the hallway outside. Everything was as still as before.

Marion, now sitting hunched in a corner, covering his face with his hands had been inconsolable ever since he told her that his King was missing and would most likely never be coming back.

They seemed to be the only two people left in the castle.

She had to find out what was going on. She closed the door again and knelt in front of the distraught servant, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"What do you mean when you say that Jareth is not coming back Marion?" She spoke the words slowly and clearly, she had to do her best to calm the broken man before her if she was to have any hope of finding out the truth. He wiped his nose and sniffled before raising his head slightly to answer her.

"It was supposed to work tonight… now that you were here…" His words trailed off and his voice was a melancholy whisper as he stared off into the distance, huddled on the ground.

"What do you mean by that Marion?" Sarah was careful to sound comforting even though her curiosity was peaked, what was supposed to work?

"His majesty has been trying to revive the labyrinth ever since you defeated it. What you see out there…" He gestured towards the door with his outstretched hand. "… that is its current state. There's nothing left from what it used to be. And his majesty… he isn't a king anymore." Marion covered his head again, his words obviously too painful for him to bear.

Sarah stared at him, trying to process what she had just heard. Had nothing that had happened that night been real? How could that be? She had seen it with her own eyes and she had most certainly felt Jareth's power and his effects on her very strongly. Had she experienced something that wasn't real?

"Was none of this real? Where is Jareth?" She hear the tone in her voice rising and saw Marion was getting flustered again trying to make himself understood.

"It was real, but… He's been taken away and thrown back into the Outcast Cells. When a royal loses his powers in the Underground they are banished, getting only one chance a year to redeem themselves… he always spends it the same way… in his castle… reliving the days of his reign… throwing a ball and hoping you attend it."

The last of his words came out in loud sobs. Marion took a deep breath to try to slow himself down before continuing.

"Something is different this time though, he's never been taken back before the dawn. They were early… they must have felt his plan was working and that you were here… I've always been able to say goodbye… I have no idea what has become of him now…"

He was sobbing uncontrollably again and Sarah couldn't help but feel sorry for Marion… and even a bit guilty. If what he was saying was true then his suffering and most likely the suffering of many others was her fault. It was something she had never even considered when she'd defeated the Labyrinth and its arrogant King all those years ago. She was however still a bit suspicious of some of Marion's words, like the ones about Jareth's plan.

"Can you tell what plan you are talking about Marion?" She inquired, trying to keep the suspicion out of her voice.

The servant sighed as if he was wishing that he wasn't the person who had to tell her this.

"Well let's just say that since you are the one who defeated his majesty, you hold a very powerful key to his return to power."

She blinked in confusion, suspicion rising in her mind. But rather than jumping to any conclusions she decided to keep calm and inquire further. Steadying her breath she spoke again.

"Alright… how exactly does he use me for these purposes?"

Marion seemed to now have accepted his role as the bearer of bad news and had rearranged himself on the floor so he was able to motion with his hands to emphasize his words.

"Apparently there are three ways for Jareth to reverse the affects you brought on." He paused, clearly thinking about how best to word what he was about to say before exhaling deeply and carrying on. "The first one is to kill you…"

Sarah gasped as she realized how close say may have been to death by visiting the underground again but Marion ignored her outburst and continued.

"The second is to gain power over you… and the third I am afraid I do not know what is."

He hung is head again when finishing his speech as if to emphasize the point of how hopeless the situation was now as it looked like Jareth had failed and Sarah tried her best not to be offended at his reaction, keeping in mind that this was a man who had lost everything he knew and loved when she'd almost carelessly destroyed his world. But the true weight of what he had just said was slowly dawning on her.

"What exactly do you mean by gaining power over me…"

Marion let out another long sigh.

"Well, I'm sorry to have to tell you this Miss Sarah but you have just been taken advantage off."

Sarah instantly felt her anger blaze and her cheeks heat up with embarrassment. The ball may have been real but it had all been an elaborate scheme to get her into his bed and take advantage of her. She had to get out of here.

"Right… Marion… how do I get out of here. I need to leave this godforsaken place and let that scumbag of a Goblin King… or whatever he is now stew in his own mess!"

She jumped to her feet and grabbed the handle of the door ready to storm out into the hallway and find the mirror room where she'd first entered the castle.

"No wait, wait Sarah you don't understand!"

"Save it Marion."

But the servant grabbed a hold of her arm, and as Sarah turned round and beheld his face she saw pure terror.

"He said having you would make everything right again!"

"What? That bastard!"

She was fuming and disgusted at herself for momentarily caring what had happened to him. She struggled against Marion's hold on her arm and pushed the door open.

"Wait, Sarah be careful! They'll hear us!"

It was too late though, as she stepped out into the hallway it was as if the ground disappeared below her feet and swallowed her. She was in what felt like a powerful upstream for a while before she felt solid ground beneath her again and toppled over onto a hard stone floor. Behind her Marion appeared in a cloud of dust and fell face first into a puddle that had gathered from the condensation on the walls.

Disoriented she pushed herself up to a sitting position and rubbed her aching head. The voice she heard from behind her startled her.

"Welcome Sarah. I'm sorry to hear that you have been caught up in the miscreants plot. But don't worry, he won't be getting another chance to redeem himself after this."

As scrambled to her feet and turned towards the voice coming from behind her, she was faced with a man sitting on a throne surrounded by guards. Looking around she noticed that she was in what looked like a throne room, but it wasn't the one she remembered from Jareth's castle. The man, although wearing a crown did not look anywhere near as regal as Jareth and the throne room, largely made out of dirt and rocks left much to be desired. Apprehensive of her surroundings she beheld the man suspiciously.

"Where am I?"

"Oh, where are my manners." The man waved a hand into the air. "You are now in the Kobold kingdom and I am its King, King Brokk. I've brought you here to save you from the ill-conceived plans of the felon you know as Jareth, former King of the Goblins."

Another king? Sarah thought to herself as she looked him over. He had instantly given her a bad feeling and she most certainly did not feel safe in his presence. She couldn't deny her curiosity but decided that she already had enough information than she really wanted in her head and it would be best if she just tried to make it home and forget the whole thing.

"Right…" She said, trying not to sound cynical. "Thank you I guess. Can you tell me how I get out of here and back to the Aboveground?"

King Brokk shifted on his throne and Sarah felt her unease grow. Running his fingers through his beard he beheld her thoughtfully before leaning forwards with a venomous grin.

"Is it true what I hear, that you slept with him?"

"What?!" The question threw her completely and she felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment at the boldness of his words. "What the hell does that have to do with you?"

The king smiled as he leant back on his throne with a now triumphant smile playing over his features.

"Well my dear, it's just that if you have, it will be all the more difficult for you to leave. So do tell me… did you?"

With her anger boiling Sarah wanted to run over to the arrogant bastard and wipe the smug grin off his face but thought better off it seeing as his guards surrounding him were all armed and watching her every move. She didn't say anything but she knew the answer was undoubtedly evident on her face, she couldn't deny it.

The king smiled again and rose to his feet before taking the few steps down off his throne before standing directly before her. Instantly she could feel the threat level rising, her body immediately going into high alert at his close proximity. Up close she could see the venom in his eyes mixed something else, glee. This was not a King of Jareth's stature, this man was dirty and sleazy and he made her skin crawl the closer he got.

"Now that's a shame… for you."

As the king started circling her she felt a shiver run down her spine. Her instincts had served her right and she was convinced that she wasn't safe at all in his presence. Silently she wished that she had listened to Marion and that she was back in the empty castle beyond the goblin city. At least that felt familiar and even though she wasn't exactly pleased with Jareth at the moment she would have given anything to have him by her side just then.

"Wha… what do you mean by that? Where's Jareth?"

King Brokk stopped and turned swiftly to face her, emphasizing his glee with a raised fist.

"He's in his cell where he belongs! The fool, he had you and he didn't take advantage of the fact that all this power was standing right there in front of him! And now… now I have you, and soon the Goblin Kingdom will be mine." The king was now walking around again, no longer directing his words at anyone in particular, wrapped up in his victorious speech before coming to an abrupt halt and turning to face her again. "You my dear have just bound yourself to the Underground irrevocably by sleeping with him, and you now need his captor's permission to leave. And I'm sure I don't have to tell you that your wish will not be granted."

A cold shiver ran down her spine as he grinned at her, letting the effects of his words sink in. She was trapped, trapped with him. Through her climbing desperation she did realize something, Marion had it all wrong… or at least what she had interpreted from Marion's words was all wrong.

"But wait, if sleeping with me only binds me to him…" King Brokk's face fell momentarily, stunned by her response, and Sarah noted that he had probably expected something different. In an instant he quickly reassembled his menacing facade. "… do you mean that sleeping with me is not the way to gain power over me and the Labyrinth?"

The king threw his head back in a fit of laughter.

"Ha, ha, ha! No my dear. If that was the case you wouldn't be standing here in the middle of the throne room at the moment… you would be on your back in my bed."

She visibly shivered, disgusted at the King's cruel and callous words. But worst of all was the realization she was coming to about Jareth, he hadn't tricked her at all… if anything she had been a distraction to him setting things right because no matter how cruel Jareth claimed he could be she was certain it was nothing compared to king Brokk.

The King, no longer paying any real mind to her and consumed by his own performance, continued his boisterous explanations.

"You see my dear, even though the labyrinth doesn't have a king anymore that doesn't mean the next person can just step up and take it. It's desolate because no one has been able to claim it… gained its power or proven themselves worthy. You, as you can imagine, now that you hold Jareth's powers, are very much the key to that."

She shivered at the veiled promise in his voice but tried not to let him notice.

"So why don't you just kill me then and get it over with?"

"Oh, if only it were that simple…" She shivered again, knowing that she would already be dead if that were the case. "… but it only means something if Jareth kills you because he gave you his powers. He would get them back with the loss of your life. If I kill you however those powers will disappear. For anyone else to gain them the powers need to be given away willingly… or transferred within a union. And since you wouldn't even know how to give the powers over to anyone… even if you were so inclined which I highly doubt… that just leaves us with the union."

Sarah now felt genuine fear flood through her body at the weight of his words. The King was now standing directly in front of her, facing her off with his domineering stance, clearly waiting for her to give in.

"Don't get me wrong, since you've already slept with Jareth and by doing so made him stronger than he was before, I do indeed intend to kill you… if you do not accept my proposition that is."

It took all her strength to not visibly sag beneath his stare, she was determined to face him off.

"W-what proposition?" She'd already caught on to what it might be but wanted to hear him say it.

"It's very simple Sarah." Slowly, his menacing grin spread across his face again. "Marry me or die."

"NEVER!" She was screaming at him before she could even gain control over her arms now flying up to swat at his face but he grabbed hold of her and restrained her against his chest, he was much stronger than he looked and managed to hold her completely still.

"Don't decide so quickly. Let me show you how serious I am about my offer by demonstrating the pain you will feel in your final moments if you do not accept it." She was turned around in his arms to face away from him and towards the middle of the throne room. "Boys, bring me the servant, I've been waiting a long time to kill that little snitch."

Two armed guards moved over and grabbed Marion who had been crouching half unconsciously on the floor since they dropped into the room. He came to as the guards kicked him over and he started screaming and fighting back as he was dragged unceremoniously over to where Sarah and the King were standing.

The guards stood there for a moment, carrying a struggling Marion between them until she heard the King speak from behind her.

"Begin."

Marion was dropped brusquely onto the floor and the guards grabbed their spears with both hands and pointed them downwards at Marion's body. In an instant they were shooting what looked like white electricity straight into Marion who scream and convulsed before them, writhing in agony.

"No stop! I'll do it!" Sarah couldn't take more than a few seconds of seeing Marion suffer, whatever they were doing was clearly more agonizing than anything she could have ever imagined.

"Great." The King said casually. "But I'm still going to kill this worm."

Sarah gasped as the guards continued administering their torture on Marion.

"No! I will only accept your proposal if you let him go and he can act as my servant. If you do not accept my terms you can go ahead and kill us both."

The king turned her around again, looking at her almost stunned for a moment, his expression then turning sour as he motioned to the guards to stop. Sarah could hear Marion whimper behind her.

"Fine." He grabbed her shoulders tightly and brought her right up against his face. Sarah was having a hard time keeping herself from throwing up as she caught the smell of him. He smelled like old, moldy clothes and what she imagined was the scent of a damp dungeon. "But don't think these kind of bartering methods are going to be accepted from now on. I will marry you but I call the shots around here, you are nothing more than my slave."

Sarah internally panicked as he let go of her to check on Marion.

"Wait! If you get Jareth's power through me that must mean that I get yours through this so called union, doesn't it?"

He let out a short burst of laughter.

"Yes, but I already know how to manipulate my powers to my advantage while you know nothing about Jareth's."

He turned to face the guards.

"Well, this has been quite a satisfactory end to this redemption day. Sarah and I will be wed on the next coming union day, please go and notify the Council. And take that worm to be healed and leave me here with Sarah."

The guards picked Marion up and carried him out between them.

"Sarah, our wedding day is 3 days away, if you try anything funny in the meantime you will be severely punished… and by that I mean you will probably lose a limb. Nothing will stop me from marrying you. Also, to show you I mean it, you will share a room with me…" He was standing right in front of her again and raised his hand to her neck, letting a finger trace down her naked chest. "… and give to me what Jareth got."

She shivered and he smirked into her face before summoning a female servant.

"Take Sarah away and get her cleaned up, she will share my chambers immediately so take her there once she'd ready."

He then turned back to Sarah with a smirk.

"I'll be seeing you later."

-x-x-x-

After being cleaned up and dressed in the ugliest dress she had ever seen in her life she was taken to a vast but dark chamber, looking around it she shivered when she noticed the bed by the far wall. She sent the female servant that escorted her away with the strict instructions to send Marion her way once he had been taken care of and a short while later he joined her in the bed chamber.

"Thank you for saving my life Sarah." He looked almost ashamed.

"You're welcome Marion."

"I'm sorry you got tangled into this." His apologetic voice cutting her to the quick. "You do realize that he will probably kill us both once he has married you and gotten his hands on Jareth's power."

"Yeah… that did cross my mind." She looked around for a place to sit, the weight of the situation bearing down on her, but there was nowhere in this damp and dirty room she wanted to even touch.

"Well, for what it's worth I will serve you Sarah. Not only because that is my job here but also because you saved me even though I haven't always showed much appreciation for you. I realize now that I was wrong about you."

"Marion… I'm not going to let this happen. I realize now how selfish I was when I destroyed the Labyrinth to fulfil some childish fantasy. I didn't realise that by turning Jareth down so dramatically that I would be destroying everything in his world. We have to fix this, no matter how we do it. We have to find Jareth…"

Just as she uttered Jareth's name the door to the chamber flew open and King Brokk entered with a grim look on his face.

"Marion, I hope you suffer no permanent damage from my ministrations. No hard feelings." He said, his venomous smile not carrying even a hint of remorse.

Marion said nothing, only started at him, frozen still in his memory of the torture he was put through.

"Leave us." The king roared.

Marion glanced over at Sarah who nodded at him reassuringly.

"It's ok Marion."

He slowly made his way out of the room and closed the door behind him. As he did the king quickly made his way over to her and she had to will herself not to retreat backwards from him. She couldn't let him know that she was afraid of him.

"Well Sarah. It's time we get to know each other a little better. I want what your body has to offer and I will not take no for an answer."

He reached out for her and grabbed the skirt of her dress, pulling her roughly into his body. She placed her hands on his chest to create a barrier between them and pushed against him as hard as she dared.

"Let me guess, just because Jareth got it? Typical of an insecure man, constantly needing to one up the ones who have the real power."

He growled in anger as he grabbed the back of her head and kissed her roughly, she managed to break the kiss by pushing against his chest has hard as she could muster but he didn't let go of her.

"You do realize that making me angry will only make this more painful for you. This is going to happen either way so just give in to me and enjoy it."

His hand was travelling downwards, gathering up the hem of her dress and reaching his hand underneath it in search of her underwear. She pushed against him again trying to free herself from his hold.

"Get off me!"

As he grabbed her behind to pull her closer to him there was a faint knock at the door.

"Sire" She heard a voice tentatively state from the doorway.

"Not now! I'm busy!" He roared without easing up his advances on her in the slightest.

"I'm terribly sorry sire but your guests have arrived."

Suddenly it was as if realization flooded his features and his sour expression turned gleeful in an instant. Abruptly he let her go and she stumbled a few steps backwards.

"Ahh, yes! In all this unexpected commotion I had completely forgotten… straighten yourself out, you're coming with me!" He didn't give her any time to do as he asked however as he grabbed a hold of her arm and pulled her into the hallway, rushing after the servant who now lead their way. "Things are finally looking up!"

-x-x-x-

A/N: A huge thank you goes out to each and every one of my readers for your patience and reviews!