Welcome to Wonderland

Sarah sat in a steel gray room.  The room, if you could call it such as it had no walls, was dimly lit by an unknown cold light, giving the place a deathly palor, but allowing her to see her surroundings – of which there were none.  Her surroundings was neither cold nor warm, and the stark nothingness of it all caused her to shake.  Remembering, she looked down at her hand where the ring sat motionless.  Four prong-link claws now protruded from the inky gem, and had dug into her skin.  Purple welts had risen up where the talons cut deep into her flesh, and when she tried to remove it, they dug in deeper, cause thick blood to ooze out.  She winced in pain and looked down.  She noticed that she was no longer adorned in night gown, but instead, was in a black silken dress, low cut across her chest, with no sleeves, and a long, trailing skirt.  Thinking, she felt for the necklace Jareth had given her, and clutched it.  Nothing happened.  She felt panic begin to well up inside her chest….. “C’mon Sarah, don’t do this.  There has to be some kind of explanation.  Why would Jareth do this?  What is going on….think.”

“Jareth wouldn’t do this.” Came the answer.

Sarah whirled around to find a throne – steel gray – in the middle of nothing, with a lounging Stark adorning it.  Hopping up, he slowly began to saunter towards her.  “Such a pity that my cousin will have to find another trinket to toy with.  Your mine now, Pet.  All mine.”  He was in front of her now, his warm breath assaulting her face.  “What to do with you, hmmmm, now that is a quandary, now isn’t it.”  His tongue snaked out of his crooked smile and licked at hers.  Her hand connected hard with his cheek in a hard slap.  Blood trickled down from where her nails had scratched him, and he licked it off his lip, smiling.

Her eyes growing cold, Sarah met his gaze.  “Where am I?”

“Tits for tat, Pet.  I will answer one if you will – deal?  As a show of good faith, I will even answer your question first.  You are where all my naughty pets go.  You are in a steel crystal, a prison if you will, far from the eyes and ears of my cousin.  My turn, did he have you yet?”

“Get the hell away from me.  You are sick.”  Sarah turned to walk away, but he was in front of her again, a sick smile playing across his lips. 

“Tsk tsk tsk.  I thought we were playing nicely…oh well,”  his balled hand came up and connected with her face.  Sarah landed hard on the floor, gasping.  “Now now, I didn’t really want to hurt you.  Oh wait, yes I did.  But since I have you here and you are being most difficult, I will tell you a secret….”

Sarah had never been hit before, and she felt her eye begin to swell shut.  “Piss off, bastard.”

“Oh, now now, Pet, really…” With a kick to her stomach, Sarah recoiled.  “It really is too bad you want to fight.” He grabbed her hair and pulled her up to face him, “other methods of interrogation are far more pleasurable.  Although I must say that hurting the toy of my cousin is quite amusing.  In time, my little gift will ensure that you will find my company more than adequate, in fact, one might say that you will love my attentions.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“My little gift, Pet, is a most fantastic device.  It purges you of free will, and fills you with my desires for you, whatever they may be….” Spit landed on Stark’s cheek.  Slowly, without taking his eyes from his prey, his tongue snaked out to lick it from his skin and then he slowly inched closer to her face.  “You really know how to make a man want you, don’t you Pet.” Licking her lips, he pushed his tongue into her mouth and with his free hand grabbing her breast.  She struggled to free herself and he pushed her back down to the cold floor.  “I suggest you rest, the less you fight my control, the easier it will be on both of us.”  With that, he pushed her back to the floor and then leaned close, taking a small piece of her hair and pulling it out.  “I will be taking you later, Pet, make no mistake.  I just want to make sure your intended knows of our love in all of it’s gory detail before I christen you mine.  Here, Xaven will keep you company in my absence.  I have to make sure Jareth gives me everything I want before I deny him everything he desires.” And he was gone.  In his place stood a very angry, very tattooed, very muscular looking ebony skinned dark elf whose red eyes focused upon Sarah who stood staring back with one good eye burning with hatred.

Jareth and Aryene stood staring at the note as the words upon the paper changed from “For you” to “All Mine”.  Rage burning inside the Goblin King and a deep hatred began to swell inside of Aryene.  With a primal scream, magic poured forth from Jareth as he flung crystals doused in blue flames about the room, destroying the bed and shattering the mirror, burning the clothes and charring the tapestries.  It was only Aryene’s soft touch upon his shoulder that brought the Goblin King down from spiraled rage.

“We will find her, Jareth.”  Aryene softly whispered, the anger clear upon her face and in her voice.  “We will find her, and whoever has taken her from your side will pay.”

“Stark.”  Jareth spit the name.  “I can smell him.  I have to go, I have to find him.”

“And where will you go?”

“I have to look,”

“And where will you start?  Patience, Jareth, patience.  This is a game to him.  You know she is still alive, you and I would have both felt the tie sever if she had left this world.  He wants you to come to him, you must have strength, for her sake.”

Jareth grew silent, a deep pain etching across his face.  He turned toward Aryene.  “How long have we known one another?”

“Since as long as I can remember.”

“And how long have we been blood tied?”

“Since you took me in, after the disgrace of…”

“So you will be honest with me now.”  Jareth said plainly.

“I have never been anything but.”

“What does he want.  You know him better than any, you have seen his darkness.  Why would he take Sarah?”

“Jareth,” the sigh that followed his name belied her inner turmoil.  She was blood tied to Jareth, bound to him as family as she had been cast out of hers.  He was like a brother to her and was her dearest friend.  He had taken her in upon her exile and, as payment, she had indentured herself to him, though he had not asked for it.  None of this made what she was about to tell him any easier.  “I believe he wants the Labyrinth.”

“How right you are” came the reply from behind the two of them, Stark stood in the door frame lounging, with a ringlet of mahagony hair in his fingers.  In an instant Jareth was on him, grabbing him by the shirt and lifting him against the wall.  Rage burned in the king, and the fire in his eyes was only heightened by the laughing of Stark.  “You know you cannot hurt me, dearest cousin, for if you do, you will never find her.”

Jareth dropped the still laughing Stark to the ground.  Areyne moved to stand between the two men.  Stark had stopped laughing and now gazed back at Jareth.  “Where is she Stark?” Areyne broke the silence.  Without taking his eyes from Jareth, Stark responded “She’s safe for the moment.  I left her with a friend.” Came the sickeningly soft reply, spoken as his tongue licked at his lips.

“What do you want Stark?” Jareth groweled between clenched teeth.

“You know,” he began as he started to walk towards Sarah’s dresser, “I really tried to play nice.  Tried to be the diplomat, tried to go about things the proper way.  I mean, I had Illianna removed, I had made sure the barren lands were perfectly, well, barren, I even convinced the council that Areyne was insane with love, all so that I could have this.  But then you saunter in and take away all my best laid plans.  You really are an arrogant bastard, you know that?  Well, I’m damn sick of waiting.  You want Sarah back? Do you?  You hand over the Labyrinth, Areyne, and banish yourself above ground.  You wave control of the Goblin-kin and break your bond with Areyne, and you can have your precious little pet back.  You do that, and she is yours.  You have, hmmmmm, thirteen hours, yes thirteen hours to decide.” He lifted her hair to his nose and inhaled.  “Mmmmmmmmm, maybe you shouldn’t agree. She is quite, divine.” And he was gone.  Sarah’s hair floated to the floor.

Jareth spun to face Areyne, in an instant he was clothed in black, from head to foot, with steel gauntlets adorning each hand.  A scimitar hung around his waist and a black cape covered his shoulders.  He nodded at Areyene and she too changed.  They were to travel, she knew, as emissaries of either peace or war, depending on the situation.  In an instant she was dressed to mirror his own appearance, black leggings, a tight black sleeveless tunic, two daggers at her hips and black gloves.  A dark blue cape adorned her shoulders and Jareth’s insignia around her neck.  They nodded at one another.

“Send the goblins out, if she is in the Labyrinth, they will find her.  Have the beasts speak with the rocks, if she is anywhere on this plane, they will know.  Areyne, I am not asking you to do this because you owe me anything.  You do not have to follow me into what will surely be a fight with Stark and his minions.  If you wish to remain behind…”

“I would never disgrace our relationship with such cowardice.”

“I know how he has hurt you, Areyne.  I don’t know all of it, but I know the scars you bear run deep.  I know a part of you still fears him..”

“There is no part of me that fears him any more than any part of me that hates him.  I will stand by your side as you administer judgement.  Jareth, I will stand by your side no matter the course.  We will find her, we will get her back.”

Jareth stood staring into her steel cold blue eyes, knowing that their bond of friendship could never be broken.  With a curt nod, she left to give the orders to Jareth’s followers.  The goblins would scour the Labyrinth, the beasts would commune.  She knew what else had to be done as Jareth prepared.  She would send the knights to the edges of the Labyrinth to stand as sentries and prepare the firies and pixie folk for ambush and gorilla warefare.  She would send the avaians to search quickly across the kingdoms for any sign of Jareth’s chosen and to guard the outer reaches of his kingdom.  She knew Jareth would go to his study and would send for her shortly.  There he would contact the counsel and notify them of his actions.  Of Stark’s betrayal.  Much had to be done, and quickly.