Ummm ... yeah. So, this idea has been running circles in my head. I figured the only way to get it out was to try and write it down. I blame the fact that Labyrinth has been everywhere lately. And by blame, I mean I'm buying pretty much every Laby-related book and item I can get my hands on. Because even after twenty years I'm still hopelessly addicted. XD

Okay, so, I have a few vague ideas as to where I want this story to go. I'm going to be basing a lot of this on the official Labyrinth novelization written by ACH Smith, which was recently re-released (and if you've never read it, now's a good time to do so!). The novel is of course just a written version of the movie, but it actually delves a little deeper into Sarah's backstory and family life and gives her a little more depth.

Forgive me if updates are sporadic and slow. I've been working on quite the little epic under my other penname for two-plus years now, and I have no intention of stopping. This is just something of a little break in between chapters of that when I can't stand looking at in any more for awhile.

Anyway, onward we go!

Prologue

She loved and hated him with equal passion. It had always been so, although the hate had come much later, after his love grew cold and empty. They had been inseparable for so long. She could not claim that they'd been together since childhood, for neither of them had ever been children. They were ageless beings, although she had lived far longer than he. But he had fascinated her from the moment he'd stepped into existence. Strong. Beautiful. As untamed and feral as the magic that had birthed him. She had beckoned him, and he came to her willingly, and together they had traveled the vast expanses of the universe. They explored worlds, galaxies, dimensions beyond comprehension, had danced among the moons and planets and bathed in rivers of stardust as they'd entwined in their passion, and it had been glorious.

She hated that he had taken it from her. Had, in the end, rejected her love. Her, the Empress of Stars! She, the most powerful, the most beautiful, the most coveted and desirable queen among their kind. It was not to be borne! Who was he to turn from her? A mere lowborn, compared to her greatness. Her love for him had been a blessing, a gift, and he dared to reject it? And for what? A mere human.

Her slow fury kindled and the earth beneath her feet shuddered. The trees shivered and groaned as though to upheave their roots and flee her wrath. It was the humans who had first turned his head. The scurrying, scuttling mortals who had captured his attention so completely. Their brief existence was but the flicker of an eyelash to the fae-kin, but their lives burned fierce and bright, and he, like the foolish moth, had been drawn insatiably to their flame.

She had gleefully indulged his whims at first. She bored so easily in her forever-life and any new amusement was a welcomed distraction. It was so easy to tempt the greedy mortal creatures with their most cherished desires, lure them to the Underground, into the vast, ever-changing maze that made up but a small portion of the enchanted land. Oh, how she'd enjoyed that merriment! How she'd delighted to watch their futile struggles as the Labyrinth swallowed them up, one by one, rent their dreams asunder and shredded their very souls. Left nothing but twisted, shrunken husks that barely resembled men anymore to wander aimlessly within its belly, lost to all reason.

The Labyrinth had been wondrous back then. A free creature as wild as any of the fae-kin, with a thirst for the hunt and the kill that nearly matched her own. She had delighted in its conquests, fed its insatiable appetite with her offerings in exchange for her amusement. And she had thought her lover joined in her revels, fed on the humans' torment as surely as she. But she had been wrong. He no longer found amusement in the diversions. He, in fact, pitied the poor creatures caught within the depths of the living monolith, regretted his part in trapping them there.

He demanded that she stop her games. Cruel, he had called her. He thought her cruel, and he disapproved of her delight in the suffering she caused. She laughed at him; after all, what did his disapproval matter? She was beyond cruelty or kindness. Beyond right and wrong. Good and evil. She was a power unto herself, and the mortals held little more notice than the worms crawling in the earth. They meant nothing to one such as she.

And when she refused to bow to him, refused to heed his pleading, when he realized that he could not sway her, he left her side. Escaped into the bowels of the Labyrinth, into its very heart. And there, he reared in the wild magic. Wrested control of it from the land, drew it into himself. He bound himself to it, bound the Labyrinth to him, brought it firmly under his control. Still wild as a feral beast, but leashed now, and muzzled. Tamed. It was a feat she had never expected. Had never realized he possessed the strength of will or the power to accomplish such a task.

His conquest was as alluring as it was enraging. Her love and her hate grew and intermingled until she could hardly tell one from the other. The knowledge that he had betrayed her for the sake of humankind, to keep them from her hands, was the most infuriating realization of all. His strength left her breathless with hopeless longing. His treachery left her shaking with impotent fury. She longed to punish him for his betrayal, and she longed to hold him and love him as she once had. She would have given anything to be in his bed again, to feel him inside of her and around her, as she allowed her hands to claw mercilessly into his chest and tear out his living heart.

But because he now possessed the power of the very Underground, even she could not touch him if he did not wish it. He erected his city and his castle, declared himself the king of every creature within, and continued with his games, for well he knew that the Labyrinth would not stay leashed and muzzled if he did not offer some compensation from time to time.

But the games were tamer, now. Dare she say gentle, when compared to what they had been before. He offered his prey a sporting chance. And when she mocked him he turned a deaf ear to her taunts. When she stood before him in all of her naked glory, offering her forgiveness and her love to him once again, he turned a blind eye to her beauty. Focused instead on the Aboveground and the disgusting mortals she so despised.

He, for all accounts and purposes, forgot her.

Rejection. Humiliation. She had never before experienced such disagreeable emotions. They fed her rage, her hate. She fled the Labyrinth, fled into the wilderness and unleashed her fury upon it, upon every living creature within a hundred miles. And amidst the complete destruction she wrought, she vowed that she would be his downfall. He might be untouchable now, but at some point, he would slip. He would drop his guard, thinking himself safe. And it would end him.

So she waited. And watched. And planned. Hours and days and years slipped slowly past, but what was time to an ageless being, anyway? A mere breath. Her patience was limitless, reached beyond the very concept of time. And as the centuries slipped away, her fury dimmed, but not her intent. Not her hate. Even as she slept, she plotted.

And then, it arrived. Her opportunity. And, delight of delights, from one of those very same mortals her former love so enjoyed. Just another silly pawn in his endless games. But this one was different. This one seemed to fascinate him more than any other. He offered chance after chance, and she took wicked pleasure to hear him beg, to plead with the human child to love him, fear him, obey him. Only for his offer to be flung in his face, those innocent mortal eyes to turn away, seeking a greater prize.

Karma, it was. The taste of humiliation and rejection that he had bestowed upon her so long ago. Not so sweet to be on the receiving end of it!

And now came the final confrontation. She stirred, tasted the tension, the anticipation as the final moments trickled past. And the mortal child spoke the Words. Those words that every other mortal had failed to say. But it wasn't even the words that mattered. The intent behind them became his ultimate defeat. The intent to win. The intent to take back what was hers, to reject his gifts of dreams and love. And because he did love her, as much as he was capable of loving anyone, he let her go.

And in doing this, she undid him.

His power cracked. For the briefest of moments the Labyrinth howled, unleashed its fury at being denied its prize, strained against its tether to claim the girl it had lost.

And as he wrested the beast back under control, she saw her opening. The mere sliver of a chance.

For the first time in aeons, the Empress of Stars smiled.

And then she struck.

So, yeah. I kind of like the idea of the Labyrinth being a living creature in its own right, brought firmly to heel under Jareth's hand. I'm out of the loop in regards to Labyfics, so I have no idea if this has been done before.

Oh, and two quick notes.

1. Not sure I like the title, or if it will fit further down the line, so it might change.

2. Rating might also eventually inch up into the M category. We'll see.