AN: So, I've seen eight million of these where Sarah forgets her memories of Labyrinth (which sometimes I have trouble seeing, unless it's due to some kinda trauma/brainwashing. You have to admit, it's kinda an unforgettable thing to go through...), but there are absolutely ZERO where Jareth loses HIS memories of what happened. Don't worry, it's still SarahxJareth. I'm not going to Mary Sue up my favorite fantasy movie of all time.

Disclaimer: Labyrinth is sole property of the Jim Henson Company, not me. I'm borrowing all the goblins and such, as well as the Goblin King for an undisclosed amount of time. I'll be returning him soon enough.

Unforgettable

By: DemonSaya

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Prologue

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Shattered

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Give me the child...I have fought my way here, to the castle beyond the Goblin City. For my will is as strong as yours, and my Kingdom as great.

You have no power over me.

Jareth awoke with a start, sweating, his face pale, his hands shaking. It had been years. Almost twelve to be exact, since those events took place. He forced himself to his feet, staggering away from his sweat-soaked bed, moving towards the window where he could see the sun rise over his domain, telling himself that it was just a dream. Just a stupid dream.

Unfortunately, the dream was also a memory of a time when he'd developed a strong affection for the girl who had cast him aside in favor of a screaming baby. He could still remember the amazed look on her face when she spoke those words, as if she'd only just then understood that he stood powerless against her. He trembled under her innocent gaze, an innocence he had never seen before and would likely never understand.

An innocence beyond that of most mortals.

It would not have been an exaggeration to say that he had fallen in love with that spirit, that creative, imaginative, fiery spirit. Passion, determination, so much wrapped up in the small body of a fifteen year old, who stood on the cusp of womanhood. And what a woman she would have become. She could have bloomed here, been his Queen, had her dreams, and given him his as well.

Except her attachment to that baby went deeper than he suspected, and led her unerringly to stand before him in the Escher Room. She spoke those six words that destroyed him inside. Oh, he never let the Goblins see that he was affected. He acted just as they thought he should, laughed with them, kicked them high in the air, just because he could, shouted orders around, acted as a King should over his subjects.

Even alone, he dare not brood for long, because there were always creatures watching. Only during his brief stints up in Aboveground, could he watch her, acknowledge the pain he felt inside as she grew, as she drifted away from her dreams, further into the trap known as middle-class. That was the tragedy of life aboveground, in truth. Those who reached for their dreams, struggled to survive, those who sacrificed them, could have a life, a home, and a family.

He watched, year after year, expecting, waiting, knowing that she would take her own family, a husband who would care for her, but would never love her as much as he, couldn't love her as much as he, because she was his dream. The one thing he longed for, yet could never have. After all, he could only give mortal men and women their dreams. He had no ability to achieve his own. Between being the King of the Goblins, and losing Sarah, there was naught he could do. He was trapped, had been, from birth, inside a mold of what was expected of him. The other creatures in his land could strive for their dreams, they would likely never suffer the same fate as mortals, they'd be supported by their friends and families, never told that it's foolish to dream.

He watched Toby grow up, being shoved into the mold of his fathers and it tore him apart, because both of them could have had their dreams. He would have given them both their dreams. Just to keep her. He closed his eyes against the garish light as it rose.

His sweat-soaked pajamas were causing his skin to chill rapidly, and he decided to change without waiting for his valet to come lay out something for him. The Goblin didn't much care what he wore, regardless, so he'd have better luck looking well put together if he did it himself, and it would get him out of these now almost slimy, silk garments. He dug through the large walk-in closet, finding something comfortable, flexible. A loose billowy shirt would do...and for bottoms...hm. Leather pants. Yes. Slightly more space than many of his other pair.

He lay the clothes over the chaise near his bed and shed his clothing, tossing them into the dumbwaiter with a frustrated growl. He would have to do his best acting today. He couldn't do less than that. They would think he was weak to be mooning after something as silly as a mortal woman. But his dream had shaken him. He was not naive or foolish enough to believe that dreams meant nothing. He should know. Ordinarily he did not dream, and when he did, something always happened.

It was like the Labyrinth was warning him.

His dreams were what he sacrificed to hold the Labyrinth together. Both his living dreams and his sleeping dreams. Oh, he could have abandoned the Underground, cast aside the mantle placed upon him, the duty of being the Goblin King. If he did not know what would happen if he did.

He stared at himself in the full-length mirror, his Fae features staring back at him, the thing that made him different from the other Goblins, the thing that set him apart to rule. When his father Aboveground cast him aside sixteen thousand years ago, he came to the Labyrinth voluntarily, the king at the time, who was a better father than his birth father had been, took one look at him and declared Jareth his son, and the future King.

Those words had sealed his fate, and the shape he took. Not a Goblin, for no Goblin could ever feed brilliant enough dreams to the Labyrinth. No, only a child with a brilliant imagination is made one of the Fae, the leading power Underground, one who dreams in vivid colors, things which normally should not be. The former King had never taken a Queen. After the incident with Sarah, he realized that it was simply part of the curse of being the Goblin King. To be adored, worshiped, envied, but never truly loved.

How long had he wished for things that could never be? How long had he dreamed of a woman who could stand beside him, be his equal. A woman he could love, who could love him. Someone who was as arrogant, as willful as he, who wouldn't make it easy for him, who would make him work to earn her affection. Someone who would not throw herself at him like a whore. He'd wondered for centuries if there was such a woman, staring into his crystals, searching Above as well as Under. Then, he finds this girl, this woman-child, who is strong and fair, and his heart ached, crying out to him.

She's the one. She's perfect. She's all you'll ever need. Just draw her in, bring her into your world. Offer her those dreams, she'll be yours forever.

But he failed. She simply didn't care for him as much as she loved that baby.

These thoughts were doing him no good. He could see the sky clouding, and knew it was because he was morose. "No, Labyrinth, a clear day. A bright day. Give me the illusion that everything will be alright." He looked back at his reflection, seeing the weary look in his eyes and tried for his trade-mark smirk. Every time he nearly had it, it slipped. He realized then that it might be hopeless.

With a frustrated sigh, he moved towards his clothes, pulling them on careful not to tear the fabric in his anger. He found his softest black calf-skin gloves and slipped them on, looking at himself in the mirror. There. He didn't feel so exposed. He felt almost back to normal.

The door opened and a sour-looking Goblin appeared, carrying a cup of tea. "Ah, Grumpypants." Jareth said, as though he didn't know the Goblin's real name was Grimymask. "A lovely morning, wouldn't you say." He took the tea, noting the irritation flash over the Goblin's face. He took a long drink of the tea, setting it down on his rather expansive vanity-table.

He noticed a moment too late that the irritation had turned to a smirk. He felt the room dip and spin and he turned towards the Goblin. He gripped the vanity as he felt his strength rapidly fading. "What did you put in the tea...?" He snarled, furious.

"Memory root."

The other voice caused him to look up sharply. The Queen of the Marshlands. Mithryl. He snarled in fury. "You..." He was losing the power to think fast. "You think you've caught the Goblin King, my dear?" He grabbed one of his crystals, holding onto the dream as carefully as possible. With a laugh, he threw it into the air, and vanished, transforming into his Owl body before a word could be spoken. The crystal hit the ground, shattering and he fled as smoke filled the room, drawing them into a dream that he knew they'd break from easily enough. He fled as more of his thoughts left him. He fled the Labyrinth, the Underground, and moments before darkness took him, a desperate wish was thrown out into the world.

A wish that took only the form of a name.

Sarah...

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It didn't take long for her to shake off the effects of Jareth's magic. It had been a weak attempt to escape her, at best. Weak, but efficient. She underestimated Jareth's ability to resist the root. A foolish mistake. One she would not make again.

Mithryl frowned, standing, brushing her long, pale hair over her shoulder, her gray eyes surveying the damage. Her stooge was still unconscious. With a wave of her hand, she sent him to the dungeons in her Marshland Castle. After all, drugging a sovereign, even one that had fallen from power and grace, was a crime punishable by death, and she could not take the time to deal with him while she tried to discover where her dear Goblin King had escaped to.

She moved around the room, taking note of several things that would change when she was Queen of the Goblins, and then disappeared, reappearing in her own throne room. It was pale green marble with shoots of dark brown, and her throne was elegant, sleek. Her kingdom was, in a word, bright, beautiful. Nothing like that horrid Goblin Kingdom, which had a curiously beautiful King, while the rest of it seemed to lay in squalor.

She paced across the ground, towards her throne, her long, dark green velvet gown rustling across the floor behind her. She dropped into it, frowning faintly. Without his memories, he couldn't get far. But that that curious tremble in the earth troubled her. It was as though a vital part was missing, and it was about to break. Which, of course was ridiculous. Nothing had changed from that morning.

She shook off the minor concern, turning her thoughts towards Jareth. The Memory Root would create a thick veil over his mind, completely concealing all of his memories from birth. Which was fine. She would be happy to fill him in on his title, show him his Kingdom (with a few special modifications, of course), and tell him about how he loved her more than life. Definitely more than that horrid little human girl.

That girl, who'd ruined...everything.

She humphed, arranging her skirts in a more dramatic fashion, lifting her face as a dwarf entered her audience chamber, and put her other thoughts aside. She still, unfortunately, had her own kingdom to run.

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Sarah...

Sarah, who was walking home from work, very nearly came clear out of her skin upon hearing her name said that way in that voice. Oh, she remembered the voice, she'd probably never forget. How could she? It was a voice that she'd heard frequently over thirteen hours, and then never again. Until now. Except she didn't hear it in her ears. She heard it in her mind.

Upon hearing the sound, she'd stilled, feeling the memory of that time, nearly twelve years ago. The day she'd met her dreams turned flesh, the first man she'd ever met that stirred her heart and mind and imagination. A man who even though she could have easily fallen in love with, she had to let go, in order to save her brother. It had hurt, more than she expected, to realize that when everyone else would answer her call, it was as though he couldn't hear her, or didn't want to. He'd shut her from his life for what she could only imagine was the ultimate betrayal to him.

Still, even all these lonely years later, she longed to see him again, to tell him that the words were not meant to shut him from her life. She desperately wished that he could understand that she cared for him so deeply, that her heart had never found someone who could make her feel like he had. She'd tried. She'd dated others who seemed to support her dreams, her secret longings, but they always turned out to be lies. No man in her realm truly would give her those dreams.

In the end, she was nearly twenty seven, and heart-brokenly alone. Toby was the only one who understood the bitter taste of lost dreams, and it was her fault. If she'd asked, Jareth may have not turned Toby into a Goblin. They could have raised him together as their son.

She forced herself to start moving again. There was no point dwelling on what might have been, getting depressed and falling into a funk that she likely wouldn't be able to pull herself from. As she passed an alley, she saw a few boys throwing rocks at a corner and sighed, wondering what poor stray had caught their attention today. She moved towards them, yelling at the boys crossly. She whacked one good on the back of the head and nodded in satisfaction as they went running home.

Then, she turned towards the animal that was laying among the garbage.

Her eyes widened. "What are you doing here, darling?" She asked, reaching forward, stroking the downy feathers of a barn owl. "You're a long way from home..." It was true. Though she regularly saw them at her father's house in the suburbs, one rarely found one so far in the city. She sighed, shrugging out of her jacket. "What management doesn't know wont hurt them..." She whispered conspiratorially to the bird, tucking it safely in her large shoulder bag.

She crept past the building manager's room, into her own and carefully pulled the owl from her bag, still safely padded by her jacket. "Hey there, darling..." She spread the coat out, running her fingers carefully over the bird, checking for serious wounds. She was surprised to see that the cut that had been near it's eyes, bleeding rather badly when she'd first found him didn't look so bad any more. The bleeding had fully stopped and the wound didn't look so deep in this light. "I guess you're not in such bad shape..." She watched it's feathers shake as it stood, as though unsteady. "Such a beautiful bird...I wonder if you're someone's pet...I don't think I've seen one of you so far in the city before..."

It was staring up at her. It was unnerving. Rather than moving away from her, it simply stared, as though trying to figure out something about her.

That's when she really noticed it's eyes. Her breath caught and she gently touched the birds face. "Oh, my. You have his eyes..." She said softly, her heart, already bruised from hearing his voice taking another blow in such a short time. "One brown...one blue...Like Earth and sky." She hugged herself, feeling a bit more lonely and hurt.

The bird leaned forward, nipping at her nose lightly, and she laughed, but it was a miserable sound. "If I didn't know better, my feathered friend, I'd say you were trying to make me feel better..." Peculiarly, the owl nodded, which made her smile. "Thanks." She stroked it's lovely feathers. "You probably don't know what I'm saying, but the idea that you might is a comfort..." She stood, stretching. "I should make some food. I don't know about you, but I'm starved."

Again, the owl nodded.

She blinked, inclining her head and then she smiled. Oddly, she didn't mind it's strange behavior. "I don't have any thing I can think to feed you, but I have plenty of water and there's some meat in the freezer..." Again, it nodded. She shook the strange feeling that came over her and she sighed. "And after we eat, I highly suggest some rest. I've had a hell of a day, and I figure you must have, too..."

In less than an hour, she had food on the table and she and the bird ate their modest meal. She was surprised when it actually stole a few of the green beans on her plate, consuming those as well. She shrugged, figuring it probably wasn't a big deal. After the dinner was cleaned up, she sat on the couch, watching her small television, while the bird watched her with a perplexed expression. She began dozing off on the couch, when a strange scent filled her nose. It smelled like the air before a rainstorm, heavy, thick, filled with ozone. She sat slowly, looking around, finding that the bird was nowhere to be found. Instead, a hand peaked around the bottom of the couch. A hand in a black glove.

Sarah grabbed the baseball bat she kept nearby in case of a break-in and stood, creeping around her couch. What she found laying on her floor caused her to drop the bat and back up three full feet.

Wild blond hair, shorter than she remembered, but still standing away from his head. Billowy white shirt, with lace ruffles at the wrists and neck. That strange triangle pendant. Black leather pants, a bit less tight than she remembered, but still notably his. Black, calf-skin gloves and boots. Pale, even skin. Brows that reached up his forehead. Thin, lips, slightly softened and parted.

Sarah realized that she hadn't breathed and took several deep breaths, trying to keep her breaths slow when her body wanted to hyperventilate. "Jareth..." She whispered. Her eyes searched his face and found what she didn't know she was looking for. A pale mark, the sign of a freshly healed scratch, stretching down his cheek, under his eye. The owl she'd found was none other than the Goblin King, Jareth.

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AN: And cue credits. So closes the opening of this story. I will try to continue this, and I'll likely post it under several sites, although it will NOT make an appearance on GaiaOnline. . As usual, C&C is appreciated, although if you ZOMGTISFC, I wont get upset. Since I write for Inuyasha as well, I'm used to it. XD Love and peace everyone.