Labyrinthine Quandary

Summary: Q needs a place to hide. Has Jareth met his match?

Disclaimer: I do not own either Star Trek: The Next Generation or Labyrinth. They are the property of Paramount Pictures and Jim Henson Productions, respectively.

A/N: This story takes place six years after the events of Labyrinth. In the Star Trek timeline, it is after "Deja Q" and before "True Q."

Chapter 1

Q winked in on an airless planetoid somewhere in the Milky Way galaxy and began to pace. The Continuum was being totally unreasonable! Okay, so he got a little carried away. The Noophians, who had no respect for history anyway, weren't using that building anymore. Heck, they were going to tear it down! And it was very unusual architecture, too. So, he took it. That was no reason to get so snippy. The Continuum threatened to take away his powers again! Even the Q who'd given his powers back after the last time agreed with them. Though, technically, that Q had pushed for him to lose his powers in the first place.

Still, they had no call to be threatening to make him go through that again! What he'd done wasn't that bad. He hadn't intended things to go so far. That they had wasn't his fault! How was he to know they wanted to reuse the building materials? When he found out, he gave them the equivalent amount of raw materials that would have been in the building in new materials. The original building would be enjoyed for centuries in the Andromeda galaxy.

This wasn't like what he did to the Calamarain. Those pesky sentient clouds had no right to attack him! They deserved what he did to them! His willingness to give up his own safety, by leaving the Enterprise, so the crew could save Bre'el IV from being destroyed by its own moon was what led Q to give him his powers back. Of course, he'd also said he'd be watching Q, which was why Q, personally, had decided to be merciful and leave the Calamarain alone.

Q stopped pacing. He'd have to disappear, he decided. The problem was: where? The Continuum could find him anywhere in the universe. Well, he'd just have to go someplace they would be unlikely to look for him. That ruled out begging Jean-Luc for sanctuary again. Not that the captain would grant it, this time. He'd have to do this by chance. Choose to go where the Continuum would never look for him...

Q closed his eyes and snapped his fingers, concentrating on the nonspecific place he wished to go. He winked out, leaving the planetoid empty, once again.

Jareth, King of the Goblins, lay sprawled across his throne. The Goblins were entertaining themselves elsewhere, so he was alone. He stared disconsolately into a crystal, watching Sarah Williams talk to the little one-eyed fox, Sir Didymus. The two friends sat together on Sarah's bed, in the bedroom of her off-campus apartment. Sir Didymus's cowardly canine companion, Ambrosius, lay on the floor at Sarah's feet.

Six years ago, Sarah had defeated the Labyrinth and won her brother back. It was during her journey to save her brother that Jareth fell in love with her. But she had not called for him even once since! All of the friends she made in the Labyrinth visited often, but she didn't see the Goblin King as her friend. She saw him as the man who stole her baby brother; never mind that she asked him to take the child.

At 15, Sarah was a selfish, bratty, little girl. But the potential was there for her to be something great. She dreamed of being an actress, like her mother, and playacted Jareth's tale in the nearby park. The Labyrinth had helped her grow up, shown her that childish games and desires couldn't be her whole world. She learned that Life was not fair and wouldn't always give her what she wanted, and she had to accept things as they came and move on.

Over time, Sarah had proven herself worthy of Jareth's love. Her kindness, like when she befriended that hairy lug Ludo, was more obvious in how she helped her community. Two years ago, she organized her college classmates to perform a play, the proceeds of which went to charity. The creative solutions Sarah used when she was devious in her dealings with Hoggle and her handling of the Door Puzzle was a skill she used brilliantly when performances weren't coming together as planned. It was often Sarah who came up with plans to deal with the problems delaying things.

But she had retained the tendency to assume that things are as straightforward as they seem that had caused her so much trouble when Jareth sent her to the oubliette. The Helping Hands had asked her which way she wanted to go and she said 'down', because she was facing that way. She should have said 'up', which would have gotten her out without needing help from Hoggle. If she had done that, Jareth would have had no opportunity to have the dwarf lead her to the beginning again. Since then, she accepted everyone she met as they presented themselves. If they proved to be different from her original perception, Sarah could accept the new reality and proceed from there without complaint.

But she was too willing to believe her first impressions. That could be dangerous. That would be one of the things he would help her correct. If he could only talk to her!

She had grown into a vision of womanhood. Her sterling qualities, especially those she had developed due to her adventures in the Labyrinth, had garnered the attention of the young men she worked with in the theater. Now, more than ever, Jareth dearly wished he could talk to Sarah. But he couldn't unless she called for him. She said the words, even as she realized the truth of them, as they stood in the Escher Room: he had no power over her. They were equals in a way that Sarah had not fully understood. He just wanted...

Wait a minute. What was this? There was a change in the Magic around the Labyrinth. Jareth sat up, and changed the view in his crystal to show him the source of the disturbance. He narrowed his eyes. Who was this? This person dressed like a Fae, but he wasn't one. How could anyone get that deep in his Labyrinth without him knowing?

Jareth stood up, vanished the crystal, and transformed into an owl. He hovered a moment before flying out the window to investigate the intruder.

Q winked in again in a large courtyard paved in stone. The wall surrounding the courtyard had several openings and was covered by a lot of ivy. Q was wearing merchant's garb, in the style worn in Earth's 17th century, of the same red and black color scheme as the judge's costume he'd worn the first time he encountered the Enterprise. He looked around the courtyard, amused when he caught sight of a stone throne made of books, with steps leading up to it. To the left of the throne was an urn on a table. Statues stood against the wall. In front of the throne was a giant sundial. "How quaint," he quipped.

Feeling a sense of being watched, Q looked around again. He was startled when he saw an old man. On top of the old man's head, there was a hat topped by the neck and head of a scarlet bird. The old man seemed not to notice Q, walking past him to mount the steps to his throne, and sitting down without greeting him.

Q didn't like not knowing where he was, so he approached the old man. "Excuse me." The old man looked up at him in surprise. "Could you tell me where we are?"

The old man seemed puzzled by the question. "Where... we are... hmm..."

"What an interesting conversationalist you are." Q jumped in surprise. The comment had come from the bird on the old man's head! "Can't even answer a simple question."

The old man ignored the bird. "Well... Sometimes, where you are is less important than where you've been... or where you're going to be..." Q rolled his eyes. That was really helpful... not.

"What a bunch of crap," the bird quipped. Q chuckled. The bird was more interesting than the old man. "You want to know where we are? I'll tell you." It cocked its head. "This is the center of the Labyrinth, realm of the Goblin King, ruler of the Underground."

The old man seemed to have fallen asleep while the bird was talking, though how he could sleep with such a talkative companion right on top of his head was anyone's guess. Q grinned. "Thank you. That was very helpful."

The bird studied him. "You're not a typical visitor to the Labyrinth."

"No, I'm not." Q considered the bird. "You don't like being his hat, do you?"

Shaking his head, the bird answered, "No. It's not particularly stimulating being his hat. He's more interested in sleeping all day." He looked down at the old man. "When he manages to answer a question, he speaks in riddles. Very annoying, and it never makes sense."

Q rolled his eyes. "Tell me about it. Say," his eyes lit up as an idea came to him, "how would you like to be able to leave the old man?"

"What do you mean?" the bird asked in curiosity.

"Just this." Q snapped his fingers and suddenly the bird was standing on the old man's head. The old man was oblivious to the added weight of the bird's legs, wings, and body.

The bird stared at the new body, wings, tail, and feet he'd been given. "How did you do that?"

Q shrugged. "I just did it. Now, you don't need to spend all your time with a boring old man."

Before the bird could come up with an answer, a barn owl swooped down and landed on the sundial. It had, rather strangely, one blue eye and one brown eye. Within moments, the owl had transformed into a man, who jumped from his seated position to the ground. The man was tall, maybe six inches shorter than Q, with long, wild blond hair, and wearing a collared black vest over a red shirt, black gloves, black slacks, and black boots. He also wore a strange gold necklace, with an arrowhead-shaped amulet bearing something resembling a Celtic symbol in gold, hanging on it.

The man stood in front of the sundial, studying Q. A crystal appeared in his hand, and he played with it idly for a couple of seconds. Then, he stopped and gripped the crystal in his hand. "Who are you, and what are you doing in my Labyrinth?"

"Your Labyrinth?" Q grinned impishly. "Well, I'm terribly sorry I entered without your permission, Your Majesty." He bowed mockingly.

Jareth raised an elegant eyebrow. This man was being deliberately annoying. "You haven't answered my question. Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

Q shrugged. "I'm Q. I came here because I needed a break from the rest of the galaxy."

Jareth considered this. "Your name is Q? Q is a letter." He moved closer to the intruder. He ignored the fact that the stranger was taller than he was. Jareth was the king, here. He would learn the truth. "What is your real name?"

Q chuckled. "Technically, I have no name. My people are the Q, and we all call each other Q. You, on the other hand, do have a name. And you have yet to introduce yourself." He tutted condescendingly. "That's hardly polite."

The Goblin King glared. "You are in my realm. I have no obligation to do anything unless I choose to." He juggled the crystal he held, running it over his fingers and rolling it under to the back of his hand and back to the palm side as he thought this over. "However, my name is Jareth. I am the Goblin King, and ruler of the Underground."

Q smiled. "Nice to meet you, Jareth." He watched the Goblin King juggle the crystal for a moment. "Nice trick." He suddenly had his own crystal and began to juggle, as well. "This is far too easy with only one, you know." A second appeared in Q's hand, to be juggled over and under the first as both rolled over his fingers. "I think I need another to make this even remotely challenging." A third appeared, and Q began tossing the crystals in the air like a circus juggler.

Jareth raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. Apparently, we share talents."

Q stopped, and all three crystals vanished. Showing off isn't much fun when the person you're showing off for isn't terribly impressed by what you're doing. Now what? He crossed his arms over his chest in annoyance. "You know, you're not as much fun as the species I usually meet."

Jareth smiled serenely. "Then, you take too much for granted." His expression grew sad as he considered his previous melancholy thoughts. "Much like someone else I know."

Q studied the Goblin King curiously. Then, he grinned mischievously. "Really? Do tell."

Jareth sighed. Who else could he tell? "Her name is Sarah. When she first entered my Labyrinth six years ago, she was very naïve. She took everything at face value, and therefore was deeply confused. Nothing here is as it appears, and it took her hours to realize this.

"She had wished her little brother away, and wanted him back. But I couldn't simply undo her wish. What's said is said. She had to prove herself worthy of getting him back. So she had to run my Labyrinth. If she won, her brother would be returned to her. He was mine by right, so I did my best to ensure she didn't make it through, and many of my subjects aided me. She managed to get through anyway."

Q was intrigued. Something about Jareth's tone told Q more than what was actually said in words. "You're in love with her, aren't you?"

Jareth looked at him in surprise. "How dare you!" Then, he stopped. "What if I am?" His tone was challenging.

Q's grin broadened. "Why don't you tell her how you feel?" He was honestly curious.

Jareth scowled. He hated thinking about it. "Because I have no power to do so. When she defeated the Labyrinth, she declared herself beyond my power. I can have nothing to do with her, or anyone she knows in her world, unless she calls for me. Which she has never done in the six years since she defeated me."

Q's eyes twinkled. "You may not be able to go there yourself, but there's nothing saying someone can't take you."

Jareth was confused. "What do you mean?" Q said nothing; he merely snapped his fingers. In an instant, both men were gone in a flash of light.