If you're never sorry, then you can't be forgiven

If you're not forgiven, then you can't be forgotten

If you're not forgotten, then you can live forever

If you live forever, then you'll begin to dream

- Pound of Flesh: Regina Spektor

Nobody saw the raven, dark in the moonlight, black against the stars, nobody heard her as she glided over on silent wings of velvet. Nobody except Sarah that is. Sarah watched as the raven settled on the tree branch just outside her bedroom window. As it had done every night for the past three weeks. This might not be cause for pause in someone with a normal past and an expectation of a normal future. But Sarah was not that person and the raven worried her deeply. Especially that part about the normal future. Because she was pretty dead set on that. So like any other good normal person, she decided to ignore the problem and hope it went away. Eventually that raven was going to get bored and see that she was not the girl it thought she was. That is, if her hunch about it being less a raven and another magical problem waiting to happen, was correct. This is the one time Sarah thought, she'd be ecstatic to be proven wrong.

Sarah gave one last look at the raven before grabbing her gym bag and heading out the door. Fall in Upper Nyack usually meant the sun wasn't up until well after 6am and it was still dark by the time she reached the gym's side door. Sarah had moved back into her parent's old house after finishing college. Her father had gotten a job offer across the country and needed to move quickly. Initially Sarah was just supposed to help them sell the house but her father decided that it made more sense for her to live there while she was working so close by. Initially this had worked out great for her, but after seeing that raven she couldn't help but think that the smart thing to do would have been to get as far away from that house as possible.

Sarah rustled through her bag before pulling out a key and letting herself in. It was dead silent and completely empty inside – just how she liked it. She headed off to change and warm up before Emma arrived. Carefully wrapping her knuckles, she approached the punching bag and began the drills her trainer had taught her.

Ten years ago after her last magical mishap, Sarah had come out both alive and the victor. Which was great, for a while. She had the friends she made along the way, she had her brother back, and yeah the happily ever after was a work in progress, but it was at least peaceful. But then her friends started letting details slip. How Sir Didymus was being called to the guard or Ludo helping build the walls higher and Hoggle was siphoning off fairy poison for rations. Eventually Sir Didymus explained that war was on the horizon and that the Labyrinth and all the Goblin Kingdom was preparing for battle. That was the last she'd heard from any of her friends, five years ago. She did not need to be told twice what Sir Didymus' message imparted. The war had to be with her, and The Goblin King was coming for her and Toby and he was rallying an army. Sarah knew that was why her friends communication had stopped. No way would the Goblin King allow them to continue to communicate with the enemy. She desperately hoped they were safe, but trusted they were. The Goblin King was a lot of things but he wasn't stupid. There was no way he would kill them. Not if he wanted leverage.

At least, she was pretty sure he wouldn't.

But they were on the other side of the mirror and Sarah had no intention of going back there, at least, not without a fight.

So Sarah had done the only thing she could think to do, she'd begun training at the local fitness centre. She was tired of feeling helpless and was done with playing nice. The last time she didn't really have a choice about going in blind, but that wouldn't be happening again. Sarah didn't have much in the way of combat skills, as middle class suburbia didn't really lend itself to deadly battles, but she was determined as hell. She'd arrive every morning before work and head straight to the basement, where the fighters trained. After a particularly volatile session with a kick boxing stand, Emma took notice of her rage and assumed there was a good reason for all of Sarah's aggression. Emma offered to let Sarah come in early and train with her, before the gym officially opened and the jockstraps took over the arena.

In the time since, she and Emma had begun a friendship, albeit confined within the walls of the gym. She'd eventually given Sarah a key to come and go as she pleased, but every day Emma would arrive at 6am and help Sarah train. She'd once asked Sarah why she needed to learn to fight so badly and Sarah weighed her options and had told her the truth.

She told her the whole truth of it. Complete with the wishing, the kings, and dreams trapped in crystals. The worst case scenario is Emma would think she was completely crazy and kick her out. Best case, she'd help her train harder. The reality was somewhere in between. Sarah could tell Emma didn't believe her, but she believed that Sarah believed, and that was good enough.

Emma's specialty was hand-to-hand close combat, so Sarah did the most training there. But she also wanted to learn to sword fight and some archery skills. Her line of thinking being somewhere along the lines of, if you're going to a magical medieval land, you probably need to know some magical medieval fighting skills. So Emma brought out the fencing equipment and archery targets once a week for Sarah to practice on. Her archery skills were very much still lacking even five years later, but she was good enough at fencing to best Emma every time. This morning it was boxing. Sarah didn't really think she'd ever be punching the Goblin King in the nose, but if she ever got the chance she was sure as hell taking it.

"What I don't get," Emma asked as she held up the mitts for Sarah to attack, "is why he cares so much about you. I mean, there's gotta be others who kicked his ass before. Why the grudge against your family specifically?"

Sarah jabbed the pads a few times.

"It's not that simple. I don't think it's about my family. I think it's about me. When it was down to the wire and he was saying anything he could to trick me and convince me to stay, it felt personal." Sarah remembered the way he had looked at her as she ran through the Esher room, how he had yelled at her. Like it suddenly wasn't about Toby at all. That she had captured his attention beyond her brother. Toby wasn't even mentioned in his final speech to her. A part of her had always wondered if Toby was even part of his offering. If she could have taken her dreams and gotten Toby back. Of course she hadn't thought twice about it in the moment - it wasn't worth the risk.

"Okay, say it was about you. Why you? Because you made him look stupid?"

Sarah laughed and gave the mitts a few more whacks.

"I think that's part of it yeah. Though I asked Hoggle about it once, like about why they were able to still visit me. He said he didn't know. But that I was the first one to beat the Labyrinth so that probably had something to do with it. So even if it's not about me, it is about the fact that I beat his Labyrinth. I'm the only one to beat it - that changes things. Maybe it had to end with one of us dying and he's coming back to seal the deal? I don't know. I just know that whatever it is, it's not over."

Emma held up her hand to indicate Sarah needed to stop. It was 7:30 and Sarah needed to shower off and get to work.

"Okay, but what if this is all because he's in love with you? I mean, that last speech?" Emma mocked fanning herself. "Pretty heavy."

Sarah scoffed and peeled the battered tape away from her knuckles.

"Not even. Trust me, he tried that. I saw his face in the ballroom. That was calculation, not love. What are fifteen year old girls more susceptible to than love? It's was all bullshit Em."

Emma shrugged.

"I get that. Sometimes all it's only ever manipulation."

"Yeah, and it's a lesson I'm not interested in learning twice." Sarah grabbed her bag and headed to the showers. "I'll see you tomorrow Em. I really need to improve my long distance shooting range."

"Yeah I'll haul out the targets."

Sarah normally preferred to walk to work instead of driving. It was only a couple blocks from the gym and while it was a bit damp and gloomy out, Octobers were always too short for her liking and she wanted to take advantage of the nice weather. But as she walked she couldn't help but feeling she was being watched. She looked up and scanned the sky for any errant ravens but the only soul for miles was a young redheaded woman reading a book on the other side of the street. That damn bird was getting to her. Though Sarah argued she had reason to be paranoid after all she'd been through.

The day passed uneventfully enough. Sarah worked for a small law firm as a paralegal during the days. She was good at her job because it was just that, a job. She did it because it was decent enough money and it didn't require much from her other than time. Her mental energy had been focused on other things for a while now and until that particular issue was resolved, Sarah did not feel equipped to spend time worrying about a career.

When she'd started college she'd thought seriously about working at a major publishing house, moving to the city, and writing her own novels in the evening. She had a plan and it was a good one. She had no idea if it was going to make her happy but she had to try. The world was too big to give up living in it. But for the last five years she had felt stuck. Stuck in this town, stuck in her job, stuck trying to fight a war she didn't know the rules of or how to win.

She'd thought about moving away. Of going to the city anyways. But it was a silly idea. Wherever she went she knew he could find her. The only thing she had on her side was that he didn't know she was prepared this time. That she wouldn't be pushed into it like some lost and lonely little girl. That wasn't her anymore. She knew this town and its people like the back of her hand. If he was here, if he was watching her, she'd know immediately. He had taken far more from her than thirteen hours. She was not interested in just giving up now and letting him win. Somewhere along the line there'd be another girl who might not be as lucky or resourceful as her. Sarah would not let that girl suffer like she had.

That evening, Sarah began her ritual of getting ready for bed. She meticulously covered up every mirror in the house and double-checked all the doors and windows were locked. She kept reflective surfaces in her house to an absolute minimum, she wasn't taking any chances. Her friends had never been able to come through the mirror, but just because they couldn't didn't mean someone or something else wasn't. The only mirror she still had left was the one that had been in her childhood bedroom. She covered it up with the sheet and sighed. It made her sad to do it. Sarah knew this meant her friends couldn't come and visit her, but they'd been missing for years now, and as much as she wanted to believe otherwise, she very much doubted they were coming back.

Sarah climbed into bed and closed her eyes and waited for the darkness. In the ten years since her run through the Labyrinth, Sarah had not had a single dream. When she had returned, she found all her dreams missing and she knew exactly the culprit. When he had offered her dreams, she didn't understand that he was being quite literal. She had refused her dreams, so they were gone. No more dreams. Traded instead for the life and happiness of her baby brother. Only blackness awaited her when she slept now. Sarah had almost grown used to it. No dreams to betray her thoughts and her mission. No dreams where the thoughts that absently flitted through her head during the day could come out and evolve into full-blown fantasies. No, it was better this way.

Except after ten years, tonight her dreams came back, and they came back with Him.

They were standing in his castle, she knew this though it was a room she had never seen. It was his bedroom. Exactly as dramatic and overdone as she would have imagined it. The room was probably bigger than her entire apartment, with a giant four poster bed in the center. There was a stone fireplace at the foot of the bed and above it featured a portrait of herself and Jareth. His arms were entwined around her. She wore a deep red dress and an amulet hung around her neck. An imperious expression on her face to match the bronze circlet on her head, Jareth wore a matching one. But there was something else there, beyond the arrogance, she could feel the happiness in her eyes staring back at her. It should have frightened her, but Sarah found herself unable to feel anything but content about it.

She sat in a large armchair in the corner by the bookshelf. In her hand was an old, heavy book written in a strange language that Sarah had never seen before in her life. Even so, she found she could read it. Without reason, the words filled her head. Writing about places she'd never heard of but could somehow remember and people whose names meant nothing but faces she could see perfectly. Sarah placed the book down on the armchair and moved over to the large window. From it she could see the entire Labyrinth. But more than that, she felt the Labyrinth. Felt it changing, growing, and the life that pulsed within it. It was almost a second heartbeat, beating alongside her own. She reached down and found the source at the heavy pendant around her neck. She'd seen one just like it before, ten years ago, around the neck of the Goblin King.

Sarah closed her eyes and tried to focus on the Labyrinth. Tried to tune out all the noise of its movements and creatures to just feel it. She outstretched her thoughts like fingers grasping at its pulse. It felt like life. Deep in her gut and tingling at the tips of her fingers, there was the Labyrinth. With all its weird and wonderful strangeness, it was a part of her.

Sarah was so focused on the Labyrinth she almost didn't notice when a pair of arms wrapped around her and a voice whispered into her ear.

"Come to bed my love."

Sarah turned her head slightly and smiled. The Goblin King looked down on her affectionately. He kissed her gently on the lips and Sarah found herself happily kissing him back. It felt strange. Both new and familiar at the same time. Some part of her was screaming that this wasn't right, but she didn't care. It felt strangely like home. Sarah turned around and wrapped her arms around Jareth's neck.

"I can't," she heard herself saying. "I need to finish reading about the Redlands before the small council meeting tomorrow. Their request is serious and I need to determine if there has been precedent."

Jareth leaned in and laid kisses along her neck.

"If I say sod it let them take the tithe will you come to bed then?"

Sarah smiled and pulled his face up to hers.

"We cannot ignore important diplomatic matters just because you're more interested in getting me into bed then doing the research."

Jareth leaned down and kissed the corner of her mouth.

"I'm not ignoring it. I'm saying yes. Say yes with me Sarah. It's such a lovely word. Yes, yes, yesss."

Sarah kissed him back and he took the opportunity to deepen the kiss. His hands running down her back and pulling her close against him.

"Fine yes," she murmured as he pulled her by the waist towards the bed. "Yes, yes, yesss."

Sarah laughed as they tumbled onto the bed. Looking down she saw the Goblin King looking back up at her. His mismatched eyes sparked with affection. There was no malice there. Only love. Love for her.

It scared her enough to wake her up. Jolting bolt upright in bed, Sarah clutched her heart, trying to slow her breathing, among other things. What the hell was that? What had just happened? She hadn't dreamed in ten years and suddenly she was dreaming that? Of all things? Why were her dreams back? What did it mean?

She was so startled that it took her a minute to realize. She was not in her bedroom. She was not in her nightdress.

No, Sarah thought. She was in the bedroom from the dream. His bedroom. And around her neck was his pendant. Beating just as it had in the dream, with the heart of the Labyrinth.

It was happening. She was back.

A/N: So! This has been some time coming. This story is more than three years in the making. Which means a wordpad file that's almost fifty pages long, countless scribbled post-its and scrawled lines in notebooks. Probably too much time at work thinking about this story and definitely too many playlists.

A couple of things!

1. This will be long. It may take me some time between chapters. I promise I've not quit, I just suck sometimes. Feel free to message me your vitrol. I probably deserve it.

2. Yeah, I'm going to have a song lyric or poem before the start of each chapter. I love it and it helps set the tone. Sue me. The movie was a musical, I'm adding music.

3. I'm Canadian which means I use the Queen's English. I am attempting to do American spelling (as Sarah is American) but I may miss a few. My autocorrect has been trained too well.

4. If you're from my tumblr you've probably seen me subtly referencing this story in the tags for months.

5. I used to be Amorfati1013, now I'm not.

6. I put a lot of references to obscure backstory and other stories in here.

Buckle up and get ready to roll kids.