Sarah gazed down through the darkness at the sleeping form on the ground before her. Even in the dim light, just one thin moonlit beam from the window above, she could make out the figure of the Goblin King. He lay with his naked back to her, his white-gold hair spilling over the floor around his head. His hands were ungloved but bound tightly together behind his back. She watched the slow rise and fall of his shoulders and the slight rippling of muscle beneath his pale skin as he shallowly breathed.

Sarah was roused from her staring by the sound of steady shuffling from down the hall as if something enormous was dragging itself down the corridor.

"Jareth," Sarah tried to call out, but her voice died in her throat. "Jareth," she tried to croak out again.

The shuffling grew louder and Sarah knew that whatever was advancing on them was getting closer. She willed sound to emanate from her throat as the heavy wooden door to Jareth's cell clicked and began to creak open.

In desperation, Sarah fought to find her voice and at last she felt it welling up from deep in her core. It rushed upward and out of her mouth in an unearthly wail that shattered the walls and filled the room with blinding light.

"Jareth!"

"Jesus, Sarah! What are you trying to do, wake the dead?"

Sarah blinked and looked around. She was sitting upright on a thin cot in a small room. Across the tiny space, Alex, her roommate was sitting up as well and scowling at her.

"Um...sorry, Alex," Sarah mumbled sheepishly. "I had a nightmare."

Alex's scowl deepened. "Well, you scared the shit out me," he said angrily. "Rooming with you is a nightmare for me!"

He shoved off his covers and stomped off to the bathroom.

"Sorry," Sarah called after him, but he didn't answer.

Alex emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later when there was a knock on the door of their shared room. He opened the door and Sarah could hear the muffled voice of Dr. DiRossi in the hallway.

"No, it's ok," Alex told the unseen DiRossi. "Dr. Williams just had a nightmare." Sarah could hear the acid in his voice and she slunk down onto her cot. Why did she keep having these ridiculous nightmares?

She looked up from her cot as Alex stomped over to his side of the room and grabbed his pillow and blanket from his cot and headed toward the door.

"Where are you going?" Sarah asked him.

He turned in the doorway to face her. "I'm going to sleep on the sofa downstairs," he snapped. "We have a lot of work to do tomorrow and I've got to get some sleep!"

He turned on his heel and left, slamming the door sharply behind him.

Sarah rolled over onto her side and let out a long puff of air. It was getting embarrassing. This was the fifth time in as many nights that she'd had the dream and awakened screaming.

"It has to be this place," she told herself.

There was something more than mystical about the endless plains of desert broken up by ancient sandstone mountains. The huge red cliffs formed walls and passageways across the barren landscape. The sparkling sandstone cliffs where the reason she had come to Jordan in the first place. There were bits and pieces of ancient stories hidden in their cracks and crevices. They reminded her a bit of the outermost ring of the Labyrinth, unending miles of sameness marked by hidden doorways or passages that led to nowhere at all.

Sarah fumbled beneath her pillow and brought out the broken fragment of carved gold. It was such a small, simple piece, yet it had seemed to call to her from under years of sand. She studied it in the dim light. The little fragment looked like it had been part of a circle. It curved upward but was jagged on one side as if it been torn apart, There were markings along its curved edge, but they were worn with time and the elements.

Sarah stuck the little piece back under her pillow and laid her head down on it. It was strange. She'd begun having the dreams the night after she'd found it. Perhaps...

She shook the thought away. There was nothing to connect this place to the Goblin Kingdom or its monarch. And even if there were, what did it have to do with her? She'd had enough of the Labyrinth and Jareth fifteen years earlier when she'd managed to find her way to the castle and win back her stolen baby brother.

"Wished-away baby brother" whispered an unseen voice.

Startled, Sarah sat up and looked around the dark room. There was nothing but the small desk and chair and Alex's empty cot.

Sarah frowned as she lay back down.

"Fuck the Goblin King," she spoke to the dark before turning over and once again falling asleep.

Jareth resisted the urge to shift uncomfortably under the cold glare of the Morrigan. He willed himself still as she and the members of the Fae Council stared down at him.

"I find it interesting," the goddess hissed, "that you come here now after centuries of neglecting our assemblies." Her voice was like ice against his spine.

Jareth pushed his shoulders back and dared to look her right in the face.

"None of you have ever wanted me here," he said insolently. "I am not like the rest of you, as you've always made abundantly clear."

"Then why should we help you?" asked Lugh, the arrogant Council Commander. He sat at the Morrigan's side and made no attempt to hide his dislike of the goblin monarch. "If it's true what you say, we owe you nothing. You were not born of this realm," he continued with a sneer.

"No," snapped Jareth. "I was reborn into it. I was stripped of my humanity and chained to what used to be a wasteland. And if nothing is done, it will be a wasteland once more."

The Council was silent for a moment before the Morrigan spoke again.

"If this land is so distasteful to you, Jareth, why are you here begging for help to save it?"

"You know why, Goddess," Jareth quietly replied.

The Morrigan smiled, but there was no warmth or kindness on her face. Jareth knew he had to play his final hand.

"The Goblin Kingdom and the Underground are tied to everything in the Fae realm," he proclaimed boldly. "If they fall to this evil, the others will not be far behind."

The room fell silent again and Jareth prayed that his words had found their mark. His hopes were dashed when the entire Council erupted into laughter.

"Oh Jareth," the Morrigan began after the laughter had died down. "How little you still know of our ways."

She left her place beside Lugh and stepped down from the high dais to face him.

"Surely you remember from your human experience what happens to a limb of the body that becomes dangerously infected."

Jareth averted his eyes from her icy gaze and refused to answer. The goddess put her frigid hand under his chin and lifted his gaze to meet hers.

"The infected limb is cut off, is it not?" she asked.

"But goddess..." Jareth began, but he was cut off as she tightened her hand around his jaw, clenching his mouth shut.

"For too long the Underground has been a gangrenous wound on the body of the Fae realm, " she spat. "It is time to cut it off."

Jareth groaned and wrenched himself out of her grasp. "You would let us fall?" he asked. "One of your own?"

The goddess stepped back up onto the dais and took her place at the head of the Council table.

"As you have said yourself, Jareth," she purred. "You are not one of us."

With a wave of her hand, she and the Council disappeared and Jareth found himself transported back to his castle tower overlooking the Labyrinth. Just beyond its borders, the thick, black, putrid mass bubbled up from the chasms torn open by the last tremor. The foul-smelling blob had oozed another foot or so closer just since he had been gone. It was gaining ground, overrunning the land, absorbing everything in its path and leaving nothingness in its wake. The black slime was already tickling the base of the stone mountains and many of the creatures along the northern border had abandoned their homes for higher ground in the innermost parts of the Labyrinth.

Jareth closed his eyes and let himself slump against the tower window frame. He had tried for so long to keep the oozing mass at bay, but his magic was largely ineffective. He and the Rock-Callers had erected thick walls beyond the northern boundaries, but they had been engulfed by the ever-encroaching slime. The Council had been Jareth's last hope. His stomach had churned to have had to grovel at the feet of the Fae elite, but he had set aside his pride for the sake of his kingdom. And all for naught.

A sharp knock on the tower door temporarily brought him out of his dark thoughts.

"Come," he called a bit too forcefully.

Sir Didymus entered and bowed low. "I see Your Majesty has returned," he said.

"Yes," Jareth sighed. "Anything to report?"

"The last of the Rock-Callers have moved hence to the east valley, Sire. Hoggle and Squashblossom have issued complaints about their singing, but I told them the matter would be dealt with upon Your Majesty's return."

"Very well," replied the Goblin King. He moved to the table where he poured himself a goblet of ale and sank into a chair.

"If I may ask, Sire," began the little knight, "How didst thou fare with the Fae Council?"

"Not well, Didymus," Jareth answered. He tossed back the last of his ale before slamming the goblet down on the table.

"We're on our own."

A/N:

Like a bad penny, I have turned up again.

I have tried for so long to write a follow-up to "Seven," and here it is at last. It's still not fully formed in my head, so please be patient with me. I'm posting already because I hope it will force me to continue.

Anyway, while it's not absolutely necessary to read "Seven" first, it will help. The timeline flows thusly: "Seven"- the film version of "Labyrinth"- "Labyrinth: Once and Forever.

We're following "Star Wars" story progression here. If the original film is "A New Hope", "Seven" is (gulp) the prequels, and "Once and Forever" is "The Force Awakens."

There, clear as mud, right?

As always, please comment and tell me what you think! Loves to you all!

Fanny