The Labyrinth was old.

The Goblin King wheezed with laughter at that. Of course the Labyrinth was old. How else could it be the Labyrinth?

The Labyrinth was dying.

The Goblin King sobered at that thought.

From a distance, you would not expect him to be wheezing like an ancient mortal. From a distance, the King appeared as he always had, fae, ethereal, immortal with his shaggy silver-white hair and skin-tight leather pants.

It wasn't until you got closed that you noticed the wrong things. The pain-lines around his eyes, the way Jareth wasn't lounging on his throne but instead was too weak to keep himself up.

It was his fault, he knew that. The Labyrinth needed a link to the human world. He was to find a human bride, tying the two worlds together.

Jareth had found a bride, but his attempt to woo her had failed. Instead she left, holding nothing but contempt in her heart for him.

Now the Labyrinth was all but gone. There were no more stupid, idiotic, slavishly devoted and in their own way sweet goblins. No more cleaners, no more pixies.

Just him and the empty, lifeless Labyrinth.

Jareth felt his eyes start slip close. The final journey, one that would never end.

Suddenly , Jareth became of quiet footfalls echoing. With a tremendous effort, he raised his head, not even surprised at the sight before him. The Universe was too cruel to let him slip quietly into the Void.

"What happened here? What did you do?!" Sarah asked, anger and worry mixed in her eyes.

Jareth chuckled, a dry, calm sound. "Oh Sarah, how long has it been for you?"

Sarah looked taken aback, and without thinking about it actually answered his question. "Five, six years. I turned twenty-one not long ago."

Jareth let his head nod forward. "So short a time..."

For a minute, Sarah wanted to yell at him, demand to know what he had done to her beloved Labyrinth, but something inside stopped her. Instead she walked up to the throne, and crouched so that their eyes were level with one another. "What happened?" She asked, worry wrinkling her brow.

Jareth didn't raise his head when he answered. "You happened, Sarah."

A cold weight settled in Sarah's stomach. It took her a minute before she was able to choke out a questioning, "Me?"

"You weren't supposed to leave Sarah. You were supposed to stay, to tie the Labyrinth and your world together. But you left, Precious, and the magic is dying. It's just the Labyrinth left now. And me." Jareth added, almost an afterthought.

Throat dry, Sarah asked a question she already knew the answer to. "How was I suppose to 'tie the worlds', Jareth?"

Jareth groaned quietly before answering, and outside Sarah could hear a rumble that she attributed to part of the Labyrinth collapsing. His answer was so soft Sarah had to lean close to him to hear.

"You were to marry me."

Sarah couldn't hate him for it. What else was Jareth to do? But instead of finding a Queen, he'd found a hot-headed teen who refused to give anyone the time of day and blamed others for her mistakes.

But time changes people. Sarah was no exception. Time had taught her the difference between good, evil, and neutral, and shown her that most people were mixture of all three.

"Marry me, Goblin King?" Sarah asked, gently pressing the ring she had traded away a long time ago and found again lying abandoned in the Maze into Jareth's hand.

Something changed with those words, and Jareth found that he had just enough strength to look Sarah in the eye. "I can't bring them back Sarah." He whispered, a broken shell of a once proud man. "None of them. I failed."

"I know. It's not your fault, Jareth." She took his hand, fingers twining around leather wrapped ones. "Let's start over."

Jareth slipped the ring onto her left ring finger, and leaning forward, whispered four words into her ear.

Marry me, Sarah-mine?

Always, Jareth.

A/N: Goodbye, David Bowie