'Jareth?' She asked. 'What am I doing here?'

'Do you not know darling?'

'No. I don't. Why have you brought me here? I didn't do anything this time! Why have you brought me back to this place?'

Jareth's hope vanished, and his fiery joy n his heart was dampened. Sarah had not come back freely. She did not know herself or this place. She thought that he had caused her to be here. That he had brought her here against her wishes. And yet, she did know him. She had not completely forgotten him, although judging by the way she was now fully frowning at him she had no good memories of him.

He reached out to her with his hand. Hoping that his touch would remind her that he could be gentle. That he was not always the hard king that the Goblins knew. She recoiled from his attempt to touch her, scrambling to her feet and slowly backing away.

'Do you not know me?' He asked her.

'Of course I know you! You stole Toby! I thought I won the Labyrinth? You have no power over me Jareth. I should not be here. Why am I here?'

Although he could tell that she was angry, the relaxing miasma of the apple tree blossom kept her calmed. She was irritated but not enough to move her to action.

'I don't know. I didn't bring you here'

The dampened joy was extinguished completely, the only thing she remembered was the incident where she had wished Toby away and had been forced to run the Labyrinth for his freedom. She looked disbelievingly at him, clearly thinking that he was lying to her about not bringing her here. He stepped towards her and reached out for her again. However when his hand touched her face, there was nothing solid for it to rest on. His hand passed straight through her skin. They looked wonderingly at one another. And suddenly Jareth understood what was happening.

'You are a ghast Sarah.' He felt distraught, but the damned orchard was forcing him to be calm. Maybe this was why Sarah had chosen this place. To protect him from the strength of his emotions. Maybe she did know.

'A what? What do you mean?' Sarah began to walk slowly through the trees, clearly expecting Jareth to follow her and continue talking.

'A ghast. You're dreaming Sarah. You're still in the Overground somewhere. Your ghast has reached out to the underground, and you're projecting here. That's why I can't touch you.'

Sarah looked perplexed again.

'Do you understand darling? Do you know you are asleep?'

Sarah nodded slowly. Jareth let her think for a while as they continued to step between the trees.

'I suppose.' She looked slightly comforted by the fact that she was not truly in the Underground again. 'But why have I come here?'

Jareth's heart constricted. However often he reminded himself that Sarah did not know, did not remember, it was still difficult each time she asked him something like that.

'I suppose it is where your mind wishes you to be. You want to come home darling. You have projected here because your mind knows that this is where you belong. I know that you don't remember, but this is where you truly live Sarah. You were sent to the mortal world some time ago to protect you. Your true place is here. But you have forgotten.'

Sarah seemed to accept it the way you do in dreams. Although in her waking life is she had been told something like that she would not have believed it, in this dream she accepted it. Knowing it to be true without Jareth having to explain it further.

'So the Underground is real? I was all real?' Jareth nodded at her. Since returning from the Labyrinth to the Overground Sarah had slowly begun to convince herself that the debacle with Toby had been some sort of hallucination brought on by fever or simply a dream, and now, ten years later, she did not believe it at all. 'I don't remember coming to this place when I was looking for Toby.'

'You didn't come here sweet. You experienced a tiny part of the Labyrinth last time you were here. You came to this place tonight because it is one of your favourites.' Sarah looked up at him, clearly wondering what he meant by one of her favourites, before she remembered what he had said previously about her living here before. She looked around at the orchard again, this time keeping in mind that it used to be one of her favourite places to come. She supposed that it could easily have been a favourite place of hers. The whole area seemed to be calming, and it appeared to go on limitlessly. The grass was soft and lush, the apples were ripe, and the whole place was littered with small fountains that were quietly bubbling out clear water. Yes, she could see herself loving this place.

They continued to walk through the lines of trees. Each slowly munching on apples picked from the branches. Jareth waited for some time for Sarah to continue asking questions. He expected that she would quiz him on how she was projecting herself here, and why she had gone to the mortal world in the first place. He expected that she would want to know of her life before the mortal world, as she clearly did not remember it.

'How is Hoggle?' came the unexpected question. 'And Ludo, and Sir Didymus?'

Jareth was momentarily confused that she had not questioned him on her life before, and was instead asking after the creatures that had helped her through the Labyrinth in search of Toby. 'How like Sarah though' he thought to himself, 'to wonder after the well-being of her friends rather than her own life'.

'The last time I checked they were good, happy, thriving. Hoggle continues his duties outside the Labyrinth walls in the borderlands. Sir Didymus is still guarding the bridge across the bog, but it has been rebuilt several times since you were last here my dear. Ludo resides in his rock canyon in the eleventh sector. He is solitary but seems happy enough. Rock giants are generally solitary creatures. His brothers and sisters each guard one rock canyon in each of the sectors, so he has others to see and talk to if he wishes it.' Jareth stopped there. He didn't know much else about the creatures, having not checked on them anymore than the other creatures that resided in the Labyrinth. He wished that he had more information to give to Sarah. Although, he noted, she looked reasonably pleased with the information he was able to provide her with. Once again they fell silent, Sarah deep in thought and Jareth not wanting to interrupt her ponderings. Only the sound of the fountains and their soft footfalls in the grass for noise. After several minutes he could bear it no longer however.

'Sarah, darling, tell me of your life. Tell me how you are. Tell me what you are doing.' He implored her to give him information, and she looked confused at his interest. He had to remember that she knew so little of him. Although she was quite calmly walking alongside him he had to remember that she knew him only as the villain that stole her little brother. He supposed that it was only the soporific effect of the orchard and the fact that she knew she was dreaming that kept Sarah from running away from Jareth.

'Jareth, I-' she stopped. Looking at the apple she held in her hand. And then Jareth noticed it as well, she was fading. Although he supposed that to her, everything else was fading. He realised that she must be waking from her dream. He watched her slowly dissipate, until he was quite alone again.

Sarah blinked her eyes open, attempting to grasp at the thin tendrils of dream that hung around her mind. They skittered away from her however, and she was left only with a vague sense of confusion as she climbed out of bed and started her day.

Jareth could not face the emptiness of the orchard after Sarah left. He transformed into his owl form and flew the distance to his castle, alighting on the sill of the window to his private quarters in the largest tower. Once inside, Jareth summoned hot water for his bath, and attempted to still his mind and sort through the conversation with Sarah calmly. He fell asleep that night yearning even more for her than usual.