OMG! I'm sooooooo sorry that it's taken so long to get up! I've been really busy with choir stuff and projects, and essays. Life has been really hectic. But I had some extra time on my hands this morning (despite not getting home from a competition until 1am) to finish up Chapter 4 for you. And as a special thank you present, I made this chapter 2 times as long. So instead of 4 or five pages long, I wrote 8 and like, 2 lines of 9 pages for you guys. I hope you like it! I was stretching it to make it worth while. I hope it worked. And "Sylistra the scholar", shhh, next time don't give it away. ;)

The first lines of the prophecy continued from the one before it.

"…She who walks with dignity and strength shall defeat the Goblin King…"

But then it led on to a different, continued prophecy.

"…And she shall rule over the Goblin Realm beside the Goblin King, She

shall have an heir, she shall assist the king in keeping peace within the kingdom,

and the king shall love her with a love that could tame the Wild Sea. Alas, a

great war shall break out. A war of neighbor against neighbor, and kinsman

against kinsman. People of the Underground will face certain destruction. The

Queen must protect, but she be a mere mortal. She will become a prisoner of the

Underdark, and she will die a mortal death, and the creatures of the Underground will perish."

Sarah stared blankly at the prophecy. It was another one about Jareth and her.

"Hoggle! Sir Didymus! Ludo! I need you!" She said, panicked.

Her friends appeared, just as she had asked. When they saw her abandoned-looking features, they all exchanged glances and braced themselves for the worst. Sarah slid the prophecy book toward her friends and they all read.

"So what does it mean?" she asked quietly, already partly knowing the answer.

Sarah lay on her bed as her friends read the prophecy over and over again, exchanging glances and discussing with their eyes about what the prophecy could mean. The sky stared down, quietly, gloomily, observing the scene below. Sarah stood up slowly and walked downstairs. She took her jacket from the coat rack and left the house toward the garage. A walk with Merlin would probably do her well and the cool air would clear her thoughts. In her mind, she could just picture the look that Irene and her father would give her for walking out of the house so late at night, but at this point, she didn't care. When she arrived at the garage, she opened the door quietly and whispered to Merlin.

"Merlin! Come on, Boy! Let's go for a walk." Merlin bounded out happily and Sarah smiled and bent down to scratch him behind his ear. "Good boy, Merlin! Now let's go!"

She felt something heavy in her hand and looked down at the book she had unknowingly grabbed when she left the room. It was the book about different creatures that she had found at the library. She sighed lightly and stood up then began walking to the park. It was no use taking it inside or she wouldn't be able to come back out again. Merlin followed his master gingerly, taking every step with her. Although Sarah meant to go to the park, her feet took her somewhere else. They took her to the open clearing in the park where she loved to play "Fairytale" and pretend to be a famous actress, just like her mother. She sat on a bench and set the book in her lap. Merlin hopped up next to her and nuzzled his head into her arm. Something was missing, Sarah noticed. She looked around and instantly realized what it was. The white barn owl that had always sat in a tree was no longer there. It was Jareth. She thought, casually. Of course it wouldn't be here anymore. He has no power over me. He never will. Somehow, though, the words no longer brought her comfort. If Jareth had no power over her, then why was he back? After only a few days, why was he back?

Pushing the thought to the back of her head, she looked down at her book. Merlin was lying down next to her with his head on her lap next to the book and was sleeping. Sarah felt comfort in the fact that Merlin was always there for her, and it gave her courage to open the book before her. But what was she supposed to look for? It would take forever to search through this entire book.

"It's only forever. Not long at all…"

"Shut up Jareth." She muttered to herself.

She thought about the prophecy she read and the word "Underdark" kept sticking out in her mind. She turned toward the index and found the word, then flipped to the first page number she saw. "Dark Elves" was the title of the chapter. She sighed and braced herself to read. This had to be it because it sounded nothing like creatures from the Underground. As she read, she discovered secrets about the Dark Elves that she couldn't even imagine. They loved beauty, but why would they attack the Underground? There were only a few beautiful places in the Underground, from her experience. And the Bog of Stench; why would they want to attempt to take over a world with such an ugly and disgusting place? They were skilled at armed combat, a good match for the Goblins. She read things about spiders being pets and gagged at the idea. Spiders were not one of her favorite things. They used poisons very often (Sarah made a mental note about that. It would be helpful to possibly come up with an antidote for some of them) and they also favored armor. But that was only the half of it. Once Sarah read all that she possibly could before going home for dinner, she closed the book and woke up Merlin.

"Well, come on, Merlin. Hoggle is waiting for me."

She sighed and stood up. When she saw the time, she had to run back home in order for her not to be late. Irene didn't like her being late. She got Merlin back into the garage and was able to sneak back up to her room and say hi to her friends before being called down for dinner.

"I found some things out." She said, reluctantly. "I'll tell you after dinner." She made a mental note to bring some left over dinner to give to her friends while Irene and everyone else were asleep for the night. Once the door was closed, the friends looked at each other. They sighed dejectedly and called for Jareth. He appeared in a puff of white, prideful and irritated at their summoning.

"Well, what do you want?" He asked.

"What are you trying to do to the Fair Maiden, His Majesty?" Asked Didymus.

"Yeah, why you want Sarah back? Haven't you had enough?" Hoggle said, angry and irritated.

"Sawah, sad…" Ludo said, more to himself than to anyone else.

"Now listen hear, you fools! You are still my subjects and you will do as I say! My intentions are none of your concern!" Jareth nearly yelled.

"Sarah is our friend…and we won't do nuttin' to harm her!"

The argument lasted awhile. Meanwhile, downstairs, Sarah and her family were having a quiet dinner.

"Well, how did your studying go, Sarah?" Irene asked casually.

"It was fine." Sarah answered. It wasn't true. She hated every moment of it, but she accepted it nonetheless; if not for Jareth, then for her friends. She would never see them again if she didn't do it.

"What did you study?" asked Irene, trying her hardest to keep a conversation with her. "You weren't just reading silly fairytales again, were you?" Irene said, not rudely, although it sounded like it. That wasn't the wisest thing to say in the first place.

"I don't have any real homework or studying to do over Spring Break, so why not read my books? You can't very well stop me!" Sarah shouted. It was that sort of thing that automatically put Sarah on her guard. "I'll excuse myself now!" She slid her chair out and put her cleaned plate in the sink then stormed up to her room, finding a very unpleasant surprise.

Hoggle, Sir Didymus, and Jareth were still arguing when the door slammed open, revealing a very angry and surprised Sarah. Jareth smirked.

"Ah, well, hello Sarah." It was a calm and collected, yet vain tone of voice. He began to pace around her as she shut her door and stood with her arms crossed. "Well, well, this is a pleasant turn of events." Jareth eyed the girl greedily. "You're keeping quiet for once."

"Leave." Was all Sarah uttered.

"I think not, Sarah. After all, I've heard that you've some information that I need to know about my kingdom." He stopped pacing and stood in front of the girl, arms crossed and towering menacingly over her.

"The information isn't for you. It's for Hoggle." She knew that it sounded stupid, that it would eventually get to Jareth anyway. But she refused to give in to his will.

"As I recall, Hogwart isn't the one who is running the Underground." Jareth said, irritated. This girl was certainly something. But isn't that what made him fall in love with her in the first place?

"It's Hoggle!" Sarah shouted before Hoggle got a chance to answer.

"Sarah, give him the information so he can leave!" Hoggle said, defiantly. Where his courage came from, he had no idea. But it was there, and he was going to use it before it went away again.

Sarah shot a glare at the Goblin King, but nodded and walked around him to her desk where she set down the book. She opened the book and made a handwritten copy of the entire chapter, word for word, and handed it to Jareth.

"Now leave." Sarah said.

"Now, now, Sarah, is that any way to say 'good-bye' to your king?" Jareth said, amused.

"You're not my king."

"Ah, I beg to differ." He held up the book of prophecy and smirked as he pointed to the most recently written prophecy. "What's said is said."

"None of that first part came true, Jareth. You and I both know that very well."

"I would have thought that you'd know by now, Sarah, that you can't take anything for granted in the Underground." With that, the Goblin King changed to an owl and flew out the window. The prophecy book lay in a heap on her bed and Sarah picked it up and read over it, multiple times.

"What did he mean?" She asked her friends. "What did he mean by I shouldn't take this prophecy for granted?"

The friends looked at each other once more and Sir Didymus spoke up. "My Lady, did you ever think about what would happen if you had accepted His Majesty's gift?"

"Which one?" Sarah asked, distractedly.

"The last one, My Lady; when you left us so you could face the King alone. His gift was his offer. He told you he would give you your dreams, that he would be your slave."

Sarah shuddered at the memory, but she admitted that yes, she did think about it. "But he had Toby. If I had accepted, he would have kept Toby from me. He would have turned Toby into a goblin. I couldn't allow that to happen to him. What else should I have done?"

"My Lady, what did you think about when you thought about the King's gift?"

"I thought about becoming his Queen." She said sadly. Hoggle looked disappointed, but Sir Didymus urged her on. "I imagined helping him rule, and I imagined Toby as his heir." As she spoke, she realized what the prophecy was saying. In horror, she looked at Sir Didymus. "It can't have happened though? I haven't physically been in the Underground since the day I defeated him."

"My Lady, you've been doing it the entire time. When we come here and ask you for advice, it's because His Majesty cannot help us. You help him to keep the peace in the Underground without the realization of what you do."

"What about Toby? Toby isn't his heir."

This time Hoggle and Sir Didymus both looked worried.

"Um…Sarah…Jareth…"

"Well….you see, Madam…"

"Jareth…marked Toby as his heir while you were running the Labyrinth. He was really sure that he would win."

"He, what?" Sarah was on her feet now. "Of all the conceited, irresponsible…that's cheating! Jareth, you lousy cheat!" Frustrated, she fell onto her bed and screamed into her pillow. "Grow up!" She heard a far off chuckle and glared into the empty space before her. "I'll never forgive you for this, Jareth. You can't have Toby!"

She looked at the book forlornly. Was this Fate? Fate was such a strong word. The word confused her. It was used so often in her fairytales, but she never fully understood the word's true meaning? She had always wanted to live that perfect fairytale. She had a chance at it, but she turned the chance down. Wasn't that Fate? Or was it Fate that she had stayed with the Goblin King? If that were the case, had she defied Fate? But if she had defied Fate, then why was Jareth back? Would this prophecy have been written, had she accepted his offer in the Escher Room? What if she caused this war to happen? Was this entirely her fault? But what would happen if Sarah had accepted his offer? Would she have still been able to keep Toby? What would her parents say when they found her gone? Would they have missed her? Would they have missed Toby, had he been able to stay in the Underground with her? Would they have even noticed?

"Sawah…" Ludo's voice broke into Sarah's thoughts.

Sarah smiled weakly at Ludo. Poor Ludo; He had been quiet the entire time. She stood up and hugged Ludo.

"Don't worry, Ludo. I'll be ok. We'll find a way to fix this, I promise." She sighed, defeated. "Well, it looks like I'll have another trip through the Labyrinth." She was just now accepting her new Fate. Whatever her old one was was gone. She didn't know what she would do with Toby, though. She had only just been reunited with him, and now she had to leave him behind again. But she couldn't bring him back to the Labyrinth. There was no telling what Jareth would do with him.

..and of course when I run out of ideas I just HAVE to bring my irritatiing, radical, dreamer views into the picture..

Well, I hope you liked this chapter. It took awhile to write, but I hope it was worth your while.