Notes: Another update, finally. Please review and enjoy!

Chapter 10: The Battle

Sarah's head ached as though her mind had been through something intense. Perhaps she could get some medicine to help with that. It would be a simple trip to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom down the hallway.

At least it should have been. But when she opened her eyes, she realized that she was not at home. She was not laying in her cozy bed, dreaming her fantasies. Instead, Sarah found herself in a sea of junk, the trash seeming to stretch on for miles. Where was she and what was she doing here? She needed to get home, wherever home was.

Suddenly, she felt a small weight in her hand. She looked over to see a peach, rotting, a bug crawling out of it. Disgusted, she threw the peach away. Normally, she wouldn't have mind peaches. Since she was small, it had been her favorite fruit. No one quite knew where her appetite for them had come from, but every time she ate one, she felt somehow happy, a sensation of peace. It was something no other fruit could give her.

She stood up, trying to get her bearings, only to hear a complaint. She looked down to see a strange creature, a goblin covered in junk. The bitter goblin lead her to a door of a place that had been carved into the junk. When she entered, she found herself back in her bedroom. She was home. Yet something was not right.

Jareth watched the teenager, a crystal ball hovering in front of him. Sarah had found herself in a replica of her bedroom of the modern times she now lived in. He did not build the replica, so he could only suppose that the labyrinth was responding to her, just as it had done when she had been his queen in the past. He wouldn't tamper with this. His love had already been through enough and her mind needed to heal. Time was what he needed. Just a little more and then they would be…

They couldn't be. Not now. Not when she was still so young. But he was losing himself in the game. After countless years alone, broken hearted, and in mourning, he had been given a glimmer of hope. He would not let it get away from him.

In time, she would remember and come to love him again. She would become an adult once more and then they would marry. They could have their happily ever after again. Besides, she had made the wish. She had moved things ahead of schedule. Didn't she want this?

Sarah sighed, looking out of the window of her room. She was acting like a lovesick puppy, focused on the tree outside of her window, hoping to see a barn owl on its branches. She had become familiar with her fiancé's avian form. She knew that at times, he would disguise himself in that form to avoid anyone but her finding him.

She turned her gaze away from the window, seeing only an empty tree. She knew that she shouldn't have come back, that there would be such a ruckus upon her return. It was true that she should have told her father and step mother before disappearing from her eighteenth birthday ball with Jareth. But she had been so caught up in the moment and with what she wanted to do to celebrate her birthday, that speaking to her parents had been the last thing on her mind. Of course, she also supposed staying a fortnight in Jareth's kingdom had been more of the cause for their anger. How was she to know that she had been gone that long? Time moved differently in the Underground.

Eighteen years old and she was being treated like a child instead of the adult she now was. What she wouldn't give to be in the labyrinth once more and back in Jareth's arms. He always treated her as his equal. He loved her. None of the other suitors who had taken an interest in her after her betrothal to Jareth lover her. If she was good enough for a Goblin King, then surely she was good enough for them.

Her betrothal to Jareth was not a bargain based on meaningless things like beauty and money. What no one knew was that the Goblin King had fallen in love with the young woman and she too had fallen in love with him. Their marriage would be built on love and caring, something very rare in both of their worlds.

There was a knock on her door and she heard one of the father's servants murmur something about her seeing her father for tea and to wear something nice as they had a guest. Sarah knew who this guest would be, another suitor.

She listened as the servant walked away from her door, having delivered the message. Sarah turned to the mirror at her vanity when the servant was gone. She needed to get away from this horrible place. She needed to be with him.

Sarah touched her hand to the mirror.

"Jareth." She called to him. "I need you."

"Your Highness! Your Highness!"

Jareth looked down at the goblin that had called to him, breaking him from his thoughts, conjuring up ways to keep Sarah here to be with him once more. She had come back to him and he would not let her go, even if she was young. It would break him to lose her again.

The goblin, despite his armor, appeared to be absolutely terrified. Then again, the goblins hadn't fought against an actual enemy in ages, only fighting pointless battles among themselves that usually ended in them being confused and wondering why they had been fighting in the first place. Sarah had always known what to do in these types of situations. His queen had been loved and adored by his people. And now that she had come back, she would be again.

The goblin before him was panicking about the reborn queen who had managed to remember where she was and what she was doing here. It wasn't about Jareth as her husband in another life. It was about Toby. After going through the labyrinth, she seemed to remember nothing, or very little of her past life, of her life with him.

Jareth was not happy about this at all. Even if he was playing her villain in this story, didn't he have the right to a happy ending? He wasn't truly the villain. He had only been made into one, a way to please the humans of the Aboveground. But besides that, the last thing that Jareth wanted to do was to fight Sarah. It was not right. She had been his wife in the past. She was his one and only love.

Time. He needed time for it was short, the minutes running low. If he could prevent her from reaching the castle then he would win and have her by his side once more and he wouldn't have to face her.

"Call out the guard!" He demanded. They had to move. Jareth placed Toby in one of his goblin's arms, giving him the direct command to hide the baby.

Chaos ensued as he saw the goblins around him scuttle and run to their places.

"What are they doing?" Sarah asked. The Goblin Queen watched the goblins on the grounds of her husband's castle engaging in some kind of exercise. She wasn't quite sure about the point of the exercise. All she could tell was that involved a lot of shouting and falling.

"They're supposed training." Jareth told her. She could sense anger in his voice and she knew all too clearly that the goblins were not doing as he wanted them to. "I should send them all to the Bog of Eternal Stench. My army is a joke."

He was in the process of summoning of a crystal ball to throw down at his army when he felt Sarah's hand grab his.

"Don't. Please, Jareth." His wife begged him.

He made a grunt and put his hand into a fist, ceasing his spell. He turned away from her and the window from which they had been looking out of.

"I need them ready. Coddling them will do nothing." He hissed.

"Who are you planning to fight?" Sarah asked. "Are you seeking to declare war? And for what?"

Jareth turned to look back at her.

"No. It's just… Sarah, I promised I would protect you and the baby. How can I do that if my army can't do anything?" He felt frustrated and ashamed.

She got up from her seat by the window. She moved to stand beside him, resting her hand on his back.

"I can protect myself and the baby with you. We are equals in this, now and forever. You promised." She said. "My will is as strong as yours. You know this. When the baby comes, you and I both know that they will be loved and protected. Don't worry about your army."

Before he could reply, she moved her hand from his back. Sarah took Jareth's hand in hers and moved it to rest on her slightly swollen belly.

"Come, my love. Why don't you sing to the baby? I'm sure they would love to hear another lullaby." She suggested.

She felt his hand relax and heard the soft hums of beginning notes of one of her husband's songs.

The battle was not going as planned. Jareth should have expected that. Besides his army being pathetic, Sarah had always bent his plans to her own will. He gazed over at a nearby clock. The hand was very close to the thirteenth hour, but he did not have the time to be relieved. The girl was coming closer to his castle and she would burst in at any moment. He would have to face her, alone. That was how it was meant to be done.

He walked towards the part of his castle he knew that she would head to after she entered, the Escher room. He would have to face her, no matter what.