Faith Enduring

Disclaimer: I do not own the Labyrinth or its characters; they are property of Jim Henson, Lucas Films, and Dennis Lee. This fanfiction is not made for profit in anyway; it is only further proof of my love for the movie and that I have an overactive imagination.

A/N: I am so tired right now. What time is it? 2:30 am!!! Yikes! Oh well, sleep is over rated. Please, please, let me know what you think. If it's too confusing, please let me know, or if anything just feels wrong. Pretty please?

Chapter Eleven

"Oh my god…I…Oh god," she wheezed. Hoggle patted her on the back wondering what to say to calm her down. "Everything?" her voice asked incredulously. "You mean he has forgotten…"

Me?

"The Labyrinth?"

She suddenly remembered being with him, experiencing his pain, as the idea of memories like photographs burning into ash and crumbling through his fingers assailed her.

Nigel patted the top of her head as she leaned against his knee; he wondered how much was safe to tell her. In all the time he had lived and helped Jareth, there was never a case quite like Sarah's. No one had ever affected his friend in such a manner, especially if what she had said earlier was true. He wondered how it would affect her to know his role within after the dream dies. She would undoubtedly be easily swayed away from the course Jareth had left free for her. No it would be better if he with held such vital information…for now. It would be wiser to reassure her of what Jareth had hoped to accomplish.

"Sarah," he smiled, and the wrinkles around his eyes crinkled just right, "Don't you see. You have given him something no one else has given him. The chance to be someone better, the chance to be a hero. He could have interfered…enchanting you to have him in your life. You in your blind adoration would have become dependant upon him, forsaking your wants, your dreams for his."

Sarah's brow creased slightly. Was her sense of self that crippled? Would she have lived in Jareth's shadow if she had chosen him above Toby? Above herself?

"By walking away," he continued, watching her follow his lead, "he felt that he was giving you your future. He was sacrificing what he wanted for you, taking the path of pain. No one had ever given him the opportunity to be the better man…to choose.

His words came back to her like a sense of deja vu. Sacrifice is not an option for villains, Sarah. "I'm afraid my dear, that it is the truth. Jareth is incapable of remembering the dream once it returns to him. That is when my role comes into play. You have seen everything he has, seen the memories of the labyrinth, of his decisions to safeguard your dream because of the pendant. It is a powerful source of neutral magic which I can tap into, keeping the hidden memories safe until the dream is gone, and then restoring it back to him.

Sarah looked up, startled, a moment of innocence suddenly morphed into angry indignation. Her hands gestured wildly at him as she spoke.

"What? Then why don't you go to him? Give him his memories back? I will go with you right now!"

Nigel crooked one bushy eyebrow up at her and said quite seriously, "Sarah. Do you really think that if I possessed the ability to go and help him I would be sitting here making idle chit chat?"

"But…" Sarah said, now massaging her temples as a new headache seemed to form, "but you said…"

"All I said was that I possess the ability to invoke the memories back to him. Traveling back to the land where once reined the Labyrinth. Only beings with great amounts of power are able to accomplish that feat."

"Then…then how…?"

"You mean," Nigel said in a scholarly voice, "how am I able to help him then? Jareth has never gone into the void by himself before. He has always brought me along. I can not travel there any more than you can. I am only a safeguard, I hold the amulet and then after the…attack, I can then channel everything back to him."

Sarah was speechless.

"It seems," he continued, nonplussed, "that I was left here to become your advisor. Jareth does not need me anymore. Pity, really."

"Why?" the question was spoken so quietly, it was almost as if Sarah hadn't said a word. "Why would he do such a thing?"

Nigel placed his hand under his chin, giving the impression of confusion and deep concentration. "This has never happened before," he sighed. Sarah buried her face in her hands and asked behind the hot flush of her overheated palms, "Did he...do you think he left you behind so that he could truly forget about me?"

He didn't speak for one moment, and then intensely looked at Sarah, gauging her reaction. "It is possible…" he admitted hesitantly, then quickly added, "But from what you have described...from your dreams...I believe he slumbers." Sarah's head came away from her hands and the lines pressed there made her look old and surreal. "You make that sound like something unusual," she said in a tone obviously worried and agitated. "In the void, oh yes, one does not rest there. It is safer to sleep in your world or in the safety of a dream...but in nothingness...for someone who never dreams..."

The pause he left hung like a death sentence. "What on earth does that mean?" she hissed.

"In the absence of light, where dreams are born and where they die, there is no marking of time. Jareth is incapable of dreaming, that is something only those such as you are capable of, people who depend on your own memories, on your passions, and your need to fulfill your unmet desires. The labyrinth does not exist as it used to. Jareth will have no memories and I am not there to help him. He will sleep, incapable of dreams, and in his mind will be perpetual nothingness. But do not fear. It is a painless sleep. And no harm will befall him in a place where nothing exists."

Sarah's mouth gaped open for a second before a new wave of anger shook her."You have got to be fricking kidding me! You call sleeping and never being able to wake up, harmless!!!!!! My god, how is that any
different from death?!?!?" "Because…" he said with solemn dignity, "it is not."

Nigel said no more and closed his eyes in concentration. Soon, sounds such as someone snoring came through, and Sarah nearly gave to hysteria.

The bird on Nigel's head was ominously silent; as if he knew something they did not, but should know. Hoggle assumed it was just a look of cold contempt. Sir Didymous decided to keep vigilance upon them both.

Sarah stood up on shaky legs and abruptly left saying, "I – I need to go…I –" and she fled the room before anyone could gather where she was going.

x—X—x

It was Sir Didymous who grasped Hoggle's elbow and turning him, whispered, "Sir Hoggle we must speak with one another. Within a crystal."

Hoggle looked at him curiously before his gaze slowly slid to the side toward the old man snoring in the corner and the bird glaring at them both. Sir Didymous silently applauded the dwarf's astuteness and crafty suspicious nature. The gallant fox confirmed what he meant by nodding and they both took Ludo by the arms and disappeared to converse in one of the many forests.

x—X—x

Deek sniffed.

"They are not fooled Nigel. They are not the stupid idiots I first pegged them for." The Bird craned his head over the brim of the old man's hat just as the sounds of snoring abruptly ended.

Nigel picked up his pipe, which had been lying on its side on the wood desk. He wiped the fallen ash off and tapped the cold spent tobacco out into his handkerchief. The cloth was still damp from Sarah's tears. No matter, it would still get the job done. He dropped the soiled handkerchief into the trash bin once he was done.

"She doesn't know," he said, matter of fact, as he withdrew a small satchel from his robes and refilled his pipe with fresh tobacco.

"You lied to her Nigel."

The old wise man struck a match and the sudden scent of phosphorus flared before their faces.

"Deek, in my whole life I have never told a lie. I just withheld a bit of vital information."

"Uhuh," said Deek, watching the tobacco and blaze meet in the pipe bowl, and watched light grow beneath the raw material. "And what exactly is the difference?"

Nigel put away the satchel and the gnarled long fingered hand that held the pipe made a small flourish, twisting the smoke in a different direction.

"The difference? Well…we shall see, now won't we?"

The pipe was puffed on and silence filled the room again, pipe and conversation kept in place by the clasp of his old teeth.

x—X—x

Sarah rushed down the stairs into the living room, and stopped, gasping air in as the tears threatened once again. God she was so sick of crying. So tired of feeling helpless and vulnerable. She leaned her hot forehead against the cool white wall. From that spot she could have turned into the kitchen or moved to the coach nearby, but she stayed there, trying to calm the surge of emotions that claimed her and made her dizzy.

How she yearned for that brief moment, in pathetic uncertainty, to revert back to childhood. To be too young to make choices or have responsibilities, the lazy happiness of having someone else shoulder all her problems and inequalities. A child...who did not make decisions that affected so many other beings. Who created worlds that existed only in the young creative mind, and not real lands with twisting walls, and crevices, not where homes were kept, and clothing sewn, and mead drunk companionably. She did not want to see her parent's faces in her mind, frowning in confusion at her inability to conform to their understandable and well placed standards. Nor did she wish to think about what her choice to forsake the labyrinth had done to Jareth.

She nuzzled her hand and felt the deep contrast between cool paint and the heated skin of her tear stained face and it reminded her of his kiss. She desperately wanted him safe. And to be brutally honest she would have given anything to have him stand next to her at that moment if only to berate her. She could see him in her mind so clearly, knowing he would peer down at her and say something like, "Did you really think everything would happen as they do in fairy tales? You take far too much for granted Sarah."

Such a harsh, arrogant man.

But then she wondered how much of that character was actually his? How much influence had she inflicted willing him to "live up to her expectations?" It was such a painful shock their last meeting. His appearance in the last dream was no different than when she had rejected the moment before the clock struck 13. He had worn a white mantle that seemed to reflect himself at mid transformation between human and bird. But his demeanor, so unlike that of what she believed made up the so said "Goblin King," humbled her. His eyes were so much older than she had last suspected. Harrowed even, as if he had done everything anyone had asked of him and was still found wanting.

I'm sorry.

She turned and stood in one of the many doorways.

How many angry and confused children had he aided, only to forget him at the drop of a hat? How many worlds had he seen, created, and then felt drift into wreckage and nothingness? Creatures like Ludo, Hoggle, goblins, and Sir Didymous, all left to disappear with nobody to mourn their deaths because they were only dreams and apparitions. No other useful function left but to serve as a pleasant memory. Sarah's jaw clenched at the unfairness of it all.

It isn't right.

The thought was startling clear.

Dawn filtered in through the plastic slats in the window, softening the dark gray room. A feeling of something inevitable pulled her through the kitchen, and out the back door.

Yes…it was unfair…but sometimes people allowed unfairness to govern their logic. Being ignorant and unfair was the only logical answer…if you accepted such limitations. What restrictions was she accepting right now?

The cold air…it was so different outside…as if it breathed her, instead of the other way around. Sarah closed her mind around the pacing surge of her thoughts.

Jareth... how much influence did he inflict on her up until this moment, willing her to live up to his expectations? She had learned from the labyrinth...and now she was expected to drift through life a normal average girl? Get A's in school? Join the cheerleading squad perhaps? Meet a guy in college and have two point five kids?

A wild fluttering developed in her heart just as the sound of thunder began. Wind swept pass as her naked feet sank into the dew moistened earth. It felt cold, real, and for once she felt grounded.

Her parents loved her. They only wanted what was best for her; only wanted her to have a wonderful normal life full of challenges and relationships. But what if she wasn't normal? What if what she needed didn't exist in this world?

The initial friendly greeting of morning became overshadowed by mist as the sky darkened. A drizzle began and cloaked her as she lifted her arms out, accepting…

Magic.

The sky cracked with a bolt of lightning.

The rain fell harder and she wanted to drink in all that cold natural freedom.

Her eyes opened and blinked in the consistent downpour. They were wrong, she finally realized.

All of them. Even Jareth.

Especially Jareth.

Sarah understood… she did not have to be helpless anymore.

And the amulet glowed.

x—X—x

The forest was cool and dark. The fire they had built days ago still burned in its neat little circle of stones Ludo had asked to be arranged. They never questioned the crystal's ability to keep both creatures and elements alive and well.

"I don't like them," said Hoggle hunching close to watch the flames, "they're up to no good." The shadows played across his wrinkled face and made him look grotesque when he frowned and pulled a twig from under his seat and threw it crossly away.

Sir Didymous eyed the flames also but his mind was working on different ideas and revelations. "They are with holding information from the lady Sarah true, but my comrades, that they are not the reason I asked you to rally here."

"Huh?" asked Ludo. Hoggle looked similarly perplexed.

"I smell a great change taking place. It began some time ago, very faint, but now it is almost overpowering."

"But…" said Hoggle hesitatingly, afraid of incurring Sir Didymous's wrath over such a sensitive issue, "you can't smell a thing."

The old fox smiled.

"Sir Hoggle…Brother Ludo…" he said in a soft chiding voice, "my nose is never wrong with the scent of magic."

The Forest suddenly radiated, as if a full noon day sun rose and shone over its leafy canopy. Ludo trembled as the stones around the fire and the few saved, clustered within the dirt surrounding the many trees roots, sang a song of joy. The very air vibrated with a strange excited energy.

"What is it?" cried Hoggle, "Is it that old man? Is Nigel behind this?"

"No," whispered Sir Didymous, taking a great lungful of air, tasting the current, knowing it for what it was. "He is not the one causing this."

x—X—x

Deek looked up, startled, as he too felt the air change.

"She has realized," the old man whispered.

Nigel calmly took the pipe out of his mouth and smiled. It seemed it had made a difference after all.

x—X—x

The absence of rain alerted her that she was dreaming. She was dreaming… and she knew what she was doing. Her mind slowly let go the scent of freshly cut grass and the sound of wind sweeping through branches, and she became aware of silent water.

She was gliding. No. She was floating…mere inches above the surface, and each step brought her feet closer. It was almost peaceful, the quiet tranquility that rippled from her movement and absolutely no light as far as the eye could see. The entirety had the feel of a great yawning cavern, but she knew that feeling was her mind trying to limit the place, put it in words and description to make her feel more in control. The truth was that the darkness had no boundary. No walls. No sky. A pocket of forever that existed within the universe. She did, briefly, miss the light of stars. She could feel the surface tension slowly break under her feet as with each step she took, she became more submerged. No earth, no stones, just the gentle acceptance of her weight pulling her down. Further. Her fingertips skimmed through. Then her elbows. There was one second of innate panic when the black liquid came to her nose, and she cleared away the fear with thoughts of Jareth, and only Jareth. His long lithe form, the haunted yet calculating eyes, the timber of his voice when it taunted, and the life it took when caressed by music. She imagined him as a white owl; flying through the night, acknowledging his role as a predator, accepting the responsibility of protector…accepting… Her head was under.

She could feel the weight of the water lift and slide through her hair. Her breath did not release in relief, she had never held it, for her real body was still in her world, warm and safe in bed. Sarah's hand, both in bed, and in the water, clasped the slight bulk of gold and silver hanging on a silk cord around her throat. It comforted her and it guided her, with no certain terms, just a slight inclination that could only be heard in a land where no natural sound existed. Time passed with nothing to measure it. Her arms pushed and pulled with no burn of fatigue until a faint spot of pale caught her attention. Floating under the waters invisible current he looked like a beautiful inanimate doll someone had discarded. It was his fair hair that broke the black monotony. With no light existing in this world, it was not possible to have seen him, but then again, her Jareth always did defy logic. And her being able to find him in such vastness proved she was just as much a rebel. Nearing him her heart tightened. Hands lifted and touched his cheek, slid through his hair. Clutching his clothes by his shoulders she pulled him to her and held him. "Do not forget me," she begged, shaking now, though whether from relief at seeing him or fear of losing him, she could not tell. His heart, under her straining ear, beat consistent and unhurried. Asleep. He was asleep. What was he dreaming? She moved forward and she could feel the satin sway of their hair tangling together like seaweed, as she brought her mouth to his.

"I will find you," she thought, kissing his cold lips. Tears warm and real melted from her eyes and merged with the void as the promise burned her, consumed her.

Her hands clenched tight, fisting cloth, when his eyes opened a fraction in bleary unawareness.

"Jareth," her heart thumped. Hands, trembling and fragile, reached up and smoothed the hair away, palms resting on his high cheekbones. A battle ensued where he fought to see her through his mental fog and she through her tears.

See me. Remember me. Know that I love you.

A sigh, her name, caressing and breaking her as his unfocused eyes closed once more.

The power within her became unclear. She could feel it thin and she realized she was returning to her body in her world. She could not reach him without her real body…there was still one thing more she had to do, before everyone could be free.

"I will find you," though out of her mouth not one single sound was uttered. The blackness started to blur into gray and her eyes could not see him anymore though she fought one second more to blindly feel the cloth of his shirt under her fingertips.

It was still raining.

"I will find you," she whispered to the dark cloud clustered sky, tears sliding down the sides of her face to soak into tangled strands of hair as she took one more shaky breath to exhale, "have faith."