Disclaimer: Not mine

The Best of Dreams

The Best of Realities

I knew.

Almost immediately, I knew.

My eyes had barely stopped, my breathing hardily creased, when I knew.

I was suddenly sitting in my favorite spot in the park near our house. The shallow creek gurgled by, the grass tickled my palms and the ground was firm and hard beneath my hands. The sun was so bright that where it sparkled off the water, I was forced to turn away. As I did, I saw him sitting on a bench watching me calmly.

"You look strange," I said. My voice was controlled and low, but I felt as if the world around me priced up its ears to listen.

Jareth looked down at the blue jeans, plaid shirt and fisherman's vest he was wearing, "Well, my dear, it's your doing."

"Mine?" I said dumbly. I felt slow and stupid as if I had just woken from a long, foggy sleep, "How?"

"Don't you know yet?" he shook his pale gold head. Standing he strode over and held out a hand, hauling me to my feet. Turning me to face the creek, "Do you see it now?"

I stared. The opposite edge of the creek was blank. The sparkling water flowed into nothingness, and beyond the bench Jareth had been sitting on it was the same. Nothing. Yet every detail of the fragment of park was presented in sharp relief. I could smell the dirt and damp from the bank and the fresh air that blew around us.

"I'm doing this," I said wonderingly.

"Yes," he answered, "You are creating what you wish to see and ignoring what you don't wish to see. From my clothing-- down to your death."

"Show me then," I answered.

He waved a hand and I saw he was once more in the courtly grab he usually wore. He gestured toward the further side of the creek and I saw the fragments of nothing turn, shift and solidify into a full picture. No, a reality.

It was the corridor outside the throne room where I had confronted Jareth. My body was lying crumpled on the floor, my head on Jareth's shoulder; my hand in his.

"I died! I'm dead," I gasped.

"You died," Jareth agreed with a hint of amusement in his tone. He turned my face to his and smiled, "But you are not dead."

"Tell me everything," I asked anxiously, "I'm tried of living in the dark."

He slid his arms around me and cradled my head against his shoulder in an unconscious mime of my dead self. He stroked my hair for a moment as if trying to clarify his thoughts; then he spoke.

"You were never expected. When you mother and I wed, I never thought a child would be born of our union without my purposeful intent to create a child. You must understand by now that I create this world, this place and all that in them is--by my will."

"Yes."

"But I did not plan you. Like a shooting star you blazed into my world and vanished with your mother just as swiftly. What Sarah did not know and what I had not foreseen was the power you were granted through us. My love for your mother and her love in turn combined in you to create a potential that nearly equaled my own." He paused and went on, "You, as you grew, drew heavily upon both worlds; earth and the Underground. They were life and existence

"I never knew," I said, "How could I?"

"How did you know how to breathe when you were born? Who taught you to cry when you were unhappy?" he explained smiling, "You never considered it because it came naturally to you. Since you have never known what it is to be fully human, you never knew you were more than that."

I shook my head, pushing a little apart as if to display my plain visage to him, "But I wasn't more. I was never more. I couldn't even figure out who you were or what I was. It took me forever to figure out the Labyrinth."

"Don't you see, Emily?" Jareth smoothed my hair out of my eyes, "If you were only human you would never have perceived the world beyond earth. You wouldn't have known yourself to be limited in anyway. When you came to the Labyrinth, you took control instantly. You freed Abner and you came after me with anger and confidence; confidence humans would typically not have."

"Mom has it --she's always had it."

His eyes softened slightly at this, "That was why I loved her and won her and why she became your mother," he explained, "Only she could have done it."

"Then I get it from her," I looked up at the dual colored eyes that smiled down on me, "What do I get from you?"

He grew serious and somber and when he spoke then entire foundation of the castle shook.

"Power. Ultimate justice, perfect understanding, immortality and ---an innate sense of style."

We laughed and as we did the color of the world brightened. The green sprang into life, the blue settled like a mantle and red poppies exploded on the bank near us.

"You see?" he laughed at my expression, "I have given you everything--everything that we are, everything we know, everything we hope and love and dream about."

Jareth twirled me around, lifting me into the air where a yellow sun soared into being. Touching back to the earth, I ran out of his arms and suddenly being seized with a desire to experience everything, I splashed into the creek. The water was crisp and cold. I cupped my hands and caught the bright water up, drinking it down. It was icy cold, clear and instantly satisfying. I splashed the water over my face and found it mixed with salt tears I didn't know I was crying. They fell hot and fast, and dropped into my hands like diamonds. Turning them over in my fingers, I knew that's what they were.

Folding my hands over them, I cupped them to my breast. I raised my eyes to where Jareth crouched upon the bank. His cloak had settled around him like dark plumage but his face was kind and loving.

I remembered something and said, "You tried to kill yourself."

"I tried to save you," he corrected, "I didn't want you experience death if it could be avoided."

Letting the glistening diamonds fall into the water, I swished my hands through the waves and considered, "You wanted me to save the Labyrinth."

"My powerful daughter was drawing so strongly upon the Underground that it was dying. I allowed it to die. I couldn't refuse my daughter."

"But I died," I stood and accepted the hand he again offered. My skin and clothing was instantly dry and instead of the grubby pajamas, I was wearing clean clothing from my closet back home, "I am dead in that world."

"You live," Jareth said fiercely. He pulled me through to the castle and we stood over the frozen images of our bodies, "Your human body died when you were freed from it to become one with the power of the Labyrinth. While you were within that body you were like a wild thing caged. The strain upon the Labyrinth was so great because your humanity was in the way."

"So I am not human anymore?" I whispered horror thrilling along my spine, "I loved being a human."

"And in some ways you always will. The memories of that life will remain with you for eternity, and they will only grow stronger with the passage of time," Jareth explained. He stood to his full height and for the first time I felt more of an understanding and link with him then ever before. Here was my equal, my point of understanding, my likeness.

"I am--what you are," I said slowly. I stood beside him and the next moment we were high above the Labyrinth.

Far below, the world was small and broken, bleeding and dying. The grief on Jareth's face was clear and I felt the love he bore for every living thing within the realm of the Underground. It was so powerful; I was staggered for a moment.

He held out a long fingered hand, "Raise the world with me?"

And the stars sang and the sky blossomed with light.

AN: Sorry for the long wait, but I had a rough bout of Mono. I know this is short but it kind of has to be. There will be more chapters, but probably not more than one. All questions will be answered, but if there is anything you want to know especially please let me know what they are. Love you guys!

Jaffee