On the downward side of the fic now (five or six chapters to go), all, and we're already missing this world. Good thing we have some additional fic planned. Hopefully, we're finishing this one out the way you hoped it would. We wanted to take a moment to thank you all for taking this ride with us and to let you know that we've been grateful for all of the PMs and reviews; it's meant so much as we took this journey. And we're so glad to find this fandom is such a giving one, especially after some of the antics in our home fandom. Much love, all of you, much love!


There really were no words for how unbelievably grateful Sarah was at seeing all three of them, grinning at her, after all these years. Even Hoggle managed one for her. Weak with relief, she moved forward on trembling legs. They were okay; all of them were before her, real as before. In all of this, she hadn't lost them, hadn't harmed them. Even after all of her denials, they had been returned to her.

In this rush of assuagement, Sarah barely noticed the ragged goblin chorus of "Long live the Queen!" She swept Sir Didymus into a hug as Ambrosius jumped up at her, barking gleefully. It might not have been seemly for the queen to burst into tears, but no one was seeing it anyway, since Ludo—who was somehow larger than she remembered—enfolded her in a hug that also encompassed the fox-knight. "Sarah back!" he rumbled happily.

"Yeah, uh, we kinda missed ya," Hoggle admitted, scuffing his feet, and Sarah flung a hand out to him, drawing him in as well.

She had to hug and kiss all of them, Hoggle grumbling and making quite a show of her attention even as he didn't move away, and Sarah only laughed when a random goblin got in the mix of things. After several minutes, Jareth said in bored tones, "If you're through mauling her…"

That roused Sir Didymus' outrage. "Sire! After spending days imprisoned in the dungeons, surely we have a right to celebrate her return and our freedom?"

It took a moment before his words permeated Sarah's fog of happiness. Imprisoned? He had locked them up during her run. The newly-named Goblin Queen whirled to confront the king with both her brows raised in disbelief, the residue of her tears still shining on her cheeks. "You did what?"

"Protective custody," Jareth spat, glaring at the fox-knight. "Prisoners do not get linens, as I explained earlier. And it was not even two days. Now if you wish to experience imprisonment, Sir Didymus, do continue to defy me."

"Jareth," Sarah warned, and it was his turn to arch a brow at her. Only then did she notice the goblins sitting up in rings a dozen deep around them, watching attentively. Perhaps yelling at the king in front of all his subjects wasn't the best idea. So she moderated her tone—a little. "And why , may I ask, were my allies in 'protective custody'?"

"You saw the Labyrinth," he grumbled. "I would not send them into it. Pray tell your dear friends all about your adventures before you gainsay me."

She wanted to deny that … but couldn't. She could've hurt them, all of them, either with her unbelief or with the monsters she'd summoned. "No. No, you have a point, Jareth. You have a point." Sarah sighed, her eyes moving from Didymus to Hoggle to Ludo, smiling sadly. "As much as I hate to say it, and as much as I wanted all of you there, I wasn't safe. This run was different and I might have done awful things to you in the place my mind was in. I couldn't have dealt with that."

Now her sharp glance came back to Jareth and her look was more than a little accusing. "We both know that there were better ways you could've done that, though."

"Really? And I suppose you would have a better method of preventing Sir Didymus from charging off into terrible danger at the expense of his own life?" Jareth scoffed. "I look forward to your instruction on that topic, milady."

Sarah couldn't bear to imagine Didymus flinging himself at the creature in the junkyard. That thing's poisonous vapors were bad enough, but she never wanted to see the same wounded heartbreak in his eyes that she'd felt when it mocked her with the voices of everyone she loved. It cost her pride to do it, but it was the second time in as many minutes that he had called her on herself. "All right, fine, I might not approve of the way it was done, but your heart was in the right place. At least they were safe." she muttered.

"I resent the implication that I would lose my life in such a wager," the fox-knight proclaimed, and Sarah and Jareth just shared a look. Sir Didymus' valor was legendary … as was his complete inability to calculate risk. Luckily, he wasn't inclined to belabor the point.

A goblin shoved its way through the throng, and clumped to a salute in front of the king. "Kitchen sez prep'rations fer the feast is unnerway, Majesty," it said.

Every ear in the vicinity perked up. "Feast?" a couple dozen goblins echoed.

"A celebratory feast to honor our Queen and Champion," Jareth said. A wave of excited chattering met that, until he added, "And no, there will not be any owl wine served."

"You set up a feast in advance?" Sarah questioned, then considered his last statement with a wrinkle of her nose. "Wait, do I even want to know what the heck owl wine is? Please tell me it isn't want it sounds like."

"It's made from pressed owls. You truly do not want to know," Jareth told her. Word of the feast was dispersing the goblins, and he drew her a little further away from them—and her allies, though the latter trailed them. "In any case, I knew a feast would be necessary after today's events. If you chose to stay, it would be a celebration. If not, I would invent some obscure holiday."

He spoke lightly, but didn't meet her eyes. Sarah could guess that meant he'd been more worried about today's outcome than Jareth dared admit, even to himself. So it was with regret that she told him, "Oh, Jareth, I can't stay for a feast. I've got to get Lucy back. Her family's already worried sick. They need her home; it's already been at least half a day-"

That provoked an indulgent chuckle. "She is already returned. Did you not see me cast two spells on our way down here? One freed your friends, the other gave the order for the goblins to take your Lucy back to her home."

Sarah blinked, trying to process that. After everything she'd gone through, she'd never actually laid eyes on Lucy here; the little girl was back home, and she hadn't even known it. "Wait—how are her parents going to deal with this? How are the police going to deal with this? Jareth, I had a detective asking about her case. I need to get back up there and take care of things." She cut him a look, then, and added, "You did say it was still possible for me to go back. I know it's got to be complicated and there have to be rules, but-"

Jareth put an arm around her with a sigh. "Sarah. Have patience. You are not needed Above just yet."

Worrying her lower lip, Sarah frowned. Even now, her responsibilities ate at her. "But Lucy … God, that's gonna cause so many questions. My cell phone is probably blowing up as we speak. Biggest question is, what's she going to tell them? Everyone's been looking for her. I can't chance anyone finding out that she was here. They can't even know there is a here."

Jareth drew a crystal from thin air and held it up. In its depths, she saw a fairly dirty and rumpled Lucy come padding into her parents' home while the detectives were interviewing them for what must've felt like the dozenth time. She saw the Merritts fall to their knees and sweep up their youngest daughter, crying and laughing. She saw Alli crying, too, kissing Lucy's tousled hair.

Jareth spoke calmly. "As for what she tells them, it hardly matters. If a child that age says she spent the last day Underground, playing with strange creatures, the police and her parents will invent a tale that fits what they think the facts are. I imagine a great many basements in the area will be searched."

"Alli knows the truth," Sarah murmured, mind still racing.

"She has better sense than to insist to the police that it was her fault the goblins took her sister. If she does, it will be dismissed as an invention of her guilt for not watching the girl more closely. So long as you don't go reminding her, in a year she'll have buried the whole incident far from her conscious mind."

Sarah had to take a deep breath. It was done, it was over, and for once there wasn't some sort of grisly psychological mess for her to clean up. For once, she was free to do exactly and only as she pleased. Except…

"We've got to talk about this, Jareth. I've got to be in at work tomorrow," she said, her own voice sounding faraway. "I left early, and after all this, there'll be paperwork. I'm going to need to talk to the police."

Jareth looked at her with a mixture of chiding and amusement. "Night is falling Aboveground, and time runs differently here than there. Spend tonight and tomorrow here, and you will still return in time to be at your job at your customary hour."

Her allies had caught up to them by then, and Ludo placed a massive paw on her shoulder. "Sarah stay?" he asked, a world of sorrow in his tone.

Enough. For the moment, for the next twenty-six of the Labyrinth's hours, she would stay. All of the messy details of what she'd sworn and what the ramifications were could be discussed in a few of those hours. Now was the time to discover who and what she'd come. She put her hand over Ludo's, and smiled at the night-troll. "Yes. This time, Sarah is going to stay." She looked at Jareth then, and knew worry showed in her gaze. "Though I have this feeling like my life is about to become damned complicated…"

"I'm sure you'll sort it out," Jareth said. "That is rather your talent, is it not? And remember, you now have magic on your side. That goes a long way to accomplish things."

With that, at last, Sarah let herself really accept that she'd won—not just a child's freedom, but her old friends, plus a king and a kingdom as well. All for her very own. And, more than even that, she has won back herself. Herself as a whole. Her sigh of relief felt like years of tension finally being relaxed.

Eyes traveling across the room and the faces surrounding her, Sarah's face lit up in a smile. The thought occurred to her suddenly then. She really was a woman of both worlds. She was meant to be here. Had always been. And already, it felt different. Somehow, now, the Labyrinth, Umardelin, they felt like home.