Author Note, Warning and Disclaimer: Written for a prompt. This has elements of stalking and dubious consent, some physical abuse on both sides. I don't write noncon, but if you're uncomfortable looking over the garden fence at it this ain't for you, I don't want anyone triggered. I know a lot of people feel the need to preach about what a healthy relationship looks like in fiction, but you can just leave the readers to their kinks and move on with your day.

I own nothing from the Labyrinth, I'm just borrowing stuff for my own mucking about with.

Chapter 1: Winning The Battle But Not The War

"Stop! Wait! Look sarah, look what I'm offering you! Your dreams."

"…And my kingdom's as great-"

"I ask for so little. Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want."

"...Kingdom's as great...? Damn, I can never remember that line-"

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave!"

"...You have no power of me!"

The illusion had shattered, the clock rang thirteen as the broken Labyrinth dissolved around her, depositing her back in her home, at the bottom of the stairs.

Manically, maliciously, a barn owl flew towards her, circling her as she ducked before gracefully flying from the house through the open bay windows, out into the night.

She'd won.

She was home.

It took a minute to catch her breath, feeling dizzy and undone, before she remembered Toby.

Oh God, Toby!

"Toby?!"

She sprinted up the stairs, nearly tripping over her own feet as she scrambled to his crib. And there he was. Asleep. Unchanged. Uncaring for the trauma she'd inflicted on the both of them. Sleeping sweetly in his bed.

The exhaustion hit her like a bolt of lightning, and she had to stave off tears so she could see to tucking him in, pressing Lancelot to his side.

"He's yours now, Toby." She whispered to her sleeping brother, utter regret tugging her very soul for the thing she had nearly done.

For the boy she had nearly lost.

She pulled the blanket up around him, stroking his cheek and casting a last look back before shutting out the lights.

From outside, hidden in the branches of the tree by her bedroom window, he watched the goblin ruckus. A din of squawking and cheers celebrating her triumph.

In his owl form his feathers twitched enviously as she enveloped each goblin in a crushing hug.

Let her have this moment. This fleeting hour.

The glee in her face was palpable. Smugly secure in her home, surrounded by the friends she had won. Her brother safe in the room across the hall.

The sound of laughter and music floated out the window to him.

If an owl could look murderous this one did. It felt like forever, as short as that was, before the party wound down. His subjects, his disloyal and treacherous subjects, disappearing one by one through the mirror, back to his world. Back to his kingdom that now lay in tatters because of her.

He'd underestimated her. The thought of it made him seethe, but he'd won one victory. One round of their game was in his hand.

With an expression of pure joy Sarah collapsed on her bed, surrounded by the debris of the party.

She took a long deep breath. She could still smell the Labyrinth around her. The deep spicy notes of air suffused in magic, the damp smell of the labyrinth's stone walls. The earthy tones of the goblin city.

She stared contentedly at the ceiling, summoning the energy to shower and change for bed, when the lights flickered and died, plunging her into darkness.

The house was silent. Dangerously so. She froze as her blood turned to ice.

Toby...

"Did you enjoy your victory ball, precious?"

She bolted upright, her eyes meeting his hypnotic mismatched ones in the dark.

He watched her panting in the gloom, her shock making her chest heave deliciously. Even after all her trials, even after running the gauntlet of his labyrinth, she was still intoxicating. Something in the cast of her eye and shade of her hair held a magic of its own over him.

His own sweet, dark peach. Fragrant and dangerous.

But not ripe. Not yet.

"A little premature, wouldn't you say?"

Her eyes flicker to the door, panic stricken for her brother.

"It's over. I... I won Toby back, it's over."

"It is most definitely, and decidedly, not over, Sarah."

"You have no power over me." She repeated, obviously hoping to manufacture the same windswept accomplishment of early. Instead he simply stood there, watching her cooly from underneath his feather cape and flared eyebrows, limned by the moonlight streaming in through her window.

"I'm afraid that's not entirely the truth."

From underneath his cape he produced a crystal. Flicking it, spinning it and sending it dancing across fingers until it rolled into his palm seemingly of its own accord. He turned his gloved hand over, revealing a peach with a large bite taken from it, a blackened centre where a maggot had made its home.

The sight of it turned Sarah's stomach.

Jareth cast his eyes pointedly to the books behind her. Shelves full to heaving of fairy tales, myths and legends, tales of the Underground, of other worlds not so removed from his own.

"You know this rule already, precious. Not to partake of goblin fruit."

She paled, understanding dawning across her face.

"You can't take him back!"

"I can, and I will. The both of you."

"He's just a baby!"

"And you're just a spoiled little girl." He growled. "Want, want, want. Wish, wish, wish. Me, me, me, me, ME!" His face was suddenly inches from hers and she lurched back away from him.

His face twitched, cool indifference sliding gracefully back over the top of his fury.

"However. I am prepared to wait for my prize."

"What does that mean?" She asked, steeling her voice to keep the tremor out of it.

"Despite the rather erroneous image you have cast me in, sweet Sarah, I do not steal children. I take only those that are given to me. I will leave the boy. I can be oh so generous, even if you are incredibly ungrateful."

"And me?" Sarah swallowed.

"And you will return with me. However, I do not house spoilt teenage brats. Stay. Watch your brother grow up. Come when it's your time."

Return to the Labyrinth.

The idea frightening and intriguing all at once.

Play this right Sarah. She thinks to herself. If you agree he'll never let you go.

You'll never see Toby or dad or even Karen again.

She set her jaw.

"No."

His lip flickered as he suppressed a sneer, the only sign of the emotions raging through him.

"No is not, I'm afraid, an option."

Her mind scrambled. It can't end like this.

"Then... then a wager."

He blinked, taken aback.

"A wager?"

"Yes." Her throat goes dry. What am I doing? What am I agreeing to?!

"And what would be the terms of this bet, dearest?"

"Double or nothing. I run the Labyrinth, again. If I win, we're both free of you. Forever."

"And if you lose?"

"Then I'll stay. Willingly."

He cocked an eyebrow.

"Obediently?"

The way he rolled the word off his tongue makes her stall. But it's clear it's the only shot she has.

"Yes."

He pondered her proposal for several long agonising heartbeats, rolling it over in his mind, the silence stretching out between them until she was sure he was going to decline. That it was all for naught.

"Agreed."

Sarah feels the breath she was holding escape her.

Feeling more of a child than ever she held out her hand. He raised an eyebrow, but accepted her hand in his own gloved one. A bargain struck between them.

"Until later, then, my sweet Sarah."

And as swiftly as he appeared, he was gone. Leaving her standing in an empty but well lit room. Nothing but a few owl feathers at her feet to signal his departure.