I think I'm really starting to get on a roll now. I was afraid that my Muses had left me and was floundering for an idea that once was very clear. Thankfully I had my cards read and my thoughts are back on track. Anyway, I hope I am keeping all of you entertained, so enjoy.

Disclaimers: You know it, I know it, let's just move on.

It all started about five hundred years. That is five hundred years ago in Underground time, for Aboveground it would have measured more around one thousand years. But it does not really bear discussion since in is well known that the Aboveground and Underground follow different concepts of time and existence.

It had been five hundred years and yet to Jareth it seemed only yesterday. Only yesterday when his father had fallen in battle and he had been left the throne of the Goblin Kingdom.

He had been eight hundred years old at the time, and no more prepared for his duties than a babe in arms. Yet he was thrust into his obligations by being the oldest son and by not being betrolled to any foreign dignitary. Bartlby was to become the future Elf King by having given himself into marriage with Raina the princess of the Elf Kingdom. The match had been made in love but it also served a purpose in that Raina's armies came to help the Goblin King. Yet when it was all over Jareth stood alone, he stood to succeed the throne to the Goblin kingdom, to watch over it's inhabitants, to keep them safe. He was thankful in that trying time that he had his brother and sister there to help him.

The war and everything surrounding it was a bad memory, but it was one that haunted him and now it had come to life with heart shattering consequences. More so than ever he wished his father was there to give him advice. He had been a good and wise king.

He remembered the day when the war between the Troll King and his father the Goblin King had been finished and the land lay scattered with blood and bodies. It was a relief that is was finally over but it had had terrible repercussions. The battle at Acta had been fierce. Acta was a small town on the edge of his kingdom and the kingdom of the Troll king. It had been a horrible battle; both sides had lost many loyal subjects and in the end he had held the body of his father in his arms and heard his last words.

"Take care of them for me, take care of our kingdom and keep it from harm," he had heard him whisper in his dying breath. "Promise me Jareth, promise me."

"I promise father, I will keep our kingdom," Jareth meekly replied tears fighting to break free, "I will see it restored to its former glory."

His father had smiled and then drew his last breath and passed on. Yes, his father, like him had been immortal but the Trolls fought with poison-tipped swords. His father had taken two arrows and sword to the heart before it had been his undoing. There was an antidote created to combat the poison, but unfortunately for Jareth's father that antidote did not come in time and Jareth had the hard task of comforting his father in his last minutes. But he had passed on and knew Jareth to be a man of his word. He passed contently and with his work done.

With a heavy heart, fearful mind and only his siblings and subjects to comfort him Jareth assumed the throne of the Goblin Kingdom and Labyrinth and took the title of Goblin King. He slowly but surly picked up the pieces of a war that had ravaged his land and people for far too long. He first years in power were his worst. He would always remember them.

The burden of hindsight is a terrible thing to carry. If only Jareth had known. In many ways what should have brought peace to both the warring lands of the Troll Kingdom and Goblin Kingdom in the end brought only more destruction and sorrow.

In the beginning, it was Dorian the Troll King who had with his forces impeded on the borders on the Goblin Kingdom. He had his sights set on enlarging his kingdom and leaving his only child Mortiana the sole mistress of both lands. His ambition was to pass on to his child in every way.

Dorian had judged badly in believing that the Goblin King, Nicoli would not stand against him. It took ten years for the conflict to be resolved. Ten years for both monarchs to be dead on the battlefield and for the children who would ascend their thrones to end the misery.

However, Jareth in his eager and naïve hopes to bring to an end the misery and strife failed to see Dorian's cruel mind and malicious spirit reflected in his daughter's eyes. He did not see her ambitions to follow in her father's footsteps and it was his desperation for peace that led him to his damning agreement. He had been naïve and foolish, but the burden he bore was still too new for him to fathom the consequences of years to come.

He could still hear Mortiana's harsh words as she stood in all her dark glory in his throne room, "Goblin King, I will not be satisfied, unless you give me a child every ten years to do with as I choose. If you defy me my forces will once again invade your lands and leave it in ruins."

He knew that both sides had suffered terrible losses of life and he had assumed that these children were simply a repopulation ploy. He had been wrong. To appease her he had signed the contract making it completely legal and unbreakable in the eyes of anyone in the King's Council. His hands were completely tied and he had been the one to tie them.

Days before he signed his brother had tried to talk some sense into him. Bartlby was younger than Jareth but had always been wise beyond his years and in training for his newly gained position as monarch of his own land.

"Jareth, you don't honestly believe that she will leave you alone if you sign the damned thing, you can't do this, father would never have approved," Bartlby tried in vain to get through to him.

"Well, Bartlby, father is not here to give his opinion now is he, besides our land needs peace and treaty will allow it to happen. I know as well as you that Mortiana is not to be trusted but we have no choice. If I sign this contract she will go away. What is the matter it is only one child every ten years, with the people that traverse my Labyrinth I will always have sacrifices to give her. Besides, the war has exhausted our food supply; we need workers in the fields farming not on military patrol. Her land is in worse condition than ours; we should use it to our advantage to get rid of her now. Trust in me brother, I need your help with this now more than ever."

"He's right, Bartlby, we should sign the contract. If we sign, it will show us in a good light and that is an angle we can play with the Council should the need arise," replied Livia.

"Thank you sister," replied Jareth, "for trusting in my decision, "it is done then, I will sign tomorrow and there will be peace in the Labyrinth once more."

Bartlby signed and nodded his head in reluctant agreement. "Dear brother, I do hope you know what you are getting into and I hope on our father's spirit that in the end you can find your way out again."

Unbeknownst to Jareth and his siblings, Mortiana did have plans for the Goblin King and his kingdom. She have never wavered in her plans, she was merely content to bide her time. For now.