I know I said the last chapter was the penultimate chapter, but I lied. This one is. Silly me.

I still don't own the Labyrinth. Don't even have the DVD yet, if you can believe it.

Sarah strode through the trees, almost expecting something to stop her progress, but she made it unhindered to the gate. She wasn't entirely surprised. Something told her that the meeting with Danielle was the last obstacle in her path. She wasn't exactly sure what Jareth thought she would do after meeting Danielle, but it didn't matter. She had formed her own plan. She started to pull the door open, hoping she was making the right decision.

"Sarah, wait!" So intent she was on reaching her goal she'd momentarily forgotten her friends who were following so faithfully behind. She stopped turned around and Hoggle, puffing painfully, approached her. "Sarah, are you sure you're going the right way? I'm not certain that is the proper gate. That girl back there could be leading you into a trap."

He was so obviously lying it was endearing. She gave him a brief, tight hug and then faced her friends, hoping she could explain herself properly. She wondered if Jareth was nearby, listening to what she said. She hoped he was, because what she wanted to say included him as well as her companions.

"Hoggle, everyone. Listen, the first time I came here one of the things I took away, besides the fact that life wasn't fair," she smiled a little at that, "was that growing up didn't have to mean letting go of your dreams. I may have had to put childish things away, but I didn't have to put my dreams away. I told you then that every now and again in my life, I needed you." She paused, struggling to find the words to say what she wanted to say. She knew time was ticking away, but she needed to say this now, in case her plan didn't work. "After Toby died, I, well I forgot to let myself dream once in awhile. I forgot that I still needed you. All of you. I can't say I'm sorry I made the choices I did. Becoming a doctor wasn't my dream, but it wasn't a bad choice. I was able to help people. But I am sorry I lost the person I might have been. Coming back here has helped me get at least part of that person back, so thank you for helping me once again."

"Sarah…Don't go!" growled Ludo, echoing everyone's sentiments.

"I'm sorry, Ludo, I have to do this. I have to finish the story." And with that, before she could change her mind, she stepped through the gate.

She was standing on nothing and everything around her was blackness. For a moment she felt terrified, thinking perhaps she was wrong after all and this was another of the Labyrinth's many traps, but then she saw a light ahead of her, growing larger, until it looked like an arched doorway. Beyond the arch she could make out the familiar furniture of her apartment. Just a few steps and she would be back in her life, in the real world that was full of ups and downs and joys and disappointments, bitter losses and perhaps even love, still waiting to be discovered.

Slowly Sarah turned around. Yes. There was another archway behind her, and through it she could see Hoggle, Didymus and Ludo, and someone else.

Jareth.

He was watching her with an unfathomable expression. "Well, Sarah," he said finally. "It seems you've bested the Labyrinth once again. You are free to go." He was smiling as he spoke, but Sarah hear sorrow in his voice. He had been a villain to her heroine; the dashing, cold and fascinating villain of her childhood fantasies, but at some point he also became her prince, her rescuer from a selfishness she hadn't even realized she possessed. Now he was there before her, not acting as anything other than himself, and she loved him for it.

"Yes, I am free." Sarah said. "Jareth, you asked me once to let you rule me, and you would be my slave. Well, that's not what I want. I don't want slavery, either yours or mine. Had I lost this contest, I would have been forced to stay, but you said if I won, I would make my own decisions. Well, I've decided. I don't want to be ruled by you, or have you re-order time for me. I don't want to fear you, Jareth," she stepped back through the archway, through the gate, and into the Labyrinth once again, "I just want to love you."