Disclaimer: I don't own the Labyrinth or Jareth---or David Bowie (though THAT would be fun).

Chapter 1: Mireia in the Goblin King's Castle

Jareth, Goblin King, Master of the Labyrinth, lounged in his throne, and absentmindedly watched his newest challenger pass through the first door into the labyrinth. He was slightly bored.

The boy had wished his sister away, and been as surprised as anyone when Jareth had actually shown up and granted his wish. But Jareth could see that this newest specimen wasn't going to make it. After watching so many people try their luck in his Labyrinth, Jareth had become quite good at recognizing the serious threats from the silly children. This boy didn't have the sense he was born with. He'd already taken three hours to get inside. He'd tried to walk around the perimeter, not realizing that there WAS no perimeter.

Children these days really couldn't be expected to have any respect for magic.

Sarah had been a regrettable exception--she'd complained so much that he hadn't really expected there to be such strength and stubbornness underneath, and it had caught him off guard. He'd been half in love with the idea of her resistance. But it hadn't lasted and he hadn't made that mistake again. She wasn't the first to get through the labyrinth, merely the first whom he hadn't predicted.

There had been knights with shining swords and armor, there had been wise men who knew nothing and desperate fools. Jareth was bound to give a gift of the winner's choosing to whomever could defeat his labyrinth. Many challengers had not come seeking lost siblings at all, but simply a chance at gaining a wish. There had only been three who had survived to the end. But Jareth did not want to think about them now.

"Michael didn't mean it, you know," said a voice near his left elbow. The girl had been sitting quietly since he'd brought her here and this was the first she'd said.

"Of course he did," replied Jareth without looking up. "But it hardly matters now. What's done is done. Even I can't change that, Mireia."

"Well, maybe he did a little bit," she conceded. "We did have a little fight. But he was just joking. We both like that book Labyrinth, and we'd memorized the speeches so that we could quote it at each other. We were only acting the scene, not actually trying to call you."

"Just because you didn't know I would appear does not make the words meaningless." Jareth countered, watching the boy Michael wander listlessly down the endless corridors at the beginning. She didn't say anything to that, and they sat in silence for quite a while.

"I don't suppose you have any books?" she asked, breaking the silence. Jareth sat up and slid his crystal around to the back of his hand where it promptly disappeared. "Or you could teach me how to do that. It looks fun." He gave her a small, cold smile, extended his hand towards her, and watched her reaction as the crystal ball rolled smoothly down his arm. She jumped in surprise, but both hands shot out quickly to catch it.

"You'll have to figure out some of it on your own, first," he said, happy to be distracted. "Like so many things, I can't teach you unless you know already." The goblins around their feet stirred, and some turned around to watch, snickering. She turned it over in her hands, staring fiercely at is, as if she hoped to learn it's secrets simply by concentrating.

Mireia was maybe sixteen, Jareth decided. Old enough to be charmed, but young enough to question it. Old enough to use logic and reason, but young enough to accept the illogical. Sarah's age. It was quite a difficult age to control, as he'd found out the hard way.

She was still studying it intensely, when she flipped her wrist, and the globe disappeared from sight. Jareth did not betray his surprise with so much as a twitch, but that didn't change the fact that he was most shocked. She looked up and met his eyes. Then she rolled her wrist, and the ball reappeared in her palm.

"It's just slight of hand," she said into the listening Goblin-filled silence. "Not real magic." She paused. "Will you teach me the real magic part?" Jareth gave himself a mental shake. Slight of hand. Not magic. He shed his shock.

"Not just now," he said briskly. He stood from his throne and beckoned her. "We have a little visit to pay before I can entertain my guest." He smiled in calm arrogance, moved his gloved hand in a complicated move, and suddenly a new globe appeared. She looked down quickly at the one resting in her hand. "Please, keep that one." She looked at it suspiciously, then shrugged and stuffed it into the pocket of her sweater, where it bulged strangely. Jareth dropped a hand lightly on her shoulder and brought them both abruptly to the boy.

****

Mireia could see that Michael was near tears. He looked dusty and vulnerable. She felt quite protective of him--he was only twelve, after all. He was surprised out of the threatening tears, however, when she and Jareth appeared directly in his path. Mireia was quite grateful. She didn't want to see him cry. It would make it all too real, and she was afraid she might cry with him if he started up.

"Not progressing very far, are we Michael?" Jareth asked in the same calmly, pleasantly voice Mireia was getting used to. Michael stared at the Goblin king sullenly. Mireia could see he was working out whether or not to insult him. He settled on silence and a righteous glare. "You could just give up now," Jareth reminded him persuasively. "I could send you back home this instant if you give the command, and the Labyrinth will be only a faded memory."

"No," Michael ground out. "Not without Mireia." His eyes darted to her, standing beside Jareth. She tried to smile encouragingly.

"Are you sure? I won't give you another chance. Your parents have started to look for you. Don't be stubborn."

"No," Michael said, and crossed his arms.

"Al right," said Jareth shortly. He turned on his heel, and his cloak swept out in front of Mireia, blocking her vision for a brief second. When it fell away, they were back in front of the throne. Jareth strode arrogantly out of the room without a word, and the Goblins scuttled hurriedly out of his way. She really did not want to become one.

Mireia sat down, annoyed, to puzzle out how she was going to get herself out of this situation. She tried to remember anything useful from the book, but most of it had to do with getting through the labyrinth, and it was from the challenger's point of view, anyway.

Therein lay the problem. Michael wasn't going to figure out the Labyrinth on his own. It just wasn't going to happen. It wasn't that Mireia didn't have faith in him, or that he was stupid--quite the opposite in fact--it was that he didn't have the right kind of genius to bend around something as improbable as the Labyrinth. Give him a computer and a set of physical rules, and he could work miracles. He'd skipped two grades. But when it came to magic, to make-believe, to the chaotic side of creativity, he was helpless without Mireia as his guide. If only it had been the other way around, she thought. I could solve this Labyrinth.

Mireia gave up that problem for the time being and turned her attention to the Goblin King. It was much easier to think sensibly about him when he wasn't there.

Arrogant? Yes. It wrapped him in a sort of powerfully dangerous air. It made it hard to stand up to him. It made him Royalty. But she'd have to figure out how to do just that--and she'd have to do it with some sort of power behind her. He may not have any power over Michael--Michael had to solve the Labyrinth. But he most definitely had power over Mireia. In less than ten hours, she would be a Goblin, and no renunciation of his power was going to change that. So she'd have to find a different way, and she'd have to do it now.

Thoughtfully, Mireia pulled out the globe from her pocket and held it cupped in her palms. She knew it would be useful if she could just figure out how it worked...

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