...Though We're Strangers Till Now

by Jacqui

Note - All the original characters do NOT belong to me, although the rest of them do. Last names of those characters who didn't or don't have them are entirely fictional. This is my first attempt at Labyrinth fan fiction, so reviews would be really nice and appreciated. This story is mostly based on the movie, but there's a few elements from the book thrown in here and there. I read Labyrinth analyses, various fan fiction, and also came up with my own conclusions and ideas. So, this entire story will entail all three of those sources of information. It may be weird, it may be good, either way, as I mentioned before...feedback is always appreciated and adored. :) Oh yeah, Jim Henson, Brian Froud, and everyone who had a hand in creating this movie are geniuses.

Chapter 3: Return To The Underground

Sarah awoke to find herself in a place she didn't recognize. She also awoke with a terrible hangover. She wondered what had happened the night before, what had she done? She sat up slowly, her hands immediately grasping the sides of her head as the pounding in her head deepened for a moment. She inhaled deeply, then let it out with a deep sigh. She opened her eyes completely now, surveying her surroundings. The room she was in was made of complete stone. The bed she was lying in was one of the softest beds she had ever slept in, although she didn't like the fact that it wasn't her own. She lightly pulled herself toward the edge of the bed and tried to stand up. But, to her complete shock, she was unable to stand upright for more than a second. As she sat back down on the bed, she looked around the rest of the room. There was a small bowl and pitcher atop a table in the right corner of the room, which she assumed to be a basin for washing hands and the like. A small dresser with an equally small chair was directly across from the bed. The wood was beautiful, almost like rosewood, Sarah thought. On the wall just above the dresser, there hung a finely crafted silver framed mirror. It was an oval shape, with what looked like tiny curling patterns encircling the outer frame. The bed was simply exquisite to sleep on, she was surprised she still had a hangover. The coverings were pure white, with what looked like embroidered patterns sewn in here and there. The outer layers of the sheets were trimmed with silver lining, she guessed that it was to match the mirror. Just before she was going to make another attempt at standing up, she heard a sharp knock at her door.

"Miss? Have you awaken yet?" came a scratchy voice from the other side of the door.

"E-Excuse me?" Sarah asked, completely confused. But as soon as the woman on the other side had heard Sarah's voice, the door flew open.

"Excellent. His Majesty is waiting for you. He thought you would be up sooner, but when you had slept past breakfast, he was generous enough to give you more time to re cooperate." Sarah jumped as a small goblin woman rushed into her room, muttering and rambling on and on, too fast for Sarah to keep up. The woman's hair was a graceful white, although she looked a little young for her hair to be white already. She didn't look like the goblins of her storybooks, or any of the goblins she had encountered in the Labyrinth. This goblin looked more finely tuned, as if she were in the process of becoming a fairy.

"Wait...what? Who wants to see me?" Sarah asked, still completely confused. "And who are you?"

"My goodness, where are my manners? My name is Helori, my dear. And it is His Majesty who wishes your audience, so hurry and get dressed. You must make yourself presentable. You don't want to look like you just wandered out of the Bog of Eternal Stench now do you?"

"The what?" Sarah's eyes widened, recognizing the name. Where am I? she thought. She just stared blankly at the woman rushing around picking various things up from different places, and then putting them down and picking them up again.

"Miss, please, I do not wish to upset the King with your tardiness. Get up and get yourself dressed!" Helori said, becoming more impatient. But, she stopped what she was doing long enough to get a few things straight in her mind.

"His Majesty. Okay. His Majesty, does this person have a name or does everyone just call him 'His Majesty?'" Sarah asked, slowly pulling herself from the bed.

"Oh, he only allows those with privileges to call him by his true name, miss. Now hurry and get dressed." This Helori woman was starting to make Sarah angry with her incessant nagging, but Sarah was concentrating more on steadying herself so that she wouldn't fall and break every bone in her body. She felt so fragile, which had to be the hangover.

"Okay, answer one more question and I will get dressed," Sarah said, trying to match the woman's impatient tone.

"Yes yes, what would your question be?" Helori replied, shooing Sarah over toward the vanity.

"Where am I?" Sarah asked, exasperated from trying to find an answer to that question herself.

"Why, you're in the Underground, miss. Surely you knew that?" A puzzled look crossed the Helori's face.

"Then the place we are in right now would be..."

"His Majesty's castle of course!" Helori exclaimed with joy, as if the castle were her own. With that, Helori picked up a brush from the vanity tabletop and began combing through Sarah's slightly mangled hair. As she brushed and applied beauty products and styled, Sarah listened as Helori informed her how she was to act, what she was allowed to say, and what she wasn't allowed to say. Sarah just thought of this as a dream of some sort, she wasn't really sure if she was unconscious or not, but she sure as hell couldn't have come into the Underground for the second time. It was almost impossible. Helori had searched throughout the castle for the most presentable dress, and before long, Sarah looked like rather decent and presentable. Or at least she did to Helori. Sarah just thought she looked like a medieval barmaid. The dress was a dark green with a v-shaped neckline. The corset she wore underneath was tight, but it made the bodice of the dress look a little smoother. The skirt flared out at about mid- calf, and the outer trim had gold embroidery all around the bottom. Her sleeves were almost too tight, and they came to points just over the tops of her hands. Sarah's hair also had much more volume to it than normal. She sighed, almost liking her dream if she hadn't been nagged so much by a silly goblin who couldn't stop jabbering. She wished she could get it that fluffy when she was awake.

"Okay. Do am I presentable enough?" Sarah asked Helori, who was just standing silently next to the open door--giving a not-so-subtle hint.

"Very presentable, miss. His Majesty will approve." Smiling, Sarah shook her head at that last comment, thinking this whole idea was crazy. But, she thought again, it was fun at the same time. Sarah walked out of the small room she had awoken in only a few moments prior, and Helori shut the door behind her as she followed Sarah. The place was like a maze--or more appropriately, a Labyrinth. It would have been hopeless for her to find her way through without Helori's help. But before Sarah realized it, she was standing in front of a gigantic wooden door.

"Who's room is this?" Sarah asked innocently.

"Oh, this isn't anyone's room, dear. This is His Majesty's private study," most of us around here call it his, "'Thinking Room.'" Helori explained gleefully. "But as I am sad to say, me and you must part ways here, he does not allow servants into this room. So, miss, simply knock and everything else should follow accordingly." At those final words, Helori curtsied, and took her leave. Sarah was left standing in front of two massive doors, with her only instructions which were to knock. So, she did so, lightly at first, then harder the second time.

"You may enter." Came a deep, but slightly familiar, accented voice from behind the thickly wooded doors. Sarah pushed one of the doors open with both hands, stepping past it slowly. As she fully entered the room, she looked around in amazement. The entire room was full of books of all kinds, it seemed like a library. There were no chairs to sit in, or tables, so she perished the idea of the room being a library quickly. She began to see it more as an office of some sort, or maybe a conference room. The voice spoke again, breaking her concentration and focusing it on the voice's direction.

"Sarah," he said coolly, as if her name was that of any other name he has spoken before hers.

It was him. This had to be a dream, she felt like turning to run. But he had read her mind, and before she even moved, with a motion of his hand the doors slammed shut behind her.

"What's..." Sarah began to protest. There was no way this could be real, she had already defeated this man, why was he still here?

"I've told you this once before, do not defy me. Do not make me say it a second time." The Goblin King took a few steps toward her, until he was in front of her. "Do you know why you're here?" he asked, folding his arms and leaning against the desk behind him.

"No. I-I assumed this to be a dream, so I didn't bother wondering about that," she replied, stiffening up slightly to try and counteract his authoritative air.

"I guarantee you, Sarah...this is no dream. The first time may have been closer to a dream, you just had a way out then. The reason you are here is simple. You are here because you wished it so." He said calmly, as if the words had been said hundreds of times before.

"I don't understand, I don't remember wishing anyth--" she tried to be suave with her comeback, but he cut her off.

"Well you did," he said, holding up an empty vodka bottle. "Do you remember, now?"

"But," Sarah's eyes widened as she began to remember. "I-I was drunk, I wasn't in my right mind, I....I had no idea what I was saying, I didn't mean it..." Sarah was becoming angered, she didn't mean it. Did she?

"If you did not mean any of it, Sarah, I would not have come. And you would not be here. But in any case, you are here. Now I have to decide what to do with you," he looked her up and down, his tone was icy.

"You can't control me. I'm a human being, I have rights..." Sarah retorted, brushing a few strands of loose hair from her eyes.

"Oh really? Have you looked around you yet?" Jareth gestured around him, as if making his point. "If it has not occurred to you already, you are not in your world anymore, Sarah. You are in mine. I make the rules, now. You have wished yourself to be taken, and I only did as you asked."

"So, what is this, then? Are you going to make me solve the Labyrinth again just so I can return home?" Sarah spat. Her eyes flaring angrily. She didn't want to be there.

"As appealing as that sounds, I do not think I want to go through that charade again." Jareth's voice remained glacial, and distant. He couldn't understand why she had wished herself to be taken. The more he looked at her, the more it became clearer what his position was. She had called upon him to take her away. In clearer terms, she was his. His mind quarreled with ideas of what to make of the situation, and he couldn't keep his eyes off her. Partly because he wasn't sure what she would do, and because he noticed just how much older she acted. She still had that innocent beauty from years ago, but something about her was different. Her eyes were full of pain and anger, whether these emotions were meant for him, he had no idea. But he had to do something with her, he knew he couldn't send her back to her own world. It was in his own jurisdiction to carry out the laws with which she had fallen under.

"What are you--" Sarah began, but Jareth's hand flew up to stop her immediately.

"Sarah, I have come to a decision on what to do with you." He pushed himself away from the desk he had been leaning on, walking toward her. When he stopped they were only inches from one another. "You've wished for me to take you. I have done so. Now you are mine. So--"

"I belong to no one!" Sarah shouted, turning on her heels in attempt to leave the room. Forcefully if she had to. She wanted out of there, this was ridiculous.

"Sarah," Jareth whispered between clenched teeth as he grabbed her by the arm, rendering her immobile. "That would be a very stupid mistake,' he said as he whirled her back around to face him.

"Let go of me," Sarah demanded, trying to pull her arm from his grip. Her eyes began to show signs of tears, and his grip loosened, but he didn't let go completely.

"This is something you have wished for yourself, Sarah. Do not make it any harder than necessary. You belong to me, now. That is the way of the Underground." Jareth's tone was still apathetic. Sarah yanked her arm free of his grip, having noticed his hold on her had loosened considerably.

"What then? What happens now? Do I simply remain in your castle as your personal servant for the rest of my life? Are you going to turn me into a goblin? What..?" Sarah's voice was breaking, she still had refused to look directly into his eyes, although he tried to make her do so.

"A goblin? No. My servant? Well...that idea seems perfect." A sly smile crossed Jareth's lips as he turned from her, walking gracefully back to his desk. Sarah's eyes closed slowly, then she reopened them.

"What kind of servant exactly?" Sarah inhaled deeply, expecting the worst.

"My personal servant," Jareth replied, his smile growing wider.

"Your what?!" Sarah exclaimed.

"Disappointed, are you?" Jareth questioned, already knowing the answer.

"This is insane, I...I didn't ask for any of this!" she shrieked.

"Oh, and I suppose you did not ask to be taken, either?" Jareth's petulance was showing through, at this point. He was getting tired of this game.

"I don't even want to be here!" Sarah shot back, her fists clenching at her sides.

"Well, Sarah, you are. That is something you are going to have to deal with."

"I can say it again...the line that defeated you before, then this will all be over!" Sarah realized that he was getting aggravated.

"That would no longer do you any good. The circumstances are different now. You have given me power over you, Sarah. There is no way that power can be broken. That is unless you plan on assassinating me..." Jareth snorted sarcastically. As he sat down in the chair behind his desk, his eyes shot back to her. They remained staring at one another for what felt like hours to Sarah. Finally, she felt that she had had enough.

"Well? Why don't you just get this over with and put the chains on my wrists?" Sarah choked, barely able to picture herself as someone's servant.

"Chains?" Jareth raised a brow in skepticism, "No, no chains, Sarah. You won't be that kind of servant." He pondered how to describe it to her, the kind of servant she would be for him. Then an idea flashed in front of him and he knew exactly what to say. "You will be my personal servant, which means you will accompany me on trips or whenever I feel the desire for company, this goes for formal occasions as well."

He saw Sarah's protective wall begin to crumble with his words, and he continued to list the terms. "You will not be doing any manual labor of any kind, thankfully I have enough goblin men and women who are more than willing to do that for me without giving me back talk."

"What else?" Sarah asked, knowing there had to be a lot more to it than that.

"What else would you like there to be, Sarah? Is there something you had in mind?" Jareth chuckled as he watched her for a reply. Sarah turned away from him, facing the double doors that were still closed tight.

"Let me out of here," Sarah said steadily.

"Talk like that is not going to get you anywhere in my kingdom, Sarah." Jareth put emphasis on 'my' so that she would get a better idea of what she had done wrong.

"Alright. Should I call you 'Your Majesty', like everyone else here?" Sarah asked, still not facing him.

"That will do for now," Jareth responded languidly.

"Your Majesty," Sarah felt as if she were going to choke on the entire sentence she was going to say. "May I be excused, now?" Sarah finished, tasting the bitterness that was left in her mouth.

"Yes, but before you go, Sarah..." Jareth began, "I wish your company tonight at dinner. Some of my colleagues will attend and I am afraid I will not be much entertainment on this particular night. You will make up for that." Jareth waved his hand a few times, dismissing her.

Sarah flung open the doors, rampaging back to the room she had woken up in earlier. Jareth chuckled once more at her viciousness and anger. But his expression quickly changed when he thought of the night to come. Would Sarah disgrace him in front of his comrades or would she be cordial and effeminate? He still had no answer his question about why she called him in the first place. He would find out before dinner, he wanted to know just how much power Sarah had given him, and how much authority he had over that power.