"Think, think, think. How do I get out of this? The heroine always gets out. How?" Alia looked down at the low wave of goblins surging up the stairs at her. They covered every inch of the stairs; she could not wade through them, she would never find the steps. She could try going over them, walking on them, but she found the thought distasteful, to say the least. "Over them I jump over them?" She would have to be quick, while they were still near the bottom of the flight, otherwise she would land on the steps instead of the floor.

She ran straight for the goblins at the foot of the stairs. They paused, confused by their prey heading for them instead of running away. A frown flitted across Jareth's face.

"What is she doing? She's not going to try to jump? She'll kill herself. Things would be so much simpler if she would, for once, just – STOP!" he roared, throwing up his hand.

Alia stopped as though she had slammed into a brick wall and stood involuntarily frozen on the stairs.

"I am tired of chasing you through this castle. This will end here." Jareth's voice was cold as he spoke to the young woman. Then he addressed the goblins. "Bring her things to me," he told them, at the same time releasing her. She clutched her satchel to her chest.

"Tieran, I can't run anymore. He's going to take the satchel. What do I do?"

"Give it to him, of course. What else can you do?"

She reluctantly released the satchel and the knapsack to the goblins, who half carried, half dragged them to Jareth's feet. He opened the knapsack and turned it upside down, emptying its contents on the floor. He kicked through the contents cursorily. He knew as well as she did that she had put the fruit in the satchel, not the knapsack. He picked up the satchel with more enthusiasm and turned it upside down as well.

A few packages of dried fruit fell out on the floor. He shook it. Another packet fell out and broke open, scattering dried peaches everywhere. He looked up at Alia as she sat on the stairs trying unsuccessfully to hide the confusion on her face. She had thought all was lost, now she did not know what to think.

"Search the castle for two peaches. She must have hidden them somewhere in her flight," he commanded the goblins quietly. They looked at him blankly. He spelled it out for them, "Go find two peaches in the castle! Now!" shouting the last word as he lost patience. "I should have used the netgoblins," he muttered to himself.

He turned back to Alia who still sat on the steps where he had left her. "You," he said, pointing at her, "come with me."

She quickly got up and followed him.

He took her to his throne room, which was deserted with not even a chicken to be seen. He stopped and turned to her abruptly in the middle of the room, holding up the satchel. Alia, close on his heels and distracted by the state of the throne room, nearly ran into him and backed away as quickly as she could.

"You and I both know you did not hide them in the castle. I saw your face. You expected me to find those peaches in this bag. Now, why did I not find them? The only reason I can think of is that you are the only one who can take them out. Do so now," He handed her the bag.

Her hand shook as she took it from him. She closed her eyes and concentrated as she reached into the bag and pulled out...an apricot. She dropped it on the floor quickly and reached in again, not wanting to try the Goblin King's already thin patience. She concentrated again and thought larger. This time she pulled out a plum, then a nectarine.

"You seem to be producing a fruit salad. I am not amused. You have one more chance to produce a peach or you will have a first-hand experience of the oubliettes to take home with you...if you ever go home."

Alia took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind. She pictured the peaches as they had been when she took them from the tree: large, ripe, heavy, soft-skinned and fragrant. She reached in again, felt for a fruit of the right size and texture. Her hand closed around what felt right and pulled it out. She looked at it and her face fell. The peach she held in her hand bore only superficial resemblance to the magic peaches, a pale shadow of the real thing, hard, greenish, and far from ripe.

She heard laughter and looked up. Jareth was laughing at her in what seemed to be genuine amusement, not the malicious mirth she would have expected.

"I'm sorry. If you had seen the expression on your face," he said as he finally controlled himself. "I had you believing you were going to an oubliette. This is so much more fun than the real thing. I have not laughed like that in ages." He looked at Alia's confused expression and smiled. "Don't worry. I know you have no idea what happened to the fruit, but I think I know. You might warn your...sponsor that he is found out."

Horror passed across her face and she reached out for Tieran immediately. "Tieran, he knows about you –" Suddenly she could no longer feel Tieran with her mind.

Before she had the opportunity to work up to a full blown panic, Tieran was sprawled on the throne room floor.

"Welcome to my castle, Tieran s'Artali," Jareth said warmly, lounging on his throne. "And you, young woman, I don't believe we've been introduced."

"My name is Alia."

"No family name?"

"Alia Gardner."

"Alia Gardner, you are welcome as well. You both must excuse the lack of ceremony. I am...a little shorthanded."

Alia looked up quizzically from helping Tieran up. "Shorthanded? What about them?" She waved in the direction of the hallway and stairs.

"That was the last of my vast goblin army," he gestured grandiosely, "the last of my household staff, the last of all of them. That is what I would like to talk to you about. I have a proposition for you."

Tieran became incredulous and indignant, "Because you have run out of goblins to drop kick into the Bog, you expect us to go out and steal children for you! There is no way in the Underground that I would ever do such a thing for you. You will have to wait and restrain yourself until they are legitimately wished to you."

"If you are finished flaunting your imagined moral superiority, I will explain exactly what I do expect," the Goblin King stated with a raised eyebrow and a tone of cold boredom. "Are you quite finished?"

"Yes."

"Certain?"

"Yes."

"Good." Jareth rose from his throne and started pacing as he explained.

"It all started about six months ago when goblins started disappearing. They were not running away. Where would they go? No one else would take the miserable creatures," he said irritably. "No one else would put up with them. They don't have the intelligence to run away, but I checked discreetly in neighboring kingdoms to be certain. They were not anywhere else. They were vanishing.

"Then other creatures started to vanish. The fireys, Ludo, Sir Didymus, Ambrosius, Hoggle. Even the old Wise Man and his bird disappeared.

"Then I started losing parts of the Labyrinth. The forest, the walls, the hedges, parts of the city. The gates are completely gone!" he exclaimed agitatedly. "Both the gates to the city and the front gates are completely missing! There is nothing but bare earth left!"

"I have not heard about any of this," stated Tieran in a tone of slight skepticism.

"Of course not," Jareth spat at him derisively. "You never were among the best informed, Tieran. Even if you were, you would not have heard it for there is no one left to tell it!" Jareth shouted, throwing his hands in the air as he continued pacing.

"At first I paid little attention. 'What is a goblin missing here or there?' I thought. Just one less to trip over. One less to add to the mess. Even the other creatures did not concern me over much. I thought perhaps they had gone to visit other kingdoms and would come back eventually. After all they were intelligent enough to find their own way. But when the walls started to vanish I became concerned.

"Walls do not go sight-seeing in my Labyrinth. They move and migrate across the Labyrinth, but they do not vanish without a trace.

"I began to search for the cause, for the thief slowly robbing me of my kingdom. It was about this time I began having vivid dreams." He paused in his pacing and watched Alia out of the corner of his eye as he continued. "Dreams of looking for a Prince and running from people looking for me."

Alia sat down abruptly in a chair Jareth had produced for her. He walked over and squatted in front of her chair while Tieran hovered nearby. "So they are familiar to you. I thought you might be the one in the dreams. Have you any idea what my...your...our dream means?" he asked her quietly.

Alia shook her head. "I only just figured out a few days ago that I had been dreaming about you before I ever saw you in the movie."

"No matter. I believe I have an idea of the dream's meaning, but let me continue my story." He stood and began to pace again.

"As I said I began to look for the source of my problem. This search took me to your world, to Earth. I found the disappearances to be related to the movie you just mentioned. That cursed movie! I should never have allowed it to be made, but it appealed to my vanity and seemed fairly accurate for the most part. If I had known, vanity or no vanity...," he trailed off, pausing in his pacing then shook his head to dismiss it. "But that does me no good now."

"I found that in your world another movie was being produced. No, it was not a movie," he corrected himself. "It was a television series. Rather, it is a television series, for they are still making it and my kingdom is still disappearing." He sat on his throne.

"As I understand it, the company making this series has developed a new technique for computer animation. Somehow this technique manages to capture its subjects, my subjects," he corrected with a mirthless laugh, "and store them for future use. It stores them on discs, like compact discs, ...like the discs in the dream. They call them Imprints."

"Not Prince, but 'Prints. That was what the dream was referring to!" Alia exclaimed, unable to refrain from interrupting in her excitement over the revelation.

"Yes, exactly. 'Prints." He walked over to the window and looked out. "My whole kingdom is gradually being transformed to a series of 0's and 1's on a disc to be used for computer animation."

"How does this involve us? Why am I here?" asked Tieran.

Jareth looked at him from where he was leaning against the window frame. "It involves you, my dear Tieran, because once they have had success with the Labyrinth, they will move on to the 'fiction' in the rest of the Underground. Everything will be a vast wasteland, turned to bits stored on a disc."

"And where do I come in? Why do you need me?" persisted Alia, not entirely satisfied with his answer to Tieran's question.

The Goblin King looked out the window again. "I need you because I cannot do anything about it," he admitted quietly. "They would recognize me if I tried, but I cannot even try. Fortunately for me, I found out what they were doing before it was my turn to be animated. Since then I have been fighting them off, but it takes most of my magic to do so. The little I have had to spare, I have been using to aid you, Alia."

"Aid me? How?" Alia was confused.

He turned fiercely away from the window, his mood changing again. "Why do you think that genie had the sudden notion to grant you a wish? He was certainly not happy when you ran him off and he tends to hold grudges. He gave you the wish because I told him to do so."

"Oh. How else did you help me? The bridge?"

"No, the bridge is always that way. But who do you think caught you when you slipped on the cliff?"

"The vine did – "

"No, I did using the vine. It was my fault you slipped. I had to do something."

"Your fault? The worm startled me."

"Yeah, an' jest oo do you fink that worm was? Fooled you right proper, I did." He mimicked the worm's accent perfectly and smiled.

"I thought he was just a worm. So you told me about the tunnel... And what about that quote from 'Princess Bride?' You wouldn't say something like that."

"All part of the character. Where did you get the ridiculous idea to climb that cliff?"

"I didn't know any other way to get to the top," Alia said defensively.

"If you knew she was in the tunnels, why did you not help her when she was lost?" Tieran asked.

"I tried to help her. The little fool ran and got lost when I came looking for her."

"So it was you I heard coming down the corridor toward me," Alia mused. "I don't think I was a fool. If you were trying to keep your presence a secret what would you have done? Waved your arms about and shouted 'Oy, over 'ere?' You would have done exactly as I did."

"But I would not have been so foolish as to lose sight of the corridor."

"If I could see the corridor I could be seen from the corridor."

"Enough arguing you two," Tieran interrupted before it could go any further. "Jareth, why did you leave her lost in those tunnels once you knew what happened? From what she said, she was almost killed by that monster."

"It took me some time to find her. The network of tunnels in the cliff is vast and shifts just as the Labyrinth does. Also, for some reason, I cannot track Alia in the same way I can others. I did save her from that monster as you called it. Its proper name is a tunnel hunter. The goblins, with their characteristic understatement, call them biters. They are the adult form of the nippers you saw in the movie. It must have escaped. Usually they are kept penned and bred by the goblins for the young, but that is another thing that has suffered from these marauding animators."

"What happened to it? I remember seeing a flash of red light as it leapt at me, but I never saw it after that," Alia asked.

"I used the ruby crystal in the ceiling of the chamber to transfer it to an oubliette for safe keeping until things return to normal. Perhaps it will give the animators a surprise," he said with a predatory smile.

"Thank you for saving me from it."

"I assure you, it was purely in my own self-interest." He came to stand over her intimidatingly while she sat in the chair. "I never would have bothered if I knew you would try that idiotic stunt on the stairs. You nearly killed us both. I cannot imagine what possessed you to try to jump over the goblins. You would have broken your neck."

"Actually, I rather thought I'd tackle you. You would have cushioned my fall and with any luck not been able to continue chasing me. It was an appealing idea at the time."

"Yes, and broken my neck, too."

"Now wait, Jareth. You cannot have it both ways – either she fails and breaks her neck or succeeds and breaks yours. She cannot do both," Tieran laughed.

"Yes, well, it was a stupid idea on her part in either case," the Goblin King muttered, turning away again.

"Now that you have saved the natural disaster Alia from herself, I believe you said you did it for self-serving reasons and mentioned a proposition. That usually involves an exchange. How does Alia help you and what does she get from it?" Tieran asked, changing the subject.

"She will do what I cannot. She will stop this company."

"So this is how Alia saves the Labyrinth. This is why the prophecy was written," Tieran mused. "It was to get her here."

"What prophecy?" demanded the Goblin King.

Tieran quoted,

"Another will come to the castle beyond the Labyrinth, beyond the Goblin City,
Who will not pass the Labyrinth
And yet, will pass through trials,
Seeing what others cannot –
The stone that is not as it seems.

Another will come,
To take back what is needed, what is stolen,
That which is not as it seems,
The dream, the circle, the orb, the aliment,
For the life of one who is dear."

"Is that why she is here? I had wondered. You're missing a verse:

Another will come in recompense,
To do the duty of the King,
To regain the subjects,
To preserve the kingdom,
To restore the throne,
To return the king.

I thought it referred to an usurper and suppressed the whole prophecy. I should have known suppression never works. I am surprised though, that the last verse did not survive with the rest. Perhaps the connection with this prophecy explains why I cannot track her."

"So you went to all this trouble for her without even remembering the prophecy? Just on the chance that she would help you?" Tieran seemedmore than a little surprised.

"Yes. What other choice did I have? An opportunity presented itself and I took it. And she seemed determined enough. But it's not just Alia who is going to help me. I believe you profited from the plan to steal the peaches as well, didn't you? You should also participate in the compensation."

"Me? I do not belong in her world."

"And she doesn't belong in this one. If you wish not to participate you may return the peaches."

"But we don't know where they are," Alia objected.

"I beg to differ." Jareth looked at Tieran significantly.

"I put them in the bag and they're not there anymore," Alia explained. "I can't find them. I don't know where they are."

"I believe someone else does," he said still looking at Tieran.

"Tieran, what is he talking about?" Alia finally caught his point and looked at Tieran, who had a peculiar expression on his face. "They weren't in the bag. Where were they?"

"I was not able to remove you from the castle, but I was able to remove the peaches from the bag. They are safely away from here," he admitted.

"You mean you've had them all along?" Alia was outraged. "Why didn't you tell me? You would have let him put me in an oubliette and kept the peaches for yourself safely at your own castle. Why you...you..." Alia ran out of words to express herself and started to hit him with the satchel which she still carried in her hand.

"I was going to get one to Cara and then rescue you," he tried to explain as he covered his head against the limp leather bag.

Suddenly, before she could think of something more dangerous to put in it, Alia's weapon disappeared. "Now, now, children. That is enough of that." Alia and Tieran both turned to Jareth where he stood holding the satchel in his hand.

"Feel better?" he asked Alia. Before she could answer he turned to Tieran. "I believe that outburst speaks for itself. If you do not participate, I will not be the only one you'll have to deal with. If the two of you succeed, you may keep the peaches without any further retribution from me. At this point, you could have the whole damn tree full, for all that I care, as long as the tree is still here. However, if you refuse or fail, I will do my utmost to see that you are put into an oubliette. I believe they will be starting on those soon," he said with another predatory smile.

Disclaimer, credits, trivia:

Labyrinth, etc. belong to the Jim Henson Company.

Don't you just wish someone was doing a television series? We wouldn't want them cannibalizing the Labyrinth of course, but a new series would be nice.