At first, still recovering from the disorienting feeling of having just stepped through a solid-seeming mirror, Sarah didn't pay much attention to her surroundings and instead focused on catching her balance.  When a blast of hot air hit her face, though, she looked up and starting paying attention pretty quickly.

She gasped.  The girl was clearly visible about thirty feet away, which shouldn't have been a problem, except for the deep chasm in between them.  Again cursing heights, Sarah slammed her back protectively against the wall.

"Hello?" the girl said loudly.  "Is that you? Who is that?"

Sarah tried to reply, but the first time, her voice wouldn't work correctly.  She swallowed and tried again.  "Yes, dear, it's me."

"Are you here?" the girl asked, relief evident in her voice. 

Normally, Sarah would have found that a ridiculous question, but seeing as how the girl was clothed in a typical "damsel-in-distress" type gown, blindfolded, and tied to a stake, she couldn't even find it in herself to smile.

"Yes," she replied.  "I'm here."

"So come untie me!" the girl exclaimed.  "I want to get out of here!"

"...I can't," Sarah said reluctantly.

"What? Why not?"

"We have a bit of a problem."  Sarah gasped in shock and amended her statement to, "Well, more than a bit," as a spout of flame illuminated the chamber to reveal a dragon, its sinuous body curling around the column supporting the girl's platform.  Smoke curled from its pointed nostrils and its pointed tail lashed agitatedly, but it didn't seem to notice her yet.

"What?"

Sarah paused.  There must be a way to get over to her.  Complete arrogant bastard he may be, but he doesn't make his challenges impossible.  They're just...difficult.  "Just be patient for another few minutes and let me figure this out, all right?"

Though Sarah scanned the chamber as intently as she could, she could see nothing with which to make any sort of bridge.  There was her ledge: completely empty and not nearly wide enough for her comfort.  When she turned around in the hopes that she could go back through the mirror and find something elsewhere to use, she found only a solid stone wall behind her.  With the exception of the column and the dragon, the rest of the chamber was a veritable vacuum.  She turned around once more, hoping against hope that something helpful would have appeared.  However, her luck seemed nonexistent. 

She slumped against the wall and tried to think of what she would tell the girl, who even now was still whimpering, when another breath of hot air hit her face.  Sarah looked up and directly at the source of the hot air: the dragon.  Oh, no, please.  Not that.  Anything but that.  Despite her fervent prayers, it was obvious that the dragon was her only hope of reaching the girl.

With a nervous swallow, Sarah called to the beast, "Hey, you! You there! Dragon!"

For once, things went as planned and the dragon looked up and directly at her, but did not attack.  Sadly, however, Sarah had forgotten that the girl could hear her too.

"D—dragon?" the girl stammered.  "There's a—a—" At that point, the girl gave up on stuttering and seemed to decide that the best course of action was to let loose with a bloodcurdling scream of sheer terror.

Though Sarah clapped her hands over her ears at the piercing sound and shouted to the girl to calm down and be quiet, the dragon seemed to like the scream even less.  It curled agitatedly around the column, snorted great clouds of dark smoke, and hissed warningly.

The girl must have had very strong lungs, because the screech lasted for far longer than Sarah hoped it would.  However, eventually she needed to breathe and the scream trailed off into a rattle. 

In the instant when the young girl drew in a breath to scream again, Sarah saw her chance and shouted, "Quiet! I don't think he'll hurt you unless you annoy him!"

It worked.  The girl's mouth slammed shut, and though she was visibly pale under the blindfold and though she whimpered, the chamber was again blessedly silent.  It took the dragon a few moments to calm down again.  Finally, though, the smoke lessened to a mere trickle and the dragon seemed as tranquil as it had been before.

"Dragon," Sarah called, a bit more quietly than the first time.  The dragon heard her, however, and looked up again.  "Dragon, I need your help."

"Help?" the girl gasped.  "What are you talking about? Dragons don't help! They fry and crunch and kill and—"

"Monsters aren't supposed to be nice and dragons aren't supposed to help, but that's the way things are in this place," Sarah said, her voice almost a growl.  She wanted to help this girl, but the little brat certainly wasn't making it easy for her.  With a sigh, she transferred her attention back to the dragon.  "Dragon, I need your help to get to that platform and back.  That girl needs help, and you're the only one who can possibly be of assistance."  When the dragon twitched its tail thoughtfully, but did not move in one direction or the other, Sarah added hastily, "I'm sure, if there's something that you want, I could help you get it."

That seemed to make up the beast's mind.  With a soft snort of flame, it unraveled its long tail from around the column and stretched it out towards her.  At the sight of the thick, scaly mass right in front of her, Sarah's heart sank.

"Um," she whispered, "I'm sure that your intentions are good, but is there another way we can do this? I...I have a bit of a height-related problem.  Could you pick me up in a claw and fly me over, or something? I just...I don't think that I can let myself lean over far enough to grab your tail, and I'm not strong to hang onto it on the way over.  A claw would really be good.  In fact, it would really be the best—"  When she realized that she was babbling, she slammed her mouth shut and resigned herself to looking hopefully at the dragon.

The dragon looked back at her almost regretfully and unfurled enough of its body from the column to show her that it had no claws; its body was essentially of a big, fancy, especially dangerous snake.

"Oh..." Sarah said.  "Um..."  She looked around desperately, hoping for something, anything, when she noticed in surprise that the mirror behind her had reappeared.  She reached towards it, feeling her heart lurch crazily at the thought that there might be a way out of this situation that didn't require her to grab onto that mass of snakelike tail and be swung over a chasm that was god-only-knows how deep.  A mere instant after her hope was reborn, however, guilt followed closely on its heels.  I can't leave her.  I answered her screams and I came here to help her, no matter what.  Can I just walk away, go back to those rooms of forgetfulness and leave her here alone? I want to, but I really can't.  Despite her decision, she couldn't seem to move in one direction or another.  She tried to take a step towards the tail, but her shaking legs seemed to be rooted to the ground.  Then she tried to step towards the mirror; this time, her legs moved, but the girl whimpered behind her and she knew that she couldn't do it.

Sarah must have stood there fervently and desperately hoping for some sort of deus ex machina for close to five minutes.  Just do it and get it over with, Sarah.  You won't die.  Jareth is not a good man, but he wouldn't let you die.  Of course, you're not supposed to be in here to begin with, so it's a safe bet that this room isn't baby-proofed for you. 

Her mind screaming conflicting messages at her, she knew that she was only leaving this room with the girl or dead, so before she could think another word, Sarah closed her eyes and flung herself straight at the tail, which had patiently remained still and waiting.

There was a moment of sheer terror as she fell freely, her heart slamming through her rib cage.  Then, with a comforting thud, she hit a solid bulk.  Her arms and legs immediately and instinctively curled around it, holding tightly. 

For a few seconds, wind whistled around her ears and she knew that the tail was moving.  Keeping her eyes closed, she tried very hard not to think about the emptiness that yawned beneath her.

When she felt the tail pause, she managed to crack her eyes open to find herself only inches from the marble platform.  Her limbs seemed to have frozen into their protective positions, and it took several seconds for the insistent signals her brain was sending to them to register.  Finally, though, she managed to pry herself loose from the tail and tumbled the few inches to the surface of the platform.

Though Sarah would have been happy to stay prone on the platform for quite a long time, she forced herself to reach up and pat the tail.  "Thank you," she croaked.  "Thank you."  Don't forget, Sarah, you're going to have to do that again when you want to leave.  She groaned.

"Are you here?" the girl whispered from above her.

"Yeah," Sarah managed to whisper back, rubbing a hand against the imprints on her cheek created by the cold scales pressing against her face.  "I'm here.  Give me a second and we'll get you untied."

It took her a moment to climb to her knees, but she managed it by keeping her eyes squarely on the girl's face.  With a hand that only trembled a little bit, she reached up and gently pulled the blindfold up and off the girl's face.

Long blond hair fell around the girl's face as she blinked and looked down at Sarah.

Sarah gasped.  "You...Your eyes.  They're—"

"They're what?" the girl asked calmly, in a tone utterly at odds with her panic of mere seconds before.

Infuriated tears sprang to Sarah's own eyes as she looked up into one green eye, one brown eye.  "You," she managed to whisper before her voice choked itself off.

Jareth looked down at her with an arrogant serenity that made her hate him even more, if possible.  "Yes, me."  He rolled his eyes and the chains binding him to the stake disappeared.  "Tell me, Sarah, did you honestly think that I would put the girl in a place where you could find her so easily?"

Sarah sank back onto her ankles, dimly noting that the chasm behind her had disappeared, as had the dragon, and she and Jareth were now in a perfectly normal room.  "You're a monster," she snarled, the tears flowing onto her cheeks.  "You played with me.  Knowing how scared I was, knowing how much I hate heights and how much I want to help Anna, you jerked me around like a mouse on a string, you bastard!"

"Of course I know how much you want to help her, you silly woman.  People like you think they have to help every little ant.  I knew that you would go looking for her.  That's why I did this.  I wanted you to get it out of your bloody system, and now I'd like you to go back to your rooms, which I have so kindly prepared for you, and sit there quietly, and stop being a nuisance."

"You're ridiculous," she snapped, hating his smug face.  "What if I had had a heart attack?"

"Then I would have one less problem to worry about."  She didn't laugh.  Jareth heaved a sigh.  "You have no sense of humor."

"Am I supposed to find it funny that I could have died?"

"You wouldn't have.  Are you not listening? I'm trying to protect you from yourself, which, at least, is one thing that has not changed.  I didn't do this for my own entertainment, much as the thought of you hurtling away from me into darkness does bring a smile to my face."

"Oh?" she arched a furious eyebrow.  "Then why did you have to pretend to be Anna? Why not have minions do it for you?"

Jareth yawned and brushed an imaginary speck of dust off of his dark gloves.  "Well, that part was for my own amusement, I do admit."

Sarah slapped him.  Hard.

In theory, she was opposed to violence, but at that moment, nothing could have given her a greater satisfaction than to see a scarlet handprint on Jareth's cheek.  Looking very nearly surprised, he stared at her.

"How dare you," she raged.  "How dare you jerk me around, you goddamned parasite! You revel in others' pain and I wish to god I'd never even heard of you, let alone met you.  You're the worst thing that's ever happened to me and if I were still foolish enough to believe that my wishes might come true, I would wish that you never even existed."

Silence fell.  Jareth continued to stare at her, an uncharacteristically somber look on his face, but he made no attempt to speak.  As for her part, Sarah, glaring back, was not about to give him the satisfaction of knowing that she was uncomfortable.

After an awkward moment, a slightly wistful smile crossed Jareth's voice.  "Now that's the Sarah I remember," he said quietly.

Sarah blinked, totally discombobulated.  "What?"

"Passionate and the slightest bit immature, that is.  I always found it most entertaining.  Quite a pity that any moment now, you'll draw that cloak of indifference around you again and start prattling on about complexes and repressed memories.  I much prefer the hot-blooded child to the ice queen."

She swallowed.  "It's not about what you prefer, Jareth," she replied quietly, but still with an edge in her voice.  "I stopped basing myself on what I thought you would want a long time ago."

"More's the pity."

"What did you expect? I don't live in this world, and I had to stop pretending that I did.  I grew up, yes, and would it really be so terrible for you to do the same?"

Jareth's face was dead serious as he said, "More terrible than you could imagine."

She laughed meanly.  "What's this? A modern day Peter Pan?"

"Don't compare me to that fickle elf," he snapped.  "He and I are two entirely different breeds."

"Yeah, he can fly and you can't.  You both seem to enjoy tights, though."

"Sarah, I am not human.  I look human and I sound human, but I am not.  I'm a goblin, and not any, but the king of the goblins.  This realm, this world is shaped around me.  I mold it and it responds to my very thoughts, my will.  Do you not understand?"

She had the uneasy feeling that this was the first time he was being entirely honest with her.  "Not entirely," she said slowly.

"If I were to grow and change, so would this land.  If I began thinking as a grown-up human, this entire land would be destroyed."

"Destroyed? Why?"

"This is the Labyrinth," he said slowly, as though he were talking to an infant.  "There is a large amount of sheer chaos inherent in it.  This chaos exerts a force upon this world, as does my mind.  If my mind were to start sending messages contrary to chaos, the two forces would tear this world to shreds, along with all who live in it.  Say what you will about me, but I have certain responsibilities that may run counter to your ideals, and I must fulfill them."

"You? Responsibilities?" Sarah scoffed.  "Is kidnapping—"

He held up a cautionary finger.  "Borrowing."

"—kidnapping innocent people one of those responsibilities?"

"Of course," Jareth replied.

"How could I have ever liked you?" she muttered under her breath.

"Are you completely daft, or are you just not listening? I was born to this.  There are times that I would rather be doing something else, but I am the Goblin King.  It's my job."

"...A job that you take great pleasure in.  Poor baby."

"Yes, it's such a thrill," he said sarcastically.  "Here I am, innocently going about my business, when I'm informed that my goblins have gone and stolen another baby brother or pre-pubescent crush or bloody yappy puppy, and I have to drop everything I'm doing and straighten it out.  Certainly not my idea of fun."

"You may be many things, Jareth, but the role of victim doesn't suit you.  You take too much pleasure in your 'straightening it out' to be believable."

He shrugged.  "So I try to squeeze what enjoyment I can out of what is essentially quite tiring.  How does that make me any worse than one of your businessmen who borrow the company Porsche to drive to a boring meeting? Or," he added slyly, forestalling her response, "your boyfriend, who fools around with his boss to while away the long hours at work?"

Sarah blinked, her heart rising to her throat as the implications of his words sank in.  "You can't be serious," she said, her voice little more than a whisper.  "Brian wouldn't—"

"But he does.  Tell me, Sarah," he said in a confidential tone, "has he done anything out of the ordinary lately? Perhaps given you something? A...gift, maybe? For no real reason, of course, simply 'because you're wonderful'?"

Her heart slammed crazily.  The rose.  He gave me the rose.  No, it can't be! her heart cried.  Jareth must be lying! He knows about the rose because he must have been spying and he's just trying to upset me.

Noting her accusing gaze, Jareth caught her eyes with his own.  "No," he said, "it's not what you're thinking.  I have lived for a very long time, and I have seen the best and worst of humanity.  Whether I like it or not, I know very well how those silly hearts of yours work.  When people are unfaithful, they are filled with guilt and often attempt some small gesture or token; it is enough to assuage that guilt, but not enough to draw suspicion."

Though his words had the ring of truth in the ears of an aspiring psychologist, Sarah still refused to believe him.  "But if you weren't spying," she said, her voice wobbling and uncertain despite herself, "if you weren't, how would you know whether Brian has been—has been...?"

"I wasn't spying before," Jareth said smoothly.  "However, once you were here, I was naturally curious and decided to investigate what a shambles your life has become in the last twelve years."

"You're a liar!" she said viciously.  "You're a nasty, petty liar!"

"Nasty? Perhaps.  But have I ever lied to you?" He raised his eyebrow inquiringly.  "And I'm not lying to you when I say that I viewed your lover stark naked and laboring away on top of another woman."

This time, he caught her furious hand as it flew at his face and gripped her wrist tightly.

"I hate you," she ground out, dangerously close to tears.

"I believe," Jareth said with a trace of a smile in his voice, "that this is what's known as biting the hand that is feeding you."

One tear slipped down Sarah's cheek.  Then another.  Before she knew it, a steady stream of tears was rolling down her face, despite her best efforts to control them.  Jareth let go of her wrist, and she lowered her hand and attempted, mostly successfully, to keep herself from sobbing out loud.

She believed him.  She didn't want to, but she believed him.  He had never lied to her, not about something like this.  So that meant that Brian had to be cheating on her. 

Upon admitting that to herself, Sarah clenched her fists and started sobbing freely, unashamedly.  She cried long and hard, utterly losing herself in her misery.  It was all too much: seeing Jareth and coming here again, being separated from Toby and yelled at and told she was worthless, forgetting, remembering, jumping at the chasm, Jareth's charade, and now this.  It was just too much.

Sarah was not a pretty crier; she had never mastered the technique of letting one perfect tear at a time slide down her cheek like a precious pearl and sniffling in a ladylike way.  Viewing her flushed and splotchy face, runny nose, and puffy eyes after a good crying spell, her father had always affectionately referred to her as his little gremlin.  This time was, of course, no exception.  Unwilling and unable to raise her head, she remained lost in her unhappiness even after her sobs had subsided to hiccups and sniffles, emerging only when she felt a hand awkwardly patting her shoulder.  Looking up incredulously, she found that the hand did indeed belong to Jareth, who, upon seeing her blotchy features, recoiled with a vague look of disgust on his aristocratic face.

"Would you care to go somewhere and... splash some water on... that?" he asked, clearly trying to avoid looking at her directly, though he still bore an expression similar to the one she would have worn had she seen a small child picking his nose.

"Get stuffed," Sarah replied tiredly.  "Your goblins are uglier than this, and you look at them all the time."

"Yes, but my goblins never had the opportunity to look any better."  Still somewhat averting his eyes, he sat down next to her and crossed his legs.  Suddenly, a peculiar expression crossed his face.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Nothing."

"No, really.  What is it?"

He coughed.  "I seem to have...split my pants."

"What?"

"The back seam of my pants.  It's split.  Perhaps I shouldn't have sat like that."  Jareth sighed, looking extremely put-upon.  "What a bloody annoyance."

A small grin tugged at the corner of Sarah's mouth, despite her bloodshot eyes.  "Maybe you just shouldn't wear such tight pants.  No, I'm serious," she persisted as he waved a gloved hand disdainfully.

"Nonsense," he said dismissively.  "I'll fix them in a moment, after I've escorted you back to your rooms."

"I don't need an escort," Sarah said.  "I'm sure I can find my way back with no problems."

"I'm not worried about you getting lost.  I'm worried about you attempting to wander off and out of my castle.  It's hard enough having you here at all.  At least once you're back in your rooms, I know you won't attempt to leave."

"Why? Because I'll forget everything?" she asked darkly.

"Precisely.  I don't have the time to baby-sit you right now."

"Yes, I was going to mention that for someone who should probably be out thwarting my baby brother, you've been paying plenty of attention to me and my...my soon-to-be ex," Sarah replied sardonically.

"Your little brother isn't exactly a threat.  It seemed more important to make sure that I thwarted you first.  However, I am an excessively busy man, so if you wouldn't mind...?"

"Do you honestly expect me to say that I don't?"

"If it helps, I give you my solemn word that I will take you home safe and sound in approximately twenty-one hours and fifteen minutes, where your memory will immediately return."

"And my brother?"

"I will take you home, with or without your brother."

"That wasn't the answer I was looking for, Jareth."

"Nonetheless, it's the only answer I can offer."  He stood up and gallantly offered her an arm.  "Shall we?"

Sarah didn't like it, not one bit, but at the moment she was worn out physically and emotionally; frankly, she didn't see what alternatives she had.  Laboriously, she climbed to her feet and hooked her arm in his. 

Subconsciously bracing herself for another out-of-body-trip, she was startled when he tugged at her arm, shot her an annoyed glance, and said, "At this point, you are supposed to put one foot in front of another.  It's a system of transportation known as 'walking,' and it's really quite easy to do, assuming that you still possess whatever little remnant of wits you once had."

"You're the very soul of charity, Jareth," Sarah said with a heavy note of sarcasm in her voice.

With that, they turned and walked towards the door that had appeared where the mirror had been.

As they walked, Sarah kept twisting and craning her head around strangely.  Jareth clearly noticed her contortions, but seemed to be making a concerted effort to ignore it, no doubt putting it down to the vagaries of woman.  At length, however, she suddenly snorted and started giggling helplessly.  Jareth couldn't ignore her odd behavior anymore.

Giving her a piercing stare, he asked calmly, "What, pray tell, is so amusing?"

"Nothing," she gasped, and tried to control herself, but failed and collapsed into another bout of laughter that only intensified with the disgruntled look shot her way.

Shortly, they continued walking without any further disruption, though every few seconds, Sarah would glance at Jareth and giggle quietly to herself.  When Jareth wordlessly deposited her back inside her luxurious suite, it was with an expression of poorly disguised relief on his face.

As he disappeared behind the closing mahogany doors, Sarah's laughter suddenly increased in volume.  As all her cares and worries seemed to melt away into a comforting fog, she laughed harder and harder until tears streamed down her face.

Even when, gasping for air and clutching the stitch in her side, she climbed into bed and was asleep almost before her head touched the pillow, her face retained its ear-to-ear smile, and she still sniggered in her sleep.

The rooms hadn't taken away every memory.

She still remembered that Jareth's underwear had little pictures of himself lovingly embroidered all over it.

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A/N: To everyone: thanks for reading! I hope you're enjoying and will continue to enjoy.

~signpost