Authors' note: This is it, we are done. Thank you to those that been patient with us, damn college got in the way. Hope you enjoyed this little creation of ours and this is our last present to you. At least it's a nice and long chapter, right? We finally answer the infamous question: Does Parker finally just shoot them all? Though, we were not brave enough to answer the sock question. Look for Whiteowl's next story for the possible answer to that one….hopefully before 2010.

Jarod: Get on with it.

Jareth (to Whiteowl): I thought we already discussed that.

Whiteowl: inspects ceiling La….

Ann: Anywho, on with the last chapter!

"All's Fair in Love and War"

Chapter Eight: Traps and Happy Hunting

By Ann Parker and Whiteowl

Glancing behind her, Parker realized she had lost Jarod and her anger suddenly vanished. Her heart told her she should stop following the goblin and find him, but her brain told her she would only get lost further if she didn't continue to follow this creature. Besides, when she reached the castle, Jareth and Sarah would probably be there and surely Jareth would have his powers back. He could find Jarod, right? She continued to follow the little figure before her, deciding it was too late to change her mind now.

A small gust of wind caused her to wrap her arms around her waist, reminding her of Jarod's arms wrapped around her when they danced. She couldn't shake the feeling of how good his touch felt, how safe she felt in his arms, or how good his lips tasted. She shuddered involuntarily. She wasn't supposed to feel this way. She wasn't supposed to long for his hand caressing her cheek. She wasn't supposed to desperately want to find a dark place and have her way with him. "I wasn't supposed to fall in love with him," she whispered to herself and stopped walking. Crap, this was not good. Not good at all.

The goblin clearing his throat broke her train of thought causing her to look at him impatiently. "Come, this way," he said and turned another corner. Sighing, Parker continued to follow him. She'd find Jarod alright. Then she would have her way with him, once and for all.

"Tell me why it feels like we are getting farther away from the castle?" Parker demanded. The little creep in front of her had not stopped since she had started following it. Stupid, three foot, purple skinned goblin. They had left the obsidian maze and were now traveling underground. The snot had taken her down a set of stairs in a darkened tunnel. The goblins were just as sadistic as as their freaky master.

"No, getting closer. Much closer. Must keep going. Little further. Not long now." The little creature turned around and offered what Parker could only assume was supposed to be a smile. It looked more like the thing was baring its teeth, about to bite her. Strange, it gave her the sudden urge to run far far away. Suddenly, it stopped and stood up straight, holding one claw, er, hand back towards her.

"What are we there or something?" she snapped.

"Quiet human!" the thing barked. What the hell? Who did the goblin think he was, talking to her like that. She's had just about enough of him.

"You shut up and get out of my way." Parker strode past a flabbergasted monster as it vainly tried to grab her hand and make her stop.

Jarod punched the wall and screamed in frustration. What the hell was going on? How had Jareth lost his powers? How did they all end up separated like this? Nothing seemed to make any sense. Not to mention he was pretty sure he had been walking in a circle for the last hour. Leaning against a stone wall, Jarod let out a large sigh. The great pretender was actually stumped. "Who could possibly have the power to do all this?"

"That would be me." Jarod's eyes snapped open and rested on the figure before him. Straight black hair down to the person's waist contrasted nicely with his silver robes that covered everything up to his neck. The thing that startled Jarod the most was his eyes. The entire eye was a piercing black, including where the whites of a normal person's eye would be. Clearly, this creature was not human.

"Who are you?" Jarod demanded.

"I am the one sent here to take you back to finish your destiny," Demis answered. Jarod stood there, baffled. His what?

"My destiny? What are you talking about?"

"You will find out when the time is right. Now come," he motioned for Jarod to follow him.

"Why would I come with you?" Jarod asked skeptically, crossing his arms across his chest. Something told him not to trust this...thing. Swiftly, Demis walked over to Jarod and grabbed his collar.

"Because I said so," he sneered before both vanished into thin air.

The goblin froze as the familiar sound rang through the dank halls. Quickly, he searched through his short memory, trying to decide what would warrant it leaving the throne and coming here. Tghruble glanced around for a place to hide. Usuallythe catacombs were full of small holes a goblin could hide in, but it was Tghruble's luck to be in one of the smooth passages. Of course it was always his luck. His majesty was angry, he just happened to be the goblin nearest his royal booted foot. The king was bored, he happened to wonder through the throne room. Finally, the odd man had come and Tghruble had taken the opportunity to relocate to the catacombs. They were safer and much of his family was in the labyrinth anyway. All two thousand and three of them. In the middle ages someone had wished away all of the orphans in the British Isle. The "siblings" were the largest mass turning in labyrinth history. Jareth hadn't answered a call for fifty years after that one. Thousands of ne! wly formed goblins running around had made him irritable to say the least, and the cost of reconstruction had been greater than during the grand chicken coup, which failed only because of the great sneeze. Jareth had never been fond of the siblings after that, so most of them moved. Even now when any of them heard boot heels clicking they ran for cover. And with nowhere to hide Tghruble was having to goblin equivalent of a panic attack. As a last resort he wrapped his arms over his head and closed his eyes. If he couldn't see what was coming then maybe he wouldn't be seen.

Tghruble felt a great pull and suddenly found himself face to face with the thing goblins feared the most, well besides the word B-A-T-H, a very angry looking goblin king. "At last. If I didn't know better I would think you were all hiding from me," Jareth growled.

Tghruble opened his mouth several times but nothing came out. "Honestly Jareth, do you have to terrorize him like that?" The voice came from a female that the goblin hadn't noticed. The king glanced at her before slowly setting Tghruble back on the floor. Tghruble gaped at her. She dared speak to his majesty like that? He waited for her punishment, but instead the king stared at him.

"Well?" he barked, causing Tghruble to jump.

"I's, I's thought your majesty would be at the castle entertaining the guest man. He's sittin' in da throne so he must be important."

The goblin slowly backed away. The king was quiet. That was never good. He was only quiet before he threw you in the bog or yelled at you. Jareth lowered himself to one knee, almost face level with Tghruble. "Say that again."

"Dere's a man wit black clothes sittin' on de throne. He's still alive so he must be yer majesty's guest."

"Jareth what is he talking about? Please tell me you had some one with you." Sarah sounded anxious.

Before Tghruble could even realize it, Jareth grabbed his shirt again, "You will takes us to the castle now. Understand."

Tghruble nodded dumbly. This wasn't good. The king was very, very angry and as luck would have it Tghruble was near him again.

Ignoring the purple colored goblin's plea for her to stop, Parker turned the corner and saw two figures in the distance that she never thought she'd be so happy to see.

"Thank God!" she yelled, getting the attention of the others.

"Parker?" questioned a clearly stressed Sarah.

"Please tell me you guys know what is going on and how to get back to that damned castle!" she sighed. "I swear this damn thing has been trying to drag me farther away."

Sarah looked over Parker's shoulder and raised an eyebrow. "What is…that?"

"A goblin, of course."

"That is not a goblin." Tghruble moved back as Jareth swept past her and grabbed Parker's guide by the neck. King was mad and to his shock he wasn't taking it out on Trghuble. Maybe he could sneak away when they were punishing the creature. There were plenty of spots to hide in this passage. "What are you doing in my Labyrinth?" Jareth growled. "I banished hobgoblins centuries ago. Who let you back in?"

"Hobgoblin? What the hell is that?" Parker exclaimed.

"Goblins are naturally mischievous, but hobgoblins are just cruel. They're the sadists of their kind," Sarah explained.

Jareth raised an eyebrow, "And how would know that?"

"You think I didn't do research about this place after what happened?"

"Wait! Did you say sadist? I've been following a sadist for the last half hour!" Parker swiftly pulled the hobgoblin from Jareth's hand and slammed it against the tunnel wall. "Where is Jarod? And where in the hell where you trying to lead me?"

"To…to my master," the hobgoblin squeaked out.

Immediately, Jareth had him by the throat again. "And just who would that be?"

Before he could speak there was a crash from behind. Everyone whirled around to see Trghuble sprawled out on the floor. Jareth narrowed his eyes, "And where do you think you are going?"

"Yer Majesty won't be needin me with 'im to help yous. So I was goin' back ome?" Trghuble watched the bigs carefully. When they didn't move to kill him, he offered what was meant to be a trusting smile. Of course a goblin's smile means only one thing. They're lying through their pointy teeth. Course they haven't realized that the rest of the world figured that detail out a long time ago.

"How kind of you, but I am afraid we will be needing your services a little later," the King's voiced dripped with sarcasm, "So you will stay in that exact spot until then, understand." Then he turned back to the hobgoblin currently choking in his grasp. "You were saying?"

As his king and the shiny one started interrogating the purple monster, Trghuble realized he wouldn't be moving for quite some time. Just his luck, stuck, unable to move, with an irate king.

Jarod looked around him as he once again sat in the depression in front of Jareth's throne room. Except this time there were no goblins to be found. In fact, the only noise one could hear was the sound of boots hitting the floor from the pacing figure in front of him. Jarod was still trying to figure out who the hell this guy was and what his destiny had to do with it. His destiny…this guy must have something to do with the scrolls then. But why would he here anyway? Could their time in the labyrinth really impact this so called destiny so much? His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of growl from the object of his reflection.

"What the hell is taking that idiot so long getting here? This wasn't supposed to take this long…" Demis exclaimed.

"What wasn't supposed to take long and who is your idiot? I certainly hope you aren't referring to Jareth, but I am afraid you have highly miscalculated his talents then," replied Jarod, hoping to get some kind of information out of him.

"I could care less about the little goblin king. He is no threat to me without his powers and I don't intend on letting him have them back anyway," Demis answered as he slightly gestured to a large crystal that had a faint glow to it located directly next to the throne.

"Jareth's powers, you stole them and stored them in there?" Jarod questioned.

"Wow, you really are a genius aren't you?" quipped Demis. "You should fulfill your destiny quite nicely once we remove you from here."

"My destiny…to what, be a lab rat for the rest of my days?" sneered Jarod.

Demis bent down in front of Jarod and glared into his eyes. "Nice try Jarod. But as any genius would know no one can know their destiny. That might… complicate things."

"Perhaps, but this definitely will. I do not like unexpected visitors." Jareth's voice lazily drifted in from behind them. "Now that I have this back, things, as you put it, are most certainly complicated." Jareth pulled his hand from behind his back with a large crystal in it. "You can leave now." Trghuble scurried away at the dismissal. "I believe this belongs to you." A firmly planted boot projected the hobgoblin across the room to land at Demis' feet. "I am afraid he ran into a bit of trouble."

"I'm going to enjoy killing you," Demis growled at the thing at his feet, "Right after I finish with this world's pathetic excuse for a king. It was so easy to steal your powers. Only a weak ruler would allow himself to get distracted by a mortal. You should have broken her and moved on. Instead, now I get to break you."

"Really?" Jareth flipped his wrist and the crystal disappeared. "Here. Take this." Suddenly, he hurled another crystal towards Demis, who leapt out of the way.

"You missed your majesty."

"No he didn't." Demis turned and found himself eye level with a silver pistol. "Hello bastard," Parker purred. Demis noticed Jarod smiling from behind her, his eyes sparkling.

"Before she shoots you, I have a few questions I want you to answer. Starting with, exactly who are you?" Jarod questioned.

"As I told you my name is Demis and I'm here to set right the destinies this… man has upset. I did not write your futures for them to be destroyed so close to completion. Now the two of you will come with me and the Triumverant will set everything right!"

"And why should we do that?"

"Don't you want to know what your futures are? If you stay here everything you've been working for will be in vain."

"Why should we believe a word you say? You sent that sadistic creature to get me. Know what I think, it's time to say goodbye."

"Parker wait. This could be what we've been searching for," Jarod said as he walked to stand by her.

"Wise choice."

"So tell us what you know or I let her shoot you."

"And once I do, you'll come with me?"

Sarah's eyes moved back and forth from the scene in front of her to the king lounging comfortably on his throne. Demis had stolen his powers and humiliated him, yet Jareth just sat there. Something was very wrong. In fact the king wasn't even looking at Parker and Jarod, he was staring intently at something to the side of him. He was staring at a clock next to him as it began to toll thirteen. Her eyes widened, "but you promised to…"

In front of her Demis suddenly disappeared. "What the hell? Where'd he go? I knew I should have shot him first," Parker growled.

"What did you do with him Jareth?" Jarod was glaring icily at the other man.

"He annoyed me and we have business to finish. Two of you will be going home now."

"What! You said you would stop the game until you got your powers back," Parker exclaimed heatedly, whirling with a gun in her hand.

"Oh, did I? I believe my exact words that I could. I never said that I would."

"What does that mean then? Am I stuck here?" Jarod and Parker both stared incredously.

"It means you belong to me to do with as I see fit, just like any other person that gets wished away."

Sarah looked at him in shock, "Why are you doing this? I thought…"

Jareth turned towards her stonily, "I told you, I would not lose this time. Parker lost. Jarod now belongs to me. The rules dictate that two of you go home and the other stays." He lounged back in his throne and threw one leg over the arm rest.

"I'm going to shoot you." Parker raised her gun.

Jareth laughed, "We have been through that before and if you try I promise you will never see your precious lab rat again. I am however willing to compromise. If I had allowed you to win, you and Jarod would have returned to earth still on opposite sides. And now you know of my world. Theoretically, any time Jarod found himself trapped he could wish himself away and run the labyrinth for his freedom. As I said I do not like losing. But if he belongs to me then I can pull him into my world whenever I wish. Happy hunting."

"Wait. Son of a bitch! I'm never going to catch him," Parker yelled. She looked over at Jarod, remembering her thoughts before running into the others.

"Oh, I'll let you catch me…as long as I'm gone before the sweepers get there," Jarod stated with a wink. A smile crept across Parker's face as she lowered her gun. This could work out quite nicely.

"So what's the catch? If you're going to let Jarod return then why are only two of us would returning?" Sarah asked warily.

She cringed at the wolfish grin that crossed his face as he stood up, unsure whether or not to be scared or excited by the things it promised. "I told you that I would rectify the fact that you know so little about me. I let you into the labyrinth to help Parker," Jareth advanced on her as he spoke, "but I said nothing about letting you back out when the game was over. You did not really think it would be that easy did you love?"

"You do know I'm going to make your life a living hell?" She tried to glare at him but the smile on her lips wouldn't cooperate.

Jareth shot her a roguish grin, "Is that a challenge?" He slowly ran the back of his hand down her cheek.

"Always." She stepped closer and smiled sweetly, "Some one has to keep your ego in check. Now send them home before she shoots you."

Two Months Later

Parker kicked open a door to a five-star hotel room to find Jarod sitting on the edge of the bed, his arms crossed over his chest. God did he look good, even if he was angry. She noticed the open window by the bed.

"I'm assuming by your show of hostility that the gang is right behind you."

Parker nodded, "afraid so."

"I thought we agreed to meet at least fifteen minutes before they got here," he stated as he rose from the bed and crossed the room, grabbing his briefcase along the way. He stopped about an inch away from her. Boy did he smell great. She felt her breath quicken as his mouth stopped right before meeting hers. She should have known he was going to make her suffer for being late.

"Well, I guess I'll have to charge the room to your credit card," he whispered.

"Don't you always?" she challenged back. She watched as his sexy smile crept across his face.

"That's beside the point and you know it. You left with only enough time for this," he finished the small gap between them and kissed her right before vanishing.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Parker glared at the ceiling. "Thanks for nothing." Pausing for a second, she heard the footsteps get closer and ran to the window.

"Damn it!" she yelled, just as Broots, Sydney, and the others reached the room. "He got away…again," she barked as she stormed past them.

"He's getting really good at that," commented Sydney as they started to leave the room.

Smiling slightly to herself, Parker replied, "You have no idea."

THE END

Ann: Well, hope you enjoyed it! I know we did…even if it took looks about 3 years.

Whiteowl: …at least it was good! Right?

Jarod: I liked it.

Ann: pats the top of his head Of course you did, hon.

Jareth: glares at Whiteowl You post that next story and I'll kill you.

Whiteowl: Oh, get off it. cough sock boy cough

Ann: sweatdrop Um…yeah. Bye everyone!

Whiteowl: waves goodbye as she runs away