Note- I do NOT own any of the characters, George Lucas and the BBC do. Also note, I'm rather foggy on Dr. Who- most of my knowledge comes from fanfic and the Five Doctors movie. The fifth regeneration is used here because I adore Peter Davison. If it's confusing, time travel is confusing.
Why was a - a- large blue box standing in the middle of her living room? Sarah Williams wondered. For that matter, why was there a young man sitting in her favorite chair reading the newspaper? She looked around to make sure she'd come into the right townhome, but other than the stranger and the blue thing that looked kind of like an oversized phone booth, it was definitely her home, well at present anyhow. She was house sitting for her former stepmother. After a certain incident in her past, Sarah had started to get along with her stepmother, better than she did her father, actually. So when they divorced, Sarah had remained in touch with Karen. Her dad was currently on wife number four, and Sarah had another half sibling from wife three. Karen had remarried and was on her honeymoon. Toby was away at band camp.
"Are you a friend of Karen's?" Sarah asked tentatively, keeping close to the door, just in case she needed to run. How had that thing gotten inside? It was bigger than the doorframe.
The fellow looked up from what appeared to be the Sunday comics. "Karen...hmm. No, I don't think I know any of those, or will know any, except perhaps in passing, but that's not true friendship." He frowned. "I was tracking down a temporal rift, then things got kinda wonky and I landed here. I don't know what the Tardis is up to, to be honest. I'm sure she has a reason to do what she did, but she's not telling me what that would be."
"The what?" Sarah repeated. "Who are you? Why are you in my stepmom's living room?"
The man rose, grinning. "I'm the Doctor." He paused, waiting. "That's your cue to say I'm-- so and so. I know Earth society is a bit ruder in this era, but I didn't think introductions had gone out of fashion yet."
"I'm Sarah," she replied uncertainly. "But I still don't see who you are, and why you're here. Doctor who? I'm not ill, unless I've lost my mind and am hallucinating you."
"Yes, I have been known as that, not for several regenerations, or not for several...it's hard to remember if I have been or will be, sometimes. You don't appear ill, but I may have some sort of medical analysis device here somewhere..." he began looking through several pockets.
"Never mind. I've seen some strange things before, but I don't think I could hallucinate you or- that." Sarah pointed towards the blue thing.
"Ssh. She's very sensitive, the Tardis is," the Doctor advised in a hushed tone. "Now, then. Why am I here? Apparently, the Tardis tracked the temporal dissonance vector to here, or somewhere in the vicinity." His voice dropped further. "She has been known to be off a few degrees, navigation is not always her strong suit." He backtracked mentally. "You said you had seen strange things. Might I ask what?"
"It was a dream, a very real one, but a dream," Sarah frowned, not sure why she was confiding to this nameless oddball.
"Tell me about it," he urged. "Trust me, Sarah, that might be the key. How do you know, for example that this is not the dream, and what you remember is reality?"
"Uh, right." What could it hurt? she asked herself. Nothing, her self replied. "I was fifteen, a few years ago, and I was sick of babysitting my kid brother, so I," she broke off, blushing furiously.
"Go on. I hope you aren't going to say you horribly killed him," the Doctor urged.
"Uh, no. I just wished that the goblins would take him away, and well, they did. Then the goblin king showed up and offered me a chance to get him back, if I could run his labyrinth in thirteen hours."
"Did you? Oh, sorry, didn't mean to interrupt," the Doctor apologized. "Go on."
Sarah frowned. "Is that celery in your lapel?"
"Yes, it's quite useful on some planets. Your story?" the Doctor responded a bit stiffly.
"Sorry, no offense meant. Yeah, well," Sarah sat down. Her legs were starting to feel shaky. This was too weird. "So, I did it. I ran the labyrinth, in the given time, which was ten hours, not thirteen. Jareth took three hours because I was a smart aleck, in his not so humble opinion." Her uninvited guest's ears perked up at the name of her imaginary adversary, but he refrained from comment. "Then, at the end of the run, he confronted me in a strange room, with staircases going all over the place. I think you'd have liked it. He told me that if I gave up, I could have my dreams. He'd already been generous, after all, and didn't want much in return." A short, bitter laugh escaped her lips.
The Doctor pursed his lips. "What did he do that was generous? And what did he want in return?"
"What he wanted was not really clear. Let him rule me, what did that mean? I've read a hundred dream books, and nothing really fits that dream, you know? What did he do? Took my brother. Scared me. Danced with me- can you dream inside a dream? Oh, and turned the world upside down, he said I turned the world too, so wouldn't that have cancelled out the other? And re-ordered time."
"That's it!" the Doctor beamed. "When this Jareth fellow, he's only a half Timelord, half Fey, rearranged time for you, he created a temporal ripple that had its epicenter around you. Therefore..." he frowned. "I'm not sure therefore what. But don't worry, I'll figure it out. Somehow. I should not have left my sonic screwdriver with Tegan. But she demanded collateral to make sure I'd come back for her. Left her back at her old flat, it was close, relatively, and easy to find again. Since I didn't know what kind of danger I could be facing, it really didn't make sense to bring along anyone else, you know. Temporal ripples of a certain type are deadly. You don't know if you're facing a lethal one or not until you're there though."
"What good would a sonic screwdriver do?" Sarah had to ask. Unless it was a very potent orange juice vodka mix, then she wasn't sure that it would do much good. Normally, she was not a drinker, but it was sounding appealing.
"I'm not sure, but it is handy." The young man rose and began to pace.
"Well?" Sarah asked after watching him.
"Well, what?"
"Is this a lethal whatchamcallit? Who is Tegan? How do you know Jareth? And how did you and that- Tardis get into my - my stepmother's home?"
"We materialized. Tegan is a friend of mine, one of my many travelling companions across the ages. Jareth is a distant relative, I suppose. He's half Gallifreyan and half Fey. Unusual mix that. Makes him quite famous without even doing anything more than being alive. He does not have to regenerate, ever. The Fey half, I suppose is why he can accomplish what he did, reordering time. We can traverse time, but to actually change it or in any way alter it, well..."
"You forgot one," Sarah prompted.
"Well, you did ask rather a lot of questions," he replied in an aggrieved tone.
"Is this lethal?"
"No. Probably not. From what you said, he did it out of possible love, therefore, since Fey magic, from what I've seen of it, anyway, is tied to motive, balanced by the Timelord half of his persona, the potential actual damage of it is minimized. However, I take it you rejected his appeal?"
"Of course!"
"Yes, you'd not be here if you hadn't, unless you did in an alternate timeline...but then there wouldn't be a ripple. The time alteration was designed, I think... Oh bother."
"What?" Sarah asked. She still was not sure what a Timelord was or a Galliwhatsisian, much less what any of it had to do with her.
"Oh, nothing, I hope." The Doctor seemed rather troubled. "It's just that if the continuity stream is altered, then there's a chance that well, the world could end. I don't know if Jareth was trying to alter that or merely shifted some time around to make room for an event. The latter is a relatively harmless matter, the former...but then, if it was the former, everyone should be dead by now."
"I think it's the latter. He fit ten hours in less than half that time," Sarah offered tentatively.
The Doctor continued to look perplexed. "That should not be creating long lasting ripples, and you say it was several years ago?"
"Yes."
"Time should have stabilized almost immediately for an event so minor."
"It didn't FEEL minor," Sarah groused.
"Oh, of course not- but you did dismiss it as a dream," he pointed out.
"Self defense. I'd go - nuts if I thought I'd really almost changed my brother into a goblin, by proxy," Sarah protested.
"Yes, of course you would. Of course, most children are hardly distinguishable from goblins, so perhaps it wouldn't have been noticed," the Doctor shrugged. "This is very troubling."
"You're telling me," Sarah sighed.
"Yes, I am at that. Tell me, have you ever felt- out of place or wanted to see new worlds?" The Doctor suddenly asked.
"Well, uh, yeah, to both, but what does that have to do with anything?" Sarah frowned.
"Oh, I just had a rather brilliant, if I do say so, idea. Why don't you join me on the Tardis for - well, however long you want to, take a turn around the universe or just through Earth time. Future, past, take your pick." He shrugged. "What do you say? It'd give me time to work out why the temporal ripple centers on you and how to solve it."
"But- I'm housesitting! And we just met- and what about Tegan and your- screwdriver?" Sarah exclaimed. This was ridiculous! But - it was tempting, and he was cute in a very un- Jareth way.
The Timelord grinned. "Oh, all those are very easily solved. First off, you won't be gone any time at all. That's the beauty of time travel. You can run around for a year or two but come home five minutes after you left or five split seconds. As to just meeting, friendships all start somewhere. Tegan will understand, it'd be nice for her to have another human around to jabber with, I'm sure."
"Won't, I mean, uh- if you were my boyfriend, I wouldn't be thrilled about ... er-" Sarah could feel her face turning pink and red.
The Doctor dismissed her concern pre-emptively. "Tegan is not my girlfriend. She is a girl, a woman actually, and a friend, but romance? No. No worries there. Come on, it'll be fun."
"This is crazy," Sarah told herself, but when she looked at that grin, it was a done deal. She was about to travel through time and space. "But we better not be late. Karen's still kinda- anal about punctuality."
"She will never know you were gone, well unless, but that won't happen, so come aboard." He flung open the door.
"Can we both fit?" Sarah asked. "I ought to pack, something. "
"Oh, we'll take care of that later," he waved her words off. "There may be something to fit you in there. Never know what'll turn up. And as to both fitting..."
He let the Tardis speak for him. As Sarah stepped in, she gasped.
"Go on, say it."
"It's bigger on the inside than the outside."
"Yes. It's dimensionally transcendental. "
The Doctor began fiddling with controls. "Any particular direction?"
"Er- east?" Sarah essayed.
"No, not that. Forward or backward in time?" The Doctor asked impatiently.
"Either. Pilot's choice. I really don't know anything about...you pick."
Sarah was starting to think this was a mistake.
"Tardis, take us, somewhere interesting then," The Doctor ordered.
The ship blipped out of Karen's living room as Sarah began to explore the strange machine.
Before she'd gotten very far, her new friend sang out, "We're landing."
"Already?"
"Yes. Never know how long it'll take, you know. All the readings indicate it's safe. Come on, everyone out."
"Are we about to pick up your friend?" Sarah asked.
"Well, if that's where and when we are, yes. If not, well, she did want time to shop."
As the girl stepped outside, she recoiled. "I know this place."
The Doctor winced. She'd stepped on his foot. "Oh?" Perhaps it was Ow that he said.
"It's--" Sarah began.
"Whoever put that thing in my Escher room has a one way ticket headfirst into the Bog of Eternal Stench!" an irate voice announced.
"At least we didn't land there," the Doctor noted dryly.
"Hi, Goblin King," Sarah said weakly. "Uh- I'm back?"
Jareth stopped cold as he ran down the ceiling. "Sarah?"
"Say, that looks interesting, can I try it?" The Doctor asked brightly.
"Who are you?" the king asked, turning his icy gaze on the man in a cricketeer's outfit.
"Back to that question are we? I'm the Doctor, a distant relation on your mother's side, actually. If we weren't related, in fact, that whole re-ordering time bit you like to do, wouldn't be possible. However, it's just as well we made this our first stop, actually. You see, when you did that, according to the Tardis- that's the Tardis behind us, and she does not like being called a thing, you caused a shift in the continuum and --"
Jareth turned his glare back on the Doctor. "Friend of yours? You do seem to pick up the strangest people, Sarah."
"It's the other way around. He picked me up."
"And you just popped in because?" his majesty sneered.
"Because the Tardis wanted to!" The Doctor was not used to being ignored. He turned back to ask the police box what was going on and suggest an exit. It did not look like being here was a good plan. "But she must be a bit - off her nut. We'll just leave now. Come along, Sarah." He pulled on the young woman's sleeve.
"This isn't protocol, but after the wreckage you left last time, if you can leave without knocking down a wall or subverting my people, then you're welcome to go," Jareth shook his head.
"So much for a family reunion, but they're usually more trouble than they are worth," the Doctor shrugged.
As Jareth tried to exit the room, however, and as the Doctor tried to re-enter the Tardis, all doors were locked against them.
"This is not amusing," Jareth informed his guests. "Labyrinth, what are you doing?"
"I thought the Labyrinth was out there," Sarah stated.
"The maze is. My castle is the heart of it," the king explained, though why he did not know.
"Let us back in!" the Doctor, ignoring Jareth, demanded to his time travel machine
"What?" both men asked simultaneously.
"It would appear," the king said after listening to the silence, "that my Labyrinth and your Tardis are - sisters of a sort. Rather meddlesome ones, at that. They are catching up on old times."
"Yes, that is what I am gathering. Tell me, sir, how'd you come here?" the Doctor asked.
Jareth almost snapped it was none of the Doctor's business, then decided why not? "My mother, Romana, was a Timelord who travelled back in the continuum and met a Fey monarch. Their romance was somewhat of a legend in the Fey and I was the result. Being neither fish nor foul, I was shuffled around for a period of eternity. I was granted this realm, but it was not the most desirable one in the lands of my father's people. I attempted to fit in with the Gallifreyans, but they found me too emotional. However, I did have a birthright among them, and they gave me a dimensional device and sent me home with it. It became the Labyrinth and the castle."
"That does not tell me how the ripple in time arose that brought me to Sarah," the Doctor frowned. He listened again. "Bloody - Hades. Did you hear that?"
"Yes," Jareth looked miffed as well.
"I didn't," Sarah interjected.
"The Labyrinth is a Tardis, but the engine is not functional, so it's landlocked," the Timelord explained. "However, her - radio works, to put it in simple terms. She noticed her master is a bit glum..."
"I am not."
"You argue with her, I'm just repeating what she said," the Doctor sniffed. "And decided he needs you. So, she contacted me, the only space and time traveling Gallifreyan, and cooked up a scheme with my Tardis to bring you here. In other words, they both deceived us. My Tardis was curious to see this realm, and a romatic at heart, so here we are. She also has offered to repair the navigational and other defunct systems to let his majesty there travel in space and time, if he so desires. Or should l say, she's offered to let me do that, since I offered Sarah a tour of the continuum, but if she stays with Jareth and the Labyrinth, she can't do that."
"Labyrinth, what call do you have to--" Jareth yelled. "I'll throw you into the Bog, headfirst, if I can find your head."
"Jareth, honestly, would you like to have Sarah stay?" the Doctor asked, tired of this exercise now.
"She doesn't want to stay. "
"I was fifteen and didn't want to become a goblin, and still don't, but I'm not fifteen," she snapped. "If I don't have to do that or Toby doesn't have to, then well..I do have to finish housesitting, but after that...it could be. I've missed you, when I let myself think about you."
"Me too," Jareth admitted grudgingly.
"Excellent," the Doctor said. "Tardis, if I fix the Labyrinth so that it can do what you do, can I leave? Tegan's probably maxed out my fake charge card by now. " He listened. "Capital. Jareth, show me to the main room of this thing. I'll have you up and running in no time. Sarah, I can send you back to Karen's, then pick you up and bring you back to this moment, so you'll spend a few days at home but be back here in no time, literally." If it all works, but no need to mention that. It would only worry her needlessly. It would almost certainly work, he hoped.
By some miracle, it did all work. Sarah went home to Karen's and tied up her life in the mortal world. The Doctor picked her up at the proper time, with Tegan along, griping the whole time about bloody strange looking blokes and was the Tardis a taxi now? Jareth left Hoggle in charge. He was bored with forever, and thought taking a tour of the continuum with Sarah would relieve that. The only person not thrilled was Hoggle, who found himself lacking a castle when Jareth and Sarah left.