Sarah looked at Toby in the maze of stairs and perspectives and knew it was her last chance to save him. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and… jumped!

Instead of dropping hard to the stones beneath her, she found herself floating gracefully and opened her eyes in wide surprise. She was falling in darkness between blocks of stones and stairs, until she reached the floor deep down below. It seemed to be just a larger slab of stone, and all around her was the empty void. At one end of the stone floor an archway led into darkness, and out of this darkness came… Jareth. He was clad in white flowing robes with white owl feathers and seemed as strong and powerful as ever. He was smiling, and when she followed his gaze, she could see the golden clock hanging freely in the void. Its arms pointed at one minute to 13.

"Such a pity," Jareth commented, and then the last minute ticked away, and the watch began to chime.

"Nooo!" Sarah cried. She couldn't believe it – she'd come so far, and now the time had run out just as she was at her goal.

"Through dangers untold," she started fast and loudly to overpower the watch, "I have fought my way here beyond the Goblin City to take back the child that you have stolen!"

"Sarah, it's over!" the Goblin King said, "You lost."

"For my will is as strong as yours and my kingdom as great!"

He looked at her with an amused smile and waited. The clock had finished the thirteen rungs.

"You… you have no power over me!" Sarah finish. Nothing happened. She repeated it, almost with a scream. "You have NO POWER OVER ME!"

Jareth advanced on her and came very close, towering over her. "Sarah, beware. I have been generous up until now, but I can be cruel."

"Generous?" she asked incredulous. "What have you done, that's generous?"

"Everything!" he snapped and paced the floor around her glaring at her. "Everything you wanted, I have done! You asked the child to be taken – I took him! You cowered before me and I was frightening! I have reordered time, I have turned the world upside down, and I have done it all for you! I'm so tired of living up to your expectations of me. Isn't that generous?"

Sarah stared at him and couldn't believe what she was hearing. Did he think, she had wanted any of this? "Give me the child!" she said and hoped she sounded more confident than she was.

"No," he said flatly. "You lost and he is mine to keep. Go back to your toys and costumes – when you get home, I will have fixed it, so no one but you remembers that there ever was a Toby."

She suddenly felt cold as despair filled her. He really meant it. He was not going to let Toby go. Unwillingly, she felt tears well up in her eyes, and she looked up at him pleadingly. "Please let me have him, Your Majesty," she whispered and knew her voice was filled with defeat. She didn't care about appearances anymore; she would do anything to save Toby. "Please…!"

Not a hint of compassion or mercy showed in Jareth's mismatched eyes. "Why should I?" he asked coldly and turned away from her, walking back towards the archway. "Just jump into the void – you will land safely back home where you can enjoy you new life as an only child."

Tears streamed down her face, but she made one last attempt, just before he passed through the archway.

"Your Majesty… take me instead!"

Her voice had been no more than a whimper, but he stopped abruptly and slowly turned to face her. "Excuse me?"

She sniffled and cleared her throat. "Take me instead of Toby!" she repeated a little louder and tried to prevent her voice from shaking. "It is not fair that he should suffer because of my stupid wish. Will you not let me take his place?"

Jareth stood silent for a moment. "You would do that?" he said at last. "You would stay here in the Underground and let your brother be the only child instead?"

"Yes," she whispered and tried not to think of the consequences of this offer. He advanced upon her like a predator, smiling cruelly and stopping just inches before touching her. She could feel his warmth and smell the spicy, tingling air around him.

"I accept," he said at last, "but I cannot take you now. You will have to go back with your brother and then return when you're grown."

"Why? But I am grown?" she stammered confused at his answer.

"The Labyrinth would change you as it does to all minors. You would end up as a goblin, and we wouldn't want that, would we? It would be such a pity!" He traced her chin with a single gloved finger and she shivered under his touch. "No, you must go back now, and when you are twenty-one, I will come for you to make you fulfil you vow."

"You want me to wait around for six years, knowing I have no future above and that I am to leave for the Underground soon?"

His eyes held hers for a moment, and then softened. "I'll give you a crystal to help you forget." He reached out and plucked a crystal out of thin air, offering it to her.

"Take this. When you break it, you will be home and safe with Toby and you will have forgotten all about this deal we made, until I remind you in six years time."

She took the crystal with a slightly shaking hand, grateful for the chance to forget and escape from his mocking eyes. He inched closer, so she could feel his robes against her bare arms, and slowly lifted both hands as if to touch her again, and terrified, she quickly shut her eyes and broke the crystal. As she began to spin and fall, she heard his soft laughter following her even long after she landed in the safety of her home.

"NO!" Sarah's eyes snapped wide open as she came out of the dream. Jareth, clad in black still stood in her bedroom, looking every bit as amused and smug as he had done all those years ago. "I don't believe it! I defeated you!"

But the memory of her own defeat was much clearer that the one of her victory over him, and she knew that the vision, she had just seen, was the cold truth. She had lost, and now she was his!