Chapter Four: Surprise, Surprise

"So I guess you know about the Underground," started Jeremy slowly, once they had all sat down. Sarah was on one end of the couch with both of the adults sitting in nearby chairs.

"Yes." Sarah's voice remained guarded.

"Did you ever consider that there might be lands there beyond the Labyrinth?"

"No." Curiosity began to lower the girl's shields. "I guess I never thought about it."

"Ah. Well. There are many other kingdoms, though the Goblin lands are perhaps one of the strangest."

"Very interesting, but what does this have to do with anything?"

"I..." Jeremy sighed and ran a hand through his short blond hair, an agitated gesture that left it comically standing on end. "I was born and raised in one of those other kingdoms."

Sarah stared blankly, her reserves of astonishment nearly worn out for the evening.

"But you're human?" The girl's voice was quiet and unsure, turning a statement into half-a-question. Jeremy shook his head gently; his sympathetic blue eyes certainly seemed very human.

"No, I"m afraid not."

"But you're not like Jareth. You don't have the--" Sarah gestured toward her eyes, referring to the strange markings that the Goblin king possessed. Though, she reflected, they hadn't been there that night. A disguise, no doubt.

Her comment seemed to say, 'if you're not a goblin and you're not Jareth-kind, you must be a human'. Jeremy chuckled shortly.

"Jareth is something else altogether. I'm not sure how to explain myself and my kind in an understandable way. Your ancestors would have called us the Fair Folk, but that's only part of our identity. It also has unfortunate connotations; we are flesh and blood creatures, just a different type than humans."

The teenage girl thought this over for a moment. She had known for years that there was more to heaven and earth than dreamt of in most peoples' philosophies, so to speak. She knew that fairy-tale creatures weren't tales at all. She knew that pixies bit ferociously. She knew that things weren't always what they seemed; cowards could be brave, monsters could be shy, dreams could be nightmares, and villains could be as irresistible as the most noble of princes.

Now she had just discovered that her mother's boyfriend was... a fairy?

Alright, maybe that was an unfortunate choice of word. Still, the principle of the matter remained.

Sarah considered calm, and panic, and tears, and laughter. She considered anger and decided, once again, that this was useful because it obliterated any ability to ponder the new information's possibilities. Anger was good. She turned to her mother.

"How could you never tell me any of this?" she cried plaintively.

"How could I have known that you had been to the Underground?" Her mom's voice was gentle but firm. "You wouldn't have believed us, otherwise."

"Me?! Me, who watched Ladyhawke at least once a month? Me, who dressed as a unicorn for Halloween four years in a row?"

"Sarah, be reasonable," said Jeremy soothingly.

"Christ, Sarah, you're better off out of it. We were just trying to do what's best for you. Like always." Linda turned testy, clearly annoyed with the conversation.

"What's best for me? Like abandoning me as I entered adolescence was best for me? Thanks a lot for that one!" Sarah knew that she had crossed into dangerous waters, but caught up in her self-pity, she didn't care. Linda's eyes had suddenly gotten very large. Sarah wondered what her mother saw in her face.

"Sarah!" Jeremy exclaimed, standing. "That is enough. I can understand that you're upset, but you are completely overreacting. I'm sorry we didn't tell you before. Now we have. Get over it."

She searched for a worthy response and found none. She glanced from her mother's hurt face to Jeremy's thunderous one. Lacking any other course, she did the only thing that came to mind; she turned on her heel and strode to her room, shutting the door firmly behind her. It was a juvenile action and her dignity smarted fiercely. The girl threw herself onto her bed and pressed her face against the calming coolness of the pillows.

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Sarah had the Dream once again that night. She wasn't entirely surprised. Not only had she been reminded of the Labyrinth that day, it had been brandished in front of her like a red cape in front of a charging bull. The analogy became confused in her dream-fogged mind, making her picture a matador waving a small Jareth around furiously. Dream-Sarah giggled to herself at the idea.

It was probably her confrontation with the king that made her claw her way through the mists again. She was beginning to be suspicious of these dreams, especially after last time's confusing conversation. The girl decided that if she returned to the throne room and saw pink elephants dance up the walls, she could rest easy. If not... sleeplessness sounded like a good alternative to her suspicions.

Hearing silence around her, she considered the coast to be clear. Slowly she brought her surroundings in to sharper and sharper focus, until her vision was almost perfectly clear. She was afraid of what might happen if she moved any closer. She had emerged into the throne room of the castle beyond the Goblin city. There were no pink elephants in sight. There was a flamboyantly dressed Goblin king watching her silently from atop the throne, though. She jerked backwards when she noticed him there.

This time, he looked as she remembered. His icy blond hair was long and wild, his eyebrows were upswept, and his clothes looked like something out of a Gothic fantasy. He wore a long black frock coat with an ivory shirt and black breeches tucked into tall leather boots. A silver pendant glinted on his chest, matching the silver embroidery scrolling up the arms of his coat. Mr. Poe would no doubt approve.

"I thought you might come tonight," he said in a conversational tone. Sarah sighed as her fears congealed in her mind.

"Is this a dream?" she asked tiredly. He answered with a smile that revealed delicately-pointed teeth.

"Yes, thought the differences between dream and reality are not as pronounced here as they are in the Aboveground. You must have realized that, or else you would have crossed a few more layers. You would have appeared in the Labyrinth completely."

"Why am I here?"

"I don't know. You're the one who came."

Despite her weariness, Sarah felt some of her previous frustration stir.

"Crap. I've been dreaming of the Labyrinth for years now."

"I merely called you after a link between yourself and the Labyrinth had been established. Your answer is, and has been, entirely your own decision."

"After I talk to Hoggle and the rest," she realized aloud. Jareth nodded, platinum hair falling forward over his face.

"You called me."

Another nod.

"Why?"

"Sarah, you're much calmer than you were earlier this evening. I'm surprised."

"Don't dodge my question." She didn't like the way that he purred her name.

"Why not?" Was he taunting her? His face remained still and closed as he watched her. There was no mocking glint in his eye.

"I can leave as easily as I came," she warned, crossing her arms over her chest. This caused him to laugh suddenly, a bitter jagged laugh.

"Tell me, how do you think you were able to come here, Sarah? How can you call your friends to you at your home?"

She was taken aback by this unexpected line of questioning. "I don't know."

"That's what shocks me so. A dreamy, imaginative girl like you, having recently undergone an adventure through a magic-ridden maze, is imbued with strange powers. And you never wondered? You never tried to find you way back, when things became hard at home?"

Sarah was silent.

"I suppose most of my troubles lately stem from your unpredictability. I should not be amazed." He turned his face away from her briefly, only to look back a moment later. His gaze bored into her; he studied her visage with a frightening intensity. Sarah froze like a deer looking into the headlights of an oncoming car.

"What's going on?" she heard herself ask, for what seemed like the millionth time that evening.

"I granted your wish. It was a foolish impulse, I think."

"My wish."

"I offered you your dreams several times. You refused them, as you should have. Maybe that impressed me."

"I still don't follow you."

"I gave you magic," he enunciated carefully.

"You what?" she stuttered unbelievingly.

"I threw the crystal at you," said Jareth, closing his eyes as if pained. "After you spoke the last words. It shattered into dust around you."

"...yes."

"You had established that I could do nothing to you without your consent. Or, rather, that my power could not affect you. That is a better interpretation. If you hadn't, I could have forced you to accept it. As it was, the spell remained unabsorbed until you accepted it on your own." His eyes opened again. "Understand now?"

"Maybe," she responded faintly. She sank to the ground, putting her arms around her knees.

"What if I don't want this magic?"

"You already have it. Maybe you would have been able to summon a few petty creatures from the Labyrinth without it, but dreamwalking is far more difficult. You are utilizing it now. I'm afraid that you may have a hard time not using it in the future." He stood up and walked down the stairs of the dais. It was a slow, smug, sauntering walk meant to draw the eyes.

"Of course, I can teach you to control it." His old smirk reappeared. Sarah frowned.

"I really don't want to be connected to you like that. Or at all, to tell the truth."

The smirk faded as if had never been there, stony coldness replacing it.

"Too late for that, Sarah dear. It was you who bound us so inextricably together in the first place. First you walked the Labyrinth to its center, which, like any ritual, brings a certain amount of power with it. Then you destroyed my Escher room, which sent more than a little magical debris flying up into the air. Then you had the nerve to speak those words. They have a ritual power all on their own. Do you remember what you said?

"I said a lot of things. Nothing that would have tied us together."

"Try this: 'My will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom is as great'."

Sarah winced at the harshness she heard. "Maybe that."

"I am unique in the Underground. The rest of my kind have long since perished, leaving their land to be ruled by lesser races. You announced yourself to be my equal. I'm still not sure what you have wrought."

She looked up at him. By all rights, he should have been towering over her. However, they weren't quite on the same planes. He couldn't reach her. The resulting view was somewhat disorienting, so she stood up again.

"Then why give me magic?"

"It is of no importance any more. Will you accept my training?"

"I'd rather not."

"Someday soon you may find your talent more than you can handle, and you will have to ask my assistance."

"I'll take my chances. I'm still not sure whether I should trust you or not. This could all be a plot of some kind," she added as an afterthought. This seemed to amuse Jareth.

"A plot? My, you're a suspicious child. I suppose you'll have to take your chances."

Sarah sent a withering glare in his direction before standing up and turning to leave.

"Wait a moment." The serious tone in his voice stopped her, briefly.

"What now?"

"You will be seeing me again tomorrow, as well as much of Jeremy's family. They will be using a glamour to keep the humans from asking any unfortunate questions."

The girl looked back at him reluctantly.

"I very much doubt that it will work on you. It would be best, I think, that you do not reveal this to them. Or show that we are previously acquainted. The idea of a powerful human may not be entirely welcome. Not all the inhabitants of the Underground are as friendly as your stepfather-to-be."

"I know," she said dryly. She turned once again and allowed herself to drift through the mists back to her bed.

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The next morning, Sarah woke up stiff, grumpy, and very much creased, as she had fallen asleep in her clothing the night before. She rose shakily and hobbled into the bathroom. After twenty minutes under the hot shower spray, she began to feel less like a zombie and more like a living person again. Apparently her Labyrinth dreams didn't count as real sleep.

So. Magic. What on earth was she supposed to do with magic? Assuming that Jareth wasn't lying, for some unknowable Jareth-y reason.

After finding fresh clothes, the girl stalked out into the great room; she saw Jeremy sitting at the dining table on the kitchen side of the room. He was drinking coffee and reading the paper, looking perfect and pristine in gray slacks and a white shirt. Linda was nowhere to be seen. Sarah realized that it was almost eleven in the morning, which made her feel grubbier and grumpier.

He spotted Sarah almost immediately, as if he had been lying in wait for her.

"Your mother ran out to take care of a few last minute details," he said mildly. "I thought it might help if we could talk alone."

"Mmphgh," commented Sarah. She took a banana out of the fruit bowl on the kitchen counter and stared at it dubiously.

"I love Linda dearly, but I don't think she can really understand all this. She's never been to the Underground."

Meeting Jeremy's steady, inoffensive gaze, she sat down hesitantly.

"I didn't mean to be a creep," she muttered in a stiff tone. "This was kind of a shock."

"It's alright. Jareth tends to create a strong reaction wherever he goes." Jeremy smiled wryly. "I didn't expect you to have any deep dark secrets either. It's rather important that you solved the Labyrinth, you know. Humans weren't meant to succeed in it. Few of my kind make it through, even with the assistance of magical talent. You are quite exceptional."

"Leaving Toby there wasn't an option."

"Of course. And I'm sure Jareth didn't make it easy for you. What did he... no, that's a rather personal question. Anyway, I'm sure there's plenty of ill will on both sides."

"How did you meet him? You didn't wish someone away, did you?"

"No, no, nothing like that. It's actually pretty embarrassing. I come from a diplomatic family, you see. The youngest of three children. That meant that we could afford extensive magical training. If we were to follow in our parents' footsteps, it was required."

"Ah." Sarah felt the urge to laugh, the conversation was becoming so surreal. She continued to listen.

"Unfortunately, I turned out to have very little aptitude at all. When I was practicing teleportation with my tutor, inside of appearing in the next room, I transported myself to the Goblin Kingdom. A freak accident."

"Oh my god," breathed Sarah with a sympathetic gasp. "How old were you?"

"Er. About the equivalent of an eleven-year-old human, I think. I was absolutely terrified. I was in the courtyard in front of the castle and there were goblins everywhere, so I knew where I was."

"What happened?"

"Jareth came and found me pretty quickly. I think I caused quite a ruckus. He must have seen how scared I was, because he took me into the castle and sat me down on the stairs in the throne room, and summoned me up something good to eat. Once I had calmed down, I explained to him what had happened to me."

"He fed you?" That seemed out-of-character. She would have expected him to sneer at Jeremy, not comfort him. Maybe Jareth was only cruel to humans.

"Yes. He can be a perfectly charming person when he puts his mind to it. So, eventually, he delivered me home himself. Gave my parents quite a scare, I can tell you. Jareth is our version of the bogeyman, though he ventures into the outer kingdoms quite often. If my parents had seen him at a court function, they would have bowed and scraped respectfully. But when he appeared in their home with me in tow, they were petrified."

"But you two seem to be friends now."

"Yes. I grew up, over the years. Having seen a more personable side of him when I was a child, he didn't make me as nervous as he does others. I guess that was refreshing to him. So we're friends."

"Friends." Sarah grinned disbelievingly. "Okay. How did you end up as in actor in New York City?"

"Mmm. I was a miserable excuse for a magician, so I changed my name from Jeremiel to Jeremy and left to make my fortune in the Aboveground. It happens fairly often. I did have a talent for acting, as it turned out, and here I am. After a few years, I met your mum and fell in love. A year ago I told her about my origins."

"That must have taken some convincing."

"I had to call in a few favors, but she believed me eventually."

"Wow." Sarah took a bite of her banana and chewed meditatively.

"Are we okay now? Truce?"

"I guess," she replied. "I made a few friends in the Labyrinth. I know that not everyone down there is an asshole like Jareth."

"You do realize that you're going to have to spend a few hours in his company tonight, don't you?"

"Please don't remind me."

"You two can't be at each others' throats the entire time."

"I know, I know. I'll try to avoid him as much as possible. When impossible, I'll pretend he's just your good friend Mr. Leighton from drama school."

"Good idea. And..." Jeremy hesitated. "My family will see you as my daughter now, whatever the formalities may be Aboveground. My mother has been nagging at me for grandchildren for years, so don't be alarmed if you're suddenly smothered with attention."

"Will my cheeks be pinched?" she asked with a wince. Jeremy chuckled.

"Probably not. I hope Mother has more class than that."

Sarah tried to imagine a family of... whatever-they-were, Fair Folk, Undergrounders, occupying a hotel ballroom with the cream of New York's theater scene. Would it be total chaos, or would they blend in as easy as Jeremy? Or would they drug everyone to the gills with magic, like Jareth said? Jareth. Ugh. She was going to stay far, far away from him. She had one experience with balls and the Goblin King cataloged in her mind and she did not want to re-live it. If there was any memory from her adventure in the Labyrinth that made her cringe with pain and embarrassment, it was the memory of her time spent lost in that infernal dream.

What a pity. She had been looking forward to this party.

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A/N: I would just like to say thank you to all my reviewers! I really appreciate the comments. They help me learn as a writer. I've noticed this method in other stories, so I am going to unscrupulously steal it.

Dreaming One: I actually kind of agree about the beginning, but I wanted some way to give a picture of Sarah's normal life. Thank you also for confirming a theory of mine: 'Labyrinth' attracts a certain type of girl to it. - I'll try to speed things along later in the story.

Valo: Aww. Thank you.

AlisonHarvey: Sorry about the first chapter, I was afraid that might happen, but I'm glad the story eventually picked up. I was trying to set the stage before Sarah's life got weird... and yes, her friends will play a larger role later. Anyways, thank you, and I hope the next few chapters don't disappoint. (I love your stories madly, so this meant a lot to me. ;;)

Awhina: Thanks, I'll try to.

Lexi:Thank you! I hope to keep the chapters shooting out fairly rapidly. I feel inspired lately. ;-)

Archangel pixxistixx4me: Sorry about the cliffhanger. Hopefully this chapter helped. I'm happy you liked the characterization. It seems like the hardest part so far.