Summary: Sara didn't accept Jareth's bargain, but she didn't leave the Labyrinth unmarked. A story of consequences, and two lonely, stubborn people learning to live with each other.

Disclaimer: I do not own Labyrinth; the premise and characters belong to Jim Henson's estate and some movie studio/s. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Author's Note: This story was inspired by words #50, #65, and #66 on the 15minuteficlets livejournal community. You may notice a style change between the first two chapters and the final three -- that's because the last three were a single story that I split up in order to keep the word counts and pacing more even.

Any canon goofs, grammar mistakes, continuity errors, implausible characterizations, bad dialogue, and boring passages are entirely my fault.

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To Destruction
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For the third night in a row, a white owl perched outside Sara's house, motionless. She spent several hours resolutely ignoring it, trying to convince herself that she didn't want to talk to him, that she hadn't missed seeing him around, that it meant nothing that he hadn't forgotten their dance. Finally she gave in and opened the kitchen window.

"What do you want?"

Jareth unfolded himself in a blur of feathers, leaning against the outside of the window with the boneless grace that always drew Sara's eyes. "I'm being called," he said. "The goblins are restless and tunnels are opening to your world. It won't be too long before someone will try to solve the Labyrinth."

"So what?"

Jareth's face froze into a mask of icy disdain. "Half of the Labyrinth is currently under your control. Set appropriate challenges."

Sara shook her head. "I'm not part of your games."

Jareth's hand tightened dangerously on the windowsill. "The Labyrinth is more than a game. Think, Sara -- would you give magic to anyone who wanted it? Everyone who touches magic must be tested. Even us." He held up a crystal, showing her the memory of Toby's infant face. "Did you think I took your brother for my own amusement? Why would I want a squalling brat? What good was he in this world? I test the dangerous people, the ones who use power to satisfy selfish whims. If they can't set aside their fears and see beyond themselves, they lose their magic. This one will travel through your territory. Set appropriate challenges."

The white owl screeched derisively and soared over the junkyard, vanishing behind the stone towers and crystal spires of the castle.

Sara picked the crystal ball from the windowsill and stared at it thoughtfully, remembering. Then she closed her window and began to weave obstructions through her realm.

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"You don't understand anything -- you hate me. You're always ruining my life. I wish you were dead!" That's what the latest victim of the Labyrinth -- a girl named Christina -- had said to her mother when she'd refused to extend Christina's curfew so she could go to a classmate's party.

Sara listened through a hidden crystal globe as Christina explained her situation to Hoggle and asked if Jareth would really kill her mother if she couldn't solve the Labyrinth. Sara knew the answer now, and Hoggle at least suspected the truth of Jareth's odd abductions, but the pessimistic dwarf just shrugged. "He might. You never know what Lord Jareth might do. On the other hand, he only rules half the Labyrinth -- if you stay in this half, you can get close to the castle with a lot less danger."

Christina perked up. "Really? Who rules this half?"

"Lady Sara." Hoggle raised his lantern and stumped off through the dim, overgrown hedges. "You'll have to get past her to reach the castle, and she doesn't like Jareth."

"It should be easy, then," Christina said, swatting aside prickly branches as she followed him from the borderlands into the Labyrinth proper.

"You keep thinking that," Hoggle said dourly. "You just keep thinking that."

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Jareth popped in and out a few times, at one point resetting Christina's clock from 12 hours to 3, but he was limited by Sara's control over this half of the Labyrinth. He couldn't transport the girl directly and had to resort to verbal threats and occasional bits of lesser magic, like bursts of fire and a storm of knives. In the old days, Sara suspected, he'd simply have changed the ground to quicksand or tossed Christina into the path of the tunnel cleaning machine.

She understood the need to keep magic from the hands of those who'd misuse it, but she thought Jareth walked very close to the line of abusing his own power.

Finally Christina inched her way along the narrow beam that spanned Sara's new moat -- the temporarily borrowed Bog of Eternal Stench -- and knocked on the door of the moss-covered house.

Sara ushered her in with a smile.

"Um. Lady Sara?" Christina seemed surprised to find someone so normal after her encounters with Jareth and the other Labyrinth denizens.

"Yes, I'm Sara. You're Christina, and you wished your mother was dead." Sara noted Christina's flush of shame, as well as her defiantly raised head. The girl had conflicting feelings. Did she not fully grasp what she'd done wrong, or was she simply not letting Sara intimidate her the way Jareth had done so effortlessly?

"I can bring your mother here," Sara said, raising her hand to forestall any interruptions. "I can bring her here and send the two of you home, but there's a price.

To her credit, Christina frowned and asked, cautiously, "What price?"

Sara sat down at her kitchen table and conjured two cups of hot chocolate; Christina took hers warily. "Did you think that just anyone could invoke the Labyrinth?" Sara asked, elliptically. "No. Only those with a gift for magic. At the moment, Jareth and I are having a... disagreement. Promise to lend me your strength, and I'll short-circuit Jareth's challenge. You never agreed to it, after all. Why should you suffer the consequences?"

She could see Christina turning this over in her mind. Sara sipped her hot chocolate, hoping the girl would make the honorable choice, but then Christina smiled. "You're right, it isn't fair. I didn't know that jerk was listening to me. Bring my mother here and I promise I'll do whatever you want."

Damn. If the girl tried to weasel out of the consequences of one rash impulse, how many other consequences would she try to avoid? Still, Sara had offered the deal in good conscience. She walked to her window, opened it, and turned back to Christina. "Wait here," she said, and then concentrated as hard as she could.

She flew out in a rustle of brown feathers.

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AN: This would be the more detailed explanation of Jareth's role, and of why the Labyrinth paid attention to Sara's wish instead of all the thousands of people who wish harm on relatives or friends every day.