Here we go then, the next chapter, hope you all like it, it's a little longer than my other ones, it wouldn't stop. Please R&R.

High Council:

Alyana was in her throne room, the Dragon realm's Taiko drummers were playing. She leant back on the arm of her throne, her legs swung lazily over the other arm as she listened and watched. The drummers were always a show.

"First Lady," a Dragon in human form approached.

"Dal'in," she acknowledged him, meeting his lilac eyes briefly.

"Your brother is here."

"Manners for a change, how novel. Show him in." She twisted in her chair so that she as sat upright as Jareth entered. "Hello, Brother, and to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

"How can you stand that noise?" was his only reply.

"I think I'll ignore that. You're here to see Sarah."

"The Council want to meet her," Jareth twirled his ever present riding crop. "The Girl Who Beat Me and My Labyrinth, apparently she's a legend," he tried to shrug it of.

"She's a part of it, isn't she? The Labyrinth has given her power because she beat you," Alyana guessed. Jareth nodded but she suspected that he was still keeping something from her. "Dal'in," she called the dragon over. The lilac eyed man bowed. "Take my brother to Lady Sarah's suite." The dragon man bowed his head.

"Your Majesty, would you please follow me," the Goblin King bowed to his sister , then turned and followed the dragon from the room.

Sarah gazed out of the window of the Dragon realm. It was beautiful, rolling fields and groves of trees with beautiful clear sky, a sky that had been clear since she had arrived five days ago. A knock on her door interrupted her thoughts.

"Come in," Sarah did not turn from her window.

"Hello, Sarah," she heard the voice of the Goblin King.

"You took your time," she chose not to look at him or acknowledge his status.

"It would be fitting for you to look at me when speaking," his voice was hard, obviously she had hit a nerve.

"Maybe I don't want to," she did, however, turn. She wanted to see the full impact of her words on him. "I hate you, Goblin King," to her relief the words sounded convincing, even if her certainty in their truth was not. "I hate you so much that even looking at you hurts." Unfortunately she was unprepared for his reaction. He did not fly into a rage, or leave as she had expected. He remained silent, though she could see that he was struggling for control over his emotions as he took a step towards her, she could see the raw pain in his eyes and on his face.

"I must ask, little girl, what, exactly, have I done to deserve this? Did I not come when you summoned me? Have I not always been generous?" Their bodies were nearly touching as they glared into each other's eyes.

"Oh, yes, so generous. You took my brother, ruined my dreams and destroyed my happiness. So very generous of you. If not for you and your... gift, Cam and I might still be together, happily."

"I have been more generous than you can possibly comprehend. You asked, so I took. You refused, I destroyed, and as for Camulus, I have saved you from an eternity of slavery. A Dark Elf simply cannot comprehend love."

"Nor can a Goblin King," she tried to sound convincing and failed. His words had melted the last of her anger. Something in his eyes drew her closer to him. "Were the dreams also a gift?"

"What dreams?" He sounded genuinely surprised.

"Of the ballroom,"he shook his head. She could not tell him that she often woke calling his name in the middle of the night, that the dreams had often seemed more real than any of the relationships she had ever had. The thought of the dream made her wonder what really kissing him would be like. She had told him that she hated him, but the conviction had not been there, she was certain of that now. Alyana had been right, what she had felt for Cam had not really been love.

He must have sensed her change of heart, her realisation that the only man she had ever really loved was stood in front of her, because he gently brushed a lock of hair off her face and then trailed a gloved finger down her cheek and across her lips as she gazed, speechless, into his mismatched eyes. He slid his hand down, lightly brushing his fingers across her throat and somewhere between that and resting his hand on her shoulder, he found himself kissing her. It was all that he had ever dreamed of and more, because her response showed him that she wanted this as much as he did. He held her tight against him and was surprised by the strength in her arms as she, too, clung to him. The joy he felt at this contact was intense but he still stopped and pulled away, knowing that if he did not he would never be able too. She was flushed and when she opened her eyes he could see that she was confused.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that," she looked away from him. He turned her face and once again traced the line of her lips.

"No," her blush had deepened at his touch, "I should be the one to apologise, if either of us should at all. You have nothing to feel ashamed of." He kissed her again, just to reassure himself that the first time had been real. Again her response was enthusiastic and again he was the first to stop the kiss, this time she grumbled a little.

"Sarah, as much as it would please me to stay here and continue with this all day, I did have another reason for coming to see you," he gazed into her emerald eyes as he said it. "The High Council wish to meet you, now, and they sent me to get you." He pulled her closer to him, knowing that he could have simply taken her hand, but delighting in the intimate full length contact of their bodies. She seemed to understand and wrapped her arms around him, holding tightly as he brushed his lips against hers. There was a shimmer, a puff of glitter and they were both gone.

The High Council of the Underground had gathered in the Glade Under the Moon to await the arrival of the Goblin King and the girl who had defeated him. Alyana was already there, hers was the central throne in the horseshoe of seven. To her left was the Elf King, the Fairy Queen and the Merking, to her right was Jareth's empty throne, the Dwarf King and the empty throne of the Shadow Lands, which had never been occupied. The Council always met in the Glade, a place that was sacred to the Goddess, the only light that ever shone there was that of the forever full moon. Alyana was of the opinion that in this dangerous time, the council should be meeting in a castle, not a glade with a thousand hiding places for a potential assassin. She kept her opinion to herself.

There was a shimmer in the center of the glade and Jareth finally made his appearance. Alyana had wondered what had kept her twin and she now realised what it was, Jareth was holding Sarah in such a way that it made it impossible for it to have been anything else.

"Well it's about time," she said from her throne. Jareth simply glared at her and she assumed that he was reading into the double meaning behind her words.

"Sister, Kings and Queens of the Council, I present to you Sarah, the girl who defeated my Labyrinth," he said it with a slight flourish, gently disengaging himself from a nervous, and rather embarrassed, Sarah.

"Welcome, Sarah," the Elf King rose and stepped down from the dais, then began to walk around her, reminding Sarah of a vulture. Jareth scowled. "So this is the girl who..."

"Yes, yes, this is her!" Jareth snapped, cutting off whatever comment the other king was going to make.

"Unbelievable," the Dwarf King rumbled, "how is it that..."

"Jareth!" Sarah cried out as the Goblin Kings eyes went wide with pain and he fell forward. In the moonlight an arrow fletched with black feathers could be seen sticking out of his back. By some miracle, Sarah caught him before he hit the ground, kneeling to lower him gently and taking all of his weight. Dimly she could hear the Merking's watery cries of "treachery" and Alyana's screams of rage, then the Elf king was there.

"Hold him steady, girl," he told Sarah, ignoring her tears as he probed around the wound. She felt Jareth tense in her arms as he cried out in pain.

"Shhh, shhh," she kissed his forehead, trying to soothe him.

"Sarah," he groaned.

"No, don't try to talk," she said quietly, "save your strength."

"I need to tell you," his voice was barely above a whisper, "please, Sarah, I love you, I always have," he fell silent and for a moment she feared that he had died in her arms, died without hearing her reply. Then she saw the flutter of a pulse a his throat, weak but there and she knew that he had simply passed out from the pain and the blood loss, his immortal body not able to cope with such things.

"Adrolith," Alyana spoke, her voice hoarse and full of tears, "can you save my brother?" The Elf King shrugged

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you 'don't know'?" Sarah demanded before Alyana could reply. Adrolith gave her a withering look, he had heard Jareth's confession clearly, this girl was so like other mortals. Sarah looked back him, all of the helplessness that she felt in her eyes. She felt so lost without him, if he died... she pulled her mind from the thought.

"He needs a greater healer than I," Adrolith's voice was calm. "Taylon," he softly called his aide over and spoke to her rapidly in elvish. "My aide will take to the greatest healers we have. If any can save him, they can."

"I'm going too," Sarah insisted as the aide carefully took Jareth from her. She stood to look the Elf King in the eye. Alyana laid a restraining hand on her shoulder.

"Say your goodbyes, child," Adrolith told her.

"No!"

"You must! Taylon will take him from us now!"

"Oh, Jareth," her voice trembled, "you have to come back to me, I love you so much. Come back to me." In the faint light of the moon she almost fancied that she saw him smile, then both king and elf were gone. Sarah's legs went out from under her and she lay sobbing in the grass, the blood of a king, her king, on her hands.

"Sarah, now is not the time," Alyana's eyes were full of unshed tears but Sarah could barely believe what she was hearing, now was the perfect time for hysterics.

"The Labyrinth needs a ruler," Gord, king of the Dwarves told her.

"You are the only one who ever defeated it," the Fairy Queen, Vaela, told her as Adrolith nodded his agreement.

"You are of the Labyrinth, the Labyrinth is of you," Pilthe, the Sea King, told her. "Jareth is unable to rule and we are now at war. You must become Goblin Queen."

"But it's still Jareth's throne! I don't know anything about ruling a kingdom and I have no magic!" Sarah protested.

"You have magic, Sarah, the Labyrinth has given it to you," Alyana assured her, "and when my brother is well he will claim the throne back, it will be his again." Alyana motioned her own aide forward. "Jor'yl will guide you and your magic will come with instinct. You must do this, Sarah, there is no one else. You know, though, that there is one other thing that you must do, a wish to be granted, you know the rules." Sarah turned pleading eyes on the First Lady. "This is not just some game of my brother's, this is the purpose behind the Labyrinth, it keeps the Underground alive. You have no choice. Go to your kingdom now, go to your subjects. You have three days, then we meet to plan this war."

In the Labyrinth, the skies went suddenly black. Rain fell in sheets from the thick clouds and all the goblins and the other inhabitants of the Labyrinth understood. Slowly they emerged from their homes as the first rumbles of thunder and strikes of lightning raged around them. As one they raised their faces to the sky and howled, their king was dead, or dying, so they howled, howled their grief, rage and despair.

On top of the tallest tower, Sarah and Jor'yl materialised. Sarah fell to her knees in the rain and her voice joined with that of her subjects. Her screams could be heard over the thunder, over the creatures of her realm, it could be heard in the Dragon lands and beyond, deep into the Shadow Lands.

Jareth was gone but someone far more dangerous had taken his place. In her screams, Sarah swore that Camulus and his Dark Elves would pay dearly for their crime, and with that thought came a realisation.

Jareth was gone, she was alone.

Ooops, I forgot to say that I was going to take Jareth out of the picture. It's not that I dislike him or anything (beats Sarah over the head with a stick screaming "He's mine now!"), it's just that I was interested in seeing how she would cope without him. It's a little cliched but what can I say? i'm like that. R&R if you want an update

Artemis