"Ouf!...Ow!"

Sarah rubbed her bruised behind and looked up from her awkward position to see the Goblin King perched regaly on his throne. She thought she saw a flicker of surprise in his eyes before a frown took its place. She looked around and realized that she had landed sprawled in the pit in the center of the throneroom. The goblins had all paused in whatever mischief they had been doing and were watching her with curiosity. As Sarah struggled to get upright she heard a high pitched voice yell excitedly.

"It's the Lady!" Sarah recognized Pottsy waving at her.

A green haired goblin grumbled, "What Lady?"

"The Sarah Lady!" Pottsy exclaimed proudly, hands on hips.

At that, the tusked goblin regarded Sarah nervously, "Yous not gonna knock the city down again, are ya?"

"No!" She reassured them, "I promise."

"Okay, are you gonna be Queen then?" Pottsy had approached her and was tugging at her jeans excitedly.

"Ummm?... What?" Sarah glanced back up at Jareth, he did not look amused.

Her inner voice squeaked Oh crap!

"Enough!" His voice echoed through the throne room and out along the corridors beyond. Glaring at his goblins, he ordered "Anyone who is not Sarah has exactly five seconds to be out of my sight." The goblins scrambled for the door, bumping into each other in their haste to exit. Pottsy waved again from the doorway before disappearing down the corridor.

Left alone with an irate Goblin King, Sarah would have liked to disappear too.

Said Goblin King put his fingers to his temples. "Sarah, would you mind explaining why you so rudely cut communication a moment ago?"

"Umm.." Sarah pursed her lips and fidgeted.

"And would you have any idea why there is an imposter in my realm?" His voice was calm, but his raised eyebrow was accusing.

Sarah grimaced. "Would you believe that those two questions are related?"

The eyebrow raised higher. "How so?"

Sarah took a deep breath. "You see... I saw your message in the crystal and I went to a mirror and called for you"

"Yes, and?" He gestured to continue.

"And two of you appeared."

Jareth stilled as he processed that information. "It is worse than I feared. That would explain why I cannot track him with my crystals"

"Why?" She asked nervously.

He sighed heavily. "Because one cannot spy on oneself. For some reason my crystals are unable to distinguish between myself and this pretender."

An idea formed in Sarah's mind, but she debated whether to speak up.

She still wasn't sure how much she could trust Jareth and his mercurial temperament. Since her arrival he had been rather cool and aloof to her. And very short tempered with his goblins. But at the same time, he had just confided in her that there was probable danger that he could not track, he was admitting a weakness.

Well... I'm already here, without any certainty on how to get back. In for a penny, in for a pound, I guess.

Jareth was watching the emotions play across her face with interest.

Finally she spoke. "Umm...if I tried to look... do you think it could work?"

"Highly irregular, but it might." With a sly smile, Jareth formed a new crystal and tossed it to Sarah.

Sarah caught it and gulped as she eyed the crystal in her palm. She looked up at Jareth nervously. "So... how does it work?"

Suddenly Jareth's voice was right behind her, his breath grazing her ear. "Think of who you are looking for while gazing into the sphere."

Sarah tried to ignore the shiver his proximity had just caused and concentrated on looking into the crystal, thinking about the Jareth-shaped thing in the tunnels. Inside appeared the image of the Goblin King, sitting on a sparkly boulder, head in hands, apparently muttering to himself."

"Well, at least we know he's not getting into any trouble at the moment." Sarah said hopefully.

Jareth was observing the crystal from over her shoulder. "Now, think back slowly, we want to see how he got there."

Sarah's cheeks became quite warm.

Jareth noticed, with a sly smile he spoke. "Sarah, would you have had anything to do with it?

Flustered, she sputtered. "I... um...I mean...ugh!...Okay...I dreamed of the Labyrinth again last night."

"And?" Jareth seemed to be enjoying watching her squirm.

"And I dreamt of you..and... I don't know how, but I think the Jareth in my dream somehow became real."

Jareth's face became pensive. "Sarah...I have something to tell you. But you may not like it"

As Sarah was expecting him to be angry, the careful tone in which he spoke surprised her. He sounded almost apologetic. He sat down on the throne and indicated the spot beside him. She hesitated.

He sighed. "Please sit down Sarah."

Sarah pointed at the throne. "Uhh, are you sure?"

"It is the only clean seat in the room." He smirked slightly.

Sarah had to admit that he was right. Hesitantly she joined him on the trone, placing herself on the very edge. There was silence for a long moment. Sarah stared absentmindedly out a window, trying to ignore where she was sitting and with whom.

When the Goblin King finally spoke, his voice was gentle. "Have you ever noticed the similarities between the denizens of the Labyrinth and some of the objects of your childhood room?"

Sarah scrunched her eyebrows. "Yes...I thought it was odd."

Jareth pursed his lips, "Well, it wasn't a coincidence."

"What?... How?" She almost dropped the crystal she was still holding, she put it down between them.

Jareth continued. "You are and always have been a person with a very vivid imagination. When you picture the things in your books and stories, they become very real to you."

Sarah's eyes bulged. "Are you saying...that I invented everything?"

He shook his head. "Not everything, the Labyrinth existed long before you, as did the goblins and myself. But this whole realm is a place formed and maintained by imagination."

There was a lump in her throat. She swallowed. "And?"

Jareth leaned forward and steepled his fingers, "As you may have noticed, the Labyrinth is a very fluid place, it changes and adapts somewhat to each runner. However your imagination is so strong that it had some surprising results."

Sarah was afraid of the answer, but she needed to know. "Like what?"

"Like the bog, for one." He wrinkled his nose at the thought.

Sarah cocked an eyebrow at him skeptically. "It didn't exist before?"

"Oh, it did, and it was always a putrid thing. But when you heard its name, it appears that you imagined the worst diaper changing horror stories and the bog adjusted to your expectations." He made a slight grimace. "The sound effects were also new."

Sarah sputtered. "I did that?!... "

He nodded.

"Oh... So, my imagination and my expectations affected the landscape." She looked at him apprehensively. "Anything else I should know about?"

He pursed his lips together, and Sarah could see that he was choosing his words carefully. "You looked for help... and found it because you were looking for it."

"Do you mean that I invented my friends?" Her voice trembled.

"Not exactly, Hoggle the dwarf existed already, posted at the outer gate, but your preconceived idea of what a dwarf looked like affected his appearance."

"What did he look like before?"

Jareth smirked. "Actually not much different, he just had red hair and a beard, and a bigger potbelly."

That mental image caused Sarah to snort. "And the others?"

"Years ago a hunting dog and a red fox had been wished away. When you arrived, they took similar forms to your beloved dog and your fox knight toy."

"And Ludo?"

"Until your arrival Ludo was a medium sized hairy goblin, his sudden change in stature caused quite a commotion. As did his newfound ability to call rocks." He paused, his slight smirk faded. "So you can see why when strange things began happening again after seeing you in your dream, I suspected you might have had something to do with it, albeit unintentional."

Sarah's eyes had filled with tears. "So this is my fault, I came here nine years ago and wreaked havoc, and now I came back and made it worse!"

Jareth inched closer and put his arm around her. One of her tears broke free, Jareth wiped it away with a gloved finger. "Sarah, don't blame yourself. Your friends are happy with their lives now, and in the case of Sir Didimus, you actually managed to increase his speech capacities enormously which is quite a feat. And over time the power of the Labyrinth changes most of its denizens anyway, if they don't control it. How do you think so many of them came to look so strange?

Sarah's tears began falling freely. "What kind of a monster am I then, to change and control others on a subconscious whim?"

Jareth lifted her chin with his finger tips, gazing into her teary eyes he asked "Do you think that I am a monster?"

She looked back into his eyes. Sapphire and ice was how she had once described them. But they were not cold, in fact, his gaze made her feel suddenly warm. She blushed. "N-no...at least, not anymore."

"You and I have more in common than you would think." Jareth let go of her chin and wiped her remaining tears away. They sat in silence for a moment as Sarah pondered his words. Finally she broke the silence.

"So do you know how I made your doppelganger then?"

Jareth let his arm fall from around her, "I'm not certain, If you don't mind telling me what happened in your dream, maybe we could figure it out."

Sarah's face become scarlet again.

Jareth's smirk had returned, but it was gentle. "Oh, would you rather not?"

Sarah gathered her thoughts, they had to fix this, even if it was embarrassing. "Um... well... It was just... like when we met in the tunnels during my run. Except different. I was in darkness and then slowly I could see a little, and I began to suspect that I was in the tunnels. Then I met the False Alarms again... I saw your costume that you had used... and then I saw you..."

"And?" He prodded.

"You said "Hello Sarah, how are you enjoying my Labyrinth?" And you leaned over me, like you did...and...I..."

Sarah wasn't sure how to continue. How do you tell the Goblin King that you were tempted to kiss him?

Her inner voice quipped. Especially since he looks rather kissable right now!

Jareth noticed her embarrassment and a small rueful smile appeared on his lips. "Do you know that I had been sorely tempted to kiss you at that moment of your run?"

Sarah's eyes went wide. "You were?"

"Yes, your fiery green eyes and impudent mouth were intoxicating... but... you were too young... and you saw me as a villain."

Sarah's stomach flip-flopped at his confession. Then she remembered something and gave him a playful poke on the arm. "Well, when I dissed your Labyrinth you sent the cleaners after me and stole three hours, I'd say that makes you a villain."

Jareth smirked at that. "Point taken... although, I really was only fulfilling your expectations of villainy." He took her hand in his. "You know, I would never have let true harm come to you."

"Really?" She looked at him, sceptical. But his uneven blue eyes were gazing at her in disconcerting sincerity.

"Yes, if the cleaners would have reached you, you would have automatically forfeited the game, and you would have been sent home."

Sarah looked down, fidgeting. "But Toby would have stayed here."

"Yes." He said simply.

She looked up again. "Would... would you have turned him into a goblin?"

He almost smiled. "No, as you can see, I have more than enough of those already... but over time the Labyrinth would change him, as it has changed me. If he had stayed, I would have made him my heir."

"Oh!" All this new information was sending her for a loop. Then she thought of something. "Are, or were, you human?"

Before he could answer there was a large poof of glitter in the doorway.

...

Author's note

Thank you to Guest 2019, Liz the Librarian and Mae-E for the reviews

I don't own anything except my OCs