Chapter 20: The Tokens Three

She blinked.

Sitting up, Alex noticed many things all at once. She was wearing different clothes, she was in a comfortable bed, she was perfectly healthy, and there were about three familiar smells. One of the smells was a vanilla candle burning on her bedside table, another was Jareth-- she must be in the castle at the center of the Labyrinth, the thought almost reduced her to tears-- and the third was Lilly! The rose perfume that she always wore caused Alex to look around frantically. To no avail, Lilly was nowhere in sight.

Alex sighed and got up. Donning a color changing dress left on the chair beside her bed, she regarded her reflection in a mirror. Jareth's amulet hung around her neck, along with Lilly's locket and Jareth's charm. She smiled sadly and walked out into the hallway, wondering where to go.

"Is you looking for yous friends?" asked a short, but thin, little goblin to her left.

Alex looked quizzically at the thing, but knew that their brain power was awfully low, and replied, "Yes, I am. Do you know where they are?"

"They is being this way ma'am!"

Alex leapt to catch up with the excitable goblin and hurried along after it, her dress billowing in such a satisfactory way that Alex almost stopped to spin in circles just to watch it billow out, but she refrained herself. The goblin led her through the sandstone out into a garden where Alex could hear laughter. She hurried ahead of the goblin, toward the voices. As she turned a corner, she ran into someone roughly her size. She got up and brushed her skirt off before looking at Alex.

"Took your sweet time getting here."

Alex stared dumbfounded at the girl in front of her. "Lilly?"

A grin nearly split the girl's face in two, "In person!"

A split second later, Lilly found herself trapped in a bear hug, "Lilly! I thought you were… Oh! You're here, that's all that matters."

"Ouch! You're squeezing a little too hard, dearie! Get off!"

Alex stepped back, but her face never stopped glowing, "How did you get here?"

"I found a way to bring her back. She and I have a lot in common replied Luc, slipped an arm around a blushing Lilly.

Alex grinned mischievously, "I think I must have missed something."

"I can't go back to the Aboveground, Alex, I know too much, and I have dear friends here. Luc did something wrong when he brought me back, I'm not human any more. So I'm going to go home, tell my folks, and come back here with Luc."

Alex nodded, "You two will make a great pair!"

"Indeed, I had to make them see it, though. The both of them are more shy than butterflies and refused to speak more than three words to each other for hours." replied another male voice.

Alex spun around, "Mathis!" and trapped him in a hug as well.

"Yes, I'm here. Salid showed up moments after you left and healed Luc and I. We knew there was nothing that we could do for you, but we got Lilly back, and began fixing what Deram had broken."

"Does this make you the Goblin King again?" Alex asked.

Mathis smiled gently and shook his head. Alex frowned, but knew that she wouldn't get a thing out of him until he was good and ready.

"I saw Jareth down there." Alex whispered finally as everyone seemed to be watching her. She recounted all of the events from the time she entered Mathis' doorway, to the time she woke up.

"Ah, good master Dari." murmured Mathis.

"You know him?"

"Oh, yes. We weren't friends, as such, but we respected each other. I believe Dari was disappointed at my reaction to my loss, and was testing your reaction to yours. He gave you a great gift, Alex. Those swords are a marvel! That they didn't break the orb is shocking, but I guess believable. However, you emerged with the Goblin talisman, you are the Goblin Queen."

Alex shook her head, "Nope, not gonna do it."

Mathis seemed amused, "Oh, really? I think you'll take the job. Besides, the goblins won't listen to me any more, they choose you. They like you, you brought Jareth back, and they loved him dearly before he broke under my whip. No, you will take the position, you have no choice."

"How can I?"

"You're one of us, now, remember? You'll do just fine. Better than me, anyway. Besides, you'll have help. I'll offer advice, and Luc and Lilly will be more than willing to offer theirs, I'm sure."

Alex nodded, "Well, then, I guess I'd better learn my way around the castle, hmm?"

"Quite so, should you wish company, you have only to ask." Mathis said.

"No, I think I'd like a little while on my own. I need to think about everything that's happened, you know? I'll see you all for dinner tonight."

"Sure thing, Alex." Lilly said.

Alex smiled and hugged Lilly once more before walking off through the garden. Jareth's favorite flower seemed to have been the rose because bush after bush could be seen throughout the garden. Blue, red, yellow, pink, all the different colors that he apparently could find were there. She thought it fitting: beautiful, yet thorny flowers seemed to fit with Jareth's character. But the more she thought about him, the more depressed she became. As she sat down on a bench near a rosebush sporting deep scarlet flowers, she began to cry.

She had done it. She had defeated the Lich. Her friends were back, Lilly would visit her all the time. Luc and Mathis would help her rule the Labyrinth. But everything seemed so empty, now, so hollow. She hadn't realized how much she had truly loved Jareth until he was taken from her. And now she would never get to tell him.

"Dear, dear! Black does suit you, doesn't it? And a good thing, because that seems all you have worn for the past few weeks." said a quiet voice from beside Alex.

She turned to look at the man sitting beside her on the bench and almost screamed. Jareth sat-- or rather, sprawled-- on the bench, resting against the back of it, twirling a blue rose in his gloved hands. As she stared at him he looked at her with a mischievous smile, his eyes twinkling. "So, Alex-- I'm sorry, Queen Alex-- what do you think of the Labyrinth?"

Alex stared, "Jareth?"

"That would be my name, wouldn't it?"

"But…"

He sighed and set the flower down, "You don't believe me?"

"I've been tricked before."

"You don't believe me."

"No, I don't. I saw you die."

He sighed and leaned forward, resting his face in his hands, elbows on his knees. "Alex," he said, "all I want is your love."

"I'm sorry, but…"

"What would you have me do?"

"If you're truly Jareth, then… hmm…" she thought carefully, she thought she trusted him, but couldn't be sure. She was so confused, so tired. "Bring me a token of my sorrow."

Jareth frowned at her, "Please tell me you aren't falling for those fairy tale impossible task stories."

She smiled at him, "Impossible?"

He glared.

"Okay, a hint: my first sorrow."

"I suppose I have three days in which to find this token and return it to you?"

She nodded.

Jareth stood, a faint smile playing across his face: he loved a challenge. "Very well, your Majesty, I shall return in three days with a token of your first sorrow."

Alex smiled as he disappeared, that was Jareth. But now that she had started the game, they both had to play. She would give him three tasks, and if he did them all, he would get her hand in marriage. If not… The tasks she would give him wouldn't be difficult at all for Jareth, so if he failed one of them, she would know it wasn't him.

The next three days passed slowly for Alex. She spent her time familiarizing herself with the Labyrinth, every twist and turn of it. She learned that it was a living, changing thing that was completely controlled by the ruling monarch. The Labyrinth reflected her moods, her every whim. It would change when she wished it to change, but it was always able to be solved. The third day was spent talking with Lilly in the garden, waiting for Jareth to return. He didn't appear until sunset.

Lilly had asked Alex a riddle and silence hung in the air as Alex thought and Lilly smiled. In a few seconds the riddle was forgotten as a small photo album was dropped in Alex's lap. She opened it up to find it filled with pictures of her family. Her Mom and Dad, her little sister, her little brother, some had Lilly in them, some had other relatives. Alex smiled as she turned to look at Jareth: he had found a token of her first sorrow: her family's deaths.

"The second task, your Highness, is hopefully going to be a little more challenging."

She smiled at him, this was Jareth, she was sure. "Your second task is to bring me another token: a token of my anger"

Jareth frowned for a moment as he thought, then bowed and faded away. Alex looked at Lilly, who also frowned.

"Your anger?" asked Lilly.

"My life in the foster homes was my first great anger."

Lilly nodded, "I guess that makes sense."

Alex smiled, "It doesn't have to, it's a riddle."

"Of course."

Three more days passed, Alex began to fulfill her role as ruler of the Labyrinth. Goblins were kept under control, the Labyrinth was made to cooperate with her every whim, and things began to get smoothed out. By sunset of the third day, she was eating dinner out in the garden. Jareth appeared before her and handed her a key with a tag on it: the key to her last foster home. Alex smiled at him as she took it.

"You have a final task for me? Another trinket that I must find? Some symbol of another emotion?" he asked quietly.

"My heart's desire."

He studied her eyes for a few moments before replying, "I shall be back on the third day with the answer, then."

She watched as he disappeared, her dinner quite forgotten. Three more days. She suddenly remembered what the Seer had said: Three times ask your hand must he. The three tasks! She smiled to herself with the thought of what token he would bring to her. However, as much as she looked forward to Jareth's answer to her riddle, she also had things to take care of.

Once again, three days passed by with little excitement. She ruled the Labyrinth well, the goblins loved her! Mathis helped her learn the magic of the realm, while Luc taught her the History of their people. She learned enough in those three days to fill at least one large book and perhaps start on another one. She learned about the goblins and about the humans and about the fey. She learned so much, that she had quite forgotten that she was waiting for Jareth, it hadn't seemed like three days had gone by at all.

Which is why she screamed when she felt a tap on her shoulder as she stared out over the Labyrinth from the balcony in her room. She spun around, dress quickly sliding to a deep crimson color only to find an amused Jareth, eyes twinkling with barely controlled humor, standing before her. He bowed to her, never blinking, never dropping his eyes.

"You have found a token of my heart's desire?" Alex asked after the scene registered.

His smile grew as he simply watched her.

"Or have you not?"

"Ah, little one, there is a set order in which things must be done."

She frowned.

"Let me elucidate," he whispered as he stepped closer to her, pinning her against the rail of her balcony.

"Elucidate?"

"Mmm, indeed."

"What, exactly, do you mean by that?" Alex breathed; she could feel his closeness, smell that intoxicating smell.

He smiled again as he leaned forward to kiss her. Time seemed to stop, or speed up, or something freaky. She felt his hands holding her close to him, felt his wild hair in her own hands, felt his lips pressing against her own, and that smell! That smell that was Jareth filled her thoughts. When it was done he held her close and sang the lullaby gently, the leaves on the trees below seemed to answer and Alex knew that all had been set to rights.

"This world is dictated by rules, little one, and one of those rules needed following, but I'm not yet finished. I believe you asked for a token of your heart's desire? I have it."

Alex looked up at the man she loved. He seemed suddenly nervous, suddenly unsure of himself. He held out his hands as if holding a crown and a crown of flowers appeared. Green leaves draped down from the sides as he placed it on her head as if from an elven circlet, silvery and blue flowers gave off sweet smells. She touched it lightly, as if asking what it was.

"A wedding band, little one." he whispered.

"And does that mean…"

Alex sat down slowly on a bench nearby and watched as Jareth knelt on the ground beside her, "Lady Alexandria Rose, I ask for thy hand in marriage, and for the sharing of thy throne."

"Oh, Jareth…"

His blue eyes simply stared at her, asking, pleading to her.

"Yes, Jareth."

He smiled, relief seeming to flood him as he stood to embrace her once again. After several minutes that weren't long enough, he finally said, "Plans need to be made, then, don't they?"

"A wedding…"

He chuckled, "Yes, little one, a wedding. Your wedding."

"I like the sound of that." she whispered.

"Good."