Sorry it took so long to put this on. I've been grounded for the last two weeks and I've had a lot of homework and reports to do lately. (That's what I get for taking the advanced classes I suppose Lol)

Well, um… yeah I have nothing to really talk about right now. Ha, imagine that. So you know what that means – ON WITH THE SHOW!

Chapter 6

"That goodness you knocked her out like that Ludo, I doubt spirited little Pip would have come with us back to Sarah's world otherwise." Hoggle huffed and puffed in his need for air as the small troop hurriedly ran away at tops speed from the Goblin King's castle, through the Goblin City and out into the heart of the Labyrinth itself. "Poor unconscious tiny little Pip. That wretched Goblin King as he calls himself must have put a spell on her to force her to fight us like that. She's obviously under his wretched control, so thank God she's unconscious."

"Ludo sad, Ludo hurt Pip!" Ludo grunted dejectedly hauling Pip a little higher up from where he had her slung over his shoulder to carry her through the Labyrinth. After the fight had ended with both Pip and the Goblin King lying unconscious on the floor with Hoggle unable to revive either of them – not that Hoggle really even tried to awaken the Goblin King, just to wake Pip up. Pip moaned and twitched faintly from her spot over Ludo's shoulder causing Hoggle to stop them in their marching.

"I say good sir, what is the bother that caused you to stop on our way back to the good lady Sarah?" Sir Didymus asked as Hoggle walked over to Ludo and Pip. Sir Didymus followed Hoggle, confused about what was going on.

"Ludo, set Pip down where I can reach her for an instant would you?" Hoggle requested, which Ludo obeyed at once lying Pip down on the soft grass beneath their feet. Thinking quickly Hoggle grabbed a few of the long fabric like vines creeping up the trees next to where they stood and tied Pip's wrists together. Sir Didymus and Ludo made small sounds of protest but the look Hoggle shot them quashed them at once. "Don't look at me like that you two! Listen, if we don't do SOMETHING for her while she's under the Goblin King's spell then she'll keep attacking us. This is the safest thing for all of us, I think."

"What's going on here?" A shaky and slightly scared sounding voice asked slowly. Hoggle looked up into Pip's pale face. Her eyes were open and looking wildly around in her confusion. "Why are my hands tied so tightly together like this? Where am I? And where's my Jareth, what did you do to him?"

"I didn't do anything, it was all Ludo what done it so don't go getting angry with me!" Hoggle said as he started to march away from her. "He shoved that menace into his own bloody grandfather clock and gave him just what he deserved."

"WHAT!" Pip screamed letting out a sob. "You – you shoved him into the clock in the corner? Do you have any idea what you've done!"

"Yeah, it probably killed him - I hope so anyways." Hoggle shouted back to Pip who gasped. "You should be thanking us for this Pip or you will be later anyways! If he dies due to this, the spell on you will be lifted and you can go back to your normal life like all of this never happened to you at all. Won't that be nice? You'll never have to go back to the Goblin King holding you hostage ever again if he dies don't worry."

"There's no spell on me you pea brain of a goblin idiot, I stayed with Jareth of my own free will numbskull! I love Jareth and he loves me, you idiots! Take me back to him right now!" Pip yelled thrashing violently in an attempt to make Ludo drop her so she could run back to the castle. "Let me go this instant! You terrible monsters, let go of me this moment or you'll be sorry you ever messed with me!"

"No Pip, we have a job to do and we're going to do it one way or the other." Hoggle said gritting his teeth. "Now shut up already on your own or I'll do it for you!"

"JARETH, HELP ME I NEED YOUR HELP RIGHT NOW!" Pip yelled shrilly to the cold night air. When nothing happened and the Goblin King didn't appear at her side at her call Pip started to sob uncontrollably into the sleeves of her shirt as she pulled her arms over her hands – which was difficult as her wrists were still tied together. Ludo stood stock still unsure of what to do, looking over at Hoggle for help.

"That's it I've had it with you!" Hoggle barked at Pip. Grabbing a fallen tree branch laying on the ground beside his feet he struck Pip over the head with it knocking her unconscious again so she fell limb over Ludo's fuzzy orange shoulder. Pulling up another of the vines he used to tie Pip's wrists from off a nearby tree, Hoggle gagged Pip with it just enough so if she regained consciousness again she could start talking while Sir Didymus and Ludo watched horrified at their friend's antics. "Let's just get Pip back to Sarah before she wakes up again and starts crying again like a madwoman. She's obviously delusional, the poor confused girl."

"I suppose you're correct in that thought my good fellow, let us persist then in our quest back to the lady Sarah! Onward!" Sir Didymus shouted rushing forward. Hoggle and Ludo followed as quickly as they could. They were leaving the Labyrinth with Pip and returning to Sarah at last.

Had Hoggle only know the harm that one shriek of Pip's had caused he would have dumped her head first into the Bog of Eternal Stench and be done with it at once. At Pip's mere call of his name and terrified cry for help, Jareth moaned flipping over from where he'd fallen when he slid down his clock when Ludo had thrown him into it. Opening his eyes slightly he strived to pull himself up off the floor so he could dart out of the castle and help his darling Pip.

(Jareth POV)

"Pip… she needs me…" I whispered to the empty room from the floor where I lay trembling in pain, the shard of broken glass that had fallen from the clock when I had been sent flying into the front of it. My powers were fading, the rope that was my life was fraying down until it was just a few single strands that I held on to with all my being, and my love had forcible been taken from me as they left me here to die lying in the shards of broken glass and the shards of my broken magic. "They've taken her away from me… my poor Pip… I can't get her back in this state, it's hopeless… no, I have to get up and save Pip."

I struggled to pick myself up from the floor urging all my remaining strength back into my numb legs as I tried to stand. Grasping the post at the end of the bed tightly I fought hard to remain standing and then tried to move, to walk over to the door of my room to open it and call for assistance. I had to return to my tower immediately to reverse the damage before it became permanent and Pip was taken back to her old home – but I knew it was no use. The damage done to me by both smashing the clock and being smashed into the clock was irreversible, my magic was bound suffer if it hadn't already completely left me. By now Hoghead and the other two had found their way through the Labyrinth with Pip's captive and unconscious form and taken her back to Sarah where they all through she belonged.

"Pip belongs here in this castle with me just like I belong with her! No one can take her away from me, never! I won't let them take her away from me, not now not ever!" I shouted to the empty room letting go of the bedpost in my fiery rage as I strode across the room to my door and wrenched it open, rushing out into the hall beyond. I had made it halfway down the hall before I finally felt it, before I final felt the tendrils of magic begin curling their way around my heart to suffocate me. Unendurable pain and agony shot through my entire being as I fell forward onto the cold marble floor, unwillingly writhing around and screaming in pain unable to stop or control myself. This is it, I'm really dying, I thought between sobs filled with hurt and felt my heart breaking from being away from Pip; the only person I had ever truly loved in my entire life. I'm really going to die right here right now. I'm going to die right here in the hall of my own castle, all alone. I wish I could have just seen Pip one last time, I wish I had gotten to tell her goodbye and kiss her sweet lips for the last time...

(End POV)

"Hoggle, Sir Didymus, Ludo, you did it! You found her!" Sarah squealed as her three friends and their unconscious parcel descended into her room through the mirror above her dresser. Ludo deposited Pip carefully on the bed before the three natives to the Labyrinth climbing back through the mirror, saying their goodbyes to Sarah as they went. "Oh Pip, the poor dreadful thing, just look at her she's a mess of bumps and bruises! Well, I'll let her sleep for now and in the morning I'll wake her up and see what she has to say to defend herself and what she's done, all the trouble she's caused me."

Sarah walked over to where her dear friend Pip lay still unconscious and untied her hands and mouth. Sarah pulled a blanket up over her friend's chilled and shaking body and turned the lights off as she left the room for the night. The next morning when Sarah returned to her room she found a very distressed Pip sitting up and crying in her bed looking miserable. Pip's eyes were puffy and red, her cheeks tearstained, her bottom lip trembling as she continued to cry.

"Oh Pip, you poor thing what is the matter?" Sarah called, rushing over to Pip and wrapping her arms around her shoulders. "Calm down Pip my dear friend, I swear you're safe here. Hoggle and the others saved you from the Goblin King. Don't worry Pip. He'll never come after you again."

"What do you mean Sarah? I want Jareth to come back for me, I want him to come take me away back to the Labyrinth again, I was happy there!" Pip screamed sadly trying to pull away from Sarah but Sarah wouldn't let go. Sarah shook Pip by the shoulders hoping to return some sense to her obviously very confused friend. "I love him Sarah, I'm in love with Jareth – I'm in love with the Goblin King!"

"What do you mean you love him?" Sarah asked softly. Sarah pulled back from Pip as though she had struck her across the face though Pip raised no hand against her. "That's not possible Pip, you can't love him. Didn't you listen to anything I told you about him? The Goblin King from beyond the Labyrinth is wicked and cruel and unable to love you or anyone else Pip, no matter what he told you."

"I did listen to you Sarah, and now it's your turn to listen to me. You were wrong about him Sarah. You were just about as wrong about Jareth as it was possible for you to be." Pip replied sharply in her attempt to defend him. "He was so kind to me Sarah, he loves me – and I know he's not lying to me. He's so wonderful Sarah, if only you could understand."

"And what do you have to show for it Pip? What trinket did he give you to convince you of his love?" Sarah asked angrily. "What proof do you have that his love is actually existent Pip?"

"Jareth – you know Sarah, your so called cruel Goblin King – gave me his ring Sarah, this ring." Pip said showing Sarah the black stoned ring that still glinted on her finger. Reaching inside her pocket she pulled out a white linen handkerchief which she opened, spilling the contents onto the top covers of Sarah's bed. "It was the crystal Jareth offered me when he first invited me to his castle. When I called for him when I woke up here I felt it inside my pants pocket, but when I pulled it out of my pocket it exploded."

"What does it mean Pip?" Sarah asked quietly, her finger sifting absentmindedly through the silvery dust covering her bed. "Why did it explode like that?"

"I know what it means Sarah but I don't want to believe it." Pip sobbed, large fat tears pouring down her face onto the pile of crystal dust in her lap. "It means Jareth is… it means Jareth is dead. It means Hoggle and the others killed him when they smashed him into his clock. He's gone. The one person I loved is gone for good."

"No, they couldn't have killed the Goblin King. They aren't cruel enough to kill someone like HE is." Sarah gasped sympathetically for her three guilty friends. "The Goblin King can't be dead Pip, it's not possible!"

"He is Sarah, I'm sure of it. That's the only reason I can think of for the crystal to explode and he didn't come when I called for him. Jareth always comes when I need him." Pip said struggling for breath through her tears. "And guess what Sarah?"

"What Pip? Tell me whatever want, tell me anything Pip." Sarah said, taking Pip's hand to pat it and comfort her. Pip pulled her hand away and picked herself up off the bed to walk over to the door of Sarah's room and swinging it open step out into the hall. Pip turned once she had left the room and paused just long enough to make her point known to Sarah.

"I blame you for what happened to Jareth, if you wouldn't have interfered he would still be here today Sarah." Pip said sternly and unhappily as she struggled to force back her tears. "You killed Jareth Sarah and I'll never forgive you for it. From this moment onward and for the rest of time I hate you because that's just how long I'm going to have to live without the love of my life because of you. Goodbye Sarah, and this time for good."

(Pip POV)

There's not much I remember about the day Jareth was killed, nothing except the few haunting memories I have left and the black stoned ring Jareth had given me before… I remember the crystal bursting apart in my hands, I can recall running out of Sarah's house and out into the street, I can still see the look of Sarah's face as I ran away from her out into the countryside where we used to hang out when we were younger.

It had started to rain, doubling my sadness as I continued to run away from my sorrow instead of facing it. Tripping over a protruding tree root I fell face first onto the damp ground, tears still spilling from my eyes.

"Jareth, oh my poor love I miss you so much already! Come back to me please, I love you so much!" I wept into the sleeves of my shirt as I lied on the ground, the rain still falling around me pricking me in the back of the neck like little sharp needles. "I love you, oh please come back! Don't tell me this is it, tell me I'm wrong. Come tell me you love me once more! Don't leave me alone like this without saying goodbye!"

I smashed my fist down into the soft ground and felt something twist around my ring finger on my left hand and looking down say it was Jareth's black stoned ring he had given to me when he confessed his love. I started, realizing I hadn't even thought to try using the ring he had given me. Jareth had said it was magic after all. Looking down, my eyes shining with hope I saw him – my darling Jareth's face shining with hope and a look of complete weariness and exhaustion from inside the black stone set into the ring. I gasped, utterly confused. Inside the ring I saw several small goblin servants lifting Jareth up off the floor of the hall that led to his room where they deposited him in his bed before leaving the room. He looked like he had come down with a fever, pale and sweating as his eyes slid shut, his head slumping forwards onto his chest.

"He's not dead yet! Thank God!" I cried aloud, my tears of joy mixing with my previous tears of sorrow and the rain still falling on my face. "But he looks terrible, like he's in pain. I have to go to him he needs MY help this time. But how can I get to him?"

The ring of my finger shone with an inner light as I looked down into it. And then I knew what I had to do. Placing my hand over my heart I closed my eyes and spoke to the cloudy sky as I knew I had to - to save Jareth's life.

"Take me to Jareth, the Goblin King. Take me to the castle beyond the Goblin city and to my one true love's side!" I commanded of the ring over my heart. The ground beneath my feet shuddered violently and I swayed where I stood feeling as though I was about to fall and that the ground before my feet was going to open up before my feet and swallow me up. I stood my ground the best I could, my eyes still pressed shut through the pain the magic I cast using the ring. Apparently to use the magic in the ring you had to suffer for it or maybe that was just because the clock had been smashed and ruined forever causing the magic inside of it to be freed making it harder for me to draw magic from the ring to cast spells like Jareth could.

"Pip, is that you?" A timid and hopeless sounding voice asked from behind me.

I opened my name at the sound of my name to find myself back in the Goblin King's bedchambers where the fight had taken place. Signs of our fierce struggle were still obvious all around the room; the clock for example was lying on the round surrounded by more of the crystal dust like what had erupted out of mine when it exploded. Lying in the familiar bed was Jareth, his eyes partially closed as he looked up at me and I ran to him, flinging my arms around his neck as I cried out in happiness.

(End POV)

"Oh my God, Jareth you're alive!" Pip cried as she pulled away from the dying Goblin king to look into his face, worried. "I was so worried about you Jareth, but you're alive after all!"

"Not for long I fear my darling. The grandfather clock that harnessed my magic was destroyed. It's left me extremely vulnerable and in a pitifully weakened state. I don't know how long I can hold on now that the clock holding my magic is gone Pip." Jareth said softly, his voice tight in his throat like when he had told her he loved her, but this time for a different reason. Jareth raised one of his trembling hands to stroke Pip's tearstained cheek sadly. "Oh Pip, I love you so much my dear! I want to know that you know that before I let go."

"I love you too Jareth, too much to let you go like this after I just got you back from the dead." Pip sobbed forlornly pulling the covers up over his frail body to keep him warm as she spoke. "I'm here now to take care of you, I'll help you put through this Jareth, I'm not ready to let you go just yet."

"Pip I –"

"No, don't speak you'll only drain yourself further." Pip smiled placing a finger over his lips as he went to speak again. Leaning forward she kissed him lightly and tenderly on the lips as she swept the hair from his forehead while she stroked his hair. "I'll be right back Jareth, stay in bed while I go attend to business. I have a plan my dear, something that just might save your life. One moment my love, just one I swear."

Pip walked out of Jareth's room and shut the door, leaning back against it as she debated her options. Only one plan seemed to be functional no matter how many angles she looked at all her ideas from – only one of her many plans could work, and there was still the possibility it could fail. She knew what she had to do but it was doing it that was going to kill her inside. She knew Jareth wouldn't approve but right then she didn't care. Placing her hand over her heart for a second time she closed her eyes.

"I wish some of my life energy and power would go into Jareth so he can continue to live and to get better and perfectly healthy again. I wish that he didn't need to depend upon the grandfather clock to live anymore." Pip said in a shuddering voice. Pain shot up her spine and she knew the damage had been corrected even before she reentered the room where she had left Jareth alone. "Do you feel any better now? Did it work Jareth?"

"It worked Pip, I know what you did out there in the hall and I thank you for it." Jareth smiled pulling a thoroughly exhausted Pip into his arms right before her legs gave out beneath her body. She was exceptionally drained from the spell casting but otherwise just happy both of them were alive. "Well then Pip, I have some good news and some bad news Pip. Which would you rather hear first?"

"The good news first, please! I can't stand anymore heartbreak or pain at the moment." Pip smiled weakly up at him as he picked her up in his arms and carried her back to his bed, laying her back upon it gently. She leaned back against the pillows behind her and sighed happily.

"I'm not dead or dying anymore, I'm healthy as are you or slightly healthier due to your post-spell casting exhaustion, and Sarah and the others will never be able to butt into our business again - you made sure of that when you forced your way through the barrier to the worlds and came here Pip. You broke through and shattered the gateway for anyone else who tries to go between the worlds again – they won't be able to. We're alone at last I suppose you could say, and even Sarah can never talk to the other fools and force them to do her dirty work." Jareth said happily kissing Pip on the forehead sweetly.

"So what's the bad news then?" Pip asked slowly, tentatively.

"I'm afraid you used up all the magic left in the ring I gave you Pip, it's destroyed itself." Jareth said softly not looking at her. Pip looked down at her hand and sure enough, saw the stone on her ring cracked in the middle, the stone itself a crisp white color instead of the ebony black from before. "You'll never be able to return home to your family now. I'm so sorry Pip."

"No, I never want to go back there Jareth, I want to stay with you." Pip smiled pressing her face into Jareth's chest as her arms wove around his back pulling him closer to her. "Jareth, can you still do magic with the clock gone and destroyed?"

"No Pip, my magic is gone forever." Jareth said dejectedly, looking up at her with his large eyes filled with pain. "I'm just a humble Goblin King now Pip. A monarch with no special powers but his powers to control the people"

"That's perfect!" Pip smiled happily. Jareth blanched at her outburst, confused. "Now you can't pop up in a cloud of smoke and scare me anymore! Believe me I won't miss that trick one bit. And now you're normal just like me, if you can call me normal that is."

"Pip, only one more thing remains to be settled then, just one last matter to take care of then, if only I can work up the courage to ask it." Jareth said taking Pip's hand in his own as he knelt before her on the bed. "Pip, will you stay here in this castle beyond my Goblin City and the Labyrinth with me and be my queen?"

"Oh I thought you'd never ask!" Pip smiled throwing her arms around Jareth's neck knocking him backwards onto the bed as she kissed him. And they stayed like that, in love and wrapped in each other's arms forever.

()()()()()Page Break!

Aw, it's all over! This was the final chapter my good friends, I'm rather put out to tell you. I loved writing it. Even though I wanted it to end like this I'm sad it has to be over. Um, so please review one last time to help ease my pain if you don't mind! Good bye my dear readers for the last time - under this story title anyways. Lol