A/N: Thanks for your patience, everyone! I had a temporary job to do over the 4th of July, in addition to my regular one, and then I had this little thing to do called getting married...so it's been a busy month! I should be updating much more regularly now. -PC


Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the Labyrinth movie.

She walked down the corridor of the Labyrinth slowly, taking in the unfamiliar view. This Labyrinth was paved in cobblestones, and her thick-soled boots made a muffled clicking sound as she walked.

The walls were covered in vines, and they filled the air with a fresh green scent. Sarah hated to admit it, but her first impression of Hamel's Labyrinth was a lot better than her first impression of Jareth's.

Sarah stopped for a minute, and squared her shoulders. She'd given the Challenge a lot of thought over the past three days, and was no closer to finding a simple solution to it than she'd been at the beginning.

I'm just going to have to try my hardest, she thought, craning her neck over the walls to try and find something, anything, on the outskirts of the Labyrinth walls, to use as a landmark. Of course, for all I know, Hamel could have put an enchantment in place to make the sky I see look completely different from what it is. There goes that idea.

She stopped as her feet bumped wall, and her nose was tickled by vines. She'd hit a dead end – quite literally.

The path turned to the left. She followed it, and stopped short. Sweat beaded on her forehead.

The path led a short distance into an open dead end. There was room to move about, but the problem – what made her stop and think instead of turning around – was that the walls of the dead end were made of fire. The air shimmered with heat, and the fire, self-feeding, crackled and snapped merrily.

OK, I've got to think. There are two possibilities here. The obvious one is that this is real, to prevent me from going this way…but why waste the magic? Why put fire here that looks and feels real, instead of just a wall? Doesn't seem likely. Second possibility: It's not real. Well, there's an easy way to find that out.

Sarah carefully drew the sword from its sheath on her back. Tentatively, she extended it, into the nearest of the walls, and pulled it back. Touching the tip of her finger to the sword, she very quickly confirmed that the wall was real fire.

"Ow!"

She sucked on her burned finger and glared at the wall. "Well, that can't be the way to pass," she grumbled. "It's against the rules to kill me."

Until I'm sure this isn't the way to go, I don't want to waste time backtracking. Is there something I haven't thought of?

Yes. Yes, there is.

She extended the sword once more, into another of the walls, and settled for a visual examination of the tip. It smoked and radiated heat; this wall was real as well.

Once more, into the third wall. This time, the point of the sword didn't smoke, wasn't hot…and when she touched it, didn't burn.

"It's illusion!" she cried gleefully. "I figured it out!"

Third possibility: A mix of the two. Real walls, and fake walls. So I can go this way, but I have to figure out which walls are safe to walk through.

Carefully, Sarah extended one finger. She felt heat coming from the wall, and yet her finger touched it, and did not burn.

She took a deep breath. Here goes nothing.

"YAAAH!" Sarah leapt through the wall, half-expecting to be scorched within an inch of her life…

..and passed through, safely, feeling nothing but a light tickling.

She landed on her feet in another room, with all four walls made of fire. Great. Here we go again…


It felt like hours before she was finally out of the fire maze. The process had been agonizing – every wall had to be tested with her sword, and her mental concentration had to stay sharp, remembering the direction she had come from. Sarah was exhausted.

After breaking through the last of the fire walls, she found herself in a dark, dank forest, that reminded her of the land around the Bog of Eternal stench. Her feet sank partway into the thick, squishy moss, and the mist that hung low over the land obscured her vision, making it incredibly difficult to see more than two feet in front of her.

Sarah decided, for the moment, not to try. With some difficulty, she crawled up a huge tree root and perched herself atop it, attempting to stay dry. She untied the small black pouch from her belt, and reached into it, hoping that some food and water would help revive her.

She allowed herself – by her best guess – fifteen minutes to rest, and then stood back up, teetering on the tree root. Hmm. She did feel better.

Brushing the dirt off her jeans, Sarah set off again. She plodded through the marshy forest, pushing aside dripping vines and branches. The mist continued, and, simply put, she had nothing to orient herself on. All she could do was to hope that she was heading in a roughly straight line. There's got to be a way to figure this out.


Back at the castle…

The guests had begun milling around again, alternately eating and drinking, and watching the giant crystal in the center of the courtyard.

Hamel lolled in his chair, watching the crystal. The Champion had just worked her way through his fire maze – Hamel was mildly disappointed, but not surprised. If she'd turned back and gone the other way, she would have fallen into a trap sufficient to keep her occupied for the rest of the Challenge, but she'd mastered his cousin's Labyrinth: she was too clever to fall for such a simple trick. He wasn't worried; he had other puzzles up his sleeve.

Now she was slowly winding her way through one of his forests. This one would be interested; the fire maze had spit her out somewhat farther along the path than he'd intended, but that was all right. The place where she'd ended up would only speed along her ultimate failure.

As Sarah came to an opening in the trees, the mist around her began to clear. Hamel, and his guests, paid closer attention to the crystal. They watched as she stepped into the clearing, and saw the small river – barely a creek - running through it.

Hamel knew she would have been warned. He had been careful.

Jareth sat up straighter in his chair. He saw the river. He knew it for what it was – and knew its danger to his Champion.

"She won't drink from it," he hissed at Hamel. "I warned her. She won't let anything in your Labyrinth pass her lips."

Hamel smiled, baring his fangs momentarily. "Did you think I did not know that? I don't need her to drink from it, cousin. The moment a drop touches her skin, she will begin to lose her memory – until, right about when she's lost herself in the tunnels, she will forget you. Then all we need do is wait."

Jareth stared at the crystal. "She'll go around," he mumbled, half to convince himself. "She won't be fooled by you."

"I'm afraid there is no "around". Unfortunately for your Champion, she must cross the river in order to progress."

Jareth swallowed hard. He'd gotten a decent look at the marshy forest through his father's crystal; there was no way for Sarah to cross the River Lethe without getting wet.

He swung in his chair to face the judges' table, as much as his chains would permit.

"This is against the rules!" he appealed, to three faces that were uniformly stone. "He's made it impossible. She cannot pass this area and continue."

Anaath looked at the crystal, and then from Hamel to Jareth. "Freeze time, Sindreth," she ordered. "The appeal has merit."

Sindreth pointed at the clock. The action around them slowed, and stopped. Sarah's image on the crystal halted.

The three judges conferred amongst themselves. Jareth stopped breathing. Hamel looked angry. They were the only beings moving, in a sea of stopped time.

"We find," Anaath announced finally, "that you, Hamel, have carried out a limited violation of the rules. Limited because, while seemingly impossible, there is marginal room for the Champion to escape your trap and continue. However, we judge that the allowed escape is too marginal to be deemed fair under our laws. Therefore, you must either change the nature of this obstacle, or provide another way for it to be overcome. So do we judge."

Hamel glowered at his cousins, his aunt, his uncle, and then subsided, sinking gracefully into his chair. "So be it," he murmured. "I will alter the landscape of the forest; all up to this point will remain as it is, yet I will add the River Mnemosyne, after the crossing of the Lethe. If the Champion reaches it, and either drinks from it or touches the water, her memory will be restored. Does this suffice?"

"No!" Jareth leapt from his chair and was abruptly slammed back down in it, pulled by his chains. He caught his breath, unable to speak, as the judges conferred.

"We find this acceptable," Anaath announced finally.

Jareth's head hung, as his father restarted time.


In the Labyrinth…

Sarah approached the river cautiously, mindful of Jareth's warnings not to eat or drink anything within the Labyrinth. This was the first variation of landscape that she'd seen since coming into the forest; therefore, she reasoned, she should keep going. Maybe crossing it will finally get me out of here!

She looked from one end of the clearing to the other, finding the narrowest point, and taking baby steps to the very edge. I should be able to leap across here, if I get a good start.

Backing up again, she took a deep breath, and ran towards the riverbank. Her left foot touched the mud at the very edge, and she leapt, catapulting herself into the air.

She almost made it. Her right foot landed on a patch of mud, and she slid, her arms pinwheeling for balance as she struggled to get both feet under her. In the process, she fell, twisting, and her arms crashed down onto the ground.

Her right arm was closest to the river. It was so close, really; the tip of her middle finger just barely brushed the water. It was enough.

Sarah got up, slowly. Where am I?