As always, thank you for the love and support! Sorry these don't get out quicker. This isn't the most exciting chapter, but things will get rolling soon.

When Sarah awoke, she cried. She cried and she cried. The mix of emotions she felt overwhelmed her.

When her tears seemed to run out, she noticed that there was one emotion she no longer felt: fear.

The Labyrinth, however dangerous, did not frighten her. Its mystery was not something that struck fear into her heart, but rather comfort and belonging. She knew Jareth was dangerous. She knew of what he was capable, however, a good sob helped her move past the terror he was able to inflict on those he deemed inferior. She had drained her worry and sorrow and now only felt determination and an awareness of her strength.

Her will was as strong as his, and her kingdom as great.

She called on her friends.

She told them what she had experienced, managing to remain calm and composed. When she had finished speaking, Ludo looked afraid, Didymus wore knightly anger on his snout, and Hoggle's eyes revealed the most genuine concern and worry that could plague a being—though his mouth might not reveal the same. They were at a loss for words. A somber silence fell over the group.

Ludo broke the silence, "Sarah strong."

"Yes, m'lady," joined Didymus, "You are strong. You defeated him once before and will defeat him again. We will help however we can."

Hoggle was lost in thought. If Jareth captured Sarah, he would keep her locked up like his treasure. Hoggle thought about the unhappiness it would bring Sarah to be joined unwillingly to the Goblin King, causing the dwarf the most unbearable heartache. He had to protect his friend. But, how could he? He had stood up to the King when Sarah ran the Labyrinth and proven that he wasn't a coward, but what could one dwarf do? He could not lose his best friend.

"Hoggle..." said Sarah. Hoggle could not bring himself to make eye contact. He felt tears welling behind his eyes. "You know it's going to be okay, right? We can do this."

He looked up at her. "Sarah, this is so different. These are dreams, we can't follow you into your dreams. Should you need us, we can't be there for you. The power of dreams is an old magic, and Jareth already has plenty of that. I've gots no plan for this." His shoulders slumped.

"Me either, Hoggle—and that's okay. We'll find our way somehow. I'll figure something out. We'll figure something out. I realize, there's more to your world than I know. More to the Labyrinth. I may not have a plan, but I can start one by learning more about your world. What can you tell me about Jareth? He's obviously not a goblin, yet he's the Goblin King."

"No, my lady, he's Fae," explained Didymus. "The Fae people have two separate communities: their origin land—the Crystal City—and the Underground."

"The Fae here in the Underground are a small community. Mostly the gentry, Jareth's court. Theys live in the castle and a small district of the city behind the castle, though there's a few scattered here'n there'n the Labyrinth," added Hoggle.

"Is that normal, beings living in other lands?"

"It's certainly not unheard of; not common, but not uncommon," answered Didymus.

"The Aboveground has legends about the Fae," said Sarah. Dungeons and Dragons modules were coming to mind. "Beautiful humanoids, immortal, magical..." she mused.

"Magical, yes," said Didymus, "a truth and an untruth. The Fae can use magic. Most, but not all, can channel it from nature. But, only the rare truly possess it," explained Didymus. "Those who possess magic are practically indestructible."

"Except iron," joined Ludo."

"Iron?" asked Sarah. "Why iron?"

"It poisons and burns them," said Hoggle. "Fae can barely be around it let alone touch it."

"We'll start with that," said Sarah. "I'll fortify my room immediately. Thank you, guys. I know you have my back. Don't worry about me too much..."

It was Monday, May 12. The last week of school. Sarah was glad for that; she didn't think she could handle school and the Goblin King. She had three finals this week. Last week she had completed Trig, Literature, and Biology. Lunch and her physical education class, Fitness for Dancers, didn't have finals of course. All that was left were Classic Theater, American History I, and Psychology.

Today was Classic Theater; she wasn't worried. She just hoped she could stay focused.

After school—and after feeling confident in the final exam she had just taken—Sarah visited the local hardware store. She didn't know what she was looking for, per say, but she figured it'd be a good place to start when looking for metal goods. Monday was her only free day; no dance, no theater. Ballet met Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, jazz met Wednesday and Saturday, Modern met Friday and Saturday, and Tap met Saturday and Sunday. Luckily, her theater classes, never sticking to the same days of the week, were late night. The semester had ended already, and the Summer productions and classes had yet to begin.

She addressed the store clerk behind a counter, "Um, do you have any doorknobs made out of iron?"

"Iron?" asked the man quizzically. He had big, bushy beard that was a shade more ginger than his tan hair. He adjusted his large, square glasses and leaned onto his elbows resting on the counter. "Doorknobs are made out of brass, usually. Or some combination of metal. I don't think we have any made out of iron. A few wrought iron door hinges though. They're bulky, meant for large doors like the ones on barns or warehouses. If you need something sturdy, you can always use steel. I have some stainless steel knobs and hinges."

Sarah knew that iron was found in steel; she wasn't sure it'd be strong enough, but anything was better than nothing. Maybe it'd slow him down.

"I'll take two, thanks. And three hinges."

While he went to collect her order, Sarah wandered a little more, looking for anything that had "iron" or "steel" in the description. She grabbed two packages of one hundred iron nails each and two steel window latches.

On leaving the store, Sarah said nothing to the clerk as she checked out and briskly made for the door, wrapped in her thoughts like an oppressive cloak. Realizing that was perhaps rude, she glanced back towards the man and saw him through the shop's front window with an amused smile on his lips and brow furrowed quizzically.

Sarah smiled to herself. She supposed a teenage girl with such specific questions at a hardware store wasn't too common.

Sarah spent the next two hours—yes, two hours, Sarah was no handyman—switching out her door knobs and hinges as well as window latches. Luckily her father was out and wasn't around to ask questions. Karen knew better than to inquire as to what Sarah was up to anymore—not that their relationship was as sour as it was before the Labyrinth. Sarah had made a change in her attitude toward her stepmother. She truly tried to get along with her now, and the awkward distance between them had been bridged. They weren't as close as a normal mother-daughter relationship, but they had at least developed a friendship. Now, they respected each other.

Sarah was happy to have plenty of nails left over. She pounded them into the wood of the outside of her window frame and sill, trying to make the gray polka dots as inconspicuous as possible. How would her father ever find out they were there?

She went outside and climbed the tree outside her window. She nailed several nails into the branch nearest her window. The bow was bending dangerously as Sarah added nails to the farthest point on the branch that would support her weight. She supposed the makeshift "wind-chime" she has made would have to do, giving it a little toss and letting it hang from the end of the branch. She left the nails she hammered into the old tree's branch sticking out a few inches so Jareth couldn't land, giving the tree a rather ugly appearance, like a demented porcupine or spiny dinosaur.

She wished she could outfit her room better, but she would have to make due with leaving iron nails lying on her bed frame between the mattress and frame. Maybe she would grab some steel silverware and leave them inconspicuously on her nightstand and dresser. She wondered if there was a specialty store where she could buy iron shavings or powder…

She wasn't sure how much iron she would need to make a difference. How much was enough that the presence of the metal would bother him? Would the nails in her window sill and frame be enough to keep Jareth out? Would they act as a barrier, or could he still slip through?

Sarah decided she hadn't purchased enough iron, and would buy a whole pile of nails to keep under her bed. She'd look up a specialty shop at some point.

It was just after 5pm. Sarah decided she would go to the library and see if she could do a little more research on Fae. She found Karen reading in the parlor downstairs. "I'm going to the library this evening, so don't worry about having me for dinner. It closes at 8, so I'll be back after that," she told her stepmother.

Karen removed her reading glasses. "Alright, just be careful," began Karen, "I know finals are tough, but after this week, you should spend some quality time with family. You're young and deserve to be out and about, I get it, but we do care about you and miss you when you're not around so much."

Sarah gave a little smile. Normally she would've felt a twinge of annoyance, but Sarah had been flitting about recently. The familial imposing was comforting while the Goblin King was domineering (and, she was right, Sarah considered).

Sarah went to the fridge, filled her water bottle, and scavenger some leftovers; Sunday's asparagus and Saturday's Italian sausage.

The library wasn't a far walk, but Sarah still tried to finish all of her food on-the-go so she could focus all of her attention on research.

The local library was actually quite large. They did receive a lot of overflow from the city. The library was an old Victorian building with neo-classical touches in the ornate trim around the roof and windows. The three-story building looked like a small castle with sizable white pillars in the front supporting a small balcony. The balcony of the second floor had recently been renovated and restored, rendering it sturdy enough to house coffee tables and chairs for library attendees who wanted to enjoy a book and a coffee from the newly installed Bibliothek Cafe.

Sarah could navigate the fantasy section of the library by heart; she knew it well. But, she wasn't looking for stories this time; she was searching for credible books of information and research. She didn't know what she had been expecting, but she was still disappointed at the lack of literature. Still, she had found some books that sounded reliable: A History of Fantasy and Lore; the World of Fae and What We Know; Fairy Sightings and Other Collected True Stories; World History of Mermaids, Fairies, Unicorns, and other Mythical Creatures.

That was four books so far. She took them to the front desk to be held until checkout. Sarah searched through many more sections of the library concerning history and culture. By the end of her search, she had nine books. Some of them were a history of cultures' mythologies, some were a conglomeration of society's perception of the fantastic. Some were collections of peoples experiences and eye-witness accounts (or tall tales, she would have to see). And, thankfully, a few seemed to be bonafide, textbook-like volumes of information.

She checked her watch; 7:10. Time enough to do another search. She approached the front desk.

"I'd like to search the Web. Is the computer free?"

The librarian, who indeed looked like a librarian with large glasses, frizzy blond hair gathered into a bun, and paisley patterned shirt buttoned to her neck with a gaudy, cat-shaped pin fastened to the left breast pocket, smiled and said it was free. She took her over to the contraption and helped her get set up.

Since CERN has come out of Switzerland some years ago, using a computer for research had gained normalcy thanks to the World Wide Web. With the NSFNET project that emerged around the same time, universities even had their own interconnectivity.

Sarah looked up "fairy research."

She clicked on a link that led to a database compiled of photographs. The photographs were of tiny plant-parts shaped like articles of clothing. Sarah knew the fairies of the Labyrinth were more like bugs: pests without a conscious, yet they were advanced enough to make their own clothing. This didn't really help her, as she had a tiny scar on a finger that was plenty of proof that fairies existed.

She went back to her search.

"Website to the Northeastern USA Database of Lore and Fantasy."

Sarah clicked.

It was an advertisement for a shop in NYC: Genie Starlett's Shop of Lore and Fantasy. The homepage had a long vocabulary list, each of which was a hyperlink. Sarah clicked on "Fae."

A page of more hyperlinks: stories and accounts. Information. History and Cultures.

Sarah clicked on History and Cultures.

"Fae, taken from the word "fairy," is the title of a race of superhuman beings. Earliest accounts of such beings date from medieval times from the British Kingdoms."

Sarah skimmed the page. It seemed like there were regional differences between what the kingdoms, namely Ireland and Scotland, thought of the Fae people.

"Said to possess superhuman beauty and certain magical powers, the Fae people also possess the power of persuasion and have been recorded as controlling and/or manipulating the minds of humans."

"I understand that," thought Sarah, skimming ahead.

"Recorded powers: rapid plant growth. Water summoning. Teleportation (self). Teleportation (objects). Mind reading (rare). Light creation. Shape-shifting. Illusions."

Sarah thought there were more than that. Each recorded power was attached to a footnote number that lead was a direct link to a recorded story rather than a footnote.

Sarah could only read so much before the library closed, but she wrote down the name of the shop and the website. The library was kind enough to let Sarah borrow a canvas bag in which to carry her books home.

When Sarah arrived home, she went straight to her room and read until 2am. She wasn't even to the end of what looked like the most helpful book of the bunch, Textbook on Fae, Fairies, and other Beings of Fantasy. Sarah couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. Her last two finals were on Wednesday and Thursday, so she didn't mind that tomorrow (now considered as today, since she was in the AM hours of the early morning). She closed her book and slipped it under her pillow. She pushed the thought of a visit from Jareth to the back of her mind and tried to put trust in her fortifications. She did not have time to worry before sleep took her.