My, you guys are spoiled, two story updates in one night! I'm trying to stay fairly regular with updating this story and "Remembering," so if I go too long without a new chap on either one just give me a bit of a kick via a review and remind me to post!
And please check out my plush Jareth barn owl (a link is in my profile): Jareth is very excited to hear what you guys think of him in his owl form. (But be sure not to stroke his ego too much, I have to put up with him while I'm writing this!)

Chapter 8

Jareth strode down the underground tunnels towards the area he knew Sarah and Hoggle were currently traveling. Under normal circumstances, he would have had very little patience with a turncoat, for any who did not wish to stay under his rule could simply leave the Labyrinth for another kingdom. However, under the current circumstances, he was absolutely infuriated by the traitorous act he had just witnessed in one of his subjects, much less one of his subjects given explicit instructions to take the girl back to the beginning of the Labyrinth. He was so blinded with fury, he barely recognized where he was or where he was headed; he seemed to be working on instinct.

He was going to kill Hoggle. Dunk him in the Bog, then string him up in a cage in the Goblin City for all to see as the dwarf slowly died from starvation while smelling his own putrescent stench. While there were still faster and more gruesome torture devices in the dungeon of his castle (sad remnants left from the old days when his ancestors had fought among each other for land and titles), Jareth wanted the little toad to die slowly, so that if he ended up as an owl, he could at least spend days watching the dwarf suffer until he perished.

All for a piece of plastic rubbish.

Jareth heard the booming voices of the rock guards ahead, and slowed only long enough to fling a crystal down the passageway towards the oncoming pair.

"Uh oh," he heard one of them exclaim.

Eyes flashing, Jareth strode around the corner of the tunnel. Hoggle's terrified expression told him in an instant that the dwarf knew he had crossed the line. Amazingly, though, the dwarf was actually still trying to salvage the situation.

"Your Majesty!" Hoggle exclaimed, as he performed a half-bow, "what a nice surprise!"

"Hello, Hedgewart," Jareth replied, eyes narrowed on the diminutive being before him.

"Hogwart," Sarah interrupted Jareth, as if he might not know the real name of one of his subjects.

"Hoggle!" Hoggle glared at Sarah, correcting her with a boldness he would not direct at the Goblin King.

"Hoggle, could it be that you are helping this girl?" He asked coldly.

"H-h-helping?" stuttered Hoggle, nervously. "In what sense?"

"In the sense that you are leading her towards the castle," Jareth spat, eyes blazing.

"No, no! I was taking her back to the beginning, Your Majesty" Hoggle offered.

"What?" Sarah asked, incredulous. She stared at the dwarf as if she couldn't believe her ears.

"I told her I was gonna help her solve the Labyrinth, a little trickery on my part, heh, but actually-"

"What is that plastic thing 'round your wrist?" Jareth interrupted, glancing at the piece of frippery on the dwarf's wrist. He wrinkled his nose as if he smelled something distasteful.

Hoggle looked down and saw the bracelet sitting there, sparkling in the low light. "Oh." Instinctively, he jerked his hand behind his back, then, as if he realized how guilty that made him look, he added "Oh, this!" He nervously fidgeted with the bracelet. "Oh, my goodness, where did this come from?"

"Higgle-"

"Hoggle," the dwarf corrected him.

"Yes.." Jareth said distractedly, as if it was all of no importance anyway. "If I thought for one second that you were betraying me, I'd be forced to suspend you headfirst into the Bog of Eternal Stench."

"No, Your Majesty!" Hoggle quavered, sinking to his knees and clutching at Jareth's leg. "Not the Eternal Stench!" Everyone in the Kingdom knew that the Bog was reserved for the most severe of punishments that could ever possibly be dealt out by the King - a punishment always followed by death.

"Oh, yes, Hoggle!" Jareth replied as he furiously kicked the dwarf off of his leg. "And you, Sarah," he added quietly, his voice deadly calm as he advanced on her like a predatory cat. "How are you enjoying my Labyrinth?" He put his hand on the wall, unnervingly close to her head, and was satisfied when she uncomfortably took a step back away from him. She seemed to consider his words for a moment before she spoke.

"It's a piece of cake," she replied boldly, as she looked back up and met his eyes. Behind Jareth, she heard the dwarf groan in dismay. Apparently the girl did not realize how pissed off the king was.

"Really?" Jareth asked in that same, dead-calm voice. "Then how about upping the stakes, hmm?" He magicked an ornate clock onto the wall in front of her, and she watched in astonishment as he forwarded time several hours. It infuriated him to know that he could not actually forward her allotted time- it was against the Rules set down centuries earlier that he must obey - but perhaps if she thought she was out of time she would give up sooner.

"It's not fair!" Sarah exclaimed as she looked between Jareth and the clock.

"You say that so often," he said as he turned to face her again. "I wonder what your basis for comparison is," he finished, enraged. It galled him to think that this girl was running out of time to save her brother, while he was running out of time to save his wife. They weren't so different, afterall. Yes, except she was apparently allowed to cheat, while I cannot, he thought bitterly.

Angry, he suddenly thought of a new plan, something better than Bogging Hoggle and hanging him in a cage until he starved to death. He would simply remove Sarah's knight in rotting leather from the equation now.

"So the Labyrinth is a piece of cake, is it?" he asked coldly, measuring her up. "Well, let's see how you deal with this little slice." He magicked up a crystal in his hands where it glittered ominously, then he turned behind him and threw it with all his might down the tunnel.

Sarah's mouth fell open as she heard a noise that could only be described like the stirring of a thousand hissing, metallic spiders, and it was growing louder. She could just start to see the glitter of something silver flashing when, beside her, Hoggle gasped.

"Oh no! The Cleaners!"

Author's Note: Yes, this wasn't a terribly exciting chapter, as they actually stayed with the nearly-truth for most of this part of the movie. However, Jareth is demanding to know where "nothing, nothing, tra la la?" came from. It took me nearly an hour to calm him after he heard that the producers made him say that in the movie.

Please review.