Now that I have gotten that chapter out of the way, I am well on the road to finishing this story. I'm a little sad that it will be coming to an end soon, but I will be glad that I have finished. So without, further ado, onto the next chapter! Also the song in this chapter is from the musical The Lion King and I do not own the song, but I thought it would be fun to stick in here. Some of the song is in Italics, sometimes it is not. Especially the conversation between James and Sarah at the end. It is in the song.

Back in the land of the Underground, the Labyrinth hadn't fared well under James' rule. Most of the landscape is gray and dead, dry and brittle, most of the trees and plants dead. The Goblin City itself looked mostly abandoned. Heading toward the castle, covered in dead or dying ivy vines that had made their way almost all the way up the castles height, a plaintive and weak voice could be heard coming from the almost empty throne room. James lounged in his throne, eyes closed as he made a broken bit of bone float in the air above him. "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Nobody knows my sorrow..." Hoggle despondently sang from a cage made of bones from some sort of large animal.

James directed his hand toward Hoggle's cage making the bone bounce off the "bar" of Hoggle's prison, making the dwarf flinch; as if it hadn't been the first time that something had been throw at Hoggle. "Oh Hedgewart, do lighten up." James said opening his eyes and directing his gaze to the frightened dwarf. "Sing something with…a little…bounce in it." James commanded, summoning the bone back to his hand.

Hoggle sighed and thought then began another song. "It's a small world after all…" he sang off key.

James cringed and threw the bone again at Hoggle, this time making contact with Hoggle's arm. Hoggle yelped rubbing his bruised arm. "No! Anything but that!" James threatened Hoggle, covering his ears.

Hoggle thinks a moment, still rubbing his injured arm, then held up a pudgy finger. "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts…(diddely-dee-dee)…There they are a-standing in a row…"

James joined in; this was an apparent favorite. "Big one, small ones, some as big as your head…" he walked over to a map of the Labyrinth spread out on a table in front of the throne , humming along with the tune before breaking in with the words.

Hoggle stopped and shook his head while James sung on. "Oh…I'd never do this for Jared."

James rebounded on Hoggle very quickly and he was angry at hearing that name. "What? What did you say?"

Hoggle waved his hands quickly, "Nothing! Nothing at all!"

James jabbed a finger at Hoggle, making the dwarf shrink back, almost falling over as James punctuated each word. "You know the law: Never, never mention that name in my presence. I-AM-THE-KING!" at the last word, Hoggle did fall over.

Hoggle struggled to get up. "Yes, sire. You ARE the king. I... I... Well, I only mentioned it to illustrate the differences in your royal ruling approaches." Hoggle stuttered, but James wasn't listening anymore.

James rubbed a hand to his head tiredly. "Higgle, why am I not loved? I am that rare and awesome thing; I'm every inch a king. Yet, I feel a twinge of doubt, as I go walk about-" James was interrupted by his three most trusted hyena fae walking in.

Banzai called, "Hey, boss!"

James ignored Banzai and looked out the window at the gray world outside. "When my name is whispered through the pride… Is this talk of love or regicide?"

Shenzi didn't understand what James was talking about. "Reggie who?" she asked.

James turned toward his hyena subjects and sang, "Tell me I'm adored. Please tell me I'm adored."

Banzai was getting impatient. "Hey, boss!" he yelled finally getting James attention.

James glared at the offending fae. "Oh, what is it?" he asked, clearly annoyed.

Banzai said in agitation, "We got a bone to pick with you."

Shenzi put up her hand to stop Banzai from talking any further. "I'll handle this." She said to Banzai. Then turning to James; Shenzi explained as best she could without angering her meal ticket. "James, there's no food, no water-"

Banzai broke in, "Yeah. It's dinnertime, and there ain't no stinkin' entrées!" he barked at James.

James spun around to face the man, eyes livid. "Oh, you and your petty complaints. You don't know what real hunger is. Day after day it gnaws at the very core of my being. it's like an itch... deep, persistent, profound..." James clutched his hands to his chest. Then he swung at Banzai, but the hyena rogue hopped out of the way. "Ingrates! If it weren't for me you'd be beating off buzzards for your next bite!" James roared at them.

Shenzi and Banzai looked at each other then at James. "Yeah, you're our savior, thanks a bunch." They sang sarcastically to James. "But how about some lunch? It doesn't matter if it's fresh. I need a fix of flesh. My bones have moved to where they've never been. They are on the outside looking in." They said showing James their slightly protruding rib bones.

James bellowed at the three, stalking over to them. "Are you blaming me?"

Banzai quickly explained hiding behind Shenzi as they backed up in fright from James rage. "Oh no, it's the nobles, they won't go hunt!" Then the frightened rogues looked at each other and sang together, "You are so adored. Oh, you are so adored."

James relaxed, a pleasant smile graced his face as he ascended the steps to sit on his throne, leaning back, closing his eyes at his subjects' praise, if a little forced. "That's more like it." He purred.

"But what I'd give for one more hit. Of wildehorse kielbasa… Or maybe hornbill on the spit..."

"Oh eat Haggle." James said languidly.

Hoggle quivered in fear as Ed began to pace toward him. "Oh, you wouldn't want me…I'd be all tough, and gamy…and…ew…" he said trying to dissuade the hungry hyena.

James just waved his hand and said without opening his eyes. "Oh Hogwart, don't be ridiculous. All you need is a little garnish."

Banzai whispered a little to loudly to Shenzi while James was talking to Hoggle. "I thought things were bad under Jared." He bemoaned.

James sat bolt upright, good mood gone. 'What did you say?!"

Banzai opened his stupid mouth once again. "I said-" Shenzi elbowed Banzai hard in the side. "Yeah, Ed?"

"Jared?! Jared?! How dare you! I told you never to mention that name! Now get out!" James hollered pointing at the door.

Shenzi and Ed went out the door, but Banzai paused ever so slightly. "Mm…yeah, but we're still hungry." He complained.

"OUT!" Banzai didn't stick around after that.

James slumped into his throne. "Even in death, his shadow looms over me" he sang quietly but then jumped up and pointed wildly around the room, a slightly insane look coming into his eyes that had been appearing lately. "There he is! No! There he is! And there!"

Hoggle tried to say something of reason to bring James back. "Calm yourself, Sire, or you'll get another one of your splitting headaches!"

James laughed loudly, if a little hysterically. "I am perfectly fine! I'm better than Jared ever was. I'm revered. I am reviled. I'm idolized. I am despised. I'm keeping calm." He sang smoothing his hands down his sides in a calming gesture, but the next moment he spun around the room in a circle, holding his head. "I'm going wild!" he stopped in front of a slightly cracked mirror and studied the wrinkles and lines that had appeared on his face in the last thirteen years. "I tell myself I'm fine." He sang running his hand through his shaggy brown hair, then he did and about face, as if he were arguing with himself. Out loud. "Yes I am, no you're not! Yes I am, no you're not! I tell myself I'm fine. No you're not, yes I am, no you're not! Yes I am! No you're not! Yes, no, yes, no, who am I talking to...?" he swung back around; hands to his head again, tilting to lean on a pillar, face first in a dejected pose.

Hoggle rolled his eyes at James' theatrics. "Oh, pull yourself together, Sire!" he called.

James seemed to recall himself. "Oh, very well. Higgle? Hogwart, Haggle, Hoggle...?

Hoggle sighed again, James still couldn't or would not, say his name correctly. "Yes, Sire?" he answered tiredly.

James hugged himself, now having a pity party with himself. "Nobody loved me, there's the rub, not even as a cub. What did my brother have that I don't have?" he asked Hoggle.

"Do you want the short list or the long?" Hoggle answered dryly.

James waved his hand dismissively. "Whatever!" he growled.

"Well, he had adoring subjects... a loving family... a devoted queen..." Hoggle ticked the points off his fingers.

James brightened, breaking into Hoggle's listing of his brother's good-luck. "That's it! I need a queen!"

Hoggle blanked completely. "A what?" he asked.

James rattled Hoggle's cage. "A queen, man! A queen! Without a queen, what am I? A dead end, no line, no descendants, no future. With a queen, I'll have cubs... Immortality will be mine! Immortality will be mine!" he laughed insanely again.

He stopped suddenly when the door to the throne room opened and a beautiful woman of about twenty stepped into the room. She was about five eight, sparking green eyes, with long, dark brown hair pulled into a severe braid that ended at the back of her knees. She was dressed in a black sleeveless tunic, eternal mourning, with a deer hide hunting skirt dyed a pale pink with a slit up the left side showing black leggings to protect her legs, and black leather, mid-calf boots completed the delightful picture in front of James. "Scar" she began hesitantly, walking toward her majesty after curtsying first.

James beamed a debonair smile at her. "Ah, Sarah... Your timing couldn't have been more perfect. My how you've grown." He purred taking in her more feminine "assets".

Sarah tried not to shudder in revulsion as she felt James' eyes sweep over her. "James, you have got to do something. We're being forced to over hunt." She said to him.

However, James wasn't listening anymore. "She's got those assets feminine." He thought to himself.

'You're the king. Control the hyena rogues." Sarah said to James.

"I have to make her mine." James moved closer to the young woman.

"You're destroying the Labyrinth." Sarah informed James as he brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face.

"Nobility in every gene."

"If we don't stop now... Don't you see..." Sarah tried to back up but found that somehow she had been backed into a corner.

"She has to be my queen"

"...there's still a chance for things to be all right again..." Sarah said, voice trailing away as James loomed over her.

"Come, sweet Sarah, It's written in the stars." James sang to Sarah, running a hand down her bare arm.

"What are you doing? Are you listening to me?" Sarah yanked her arm out of James touch, as if burned.

"We'll create a host of little James'" James cooed at her, grabbing her flailing arm.

"What are you talking about?" Sarah did not like the look in James' eyes.

"Tell me I'm adored" James whispered in her ear, pulling her body up against his.

Sarah's eyes widened as she realized a little to late of James' intent.

"Get away from me!" She cried, struggling as Hoggle covered his eyes, not wanting to watch what happened next.

"Tell me I'm adored" James crooned. Sarah reached up and raked her nails against James' face. He swore violently and pulled away long enough that Sarah darted around him and toward the door to freedom. The silence in the room was deafening. James pulled his hand away from his face to find it covered in blood and could feel the blood dripping from his face, onto the floor. "Oh, Sarah... you know how I loathe violence... One way or another, you will be mine…" he hissed at Sarah, who had paused at the door to look back.

She started visibly and shot out the door slamming it, and her shouted answer could be heard resonating about the room and into the hall. "Never, James. Never!"

James grabbed a cloth and pressed in to his bleeding face. "You belong to me! You all belong to me!"He shouted to the ceiling, his insane laughter following Sarah at her heels, hurrying her footsteps as she slipped out of the castle and into the wild lands beyond the Labyrinth...

To Be Continued…