*** At the ball ***

Sarah held onto Jareth's neck and let him spin her around gently.

It was a dream. A glowing dream of glitters and flashes of silver that seemed to glide on the wings of the romantic, captivating music...

The ballroom looked nothing like the one of their first dance - chaotic and smokey and somewhat decadent altogether. Sarah was vaguely aware of the other dancers around them, but as though from a great distance. The guests fell back around the Goblin King and the Champion of the Labyrinth, and somehow contributed to create the illusion of an invisible wall between Sarah, Jareth and the rest of the room.

"Are you happy, my queen?", Jareth whispered. Even after all those years together, his voice could send a shiver down her back. Without looking away from his beautiful iridescent eyes, Sarah answered;

"I am always happy with you."

A bemused smirk flashed across Jareth's face.

"That pleases me... I was worried you'd find me somewhat rusty."

"They say dancing is a bit like biking, isn't it?", she joked. "It's not been that long since the last time we did..."

"Every single instant I spend away from you seems to last for all eternity... and it took an eternity before I met you", Jareth said solemnly. Something in his tone seemed strangely off-key with the impish smirk of a few moments prior. Though trifling, it was enough to set off a warning bell in Sarah's mind.

"What do you mean, Jareth?"

"Nothing", he murmured, after a slight hesitation.

Sarah threw him a puzzled glance, confused. But since Jareth wasn't bothering to explain a thing, she went on;

"You make it sound as if we're going to part for a while. But that's not the case, is it? Look - if you're going somewhere, I'll come with you. You know."

"That's - not the point."

"Then what is the point? Don't leave me hanging."

Jareth's fierce, unblinking eyes latched onto Sarah's green ones. He asked her in return;

"Is Trisha right when she claims that you're still distressed about your brother?"

"I don't understand", she replied nervously. "What does Toby have to do with...?"

"You know - I never understood why you fussed so terribly about him." Jareth shook his head and sighed. "And now instead..."

"Now instead - what?", she demanded. "Jareth, we agreed we'd have no secrets - remember?"

"What makes you think I'm hiding something from you, precious?", asked Jareth, quickly regaining his lordly composure. "You know that I could never lie to you. Just fear me, love me, do as I say... and I will be your slave", he whispered.

"Then tell me what the matter really is. What did you mean when you said that - before you didn't understand my concerns for Toby?"

The Goblin King averted his stare, without answering.

"Do you mean - that now you understand?"

He continued to remain silent.

"Jareth...?", his wife exhorted him.

"Do you know how the dynastic lineage works in the Underground, precious? Do you know what it - implicates?"

Sarah blinked, completely at a loss. "I don't get it..."

"It's all quite simple", Jareth explained. "The Labyrinth itself picks a worthwhile successor to its King, the very moment it comes across him or her. Your case was different - special. You boasted your challenge all around, but the Labyrinth recognized - even before we did - that there was an underlying symmetry to your power and mine." He smirked. "In other words - you could never have been Queen, was I not King alongside you."

"I - I'm not quite sure what you're getting at", Sarah stammered. "What does all this have to do with...?"

"When you asked me to steal your brother, I took him to my castle, just as you expected me to", Jareth said ruefully. "In that very instant, the Labyrinth picked him to be the next King."

Sarah's breath was knocked out of her; she came to such an abrupt halt that she crashed right into another dancing couple.

"Toby? You're telling me that Toby is..."

"Not yet... but if he was to set foot in the Underground, the call of the Labyrinth would ultimately prompt him to claim the rank that is rightfully his." Jareth's voice was deadpan.

"And in order to do so..."

"Aye, precious. In order to do so - he must first make a stance against me."

They stood still - as if crushed under the weight of that sudden realization. Sarah's head was spinning; she clutched her husband's arms and he helped her lean against his chest. The other dancers had returned to their music and laughter, and were drifting lazily around them - utterly, completely unsuspecting.

"Is it... I mean... does it really have to be?", begged Sarah, as soon as she found her voice. "Isn't there another way...?"

"Alas, no. The defeated King's life - his very fate - lays in the hand of his successor."

The Goblin King's jaw clenched slightly as he pronounced those words. Shocked as she was, Sarah did not fail to notice that.

"Jareth? Are you... afraid of Toby?" It seemed so - so - ludicrous! In his current Aboveground incarnation, Toby was just an ailing old man, and Jareth was...

"I'm not worried about the eventuality that your brother should replace me."

"But you just said yourself..."

Jareth attempted to smile. "The bond between you and your brother could set him in my favour. I'm not questioning that."

"Toby would never dream of harming you", Sarah promised him strongly.

"I know that. The other heir instead... I'm just not sure what to expect from that side."

The Champion of the Labyrinth widened her eyes incredulously.

"Is there another...?"

"You had not yet figured it out?" Jareth raised a thin blonde eyebrow. "Precious, it is no coincidence if Trisha has grown so rebellious as of late. Now that she's an adult Fae, the Labyrinth has started whispering in her ears. Her outbursts, the way she keeps testing me - it's all part of a slow and patient training program. And when she'll feel ready..."

"Not - Trisha?", Sarah gasped. "Do you mean that our daughter..."

Jareth nodded seriously. He was staring at something on the other end of the crowd - a flamboyantly dressed figure who had just approached Trisha and was talking with her in good confidence.

"To the light of how much she takes after me? I'd not be one bit surprised if our daughter was the one to have me tossed in the Oubliette until it - or I - rots."