Okay, I'm so sorry it took so long to write this again! I actually completely forgot I had this story at all! I'M SO SORRY! (cowers) ... Nothing? Okay. Good. Anyways, I can't think of anything else to say, so I'm just gonna go on with the chapter now. Enjoy!

Chapter 7

Paul was changing in the bushes. It confused Jareth that she did this, since she knew he had watched her dance on stage, but he had decided not to wonder. She was still a little shaken from the nightmare the night before. By now, however, all she could remember was something to do with birds. Apparently, she hadn't noticed the fresh burn on her chest yet. She might have said something by now if she had.

Jareth, however, had known his own burn was there before he looked. He had been warned it would happen if anything went wrong. He sighed and pulled back from checking his reflection in the water. That mark would stay there forever, permanent. Unless it went away once the situation was resolved... He hadn't been told whether it would stay or not. It didn't matter right now as it were, Paul was obviously about to find out what had happened to her, and then he would need to tell her about the Underground. And what that dream meant the two of them needed to do. That would take some time. Hopefully, she would be willing to understand.

He looked at one of his hands for a little while, then curled it into a fist for a moment before snapping it open, turning it a little and stretching his fingers out quickly over the water. A small burst of air blew straight down into it and a small whirlpool began to form. At least he had enough power left... He concentrated on the whirlpool for a moment, and an image flickered in it. Colors flashed a bit around it. He leaned forward some, and squinted. It was blurry... He wasn't close enough to the entrance, perhaps? He needed to see what— Paul came bursting out of the bushes suddenly, her eyes wide. She was topless, only covered there by a bra. Her shirt was in one hand, the other hand was covering a spot on her chest, just above her bosom. She shoved Jareth out of the way of the water, breaking his contact with the Underground and dropped to her knees in front of it, staring. She removed the hand from her chest and looked at it, rubbing the spot frantically after a moment. She was scared, it seemed.

Jareth said nothing, he just looked at her, waiting for her reaction. The rubbing became more frantic, she didn't understand... He needed to explain. Problem was, he didn't know how. How were you supposed to tell a new friend you were from another world and that you needed to prevent something similar to a more elaborate apocalypse? And that you needed their help, and theirs alone, or it wasn't possible to stop it? Were you supposed to just say 'oh, by the way'? It was ridiculous, how hard this was being made.

Paul was trying to rub the mark so hard it came off, it seemed, but it was only making it worse. She was still more frantic. She might hurt herself soon, perhaps break the burn open and make it bleed. "Paul..." He moved toward her.

"What is this? Look! It's in my skin, what happened?! What Happened?!" She continued to rub at the burn.

"Paul stop it. You'll break it open!"

"It was that dream, wasn't it? It wasn't here before I dreamt that! I never got burned, and neither did my necklace! It was the birds, wasn't it?! Get it off!"

"Stop it! It won't come off, it's been burned there, it isn't a patch of dirt! Listen, stop rubbing at it like that!" He grabbed her hands and pulled them away. She was like a child... She stopped struggling all of a sudden and stared down a little, even more confusion making itself apparent. He noticed where her eyes had gone and quickly let go of her hands to try and cover it up. She wasn't ready to understand just yet. But it was her turn to wrench his hands away from his own chest. The shirt he had been wearing had been unbuttoned near the top so he could look at the mark and check it's shade. It was very dark.

She looked up at him. "Jareth... You're burned, too..."

"It's nothing..."

"Nothing? Nothing, that's it?" Had the situation been lighter, he might have chuckled at what he'd thought she was about to say. "What the hell is going on, Jareth?"

"It's too soon, you aren't ready to understand it yet."

"Like hell I'm not! Tell me!" He noticed for the first time that she was slightly scary when she was angry.

"Look... You aren't ready to be told." He was trying to sound nice. It made her angrier.

She grabbed the front of his shirt, pulled him closer, and brought a fist back, ready to hit him. "I said tell me." She growled.

The prospect of being punched in the face by a girl was something entirely new to the goblin king. He had no idea what it might be like, or whether or not it would do any massive damage considering he wasn't human and might be stronger than an average male human by a few decibels. But he himself had seen a man bigger then he was take one look at her and turn pale and wide-eyed before running away one night while they were walking back from the club. Paul acted as though she hadn't noticed, but he could tell she was pleased it had happened in front of a witness who had yet to be impressed by her. The recollection of that incident put to mind the fact that he might be unwise to anger her even further. "You won't believe me," he said, and braced himself.

"Try me."

He sighed. "Let me go and I suppose I will."

She let him go, but she did it slowly, the glare never leaving her face.

He tried her. "I am not from this world," he said, deciding to put it bluntly.

She scoffed under her breath. "What?"

Clearly, putting it bluntly didn't have any effect, except that she thought he was an idiot. Joy. He would have to use some of his fading powers. Something easy, then. "All right... Here, look at this." He removed something from a pocket.

Paul chose not to show the fact that she was pretty sure he didn't have anything to pull out of his pocket, particularly since it didn't look like he had a pocket of any kind to pull something out of in the first place, and looked at what he held instead. "It's a ball," she concluded.

"It's a crystal ball," he said patiently.

She blinked at it. She was reflected upside-down in it's surface. "Looks like ordinary glass to me."

"I assure you, it is a crystal."

"A crystal ball, huh?"

He nodded.

"Little small for one of them, isn't it?"

He shrugged. "It increases it's portability. It's only a basic one at any rate."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Uh-huh."

"It doesn't matter," he said, giving up. "Watch." He waved a hand over it and said, "Show me... Sarah." He didn't know why he said that. He just did. He was curious how she was doing, anyway.

The surface of the crystal ball went foggy for a moment before dimly lighting up with the image of a woman cooking herself some lunch. His expression went soft. Almost sad, really. Paul studied the image. She didn't believe it was real at first, it might have been some kind of an illusion, but then she realized that there wasn't anything to cause an illusion anywhere nearby. She was about to comment, and then noted his expression. She looked at the ball, then back at him. "Girlfriend?" Why was her voice so soft all of a sudden?

"No... But she had that option." He didn't look up. "She was the first to beat me at my own game. She had, of course started it all herself, but she somehow managed to make it."

"What happened?"

"It's a long story..."

"Sometimes those are best ones."

He looked up at her and then decided that it might help her understand. "Very well. I guess it wouldn't hurt... Here. I'll explain as you look."

Paul found herself fascinated with the story. It was a shorter, less detailed version of the full, but it was good, nonetheless. Images of what happened flickered across the surface of the crystal he held. Or at least she thought he held. After a bit it appeared to be floating in front them quite patiently. If a crystal ball could be patient, that is. When it was finished, she sat back. "Huh." She paused. "Why do I feel like I just watched a full-length movie?"

"That is strange, isn't it?"

"Okay, so you're the king of some place called the Underground. This chick wanted her brother to go away because she was a whiny little bitch, and when you took him away just like she wanted, she got upset. Something tells me it wasn't that she really cared very much about the kid, I think she was more worried about the consequences on her part, but that's just me... And then she found a few friends, got to your city, and took her brother back after saying some magic words to defeat you with, have I got that right?"

"Well... yes. Sort of, yes. In a basic sense of it."

"Hmmm... Okay... So what the hell does this all have to do with these burns we have?!"

He winced. "Well, nothing, really, not exactly. It was to help you understand."

"Oh, great. Well, I understand that you're a friggin' weirdo and that you aren't telling me what the hell is going on."

He sighed. "Must you make this so hard to do?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I think I must."

"Do you need more proof?"

"I'm all set with your fancy magic tricks, thanks. Just tell me what's going on! I don't take injuries sustained during freaky dreams lightly, you know!"

"It's quite complicated..."

"Complicated my ass!" She stood up angrily and wrenched the shirt she still held on over her head. "If you don't mind, I'm gonna go shopping for our fucking food now. Okay? And maybe on the way you can decide when you wanna tell me, how's that?" With that, she grabbed her boots and pulled them on, then began stalking off in the direction of town.

He watched her go, and then sighed again, looking at the crystal ball in his hand... which was fading. He stared at it in shock. "Oh, no..." he whispered. This was not good, this was not good at all... He got up and hurried after her.

-

San smiled. The second keystone was probably somewhere around here... Now if only the stupid stone heads would just shut up.

"GO BACK. BEWAAAARE!"

"I'm not going anywhere, thank you very much." He pushed a small figure clutching a bloodied hand ahead of him a little more with his foot.

"TURN BACK. YOU MUST TURN BAAAACK. Oh, come on? Not even worried about what's ahead?"

"No, I am not, sir."

"Aaaawww, but—"

"Oh, do shut up!" San yelled at it, "Or I shall have my men carve you off of your pedestals!"

"Now, there isn't any need to yell..."

San grumbled incoherently to himself and kicked Hoggle along further. "Well? Are we getting closer or not?"

"W-we should be there very soon... Think it should be th-this way..."

"Hurry it up! I am growing impatient!" He kicked him again.

"Ouch! Oh, all right, all right..." He whimpered again, ashamed of himself. Ooohh... What am I doin'? I don't like Jareth very much, but still... I shouldn't be showin' him... I was trusted with it's safety... Oh... Hoggle couldn't help but keep going, even if he knew it was wrong. He had been threatened, and wounded, and he didn't like being threatened or wounded, but especially not both. Oh, no... He stopped. He had led them right to it.

"Excellent." San stepped forward and removed the weeds that had grown over the keystone with his knife, leaving Hoggle to stand stock still and whimper about his hand.

"You have done well... Hogwart, was it?"

"H-H-Hoggle... Sir..."

"Right, Hogpie. I have no more use for you. You may go. I can learn where the other stones are by other means..."

Hoggle ran away as fast as he could. He didn't have time to think, he just needed to find someone who could help him...

"Sir?" one of the guards said, uncertain. Usually the boss didn't let people he had no more use for get away from him.

"Hm?" San was too absorbed in studying the strange symbols on the stone to pay much attention.

"What about the little fella, sir?"

"Him? Ah, yes. Go find him, and when you do, please dispose of him... We don't need trash like that around..."

"Yessir." And with that, the man he had just spoken to gestured to two others, who quickly left with him in pursuit of the escaped Hoggle.

-

The trip to the store was rather hurried. Jareth tried his best to explain why he couldn't explain to her what was going on in full detail at the moment, but Paul was ignoring him until she heard him try to say something about the matter. So the whole time they were in the store he said nothing, having given up by the time they reached the cereal.

And then he realized that they couldn't eat anything here without a means of cooking it, and because they were trying their best not to be seen, they couldn't make a fire, lest they draw attention to themselves... "Paul?" he asked cautiously when he noticed this, "How do you propose to cook any of this?"

She stopped walking. She blinked. "Oh... Ah, shit." With that, she turned and prepared to put everything back, but when she did, she bumped into a tall girl with short brown hair wearing men's clothes. A hurried, embarrassed apology passed between them, and they were about to walk on their way, but then Jareth grabbed onto both of their arms and stared at something. "What?" snapped Paul, and then gave a surprised yelp when he grabbed the front of the shirt the girl in front of them was wearing and yanked it down. "Hey! What the—" She stared. The girl, who had been preparing to punch him, stared. He stared.

The necklaces that Paul and Jareth were wearing were glowing softly. The only way they saw the light was because of the shadow between all three of them. And the girl had a necklace on, too. It was glowing as well. They looked up at each other, confused, and then Jareth said quietly, "What... Um... If you don't mind my asking, what is your name?"

"Um... It's Megan..."

"Well, then, Megan, I think something significant was not brought to my attention when I found out about these pendants. And I also think that you may want to come with us, so that I can try to figure out just what it is I was not told."

And so it was that they found a place to eat that night that wasn't on the edge of a pond. They could cook, too.

A/N: OKAY! That was all I could come up with for this chapter, sorry... Stupid? Yeah. Boring? Maybe. Short? Yeah, I know. But at least it wasn't pointless, right? Anyways, again, I do apologize to those of you who were eagerly awaiting this chapter for how long it took, but I hope you'll forgive me! Thanks for reading! Peace!