Authors Note – I don't own the Labyrinth or any of the characters therein.

And I've been flamed severely for my earlier statements regarding J/S love stories. I don't mind them if they are well-written, logical and true to character. I don't like them when people manipulate the characters to suit their purposes for no good reason. I do read J/S happily ever after stories and I do enjoy some of them. I still think the majority of them annoy the cells out of my brain.

On with the story…

Chapter Three

Sarah looked around her and realized that she was completely lost. Her driving force for the past… must be half an hour… had been how much she wanted to hurt Jareth. Specifically, she was thinking about kicking him. Hard. In the balls. While he was wearing those tights. Oh yeah, that would hurt. What she hadn't been thinking about was where she was going. She was in a hedge maze of some sort, and it was at least twice as tall as she was. She hadn't seen a living thing other than that poor gate-keeper. She had no bearings, no idea where she was going and she was running out of steam. She wasn't a hater, by nature, or a complainer. She was steady get-the-job-done kind of a girl. She usually let her anger simmer away under the surface but, well, it was under the surface. It wasn't usually her driving force. She was at a complete loss of what she was striving for. She wished he'd told her. Even if it had been something as melodramatic as her life – which it probably was. But she couldn't invent the goal herself. She just couldn't do it. And all she wanted to do was win. Or sit here and cry. It was tough choice.

"Giving up so soon?" Jareth's voice echoed around her head. Sarah spun around, searching for him.

"What do you want now Jareth?" she demanded, standing in the exact center of the path and hoping that was going to be far enough from whatever was going to come out of the hedges.

"Just to congratulate you Sarah, on your ingenuity and the gate," he replied. Sarah smiled smugly to herself.

"You didn't think I'd get in, did you?" she asked. Jareth laughed contemptuously.

"I knew you'd find some way in. You are not one to underestimated, Sarah, I learned that last time," Jareth said. "I learned that you were resourceful, so I've given you no resources. I learned you make friends easily, so I've removed every living being from your path. I learned you were goal-oriented so I've given you no goals." Oh but you just did, Sarah thought to herself. I'm going to beat you – I don't care anymore, it's goal enough for me, she thought. Sarah smiled.

"I'm glad you've put some more effort in this time. Should make the game a little more fun," Sarah taunted him. Jareth laughed again.

"I remember your fear, little girl. Do you? I remember your fear of the Helping Hands, the Fireys and every little unusual thing the Labyrinth threw at you. Fun was not the word you would use to describe my Labyrinth, is it Sarah?" Jareth mocked her. Sarah wished he would just appear. His disembodied voice was most disconcerting.

"Weren't you the one who said you were exhausted from living up to my expectations? Who said you weren't alone?" Sarah replied. Jareth laughed again.

"The clock is still ticking and time is running out," Jareth said.

He smiled at Sarah through his crystal ball. She was so lost and helpless. And she was heading in the wrong direction. He laughed.

"Foolish girl. You might have beaten me once, but you will not beat me again," he scorned before laughing. He looked around at the goblins in his throne room. "Why aren't you laughing?" he demanded. The goblins dissolved into fits of laughter and Jareth smiled contentedly. Victory was all but his.

Sarah cursed under her breath. He infuriated her like no one else could. How dare he make her run this accursed Labyrinth again? How dare he make her run it a first time? How dare he steal her baby brother? How dare he twist the words of a mortal man? How dare he do this to her! She took a step forward and stopped. Jareth was not a man to taunt her when she was winning. She looked forward, and then back. She turned slowly.

"I bet you all the stolen children in Goblin City that I'm heading in the wrong direction," she said aloud. She started off in the direction she had just come from, counting steps this time, not marking stones. Jareth wasn't the only one who'd learned how to do things better since last time.

At the first turn, Sarah cursed not having a pen. If she wished for one… it would not write, so there was no point. She'd just have to remember it. She'd taken twenty-seven steps. Micah, she remembered, was twenty-seven years old. On Micah's twenty-seventh birthday, he'd broken the left heel of his shoe, she invented the story as she turned left, trying to hold the facts in her head. When she was sixteen, her father had taught her always to turn left in a maze – that way you find the center faster. She smiled to herself as she took another left turn after sixteen paces, this really was too easy. She couldn't use the trick here, of course, because it would change on her. The Labyrinth had a mind all of it's own – and it liked to change itself every now and then, just for fun. The Labyrinth turned from hedges to ice. Sarah was fascinated by the new turn the Labyrinth had taken, but she didn't stop. Because through the ice, just faintly, she could see very familiar sandstone. And, if she stood right up on her toes, she could see the Castle.

Jareth threw the crystal against the wall and the goblins, who hadn't yet stopped laughing, were suddenly silenced.

"That impetuous girl! That cruel wench! How dare she turn onto the right path! How dare she figure out she was heading in the wrong direction! Nobody told her, she just… turned around. Foolish girl – when I have won; when she has lost, she will pay for this," Jareth shouted and about sixty-three goblins made very hasty exits from the throne room. "I will not stand for this," Jareth said quietly, scheming his next move. A devilish smile spread across his face. "Oh yes," he said, producing a crystal. "That's perfect."