Disclaimer: I own nothing. Main credit for the ideas of Ella's dreams goes to Charles on yahoo answers. Thank you for your help.

Author's Note: To those who are sad about Sarah's death maybe this will cheer you up. She is dead but not gone as you are about to read. Oh and Italic is dreams.

Ch8. Dreams and Death

Jareth sat by Ella's side feeling weaker than ever. He'd all but given up. At this rate the two of them would only last to sometime that night. The sprite was helping but it wasn't enough. An hour ago he felt the magic of the underground calling his soul. If memory served correct that meant that unless something changed for the better soon he only had about twelve hours of energy left to share with her before they would both fade from this life.

Alessa came in to check for changes in Ella, "Her brain is active in a different way than it was before. These signals indicate REM sleep. She's dreaming."

"That's a good thing right," he asked.

"Her body is gaining enough headway on the virus to feel comfortable letting her experience dreaming so yes it is good," she replied, "Unfortunately unless that medicine is delivered before time runs out her fight will not be enough to save her."

"I know," he let a stray tear slip down his cheek.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Ella looked around. The familiar setting brought her comfort. The sand was warm beneath her feet and felt like fine powder. To her right a beautiful ocean spread into the distance. To her left a wall of fire rose along the beach but she felt no danger from it.

Smiling she reached into the fire. The flames danced playfully around her hand, never burning or hurting her in anyway. She felt heat spread through her hand and to the rest of her body. She felt happy and warm.

As she walked along she sometimes felt too warm from the fire and wandered into the water to let it's cool and refreshing sensation replace the heat. When she felt too cold she went back to the fire.

"Having fun," a female voice asked as she played in the water that somehow never got anything wet.

She turned to the woman and smiled, laughing joyfully as she ran through the sand to hug the lady she'd seen here many times before. The dream became lucid as her Mother held her tightly for a few minutes.

"Mommy, I'm sleeping," she pointed out.

Sarah smiled, "I know. This is the only way I can talk to you."

"Mommy, what's wrong? I feel like you're sad," she stepped back and looked up at the ghost in confusion.

Sarah sat down on the sand and held her arms out for Ella to sit on her lap, "I'm sad because your physical body is very sick right now. Your Daddy is trying to help you but there isn't much he can do without his brother's help. I love you two and I miss you both dearly but I don't want either of you to join me over here yet."

The child furrowed her brows, "Why would Daddy be joining you?"

Sarah thought for a moment about how to explain this to a nine year old, "Well, when a captain has trouble with his ship he'll do anything to keep it from sinking but a good captain always goes down with his ship. Your Daddy is the captain and you're his little ship. Trying to keep you alive is taking a lot out of him. If you die from this it will be because he ran out of energy to give you. He loves you so much. I want you to fight until the end."

Ella nodded, "Okay," she started crying and suddenly the ocean began to roar, flooding over both of them and leaving the child alone since Sarah could not remain in Ella's dream when she lost control of her magic.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Sarah stood, unseen, in her daughter's room watching sadly as time passed slowly. Each minute felt like an hour in the painful silence. Jareth had set the clock to count down the time left for them. Little over seven hours were left now.

Finally Toby spoke up, "Would use of my energy help?"

Jareth looked weakly at his brother-in-law, "I need you to be alive in case we die. In the event of Ella's death I have named you next in line for the throne."

"That's not possible. Only your son or daughter can take the throne when you die," the teen pointed out.

"True, I did not sire you and a king or queen in the Underground can only adopt an heir prior to marriage. I did however know that Sarah was going to defeat me when one of my goblins informed me that she had gotten into my city. If she left me defeated and rejected my heart could never be given to another. As a failsafe I had my guards keep her busy long enough to do a blood ceremony to adopt you as my heir," the king explained.

"That doesn't count as legal. I'm not an orphan," Toby countered.

"Adopting a child and adopting an heir are two different things," the man started, "To adopt a child you are right. There can be no legal guardian in the Underground. As you sister, Sarah was your legal guardian here at the time. For adopting an heir the only condition is that the child be less than five years of age. As I recall you were barely old enough to talk. In fact during your time here the only time you said anything we could understand was when you called me 'Dada'."

Toby was shocked, "I said what now?"

Jareth rolled his eyes, "You were a baby. I had just fed and burped you. Your whole life Sarah had been your only babysitter. Of course you assumed we were related and 'Dada' was the only word you knew to call me by."

"And Sarah didn't have to consent to this blood ceremony?"

"Actually she indirectly consented the moment she wished you away."

"Then why do you even care about Ella?"

Sarah's jaw dropped to the floor as Jareth's eyebrows raised to his hairline, "I may be a tyrant as a king. I will admit I can be cruel and my generosity more often than not comes across as malice to others but I have a heart Toby and it did not die with my wife as explanations of the Underground magic would suggest."

"Further explanation would be…"

"My heart and Sarah's heart are bound to each other. Even in death our hearts live on because love is never ending. Once it exists it can not die. What I love Sarah loves and what Sarah loves I love. Therefore as long as one of us loves Ella unconditionally we both do."

"Stop that," Toby demanded.

"Stop what?"

"Stop talking about Sarah like she's here. She is dead. I know that's hard for you to grasp but she's dead. She isn't here," he yelled as tears slid down his cheeks.

Sarah sighed sadly at this, "Oh Toby, I wish you could hear me."

"I understand that she is dead but that doesn't mean she is gone. Her spirit will linger till I join her. Even then our love will remain a part of the Underground."

"How do you know that for sure?"

"Throughout our histories it has been proven among royals and peasants that two hearts once bound by our magic can not be severed. So long as one of the two is alive and the other dead those who know of the death and accept the lingering presence leave the door to their dreams open to the lingering entity. For all we know she may have spoken to Ella before."

"She wouldn't have been able to speak to you though. You didn't know she was dead," Toby realized.

Sarah crossed her arms and contemplated all she had just heard, "Wow, being royalty down here is complicated. I'm getting exhausted just watching this."

"Life is complicated dear. Whether you live in the Aboveground or in the Underground it's always complicated," a female spirit flashed in next to the late goblin queen.

Said queen sighed, "I know Mom. I know," she looked sadly at her ill child. She didn't want her to die but at the same time she wanted to protect her from the difficult ways of the living world.

TBC…

Author's note: Okay what did you all think? I like what I've written but if there is some constructive criticism or questions anyone has I'd like to hear it.