Author Note: Hello everyone! Okay, so the reason this chapter has taken so long to write is because I have been in the middle of a serious writer's block. No joke. It was bad. I will try to get the next one up in a timely manner but I won't make promises because I still need to map out the details of the next chapter. Anyways, sorry for the wait! Please read and review.

Chapter 3 The Rebellion

A chasm of darkness greeted Sarah's eyes as she, Tatiana and Tatiana's friend descended into the cave. Brisk, cool air enveloped her, causing the hairs on her forearms to stand on end. Their footsteps echoed; Tatiana's, a painful stumble, her friend's, sure and steady; and Sarah's, uncertain. The scent of ancient earth hung heavily in the air; it tasted of it as well.

Pity laced with admiration filled Sarah as she watched Tatiana stumble and struggle along the labyrinthine path. Although the fae was in obvious pain, she somehow managed to keep her head up high and her bleeding shoulders back while limping. Sarah was worried that Tatiana would tire from exerting so much energy but at the same time, she was awed by Tatiana's will to appear strong.

Tatiana's friend was not as easily convinced.

He had his hands held out in front of him, prepared to catch her or carry her if she needed him to…and he would. Sarah was embarrassed that she did not remember who this man was. She positively did not recognize his face yet she had the strangest feeling that she had met him before.

Sluggishly, Sarah continued on, trying to keep up with the two fae. It felt as if they had been walking for an eternity, but that could have simply been the unchanging scenery — darkness and stone.

After what felt like an eon later, a light flickered down the dank corridor. Heartened by this mere trace of light, Sarah pressed onward with renewed vigor, her strides becoming wider and more confident. Soon she matched the mystery man's pace with ease. He smiled at her and Sarah could have sworn she had seen that smile before.

One moment they were in darkness, the next they were bathed in ambient lighting in a cavern whose size was the equivalent of a football stadium. Uncut gems glimmered along the stonewalls, reflecting the various colors of light which danced along the floor. However, what was truly astounding was the amount of beings housed in the chasm. Creatures of various colors, shapes, and sizes worked industriously on their numerous employments. A clump of what Sarah guessed were dwarves hammered away on what looked like weapons; sparks flew all across the great room. On the opposite side of the room were what appeared to be elves target practicing with arrows alight with green fire. All around were creatures Sarah believed only existed in storybooks, but then again, she learned long ago how real storybook characters could be.

"Ahem." The male fae cleared his throat loudly, announcing their presence. All the creatures froze mid-action and stared. For many of them, this was the first time they had ever encountered an Abovegrounder and so their eyes immediately darted to Sarah before turning their attention back to their leader.

"As you were," Tatiana's voice rang like a bell through the nearly silent cave (a small group of goblins was cackling to themselves about something of other). Slowly, the babble of voices and the symphony of clanking hammers against protesting metal picked up again. Tatiana walked proudly through them to the opposite side of the cave where a passage could be seen. Sarah groaned, her feet aching. More walking.

The passage was short, however, just a few yards that led to a giant stonewall. To Sarah's dismay, all she could see was a dead end. Then the man stepped up to it and pulled down on a piece of rock jutting out of the wall. It opened, revealing a round, bubble-like room behind an arch.

They entered and the room was suddenly bright; wall torches sprung to life providing ample light by which they could see. A makeshift table stood in the center of the cavern, papers and maps strewn across its surface. It occurred to Sarah that whatever was going on in this place, was planned in this room.

All pretenses of being fine were thrown out the window; Tatiana sank to the ground, gasping in pain.

"Ta-ti!" The man rushed to Tatiana's side and picked her up of the ground. He held her in the cradle of his arms and gingerly set her down on the edge of the table. He wiped the hair plastered to her face by sweat away and began to further examine her condition.

She swatted his hands away. "I'm fine, Thade!" she snapped. He recoiled as his brows furrowed together in consternation.

Thade. Sarah hit her forehead, the light bulb going off in her brain. She felt dense for not guessing sooner. The early memory of the ball shimmered in her mind. Thade had worn an ornate mask but Sarah could now recognize the same warm, brown eyes and shoulder-length, raven hair framing his cinnamon skin. Without his mask, Sarah could see that he was actually quite handsome, in a rugged sort of way. As she took in the details of his face, a flash of intuition struck her. The way Thade gazed at Tatiana, so full of worry yet mingled with adoration, it was impossible to miss that he was in love with her. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Sarah wondered if it was requited or not.

"I'll be back in a few minutes. I'm going to find someone to have a look at your shoulder," Thade said to Tatiana, both oblivious to Sarah's mild epiphany. "Is there anything you need, Sarah?" he asked, turning to her out of politeness although his eyes remained primarily on Tatiana.

Sarah replied, "Something to drink would be nice." Thade nodded before striding out of the room.

Tatiana sighed, shaking her head. "He's going to go prematurely gray, the way he caries on."

Sarah snorted. "I thought fae don't age," she said in reply.

"We don't. But still…."

Sarah came over to Tatiana and sat down beside her. "He's just worried about you. You were really hurt back there and your shoulder is getting worse. He was right to go find help for you."

"I know, I know. But he is such a worrywart. I am a big girl. I do not need him to take care every little thing for me."

Sarah bit back what she was dying to say and replied instead, "He is a great friend, isn't he?"

"The best," Tatiana agreed, the corners of her mouth turning up affectionately.

"How long have you two been friends?" Sarah asked.

"Since we were kids, and considering my age, that is saying something." Tatiana grinned slyly at Sarah who giggled in accordance.

Thade reappeared in the archway with a petite girl at his side. Sarah could not help but stare at the creature next to him; everything about her was shocking. The girl was twig-like, all skin and bones with no traces of fat or muscle anywhere on her anatomy. Her face was androgynous — deep-set eyes, high cheekbones and thin yet shapely lips. Her skin was as white as snow and held no traces of blush anywhere on her cheeks. Her eyes were the color of stele and seemed just as sharp. She had a high forehead that was framed by strikingly blue, spiky hair.

"What are you looking at?" she barked at Sarah in a high, surprisingly feminine voice. Sarah quickly dropped her eyes, only after noting the girl's various facial piercings.

"Sorry," Sarah mumbled.

"You should be," the tiny girl said. "Now, Tatiana, what did you do this time, eh?" The girl flitted to the injured fae's side and began examining the wound on her shoulder. "Had a little run in with Mr.-High-and-Mighty's chief of police, did we?" she asked, whipping out a crystal vial containing an orangish liquid.

"He has it out for me," Tatiana grinned. The spiky haired girl ripped a strip of linen and soaked it in the liquid. Tatiana winced as the fabric was applied to the gash on her shoulder.

"He has not right to be," the girl said in a matter-of-fact tone as she dabbed the wound. "I mean, you two only dated for, what? A hundred years? He hardly has the right to be so clingy after such a short period." Initially, Sarah mistook this statement as sarcasm until she realized how long a fae could live.

"Tell me about it!" Tatiana agreed. "The man is insane. I mean, who expects marriage after a hundred years? You can hardly even call that a relationship!"

"The man is nothing, if not delusional," the tiny creature chimed as she wrapped the fae's shoulder in linen. "There," she said, storing the excess cloth away. "Now, do try to be more careful next time. I have better things to do than to patch you up every time you come back from a mission."

Tatiana rolled her eyes but dismissed her with a wave of her hand. The twig-like girl turned on her heel and left without a second glance.

"Who was that?" Sarah asked as she sipped from the goblet Thade handed her.

"Rowena," he answered.

"She is our resident healer here," Tatiana added.

"What exactly is she?" Sarah felt a little rude to ask but she could not make heads or tails of the girl's appearance.

"She's an elf determined to stand out," Thade chuckled. "She cannot stand the idea of being delicate or soft spoken or, heaven forbid, blonde like the other elves in the Underground and…well, you get the picture."

"Enough about Rowena's fashion sense," Tatiana sighed, "we need to fill Sarah in on everything that has been happening since that abomination of a ball."

"I am sure, Ta-ti, that it can wait until morning —"

"No, Thade. That would be a waste of everyone's time here." Tatiana's eyes narrowed and her jaw set sternly.

"But you are injured. You need to rest!"

"The last time I checked, talking has never really expended a great deal of energy." Her expression was hard and resolute. Thade sighed and yielded to her without another word. He had no desire to fight with her.

Pleased by her evident victory over the conversation, Tatiana proceeded to fill in the large gap of information for Sarah. Although she did not know it when it happened, the final spell Jareth cast in the labyrinth was a powerful protection charm, one that had not been used in eons. The spell was complicated and required immense power in order for it to even work, let alone sustain itself. According to Tatiana, there were many complicated logistics that went into the precise use of the charm, however, the gist was that it made the most important things to the caster of the charm untouchable by enemies. However, the charm was not unbreakable, and based on the reconnaissance missions many rebel fae had completed, Maximus was close to recovering the answer.

This information muddled Sarah. Why would Maximus want her anyways? There was nothing special about her. Tatiana shook her head and explained exactly why he did want her. Sarah was right about there being nothing particularly threatening about her; she could hardly inflict damage on arguably the most powerful fae in the Underground. Yet she was vitally important to the only fae who could rival his power: Tatiana and Jareth. He needed Sarah as a bargaining tool. If he had her within his iron grasp, he could squelch the rebellion and force Jareth to surrender his power.

"Then why did you bring me back? It seems to me that it would be better for all of us if you left me at home." Despite the explanation, Sarah could only come up with more questions than answers.

"For many reasons," Tatiana said. Over the past month, Jareth's power had been waning drastically. Tatiana was relatively safe because she was able to cast her own protection charm around the caves in order to keep enemies out but the spell that protected Sarah was fading fast. According to Tatiana, unless they acted quickly, the magic guarding the Labyrinth would be the next to fall.

"It gets worse, I'm afraid," Thade said gravely.

"Worse?" Sarah was incredulous. How could it get any worse?

"When I went to retrieve Rowena, one of spies back from doing some recon spoke with me. He said that Maximus has made it so that no one besides authorized personnel or non-magical beings can get within a hundred yards of the palace."

"I don't understand," Sarah said after a moment.

Tatiana clenched her fist. "It means that they're setting a trap for you. It's no secret that we're trying to rescue Jareth; we have to. So, since we recovered you, he is making it so that only you could hope to accomplish that." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Damn! He's good. But we might be able to outwit him. And we have to act fast. Tomorrow, if we can."

The small cavern was silent for a moment. "Tatiana?"

"Yes?" she replied still irritated by the new discovery.

"I still don't understand some things," Sarah said quietly.

"Like what?"

"Those people who arrived at my house right after you did…they work for Maximus right?"

"Yes. What about them?"

"How did they find me? And for that matter, how did you find me?"

Tatiana produced from her waistband a now crumpled piece of parchment. She held it out to Sarah. She took it into her hands and examined it; there were words inscribed on the paper in elegant script. They were in a language Sarah had never seen before. She handed the parchment back with a muddled expression in her eyes.

"Whoever first cast the charm that Jareth cast that night wrote down its counter curse. Twice. I discovered where one scroll was, and, unfortunately, Maximus found the other."

"You know in all fairness, Ta-ti, it was the dwarf, Hoggle, who retrieved the scroll," Thade said with humor glinting in his eyes.

"Yes, but he would not have had a clue where to find it if I had not told him its whereabouts. So, there."

This tiny bit of news filled Sarah with relief. Hoggle was safe. Thank God.

"Was there anything else you didn't understand, Sarah?"

"Umm…yes. Why hasn't Maximus, you know, killed Jareth?" She practically choked the last word out.

Tatiana thought for a moment about the best way to explain it. Finally, she said, "Because the Labyrinth cannot be conquered. It can only be handed down. If Maximus killed Jareth without Jareth naming him as his successor, the Labyrinth would be lost to everyone…forever."

Author Note: One more thing, please check out my upcoming projects on my profile page and then answer the poll question. It would help me out a ton.