She stared as the window to Castle's apartment burst forth in a shower of glitter, as a barn owl slowly transformed into a pale-skinned, poofy-haired, wild-eyed creature of such sensual, yet masculine beauty.

"Oh. My. God." She muttered to herself, in pure shock and disbelief.

"Not quite. Though your awe, i suppose, is quite appropriate." He replied, smirking.

"You're..."

"Well?"

"...not supposed to be real."

"Still understandably incorrect, though not the reaction I expected. As your right words may have proven, I'm as real as it gets."

"You're not in love with me, are you?"

"No, sorry. Just going about my usual business, this time around. So. Shall I offer you your dreams, or will you be claiming the incomprehensible thing that calls himself a writer of some sort, within the next thirteen hours?" The Goblin King asked, fangs showing. "I doubt I'd get much reprieve from his infernal chatter, were I to turn him into a goblin."

Great. Even The Goblin King, surrounded by inept, troublesome, irritating creatures found Castle annoying.

"What is it with humans and pointing out the obvious?" Jareth wondered aloud, walking around the apartment, thoughtfully. 'You're The Goblin King!' the man had said. 'You DO look like Bowie' followed soon after. I've seen this Bowie chap I keep getting compared to, and while he is rather acceptable as a point of reference, I'd say the similarity only passing fair."

"Well, your Highness," She ventured, regaining some measure of composure. "You could check that screen over there, as we were just, um...watching you. So to speak."

Jareth turns to the TV, where Dance, Magic, Dance was playing. Apparently the pause button hadn't stopped the movie.

She figured if what she experienced would be anything like in the movies, she had time to kill.

After a few minutes of viewing the movie, Jareth turns back to Kate.

"Well. That was certainly a waste of what precious time I have given you, so I will not start your quest just yet, in return for having my suspicions concerning the stories surrounding this trial confirmed. If there was anything correct in that movie, It is that I AM generous. It also explains why humans who make the mistake of summoning people and things away always see me in a particular image."

Well. THAT didn't sound comforting.

"Would you care to elaborate on that, your Majesty?" She asked, as her head began to throb. Of course it wouldn't be that easy.

"Well. That WOULD be telling, now wouldn't it?"

"If I understand correctly, by showing you that movie, I have answered a question in your mind, and the Fae risk much in receiving a gift without giving something back of equal value." She argued. "Besides, you DID say you were generous."

"If you were to look into the words I have just spoken, you would understand that the movie you saw is a representation of the Labyrinth and all its characters and inhabitants to a female with an intellectual and emotional landscape and maturity of a 15-year old girl."

Jareth watched her as the truth began to sink in.

"And THAT, my dear, is the most that I can say on the matter. Even I, in all my power, am bound by certain rules. And I have no desire to keep that constantly chattering nuisance, no matter how deprived I am of intellectual conversation. So if you would step this way..." He said, as he led her to the window.

"You may begin your quest, from here."

And the landscape she saw, was indeed, very different from the movie.

If, in the movie, it seemed nothing more than a dry, desolate maze in a distant horizon...here, everything now seemed dark, dank and forbidding.

"Do you still want to go?" He whispered in her ear.

"You wouldn't give him back if I threatened to shoot, would you?" She returned.

"In that case, you have 13 hours with which to solve the Labyrinth, before your lover becomes one of us, forever." He answered, as he disappeared.

The words, "Such a pity." echoed after her, long after he was gone.