"Sky's Eclipse"
Chapter 11
By Aiijuin

*Disclaimer: I don't own anything Jim Henson or Labyrinth. Gröeg was originally designed by Brian Froud and catalogued by Terry Jones in Brian Froud's "The Goblins of the Labyrinth". This fanfiction is rated M for some harsh language (which is only used by Toby) and adult situations.
PS: Please let me know if I messed up anywhere with the grammar. I proofread about a dozen times before I post my chapters on , but sometimes I still miss a few flubs. Thank you!
**09/10/2009 Revised: Discontinuity of chapter numbers were repaired, and 'Irene' was changed to 'Karen', since most "Labyrinth" fanfictions recognize this name to be the correct one for Sarah's stepmother. I don't know which is right or wrong, but just roll with it. Thanks!

Chapter Eleven: It's Only Forever.

"Sarah," King interrupted, feeling very uncomfortable. He cupped his hands on her knees to show his concern.

"Please," Sarah pleaded before he could finish.

With tears in her eyes, she lightly touched his arms with both of her delicate hands. He could see that she desperately wanted him to listen. King stammered softly, "Y-Yes?"

Sarah asked, "Have you ever looked into the mirror, but the face staring back isn't really yours? The reflection physically appears to be you, but you know, somehow, it isn't."

Unsure of where she was heading in this conversation, King answered cautiously, "Well…"

"It's been this way for me, since I was little," Sarah interrupted.

A silence fell between them and then Sarah remarked, "Sometimes, I think that if I reach towards my reflection, all the answers will come to me. Every night in the darkness I see them clearly manifest, but just as I stretch out my arm to touch them, they vanish."

Mr. King remained pensive and quiet. He was agape. It was the first time "Jareth" had ever been confounded to this degree. He had no idea what Sarah was trying to tell him. It all sounded rather cryptic. He didn't know how to answer.

Her face remained profound and serious as she stared deep into his eyes. Sarah continued, "I know I live my real life somewhere in my dreams, and this reality is a delusion. It's a vicious circle that I wish would end. Sometimes, I want for nothing more, but to find what I was seeking; yet it all happens too quickly. I cannot remember what I was originally in search of. Also, I have no idea what I would do if I found it."

Gavin said nothing.

Sarah asked, "Do you know what else?"

He forced a smile, but it was apparent she had him at a loss. He answered, "Yes, my Dear?"

"I don't feel like I'm human anymore, Mr. King," she finished.

Gavin King took a moment to let everything sink in. His expression bordered shock and amusement. Finally, he found his voice, "You don't feel like you're a human? Oh, dear…Sarah, Why would you believe that?"

Sarah hesitated for a moment before answering his question. She decided it was time to tell Gavin the truth. "Apparently," she started, "I have been living in the Goblin King's castle for the last eight years. I hadn't realized how much time had passed here while I was there. I made an unintentional wish after a rough day of misfortunes and was accidentally taken to the castle beyond the Goblin City."

Gavin restrained a look of 'so-that's-were-you-were-hiding' in his eyes. Instead, he nodded in an understanding way.

As Jareth, he didn't assume anything of that nature and irony could have ever occurred. It was nearly paradoxical. Sarah must have timed it perfectly. She had arrived at his palace moments after he had left. Home was the only place he hadn't checked after his departure from the Goblin Kingdom.

Gavin realized after a few moments of nodding that Sarah hadn't answered his question. He asked, "I'm sorry, but why would that make you inhuman?"

"Thirteen hours is the time you have when you first enter the lands of the Goblin King before you become a part of them forever."

"Oh, really?" Gavin tried to sound surprised upon the hearing of this.

Sarah continued, "Yes, and I know after I had arrived the clock began to count down."

Gavin, who was really Jareth, was curious how time had reordered itself to expire thirteen hours. He specifically remembered that he had slowed things down so he would return promptly at ten o'clock, like he had promised. Sarah seemed to read his thoughts by adding, "However, when I entered the palace, the clock on the wall stopped moving, or nearly stopped moving. Time was reordered to advance very slowly. It was practically indecipherable to notice the hands had moved at all."

"And then what, Sarah?"

"Well, I sat down to wait for the Goblin King to return."

"Did he return?"

"No. Jareth hasn't returned to his lands, not yet anyway. His goblins said he promised he was going to return. They also mentioned that Jareth was going to return with a present or something along that nature. I can't recall their exact words, since the entire room of goblins was trying to speak at once."

Jareth was in his glory. Sarah was playing right into his hands. As he had hoped, she was revealing all of her secrets to his alternate identity of Gavin. He needed only to keep her speaking, until he knew everything. Then, he could snare her and she would have no prospect of escaping his Labyrinth ever again. He asked another question, "Had thirteen hours had passed in the Goblin Kingdom?"

"No. Not for me. When I was there, time had hardly moved."

"Then, why would you believe you were trapped there forever, if thirteen hours hadn't passed?"

Sarah took a deep breath and then responded, "I don't know for certain. But I believe it is because the time expiration is set to the time of Jareth's location not to the Goblin Kingdom."

"Are you saying that it doesn't matter if thirteen hours had not, yet passed in the Goblin King's realm, but only matters if they had passed where the Goblin King was residing after you entered the castle?"

"Yes."

Gavin gave her a twisted look. As Jareth, he wasn't sure if that was entirely accurate. He decided he would look into it after he had captured her inside his Labyrinth again. Then he asked, "Then might I ask, Ms. Williams, if you are a permanent resident of this 'Goblin King's' kingdom, how did you manage to escape back to the human realm?"

"I don't have a clue, Mr. King."

At that statement, there was silence.

After a minute, Sarah slowly added, "Maybe somebody wished me back."

King thought for a moment, back to the night Sarah had returned. Toby had wished his sister back on the night of Karen and Robert's twentieth anniversary. Jareth hadn't bestowed any powers on the baby that he could recall.

Perhaps it was my own desire to see Sarah return, that summoned her back from my castle, he thought.

He shrugged.

Sarah Williams sighed for a moment. Feeling comfortable with her conversation with Gavin, she began to talk without further prompting. She said in a lowered voice, "Jareth is here, and trying to trap me. I think he's angry with me about what happened thirteen years ago, when I defeated him in his Labyrinth. I'm sure he wants to make me pay dearly for the grief I've caused him."

"Oh, dear," Gavin remarked dryly, trying to sound interested. "What ever shall you do if the Goblin King comes for you?"

This was the question Jareth had wanted to ask from the start. He needed to know how Sarah was going to try and defeat him, in order to debunk any of her future successes.

He could not let her win this time.

He would not let her win!

Jareth was determined to cheat in everyway imaginable, just to bring her back to him, and confine her there…forever.

What was 'forever' to an immortal Goblin King, after all? It's not long at all!