Hey guys. Thanks for all the nice messages after last time. Here is the next chapter. I know stuff has been a little confusing, but it will all become clear. I nkow I keep saying this, but please hang in there...things are on the up. This is not the last chapter. Hope you enjoy. Love you all. FY.A xxx

Pain lanced through Jareth's body as the light beat at his closed eyelids. He rolled over, burying his face into his arms to stop the brightness. The stone floor of his chamber pressed into his stomach, his hips, his knees. He shifted slightly, grating his body against the rough surface, rejoicing in the pain. The sound of panting filled his ears, and an irregular rhythm beat in his chest. Hyperventilation. But his brain felt clear. Still face down, he pressed his fingertips against his lips. He could feel no breath. Someone else shifted in the room, the sound of someone rolling over in bed whilst dreaming. A nightmare. Jareth screwed his eyes shut tight, reaching out to the other person. What was her name? Emeralds. Green. Love. Sarah. An image of nightmarish brilliance swam before his eyes. A sun filled meadow, green grass and a clear stream. A memory. Intangible. Out of reach. Devoid of life. Not her dream, but his.

And then he saw her. She wore a pale cloak trimmed with fur and her feet were bare. As she walked slowly away from him across the grass her luxurious brown hair swung in a heavy wave behind her, and he felt himself fading too. He tried to call, but found he couldn't. Instead, when he opened his mouth, it was song that crossed his lips.

Did I disappoint you or let you down?
Should I be feeling guilty or let the judges frown?
'Cause I saw the end before we'd begun,
Yes I saw you were blinded and I knew I had won.

She stopped and turned to him, and all at once he felt a power surge within him. This was his choice, his chance to play God. Jareth approached Sarah where she stood in the dreamlike meadow and reached out, taking from her the clear crystal which she carried, in which there floated a figure of herself. The crystal was warm as he pressed it to his lips, causing the mist in its depths to swirl in a passionate hue of deep red. Bllod red. Jareth smiled and slipped it into his pocket.

So I took what's mine by eternal right.
Took your soul out into the night.
It may be over but it won't stop there,
I am here for you if you'd only care.

And suddenly Jareth fell apart. His knees hit the smooth surface of the meadow grass, to dry and warm to be of the Underground he so loved. His heart ached for his Underground, his Labyrinth. He looked up at the girl who stared wordlessly down at him. He was losing her. He could not save her. She was lost to him. He had taken her from her world to his. Had she experienced this pain? This loss of the world she loved? She had begged to follow him, but Jareth knew that as the magic had sweot through his body on top of the mound, he too had silently begged for a different world. T o let it be over. To let me find peace. But know that he was here...Sarah reached into the gown she wore and from its folds produced a second crystal. In its depths his own likeness could be distinguished.

You touched my heart you touched my soul.
You changed my life and all my goals.
And love is blind and that I knew when,
My heart was blinded by you.
I've kissed your lips and held your hand.
Shared your dreams and shared your bed.
I know you well, I know your smell.
I've been addicted to you.

An addiction. Yes. Faraway, across the distance of the ages, a memory came to Jareth. Himself and Sarah, on the banks of the waterfall pool in his secret garden. Making love a lifetime ago. But as he tried to seize hold of the memory, it drifted out of reach, fading into the lost thoughts of the long dead. And he knew he had to let her go.

Goodbye my lover.
Goodbye my friend.
You have been the one.
You have been the one for me.

But even in the midst of the sadness, the lifeless meadow of the dead, a voice began to reach him. Speaking into his mind. An old friend with no use for language.

"Jareth. Come My King. Come back to me. Sire, think of what is real."

Tiredness overcame Jareth as his head dropped. "I have nothing left to give. I am too tired. It is over."

"No Jareth. You did enough. You have saved. This is just one more fight against temptation. Against the fear in your heart. The fear of what you have done."

In the meadow Jareth looked into Sarah's eyes.

I am a dreamer and when I wake,
You can't break my spirit - it's my dreams you take.
And as you move on, remember me,
Remember us and all we used to be

"That's right Jareth. This is only a dream. This is how it would have been."

And already it was fading. Sarah's dream ghost was frozen in time, pleading with him, tempting him to stay. Jareth steeled himself to that look, hardening his heart to the anguish of Sarah's likeness, remembering his meeting with Pan. He did not know where this temptation had been sent from, but he realised now that it was test. Choose to die, and they would die, or defy the temptation, and live the gift they'd been given.

As the dream dissolved in his own consciousness, he could still see the frozen face of Sarah, still mouthed the words as does a sleep talker, but now he was singing to life, to the Sarah he loved and would live with.

I've seen you cry, I've seen you smile.
I've watched you sleeping for a while.
I'd be the father of your child.
I'd spend a lifetime with you.
I know your fears and you know mine.
We've had our doubts but now we're fine,
And I love you, I swear that's true.
I cannot live without you.

Pain began to return to his numb body as the all encompassing truth of this statement hit him in full. Jareth rolled onto his back on the floor of his chamber as the tears leaked from his closed eyes, feeling the sorrow of what Sarah had given up for him.

Goodbye my lover.
Goodbye my friend.
You have been the one.
You have been the one for me.

And I still hold your hand in mine.
In mine when I'm asleep.
And I will bare my soul in time,
When I'm kneeling at your feet.

But that was not yet. When the time came he would beg for forgiveness. He would plead with her. He had made her choices for her, taken her life from her.

Goodbye my lover.
Goodbye my friend.
You have been the one.
You have been the one for me.

As Jareth finally opened his eyes to the brightness of a new Labyrinthine day, she wrapped him in warmth and kissed away the salt from his cheeks with sunlight lips. He lay in the warmth, knowing he was numb and cold. Pushing away the sense of all reality he closed his eyes once more, and listened to the silence that should have been the pounding of his blood in his ears.

I'm so hollow, baby, I'm so hollow.
I'm so, I'm so, I'm so hollow.
I'm so hollow, baby, I'm so hollow.
I'm so, I'm so, I'm so hollow.

"We are your heartbeat, we are your breath. Feel us, thanks us. You have given us life." The Labyrinth's voice spoke like a cool caress against his soul. The pain began to fade as, over on the Sarah began to breathe the deeper breaths of untroubled sleep. The strange rhythm that filled her chest beat a tattoo in her ribcage, as the man who loved her more than life itself, silently slipped into bed beside her.

And the Labyrinth smiled, breathing Pan's deep sigh of contentment as his powerful magic wrapped a single life in safety.

Any clearer yet? No? Oh well. Jareth is going to have to explain quite a lot of it so don't worry, explanations will follow, as will some interesting stuff...keep reading. xxx