So I would have had this up last night, but I had a little occurrence of domestic violence myself and couldn't make it on. Logically I assumed I gained magical powers and whatever I wrote would happened so I wished for the Goblin King to come. Still David Bowieless, I decided to post this and pack to take my kid to our family's cabin for a few days. I should hopefully post a new chapter when I get back. Unless I get taken to the Underground of course, in which case…you'll never hear from me again~!

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Robert Williams was an ordinary man. He loved his wife Irene, their son Toby, and his daughter Sarah. So when Sarah's boyfriend had come to him saying she had been kidnapped, he did what any ordinary man would. He called the police and started trying to come up with ways to gather a ransom for her return. It had been three days since Robert found out his daughter was gone, he would not be able to believe it had only been mere hours for Sarah herself, who was safely hidden away in a Goblin castle.

Irene had gone to bed hours before after sending Toby to bed, but something kept telling Robert to stay awake. So he did, sitting in a chair near the telephone in case the kidnappers called. Since he was an ordinary man, Robert was not expecting a flamboyantly dressed man to suddenly appear in his living room, glitter swirling around him. Robert jumped up and picked up the cordless phone, ready to use it as a weapon if need be. The strangely dressed man narrowed his eyes at the motion, then snapped his gloved fingers. The phone in Robert's hand suddenly turned to ash and the man snickered.

"Now that you no longer have that, how about you listen to me. For Sarah's sake," the man said.

"Sarah? What about Sar- you have her don't you? Give me back my daughter!" Robert lunged for the stranger and was highly surprised to find himself landing on the floor with the kidnapper sitting in the chair where Robert had been sitting.

"I'll give her back. If you win my little game. If not…well, I'll just have to keep her with me, forever." The flamboyant kidnapper looked entirely pleased with himself as Robert picked himself up off the floor and glared.

"What game? You trying to play at the movies? Want me to rob a bank for you or something?" Robert growled.

"Rob a…for heaven's sakes. What nonsense. No. I just want you to solve my puzzle," the man said with a roll of his eyes while gracefully getting to his feet.

"Puzzle?"

The man pointed behind Robert, who was shocked to find out that the rest of his living room was no longer behind him, but a giant maze. "Get to the castle at the center within thirteen hours and I will give Sarah back to you…fail and I will send you back home and Sarah will be mine forever."

Robert stared at the maze for a long minute before glancing back at his daughter's kidnapper, who was rolling glass ball along his hand with ease. "I make it through your maze and you'll give her back?"

"Idiot human, that's what I said, didn't I? And what's said is said. Now either start walking or forfeit. Either way makes no difference for me, I know you won't make it to the castle in time." With a smirk and a toss of his glass ball, the stranger disappeared and Robert was left on his own.

Staring down at the maze, Robert started to walk with a determined stride. "Don't worry Sarah, I'm coming for you."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Jareth reappeared in his library to find Sarah curled up in a chair with a book in her hands, her little goblin friend asleep on her chest. The goblin puzzled Jareth, as he had not known that any of his goblins had taken enough of a liking to Sarah to follow her Aboveground and risk getting stuck there forever. Not even her little dwarf friend would have risked it, even if he did had the ability to hide from humans if he needed to. Promising to find out about the goblin and Sarah's relationship later, the Goblin King moved forward and placed himself where Sarah could see him if she looked up from her book. Jareth leaned up against one of the many bookcases in the library with his arms crossed over his chest and one booted ankle crossed over the other. He stared at the young woman intently, finally taking a good enough look at her that he could notice all the differences between the fifteen year old Sarah and the twenty-five year old Sarah. This Sarah had lost much of the innocent look she once had, and her dark hair had highlights from the sun streaking through it. It made her look more carefree and happy, in his opinion. He was beginning to wonder if she was ever going to notice him and started to shift impatiently when the corner of her mouth twitched into a half smile.

"How many times a day do you change, Jareth?" she asked without raising her eyes from the pages of the book.

"Pardon?"

"When you left, you were wearing a white shirt and grey pants. When you returned five minutes ago, you came in a blue shirt and black pants. Plus the last time I was in your kingdom you wore about five different outfits in the span of ten hours."

Jareth blinked a few times, before smirking faintly at the woman. "Why Sarah, I didn't realize you were so…attentive to how I dressed. Or when I came into the room."

"With pants that tight, any girl would notice what you were wearing, and honestly, it's not hard to catch sight of the glitter that surrounds you when you come or go."

One of Jareth's eyebrows raised up and he pushed away from the bookshelf, taking several steps towards the chair Sarah was in. "My, my. You must have been paying more attention to me than I had previously thought. I'm flattered, Sarah."

And he was. Jareth had not been aware that Sarah actually looked at him for any reason other than to glare and mock the last time she had been in the Labyrinth. Armed with this new knowledge, Jareth strutted a bit more than usual.

"Oh please," Sarah said with an eye roll, "it's not like you don't know how good you look."

"I didn't know you thought I look good. It's quite pleasing," Jareth smugly replied, moving to sit on the arm of Sarah's chair. "Tell me, which outfit of mine did you like best, my dear one?"

Sarah blushed as she glanced over at Jareth, her eyes landing on his lap which was strategically placed at just the right spot. She quickly turned her head away and mumbled a response while willing her blush to die down. Jareth was positively gleeful about her blush though, and leaned closer to her, his lips near her ear, hoping to make it deeper.

"What was that Sarah? I'm afraid I didn't quite catch that."

"I said…the blue jacket. That you wore when we danced. Though, I liked the feather cloak you wore the last time I saw you that day." Sarah's voice came out at a higher pitch than usual and Jareth had to chuckle lowly, eyebrow raising in interest when he saw a shiver go through Sarah.

"I believe I still have that jacket somewhere," Jareth mused, only to sit back when Sarah muttered an affirmative. "And just how would you know that?"

"I…" Sarah sank her teeth into her lower lip and closed the book on her index finger, holding her spot. She seemed to shrink in on herself, head ducking down a bit, "I snooped in your closet."

Jareth frowned at the overall posture Sarah was in, not really caring that she had gone in his closet. If he had wanted to hide his things from her, he wouldn't have left her alone in his bedroom. Staring at the submissive pose that looked so wrong on her, Jareth finally got it. And almost flew into a rage. But he didn't, because instinctively, he knew it would scare her worse than she already seemed to be. So instead he blew out a breath and reached out, gripping her chin between his gloved fingers and turning her face up towards his.

"Sarah, I don't mind that you looked. I'm more curious as to if you tried anything on. The image of you in some of my shirts is definitely pleasing to the mind's eye."

Sarah, realizing that most of his shirts showed his bare chest, flushed red again and she shoved him away, almost sending him to the floor. "I didn't try anything on! That's so…personal! And we aren't… I mean…" she huffed and reached out with the book, thumping the top of his head with it, not hard enough to really hurt, which just served to further amuse him.

"You can wear anything of mine you'd like Sarah, provided that I get to see you in it," Jareth smirked and stood up, hands moving to rest on his hips. Sarah spluttered for a few seconds before opening the book and staring at the pages, though it was easy to see her eyes weren't moving across the words.

"I am trying to read this book, Goblin King. If you aren't busy maybe you should get to work on putting our deal in motion."

"But dear Sarah, your father has been working at the Labyrinth for almost ten minutes now," Jareth said over his shoulder as he strode towards the library doors. "Not that he's managed to find the doors in yet. Such a pity."

Sarah could only watch the Goblin King strut out of the library with a frustrated expression on her face.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Robert ran up and down the outside of the maze, panic setting in his head as his time ticked away and the entrance to the maze remained hidden. He was just about ready to start screaming when he heard a faint voice counting out.

"Thirty-two! Ha ha, gotcha! Thirty-three!"

Robert ran towards the voice and skidded to a stop in front of what looked like a dwarf. Said dwarf looked up at him with something akin to disgust before it went back to counting and shooting out gas at what looked like fairies.

"Thirty-four!"

"Please," Robert called out in a pleading tone, "I need to get into the maze to save my daughter!"

"Then you should get to it," the dwarf huffed out, staring at Robert with a frown.

"But there's no door!"

"Of course there's a door, dummy. How else would people get in?" The dwarf shook his head and started to turn back to his fairies.

"Where is it then?"

"Where's what?"

"The door!"

"What door?" asked the dwarf with a smirk, obviously taking pleasure in frustrating Robert and wasting his precious hours.

"The door to this stupid maze of course!" Robert was beyond frustrated and was about to start shaking the dwarf when he heard a creaking sound.

"The damn doors are over there. Now leave me alone!" the dwarf spit out and shoved Robert away from him, in the direction of the doors. Robert didn't even look back as he ran for the doors, taking a left once he was in the maze. He didn't hear the dwarf mutter as the doors creaked shut again. "I actually feel bad for his daughter. She's probably better off with Jareth…"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Jareth had watched the whole exchange through one of his crystals and laughed loudly at Hoggle's last remark, one hand playing with a spare crystal.

"Oh Hogbrain, if only you knew whose dad that was."

Smirking a bit at the obvious frustration that Robert was already going through, Jareth spun a crystal in his hand. Winking it out of existence. At the exact same moment rain started to pour down over the labyrinth, soaking everything and everyone in it and forming large puddles.

"Let's see if this cools you down a bit, Robert."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Robert sloshed his way through puddles, muttering about killing flamboyantly dressed kidnappers who owned crazy mazes and rude dwarfs when he tripped over what appeared to be a rock. As he went sprawling into a puddle the rock giggled and moved a bit. Robert blinked a few times before reaching out and grabbing the 'rock'. What he saw surprised him, the rock was actually a little deformed creature with sharp teeth.

"What...what are you?" he asked the creature.

"I's a goblin of course! What you be thinking I was, a unicorn? What else you's gonna find in the goblin kingdom? Silly human!"

"Goblin kingdom…" Robert shook his head and got to his feet, still clutching the goblin tightly in one hand. "You, goblin, show me the way through the labyrinth. Or I'll throw you to the wolves."

"Ooooo you's a mean one, you is. But Nommy shows you way through the labyrinth. As long as meanie promises to give him a gift."

Robert looked around him, then patted his pockets until he came up with his wallet. He flipped through it and was about to give the little goblin a dollar bill when it snatched a picture of Sarah that had been inside.

"Nommy takes this and leads you through the labyrinth!"

Robert hesitated before nodding and putting the goblin on the ground, then raced after him as the goblin took off running down the pathways. An older man, Robert was hard pressed to keep up with the little creature and had to call out for it to slow down several times.

"Nommy can't slow down, Nommy has to show you the way!" the goblin yelled out as he raced around a corner. Robert ran after him and after whipping around the corner, barreled right into the man who kidnapped his daughter. The man shoved him away with a disgusted sneer, then looked down at the goblin who had been helping Robert.

"Gummy," he sighed, "What are you doing with this human?"

"Nommy gots a present from the meanie and now Nommy is helping him get through the labyrinth. It's a fair deal kingy! Tiny painting of Queenie for directions to castle!"

Robert was slowly getting to his feet and made a shushing sound at the goblin, who gave him a dirty look, then pulled down his pants and mooned Robert while making a rude noise with his tongue. The kidnapper laughed and ran a hand through his hair, which Robert noticed was not wet. Frowning, Robert really looked over the man and noticed that the rain didn't seem to touch him at all.

"What…how come the rain isn't getting on you?" he asked.

"I am the Goblin King, I rule over the Labyrinth and everything in it. I am the Master of Dreams and Wishes. Do you really think that I would let myself get wet from rain?"

"Goblin…King? That's not possible. What is this?" Robert demanded, taking a step towards the so called king.

"My, my, I thought Sarah asked pointless questions when she ran the Labyrinth, but yours are just idiotic. I already told you. This is my Labyrinth and you have to solve it to win your daughter back. Unless you are ready to give up?" The Goblin man looked very pleased at the thought of Robert giving up.

Robert had just been about to respond in a rude way when something the man said registered with him. "What do you mean, when Sarah ran the Labyrinth?"

"Oh yes, you didn't know. Precious Sarah wished away baby Toby when you left her home alone again to take care of him. I took him from her, but gave her the opportunity to run the labyrinth for him. She did and she won. I gave her back the baby and waited until I could get Sarah back." The man looked positively gleeful at Robert's darkening expression, one hand flipping a crystal back and forth.

"She wished away Toby? My son? When she was supposed to be taking care of him? How could she?"

"Wouldn't you be frustrated enough to say something you didn't mean when you were forced to yet again take care of someone who your father loved more than you and treated better than you?"

Robert pressed his lips together and shook his head, then pushed past the Goblin King, refusing to give him anymore entertainment. The goblin followed him, skipping along through the puddles.

"Oh, and Robert?" The man called after him, "You better speed your pace up. You only have five hours left. Time sure does fly when you're having fun!"

Before Robert could even respond, the man disappeared with a whoosh of glitter and Robert glared down at the goblin who had been helping him. "We need to get through this thing fast."

"Aye aye, meaniebutt!" the goblin yelled before taking off at top speed again.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Jareth appeared in the library again, this time wearing a green outfit, with his riding crop in hand. He shook his head slightly when he found Sarah in the same spot as before, though a different book was in her hands. Glancing around, he notice the previous one sitting on a nearby table. Her little goblin friend was nowhere to be seen.

"I liked your blue shirt better, Jareth." Sarah commented as she turned a page in the book, eyes landing on the riding crop in his hand for a brief second before she determinedly looked away.

"I will make a note of that for the future then, precious. Where is your little friend?"

"I was hungry, he offered to go find food," she said and closed the book on her finger to keep her spot. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company this time? Do you want to talk about how pretty you are again? I'm sure your ego would love the boost."

Jareth gave his patented smirk and shook his head, flicking his hand up to show her a crystal that he pulled from thin air. "I thought you might want to see your father progress through the labyrinth. He's going much faster now that he conned a goblin to show him the way."

"One of your goblins is showing him the way?" Sarah asked, sitting up to better look into the crystal.

"Yes, Bumpy or Lumpy, Something like that. Your father apparently gave him a painting of a queen and now the goblin is leading him right to the castle."

"You don't mind?" she sounded surprised as she stood up, moving in front of him to see into the crystal. An image of her father and the goblin running through hedges was visible and the light from the crystal made odd patterns on her face, making it look like her eyes were glowing. Jareth stared, entranced, until she looked up at him with a question expression.

"I have faith in the traps that surround the city and my castle, Sarah. And my goblin army. Sir Didymus has been training them quiet diligently," Jareth moved his gaze away from her and back down at the crystal, glad he had a reason to avoid looking at her for the moment. "Oh look, they are about to enter the Garden of Dreams."

"The Garden of Dreams?"

"Yes…it puts anyone who walks through it in a trance where they can see their dreams. They can even reach out and take them if they want…though to do so is to forfeit my game," Jareth gave her an apologetic look, which she ignored in favor of watching her father step onto perfectly manicured grass.

"He's my father, he wouldn't choose a dream over me."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Robert stepped into the bright, cheerful garden with a wary look upon his face, not trusting that such a beautiful place could exist within the walls of the horrid maze. When nothing happened to him in the first few steps, he continued onward with a sigh a relief. He never noticed swirls of magical energy releasing from the blades of grass with each step he took, nor how they spun around him in an ever growing cloud. He was perhaps thirty feet into the garden when he first saw someone else, walking down a flower lined path to him. With a startled noise he realized it was Jessica, a girl he had been engaged to in college, before he had met Sarah's mother Linda. As he ran over to Jessica, he ignored the nagging in the back of his mind that said this situation wasn't at all possible.

"Jessica?"

"Bobby!" Jessica exclaimed and threw her arms around his neck, pressing herself close to his body. "I can't seem to find my way out of this maze."

"I'm lost too. I was searching for… for…" Robert trailed off for a few seconds before shaking his head and bringing the image of his daughter to mind. "Sarah! I have to find her!"

Jessica smiled sweetly at him while lacing her fingers together with his, her head leaning down on his shoulder. "You're so helpful Bobby. Please won't you help me, too? We could leave here… go home and be together again. We could be happy."

Jessica's eyes had a pleading look in them as she pulled her body back enough for Robert to see that she hadn't seemed to age a day since they split up. The non-aging didn't seem off to him at all and he nodded at her before glancing at a nervous looking goblin who was standing near them with a small photograph in his hands. Gathering up Jessica in his arms and pulling her close, unable to resist touching her as much as possible, Robert called out to the little goblin, "I think I found what I was searching for. We'd like to go home now."

All at once Jessica smiled and rubbed her cheek against his shoulder, and the Goblin King appeared a few feet from them, an almost reluctant expression on his face.

"Normally in the Labyrinth, what's said is said, but I will give you once more chance, Robert. Do you want to continue on to the castle or give up on your quest and go home to be with…this woman?"

Robert blinked a few times before looking down at the woman in his arms with a dreamy smile, "I think I found what I was searching for. I'd like to leave now."

"Dad, no!" a voice called out and he turned to see Sarah standing next to the Goblin King, a look of horrified surprise on her face. The king gave her what looked like an apologetic glance before lifting one hand up and waving at Robert.

"You surprise me, Robert. Who would have guessed that the father of such a wonderful young woman would give up after just one chance at his dreams? Most resist several dreams before giving in. What a pity…"

And then Robert was back in his living room, in his house, with a now much older Jessica in his arms. Blinking several times as a wave of confusion came over him, he glanced down at the woman in his arms. As he leaned down to kiss her, the lights in the room flickered on and a shriek rang out. Looking up, he saw his wife Irene staring at him in shocked hurt.

"I… I can explain… This wasn't supposed to happen…"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Sarah…" Jareth turned to face the young woman after he sent her father back Aboveground, one hand reaching out for her. He expected her to yell at him, blame him for her father leaving, or even run away, but instead she quickly moved forward and threw her arms around him, burying his face against his chest. Surprised, he stood completely still. Until he heard the sob escape her mouth. Instantly he wrapped his arms around the woman, one gloved hand lightly running through her hair. "I am sorry, Sarah."

"H-he left me. Gave up, for a dream," Sarah cried quietly, her shoulders shaking as she clung to Jareth. "How could he have done that? He's my dad."

"The hearts of men are weak, Sarah. Even parents can be entranced away from their children if they feel as though they have put aside too many dreams." Jareth said quietly as he slowly brought them both down to the ground, where he sat, pulling Sarah onto his lap where she quietly cried. It took a very long forty-five minutes for her to stop crying and look up at Jareth, who was looking uncomfortable, though he tried to hide it from her.

"Thank you," she said quietly. Jareth blinked several times in surprise before smiling faintly and nodding, his hand still gently playing with strands of her hair. They sat in the quiet of the garden with Jareth protecting her from the magic dreams it wanted to send out and Sarah leaning against his chest, fingers playing with the edge of the feathered cloak he was wearing. It took a while to realize it was the one from their final standoff where she declared he had no power over her, but when she did, she glanced up at him with a small smile. "Do you wear this in all your final standoffs, Goblin King?"

Jareth smirked and shook his head, an amused look in his eyes. "Only the ones in which you are involved."

Sarah opened her mouth to respond but was stopped when a goblin ran into the garden, his arms flailing around.

"Your Majesty! There is a goblin tearing through the castle! Destroying things in his wake!"

Jareth's eyes narrowed and he quickly shifted Sarah off of his lap, then got to his feet. He spared a moment to help Sarah to hers before transporting them both into the castle. A large crashing sound and screaming greeted them, followed by a crowd of goblins running down the hallway Jareth had transported them to. Not four seconds later Ripley came chasing after them, a kitchen knife held in his grasp, screaming after them, "You be telling me right now where Sarah is or I'll chop your noses off!"

"Ripley," Sarah called out as the goblin ran past, causing him to skid to a stop, and run over to hug Sarah's ankle.

"Sarah! I thought they kidnapped you!"

"The king took me to the gardens for a bit, I'm sorry," she said and bent down to scoop up the goblin.

"Sarah, you haven't been here thirteen hours and you already have your pet terrorizing my goblins. I shudder to think of that will happen after a week of you staying here," Jareth drawled in an amused tone as he leaned against a wall, watching Sarah and Ripley.

"By the week's end? Why I'll probably be in charge of the goblins and forcing them to do my bidding," Sarah snickered.

"Normally I don't feel bad for the goblins, but at this instance, I am absolutely terrified about what you will force them to do."

Sarah only laughed, much to the pleasure of the Goblin King and to the terror of the goblins who had been listening in.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

So who thought Sarah's father was going to beat the Labyrinth? Or at least get to the end and give her the chance to go back Aboveground for visits? I made him a jerk on purpose, obviously, because it will later suit my purposes. Don't hate me for making Sarah's dad a douche.

Also: Still in need of a beta.