Hadn't planned on posting until tomorrow, but I'm feeling generous today: I've been writing a later chapter in which a sexy half-naked Jareth kneels in front of Sarah in a moonlit room, and that image is bound to put anyone in a good mood :-)

Thanks for all the reviews:

HAL/Just: There is a touch of vampire over Jareth, and Lestat (book version, NOT film version) is 10 times more gorgeous than Edward Cullen, but no crossover in this story :-)

I can see you're all waiting to see what the Labyrinth will do to her, now that she jumped. Well, you forgot to consider... what will one disappointed Goblin King do about it?

Sara heard an angry roar above her as she fell, and then suddenly Jareth appeared in his owl form and beat his wings furiously into her face. Something cold fell around her neck and half strangled her, and when she realized he had managed to get the necklace on her, she tore at it and tried to get it off, but he kept beating his large wings in front of her and obscuring her view. When her fingers closed firmly around the cold silver, the owl screeched and clawed at her hands, almost drawing blood.

"Jareth, go away!" she screamed and beat at the owl with her hands. "We had a deal!"

Suddenly a blinding light surrounded her and she felt an intense heat surround her, and every part of her body tingled and burned. The air shone with electric sparks in all the colours of the rainbow. She forgot the owl and cried out in surprise and agony, but then the pain stopped and only a warm feeling remained. She felt her hair and dress flow free around her as if she was weightless and a moment after, she landed gently in the middle of the throne room. The owl was there as well, and immediately turned into Jareth, who looked angry enough to kill someone.

Sarah was furious as well. "What the hell was that?! I told you I didn't want it! What have you done to me?!"

"I have planned this for three years, Sarah," he shouted back and threw a crystal to the ground, for no other apparent reason than the satisfaction of hearing it shatter into a million pieces. "I don't think you realized what I have sacrificed to prepare this necklace for you! And you dare refuse me at the last moment?"

"I don't care about your plan! I don't want you – don't you get it!?"

"Oh, you WILL when I'm through with you," he hissed and the next crystal hit her square on, but instead of any pain, she felt a strong pull and suddenly she was somewhere else. The slimy grey stone walls and dim light made it obvious that she was back in one of the oubliettes, and she screamed in rage and stomped her feet in the ground.

"Jareth, come back here, you bastard! You can't just leave me here!"

There was no reply, and she groaned in frustration and took some deep breaths, trying to calm down. The necklace was still around her throat, and she ripped it off and threw it to the ground. She had been so ready to let go and let the Labyrinth take her and then he had cheated and forced this transformation on her anyway. She paused and looked down at herself – what had actually happened? She couldn't see much in the darkness, but she looked more or less the same as before, perhaps a little less skinny. Whatever Jareth had put of magic into the necklace seemed to have had the effect he desired – she had not become a creature, but remained herself with her own body and memories. Her body was still warm inside, and she slowly let her hands trace her face and hair, attempting to feel if there were any significant changes, but nothing was really noticeable. Had she really become like him now?

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Sarah could see more and more of the room. The cell space was very small and there were no doors at all, and no windows – the light came from above, as if the impossibly high ceiling continued all the way up to the sunlight. She could feel the air was very cool and clammy, but the unnatural heat inside her kept her warm and comfortable, and slowly she started to notice that she could hear sounds she'd never heard before. The wings of a moth flying past. The scurry of a rat in a corner. And the smells – she could smell a thousand different ones at the same time, although most of them were completely unfamiliar to her. She felt her anger slowly fading, as she went to a wall and let her hands glide over the texture feeling not only the rough stone she would have felt before, but also the age of the stone and the density of it, although she was at a loss to understand how she could feel those things. This was really weird. Was Jareth really experiencing all of this all the time? She slowly walked around the room and in two different places she could feel that the layer of stone was shell thin and that there was a pathway behind. She tried to push and find some kind of hidden latch both on the wall and on the floor beside it, but was unable to figure out how it worked.

Finally she leaned against a wall to gather her thoughts, and the first thing had to admit was that not only had her senses apparently been sharpened by the transition - her head was also clearer than it had been in a long time, maybe years. The headaches, the fatigue, the constant urge to cry and hide from the world had vanished without a trace and she felt almost sizzling with energy. Had the starvation really affected her that much? She felt like someone had removed a huge burden from her shoulders – a burden so familiar she had not realized she was carrying it – and now she was free and truly alive. She felt like flying, laughing and hugging someone, and all the fear and anger and resignation she had gone through in the past hours seemed like a distant nightmare. She might be locked in an oubliette and bound to the Labyrinth forever, but it was really difficult to be unhappy with all this new energy and these sensations.

As for Jareth's deceit – well, she was still upset with him, she admitted to herself, but if she had known how much better she would be feeling after the transformation, she might just have agreed to it on her own and then dealt with the marriage-proposition afterwards. But she had been incapable of taken that decision in the weakened state she had been in before - it was only visible to her now that she could see it with fresh eyes and a clear mind.

She wondered how much of Jareth's motivation had been a selfish wish to get a companion and a … bed partner, and how much - if any - had been out of a desire to right the wrong he had accidently done her by giving her the peach. Or was that just her wishful thinking? Was he a villain through and through or did he have some kind of conscience behind his arrogant attitude? Could she afford not to give him the benefit of doubt, now that she was stuck here in the Labyrinth anyway – apparently with no other company than him and the guardians?

"Jareth?" She called and waited to see if he was watching her. "Are you there? Can you hear me? … Can we talk?"

Many heartbeats passed, but nothing changed and he didn't appear. Maybe he was still too angry, she mused, and then stretched her arms and looked around again. If the doors didn't work, could she find another way out of here? She wasn't going to just sit here and wait while he was sulking.

Having given up on the doors, she gazed up to see how far it was. Hmm… very far – the shaft curved a few meters up, so it was impossible to any further than that, but she could smell the fresh air from above, so there must be a way out there, although she would have to climb or fly to get there.

Fly? She remembered Jareth's powers and the vision he had shown her in the crystal in the throne room – the crowned girl turning into an owl. Maybe she could fly? She had no idea how to use her magic, but went with her instincts and closed her eyes while she started slowly twirling on the floor. She tried staying in one place where the ceiling was tallest and imagining herself being an owl – a silent creature of the night with big wings and sharp round eyes… She pictured the owl image carefully and tried to harness the energy within herself, and suddenly she felt warm all over and her vision distorted, as she felt her body change in the weirdest way – not unpleasantly, but rather like… like she would feel if she was made out of jelly or clay. There was no comparison really, but like jelly her fingers stretched into wings, her nose to a beak and her feet to claws, and suddenly she was airborne and flapping strong white wings towards the ceiling – flying upwards to get enough space to spread the wings properly, and just moments after she could see the blinding daylight through a rusty metal grate. The bars on the grate was too close to fly through, so she flew a few turns around it to observe, and then landed on a protruding rock beside it, before she hopped along the wall and used her thick claws to grip the bars and squeeze through.

Above her was a part of the sandstone labyrinth, and not wanting to draw attention to herself, she launched herself into the grey overcast sky and flew upwards, until the whole of the Labyrinth was spread out before her. She could see forests and lakes and thousands of miles of hedges and walls, and there, miles away, was the Castle beyond the Goblin City. She flew a few circles and enjoyed the wind under her wings and the exhilarating feeling of flying, but then finally made a last turn and headed off towards the Castle. She was no longer the trembling half-starved girl, Jareth had brought Underground. She was strong again, tingling with magic, and it was time to confront him and get some answers. She wasn't afraid of him anymore. If he expected her, she would not try to hide, and if he didn't – well that would be even better. If owls could have smiled, Sarah would have been grinning all the way.