At the sight of Sarah, pale and struggling to regain her breath on the floor Jareth burst from his hiding spot in a vision of white. He drew a crystal from the air and shaped it into a blade, intending to hurl it into Jarah's hand. But Jarah was faster than his brother and, as though the goblin king was an irritating fly, he was swept out of the air and came crashing to the ground. He quickly recovered to see Sarah, blinking dazedly and struggling to sit up.

Sarah herself kept the shine of silver in her peripheral vision, but she was preoccupied by Jarah, now the beast from her sleeping hells, as he hovered on his hinds legs above her. Below his dripping mouth Sarah could see the full terrible detail of his face: it stretched wide like a cat's, but the snout was bear-like, the eyes were black marble and the pupils too small to see. His fur was matted with thick black feathers, and his mouth was full of more teeth than Sarah had ever seen before in her entire life. His body took up so much space in the room that Sarah could no longer see it entirely. When it seemed like Jarah might swipe at her again with one of his massive claws Sarah screamed.

"Wait!"

She scrambled for the fallen pieces of fruit on the floor, and plucked a seed from the red flesh. Above, Jarah stilled and Sarah could hear Jareth's sharp intake of breath when she lifted the tiny red piece to her lips and ate it.

"I'll stay with you." A pomegranate seed had never tasted so bitter.

There was a great explosion, the kind that made a person go temporarily deaf and this so wildly disoriented Sarah that she tumbled back down to the ground. But she had known where to go, having kept that glimmer of silver in her mind. So she soon found herself at the table, sending silver plates down to the floor as she flung her arms on its top, searching for something sharp. When she found what she wanted she secured it in her sleeve while the room recovered from the burst of magic. She turned and Jarah was himself again, down to his peculiar smile and tiny, sad doll in his mass of hair. The look he gave her was, to the untrained eye, a tender one, but she could detect the flutter of strange light. It was a prideful look, a joyful one; a look that meant he had won the game.

He stepped close to her, so they stood chest to chest and she could feel his breath moving him. He took her chin in his long-nailed fingers and tilted her face up to look at him. There was a stain on her lips from the juice of the fruit. Without a word he leaned down to kiss her, and Sarah marked the strange angry sound that came from the nearby Jareth, cataloging it in her memory as the best sound she had ever heard.

The next sound was the worst. It shadowed the sound of her mother's endless goodbyes ringing in melodic whispers. It left Toby's cries in the dust. It turned all sounds she had heard in the dark Labyrinth into ridiculous, unworthy sounds of horror. Nothing was worse than the sound of the knife entering Jarah's stomach with a horrible, low squeak. Nothing, until his own sound of anguish.

The cry was nothing like she could have imagined; did everyone make such a pitiful noise when stabbed? It was kind of a grunt, but kind of a moan, wet sounding and soft. He stepped back away from her, but the knife went with him, lodged deep in his abdomen. Stumbling backwards he stared at her with big questioning eyes. She only watched in paralyzed fear as he began to die. She did not know that such a wound could kill him.

Jareth came to her side, equally as horrified as her, and took hold of her arm. She let him, and they watched as Jarah struggled and hiccupped. Blood, a purplish red came oozing out from his white lips and dribbled down his chin to stain his jacket. He fell to his knees and then slumped face down in a swift fall that sent the knife further into his gut. Both Sarah and Jareth flinched.

When all was still and silent, Sarah took a nervous step forward.

"Help me." She whispered and Jareth moved to her. Together the two of them turned Jarah's body over, revealing a face neither recognized.

Gone was the hard bones and cold expression. His features had softened and aged backwards: he looked like nothing more than a young man. His wide eyes were open and stared blankly upwards into nothing, but they were no long black with their ghostly white pupils. Instead they were a lovely pale violet, mixed with blue, and the pupils were a healthy human black. His hair had thinned and shortened slightly and his girth had waned so he was meeker. He looked so sadly human.

"Jareth," Sarah's voice was soft and dry. "I don't understand."

The goblin king kneeled down behind her and embraced her.

"I had forgotten." He said against her hair. "That we were once mortal."

"I did not think it would kill him… How old are you?" She wanted to turn to look at him, but his proximity was too tempting. She wanted to be in control of herself, even when she felt like everything was about to burst.

"Older than I thought I was, I suppose." His answer was so honest and his tone was so sad.

She almost turned to face him, but something caught their eye. Slithering out from Jarah's dead lips was a black filmy snake. It had no face or features, but it moved like a living creature slithering upwards until it was suspended in the air, twisting slowly.

Overwhelmed with memory, Jareth dragged Sarah backwards and searched wildly for an exit.

"Don't touch it Sarah!"

"Jareth!"

The dark creature was too fast for them. It pounced on Sarah before Jareth could make it any closer to the above exit. It clung to her lips momentarily before surging down her throat. She seized with its entry and bucked against Jareth, who was taken aback and dropped her to the floor.

He watched, horror-stricken, as her skin paled and her hair darkened. She cried when it began to grow, very swiftly, from her scalp, which bled in surprise. The nails on her fingers sharpened and lengthened so they looked more like claws. Jareth fell to her side and touched her face gently, trying to calm her twitching. He was close enough to watch her eyes, so beautiful and green, deepen until they were black. Her pupils began to shine and when their light subsided, they were no longer black.

It was this final transformation that brought her to sudden stillness, so she was sprawled on her back, arms outstretched and hair splayed in a wild halo around her head. Her nightmarish eyes gazed upwards at nothing. Jareth above her felt the rush of guilt overwhelm him and he grasped her hands in his.

Their silence was broken by soft whispers from the perimeter of the room. The masked faces of the crowd filed out from the darkness nervously. Among their chanting could be heard: queen, the new queen.

And queen she now was; the essence of nightmare had infected her. Its twisted body was inside, leaking into her mortal soul, biting at her heart to try and darken it. She felt cold and ill.

When Jareth tried to touch her she found herself swiping wildly at him so he backed away from her nervously, sheer sorrow in his bright eyes.

"I am so sorry." He said quietly.

Tears began to leak from her strange new eyes. From above, salty rain poured down on them.

Her subjects bowed low to the floor.

With one look, the nightmare queen sent Jareth flying away softly. He could not bring himself to look back at her, even as the door closed softly behind him. He may have shed a few tears of his own as he flew blindly home, for it was his fault after all.

What price could he pay for the infection's reversal? What could he do to save the girl he had longed for so long?

Nothing.

For she was Nightmare now, and he was Dream. Destined opposites, yet twins. And there was nothing that could be done now to change that.

Okay, I lied; we may yet have two more chapters until the end! I know this one was short, but I hope you still enjoyed! The original plan was to have all three final parts as one chapter, but I decided to split them apart...Review!