Disclaimer: Labyrinth and its characters belong to Jim Henson and Co.

Chapter Title: from "Passing Afternoon" by Iron and Wine

Tears had formed at the corners of Sarah's eyes from being clenched so tightly. From the moment Arden had grabbed her arm, she had refused to open them. If she could just keep them closed a little longer, maybe she could pretend that this was all a dream. But a peculiar sulfurous scent had pervaded her nostrils, making it impossible for her not to look around.

They stood on the same hill on which Sarah had gotten her first look at the labyrinth. The ground beneath her feet was still pleasantly smooth with the lightest dusting of sand, and a breeze swept through her hair just as before. But that was about all that remained the same.

The Underground of her childhood was gone now, replaced with something that deeply unsettled her. The color of the sky, once a brilliant orange, had dulled to the muddled color of rust with dismal gray clouds to block the light. The scant vegetation that had grown there had been wiped out entirely, making the hill on which they stood a barren tundra. And the smell…The smell was all wrong. Before it had been a warm, dusty smell. Now it was colder, and dry in a way that made her expression sour.

But the most troubling difference of all was the labyrinth itself. Sarah had noticed its changes right away, but had ignored it in favor of using her other senses to observe. Taking a step closer, she saw the full extent of its transformation.

The walls were crumbling, making the outline of the various passages as craggy and uneven as a mountain range. In some sections the walls had collapsed entirely, leaving odd looking gaps in the grand picture of it all. Absurdly, Sarah thought of the paint by number kits she had worked on as a child. Slaved over was more accurate. They often took days to finish, and when she had gone to sleep at night, she always did so with a faint sense of dissatisfaction. The painting looked so incomplete when you could still see all of the spaces that were yet to be filled in, the transparent blue lines standing out mockingly amongst the warm acrylic paints. That was how the labyrinth looked now.

For some unfathomable reason, Sarah felt her throat clench. That the labyrinth, once so indomitable, unsolvable for all but she, could be reduced to such a state pulled at her heart in a way she had not anticipated.

It looks like a graveyard, she mused. And it did. Wars might have been waged within its walls for all the damage that had been done. And the destruction was still too fresh to be beautiful. Another thousand years might have given it a tragic sort of appeal, like a treasured piece of memorabilia. But for now, it was just sad.

"What happened to it?" Sarah spoke through clenched teeth. She had moved on from being upset to being angry. Who had dared to let the kingdom fall into such a state of disrepair? It was neglect in its clearest form, and she could not believe that it had gone unaddressed for so long. She rounded on Arden, intent on hearing an explanation from him.

The king's advisor was disdainful as ever. "This is what happens when a kingdom lacks an attentive ruler." Sarah scowled at his tone. It was clearly intended to be a jab at her, but she would have none of it. This was not her fault, not her world. And in spite of it not being her responsibility, she had still agreed to help restore order. As far as she was concerned, Arden could take his resentment and shove it up his ass.

"What's that?" Will finally spoke up. His eyes were even wider than Sarah's as he struggled to take in his surroundings. He could tell that the world that they had entered was ancient in a way that was incomprehensible to man. And for all the moving around Will had done as a child in a military family, he had never experienced anything more ancient than the Washington Monument.

Sarah followed his gaze to the uncertain outline at the center of the labyrinth. "That is the Castle beyond the Goblin City. Or at least, what's presumably left of it," she answered, looking pointedly at Arden.

"Actually," he responded to her implicit challenge, "The castle has remained in markedly good shape. And now that you mention it, I suggest we start to make our way there."

"Why?" Sarah asked.

Arden sighed, exasperated that this girl who knew so little of his world could hold so much power. "You may find that the Goblin Kingdom has become a rather more treacherous place since your last stint here," he bit out. "The castle is the only place that is somewhat safe. And I am eager that we should make it there before dark."

Sarah blinked in consternation. "You mean you can't just teleport us there?"

"Regrettably, no. That sort of power is reserved for only the most elite Fae."

"And the Goblin King can't just come pick us up because…?" Arden flinched noticeably at that. Sarah raised a pointed eye brow at him. "There's something you're not telling us, isn't there?"

His teeth clenched in response. "I suppose it's a moot point now anyway," Arden said, mostly to himself. Then, turning back to them, he said, "Even if the Goblin King was here, he would not have to necessary power to transfer all of us back to the castle. You have yourself to thank for that."

Sarah's jaw dropped. "What do you mean 'even if he was here'? You mean he's not even in the damn kingdom?!"

"Did you think he would be allowed to remain in the castle after such a fall from grace?"

Sarah was seething, her hands clenching and unclenching in tight fists. This was not what she had agreed to. If the Goblin King wanted his power back, fine. She was more than happy to give it to him. But she would not be trekking across the Underground to do it. She sat down in the dirt, refusing to move.

"What are you doing?" Arden snapped, clearly put out by her childishness.

"I'm waiting," she announced. When he gave a confused look in response, she explained, "I agreed to do you a favor and give your poor monarch back his power. Nowhere in there was it stipulated that I had to go on some Tolkien-esque quest to do it. So, I'm waiting. Either you can bring him here, or you can forget about ever seeing that glittery jerk on the throne again."

Arden was gritting his teeth again, like what he was going to say next would cause him physical pain. "I am sure that something can be…arranged. If the Lady would simply acquiesce to follow along to the castle."

His words barely registered in Sarah's mind. She would have been perfectly content to ignore him, had not, at that precise moment, a frightening growl emitted from a rocky cavern off to their left. It caused her to jump slightly, wondering what kind of creature could have made that sound.

Arden had apparently heard it too, as he was now scanning the hillside for signs of impending threat. "The sun will be setting soon. I suggest you follow me." With that he took off down the hillside, not bothering to see if anyone followed.

"Asshole," Sarah muttered to herself. She did not hear Will come up behind her.

"Should we be doing this?" he asked her. Sarah jumped again, surprised by his sudden proximity, but Will did not seem to notice. He was looking out at the vast expanse of stone and slate that was the labyrinth.

"You're the one who insisted I return," she grumbled. She did bear some sympathy for him, knowing how intimidating the labyrinth could look at a distance. But it was his own fault that they were there in the first place. He would have to learn to deal with it.

Hearing another low snarl from an unknown point, Sarah stood and motioned that they follow after Arden.

What did he mean when he said the labyrinth is a more dangerous place? Sarah wondered. Other than its obviously unruly state, it did not look any more perilous than it had the last time. The basic structure was the same, and she imagined that the life inhabiting it was unchanged. And none of the labyrinth's creatures were particularly vicious. Even on her first trip, when she was stumbling through blind, they had never attempted to hurt her just for the sake of it. Frighten and confuse her, sure, but never harm. And why was that?

To Sarah's dismay, an image of the Goblin King came to mind. Stop it, she scolded herself. He was the last thing she needed on her mind right now. She did not want to think about him, or his crystals, or his infuriating smirk for as long as was physically possible. And when she finally had to see him…Well, she would cross that bridge when they came to it. With any lucky she could wrap up these unwanted powers, pass them back to him, and be on her way.

Let's just hope he feels the same way. Sarah thought she might get lucky in this regard. It was unlikely that-after outright rejecting him, unknowingly stealing his power, and inadvertently ending his reign as king-he would want to see her again for an extended period of time, but you never knew. Sarah found that it was better not to dwell on how unpredictable he could be.

Aden's back became the focus of her vision. She noticed that he did not follow any of the labyrinth's paths for long. He seemed to think it faster to bypass certain areas by trudging over the broken sections, in spite of the fact that much of the rubble was less than stable. Several times Sarah was forced to slide or roll down the slopes to avoid spraining an ankle. After a while, a thin layer of dust settled on her clothing from traipsing through debris for so long.

The Goblin King had better reimburse me for all the clothing that's been ruined running his stupid labyrinth. The strict attention of bleach and detergent had done little to restore what was once her favorite poet's shirt, and now it looked like her well-worn cable knit sweater was apt to follow. She prayed that they reached their destination before she was clad in more dirt than clothing.

The last rays of sunlight still grasped the horizon as they finally made it to the gates of the Goblin City. There was no guard posted there this time, not even a sleeping one, but Sarah still approached quietly. There was something about seeing this place, basked in fading twilight, that made her hesitate. The silence around them was complete, the city more dead than asleep, but still it felt wrong to waltz in without a fuss.

"I think we've landed in Munchkinland, Toto," Will joked, crouching down to peer at one of the doors of a goblin house.

"Will get away from there," she whined, still distinctly unsettled by the unnatural calm. She relaxed slightly when he was back at her side. "And it's Munchkin Country. They only call it Munchkinland in the movie."

They continued to move through the silent city, Arden picking up pace with every block. If he thought to outrun the encroaching nighttime, he was doing a poor job. The sky darkened with every step they took, the color melting from faded rust into deep maroon. Sarah cringed; it looked like the stars were bleeding.

Finally, she saw the stairs that lead up to the castle and breathed a sigh of relief. She was thankful to be free of the city. It was too bizarre, too unknowable by night. She would have to return in the morning to assure herself that there was nothing to be afraid of. But for now, the aforementioned safety of the Goblin Castle was just what she needed.

Arden pushed through the impassive gates of the castle with considerably more ease than Sarah had those years ago, but she was careful not to show it. It would not do to let him see that he had impressed her even in the slightest. His smirk as he beckoned them in told her she had not done as good a job as she had thought.

Entering the hall of the castle did not ease Sarah's tension as she had hoped it would. In fact, in some ways it was doubled.

A single torch mounted on the wall was the only source of light in the pitch black hallway. The shallow tarn of light that it cast did little to distinguish the features of the castle and much to highlight every possible nook and cranny.

She could see that this part of the castle had also fallen victim to the absence of its king. Someone had made the barest of efforts to keep it clean, having swept the various chicken bones and feathers off to the side. Vines crept up from the cracks in the floor, their thin fingers creeping up the walls beseechingly. A botany based rendition of Rodin's The Gates of Hell, which Sarah had adored studying in her art history class. She was sad to say that the full impact of it had been lost until now.

Will stood beside her, though neither of them was keen to move. They just stood there, unable or unwilling to take another step forward.

Arden, unaffected, pushed past them, grabbing the torch from its holder and brandishing it before them. He wrinkled his brow at the reluctance of his guests, "Not afraid of the dark, are we, children?" That was enough to spur Sarah forward. She exhaled, realizing that she had been holding her breath, and followed Arden down the hall.

You're fine, she assured herself. There's nothing here that can hurt you. The thought lost some of its potency as Sarah became aware of a low clinking sound far above her head. She craned her neck, but the darkness was as impenetrable as a blindfold. As they moved farther down the hall, the sound increased in frequency. Many things were swaying together from the sway of an impossible breeze, and the whole time all Sarah could think was: There's something hanging from the ceiling. She forced herself not to think too much about what it could be.

And then the sound wasn't just above her anymore, it was behind her. And it wasn't a clinking sound but a scurrying, fast and angry and close.

"What is that!" she yelped, unable to help herself. She grabbed Will by the arm, fierce fingers digging into his bicep.

"What do you mean?" Will whirled at her reaction. He scanned behind them, looking for the source of Sarah's fright, but found nothing.

"There's something following us." She spoke more towards Arden now, in the hopes of prompting him to bring the light around.

The stiff advisor did not budge. "There's nothing following you but the shadows. Now come along; there will be more than enough light in the throne room."

"It's not nothing, there's something—There!" she shrieked again, pointing out into the darkness.

Scuttling steps were steadily approaching them. Arden and Will could evidently hear it too, as they had both stopped walking. The sound came in an erratic pattern; a short burst of steps, and then silence. Another faint shuffling, then nothing. But Sarah could feel it drawing closer. The air chilled a few degrees making the hair on her arms press against the sleeves of her sweater.

Sarah's eyes rapidly scanned the darkness before her, desperate to see what lurked there. Her heart crashed painfully against her ribs, and her breath came fast and shallow. She was read to run, ready to sprint in any direction if the need arose.

Where is it? She wondered. She could hear how close it was, smell a faintly pungent odor, but she could not see anything. It must be right in front of me. How can I not see it?

The sound was so close now, Sarah was on the point of turning and running headlong down the passage from the tension alone. That's when Arden's unamused drawl broke through. "Heavens help us…"

Sarah followed his gaze, realizing why she had been unable to see their encroaching visitor. She had been looking too high. Down at her feet, pecking at invisible grains of food, was a greasy black chicken.

"Oh the terror!" Will said, letting out a hardy laugh. He stopped only when Sarah turned to glare at him. He held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Forgive me, O' Exalted One. I did not mean to offend Princess Sarah, slayer of fierce Goblin Kings and even fiercer chickens."

"Hah-hah, very funny," she allowed, "You should both be grateful I noticed something was following us at all. If there really was something dangerous, you two would be too obtuse to recognize it."

The tension in her body was slowly fading, making her limbs feel loose and jelly-like. She let out a sigh of relief, allowing herself to relax once more. That was when the attack came.

A thin screech came from overhead, and Sarah barely had time to respond with a scream of her own before the goblin dropped onto her head, clawing at her neck and hair. Shrieking like all of hell's demons had made their home in her vocal cords, she began batting at the creature that assaulted her. She managed to knock it off of her, but the little beast scurried back, this time latching onto her ankle with its teeth.

Sarah looked for help from her comrades, but saw that they too were fighting off the tenacious creatures. Arden was swatting at his feet with the book he was holding, just barely warding off two snarling goblins. Will was in much worse shape, with one biting into his shoulder while another latched onto his knee. His eyes showed panic, and his attempts to free himself were wholly ineffective.

Her attention snapped back to the strangled hissing of the goblin at her feet as its teeth broke through the leg of her pants to sink into her flesh. Sarah cried out, the jarring pain knocking her off balance. She fell backwards, scraping her palms against the unforgiving ground. But that was the least of her worries, as the fiendish ankle-biter began crawling up her body, its sharp teeth bared and ready.

Seeing those teeth and imagining the damage they could do forced Sarah to slow her mind down, to think rationally. What could she do to keep the fangs out of her throat? She could try to fight it off again, though that was just as likely to prolong her suffering. She needed to do something quick and decisive, something that would buy her more time to think this through.

What would the Goblin King do? The thought crawled annoyingly through her subconscious, and Sarah scolded herself for it. This was not going to help them fend off the goblins. He was their king, they were sworn to obey him. If he wanted an attack to stop all he had to do was say so. She did not have that luxury.

Or did she? Her brain began firing in rapid succession. One thing she had learned during her previous trip through the labyrinth was that words had power. And if her words were somehow connected to her power, then that meant...

"I wish the goblins would stop attacking us!" she yelled, her eyes still squeezed tightly shut. She was not completely prepared for the absence of pressure on her chest, or for the sudden silence. She opened her eyes one at a time, uncertain of what she would find. The five goblins stood against the wall, their fierce jaws working tirelessly. Blinking away her shock, Sarah paused a moment to observe them.

They were each standing upright, though they were of the smaller variety of goblins, the tallest only barely reaching her knee. But what they lacked in height, they made up for with viciousness. Each goblin was equipped with thin, hooked claws and sharp teeth. It was no wonder they had been able to do such damage, Sarah thought as she rubbed at the scratches that ran down her throat.

She also noticed that, despite their fixed position against the wall, they all seemed to be standing there against their will. Every few seconds, one would twitch or lash out with its teeth, but they never moved so much as an inch away from the wall. It was as if they were held there by some magical binding spell…

No, Sarah thought, glancing down at her bruised hands. It can't be.

"What's going on here?" she questioned, looking pointedly at Arden. He was still in the process of straightening his attire, as he paused every few seconds to glare at the goblins.

"It would appear," he said finally, "That the labyrinth has responded to your request. For which I am…thankful. I was not prepared for such an attack. These creatures are meant to be locked in the dungeon at night."

"What? Why?"

"Gee, maybe it has something to do with the fact that they use people trying to walk through the castle as chew toys," Will grumbled off to the side.

"Yes, well I wouldn't have put it quite so colorfully," Arden said, "But that is the general reasoning."

"But what's happened to them? They were never this aggressive before," she complained, looking again into the hard, mean eyes of the goblins before them. They were so unhappy, so unnecessarily cruel. She remembered that they could be nasty little tricksters, but underneath all that she had seen that they were really just simple-minded creatures in search of a little mischief. But now she saw only anger.

Why had everything changed so completely? This was not the Underground she had come to love and appreciate. This new Underground had been overtaken by a darkness and a misery so complete that it was not even a shadow of its former self.

Tears were forming, and she looked down so that Will and Arden would not see. The last thing she needed was them thinking she couldn't handle herself. Her gaze fell on her left leg, a bright corona of teeth parks encircling her calf. A thin stream of blood trickled down her ankle, and she reached down to rub away the dull throb of pain. When she pulled her hand away, the mark had been healed.

It can't be, she thought again. But it was. She had healed herself. Bringing her hands up to eye level, she inspected her palms as though she could see the magic running through her veins. Though there was nothing there to see, it did give her an idea. She bent down and reached towards the nearest goblin, moving so as to brush her hand over its eyes.

"Whoa, Sarah, what are you doing?" Will shouted, lunging forward to pull her arm out of harm's way. But he stopped when he saw what was happening.

A dim glow was emanating from the ground beneath them, snaking down the hall from some indeterminate point. The light branched off in several directions, twisting and coiling like a complicated roots system. But the target was clear: the light was strongest around Sarah.

As she completed her movement, the light flared up, a few sparks popping directly in front of the goblin's eyes. Both Will and Sarah watched as the creature shook its fuzzy head, its beady black pupils restricting to reveal wide brown eyes that were swiveling in confusion.

"What- What happened?" it asked in its high, gruff voice. "Who are you?"

Sarah beamed. "I'm Sarah, I'm here to help you."

"Sarah, what's going on here?" Will asked, backing up a few steps.

"It would appear," Arden piped up, "That the labyrinth has recognized the return of its Champion." Will looked from him back to where Sarah was kneeling, his head reeling a bit, unable to fully piece it all together. He just watched her as she moved with a certain comfort, an ease.

Sarah rose up, moving down the line of goblins and repeating the same gesture on all of them. By the time she was finished, they were all looking up at her with uniform awe in their wide eyes. They jumped around at her feet, clapping and babbling on excitedly. She smiled down at each of them, grasping their hands when they offered them. They vied constantly for her attention, offering to sing, or dance, or fetch her Goblin Ale. And she encouraged their affections, twirling them about as they danced and smiling at their tone deaf serenades.

"They love her," Will observed, speaking to Arden as they watched from the side.

"It would appear so," the advisor replied with only slight distaste. "Your friend seems quite at home here."

"She does," he stiffly replied. Will tried not to make a show of swallowing the lump rising from his stomach. "She certainly does."

They stopped speaking as Sarah approached, each of her hands clasped by one of the goblins. "I guess we should probably get going," she suggested, "It's getting pretty late."

"As the Lady wishes." Arden led them down the remainder of the hall until they finally emerged in the throne room. That, at least, had remained in its usual state of ordered chaos. Various rags and garments littered the floor, a small, murky puddle of Goblin Ale collected in one corner. The only thing it lacked was a goblin babe clad in red and white stripes.

For Sarah, seeing the throne room was haunting. She could see the ghosts of her friends standing right where they were now, promising her that they would be there if she called. And those stairs leading off to the left. She remembered how confident she'd felt mounting those steps, how ready she had been to face the Goblin King. She could laugh now at how unprepared she was in reality. The Escher Room had turned all her plans on their heads—literally. And the Goblin King…No, she was certainly not prepared for what he had proposed.

"Ouch, Lady," one of the goblins holding her hand complained. Unbeknownst to her, she had tightened her fist, crushing the little hand within.

"Sorry," she said, letting him go. She wandered towards the staircase, peering around the curve of the hall as though it would allow her to look straight into the Escher Room, straight back into the past.

"If you both are ready to retire for the night, I can lead you to your chambers." Arden pushed past her and mounted the stairs, obviously expecting them to follow. Sarah fought the urge to stick her tongue out at him while his back was turned. She had to keep reminding herself that she really wasn't fifteen anymore.

Arden took them around the winding staircase which, Sarah found, did not lead only to the Escher Room. They diverted down a second hallway that she had failed to notice on her first trip. To her dismay it was yet another hall filled with stairs.

At least there's only one field of gravity this time, she thought as they descended down the first flight. Sarah quickly realized that there was a pattern to every set of stairs. They would descend for seven steps, plateau, then rise eleven steps, and plateau again. At the peak of each set there was a door to the left, though it was several flights before Arden finally stopped at one.

"Here we are," he said as he inserted a key into the lock and pushed the door open. Sarah was huffing and puffing a bit by this time, her calves burning from the exertion of so many stairs. She bit out a thank you and stepped into the room, quite through dealing with Arden's attitude. She was halfway to the awaiting bed when she remembered Will. Darting back to the door, she poked her head out, catching them before they had even made it halfway down the next flight.

"Will, you'll be alright?" she called to him. He had remained so calm over the last few hours that she almost forgot that this was all brand new to him.

"I'll be fine. I'll be just down the hall from you," he assured her.

"Okay," she smiled, "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Sarah." Once again, he gave her a look that froze her in place. This time it was like he was looking up at some glorious angel that was slowly flying away from him. It made Sarah's stomach churn and heart pound all at once. She was glad when the door was shut between them.

Sarah collapsed onto the bed, not bothering even to shed her clothes. She just curled up and tried to let sleep find her. But the day had been exhaustive, and the more her body relaxed, the more her mind seemed intent on replaying everything that had happened.

She was back in the Underground. That was what she thought of the most. Strangely, it was the hardest part for her to process. Even amidst travelling back through the labyrinth and being attacked by rogue goblins, the simple fact that she had returned at all was the most unbelievable. Of course, discovering she had control of the Goblin King's powers and using said powers were a close second.

That was when she realized the truly insurmountable nature of her task. She had just four days to locate the Goblin King, return his powers, and somehow convince him that he should not be absolutely furious with her and to send her home. Right, that should be easy enough.

"Oh, what am I going to do?" she cried, twisting and turning on the bed.

So many questions rushed through her head. Had she made the right choice in returning? Had she been wrong to drag Will into this? And where was the Goblin King, and how was she supposed to rescue him?

Questions, questions. So many questions unspooled from her mind that she thought they might begin to leak out of her ears. And even then she would not find answers to them. Even with all the Goblin King's power at her fingertips, she still felt as useless as a box of matches in a blizzard. So she lay there in the dark, letting her thoughts exhaust her to the point where sleep finally became possible. But just before she nodded off, a final, dark thought formed at the edges of her subconscious.

If she had defeated the Goblin King by proclaiming that he had no power over her, how then was she supposed to give that power back?

A/N: Well, things are certainly moving along for Sarah and friends. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, as I really enjoyed writing it (especially using all three forms of "to" in a single sentence.) And I hope that you continue to follow along as the story builds. Just to keep everyone up to speed, I have finished the outline for this story and have it planned at 20 chapters plus an epilogue. Which means we're in for a long haul. That being said, I'm really excited for what's to come in this fic, and I think you will be too!

And although you'll hear this in basically every author's note I write, I am so grateful to everyone that has followed, favorited, and reviewed this story. It really does make my day to see people respond to my writing.

Also, I wanted to wish everyone that celebrates it a very Merry Christmas. I hope your next few days are merry and bright. And to everyone else, have an awesome December 24th.