Disclaimer: I do not claim Jareth, Sarah, the Labyrinth or any of Jim Henson's lovely creations.

PROLOGUE

Sarah laughed joyously as she danced around her room, clutching the silvery-white gown to her chest. She had been looking forward to this night for weeks, not for the dancing, general merriment, or even the boy who would be here to pick her up in just a few short minutes. She had been waiting for this night simply for the chance to finally wear this dress. The fabric fluttered softly in the breeze as she spun to a stop in front of her mirror. The first glimpse of her reflection startled her, and she let out a loud gasp.

She paused, squeezed her eyes shut, and then opened them for a second glance. It revealed nothing out of the ordinary: a young girl (barely 18) getting ready for her senior prom. But for a brief moment she had seen herself in the same dress from before... the dress that this one reminded her of so much that she had bought it immediately without so much as looking at any of the others. This dress was much more sleek than the other one, without so much puff in the skirt and sleeves, but its likeness was still enough to invoke a memory that both frightened and thrilled her... her dance with a man that she missed terribly, yet desperately wanted to forget.

Jareth.

The name burned at the back of her mind, daring her to speak it aloud. Sarah turned away from the mirror and quickly darted into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. She undressed and slid the gorgeous silk fabric up her legs, catching the sleeves with her arms and fastening the dress closed between her shoulder blades. She turned to the bathroom mirror and began to pull her hair up while willing all images of him out of her head. Forget Jareth. Forget the labyrinth. Think only about tonight. She ordered herself silently.

It didn't take her very long to get ready, since she had practiced her hair and makeup dozens of times over the past several weeks. As she was touching up her lipstick, she heard the doorbell ring downstairs. She smiled and took one last look in the mirror, satisfied that every hair was in place, then raced out of the bathroom. She slowed at the top of the stairs and descended gracefully, smiling down at her date who regarded her with pride and awe. Obviously she had prepared well.

Her parents stood to the side, along with Toby, Sarah's baby brother. It had been only three years since Toby had been kidnapped and taken to the labyrinth, and, much to Sarah's surprise, Toby remembered every minute of it. Sarah fought back a shudder as she recalled Toby saying his first word... "Goblin". Her dad and stepmother had found it adorable, thinking that he had simply learned it from one of Sarah's books. When he got a little older, he had begun to talk to Sarah about the castle, and about the "nice man" that had he had met there. Merely a year ago, he had given her the scare of her life when he told her that the man had come to see him in his dream the night before. Toby babbled on incessantly about the "pretty castle" and the "big yard", then asked Sarah if they could go see it.

"He said he'd take us, Sawa!" He announced excitedly. "I have ta do is wish it!"

Sarah didn't sleep for three weeks after that.

Looking back over that final moment in the labyrinth, her final showdown with Jareth, she couldn't help but think of how close she had come to failing. If she had been even one second later uttering the words, they both would have been trapped in Jareth's castle forever. Yet somehow the line that she never seemed to be able to remember had emblazoned itself in her mind at the very moment she needed it: You have no power over me. She had never taken her brother for granted after that experience, and they had grown to be very close over the past few years.

Toby stretched his arms out towards Sarah when her foot left the last step. She hurried over, picked him up and gave him a big hug. "Hey Toby. What do you think, huh?"

"You look like a princess, Sarah!" Toby exclaimed with brightness that only a child could muster, and lightly touched a finger to one of the flowers that she had carefully tucked into her hair.

Karen laughed. "Out of the mouths of babes!" she quoted. She gestured with her eyes towards Sarah's date and held up a digital camera. Sarah nodded and gave Toby one last squeeze before putting him down, then took her place beside Tom.

Tom, though he was a very sweet guy, just wasn't Sarah's type. It wasn't a date so much as a favor to both of them. Sarah wanted her day to shine, and Tom had simply needed a date. The two of them made the decision together, but Sarah made it crystal clear that they were only going as friends.

Tom casually threw his arm around Sarah as Karen snapped away roll after roll of film. "Just one more!" Karen kept saying, but she always went back on her word when she found something wrong with the photo. Either it was too blurry, the light had caught it wrong, or someone's eyes were halfway closed.

"Karen, enough! Let the poor kids go!" Her father laughed.

"Just one more!" Karen protested as she continued clicking away.

After several more minutes, the two of them were finally able to duck out the front door and run to the limo. "This is amazing! How on earth did you pull this off, Tom?" Sarah exclaimed as she ducked into the backseat. Tom laughed and puffed out his chest proudly as he held the door open for her.

"Hey, it's prom. Might as well go all out with it, right?" he said proudly. Once her door was shut, he ran around to the other side and hopped in alongside her.

As the limo pulled away, an owl hooted from its perch on a nearby tree. It spread its wings and took off into the sky, following the path of the limo from a distance towards the high school gymnasium.