Daniel looked at Sarah worriedly. She hadn't been speaking since she told him the troll had died. He assumed Sarah had been friends with the beast. Once again, the king had hurt her.

Perhaps tonight she would be relieved from her torturer - as long as she would let herself.

He had asked her before they left if the woman wouldn't have rather stayed at home, but as often as he'd asked, she refused firmly. Two hours ago her eyes had been filled to the brim with hurt, sadness and anger. They had leaked until she ran out of tears. And now her eyes were blank. Not the dreamy kind of blank - but the dead kind of blank.

Being the male he was he felt himself at loss with how he could possibly help her. There was only one thing he could think of.

Carefully, he took her hand as they walked in to the forest.

Jareth paced the room, his whip cracking against his calf. "How could I have been such a clod?! Now she'll think I knew that beast would get killed a month ago without telling her! If only I hadn't been such a sentimental fool in the heat of the moment! How will I ever get the chance to explain I found out yesterday in the middle of the night when the soldiers reported to me, if she never wants to see me again?! " He whirled around and his voice rose even further. "Well bloody say something already!" The king yelled in fury.

He watched the pale lady, sitting there in silence. Her fair skin and blonde hair made her look angelic, but the complete black eyes and the rags she wore looked frightening. Her face was set in annoyance and Jareth let out a breath. "My apologies, but I'm lost."

The woman nodded and smiled. "I will have to come up with something of my own, won't I, Labyrinth?" He looked up at her and her black eyes shimmered. His eyes directed down as her hand took his and pulled it to her chest.

Sternly he pulled back, leaned towards her and held her chin with one finger. "Oh no, pet. I don't think so." She looked at him sadly and he took her hand, pressing a kiss on her knuckles. "One day there will be queen by my side, and once that happens - then - you will blossom again. It might take a while, however. As you know, I will have no other than my precious Sarah, and she might need some convincing, I'm afraid." He rose and turned from her. "If you will excuse me, I believe there is an event I need to attend to."

The woman walked towards him, pressed a kiss on his cheek and touched his pendant. With a bright flash, the woman was gone.

Jareth sighed, then turned and headed for the firey forest.

Sarah had decided to let go a little. After all, this was her first time outside the GoblinCity. She'd imagined returning to the Labyrinth every once in a while, but now that she was here it was really unreal. She didn't have the greatest memories of this particular place. Your head nearly being ripped off your torso by some kind of bird-like creatures wasn't most enjoyable.

She looked up at Daniel, whom was sitting up in a tree playing his flute along with a few other creatures playing some instruments. She smiled and blinked as someone held a drink in front of her. "Um – what is this?"

One of the female satyrs giggled and sat down besides her. She was blonde and round faced with thin lips, a snub nose and big eyes – not really attractive but charming. "It's just juice, don't worry, we don't spike drinks here. I'm Selence by the way."

The woman took the drink and smiled. "Thanks, I'm Sarah."

"Hey, you're mortal right?" The satyr chirped and her brown eyes sparkled.

The woman grinned. "Yeah, it's that obvious, huh?"

"Well… There aren't much humanoid creatures. Not in the Labyrinthine realm at least. There are Fae – a few of them at least, but that's about it. Are you from the Kelts?"

"Um, no – no I'm from the Aboveground." Sarah took a careful sip and pulled a face.

Selence giggled. "Not your taste? That's fine, there are enough kind of drinks to have you like at least one. But, Aboveground? Where's that? Did you come here by carriage?"

"No I came through this kind of portal thingy."

The satyr gasped and gripped her arm with both hands. "Really?! That's real?!"

"… Yes?"

Selence moved closer and lowered her hands to one of her and clasped it. "Oh my god, I used to hear bedtime stories about that place… Is it true that they have horseless carriages riding around?"

"Uh – you mean cars? Yeah, sure."

"I want to know everything about your world – tell me, please?"

Sarah looked at the excited satyr - who she now noticed had no antlers and chuckled. "Sure, but first – I'm going to see if there's a drink that's actually… drinkable."

Selence and Sarah had been talking for a long while. They hadn't paid much attention to anything else unless they were spoken to, which had been a rarity throughout the hours. Selence had been telling about her life for a while now, where she was born and who her family was. Apparently the party they were at now had only family members – along with Sarah and two dwarves that were invited. So there were about thirty five creatures now. Sarah had never known Daniel had such a big family – he had never told anything about them. The party was in honour of the birthday of the oldest member, Navinettus, but he wasn't present. He was rather grumpy and preferred being alone, or so she'd been told.

Even though Selence and Sarah hadn't been paying attention to anything else, they did notice when the music stopped completely all of a sudden.

The woman looked up and she felt dread fill her gut as she saw the dark form bleed from the shadows of the trees. Blond, wild hair, black armor, gloves, mismatched eyes and an angular face made an image that was unmistakably Jareth. Selence had frozen besides her, scared as she looked up at the male.

Sarah watched Jareth walk straight to her and she rose. "I'm leaving." She said to Selence and the girl rose to go with her. With a sharp turn she went the exact other way.

The Goblin King increased his pace and gripped Sarah's wrist. "Sarah, wait."

"Let go of me, right now!" The woman demanded as she looked at him and a gasp of shock rose through the audience.

Selence backed away, both wanting to give his majesty no reason to be angry at her and because of the surprise at Sarah's bold demand. One of the other satyrs pulled her away from the two.

"I will not." Jareth hollered as the woman in front of him pulled, trying to get loose. "And you will not call me by my name here."

"Or what? You're going to kill me too?" Sarah sobbed as the thoughts of what he'd done flooded back to the surface.

He pulled her closer towards him, feeling the urge to embrace her, but he wouldn't show such affections in the presence of this audience. "Don't be foolish, Sarah. You know I wouldn't. I only wish to speak with you."

"You've said enough." Sarah stated and pulled again. "You've said and done more than enough! I don't ever want to see you again! I hate you!" She blurted out as she kept her head tucked against her chest and her eyes down.

Jareth had enough of the stabbing feeling that came every time she said that. He didn't want to hear it again – he wouldn't. He'd make sure of that. But first, she needed to be stunned enough to put her anger aside and listen to what he had to say. With more than enough selfishness he flung her towards him, gripped both her upper arms and kissed her.

The satyrs' eyes widened and they all took a step back in abnegation.

Sarah was about as surprised as the others and she struggled. But he wouldn't let go, so she calmed down. An involuntarily sob left her lips and finally he let go of her lips. She turned her head from him and looked down. Her eyes filled with tears. He had killed her friend and yet she was drawn to him when he kissed her. It was unfair, and confusing.

"I want to speak to you Sarah, and I'll get what I want one way or another. So please let it be in peace…"

"Fine." She winced mentally at the pathetic way her voice cracked in that one word and she looked at him.

Jareth smiled weakly at her and he turned to the satyrs. "I apologize for barging in like this. Please proceed."

The satyrs slowly relaxed and one of the older ones approached them with a bow. "Your Highness, may I offer you a table to sit at, and maybe something to drink and to eat?"

"Yes, thank you." He followed the satyr to one of the tables and he sat down.

"What can I get you, sire?"

"Surprise me."

Sarah sat down slowly and looked down at the table as she waited for this to be over. Her finding out about Ludo was bad enough as it was – having him rubbing it in her face was just literally painful. As he called her name softly she looked up at him instinctively.

"I think you might have misunderstood me, Sarah."

"What's there to misunderstand? You killed my friend." She said snidely, ignoring the satyr giving the king his drink and something to eat.

Jareth put his hand on hers, which were fussing on top of the table nervously. "No, Sarah. I did not. Yes, I knew Ludo was one of Septimus' puppets a month ago. I sent a few hired soldiers to Septimus to eliminate him and waited for report. I hadn't heard of them in quite a while and yesterday night, they returned. A goblin requested me to leave my bed at some time past three in the morning to receive a report from the soldiers themselves. It was then that I heard Septimus had been killed, but also that his allies had been slain. They were in the grasp of Septimus, brainwashed into blind obedience and for the safety of my realm and my subjects – including you - the soldiers had killed them too. They had tried reasoning first, but they wouldn't listen. I didn't want to wake you in the middle of the night, knowing you wouldn't be able to sleep afterwards if I did." He watched her struggle and he squeezed her hand softly. "You have to understand it was not my intention to kill your friend. I'm not putting all this on the soldiers I hired, it's not their fault and they didn't know." He watched her for a few seconds. "I told you as soon as I could."

"I never knew Ludo would be capable of something like this..."

"Not on his own, but he was quite easy to manipulate and Septimus' dark intentions were probably quite easily believed considering Ludo's trustworthy and gentle nature. He is strong enough to be one of his allies, you saw a glimpse of it when he defended you from Didymus in your first time here."

Sarah bit her lip taking it all in. "Why didn't you tell me sooner Ludo was brainwashed by Septimus?"

"I didn't know it would get to this. Besides, if I had told you, you'd have gone into the Labyrinth to find him. You would've been killed if Septimus found you."

"You don't know that." She said a bit meekly.

He sighed. "Sarah, miles of my Labyrinth had been torn down by him. Ancient stones pull of power, razed to the ground like dominoes. His abolishment left a scar of newly built walls in my Labyrinth. The soldiers had a hard time taking them down, a few were lost – why would you think you could've stood up to this? You're but a weak mortal woman…"

Sarah shrunk, feeling painfully useless the way he described her. "And he'd given her certain powers?" She quoted weakly as she looked up at him.

Jareth smiled and leaned closer, closing her hands in his. "Over me, yes. But not over great and aggressive trolls, I'm afraid." He watched her blush and he lifted one of her hands up to his lips, pressing a soft kiss on it. "I know it hurts, and that it's terrible what happened – yet, I wish you to know I'm deeply sorry for your loss and I truly meant to do good for my subjects. I'm not asking for your forgiveness, I only want you to understand."

"I want to - can I see him?" She asked softly, looking up at him. "Please? Just to say goodbye…?"

"But of course, Sarah. You're welcome to come to the castle first thing tomorrow." She let out a shaky breath and nodded.

"Where y'all stopped playin' music for? The game's not over!"

Everyone jumped, looking around as they heard a shrill voice call, a few giggles coming with it. There were some noises and Jareth frowned, looking around.

The next moment the table Sarah and Jareth were sitting at was flipped and Sarah backed away. A few satyrs got pushed around and suddenly large balls of fluff jumped into view.

"Oh no." Sarah groaned.

One of them cheered as it caught another's head, rolling it over his arm to the other where it bit his arm. It cried out and hurled it away, more of the creatures jumping into the small open area.

"Firies! Get the children and hide!"

Sarah yelped as one of the firies flung her across the area and distantly she heard Jareth call her. One of the firies slapped her butt and she turned. "Hey!" The woman saw one of them run into the shadows and she narrowed her eyes. "Get back here, you coward!" She shrieked and ran after it, leaving the chaos behind her.

Jareth saw Sarah run into the darkness and rolled his eyes. What got into her that she just ran into a pitch black forest at night with a flock of firies around? With almost unnatural agility he made his way through the running satyrs, bouncing firies and rolling heads. He jumped into the darkness and used his night vision to navigate. As he looked around he couldn't see her between the trees and he ran straight ahead, hoping she went there. He called her name a few times but there was no answer.

The Goblin King walked back into the open area. The firies were gone and the satyrs were cleaning up the mess. He'd been searching the forest for an hour but there was no sign of Sarah. His crystals had been keeping blank and she wasn't in the area around the forest – which he'd scanned in his owl form. He looked at the brown-haired man that he'd seen before. He was checking a few of the young, small satyrs. Jareth walked towards him and the little ones fled.

"Satyr, have you seen Sarah?"

Daniel got up, looking rather annoyed but became concerned as he asked him that. "Wasn't she with you?"

"She was, before, but when those bloody firies jumped in she ran after one, into the forest. I've checked the surrounding area but she is nowhere to be found."

Daniel groaned and threw his head back. "Ah Sarah – why do you always have to be so pigheaded?" He turned to one of the satyrs and pushed against one of the other's horns. "Herald, check the children. I'm going to see if Sarah got herself tied up somewhere. Once the children are checked you need to leave, before those things come back. I'll visit you all later." The other satyr nodded and called for the little ones.

"Where do you think she could've gone?"

Daniel sighed, looking around. "Honestly? She could be anywhere. After those fur balls, back home, lost. She tends to bounce around like that when we're out."

"I'll be around looking for her, when you find her, come to the castle immediately." Daniel nodded and Jareth looked at him for a second before turning into his owl shape and flying off.

Sarah ran after the firey, growling as it was faster than her. "Come back here, you son of a bi-" She shrieked as she suddenly stepped into nothingness. The ground fell away underneath her feet and everything went even darker. The air rushed past her, her arms flailing as she sought for something to grab a hold of. There was dirt and rocks all around her, but she couldn't grab them.

When she landed she hit something relatively soft and she felt a wave of relief wash over her. At least she hadn't broken anything in her fall. Her leg did hurt though – a lot – so she was injured. She looked around but couldn't see anything. So instead she felt around, feeling she'd landed on some hay and cloth. "Hello? Is someone there?" Her voice boomed through the area and bent back to her, followed by a long silence. Dust tickled into her nose and she sneezed, the sound slamming back into her ears.

She rose, but twisted her injured ankle. The woman cursed and straightened again, putting her weight on the right leg. She moved around, her arms stretched in front of her, but she met only walls. Sarah groaned and leaned against one of them.

"An oubliette… Super."