After being cooped up within the throne room for God only knows how long, Buffy walked the halls of the castle in search for something to do. Holding her hands behind her back she examined her surroundings as she looked for something to occupy her time. Especially since no one bothered to tell her where any one went too and just left her alone. It was bad enough that she had to deal with vampires, demons, and apocalypses in her world she was now going to have to probably fight them in this world as well.

            Thankfully she had not run into any goblins or anything else in her unusual surroundings. Fairy tales and fantasies was not really her thing and this world was filled with such. Not long ago she had tried to open a certain door and then it spoke to her. She thought that she had really lost it when she tried to turn the knob and the door spoke saying, “Do you mind this is not your room?”

            Buffy blanched at the door eyeing her surroundings and then back to the door to try once again. Touching the doorknob she was granted with the pleasure of being burned as the doorknob turned red. She had let go as soon as it burnt her fingers, “Ouch!”

            “Well, serves you right! Going about and snooping around where your not wanted,” the door spoke again.

            Buffy shook her head still holding her slightly burnt hand, “Did you just speak?”

            “Huh, shows what you know! Of coarse I spoke and this room is off limits. Only the King is allowed and you are not him.”

            “Oh, really,” Buffy retorted as she got a mischievous glint in her eyes. The door returned to silence not bothering to answer her reply. Not liking the fact that a door was trying to tell her where she could or could not go she readied herself as she brought her foot up and…Boom! As her foot made contact with the door a flash of light sent her flying back landing against the wall behind her.

            The door laughed, “What, you think that you can use brute force against a magically sealed door? Mortals!” he snipped just before going quiet once more.

            She had left the door rubbing her backside not caring for another flight across the room. Her mind came back to the present as she stood in front of a large door that was cracked opened. Cautiously she placed her hand against the door, not wanting a repeat of what happened the last time she tried to touch the door, she waited a moment before pushing open the large oak door.

            Looking up and about she looked at the mounds of books that were stacked high on tall bookshelves aligning the walls and filing the room. “Oh, Giles would definitely have a field day in here.” Buffy silently mumbled to herself. Approaching one of the bookshelves she eyed them trying to read the titles but not able to read the strange characters on the binding of the books.

            “Great, I find something to maybe occupy my time and it’s in another language!” Buffy was not a happy camper not that she was the type who liked books much. She had enough of that while she was in school.

            A faint light at the corner of her eye caught her attention making her turn towards the source. There was yet another door that opened up to what looked like a small study. Making her way towards the door she entered eyeing the large desk at the far wall of the room. On that desk sat a large dusty book and she approached it curious.

            As she reached the large book, to her disappointment, she saw that it was in another language and could not make out what the characters meant. Not knowing why she ran her hand across the page that the book was opened to and to her amazement the characters shifted. Peering closer to the book the words were now readable but only at a certain paragraph.

            And the mortal shall defeat the great labyrinth to leave and return a time later. Forever linked to the place, her powers shall become great. For great evils shall awaken in this land of magic and of dreams. Her destiny shall unfold the defender of the right she will be.

            Just as she finished reading the small paragraph the words shimmered once again and were now back to the same unreadable characters as before. “Well, I guess that was about Sarah.” Looking about herself she was really missing home and her boyfriend, Riley, not to mention the gang and the normalcy, or the closest too, of her life.

            The lights in the bedroom dimmed as their passions deepened. Jareth had been waiting for so long for her to finally acknowledge her feelings towards him to finally recognize their unspoken love. He wanted desperately to be closer to her to rip away the barrier of clothes that stood between them finishing what they had started.

            Sarah’s already pounding heart fluttered as she felt his hands starting to unfasten her blouse. She suddenly felt panicked her hands reaching for his to stop things before it went too far.

            Feeling her hands hold his he reluctantly broke away from the passionate kiss looking puzzled at the sudden change in her mood. They looked at each other for a long moment both breathing heavily from long kept up emotions and desires for one another. Breaking the silence his voice came out as a soft deep whisper, “What is it?”

            She looked away, “I’m sorry, I can’t. It’s not you…I”.

            Jareth understood her all to well, apart of him just wanted to kiss her senseless until she relented but he knew that that would not be right. He had waited this long a little while longer would not be too hard, he hoped. Delicately placing his hand under her chin he turned her face towards his, “You have nothing to be sorry for. I will not force you to do anything that you do not wish to do.”

            Sarah could see the sincerity within his eyes and his voice making her relax a little. She smiled reaching up a hand to feel the warm soft white skin of his face. He closed his eyes reaching up to grasp her hand as it lightly touched his face. Brining her hand to his lips he kissed the back of her hand not wanting to let go.

Her heart fluttered at his action, “Thank you.”

Reluctantly he pulled away forcing himself to stand from the bed that they were currently seated upon. He had to tell her what he had found out about her destiny. It worried him to think that she would have to face the currently sleeping evils of his world. The book had said something about those evils awakening but he had yet to neither see nor sense any of those evils. His labyrinth was always changing, never really the same day in and day out but there was an unbalance. It was obvious that it was the presence of the vampires in his kingdom. It was maybe that unbalance that would awaken the sleeping evils.

Sarah watched as it looked as if Jareth were in deep thought but his mask of indifference resurfaced and the thoughtful look gone. Before she could inquire as to what Jareth was thinking the door to the room was opened.

Buffy slowly opened the door to the room where she knew that Sarah was in. As she entered she was greeted with the sight of the Goblin King standing over a disheveled Sarah. She had a rather good idea of what had just happened between the two.

Jareth turned as he sensed whom the intruder was, “I see that you finally stopped snooping around my castle and decided to grace us with your presence.”

Stepping further into the room she wondered how he knew that she had been snooping around. She had the sinking suspicion that he had something to do with the talking door that assaulted her not too long ago. Deciding to ignore his comment she focused her attentions to her friend as she neared the bed, “Hey, how are you feeling?”

            Sarah sat at the edge of the bed looking a little sheepish as she suspected that Buffy could tell that they had been…busy. “Better, I guess. I’m sorry that I dragged you into this mess.”

            “What are friends for? Besides I dill with this sort of thing on a regular basis. Granted that it’s usually in the same world as I’m from.”

            Absentmindedly rubbing the back of her neck she frowned as the memory of her dream resurfaced, “I had another dream.”

            Jareth’s brows rose at this, “Another dream?”

            Buffy sat beside Sarah on the bed and regarded the Goblin King, “Being the slayer and all we sometimes have dreams that warn us of things to come.”

            Sarah interrupted her friend, “Well, I don’t think it was one of those. I’m not even sure if it was a dream.”

            Buffy looked puzzled, “How so?”

            Sarah’s brows scrunched in concentration, “There was this presence and then it spoke to me. Claimed to be the labyrinth.”

            Jareth was at her side in seconds, surprising both Buffy and Sarah, “The labyrinth spoke to you?”

            She looked to Jareth nodding, “Yes, it said something about needing me to protect the Underground. That it was my destiny. There was something else that it told me, something about my defeat of the labyrinth and my return and something about an evil awakening.”

            Buffy recognized her words as something similar to what she had read in the library, “I’ve seen that in a book in the library.”

            Jareth sharply looked to the young blond, “How, that book was in a long dead language that only a few like myself know?”

            “Well, it sort of changed into English and then back to what ever language it was written in.”

            Jareth stood from them as his mind raced with unspoken questions. The labyrinth was in a way a type of living being made up of wild magic. It had never spoken to him in his long rain as its King and he had never heard of it ever speaking to anyone. Somehow it was reaching out to them but he could not comprehend why it would not try to communicate with him. In a way it was a slight bruise to his ego.

            Noticing that the Goblin King was lost in his own thoughts Buffy nudged her friend beside her and whispered into her ear, “So, you two finally hook up or what?”

            Sarah’s cheeks flushed at her friend’s comment and she couldn’t hold back the sheepish smile that spread over her red lips. Buffy smiled in return, she knew that she was right about those two.

            Jareth on the other hand had overheard Buffy looking not at all happy about her imposing into something that was none of her business. When he saw Sarah’s reaction to her inquiry his slight anger had fled him completely. What was it about her smile that could wash away any negative mood within him self and replace it with total warmth? Her very presence could lighten up the darkest of places.

            Sarah looked away from Buffy back to Jareth and her heart leapt within her breast as she saw the intense way in which he was looking at her. The look that sent waves of excitement and nervousness into her every being and a hunger for something she had yet to experience. All too aware of her overwhelming emotions that enveloped her when ever their eyes would met she had to look away.

            Buffy noticed Sarah’s sudden change in composure and looked to Jareth understanding why. The way he was looking at her would make any woman swoon from the emotions that one could see within his gaze. When Sarah looked away Buffy noticed the sudden change of expression, an expression that was totally unreadable. His mask was back in place and there standing before them was the all-powerful Goblin King.

            Clearing her throat she was able to get the attention of both Sarah and the Goblin King, “I hate to break up our little silence session but don’t we have some vampires to get rid of.”

            Sarah stood from the bed feeling completely recovered from her attack from the mysterious elfin vampire. “Um, right! The only question is how? That elfin vampire, the one that tried to kill me, how can I fight against someone with that much power?”

            Buffy shrugged, “Well, if tights boy here can get us back home maybe Giles can find something.”

            Jareth glared angrily towards Buffy, not at all pleased by the way she had just addressed him, “I don’t think that that would be a good idea.” Buffy was about to make a smart retort but was silenced as he went on, “I doubt that your world would have anything remotely helpful to finding out how to defeat her, but…”. Skillfully conjuring one of his crystals he peered within, “I think that he might find something useful within my library.”

            Before Buffy could protest the crystal hovered from his hand landing on the floor a few feet from them and as it grew and burst with glitter and light a stunned and very confused Rupert Giles stood gaping.

            Giles was about to go out to help look for the two missing Slayers when he felt the oddest sensation envelope him. The vision of his front door was gone and replaced by a large bedroom chamber. Taking his eyeglasses off to clean them and make sure that he wasn’t seeing things he replaced them seeing three familiar forms before him. One of those forms made his heart sink in slight fear as he recognized the tall blond as the infamous Goblin King, “Oh dear”.