This has been one hell of a long time coming. Back in 2009 I posted a oneshot called "Oh Its You". I promised a prequel. I won't be keeping that promise. Instead I present the revised and expanded version, inspired by the recent Disney Cinderella movie, and the Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien but based on neither.

This story is dedicated to everyone who I have kept waiting for six long years.

Chapter revised: January 2016

Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognize.

Prologue

The thirteenth hour was at hand. Sarah Williams was exhausted, but she refused to allow her nemesis to see how weak she was feeling. Steeling herself, Sarah leapt off the platform she had ended up on after chasing her baby brother through a room which was the very image of an M.C Escher work which she had a print of in her bedroom at home.

The room crumbled around her but Sarah drifted safely down to what seemed to by the actual ground in the ruined room. The goblin king appeared out of the shadows across from her, and Sarah refused to allow herself to be moved by how exhausted he looked. Instead, she took a deep, steadying breath and began to recite the words which would free her and Toby from this glitter drenched nightmare.

"Give me the child," she said, injecting none of the dramatic flourish she normally used when speaking these all important lines. "Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered, I have thought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City, to take back the child that you have stolen."

A strange look settled on the King's face; pain and anger seemed to be warring for dominance on those aquiline features.

"Sarah, beware." His voice was quiet but the note of warning was unmistakable. "I have been generous up until now, but I can be cruel."

"Generous?" Sarah scoffed. "What have you done that's generous?"

Cruel yes; throwing that snake at her, taking two hours from her time limit, and setting those sodding cleaner things on her and Hoggle; but generous? Hardly. Were this one of those stupid action movies that daddy so enjoyed she might make a cutting remark about him needing to invest in a new dictionary.

"Everything!" The King snapped. "Everything that you have wanted, I have done. You asked that the child be taken- I took him. You cowered before me- I was frightening. I have reordered time, turned the world upside down and I have done it all for you! Isn't that generous?"

'Yes,' Sarah's treacherous teenaged heart admitted, but she forced herself to ignore it, and him. "My will is as strong as your and my kingdom is as great..."

She trailed off again as those next, all important words continued to elude her. The Goblin King took his chance, producing one of his trademark crystal balls and held it out to her.

"Sarah, look at what I offer you," he purred. "Your dreams. Just let me rule you, and you can have anything you want."

God it would be so easy to give in. All she had to do was reach out her arm and take the ball from him.

No, no she couldn't do that to Toby, couldn't condemn him like that. It wasn't his fault that she didn't know how to calm her baby brother down. What was that damn line?

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave."

The king's words were oddly familiar, almost as if she'd heard him say them before.

'Don't listen, Sarah,' she told herself. 'Don't let him have power over you.'

Of course! Sarah felt herself smile as the words she needed to free herself were ready at the tip of her tongue. All she had to do was say them. "You have no..."

"No!" the Goblin King growled, cutting her off. He was right in front of her now, white gloved fingers closing tightly around her shoulders. "Sarah, stop..."

And then he was kissing her. Fire tore through her as his lips crushed hers. Sarah couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't breathe; all she knew was the Goblin King's kiss. Sarah found herself clutching at him for support as her knees buckled.

"Jareth," His given name slipped from her lips for the first time in years as she tried to focus on the man she loved even as the darkness rose to swallow her. "Why…"

Jareth cried out in alarm as Sarah collapsed against him. He couldn't lose her now; not when he had spent so long searching for her in hopes of amending his most grievous mistake; that would be too cruel.

He gathered Sarah's unconscious form up in his arms and carried her out of the illusory room and up to the chambers they had never yet had the opportunity to share, barking an order to a passing goblin to fetch a healer on the way.

Jareth had been searching for Sarah for years, and it was just his luck that he had almost missed her. It was humiliating that that bloody dwarf had recognised her before Jareth had himself, and he was her husband. Sarah would have a grand time laughing at him for that when she got wind of it, providing she saw fit to forgive him.

He laid his long lost bride on their bed and removed his gloves. He took her bare hands in his and watched as the last vestiges of childhood melted away revealing the beautiful woman that was the Goblin Queen.

"I wouldn't blame you if you never forgave me my love," he told her, bending to kiss her fingers. "But now that I have you back I shall never let you go again."

Sitting at his Queen's bedside, the Goblin King lapsed into silence; unable to tear his gaze away from her face for fear that she would fade as she always had in his dreams.

~v~

There's the prologue :) I have left the original version of this story up if you're curious.

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