Jareth smirked as he watched the sun slowly begin to set.

He had become rather fond of the night as of late, ever since Sarah and her brother had left him for their human world—especially when he'd learned he could sync his nights with hers.

"You may have thought this was the end, Sarah," he said, rolling two crystal balls along his hands and arms as he sat on the window sill, "but you should have known better."

He refused to give up, no matter what Sarah may have thought when she'd left him.

After all, he'd waited for fifteen years. He would wait as long as he needed to for the chance to finally convince Sarah to return with him to the Labyrinth as the Queen she was destined to be.

The Labyrinth was not the place it was created to be without her.

He did admit to himself that he enjoyed the changes to the landscape she'd made after they'd created their own world together—he'd infused the two worlds together after her departure, so that the Labyrinth would be tailored to her own desires.

With any luck, that would help convince her that the Labyrinth was hers . . . that she belonged to it just as she belonged to him.

He would take as long as he needed, but he would not give up, not when the very method to finally reach back out to Sarah was once again within his reach . . . and this time, he had no intentions of failing. He would finally convince Sarah of her rightful place, and he would show her she had nothing to ever fear save—all she had to do was love him, empower him, claim him as she had always been intended to do.

The sun finally set, and as night fell Jareth could feel his own magic grow stronger even as the Labyrinth began to revitalize itself, growing stronger from the dreams of a certain young woman, and making whatever changes or repairs she saw fit.

Jareth didn't care what she changed; she was here, and he was ready for her.

He took one of the crystals and gently blew on it, letting it drift off through the weakened connection between realms to where Sarah lay in her bed, asleep and dreaming.

It was finally time for him to once again meet his guest.

.

Sarah smiled as she wandered through the outskirts of the Labyrinth as she often did when she dreamed.

She knew she was dreaming by now, after so many nights of dreaming and wandering. Sometimes, she ran into one of her old friends here, but more often than not it was just her in the Labyrinth, weaving around and enjoying how it shaped itself to her will.

That alone indicated she was dreaming, for there was no way Jareth would have ever allowed her to make any changes to his precious real Labyrinth. But in her dreams, however, she took a certain amount of sadistic delight in reshaping what Jareth had created to suit her own tastes.

She had no doubts she'd annoy him if he ever discovered what she dreamed.

"How does it feel, Sarah, to know the power you could wield over this place, if you but chose to do so."

Sarah turned, startled, to see Jareth in his regal garb, smiling down at her as he sat on the wall of the Labyrinth above her.

Sarah choked as she realized that she'd somehow dreamed Jareth into the Labyrinth—was it her thoughts that brought him here? "J-Jareth? What are you doing here?"

Jareth chuckled as he leaped off of the wall and landed without a sound next to her. "Tell me, Sarah, what do you think of our Labyrinth?" he asked, waving a hand around.

"'Our?'" Sarah repeated, too surprised to fully realize that Jareth was, as he had done in reality, avoiding answering her.

"You don't think you created this on your own, do you, Sarah?" he asked, chuckling.

"It's a dream, isn't it?" She stared at him as he slowly moved closer. "It's only a dream."

"Is that what you believed, Sarah? It was, after all, your dreams that brought you to me in the first place." He smiled as he reached out to thread his fingers through a strand of her hair.

She recoiled backwards but his sudden grip on her hair kept her from moving too far. "Go back, Jareth! This is my dream, and I don't want you here! You have no power over me here!"

Jareth slowly followed her until she was pressed against the walls of his own Labyrinth. "Shh, Sarah. There is no need to protest here. You won, didn't you? So what need have you of fear? This is your dream, and I am merely a manifestation of that very dream."

Sarah tried to focus on breathing. She was no young girl any longer to be terrified of the Goblin King and, furthermore, he was right. It was her dream, and she was the one in control this time.

It was a nice change of pace, to have him under her control instead of the other way around.

"If I'm in control, then you have to do what I say," Sarah asserted, wanting to test just how much her subconscious would allow her to test Jareth. The very thought was heady with promise.

Jareth pulled back from her and spread his arms wide with a slight smirk. "Then, Sarah, tell me what you want me to do. I am yours to command, yours to control, yours to own."

"Stand on your head," she blurted the first thing she thought of, and couldn't stop herself from chuckling when he proceeded to do just that. The picture of Jareth, dressed in finery even as his cape flowed down to cushion his flattened hair. "You can stop," she said after a moment.

He straightened, looking once again as pristine and elegant as he had when he'd first arrived. "Is there anything else I can do for you, Sarah?" he asked with a small bow.

"Juggle those crystals of yours and sing a lullaby," she commanded.

He dutifully did just that, singing a lullaby she'd never heard before about a goblin rescuing a child from the evils that awaited him in the real world, and she wondered idly for a moment if the song had been inspired by Toby, or if what had happened with Toby had been inspired by the song.

She decided she liked this power in her dreams, for it was a power she knew she'd never have over him outside of her dreams.

"What else do you desire?" he asked as she blinked in surprise. "Or shall I show you something else you have been missing?"

"I've been missing?" she echoed.

Jareth didn't answer. Instead, he moved closer until he was nearly touching her. He braced a hand on the wall of the Labyrinth behind her, and easily pinned her to the structure. "Look at me, Sarah," he cajoled when her eyes studied his feet rather than his face.

She shook her head as his voice deepened. She'd read enough stories, seen enough movies, to know where this was headed, and she wasn't going to help this proceed any further.

"Sarah, look at me," he repeated more firmly, and when she shook her head again, he reached out with one gloved hand to raise her chin until her eyes finally met his. "There. That wasn't so bad, was it?"

They stood there like that for several moments, until Sarah finally began to take deeper breaths. Why had she freaked out so much at first? This was her dream, after all, and he wouldn't be able to do anything she didn't want here, so there was no need to panic.

She closed her eyes as her body slowly relaxed and sagged against the wall.

"You have no idea the power you have over me," Jareth said lowly, and before she could respond, he was gently kissing her lips.

She'd always wondered what a kiss would have been like from him if he'd had his way, and she'd always thought it would be as domineering, cold, and harsh as his personality was.

This gentle kiss, even if it was from a Jareth she'd dreamed up herself, threw her completely off-balance, and she wasn't sure how she was supposed to react. It was nothing like the one kiss they'd had, and she felt both the desire to try and return the kiss, and the desire to push away begin to well within her.

Before she could decide which course of action to choose, she heard the loud shrill of her alarm begin to penetrate her dreams, and she sighed in relief as the decision was taken from her. She was waking up, and once she fully awoke, she'd write this all off as a dream and forget about it as she went about her normal day.

It was, after all, nothing but a dream . . .

.

Jareth watched as her presence began to flicker and fade, signaling that she was slowly waking. He couldn't help the feeling of triumph as she disappeared, knowing he was already much closer to his goals than he'd anticipated.

She had not realized it was him yet, and he could not wait to see her face when she did. For now, however, he was content to do whatever he needed to do to lure Sarah in farther and farther, until she no longer desired to leave him again.

It was fitting that everything had occurred just against the walls of his Labyrinth, for she hadn't fully accepted its presence yet, or him.

Still, it would not be long before she found her way back inside with him, and before she followed him further and further into the Labyrinth as he slowly took over her mind, heart, and soul until, one day, she would not leave his Labyrinth ever again.

This time, she would be his, and she would be here to stay.