She was finally there. Standing right there in front of him. Her hip was tilted and her hand rested casually on her side. She was wearing black jeans, delightfully tight, and mid-thigh boots. A baggy dark green tunic covered her upper body and did little to hide the growth in her breasts.

All this Jareth was happily shocked by. But most shocking was how short she had cut her hair, only a few breaths longer than her shoulders. It was black and wavy and free of the beads and bones that Jarah had been pleased to wear. She was still dressing like Sarah. She still smelled like Sarah, even under the heavy current of sugary scented air. Her eyes were wrong. Regardless, every other bone and skin he could see was distinctly her. It had been a long time since he left her in the nightmare kingdom, but he could never forget her. He was a little put off by her peculiar glare.

But who was he to complain?

She bit her lip. He tried to straighten and puff out a little. He was dressed dark like her today, in blacks and leathers. At his chest hung his amulet, heavy against his kin and suddenly cold, because his body warmed when she appeared. He tried to quell the slight blush he could feel on his skin and wondered if he could magic a bit more eye shadow on while she was not paying attention. He might be a heartsick fool, but gods above; he was going to look good around her.

"So." She was the first to speak.

"So."

"Love me?"

"Always."

This was enough. She leaned across the desk where he had been working when she appeared. Perhaps "working" was not the right word, because he had actually been gazing into his crystals, where memories of Sarah pre-nightmare were shining. She had interrupted him watching her in a crystal as she wrote something in a journal. It was a moment stolen from her life before she was a Runner. Her green eyes, like perfect jewels, were warm and young. Her rosy skin peeked out from the long locks of her raven dark hair. All this was replaced with the pale and womanly piece of nightmare that was leaning down in front of him.

Her stare was wrong and it was almost impossible for him to hold her gaze. But amid the blackness he could detect the small sinews of emerald iris. They were small and faint, but there and visible for him to cherish. Her lips curled into an awkward smile that quickly vanished.

Then she was kissing him and Jareth, the king of the dreams lost the love game to the queen of nightmares. They may have been like that for hours, neither could tell for certain. The kiss was not like any other kisses previous. It was slow and soft; they were each trembling a little because it had been so long since they had seen each other. To Sarah, he was the Jareth she had always known, the bright and golden Puck of the labyrinth, the king and the trickster in a strange tandem person. To Jareth, this Sarah was a new one: not the girl child or giddy babe, and hardly the teenager he had tricked and jailed. She was now older and this made her seem new all over again. She was not the girl in the obnoxious ball gown staring up at him with sad, scared eyes. Sarah was a queen, as she was always meant to be. She was lush with magic, transferred from his brother; the nightmare infection took on a whole new meaning in her. It was a horror he knew that she could handle; she was wild enough for it.

"So." She whispered against his mouth.

He breathed deeply; the best of Sarah's smell came from the soft skin of her face.

"I'm thinking we should merge our kingdoms. I think we rule under similar politics and I believe the endeavor would please the majority of my citizens."

He opened his eyes and smiled. It was a mischievous one though, nothing like the childish grin she was trying to hide.

"I think that would be a wise move for you." He said.

"For me?" She leaned back and took her smell and kisses with her. "I believe that you are the one benefiting from this prospect."

"Really? How then?"

"Who would not benefit from a powerful, terrifying woman to rule half your country?" At this moment, her expression soft and her wild eyes calm, their secret green

"You aren't as scary as you think, precious."

He regretted that later.

Hoggle chuckled to himself. The tea in his lap was sweet and smelled of peaches. Not his favorite flavor, but certainly a nice one. It was the only kind Sarah kept in her caves, but he enjoyed it enough. The fire before him was soft and warm, near dying, but he had time to enjoy before needing to kindle it.

It had been maybe three hours since Sarah had left, her temper bursting and her magic spitting wild flaming crystals, black as night, from her hands.

"Now Sarah," Hoggle had said calmly. "Instead of arguing with yourself why don't you just go talk to Jareth?"

A burning crystal came whipping through the air towards his head, but a simple lean to the left made it easy to avoid injury.

"Please, just go." He was mildly exasperated.

The queen spun around and glared at him.

"Sarah," He said sternly. "Just go."

And she had gone. And what happened in those many hours where she was not home Hoggle was not inclined to know. Nor did he care, because he knew that she had reconciled with the king and there may be a kind of peace treaty, or form of legal slavery that would enable them to live a happy eternity.

He hoped. He was never certain, but he hoped.

Sometimes plans go exactly as they are desired, with each step taken perfectly, no stumbling or trip ups. But this plan had taken a few awkward detours after it had been conceived. Once the numerous options had been chosen and accepted, it had been easy to take these mistakes and make something good out of them. He had not counted on Sarah actually loving his brother, but he had added it to the equation in case something like that was true.

His truest intention was to be killed. And the death was as fabulous and ecstatic as he had always hoped it would be. He was torn slowly, like the painstaking drag of the hangnail across the finger. It was agony, beautiful agony that shook in his entire body before tearing his soul up and out of his damned body. The nightmare was then able to leak slowly away from his corpse and attack the mortal girl. His plan was fulfilled.

The first half anyway.

The ghost man smiled. Below him his brother was asleep, his arms wrapped tightly around the new queen of nightmares, who was wide awake. She was clinging to his arms, even if her gaze was faraway.

"You can sense me, little queen." His whisper was too quiet for her to hear. It was a feature of being dead that he did not enjoy; he liked to be loud.

Sarah gazed around the room, her brow furrowed in worry. He waited for her to settle into Jareth's embrace again before he sank to her side and touched her cheek with his soft hand.

Gooseflesh ran across her skin, for she could not feel the touch, only the cold.

He laughed quietly. She turned in the sheets and curled up closer to Jareth, who clutched her tightly in his sleep. She was nervous, and he knew she could sense him.

"Sleep now, little one," Jarah said. "I will see you soon enough."

The plan was doing well.

He was excited, because soon he would have what he deserved.

Sarah was chilled. So she drew herself closer to the man beside her. His warmth was like being kissed by the sun. Though a damp cold ran in her veins with her blood, making her immortal, making her frightening, Jareth's warmth radiated through her, touching every icy pain and warming her. She worried that in turn her bitter cold was running races through him, invading in his summer burn, but he never mentioned it. She had the happy feeling that everything had settled, and that her life could move forward now.

Perhaps having those eight years of her own to fumble and make mistakes was what she had needed to recover her soul from the blank prison she had put it in. She had been able to come to terms with her years in the illusion and had found a way to forgive Jareth. Now filled with the haunt of nightmare and the touch of immortality she could begin to understand the impatience and frustration Jareth had felt at losing so much in his life. It was beginning to make just a little sense. Living forever meant watching everyone around him come and go, in waves of bliss and agony he had loved for the longest time. So she could understand the bad behavior. He was certainly flawed.

He made a gentle sound in his sleep and dragged her closer, as though his waking fear of letting her go and flowed into the realm of his sleep. Now a queen of nightmares, Sarah had the ability to step into people's sleeping minds, which she did at that moment to see Jareth's mind when he slept.

"I wondered when you would come."

She opened her eyes and saw a beautiful park: it was greener than any green she had ever seen, shining with a soft shine from the sun, who was partially hidden behind pale grey clouds. Behind her stood a tall oak tree, so tall that she was certain its leaves were conversing with the clouds. And just at her side, holding her hand gently was none other than Jareth, looking rather human.

"I did not know you could control this place." She said.

He frowned knowingly. "Of course, I am the king of dreams."

"And goblins." She smiled, for the first time in many years it was her own natural smile.

"Yes," This he was not as pleased with. She laughed and it was her own laugh.

"It's wonderful here!" She said.

He smiled, and his teeth didn't seem as sharp as before. "I can influence how you look here. I can make you mortal."

"What a lovely illusion." She said softly and kissed him. "I feel like myself here."

"As do I dear." He said.

And into their secret garden in the spectral land of dreams, they walked hand in hand… For a little while anyway. For soon, like children, they raced across the grass, leaping over twigs and soaring over small brooks and rivers. They vanished away together quietly, so no one would ever find a trace of them in the land of dreams.

Hello friends, this is the end of Prisoner, and I want to give you all a big thank you for reading this story. I had not intended for it to go beyond the initial tale, but the final conception of the story called for a few sequels and one-shots that I have in the works that clear up questions, account for stories untold and are just plain fun to have around. So, my question for you all is what would you like posted first? Let me know from some of the choices below:

Prisoner: The Nightmare Queen

(this is a sequel to the story where Sarah and Jareth must deal with the ghost of Jarah, a very pesky poltergeist with intentions of coming back to take over the Underground)

Prisoner: The Twins

(a look back at the history of Jareth and his brother Jarah, once mortal twins who made a deal with powerful Fae)

Prisoner: The Years of Nightmare

(this is a look into a few moments of Sarah's life as the nightmare queen in the eight years she is struggling to regain some of her humanity while learning to control the nightmare)

Prisoner: Into the Illusion

(a series of one-shots that look at Sarah's life in the illusion, minor appearances from Jareth, who manipulates her fantasy)

Let me know if you have an opinion on the order of these stories appearances.

Thank you all again for reading! See you soon!