Summery in full: Jareth is doing a routine once-over of the Labyrinth looking for vandals, when he finds something else…a lost little girl. Taking her in out of pity, he thinks it will short term arrangement, that is until he forms a strong parental bond toward her. But when she flees to the Aboveground after a fight with him and befriends Sarah, Jareth is handed the short end of the straw as secrets he has kept from her are quickly revealed...then she runs away from Jareth again and into the iron grip of danger. This course of events ultimately leads to Sarah and Jareth having to team up to save the wayward teen, and perhaps find themselves along the way. JarethxSarah

Authors Note: See I can be somewhat original…at least I think this is original, I haven't seen anything quite like this before…whatever.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything having to do with the Labyrinth, as for this particular Elfin Kingdom and Astra, mine if you would like to use them all you need do is ask and your wish shall be granted.

Sun shone through the window, seeming to illuminate the alabaster blond hair crowning the Goblin King's head, rousing him form a peaceful night's sleep he would have rather been left to further enjoy. Tiredly, he looked up and out of the window by his bed, blinking back the sleep in his eyes. Jareth groaned inwardly, this was the ideal type of morning to just fall back to sleep or perhaps relaxed and read a book; he could do nether. There had been a mass case of vandalism as of late and he had had to go out every morning on patrol to assess the damage and try to pinpoint the whereabouts of the vandals, for some reason they were shielded from his locater crystals. He suspected it was a small group of Pixies that had recently migrated into the aria.

"Bloody Pixie bastards." He grumbled, pushing himself up with one arm. Sighing, he stretched sore muscles and dressed, finishing off the attire with his crescent shaped pendant, the symbol of his power and authority.

Not bothering to get breakfast, or even leave his room for that matter, he stepped up onto the window ledge and let himself fall, shifting into an owl well before he was in any danger. Gliding over his kingdom, he felt a surge of pride as well as responsibility, before this vandalism incident he had never taken the time to really see what he spent his days ruling over. The land was beautiful, born from the imaginations of young dreamers, and its inhabitants, though fun to mentally torture had their good points and he was responsible for all of them, they looked to him for guidance and protection; it was a heavy burden he was proud to hold. It was during these flights that he remembered why he had become the Goblin King in the first place…and didn't regret it.

It wasn't long before he witnessed the destruction the mischievous little rats had caused. Ancient sculptures, that had stood for as long as the Labyrinth had been in existents, had been reduced to rubble, walls had been felled and the inhabitants of the Labyrinth itself were in a panic.

Landing, returning to his Fae form, he attempted to talk to the frightened masses of tiny gobbling who were running in circles around a three yard long section of thoroughly destroyed path, they had come out of there burrows under the walkway so they could see what all the noise and destruction was about. Finally giving up on a friendly approach, Jareth roughly grabbed a goblin running past him and demanded answers. The little goblin instantly objected to being man handled.

" ?Whatdid–

"Shut up." Jareth replied shortly, annoyed that the goblins fast way of speech, melded with all the other voices in the narrow path, was already giving him a headache. "This is going to be a long morning…" he thought, grinding his teeth.

"Now can you tell me what happened?" he continued, trying to sound calm but coming across as rather annoyed.

"Whatdoyoumean?WhatwouldIknow?Yourthekingyoushouldknowwhat'sgoingonyoushouldbetellingme –

"Enough!" he sighed irritably, pinched the bridge of his nose. His booming voice reverberating off the walls had silenced the little creatures for the instant and he was relishing in the quit…then it started up again. Taking a deep breath to control his growing anger, he continued. "Do you know of anyone who does?"

"Nobodyknowsweallstayinourburrowswecomeoutwhenwehearthesmashingandthecrashingthenyoucome –

"I get it, I get it…you don't know who's doing this or what's going on. Can you at least keep an eye out for whoever is causing this?"

"Youbetyourmajestyyoucancountonusand – whaa!" before the little goblin could finish, Jareth had had more than enough, dropping the goblin, now rather annoyed at being interrupted at every attempt at speech, he took off in his owl form for other parts of the Labyrinth, looking for answers. Instead he found memories.

Flying over first level of the Labyrinth, he remembered a certain ebony haired girl, of no more than fifteen, fuming at not being able to figure out the seemingly endless path. He mentally smiled at the image of her banging her fists on the walls and cursing, she had come so far, grown so much in that short thirteen hours, become so quick…and yet she had never truly understood what he was trying to do for her, what he was trying to tell her. Yes he had taken her brother, when she asked it, yes he had robbed her of her time, when she expected him to pull some underhanded trick, and yes he had tried to seduce her in a drug induced dream, when she had summoned it. Why hadn't she understood? He was trying to show her that he would do anything for her, anything she asked of him would be done no matter at what cost.

He sighed as the all too familiar sorrow and confusion took hold of him once more…was there anything he could do to win her back? He thought dejectedly…or was he destined for an eternity of aloneness, never again knowing what it felt like to be truly cared for…to be loved? All the questions, all the answers, it frustrated him to the point where he took a nose dive, heading for the unforgiving rocks below, hoping the adrenalin rush would overtake his emotions. Again he found something he had not expected.

Spreading his wings to slow the fall, he eventually came to hover just above a little blue dot. He looked at it curiously, his owl eyes straining to decipher what the thing was. Far too big to be a fairy, not the right shape for a goblin and Pixies were of earth tones, not blue. He went closer; careful should the thing be more dangerous then it seemed, then the thing looked up, directly at him, even from nearly two hundred feet in the air, there could be no mistaking what the 'thing' was. Jareth nearly fell from the sky in shock; he was staring into the violet eyes of a young girl, judging by the peculiar point of her ears and her unusual hair color, an elfin girl. He was swamped with confusion, there hadn't been a whish-away since Sarah had run his labyrinth, close to a year ago and the Undergrounders never whished away their children, they were far too rare and precious to their parents to do that; besides, rarely did his goblins act without his knowledge, chances were that he would know if this girl were in fact a wish-away. That still posed the question, though, how did she get there? That's when he realized where they were; she was nearly half way to the castle and she had been going at a steady pace before she caught sight of him, although he was increasingly curious as to why she was there in the first place he wanted to see just how far this little girl could go. A squeal broke him of his thoughts and he looked down to see that, upon seeing him, the girl had sprinted off, nearly out of sight, still going in the right direction.

Still having work to do, Jareth decided that he could leave the girl for a time and look in on her progress every now and again. He flew off to the hedge maze, the Wiseman there would be of little help but his hat seemed to know what was going on, if you asked the right question of course and keep the Wiseman quiet.