I've decided to make this the last chapter and use the whole Jareth Aboveground idea as another story or possibly a sequel. Sorry if I disapoint anyone, but this story is just getting a little tedious and I kinda backed myself into a corner with it.

Disclaimer: Yadda yadda, you know how it goes.

ooOOoo

Sarah left the next morning, as planned. She didn't really want to go, but she was sure Jareth knew best, or at least that's what she told herself. She savored the transport spell back to her apartment. It was possibly the last time she would ever be held close to him. She memorized the feel of his body against her in those few minutes. Memorized his scent, his breathing, and his warmth. It didn't last nearly as long as she'd hoped it would.

When she looked around and saw her apartment just as she'd left it she just about started crying all over again. How could she go back to… to this? It was like going back into a prison cell after being out in the warm spring sunlight for a while.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye," she mumbled. 'Wow, how much more cliché can you get?' she thought. He took her face in his hands and stared into her eyes.

"Just remember," he said quietly, "I will always be with you here." He brought one hand down to the left side of her chest. That did it. She started crying, throwing her arms around him. He growled and pushed her sternly back at arms length. She looked so dejected, it broke his heart, but she was making this far harder on him and herself than it had to be. All he truly wanted to do was kiss her, sweep her up off her feet and make passionate love to her. Before this urge won him over he disappeared in a glittery gust of air. He was gone, but she heard whispered words echoing in her mind 'I love you, Sarah'. She collapsed into a sobbing heap on the floor.

OOooOO

It had been nearly two weeks since Sarah had returned Aboveground. Jareth was utterly alone, literally and metaphorically. When he had returned to the Goblin Kingdom, in a rage he banished all of his subjects to other kingdoms. They weren't the ones who deserved to go down with the ship. Only a few extremely loyal servants stayed with him, confidant that he would find a way to save the Labyrinth and the kingdom. They were stupid. He had wracked his brain and nearly drained all of his magic trying to figure out a way to save them to no avail.

It had begun with only low rumbles from the ground, like a volcano before it erupts. The shaking had begun later than he'd expected it, but it came nonetheless. Cracks in the earth had swallowed whole blocks of the Goblin City. The Labyrinth was withering away. The once breathtaking Heart Garden now reminded him of the dead and dying flowers in a cemetery. Yet his castle was still untouched. It would be saved for last so that the king could watch his kingdom go to ruin from his high tower. Cruel.

He'd conjured up crystals to watch Sarah, she was just as miserable as he. Why did he have to push her away, why couldn't he just let her come to love him? His self-loathing was growing exponentially as his kingdom fell outside. He held his head in his hands, trying to work away a headache that seemed to be growing like a balloon in his skull.

"Jareth…" he looked up thinking he'd heard his name. Satisfied that he was hallucinating for unknown reasons he went back to massaging his temples.

"Jareth…" Okay, that time he heard it. The voice sounded familiar, "I need you."

Sarah. She was calling to him. He was dumbfounded for a moment. He wasn't even sure he could go to her if he wanted to. However it was worth a try.

ooOOoo

Disappointed, she had gone to sleep heartbroken when he didn't answer her. She had cried herself to sleep, in fact.

She dreamed she was back in the ballroom, but there was no gown this time, no formalities.

"You called," came a voice from nowhere in particular and all around her at the same time.

"Jareth?" she questioned, turning to try and find him among the mirrors, "Where are you?"

"Who else would come to you in your dreams?" he chuckled downheartedly, "This is the only way I can come to you now. As the Labyrinth dies, so does my magic and I must reserve what little is left for something… important."

"Oh," that stung, but she shrugged it off, "How is the Labyrinth?" she asked, instantly kicking herself as he'd already said it was dying.

"Oh it's peachy, everyone is happy and joyous…" her eyes shot up in amazement.

"Really?"

"No, the whole place is crumbling, as I knew and told you it would." He said it so flatly it almost brought tears to her eyes, even in her dreams. Her defenses went up.

"I offered to stay, but you-" he cut her off.

"Yes yes, I know, I drove you away so I can't blame you for a thing that's happening and so on, is that about right?"

"You're impossible," Sarah growled, "I came to make you an offer that might just save you, and so on." Jareth was intrigued.

"Go on," she felt her childish side kick in just a little.

"Well now I don't want to, now-"

"Sarah, you're testing my patience."

"Fine," she took a deep breath, "You said you didn't know if you would survive Aboveground for any length of time or not, that no one from the Underground had ever tried it, right?"

"Yes," Jareth could see where this was going and it made his fiendish little heart skip a beat.

"Do you have enough magic left to get back here one more time?" She asked it quietly, not betraying the hope and optimism that she desperately clung to. He was quiet for a moment. He did have the magic; in truth he had been reserving what was left of his magic just for this purpose if the need arose. He'd hoped this moment would come, and it came not too soon. He couldn't let her know that though, for some stupid reason he couldn't name.

"I might. You mean for good, don't you?" He drew the question out, hoping to make her squirm if she was going to. She didn't.

"Yes," she looked up as if to beseech some deity, "I know it's a long shot, but it's worth a try, right? I mean…" she paused gathering her gumption, "Jareth I love you, I know I do. And I know that you…that you love me, no matter how your wicked side feels." Actually, he hadn't heard from his wicked side since she left. It seemed to have gone with her. It bothered him that if they should be together he would have to keep fighting it if it came back, but he was willing to risk death Aboveground to be with her, he would deal with his wicked side if and when the time came.

"Do you mean it?" he asked suddenly appearing before her dream-self.

"I thought you couldn't do that?" She asked, surprised.

"I may have under exaggerated the remains of my powers slightly." He smirked and took her into his arms. Even in her dreams she could feel his warmth.

"Of course I mean it," she looked into his eyes, "I can't bear to loose you forever." His heart burst at that moment. She really did love him. He could see it radiating from her eyes, spilling forth like so many water droplets from a waterfall.

"I would rather risk dying in your world than live without you in mine." They were the truest words he'd ever spoken.