Though We're Strangers Till Now…:
Sequel to The Way Forward Is Sometimes The Way Back
Author's Note: Alrighty… Switching back now to Sarah's P.O.V. I know some people are probably like, "So what, now Sarah's appearing to take the children that are wished away in Jareth's place?" You'll soon find out, but come on: A) She's the Queen of the Goblins, she has some jurisdiction over wished away children and B) It's her niece! Well, directly at least…Anyway, just wait and see… It gets really interesting… And just because Sarah decided she liked living in the Underground better than the Aboveground doesn't mean that Rory feels that same way….
Oh, and any flashbacks or references to the story (a.k.a. The Labyrinth book) will be written in bolds and italics, like this…
Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, shape, or form own Labyrinth, its characters, its scenes, or quotes. They all belong to the geniuses Jim Henson, George Lucas, David Bowie, Brian Froud, Dennis Lee, Terry Jones, & Trevor Jones. I only own this fanfic storyline, the fanfic it is based off of, and the characters I made up (if I make up any).
Chapter Three: Let me put it this way… What choice have you got?
Sarah took in a deep breath as she heard the girl before her whisper her name. How does she know who I am if we've never met before? Sarah wondered, sad that she lost the advantage of being able to recognize Rory but Rory not being able to recognize her. I can't believe I couldn't see the resemblance she has to Toby before… Sarah thought as she studied the girl in front of her.
True she had Delilah's fiery hair, but she had Toby's round face and angelic blue eyes. Sarah kept her tears at bay as she almost saw Toby emerge from this young girl. Sarah's nostalgia was shattered when Rory suddenly exclaimed, "What the hell is going on!"
Sarah was stunned by the girl's tactlessness and rudeness, but then quickly came back, "Is that anyway you talk to someone who's trying to help you?"
Rory looked embarrassed and looked downward and mumbled, "I don't need anyone's help…"
Sarah crossed her arms, mimicking her husband, and said sharply, "Oh really… So you just called on the goblins for a kick, did you? Just wished for something without caring what the outcome or the consequences were?" Well, for being Toby's daughter she sure does act…. like me… Sarah thought whimsically.
Rory suddenly walked towards Sarah as menacingly as she could and challenged, "Who are you to come in here and scold me like I'm some naïve child? You don't know me…" Rory's anger began to spill out of her as she spat, "You don't know what I've been through!"
Sarah just stared back into Rory's angry blue eyes and said, sadness lingering on her voice, "Actually… I do know what you've been through… I do know what it's like to lose the people you love…"
To Sarah's bewilderment, Rory scoffed at her and moved towards her things that were scattered about the floor. She watched at Rory turned her back to her and began to gather all the papers up and put them back into their folder.
"Still… that doesn't mean we understand each other… That we have some weird connection…"
Sarah listened to the anger, sadness, and disregard in Rory's voice and she began to see a connection that Rory obviously disbelieved in.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that… You see, I know, probably better than anyone you've ever known, what it feels like to be alone… To have no one take notice of you… To have people cast you out and ignore you because you're different… To have people you love suddenly leave you or mistreat you… To feel like no one can help you and you're stuck in a nightmare you try to wake up from, but you can't… You just desperately want something or someone you can put your trust in…"
Sarah watched as she saw Rory's shoulders become rigid as if Sarah's words were sharp pointed rocks that Sarah was pitching at her. Sarah stopped as she watched Rory begin to take deeper breaths, taking in all that Sarah said. Sarah knew she'd broken through to Rory, and she became relieved: breaking through to Rory had been the biggest problem that she had to face. Sarah moved towards Rory and sat down beside her on the floor and waited for Rory to say something.
Rory suddenly lowered the black hood that covered her fiery hair and let her long locks fall loosely around her shoulders. Sarah watched and thought, She certainly has her mother's beauty… Rory looked at Sarah and Sarah could see she was holding back tears in her lovely blue eyes.
"How can I trust you?" Rory asked her in a surprisingly shaky voice (for the girl that just swore at Sarah before), "Even if you are my only family left… I don't know you… You've been gone for almost 25 years, with no trace of your existence anywhere… How am I supposed to trust someone that doesn't exist? How do I even know if you're for real?"
Sarah looked back into Rory's blue eyes with her pale green ones, searching for an answer to give her. Sarah was silent for a moment, then something in the flickering light of the lightening caught her eye. Rory was clutching a small red leather book that was only too familiar to Sarah. Sarah gently took the book from Rory and began flipping through the pages. She looked back at Rory and with a small smile, simply said, "Sometimes the things that we believe in the most are the things we least expect to be real…" She held the book out to Rory and remarked, "You believed in this enough to call me here… Now I'm just asking you to believe in me…" As Rory slowly took the book from her hands, she said, "You can trust me…" she smirked and added, "…besides, what choice have you got?"
Rory chuckled as she realized the truth in what Sarah was saying. Rory looked around her and she considered what Sarah's actions were going to be.
"So what will happen? I'll just go with you to…" Rory shrugged as she finished with what knowledge she'd been taught since she was a small child, "…the Goblin City, then? I just leave everything and everyone and just go to some imaginary place?"
Sarah shook her head, "No… The Underground is very much an actual place… Where do you think I've been living for 24 years?"
The reality of what Sarah said hit Rory like a slap in the face as everything began to make sense. Why Sarah had not been heard from for 25 years in any state, country, or continent. Why no body was ever recovered. Why, when she was technically 48 years old, she looked like she was only 23 or 24, which was around the time she disappeared.
Rory sighed as she looked around, considering the consequences and repercussions that would result from her sudden and inexplicable absence.
"Well… I'm not really sure how this is going to work out…" Rory said, warily. But then grabbing her box of things and her information folder, she finished dynamically, "…But then again, I've always gotten a rush from the thrill of the unknown and problematic…" Sarah laughed as she again saw more of herself in Rory's personality. She may have her daddy's looks, Sarah thought, highly entertained, but she's got my spirit…
"Well then…" Sarah began, but she suddenly gasped and became wide eyed, "Oh! I almost forgot my little bit I'm supposed to do…" She quickly stood up.
Rory followed her, "What are you talking abo—"
Sarah held up her hands silencing Rory, then seemed to concentrate on something while muttering, "Okay… Jareth said to focus, then….." Sarah held her hand out, palm facing up with her fingers brought together as if balancing something on her fingertips. Then, right before Rory's eyes, a small crystal ball a little smaller than a tennis ball appeared on Sarah's fingertips.
"Whoa…" Rory said under her breath.
"Yes!" Sarah exclaimed, pumping her other fist triumphantly, "It worked!" She suddenly became focused again, and said to Rory with a theatrical seriousness, "I've brought you a gift…"
"What the hell is it?" Rory said, extremely confused.
Sarah's eyebrows darted downward at hearing Rory swear. Even though she would let an occasional curse slip ever now and again when she was a teenager, Sarah had gone through too much and had realized she didn't want to waste time in her existence with such profanity and obscenity.
"It's a crystal nothing more…" Sarah said, still holding the crystal still. She suddenly leaned closer to Rory and whispered, "Sorry, I can't roll it or twirl it magically like Jareth can… At least not yet…"
Rory just shrugged to signify she didn't mind, but she made a note in the back of her mind to find out from Sarah later who "Jareth" was. Rory had noticed a wedding ring on Sarah's other hand when she'd pumped her fist and Rory thought, Her husband, perhaps…?
Sarah straightened back up and continued her speech, "But if you turn it this way, and look into it, it will show you your dreams… But this is not a gift for an ordinary girl who is decides to shy away from the world and not live her life…" Sarah gave Rory a heartfelt look as she added, "That's not the life her parents wanted for her…" Rory felt a tug at her heart as she heard Sarah mention her parents for the first time.
Sarah held the crystal out to Rory, "Do you want it?" Rory looked hesitantly at the crystal and Sarah gave her a kind look and added, "Then forget the sadness… Forget the sorrow…" Rory looked back up at Sarah. She took a deep breath, tightening her grip on the box and folder, and with her free hand, took hold of the crystal. As soon as she had, everything around Rory began to dissolve. She felt as if she was falling and Sarah's image soon dissolved as well.
She felt her grip on her box and folder slipping and she tried her hardest to hold on to it. She would not lose what she had left of her parents. She suddenly felt a comforting force ease the box and folder out of her grasp, but she didn't worry. For some reason, she wasn't worried about the box and folder. She just surrendered to the haze that was beginning to engulf her. As she surrendered a blend of memories of the past whirled around her in pictures and in sounds.
Daddy, tell me another story! One about the goblins and the young girl…
"Once upon a time… There was a beautiful young girl who's stepmother always made her stay home with the baby… And the young girl was practically a slave… So one night, when the baby had been particularly cruel to her… She called on the goblins for help…"
Daddy… Where is your sister, Aunt Sarah?
Why do you care about her? Have you ever heard from her? What does it matter?
Why didn't you just tell me that Sarah's been missing? Why have you been keeping all these secrets from me?
Rory, stop fighting about things that aren't worth bringing up! Just get in the car and let's go!
Rory, you're father's right… Some things are better left unspoken of…
I'm not going anywhere with people that keep secrets from me… Secrets about my family… Secrets about what's a part of who I am!
This is Dr. Miranda Jefferson… I'm very sorry to inform you that they both passed away… They had been in a serious car accident, and we lost them…
Rory, why do you sit there and wallow in self-pity… You need to move on with your life! This whole "feel-bad-for-me" act is getting really pathetic… Move on!
The courts and my foster family don't give a damn about me… Nobody gives a damn about this poor little girl that lost her parents and has not a family member in the world…
I wish the goblins would come and take me away… right now!
Is that anyway you talk to someone who's trying to help you?
Sometimes the things that we believe in the most are the things we least expect to be real…
You believed in this enough to call me here… Now I'm just asking you to believe in me…
You can trust me…besides, what choice have you got?
As Rory felt herself falling into the deep lethargy of the haze, just before she fell asleep, she heard Sarah's comforting voice:
Then forget the sadness… Forget the sorrow…
Author's Note: Well, okay, sorry if that was a little weird… I really wanted to jump to the point… I originally planned for Rory to be more suspicious of Sarah (like she's a stranger), but I changed my mind because I wanted it to be more of "She knew of Sarah, she just doesn't know Sarah…" Does that make sense? I hope it does… If it doesn't, I apologize, but at least now I can start on the Rory/Jareth conflict… -rubs hands together deviously and excitedly-
