A/N: Almost wanted to test all of you tomato-wielders.
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About two minutes in, the sun finally set and the room began showing signs of wanting them to leave so it could prepare for tomorrow's new look. The fire died, the tea all-of-a-sudden got cold, and their chairs somehow became scratchy and uncomfortable. Sarah took the hint and led Toby through a wall that the castle had kindly allowed to lead directly into her room. They sat down on the bed and Toby began.
"Lila's mom is a selkie. We were looking for her skin." He checked with Sarah for comprehension before continuing, "What we found was this house. We staked it out a few times, wrote down the magical protections around it, and so on. It was really simple – so long as you had the key, you would enter through the front door like a normal person. You just couldn't use any magic otherwise the, like, five hundred different talismans around the place would tip off her dad.
"Lila had the key. We went in and it was, like, a serial killer's place! There was nothing in there. We checked all over.
"And then we went into the garage."
Toby paused, trying hard to convey the creepiness, Sarah could tell. "There was this circle, out of chalk on the ground, and it was written all over in Latin, with small drawings. In the center was a clock."
"The ritual for eternal youth," Sarah said, then added, "It's different than immortality. Immortality requires life force, if you don't already have your own. Lots and lots of magic and belief and power. Eternal youth is vain and doesn't need anything so complicated. What was he going to use?"
"The blood of a child," Toby said darkly. "I talked to Lila about it and her mom overheard us. We don't really get it, but the curse or whatever didn't extend to this and she was freaking out about what he was going to do. We told her we'd been looking for the skin and that we wanted to mess up the circle now to prevent him from hurting a baby. She wasn't about to let us go alone, she said, and she took some magic things and went with us.
"We were about two feet from the door when it happened.
"Lila's mom heard him climb out of the downstairs bathroom window. We ran into the garage and I was trying to get us to move the clock to the door, except Mrs. Riordan said we shouldn't touch the circle. Then he came. He had a gun."
Sarah breathed in sharply and couldn't help gripping Toby's shoulders and arms, just restraining herself from running her hands all over his chest, to check for bullet wounds.
"He started ranting about how he knew someone had gotten in the first time because of the magic signature from the hat and how he would've just left us alone if we hadn't come back. Lila's mom had brought some stuff and he said he recognized the magic signature on that and knew it was us. He said he wouldn't kill us, just hurt us enough that we couldn't run away until he found a spell or something that could keep us from telling, so I said the Words."
Sarah breathed a sigh of relief, "Good job. You're much, much safer here. You always will be." She ran her fingers through his hair, aware of just how comfortable with the Labyrinth and its king she'd gotten while being here, if she could extend invitations like that. "So…what happened then?"
"Jareth came and had us run the Labyrinth before he went back and…killed Mr. Riordan."
Sarah wasn't the least bit sorry. "And then you made your way to the maze and started looking for the two doors that led down to the oubliette, the false alarms and so on."
"Yeah. I was gonna copy you," he said.
Sarah raised an eyebrow, a wry smile twisting her mouth, "You know that that wasn't an actual path, right? In the forest of the Fireys, I had to climb a wall and needed Hoggle and a rope to help me. Then I fell through a trapdoor."
Toby blushed, "I never said it was perfect. But it was a plan, right?"
"Yeah," Sarah said, stretching out on the bed, "The Labyrinth hates those."
Toby chuckled and lay down on top of Sarah crosswise, so that only their torsos were touching. "So, when are you coming back home?" She watched him fiddle with a loose string from her blanket.
Sarah frowned, looking up at the heavy cutains of her four-poster bed's top. "Not yet. I have an assignment to finish. Now that my memory's back, I think His Highness can send me back to my body."
"You can call him Jareth, you know," Toby said, sitting up. "We're, like, his only non-business friends. He's not gonna care if we're not formal. He might even like it."
Sarah looked at him, "You think?"
"Sure. I called him Jareth back there," he waved to signify when he was discussing stuff in the Goblin King's throne room, "He smiled a little."
"Alright, then. I'll ask him," Sarah said, then sat up herself and pointed to the small archway that had grown a door since that morning. "Bathroom's through there. Wash, then I will. We can share the bed, it's big enough."
Toby nodded, then smiled. Sarah 'oof'-ed in surprise when Toby jumped on her, hugging her tightly. Sarah hugged him back, idly considering Toby's story. That kind of action was more dangerous than some assignments. And at twelve…he had the makings of a spectacular human-for-hire, if he didn't get himself killed first. She smiled, snuggling into his ticklish blonde hair. She'd just gotten her brother back. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about sending him off to other worlds.
[-M-]
Sarah chewed thoughtfully on a sausage, eyeing the people around her while she ate. The table was excessively long today, with the Goblin King on one side and Toby on the other. She sat peacefully near her brother while the two wished-away both perched anxiously on chairs on the King's right-hand side, one a bit more calm than the other, and both only tentatively eating their scrambled eggs. Currently, they were a bit more frantic, since the Goblin King's attention was almost exclusively on them. She had half a mind to tell them to calm down, but it was all-too-obvious that he was enjoying their discomfort, and some part of her was laughing a little bit, too.
"Where will you go now that your husband is dead?"
Lila's mother, who had introduced herself as Eva, looked distinctly worried about giving the King of the Goblins information about her whereabouts, despite Toby's comfort around the man, and shifted a little before answering, "We'll be sticking around and sorting out his will. I'll be looking at the information to make a list of places where he's been, houses he owns, and so on. Lila and I believe he may have left my skin in Europe after we met there, so that's where we'll start."
The Goblin King smiled pleasantly, "You can be assured that you'll be safe from harm. My subjects are very keen on Lila. One in particular: Meep, a young one that's chosen to stay with the Williams family," his eyes glittered as he looked over at the two Williamses present, "From what I hear, he managed to find a guard last night." Eva looked far more relaxed at this information, perhaps finally taking into account Sarah and Toby's relationship with the King and their influence. The Goblin King turned to Sarah, "So, why don't you give your brother and these lovely ladies a tour, and I will begin putting together a few circles for your departure. Sarah's arrival was complicated, to say the least." He gave her a faux-ly exasperated expression. Sarah stuck out her tongue.
Toby took this as his excuse and thanked the room for the food (which Sarah had told him to do before breakfast, to be polite), much to the Goblin King's pleasure, then stood. The women took that as the cue to finish, Lila stuffing half a pancake in her mouth and blushing a bit when His Majesty laughed, and did the same. The company laughed when Toby opened the main door and nearly walked into a solid brick wall.
"Maybe you should lead," he turned to Sarah.
She grinned, feeling her appearance brighten at the complement, and promptly walked towards the window closest to the door and jumped out. She found herself in a hallway, and waited patiently for the rest to get over their fears of heights, Lila in particular. They followed, eventually, and Sarah began leading them through the castle, pointing out several nicer rooms or ones that she liked in particular and introducing them to anyone who came along.
Around two-o'-clock, after a hearty lunch of soup and fresh-baked bread in a place at the City, they walked slowly back to the Castle to see if their way home was ready for them. To their surprise, it had been ready for quite some time, and the King had only put off telling them to allow them to get more comfortable with his kingdom. Lila and her mother returned first, the latter giving Toby a kiss on the cheek and a deep thanks to the Goblin King for ridding her of her husband. Then Toby left, giving Sarah a tight hug and promising to bring their parents news that she was okay and adding that he'd tell them that Jareth had been looking after her.
And then it was just the Goblin King and Sarah. She fidgeted.
He gave a fond smile, "You will be missed. I will send messengers to give your friends your goodbyes."
She nodded and gave him a similar smile in turn, "I wanted to say thank you. For taking me in and teaching me things. And sending me home now that I have my memory back."
He nodded, "It was a pleasure having you as a student."
"Thanks," Sarah powered through, "I want you to know that I really consider you a friend and I wanted to ask you if it would be okay to call you Jareth. If it isn't, that's fine, though," she added quickly.
He smiled, looking about as happy as Toby had suggested, "I'd like that. Friends are something I do not have in abundance," he paused, "However, I must request that you retain the use of my title in formal. To do otherwise would be…"
"Uncouth?" Sarah offered, ending his search for a word. She nodded amicably, "Yeah, I figured. Like how you used to refer to me as 'Lady' in front of guests, right?" He nodded. She smiled and, feeling a bit daring, stepped forward to give him a hug. He responded similarly, feeling like he was unused to the action and just following her lead.
He stepped back and smiled down at her, "Precious thing," and kissed her forehead, eliciting a blush from her. He kindly acted like he hadn't noticed and motioned to the circle that had been set up for her reunion with Harena. She stepped in, finding the center quickly and gave him a nervous wave as the writing on the floor began to glow.
White bled into her vision and the room was gone.
[-M-]
Pain and ow.
"Motherfucker!" Sarah spat, before quickly stilling and listening for movement. It was probably not a good idea to make noise when you were captured. On the other hand, thought Sarah as she turned to the right and came face to face with a corpse, screaming was sounding really good right now.
Trying to swallow the hysteria so she wouldn't be caught, she pushed all the dead limbs away from her and jumped up, feeling with her feet for an unoccupied floor space. The room stank like rot and disease. She could feel her clothes were looser than they'd been before, as well, and guessed that two weeks were enough to do some damage to her newly-recovered body, though how she hadn't died from dehydration yet, she had no clue. She made a fist and focused on producing a light, then opened it and released a shining orb into the space.
Holy fucking God – dead people! She was right not to scream; some of them were missing limbs and other body parts that she was sure she needed. She looked around for her pack and dragged it out from under a thankfully whole woman, then slung it over her shoulder. Now was not the time to be squeamish.
She directed the orb around the room, finally locating a familiar head of blonde hair on top of a familiar redheaded one. She walked over and shook Isaac and Tasha by the shoulders, almost crying when there was no response. She checked Isaacs pulse – there. He was still alive. Barely.
Getting a thought, Sarah pulled out a mirror and stared at herself. Still the same oily-faced, brown-haired, sunburnt girl she'd been before the trapdoor. The Labyrinth must've been a dream, since her fairytale appearance was gone, but – she looked at the flying orb – obviously, she'd learned a thing or two. With a gesture that was almost second-nature at this point, she conjured a crystal and, focusing, looked into Isaac's dreams.
Isaac looked a good deal happier here, most likely because of the very beautiful, very pregnant Tasha at his side. They were setting a table together in the apartment in Oregon, putting a steaming heap of spaghetti and thick, smooth marinara sauce down on a new, large table in the small space that was meant to be a dining room but was never used by the team as such. Sarah watched as they let in a version of herself and Angie, who did not live there anymore, and they went around hugging the couple, commenting on Tasha's glowing appearance and the mouth-watering Italian on the feast. Angie jokingly popped the cork on a non-alcoholic grape cocktail, and Sarah produced the dessert for that night – a pumpkin pie, purchased last-minute at a bakery two blocks away. It was Thanksgiving.
Sarah forced herself not to get caught up in the dream and altered the dream 'Sarah', the smiling, toasting version of herself bringing up the mission that they were supposed to be on right now: "Do you remember that time on Harena? When we were all caught in a trap?" That was all it took; the dream shattered and Sarah had to withdraw quickly from her roommate's subconscious, to face his pallid face as he looked around. Near him, Tasha was stirring as well. Unusual, and likely meaning they'd been sharing the dream. Well, then.
"What - ?" Isaac asked, voice cracking.
"We should've checked the door for traps. Can you move?" she asked them.
They nodded, sluggishly getting up and surveying the room, Tasha looking a little less shaken than Isaac, but disturbed, nonetheless. The two pulled flashlights out of their packs, and looked for Angie silently, until Tasha finally spotted her, barely breathing, nearly on the other side of the room. Again, Sarah called on a crystal, trying not to focus on the calculating stares from Isaac and Tasha, and pulled Angie out of her romantic life in Paris. She had to cover the girl's mouth to stifle her scream upon seeing the room's other 'occupants'.
"Now we need to get out of here," Isaac said, quickly scanning the items in his bag and tossing anything past its 'use-by' date. It looked like their chocolate bars, nuts, raisins and crackers had survived, though, and a small lift in spirits could be felt at having real sustenance.
Tasha surveyed the room, quickly locating a large, heavy door and they moved towards it as one, Angie using a nifty spyglass of hers to check the hall on the other side before Isaac fiddled with the lock and got them out of the tomb. The blonde girl kept looking through the small telescope and took the lead, jogging fast until they found a set of stairs and started climbing, turning a corner once. Upon reaching the second level, they found themselves in a short, dark hallway.
"There are traps up ahead," Angie said, panting heavily, telescope still jammed against her eye.
"We can't – deal with those right now," Tasha gasped.
Sarah, still breathing heavily, walked over to the narrow set of stairs and pulled out a glass of sand, smashing it against the floor and erecting a shimmering purple shield, then turned around to see Tasha copying her with the rest of the hallway. Finally sure of safety, they collapsed against the walls, Angie beginning to sob into her hand and Isaac and Tasha staring at each other solemnly. Sarah simply grabbed her never-ending supply of water and took a several large gulps, then ripped open a packet of crackers and began munching on them madly. She was going to need the energy.
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A/N: I'm worried that they weren't panic-y enough in the tomb. Review and tell me what you think, hm?
