A/N: Hi guys! I'm back! No, seriously this time. For realsies.
I'm really sorry that this update took SO LONG. RL came down hard and fast and I didn't really have time to do anything but try to keep my head above water. Fortunately, the currents have settled and I have WAY more time to write! This summer, I'm hoping to get back into posting weekly, although, chapters now are much longer than they were when last I did.
Either way, I really hope you enjoy!
By the time Sarah had finished dinner (which passed surprisingly unlike an interrogation. It seemed Karen was waiting till tomorrow's lunch for that) and had said good night to her family, Zuko already had his coat on and was waiting by the door. She wished Iroh had kept him busier longer, but no doubt Iroh also wanted a debrief on what had happened between her and Jareth. She'd heard how upset Zuko'd been the night before from Katara and there was no way that Iroh wouldn't have gotten what was wrong out of him. She'd seen the looks Iroh had been giving her. Come to think of it, maybe Zuko was hurrying so he could avoid listening to Iroh bombard her with sayings. Sarah wasn't really in the mood for Iroh's advice either. She wanted to make this decision herself and everyone else could stop weighing in, thank you very much.
"Ready?" Zuko asked as she shrugged on her coat.
"Will the answer to that question change anything?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. Zuko only shrugged and opened the door. Sarah sighed and, with Zuko, headed out into the night.
Walking up to Zuko and Sokka's door she could hear the muffled voices of their friends. It seemed that Katara was halfheartedly critiquing Toph, who was responding boisterously as Aang tried to keep the peace and Sokka made terrible jokes, egging both of them on. Opening the door, Sarah saw that that was exactly what was happening. Toph was sitting on Sokka's chair, picking her toes. Sokka sat on his bed, and Aang and Katara on Zuko's. When the door opened, everyone (except Toph, of course) turned to see the newcomers. With the gang in front of her and Zuko behind her she couldn't help but feel a little trapped. Especially when Zuko closed the door behind them. She refused to let them see her swallow.
"Hey guys, what's up?" Aang said, getting up so Zuko could sit on his own bed, though his eyes slid to Katara. Katara was not looking at Zuko, who was not looking at Katara, although Zuko seemed to be blushing. Sarah was starting to wonder if she really had walked—magicked? whatever— in on something earlier. That train of thought was thrown off the track when she noticed Aang's bandaged hand.
"Aang, what happened to your hand?" His eyes went wide and he slipped his hand behind his back, trying to pull a 'Hand? What hand?' expression and not succeeding in the slightest.
"Smellerbee tripped on the stairs and her bag opened and everything fell out," Katara said, looking happy to have something other than Zuko sitting right next to her to focus on. "Aang and I helped her gather her stuff. She had something iron in there and when Aang tried to pick it up, he burned his hand pretty badly. She looked upset, but she hurried on before we could ask if anything was wrong. Maybe I'll ask Jet if he knows what was wrong." Katara frowning in worry. Aang and Zuko were also frowning, though Sarah suspected that had more to do with Katara mentioning Jet than any sense of concern for Smellerbee. Then again, with Aang it could easily be both.
"You alright?" Sarah asked, wondering why on earth Smellerbee would be carrying around iron at all. Wasn't that against school rules? She looked over to Katara. "How long do you think it will take to heal?"
"Probably a week or so," Katara responded, before shooting Aang a look and saying, "If you leave it to heal and don't use it to go rescuing stray animals from trees with it, or cooking pies, or using pies to rescue stray animals from trees." Aang tried looking innocent again. He had so much practice, Sarah reflected, you'd think he'd be better at it. Katara sighed. "At least it's on your off hand."
"Do you really think that an iron burn will heal like a normal one?" Depending on the myth, Sarah knew that that kind of burn could easily turn out to be fatal.
"I've had iron burns before." Aang shrugged. "It sucks, but it'll heal."
"If you're sure..." she trailed off, looking to Zuko. "You think your uncle would know something that might help him heal faster?"
"Maybe," Zuko said, frowning in worry. "He knows this healer, Song. I think she has connections to the Underground. Maybe she'll know something."
"I'm not worried," Aang put in. "It'll heal." Katara started to look worried as well.
"I don't know, Aang. It's a pretty bad burn. Maybe you should have it looked at by a magical healer. I can call Gran-Gran and see if she knows anything too." She started to get up from the bed.
"HOLD IT!" Toph yelled, causing everyone in the room to freeze. "Sweetness, you sit back down, you can call Gran-Gran later if you want," she said, pointing in Katara's direction. "And you," she said, turning her finger on Sarah. "Nice try, Queeney, but we're gathered here to talk about you. Sweetness and Sparky can look into healers later. Sit." She pointed (with a little correction from Sokka) to the one unoccupied chair left in the room. "And spill." Sarah swore deeply, vilely, fervently and above all, mentally. While she had been partly hoping that this would distract them with Aang's injury, that hadn't been her sole purpose. She wondered how well iron would work on Jareth if she needed it, as a repellent, rather than a weapon. She didn't want him dead. Where did one get cold iron anyway? She moved to the chair and sat, looking at them each in turn.
"Alright, on Thursday I was walking down the hall and came saw Katara and Jet kissing and thought-not said, thought- that it would be preferable that I wasn't seeing this, but using a more powerful word."
"So, you made a wish?" Aang clarified, looking confused.
"No," Sarah said, very firmly. "I thought a wish. It's supposed to be 'what's said is said' not 'what's thought is thought'." Once again, she hoped the Labyrinth was picking up on this. "However, the Labyrinth seems to enjoy messing in my affairs, especially when they might be interpreted to involve a certain Goblin King, and decided that a thought was good enough. I appeared in the Underground," she took a deep breath to fortify herself and let all of the rest of her sentence speed out on the exhale. "Right in the middle of a family reunion. Jareth's family reunion to be exact…" Seeing the confused faces all around, she knew that she'd have to be even clearer. "I met Jareth's parents. Also, his uncles. One of them threatened me with a sword…" She paused, ready for a quip from someone, probably Sokka or Toph. They stayed silent. Sarah was taken aback. 'They must be taking this seriously…' "Well, they were really…nice?" She braved on in the face of the skeptical expressions. "When I showed up, Jareth introduced us and they insisted I stayed for lunch. Jareth seemed to think this was a terrible idea, so I went along with it." She smirked. So, she was shading the truth, it was her story and she'd tell the truth in the important parts. "I heard the story of how they met, I'll probably tell it next open mic, but I don't think that's what's really important right now.
"I can remember almost all of my first trip through the Labyrinth very clearly," she continued in the face of all the of raised eyebrows at the sudden, seeming non sequitur. "But I could never remember the last thing Jareth offered me during our last confrontation. Every time I told the story, I'd make something up I figured was sufficiently scary and Jareth-y, but this time, I learned what he actually said. It was a lot worse than I thought.
"During dinner, his parents tried to paint him in a flattering light and eventually asked me flat out why I wouldn't marry him. I gave my reasons and ended with pointing out he'd never asked. He got mad and, er, well, it turned out he had." Just thinking about it, she was getting mad again. "I was fifteen years old for God's sake and the final thing he offered me was 'fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave."
"WHAT!?" said Sokka, Aang and Katara in unison. Zuko flinched, and Toph's blind eyes were wide.
"He must really love you," Toph said quietly, too shocked to be snarky.
"I mean, that's a lot to offer…" Katara said, looking off into space.
"A Fae—a Fae King—offering to be someone's slave." Aang said, starting to shake his head. "Are you sure you heard right?"
"Well," Sokka said, frowning in thought. "Is it really offering that much? It seems like the deal is kind of mutual…"
"Yeah," Toph said, toying with her favorite black bicep band. "He'd only be her slave if she feared him, loved him, anddid what he said. He would only have to do what she said. Maybe fear her…"
"What did you say?" asked Aang.
"Um…" said Sarah, blinking. THAT certainly hadn't gone as she'd expected… "Well, I accused him of being a pedophile and not wanting me so much a as to get one up on me, to prove he couldn't be beaten." Everyone but Zuko seemed to pause and blink.
"That might have been best," Zuko offered. "Any relationship where you fear someone, love them, and do what they say without question is going to end badly." He turned his face away from the gang, trying to hide his scars. Sarah winced internally. Of course Zuko might have a different view of a that kind of dynamic. After all, from what she'd gathered, that was exactly how he'd grown up, until his uncle got him out of there. They all knew that he still loved his little sister, for all that anyone who knew her feared her. Katara reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. He tensed for a moment, before relaxing a little and turning back to the group. Now that was odd. Zuko more often then not would shrug off that kind of comforting hand, even from Katara. Aang shot them both a suspicious look, but said nothing. Just what had Sarah transported in on a few days ago?
"Um…" said Sokka, blinking, "That certainly is another way of looking at it."
"The Fae do like their games," agreed Toph, looking thoughtful. "So, you leave him choking on your dust as you got your butt out of there?"
"Um…" said Sarah. "Not exactly. I did storm out, but I didn't storm between the worlds—transportation takes a lot of energy. Anyway, Jareth's mom came to talk to me. I thought she wanted to talk to me into marrying him, but she wanted to talk about what being Queen meant." She quickly summarized what Buttercup had told her about the Goblin Queen being chosen. "One of the last things she said was that it's the Queen that decides when the rulership changes. A King and Queen abdicate when their son finds a wife."
"But Jareth isn't married…" trailed off Katara.
"He could have been previously," suggested Aang. Sarah froze. That was something she hadn't considered. Had Jareth been married?
"Nope," said Toph, cutting off that train of thought. "An event that big, my family would have been invited to or at least heard about. There's nothing in the family histories of dealing with the Goblin Kingdom about this one getting married and we do have records of his coronation." Well. That was a bit of a relief. Sarah was wondering if maybe she should be a little less paranoid. Then again, way it really paranoia if they really WERE all out to get her?"
"So," Said Sokka, trying to get them all back on topic. "Why is Jareth ruling alone?"
"Apparently the Labyrinth decided it was time for a change and it seems like I'm it." She gathered them each in by eye. "Jareth and I agreed to negotiate for a possible new way of dealing with the Wished-Away. He truly believes only those who don't love the people they wished away would do such a thing. If they complete the Labyrinth, it is because they 'truly loved' the wished-away child. I know that isn't true. I wouldn't have been the only person to beat the Labyrinth in so long. More people have to have regretted their ill thought, didn't-actually-think-magic-was-real and actually loved those they wished away. It just doesn't make sense. I could save families that are being torn a part by stupidity or a lack of knowledge. And for those who truly didn't love their Wished-Away…" Her voice and eyes went cold. "Well, there will be ways to deal with those." She frowned a little. "One of the last things Buttercup asked me, before warning me the Labyrinth might try to trap me, even if Jareth didn't, was to promise not to marry Jareth if I didn't love him. She didn't want to see that happen to her son."
"Who would?" asked Katara, eternal mother of what ever group she was in.
"Wait," said Zuko, looking concerned. "So now we have to worry about the Labyrinth trying to kidnap you, as well as King of Goblins?"
"Isn't that what she JUST said happened?" snapped back Toph. "Queeney, I really think you should start wearing iron. It should help keep you in this world unless you want to go Underground.:
"Well, yes," Sarah said, interrupting before they could continue on this vein. "But the Labyrinth only took me for a little while and most importantly, she let me come back. Before I left, she and I had a talk and she made it pretty clear that she didn't think she or Jareth would keep me there. And she also told me that if either of them tried, the other would try to free me."
"And you believed Her?" Toph said, her brows shooting up. Sarah shrugged defensively, even knowing Toph couldn't see it.
"When the Labyrinth speaks to me… I can just tell, alright? It's a magic thing. I just know she's telling the truth."
"Right…" said Toph, leaning back and looking nearly as skeptical as Zuko.
"So," Sokka cut in, "Let me be sure I have this straight. The Labyrinth, Jareth, and just about everyone Underground we know about wants you to be Queen?"
"Yes. Well, maybe not Hoggle, I think that's less, me as Queen and more lingering fears about me and Jareth…" Sokka waved the point away.
"And the main reason you have a problem with becoming Queen of the Labyrinth has just opened up for negotiations?"
"Yep, although, the negotiations do need to happen. I don't know if we can't find a compromise…"
"Right. But, no matter what the outcomes of the negotiations, you'll only marry him if you love him?"
"Yeah, that about sums it up," Sarah said. nodding.
"So," said Toph, sitting up and paying attention. "I think the question that needs to be answered before anything else is, do you love him?"
"That's just it, I don't know. I mean… Well, it's complicated…" she finished lamely.
"If you do decide you love him, I think you should marry him," Aang offered, tentatively. "You never know when you'll lose those you love. Losing someone you love forever because of an argument… isn't good." Sarah almost winced at that. She'd known for some time that Aang had grown up in a monastery and it had been all he'd known until he'd run away one night after an argument between the monk who'd taken him under his wing and the elders. When Aang had gotten back, the monastery had burned down, and no one had survived. He'd found people who loved him in Katara and Sokka and their family who'd taken him in, but he'd lost everyone he'd known and loved all at once. Katara looked like she was about to get up to hug him, but decided against it. She sent him a compassionate look instead. Maybe Aang's experience was something to think about. Sarah knew what it was like to lose one person she loved, but did she love Jareth? She shied away from the question once more, not ready for the answer, no matter what it might be. And, how would how her relationship with her Underground friends be affected by her relationship with Jareth. For that matter, how would her Aboveground relationships be affected? Why did it all have to be so complicated?!
"Love isn't always enough. There has to be more, like trust, to make a relationship work,"Zuko insisted, looking slightly guiltily at Aang. She'd found out in the last few weeks as she quizzed people about their connections to the Underground that it had been the Sozins who had burned down Aang's monastery. He'd begged Aang's forgiveness and naturally Aang had given it. For anyone else, that "Naturally" might not belong, but with Aang it did. Forgiving people, at least people who were truly repentant, was just what Aang did.
"Look, we agreed that the negotiations are going to take place after classes end, though we've yet to decide exactly when. When it happens, will you guys help me with the negotiations? I know a lot from the stories and my own experiences, but you guys grew up with this culture, and Toph, Zuko, you guys are used to making deals with them, and Sokka can think in ways so twisty he'd make an overenthusiastic cork screw. I could really use you help with this one." The rest of the gang turned to Toph. While they would of course help their friend, there was something they wanted from her too, and Toph was good at making deals.
"Alright Queeney, but we need something from you, too."
"What?" Said Sarah, looking slightly nervous. Deals with Toph could be dangerous things, you were never quite sure what she'd want, or why she needed two bags of fireworks and a frog to do it.
"We want you to start training in how to fight," said Sokka, taking over the negotiations. "We were talking about this earlier and part of the reason we were all so freaked out when you disappeared on us is that we all know you don't know how to defend yourself properly from an attack. When you've got your friends to help you, you're good, but if Jareth—or some other Fae—got you alone, then you'd be screwed. Zuko and Katara are willing to teach you and we think it would be good if you learned…"
"Why Zuko and Katara?" asked Sarah, slightly confused.
"They train together, so they're used to working with other styles and will be able to help you and teach you two styles. Aang's way too busy with side projects to teach you seriously any time soon. I work with my sword and boomerang mostly, and who knows if you'll be armed. We actually want you to like us, so not Toph (for some reason, Aang looked very nervous at this, and those two between the two of them know armed and unarmed combat. You'll learn a lot quickly."
Thinking about it, Sarah realized it probably actually was a good idea. Knowing how to fight would be useful, especially if no one Underground knew she was learning. "Alright. Deal. When do we start?"
"Tuesday night," said Katara, smiling at her friend. "You and I'll meet Zuko at the dojo after dinner." Even knowing it was a good idea, Sarah sighed to herself. Another bit of time taken away from precious studying. She really did need to keep this scholarship for just one more year. Maybe she could talk to professors about some extensions? Complications arising unexpectedly from her father's death? It was technically true…
"Alright. Tuesday. Can I please have the rest of the weekend to spend with my family or is there anything else you guys wanna talk about?" The last word trailed off into a yawn.
"No," said Katara, giving her a slightly concerned look. "You head back to our room. I'm going to stay and talk to Zuko about how best to start your training."
"And get back to us with details on the negotiations," said Sokka. Brow furrowed with thought about who knew what, he turned to Toph to hash out some detail of lore.
"Alright. I'll see you all—" there was another yawn—"tomorrow. Night." And without another word she went off in search of a pillow.
When she got back to her room, however, there was something that caught her attention even more than her bed did. On her desk, next to the vase where she'd put the bouquet Jareth had given her, was a crystal, shining softly. Tucked into the flowers was a note, sealed with wax marked with the design of her pendent. Sarah popped the wax and read the note.
7 hours of spelled time to make up for that which you've lost. Break to use. -J
Nothing else. Sarah tucked the crystal ball into her desk drawer, waiting for when she'd need she finally got into bed, she feel asleep smiling. It seemed like Jareth had listened.
A/N:CHAPTER 26 COMING SOON TO A SCREEN NEAR YOU!
(No, seriously, I've started it already! Shouldn't take too long to get it ready. Of course... reviews do make me want to write more and faster... I'm just saying... XP)
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