Disclaimer: I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Labyrinth, or anything else from the movie.
I stepped back from the pentagram-actually a graph from out of Magdalene's maze, hopefully with more stability than a chalk design. I watched Elien close her eyes, and started scattering seeds around the pentagram.
They began growing. I stepped back. A root twined around my boot. I picked my foot up, then did a few hops, looking for a place to put my feet. Finally I saw a knot of roots that didn't seem to be moving and stood on them.
Then, like an umbrella opening, a tree grew in front of me. It just shot out of the ground, putting branches out right and left. I stared at it, open-mouthed. Then it burst into blossom. I watched its little red bud coats drift to the ground.
The flowers were glowing blue.
Elien stood up and stumbled. I caught her. "No more magic for you for a while," I said. I looked around. What was the best way to carry her back to the castle?
The pentagram picked itself up from the ground and curved into a cut shape. I placed Elien on the graph, then started walking back to the castle.
Jareth, Twyla and two of the children met us there. "Take her to your tower room, and put her in bed," Jareth said. "Then come back here. We have to make plans."
"I'll take her up," said Magdalene. "Which room is it?"
"The top one in that tower," I said, pointing.
She nodded and left, Elien's graph following her.
Jareth stepped into another room, and returned, leading Sarah by her hand. She was not happy. "I demand that you give me Toby and let me go!" she said.
"Sarah, please," Jareth said.
"I beat you. Give me my brother back. I don't know what you just did to me, but I want to go home, and I want to take Toby with me."
Twyla shapeshifted into an older woman and stepped forwards. "Sarah, please listen," she said.
Sarah looked at her. "Karen! He kidnapped your son-twice-and then made me a prisoner in my own body, and you want me to listen to him?!"
She sighed. "It's a very, very long story. Please sit down."
Sarah glared at her, then sat. "All right," she said. "Start talking."
Twyla sat down opposite her. "For starters, I'm not quite human. I am Fae, like Jareth. I was possessed by a demon when I was eleven," she said. "But I didn't have the kind of power it wanted, so when I was seventeen, it seduced a very powerful magician and got me pregnant. I had two little girls. Then, when they were six, it was a full moon on Midsummer Eve. That combination of events can change the shape of the world's magic. What it did was to give me enough control of my body to go to the mortal realm and trap myself on Earth. Then the demon regained control. After a few years, it married your father and had another baby. Understand, the demon wasn't trapped on Earth; just its vessel, me. I think its plan was to take over Toby in a few years, then come here and try to take over Elien and Koren."
She paused. Jareth picked up the story. "I noticed that Toby was connected to the Labyrinth-more specifically, to two of its residents, Elien and Koren-and realized the danger he presented. So I took my chance to kidnap him. Then you insisted on trying to reclaim him. Sarah, the way the Labyrinth works is that most of the part you went through you created. You made more of the Labyrinth than anyone before you. By the end, you'd made so much that any of my enemies could easily capture you and use you as a weapon against it and me."
"The demon possessing my mother was only the first," I added. "If you go back to Earth, other Fae will trap you, and use you. Besides, the demon isn't dead; it's only spread out between three different bodies: you, Toby, and my sister Elien. We need to starve it to death, and that means keeping the three of you separate."
Sarah looked at me. "Do you have a nice little plan for all of this?"
"I need you here, because you're connected to the Labyrinth," Jareth said. "I need you to help me rebuild it."
"That thing with the trees-"
"Merely a holding action. It won't do as a permanent solution, but it should give us the time we need to fix the Labyrinth. Elien will visit the Summer Court-you may have heard of it; a mortal by the name of William Shakespeare wrote a play about it."
"And I'm taking Toby to the Star court for six months," Twyla added. "It's where I grew up; I can get a little more training with my magic."
"You're free to go home at any time," Jareth said. "It's just that you'll be kidnapped a week after you return. If I train you in your powers, you'll be able to defend yourself, but it will take a while."
"What about my father?" Sarah asked.
"I'll offer to bring him here," Jareth replied. "Or to send him to the Star court, if he and you so desire. I can even invite some of my cousins to visit, if you've a desire for female company."
"I'll be staying here for a while," Magdalene said, coming back in.
"And I'll visit," Twyla and I said in unison.
Sarah paused-then nodded. "All right," she said. "I'll stay." She yawned.
"Koren, show her to a guest room," Jareth said. "Everyone, go to sleep. We've got a lot of work to do for the next several months, and we'll all need our rest."