Disclaimer: I obviously don't own anything in these stories apart from the new characters and the plot line. I never have owned anything relating, or bearing a resemblance to anything relating, to David Bowie.

Author's Note: Warning for ADULT SITUATIONS! Please do not read this fiction if you do not like slash, torture, domination games or anything else of that ilk.

Blah is a simultaneous happening, usually to a character important to the plot.

'Blah' is thought pattern.

"Blah" is vocal speech.

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He blinked as he opened his eyes, adjusting them to the darkness of the room. He seemed to be lying on a bed softer than the one the soldiers had originally placed him on. Blankets covered him with warmth and comfort.

And those soft eyes were gazing down at him.

He wanted to ask where he was. He wanted to know who the other male was. And why was he lying in a place he could not recognize? What was going on? And for the love of the Gods, why couldn't he remember anything?

"Well, my pet? Are you awake?"

Without thought he nodded. And the soft eyes began to darken ever so slightly.

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The trees were dense and thick where the four rested. Enormous trunks blocked the light, seemingly as old as age itself. The glow that characterized most of the magic-touched Underground was strengthened here, making the world seem bright and shadowy all at the same time. Strange blooms of deep colours littered the cracks and crevices of the forest, the velvet-soft moss the perfect protection for a child hidden amongst the rocks.

Toby watched Arradine gurgle up at a ray of sunshine. Sunshine... was that his daughter's heritage? He hoped so. And yet, he craved to see some part of his husband preserved in their child, even knowing that with the misfortunes that they were certain to meet in their life ahead she might not be able to fight her urges to darkness. He wouldn't wish his child to that. And yet, to have his husband back no matter how indirectly...

"My Lord?"

The mortal blinked and looked up. Sir Didymus was standing over him with a fruit in his hands. Sighing, Toby accepted it and ate, absently reminding himself to chew with every bite. Eating was so tiresome; if he hadn't been breastfeeding he would have stopped long ago. Why was he alive in any case? Shouldn't he have died when Jareth did? Or was their bond not strong enough to do that?

"Thank you," he murmured, throwing the seed away and leaning back against the tree. "I'm sorry to be so silly, but could I sleep for a few moments?"

"Of course, my Lord," Sir Didymus agreed, sketching a small bow as he backed away, "I shall awaken you when the time decrees."

Toby nodded and shut his eyes. There was no reason to remain alive. He should have died.

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He allowed himself to be lulled back to sleep, held safe in this warrior's arms. It was so dark as it was, and he was just so tired. His body felt sore and for some reason there was an aching in his chest- just there, over the heart. The vague sensation that he was forgetting something spun around and around in his mind. What was he forgetting?

"Don't think so much, pet." The soft voice was so soothing, sliding mellifluously into his brain with the deftest of touches. Was the other male a wizard? He pulled away slightly to look up at him but the full lips only smiled as strong arms pulled him closer. "No wizard, my dearest. But I shall tell you all later. For now, sleep like the good pet you are going to be."

Pet? That sounded strange in his ears. He timidly looped his arms around the other's neck and held on.

Sleep came far too easily, washing the emptiness away with a kind hand.

He wanted to die.

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"Why'd you let him sleep?" Hoggle moaned, shaking the mortal by the shoulders, "Don't you know it's bad for him?"

The little dog looked tragically upset as he looked from the boy to the dwarf. Arradine was whimpering slightly, obviously hungry again and not quite soothed enough by the gentle rocking motion of Ludo's big paws. Ambrosias sat placidly to the side and panted.

"Well, how was I to know?" Didymus protested, "He looked tired."

"Never mind now. Just help me wake him up."

Together they shook him and tapped on his cheek and called into his ear. Toby only shifted and drifted back into an uncomfortable dream. It was clear what the dreams were about because every so often a certain name would be whispered in a voice so low that even Sir Didymus had trouble hearing it. They persisted.

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There was a mist around him. It coated everything in sight and made everything seem twice as mysterious.

He tried to look through it, waving his hands to move it out of his line of sight. It began to work slowly. He was aware of a presence in the room. He looked to his right, sensing it call to him. What did it want? What was it?

His chest still hurt in this dream, just in the patch of skin over his heart, a sharp pain like a stiletto stabbing between his ribs. He rubbed absently at the spot, moving towards that presence. Someone was upset; he could hear a name being called. Who was it? Who was calling whom? Was that someone he should know? And who was this someone calling to?

He strained forward, trying to hear something or see something; something he knew should be important even though it didn't feel it.

The mist was moving. He sensed that he was almost through it. He kept going, shivering slightly as the icy coldness touched his body. He was barefoot, and the floor was worn stone beneath the soles of his feet. He found he was limping slightly, unable to walk because the muscles of his legs would not respond as they once had. Or had they always been this way? He couldn't remember, dammit!

The ground fell away beneath him and he almost lost his balance.

A staircase? Going down?

He followed.

The Escher Room! Why was that important? There were staircases piled on staircases and all of them were beautiful, twisting and turning through the Castle like... the Castle? The Castle of what? Of where? What Castle?

He couldn't breathe in here. The air was stuck in his lungs, almost solid like the blood frozen in his veins. He couldn't breathe... And then he saw It!

A flash of blond hair and somehow he knew the mouth was wide and sweet, and that the bright golden hair smelled of oranges and soap. He reached out. The key! It was something he needed to escape this mist. He could feel the stone scream beneath his feet as something yanked him back and away.

He woke up with a cry of fear, the blow across his face still stinging as hard, dark eyes stared down at him.

"Trying so hard to escape, pet?" That voice was so familiar. He couldn't remember where he had heard it before but he pulled himself to the other side of the bed and stared fearfully at the tall creature stalking him. "I think I need to remedy that."

He hadn't moved an inch when a hand clamped around his neck and hard fingers pressed down on a sensitive spot that exploded into a wave of pain behind his eyes and flung him into blissful oblivion.

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Toby woke up with a start, a burning pain at the back of his head. Dazed and confused, he hit out, catching Didymus on the nose and landing a kick to Hoggle's stomach. Both went rolling away and lay there groaning. Ludo lowed at him, bringing him back to reality as Arradine finally gave way to full-sized screaming.

Still unable to form a coherent thought, the noise made him react instinctively, pushing him to his feet and towards his child. Gasping slightly, he took her from Ludo and rocked her, muttering any words that came to mind in a calming voice. Arradine wouldn't stop crying! Why wouldn't she just shut up?

"I think she needs changing," Hoggle gasped, rubbing his stomach where a bruise was no doubt forming.

Toby shook his head to clear the ringing and put her down on the grass for a moment as he undid her nappy. Pine and Smoke; everything in the dream had smelt of pine and smoke! Jareth was alive? That was certainly not possible, he decided, because if Jareth were alive then he would not have left his Kingdom to be conquered and his family to be killed. The half-goblin was simply not capable of being that cold.

'He killed those noblemen,' his mind reminded him, a nasty inflection in the words telling him that he was only so far from being one of those unfortunates, 'He doesn't care for anyone else one way or another.'

'No,' he promised himself sternly, 'Jareth is not capable of that! He would never have simply left for no reason at all.'

'Ah, but what if he had a reason?'

'There was no reason!'

He picked up the baby and settled her down in the grass and tearing up a shirt, not noticing the incongruity of the scene any more. His mother had told him to keep Arradine clean for her safety, the same for the nappies he was using on her. Wash them out as soon as possible unless he wanted her to get a rash in such a sensitive area. Toby wiped the cloth off with a handful of leaves and stowed it away for the first free moment near a body of clean water. He didn't really have a laundry service anywhere in the wilds, now did he? Bloody hell, but the only cloth he could get hold of was the second shirt he had brought for himself!

Toby gave it gladly, but was at his wits' end. How was he supposed to do this? Feel these things? He was a man and men didn't care for babies in this kind of way. Wrapping them in shirts to keep them dry. Breastfeeding them for food. Spending every waking moment thinking about the baby and what she needed from her 'mother'.

'And you wonder why he left?'

"Shut up," he snapped to no one in particular, feeling the unease scrape over his nerves. He had felt Jareth in that dream, had felt him approach. Until that wall of magic had blocked him from going further. He had called to him, crying to him to come back like a child, like the God-awful whimpering child he was. An image of the Goblin King had walked down those staircases and stared at him as if his presence was completely unexpected. How dared he?

He automatically picked her in his arms, rocking her and knowing that he hadn't eaten enough in the last few days to provide enough sustenance. He had to ask for more food because she would be hungry soon. The horrible thought that he was drying up naturally gave him a headache; he preferred to blame the lack of food and not his own traitorous body.

No, he agreed, pushing the morbid thoughts away. Jareth would not have done something like that. His imagination was only working overtime.

"Uh, Toby?"

"Just a minute, Hoggle," he sighed, "Arra just needs a cuddle for a second."

"That's not it," the dwarf gulped from behind him.

"She's a pretty child," a soft voice said behind him, "Her life force weaves an interesting pattern around her."

Toby spun, holding his daughter close with one hand as he pulled a crystal from the air with the other. The humorous grey eyes that stared at him were welcoming and unafraid. The woman stepped forward, slender and supple as she came to him and knelt with him in the grass.

"The consort of the Goblin King," she guessed, smiling into his eyes, "I bid you welcome to the borders of the Hringer mountains."

Chestnut hair threaded into a complex braid down her back and the tips of two sweetly pointed ears lay flat against the side of her head. The grey eyes laughed with all the abandon of the wind on a mountaintop and Toby gave a start as long, tanned fingers reached out to stroke his child's downy head.

"You're an elf," he blurted out.

She nodded. "Gwenél is my name. My father you know as Pelinlas, last Lord of the Elves left to the Underground. His spirit bids you welcome too."

Toby cast a cautious look around him, more than a little freaked out to think that a dead elf was still hovering somewhere in the near vicinity.

"Come, Lord Toby," the elf maiden smiled, "We have not the time to waste. Settle your child for another minute more and then follow me. Our journey will last two days before safety is reached."

Toby looked down at Arradine, who surprisingly enough was staring meekly at the elf walking away with large blue eyes. The blush that had crept up his neck from the reference to mothering began to calm down. The lady had spoken as if it were the most natural thing for a man to do. Perhaps elves had the same custom? He really didn't want to think about that.