The Truth of a Lie

a/n: I do not own Labyrinth nor any of its' characters. I do own all original characters and the plot so do not use without my permission. This is your update for this week. I go dancing on Fridays, and I am also dancing on Saturday this week, so I will not be here. Look for another update sometime next week. Many, many thanks to AngelaScarlet for beta-ing this chapter. Tosses Angela a cookie! If you like to read Spanish language Laby fics, make sure you check hers out!

Chapter 1 – Crystals and Illusions

The blonde haired, blue eyed six year old Foundling stared at Sarah intently as she re-braided her long, dark hair. She always wore it in a single, thick, dark braid down her back, where the tip brushed her backside. Toby had only seen it out of the braid once: when she was formally promoted from Foundling to Found, after the test. She had worn it down, and the dark mass had hung straight as an arrow, shiny and sleek. It was like dark silk. But the next morning the hair was back in the braid. Sarah claimed she like it better that way.

"Toby, don't stare, it's not polite," Sarah said with her back facing him. Toby sighed and looked out the small window.

Sarah was the closest thing to family Toby had. They shared a Founder, and Toby's room was right next to Sarah's. She was the one who was there when he had doubts or questions. He had known the time would come when she would leave for her first assignment, but he still did not like it. He especially did not like the look in her eyes after she had found out what her assignment was.

All Foundlings were gifted in some way. Toby's gift was an exceptional memory. He could remember almost anything he saw, heard, tasted, touched, smelled, was told, was taught, and read. He recalled every bit of time he spent in the Castle Beyond the Goblin City. It was not easy for him, even at six, to admit what a pawn he had been in that game. He knew he was more expendable than Sarah. They would have willingly let him be turned into a goblin, and not thought twice. Sarah was far too powerful and strong to test just any old way. They had gone out of their way to fool the Goblin King, and to abuse the pact made between him and the Order.

The pact was thus: There are some Foundlings who do not make the grade when it comes to testing. They do not pass the test, and are therefore worth nothing to the Order anymore. But they cannot be shoved back into every day life. They have nothing. So the Order sends them to Jareth, and he turns some into goblins, and the others into his servants. The Order knew how to summon him to take a child, and they used that knowledge to their advantage. They modified everyone's memory, except Toby's. Toby just did what he knew to do as an infant, cry. Cry and cry and hope he got what he wanted or needed. After everyone was modified they dropped Sarah in, her own memory modified, to act out this play, to see if, in the end, she could say the words. And in the end, she did.

Toby remembered what happened when she woke after the test. She had gone to sleep as Sarah Williams, the girl who beat the Labyrinth. But she had woken up in her quarters in the castle. Her shock resounded in a shriek that echoed through the castle corridors.

'Congratulations, Sarah, you passed the test. You are ready to begin your training to be a Found,' Founder Corsair told her.

'That was the test?" Sarah asked hoarsely, 'Hoggle? Sir Didymus? Ludo?'

'They were all real, as was the precious Goblin King,' Founder Corsair sneered.

'I can never see them again?' Sarah asked sadly.

'I do not think you will ever see them again. You are now Sarah, Found. Your training will begin immediately. In one hour's time you will report to Founder Gabriel to start your instruction in advanced archery. Good luck Sarah, you certainly never disappoint,' Founder Corsair commented as he shut the door.

The walls were thin, and Toby had heard Sarah's words after Founder Corsair had left.

'He was real. They were real. It was real!' Toby heard Sarah start to sob. Even as an infant he understood that sound. She was heartbroken. Sarah had never seemed the same after that. She had thrown herself into her training with a vigor rarely seen in any of the Founds. The last thing she had mastered was her training in poisons and antidotes. She had passed that a few months ago. And now came this assignment, the one that had etched a line of worry on Sarah's brow.

"Do you think he is still alive?" Toby asked.

"His Majesty is more than likely still alive for one purpose or another. Chances are that this kidnapping has something to do with overtaking the Goblin Kingdom or gaining Jareth's powers for Naroof's own use," Sarah said as she snapped some flash grenades onto her hip belt.

"You seem confident," Toby observed.

"Toby, we train for this every day. We eat, sleep, and breathe this kind of thing. I think I can handle a demon, and return His Royal Majesty to his rightful throne," Sarah smiled gently at Toby as she slid her wazikashi into its' scabbard. She checked her braid and then took her face mask from a shelf. She looked in the mirror and secured it, making sure it was very tight.

"You do not usually take the face mask," Toby commented. Those were usually reserved for covert tasks.

"I do not want His Majesty finding out who I am if at all possible. I do not want to deal with the drama involved," Sarah explained. Toby could understand.

"Do you think he remembers me?" Toby asked Sarah wistfully. She looked at him without looking at him.

"Toby, everyone remembers you. I won't be gone long. Be good, and do what they tell you to do. When I get back we will go on a picnic, just me and you," Sarah said as she finally slid her katana into the scabbard on her back. Quickly she twisted her wrist, and a small crystal appeared in her hand. It was clear, and round, and absolutely maddening. This was her magic. The magic she had yet to fully master. Crystal magic. She would eventually be able to control dreams and conjure things with these crystals, but there was only one other person ever known to have crystal magic. Well, if you could call him a person. She shook her head, refusing to even think his name. She tossed the crystal to Toby, who caught it easily, "Hide this. If you need me, really need me, look into this crystal and call me. I will hear you," Sarah made her way towards the door, opened it, and waited for Toby to follow her out.

The official Underground transport pad was in a domed chamber deep within the castle. There was a circle shaped platform with an intricate design on it. It was called the Carreg Teithiwr, or the Stone of Travelers. There was a matching one in the Underground. It was located in a similar chamber inside the Castle Beyond the Goblin City. Only the Goblin King knew of the chamber, and only he could open it from the outside. Anyone from the Order could open it from the inside however. Sarah stepped onto the pad and waited. Founder Corsair entered the chamber, and patted Toby on the head as he passed him.

"Found, are you ready?" her Founder asked her. Sarah nodded confidently. The Founder concentrated on the stone, and on the Found standing there. Sarah focused her thoughts on the stone beneath her feet like she had been taught. Soon the scene in front of her shifted into a mosaic, and then refocused into an unfamiliar scene. This room was empty, and made of stone. It was old, and the stone was roughly cut. The door across from her was made of a roughly hewn wood, with a ring instead of a knob. Sarah checked herself over, instinctively looking for missing body parts. When she was sure she was all there, she walked towards that door, unsure of what she would find beyond it, but sure she had the skill to figure it out.

It was empty, the whole thing. She had looked through endless corridors, through the Escher room and through all the bedrooms. It was as if no one had ever lived there. It was not only devoid of life, but devoid of anything resembling possessions, any kind of sign that anyone had ever lived here. Home was not only where one would rest their head, but also where one rests their possessions, the things that even goblins must hold dear to their hearts. There were no knick-knacks, no bric-a-brac. It was eerie, or downright creepy. But Sarah was trained well, and made her way to what she was sure was the king's chambers, marked well by two large wooden doors. The large knockers on the doors were made of gold, and shaped like barn owls.

"How appropriate," Sarah murmured as she pushed the doors open. This room, too, had no signs anyone had ever lived there. The crimson sheets were pressed and the black duvet looked new and fresh. The pillows were carefully fluffed. The windows were closed, and unbroken. The red sheer curtains and the black velvet hangings over them were straight, and tied back with elegant black cording. Everything had a place, and it was definitely not the room of someone who had been kidnapped and put up any kind of fight. Sarah looked around and noticed that this room did indeed have something different, there was one personal artifact in this room. The Goblin King's black leather crop was resting on his bedside table. The only personal affect in the whole castle. Sarah decided to leave it where it was, not wanting to disturb the Goblin King's things if she did not have to. Once again she got that feeling: something was wrong with this whole thing. Terribly wrong.

Sarah had never dared use her crystal magic to try and look in on anyone but Toby. She stared at her hand, and knew what she needed to do. She twisted her wrist, and a small crystal appeared. She stared deep into its clear depths, and a milky essence filled it, making it opaque.

"Show me Jareth," Sarah said clearly, speaking the Goblin King's name aloud sent a shudder through her in his chambers, his most private place. The milky essence in the sphere swirled, and then became almost a backdrop to the scene playing out. She saw him then, for the first time since she had passed the test. He was being restrained with shackles, hooked up against a wall. Sarah knew the only way shackles would hold the Goblin King is if they had traces of iron. The wall was made of stone. His forearms were caked with dried blood, caused by the shackles rubbing his fair skin raw. He had been asleep when he had been taken, so a pair of long, loose pants had been his only attire. They were ripped now, the fine fabric covered with blood in places. He still wore his medallion, it did not seem to be damaged. His long, blonde hair was ragged in places, and matted in others. Sarah could not see his face, as his head was hanging down. Sarah did not know if he was conscious or not. She dismissed the crystal, and it popped like a bubble. Sarah sat down in an overstuffed chair, and looked around her.

"Well, what now?" she asked herself. It pained her to admit that the sight of the Goblin King brought low by a mere demon conjured sympathy in her heart. All these years, she had shut any feelings but ambiguousness out of her heart where the Goblin King was concerned. The less she thought about him the better. She always had thought that. Memories of him were painful for her to relive. Those memories accompanied memories of the friends she had made in the Labyrinth, the friend she had been forbidden to ever see again. She wished she could see them now, but there was no one here. No one.

Sarah got up and walked back through the corridors, and came back to the room where a roughly made chair and a circular pit sat. There were barrels of mead, unopened, and the chair was straighter than it should be. This was a kingdom of goblins. Why was everything clean, straightened?

"Not everything is what it seems," Sarah said with clarity. She began to suspect that she was not really in the Castle Beyond the Goblin City. Nothing is as it should be. Sarah sat in the chair normally reserved for His Majesty, and looked around her. Carefully, she looked at every nook and cranny around her. She noticed that directly across the room from her was a mirror, a large mirror she did not remember from her brief visit here. It was at least seven feet tall, and maybe three feet wide. It was large enough for most anyone to fit through. It was framed with elegant gilt scrollwork. It looked distinctly out of place in this stone and wood room. Sarah got up and her heels clicked as she walked to the mirror. Standing in front of it, she put her hand against it and felt its' coolness. She pushed on it, to no avail. She twisted her wrist and a crystal formed. She stepped back and tossed the crystal experimentally at the mirror. It did nothing. Sarah frowned and thought carefully. It would take something of the king's. Sarah ran to his room, and looked for the one personal item she had found during her search. The black leather riding crop. Sarah picked it up and concentrated on it. It has a residual energy to it, and it felt like the king was definitely its' handler. Sarah ran back down to the round room with it, and stood once again in front of the mirror.

"Here goes nothing," Sarah tapped the mirror with the crop. It shimmered, becoming iridescent, and swirled with many colors. All of a sudden there was the real castle in front of her, chaotic and unkempt. Sarah held the crop in her hand and stepped through the mirror, leaving the illusion behind her.