In the throne room Sarah and Karen had been following Toby's progress in a crystal, they cried out as Toby fell, only to stare in wonder as the stone moved, changed shape, sloping down, allowing Toby to slide down, landing sprawled at the bottom. They could see him get up and brush himself off, startled but unharmed.

Jareth glanced over their shoulders, the corner of his mouth twitched. "It was only a little nudge for him to stop looking for shortcuts."

Sarah frowned at him, while Robert narrowed his eyes at his nonchalance. "Do you care so little for my son Goblin King?"

"There is no need to worry, the Labyrinth will not allow lasting harm to come to him. As I have explained to Sarah, there is a failsafe built into the game, if he ever truly was in danger the Labyrinth would consider the game over, he would be sent home safe and sound."

"But without us! Right?" Karen looked to be on the edge of tears. Robert pulled her into his arms to confort her, glaring daggers at Jareth.

Before Jareth could respond Sarah interposed herself between him and her parents. "Toby is fine and still has plenty of time. He will make it."

Karen bit her lip and turned away, looking again into the crystal.

...

Toby looked around, the pointing hands were gone, the slide had disappeared, the corridors still gave no indication of which way he should go.

Pointing at the corridors he mumbled. "Einey meeney miney mo."

He rambled along the corridor, occasionally running his fingers along the stone. A scraping noise behind him made him pause, cautiously he turned around but there was nothing there.

"That's weird!" He muttered. Another noise, he spun again but saw no one.

He shrugged and continued but at the first step he tripped and fell forward. He tried to get up but stumbled again.

Looking down at his feet he was surprised to find the pompoms on his slippers tied together. A snicker beside him made him turn, just in time to see a tiny, skinny, brown creature disappear under a floor tile.

"Hey! That's not fair!"

The tiny head poked out from under a different tile and blew a raspberry at him before diving under again.

Toby dove for it, only to pull back when a slightly larger creature popped up, shaking a fist at him yelling "Fraggedy aardvark!" before disappearing under the tile again.

When Toby lifted the tile, there was nothing there but dirt. He sighed and got up, but was dismayed to find that he had gotten turned around, he didn't know which direction he had been taking, the walls all looked the same.

He sighed and picked a direction, hoping that he wasn't retracing his steps.

After a while the corridor opened up, becoming a small circular courtyard, ivy intermittently obscuring its high walls. In its center a design was etched into the stone. Toby approached to inspect it and found that it was a type of compass rose, each arrow pointed to a door in the courtyard. He blinked when he realized that the passage he had entered by was gone.

Toby sighed and muttered. "Now where am I supposed to go?"

A nasally voice startled them. "Could you be quiet, some of us are trying to sleep!"

Toby jumped and nervously scanned the area for the source of the voice. All he saw were the ivy covered stone walls and four solid looking wooden doors. There was no sign of anyone.

He walked up to one of the doors and tried the old fancy bronze knob, jumping back when it wiggled in his hands.

Toby gaped at the knob, belatedly noting that the curlicues carved into it formed a face, which was grimacing in displeasure. "No manners these days, grabbing one's nose like that!"

"I'm sorry... Sir... um...?" Toby stammered.

The knob raised his brows, its mouth set in a frown.

Toby fumbled to remember his manners. "Oh, well... um, may I open the door please?"

The knob sneered. "No! You may not grab my nose again!"

"Well... can you open on your own?"

The knob paused and frowned, "None of your business."

Toby huffed in frustration and went to check the other doors. Each had a fancy knob or handle, each carved into the semblance of a face. He inspected a pewter handle, its eyes were closed. Toby knocked on the door.

The handle's eyes popped open, immediately scowling at him. "Do you mind! I'm sleeping here!"

"I...I just need to open the door."

"No, let me sleep in peace!" It scrunched its eyes closed.

He tried the next one, a shiny brass knob. When he tried to turn the handle it bit him. "Ouch!" He cried out as he jumped back, rubbing his sore finger.

The last door had a copper knob, which scowled at him as he approached it. "Don't even think about it buster!"

Toby stuffed his hands in his pockets, sighing. How was he supposed to get out of here if none of the doors would open?

Toby circled the courtyard again, but this time running his hands along the walls and through the vines searching for any hidden openings. He didn't find any, but the vines tickling his arm gave him an idea. He plucked a leaf from the vine and turned back to the first knob. He lightly brushed the leaf under the handle, who wrinkled it's knob and huffed grumpily. Toby persisted, concentrating on the tip of the knob.

The handle squirmed and huffed and sniffled and finally sneezed... and with a click the door opened. Toby pushed the door wider and slipped past the irritated handle who was grumbling at him.

"Sorry!" Toby called over his shoulder as he passed. On the other side was a hedge maze, he skipped ahead. "Piece of cake!"

The cobblestones gave way beneath him.

...

Karen stifled a scream before seeing that Toby was unharmed, suspended above the oubliette by dozens of hands.

Jareth turned to Sarah, a smirk on his face. "Your brother takes after you it seems."

Sarah snorted. "Maybe, but I never tickled a door!"

"No, you just held his nose until he complied."

Karen glanced at Sarah, frowning. "Really Sarah?"

With a shrug Sarah retorted. "I needed to save Toby."

Karen just looked back at the crystal, biting her lip.

Sarah looked again too. "Where are the guarded doors that I faced? "

"There are a three different gates within the Labyrinth as well as three oubliettes, each with their own Helping Hands to help reduce risk of injury."

...

Toby blinked... in the dim light he could see that he was surrounded by weird looking knobby blue-green hands, some of them were holding him up. A few of the hands grouped and twisted together to form grotesque faces. One spoke. "Well, what do we have here?

Toby's eyebrows knitted together. "Put me down!"

A chorus of mocking voices echoed. "He said down!

There was a ruckus of laughing and jeering and Toby felt himself being brusquely handed down into the darkness. "Wait! Where are you taking me?"

The hands didn't pause, only laughed. "You said down!"

The last of the hands let go, Toby fell into darkness.

As he landed he heard the sound of a grate slamming shut, he scowled up at the hole. "No fair"

Only distant raucous laughter answered.

Toby got up and carefully made his way to a wall, almost stumbling on debris in the half light, he ran his hand along the wall searching again for any openings. Disappointed he plunked down crosslegged on the floor, leaning on his fists.

Behind him something shuffled in the darkness. Jumping up Toby searched for the source of the noise. "Who's there?"

"Me!" A gruff voice barked.

There was the sound of a match striking, the match lit a candle on a small table that he hadn't seen, in the flame's light he recognized Hoggle.

Toby sighed in relief. "Oh, it's you!"

Hoggle frowned. "I tried to find Sarah, she ain't answering her mirror and all the portals are closed!"

"Of course not, she's here."

He spun around. "Here? Where?"

Toby shrugged. "At the castle probably."

"Whatya mean at the castle? You said you didn't wish her away!"

"I didn't, she's with Jareth."

"She's with that rat... instead of helping you!? Well I never!...We'd better hurry and talk some sense into her."

"But, how do we get out?"

"Howdya think I got in?" He shuffled back and in the candle light Toby could see an open trap door, leading down glittery stone stairs.

Hoggle placed the candle back on the table and blew it out.

Toby blinked in the sudden darkness. "Why did you do that?"

"Stairs are too cramped, fire hazard."

Toby gingerly followed Hoggle into the trap door, his hands out, grumbling at the dim light. Hoggle was right about being cramped, after knocking his head a couple of times Toby had to scrunch down a bit.

The stairs continued down for a while, suddenly Hoggle stopped causing Toby to bump into him, sending them both sprawling.

...

Jareth frowned at the image in the crystal. "Hoggle is not following his script. He better not interfere too much or we will be forced to up the difficulty."

"Seriously? He just rescued my brother from an oubliette and you're mad at him?"

"The purpose of the Labyrinth is to test the runner's resolve and resourcefulness, not that of it's inhabitants. What do you think the cleaners was... or the peach? The more help you have the harder the journey. In this case your brother has not even won over Hoggle himself, he is simply profiting from Hoggle's goodwill towards you."

Sarahs eyes flashed dangerously. "You are not sending the cleaners after my brother!"

Jareth kept his voice level, one brow lifted archly. "Do you have any other ideas?"

Sarah looked again at the crystal to see where they were headed.

"Yes."

...

The corridor was only slightly better lit, as Toby followed Hoggle the shadows seemed to move giving the impression of faces, making Toby jittery.

"Beware!" Boomed a voice right beside them, Toby jumped so hard he stumbled back against the opposite wall.

A wall which moved!

He jumped away, a face in the stone proclaimed, "The path you take leads to certain destruction!"

Toby spun around blinking, there were several faces along the wall, all taller than he was, and they were talking!

Hoggle ignored them and kept going. "They're only False Alarms."

One of the faces warned. "You are going the wrong way!"

Hoggle frowned at them, "You don't need to deafen us."

Its bottom lip stuck out in a pout. "But the king said warn everyone."

"Well, you've warned us, now please be quiet!"

Toby followed Hoggle away from the False Alarms, one of them called after them sulkily, "It be on your head!"

As the corridor became quiet Toby noticed a tinkling sound, he stopped and looked around. Out of the dark a bright glass orb was rolling towards him. He watched it cautiously. Just as it came within three feet of him it jumped.

Right into the hand of the Goblin King.

Toby jumped back and scowled. "Where is Sarah?"

"I'm right here Toby." She detached herself from the shadows. "How are you enjoying the Labyrinth?"

Hoggle eyes bugged out of his head when he saw Sarah, draped in burgundy leather fitted trench, wearing a pendant.

"You! You!" He pointed at her accusingly.

Toby glared at her. "I wanna go home!"

Sarah forced her face to remain neutral. "Do you mean that you give up?"

"No! Why can't you let all of us go home?"

"Because you made a wish."

"But, he's King, and aren't you like his Queen or something? Can't you change the rules?"

"Some rules even royalty must follow."

"But it's not fair!"

"No, it isn't. It isn't fair to any of us. I'm not allowed to directly help you."

Hoggle grabbed Toby by the arm and began tugging.

Jareth regarded them haughtily. "Hogbrain, what do you think you are doing?"

"Gettin Toby to the castle."

Jareth held out the crystal sphere. "You know that you're not supposed to be helping him."

"Pagh! He needs to go back Above and so does Sarah. An you shouldn't be interfering either yer majesty!"

Jareth stepped forward. "Sarah and her brother are not your business Higgle."

Hoggle stood his ground. "It is my business, I won't let you hurt them!"

"Now why would I hurt my Queen and Heir?"

Sarah narrowed her eyes, she wasn't his Queen, not yet, and Toby wasn't their heir.

Hoggle shook his head sadly. "I don't know what you did to trick her, but she ain't your queen, she ain't a Fae rat like you!"

Sarah's eyes widened at that, Jareth had told her he was human.

"I think someone needs to cool his head a bit." Jareth lobbed the crystal at Hoggle and he disappeared.

"Jareth" Sarah hissed in a warning tone.

Jareth leaned forward. "Now Toby, I think you had better get going." Another crystal formed on his fingertips.

Toby eyed the orb warily then glanced up, his gaze flicking between Jareth and Sarah. Turning on his heels he ran blindly as fast as he could down the nearest corridor.

...

Author's note

I am incredibly sorry that this took so long to update! I blame Toby, he insisted on wishing his parents away when I had planned no such thing, leaving me scrambling to figure out his run and write it. Augh! I'm still not 100% happy with it but it is done and now we can move on to the next chapter.

Thank you so much to Guest 2020, mae-E, Guest, titanicdragon, Guest, Guest and KiraReaper for the reviews, your words of encouragement helped to keep me going when I felt like tearing my hair out.

I hope everyone is well despite the mess this year has been.

:)

P.S: I still don't own Labyrinth or its characters