The Moon Mad King
By WhiteInfinity21
Disclaimer: I don't own the Labyrinth.
Chapter Nine- Year Five, Seventh Moon
Toby awoke in the labyrinth's heart with a pounding headache and a parched mouth. It felt like he had been run over by a steamroller. Something… something terrible and unexpected had happened last night, but it was just out of reach. The prince felt different, as if he had been bruised all over both inside and out. Everything ached and tingled all at once. His senses were supercharged and horribly sensitive, it felt like a hot electrical current was running just beneath his skin.
"Oh Gods," Toby moaned as he sat up, errantly brushing off the sand that was clinging to his cheek.
The Labyrinth's Heart pulsed around him in evident concern. The previous night had been too taxing on the young prince, the boy had not been ready in any sense of the word to have the full burden of the Goblin King's magical powers thrust upon him at once. But the King's moon madness driven severing of his connection to his kingdom left the Labyrinth with no choice.
There had to be someone to be able to take care of the Wish-Aways, to manage the vast, twisting corridors of the maze and oversee the trials of the Runners as they tried to win back that which they had wished away. If Jareth hadn't taken Sarah's younger brother as his heir, there would have been no one to take on Jareth's abandoned duties. Toby had had the full magical duties of the Goblin King thrust upon him long before he was prepared or be able to take them on.
But what had happened over the course of the night was just the beginning of the young prince's troubles, for just moments later he felt it- that strange tingle/itch that meant that someone was about to wish a child away. But the sensation he was feeling now was ten times stronger than he had ever felt before. It felt like bugs were crawling under his skin, disturbing and slightly painful.
"I WISH THAT THE GOBLINS WOULD COME AND TAKE YOU AWAY RIGHT NOW!"
The words shook the very foundation of the Castle in the Center of the Labyrinth and rattled Toby's bones. He felt the magic of the Goblin King surround him and then he felt himself move elsewhere.
The first thing that hit him when he appeared Aboveground was the coppery scent of freshly shed blood combined with the stench of recently emptied bowels that was overlaid by a haze of terror, violence and death. Next the terrified shrieks of a set of young children reached him, his head instinctively whipping around to locate the source of the sound.
The prince had barely avoided retching when he first caught the myriad of smells that permeated the deceptively comfortable and normal domestic scene that had been transformed into a setting of horror and violence. When his eyes swept from the soiled, terrified children who were huddled in a corner to the children's parents who were lying in a puddle of blood in the entrance to the kitchen he emptied the meager contents of his stomach all over the cream colored shag carpet at his feet.
The thirteen year old had not had a sheltered childhood before he wished himself away to the goblins. He had experienced or seen all manner of things since becoming the Goblin Prince five years ago, but this was the first time he ever experienced death first hand. Toby fought the urge to retch again, trying to pull himself together so he could help the Wish-Aways.
Shakily he approached the sobbing children and tried to make sense of their terrified babbling that broke out once they realized that he was there to help. It took awhile to get them to calm down enough so that there was at least some coherency in their grabled speech, but slowly Toby was able to piece together the story.
The children's parents had divorced just seven months ago and after a bitter court battle the father had won sole custody of the children. The mother was a dangerous alcoholic that had come close to physically abusing her children on several occasions. After the divorce was settled the father moved to a different state and had got a restraining order against his ex.
Apparently the threat of jail time wasn't enough to deter the woman for long since she had barreled into their home around midnight. She had been clutching a bottle of vodka in one hand and was yelling and swearing at the father that he had stolen her children. The father had calmly told his children to go to their room and not to come out until he told them that they could.
The children, frightened by their angry, drunk mother needed no convincing and retreated to the shelter of their room. Once the children were gone the man had tried to reason with his ex-wife but the alcohol and her fury made her deaf to his words. A few seconds later there was a terrific bang! followed by an ominous thud. The children, frightened for their father had rushed back into the kitchen and were met with a chilling sight.
Their mother was holding a gun and had shot their father in the chest. The woman had heard the children's approach and let out an angry, slurred growl as she raised the gun in a jerky movement and pointed it at the kids. The father, blood rapidly falling out through the hole in his chest, lurched to his feet and with a strength borne out of desperation and fear tackled the mother. In the resulting tussle for possession of the gun, he shot a bullet straight between the mother's eyes, splattering blood and bits of brain matter all over the room.
During the fight, the children had shrunk back into the corner opposite of their parents and had watched the entire thing with wide eyes, their small bodies frozen with fear. With his last breath the father had wished his children away to the goblins, knowing that their king would take care of them after he died.
Toby had arrived just moments after the man made his death wish and had promptly threw up, not being prepared for the scene that awaited him as he went to retrieve his first set of Wish-Aways. Once he had the entire story he gathered the children up in his arms and staggered under their weight. Light as they were the prince was still just a child himself, and he took a few seconds to balance himself before transported them all to the Labyrinth's Heart with the sound of police sirens off in the distance.
Once in the heart, the Labyrinth's magic instantly went to work, transforming the children into their new forms, wiping their memories of their life Aboveground and the horrific scene of their parents' deaths all at once. Prince Tobias suddenly bereft of all strength and willpower, still in shock from what had happened curled up in the middle of the Labyrinth's Heart and cried until he fell into a restless, nightmare plagued slumber.
Sarah for the first time in weeks woke up in the arms of her lover. It was a wonderful feeling, waking up like this, being surrounded by Jareth's love for her. She felt safe and warm, like nothing could go wrong. Their terrible fight seemed like a distant dream, like it had never really happened. The moon madness had done what no one else was able to do, forced them to look past their hurt feelings and pigheadedness to be able the simple truth. They needed each other, separate they were incomplete and became ailed by a malady of the soul.
Jareth stirred. Sarah breathlessly watched as his lovely bi-colored eyes fluttered open and fastened on her smiling face, warmth and love filling them both. Jareth drew her up and planted a soft kiss on her lips, a soft, happy smile curving at the corners of his mouth.
"Fair morning Sarah dearest," Jareth greeted.
"Fair morning Jareth mine," Sarah replied.
"Last night was… magical, beyond the ability of spoken language to compare," Jareth was so content, happy just to be in his other soul's presence. He didn't want to move at all.
"Yes, yes it was," Sarah agreed, "But I don't understand why Selene seemed so disappointed in us."
"Don't worry about it my love, instead rejoice that nothing separates us anymore, all barriers between us are gone. Forever," Jareth murmured.
"All the barriers between us are gone," Sarah weakly repeated, her face going pale, "Jareth just what did you do last night?"
A faint, puzzle look came across the Goblin King's face.
"My soul was aching for you so much, I had to find you no matter what. But I didn't know how to find you, then I realized that I could fly and the moon would guide me to you," Jareth was rambling, "but something was preventing me from flying away, keeping me from leaving the castle. So I pulled hard against what was keeping me ground, pulled so hard that it snapped. It hurt, but I was finally able to fly. I became complete, the same as you. Then I heard your song of sorrow, of despair and I found you. The soul ache was gone in that moment, then the Goddess called us…"
"Jareth? Just what do you mean that you pulled so hard that it snapped?" Sarah frantically asked, "what snapped Jareth? I must know."
A minute passed as the lines of confusion on Jareth's forehead deepened. Suddenly a look of distress crossed his face.
"Oh Goddess what have I done?" Jareth moaned.
"Oh Jareth you didn't," Sarah whispered, then she realized something, "oh no, Toby!"
"We have to get back to the castle right now," Jareth got up and summoned his magic to transport them back but found he couldn't.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Sarah demanded.
"The Labyrinth's magic, it's gone, I cannot transport anymore," Jareth replied in a pained tone, "and since the moon has already set, we will have to get back to the castle on foot."
"How far away are we?" Sarah hated to ask the question.
"At least five hours and that is if we don't make many stops," Jareth was already striding off, "we have to hurry, who knows what could happen."
Sarah silently agreed and hurried after him. They had to get back to the castle before something bad happened.
Too bad that they were already hours too late.
The castle was quiet when they entered. Too quiet. The buzz and chatter of the castle servants, the crashes, bangs and screeches caused by the ever-present goblins, the clatter from the kitchen and washroom, all was strangely muted or missing entirely.
"What's going on?" Sarah asked worriedly.
"Something happened," Jareth noted, "it's too silent."
"Where is everyone?" her words echoed off the walls of the empty entrance hall.
"I intend to find out," the King replied and strode off toward the throne room.
The mostly clean throne room (Sarah having put her foot down years ago, she was sick of walking over garbage and other things that didn't bear thinking about) was void of its usual entourage of goblins. So was the central hall, the mess hall, the public library, the main conference room, the ballroom, and the King's dinning hall. The normally bustling kitchen, washroom and servant's quarters were sparsely populated and the few servants that could be found were working in a hushed, almost listless manner.
The more places within the castle they looked, the more worried Sarah grew. Where was Toby? The Moon Child had a sinking feeling that something bad had happened to her little brother.
Frustrated after searching for almost two hours without any sign of the Goblin Prince, Sarah and Jareth split up. She headed upstairs to the royal wing and Jareth went off towards the soldier's barracks and training grounds.
After poking her head into what seemed the millionth lavish suite in the royal wing, Sarah had come to the conclusion that Toby was most definitely not located in one of the usual places he could be found in.
Where is he? Sarah was past worried by now.
There is only one place left that I can think of, Sarah thought, oh Toby! Please be there!
And with that she dashed out of the room and up the lonely, narrow flight of stairs at the far end of the royal wing.
When Jareth entered the common area of the barracks, the lone goblin in there was so startled to see the Goblin King that he dropped the piece of amour he was fixing, causing a loud clatter as it hit the floor.
"Yer majesty! What are ye doing he-" the creature abruptly cut off as the King raised an eyebrow, "I means, how can I help ye, majesty?"
"Have you seen the Prince recently?" Jareth asked.
"Ummmm," Jareth could tell that it was taking all of the creature's mental capacity to think of an answer.
"Nope!" he concluded brightly, "haven't seen fur nor scale of the Prince, nor have the others."
The Goblin King sighed, "that'll be all Glik. Go back to your repairs."
"Yessir!" Glik happily saluted, hitting his head so hard with his oversized hand that he knocked himself out. The goblin hit the floor with a thud.
Jareth sighed again, and left the room.
It was probably a good thing that there were hardly any goblins around. With the mood that Jareth was currently in, the Goblin King was likely to kick first, ask questions later. His exasperation and worry had combined to form an almost palatable dark cloud around him. Exasperation from searching so long without seeing hardly anyone, his worry for Toby (Jareth knew Sarah could take care of herself, the woman had a mean right hook, he knew from experience).
His feet ached, unused walking around so much. In the past if he needed to get somewhere fast, he usually transported or flew, depending on his mood and the urgency of the situation. The repercussions of his actions last night under the influence of the moon madness were really starting to sink in. He had severed his magical bond with the Heart, so he could no longer use the magic that the bond had bestowed upon him. All he had left was the magic he was born with and what talents he would develop as his Moon Magic grew. In other words, he was grounded unless the moon was up in the sky.
He hoped that Sarah was having better luck with her search than he was. There were a few more places on the castle grounds that he would check, but Jareth had little hope of finding Toby there.
The sound of his boots hitting the cobblestones echoed eerily as the Goblin King headed towards the private royal gardens. Like the castle, the grounds were devoid of any higher forms of life (though Jareth felt that goblins didn't fall into that category).
This is getting me nowhere, Jareth impatiently thought.
Abruptly he turned around and headed back to the castle. Jareth somehow knew that the boy would not be found on the castle grounds, looking for Toby outside the castle would be pointless. There were only two places left unchecked that Toby could possibly be: in the Heart or in the place where Jareth himself often went to escape from the stress of his duties as the Goblin King.
While inspiring a feeling of safety and protection, the Heart was not a place that Jareth had visited often. For him, the Heart was like a womb, dark, warm, comforting, but the main purpose of the chamber, to transform human children into other beings so they can live in the Labyrinth, made the Goblin King avoid the place for what it represented; the carelessness and cruelty of humans.
No, Jareth knew that Toby would not be in the Labyrinth's Heart. That left only one place where the prince could be. The Goblin King nudged open the big, intricately carved wooden doors that separated the royal wing from the rest of the castle and slipped in.
The doors closed silently behind the King as he purposely strode down the long hallway.
He knew they were on their way up, that they had finally discovered his hiding place. He couldn't say exactly how he knew, he just did. Just like he knew that the castle was eerily empty, was silent like a tomb. But that was the way he wanted it right now. After what had happened he wanted the solitude, the utter absence of the normal clamor of the castle.
He could hear the sound of her footsteps echoing up the narrow spiraling stairwell, disturbing the stillness of the tower room. He wanted to be alone, but they didn't know that of course. Not after he severed the bond, leaving him to suffer the backlash.
A second set of footsteps, much more distant than the first, could be heard now. The closer set of footsteps stilled. He must have found her. The murmur of the quiet words they exchanged drifted up to him, further disturbing his solitude. It irritated him, they irritated him. They were the ones that were ultimately responsible for what he had gone through.
His irritation started to swell, turning into anger as the emotion became hot. How dare they disturb him? Especially after what they did. They were the last people he wanted to see, he would even welcome the company of a mindless, destructive goblin over their presence right now.
The two sets of footsteps started up again, drew constantly closer as they climbed higher and higher. They were right outside the door to the room at the top of the tower. He suddenly wished that he had had the foresight to lock the door. Nothing barred their way, nothing was present to keep them from invading his refuge.
He wanted to be alone. But they didn't know that.
Later he wished that they had known, perhaps it would have averted all the suffering that was to follow.
The door groaned jarringly as it opened, finally shattering the unnatural stillness that had fallen over the castle.
Sarah and Jareth, upon entering the room felt a sudden trepidation. Toby's back was to them as he continued to gaze out of the open window. They could see the tension in his shoulders and knew that they needed to tread with caution.
"Toby, we were so worried," Sarah softly murmured, "I'm so glad that you're alright."
Toby stiffened.
"I'm not alright," he growled, "no thanks to the two of you."
"Toby!" Sarah exclaimed, "I-"
Jareth cut Sarah off and spoke to his strangely silent heir, "I know. We know that we, no that I did something horrible and that it affected you negatively. But please, you must tell us what happened."
"You want to know what happened?" he softly asked, "well thanks to your little spat and your inability to swallow your pride and admit that you were wrong, you forced something onto me that I was in no way ready for."
The young teen went silent again. A grim frown crossed his face though his sister and the Goblin King couldn't see it as his back was still turned to them. He knew that if he saw their pitying faces he would say something he shouldn't.
"Oh no," Sarah whispered horrified, her hands clasped in front of her face as the unspoken implication of his words sunk in, "Toby, I'm so sorry."
"We acted stupidly and without thought," was Jareth's bitter self-recrimination, "I failed you and I failed my kingdom. I'm not fit to be the Goblin King anymore."
Their sympathetic and self-pitying words finally caused Toby's tenuously held fury to erupt. He whirled around eyes and magic blazing.
"Yes, you failed! You failed me! You were stupid and reckless Jareth!" Toby yelled, then he faced his sister, "and you're no better than he is! If you had acted like the sister and friend you're supposed to be then Jareth's stupid actions never would have happened in the first place!"
"Toby, there is no need to bring Sarah into this," Jareth reprimanded, "she had nothing to do with what happened to you, don't blame her for what is entirely my fault."
"Don't you dare defend her," Toby's growl reverberated across the circular room, "she's as much to blame as you are Goblin King. If it weren't for her pig-headedness and refusal to admit that she could be wrong, the two of you would have never been in the situation that caused Jareth to sever his magical connection to the Labyrinth to go seek you out."
"Tobias," Jareth warned.
"Don't you dare say anything. You have no right to judge me!" Toby shouted.
The prince's control over his unnaturally increased magic was fraying. His fury was combining with his still unstable magic and was causing the entire tower to tremble.
Jareth was instantly on the alert and alarm bells rang in Sarah's head. With the moon not in the sky neither Sarah nor Jareth had any access to their moon magic. If the Prince's magic exploded they had no way to defend themselves.
"Toby calm down, please!" Sarah's fearful plea cut through the red haze that was clouding his mind.
"Get out, get out now," Toby growled, "I may still love you as my sister but right now I hate both of you."
Jareth took Sarah by the arm and swiftly backed out of the room with her. The tower was still shaking as Jareth closed the door and continued as they hurried down the stairs.
"Oh Selene, I'm an awful person," Sarah sobbed when they got a safe distance away from the tower, "how could have I been so selfish that I ignored my only brother?"
"No you're not," Jareth corrected as he drew her into his arms, "you're not perfect but you're not an awful person. You're only human and therefore fallible, just like I am."
"But I'm not even human anymore! Becoming a Moon Child was supposed to make me a better person, but I'm still the selfish, spoiled brat that I was when I was fifteen," Sarah's tears were soaking his shirt but Jareth didn't care, she needed to get it all out or else she wouldn't be able to help Toby when he finally calmed down.
"Stop degrading yourself, you are a wonderful, caring person," Jareth comforted her, "I'm a lucky man to have you and I never want you to forget that. We just made a series of bad choices that had consequences that no one could have predicted."
"Everything will turn all right," he murmured, "I promise."
Somehow neither Sarah nor Jareth could really believe that.
I live!
Yes, after months of stagnating on my computer, I have finally finished this chapter of Moon Mad King. I'm sure that I'll be receiving a few death threats if I don't put the next one out soon, but the Halloween fic that I'm slowly working on should satisfy you all.
Please leave a review on your way out!