Chapter Eighteen: The First Puzzle Piece, part two.

Almost immediately, Sarah faced a dilemma. Jareth's words had given her a clue: "What's different out there is different in here, too." Well, the jagged towers were certainly different, and she had a feeling that she was going to have to visit each and every one of them to put things to rights. After so many years of apathy, she finally knew what she had to do, but it was being jeopardized by one thing: family.

Quietly, Sarah ducked behind a statue, slowly and erratically making her way toward her suite of rooms. A bemused Jareth followed behind her, not attempting to hide his movements in the least. "What are you doing?" he asked with a grin.

She straightened up from her half crouched position and turned to face him. "We're going to have to go through the Labyrinth, aren't we?"

"It would seem so," he answered, obviously confused as to where she was headed with this.

"If your family caught wind of that, how do you think they'd react?" she asked pointedly.

Understanding dawned in his icy eyes. "They would want to come with."

She nodded, irritably brushing her long hair out of her face. "And if your family tagged along?"

"Your family would have to go as well," he answered knowingly.

"And they wouldn't be nearly as happy about it, believe me." She flattened herself against the wall, sneaking once more. "Besides, the more people that come with us, the longer it will take to get to all of the towers; we'll make better time if it's just you and me. So I suggest we get to my room as quickly as possible, strategize a little, grab any supplies we might need, and make a hasty exit."

Oran was hit with the distinct sense that something was wrong long before Amyl burst into the room. Blessed peace had reigned for the past few hours, a time he had used to quietly get to know Robert Williams, but it seemed that peace was ending.

"What is it?" he asked the obviously frazzled butler.

Amyl, usually so careful and stately in appearance, looked as though he had run through every room in the castle—his dark uniform was wrinkled, his chestnut hair was flying out of its customary ponytail, and his tan skin was flush with exertion. "They're gone," he panted. "The kitchen staff noticed some food missing from the pantry and a chambermaid said she saw them ducking out a backdoor. I thought perhaps they had just taken a late afternoon stroll, but I checked all the grounds and all the rooms in the castle, and I can't find them anywhere!"

"Calm down, Amyl," Oran instructed, standing and offering his seat to the overwrought man. "Now, just who the devil are you talking about?"

For a moment, he said nothing, his breath whistling through his teeth then, almost painfully, answered, "Jareth and Sarah." He took a deep breath and collected himself. "No one has seen them for over an hour."

Oran felt dread grip his heart.

"It had crossed my mind," Amyl continued, "that perhaps they had decided to stroll through a close part of the Labyrinth, but why would they take food for that?"

"Why, indeed," Oran murmured, fearing that he understood only too well what was happening. "Do you know what the drawback of having severely independent children is?" he asked of both men in the room.

Robert gave a frustrated half-laugh. "They always think you're in the way," he answered. "They've run off, haven't they?"

"I fear so," Oran answered. "So we are faced with two options, gentlemen: we can stay where we are, or we can go after them." He pondered for a moment. "Of course, they may have left because they have an idea of how to fix Jareth, and our chasing after them might only complicate that… but, then again, our chasing after them may make the difference between complete success and utter failure."

"It's a tough decision to make," Robert nodded sagely. "For anyone who isn't a father, that is."

Amyl stood, smoothing his uniform. "Shall I inform the others?"

"Wait," Oran held up his hand. "We're interfering fools, but the least we can do is give the children a head start."

The first tower was close, rising out of the ground like an angry stone giant just outside of the Goblin City. It hadn't taken them very long to get there, but now that they were there Sarah couldn't help but feel a little lost. She had known that she needed to get to a tower, but she didn't have any clue what to do after that.

"How do you even get inside," she asked, circling the outside of the tower. "There's no door!"

But Jareth didn't answer, only stared blankly ahead. He had slipped into a semi-catatonic state just as they had reached the stone pillar, and it worried Sarah. She would almost prefer him raving like a lunatic to this eerie and glassy-eyed silence.

She turned away from him, and back to the problem at hand. "Think," she urged herself. "It might be a new challenge, but it's still the Labyrinth, where nothing is as it seems. There has to be a door somewhere!" As if drawn by some unseen force, her gaze lifted upward. There, nearly twenty feet above her head, was a wooden door. "Who the hell would put a door up there!" she shouted in frustration. "What good is it if you can't even reach the damn thing?" Worry and doubt began to override her. There was nothing nearby that could be easily stacked to access the door, and Jareth was in no state to help. What was she supposed to do without any resources, without any magic?

A sudden realization struck her. "I do have magic," she whispered, her emerald eyes widening. She didn't know how much, or how strong her magic was, but… She had forced an object to her hand once before, hadn't she? Granted, it had been a small glass orb and it had only been a few feet from her, but the principle was the same.

Curious and determined, Sarah carefully let her small and hastily packed bag fall to the ground, then straightened up to look at the door looming so far over her head. She hadn't used any magic in five years, didn't have the slightest idea of how to tap into or control that mystical energy that was supposedly inside of her, but she had to try; she had to remember what she had done with the Orb of Command those many years ago.

Somewhere, from Jareth, the back of her thoughts, or simply from her memories, a voice whispered out. Hold your hand out in front of you. She concentrated raising her open hand toward the door. Now imagine a tether running between you and the object; wherever your hand goes, so too goes the object. But this was different; she wasn't trying move a small bauble through a solid statue, she was trying to get a stone door to move down nearly two dozen feet. Concentrate.

With a deep breath, Sarah shook off her doubt and looking for that calm center within her. Closing her eyes, she pictured a strong rope in her hands, imagined it so strongly that she thought she could almost feel it. With both hands she tugged, but only met with resistance. She dug deeper inside herself, she had to have the strength somewhere; she refused to be defeated before she'd really even begun. Something wild and giddy stirred within her, something that was so wonderful it was almost terrifying. She grabbed onto that thrumming power with desperation, turned it outward, and threaded it through her rope. With every cell in her body humming, she pulled.

The rope moved so easily that Sarah almost fell over.

Carefully, without opening her eyes, she continued to pull. Her whole world narrowed to that one action, to the simple give and take of the rope in her hands, to the unrestrained wildness that flooded every part of her being. When the door finally hit the ground, when the rope went completely slack, she was surprised; she had thought to go on like that forever.

Sarah's green eyes snapped open; what was she thinking? The untamed restlessness suffused every part of her, made her itch for something, and she found it frightening that she had so completely lost herself in such a simple action. Was this the nature of magic; was it always as dangerous as it was useful? If so, how had Jareth ever resisted its seductive call, how had he managed not to lose himself centuries sooner?

With a shake of her head, she turned to the man in question. She felt flushed and shaken, but now that there was a way into the tower, they had to move forward. Quickly, she reclaimed her small bag, then took hold of Jareth's hand and led him into the soaring stone giant.

Something shifted within him, became clear where it had once been hazy. He had lost sense of his physical body once again, as though a curtain had been abruptly drawn between him and it the moment he had neared the tower. Jareth wasn't particularly worried about it though; he had been able to hold onto his physical self more frequently, now that Sarah was there, and he knew that she would watch after him as his mind wandered.

The clearness drew closer, a strange beacon in the shattered landscape around him. Tentatively, Jareth move toward it.

Sarah stopped for a moment, weary and out of breath. The tower had certainly looked big on the outside, but not this big! She and Jareth had been climbing a spiral staircase for what felt like hours, until there was no hint of the door below them, and they still had not reached the top. Although she couldn't necessarily say that she was frustrated about this turn of events. Without a doubt, the stairs exhausted her, especially after her strange brush with magic, but at the same time she dreaded whatever laid at the top of the tower enough that this reprieve was a welcomed one.

Don't stop, Jareth's voice whispered in her mind, causing her to whip around quickly.

He stood on the step below her, putting them at eye level. His gaze was vacant, his lips unmoving, but there was a steeliness in his grip on her hand, and she knew she hadn't imagined his silent urging. She had no idea what was going on in his mind, no idea what he saw through those glassy eyes, but they still shared an empathic link, so she knew perfectly well what he was feeling.

Excitement flared through him so strongly that it began to whip through her as well. She wasn't sure what would greet them at the top of the tower, but if Jareth was eager for it, then she would continue to climb.

"What do you mean, they're gone?" Karen Williams asked in a too calm voice.

"Just that, my dear Lady," Amyl answered in a matching tone.

Oran almost felt bad for having the stalwart and loyal butler break the news. Almost. He'd courted his fair share of disaster for the day, after all; it was only fair that someone else take a turn.

Looking around the room, he tried to gauge everyone's reaction. Karen seemed to be gearing herself up for a fight; Toby, Robert, and Leshia were concerned; Linda was vaguely unaffected; and Imm and Laim appeared…considering. Oran shuddered internally; every time any single one of his boys got that far away and thoughtful look in their eyes, trouble had followed swiftly.

"Are we going after them?" Karen inquired very carefully.

"Of course we are," Robert soothed his wife immediately.

"Only, there's one small problem," Oran cut in. "The Underground is a large place, and we've no idea where they've run off to."

"We might," Imm spoke up.

Laim nodded. "But you'll have to give us a few minutes to check on something."

The stairs had ended on a simple platform, completely unadorned except for a door. Wary, but determined, Sarah had opened it to reveal one of the most curious rooms she had ever seen. Stepping into the room was like stepping into the world of a child's nursery. Books, block, and toys of all sorts littered the floor; the walls were splashed with bright colors, ornamental weapons, and exotic silk tapestries, while the floor was covered in plush rugs. What was this place, she wondered as she ventured farther into the strange territory.

A noise came from behind her, a strangled, pained noise that frightened her and tore at her heart. Whipping around, Sarah came to face one of the most bizarre and terrifying sights of her life.

Jareth was crouched low to the floor, one of the decorative swords clenched in his hand. The hilt of the weapon was a black metal that twisted and folded, slithering up his arm until her couldn't let go. A light encased him them, surrounding him in a warm and comforting glow, and briefly Sarah wondered if this was what was supposed to happen.

Then he started screaming.

The sight the Twins walked in on wasn't a pretty one. Jareth knelt in the center of the tower's sole room, agony wracking his frame, as Sarah stood to his side, wide-eyed and unsure of how to help him. They reached her side just as she was about to lay her hand on the sword Jareth clutched.

"Leave him be," Laim told her, laying a hand on her shoulder and steering her away.

"But he's in pain!" she shouted, sounding near tears.

Imm took her cold and shaking hands into his own, trying to calm her. "It's supposed to happen. Although…" he trailed off uncertainly, darting a look to his partner in crime.

"What?" Sarah became, if possible, even more panicked.

"It's a tricky sort of magic," Laim explained. "Most of our kind don't bother with it because of how exhausting it can be."

"Regenerative magic is a dangerous business," Imm nodded. "Most run out of magic long before they finish the regeneration." He almost laughed at her stricken look. "But Jareth has always had more magic than any of us have ever been able to comprehend."

"He'll be whole again, after this?" she asked, darting worried eyes to where their brother shuddered at some inner torment.

"Judging by the state of this room," Laim ventured, "I would say no. This is just a child's room, so I would think it's only the beginning."

Sarah looked around, a frown marring her face. "What does the state of the room have to do with anything?"

"You don't get it yet, do you?" Imm asked, not unkindly. "Jareth's got a lot to answer for, a lot of old hurts that need fixing before he can completely heal. He isn't just mending himself, Sarah, he's rebuilding. And he needs your help to do it."

"We really do need to go to all of the towers, don't we?" She asked, a hint of melancholy in her voice.

"Jareth built all of this before any of us even knew it was going to be necessary," Laim answered. "You'll have to go to all of the towers because that's the way he built it, but you can take comfort in the fact that you probably won't have to go anywhere else."

An unnatural hush settled over the room, causing the three of them, somewhat unwillingly, to seek out Jareth. And it was Jareth they found, but he had changed. The tall and lithe man had been replaced with a young boy, but there was no doubt it was still the same person. Unearthly white skin, silvery-blond hair, and icy blue eyes were all too distinctive of Jareth for the boy to be anyone else.

Sarah's emerald eyes turned to the Twins, confused and frightened.

"Like I said," Imm soothed, "he's rebuilding."

"So, with each tower we climb, he'll get older?" she asked.

"No one can say, save Jareth himself," Laim half-smiled, "and I don't think he's in any position to at the moment."

The three watched as the young boy, no older than five or six, dropped the sword and laid flat out on his back, apparently resting.

"We'd like to help you deal with this," Laim interrupted the silence, "but we came to tell you that the families have noticed you're both missing, and they want to look for you."

"No," she groaned. "I'll admit that I'm probably in over my head here, but something keeps telling me that I have to do this alone."

Laim didn't have the heart to point out that it was probably a guilty conscience prompting her to take on this burden single-handedly. "We had a feeling you would say that, so we'll help you the only way we know how: one way or another, we'll keep everyone else as far away as possible."

"Thank you," she breathed out, her smile as shaky as her hands. "That's one less thing I have to worry about. I have to wonder though, why are you offering to do this for me?"

"We want to see Jareth healed just as much as you do," Imm answered. "And besides," he continued with a grin, "I still owe you a lie, don't I?"

A/N: There's some slight parallelism between this chapter and chapter 38 of Dramatic Orchestrations, just as there's parallelism between the tower door and the Orb of Command. Also, the lie that Imm is talking about was from the Tapestry Jerking adventure, in case anyone had forgotten (and it's been long enough for some memory lapses).

This chapter came out frighteningly fast, but it was my last day of Spring Break, and I didn't get much of a response for the last chapter, so I thought I'd write some more.

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