AUTHOR'S NOTE-PLEASE READ

Hello all! I regret to announce that A Twilit Journey will be on a slight hiatus until further notice. I'm afraid my life is a trifle too hectic at the moment, and despite my determination to finish this story, it's becoming more and more difficult to write decent chapters.

For now, however, feel free to enjoy this filler chapter, which takes place before Aanyx joins the Organization, but after Xandera "Killed" her parents. (For more info see chapter 6, Day 5.)

Aanyx was bored. Again. Some time earlier in the day, Jareth had stopped by with a letter to Ikxe; apparently someone in the Fae Council wanted to discuss something that no doubt held little importance to the little Nobody girl. So she found herself in the mysterious throne room of the Goblin Kingdom, sitting upside-down in the throne she had proudly commandeered from the King as he resolved a problem that, once again, held little interest to her. Of course, there was no doubt in her mind that the King could easily take it back if he so chose, but she had a feeling he was humoring her. "So what do you do around here, Jareth? I mean, when you aren't saving my arse or being summoned or whatever."

"Well, I do have to watch over the Wished Away and the Runners."

Aanyx tilted her head upright to look at him curiously, "The what and the who?" The Goblin King let out a long, drawn-out sigh that clearly spoke of his thinning patience, "When some snot-nosed brat decides to use the Right Words, their Wished Away instantly becomes my chargin. For example, if you were to wish your brother away, I would be forced to be his guardian, while you would get two choices."

"Not that I would to begin with, but okay."

"Either you recieve thirteen hours to solve the Labyrinth, or you choose your dreams and forget he ever existed, in which case he will be either tuned into a goblin-if he annoys all bog-damned life out of me-or I would find him a new family."

"But people don't actually..." Aanyx trailed off before she stood up angrily at the king's confirming nod, fists balling in transparent anger, "Who would be bat-shit insane enough to trade their own brother?"

"You'd be surprised, actually. Most of the time it's an abused child, or an unwanted sibling-a black sheep, as it were-that becomes the Wished Away."

"Can't you just bog the bastards and save the child?"

"Believe me when I say there have been thousands of temptations." Jareth paused to cross the room, perching on the circular window to look out at his land, "The Labyrinth would never allow it. She gets her strength from the Runners, see. Weak Labyrinth means no magic in the Goblin Kingdom."

Aanyx looked out at the view, a pang of worry spreading through her at the sight. Hedges were browning, the Goblin City below empty save for one or two sickly-looking goblins. "Abovegrounders are loosing faith, Aanyx." Jareth explained bitterly, "They've stopped believing in us. If it continues..."

"What if I ran it?" Aanyx said suddenly, causing the Goblin King to jerk his head towards her. "Let me be a runner-thirteen hours, right?"

"Aanyx, be wary. The Labyrinth is merciless towards her Runners. She will put you to the ultimate stretch, and I will not be able to help you, be you a favorite or no."

"Well then you should tell her how obscenely stubborn I am. I wish to run the Labyrinth."

No sooner had the words left her mouth than Aanyx found herself atop a hill, a mid-day sun beating down on her head. "The stakes?" Aanyx was slightly surprised to see him in a complete regal attire-no longer was this her friend and mentor; Jareth was now every bit the king of the goblins he claimed to be. "Oh, erm..."

"I'll make it simple for you, then. If you manage to solve the Labyrinth, I will allow you to wear those clashing colors. However, if I win, you must cease to wear any green in my presence and will don what the Labyrinth chooses for you."

"What's the matter with my green?" Aanyx demanded, folding her arms over her chest. "It clashes so horribly with your hair, I've gotten a migraine from looking at it too long. Now, do we have an agreement?"

"Sounds fair enough. Don't be too sore when I win, Jareth."

"I look foreword to it, little one."

With a poof of glitter Aanyx was alone, staring at the challenge before her. She couldn't help but gulp, "Well, Aanyx, What HAVE you gotten yourself into this time?" Grinning, she jogged towards the wall with a mutter of "One hell of an adventure, that's what..."

A stretch of wall met her, so she did the only thing she could do-climb up and stand on it. After all, with a birds-eye view it would be more like a paper maze and not the daunting labyrinth filled with Kingdom Hearts knows what. She jumped from her perch onto the next closest wall, making her way through and taking corners at random. Finding she had cut through about a forth of the stone, she smiled and jumped to a nearby wall, only to realize she had misjudged her footing and fell smack on her arse. "Damn! Not fair!"

"Tha's right! It's not fair!"

"But that's only half of it!"

Aanyx spun to face the voices, whips drawn, to see two peculiar guards in front of doors. Or was it four? She warily dismissed her whips as she looked at one of the four heads in turn, "Okay...what are you?"

"The question you should be asking is how to get out!"

Indeed, now that Aanyx had surveyed her surroundings, she found herself literally boxed in. Sighing, she pinched the bridge of her nose, "Lemme guess; one of these leads me to the castle. The other leads to, what? The bog?"

"Certain Death!" Clarified one of the heads. "And you're not going to tell me which is which, right?"

"You can only ask one of us. That's in the rules! And I should warn you that one of us always tells the truth, and one of us always lies. That's a rule too-he always lies."

"I do not, I tell the truth!"

"Oh, what a lie!"

"Uh...huh..." Aanyx raised an eyebrow, not failing to notice the two bottommost heads giggling, "And how do I know that that itself wasn't a lie? For all I know, every word any of you have said could be a complete lie. So for all I know, neither of these doors is what I really need."

"But he could be tellin' the truth."

"If that were true, then your statement just now was a lie, in hopes of tricking me into not choosing your door."

"But I could be tellin' the truth!"

"Then we're right back where we started, stating that the rule of one always telling the truth and one always lying could very well be a lie, in which case this whole corner is designed to waste the Runner's time with trifling decisions."

"But you can't get out of here unless you try one of these doors."

"Exactly my dilemma. Can I at least see what the path beyond looks like?"

The guards looked at each other questioningly before the one on the left answered warily, "...yes?"

"Cool." Once she had both doors open, Aanyx surveyed the paths with a calculating glance. One seemed to stretch foreword into dim lighting, while the other sloped downward. She looked up towards the castle before making her mind up with a mumble of, "Down it is..."

She soon came to pitch darkness, making her regret she hadn't brought a flashlight or something. Still she kept on, walking cautiously foreword as silence reigned all around. Finding herself quickly bored, she conjured a handful of Thundra magic, only to let out a scream as what appeared to be a face wafted up at her from the darkness. Her Thundra went awry in her panic, hitting whatever it was that had startled her smack in the eye.

The darkness lifted, Aanyx quickly recognizing the Oubliette as a rather angry dwarf muttered curses left and right, clutching hiseye. Aanyx winced and pulled out a potion, "Sorry...here; chin up. It may not exactly taste good, and the texture is nasty as all hell, but it'll fix it." The Dwarf cautiously took the liquid, downing it with a shudder. "His Majesty asked me to fetch you out; He said it wasn't as fun to win with you walking in circles around the Oubliette."

"I've been going in circles?" Aanyx groaned, "What time is it? How much longer have I got?"

"Not long, miss. Possibly not much more than an hour or so."

"Great. Just fucking gre-" Aanyx suddenly cut herself off as a strong gust of wind ripped through the Oubliette, some sort of childish voice whispering around her. Forgetting where she was or what she was doing, Aanyx found herself drawn to it, her steps slow and dragging as she disappeared through what appeared to be solid wall. The dwarf gave a gasp, flinging himself onto the Nobody, "No! You can't go in there! Them's strong magic, it is!" But if Aanyx heard the dwarf, she gave no sign of comprehension as her glazed-over eyes locked onto a glowing orb of light, colors swirling through it and thrashing out as though trying to get out. The whispers grew in volume, incoherently urging Aanyx onward. She seemed to be in some kind of trance as she reached for the magic, barely even flinching when Jareth tried to pull her back. "Aanyx, listen to me. Stop this at once. There's no telling what can happen if you touch that!" But he was too late, as her hands clasped around the orb lightly, cradling it close to her stomach as though it were a sleeping babe.

And for a moment, everything seemed fine. The whispers stopped, the magic spreading into her system as Aanyx stood, eyes fixated with a fascinated concentration on the orb of pure magic. Jareth faltered, eyes scanning her glowing form for any potential threats. Slowly the magic consumed her, her hair loosening out of its braid of its own accord while a flowing satin dress replaced her sweatshirt-and-jeans combo. Flowers wove through her Auburn tresses, the hair growing until it reached the floor and piled around her bare feet. Aanyx closed her eyes blissfully, and Jareth walked to stand in front of her, "...Aanyx?"

And then it happened. The glow that had collected in her body blew out with a force so strong it nearly knocked the king to his knees, the silence replaced quickly with a soul-shattering scream as Aanyx began to float, a white-hot light protruding from her hip. "Not her. She is not here for that!" Jareth growled at thin air, fighting his way to pull the light out of the girl. The Labyrinth rumbled around them as the light was thrown to the other side of the chamber, the Nobody falling limp in the King's grip.

When Aanyx next woke, she was laying in a vast water bed, a dull throb in her side soothed by the familiar presence of cotton bandages. She groaned at the sudden awareness of light, bringing a hand over her eyes, "Tell me I still have time." A sharp laugh met this, and when Aanyx opened her eyes, she found the Goblin King sitting on the side of her bed, back in his signature draping-necked poet shirt and criminally tight pants. "You just absorbed a portion of the Labyrinth's magic, and you're concerned about your run? I daresay being couped up with that brother of mine has given you faulty wiring, little one."

"Is that what that was? One minute I'm in the Oubliette, and the next...well, I heard something. It sounded so sad...It whispered things, worries of what could happen...and when I saw it, well..."

"The Labyrinth made the mistake of thinking you were to become my queen." Jareth explained. At her face of disgust he held up a gloved hand, "Trust me, it was in no way my doing. She saw that you are happy here, and how cleverly you solved the problems you had been dealt. Taking in Her magic is the final test before ruling over her. It is, unfortunately, a very harsh judgement. Ike and I took the test together. The Labyrinth saw into what he would become-and ultimately turned him into what he is now."

"I know. She spoke to me-she said that I could never be-that I was too similar to him. She told me that if I were to ever harness that level of magic it would destroy me..."

Jareth suddenly became, if possible, more serious. He grabbed her by the shoulders, looking her in he eye, "What aren't you telling me, Aanyx. What happened." It wasn't a question. Aanyx gulped, pulling her knees up to her chest and refusing to look him in the eye, "The Labyrinth was going to suck me of all magic. I would have become a Dusk, forgotten everything. If you hadn't pulled that light out..."

"You mean, you have no mana? None at all?"

"Some. I think." Jareth strode angrily away, and Aanyx stumbled to grab his arm, "Look, Jareth, don't do anything stupid. I don't blame you-or Her, okay? The Labyrinth was trying to protect herself, and if you had seen what I could have become, you would have done the same thing. A part of me wanted it gone-but then I remembered what would happen, and that's when I lost it. Don't do anything stupid." She searched his eyes in desperation, trying to get through to him. Jareth smiled kindly, gently petting her on the head, "So strong, little one. It's a shame you had to loose such a thing."

"I have to be strong. If I'm not strong then I'll never reach the stars, right?"

"You're already there, and so much farther." Jareth ruffled her hair before striding towards the trunk at the foot of the bed. "Now then, due to the circumstances, I have decided to be lenient in my winning."

"How generous of you." Her deadpan spoke otherwise. Jareth merely chuckled, "You may choose to wear whatever you find that is to your liking in this room-however, you must never wear anything so terribly clashing in my presence again. You will find a wide variety of decent colors that will accent your hair color well." Aanyx frowned, finally noticing her over-long hair, "And what happened here?"

"An unfortunate mishap. I doubt it will last more than a few years."

"Years?"

"It is strong magic, after all." With that and a poof of glitter, Aanyx was left to ponder over the array of dresses. Getting a sudden idea, she grabbed one of the more elaborate of the dresses-charcoal in color, with off-the-shoulder drooping sleeves and a rather poofy skirt that glittered a bit too much for her liking-and a pair of scissors off the desk. She then created a portal into a separate wardrobe, extracting a pair of black boots and purple riding pants before withdrawing with a stifled giggle. She then proceeded to cut the seam off the bodice of the dress, ridding it of the skirt, and donned the outfit. Upon rifling through the jewelry box on the vanity, Aanyx found a pendant much like Jareth's, though silver with a purple crystal-which she attached to the front of her bodice with metamorphosis-and a simple purple choker, which completed the look nicely. For her hair, she decided to pull the top layer into a half-bun to keep it out of her way, leaving the rest down in a decidedly girlish look.

When Aanyx reappeared in the Throne Room, the only thing Jareth had to say was, "...Are those my pants?"