Interlude with Toby Part 2:

Toby closed his eyes. Opened them again.

Closed them.

Opened them.

The room was still there.

Everything seemed to be made out of the same grey stone- walls, arched ceiling, floor. Toby was standing inside a recessed pit that was in front of what could only be called a throne. Despite the somewhat impressive architecture, the room was otherwise... Spartan, he was sure his mother would have called it. Apart from the throne, there was no other furniture. A black and red standard hung upon one wall, but otherwise it was grey stone upon grey stone- gargoyles mostly, with a large stone crown hanging behind the throne.

Straw was strewn across the floor, and the walls appeared to be covered in a thick layer of dust. It was also not an especially large room. All in all, it was rather dingy. It didn't look like any sort of throne-room he had ever heard of before.

Well, except for...

No way. That had just been a story.

Right?

Yeah... right. And he had not somehow just been brought to some random place by what felt like tiny little creatures who kept chanting in high-pitched voices. Nope. This was all a dream.

Toby pinched himself on the arm, twisting hard.

Crap. Didn't think so.

Also, ow.

An odd rustling noise drew his attention to the left.

Toby's eyebrows raised.

A chicken?

Toby liked chickens. His Aunt Sylvia, (who wasn't really Sarah's aunt, but both of them tended to politely ignore that fact,) kept chickens in her backyard, and she had taught him how to handle them.

So it seemed natural to him to walk over to the black chicken and pick it up.

The chicken seemed a little perturbed by its sudden change of orientation, but Toby ignored the indignant squawks and tucked it under one of his arms, petting it lightly.

He considered the throne for a second, and then decided that sitting in it was a bad idea. If he was where he was starting to think he was, then the very last thing that he wanted to happen was to upset the owner of said throne. He didn't think it looked all that comfortable anyway.

He tried not to think too hard about the implications of his favourite story that Sarah had ever told him being true, which of course meant that that was all he could think about.

His sister. His own sister had wished him away. Again. Considering the trouble she had gone to to get him back the first time, Toby could only assume that she had been desperate this time around. He didn't doubt that she had done it to save him. He had heard her tell the story about the girl and the baby and the Labyrinth and the Goblin King thousands of times. Enough that he knew what Sarah's motivations had been back then, and knew what she had gone through in order to save him.

No, for her to call upon the Goblin King again, something terrible must have happened.

Toby remembered the three gunshots he had heard, and the single scream.

After a while of sitting on the edge of the pit and stroking the chicken, Toby decided that it would be okay if he cried now.

That was how the Goblin King found him, a few minutes later, stroking the chicken and sniffling miserably as he sat on the edge of the pit.

"Toby?"

Toby abruptly froze.

That voice...

"I remember you," he said, startled, turning to look the Goblin King up and down. There was a recurring dream he had had for years involving singing and dancing strange misshapen brown creatures and their king. This King. The Goblin King.

Toby gaped.

The Goblin King- Jareth, he remembered Sarah had told him his name was Jareth- was just how he had dreamed him. Blonde, wispy hair that drifted about his head like a halo, an almost alien visage with high cheekbones and eyes that were different colours. An odd silver pendant, like a crescent moon on its side, hung in the opening of his shirt, which was of a similar style to what he remembered Sarah wearing back when she had been more whimsical in her dress-sense.

Jareth smiled, showing pointed canines.

"My, how you've grown," he said.

Toby smiled back, a little shakily.

"If that story Sarah always told me about the baby being wished away was about me, then it's been about eight years," Toby said, watching the Goblin King warily.

Jareth shrugged expansively. "Girl wishes baby brother away to Goblin King, King tells her he'll trade the baby for her dreams, Girl is horrendously ungrateful about all the effort he's put forward and manages to break one of the King's favourite rooms, subvert several of his servants and steal back the baby that was freely given? That story?"

Toby gulped a little.

"Sounds like. The way she tells it, you were angry when she took me back."

"Angry?" Jareth threw back his head and laughed bitterly, and began to pace. "Angry? I was incandescent with rage!"

Toby cringed.

Jareth noticed, and stopped pacing.

"I'm not going to hurt you, boy."

Toby looked up at him sceptically.

"Yeah right. And my blind, legless sister is going to be able to make it the whole way through the Labyrinth in thirteen hours. That's assuming you don't take time off her, like you did last time. Pull the other one." Toby shook his head and looked down at his lap, then had a thought. "She was shot, wasn't she."

It wasn't a question, but Jareth answered it as one. "Yes. They shot her in the... leg."

Toby's face fell even further.

"But," Toby looked up, and saw a peculiar expression on the Goblin King's face, half-placating, half-... confused? Toby wasn't sure, but what Sarah had said about this place, being unsure was going to have to be something he got used to, and fast. "I was able to fix it. She's not bleeding any more, at least, not from that wound."

Toby breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you. That was... good of you." And unexpected. But Toby wasn't stupid enough to say so.

Jareth smirked. "Well it would hardly be a challenge if your sister bled out before she got through the front door, now would it?"

It was one way of looking at it, Toby supposed, but he smelled a rat. Either way, he figured that whatever reason the Goblin King might have to heal his sister, it was probably best not to... what was it that his father said sometimes? Look a gift-horse in the mouth.

Daddy...

Toby's grip tightened unconsciously on the chicken, and it squawked indignantly, flapping its wings and struggling until he let it go.

"Sorry chook," Toby apologised.

Jareth cocked his head to one side.

"Why apologise to a chicken?" he asked, curious.

Toby shrugged. "Why not? I didn't mean to hurt it, and it doesn't cost me anything to say sorry when I've screwed up. Mum always says..." Toby paused, and looked down again.

Jareth walked over to him, and reached out a hand, not quite touching the boy. Jareth had always hated to see children in pain.

"My parents are dead, aren't they. There were three gunshots, and only Sarah screamed." It was not a question.

"Yes," Jareth replied simply.

Toby inhaled a shuddering breath.

"Oh." He bit his lip and hugged himself. "I wish Sarah was here," he whispered, shaking as the tears started to run down his cheeks again.

"I could show you how she is doing... if you like," Jareth said, cautiously, gently putting one hand on Toby's shoulder. "I myself can't bring her here, because it's against the rules, but I always watch the Runners."

Toby snorted, wiping at his eyes. "Yeah, so you can pull nasty tricks on them and taunt them and try to make them forget why they're running," he said snidely, trying to distract himself. Now was not a good time to break down, even if it felt like his whole world had just come crashing down.

Jareth smirked, unrepentant. "Well, it is a test. I couldn't go and make it easy for them now, could I? That wouldn't be in the spirit of the game."

Toby raised an eyebrow. "Sarah still beat you last time, even though you cheated."

Jareth scowled. "She cheated. She lied."

Toby almost snickered at the disgruntled expression on the King's face, but he didn't quite dare. Then he remembered.

"Well, if anyone could beat your Labyrinth crippled and blind, it's Sarah," he said loyally. "She never completely gives up. Even when they finally told her she wasn't going to see ever again, she made a joke about it. Her stupid mother had turned up a few days previous and screamed when she saw Sarah's face, then ran away and didn't come back. So when the doctors told Sarah the damage was too bad, that she was going to be blind for good, or at least until bionic eyes are freely available, she said that at least she wouldn't have to worry about what she looked like in the mirror."

He looked up to see Jareth frowning.

"Is that why she broke hers?"

Toby's nose wrinkled in confusion. "Her what?"

"Her mirror."

"That wasn't her though," Toby frowned. "No, Dad broke her mirror when he was moving her stuff downstairs." He paused. "Why do you care about her mirror?"

Jareth sighed, half in relief, half in exasperation. "We – I – thought she had severed ties with us. Sir Didymus, that giant furball and Hogwash used to contact her through it from time to time."

"His name is Hoggle," Toby giggled. "Sarah told me you always got it wrong – Oh," he said in realisation.

"What?" Jareth demanded.

Toby shrugged. "Well if that was what the mirror did, that explains it."

"Explains what."

"Why Sarah was so sad when it broke."

Jareth just stared at Toby.

Sarah... had been sad? He tried to quash the small feeling of elation that cropped up, telling himself that she probably just missed Hogwarts and the others, but he couldn't help but feel that maybe, just maybe...

No. Best not to think of that just now.

Absently, he conjured a crystal, and rolled it over his fingers.

Toby gasped.

"Oh wow! Was that magic?" the boy's eyes were shining with something other than tears. Jareth could only consider this to be an improvement.

"Why yes. Would you like to see how dearest Sarah is getting on?"

Toby nodded eagerly.

Jareth waved his gloved hand over the crystal, and Toby leaned forward.

"There she is... but... why is she on the ground? Is she okay? Sarah? No!" Toby spun to face Jareth.

"Ja- I mean, Goblin King sir, you have to check on her!"

Jareth's expression had become entirely blank.

"Oh, and why do I have to do that?"

"Please?" Toby begged. "I'm not saying you have to help her, just, oh, I dunno, make sure she's okay? Please?"

Jareth gazed at him, and Toby was unable to tell what thoughts were behind his expression.

Finally, he nodded, then threw his crystal to Toby, who fumbled with it, then vanished without a word.

Toby sank back to his seat and hugged his knees to his chest, the crystal ball held tightly between his hands.

He hoped that Sarah was okay.