Arid, copper tinted air whirled and howled through dilapidated walls, its talons scouring and reaching for someone, anyone, to hinder or hurt. Almost too warm to breathe in directly, the occupants of the Goblin City went about their business wrapped up for winter to protect themselves; their stalls were hammered deeper into the clay their markets sat upon to prevent their wares from being lost; window shutters were closed and nailed shut just to be sure. There was little that fazed the creatures, but then, this was no ordinary storm.

It had been raging for weeks now, ever since their monarch had returned from his expedition to the Capital. Whatever that was. Goblins didn't concern themselves with what they deemed to be trivial matters outwith their borders. Their kingdom was the world, their business was here. Their king's business was here. This... weather... it would pass. It always did. The Labyrinth had stood for millennia of storms and wars, and it would stand for many more. A storm lasting over a moon's turn was nothing to overly concern themselves with.

However, with Jareth's return, other changes had come about as well.

Council was now held at dawn, in the presence of their future Queen... who not only held the council in all intents and purposes - Jareth merely lounged in his throne and stared at his hands - but she was also the one to give out advice and solutions. If any. More goblins had been condemned to the dungeons than in the last few centuries of the King's rule and Jareth merely sat there, allowing it. He never addressed his subjects anymore. Had ceased eating, so his kitchen maids were in a stirring panic thinking he was on his last legs while Aislinn put in increasingly difficult dish requests for herself.

The king hadn't left the castle either, upon return. No longer could he be seen in the city, tending to his subjects and asking after their well-fare. Aislinn certainly never even thought about dirtying her skirts by walking down the road to see the goblins, nor did she permit them within the same room as she lest they were performing a service.

All in all, the goblins were in disarray. Attempting to carry on as they had before their king had left them. Any and all disputes were sorted amongst themselves. Behaviour kept in check as the new unpredictability of their lieges meant no one knew when they were destined for the dungeons or the Bog.

The Labyrinth's doors remained firmly shut, even Hoggle hadn't attempted to breach its entrance in many moons. The noises coming from it at random periods of the day were instilling fear in the masses, the screams and the crumbling walls making the closest inhabitants pick up sticks and move further away towards the forest and the city, or towards the boundaries at the west edge. It had been voiced during many a council gathering but Aislinn waved each claim and request away with delicately clothed hands, assuring them it was merely the Labyrinth reacting to new magic in the Kingdom and trying to accommodate all the magic within- there were bound to be a few hiccups. After the storms and flashes had started appearing and certain sections simply stopped moving completely, it had been black marked and shut. No one entered the Labyrinth. Nothing left.

From the tallest tower of the fortress, a pale visage could be seen, if one were to truly look for it. Sitting against the window's edge, staring down at the broad expanse of land below him. White blond hair blown away from his face to expose the overly sharp edges to his features, his too prominent cheekbones. Gloves that were no longer tailored to his skeletal hands. His hand raised, reaching for the void before him, then he snatched it back as if electrocuted, loose glove falling slowly to the ground before him where it had slipped off. Gradually, he stood from his place with the air of a dead man, watching his Kingdom with blind eyes. Then with a final glance, he turned, and bled into the darkness behind him.

Toby sat facing his sister with a stern look of determination, mirroring the expression she shot him from across the table. Hands poised aloft, lips peeled back in concentration, the air was supercharged with tension as the Williams siblings sat locked in places of opposition.

"SNAP!"

Toby's hand crashed into the cards on the table milliseconds before his sister, and her yell of displeasure filled the kitchen, filtering through to pair in the living room. They smiled at one another, throwing looks at the door, then turned back to their activities. Knitting needles resumed their clicking, the newspaper shook and straightened.

"HA! I win! You said best of five, and I won! I won, Sarah!"

"Yes, yes, you win."

"That means you have to do what I want now!"

Eyes lifted ceiling-ward, a deep sigh leaving the young woman beside him. Sarah couldn't remember how she had gotten into this arrangement, especially with her brother of all people, and as she lowered her gaze it was to fix him with a wary look.

"Yeah... just what do you have planned Toby?"

"It'll be fun, honest!"

"That tells me less than I knew to begin with, really."

He stuck his tongue out at her, quickly getting up from the table and heading upstairs. "You stay here, okay? I'll be right back. And remember, you have to do it, because you promised!"

The boy darted from the room to the stairs, leaving her to sip her coffee and snack on the left over snickerdoodles Karen had baked. Really, he needed a couple of minutes to work up the gumption to go ahead with what he had planned. What Jaque had planned with him. They needed to find that book, the one in the weird library the Fae had shown him. And to find that book, he needed Sarah. Some of it involved a ploy that could greatly upset not just her, but that was something he was willing to do for the greater good. Jaque had explained all of that to him.

He was doing this for Sarah, and himself. He wanted to stop going to the Underground whenever he fell asleep, and she was the key to stopping it. Alternatively.. he wanted to see his sister happy again. Truly happy, like she'd been when he was growing up, before his mom forced her to give up her "silly dream" and "learn to live in the real world". Now he knew that Sarah had been telling the truth, he was more determined than ever to find out exactly what had happened to her when she had... had run the Labyrinth.

From his room, he retrieved a few things; Firstly, he grabbed an old school jotter and a pen. That was so he could take notes that could be helpful to Jaque, and possibly to Eanraig. Second, what looked like an unsuspecting teddy bear. The trick was that Jaque had apparently hidden something in it that would "help Sarah sleep better" since Toby had told him about her nightmares. And the weird blotches that kept appearing on her that looked like bruises, which his sister assured him was an allergic reaction of some sorts. The present was also to soften her up into talking to him. Then, stalking surreptitiously from his room to hers, he crept into Sarah's old room and stole the old music box from her shelf.

Something flashed in his peripheral vision and he whirled wildly to see what it was, and blanched when he realised it was a mirror fragment. That would be helpful too, right? He hoped so. He made fast work of stashing the two borrowed items in his bed, then hurried back to the stairs.

Back in the kitchen, Sarah had devoured a good portion of the cookies set out for them, and was playing on his Gameboy. As he sat down, a telltale noised beeped from the console telling him she'd beaten his score again. Damn it.

She levelled a look at him over the console as he lay the jotter and pen on the table, keeping the teddy bear on his knee below the table.

"Why do I get the impression that I'm not going to like whatever you've got planned very much, if, at all?"

Toby merely grinned at her, even though hidden to her, his palms had begun to sweat. He wished Lachlan were here. He'd probably make this go a lot easier, and make him feel a lot better too. Though, he supposed, it would be hard to explain to Sarah why the weird man from that stormy night had shared contact details with him.

Even harder to explain to his parents. Introduce him as one of Sarah's friends, maybe? Only... he didn't really look like a friend, did he?

"Okay so you're probably not... but... but I also got you something," he said shyly, a blush reaching his cheeks as he looked away. This was sooo awkward. He hated giving people things. They always got way too mushy on him. Especially women. Their chests tended to try to murder him whenever they grabbed him and forced him into a hug against his will. Ew.

Her eyes lit up with interest at the comment and she sat straighter, smiling brightly across at him. "Really?! Wow Tobes, you didn't have to go and do something like that for me!" She cried quietly, trying to peak over the table to where he was hiding it.

Grumbling a little to himself, he did his best to grin back and pulled the teddy bear into view. It was extremely fluffy, coloured cream and gold, with a patch over one eye and mismatched glass eyes. Much too late, as it passed over the table into her hands, he finally made the connection that the bear had been crafted with characteristics of Jareth. His stomach lurched at the thought and panic gripped him, making his hand stay in the air slightly longer as Sarah took the bear in her hands with a gleeful expression.

Well if anything, at least she hadn't made the connection, Toby thought. At least Jaque hadn't been stupid enough to make it an owl.

Just to be sure, he squinted hard at the bear to look for any bird-like features. Finding none, he relaxed, and shot her a cheeky smile. "D'ya like it?!"

"Oh Toby! I love him! He's... gosh, he's perfect!"

"Okay good! Now, onto what I want!"

Sarah nodded happily, settling the bear in her lap and folding her hands over it, cuddling its back into her. "Of course, I won't even complain about it. Shoot!"

Again, anxiety gripped him for a moment. This felt wrong. He didn't like lying to Sarah or deceiving her. He bit his lip, looking from her, then down to his book. He bit down harder. This was for her. All of this was for both of them. He had to do this to save them both, just like Jaque had said. Like Lachlan had insinuated to him last time they'd talked. Sarah could be in danger, and so could he. He had to stand up and protect his family, one step at a time.

"Promise?"

"I promise."

He nodded slowly. "I... I read that red book you tried to throw out. All of it. I had to go back to a few bits though, they were kinda hard to understand, and I skipped parts that were to slushy gushy but I went back to them too. It's... a good... story."

Sarah's smile tightened a little around the edges, and she hugged the bear slightly harder to herself, "Oh? Did you enjoy it?"

"Yeah. But um... that's not exactly what I wanted to talk about. I've been missing a lot of school recently."

"So I've been hearing from Dad and Karen," she said, a crease forming on her brow, "You're starting to really worry me, little guy. What's going on?"

He paused, snatching up a snickerdoodle. "I... I've been having these weird dreams."

Then he proceeded to shove the entire thing into his mouth so he didn't have to elaborate immediately.

As it was, it seemed he didn't have to. Understanding alighted to her face and her expression turned sympathetic. "Ah, I think I get what you're saying. You went there, didn't you? You had a dream about the book? Did it scare you?"

He nodded again, trying to swallow as much of the biscuit as he could. Gods, it was dry. Wordlessly, Sarah slid over her coffee to him and he took a large swig, pulling a disgusted face as the liquid and food slid down his throat.

"I wanna tell you about it, but I want you to tell me about yours too. I want to know everything that happened, and why Mum and Dad forced you to stop talking about it, because I need to talk about mine and don't want them to think I'm crazy too. You don't think I'm crazy, do you?"

The words tasted sour on his tongue as he spoke them, the rehearsed spiel Jaque had practised with him falling syllable-perfect from his mouth. But if it sounded rehearsed, Sarah didn't seem to pick up on that, either. She nodded, now looking a little scared too.

"I... I could try and do that."

Toby leaned forward in his seat, then looked at the door behind them. Getting up, he made a show of closing it firmly so their conversation couldn't carry through the house. The last thing he wanted was for either of his parents to interrupt during his investigation. This was life or death. And they just wouldn't see it that way, he knew that now.

From the door, he looked at her seriously, chin lifting in defiance. "And talk about it as it was for you, not how everyone has told you it is."

He had to hand it to her- Sarah's acting lessons were paying off. She sat back from the table and forced her hands to relax around the bear so she could play with the bow tied around its neck. The glittering blue ribbon. "What do you mean by that?" she asked carefully, looking up at him as if genuinely confused. But she wasn't that good an actor. Toby knew enough that he could see right through her facade.

"You know what I mean, Sarah. This doesn't feel like dreams to me, every time it happens it feels real. I'm there. I'm really there. And you know what I mean by that. When you went to the Labyrinth, you said it happened. It wasn't a dream to you either."

Her expression changed as if he'd slapped her.

"Toby," she began warningly, narrowing her eyes.

"You promised. Promised. No complaints, either. I need help Sarah. I need you to help me. Please tell me what happened."

"Except it is dreams, Toby!"

He stormed over to the table angrily, "Oh yeah?!"

Reaching deep into his pocket, clammy fingers wrapped around a sphere and he hauled it out and slammed it onto the table in front of her. "Then explain how Jareth showed me this very crystal, with my baby-grow in it. He handed it to me in my dream. But when I woke up, it was on my bedside table and there was... glitter in my room!"

Sarah's seat scooted back in alarm and she swiped the crystal from the table, hiding it behind her back as her green eyes shot towards the door behind him. Seeing no movement, her wild gaze settled on his, burning intensely. "I... I can't explain that. Maybe Karen had you a keepsake made to cheer you up. Just... just lower you voice, okay? I'll talk but shhhh!"

Satisfied, Toby took his seat again, and a few moments later, Sarah pulled her chair back towards the table. The bear was being held in a vice. He hadn't meant to show her that. That was meant to be a secret. He could have possibly screwed everything up by doing this. But he had needed something to get her to talk as truthfully as possible, and there it was. Suddenly in his pocket. He certainly didn't remember dragging it out from the shoe box under his bed where he'd hidden it to forget about it.

But he'd think about that later. The book had appeared in his other pocket around the same time.

"Toby, I haven't told anyone everything that happened. This is going to sound unbelievable and you might hate me..." Sarah whispered, looking terrified at the prospect of losing her brother.

"Impossible. I love you too much."

"No, seriously, I fucked up, Tobes. I seriously... a lot."

"How about I forgive you in advance? You are forgiven, Sarah Williams. Now spill!"

Draining the last of her coffee, she set her cup aside. In her hand, the crystal seemed to grow even clearer, and her expression had changed a little. Had her eyes changed colour?

"It was a Friday night, Karen and Dad were going out for dinner like they do every weekend. I was late home, a storm was brewing. Karen and I hated each other, and she had thrown it in my face again that I never had any real plan on weekends and was therefore a live-in babysitter whether I wanted to be or not. As a toddler, you rarely stopped crying. I resented the responsibility, I was 15. And I... I turned to that book for help..."

True to her word, she told him as much as she could. But even a few hours later when she was finished, he got the impression she had still omitted a few things. Still, he had enough notes in his notebook to keep Jaque happy for a while, and he'd gotten the other things he had requested as well.

Drinking a new steaming hot mug of java, Sarah had since calmed down from her re-telling. She looked sadder now. As if she missed someone greatly. And it didn't take a genius to figure out who. Even if it took Toby just a little while.

"You should call the bear Jareth... it's clear that, dream or not, you miss him. He was important to you. What's the harm in it?"

She smiled wistfully down at the stuffed animal, stroking its ears, "You're right."

Picking it up, she faced it head on, "Hello, Jareth. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

A searing pain shot through his ears and he hissed, turning to place his hands on other side of his large mirror to stabilise himself as the pain made him lose his balance. A ringing sound accompanied the words that appeared in his head without even using his ears, and his chest tightened.

"Hello, Jareth. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

A woman's voice had spoken to him, but whose? His eyes lifted, and he stumbled back in fright at the longing staring back at him in his reflection. As the pressure built, a squeezing sensation formed around his throat and took over his arm. A moment later, and he sank his fist into the mirror, watching its shattered fragments shower around him without attempting to shield his eyes.

"Are we feeling okay, Jareth? I've told you to stop fighting it. You're only causing yourself more pain," Aislinn trilled behind him, "Stop trying to think about her. It won't work."

Her who?!

"I think I'll keep him on my bed, what do you think, Tobes? Think he'll look out for me while I sleep?"

He nodded, "He... he's who I met in my dream. Pretty terrifying, but he seemed to care about you. And me."

Sarah's eyes turned both hopeful and pained, and she cradled her cup. "Yeah? What... what did he say?"

Toby huffed. Girls. "Well first he threatened me somewhat horribly for trespassing in his lands, said something about "breaching the sanctity of his mind", and called me names."

She giggled, "He valued his privacy. What else?"

"Then he... well... said that he hadn't seen me in many years. Or you. He seemed pretty hurt. I think he didn't like you breaking up with him."

"We were never together, Toby!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, that would have been weird since he was older. Except he doesn't age, does he? Bet it would be fine now."

"He isn't real!"

"We literally just talked about this Sarah, humour me. Anyways, he kept talking about how we were nightmares of his, and was complaining of 'never being free of us'. But he also didn't seem to annoyed by it."

Sarah withdrew into herself a little. He'd mentioned something like that in my dream a few months back. Seemed to think we saw each other regularly, before he was torn away by his severing magic. But it was just a dream, right? But... then why does my stomach feel so nauseous? Why am I afraid?! "Uh huh?"

"Then he mentioned all your stuff. Like the book, your music box, the toys. Apparently he influenced Dad into buying them for you. Seemed upset you'd never talked about him to me. Apparently he looked after me all day and I was his heir."

"Mm..hm.."

"Then he told me to go back to my bed, read the book, and then I woke up with the glass ball thing next to me. Pretty weird, right?"

"...Very. But what gets me is that you said dreams- plural. So you've been back."

"Yeah. Sometimes I'm inside the Labyrinth following a girl, and I keep seeing the place either trying to kill her, or this blonde woman trying to. She's always running, always scared. Keeps pleading with someone, saying no, crying and asking for help. I wake up from those either dirty or with new cuts or bruises."

"How do you know its in the Labyrinth?"

"Because every time I look around I see the castle and Jareth throwing himself against the windows and yelling to get out."

When Toby opened his eyes, it was see see Jaque hovering over him with his hair cascading over each side of Toby's face. Close enough that their breath mingled and Toby began to question whether he'd possibly made friends with a serial killer because this whole situation felt pretty damn scary.

"Did you get the things?"

"Is it really necessary for you to be this close, Jaque?"

"It is. The old man is standing behind me and if he hears me we're busted."

"Then yeah, I got them. I went to sleep holding them. Am I holding them?"

"Well see I kinda panicked when you appeared and I've commandeered you in a side room in Aurea, with Choilleach hot on my heels. I said I wanted to speak to you about something personal that's unrelated to everything so he's giving us three minutes. And now I have wasted most of that clueing you up."

"Does that mean you can back up now?"

Jaque looked to the side, then nodded, pushing away from him and straightening up. It was at that moment he realised he'd been flipped onto the table and he'd likely dropped Sarah's stuff.

A moment later, Jaque quietly crowed in delight. "Thank the Fade, you did it. Notes, music box..."

"And a mirror piece."

Jaque yanked him up and off the table, brushing him off with brisk gestures, "Come again?"

"Sarah's mirror that broke. There was a piece left behind in her room, pretty big. I put it in the music box just in case you could use it."

"Boy, if you were older and things were different, I would kiss you right about now," Jaque sighed, shaking his head, "But if there is one thing Lachlan's done right, it's teaching me the ways of mortals. So you're safe for now."

Pulling a face, Toby, moved away, "So you can use it?"

"I can. Now wipe your face and look peppy, as if I've asked you a question about girls- Lachlan's coming in right about..."

The door swung open and the hulking Fae stepped in slowly, hands tucked behind his back. "Are we done chatting, then?"

"We are indeed, Toby was just telling me about his girl troubles. I promised to help him last time he was here," Jaque mused, ruffling the boy's hair as he pulled a sympathetic look at the older Fae, "All those hormones."

Toby's eyes widened and he looked frantically from Jaque to the warrior's face a few feet from him. Lachlan nodded seriously, walking over to pat his back with his own caring expression. "Puberty. You have my condolences, young man," he said gruffly.

Jaque grinned wickedly over the man's sholder, sidling towards the door. "Yes well, if anyone can keep his rampaging emotions in check, old man, it's you. I'm off- Not exactly my scene and all that pizzazz.."

"Goodbye Caomhanach, stay sharp. Watch the skies."

Many hours passed with Jaque sitting on the floor with the music box, leeching Sarah's essence from it. The notes were splayed around him, and on the floor was the mirror fragment. Had it not been for the quantity of information in the notes, the amount that Jareth had laid on the line, he'd have been done by now. As it was... he now knew why he hadn't been able to find Sarah's books.

Because her books were entwined with Jareth's, which no one had been allowed to touch. Until this investigation.

Their answers were staring them in the face the entire time.

Setting the music box to play, he grabbed the mirror fragment and sat it behind the dancing figures. Mirrors did more than mortals seemed to believe, and he needed those things right now. Then, he took off among the shelves looking for Jareth's biographies. Following the sound of scribbling words, he passed all sorts of leather bound texts. Stone tablets. Palm leaves. Every medium a life could be recorded on. Keeping the oldest stuff on his left, he headed down a corridor to the right. Jareth had done so much in his life, he had an entire section to himself.

It took a lot longer than he expected to find what he was looking for.

Jareth's books about himself, his own life, were cloaked in midnight. Gold script embossed the spines with the dates each volume possessed. Shelves lines the room, the ceiling sprawling upwards into nothingness, too far even for torches or Fae eyes to see. Only the glittering of many stars which made Jaque feel as if he had just walked into the void.

Honestly, he knew the last place he should be right now was in Jareth's biography room, but they all needed answers if they were going to help. They needed to know everything Jareth had done that day and the days leading up to, as well as the years after, Sarah's Run. As well as that, they needed to know each thing Sarah had done as well.

He sighed, looking at how much work he had in front of him. Maybe after this he'd go away from Terauramulis for a bit, go home, have a holiday. Find a way to lift this... cursed thing from his hand and wrist. Before Lavanya got further involved or Lachlan decided to follow up on his hunch. He'd felt those beady eyes on him more often than not recently.

His eyes roamed the shelves critically, picking up and dismissing different dates he deemed relevant or irrelevant. Somewhere, something was going to stick out. Somewhere, something wasn't going to fit.

Like now.

In the centre of the night sky was a pool of green sea. Swirling as if they contained a current all of their own, a paler green than he expected. The rest of the shelf was empty, but as he watched, the shelf acquired another tome. It was as he counted them that he realised they went from a light jade to an emerald green. Like... like a mixing of ocean currents in a barrier reef.

He was in awe. He truly was. But he would inspect the binding at a later date when he didn't have the weight of the capital's monarchy breathing down his neck.

Sliding the first text from the shelf, he was surprised by the lack of dust. As if impervious to the stuff, the entire room was polished clean. Curious. Cracking open the cover of the first one, a quick scan told him it covered the girls early life. Where Jareth had started his covert observations to see whether his mother's scrying had been accurate. Influencing the girl's father into choosing her belongings. Navigating her mother who...se name was... redacted? Missing. Invisible? Certainly, it was not there.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Skipping two books ahead also prove to be too early. Her mother had just left. Jareth had dropped his mother's prophecy, wrapped up in a little red leather bound book, in her father's lap as he scoured a couple junk sales. Sarah took to it like a swan to water. The first seeds of her wanting to follow in her actress mother's footsteps planted firm in the soil of her upbringing.

To peruse at a later time, he thought.

One... two... three... five... seven...

Gotcha, he thought.

The book he slid from the shelf next seemed to positively glow. As he held it, certain books from Jareth's repertoire also seemed to gleam expectantly waiting on his attention to swivel to them. Eventually, with six books in total in his arms, he carefully shut the door behind him and hightailed it from the library to his quarters.

A/N: Thank you guys so much for all your kind words and reviews. Sorry this took so long! But I have my PC fixed so I can get back to posting slightly faster, I hope. Thank you for your support 3

DISLAIMER: All characters or recognised content of Labyrinth belong to Jim Henson.