Ironic

By wheresmybook

Anyone curious as to the fate of My World Ends will find an A/N on my profile.

Disclaimer: I do not own Labyrinth, nor do I profit from writing this. Sadly, I also can not claim affection for the movie until recently, my humble apologies to everyone.

Sarah clutched Toby tight as she ran down the street, it was raining again, and her mind played tricks on her as she pushed her weary body forward, skidding through puddles, but not wallowing herself to fall on the Child in her arms. Flickers of mirages passed in the corners of her eyes, her old shaggy sheepdog running beside her as he had years ago, in a different downpour, a different direction. Armored Goblins, clanking and swearing with equal frequency as they chased her through their City.

Toby was silent, his small soft face buried in her neck and hair, chilled by the rain, but not complaining, her special little brother.

Sarah had wondered, that first year, how much he remembered of that night, those strange and magic thirteen hours, but the wound was too raw, the guilt too fresh, and Toby too young to really talk to. But the Child had gotten older, and he seemed normal enough, though sometimes he would coo strange music to himself, a look of fierce concentration in his blue eyes. He looked under the bed for friends that were never there, and then at last he asked Sarah, where was the missing hour on the clock? And why had the singing man gone away?

The girl had to tell him; she couldn't let him go on wondering, or forgetting, if he could learn from her mistakes, so much the better. So she told him the story, again and again, reiterating careful advice, fairies bite, promises are to be kept, be polite to strangers, nothing is what it seems, beware of fey food and don't wish.

Toby listened and sometimes he told her of his own few, confused impressions of that time, comically gruesome creatures that lounged around a gigantic throne. A tall man who sang to him and threw him up into the air, laughing. The first time the story was told, Sarah could hardly look her baby brother in the eyes as she begged his forgiveness for wishing him away. Toby smiled his baby-tooth smile and wrapped his arms around her neck in a hug. She had wished him away, but she had taken him back again. Sarah had won Toby back from the Goblin King, but now…

The young woman heaved in a ragged breath, forcing her legs to stretch a bit farther, her body to move a bit faster. Her family was dead, killed in a freak accident. She had always thought that was a strange term, 'freak' accident, but now she understood. It was an act of senseless violence for which revenge could not be taken, and only hollow regret remained. Social Services wanted to take Toby from her, they were concerned, they said, about the effect that living with her might have on his development.

They didn't understand, no one did, that she was probably the only person that he could grow up with and develop normally. She had rescued him from being a Goblin, true, but at the last minute, and his time spent in the Labyrinth had changed him, just as surely as the time she spent there had changed her. The siblings had been brushed by magic, and would never be completely normal. There were days when Sarah was more heroine than college student, and Toby was more Goblin than little boy. Their parents had never understood them during these times, and all they could cling to was each other, their memories, the knowledge that what had happened had, in fact, happened, and they weren't alone in the remembering.

Sarah ran on, worn sneakers thudding on the hard road beneath her feet and sending up sprays of droplets in monochromatic rainbows. She moved on through the old neighborhood, cutting across slick and slippery wet grass, slowing with a stumble to a walk as she did so.

It was useless to come here, to the park, which only offered lonely and selfish memories of a child who thought she knew so much. But she had come here all her life, when she was upset, when she was afraid, when she felt mistreated. Toby shifted in her arms, looking around with a solemn gaze. He was so mature for his age, he understood so much that he shouldn't be able to.

"Sarah?" he questioned in a tremulous voice, his blue eyes large in his pale face.

"I'm here, Toby," his sister soothed, still trying to catch her breath, the Child in her arms wiggled a little and she gingerly set him down, staying crouched to keep at eye level with him.

"They want to take me away," he mumbled, looking sad and scared,

"Its okay, we'll find a place to hide, we'll get away," Sarah promised, moving a wet strand of hair from away from her eyes.

"I don't want to go away," Toby insisted, his voice rising in panic, "I don't want to go with them!"

"We won't let that happen," his sister insisted in her turn, quiet desperation rising in her, and fighting to keep in under control. If Toby saw how lost and scared she was, it would only frighten him more, "I gave you up once but I'm not doing it again. Not to the Goblin King, not to anyone else." She didn't say his name, she never said his name. If her younger, more foolish self, had known his name at the beginning of her adventure she was sure that she would have used it, denying him even the respect of his title. The thought made her shiver- she couldn't imagine him taking that well. Sarah had played with fire all the time in the Labyrinth, but now she had no desire to get burned.

"He wasn't bad," Toby insisted, falling back into familiar ground, an argument they'd already had. Jareth had been good to her baby brother, had played with him and coddled him and sang his strange songs in the Child's ear. Toby didn't fear Jareth, even when Sarah told him the story, he didn't fear him, he didn't hate him. Somehow Sarah knew that Toby would never hate or fear the Goblin King, and could probably never see him as an enemy.

She smiled at Toby, feeling unsettled, acting, lying to him, "It'll be okay," she insisted again, the words hollow in her mind, "I'll take care of you." It was a lie and she knew it. She couldn't take care of Toby, and they couldn't really run or hide. There was nowhere to go, and no money for a girl who had barely started college. With a pang she thought of Hoggle, Ludo and Sir Didymus, if ever she'd needed their help it was now.

They had stopped appearing just three months after that night, Hoggle coming halfway through her mirror and brusquely telling her that they weren't going to be able to see each other any more. There was scarcely time to say goodbye and they had never appeared again. The Goblin King had returned to his full strength after their duel of wills, and while he had no power over her, he could still close off her friends from visiting.

"No, you can't." Toby said with quietly unnerving certainty, "But you'd try. So I'm going to help." With great solemnity Toby put his small hands around hers, "I wish the Goblins would take us away right now."

Sarah fell back off her heels in sudden shock, breath leaving her body in a frightened moan. Oh no, not again, not now, no. But, yes.

"'Us', young Toby? To whom are you referring?"

Sarah shut her eyes, burying her face in her arms as she drew up her knees to her chest. She didn't want to see him, she didn't want to see him, she couldn't see him now, scared out of her wits, wet and lonely.

"Me 'n' Sarah. Both of us." Came Toby's voice, carefully stating exactly what he was wishing for, as his sister had taught him.

"And will anyone attempt the Labyrinth to win you back?" his voice was amused, and though Sarah knew he wasn't talking to her she flinched away from the words.

"There isn't anyone. Mom 'n' dad died," Toby answered, trying to hold onto his seriousness as he sniffed back the tears that threatened to spill. Sarah winced; Toby woke up during the night screaming for his parents, and probably would for a long time to come. Her own grief was forcibly confined to nightmares and a constant ache in her heart. It wasn't healthy, but she had to take care of Toby.

With a morbid curiosity she wondered what would happen to her living under Jareth's rule, he might refuse to take her at all, leaving her in this world to be questioned about the disappearance of her baby brother, the authorities would probably suspect that she had gone mad and killed him. Or, he could throw her into an oubliette, Hoggle had said there were many, he would throw her in one of the many, a different one, where she couldn't find the door, and could be conveniently forgotten.

With a suddenness that made here stomach lurch the world fell down, the rain stopped and she landed hard on her back, staring up at a faded blue sky. She was back outside the Labyrinth in the strange wasteland that bordered the stone entrance. Except for the dry rustling of the wind, all was silent. Sarah pushed herself to a crumpled sitting position, shivering in her wet clothes, there was no one in sight, she was alone.

"Toby?" she called, almost afraid of her own voice, the empty land swallowed any hint of an echo. Sarah shoved herself to her feet, scanning the horizon, "Toby!" he wasn't there, thought she could see the sprawling Labyrinth in the distance, once it had seemed to beckon Sarah, promising danger and adventure. Now it mocked her, Where are the words that set the clock back? It sniggered; Something given away itself has no power. Where is your will now, little girl? What kingdom do you boast of? I am the Labyrinth, and I still stand here, despite all you have done.

"Welcome back Sarah," came the smooth cultured voice to her left and the girl turned quickly to face him. The Goblin King seemed to lounge against the very air, utterly relaxed, completely in control; his mismatched eyes gleamed with an almost feline satisfaction. It was patently obvious that this Jareth was not the same King that she had bested. Gone were the ridiculous tights and the rock-star glam. He looked younger, but older too, the lines around his mouth weren't as dramatically deep as they had been, but his eyes blazed out, feral and ancient.

Sarah swallowed, quite certain that her fifteen year old self could never have bested this Jareth, and feeling rather pathetic herself. In five years, he had obviously become far more powerful, the world at his feet, the power to move the stars if he chose in his hand. She had lost everything, had been given away for the thought of safety and stood uncomfortable and cold in old blue jeans and a ratty shirt.

"Where's Toby?" she asked, her mind shooting back to this same scene, this same time, but her voice sounding weak and tired even to her. Stand up! Her mind railed against her, don't sound beaten before he's even done anything!

Jareth laughed, a sharp puncture of the air around him, displaying teeth a little more pointed than she remembered. "Come come Sarah, we've already played this game." With wicked humor he pointed theatrically to the Labyrinth in the distance, "The Child is there, in my Palace above the Goblin City, beyond the Labyrinth."

"We have played this game before," Sarah answered, fighting to call up confidence and lace it into her voice, "and I beat you. If I'm given a chance I'll beat you again."

"But there's nothing that says I have to give you a chance this go around."

"That's-" Sarah cut herself off, anger warming her blood.

"Not fair?" the Goblin King finished anyway, looking fractionally less amused now.

"What's going to happen to Toby?"

Jareth quirked one of his winged eyebrows, "He's in my palace, eventually, I suppose, he might become a Goblin. But you are in no position to do anything about it."

"Will he be alright?" Sarah pressed, "Will he be taken care of?"

"I take care of all children who wish themselves into my care." Jareth answered, his mismatched eyes no longer humorous.

Sarah took a deep breath, "What will happen to me?"

"I'm afraid you caused rather a lot of damage on your last trip here," he was amused again, "I believe it's time that you set it to rights."

A/N- So here I am with another story that really ought to be continued, and might actually make it. A month or two ago I realized that although I was reading Labyrinth fanfiction I hadn't seen the movie in about six years, and had, in fact hated it. So I went back and watched it again. Rest assured, I am a stalwart fan now. This spawned from a sort of funny thought I had a while ago, what if Sarah went to all the trouble of beating the Goblins and winning back Toby, and ordinary humans wound up taking him away?