Written for labyrinth_ex on Livejournal, a gift fic for wiccarowan.

Prompt: Sort of a combination of two:

- How did all of those Labyrinth-like items get into Sarah's bedroom anyway? Are there a load of other children / teens out there who have Labyrinth toys just waiting to lead them into trouble? Is it some sort of industry within the Labyrinth to build a bridge to the human world, one of Jareth's little tricks or something entirely coincidental? I'm quite happy if your explanation of this doesn't involve any major characters whatsoever!

- The Labyrinth Survivors Club. Sarah finds out that she's by no means the only teenage girl to have been "given special powers".

A/N: All standard disclaimers apply; Labyrinth belongs to Jim Henson, as do any recognizable lines of dialogue from the movie (of which there are only two).

"Toby, really?" Sarah eyed her 16 year old brother in disbelief. "Our parents go off to some 'conference,' bring me in to keep an eye on you, and the first thing that you want to do now that they're gone is go shopping?" Grinning, Toby nodded, but Sarah groaned at the flicker of mischief in her brother's eyes. "Okay, kid. Spill it."

"There's this place down on Main that Mom won't ever let me go into," Toby explained. "She says it looks like a complete dive-but there's all kinds of really old toys and stuff in there. It...It just looks like it might be pretty amazing. You'd love it, I bet."

Sarah's brows arched at his momentary hesitation, but it didn't take long for her to relent. "Fine, we'll at least go take a look at the outside, but if it really does look like a dump, no dice, buddy."

In true 16-year-old, always thinking with his stomach fashion, Toby added, "And we can hit the ice cream parlor while we're down there!"

Though he thought he'd secured Sarah's agreement, it took the better part of a week for Toby to convince Sarah to actually go to the toy store he was so fascinated by. For all their closeness, Toby wasn't above a bit of manipulation, though, and finally, he resorted to his fail-safe: a pleading look and a soft, "Aw, Sarah, you love me, don't you?" He wasn't entirely sure why it worked, but it had been his go-to maneuver for as long as he could remember. He tried not to use it very often, perhaps knowing instinctively that too much would get him into trouble or cause things to backfire on him, but he'd been starting to get desperate. Something about the place just called to him; he'd been unable to get it out of his thoughts.

They'd intended to start bright and early on Saturday morning, but what Sarah forgot to account for was the difference between the adult version of bright and early when compared to the teenaged version. "Come on, kid," she cajoled from the doorway of his room, "you've been after me about this for a week. Get it in gear now, or we're not going."

That was all it took to launch Toby into high gear, and he was ready in record time, which amused Sarah to no end. He could barely keep himself from still on the ten minute ride to their little town's version of Main Street, and silently praised the parking gods when a space along the street opened up just as they passed by.

Toby practically fell out of the car in his excitement to get to the store and he pointed to a doorway a few steps down the street with one hand, tugging excitedly on Sarah's sleeve with the other. "There. See?"

Sarah had been amused at her brother's antics thus far, but once he pointed out their destination, she could see why it had been labeled a dump. "Uh, Tobe..." The teenager glanced quickly at Sarah and, seeing her trepidation, leveled such a heavy look of disappointment that she nearly winced.

"Oh, Sarah," Toby lamented, his voice matching his face, "not you, too."

"Toby," Sarah began, glancing back toward the store before fixing her eyes on her brother's face, "that place looks like it ought to be condemned. No wonder she keeps saying no, it's..." She trailed off there, startled by Toby's knowing smile and the hint of something heavy in the air, something her mind balked at trying to identify. A shimmer out of the corner of her eye made her look back toward the storefront and she couldn't help it when her mouth dropped open. Where before she had only seen dingy glass, a heavy collection of spider webs, and a sign so rotted she couldn't make out the name of the place, now it looked bright and inviting. The glass was clean, the sign perfectly legible, and...

The sign.

Sarah's visual examination of the store came to an abrupt halt as she saw hanging sign above the storefront. Stars in knotwork filigree made up the border of the wooden sign, surrounding a large clock with thirteen hours on its face. She blinked hard, and when she looked back, the sign had changed yet again. The starry border remained, but the sign said simply, "Toys," with no hint of a clock-let alone one that marked the time in thirteen hour increments-to be found.

Toby watched with extreme interest as Sarah's initial disapproval of the shop melted into confusion. The eyebrow-raiser was a brief flash of fear, but once she finally looked back at him, Toby's smile deepened. "Looks really cool, doesn't it? Come on, come on, let's go inside," he added, practically dancing in place, forgetting for a brief moment that he was sixteen rather than six.

Though she was uneasy, Sarah did her best to hide it from Toby-it had been a long time since she'd seen him so excited about anything. She forced a smile, which he seemed to accept, and after one last glance at that sign to see if the clock had come back (it hadn't), she stepped into the store with her brother.

"Wow," Toby breathed, eyes wide as he took in his surroundings. From the outside, it looked like regular toys-carved wooden cars, stuffed animals, puppets-but from the inside, it was so much more.

The space was small but brightly lit, and each shelf was full of a wide variety of toys. There was no rhyme or reason to the way that the shelves were stocked, but it somehow seemed that everything was exactly where it belonged. A multitude of mobiles hung from the ceiling, everything from stars and planets to dragons and other fantasy animals. Barrels full of different sized marbles shared space with a variety of building blocks that could be used to make everything from a tiny cottage to a sweeping castle, and the entire wall along the left hand side was filled floor to ceiling with stuffed critters. Really, Sarah thought as she looked around in a hesitant wonder, the place was an amazing mix of old and new. Vintage carved wooden yo-yos, puzzles, and paper dolls shared space with toy beauty salons and Easy-Bake ovens. Coloring books and crayons were stashed on a variety of shelves, further underscoring the atmosphere of disarray, but somehow, the chaos of it all made it perfect.

"Wow. I mean...wow." That seemed to be all Toby could say, and with a dazzling grin at Sarah, he darted off to play, once again seeming to forget his age.

Sarah wasn't quite sure that 'wow' was the right word, but she smiled weakly at Toby's departing back, still reeling at the change in the storefront that she'd witnessed outside. Once Toby had moved away and she'd had an opportunity to catch her breath, she finally started looking around her, and that faint sense of unease began to grow.

She'd done her best to forget about the Labyrinth in the fifteen years since the night she won her brother back from the Goblin King. When forgetting hadn't worked, she'd tried instead to convince herself that it was merely a dream, that her subconscious (or was that her conscience?) had finally had enough of the way she treated Toby and her stepmother, and gone about fixing things in the only way it (she) knew she'd listen.

Those forgotten memories came crashing back as she looked through the overloaded shelves. Here, a stuffed Fiery with button eyes, stringy limbs, and a shock of red/yellow/orange hair made of yarn. There, a statue of a fox, complete with eyepatch, its lance extended as if ready to engage an oncoming enemy. Even a stuffed bear that looked suspiciously, exactly like Lancelot was nestled amongst the disarray, and she couldn't help a quiet sigh and a brief caress to the bear's face as she passed by. The more she looked around, the more memories of her magical trip came to light...and the greater her trepidation grew, until she finally happened upon the back wall of the brightly lit store and came to an immediate stop.

A long shelf over the back counter was marked with a small wooden sign, the knotwork banner from the outdoor sign repeated on it. An elegant script carved into the wood proclaimed:

Display Only

Not For Sale

Upon a high shelf bookended by a pair of crystal orbs was a line of twelve music boxes, each in a ball gown that she recognized instantly. Unexpectedly, however, each face was different-there were several blondes, two redheads, and other brunettes, all with a different combination of eye color, facial feature, and expression. Sarah's eyes widened when she caught sight of the crystals, but her jaw dropped as she spotted the music box farthest to the right, the last item on the shelf, save for the crystal next to it. The face on the figure within was unmistakably her own, the doll's hair styled as hers had been in the peach-induced dream she'd had on her journey through the Labyrinth.

"Gorgeous, ain't they?"

The voice came from behind her and Sarah whirled around, arms spread at the last moment to prevent her from falling. "What...who..."

He, for it was surely a he amidst the hugely wrinkled face and shaggy hair, cackled brightly and nodded toward the shelf of music boxes. "Come now, missy, surely you don't need me to tell you 'what' or 'who,' eh?" His accent sounded English, quite out of place in her little American town. A closer look at his clothing showed him in a shabby linen shirt that had probably once been white and a pair of dingy trousers that had been patched so much that there was barely any of the original material left in them. He was much shorter than Sarah had expected, considering that it seemed his voice had sounded right at her ear; the top of his head barely reached her elbow. "Plain to see that one's you," he added, his voice still quivering with laughter, nodding toward the last of the music boxes. "Pretty in glass just like all the rest."

"All the...wait, what are you talking about?" Sarah huffed, her tone tempered with an impatience driven by fear. Glancing over her shoulder to assure herself that Toby was still distracted, she hissed, "That was just a dream."

It wasn't the cackling of the figure before her that bothered her this time, it was the hissed giggles all around her. Sarah's eyes darted toward the nearest source of the noise but could see nothing.

"Do shut up," the figure before her muttered and all was suddenly silent, but for the noise of Toby's play in the background. Focusing his gaze back on Sarah again, he grinned knowingly. "You just keep telling yourself that, girly. Whatever makes it easier for you to get by. Shame, though."

When he didn't seem inclined to continue, Sarah's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, suddenly defensive.

"Ohh, I bet that'll come to you soon enough." After sizing Sarah up, he held out his hand. "Begging your pardon, girly...that is, uh, 'miss.' Gylbarde Guildersleeve, at your service. Call me Gib. She ain't much," his voice was just flippant enough to make Sarah believe that he felt exactly the opposite, "but this here's me shop. Welcome. Enjoy yourself."

Baffled, Sarah could only stare as he started to walk in Toby's direction, but she was brought out of her reverie with another glance toward the music boxes on the display shelf. "Wait!"

Gib paused and half turned back toward Sarah, keeping his eyes on the boy.

Sarah opened her mouth as if to speak, but as she stepped forward, she glanced toward the shelf of toys on the main floor that Gib was standing closest to and gaped. There, crowded upon the shelf, was a carbon copy of Lancelot, along with Betty Boo, a pair of panda slippers, a statuette of Hoggle...the entire shelf was full of all the toys and trinkets that had been in her room as a child, things that were still in boxes or on shelves in her room in her childhood home today. "Where did you get all this? These are my things..."

Another chortle answered her as Gib looked back to Sarah. "Oh, well spotted. Starting to come to you now, ain't it? Weren't just a dream, were it?" The giggles around the room picked back up again and this time, he did nothing to stop them. While Sarah stared at the shelf, Gib fixed his eyes on Toby, seeming almost as if he were waiting for something.

For her part, Sarah couldn't stop looking at that shelf. She knew Lancelot was at home in Toby's room on top of his dresser, just like she knew her statue of Hoggle was in her own room, where it had always been. Dragging her eyes away from the replicas of her own toys, she focused instead on another collection, and she was surprised to find that there were similarities: another teddy bear, another Fiery, even another Hoggle. Even so, something seemed a bit off about them, as if they were used up somehow, lacking an inner spark, or just...less there than the ones she'd come to recognize as hers.

Finally, baffled, she asked, "What is this place?" In her mind, the memories of her time in the Labyrinth now at the forefront of her thoughts after all she'd seen thus far, Sarah heard a quiet echo of Hoggle's voice: "It's a place you put people to forget about 'em."

"Well, it's a toy store, ain't it? Cor, what'd you think it was?" Gib asked, as if speaking to a small child.

"No...no, it's more than that. Why would you have all these things? Why...those music boxes..." Sarah paused, realization starting to dawn as her gaze shifted between Gib and the shelf of gown-clad figures caught in glass. Hesitantly, seeming almost afraid of the answer, she asked, "It wasn't just me, was it? These are...there were others." It was more statement than question at the end, but it was still voiced softly enough to indicate that she didn't really want to know the answer.

Pulled away from his contemplation of Toby by Sarah's question, Gib grinned toothily, the expression seeming overly large on his heavily wrinkled face. "Knew you'd figure that part out, girly. Knew you were a smart one."

Though she'd made the mental leap, Sarah was unprepared for Gib's confirmation of it and she heaved out a gusty breath, trying to regain her inner balance. "What..."

"It's the Labyrinth, see," Gib added, unbidden. "Clever bit of magic, that. We makes these toys there, sells them up here, and when it's time for a new master, the Labyrinth's magic finds the right one. Out goes the book, a little o'this, a little o'that, the King's 'special powers,' and poof!" He shouted the last word, making Sarah jump, and grinned evilly at her reaction. "When the girl loses, she gets sent home with that shiny bubble of the King's, and that's it. You were the twelfth. Bit surprised how you turned out, as it happens."

Sarah could only stare, trying to process the idea that her journey through the Labyrinth had been real, and had been arranged or engineered by something-or someone-in order to get their claws into Toby. Trying to reason her way through it, she replayed Gib's last few sentences in her head and asked, "What do you mean, a master? Isn't the master of the Labyrinth the..." She paused, swallowed heavily, and her voice dropped into a whisper to voice the final two words, as if she was afraid of what might happen. "Goblin King?"

Amusement colored Gib's features, but somehow, he managed to hold back the laughter. "The King's the King right enough. But the Labyrinth's a bit of a partner, see. He rules the goblins and keeps an eye on the Labyrinth-protects it, right? Keeps it safe. The Labyrinth keeps an eye out for him in turn. And she-the Labyrinth, that is-needs a Toymaster to help with magic and the like. Right now, that's me. Been looking for my replacement forever, and that one," he said, nodding toward where Toby was still playing, though Sarah couldn't quite see what held his attention, "fits the bill. So did you. Grumpy, impressionable teenage girl, head always in the clouds, dreaming about Prince Charming. Much younger sibling that you always had to take care of. Feeling like your real parent ignores you for the new kid. Not above playing the brat if you thought it'd get you what you wanted. Ripe for the picking, the both of you!"

"So, it was all a trick to get to Toby? He tricked me?" She'd gone from baffled to indignant with barely a pause in between. "I can't believe he'd do something like that to me!"

If his eyes had rolled any harder, Gib thought, he'd have fallen over. "You ain't been listening. It ain't about you, girly. Weren't never about you. It was always about HIM," he said, eying Toby with avarice, and a hint of disappointment. Noting Sarah's affronted look, he scoffed. "What, you think the high and mighty Goblin King's going to fall in looooove with a spoilt, selfish slip of a girl? Hardly!" So amused was he by the very idea that he couldn't hold back another of his merry cackles, echoed by the goblins surrounding him. Their laughter deepened as Sarah's expression darkened. "Ooh, you did. That's beautiful, that is."

Sarah's back straightened as, almost inexplicably, a sense of wounded pride kicked in. "Fine," she snapped, temper flaring as she leaned over to get as close to face to face with Gib as she was able. "It wasn't about me, it was about Toby. The fact remains that I beat him. I won, I got him back, and you can't. Have. Him."

"Oooh, feisty," Gib snarked back, unimpressed. "Ain't your decision anymore, girly. All your toys still have their spark. That means he's still got it. Bet he's been thinking about this place like crazy, been trying to get here for ages, hasn't he? Can't get away from it, always pulled here, even if he don't know why."

Something about what Gib said caught Sarah's attention-she'd been thinking that some of the other toys looked less there than hers, and that word, 'spark,' suddenly sounded ominous. "Wait...what do you mean, about my...things?"

Once again, Gib rolled his eyes, and his voice was disdainful when he spoke. "Can't believe I thought you were smart. Their spark," he explained, as if speaking to a small, unintelligent child, "their magic. Here." He shuffled forward to snatch the stuffed Fiery from its perch and jabbed it at her. "Take it, you'll see what I mean."

Unease rippled through Sarah at the suddenly vicious look in Gib's eyes, but she couldn't stop herself from reaching forward, hand outstretched. She shuddered when her fingers brushed the soft fabric body, and her shoulders slumped when her hand closed around it, feeling as if she were about to be buried under a wave of darkness. Every bad thought she'd ever had about Toby and her stepmother, every negative feeling, every cruel word, every hurt she'd ever wanted to inflict came crashing down upon her, and it was nearly enough to drive her to her knees. Hostility sharpened her eyes as she looked up toward Toby, but something about the sight of him broke through that oppressive haze that had surrounded her, compelling her to fight against it.

"No!" Sarah exhaled harshly, forcing her fingers to release the plush toy, and this time, she did sink to her knees-that rush of depression and negativity was gone as soon as it had arrived, as if it had never existed.

Gib's cackle wasn't anything approaching merry this time-instead, it was downright malicious. "That, girly. That's what I'm talking about when I say the spark's still there."

Sarah remained on her knees long enough to catch her breath, glaring at Gib once she wobbled her way back to her feet. "Is that what the Labyrinth puts into all the toys that it sends out? Some kind of magic to make us all hate our siblings? That's horrible."

"Calm down, girly," was Gib's annoyed reply. "They ain't that strong in your house. All these ones here are the real ones. The ones you've got are just copies, they ain't anywhere near as strong."

Frost edged Sarah's voice. "Copies. Not as strong. But the fact remains, all those things in our home are spelled."

Unconcerned, Gib shrugged his shoulders. "Yep. Just 'cause it's magic don't mean it's nice to everyone involved. No rule about that anywhere. Besides," he added, glancing Toby's way once more, that hint of want in his eyes, "like I said, the copies ain't as strong as the real ones. And," he hastened to add, holding up a time-worn hand to forestall Sarah's reply, "it's only that strong 'cause he's that strong. That's why the Labyrinth still wants him."

"So let me get this straight," Sarah said, shoulders straightening. "The Labyrinth has some toymaster who makes these evil toys that have really strong magic in them-strong enough to make me feel..." She paused, shivered, and shook her head. "Never mind. Strong enough to hurt. They're only like that because you're old and cranky and ready to retire..."

Gib's eyes flashed at Sarah's dismissive tone, but he didn't disagree with her comment, only motioned for her to continue.

This time, the amused hint of a smile was Sarah's, as she acknowledged the expression that had been so brief on Gib's face. "Through this magic, you've somehow been led to Toby. You spelled me into wishing him away, the...Goblin King led me on a chase through this place designed to make me lose, so I'd take my dreams and toddle off back home like a good little spoiled, selfish brat. Except somehow, I beat him at his own game, and Toby and I both came home. Now, even though I won," she practically growled the words and made a sharp shushing motion with her hand when it seemed Gib wanted to speak, "you've put together this weird little store to try and lure him in on his own, all because you're under some crazy delusion that the Labyrinth wants him to come and make toys for it. Is that about right?"

"There's always more to it, missy. The toys ain't meant to hurt, just...encourage. Ain't nothing you hadn't already thought about on your own. They're carriers, see," Gib added, nodding toward Sarah's shelf. "They see the potential, but the spell's quiet, sleeping-like, unless it's turned on, and it only gets turned on if everything's lined up right. The real ones have to be stronger than the copies if the spell's going to be strong enough to work, that's why these ones feel the way they do. The Labyrinth's a complex sort. Free will's part of it, always part of it." He glanced Toby's way, pleased to see that the boy was still enjoying himself as he browsed the many shelves. "As for him, he's got it and no mistake. Looky here, he's still playing. Knows instinctive-like how to make them all work. Ooh, he'd be such a good one..."

"Don't even think about it," Sarah retorted, moving to stand between Gib and her brother.

Impatiently, Gib rolled his eyes. "You ain't been listening. Not up to you, it's up to him, now more than ever. It weren't about you then, and it definitely ain't about you now. He's old enough to choose on his own. You ain't his parent."

"But he's my brother!" Sarah protested. "I'm his...his...caregiver while our parents are gone. He's not old enough to be an adult. And besides," she continued, her tone insistent, "I already told you, I won! The game is over."

"Strictly speaking," a new and chilly voice responded to Sarah's retort, "that is not entirely correct."

Reviews welcome!