I am so sorry

I mean, no. No, I’m not.

But still.

I’ve had this idea running around my head for a few days now, so I decided I’d get it written down. 

Toby is def my favorite character in this AU and I decided I needed more of him and his interactions with Maddie. Just on a more painful level, I guess.

I actually wrote this a while ago, but I didn’t post it cuz I couldn’t think of a title. And then I sorta forgot about it. But it’s here now!

Enjoy!

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She was scared.

The day had started off relatively normal. She had woken up on time, gone to school, bombed a math test––just another completely ordinary, unremarkable day.

But then she was kidnapped when walking home from school.

And now twelve-year-old Maddie Pines was tied up, gagged, and lying on a cold cement floor.

And she was scared.

The room was dark and cold, wide and spacious, like an abandoned warehouse. She had been tossed in a corner, ignored. The kidnappers, a large group of people in robes, were systematically setting up a summoning circle. From her angle, Maddie couldn’t tell who the circle was for. But that didn’t matter; all demons were bad news.

She closed her eyes and felt a tear trace her cheek. This is it, she thought miserably. This is what Dad was always worried about. It had taken a while for her dad to agree to let her walk to and from school alone, but she had eventually worn him down. And look where it got me.

At that thought, she started to cry harder. Her dad had always been there for her. And more than anything, she wished that he was there for her now.

A hand grabbed her, and her eyes opened with a start.

One of the cultists picked her up off the ground effortlessly and carried her towards the middle of the room.

Towards that circle.

The rest of the members were standing around it, arms out, with their palms pointing towards the ceiling. They were chanting in a language Maddie didn’t recognize. She started to squirm, but the man held her fast. He forced her to her knees next to the circle, and pulled her head back by the hair to expose her neck. He raised a knife.

No no no Daddy Daddy please help me DADDY HELP ME––

There was an explosion of blue flames, and the chanting faltered.

A demon was floating in the center of the circle, coils of shadow winding off his form, cloaking the room in darkness. He wore a trim suit, and his black-and-gold eyes gleamed as he took in the situation around him.

What…?

He was a demon, and yet something seemed so familiar about him. His messy brown hair, the crinkles by his eyes, the shape of his nose…. Familiar, yes, but wrong.

“Ĺet̕ ̴he͠r̛ ̛gơ.”

And his voice. She knew that voice, despite its echo, despite the reverb.  

The cult leader, still holding Madeline, fumbled for his words. “O mighty Dreambender, we did not summon thee––”

“L̘̹͚̻̳̣ḛ̯̺̲t̨̳̟̝̤͉̟̞͍͢͞ ̷̻̹̹͎̼͉̕ͅh̥͙̯͡e̢̡̳ŕ͕̹̞̫̻͇̫ ̴͉̮̮̙͚̝̣͘G̡̳O̠̙̥!”

In an instant, the demon’s body was void black, with thin golden brick lines tracing their way around his form. Maddie’s binds were burned away and the cultist dropped her in shock.

She took a grateful gasp of air and looked at the demon before her, the familiar mannerisms starting to click together. “D-dad?”

He didn’t even look at her; just kept his glowing eyes focused on the man standing behind her. “Gęt ou͏t̷ of̛ ̢heŕe, M̸add́i͘e̕.͡ ̸You̶ ̀do͝n’͢t ́wąn͏t͟ ̢to se҉e ͝th͜i̷s.”

And so she ran.

She ran for the only door she could see and was grateful when it led outside, to the fading rays of day. 

She looked around, desperately, openly sobbing, trying to make sense of her surroundings. An alleyway? Backstreet? A few other run-down buildings, similar to the one she had just exited. But nothing familiar.

She had no idea where she was.

In a sudden burst of emotion, she fell to her knees and broke down in tears. It was then she felt something shift in her boot.

With a shuddering gasp, she reached into her shoe and pulled out––

My phone?

But that made no sense. Wouldn’t the cultists have taken it…? No––that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she had it with her, and there was only one person she wanted to talk to right now.

Maddie scrolled through her contacts until she found the one she was looking for, and hit call.

––

“Y’ello?”

“Toby?” Her voice was small and afraid, thick with tears.

“Maddie?” Instantly, his normally-bright voice was replaced by one overflowing with fear and concern. “What happened? Are you okay?”

She gasped and hiccuped, still crying. “I’m scared.”

“Maddie, where are you? What happened?”

“I––” She tried to form a coherent sentence, and in a tearful burst, the story came rushing out. “They tried to kill me––and then Dad showed up––but it wasn’t Dad and––and––I’m scared––”

“Maddie, Maddie, calm down, everything is going to be alright.” He paused, waiting for her sobs to subside. “Maddie, can you tell me where you are right now?”

“I––I don’t know.”

“Just tell me what you see.”

She looked around desperately, wiping at her face with the palm of her hand. “Old buildings. Like, warehouses. Or something. Um, there are these three tower thingies. I think I can hear water….”

“Okay, okay,” Toby mumbled. “I know where that is. You’re in Bend, in the Old Mill District.” Once a lumber mill, then a shopping center, now abandoned. “That’s not too far. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Just stay calm, okay? Stay right there, Maddie. I promise, everything is going to be just fine.”

She sniffled. “Okay.”

––

Maddie sat on the opposite side of the street from the warehouse she had been in. Her head was buried in her hands as she did her best to ignore the screams coming from the building across the alley.

Please, Toby, please.

And the tears wouldn’t stop.

It seemed like forever before she heard the sound of an engine. She looked up and was relieved to see a familiar car pulling to a stop just down the street.

“Toby!”

As soon as he stepped out of the car, she ran towards him and flung herself into his arms. He knelt on the ground and pulled her close, letting her cry into his shoulder.

“Oh, gosh. You’re okay, Maddie, you’re okay,” he whispered soothingly into her tangled hair. “Everything’s going to be alright. Umm, it’s okay, you can cry if you want to. But also don’t cuz that’s sad and stuff. But it’s okay! Shh, hey, it’s okay, I’m here. I’m right here. No one’s going to hurt you, I promise.” He waited for her to calm down before gently pulling away to meet her eyes. “Maddie,” he said softly, reaching out to brush a lock of hair from her face. “I want you to tell me exactly what happened, okay?”

She took a deep shuddering breath. “They––they were gonna summon something but I dunno what and then Dad was there but it wasn’t Dad, it was a demon and there was blue fire everywhere and his eyes and––and Toby, I was so scared––”

“Hey, hey,” he soothed. “It’s okay. It’s okay, Maddie, there’s nothing to be afraid of.” But she saw the almost-indiscernible glint of fear in his eyes. He pulled her back into a hug. “Ugh, you shouldn’t have found out like this,” he muttered under his breath, his voice muffled by her hair.

“What?” Maddie demanded sharply, recoiling, her eyebrows furrowed. “W-what do you mean?”

For a moment, he wore that oh-shit-I-messed-up face, his eyes darting uncertainly. “I didn’t mean for you hear that….”  He groaned in resignation, absently running a hand through his hair. “We weren’t sure how to tell you….”

“Toby, what are you talking about?!”

“Maddie, look at me,” Toby urged. “I promise, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Okay? He loves you, Maddie. He would never do anything to hurt you, okay? Never.”

“I––”

“Maddie!”

She froze at the sound of his voice. She hadn’t even noticed that the screaming from inside the warehouse had stopped, and now he was coming out and––

Alcor, looking mostly human again, saw the two of them across the street and his shoulders sagged with apparent relief. He floated over to them, and Toby stood to meet him.

His daughter, his Mizar, was clutching Toby’s legs tightly. “Maddie––”

“You’re scaring her.”

Alcor stopped. With a deep exhale, his demonic aspects melted away. His wings folded into nothing, his ears shrank, and when he opened his eyes again, Maddie saw the familiar brown that she was so used to. Looking human again, looking like Tyrone Pines, he crouched down beside her.

“Maddie,” he murmured. “I’m so sorry. Are you alright? Did they hurt you?”

“I’m okay,” she whispered.

She wasn’t; he could see her aura. Vast heavy blues, nearly enveloping her whole form, interspersed with writhing yellows and stabbing peaks of white, sad and confused and––damn it all––scared. Terrified.

She sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “I just wanna go home.” Her voice broke.

Alcor gave her a small, tentative, smile. “Okay. Let’s go home.” He held out a hand to her, and after a moment’s hesitation, she took it. His smile grew warmer and more genuine, and he stood back up to address Toby. “Thank you, Toby.”

Toby put his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “Anytime.”

Alcor paused, unsure what to say next. “Do you…would…what I mean to….” He grunted in frustration, seeming to silently argue with himself before, defeated, he offered Toby his other hand. “You coming?”

Toby rubbed the back of his neck. “I, ah, I should probably just drive. I don’t want to leave my car out here….”

“Right, yeah, okay. But I’ll see you back at the house?”

“Yeah, I’ll––”

“Can I ride with Toby?”

Both men froze when Maddie spoke. Alcor looked down at her, then over to Toby, who shrugged helplessly in return.

“Yeah,” Alcor said distantly. “Yeah, of course you can.”

“Go ahead and get in the car,” Toby told her gently. Without another word, she let go of Alcor’s hand and started towards the car.

When the door closed, Alcor let out an angered scream and punched the wall beside him. He lowered his face, resting his forehead against the wall. “I fucked up, Toby.”

Toby’s gaze shifted from him to the wall and back again until he’d nearly chewed a hole into the side of his cheek and decided he’d best do something. He sighed and tentatively placed one hand on the demon’s shoulder. “I’ll talk to her,” he promised. “Don’t worry. I’ll see you back at the house, okay?”

Alcor nodded absently. “How did you know to come?”

“She called me.”

A swell of emotion rose in Alcor. Anger, jealousy––how dare Mizar trust him, trust B̩̺̖̬̹͓͓Í͈L͔̮̮L̳̭͚̠͈ more than she trusts M̶̥̯̹̣E̩̥––but he forced it down.

“Thank you.”

––

The car ride was tense and awkward.

Toby was in the driver’s seat, and Maddie had the backseat to herself. She didn’t speak, just looked sullenly out the window as dusk fell around them.

Toby took a deep breath. “Are you going to be okay, Maddie?”

She didn’t respond.

“It’s happened to me too…the whole kidnapping thing…multiple times, it was, ah….” He sighed. “I was terrified, but he was there to help. Every time. I guess that kinda stuff just…happens when you’re raised by a demon, huh?” He wasn’t quite sure if what he was saying made any sense. He just had to keep going, had to fill the silence. “Growing up with a demon can be kinda weird, but no matter what, he’ll be there for you. He’ll always protect you. Maddie?” He glanced at her in the rearview mirror; she hadn’t budged. “He’s always looked out for you,” Toby continued. “Even since before you were born. Lifetime after lifetime, he’s been there, watching over you and keeping you safe. He loves you, Maddie. And he’d never do anything to hurt you.”

At the red light, he risked a glance over his shoulder. The girl in the backseat was silent.

The light turned green, and Toby kept driving. “I remember the first time I met you,” he said quietly. “You were only a few months old, and had been living with him for barely a month. And I remember the way he looked at you. He never looked at me like that.” Toby’s eyes were downcast, lost in memories. “He loves you so much, Maddie. He loved you more after a month than he did with me after years.” His knuckles were white, clenching the steering wheel. “There’s nothing you need to be afraid of.”

“How did you find out?”

She had been so silent that the sudden question came as a shock to him. “Ah, I always knew. He adopted me when I was eight. In public, he looked human, and called himself Tyrone Pines. But when it was just the two of us, he was always…just…Alcor.”

Alcor.

It was a name that she had only heard in stories, whispered in passing. She was only just starting to learn about demons in school, and they always start with the lesser known, weaker ones. But everyone knew the name Alcor.

“Alcor,” she repeated softly. “The Dreambender.”

“The Twin Star, King of Nightmares, Devourer of Souls, the Forgotten One, Protector of Children, and about a billion other names we can never keep track of.” He chuckled softly. “That’s another thing: he’s always there to chase off your nightmares.”

After a moment, Maddie looked up and met Toby’s eyes in the rearview. “Is…is this going to change anything?”

“Nah,” he replied. “I’ll probably just call him Alcor more often than…Dad. And he might be a bit more open with what exactly it is that he’s doing when he’s not home. But other than that….” He turned around at the red light to smile at his sister. “Everything’s gonna be just like it was before.”

“Okay.”

They fell into a comfortable silence. The tension was still there, hanging over them, but it had lessened into something a bit more relaxed.

“What do you wanna do when we get back home?” Toby asked her as they neared the house. “What’s that one movie you really like, the Disney one…? Ah, Starlight Princess?”

“Can we?”

They pulled into the driveway, and Toby killed the engine. He looked back at Maddie with a smile. “Princess, we can do whatever you want to.”

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I’m addressing this due to a few comments I got from my beta reader. As to why Alcor was acting so friendly towards Toby and not all tsundere-y. I imagine that as the years go by, he’s just more open and caring towards Toby. And I doubt that he would be all “I’m not doing this because I like you or anything” while Maddie is around and in earshot. Eh. Idk.

(I remember there being a headcanon that the Disney Princess Mizar movie was Maddie’s favorite, so I incorporated that at the end. A Starlight Princess is one of the suggested titles for the movie that I remember seeing in the Disney Princess tag.)