Hey, guys. I don't own the Tales of Arcadia franchise. If I did, I wouldn't have to worry about not being caught up with 3Below to know if this fic was canon compliant or not! (As it is, I know that the time-travel isn't the same type that was used in said show.) Oh, well. At least both my fic and the canon use something vaguely based on Einstein's theory of special relativity.
Also, this fic was inspired by the piece "The Chalice" by Griffin McElroy.
Toby Domzalski, sophomore in high school, was not someone who would often wake up so early, and definitely wasn't someone who would be dressed and banging on his best friend's door so early in the morning.
Tobias Domzalski, twenty-four-year-old protector of Arcadia, also wasn't the biggest fan of waking up early, but he had a purpose to being a sophomore in high school again. This was the morning that had changed his - Toby and especially Jim's - lives forever. If Tobias had any say in the way today's events would occur, then this day would be a day like any other. Wake up, go to school on the route that didn't have that stupid shortcut, and Merlin wouldn't be getting a human champion any time soon.
Jim opened his front door, already dressed, and Tobias had to suppress a gasp. He had expected his friend to be fifteen and human, but it was still so odd to see him as the boy who had sunken into a bathtub of black liquid and not the half-troll who had emerged. This was his chance to make sure that his friend remained that way.
"Tobes, what's wrong?" Jim asked, adjusting his grip on the VHS tapes and DVD's he had been cleaning up. Cleaning up, putting them back on the shelves with no desire to eat.
"Nothing's wrong, I just know you're going to try and clean your house and cook at least two meals," Tobias replied, trying not to sound rehearsed. "I'd really rather not take your so-called 'shortcut' through the canals, so I thought it'd be best if I helped you."
Jim smiled. "Sure, come on in! My mom's asleep, she had a late shift."
They did not take the canals to school, and they arrived on time. Had Jim been, would Jim be, the best trollhunter in history? Of course. He was amazing in so many ways, but the world didn't deserve him. Jim deserved to live a normal life, to graduate high school and go to some fancy cooking school that required human taste buds.
Jim didn't look up talking blue amulets on his laptop, but he still didn't answer the question on Herodotus's tactics properly. Instead, he had been too busy gazing fondly at Claire, and then quickly pretending to be on task the second she started to look back towards him.
In Jim's defense, Tobias had also been looking at Claire, but for an entirely different reason. In their original plan, Claire had been supposed to go back in time with him. Unfortunately, Claire had been poisoned by Morgana's magic, and had died before they had fully figured out how to send their souls back to their younger selves. Despite this, Tobias had hoped that she would remember him, remember the way the three of them had fought a war together.
Given the fact that she looked at Jim the exact same way she did in Tobias's memories, Claire probably didn't even remember Toby's name.
She did remember to give them fliers for the upcoming tryouts for Romeo and Juliet. Tobias decided to convince Jim to try out for it for two reasons. The first was that if he had to watch his best friend hopelessly pine for months again he was going to...
No, he couldn't smash down a wall with his warhammer. He didn't have his warhammer. At this point in the timeline Toby wouldn't have his warhammer for several months anyways, had Jim found the amulet.
Just because Tobias couldn't smash down a wall with his warhammer didn't mean it wouldn't be frustrating to watch Jim constantly try and fail to speak a normal, English sentence to Claire. Toby had tried to convince Jim to try out for the school play for the exact same reason nine years ago, and a very similar reason to the other one he was using now.
Jim wanted adventure? Adventure could mean, would have to mean, trying out for the school play. He'd barely had time for it when he was the trollhunter, which meant that Jim wouldn't have time to go looking into the supernatural occurrences in the town.
Tobias didn't mind trying out for the play alongside Jim. It meant he could keep an eye on him and Claire at the same time. Their respective needs to be more had made them perfect for each other. Their respective needs to be more had been their unmaking.
Their organs would eventually give out this time around, too. Human aging was an inevitable thing, but Jim and Claire wouldn't have to worry about that death until they were in their seventies or older. They wouldn't choke as their lungs crystallized or filled with blackened blood.
The unfortunate thing about Jim not being the trollhunter was that, without the amulet and Blinky's speech about destiny that Jim did not need to hear, he didn't have the best chances of landing the role that would enable him to kiss Claire. Tobias had tried to get him to memorize his lines ahead of time, but it hadn't worked. Eli would end up playing Romeo, and the only good that would come out of that was that the boy would hopefully realize that he was gay far sooner. In the meantime, Jim was stuck with none other than —
"Mercutio isn't really the type of person whose role I could easily fit into," Jim complained.
"Yeah, you're right," Tobias said. "That role doesn't look like it'll be easy for you, so you know what? When you blow the audience away with it, Claire's bound to be impressed."
"Yeah, I guess. I just feel like you would be better at playing Mercutio than I am."
Tobias wasn't so sure. Yeah, his personality type, especially as a sophomore, fit Mercutio better than Jim's did. And yet, Tobias could feel like their math teacher could see Tobias's past, could see the future Jim would never have to live.
Mercutio was the first character to die. At the end of the play, Benvolio had been the only one of his friends left living.
Tobias couldn't let it happen again.
Goblins still attacked a delivery truck. Eli still took a photo. Killahead Bridge was still being built.
Arcadia Oaks was still in danger, and this time it didn't have the greatest trollhunter in history to protect it. That was why Tobias snuck down to the canals one evening, after he knew Jim was asleep. He didn't have the darkvision of trolls, and he didn't have his warhammer to protect him from changelings. He didn't have a boy in armor and a girl with a staff to watch his back. He wasn't strong as he was at twenty-four, but when Draal demanded to know who he was and how a fleshbag had managed to get into Trollmarket Tobias did not flinch. Draal looked surprisingly good in armor; better than his dad had, at least. He looked almost a third as intimidating as he was when Toby and Jim had first entered Trollmarket, but he wasn't their friend. Their friend had died about a day before Jim had given up his humanity. Tobias had prepared himself for this.
Tobias may have flinched when AAARRRGGHH! looked at him like a stranger. He hadn't prepared himself for that look from his old wingman. However, he held his ground. This had been his choice to make, and he had to deal with the consequences. "I have information on Killahead Bridge." Because he and Jim hadn't snuck into the museum, Nomura would have no reason to have moved it.
"How do I know you aren't some impure?" Draal asked.
It had been difficult to procure a fully iron horseshoe, but thankfully Nana didn't check what he had ordered on Amazon.
"I can hold a gaggletack," Tobias said, and then after holding it for a few moments he tossed it to Blinky. "You can check if you want."
"How do we even know you aren't some spy for them? There could be an entire secret organization of them indoctrinating humans for all we know!" Blinky wasn't too far off, but the accusation still hurt.
"Look, let's just say I'm from an alternate universe, and in my universe I helped defeat Gunmar. Do you want the information or not?"
"You? A fleshbag? Defeating Gunmar the Black?" Draal snorted. "How?"
"With gravity," Tobias said, and he let the orange light overtake his arm. It was weaker than it had been when he still had the warhammer. It certainly wasn't strong enough to warp time enough to send his consciousness hurtling backwards. However, the same orange light surrounded multiple gnomes who quickly found themselves floating. Tobias tried not to think about the possible demise of Chompsky.
Toby Domzalski, sophomore in high school, was interested in magic tricks. They were a casual interest, an old hobby. Nothing important.
Tobias Domzalski, twenty-four-year-old protector of Arcadia, was an actual wizard, one whose power ran deep. His magic couldn't kill him like a parasite. He had been the protector of Arcadia with his closest friends, once. He would protect Arcadia for his friends, this time around.
Fun fact: Eli was going to be the Trollhunter in this originally; I may or may not write an alternate version of this universe where Eli got the amulet instead.