Walter drove Barbara to the Nunez' home—It was clear that Ophelia wouldn't be safe to drive, and Barbara was still punchy. Toby had gotten Arrrggghhh, and Draal would remain at the house in case Jim returned.
By the time they got to their house, Toby and the others were waiting for them, along with Blinky.
"What happened!" Blinky asked. "Master Tobias was uncle—Barbara?"
"I surprised Jim," Barbara said. "Can I sit down?"
"Y—yes," Javier said. He'd evidently been called by Ophelia, who was sitting in the chair, crying.
"Barbara woke Jim from a nightmare, and he struck her. Now he's distraught and fled." Walter frowned. "What happened to Claire."
Between sobs, Ophelia explained, Toby filling in the gaps.
"You sought to disarm her?" Blinky said. "After the danger she was—"
"She almost killed another student! I didn't mean forever, but just until…"
"Well, you did a—"
"Enough!" Strickler shouted, cutting Blinky off. "We are all guilty of errors. The children were far more impacted by their experiences than we initially believed, and we'll have to work on that—but for now, our only goal is finding them and returning them, safe and sound. Recriminations can wait."
"But we can't find Jim, not without Claire," Barbara said. "Oh, God, what if they hurt themselves…"
"They won't." Toby's voice was certain.
"How can you know?"
"Because they ran. Jim didn't want to hurt you, so he ran. Claire was afraid of what you guys were going to do, and what she had done, so she ran. She'll find Jim. They need each other. I think…" Toby's voice grew thick. "That they're ashamed of what's happened." He sighed. "And I know where they went."
"Tell us!" Javier burst out.
"So you can scare them even worse?" Toby asked. Walter remembered Toby, before all of this started. He would have never dared say that to an entire room of adults, let alone these adults.
But he wasn't exactly a child anymore, was he? Another crime to lay at Gunmar's feet.
Another crime to lay at Walter's feet.
"Jim loves you, Dr. L, just like Claire loves Mr. And Ms. Nunez. But they don't think they're good enough. You keep talking about fixing them, helping them get better… What if they don't think they can get better?"
"No, they will, we just—"
"Wait, Ophelia," Blinky said. "It doesn't matter what will happen, but what Jim and Fair Claire think. That is what you're saying, Master Tobias?"
"Yeah. So if they can't get better… Then that's just them being worse. They're afraid of what you might say, because they can't fix this. And I think they haven't said everything that happened."
Jim's willingness to take everything upon his shoulders, Claire's perfectionism. Walter could see how those qualities could turn on them, especially when they were confronting enemies that they couldn't just punch. And yet…
"Young Atlas…" Walter sighed. "Not a good name, in retrospect. Atlas wished to abandon his burden, after all."
"I'll go—"
"I go as well," Arrrggghhh rumbled.
"Toby yes, but why—"
Arrrggghhh interrupted Barbara. "Understand shame. Name not sound. What people said to Arrrggghhh before. 'Arrrggghhh, no. Arrrggghhh, please.'"
Barbara blinked, then suddenly went white, the change contrasting with her purpling bruises as she realized what Arrrggghhh was saying. "Your na—I'm sorry."
Arrrggghhh shook his head. "Hurt. Not Broken."
"I will go as well, if Tobias will have me," Walter said quietly.
"You—why?" Barbara asked.
"Because Jim and Claire have no feelings of respect for me. They don't care about my possible disappointment, and so can talk to me." And that hurt more than it should.
"T-then go!" Ophelia said, from where Javier was holding her on the couch. "Just bring our children back!"
"Yeah," Toby said. "Can you keep up?" he asked Walter.
A flash, and Walter stood in his troll form. "I believe so, but let us be off."
And with that, they left the others, clustered around the living room, and moved off into the growing gloom of an overcast afternoon.
Toby knew exactly where they would meet. The cliffside. Where Jim and Claire had danced, where they had their first kiss, where they would be able to look over Arcadia. So, Arrrggghhh carrying him and Strickler flying above, they came to the cliff, to where two figures were sitting on the grass, heedless of the rain, holding each other like they were the last things in the world.
"I-can't, I can't protec—"
"I'm sorry, I didn't, it was my—"
Their sentences were incoherent, almost like they weren't even aware of each other just holding each other tight. Toby got off of Arrrggghhh, the troll and changeling remaining behind him, ceding the lead to the kid.
That was fine.
"Hey, Jim, Claire." Toby smiled. The two started, scrambling away from him.
"Toby—stay away, I don't, I don't want to hur—"
"Hurt me? Nah, you can't do that. I mean, you could hit me, but hurt me? You're my friend, Jimbo, you can't hurt me." Toby sat down, the grass wet under him. A distant rumble sounded, but the storm had passed, gaps in the clouds showing the twilit sky. "So, did you get any of the nougat nummies, I dropped through the fetch?"
A laugh came from Jim, forced. "Yeah. Thanks. We both… shared them."
"Sometimes they were the only thing we had to know there was an outside worl—" Claire hit herself on the side of her head. "And I never thanked you! I'm stupid! Stupid, stupid!"
"Nah," Toby said as he pulled out some nougats, tossing one to Jim and one to Claire, before he opened his. "You just had some other things on your mind."
"I hit Mom, I can't—I'm dangerous." Jim's voice was choked.
"I know, Dr. L is really upset at herself for forgetting. You had a nightmare. Probably about Claire." Jim's stare let him know he was right. "But she understands, they all do."
"Mom doesn't." Claire said softly, huddling into Jim. "I—I can't be trapped. I can't be helpless. Not… not after…" She bit her lip, and started violently shivering.
"Claire, I'm here…" Jim said softly, forgetting about his own fears.
"Ophelia's crying," Toby said. "She knows she screwed up."
"Op—Ophelia?" Claire choked out through her tears.
"Hey, you clear up one goblin infestation out of City Hall right before a council meeting and you get some talking rights."
Jim's laugh was soft. "Yeah, I guess you do."
"But yeah, Claire, she's broken up and doesn't know—"
"She can't! She can't know!" Now Claire was panicked. "She'll hate me! They'll—you'll hate me."
Toby chewed on the candy, not knowing what to say for a second. Then, it came to him. "No I won't. I can't. You're like Jim. You could kill me, you could hit me, but make me hate you? No."
"You don't know…" Claire sounded like a wounded animal.
"So tell me." For a moment, everything was silent, like the world was watching, holding its breath. Claire's hand twitched towards the staff, as if to flee, and then she closed her eyes and started talking.
"We never escaped with Enrique. Gunmar let us get him. He ha-hadn't been having success getting the helmet off of Jim so he could use his blade, so he tried something else…"
The tunnel ended in a dead end. That was why the soldiers had always given way in this direction—they knew that Jim and Claire had nowhere to do. Claire had been using the staff again and again, but now, there was no place to use it to go. The Rebels were dead, so she had no emotional connection and the line of sight back up the tunnel just led to where more and more troops were advancing, Gunmar's bellows indistinct.
But of course he would be here. They were dead on their feet. Nomura, Jim, Claire, with Enrique happy, giggling at the new sounds. Unaware of what was happening.
Claire handed Enrique off to Jim and tried, one more time to call a portal. Call a portal anywhere, even to the darkness that still terrified her in her dreams. Nothing.
She dropped the staff, grabbing a sword laying at her feet next to the stone corpse of its former wielder. Claire screamed in rage and attacked the wall, as if she could somehow hew through it to freedom. The blade struck again and again, sparks flying from it—and then it shattered against the wall, shards of metal flying everywhere.
"Keep the trollhunter and his consort alive!" Gunmar's voice rumbled, distant, but growing closer.
"Nice to know he doesn't care about me," Nomura said, swaying.
And Jim… Jim's armor was flickering. The armor was fueled by the bearer's will and…
We can't escape. Gunmar will get us, he'll take us back. He let us go so he could show us…Claire whimpered. Gunmar had promised he'd kill Enrique in front of her, to show her that Jim couldn't protect her. They had—
They had lost.
Somehow, she found herself holding Enrique in one hand, her brother looking up at her from his blankets. "Hermanito. Enrique. I'm so sorry…" Claire couldn't say anything else. As she drew a knife with her other hand, the metal gleaming in the light of the Darklands. "I—" She couldn't say anything, couldn't bring the knife down. Enrique reached up, chubby fingers wiggling as he stared at the new toy. Claire started hyperventilating. She couldn't. She had to, but she couldn't. Then she felt Jim's hand on hers.
"We'll…" Jim was sobbing. "We'll both do it, and then we can make certain Gunmar can't get me. I can't—if he gets us, I can't fight him and he'll use the blade on us. Both of us."
"I…" Claire couldn't say anything else for a moment, just choking out sobs. She gripped the blade as hard as she could. "I'll follow you, Enrique. Big sis will follow you. I promise I won't leave you alone ever again…"
And it was then, as if summoned, a great tone echoed through the Darklands. Suddenly, Gunmar's voice was louder. "The bridge? The bridge is open! Forget them! Find the bridge, find it!"
"I can't tell Mama or Papi—I almost killed Enrique."
"I—I couldn't save her." Jim leaned into Claire. "I promised her, but I couldn't..."
For a second, Toby didn't know what to say. Claire loved Enrique.
Arrrggghhh rescued him. "Not wrong. Good."
"But I was about to kill Enrique—"
"Better than Gunmar." Arrggghhh shook his head and lightly patted Claire and Jim's heads. "Better than Gunmar," the troll repeated.
"I should have… He wrecked us, he br—"
"Far from it, Jim," Walter sighed and shook his head. "If you'd thrown Enrique back to Gunmar, in hopes he'd be merciful? If you had abandoned him so you could run faster? Than you would have been broken in truth. Refusing to submit, no matter the cost? Tell me, have you ever heard of the slave trade?"
Jim blinked for a moment confused. "Sort of…"
"Ships were filthy in those days, filling the ocean with offal…and because of that, the sharks would come, circling the ships, hoping for a meal, and many women gave them those meals, by casting themselves and their infants over the side, because that was better, at least a fast death, compared to the alternative." He shook his head. "Were they broken?"
"No… they—"
"Were defiant, even unto their last breath. As you were." Walter knelt down. "You have been battered, you have been tortured. You have been pushed to and beyond the limits of your endurance. But Gunmar could not break you. Something that I daresay is causing him some considerable anger."
"Come home…" Arrrggghhh rumbled.
"I—I can't." Claire closed her eyes. "Even if you're right, everyone el—"
"Is gonna understand, Claire," Toby said. "Because they—we—love you and like I said, you can't do anything to change that. Sure we screw up, I mean, c'mon, look at me, but we love you."
They didn't move for a moment, but then they stood up, looking skittish, a pair of colts about to bolt.
Toby sighed. Jim and Claire were still too afraid. Too afraid to take the first step. Toby had thought he'd hated Angor Rot, but Gunmar? Gunmar had done this to his friends. There was only one thing to do. Toby got in between them, and took Jim's hand in his right hand and Claire's hand in his left, standing between them and leading them away from the clearing towards home. Timidly, clutching him like a pair of little kids, they let Toby lead them back home.