It took a bit of time, but Jim once again managed to sneak into Trollmarket with no one none the wiser. Compared to the last time he did this during his Unbecoming he did not run directly to Blinky. Instead, he bypassed his old friend (father) and instead headed straight for the Hero's Forge.
He needed to have a chat with some ghosts.
On returning to Arcadia after everything, the Titans, the aliens, the wizards, Jim had tried to live a normal life. Well, except for the fact that Toby couldn't stop himself from telling Jim all about the amulet when he came round to his house the night after he found it. Or rather, Jim thought smugly as he leapt nimbly out of the cart he hitched a ride in before dodging into an alleyway (how he wished he could have felt the warmth of the Heartstone while he was a troll), after Jim had directed him to it.
Ironically that same night Toby had come round to blab about the amulet and the trolls that had come to visit him, he had also questioned Jim about how he had known to go that way and the presence of the amulet. Jim had simply smiled sadly.
"If you're the knight then I'm your… Mage, or Paladin maybe." He had refused to say anything more than that and had studiously ignored Toby's (and Blinky and Arrrgh's once they arrived) confused looks when he didn't freak out at the presence of the trolls in his house (the more things change the more they stay the same).
Most things since then, he mused as he stealthily made his way closer to the back entrance of the Forge, had stayed roughly the same. Introducing Strickler to his mom had seemed to soften the blow of some things… The fact that Jim had successfully distracted Strickler from seeing Toby waving the god damn amulet about in the middle of school probably had something to do with it as well.
Jim sighed quietly in relief as he finally reached the Hero's Forge which was, thankfully, empty. While Trollmarket and by extension Vendal were aware of his presence he tried to stay out of Trollmarket as much as possible, only coming down to cheer Toby on in his training.
He had yet to take up the sword himself for fear of outing himself to the watchful trolls, particularly Vendal and Draal who immediately figured something was up when Jim had sworn in Trollish after knocking something over (he had to pick up a few things after travelling with trolls for several months, alright?). But also, the memories associated with it were not something he wanted to revisit just yet.
He chuckled to himself as he double checked the balcony areas and giving one last scout of the arena for any quiet stragglers. Ironically, this was doing exactly what he wanted to avoid with the sword, but he at least needed to warn the ghosts of what could come. He had reached the decision the night before, after the whole Gnome Chompsky fiasco. Thankfully (for him at least) Tobes still got to deal with weird gnome sex noises.
He slowly approached the two massive footsteps in the middle of the room where the Soothscryer lay dormant beneath the stone. He looked again at the massive troll imprints, smiling ruefully.
"Big boots to fill." He laughed quietly to himself in a self-depreciating way. "Never have those words rung truer than with the first human Trollhunter." He stepped carefully onto the carvings, cautious as he was in the previous timeline, but the Soothscryer still rose without a problem. The connection link started spinning and chomping, once again to high for Jim to reach, its light slightly illuminating both him and his surroundings.
Jim sighed in annoyance but slung his backpack off his shoulders and rummaged around inside for the coil of rope he had been saving for this occasion. He tied a lasso before throwing it up onto one of the horns of the stone troll figure, pulling it taunt then heaving himself up, so he was kneeling face to face with the swirling maw. He took a deep breath and spoke quietly to the connection hoping that the ghost council could hear him.
"My name is James Lake Junior. I'm friends with the current Trollhunter Toby, the first human Trollhunter. I as to speak to the council regarding Gunmar and the Pale Lady." He held his breath a second then, hoping to god that he wasn't going to get his arm chopped off (it was a legitimate concern, ok?), and thrust his arm into the link with his eyes closed and screaming quietly to himself.
When there wasn't any pain, he opened his eyes slowly and sighed in relief when he both had two arms and was in the chamber of the ghost council. He stood slowly from his crouched position on the floor and glanced slowly around the room: as per the previous but future time he had been in here, there were blue orbs of light whizzing around the room, whispering to themselves and to him.
"A human?"
"What's another human doing here?"
"He isn't the Trollhunter, why is he here?"
"A good question," cam a familiar voice from behind Jim, who jumped slightly before mentally facepalming because really, who else was he expecting to appear before, or rather behind, him? "So, James Lake Junior. What do you have to say to this council? What do you know that we do not of Gunmar the Black?"
Jim took a deep breath, ignoring the fact that Kanjigar had ignored the part about the Pale Lady (of course they didn't believe Changelings were a thing here, or that she was still technically alive and kicking). He had rehearsed this speech a few times, both the previous night and as he cycled his way here. Now it was time to see if they would believe him.
"I come bearing a warning and knowledge of what is yet to come," he announced confidently to the council, focusing only on Kanjigar though as he would likely be the most sympathetic to his plight. That and he was the only ghost whom he could see the expressions of. There was a loud scoffing from several of the blue orbs around him.
"A warning?"
"What is yet to come? Only wizards can even attempt to meddle with time with tricks."
"What warning?"
Kanjigar glared at the sky and the balls of light quietened before continuing their whizzing around them. Draal's father sighed and turned back to Jim.
"I am not sure why you are here, fleshbag. You are not the Trollhunter and you are… Well, a fleshbag. How could you have information regarding Gunamr and-"
"Because," Jim interrupted. "If you want to change things you have to start at the beginning." Kanjigar gave him a confused look. Jim smiled slightly. "Is Deya with you?" A surprised murmur went up around the glowing balls of light. One soul that Jim hadn't noticed which was hiding in a crevice towards the outskirts of the chamber flew slowly towards him and Kanjigar who, when Jim gave him a quick glance out of the corner of his eye, was looking slightly shocked. Jim mentally shrugged; apparently the first Trollhunter didn't come forward very often.
The light slowed as it reached the ground, coalescing into Deya who seemed to step from thin air onto the ground.
"What do you want to speak to me for?" she asked wearily. Jim smiled; it had been so long since he last talked with Deya. He turned to Kanjigar but spoke to the room in general.
"When you do a restart in a game you go back to a save point where all your progress has been saved. The only thing is your inventory, the things you were carrying are typically gone, left with your dead body or destroyed when you die. But you, the player knows where to go, what to do, and changes their tactics to try again and get a better outcome.
This is essentially what happened to me, except I kept my inventory but everyone else lost theirs but because I lived that timeline, I can essentially give you access to scraps of your inventory. Or in this case your memories. For example," he barrelled on overriding Kanjigar and Deya's attempt to speak. "There was a time in the future past where I got trapped in the past along with two friends of mine and a wizard. I ended up being thrown in the dungeons for simply being a troll because." He shrugged ruefully, carefully watching Kanjigar's and Deya's faces, his painted with confusion and hers with confusion but slow realisation. "That's King Arthur for you with his war against magic.
Then, I was taken down to the dungeon where I met a troll in the cell across from me." He turned to Deya, waving his hands in a sort of ta-dah gesture. "That trolls name was Callista, a human given name because she didn't remember her own." He paused as Deya's face wrinkled in further confusion before clearing suddenly.
"Jim the Babyhanded." Jim groaned at Deya's explanation which frightened Kanjigar.
"You know this boy?!" he asked, shocked, overriding Jim's quiet "Really, that's what you remember?"
"Yes! But… At the same time…" She glanced at Jim, probably trying to overlay the troll she vaguely remembered with this human in front of her. Jim couldn't blame her; it was confusing to him sometimes too with all the time travel. "No. I don't understand. Who are you? You wore our armour but it was different, red and black rather than blue and silver. Why was that?" Deya backed away slowly, and to Jim it looked like she was trying to get things straight in her head. He sighed, listening to the anxious voices of the other fallen Trollhunters as they whisked around, growing ever more agitated as Kanjigar and Deya stared at Jim for an answer.
"That was the Eclipse armour, something you can only access with three specific stones present in the armour. I hadn't figured out to either change it or remove it since I was meant to be escorting the Trolls to new Trollmarket."
He took a deep breath then took the plunge. For the good of all…
"My name is Jim Lake Junior."
Daylight is mine to command.
"I was the first human Trollhunter. I killed Bular and Gunmar. I defeated Morgana le Fey twice, became a half troll thanks to Merlin the creator of the amulet and travelled back in time where we saved the world from the Arcane Order. Then we lost to the Arcane Order and their Titans. This is my story."
A/N: Ok so look, I hammered this out in about 45 minutes or something like that after finishing Rise of the Titans. Did I like it? Hell yes. Was Steve given a crappy role that was literally a case of 'we need to include him how do we do this?' Yes. Did I like that? No. WHERE IS MY JUSTICE FOR STEVE AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.
Anyway. Yes, I loved the movie and the call back to the amulet finding Jim in Part 1 and with the music. It was beautifully designed and I love that Jim's hair wasn't just straight cut (I appreciate the little things). There were a couple of things I would improve on, like including the Creepslayerz some more or giving Steve an ACTUAL CHARACTER. I think it ended pretty decently and I was glad that they found a different way to say 'and they all lived happily ever after'.
Anyway this is already kinda long and I need to get to sleep. Everybody stay safe, drink your water and wear your suncream. The next chapter of Aftermath is half written, just new job and all has given me a lack of motivation. Who knows there may be something by the end of the week... Let me know what you think!
Peace out. 17 :)