This wasn't supposed to happen.
Any of it.
Broken pavement bit through Jim's ragged jeans, but nothing could outweigh the crushing loss that threatened to rip him in two.
Toby was gone. That half-smile he wore now, even in death, almost persuaded Jim his best friend was still alive. But he wasn't, and his body lay in the wreckage of Stuart's food truck.
Around Jim, what remained of Arcadia Oaks burned. His friends—those who'd survived—stood at a respectful distance.
They'd won this war, but at what cost?
Nomura, Strickler, Nari… Toby.
Jim ground his unbandaged hand into a clump of shattered asphalt. The heat scalded his palm, but he didn't care. He'd willingly burned one hand to save his friends. He wished he could have done more.
If only… He let the crushed bits of blacktop crumble through his fingers, leaving dark smudges and irritated red welts.
Jim wrenched his eyes from the scene, gathered weary feet, and stood. A pulsing gold and green sphere tapped one shoe, as if requesting his attention. The Chronosphere.
Nari had said the sphere would make things right. But it hadn't. All it did was sit there in silence and mock their failure.
Jim grabbed Excalibur and with a cry of grief and rage hefted the sword to crush the Chronosphere.
"Jim, no!" Claire dashed to him, grabbed his arm.
He couldn't stop the blade's momentum, but he adjusted his aim, and the sword carved into the pavement beside the bright sphere. "Why not?" Tears streaked his sooty cheeks. "Why shouldn't I destroy it? It's worthless. Worthless!" He kicked the sphere, and it ricocheted off a piece of Bellroc's fallen titan. "What has it done for us? Blinky's hauled it around since we left the South China Sea, but it hasn't helped us at all."
The Chronosphere bounced twice and settled into a nest of broken stone and cooled lava, but it never stopped that infuriating glow.
"What if we just don't understand what it does?" Claire glanced at Toby, and her lips quivered. "There has to be a way. There just has to be. Nari said the Trollhunter would know."
Jim's grip on Excalibur tightened. The cool hilt eased his burns, but did little to heal the cracks in his heart. "But I don't know. I can't—can't—" He pulled her close as all present wept for those this war had claimed.