Barbara wasn't sure what she'd been expecting when the pink rock monster had kidnapped her and brought her to an underground bunker but meeting her ex-boyfriend had not been it.
The moment she set eyes on him anger had eclipsed fear as the ever growing feeling of betrayal she'd been brooding on for the past few weeks reared its head in full force.
"What. The. Hell." Barbara said slowly -but with great feeling- as her hands clenched at her sides.
The sharp pain in her skull that had just started up was not helping. For some reason the painting she had been working on surfaced in her memory.
"Sorry to interrupt," The pink monster said in what sounded like an amused tone. Barbara jumped. She'd forgotten about it for a second. "As much as I want to see you beat up Strickler, there are more important things to deal with right now."
It was then that Barbara saw who was in the table in the middle of the room. A sharp gasp escaped her and she rushed to her son's side.
Her fingers immediately went to his throat, feeling for his pulse, and then to his forehead before she turned around to stare at Walt. She had been angry before, but it was nothing compared to what she was feeling now.
"What have you done to my son?" Barbara practically growled.
Walt… Strickler swallowed audibly and held his hands out, open and palms facing her, in from of him.
"It was an accident…" He started to say slowly.
"An accident?!" She yelled. "Is that why you have him tucked away in this secret base? You lured me out here with his phone! And what's that?!" She added pointing at the monster.
And why did she feel like she should know the answer? Barbara drew in a sharp breath as pain lanced through her skull again.
"Please let me explain. You may yell at me all you wish later," Strickler said.
Barbara grit her teeth and drew in a breath to start yelling again.
She never got a word out.
At that moment Jim jerked upright on the table. Barbara turned toward him and felt her heart skip a beat. His eyes, now open, were glowing a sickly red and gold. He made a low guttural sound in his throat and his lips pulled back in a snarl. She stumbled back a step.
He drew in a shallow gasping breath. His still glowing eyes widened and he clawed as his chest for a moment before collapsing back on the table.
For a sickening moment Barbara couldn't move, then the symptoms she had just seen registered and she lunged forward with a string of curses. She pressed two fingers to his neck and felt a calm fall over her as her years working in the ER asserted themselves.
"Is there an AED here?" She asked Strickler sharply as she pulled Jim's shirt up.
Some part of her mind vaguely registered a series of branching scars that she hadn't seen before but, as they were currently unimportant, she mentally filed them away for later. Strickler ripped something off the wall and hurried over to her. She received the machine, noting that it was an older model than the hospital's, and then with quick efficient movements placed the pads on her son's skin.
"Get clear," She said sharply.
Jim's body jerked as the electricity coursed through him. Barbara checked his pulse. It was weak but the rhythm was now regular again.
She let out a sigh of relief before turning back to Strickler. The underlying protective rage layered over with her professional calm made her feel like she was floating outside her body.
"Explain what is going on now," She said coldly.
And so her ex-boyfriend explained how humans weren't really the only intelligent species on earth, that magic was real, and that her son had been drafted to fight giant rock creatures.
It turned out there was a bit more to those images and dreams that had been flickering through her mind since the accident than she thought.
"Let me get this straight," Barbara said as she kneaded the skin of her forehead. "You decided that it was a good idea to give my son, a minor, some sort of troll heroin to 'hone his feral instincts'… you didn't see any way that could go wrong."
She was also rather disappointed in Jim for going along with this. They'd had the drug talk. Just because it was magic did not make it any less of a drug.
"How do you still have your teaching degree?" She wondered out loud.
Off to the side the pink changeling snickered.
"That's not important right now," Walt… Strickler said. "Right now I need your help to keep Jim stable while I figure out what exactly is causing this."
Barbara really wanted to argue that Jim should go to a hospital to receive proper treatment, but she doubted they would know what to do with gravesand poisoning, or whatever was going on. She was also not foolish enough to expect that they would just let her leave. Not without a fight that she couldn't hope to win. She drew in a slow breath and counted to ten before blowing it out through her nose.
"So you haven't found anything in your files about why this might be happening yet?" She asked.
"No," Strickler responded. "But I still have a few more to go through."
"And these other trolls that Jim is helping can't help?" Barbara would really like to have someone else here. Wal… Strickler had dropped completely off the bottom of her trust list. She wasn't sure how she felt about the other changeling. "There isn't any kind of troll-doctor?"
"Unfortunately Trollmarket's healer was one of the first casualties according to Young… Jim. There might be other healers but it's unlikely they will know how to take care of a human and even if they did they would not be familiar with gravesand."
Barbara sighed.
"Okay, you keep searching your files." She turned to the pink changeling. "I'll need you to…"
She paused eying the changeling's sharp claws with trepidation. It seemed to catch on and in a flash of pink transformed into the museum curator Ms. Nomura. Barbara jumped but otherwise didn't react.
"Okay," She said with a sharp, shaky breath. This was fine. She was fine. She could do this. "I'm going to need you to assist me. Follow my instructions exactly."
Ms. Nomura moved to stand beside her and they got to work.
"Any progress?" Barbara's voice was something that could have loosely been described as professional.
Strickler looked up from the file he was currently reading.
"Nothing yet I'm afraid," He said shoving down a pang of longing.
Barbara made a quiet frustrated sound and turned away. She and Nomura started talking in low voices. Strickler rubbed his eyes and glanced around the room. How long had they been here now?
Jim was now hooked up to a heart monitor and oxygen. He looked bad. Rashes had appeared on his skin and he was sweating profusely. Something in Strickler's chest twisted involuntarily.
He had done this. He should have known better. Humans reacted differently to even regular medications. Why did he think having a child inhale magic sand was going to be okay?
What if they couldn't save him? What then?
The more analytical side of his mind was already trying to come up with contingencies for dealing with a new Trollhunter this late in the game. The more pessimistic side suggested that between Barbara and Nomura he wouldn't live long enough to have to worry about that. He'd deserve it too, he supposed.
He grimaced and pulled out his pen to fiddle with.
Focus.
He needed to save Jim. Failure was not an option.
He opened the next set of files, a series of experiments that had been ran by a changeling scientist back during the Cold War.
He started reading and froze for a moment before reading faster.
It wasn't possible…
"A question Barbara," Strickler said. There was something stiff and deliberately level about his tone that made Barbara wary.
"Yes?" She asked without turning around.
"Do you have any pictures of your… of Jim's father?"
That did make her turn around.
"Why would you need that?" She asked suspiciously.
"I will explain if my hunch proves correct."
Oh she didn't like that at all…
She studied his face. The lines around his mouth and eyes were tense.
"Please… it's important."
She made an irritated noise and glanced at his computer.
"Can that connect to the internet?"
"Yes…"
She wasn't really in the habit of carrying pictures of James around. In fact, she'd gotten rid of most of the ones in the house as well. Both she and Jim generally preferred to pretend he didn't exist when they could.
She brushed past Strickler and started tapping away. In a few minutes she'd pulled up an old finished projects page from a company website.
"That's him," She said pointing at one of the men in the picture. She pushed down the old ache in her chest as well as the strange feeling that rose when she realized how much Jim as starting to resemble him.
Barbara moved out of the way and Strickler settled down into the chair. In a few quick moves he'd downloaded the image and cropped it down to just James Senor's face. Then he opened the image in another program. Immediately the computer pinged. The word "match" appeared on the screen.
A few more clicks and a new window was opened up on the screen.
"Barbara? Is this him?"
Barbara leaned over his shoulder. He twisted slightly in his seat to watch her expression. Her eyes tracked across the page and her lips moved slightly as she read through the words before she froze.
"Why…"
"It would appear that your ex is a changeling,"
"What?!"
Strickler moved back as she pushed forward to read the file more thoroughly.
"This explains Jim's unusual reaction to the gravesand," He continued. She could just barely hear him through the roaring in her ears. "Normally, in humans gravesand would only serves to draw out their feral instincts. It makes them angrier and their eyes glow. Long term use may have other side effects, but one use should not result in something like this."
"So why is it causing this?"
"Because the gravesand is trying to activate Jim's dormant changeling traits."
"His changeling traits?" She echoed.
Strickler nodded and pushed a hand through his hair.
"Yes, but since Jim was… I assume he was conceived while James was in human form?" Barbara didn't appreciate the question there but nodded anyway. "The only genes he has from his father are the ones that would allow him to shift not the biological template he needs to have a trollish form to shift into."
"Which means..?"
Strickler grimaced.
"To put it simply the gravesand's magic is causing Jim's latent shifter magic activate, but as there is nothing to shift into his cells are basically tearing themselves apart."
That wasn't good. Understanding, mixed with new fear, settled in Barbara's chest.
She turned away from him back toward her son frowning as she took off her glasses and polished them on her scrubs. This seemed to be one of the situations were knowing what was happening was not going to make thing easier…
She wasn't even sure if she could use conventional medicines on Jim with the gravesand in his system.
Strickler was frowning as he continued to leaf through the file.
"It looks like all recorded cases have been fatal…"
Barbara whipped around, her heart lurching sickeningly in her chest. Across the room Nomura stiffened.
"But!" Strickler said before either of them could say or do anything. "The scientist in charge of the trails theorized that if a sample of changeling blood and stone was enchanted and then injected into the hybrid it would give the sifting magic something to latch onto and pattern a trollish form off of."
"Did they test this?"
"No," Strickler said. "It seems that the changeling in charge of the tests met an untimely death before he could find anymore test subjects." There was an odd tone to his voice that Barbara could not quite pin down. It vanished quickly as he moved on. "I do however have the groundwork and necessary ingredients listed for the spell here."
"What are the chances of success?"
Strickler sighed.
"I can't really say. I doubt they are high… but what choice do we have?"
"You said that none of the… half-changelings… survived the gravesand?"
"None recorded."
"Did they try removing the sand from the lungs? Or any similar measures to stop the reaction?"
"Yes and they all failed."
Barbara stood quiet for a moment, acutely aware of the two changelings waiting for her response. She hated everything about this situation. She had a short moment of time to make a decision for her son that would at best be life altering and at worst fatal and the only information she had was from shady people that she didn't trust.
But if she didn't do anything…
Barbara glanced at Jim. She clenched her jaw and sucked in a breath through her teeth.
"Then I think we should take the route that still has a chance even if it is slim," She said finally. "What do we need to do?"
Strickler took in her straightened posture and determined expression with a wistful expression. A jolt of bitterness passed through her.
"I am going to start running over the runes and layout for the spell to make sure there are no errors. Nomura…" The magenta changeling straightened up. "I will need you to retrieve some things from my office." He pulled his pen out of his pocket and hesitated a moment before tossing it to her. "The lock is behind Landmark Thucydides."
He paused for a moment and then pulled out his notepad and quickly scribbled out a list of what he would need and where she could find it.
"I'm also going to take a quick run to my apartment and retrieve the rest of my magic supplies." He turned to Barbara. "I should be about a half hour. Can you handle that?"
She nodded.
"Good. Let us go."
Barbara watched as they left.
Gradually their footsteps faded from hearing.
It was just her and Jim now.
She walked over to him and gently smoothed his fair out of his sweaty face. Even without touching his skin, she could feel the heat radiating off of him.
His eyes remained closed.
Barbara blinked furiously as a lump began to form in her throat.
How had it come to this? She'd known something was wrong.
Her vision blurred and she sucked in a harsh breath.
Why didn't he tell her? Why hadn't she…
Barbara's hands clenched around the edges of the metal table as the first sob broke free.
Author Note:
I was going to go into a little more into the specifics about what is going on with Jim's reaction to the Gravesand, but I'm rather tired tonight so I'll include it with the next chapter.
Strickler lives! (For now)
This has been a busy week (Just got a job!) so I'm posting later than planned (but still on Friday!)
Thank you for all the wonderful comments last chapter! You keep me going :)