Chapter 19: The Third Stone Part 1

Shadow Realm, January 15th, 2017

James Lake Jr hummed a little tune while he stocked the kitchen in the camper. It didn't have room for all his best pans, but at least the spice cupboard was large enough for everything he needed, and they had enough plates and cutlery for a few meals before they'd have to use the dishwasher. Yes, he could live like this for a while.

"Jim?"

Mom! He turned. "Mom! Did you finish setting up in the bedroom?" His smile dimmed a little at her serious expression. "Something wrong?"

She took a deep breath. That was a bad sign. "I spoke with 'Blinkous' while you were… getting the campers."

"Oh?" Jim tilted his head. Blinky was a great troll, but he might make a bad first impression when he was a little too enthusiastic. And when you weren't used to trolls. "He means well. And he's good."

"I don't doubt that he means well," Mom replied, leaning against the wall and crossing her arms.

"And we needed those campers," Jim went on. "We can't live in tents. Well, we could, but… it wouldn't be fair to you."

"So I've heard," she said, nodding.

So, that wasn't Mom's problem. Jim frowned. "What's wrong?" he repeated himself.

"Blinkous told me about your 'deeds' as this 'Trollhunter'."

"Oh." Jim winced a little. Blinky was a great friend, and Jim knew that the troll was very proud of him, but there were some, as Claire would call them, 'cultural differences' between trolls and humans. Especially with respect to fighting. They still had duels to the death, after all. And Blinky saw nothing wrong with that.

"Yes, 'oh'. Your troll friend was very keen on telling me all about the dangers you 'braved' and the enemies you faced." Mom's eyes narrowed.

Jim sighed as he weakly smiled. "Well… he tends to dramatise things. A little."

Mom's glare went up a notch. "I don't think he dramatised things overly much. Unless he lied to me about you getting swallowed by a troll the size of a mountain. Or killing the evil troll leader's son - who had killed the last Trollhunter. Or dealing with flying headhunting monsters while driving a Vespa."

Jim's face felt like it was frozen in a forced smile. "Yes, yes… that happened. But it wasn't… I'm the Trollhunter. I was chosen for this. I told you that."

"You did." She sighed as well and seemed to sag a little. "But you didn't tell me what exactly you did. How much you've fought. What you've fought."

"There wasn't enough time, not with Glory looking for us," Jim defended himself. "And I'm not exactly defenceless. I've got magic armour and weapons."

"And you got hurt." She was glaring again. "'Ran into a wall at school'?"

He grimaced. "I couldn't exactly tell you the truth. Not with Strickler so close."

"That's another thing. You let me… You didn't tell me I was dating a troll?"

"Changeling," Jim corrected her at once, then gasped. "Dating?" They had been dating? Mom and Strickler?

One more sigh. "Yes, Jim, we were dating."

"But…" He shook his head. "Sorry." He forced himself to smile at her. "But you're not dating any more, right?"

"Dating someone who lied to me? Cursed me to gain leverage against you?" She scoffed. "Of course not!"

Jim smiled honestly. What a relief! Strickler as a stepdad… He shuddered.

"I'm actually more hurt that you didn't tell me anything, even before this."

Oh. He closed his eyes for a moment, then put the last can of spice into the cupboard. "I wanted to, but… at first, I feared you'd tell me to stop being the Trollhunter, and I… I couldn't stop. Can't stop."

"You already told me that. And Blinkous explained it at length."

He nodded. "Good. Buffy said that her mom took a long time to accept that she was the Slayer."

She narrowed her eyes at him again. "You made a lot of very fantastical claims in a very short time. And you had lied to me for a long time. Anyone would be a little sceptical."

"Sorry."

She sighed once more. "I believe you. Everything."

'Now' remained unsaid, but Jim heard it anyway. "Thanks, Mom."

"I don't like it, of course. But there's nothing I can do about it."

"But you can!" he blurted out. "You're a doctor! You can treat Xander and Toby. Check if they're healing up. And if…" He trailed off.

"If you or your friends get hurt again, I can treat you." She tilted her head to the side as she looked at him.

"Yes…?"

"I'm a doctor. It's my duty to treat those who are hurt or sick. Of course I'll help. I might actually enjoy not having to work long shifts, you know?"

"Thanks, Mom!"

They looked at each other for a moment. Jim wet his lips. "So… what do you want for dinner?"

"We won't eat with the others?" she asked.

"Well… we thought that having private dinners would be best, after everything that has happened this weekend. Give us the opportunity to, uh, deal with it in private." Jim bit his lower lip. "Well, that's what everyone thought."

His mom slowly nodded. "I think I'd like that, yes."

"Good! So, what should I cook?"

"Surprise me."


Buffy Summers glared at her plate. So much for having a private family dinner. With Mom already asleep, still recovering from her surgery, and Dawn stuck behind the screen of her laptop - and muttering about how she needed a phone - Buffy might as well have had dinner with herself!

At least the food was decent, even though Buffy had to cook it herself. But despite the rumours spread by backstabbing little sisters and traitorous friends, Buffy wasn't completely useless in the kitchen; she could cook a steak perfectly fine. If you wanted it raw or well-done leaning to charcoal, but who wanted to eat well-done steaks, anyway? Might as well chew leather. And she had made the salad as well! She was good at cutting things.

Even so, this wasn't what she had imagined a Sunday evening meal would be like. She glanced at Dawn, but her sister was typing furiously, the piece of steak on her plate seemingly forgotten. "It's rude to text at the table," Buffy told her.

Without looking up, Dawn replied: "I'm chatting, not texting."

"You know what I mean."

"Yes. And I don't care; this is important."

"What is more important than a family dinner?" Buffy asked.

"Reassuring my friends that I'm not dead or kidnapped."

"At dinner time." Buffy rolled her eyes.

"Yes, Complaining about my stupid older sister trying to mom me will show them that everything's OK."

"You…" Buffy clenched her teeth. "Why do you have to be such a brat?"

This time, Dawn looked up. "Because some creepy monks stuffed some magic key into me so you'd protect it," she told Buffy with narrowed eyes. "I think anyone would be a brat after hearing that."

So, this was 'this is your own fault', in Dawn speak. And Buffy couldn't even disagree - Dawn was the result of the monks dumping the Key on her. She just didn't know that she was the Key and didn't just carry it. And if Buffy had her way, she would never know it. "Right," she said, sighing.

Dawn blinked, apparently surprised. "Huh? Are you OK?"

"Yes," Buffy lied.

"You don't sound OK," Dawn insisted.

"And how would you know?" Buffy shot back.

"I'm your sister! And I am a digital native - I can multitask. I can chat and check that my sister isn't looking so hot."

"What? That's not true!" Buffy objected.

"It's so true. You're moping."

And Dawn was the reason. Or the Key. "I'll go get some fresh air," she said, getting up.

"Bye!"

Buffy rolled her eyes again as she left the caravan. Then she leaned against it and sighed. This sucked. This really sucked. They still had no way to kill Glory, and their best course of action was to hide in this shadowy dimension until the Glory problem went away. If it ever did - the jury was still out on that. No, they would have to find some weapon to kill off Glory. Or some weakness.

And hope that taking out Glory wouldn't lead to Dawn… disappearing.

She buried that thought. She couldn't allow herself to be distracted. She had to focus. They had a plan. A good plan. Find magic weapons, kill Glory. Easy and straightforward.

Nodding to herself, she pushed off the caravan's side and started walking over to Willow and Tara's caravan. As she neared it, she cocked her head - no sounds of the two doing the nasty, so it should be safe to knock. "Will? Tara?"

The door opened a few seconds later. "Buffy?" Tara asked.

"In the flesh," Buffy replied. "You busy? Or already done with dinner?" She knew they were done - her nose told her that.

"No, no!" Tara smiled and stepped aside.

No invitation, even though they were in a caravan in some shadowy dimension, and there wasn't any barrier against vampires - as they had tested with Spike. Those trailer parks were probably vampire buffets, now that she thought about it. But it was smart to practice good habits when it came to vampires. "Will?"

"Hi, Buffy! I'll be right with you!" Willow told her from the living room part of the caravan.

"She's w-working on a t-t-tracking spell," Tara whispered.

"I'm trying to track the third Triumbic Stone Jim needs to upgrade his armour and sword," Willow explained as Buffy and Tara entered the room. "I would be working on finding the Slayer Scythe, but Giles is on that, and we don't have many books to share about it."

Buffy waved her hand. "Don't worry. Any weapon that might hurt Glory is good in my book." Though she would really prefer to wield it herself. Jim was brave and a good guy, but he was a kid. He shouldn't be carrying the whole weight of this on his shoulders. That was what Buffy was here for. She was the Slayer. The stupid monks had sent the Key to her. This was her duty.

"So, Jim loaned you a stone?" she asked.

"Oh, no! I'm just refining the spell before I ask him - I don't need the stone until I actually am ready to cast the spell, and while I would love to analyse the stones, that would be rude."

"Or d-d-duplicitous," Tara added.

"That, too," Willow agreed. "Anyway, I'm making progress. If my current theory works out, I'll be able to cast the spell later today."

"M-m-midnight," Tara said. "The w-witching hour."

"Which is a stereotype, but apparently, magic agrees." Willow pouted for a moment. "But if it works, it works, right?"

"Right." Buffy nodded. Whatever worked to take out Glory.


"Jim!"

James Lake Jr stopped his sword practice - not that he could do much except for going through forms without Draal or the Hero's Forge - and saw Claire walking towards him with a wide smile on her face. "Claire?"

She hugged him and sighed into his shoulder.

Oh. "Bad dinner?"

She tensed, then nodded her head. "Not bad, but… my parents still haven't accepted what we're doing."

"But we…" Jim trailed off. She probably didn't mean that, did she? "What do you mean?"

"What?" She pulled back with a frown." Fighting Gunmar and Glory, what did you… Oh!" She blushed, which made her look even cuter than usual.

Jim felt his own cheeks grow warm. "I didn't… I mean… sorry!"

She huffed. "Well, they didn't talk about that, but… they don't realise what I can do. Papa asked if I couldn't just stay back and let you and the others do all the fighting! Can you imagine that? Letting you down like that?"

It wouldn't be letting anyone down, in Jim's opinion - Claire was crucial for protecting their families. But he knew that she wouldn't see it like that, so he forced himself to snort. "I can't see you doing that."

"Exactly! Why don't Papa and Mama understand that?"

"Well, it's been less than a day. It took me longer to accept that I was the Trollhunter." And hadn't he had some embarrassing moments when he had been ready to abandon his duty!

She huffed. "But we showed them proof and told them everything."

Almost everything, Jim corrected her silently.

Claire shook her head. "At least they didn't try to order me to stay back."

"Never give an order you know won't be obeyed?" Jim asked rather than commented.

Claire snorted in reply. "At least they know that I won't abandon my friends. Or the world."

Jim nodded. As much as he sometimes wished Claire would. But that was selfish. And a Trollhunter couldn't be selfish - he had a duty. "So," he asked to change the subject, "is your caravan OK?"

She shrugged. "It's better than the tent, but it's still… I can hear everyone. And everyone can hear me."

"Like living with the Slayer?" Jim joked.

But Claire nodded. "Yes. I had to leave when they started whispering in the kitchen part. It was just…" She shrugged.

"I know what you mean." Jim didn't, not really - Mom hadn't had a boyfriend since Dad had left - but he could imagine. And he felt a little guilty that Mom was alone right now. Then again, she had said she'd check on her patients, hadn't she?

"And… You will think this is silly."

"I won't!"

"I kind of miss Not-Enrique eating and living with us," Claire said. "It's stupid, but…" She sighed.

"Ah." Jim didn't miss Strickler. Not at all. But the little changeling wasn't bad. He was working with them. Even though he was crude and sometimes a pain in the butt, like... He blinked. "He's our Spike?"

"What?"

"Not-Enrique," Jim explained. "He's our ally, not quite our friend, and explaining him is embarrassing, but he's still, like, part of the family?" At least that was the impression he had gotten from the Slayer's group.

Claire mulled this over - he could see her scrunch her nose - before slowly nodding. "You could say that. But he can't fight as well as Spike."

"And he isn't as vulnerable to sunlight," Jim added. "Do you think we should tell Buffy that?"

Claire giggled. "Better not - she would tease Spike, and he'd blame us."

"Right." Jim stretched his arms out, moving his sword a little. "So…"

"So?"

"Did you just come to vent a little?" Jim asked before he could help himself. That had been a dumb line!

"Oh." Claire blinked, blushing a little before she raised her chin. "Can't I come look for my boyfriend?" She took a step towards him, putting herself right in front of him, looking at him with that challenging expression he loved so much.

Jim smiled. "Ah, sure, I mean…" He opened his arms and wet his lips. Just a little...

"Jim! There you are! Oh, hi, Claire!"

Jim took a step back, same as Claire, and turned. Willow was headed their way, and the witch was smiling. "Willow? Have you been looking for me?"

"Yes! I finished adapting the locator spell - well, I think I did, and the theory works out, but I haven't tested it with an actual magic stone yet, so it's still just an untested theory, but then again, it fits and should work, and I've done similar spells before; it's all about adapting the spell, and magic isn't a precise science but more an art, though with stricter rules - way stricter, actually, if you tamper with spells, but I got that down pat, and…"

"You want my amulet to find the third Triumbic Stone," Jim interrupted her before she could run out of breath,

"Uh… yes!" Willow blushed. "Sorry for babbling; I tend to do that when I get excited - well, excited about magic, or computers, or school, not, you know, the other kind of excited… and shutting up now!"

Jim suppressed a snicker and nodded. "Well, the stones are in my amulet. Does that work?"

"It should!"

Jim had to suppress the urge to keep the amulet. Handing it over to the witch felt… well, it was necessary to find the third stone, but still. The amulet was his. He was the Trollhunter. Without it, he would be left powerless. Useless.

But Jim knew his duty. He took off his armour, watched it disappear into the amulet, then held it out to Willow. "Don't break it, please," he half-joked.

"Oh, I won't!"

She looked confident when she told him that. Jim hoped that she wasn't overconfident. Losing the Trollhunter Amulet like that would be a really embarrassing end for his career as well.


Shadow Realm, January 16th, 2017

James Lake Jr had to restrain himself from grabbing his amulet. Willow had dropped it into a bowl of water, sprinkled it with powders and what looked - and smelt - like a mix of spices and started chanting in a language Jim had never heard of. It was Sumerian according to Tara, but Jim was pretty sure that that language was deader than Latin.

But the water was boiling! Bubbling and splattering the table upon which it was placed with drops that sizzled and evaporated. It was a miracle that Willow hadn't been hit with one… oh. She had been splashed herself, he just noticed. But she didn't seem to feel the heat - or didn't care about the pain. Or didn't feel the pain; Jim wouldn't know.

He glanced at Claire, but she was staring at the witch as if Willow was Señor Uhl detailing the latest homework. Distracting her wouldn't be a good idea. Not to mention it might distract Willow, and who knew what would happen to his amulet if the witch ended miscasting her spell?

He clenched his teeth and kept watching. And balling his hands into fists to keep them from reaching out for his amulet. It couldn't take much longer, could it? Willow hadn't mentioned night-long rituals. Well, except for some throw-away line about Tantric magic, but… Not going there, Jim, he reminded himself.

He blinked. Willow's hair was now floating around her head like a halo. And shimmering. Turning from red to… reddish-white. And her eyes! This was… He bit his lower lip. This was magic. Just a spell. Nothing weird about it.

If only he believed it!

And the chanting grew louder. And deeper. Willow had a range in her voice that would make an opera singer jealous. It wasn't natural, though - the words sent shivers down his spine. As did the hissing noise from the boiling water that seemed more like a melody he couldn't quite hear than how normal boiling water sounded. And the scent that filled the room...

Suddenly, Willow gasped, and the chanting stopped. And the water stopped boiling and turned opaque. Like grey mist. No, the bowl was covered in grey mist!

Willow waved her hand above it, and the mist parted, forming an opening. An opening showing not the water and Jim's amulet, but a house. A familiar house.

Claire gasped as Jim muttered a curse under his breath,

Strickler. Strickler had the last Triumbic Stone, the Eye of Gunmar.


Buffy Summers peered at the scrying bowl Willow had enchanted. Neat! She knew that house - it belonged to the half-troll teacher creeper. She grinned - no need to search for some cryptic hidden location; she knew exactly where to go and whom to beat up! And an evil principal, to boot - she had never gotten to beat up Snyder, not really, but this might do!

Wait - she couldn't beat up the creeper because he had tied himself to Jim's mom, and she would suffer what he suffered! Damn! That was cheating! Monsters weren't supposed to take hostages like that.

Willow closed her eyes, and the watery image faded, replaced by the bowl and the amulet in it. She sighed and leaned back. "I tried to show us the stone itself, but there's some spell on the house that blocks closer looks, sorry. It was difficult enough to narrow it down to that house."

Tara rubbed her back. "You did well!"

"I agree." Giles nodded. "He must have had protective spells on his home - but none that block detection spells completely so as not to draw attention from any wider spells."

"Huh?" Buffy asked. That didn't make much sense.

"If his house wouldn't turn up when someone scryed the area, that would be a sure indication that he had something to hide. But if it's just the house's interior that's protected, many will overlook it, simply assuming that whatever they search isn't there," Giles explained.

"Ah." Tricky. But it also sounded like someone who was too clever for their own good would do. "So… I guess you need to break the curse on Mrs Lake so we can beat up Mr Evil Principal," she told Willow with a smile.

"Yes," Jim agreed as he held his hand over the bowl, then touched its rim.

"Go on, it's safe," Willow told him.

Jim still dipped a finger into the water before he reached in and pulled the amulet out, Buffy saw. Smart - you had to be cautious with magic.

"I'll start on it right away!" Willow announced.

"No!" Tara contradicted her. "You're far too tired for research!"

"I can do it. I just need some coffee."

"No coffee for Willow," Buffy quickly cut in. "You can start tomorrow." She checked her watch. "Well, today, technically." They had started casting the spell at midnight, after all.

"I concur - you shouldn't do magic, or anything related to it, in an exhausted state," Giles said. "Besides, hastily breaking the curse might alert this changeling to our plans, and he might flee - and taking the stone with him."

"Then I'll find him again!" Willow announced.

"And what if he flees to a location we cannot easily access?" Giles pointed out.

"Then I'll find a spell to reach him," she retorted.

Buffy cleared her throat. "That's a lot of spells, then, Willow."

"But…"

"We can get the stone without facing off with the creepazoid," Buffy said. "He's going to be at school tomorrow, right?"

Jm groaned. "Yes, same as us."

"And it's already late," Claire added.

"Well, better go to bed, then," Buffy told them. "We can make more plans tomorrow."


"You're not going to bed?" Spike asked half an hour later.

"What gave it away?" Buffy Summers snorted. "That I'm out here and not in my shiny new borrowed caravan? Or that I'm not wearing my yummy sushi pyjamas?"

Spike chuckled. "Just noticed that you sent the kids to bed but didn't follow your own advice."

"I don't have school tomorrow," she retorted. And she was the Slayer, so she didn't need much sleep.

"Neither does the Niblet."

"And I'm sure she's not sleeping but chatting on her stolen laptop." Buffy frowned, but short of sitting on Dawn until the brat fell asleep, there wasn't much she could do. Well, she could take away her laptop, but that would just make her sister whine for hours.

Spike mumbled something about 'new-fangled stuff' and lit a cigarette.

"Don't go all Victorian on us," she told him. She also wrinkled her nose at the stench of smoke, but he would ignore that, as she knew.

"Oh, Slayer, I'm not Victorian in the least" He grinned, flashing his teeth at her before he took a drag.

She pondered teasing him about what she had heard Giles tell about the sexual morals of the Victorians once, but… That wasn't a topic you wanted to discuss with Spike; the man could be incredibly crass. "Anyway, no, I'm not going to sleep right away."

"What are you going to do then? Planning how to beat up the changeling without turning the kid's mum into thin paste?"

She narrowed her eyes. "No." She hadn't found a way of doing that yet. Not without Willow first breaking the curse.

"Well, if you need help restraining him…" Spike shrugged. "I'm a little bored here."

Ah. "Depends on when we're doing this," Buffy told him. Spike wasn't as strong as the big troll, but he wasn't as slow - in both senses - either. And she was used to working with him.

He nodded, then flicked the stump of his cigarette away. "So, want to spar?"

"Might as well." Nothing helped relax you than beating up a vampire, after all. Buffy might still get a decent night's sleep.


Arcadia Oaks, January 16th, 2017

"School. The world's in danger of ending, and we still go to school," James Lake Jr remarked as he stepped into Arcadia Oaks High. "That says something about us, doesn't it?"

"That we value school more than life?" Toby asked, smiling at him. "I think that was already implied by how much time we spend here instead of, you know, living."

Claire shook her head at them, then sighed. "It's not as if we have a choice."

Jim nodded. Someone had to keep an eye on the school. If Glory attacked it… He clenched his teeth. They were the only ones with a chance to save the other students. Even if only by luring Glory away. Or delaying her long enough to let the other students flee. Which would be dangerous. Very dangerous. Although… there didn't seem to be as many students present as usual.

"Well, at least I have a medical waiver for P.E.!" Toby said. "I'm going to enjoy my time off!"

"You'll be sorting basketballs or something," Jim told him.

"Don't ruin my fantasy, Jimbo!" his friend protested. "I've spent two days cooped up in bed. I need to spread my wings and fly! I need to…" He trailed off.

Jim turned his head, looking for whatever - or whoever - had caught Toby's attention.

"Darci!" Claire said with a small gasp.

Right. There was Darci, looking rather forlorn. Why would… Oh no!

Claire was already on her way. "Darci!"

Jim glanced at Toby, then followed Claire, his friend trailing after him.

"Oh, hi, Claire." the girl sounded listless.

"What's wrong?" Claire asked.

Jim wondered that himself. Wait - Darci's father was Detective Scott. Had something happened to him?

"Oh… you've heard about the attack on the police station?"

They had been there, but saying that would ruin their plans.

"Yes," Claire said. "Was your dad hurt?"

"What?" Darci paled, then shook her head. "No. But… it's really bad! He couldn't tell me any details, but…" She lowered her voice. "The woman who attacked the station killed dozens of people! And she might be still hiding in Arcadia Oaks!"

"Wouldn't they evacuate the town, then?" Toby asked. "I mean… don't they do that in the movies?"

"Dad said they can't evacuate. Not for a single criminal. Mom didn't want to send me to school, but he said they'd guard the school, and I'd be safer here than at home." She sniffled. "But he also said that there might be a gang behind this. And they might be fighting another gang. From Sunnydale!"

"Sunnydale?" Jim asked, trying to sound as if he hadn't any idea about the town.

"You know, the town with more gangs than Los Angeles!" Darci replied, looking around. "They had a big massacre over the weekend. And they might have chased some refugees to our town!"

"Uh…" Jim looked at Claire.

She shook her head. "Well, the police are on the case, right?"

Darci pressed her lips together. "I can't tell you anything about that."

Damn. Now Jim was wondering what the police were doing.

"Shouldn't you be headed to class, Young Atlas?"

Jim jerked and whirled. Strickler stood about five yards away, playing the act of attentive principal with his deceptive smile.

"Yes, sir!" Darci blurted out. "Come on, let's go!"

Jim nodded but kept an eye on the changeling while they walked away.

So, Strickler wasn't hiding or fleeing. Jim didn't know what to think about this. If Strickler was around, they could break into his house - no, Angor Rot might be there. But, worse, if Glory attacked, and Strickler was caught by her… Mom would be suffering whatever the changeling suffered.

Jim would have to defend the monster.


"So, have you seen any cops?" Toby asked an hour later as they were walking to the science lab.

"There's a patrol car circling the school, but that's it," James Lake Jr replied.

"There's a cop patrolling the hallways," Claire added. "I saw them on the way."

"Oh." Toby unwrapped and started munching on a candy bar. "So… what do we do about Strickler? We didn't get much planning done this morning, did we? Oh, and for the record: I fully endorse portalling to school! Thanks, Claire!"

"You're welcome," she told him. "You couldn't ride a bike with your shoulder."

"Right. And Nana wouldn't have been able to drive me to school. I guess it's kind of lucky that we had to move to the Shadow Dimension."

"It's the Shadow Realm," Claire corrected him.

"I would've taken you with my Vespa," Jim said.

"Thanks, Jimbo!"

"It's the least I can do - you got hurt because I screwed up the mission," Jim told him.

"We screwed up the mission," Toby said, frowning. "We should've questioned our intel. Be prepared for a cluster-frag. Have multiple alternative plans ready."

Jim blinked. "Are you quoting Gun Robot?"

"Hey! It's a very realistic show!"

"It's a show about a giant robot fighting giant monsters," Claire said with a scoff.

"But the planning and preparation they show are quite realistic - for a giant robot show," Toby retorted. "At least better than our own. 'Stay out of trouble and lie low' isn't a plan at all," he added in a bad imitation of the Slayer's tone. "This is our town. Our school. Our evil principal."

Jim nodded in agreement. They should be dealing with Strickler. The Slayer might mean well, but she had no idea about their home… turf.

"And what can we do?" Claire asked. "Portal to Strickler's home and fight off Angor Rot so we can look for the Triumbic Stone?"

"Well…" Toby trailed off. "Worded like that, it sounds bad. Especially with me still, you know." He pointed at his shoulder.

"Hey, guys!"

"Hi, Mary." Claire smiled at their friend. Jim nodded, as did Toby.

"Have you heard the latest? The FBI is in town!" Mary told them.

"What?"

"Really?"

"Where did you hear that?" Jim asked.

"I was taking a selfie with the police car in the parking lot when I heard the two cops complain about 'the feds'," Mary explained. "So, the FBI's taking over the investigation! Like in the movies!"

That was news to Jim. Wasn't Agent Moore supposed to handle that? Or was that what people thought Agent Moore was doing?

"I think the governor's sending troops, too," Mary went on. "I've heard about soldiers combing the woods. Although that was just a rumour in chat. They didn't even have a pic, and who would see soldiers and not take a picture, huh?"

"Who wouldn't, indeed," Claire said. She sounded a little sarcastic.

Not that Mary seemed to notice or care. "Right! Anyway - ever since this attack, some weirdos have been badgering me online about news. Creepy, I tell you - they weren't interested in my channel until we had a dangerous criminal in town!"

"Welcome to the Internet," Claire told her. She was definitely sarcastic.

"I know, right? Anyway, stay safe! I'm going to find Darci; she'll probably need some help dealing with this."

"Of course," Jim said, but Mary was already walking away.

Toby shook his head. "Is this a sign? Mary telling us to stay safe?"

"I didn't even think of how Darci must feel after almost losing her papa," Claire said with a sigh.

"We do have a lot on our mind," Jim tried to console her. He hadn't thought of Darci's feelings, either.

And Toby… looked depressed. "I didn't think of that, either!"

Jim sighed. Perhaps it was better to lie low and keep their heads down? And keep an eye out for Glory, of course. And for Strickler, he added with a glance at the principal's office as they walked over the schoolyard.

And saw Strickler looking at him through the window.

Jim clenched his teeth and kept walking, keeping eye contact as long as possible.


Shadow Realm, January 16th, 2017

"So…" Buffy Summers grabbed a piece of bread to go with her third bowl of soup; Mrs Domzalski was a great cook, "... how do we get the stone from the principal?"

"Wait until he's at school tomorrow, sneak in and ransack his house?" Xander proposed.

"He'll have Angor Rot watching it," Claire pointed out.

"So we'll kill the evil troll assassin as well," Buffy said. "Two birds, one stone, yadda yadda yadda." She was looking forward to showing the arrogant troll that no monster beat the Slayer.

"I've got a question!" Willow raised her hand.

"We're not at school, Willow."

"Sorry. But… does the sunlight have to be directly from the sun to affect a troll?" Willow asked. "Because if it does not, we could take big mirrors with us and simply reflect the troll to stone."

Everyone blinked. That sounded… "I don't know why it wouldn't work," Buffy said.

"I don't recall anyone attempting this - though trolls rarely venture out during the day, anyway," Blinky said.

"Well… moonlight doesn't turn trolls to stone, and it's basically reflected sunlight," Willow explained.

"Right."

"Such weaknesses are usually metaphysical," Giles said, "not merely physical."

"Yes?" Buffy smiled at him.

"That means that physical laws and concepts cannot fully explain them, and that logical consequences and deductions might not be correct," he went on.

"Ah. Why didn't you say so in the first place?" She pouted. Really, he should've led with that.

"I believe I did. I didn't anticipate needing to translate the Queen's English into Californian," Giles shot back.

"You've been with us for more than four years, and you still haven't realised that?" Buffy asked him, frowning now. "I expected better of you!"

"Props for never giving up hope of teaching Buffy proper English," Xander added with a grin.

"I don't see the difference," Anya cut in. "Compared to the English I learned, this all sounds the same."

"I don't think you learned English, actually," Willow said.

"It was certainly a form of English, but it would be incomprehensible to today's English, I believe," Giles disagreed.

"Which means it's not English," Buffy said, nodding. "So… planning. How do we get the stone now that we can't just use our makeup kits to mirror Angor Rot to stone?" she ignored Giles' wince; it was a perfectly good phrasing.

"We can still try that, in case it works," Willow said. "And if it doesn't, we will know it won't."

"For science!" Xander exclaimed.

"It will mean that the good trolls don't have to worry about it, either," Willow went on.

"I would like to know if this is a threat to us or not," Blinky said.

"It certainly shouldn't hurt," Giles agreed. "Especially since we won't be bringing any allied trolls if we strike during the day."

"But you'll need us," Jim said. "Claire to be able to portal you to safety, me to help fight Angor Rot. I've got experience."

"If you miss school, Mr Evil Principal will know something's up," Buffy pointed out.

"We can arrange to disappear for a few minutes," Claire said. "If we do it over lunch. And we'll be back before Strickler notices."

Portals are really unfair, Buffy thought. She wouldn't have had half her problems at school, or anywhere, if she had been able to use portals. Or if Willow had been able to. No, bad Buffy - no exploiting your best friend! she scolded herself.

"I can cover for you," Toby said, rubbing his shoulder. "I can't fight, but I can do that."

"And I can be moral support!" Xander chimed in. "Cripples united!" he added with a grin at Toby.

The boy smiled back, though Buffy knew neither Xander nor Toby was happy with being sidelined. She wouldn't be, either, of course. But they were both wounded. "So, we strike at noon, then," she said.

"High noon!" Xander added.

"Probably best, yes," Jim agreed.

"Yes," Blinky said. "I believe this plan has a decent chance of working. Although there are risks - Angor Rot has earned his reputation as one of the deadliest trolls several times over. And we must not underestimate Strickler."

"Oh, I'm not underestimating him," Jim said with a grim expression.

"No, we aren't," Toby agreed. "But what can he do? He can't teleport. Even if he takes his car, he won't arrive until the battle's over. And I'll make sure Mary will tell people you snuck away for some private time."

"Toby!" Jim protested.

He was blushing like mad, Buffy noticed. As was Claire. She grinned - that was so cute!

"You might need to work on maintaining the cover story," Dawn said with a wide grin. "Kiss in the hallway and such, beforehand, so sneaking away later will look natural."

And Claire switched to glaring. "If we do that, Strickler has a pretext to give us detention. And that could ruin the whole plan."

"Then don't get caught," Dawn replied with a shrug. "Good training for sneaking out even with a portal."

"That's…" Jim trailed off.

"...actually good advice?" Dawn's grin widened. "Trust me, I know what I'm talking about! I know all about sneaking out!"

Buffy frowned at her. "Oh, really, you do?" If Dawn was trying to sneak out of the Shadow Dimension...

"I mean at home," Dawn defended herself.

"You sneaked out in Sunnydale?" Buffy gasped.

Her little sister rolled her eyes. "Out of school during the daytime. I'm not stupid and sneak out during the night."

Buffy felt relieved. Although she would have to keep an eye on Dawn in the future.

"Well, we do and did sneak out at night," Willow said. "Though does it count if you're living on your own?"

"Probably not," Xander told her.

"OK."

Giles cleared his throat. "If we could return to the original subject?"

"Everything's settled," Buffy told him. "We strike at noon when Jim and Claire can sneak away. They join us, we break into the house, deal with Angor Rot - if needed, we can knock a few holes into the walls or roof and let the sun in; see how he likes that - and grab the stone." Easy and straightforward - the perfect plan.

"I believe that we should consider the current situation," Giles said. "Namely, the local police force looking for Glory, and the local population being afraid of her."

"Oh." Buffy blinked. Right - this wasn't Sunnydale; people would call the cops, and the cops would come if anyone heard the fighting. And if the cops came, they would have trouble finishing up in time and finding the stone.

Damn. She hated it when a good plan got complicated.