Everything hurt.

No. Jim thought. Everything hurt. His horns hurt. His hair hurt, and how did that work…

He opened his eyes and looked around. The room was full of equipment, some of it looking like Tinkertech. He raised himself a little bit, then fell back, breathing hard.

"How…" I fought Gunmar and Morganna and wasn't this wasted.

"Perhaps because Morganna and Gunmar did not cover you in white hot flame," Merlin said.

Jim looked around and there was Merlin and Vicky's sister. Panacea.

"May I check you?" she asked, sending a venomous gaze up at Merlin.

"Um, sure…"

"Okay…" she said. "Your body, at least what I can understand of it, is fine. You'll have to eat more and we had to redo some of the muscles on your arms and legs completely, so you may need more exercise… How does that work… how does that work," she repeated to herself, sounding more interested then Jim had ever heard her.

"I will tell you," Merlin said. "But first, Little Mouse, you must learn to roar, not hide behind your 'duty'."

"I could cause your beard—"

"To fall out, yes," Merlin said. "But that's not what will gain you the knowledge you desire, will it, Little Mouse?"

"Stop calling me that!"

"When you roar, rather than whimper, I might consider changing the name… Might."

Amy glared at Merlin and went stomping out. "Asshole!" floated in on the air as the door closed.

"Merlin," Jim said. "Could you try to avoid antagonizing all my friends…"

"Why?" Merlin glanced down at Jim. "I might as well ask you to stop trying to commit suicide in a righteous cause."

"Hey, I needed to do it. Otherwise…"

"Your friend would die, or worse."

"Are they?"

"In here, asleep. Most are. It's late." Jim glanced around, saw a cot. Claire was curled up on her side, asleep. "Claire?"

"If you shout louder, you might wake her," the wizard said. "I can provide you some pots and pans, if you want. She's been awake for almost twenty four hours since you were healed."

"Why…"

"Have you been out? You almost died. "Without Amy's help, I daresay you might have died, no matter what I could do. We had to have Armsmaster repurpose a device of his to pick the fragments of ash and sand that you had inhaled out of your lungs."

Jim struggled to sit up, and Merlin held up a mirror.

"My eye is back."

"Yes, we worked on that…" Jim traced the scar that crossed over his cheek.

"I figured there would be more."

"There would be. You would be barely recognizable. I left that scar as a memory." Merlin frowned. "Because you didn't think."

"I came up with a plan…"

"No… you came up with an idea. If you had planned it, you might have considered a wiser choice."

Jim glared at Merlin. "Okay, what?"

"Fair Claire can open portals, correct? And Sir Clockblocker can freeze anything he touches in time."

Jim opened his mouth. Closed his mouth. Reached down, grabbed a pillow. Fell back with the pillow over his face.

"Can I…" his voice was muffled. "Claim that I didn't want to get Clockblocker in trouble?"

"According to the young man when I brought it up, you were trying to deny him his status as the 'one-touch dragonslayer.'"

"Was he upset?" Jim asked. Then looked down and noticed a bracelet on his wrist. Claire had one too. "What…"

"Director Piggot desires early warning if, in her words, "either one of you suicidal fools decides to go after the Three Blasphemies or the Slaughterhouse Nine. And as for your question, no. You are the conquering hero, after all." Merlin shrugged. "In Claire's case, the bracelet will also help us locate her if she decides to once again ignore what I told her to do and portal to your side. The medics agree, her ah, grand mal seizure was most entertaining, as was the reaction of Aegis and Vista who were in here at the time."

"She's hurt?"

"Not permanently, but you will both need some time to recover." Merlin leaned down. "And take this lesson to heart, Trollhunter. The powers here are not the powers back home. Back home, you are among the strongest and most skilled warriors. Here, you are a good, but by no means unmatched warrior. Had Lung had a few more minutes to grow in power, you would have died. Had you faced the Siberian, you would have died. If this teaches you anything, it is that you cannot depend on strength and skill alone—" he whacked Jim on the head with a finger. "You must also use your wisdom!"

"I did. I found people who could help me."

For a moment, Jim thought that Merlin was going to say something snarky, but then he nodded. "That you did, Trollhunter. Nearly a full Round Table's worth. What very well may be needed in this dark age."

"I—"

"Jim?" Claire's voice was weak. Jim looked over at her. She was getting up, legs unsteady. Merlin didn't say anything, just moved to help her up so she could look down at Jim.

She didn't pause, just kissed him, not coming up for breath for several moments.

"I… I thought you were dead," Claire said. "If Armsmaster hadn't done what he—I would have never thought of it, and you'd be…" She too a shuddering breath and sat down on the chair Merlin pushed up to her.

"I'm not," Jim said. He shook his head and laughed. "How many times does this make?"

"To many. We should do something about that."

"Move to someplace where nothing happens?"

"Too late. We lived in Arcadia, remember?"

Jim and Claire looked at each other, then burst into laughter. Claire winced. Jim stared. "Claire?"

"Brains. Amy doesn't do them, remember? So headache from hell," Claire said. "And I also… broke my magic."

"Not broke, just strained. Once the last of the physical injury's effects are dealt with, we can get to resolving that issue." Merlin smiled. "You will not enjoy it. I am not in the habit of coddling apprentices who think they can do anything."

"Oh boy," Jim muttered. "Wanna hide?"

"Armsmaster has a forty page long list of your rehabilitation exercises. To start the moment you get up," Claire murmured. "Presuming director Piggot leaves anything left."

"Where's Blinky?"

"With Director Piggot, Director Costa-Brown and the member of the Youth Guard who has a functioning brain. With that in mind, if you'll excuse me, I must ensure that the one without a functioning brain doesn't cause any issues for them…"

With that Merlin left the room and moments later a clamor arose outside. "Ms. Days! Lurking outside the room of our valiant heroes? I wonder if you're stalking them…"

"I was just walking past!"

"That is what all say—aren't you a little old to be trying to take advantage of them for some autographs?"

"Wha—you HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE MAN! I SHOULD—"

"You know, I think he enjoys baiting her," Claire said.

"Can you imagine Merlin being pleasant to everyone for a day?" Jim asked. Claire looked at him and mimed her head exploding. Jim laughed, coughed and then looked at her. "What is up with Amy? She looked like she wanted to murder Merlin…"

"I don't know…" Claire brushed Jim's hair back. "I had other worries. Carlos said that after they fixed your main injuries, Amy followed Merlin up to his chambers, wanting to know why he called his parahuman power magic, and then there was a lot of muffled yelling… and his new name for her is Little Mouse and her name for Merlin is Asshole. But whatever they were talking about, Dean says it kinda has Amy on the backfoot."

"Oh boy."

"Yeah." Clare leaned over, then wrinkled her nose as she sniffed her arm. "You know, now that I'm up and you're awake, I think I'm going to get a shower…" She reached out and punched a button. "Nobody's letting me do it myself. I have to have a Nurse help me in and out of the shower." She glared. "That hasn't happened since I was little… It was just a little seizure…"

Jim stared. "How long?"

"Not…" Claire sighed. "Five minutes."

"That's not a short seizure."

"No," She said. "And when I woke up, my head felt like it was going to explode."

"Well, you need a spotter."

"You could always say you had it handled…" Claire winked, and Jim felt himself turning red for reasons that had nothing to do with Lung's fire. "After all," she continued, "You have…"

"That was once, and you were blue when I fished you out of the pool!" Jim said.

"I remember," Claire told him. "I was wrapped around the one thing that wasn't freezing me and then Mr. Blinky asked if I wanted to keep using you for a blanket…" She giggled. "And then I turned as red as you are now…" She kissed him again. "But you're off the hook. I don't want to give Ms. Days a heart attack."

"Wouldn't Director Piggot thank you?" Jim asked.

"She might," Claire said with an impish smile. "But we'd better ask first." She waved to Jim as the PRT nurse came in, rolling a wheelchair. One commanding glare and Claire was seated in it, being rolled out of the room, waving to Jim, one last time.

Jim lay back. He smiled, then lost his smile.

Merlin's right. All of this could have been avoided if I'd thought things through. We had a hard counter to Lung, and I never even considered it. He'd have to be smarter. Talk to more people, especially after this was over. I wonder if I'll be allowed to talk to Tattletale or Orb Weaver after this? They had worked well together…

But first I need to survive Director Piggot.