Toby has officially decided he hates hospitals. He hates the smell of them, he hates the machines beeping and humming, and he especially hates seeing a friend laid up in the hospital bed. Steve looks smaller than Toby ever imagined he could look, unconscious, bandages wrapped around his head, left leg in a cast, hooked up to tubes and wires. Toby can barely stand to see him like this.

It's their fault. Toby should have known better than to let them split up. He's supposed to be the veteran at this stuff, the one who knows what he's doing. Maybe if Steve hadn't been alone, this wouldn't have happened. And then if they'd realised sooner, gotten down sooner, then maybe it wouldn't have been so bad. They didn't even know there was a fight outside until they'd heard Steve scream, and by then it was too late to prevent the worst of it.

Toby and Krel have both been in Steve's hospital room since they were allowed in, and Mort joined soon afterwards. Coach Lawrence and Steve's mom have been there even longer, except Steve's mom had to leave earlier for work. Krel finally fell asleep about an hour ago, after refusing to take a nap since yesterday morning's attack. In a different situation, seeing him leaned up asleep against Mort's side like this might have been kind of adorable. Toby still takes a picture.

"He'll probably wake up soon," says Dr. Lake as she writes something on her clipboard. She glances up and meets Toby's eyes, brow furrowed worriedly. "I know this is a lot, but if you kids need help, you can always come to Walt and I. We have some experience, too, you know."

"I know," says Toby. "Thanks, Dr. L."

"Alright, I have to go check on some other patients," she says. "You know how to reach me."

She leaves the room. Coach shifts in his chair.

"So, run this by me again," he says. "Wizards?"

"Yep," says Toby.

Coach sighs and leans back. "You know, when I was your age, all we had to worry about was whether we were going to regionals for football, not – apocalypses and magic and crazy knights."

"Believe me, Coach, I wish our summer could be more like that," admits Toby.

"I'm doing all I can to protect your son," says Mort. He keeps his voice low so he doesn't wake Krel. "I take full responsibility for this. I should have expected an attack and prepared accordingly."

"From what I hear, it wasn't your fault," Coach says.

Krel shifts in his sleep. Mort shifts accordingly to accommodate him.

"Still," he says. "I'm sorry."

"Mort's teaching Steve magic," Toby says. He would hate for Coach to get a bad impression of Mort from this. It's not really Mort's fault. And Toby knows, honestly, it's not really his fault, either, even if it feels like it. "It's really cool! Steve's a natural."

"I bet he is!" Coach boasts. Mort nods to Krel, unconsciously curling away from the noise, and Coach shrinks back and lowers his voice. "You know, bad stuff aside, it's really neat, this wizard stuff."

"He's talented," agrees Mort. "I've been very impressed with his progress."

Ugh. Now it's starting to sound like a parent-teacher conference. Toby tunes them out and shifts his attention away and back to Steve. It could have been worse. Toby tries to comfort himself with that, except that only brings up graphic images of Steve with his head chopped off or Steve in a dozen bloody pieces strewn across the concrete. Curse his brain for being so vividly imaginative!

Steve's hand twitches. Toby waves a hand at the others, still in the midst of the impromptu parent-teacher conference, and Steve moans softly and his face scrunches. A few moments later, he opens his eyes and blinks several times and stares at the ceiling.

"Where…?" he manages, voice hoarse from disuse. He turns his head to Coach's side. "Dad?"

"Hey, son," Coach chokes out. "You had us worried there. Take it easy."

"What happened?"

"Do you remember?" Toby prompts softly. "The Black Knight?"

Steve turns to look at him. Recognition dawns on his face, followed quickly by frustration. He groans. "Aw, man, guys, I messed up. I messed up big time."

"It's alright, Steve," says Mort. "It wasn't your fault."

"We told Coach, by the way," adds Toby.

Steve winces and turns his head again towards Coach. "Are you mad?"

"I'm not mad," says Coach. "I wish you woulda told me, but I'm not mad."

"Well, m'a wizard, Dad," Steve says. He huffs out a laugh. "Me! I'm a wizard!"

"That's right, you are," says Coach. "And I'm real proud of you."

For Steve's sake, Toby pretends not to see the tears well in his friend's eyes and he blurts, "Thanks, Dad."

Steve tries to push himself up on his elbows. Toby leaps out of his chair to help adjust the hospital bed so he can sit up. Steve grunts out a thanks. He stares at the blue cast on his leg forlornly, then glances back over to Toby, Mort, and the still-sleeping Krel. Man, Krel isn't going to be happy they didn't wake him right away, but also he must be fast asleep and Toby doubts Steve wants them to wake him.

"I'm sorry, guys," he says. "I should have called you right away and then I wouldn't be in this mess."

"Yes, you should have," says Mort. "And in the future, I expect you to. The Black Knight nearly killed you. If we'd gotten out there a minute later, he would have. You're lucky."

Steve swallows. "Yeah. I guess I am."

"We're not splitting up again," says Toby. "That was clearly a bad idea."

"Ikram wants to up your training," says Mort. "Again. I'm honestly not sure how many more times she can up it, but she'll manage it."

"Oh, boy," says Toby.

"Even better news," Coach butts in. "I'm gonna be helping!"

Toby and Steve exchange wide-eyed, horrified looks.

"Oh, no," says Toby.

"That's right, Domzalski, I bet you thought you were done with me for the summer!" Coach exclaims. "Well, too bad!"

Toby groans and collapses into his chair. As if training with Ikram and Nimue wasn't bad enough already. With Coach there? Toby kind of wishes he was the one laid up in the hospital bed.

"So, uh," says Steve awkwardly, "how long was I out?"

"Well, it's about… noon," says Mort, glancing at his watch. Steve relaxes. "And this was yesterday morning, so a bit over twenty-four hours."

"Twenty-four hours!?" Steve squeaks, all relaxation fleeing him instantly.

"You were beat up pretty badly," says Toby. "You probably would have been out longer if Mort hadn't, you know, magicked you better."

"I didn't magic him better," says Mort. "I just used magical healing to help the process along. I'm not nearly good enough to magic him better."

"Keep quiet about it," says Toby. "Dr. L doesn't know."

Mort grimaces, then nods to Steve's leg. "Lucky for you, this means your leg will heal in about half the time. Most of the energy went to helping your ribs and lungs."

Steve's eyes widen and he pats his chest. "Wait, what's wrong with my lungs?"

"Nothing, anymore," says Mort. "But you're going to want to take it easy for a bit. I guess that won't be hard, you'll need to stay off that leg anyway."

"What was wrong with my lungs!?"

"Look, Steve, buddy, you were pretty messed up," says Coach. His furrowed brow is the only thing that gives away how worried he'd been – and, man, Coach had been worried. Toby could never forget his face when he got to the hospital, when the doctors told him what all was wrong with Steve – he'd never thought he'd have sympathy for Coach of all people, but his expression had hurt to see. "What's important is that you're gonna be okay."

Steve nods. "Right, right – just kinda freaked me out there."

"Freaked us all out, man," says Toby. He nods towards a still-sleeping Krel. "Good job, you made Krel cry twice in the same week."

Steve grimaces. "Great. How much longer am I in for?"

"Probably a few more days," says Mort. Steve sighs in frustration. "Hey, think of it as a break. There's going to be somebody on guard at all times to make sure the Black Knight doesn't return to, uh, finish the job. Meanwhile, Toby and Krel here will have to be training."

Coach brought his fist to his other palms. "Oh, yeah. We're gonna whip you kids into shape!"

Steve gives Toby a pitying look. Toby just groans. It's going to be a long few days.

Steve is released after about a day and a half with strict orders to take it easier and keep weight off his leg. Toby can tell he's already completely and utterly done with the crutches he has to use. Unfortunately, now that Steve's out of the hospital, Toby and Krel don't have any excuse to get out of training. They'd been using, "We want to go check on Steve, we're worried about him." That won't fly anymore.

Ikram has looked frustrated ever since Steve got the crap beaten out of him. She paces in Mort's library, already in armour for training.

"The Black Knight is brutish but clever," she says. "We must be prepared for him. We're doubling down on training for all of you. No more excuses."

"Wait, wait," says Steve. "You want me training too? I'm injured! I'm on crutches!"

"Use them to your advantage," she says flatly.

"I have a broken leg!"

"Actually, Barbara said it was fractured," corrects Krel. "She said that is not the same thing."

"Shut up, Krel!"

"Actually, Steve, you're going to be working with me," says Mort. "We're going to be working on strengthening your shielding and protection spells."

Steve slumps back into his chair in relief. Once again, Toby wishes he had magic. It would get him out of training and it would be super cool. Ikram opens the bookcase door, and Toby and Krel reluctantly follow her and Nimue through it.

"So what exactly does doubling down entail?" asks Toby. "I mean, I feel like we've been training for weeks now and I'm not sure how we can double down."

"Previously, Nimue and I have been largely been ensuring you don't get yourselves kill," says Ikram. "Clearly, that is not enough. And now your trio is down a fighter for the foreseeable future. We will be teaching you more of the offensive. From here on, I expect much of your defence will come from Steve."

"Seriously? We're depending on Steve for defence?" Krel scoffs. "No, thank you. I would rather stick to defensive fighting anyway."

"Defensive fighting won't be enough."

"That means no running away this time, Krel," says Nimue.

Krel crosses his arms. "I wasn't running away."

Ikram waves a hand at him. "Do you fight better in this form or your other one? Because that is going to vastly change how we teach you."

"He doesn't really fight good in any form," says Toby.

"Hey!" protests Krel, even though Toby's completely right. Nonetheless, he turns off the transduction. "Probably like this."

"Good, then," says Ikram. "You're with Nimue first. Toby, with me."

Toby follows Ikram to one side of the fairly large gym, and Krel splits off to the other. Coach stands in the centre like a referee. He hasn't actually been much help the past couple of days, but Toby thinks Ikram feels bad for him and that's why she lets him stick around.

"Now, I'll admit I know very little about war-hammers," says Ikram. "I did search it up on the internet. The internet was not helpful. So we're going to wing it."

"Sounds good," says Toby.

"As I understand it, your war-hammer has some sort of spell on it," she notes. "Elaborate?"

"Uh, it's an anti-gravity thing," says Toby. "I couldn't lift it at first, but – it's a long story. Anyway, it makes it easier to carry and also I can fly with it."

Her eyebrows shoot up. "You can fly? Well, that's very good to know. We're going to incorporate that into your fighting style."

"Oh, yeah!" Toby exclaims.

"Okay, give me a lap around the gym," says Ikram. "In the air."

Toby should note that's not entirely sure how to steer his war-hammer. Ikram nods expectantly. He shoves his war-hammer towards the far wall and lets it carry him into the air and away from Ikram. Okay, turning, how does he turn? He's turned before, hasn't he? Ugh, but that's under pressure, and things just happen under pressure, and – wall! Wall!

He manages to get his hammer to turn in mid-air and not hit the wall. The next wall rapidly approaches. Okay, how did he do that? And can he do it again? Okay, Toby, come on, Toby. He wills the hammer to turn and hope willpower works.

It does. Toby lets out a triumphant whoop and continues back to the other side of the gym. He should really do this more often. Flying is kinda fun. Hey, maybe Strickler can give him lessons. Does he really want lessons with Strickler, though?

He lands back where he started and twirls his hammer. To his glee, he also doesn't drop it.

"Hm," says Ikram. "Interesting. And how much control do you have? Because, quite frankly, it looked like next to none."

"That would be unfortunately correct," Toby admits.

"We're going to work on that," she says. "Do you know why extremely powerful wizards often have the advantage in battle?"

"Uh, because magic?"

"Because they can stay airborne." Ikram draws her sword and holds it to the sky. "A warrior on the ground only has a certain range of motion. Stay outside it, and they can't hurt you. Even other wizards are at a disadvantage. Ranged spells still need decent aim, and flying makes dodging much easier."

"Someone should probably teach Krel how to fly, then," Toby says, jerking a thumb towards Krel, currently getting pummelled by Nimue.

"Flight will also allow you more chances to attack, and more sides to attack from," she continues. "And believe me. An enemy approaching from above is intimidating."

"Yes," hisses Toby.

"It brings your intimidation factor from a zero out of ten to a one out of ten," she adds.

"What? Come on!"

"Maybe a two."

"Only the most powerful wizards can fly," says Ikram. "I've known of three of them. Merlin, Morgana, and Mordred. I'm sure there have been others."

Toby's met two of those wizards, and he's not fond of either. He wonders if one day Steve will be a strong enough wizard to fly. Now that's a hilarious image to think about.

"Almost a shame we can't call Merlin to help teach me," Toby jokes.

"Call Merlin?" she repeats. "Merlin's dead."

"Hate to break it to you," says Toby, "but Merlin's still alive and flying. He's with my buddy Jim right now. Morgana's also still alive. Stuck in the Shadow Realm. Yep, that was our doing."

"Great, more immortal wizards, just what we need," she mutters. "Alright, in the air. We're going to figure out how you fly this thing."

Toby shoots back into the air. He has no idea how long he can actually hang up here. "So, usually I just throw it kinda and don't let go? And it drags me with it."

"And does that work in mid-air?"

"We can find out," says Toby. He reels back and tries to throw the hammer across the room. To his surprise and excitement, it works, and he goes flying towards the opposite wall. He cackles and yanks back to skid to a stop in mid-air, then throws the hammer in the other direction, then back the other. "Hey, this is working great!"

"Excellent," calls Ikram. "Stay right there."

Toby shrugs to himself and continues flying around the room. He's really getting the hang of this, actually. Then, a few minutes later, when he's not at all paying attention, he gets hit in the face with a tennis ball.

"Hey!" he yelps.

"Your enemies may have ranged weapons!" Ikram throws another ball at him, and he swerves out of the way. "Also, the Black Knight can throw his axe."

"Oh, great!" Toby exclaims. Man, Ikram has good aim. He dodges another two balls and gets hit with another three, then manages to hit the sixth back at Ikram.

"Good!" she praises. "Now try to actually hit me!"

Toby groans. Several more tennis balls get chucked at him. It's a lot like trying to play baseball while hovering in mid-air, which sucks because Toby has never been good at baseball. He tried for a while in elementary school. It didn't go well. Jim was way better than he was. Not surprising. Jim always been way better at everything, except maybe video games. Toby can claim video games.

"Try and attack me!" Ikram stops throwing balls for a moment to lean down and grab her helmet to put on. She gives him a thumbs-up, then continues throwing tennis balls at him. Toby dodges the first few, then yells as threateningly as he can and throws his hammer towards Ikram. It does a decent job protecting him from the balls. Ikram dives out of the way. Toby manages to get the hammer to pull up just in time, but doesn't manage to get it to stop and crashes into the wall.

"Ow," he mumbles.

"Not bad," Ikram says. "Make a note that your hammer won't protect you nearly as well from spells, nor will it protect you from a flying axe. But if anyone's throwing small rocks at you, you should be good."

"Ugh," Toby groans.

Ikram grabs a dodgeball laying at the side of the wall and tosses it up and down with one hand. He can't see her face, but he knows she's smug.

"Again," she says.

Oh, this is going to hurt.

They finally stop for lunch after both Toby and Krel have thoroughly gotten their butts whooped. They probably wouldn't have even stopped if Mort hadn't dropped in to tell them Douxie brought lunch over from Benoit's.

They ate in the library for Steve's sake. He's apparently been training in another room of Nimue's family gym, but the main point is to keep him off the stairs as much as possible.

"How's shield training?" Toby prompts.

"It's going pretty well," says Steve.

"Give him a few days' practice more and I think he'll be able to reliably shield two of you at once," says Mort.

"That's my boy!" boasts Coach.

"Coach-Dad," whines Steve, clearly embarrassed.

"What? I'm proud of ya!"

Steve's cheeks flame red and he shovels a bite of his chicken into his mouth. Then, after swallowing, he asks, "How about you guys?"

Krel shrinks. Nimue rolls her eyes. "We're working on it."

"Toby can fly with his war-hammer," says Ikram.

Toby preens. "That's right. Pretty cool, huh?"

"Impressive," says Mort. "Some wizards can do that as well. Without a hammer, of course."

"Wait, really?" Steve exclaims. "Can I learn that?"

Mort chuckles. "If you ever do, it won't be for a long time. It takes a lot of magical power. Only very powerful wizards can fly."

"But maybe one day?" Steve says.

"Perhaps," agrees Mort.

"Man, I've always wanted to learn how to fly," says Douxie. "All the wizarding greats could fly."

"I would not call Morgana and Merlin wizarding greats," says Mort with a scowl.

"I would," says Douxie.

"Good at wizarding, yes," says Toby. "Good at being good people, ehh… jury's still out on Merlin."

"So, what's the plan for nights?" asks Steve. "Sleepovers again? How is that gonna work if we're avoiding our homes?"

"That is a good point," says Krel. "I mean, Stuart would probably be happy to have you all, but…"

"It might be best if you all just camped out here for the next little bit," says Mort. "I have a guest room you can use, with a big bed and an air mattress. Or if you really wanted, the living room is open."

"The guest room will probably work," says Toby, glancing at his friends. They shrug and nod. "We can rotate who's on the air mattress."

"I've never had friends sleep over before," says Douxie. "I mean, for obvious reasons. Uncle Mort doesn't exactly hide the magic around here."

"You try making those omelettes you like without magic," Mort challenges.

"Hey, I make a mean omelette," says Coach. "No magic needed!"

"They don't flip," says Mort.

"Don't you have any wizarding friends?" Toby asks Douxie before Coach and Mort can start bickering about omelettes of all things. "They could come over."

"If I do, they haven't told me," says Douxie. "It's kinda hard to tell. See, we're not supposed to tell mundanes about magic, so I can't really ask a friend, 'Hey, you a wizard, mate?'"

Toby nods. "Makes sense."

"I had never had a sleep-over either," says Krel. "It's very fun."

"Except sometimes Krel here goes all glowstick on us," Steve teases.

"I haven't had any dreams like that since I found Gaylen's core!" Krel protests.

"That's not a good thing!" Steve cries. "I still say Gaylen's core is bad news."

This catches Mort's attention, apparently, because his brow furrows and he leans forward. "Gaylen's core? You didn't mention this before."

"Oh, yeah," says Toby. Maybe that was something they should have talked to Mort about. "So, Krel was having these freaky dreams where he was looking for something in the forest, right? And then, the night after we un-brainwashed Ikram, he found Gaylen's core in the woods and brought it home. It's creepy, anytime he gets close to it he and the core both light up like crazy."

Mort's frown lands on Krel. He shifts awkwardly.

"It's probably just reacting to my Akiridion core," he says.

"I'm not sure whether to be concerned, interested, or both," says Mort. "I don't know much about Gaylen's core, but I do know that it's a very powerful artefact. Do you know for sure it's reacting to your core as an Akiridion?"

"What do you mean?" Krel asks warily.

"I'm saying it might be reacting to your core," Mort stresses. Krel's brow furrows. "If that's the case… well, then, I am far more concerned than interested."

Krel shakes his head. "That doesn't make any sense. Why would it be reacting to my core specifically?"

"I don't know," says Mort. "But I don't want you alone with Gaylen's core until we're sure it's not. For your own safety."

"What?" Krel protests immediately, like Toby knew he would. "I've been studying it and it hasn't done anything to me. It's not dangerous unless I'm stupid, which I am not, and you know it!"

"No arguments," says Mort.

"I still think we should ship it to Akiridion-5 and be done with it," says Steve.

"Krel," Mort insists. "Promise me."

"Fine, I promise," Krel grumbles. Toby makes a mental note to keep an eye on the Akiridion to make sure he doesn't try to sneak off and study Gaylen's core on his own. While Toby trusts him not to be stupid with it, he really doesn't like the idea of something happening and not being there to stop it.

"So, uh, Ikram," coughs Toby awkwardly. "Where are you staying?"

"With Nimue," says Ikram, nodding to the pink-haired girl. "I can't stay here, obviously. I'm also working in the shop."

"Where did you live before all this?" asks Steve.

"I've moved around a lot, given this country isn't very old," she says. "But most recently, I lived in Oregon. Not too far. Not here, for sure. Arcadia isn't bad, or I suppose it wouldn't be bad if the world wasn't ending."

"Yeah, it's usually a lot nicer," says Steve. "These past few months have been kinda wild."

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm actually looking forward to school starting," Toby says. "At least then things might go a little bit back to normal."

Nimue elbows Douxie in the arm. "Hey, see any apocalypses after this one?"

"If I do, you all will be the first to know," he retorts.

"Nope, count me out," says Steve. "There's got to be a maximum for apocalypses someone can live through, and I think I'm reaching mine."

"Uh, me too," says Krel. "I would also like to be counted as out."

"Me three," adds Toby. "I'm all apocalypsed out."

"You kids are doing well given the circumstances," says Mort. "Not many people your age have had to deal with one end of the world, let alone three. I'd say you're taking it rather well."

Ikram nods. Nimue pops a fry into her mouth. "Once this is over, all three of you deserve a break."

"I'll even go easy on you at school," Coach offers. Steve perks up. "Maybe less you, Steve. Got the football season coming up!"

"Oh, yeah," Steve says.

"What is foot-ball?" asks Krel. Toby winces as Steve and Coach immediately whirl on the poor Akiridion with horrified, wounded expressions. He's poked the hornet's nest now. Toby quietly resigns himself to listening to thirty minutes of football talk and being dragged to the games next year now that he's friends with Steve, and also mentally berates Krel. There goes any chance of a nice, normal conversation for the rest of lunch.

Toby can't sleep. Normally he'd blame the air mattress, but it's actually a pretty comfy air mattress and Toby completely blames magic for it. He's just really anxious for some reason.

He sighs and rolls out of bed. He grabs his phone and quietly leaves into the hallway. His finger hesitates over Jim's contact photo – still human, still grinning, still home with Toby – before he finally hits it and presses the phone to his ear. He hopes he doesn't wake him. The phone rings a couple of times, before Jim picks up with a, "Tobes? What's up? You okay?"

"Did I wake you?" he asks.

"Nah, man, been on watch duty," says Jim. "What's up?"

"So, remember how I told you we beat the Green Knight and she's on our side?"

"Yeah. What, did she turn on you?"

"No, no!" Toby sighs and leans up against the wall. "There's another one. I meant to call you about him earlier but, well, we've had our hands kinda full."

"Another one?" Jim repeats. "Great. How's it going?"

"Well, Steve got the crap kicked out of him," says Toby. Jim laughs and Toby winces. "No, like, not in a funny way. Like in a, he was hospitalised and almost died way."

"Oh. Is he – how is he doing?"

"Broken leg aside, I think he's alright," says Toby. "Or he will be. Man, Jimbo, it was terrifying. We're back to not being able to go anywhere alone again, and, honestly, I don't think Mort wants us to go anywhere without an adult with us, either."

"That sucks," says Jim. "Are you sure you don't want me to come back?"

A large, kind of selfish part of Toby wants to say yes. Jim would be able to help them. If anyone could take the Black Knight, it's Jim. But there's too many reasons not to call him back – Mort doesn't trust Merlin, Jim is needed to protect the trolls, and, well… bringing Jim into this would put Jim in danger. Toby couldn't do that.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he says, plastering on a mask of cheerfulness. "We'll figure it out. It's just annoying. There goes our summer vacay, am I right?"

Jim sees through it, because of course he does. "Tobes, you know I'm here for you, right? Just because I'm in New Jersey doesn't mean you can't talk to me."

"I know, Jimbo," Toby says. He stares at the framed pictures on the wall without actually looking at them. "I miss you, man. Arcadia isn't the same without you."

"I miss you, too, Tobes."

Toby swallows. "I don't know if we can do this. I don't know if I can do this. I'm not like you, Jim, you're – you! You're smart and brave and – and I'm not like that."

"Toby." Jim says seriously. Toby takes a deep breath and nods, even though Jim can't see him. "Listen, yeah, you're not me. Of course you're not! And no one would want you to be, because who you are is amazing. You're the one who had my back through thick and thin, and I couldn't ask for a better best friend. And I know you can do this, because you're you, Tobes. You're a Trollhunter – one of the best."

Toby sniffs and rubs his eyes. "Thanks, Jimbo. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"You've got this," Jim insists.

"I hope you're right," says Toby. He shakes his head. "Enough of this downer stuff. How's everybody?"

Jim laughs but doesn't protest the change of subject. "Pretty good. Claire tried some Mexican restaurant yesterday and got super mad. Apparently it was really bad."

"Oh, man, sounds like Claire," Toby chuckles. "Found the heartstone yet?"

Toby can hear Jim's wince through the phone. "Not yet. Honestly… I'm beginning to wonder if there even is one."

"Maybe Krel can figure up how to make some sort of tech-alternative," suggests Toby. "And then you could… come back home. All of you."

"That would be nice," says Jim wistfully. He starts to say something else, but Toby's attention is immediately drawn away at the sound of Krel screaming from the guest bedroom.

Wait.

Krel screaming?

"Jim, I gotta go," Toby says quickly.

"Toby, what's going on?"

"Sorry, explain later, bye!" Toby hangs up his phone and runs back into the room. Krel is still screaming. He's convulsing on the bed, glowing as bright as he was the last time he was near Gaylen's core. Steve looks up and meets Toby's eyes in panic.

"What do I do!?" he exclaims.

"I don't know!" Toby cries. He leans out of the door and cups his hand around his mouth. "MORT! MORT, HELP!"

Mort's door flies open and the man practically sprints down the hall to their room, muttering profanities under his breath. He too hovers over Krel, evidently at a loss. "Krel? Krel, can you hear me?"

"Do we wake him up?" Steve demands. "Should I hold him down?"

"Don't hold him down," snaps Mort. "Just – protect his head, make sure he doesn't hit it. What happened?"

"I don't know!" Toby holds up his phone and shakes his head. "I was in the hall, and I think Steve was asleep. He was fine when I left!"

Douxie has wandered in by this point, looking exhausted but just as worried. Toby's pretty sure this isn't normal. Scratch that, he knows this isn't normal.

Then, finally, Krel jerks into a sitting position and his eyes fly open. He's breathing hard, and one hand flies to his core. Toby doesn't know if an Akiridion core can race like a human heart, but if it can, it must be.

"Hey, hey, look at me, look at me," says Mort. Krel turns to face him, stammering out a string of sounds that don't make any sense together. "Breathe, Krel. You're safe. You're in the guest room at my place. We're all here with you."

"No," says Krel. "No, no – I know what we need, I know a way we can beat the Black Knight."

"I think the bigger concern is that you just had a seizure!" Steve snaps.

Krel ignores him, eyes blown wide. He babbles out something else.

"Krel, it's okay," says Mort. "We can figure that out later. Are you okay?"

Krel just shakes his head, then, finally, after a moment of searching for the words, blurts, "We need Gaylen's core!"