Your Future Hasn't Been Written Yet
by K. Stonham
first released 13th March 2022

This was not Krel's first time on a biological world. Once, when he and Aja were younger, their parents had brought them along on a state visit to Nikarav, an important treaty partner planet which had sole access to a particularly important metal via mining it on their moons - the only known sources of Nikarite in the galaxy.

Krel had been bored almost the entire visit. The only respite from his boredom had been Lieutenant Zadra escorting him on a personalized tour of one of the refining factories, where he had finally gotten to ask some questions and learn some interesting things about how the metal was refined and worked and several of its properties. The rest of the visit hazed into monotony in his memory. The scenery had been endless brown-striped hills on the surface, and endless gold-lit caverns beneath it. All the people had been unctuous and deferential to his parents, ignoring himself and Aja almost entirely.

At least Earth, he thought, had better scenery. There were colors everywhere, and such variation in lifeforms as was seldom seen on an uncivilized world. Some of them even flew, without any sign of repulsor technology!

He was doubtful they would be able to find a daxial array here. But, in the meantime, there was no harm in enjoying what the planet had to offer while they looked.

Fortunately, the mothership had been able to provide them with a map from its crash landing site to what was apparently the commercial district of this place. And Krel, with his eidetic memory, was able to navigate them there, dragging Aja, Varvatos, and most especially Luug back on course when they strayed off it.

As they inevitably did.

"No! Luug! Come back here!" he yelled, chasing after the overexcited mutt with the soft filament disguise. "Ha! Gotcha!" he cried, tackling the beast to the ground in a roll. He was not as physical as Aja, but he was certainly able to recapture their pet. "Now come on," he told Luug. "We must stay with Aja and Varvatos. Do not break up the exploratory party!"

Aja, it turned out, had wandered over to a brightly colored transportation vehicle which also seemed to be a... mobile sustenance preparation site?


Toby turned around, Diablo Maximus Breakfast Burrito in hand, and gaped.

Aja stood at the taco truck, chatting with Stuart, and accepting her own burrito from him before wandering away.

"Hey, you've got to pay for that!" Stuart cried.

"Uhhh..." Toby's brain fritzed for a second. Aja was here, Aja and Krel were here, Aja and Krel and Varvatos were here, what should he do...?

He hadn't been expecting this today. Next week, maybe. He wasn't ready!

He was the Trollhunter. He could totally handle this. Right?

Right, Toby decided. First things first. "Hey, Stuart, it's on me!" he called back, digging out his wallet and slapping a ten on the truck counter. "She's new in town. And the country."

"Much appreciated, Toby," Stuart told him, disappearing the cash.

"And new on the planet," Toby mumbled to himself as he scurried after Aja. "Hey, wait up!" he called to her. "Careful!" he warned Aja when she turned to face him. What had he done in the past? Um, um... oh. Warned her. That's right. "The Diablo Maximus is not for the faint of heart," he said. "Most humans can't stand more than one or two bites." Crap, why did he say humans? That was a dead giveaway that he knew she wasn't-

But, just like he remembered, she scarfed the whole thing down without seeming to notice Toby's slip-up.

"That was lively!" she said as he grinned at her, appreciating a fellow pepperhead. "I'm going to go ask for another one."

"You know you have to pay for them," Toby told her.

"Pay? What is this pay?" she asked him.

And from that, he guessed Akiridion-5 definitely had a different kind of economy than Earth did. Or maybe since she was a princess she didn't have to deal with money? Either way, it was something the Tarrons needed to learn fast, before they blew their cover. "The exchange of money for goods and services," Toby responded, the textbook answer popping up fast.

"You seem to know a lot about this planet," Krel said, walking up. Toby wanted to grin and hug him. It was totally great to see Krel again!

"Are you one of its rulers?" Varvatos demanded. And, hey, while Toby appreciated his gung-ho attitude and how he treated Nana like the finest woman on Earth (which she totally was, in Toby's not-at-all biased opinion), he was still a little bit happier to see Aja and Krel. Fewer back-breaking slaps on the back and bruising jovial punches to the arm, for one thing.

And, oh, there were a thousand ways Toby could reply to Varvatos' question. But the simple fact was, he remembered them... but they didn't remember him. Not yet. And Jimbo, with his magical memory-restoring amulet, wasn't here yet, because Toby had left early this morning, tempted by the thought of one of Stuart's mouth-watering burritos before school.

"Well, I do kind of rule," Toby said, thinking fast, desperately trying to remember how this had gone the first time and play by the same script. "I am technically a duke. My best bud's a king, but he's not here yet this morning. My name's Toby."

Krel's eyes went wider. "Tell me," he asked, "do you know where I can find a daxial array?"

And Toby had no clue where a daxial array could be located. Or, really, what it even was. But he was willing to bet that the answer was "not on this planet." On the other hand, he'd seen Krel and Douxie bang together miracles made of magic and metal before, so he was pretty sure that if he could hook Krel up with Doux, they'd be able to come up with something. They were right across the street from GDT Books, even! But it was Thursday, and Douxie had afternoon shifts on Thursdays. Which was why he and Douxie had magic club after school...

"Well," said Toby, "not me personally, I don't know where you'd find a... daxial array, was it?" He got a nod and a disappointed expression. "But," he said, holding up a finger before he could lose his audience, "I will bet you anything that my buddy will!"

"Fabulous," said Aja. "And where can we meet your 'buddy'?"

"Well, he's probably not up yet," Toby confessed, "but I'm meeting him at that bookshop over there," he said, pointing at GDT Arcane Books beyond the taco truck, "around four o'clock. You wanna meet us there?" Which would give him time to snag Jim and Claire and text Douxie and get everyone in the know about the Tarrons being on-planet.

"Excellent!" said Krel. "We will be there."

Excellent, Toby thought, sagging in relief.

"What is this four of the clock?" Varvatos demanded.

"It's um." Toby cast about for a way to explain terrestrial timekeeping without letting on he knew they were from another planet. Because him knowing that would only spook them, and/or end up with him being kidnapped, interrogated, and given Varvatos' predilections, possibly tortured. Which he really wasn't into. "Oh! There." He pointed at the clock attached to the museum, on the other side of the park. "When the little hand reaches four, that's four o'clock."

"Hmph." Varvatos glowered at the clock as if it had personally offended him.

"All right!" Krel looked at the clock, his eyes narrowed as if he was figuring it out, then looked back at Toby. "We will meet you there at four of the clock, Duke Toby."

The school's five-minute bell chimed, and Toby's eyes widened.

"Shoot, I gotta go! See you then, Krel!" Toby replied, waving as he started to run.


"Wait," Krel wondered about the retreating duke. "When did I tell him my name?"

"You didn't, little brother," Aja said, coming to stand beside him. "Maybe humans are telepathic?"

"If they are," Varvatos said, glaring all about them, "we must retreat to the mothership immediately!"

Luug barked, and chased his tail in a circle.

"Oh, Varvatos," said Aja, laughing, "you worry too much! Come, let us check out these other 'stores'."

Grumbling, he followed the royal siblings across the street, to a 'store' that declared itself to be a hall of records.


"Seriously?" Jim hissed to Toby during gym class. "They're here already?"

"Uh, obviously, Jimbo," Toby said, gesturing across to Krel arguing with Coach Lawrence.

"Ooh, nice," Claire said, watching as Aja climbed the rope so fast you could be excused for thinking she had four arms in this form.

"I thought they weren't going to get here until next week!" Jim moaned, hand in his hair. "I was going to figure out how to get them to read the amulet without scaring them off!"

"Pssh." Toby dismissed the concern with a wave. "I have it all figured out. They're meeting me at GDT after school. I told them Douxie might know where to get a, um, daxial array. Whatever that is."

"Not cool, Toby." Jim glared. "What are they going to do when he has no clue what one is?"

"Well." Toby counted on his fingers. "One, you and Claire come with. Two, we tell them reading the amulet's an initiation into our super-secret club. Which it kind of is. And, three, we're talking Douxie and Krel here. They're both like super-good at what they do. If they can't bang together a substitute, I'll eat my gym socks."

"Eww." Jim and Claire both recoiled.

"See? Don't worry, I've totally got this covered," Toby assured them. "Leave it to the Tobster. Besides, what was your idea, Jimbo? Go up to them in class and see if you could get them to read it in the middle of school? The light show's kind of obvious."

"And that would leave Varvatos out," Claire agreed. "Though I suppose we could get him to read it later. Somehow."

"Set it up so Nana asked him to read it to her, or something," Toby agreed with a grin. "But doing it my way, we get all three of them at once, and set Krel and Douxie working together from the get-go. Win-win situation all the way around."

Jim smiled. "Devious, Tobes. Devious."

On the other side of the gym, Coach Lawrence snapped his clipboard in half and walked away, bemoaning Aja's messing with his teaching methods. Aja just looked after him, blinking, then shrugged, turning to her brother.

"Soooo." Mary sidled up to Claire. "What are we talking about?"

"The new kids." Claire gestured across the gym.

Darci, coming to stand between Claire and Toby, put a hand on her waist. "They really don't look related," she said dubiously.

"Eh, maybe their family's mixed-race and they each take after a different parent," Toby offered.

Mary's eyes narrowed. "They're kind of weird."

"They're not from around here," Jim pointed out. Though he was not going to go into how far away the Tarrons were actually from. Not yet. "They're in a foreign country, with a different language and different customs than they're used to. Of course they're going to be a little weird."

"Yeah, I met them and their grandpa in the park before school this morning," Toby jumped in. "They're like, brand-new in town. Just arrived today. Give them some time to settle in."

"You'd be on edge too, if you were suddenly dumped in a new town and new school all at once," Claire agreed.

Mary and Darci exchanged a look. "Like, why are you suddenly their cheerleading squad?" Mary asked.

"Is there something you're not telling us?" demanded Darci.

"Uhh..." Jim and Toby and Claire all exchanged a worried look.

"Yes," Claire said after a second. "There is. We'll tell you guys soon, I promise."

"You keep saying that," Mary pointed out. "Soon doesn't seem to be coming."

"This weekend," Jim said impulsively. "Trollhunters' honor."

Mary and Darci still had doubt on their faces, but each slowly nodded.

"You lot!" Coach Lawrence barked at their group. "Time to break up the kaffeeklatsch and break out some balls, ladies and gents. It's time for... extreme dodge ball."

Almost as one, the five of them groaned.


Aja and Krel stood on the front steps of the "school" debating what to do. Principal Levit had insisted upon meeting their parents this evening. Given that "school" was apparently a mandatory activity on this planet, even Aja had to admit that refusing his request (or was it an order?) would be making too many waves. But their parents were in stasis, and the mothership did not have enough power to regenerate them, and it was all going to be a mess...

"Hey!" Toby said, walking up to them.

"Oh, Toby!" said Aja. "It is good to see you."

"Good to see you, too," he replied. "How was your first day of classes?"

She exchanged a look with her brother. "Frustrating," Aja had to admit.

"Sometimes every day feels like that," the skinny human male accompanying Toby said. He stuck out his hand. "Jim Lake. I think we have a few classes together."

"Aja Tarron." She reciprocated the strange human greeting. He took her hand gently, and shook it.

"I'm Claire Nuñez," the dark-haired female with the two boys said, extending her own hand toward Krel. "Welcome to Arcadia Oaks." And she, too, performed that strange human greeting.

"It is good to meet you," Krel said politely, clearly pulling on his diplomatic training. His eyes drifted toward Toby, though. "It is almost four of the clock. We were going to meet with your friend...?"

"Ah, yeah. Claire and Jim will be coming with, hope you don't mind." Toby smiled, sunny.

Aja and Krel exchanged another look. "Why would we mind?" she asked.

"Actually, we have to go collect our... 'grandpa' and dog," Krel said. "We will meet you there?"

"Sure thing, Krel!" Toby tossed him a salute. "See you there!"

And with a wave, their new friend and his friends walked off, toward the 'store' of 'books.'


Douxie blinked. "You told them he's a king?" he asked Toby, gesturing at Jim.

"Yeah! I mean, he is, and they're royalty, so they're big into that kind of thing, right?" Toby asked. As Douxie continued to look askance at him, Toby sighed and deflated a little. "Look, I wanted to say something to get them to trust me, okay? Because if I scared them off, they'd go hole up in their spaceship and we'd never get a chance to make them remember, all right?"

"He has a point," Claire said.

Jim shrugged.

Douxie sighed. "You're probably right," he told Toby.

Toby fist-pumped and drew a tally mark in the air. "Yes! Validation! Never got a wizard to say that to me before."

Archie sniffed and hopped down from the bookcase he was on top of. "If you're waiting to ever hear it from Merlin, I'm afraid you'll be waiting rather a long time to hear it again."

"I can admit when I'm wrong," Douxie protested to his familiar.

"Mm, I suppose so." Archie briefly groomed a hind leg. "That doesn't mean you always say it, however. And Merlin certainly wouldn't."

Douxie huffed a protest. "All right, so they'll be here in a few minutes, hopefully. What's the plan?"

"Uhh." Now Toby's expression was less certain. "Get them to read the amulet? Plot the downfall of Gunmar and General Morando?"

"A charmingly precise plan that is nonetheless somewhat lacking in details," Archie critiqued.

Toby shrugged, his palms splayed wide. "Hey, other than that, I got nothin'."

"All right," said Jim. "So we play it by ear. That usually works in our favor."

"Here they come!" warned Claire.


The door to the bookshop opened. Krel looked around, assessing. The area inside was... cozy, with interesting smells. Beyond the bookcase right by the door, Toby and his friends waited, together with another, taller, human male, and some sort of small black Earth animal wearing optical lenses like Eli's. The creature took one look at Luug and hissed, scrambling up the side of another bookcase, where it peered down over the top edge, glaring down balefully. Luug, for his part, ran up to the case and leaned up against it, looking up at the creature and barking happily.

"Oh, look, Luug is 'making a new friend'!" Aja said with obvious delight.

"I do not think that is friendship," Krel said doubtfully, eyeing the tableaux.

Varvatos just sniffed and glared at the humans. "Which of you has information on a daxial array?" he demanded.

"Oh, Varvatos, so impatient!" Aja chided. "We must 'make friends' first, before demanding information! It is how they do things here," she said with the authority of a new expert. She approached the group with a smile on her face. "Hello," she said to the taller, unknown human. "I am Aja Tarron, of the house of Tarron, and this is my brother-"

"Krel Tarron," the human said with a smile. "As well as your protector, the renowned Varvatos Vex, and..." His smile shifted into something more quizzical as he looked at Luug, now running in circles below the hissing black creature. "...and Luug," he said, with a put-upon expression. "Come on, Arch, give him a chance."

The black creature glared back at him. "No," it said clearly.

Krel's eyebrows raised. "I did not know Earth animals could talk," he said.

Aja, meanwhile, had taken a step back. "Who are you?" she asked. "How do you know our names?"

"Did General Morando send you?!" Varvatos demanded in a rage, thumping his cane on the floor. "Who has betrayed our location?!"

"Chill, mate," the human said, hands up. "None of us mean you harm, I can promise that."

Aja's eyes were still narrowed. "Who are you?" she asked again. Her fingers twitched, as if she was within a hair's breadth of going for her serrator.

The human held a hand out to them. Blue plasma ghosted around his fingertips. Which, so far as Krel knew, was not within the capacities of a human. "All your questions will be answered," he promised. His eyes sought, and met, Krel's. "Will you trust us?"

And the strange thing was... Krel felt like they could.

"No trust!" Varvatos bellowed. "My royals, these are enemies from an alien world! We must retreat!"

But the human's eyes held Krel's, kept his gaze. "Will you trust me?" he asked.

And, somehow... "I feel like I know you," Krel said. "But I know I have never met you before."

"You have met us," the smaller dark-haired boy, Jim, said, stepping closer. "In the future."

"Is this a trap?" Aja wondered. She now held her serrator in one hand, close to her chest.

"No trap," Claire promised her. "We saved the world in the future, all of us, together," she said, looking around their group. "But we came back in time, to do it right."

"Lies!" said Varvatos. "Treachery!"

"No, dude," said Toby, shaking his head. "Honest truth."

Jim reached into his pocket and pulled something out. A gleaming silver circle, a disc... with a green heart. "You made this for me, Krel," he said, offering it. "You and Douxie."

Krel took the object from him, studied it, turned it over. "This is Akiridion technology," he said, looking up, surprised. There was no way something like this should exist on this primitive mudball.

"Akiridion tech and good old-fashioned Earth magic," the as-yet-unnamed human chimed in, stepping closer. He smiled. "We built that together, Krel. It can help you remember the future, remember us." His eyes flashed to Aja, to Varvatos, who was still holding his cane as a weapon. "And we can help you defeat Morando and save your parents."

"You just have to trust us," Claire said.

Krel looked at his sister, at Varvatos. "There is no way this should be here," he told them. "This is much too advanced for this planet."

"It is a trap!" Varvatos opined.

Aja took the object from him, looked at it, looked back up. "Assuming you are telling the truth... what would we have to do to remember?"

"Hold the amulet, and read the words on it," said Jim. "That's all."

Aja looked at the amulet for a mekron longer. Her expression hardened. "We will do it, and see if it is as you say."

"My royal!" protested Varvatos.

"They are only words, Varvatos," she told him. "Either it is as they say, or we will spring their trap."

"We'll do it together," Jim said, reaching out, his hand resting on Aja's.

"All of us," said Toby, reaching out.

"Together," added Claire, her hand piling on.

"We're stronger together," agreed the presumably-Douxie-human, adding his to the stack.

Krel took a breath. "Here goes nothing," he said, putting his hand on top.

Varvatos glared impotently for a moment, then reluctantly joined his hand to theirs. "If this is a trick," he warned, "Varvatos will slay you all and drink your blood from a goblet made of your skulls."

Jim, unexpectedly, grinned. "Haven't heard that one in a while."

"For the good of all," Aja read, their voices all joining hers, "Excalibur is mine to command."

The bookshop flooded with green light.

And Krel remembered.


Aja staggered. Varvatos pressed a hand to his head. And Krel stared at them all, blinking. Then he laughed, throwing himself at Douxie, who caught him with his own laugh, the two hugging. "You are going to explain to me exactly how we remember!" Krel demanded.

"It worked," Aja said, eyes wide. "The Chronosphere... it worked!" she said with a delighted laugh, and hugged both Jim and Claire tightly. "Tell me, what have we missed?"

Varvatos, meanwhile, was staring into the mid-distance.

"Dude, you okay?" Toby asked him.

"We have a chance to save the King and Queen," Varvatos said softly. Wonderingly. "Though Varvatos could wish we had gone back far enough to prevent his act of betrayal and treason."

Toby winced. "We did," he said quietly. "But we had no way of contacting you guys until you got here. Sorry."

"Do not worry, future step-grandson," Varvatos replied, pounding him on the back. It was a lot less painful with him in the guise of a senior citizen than it would have been in his Akiridion form. "Wait - how fares the beauteous Nancy?"

Toby's eyes widened. "Crap," he said. "Varvatos, I'm so sorry. She doesn't remember you."

"What?!" bellowed Varvatos.

"Only the Ninth Configuration can remember," Jim put in. "Because we're all connected to Excalibur's stone in the amulet, and the Time Stone draws on the amulet."

"Not even I remember," Archie put in, jumping from the bookshelf to a chair to Douxie's shoulder. "And Douxie and I are soul-bound. Pleased to meet you all, by the way. I've heard so much."

"You mean..." whispered Aja. "My beautiful Steven...?"

Claire put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Aja."

"Our children," Aja murmured. Her face was stricken.

"They don't exist yet," Jim said. "But that doesn't mean they can't, right?"

"You get to make him fall in love with you all over again," Claire told her.

"Ugh." Krel pulled a face. "I have to watch that again?"

"Varvatos shall woo Nancy once more, and triumph over all foes!" the Akiridion declared, pointing his cane to the sky.

"But for now... we need help," Krel said.

"Oh yeah." Toby nodded. "Your ship's Douxie array or something right?"

"It is a daxial array," Krel shot back, with a glance at Douxie. "Our parents' cores will fail without it and they will die. The last time, we had to steal parts off the Zeron Brotherhood's ship, not to mention breaking into Area 49-B to get some pieces from Stuart's ship, to get it repaired. And I would prefer not to go back to Area 49-B."

"We have to go back there anyway, little brother," Aja pointed out. "We cannot just leave Buster there."

Krel deflated. "You're right, you're right," he complained.

"First things first," Douxie said. "I have a shift at the cafe tonight, but tomorrow after you're off school and I'm done here, let's take a look at it together, all right? I'm sure we can cobble something together to give you some breathing space."

"You are on." Krel fist-bumped Douxie.

"Oh, kleb," Aja moaned, her eyes rolling dramatically toward the ceiling. "We have to go get the blanks operational for a 'parent-principal conference' tonight!"

"Ugh. That went so not well last time," Krel complained.

"Why is Uhl not principal?" Aja asked Claire. "Instead it is someone I have never seen before, named Levit?"

"Yeah, so we're pretty sure Strickler murdered Principal Levit in the last timeline," Toby said. "There was a lot of staff turnover that year."

"We got Strickler on our side earlier this time," Jim added. "Speaking of which... we're going to be letting Gunmar out of the Darklands in a couple weeks, so we're gearing up to battle. You guys interested?"

Aja's eyes lit up. Varvatos cried "Glorious!" Krel just rolled his eyes and muttered "Ay ay ay."