Weapons clashed as Hilde stood his ground strong. In his prime, he could have easily taken out both krubera soldiers, but he was old now. Still he did his best to give the boys time to escape. He accidentally let one by him as it went to chase the whelps down and Hilde inwardly cursed.

"You would give your life for those whelps? A fool's death." Userna hissed from the sidelines as she watched.

"Those boys are going to be your downfall, wretch." Hilde panted as he lost his ax and had to resort to his fists, which didn't prove useful. "You and your dark lord will fall, by their hands." he shouted, pushing back the two soldiers and gaining a little breathing time. He watched the queen's face turn to that of slightly surprised. "You don't think it's obvious. I'm from a time far older than you or Gunmar, I have seen his influence on others. We know you work for him." the purple troll hissed.

"And you will perish with that knowledge." her face shifted back to determination as another one of her soldiers plunged a blade through his chest from behind. The metal stuck out the front but Hilde didn't even flinch.

"To die for a future," Hilde's skin started slowly turning to stone. "Where fear is yet again only an emotion, not a way of life." his body started to stiffen as the stone reached up his neck. "That is a future I will lay down my life for." a smile crept onto his lips as his mouth was sealed shut, the rest of him turning to stone as he passed his last breath.

"Dispose of him." Usurna growled as she turned away. Her soldiers obeyed her command and one took their mace to the body, smashing it to pieces. The queen searched the entirety of the market for those whelps but found nothing of them, and soon she returned to her quarters in anger.

"You vin some, you lose some." that annoying German accent filled her ears as she growled in warning.

"Watch your tone, impure." she hissed, finally having enough of the polymorphs attitude. He held his hands up in surrender but his face was unamused.

"Vhat, Ich just speaking the truth." Otto said, a cocky smirk pulling at his human lips. Usurna growled more at his tone and he finally backed off.

"We had them, we could have had everything fall into place. Our dark prince will be returning any day now and we have nothing to offer him." the queen cursed, more to herself than him but she still spoke out loud.

"That is not true. Ve have Trollmarket under our- your control." The changeling was quick to correct himself from the glare he got from the queen. "How is that nothing?" It was a rhetorical question but it did make the krubera think.

"I suppose you have a point." she sighed and looked around her small dwelling in imagining the whole of the market. "But we still need the amulet for the bridge." she hissed again.

"Ve vill also need the trollhunters hand to make it vork." Otto leaned forward in his chair. Usurna gave him a questioning look which made a smirk grow on his face. "Daylight is his to command."

~~~~~~

Claire, Toby, Barbara, and the three trolls that were sharing the boy's homes were all gathered in the lake's living room, Draal and ARRRGH!!! Standing a little further away to make space but they could still hear and see everything.

"He still hasn't come out of his room?" Claire asked, looking at the redhead woman of the group. It had been a few days since their last trip to trollmarket and they were all still saddened but Jim was really taking a toll on himself. He wouldn't even let Claire in to comfort him, he was just that freaked out.

"Master Jim blames himself deeply for Hilde's falling." Blinky answered, playing with his hands a little.

"I mean, I get it, he feels bad that he couldn't do anything about it. We all know he's always been like that but this. . . this is a little extreme." Toby admitted, concerned for his best friend and arguably brother.

The boys had talked about their feelings in private and they both came to the conclusion that they just didn't see each other that way anymore. But they would still love each other like family, till the end of time. It was them at the start, it'll be them at the end, just not in a romantic way.

"Jim mad at himself. Usurna problem." ARRRGH!!! Growled but his tone was laced with sympathy for the half troll as he shook his head. Toby patted the gentle giant's arm to calm him.

"I sympathize with him, but." Draal started, his voice slightly more quiet than normal. "We can not be wasting valuable time. Bular will be back soon and we will need all hands on deck and at 100%." he clenched his fist but his expression stayed neutral.

"I agree with you, Draal, but what can we do right now? He won't let any of us talk to him." Barbara spoke up from her seat, her hands around her mug of tea to calm her nerves.

Their conversation was small and quiet, but troll hearing was miles long. Jim was listening to them from his room. He hated worrying them but he just couldn't bring himself to face the fact that he just let his comrade, his friend die. He had heard that Eli was doing better and that was great to hear but that was just another problem. He let Eli witness such a horrific thing and he felt so guilty that he'd put the short teen through so much.

He growled and grabbed at his horns, curling in on himself on the floor. He had made a mess of his room, just like when he had first turned troll but he was just angry at himself. He was the trollhunter, now a king to people and he just let him die. Was he just as bad as Arthur? He hated that thought, he hated that he thought he was like that pathetic excuse of a king.

He growled louder and lower as his voice rattled the walls of his room. In rage he grabbed at the first thing he could grab and sat up to chuck it at the wall. The impact never came as he watched whatever he threw disappear in a puff of teal mist. He felt the pressure of his amulet appear in his chest as he realized what he'd grabbed.

He calmed a little to reach up and hold his chest, the feeling not painful but just unexpected. It was the first time it had connected to him like this since the PyroBligst match and its powers worked instantly. A calming aura washed over him and when he opened his eyes his room didn't quite look like his room.

It wasn't a mess any more, the posters on the wall were blank and everything was a familiar shade of blue. Jim knew he was in the void, but how that was possible in his room, he had no clue.

"Hey, skinny legs." Jim jumped a little at the voice that came from his bed. He wasn't too surprised to find Deya sitting there looking at him but her presence was still unexpected.

"D-dey?" the nickname rolled off his tongue in confusion. She smiled and patted the space next to her, inviting him to sit next to her. "How. .?" he shifted to stand but was still looking around, very confused.

"The void is limitless, we go where you two go. Did you think we were confined just to the forge?" she laughed a little as Jim looked back at her. Normally he would have pushed her away and not want to talk but the calming magic the amulet was putting into him made him submit to it.

"I thought the only way to get into the void was with the Soothscryer." he whispered, his voice a little horse as he got up to sit on his bed with her. Not to mention she wasn't a blue soul, she appeared solid and fully colored, a few scars that he didn't initially remember but he had met her before she was the trollhunter so there were bound to be a few more battles after Killahead.

"Normally it is, but we all know you're a special case." she chuckled a little and gently poked at his chest where the amulet rested. Jim's hands came up to playfully push her away with his own rasped laugh. "Why're you beating yourself up?" her tone changed, she was worried for him and her face said exactly that.

"I-" Jim sighed and looked down at his lap. Deya placed a gentle hand on his shoulder as she waited for him to find his words. Jim could feel the tears start to well up in his eyes again. "I l-let him die." he whispered in guilt and grief as he brought his hand up to his face.

"You know that's not true. He knew the risks and he wanted to protect you-" Deya tried to comfort him but he growled and abruptly stood up.

"I'm the trollhunter, I'm a divine king, I'm supposed to protect everyone. Not the other way around!" he groaned and pulled at his horns as he started pacing in the void of his room.

"Jim, you and your friends have proven that you're stronger together rather than alone." she spoke softly, a tone Jim wasn't too used to hearing from her.

"But they're not supposed to give their lives for me, that's my job!" he stopped pacing and aggressively pointed at his chest as he unconsciously bared his teeth at her. The gem on his forehead glowed a harsh green rather than its normal teal to match his amulet. He saw the glow reflect in her eyes as she looked at him with the same concern as earlier, but no fear towards him. He gasped slightly as he knocked himself out of his rage and tried to calm himself. "Im sorry, i-i" he stuttered as he grabbed at his horns again.

"Jim, you talked me out of my doubt and self hatred. I'm here to do the same with you." She stood from the bed and held her arms out ever so slightly. Jim might have been seven and half feet tall, but he was still short for a troll, it still didn't surprise him that Deya was taller than him. He caved and leaned in to hug her.

"I hate feeling this weak, like I can't do anything to protect the pack." he whined into her shoulder as she rubbed circles on his back.

"It's not weak to grieve, to cry. Just means you've been too strong for too long. You will never be weak, you hear me Jim?" she soothed him as he started to calm down a little. He nodded his head, glad she had forced her way in to talk to him. "And you gotta stay strong, the fight's not over." she pulled back to look him in the eyes.

"It's never over." Jim laughed, wiping his eyes of his tears, she laughed with him and gave a nod. "Thanks, Dey." he leaned his forehead to hers as familial affection and thanks.

"No problem, skinny legs." Deya lifted the tension with the nickname and a smirk, gaining an eye roll and laugh from Jim. she pulled back to look at him one more time. "Although, I think that nickname is starting to get expired." she smirked. Jim knew she was right, he was gaining more and more muscle daily and he definitely wasn't as skinny as when they first met.

"Eh, still pretty skinny for a troll." he shrugged his shoulders with a chuckle. She made a noise that seemed to translate to 'fair point' or 'can't argue'. The gutter troll smiled and roughed up his hair. "Gah, no." he whined with a smile as he tried to escape his sister's grasp.

"Hey, you're not going anywhere yet." she laughed and pulled him into a playful headlock, still roughing with his hair as he laughed and tried to pull away.

"Deya, c'mon. I hate trying to brush my mane." Jim laughed. She stopped with his plea but didn't let him out of the headlock.

"Eh, fine. You take all my fun." she teased him as he finally got out of her hold. "Feel better now?" she asked, folding her arms with a grin as she watched him fall into a natural crouch. He huffed a laugh through his nose but he hummed.

"Yeah, yeah, thanks Dey, really." he stood up with a thankful smile. The original trollhunter smiled at her brother in arms and huffed in pride.

"Give Bular and Gunmar, when you get to him, a few good hits for me, got it?" she said, holding out her fist to him. He laughed again and returned the fist bump.

"Absolutely, I'll make sure they know it's from you." Jim smiled as she barked a laugh. She smiled one last time as he felt his room start to go back to normal.

"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on you." Deya's final words to him as he breathed in and blinked, his room turning back to normal. He smiled, even though he was alone in his room, he knew he was never alone in spirit. He just hoped they knew when to look away so he could have privacy.

He huffed a laugh at his own thought and shook his head, turning to face the door. He took a deep breath and steeled himself, opening the door and walking down the stairs. He rubbed his face as he stepped down the stairs as he almost felt all eyes shift to him.

He didn't look up at them until he got to the bottom. He didn't even hear the footsteps that charged him and the weight that rammed into his torso. He barely caught himself on the railing as Claire hugged him aggressively.

"God's, hi there." Jim laughed a little as he hugged her back. He could tell the others were just as happy to see him but didn't want to crowd him.

"Jimbo, good to see you up and running again." Toby was the first to speak up as he walked over to the half troll and sorceress, who still hadn't released Jim from her hold.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't really mean to push you guys away." Jim's ears pinned down a little as he grabbed his horn.

"It's ok, kiddo. Sometimes we all need alone time, and that's fine." the redhead stood from her seat with a smile.

"Master Jim," Blinky started, walking up to him. "I think I can speak for everyone when I say we are glad you are feeling better, but," Jim's ears pinned back again, more in annoyance than shame or anger. "You three have school, unfortunately." he smiled as Jim sighed and Claire and Toby gave slightly annoyed laughs.

"Yeah, we don't need you missing forty whatever days again." Toby snickered, he had already been out for a few days in his pity party and it was early morning so, Jim steeled himself again and nodded.

"Yeah, ok I get it." he sighed as Claire finally loosened her grip on him. Toby moved to grab his things as Claire reached up for Jim's horns, pulling him down gently for a quick kiss before she went to grab her own things.

~~~~~

"Oh, Lake decides to show up now?" Steve called out to the trio with a teasing tone as the rest of the group walked up to them. "Feeling better, Dude?" he slung his arm over Jim's shoulders and Jim rolled his eyes with a chuckle.

"Get off me." the young king pushed the jocks arm off himself with a smirk that turned to a smile. "But yes. I am." he answered.

"Do not worry, you haven't missed much." Krel folded his arms over his chest, reassuring Jim that he didn't have a lot of school work to catch up on, which eased him slightly. It was still a little weird to see the whole group there and hanging out. At school that was.

"So, any plans after school?" Mary asked, they all knew at this point they had limited time to talk before they had to branch off to their first periods. The mood turned downcast by the two main rulers, Jim and Aja.

"Unfortunately, with us getting caught, your evil queen is bound to be on high alert." Aja started, using a calm and soft tone to try not to trigger anything from the two teens that were at the front of the fight that day. Jim sighed.

"Aja's right. We're not going to be able to get back into trollmarket until we take it back ourselves." the slim teen said, reaching up to grab at nothing when he couldn't find his own horn, being in his human form. He opted to run his fingers through his hair instead.

"Think we can use your place for round table again?" Toby asked, turning to the Tarrons, the reference went over the four 'normal' teens but he did get a chuckle from those that remembered.

"Of course, if that's what we need to do, our ship is always an option." the king in waiting replied, both siblings being happy to lend their space for meetings or just hanging out in general.

"There are our plans then. We'll head to your place after school then?" Jim asked, clarifying what he assumed the akiridions were inviting them.

"Yes, that sounds like a good plan." Aja smiled as the bell went off. "We'll see you all later." she waved as the group split to head to their respective classes. Unfortunately, the group was split between two different lunches so they never really saw everyone all at one time during the day other than quick looks in the halls.

Come fifth period, four of the five teens with memories had the same class, minus Aja. The quartet sat together talking decently quietly as they had free time. They had a sub and they didn't seem to want to do anything for the day, but the students weren't going to complain.

"So, do we have anything to go off of?" Krel asked, leaning over his desk to make their huddle a little smaller and more private.

"Not really." Claire sighed, shifting in her chair to a more comfortable position. "You're going to hate me for this but," she threw her words at Jim, who understandably got a little concerned. "I've portaled down to the gyre station and we're still locked out. I think she also put up some kind of ward over all of trollmarket too. I can't portal into anything down there, the closest I got was outside the gyre." she explained.

"Great." both Jim and Krel said in unison with the same amount of sarcasm. Toby huffed a laugh at the two of them.

"Well that just makes it all the more harder to get in, now doesn't it?" Krel rolled his eyes with a sigh as he sat back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah it does. And you seriously tried to go to trollmarket alone, at a time like this?" Jim's concern shifted to his girlfriend. He knew she was capable of defending herself but that wouldn't stop him from being worried.

"It's not like I tried to portal in the middle of a street." the shadow which shot back, but she understood his protective nature.

"Yeah, and she didn't go alone, Jimbo." Toby spoke up, grabbing his attention. "Me and Darc went with her as back up." he smiled, reassuring his best friend. Jim sighed, he felt better knowing that they had each other's backs, but that also meant more of them were put in harm's way. The announcement speakers for the classroom buzzed, indicating someone was about to start talking and the class stilled.

"Aja and Krel Tarron, to the main office please, Aja and Krel Tarron." the voice called and repeated before a click was heard, it turned off. Jim, Claire and Toby looked to Krel with confused expressions.

"Dude, what'd you do?" Toby laughed a little, knowing the tech master probably didn't do anything wrong but still wanted to tease him.

"We did nothing. I have a feeling we just need to do all the paperwork again." he sighed and stood up from his seat. About to move to leave the speaker came back on, grabbing everyone's attention again.

"James Lake Jr., to the main office as well, James Lack Jr." another click and it was off again. The confused looks were then thrown at the blue clade teen.

"The hell'd I do?" Jim questioned, still looking at the sound box on the wall. He looked back to the other three, who just shrugged. Jim shook his head and stood with Krel to leave. "I guess we'll be back." They gave a small parting before walking out of the room, still very confused.

"Perhaps they just want to speak to you about your absences." Krel tried to reason, thinking of any problem that might have got the other called down with them.

"Maybe, but I doubt it. They didn't even talk to me about my forty-three days until Uhl asked me to show you guys around." Jim said as they walked. Krel could only offer another shoulder shrug in return to that notion. They came around a corner and ran into Aja as she was headed to the office from her class.

"Paperwork again." she groaned, her tone very much sarcastic, making the boys chuckle. Her annoyed expression turned to a smirk soon, seeing an opening to test her fellow ruler. "I am curious as to why you're being called in, though." Aja teased, gaining an eye roll from her brother.

"To hell if I know anymore." Jim sighed as they started walking again. They made their way to the main office and expected to be split from there but the three of them were called back together. "That's not suspicious." Jim had an uneasy feeling now as he whispered his concerns. They walked into the principal's office and Jim almost turned troll as the wave of dread and panic that hit him. The Tarrons were just as unsettled as him as they walked into the seemingly empty room.

~~~~~~~

"Don't you have your own insiders at a certain. . . government facility?" Usurna asked, a smirk pulling at the edges of her mouth. Otto perked up and smirked back.

"Ve do. And I couldn't help but notice how Hunter vasn't the only non-human in their little rag-tag group. Perhaps ve should leave an anonymous tip vith proof at their doorstep." Otto smiled as he took another sip of his drink.

"I'm sure area 49-B hasn't had any new guests in a while. Let's help them out." Usurna smirked a devilish grin as Otto went to contact a few people.

~~~~~~~

As the trio walked into the room, they thought it was empty. None of them felt right now but they all jumped back as the door slammed shut. They all went into defensive stances as Jim let out an inhuman growl out of instinct. The Tarrons pulled out their serrators, ready to attack. Nothing was there, the room was still empty aside from the three of them.

"What the Kleb?" Krel breathed out in confusion and some anger. Jim's ears flicked back to the sound of something being fired, but the user obviously wanted to silence the weapon. Aja gave a gasp of pain before she fell limp to the ground.

"AJA!" Both Krel and Jim called in concern and worry, Jim was able to turn to catch her before she hit the floor and had enough. He shifted to his troll form with a low growl as he looked to where the shot had come from. He was too late to catch another shot as Krel fell to his knees and grasped his neck.

"Krel, dammit!" Jim cursed and stood over the two siblings to protect them. His distraction made for one more shot that came for him this time. He covered himself with his arm as he felt a needle sink into his skin.

"Oh, tougher than you look." a disturbingly calm voice spoke. Jim felt the effects of the tranquilizer but he was able to fight it and stay awake. He shook his head as he tried to glare at the woman attacking them. His vision was blurry but he found the strength to growl at her again.

She threw a few more shots at him as the drugs kept hitting his arm. He snarled and lunged at her, but with his poor senses being rifled with, she sidestepped him easily. As he tried to turn to her again, he felt the undeniable feeling of a prick in the side of his neck.

"B-b!tch~" Jim growled shakily as he struggled to stay standing for only a moment. The wall left his grip as he fell to the floor, still fighting to stay awake. The last thing he heard was her sickening laugh before the world around him faded. Jim was starting to get tired of this feeling.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Has anyone seen our trouble makers?" Mary asked, a smirk on her face as the group met up in the courtyard after sixth period. The group hadn't seen any speck of the three that had been called to the office and, while Mary might have been using a teasing tone, they were all starting to get a little worried.

"No, they haven't come back yet?" Eli asked, his voice cracking in slight fear. Steve, Darci and Toby all shook their heads.

"What'd they do that was so bad?" Steve asked, starting to understand that none of them were truly that bad in their antics.

"Let's go check with the office. Maybe they're still there and caught up with something." Claire turned to walk towards the office, trying to reason with herself more than anyone that their friends were just fine.

"Well, Krel did say that he and Aja needed to do paperwork for being transferred here." Toby mentioned as he watched Claire turn to leave.

"Yeah, ok that makes sense. But what about Jim? He hasn't done anything to get called in." Darci argued back.

"Ok, yeah, let's go check on them." Mary sighed, moving to follow Claire to the main office. As soon as the group got there, the receptionist seemed shaken up and on top of that wouldn't say anything about them. She even tried to say they were never there to begin with. The group left the woman without a fuss but Claire started to storm out of the halls.

"C-Bomb?" Mary called out to her, but she was sure the Latina didn't quite hear her. The pack followed after her without much more question and as soon as they reached the courtyard again, Claire spoke.

"Bookshop, Now!" she growled. Her powers didn't work to find people if said person was unconscious, and right now, she couldn't find her link to any of them. They were going to need Douxie's help.

The group didn't argue with her and understood what she was doing. They made their way to the shop as fast as they could without looking completely suspicious while simultaneously trying to figure out what might have happened. Claire was the first through the door and they were greeted by just Archie.

"You lot look a little frantic." the feline perked up from his spot on the counter. At the sound of the cat's voice, the wizard came from what must have been the back room, knowing it was them if Archie was speaking so freely.

"Whoa, what's going on?" Douxie asked, taking note of their expressions and body languages that he knew meant they were frantic about something. He didn't miss the fact that his brother, lover or his sister weren't there with them, making him all that more worried.

"Our boyfriends and Aja got themselves into trouble." Claire blurted, her anger and worry leaking from her tone. Douxie only got a little flushed at her outing their relationship but his concern took over far too quick to linger on that feeling.

"What!?" he barked initially but then got his bearings to ask real questions. "What happened, what trouble?" he held his hand over his vambrace as it started igniting with his magic with his emotions.

"We don't know. They got called down to the office during fourth and they didn't come back." Toby answered, shrugging his shoulders but still just as mad and concerned.

"I can't link to any of them, so I'm pretty sure they've been captured." Claire explained further. "I can still feel them but they're knocked out." she added after seeing the look on her magic teacher's face.

"Wait, captured? They've all been kidnapped?" Steve and Eli squeaked together, obviously not figuring out what was happening until now.

"We know you're our master of magics, but Krel has got to have taught you something about hacking." Toby halfway asked, hoping to maybe get into the school security cameras by hacking or even some sort of spell.

Douxie calmed himself for a moment, running his hand through his hair in thought. His eyes searched his vumbrance then the bookshelves around them before sighing.

"Douxie might not know much, but Zoe would." Archie pitched in, turning from the group to his familiar as he spoke, not knowing some of the group knew the technomancer. Douxie eyes went wide at the mention of the pink haired girl.

"Zoe! The amount of times I've seen her plug into heavily protected footage is uncountable. She could get us in without a sweat, snap of her fingers, more literally than you think." Douxie explained, turning to them with a smile.

"Well then, let's get going. Where is she at?" Mary asked, taking a step back to signal their leave. Douxie locked up as they started walking down the sidewalk again.

"The record store or Hex Tech?" Claire asked, knowing the witch had two different jobs but didn't really know which one she was at right now.

"Hex Tech, let's hope she's willing to take a small break from work." Douxie answered, taking the lead to show them the way.

"Wait, Hex Tech is run by wizards?" Mary asked, a little astonished. "I go there like every week to make sure I'm up to date on everything, my phone and tea and trends." she said, not really surprising anyone.

"Yes it is, but keep your voice down." Claire answered, forcing her voice to be calmer with her friend but you could still tell she was on edge, as were all of them. They soon made it to the fancy establishment and the place was thankfully empty at the hour. Douxie walked up to the girl that was at the counter and asked her to get the pink haired technomancer with his usual charm.

"Smooth Teach." Claire tried to laugh as the younger looking witch walked off to find the older techy.

"I try, they all know me here." Douxie said, turning back to the group as they waited. Zoe soon came marching out with a smirk on her face.

"So, Casperan wants something from me now. What kind of trouble did you get yourself into this time, knucklehead?" Zoe asked, her normal teasing tone as she walked up to the group.

"Royal trouble." Douxie answered. The serious tone and expression made Zoe realize they meant business. "We came to ask if you'd hack into some cameras for us." he had told Zoe about the rulers, both akiridion and Arcadian, when they were at band practice and she already tore him up for the time travel thing.

"Follow me." the technomancer almost ordered as she went to lead them to the back room. She didn't dare question them out in the lobby, but she rarely ever saw that look on the wizards face and she knew they had a good reason to be there.

(A/N hellloooo~ my beautiful subjects and welcome back to this story. i apologize for the long wait but my finals at school were tearing me apart. with the new semester, i have more time to write so i hope to be a little more frequent with updates for a while. i also apologize for having even more angst but if you've read this far, you should know by now that i cant help but have a love hate relationship with it. i really do believe Jim would tear himself up and think it was his fault for Hilde's death. i also feel coronal crazy-pants would jump on anything that even seemed like a lead considering that area 49-B hasn't had anything new for 30 years. i feel like, as a troll, Jim would have a better tolerance to tranks just because of their tough nature. and no, not everyone knew about Krel and Douxie's relationship, people like Claire Jim and Aja were basically the only ones to know so Claire kinda outed them when she told Douxie what was going on. but they are all fine with it so they didn't say anything. be prepared for some more torture and badas$ overprotective sorcerer scenes in the upcoming chapters. and as always, i hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading, until next time, my people~) word count - 5317 not including (A/N)