Chapter Text
Gravesand, he had called it. What a horrible name. Dead Gumm-Gumms made into powder. Ugh. Even worse. Suddenly, Jim’s head was full of all the signs, the talks, the videos, his mother sitting him down and talking about the dangers of that kind of things. Who was Strickler to say that wasn’t a drug?
“I don’t think so.” He had said, warily looking at the coffee can full of purple dust.
But Strickler didn’t want to hear it. He had proceeded to talk about how that was his only chance, the only way to defeat Gunmar. He needed to be stronger and show no mercy. Jim was getting scared. Nomura even started doubting as well.
“You know what that could do to a human?” Jim had asked.
“Minor changes.” Strickler had answered, sternly. “Don’t you see? You have to try anything or otherwise this is a fight you’ll never win!”
‘Minor changes’. What was even that? Strickler took him by his shoulders and looked at him with his bright green eyes.
“Think of them.”
And Jim thought. He thought about his mother, his friends, the other Trolls. He had to do it. One way or another. He sighed and hadn’t even finished saying ‘yes’ as Strickler blew a handful of dust to his face.
It was weird at first, like a sudden urge to sneeze. Then, he felt dizzy, a pricking pain going up to his skull. Everything started to ache. He felt like his bones were craking, his muscles straining, his head about to split in two. And then he fainted.
It was then when Blinky and Aaaarrrgghh finally found the secret spot in the sewers where Strickler and Nomura had been training Jim.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Blinky’s six eyes wandered from Strickler and Nomura’s scared faces to an armored figure in the ground, convulsing uncontrollably. “Is that... Master Jim!!”
Aaaarrrgghh roared at the Changelings and picked up Jim’s body, which was still shaking as crazy and growing in size.
“Take him to refuge.” he said.
Blinky then confronted Strickler.
“What did you do to him?!”
“It was gravesand.” Strickler’s face was pale as ever as Aaaarrrgghh left. “I only wanted to try, see if that would help him. He’s not strong enough to defeat Gunmar!”
Blinky scoffed. It would be impossible to reason with him and Jim needed him.
“Gravesand, Great Gronka Morka!” he exclaimed, following Aaaarrrgghh.
It wouldn’t be a good idea to crash their refuge with Jim in that state. Fortunately, there was a good hiding place in the sewers just underneath it. Jim’s body had gone limp during the journey. Aaaarrrgghh looked at it sadly and Blinky’s heart sank.
“I’m going to call Tobias. Claire needs to rest so I won’t disturb her.” Aaaarrrgghh nodded.
Blinky sneaked up to the refuge but was immediately spotted by demanding Trolls. The Trollhunters had promised them to find more food as a hungry Troll is not easy to deal with.
“Why are you taking those?” asked Bagdwella, after complaining of her small space, not enough for a shop.
Blinky dropped one of the stones.
“Just... have to check on Claire’s health, ha.”
He put them and other utensils in a linen bag, as all the plastic bags had long been eaten, and went back to the sewers.
Toby was waiting outside school when he received the call.
“What’s up? Hey, it’s Jim with you?” he frowned as Blinky’s words were whispered, hurried and worrisome. “Wait, what?”
He reunited them in the sewers a quarter of hour later, breathing heavily. Jim was still unconscious, so Blinky received Toby to prevent him.
“Oh, my gosh, Blink! You almost gave me a heart attack!” Toby complained. “How is him?”
“See it for yourself.”
As Toby was about to enter, Jim’s eyes open. They felt them watery, as if he had cried in his pain. Everything ached. He was feeling so weird. He remembered the gravesand and the pain and the blueing of his hand before fainting. He gasped and Aaaarrrgghh turned to him. Jim was looking at his now blue hand and then to Toby, who had just appeared in front of him with his mouth perfectly round.
“Okay, that’s weird.” he managed to say, his eyes fixed in Jim.
“Oh, no...” Jim said, now noticing the tusks protruding to his upper lip. “Oh, no, oh, no...” he reached the top of his head, where a pair of brand new horns welcomed him. “Oh, no!”
Toby let out a nervous chuckle and hurried to comfort his friend.
“Blinky says you took some gravesand. Who knows? Maybe this is a temporary effect, like him turning into human!”
“I’m a freaking Troll!” Jim said. “Strickler’s gonna hear me. ‘Minor changes’, my...”
“Not Troll.” Aaaarrrgghh said. “Not all.”
“Yes, it appears you’re a perfect mix of species.” Blinky added. “May I ask... is there a... Changeling in your family?”
“What?!” Jim had been examining the size of his arms and legs. “I... what?”
Toby looked at him and then at Blinky.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down, there! We’ll have plenty of time to find out why this happened, can we just stay with the ‘what are we gonna do’ part?”
Blinky scratched his head. Transformations like that were extremely rare and he himself had only been able to blame an unexpected mix of potions inside Gatto’s Keep.
Jim was trying to stand up. He was feeling as if every muscle in his body had been forced to do an extreme exercise. He was taller and felt dizzy, so much that Aaaarrrgghh had to lend him his arm to grab it.
“I need to see myself.” Jim was muttering. “Where’s my phone? Tobes, can you take a picture?”
“Eh...” Toby looked at Blinky, like waiting for advice, and put out his phone, his hands shaking. “Oops, blurry.”
Jim took his phone from his hand, so fast that Toby didn’t realize it was gone until the next second.
“Fascinating.” Blinky said, wondering if not just Jim’s reflexes had improved.
For his part, Jim had opened the front camera of the phone and had thrown the phone away, scared of what he had seen.
“Yikes!”
“My phone!”
As Toby ran towards it, Jim leaned against one of the walls.
“What I’m going to do? I... I can’t live like this!”
“Well, we still have the Glamour mask.” Toby said, holding his phone as far as he could since it had fell in a puddle. “And Blinky has that stone that lets you walk under the sunlight, so you should be able to have a normal life for as long as this last!”
“I’m hideous.” Jim complained. “What if my mother finds out? What... what’s Claire going to think?”
“At least, maybe you can defeat Gunmar now.” Blinky said. “It’s like you humans say: you can just stay in a corner and lament your situation or stand up and make the best out of it. Yes, you’ve changed. But you’re still alive. You’re in good shape. We’re going to be there for you, for anything you need.”
He then searched the bag and took a shining, golden gem out of it.
“We’ll find a way to make this work.” Toby said.
Jim dried his tears with the back of his hand. Just then, Strickler appeared.
“Young Atlas!”
Jim bared his teeth, with a growl that shocked him. He took the yellow gem and went to the next part of the sewers to put it in his Amulet.
Blinky and Toby gave Strickler a dirty look. He lowered his head.
“I’m sorry. I just wanted Jim to succeed.”
“At any cost?” Blinky scoffed.
“I don’t want him to die, either.”
Blinky was out of words. The two of them cared a lot of Jim.
Meanwhile, Jim had tried not to pay attention to his ragged clothes once he switched off the armor and put it back as soon as possible, now with the gem inside. He tried it, reaching out to touch the faint sunlight filtering from a manhole cover.
Calmer, he managed to take out his phone and look at himself once again. It could have been worse, at least he still looked human... he sighed. Who was he trying to fool? He was a monster.
Toby found the Glamour Mask and lent it to Jim, who put it without thinking and, with a flash of light, was human again.
“It’s not going to fall out, trust me.” Toby said, softly.
Jim put his hand on his shoulder and looked at Strickler.
“I think it’s better if you leave.”
A few hours later, and after rushing back to school, Jim was home, sitting in his bed. Maybe he now had a chance to win the fight against Gunmar. Maybe it was something temporal, just like Blinky’s experience. But what if it wasn’t? Being a Trollhunter was difficult enough, what about living as a half-Troll?
He could hear the keys in the door. His mother was home. She had started remembering and he needed her more than ever. He took a deep breath and left his room. It was time to tell her about everything.