Jim drifted. He didn’t know where he was, but he didn’t hurt.

“Trollhunter…”

Jim turned to see… Kanjigar the Courageous. His predecessor. Someone you only saw on the Forge, unless you were…

“I’m dead?”

“Do you want to be?” Kanjigar asked.

“Um… No?”

“Then you are not.” Kanjigar stared at him for a moment. “You have achieved the goal every Trollhunter since Deya has worked for. Gunmar is dead. Trollmarket is safe.”

“I thought you’d be angry for us revealing you.”

Kanjigar chuckled. “Oh, we have seen everything you saw, and the Avengers left you little choice. But trolls have not always been unknown to man, and if that is to change…” He smiled. “Why, Jim the Victorious, Claire the Wise, and Toby the Brave are fully capable of managing the aftermath.”

Jim’s eyes opened wide. “But half the people will just see us as kids…”

“And were you not the one to point out that in a few years, a flash of an eye as we see it, you will not be kids? The Avengers do not see you as children, not fully. Even the Man of Iron, though he is hag-ridden by his own guilt.” Kanjigar nodded. “And your very youth will aid you—you are not bound up in ancient feuds. You and your allies can look to the future and make it what you desire.” He paused. “James Lake Jr. Trollhunter.” Kanjigar looked around, and suddenly Jim saw the other trollhunters, all of them, standing in the void. “Be it known that the amulet chose truly and that you have fulfilled its destiny.”

“Thanks.”

“And when the time comes for you to choose a successor, you may lay down your burden and live your life in peace.”

“But the Amulet—it’s for—”

“Not anymore. That was a sorcery forged to oppose Gunmar, and now Gunmar is fallen. I expect you will bear it for many years, but you need not fear bearing it unto death anymore.” Kanjigar chuckled, the sound a rumble. “Consider it A gift for your service. When the time comes, you will know…” Kanjigar and the others were starting to fade.

“Thank you, James Lake. For you have fulfilled our oaths…” And then Jim was in an unfamiliar room, full of beeping machines.

When Jim pulled his eyes open, he felt… Really bad. He tried to talk, but there was a tube down his throat. He started to weakly thrash around, and then he noticed that his hands were secured to the side of the bed.

It was a very nice bed, more comfortable than the one at home… Then Jim saw the StarkTech logo.

Oh, that explained it.

But where was he?

“Mr. Lake?” A nurse was peering down at him. “Are you awake?”

“Ghnnnn…” He couldn’t say anything, not with that damned tube.

“We need to check your vitals. You had a difficult recovery.”

“Mmmm…” Mom.

“Dr. Lake is sleep—”

“I’m here.” Mom came running in the door, and she looked terrible, her hair going every which way and her eyes were shadowed… Had she been sleeping? Eating?

“Jim,” Mom said. “We’re going to pull the tube. It’s going to hurt.

Jim made a thumbs up. They were right. It did hurt. But then, so did his entire body.

“Mom…” he rasped.

“Wait, Jim,” Mom said. “Moisten your lips,” she held some ice chips in a cup to his mouth. “Let them melt.”

Jim did. It felt a little bit better. “Is Gunmar?” The last few minutes kept bouncing around in his brain.

“Dead.” Jim had never heard his mother so satisfied. “He and his entire organization are dead and gone, Jim. They won’t hurt anyone else again. Claire and Toby are… Okay.”

“Good.” Jim smiled. “Mom…”

“Yes?” Mom asked.

“You haven’t been sleeping. Have you been eating?” Mom always forgot to eat unless he pushed her. Jim shuddered at the memory of what she thought a good breakfast was when she was running late, which is why he made certain to get up first.

Mom looked at him, looked away, bit her knuckles. She turned back, pulling her glasses off and wiping her eyes with her fingers. “Yes, Jim…” she said. “I have been eating. I even tried to cook, and I didn’t burn down the building. Just killed an indestructible microwave.”

“How long…” Jim asked. “It feels like a couple of days…”

“Try over a week,” A man said as he came sweeping in. “I’m not certain what you got into, but given where we are, I’ll not ask questions. Dr. McAllister, at your service.”

“You don’t look like any of Mom’s coworkers?” Jim asked, then coughed. “Ow.”

“Yeah, breathing tubes are hell on the throat,” he said. “If it hurts, don’t try to talk over it.” The man nodded. “But no, I’m actually with the pediatric department at St. Thomas’ in London. But when Tony Stark offers to cut a 10 million pound donation for my presence, I can take a flight. I haven’t seen so much medical talent since my last symposium. Mr. Stark was even polite to Dr. Strange when he came in to examine you, and I can tell you, Stephen can be a bit hard to get along with, especially for someone as… used to getting his way as Tony Stark.”

“Wish… Mom…” Jim tried not to cough, but all these guys rolling in like Mom wasn’t good enough?

Mom brushed his hair back. “Jim, I wouldn’t have been allowed to treat you, even in the hospital… I’m too close, and things were…”

“Yes. Ah, Mr. Lake…” Dr. McAllister said, his voice serious. “You clinically died twice on the table. Don’t thank me. SHIELD has a very good trauma team. But make no mistake, you were seriously injured.”

“Oh, no.”

“Jim, what is it?”

“A week unconscious? That means the Spring Fling is only three weeks away!”

“I…” Dr. McAllister frowned. “You’ll be moving around by then, but I don’t know about dancing or celebrations. Well, they should be celebrating your survival, but from the lack of news stories and the stack of NDA’s I was handed…” he shook his head. “Well, not my business, as we used to say in the regiment. So! Let’s get started evaluating you!”

For the next thirty minutes, Jim was subjected to tests, especially surrounding his memory and cognitive facilities. Evidently, when they’d MRI’d him, his brain had been bruised, though it hadn’t swollen enough to be opened up.

Jim resolved to never again ask exactly what a doctor meant unless he really was certain he’d be okay with the answer.

“You seem to be in good shape, Mr. Lake, and I hope we’ll have you out and around before too long.”

“Thanks, Doc,” Jim said and found himself yawning. “This is crazy. I just woke up…” He yawned again.

“Sleep, Jim,” Mom said. “I’ll be here for when you wake up again…”

“Yeah… Gotta say hi to Toby and Claire… Dance…” Jim drifted off.

“So, Dr. Lake,” Dr. McAllister said, handing her the chart. “Do you agree with my prognosis?”

“Yes,” Barbara said as she brushed his hair back from his face. He was breathing normally now. My son is going to live. When they’d brought him out of the Darklands, Barbara had wanted to run to him, but Claire was also injured, and there were medics around Jim…

It was probably for the best that she had been occupied when the armor had come off, and the work began.

“It is not up to me,” McAllister said. “But I’d try to prevail on the powers that be at SHIELD to release whatever treatment they used on your son and his friends. “I’ve never seen such fast healing—when we were brought in, I was afraid I was going to be having a discussion about end-of-life management with you and the Nunez’s. But…”

“I’ll try. But I don’t know much, only that it’s very rare and hard to produce in large quantities. Evidently, SHIELD used all the stocks they have for this case.”

“And that…” He smiled. “Well, as I said, not my business, but if it ever does become common, I hope to see it in further cases.”

“I’ll try.” But the fruit of a tree tended by Frigga, and since when do you say the name of a Asgardian Goddess in casual conversation, only blooms once every thousand years.

“It cannot cure the incurable,” Thor had warned her. “But it will speed the healing of what can be cured. And your children are valiant and saved many lives. They deserve to live their own. It may… also protect them in the future by granting them greater strength and speed.”

And it had done exactly what Thor had promised.

Which also left her in the quandary of what type of thank you letter was appropriate for the Queen of Asgard?!

Claire was taking her walk.

Or rather, she was tottering along the hallway. The doctors had tried to get her to stay in bed, but when she’d woken she’d refused to go back to sleep until she could see Jim.

He’d been unconscious, hooked up to more things than she’d ever seen before, with Toby sitting by him. She spent as much time as she could by Jim, and then she and Toby were chivvied out of the room.

But Claire was not going to just lay around. She had her homework, even if she got tired too easily, and she took walks.

Like right now.

“Are you sure you aren’t getting tired?” Toby asked. His right arm was in a cast, and he’d also had a ton of cuts and bruises, in addition to an ankle brace. He was pushing a wheelchair behind her, ready to rush forward if she fell.

Like the first time, she’d told him she didn’t need a spotter when she walked. So now, whenever she was up, Toby somehow found her and grabbed the chair in case she needed to sit down. So Clair marched along, one hand gripping the stand for that IV that they had hooked up to her and feeling all the aches and pains of an injury.

Three busted ribs, one of which punched into one side and out the other of my lung, a fracture of my upper arm, bruising, internal bleeding… Claire sighed. Before all of this, the worst injury had been banging her head when she lost control of her bike. She’d cried then.

Now, she probably wouldn’t even notice it.

“Escaped your room again?”

Claire looked around and smiled. “Oh Hi, Bl—Natasha.” And didn’t that feel strange?

“Did you ask permission?” Natasha asked.

“I think the doctors gave up, so as long as she stays on this floor…”

“Yeah, I’d like to visit the trolls, but…” Claire gestured. “I think that they’d freak.”

“Losing a VIP? Yeah, I think they would. Jim woke up for a little bit.”

Claire had to sit down. “He… He woke up?” They’d said that he probably would, but the way he lay there…

Once again, Clarie found herself blinking, her eyes starting to overflow. It wasn’t as bad this time. Toby was also having the same problem.

“Jimbo’s waking up?” Toby asked, his voice as unsteady as Claire’s.

“Yeah. But, he’s likely to be in and out, so…” Natasha smiled. “I figure that you can just go rest in his room, so when he does wake up next, you’ll be right there. He asked for you, after all.”

“That’d… That’d…” Claire swallowed. “That’d be nice.” She didn’t protest when Natasha took her wheelchair.

She really didn’t think she could stand up right now, as the three headed to Jim’s room.

Jim woke up again, feeling much better. His throat didn’t hurt and… “Claire?” Jim said. Claire was sitting in a chair she’d moved up next to the bed, and was sprawled halfway out of it, her head against his shoulder. Toby was on the other side, hanging on to his arm.

They were asleep.

“They have been here for hours, Master Jim,” Blinky said softly. “Arrrggghhh would be here, but the delicacy of the equipment and the small quarters…”

“I’ll have to—”

“Jim?” Claire asked. Her face was bruised, she had an IV (and how had that happened, they were supposed to be safe), her hair was going everywhere without her pins…

She was the most beautiful person Jim had ever seen.

“Claire… What happened?”

“Usurna betrayed us. She was working with Gunmar.”

“What?”

“Yeah,” Toby said, yawning. “The rest of the Janus order attacked Trollmarket.”

“I’ll kill her!”

“Um, too late,” Claire said. “Toby, Me and Thor kinda already did that.”

Toby, Me, and Thor? “I… I think I need some story.”

“Well, Captain America told us about what happened in the Darklands so…” Claire launched into the story, and soon Jim’s head was whirling.

“And you portaled your parents and Enrique to their house?”

“Yeah.” Claire giggled. “Just in time for Mary to show up and ask them if they were ever going to unground me. Mom still talks about how weird it was—there were kids playing in the street, and just below…”

“Yeah.” Jim gripped Claire’s hand. She could have died. You were—no. That’s not fair. Claire was just as much a fighter as Jim was, and he wasn’t going to try to turn her into a child. Like it or not, none of them were.

“So once we got up here, you got whisked off, and you wouldn’t believe all the people showing up,” Toby said. “Vendel has a chair in Fury’s office—Vendel! I didn’t think he’d ever leave Trollmarket!”

“Vendel is having to face changes, as are we all, Master Jim,” Blinky said. “You did it. You have ended the threat of Gunmar, but that threat has defined us for hundreds of years. I doubt any know where the road leads now, save that our Trollhunters will help guide the way.”

“They won’t suddenly remember I’m a kid?” Jim asked.

“No.” Blinky paused. “For good or ill, no. The world is changing, and we must change with it… Though, to be fair, many of your duties will likely be less…”

“Life-threatening?” Jim grinned. “I can deal with that.”

And then, like a dam breaking, the three teens were talking, laughing, randomly bouncing between the desperate battle and mundane school affairs.

Blinky merely leaned back and smiled at the three, letting them, for the first time in far too long, laugh and talk with no undertone of worry surrounding them.

Later that night, Jim found himself struggling with the wheelchair. The doctors had given him his first PT, but they’d been treating him like he was made out of glass. Sure he hurt, but he could keep going, and he needed to.

“What’s the problem, Jim?”

Jim looked up and saw Captain America leaning on the door frame.

“Oh, Cap—”

“Steve,” he corrected.

“Right,” Jim said, fighting the are you crazy? I can’t call you that, thoughts he was having. “Steve. I was thinking of trying to get some exercise in because, well…”

“Well?”

“It’s that the Spring Fling is coming up, and Claire promised to dance with me, but…” He took a deep breath. “I really don’t want to miss our dance.”

Steve say anything for a few minutes, seemingly lost in thought. Then he chuckled. “Well, then let’s see what we can do because you’re right. You really shouldn’t miss your dance.”