For Whom The Bell Tolls (Trollhunters continuation/Evil Jim AU)

10: Time To Talk

"What's this?" He asked, picking up the second amulet to inspect, "It looks sort of like the amulet my master and I created, but contains elements unlike anything I've ever seen before."

"It was made by some...friends...of mine from far away. It's complicated." Jim grumbled a bit.

"Well, I'm all ears." Douxie smiled confidently, leaning back into the chair a little bit and casting the second amulet back onto the table.

"Okay...so, this'll sound crazy, but I'm not from this timeline...or at least I wasn't originally. I'm from an entirely different reality." Lake began to explain, he felt sweat beading on his forehead. Why was he so nervous?

Douxie paused to take another sip of his drink, maintaining the knowing grin on his face, "That, I'd figured."

"Well long story short, in every reality, Toby dies. Over and over and over. I can't stop it. So I reset the timeline so I can have another attempt. I do things differently. Just in the hopes I can stop him dying, stop all of you dying or succumbing to a worse fate." Tears formed in the corners of Jim's eyes, but he steeled himself and blinked them away aggressively.

Jim handed Douxie the second amulet once more, pushing it into his chest. A look of desperation momentarily flashed over his face before it settled back into a mildly annoyed glare. Douxie held the amulet in his palm, unsure how much more he could inspect this damn thing without dismantling it. Although he had noticed Jim's flippant emotional state throughout their conversation thus far. It seemed as if the boy was stuck in some form of internal battle over his emotions. Casperan didn't blame him, he sympathised. He understood how painful it was to have to watch everyone around you die, though he had the luxury of most of those close to him also being immortal. Instead of speaking, Douxie reached up an arm and placed it on one of Jim's broad shoulders reassuringly.

"I understand how difficult this is for you. The only advice I can give you right off the bat is you need to stop resetting the timeline. I know you don't wanna do that because of Toby's fate, but it seems every time you've reset, you've ended up creating a strong outburst of magical energy that has bound itself to you since it has nowhere else to go," The wizard explained, "As a result, it appears as if the Time Stone had become part of you and thusly you have the potential to become one of the most powerful beings in existence."

"Merlin kinda already told me about that stuff." Jim lied, not wanting to disclose the truth about Dhiren. Part of him seemed to be desperate to silence him even though it would benefit him to tell Douxie. He felt his temper flare up as he was told to stop with the resets, but once more calmed himself.

"Hm...can I try something?" Douxie pondered, indicating to Jim's upturned hand.

"Pfft, sure. Though I don't think anything you can do would help me at all. The isolation my fate brings...it's my only company...and I don't think anyone is able to fix that." The teenager lamented, stretching his hand out to Douxie.

"Okay then edgelord," The mage teased in return, "I'm gonna use magic to link myself with you and your new amulet. Hopefully it should give me an idea of what to do."

Douxie held the new amulet in one hand and Jim's wrist in the other. He exhaled deeply and closed his eyes, chanting some form of incantation, causing the tattoos on his forearms, bracer and eyes to glow with a soft blue pulsing light.

"Cysylltu fi â'r rhannau hyn, dangoswch y gwir i mi, datgelu beth sy'n gudd."

Jim didn't recognise the language that Douxie chanted in. Not entirely anyway. There was something familiar about it. Before he had time to put much thought into it however, he felt a warmth developing under Douxie's grip. This was followed by a jolt of energy surging through his entire body. The sorcerer's eyes shot open, emanating a strong cerulean light.
Douxie began to convulse suddenly, his muscles tensing up which led to Jim's mirroring it. Lake almost screamed. He wasn't sure what was happening but he could suddenly feel everything Douxie could and currently, that was nothing but a searing pain in his joints and head.

"DOUXIE! BREAK THE CONNECTION NOW! ARE YOU MAD?!" Archie flew into the room like a bullet.

"I...can't...Arch...not...yet...I'm...so...close...to...finding...the...answers..." The wizard strained, trying to maintain the link.

Jim tried to pull away but the magic bond between them both was too strong for him to resist, even in his stronger state.

"Almost...got...it..."

Both screamed loudly until they had pulled apart. The force from the build up of arcane energy sent both parties hurtling across the room. Douxie flew over the back of his chair and hit the ground, the glow fading from his body. Archie sprinted over and began licking his face profusely, much to Douxie's laughs of protest. Jim on the other hand had been thrown sideways off his chair and smashed into a bookcase on the other side of the store.
His body was buried underneath the bookcase and its contents. Douxie and Archie leapt to their feet and dashed over to check on him.

"Fuzzbuckets...Jim? Jim! Are you okay?!" Casperan cried as he and his familiar started to part the pile to access the buried boy.

A moment of silence passed. Douxie began to panic. Had he seriously harmed the kid? He hoped not, but it wasn't looking great. His fears were put to rest somewhat, when a hand burst through the detritus like that of a zombie busting out of the grave.
A tall figure rose up, groaning from the impact. The looming form pushed the bookcase away, letting out a low gutteral growl and stood up to nearly eight feet in height. Douxie stood back in shock.

"Bloody balroths..."