A Trollhunter turned King

why, Merlin, why?

Jim opened his eyes only to find himself surrounded by darkness. he felt like he was floating, he looked around to try and find something in the black but to no avail. he was too tired to panic or to do anything for that matter. he felt like he was back in that void right before he turned into a troll. the only light source was the glow from the amulet, albeit under his skin, and the defining silence of the dark was all the same. the only difference with this was the poor teen could breathe in whatever void this was. it kind of reminded him of the shadow realm. 

Jim never liked the silence, it let his mind wander too much and he didn't like some of his thoughts. but this quiet was different, it was as if there was a magical force there to keep him calm.

"James lake. what have you gotten us into now?" Jim heard a voice break through the darkness. he recognized that voice but it was never that soft or gentle. the teen looked around trying to find the old man that the voice belonged to but to no avail. 

"Merlin?" Jim rasped. it hurt to speak but Jim pushed down the pain. as if on cue, the wizards form appeared behind the boy in a flash of green light. the flash got the teens attention as he turned to face the man. Merlin, now a better light source than the amulet, stood tall, like he was standing on solid ground and not floating. 

"Meddling with time is a serious thing. mind explaining why you did it?" the old man asked. his hands behind his back and keeping the calm expression.  he knew the boy was dazed and in pain, so he wasn't about to yell at him. however, he still wanted answers. Jim rubbed his face and groaned into his hands. taking a second to think, he realized Merlin still knew his name. looking up at the wizard.

" wait, you remember?" Jim's voice was barely a whisper but in the silence, it was heard. Merlin cocked his head to the side and shrugged his shoulders a bit. 

"i have no personal memories from the time you come from but i know what my future vision has told me. you are supposed to be my champion but you reset everything and now someone else is the true trollhunter." the old wizard summed up. "so mind explaining your reasoning?" he asked once more. Jim sighed.

"things got . . . messy. . and i didn't know how else to fix it." Jim said not really wanting to relive it all. he looked up and the wizard was waiting for him to go on. "we were up against the arcane order, they had raised the titans." Merlin's face fell into shock, knowing the only way they could have done that was for him to no longer be living. "they wanted to restart the earth and they got so close. we ended up winning but the damages, not only to Arcadia, were too great. we lost so many people, from my team and civilians. innocent people died." Jim said with shaky breaths. "so i used the time stone to fix it all."

"How messy?" Merlin simply asked. he didn't get a verbal response but the way the child curled up on himself was enough to understand. " with my limited power, i cannot change what has happened but i will put my faith in you." he said putting one hand to his heart. Jim looked up. "you are supposed to be my champion, i will trust your decision. however, destiny is not so easily changed. like it is part of your destiny to be a troll, or half troll. not even time itself will change that." Jim rolled his eyes with an exhausted sigh.

"yeah, like i haven't figured that one out yet." looking at one of his hands and reaching up to feel his horns with the other. his hands looked like they were fully back to his troll form, except maybe a little slimmer. his horns were smaller than his hands and far from being fully grown but still very prominent. "do you know how this works?" he asked, gesturing to the, now very bright, glow coming from his chest. Merlin walked forward to look closer. Jim still didn't understand how the old man had gravity and he didn't, maybe it had something to do with power.

"alas, this is not the amulet i created. Therefore I have no knowledge of it or how it works, unfortunately." he said after a moment of looking at it.

"i guess it's trial by fire then." Jim mumbled through his teeth. Merlin looked back up to the teens face, standing straight. Jim might not have gravity but the two were still on the same level, even then, the wizards tall and lanky frame dwarfed the teens own.