As my alarm went off, I groaned as I recalled what lay before me... a staff meeting. But, it will be alright since I get to deliver the news that Jim will returning to school today. I got ready and when I went downstairs to prepare my lunch for the day, I saw in the fridge that Jim had actually already prepared it. I smiled completely overjoyed that Jim was back. I wish I could go with him, Claire, and Toby, but like I said... staff meeting.

        I got into my car and drove towards the school. The time was 6:30 am, so I knew I was going to make it to the staff meeting on time. When I had my car parked, I walked into the school and excitement grew within me. Jim gets to return to school today. Life will be begin to return to normal. It felt as a heavy load of baggage was being lifted off my shoulders. These past few weeks have been some of the roughest of my life, but thanks to my friends and my boyfriend, I was able to keep focused and together we were able to get my brother out of the Darklands. Not only that, but Jim was also able to get Claire's little brother out of the Darklands too.

        My smile only broadened and I wasn't sure if anything could break it as I walked into the meeting and the teachers took notice of this and Miss Janeth questioned, "You are in a chipper mood today, Miss Lake."

        "How can I not be in a good mood? Jim gets to return to school today." I announced.

        "That's amazing, Miss Lake. We are all happy for you and your family." Coach Lawrence said as he patted me on the back.

        "This is all well and good, but we do have a meeting to commence, so if we could all take our seats, we shall begin..." Senor Uhl said bringing us back to why we were all here, which was to discuss Claire's mother's barbeque which she invited the teacher's union due to wanting our support for her re-election as Councilwoman. We all agreed to go, so tomorrow should be an interesting one.

        After the meeting was adjourned, I went to my classroom and took note that my desk needs some serious reorganization. That'll be fun. I quickly got started on doing that and as I was finishing up, I heard some clapping and cheering from outside and I figured that Jim must've arrived. Soon enough, I heard someone walk into my classroom and Jim's arms wrapped around my shoulders and Jim said, "Hey, sis. I see your still as busy as ever grading homework."

        "Actually this time it's organization for homework." I informed him.

        "Oh. Spicing things up I see. Nice nice." He peered over my shoulder observing my work and commented, "The piles that you have organized could be more aligned though. Don't you want to be more professional?"

        I shoved him and retorted, "It's obviously not finished yet, dork. Are you guys heading to Troll market after school?"

        "Of course. You coming?" Jim asked.

        "I'll try, but I might not be able to. Today I have students turning in their 250 word paper about their thoughts on a documentary that I had them watch last Friday." I explained.

        "That was today? Dang it." Toby said and ran out of the classroom.

        "Yeah. Good luck getting it done in Senor Uhl's class." Claire commented.

        "You assigned a 250 word paper for all the high school students who attend Arcadia Oaks High?" Jim asked giving me a pointed look.

        "So I was lazy for one assignment. Sue me. But seriously, you guys should get going. Your class will start any minute and Senor Uhl is not known to be the understanding type." I pointed out.

        "Good point. Bye, Mo." Jim said.

        "Bye, Monica." Claire said. The two left and I looked at my papers and frowned. It's just going to be never-ending, isn't it.

        For school today, I assigned the class a five page paper that will be due in three weeks to which all the students groaned except Jim. I would've felt pity, but this is only the second time that I've assigned this long of an essay. After school got out, I was about to meet up with the others, but I got delayed due to Mary having questions about the essay. Mainly, she was having trouble coming up with a thesis.

        I shot a text to Jim saying I would meet up with them later, then focused my attention on Mary. Once I was done helping Mary, I turned to the assignments that were turned in today. Maybe I should consider requesting a teacher's aid...

        When I completed grading at least half of the assignments that were turned in today, I looked outside and I saw that it was well past dark. Who knows where Jim and the others might be. I called Jim and he told me that they were all meeting up at Toby's house and they will explain why when I get there.  Once I was there, they filled me in on what was happening and that some blood goblins had gotten out of the Darklands much to my surprise and that they were here to check on Chompsky who might be in danger. We entered his house and saw Toby's grandmother doing the dishes. Toby gestured us to keep back and stay quiet, then he exclaimed,

        "Nana!"

        Toby's grandmother turned around and said, "Oh, Toby Pie! I thought you kids were upstairs playing. There was an awful lot of noise."

        "Uh... The blood goblins are here? Uh.. I mean. I must have left my music on." Toby explained nervously as we observed through the windows, Blinky and Aaarrrgghh sneaking around the house.

        "Goblins are here? Oh, that's a horrible band name. I don't understand what you kids are listening to these days." Toby's grandmother said as we rushed upstairs.

        "Chompsky?" Toby questioned as we entered his room. There was no Chompsky, but it looks like he didn't go without a fight. The room was a complete disaster. Toby mourned, "No, not Chompsky. Chompsky?" All we could find was his hat which we gave to Toby.

        "Poor gnome." Aaarrrgghh said.

        "It was supposed to be a simple mission." Jim said as he collapsed onto Toby's gaming chair. Another teammate was gone. Why does this keep happening? First Aaarrrgghh, then, Jim, and now poor Chompsky.

        "There's no such thing as a simple mission." Claire sighed. That was true.

        "The little guy survives the Darklands, then goes out like this? Nothing's been right since... since... Why did you have to go into the Darklands without us?" Toby demanded speaking what was on everyone's minds.

        "Wait what?" Jim asked surprised by this outburst that he honestly should've seen coming.

        "We found the amulet together. We trained together, we killed Angor Rot together! And then you just left us." Toby said.

        "Wait, is this how you all feel?" Jim wondered as he stood up.

        "You promised we'd get my brother back, together." Claire brought up.

        "After everything we'd been through, you said it was Trollhunters, not Trollhunter." Blinky reminded him.

        Tears started brimming in my eyes as Aaarrrgghh agreed with the rest of them. Jim looked towards us and stated, "Gunmar wanted revenge for killing his son. The amulet chose me to protect you."

        "We protect each other." Claire pointed out.

        Jim looked towards me and asked, "You've been quiet on this so far, Monica. What are your thoughts?"

        I wiped away my tears, "When we defeated Bular, you told Toby and I that you were going to need us now more than ever. But, when you left us to go into the Darklands alone... I was heartbroken. It took me a while to get back on my own two feet because I was so worried about you, but thanks to these amazing people," I explained while gesturing to Claire, Toby, Blinky, Aaarrrgghh, and thinking of my amazing boyfriend, "I was reminded that I wasn't alone. Jim, when are you going to realize that you don't have to bear this by yourself. When will you learn that you never have to be alone?"

        Jim sat down with a downcast look on his face as he explained, "When I saw Aaarrrgghh die, I couldn't bear to lose any more of you. I just wish everything could go back to the way things were, when everything was... normal. Yeah. The Darklands was a failure. I went in alone so you wouldn't have to. But classic Jim, you guys have to rescue me anyway. Some hero I am."

        Blinky took Chompsky's hat and handed it to Jim while saying, "The amulet made you a Trollhunter. You made yourself a hero."

        "But Chompsky didn't deserve this. He may have been small, but he had a big..." Jim was interrupted when Aaarrrgghh started sniffing the hat. Jim turned to him and said, "Do you mind? I was trying to give a eulogy."

        Aaarrrgghh continued sniffing, then Blinky exclaimed, "By Gorgus, he's picked up their scent!"

        "The goblins?" Claire questioned.

        "Gnome." Aaarrrgghh stated.

        "Chompsky's alive?" Toby questioned, then shouted, "What are we waiting for? Lets go find him!"

        We tracked down Chompsky to a warehouse and once we got there, Jim said, "They're inside."

        We snuck up to the door and we were going to have Aaarrrgghh just smack the door down, but Blinky said, "Hush! We must be silent, lest we alert them."

        Jim started to climb to get through to the window, but Claire said while gesturing to her staff, "Um..."

        Jim said, "Let me guess. Short cut?"

        Claire teleported us inside and we immediately started to investigate to place to try and figure out where the goblins were hiding. As we were investigating, Toby opened a box and gasped, "We're in a fireworks warehouse? So cool!"

        "Toby, focus. We're here to save Chompsky." Claire reminded him.

        "You're right." Toby stated getting serious, but breaking his seriousness when he added, "But we're coming back here later." 

        I chuckled and shook my head as we continued. Jim held his hand up to stop us as we heard the goblins up ahead. Jim poked his head around the corner, then informed us, "Looks like there's two of 'em. Monica and I'll flank right, you take left."

        "There should be more, shouldn't there?" Toby whimpered.

        "It is suspicious that there's just these three." I agreed looking around.  Suddenly, one of the blood goblins jumped on top of Blinky. Blinky stumbled out into the open alerting the other blood goblins. I summoned the Thriskule.

        "For the doom of Gunmar-" But Jim was interrupted by Toby who told him before he fell down, "Wrong one!"

        "Oops. A little rusty. For the glory of Merlin, Daylight is mine to command!" Jim declared.

        His armor quickly encased him and Daylight appeared in his hand. Claire was knocked down by one of the blood goblins and I was going to help her, but one of the other blood goblins jumped onto me while me while my back was turned. I went to grab it, but it kept getting out of my reach, so I did the next thing I could think of which was flop on the ground using my full weight against the creature. The blood goblin let go groaning and I stood up, but that goblin was relentless and quickly recovered. He was about to pounce on me again, but I quickly willed the Thriskule to transform into daggers and sliced the creature before it could reach me.

        Before I could even think of doing anything else, one of the boxes had caught on fire and I blanched as Toby gasped, "Oh, boy! Fireworks, fire! Do we put it out or do we see what happens? Do we put it out or should we see what happens?"

        This snapped me out of shock and I shouted, "Of course put it out. We are still in the building!"

        Before I could stop Aaarrrgghh, he blew onto it and it only increased the flames and he said, "Oh... Um... See what happens?"

        Toby tried to throw something at it, but it did nothing, but explode, which Toby said, "Oh cool! Terrible! But, cool!"

        "Find a fire extinguisher quickly!" I demanded searching around.

        "Got you covered, Mo. Stand back!" Claire proclaimed. She attempted to use it, but it didn't work and she exclaimed, "Useless!"

        "Claire!" I shouted pointing behind her and she quickly turned and slammed the blood goblin with the fire extinguisher and she said, "Or not."

        Everything was quickly going up in flames and I looked for Jim as Toby declared, "Behold! Our dreams and nightmares are uniting!" I didn't focus too much on them after that because I needed to make sure Jim was alright.

        "Jim!" I shouted when I spotted him killing a blood goblin. He turned his attention toward me and exclaimed, "Mo!" He was about to head over to me, but I noticed another blood goblin sneaking up behind him. I yelled, "Behind you!"

        He whirled around and tried to kill the blood goblin, but it was super agile. Even when I joined in the fight, we were still having trouble to kill the blood goblin and Jim demanded angrily, "Hold still, will ya?"

        The blood goblin's whole demeanor changed as he climbed onto the box and stared at us. I wondered, "You... You can understand us?"

        The blood goblin nodded, then we heard Blinky yell, "Master Jim, Monica, quickly! We saved the gnome! We must get out of here!"

        A pile of boxes fell down, which separated us from the others. I turned to Jim and said, "We need to get out of here, Jim."

        "Hold on a moment, Mo. I have a few more questions." He turned back to the blood goblin and said, "Did anything else escape the Darklands?"

        "Yes." The blood goblin answered.

        "Who else got out? Gunmar?" Jim questioned.

        "Jim..." I warned not wanting to stay a moment more. Jim still ignored me and demanded, "Did Gunmar escape?"

        It was too late. A firework slammed into the box that the blood goblin was standing on and we could no longer see where he was. I started coughing and Jim pulled my arm and said, "Come on." We started moving towards the others who were calling for us. Suddenly, I heard Jim shout, "Monica, look out!" He pushed me out of the way as a beam came crashing down where I would've been standing.

        "Are you okay?" Jim asked helping me up. I nodded and we quickly met up with the others after that. Jim exclaimed, "Come on!"

        Claire opened a portal and we all jumped in. We came out into an alley a good few blocks away from the firework warehouse and watched them go off.

        "Fireworks. So much nicer from distance, huh?" Claire stated leaning against her staff.

        "Here, here." I concurred.

        "Hey." Jim said gesturing behind us where Chomsky was proposing to the Sally-Go-Back doll. In his mind, it seemed she said yes and he attempted to put on the ring he had for her on her arms, but they didn't fit, so he ended putting it onto her leg, then proceeded to kiss the doll. As we clapped, Blinky said, "I'm not sure it's official, but it's sweet."

        "Looks like some good came out of the Darklands, after all." Jim said.

        "Yeah, you dingus! My brother is back because of you. Some great came out of it. We don't want to go back and change that." Claire pointed out.

        "That's true. We okay, T.P.?" Jim asked turning to Toby.

        "Whoo! We awesome-sauce. Although, I hate that T.P. is catching on." Toby stated.

        "Mo?" Jim questioned turning to me. I smiled and said, "What matters is that you are safe. No matter what. I will always love you, little bro." I playfully shoved him and Jim chuckled.

        "So, we shall not return to the past, but shall we return to Troll market? I feel uncomfortable feeding the gnomes delusions." Blinky said.

        "Yeah. This is getting real weird." Toby added.

        "Agreed." I said just as Aaarrrgghh agreed as well.

        Jim turned to Claire and stated, "Oh, yeah. You know a short cut."

        Claire looked at her staff, then declared, "Actually, lets walk this time. It's a nice night."

        We headed off towards Troll market simply enjoying each other's company.