secret behind the Forge

|3 days later|

Claire is standing at her locker when her best friend Mary comes over.

"Jim Lake just asked me to the dance. Wouldn't it be amazing if we went together and win king and queen." Mary says happily.

"It'd sure be something." Claire replies, closing her locker.

"Oh, sorry I wasn't sure if you wanted to go with him? Should I have declined? I don't want you to not go because no one asked you. Darcy is already being stubborn about not going." Mary says disappointed.

"No, no. I'll go. I don't have a date yet, but I have someone in mind." Claire tells her, shooting a look at Wei, who is sitting on a bench across the school grounds, seemingly talking to his backpack.

"I don't see it. He's just so, weird. I guess he's got a nice body, but his personality..." Mary tells her friend with a sigh.

"How could you even know a thing about his personality? You never talked to him because you didn't give him even a chance." Claire says, waving at Wei, who returns the gesture, surprised before turning his attention to his backpack again.

"Well, you're the only girl I've seen him talk to period. What does that say about him huh? He's a stalker and you are his pray. Why won't you realize it and wake up girl?" Mary warns her dramatically.

"Stalker?" Claire asks.

"Yeah, haven't you heard he's started working at your dad's store. I'm telling you he's worming his way into your life." Mary says.

"Actually that was my suggestion, though my dad doesn't know that I know him." Claire informs the girl.

"Still, don't you find that suspicious? And looks at his shirt, he's bleeding. I bet he's involved in some kind of illegal scheme." Mary says.

"Come on, let's just get to class." Claire sighs tiredly, glancing at Wei once more before rounding a corner and sees him holding his hurt side, a painful expression on his face while he's leaning down to drink from the water fountain.

|after school - troll market|

Jim and Wei enter Wendel's room.

"Master Wendel?" Jim asks.

"No one calls me master, thought I like it when you call me that fleshbag." Wendel tells him, handing Jim some for the human large tools.

"Gunmar's birthstone. It must be cleaved." Wendel says.

"Wait. Before that I need to check something." Wei says, taking out his mask reluctantly.

"And what is that?" Wendel asks curious, while Wei rolls the birthstone into the middle of the table, lying his mask down in front of it and they see some kind of writing lighting up in purple.

"What is that?" Jim asks intrigued.

"Goblin. But it's very old. To kill the Black the power lies within three energies opposed. Something, something, magic, life, I don't know the rest I don't understand. Maybe I should get Gobber to look at it." Wei says.

"Gobber?" Jim asks.

"My goblin familiar." Wei answers.

"No need. This isn't Goblin. It's troll." Wendel says, fixing his glasses.

"What does it say?" Wei asks.

"Three energies opposed, yes ah here." The troll says, following the text with his enormous finger.

"The energy of magic on the front, the power of life on the inside and the mystery of void in between. Forged in ... oh my." Wendel reads.

"Forged in what? In the hero's forge. But the forge was only creates centuries after this text was written." Wendel says confused.

"This is a piece of Gunmar. So the goblin mage, who created this for me must've added that part I guess." Wei says.

"Oh, you're right. The last part was added." Wendel agrees.

"What does that mean?" Jim asks not following the two.

"It means that I also have to collect three stones." Wei answers.

"Well either way, first things first." Wendel says and instructs Jim how to split the birthstone, with two separate crystals falling out its middle.

"2? I have never seen this before." Wendel says shocked.

"What? Did I do it wrong?" Jim asks.

"No. But there should only be one crystal." Wendel says, picking up the second one, looking at it before handing it to Wei.

"See what you can do with it." Wendel tells him and Wei leaves while Jim and Wendel prepare Jim's piece of Gunmar's birthstone to fit it in his amulet, which can take 6 crystals in it.

Wei arrives in the heroes forge, seeing Draal looking up at his father's statue.

"Hey, Draal right? I don't mean to interrupt, but maybe you have an idea what it could mean." Wei says.

"What means?" The troll asks.

"A writing spoke of using the heroes forge to craft crystals onto this." Wei says, showing him the mask.

"The forge? To craft? Well, the soothscryer was here before all this was built around it." Draal tells him.

"Hmm." Wei murmurs, going over to the intimidating statue, sticking his hand in it, with the mask and Gunmar's crystal in the same hand.

The statue's mouth glows brightly for a moment in the real world, while for Wei, he's drawn to the limbo between life and death, looking around the arena curiously while everything looks to be made of blue energy, with blue- whitish orbs flying over him.

"What is he doing here?" A voice asks.

"How did he get here?" Another voice asks.

"Who are you human?" A voice asks from behind Wei and he turns around, seeing a large, wide troll, whose statue Draal was looking at moments ago.

"Are you dead? Because I just saw Draal looking at your stone remains." Wei asks.

"Yes. We are the spirits of past Trollhunters. Draal is my son." Kanjigar tells him.

"Hmm. I see. What am I doing here?" Wei asks.

"We don't know." The large spirit answers.

"I can answer that." A white sphere says, turning into the spirit of a blood goblin.

"You are here, so I can equip you for your fight with Gunmar, young Half- Goblin." The Goblin says.

"I'm half- goblin?" Wei asks.

"Not yet. But I had a vision of the future." The Goblin informs him.

"I see." Wei says heavy heartedly.

Thr Goblin then holds his hand over Wei's mask, gunmar's birthstone twisting and deforming, until its in the shape of a thin stripe, which is fixed to the inside of the mask.

"What happened?" Draal asks when the light dies down.

"This. And I saw your father and the spirit of a blood goblin." Wei informs him looking around confused, showing him the change in his eyemask.

"Weird. The spirit realm felt so real." Wei says.

Wei then leaves and joins his friends at Blinky's place. "Hey, there you are. Where did you go?" Jim says.

"The forge." Wei tells him, before turning to Claire, saying "Claire, we need to talk when we're back." With a heavy heart. Worrying the pretty girl.

"Where are we going anyways?" Toby asks while the group follows Blinky and Arrrgggh go the Gyre.

"The swamp of Wumpas. They should have the Killstone. But they aren't very welcoming of outsiders." Blinky informs them while everyone gets seated in the Gyre.

"Them how are we going to get the stone?" Jim asks.

"Don't worry. I have a plan. If they won't like outsiders, we'll need an insider." Blinky replies.

"One of you will pretend to be the human reincarnation of the shattered king." Blinky says.

"That's insane." Jim says.

"No, you Tobias bears a striking resemblance to that very king. Wumpas are stout and short in nature." Blinky explains after starting the Gyre.

"Well, let's get a move on." Blinky says when they reach their destination. The four humans, one troll and one troll turned human then walk through a swampland, with Blinky leading them.

"This place gives me the creeps, where are we?" Claire asks, looking around the ominous surroundings.

"A place known for its vast swamps and numerous retirement homes. Florida." Blinky tells them.

"Come on your eminence, your people await." Claire then tells Toby sarcastically.

"Haha. You know I'm build to be a sidekick. I'm not leading man material." Toby tells them nervously.

"Just walk. We're being watched." Wei tells them, his eyes darting over the high grass around them, where yellow eyes can be seen watching them.

A few more steps later 5 Wumpas step out of the grass, standing in their way while chanting a tribal tune.

"Hmm. Humans, a taste not common." A troll says excited, before gasping when its eyes see Toby step forward.

"It is I. The shower, uhh shattered King." Toby announces.

"Gunmar kill you. You cannot be. Prove you are he. Show us great magics." A wumpa says.

"Alright. Now all of you, stand back. This is not for the faint of heart." Toby says worried and then pretends to pull off his thumb and reattach it, when he has the Wumpas attention.

The Wumpas gasp in astonishment.

"He dismembered his hand and then rejoined his flesh and bone." A Wumpa says impressed.

"Powerful magic!" Another Wumpa shouts and they then carry him on their shoulders, chanting.

The Wumpas then lead the group to their home, where many more Wumpas are, chanting as well when Toby is announced as the returned shattered king.

"Hmm. I see how they can be fooled." Wei says, pointing out a large statue of a troll version of Toby.

"No kidding." Jim chuckles nervously.

"Oh, the song of a Quagawump. No outsider has ever heard this before." Blinky says, listening to the gentle singing of the Wumpas, as they stand around Toby, swinging their arms and bodies to the tune.

"Come, we feast." A Wumpa then tells the rest of the group, inviting them to a table while Toby gets seated on their throne.

Toby, Blinky and Arrrgggh then help themselves to the food, the humans, who weren't served flamingo, deciding not to risk their health by eating the arm long maggots the Wumpas consume.

"Shouldn't we get down to business and get out of here? Something tells me we're in more danger than we realize." Wei tells his companions, his eyes checking the forests behind them.

"I will go talk to Toby." Blinky says, going over to Toby and asking if he will ask for the Killstone.

Toby then tells the Wumpas some made up stories for the next hour or so at their request before coming up with a short, weird song which the Wumpas quickly pick up and enjoy, singing it all around.

Everyone but Jim and Wei then start dancing.

"Come on you two. Dance with us." Claire says, dancing next to them with Arrrgggh.

"I'm not much of a dancer." Jim declines.

"Watch out for the others." Wei tells the trollhunter, hearing something from the forest around them and readies his weapon.

"What's with him?" Blinky asks, dancing weirdly.

"I don't know." Claire says depressed and concerned while they watch Wei head into the forest, climbing up a tree with his voulge in his hand.

A few minutes of dancing later a loud stomping is heard.

"What manner mischief this be?" A booming voice asks, coming from a green troll the size of Arrrgggh.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who's this joker?" Toby asks while the Wumpas retreat to the sides.

"Blungo. Pretend king. You fight him, eh?" A female Wumpa says.

"Why humans here?" Blungo asks.

"He's true king. Returned." The wumpa woman, remaining at Toby's side says.

"Shattered King cannot be. King am I!" Blungon says, grabbing Toby and starts shaking him.

"Alright, alright. I'm not the King. I only made it up to get the stone. Jim the stone." Toby says, informing Jim of the green crystal sitting in Blungo's crown.

"Put my friend down." Jim tells Blungo.

"Or what?" He asks and Jim transforms.

The next thing they see is Wei with his pants ripped and his shirt cut in half on the front fly against a stone pillar behind the throne.

"Watch out." He says, his wound on his stomach having reopened and struggling to stand.

"Wei!" Claire yells fearful, before Angor Rot appears through a portal above Blanco, his dagger glowing an eerie green and stabs it in the trolls back, turning him to stone and then kicks him, shattering him to pieces with Toby falling to the ground.

"Jim, he's taking the stone." Toby yells, while Angor Rot holds the green gem in his hands. He then chants something and the mark on Jim's face glows, with Jims sword flying into Anger Rot's hand.

"Daylight is now mine to command." Angor Rot says.

"Get Claire, Blinky and Toby out of here. I can hold him off for a while longer. You in Arrrgggh?" Wei tells Jim, before turning to their large comrade.

"Yep. No like Angor Rot." Arrrgggh agrees.

Jim's legs however light up and some kind of boomerang made of two daggers rotate into his hands.

"The birthstone." Jim says, realizing that the new ability comes from the gem inside his medallion.

Jim throws the boomerang and knocks the killstone out of Angor Rot's hand, before engaging him in a fight with his daggers.

Toby retrieves the stone while Arrrgggh and Jim fight Angor Rot, who jumps away into the trees around them, cutting off the first branch Jim lands on, sending the turned ro stone branch fly at the wumpa woman who stayed at Toby's side. Toby tackles her out of the way just in time.

"You three, get away from here." Wei says, raising his mask to his face, stabbing his weapon into the ground next to him and with a painful, angry shout he leaps towards Angor Rot. His body changed more than usual, two black, bull like horns on the side of his head, his skin having turned a darker shade with the green markings running over it and one hand is covered with an obsidian like gauntlet which has two blades sprouting forth from the top of the armor (AN: similar to TMNT shredder gauntlet )

"You're mine." Wei growls, slicing at Angor Rot, severing through the tree behind him, which falls down towards his two comrades, Arrrgggh luckily grabs Jim and escaped the tree.

"Angor Rot!" Wei shouts, darting after the troll, forcing him on the defensive, with him using portals to travel around the forest, suddenly appearing behind Jim and Arrrgggh, swiping at them but seemingly missing, the little nick under Arrrgggh's arm not noticed by anyone.

"Angor Rot, where are you?" An enraged Wei shouts, before seeing a portal behind Toby. Wei jumps down to them just when Angor Rot steals the Killstone. He then opens a new portal and Claire jumps after him, intend on retrieving the crystal.

"Claire!" Wei shouts, jumping into the portal after her, managing to enter just before it closes behind the three.

When he's in the shadow world, he sees Angor Rot wrestling with Claire over the Killstone.

In a second, he's next to them and kicks away the troll, who loses his staff.

"No, my staff!" He yells, trying to reach for it but Wei grabs the staff, handing it to Claire, before wrapping his arms around her for a moment, whispering "take care." With a sad look on his changed face and pushes the girl backwards with the staff.

Claire tries to stop herself, but is floating through the air before a portal opens behind her and she falls out of the portal back in the swamplands.

"Claire, you're OK." Jim says relieved.

"Where is Angor Rot and Wei?" Jim asks.

"Still in... there." Claire says worriedly, holding the staff tightly.

"And the crystal?" Blinky asks.

"Angor Rot had it the last I saw it." Claire says lifelessly, tears running down her cheeks.

"How are we getting Wei out of there? He could already be dead. He's fighting Angor Rot afterall." Claire says worriedly, seeing his weapon sticking in the ground next to them and grabs it, with it quickly collapsing, just like the staff she holds and she presses the two hand sized objects to her chest.