#deep!jim

Back in Arcadia, after Merlin teleports the castle away for the first time in the story, Bellroc and Skrael grumble and travel the mostly-empty streets of Arcadia Oaks. And they find Gaylen’s core. Eons ago, they gave a fraction of their power to an akiridion who wanted to create a permanent home for his people, spacefarers who were constantly having to leave their planets due to war and inhospitable landscapes. And when he went mad with power, they gave Seklos the strength and inspiration to create her cannon.

They pick up the core, and they learn of an akiridion whose core resonates with Gaylen’s. And, it’s not like they would have to leave the Earth to find him - they just have to go to a wrecked and ruined spaceship to find a lonely boy whose family is dead or far away, and his best friend has left him. He tries calling his other friends, but they’re not responding (mainly because they’re recovering from the battle that Krel doesn’t know about.)

Krel’s consent to Bellroc and Skrael causing him to integrate with Gaylen’s core is dubious at best, but they do convince him that Merlin the Evil™ Wizard (along with his apprentice) has kidnapped his friends.

Steve and Toby try to reach out to Krel, but he doesn’t answer. He needs time, they think. He’s grieving and wants space, they think. In the mean time, some of the mooks they have to fight have some disturbingly akiridion qualities. And then, the kids get kidnapped. Everyone but Douxie gets placed in a surprisingly well-furnished cell, and Krel goes to them and tells them how happy he is that he was able to save them from Merlin and his apprentice. The kids, of course, can see that Krel has been changed and are scared.

Krel is sad that his friends are scared of him (and he doesn’t like that he’s been changed by Gaylen’s core, either) and so he decides to leave them so he can go to try and interrogate Merlin’s apprentice. Tries is the key word here. Varvatos may have tried to teach Krel, but Krel is too squeamish to cut off Douxie’s thumbs and thus the two of them end up bantering. Krel gets flustered; why does he like talking with his enemy so much? Krel tries to intimidate Douxie by putting the tip of his serrator’s blade under Douxie’s chin and using it to tilt Douxie’s gaze upwards... instead they both manage to get more flustered because it’s a homoerotic sword-under-chin scene now. Krel leaves the room, and finds out that his friends have broken out.

Claire ends up awakening stronger shadow magic, and she and Krel spam portals at each other as the kids try to find Douxie and escape. Someone asks Douxie if he’s okay. He claims to be physically fine and emotionally compromised. Jim finally gets sharded in the escape. He’s in a great deal of pain, and Barbara finally gets brought in. She’s terrified because her baby is hurt and she can’t do anything for him.

The other kids ask Douxie about the whole emotional compromise thing when they’re safe.

Toby: Just because Krel was our friend before you, that doesn’t mean it’s okay that he hurt you. Are you sure you’re okay.

Douxie: If he’d hurt me it’d be easier.

Everyone: o_O what?

Douxie: I... why is it that the only time I’m able to talk to a cute guy and not get too flustered to speak is when he’s trying to interrogate me by being really sweet and funny?

Everyone: O_o

Toby: You really weren’t flirting with Claire, were you?

Douxie, relieved that Jim didn’t out him but also frustrated: Why does everyone think that.

Claire: I didn’t think that. Well, I did for a little bit but then I remembered seeing you at the GSA meetings back before I switched schools from the Academy to the High

Douxie, grumbling: Why do I get the feeling that I wouldn’t be in this mess if I had just managed to try to talk to that cute DJ at the Battle of the Bands before the Eternal Night happened

Steve: Quick question, are you saying you had a crush on DJ Kleb?

Douxie, head in his hands: Yes

Steve: Yeah, that’s Krel’s human disguise

Douxie: Fuzzbuckets.

Toby: If it’s any help we all thought you were the token cishet.

Krel is panicking, because the Order was fine with hurting his friends, and also because he has a crush though he’s in denial about the latter.

Jim ends up looking way more like he did in the Deep (except he still has horns) than just growing into a giant beast.

Douxie gets a staff. Somehow.

Krel defects at around the same time as Jim joins the Order. He’s able to make up surprisingly easily with his friends, and Aja and Eli come back to Earth, shocked to find out what has been done to Krel but affirming that they still care about him the way they did before.

Merlin’s death is more-or-less like canon.

Morgana remains evil in her dying breath. Claire gets to kill her. “Oh happy dagger, this is thy sheath. There rest and let me finally start to live again.”

Barbara, Blinky, AAARRRGGHH!!!, and Toby snap Jim out of the shard’s corruption.

Nari sacrifices herself to destroy Bellroc and Skrael, which would make Wizards the end of the story rather than needing Rise of the Titans.