Infinity Is A Figure-Eight
SPOILERS FOR RISE OF THE TITANS!
Toby and Jim have been passing the Amulet back and forth between them, time-loop after time-loop, trying to save each other.
Toby clung to Jim's hand even after it went limp.
"No … please, Jimbo, you gotta wake up. Dr L is gonna be so upset."
"I'm sorry, Tobias." Blinky put all four hands on the Trollhunter's shoulders. "He's gone."
Behind them, AAARRRGGHH bellowed in rage and grief and started throwing things. The Khronisfere bashed into the pileup of cars and rubble Jim was trapped under.
Toby looked down at it. The screen showed him a vision of Jim biking into the canal and stopping by the rubble of Kanjigar's remains. "Come on, Tobes!" he called.
That … that hadn't been what happened. Toby had been alone that afternoon.
The image vanished. Toby finally let go of Jim's hand to pick up the sphere.
"What is this thing even for?! It's supposed to 'make things right', but all it does is – we might as well just have stolen Merlin's time map back in Camelot because it does the exact same thing!"
In sudden fury, he smashed it. It was already half-broken apart from AAARRRGGHH's attack on it; Toby just finished the job.
It would've been better if Jim had been there, when he'd found the Amulet. Jim had always seemed to have a sixth sense for what was going on, the dangers they were about to face. He would've been a way better Trollhunter than Toby.
Toby turned a frangment of green crystal in his hands. There was something about it …
"Tobias, what are you thinking?" said Blinky warily.
"Khronisfere will make right," Toby muttered. He put the crystal into his Amulet. "Only Trollhunter will know."
"Toby –" AAARRRGGHH tried to protest, reaching for him.
His mentors and father figures vanished in a burst of green light, and Toby awoke in his own bedroom. He hurried across the street and –
Jim was there, picking up the trash knocked over by the raccoons. (Or goblins, more likely.)
"We're gonna be late for school, Jimbo," he invented. Every time travel story he'd ever read flashed through his mind. He couldn't let anyone know he was from the future, or it would twist so that he couldn't predict it and keep everyone safe.
"Sorry," said Jim. "I was just busy with the lunches."
In the following months, Toby did his best to stay not-bitter, to be the best sidekick he could be.
Sometimes he slipped – bitterness at Claire seeming to try and replace him (Jim's closeness with her felt different now that Toby wasn't the one busy with Trollhunter duties), resentment when Jim tried to cut him out for his own safety ("I thought since we found it together, we'd always be in this together") – but it was mostly good. He didn't quite recover his closeness to Blinky, but he was closer than ever with AAARRRGGHH.
Then Jim went into the Darklands, alone, trying to rescue Claire's brother, and Toby was sailing uncharted waters.
He knew he had to stay in Arcadia when the trolls left, especially if Claire was leaving with Jim this time around. Somebody needed to help Aja and Krel fend off Morando. He was almost weirdly grateful when that really did end up happening again.
Steve, of all people, ended up going back in time with Claire and Jim and Douxie to Camelot is Toby's place, and Toby could only hope things went more-or-less the same there as they had when Toby, Jim, Claire and Douxie witnessed the First Battle of Killahead Bridge.
Things got predictable again once the Titans became a threat, but Toby was faced with how much he had forgotten between now and before. He forgot the illusion in the roundhouse. He'd forgotten Nomura's death. Strickler died this time, too, but that wasn't something Toby remembered once reminded, so that might have been different. He couldn't find a way for Nari to survive fighting Skrael.
Still, he got to save Jim, this time.
(Up until his realization, seconds before he died, that this meant Jim had the Amulet and the Khronisfere this time around, and was now in the same position Toby had been, of having lost his best friend …)
