“In a day, Trollhunter, you shall die.” When Gunmar turned and left, Enrique still in his hand, the portal blinking out. The hologram remained the empty space where Gunmar had been mocking everyone.

Claire fell to her side, and the sound she made was like a broken animal. She didn’t seem to see anything, even though her eyes were wide open.

Natasha and Clint were at her side, and then Jim. Toby hadn’t relinquished his hold on his friend.

“Claire,” Jim said. “We’ll get him back, Claire, I promise. No matter what it takes, I’ll get him back.”

Claire didn’t respond to Jim, just staring at the image.

Gunmar let us get the rest of the children. He did it to get our—no, Claire’s hopes up. So that when he made his reveal, it would hit her the hardest.

And piss off Jim.

It was smart, leveraging his very weakness into an advantage. The Natasha who graduated from the Red Room would have been impressed.

The Natasha holding the sobbing girl wanted nothing more than to murder Gunmar.

Slowly.

“He’ll kill him. He’ll kill him.” Claire shivered. “He wanted me to see how close we came…” Her voice was weak, thready, her skin cool to Natasha’s touch.

“Fury, we need an evac,” she said.

“Wait!” Jim put the staff to the side and then held onto Claire’s hands. “Claire, we can get Enrique back, but I need your help.”

“I can’t—I can’t do it fast enough.”

“Not from this side. But once we’re in there with Gunmar, you can portal Enrique away from him before he can do anything.”

Claire was still trembling, but then she looked up at Jim. “But…”

“Then you can portal yourself and Enrique back to the fetch, and then portal through it. You told me that it’s easier when you’re moving yourself, and even if it isn’t, you’ll be next to the fetch. Gunmar won’t be there, and Mr. Stark can send more of those blasty things through to cover you. Even if Gunmar gets the amulet…” Jim took a deep breath. “It won’t help him. Not after SHIELD destroys the bridge.”

“What about you and Toby?” Claire asked. She sniffled, and drew the back of her hand across her face… but now it was an angry motion.

Jim’s giving her a plan. Natasha looked around. Fury was quiet, face closed, as usual. Next to him, Vendel leaned on his staff and shook his head. Tony looked pissed, and so did Banner, in that minor, mild way that let you know that the Big Guy was getting ready to come out to play. Thor was listening to Jim, and only if you looked closely at his hand could you see how his fingers whitened around the haft of his hammer. Blinky and Arrrggghhh were slowly walking up to Claire. Natasha glanced at Clint and nodded, and they pulled away, letting the last two Trollhunters join the group, the girl almost seeming lost within their great hands.

Steve… Steve was looking at Jim with that intensity that reminded you of just what he had done during and after the war. He was no stranger to forlorn hopes.

“Toby can go with you to protect you,” Jim said. “I’ll… Be distracting Gunmar.” He grinned. ”He really hates me.”

“Jim—you can’t. That’s suicide!” Claire said.

“I’m… A lot better than I was, and remember, Gunmar has to fight me personally, or he loses face. It’ll be one on one.”

Blinky had put his hand on Claire’s shoulder. “Master Jim… Gunmar has never been defeated by any other troll. The best we could do was seal him away. You slew Bular… But the son was never equal to the father.”

“I might get lucky,” Jim said with a weak chuckle. “Besides, it doesn’t matter, does it? Whether I win or lose. Gunmar will be trapped forever, and you’ll have Enrique back, so it doesn’t matter if I get k—don’t win. You know, do what the Trollhunter is supposed to do.” He was starting to tremble, Natasha noticed. The anger was running its course, and Jim wasn’t a fool. He never expected to win. But he will get Enrique back, no matter what it costs him.

But he’s still 16, and he knows he just signed his own death warrant.

“Good plan,” Steve said. “Just one problem. We don’t trade lives, and you have a larger team than you’re used to working with.”

“Indeed,” Thor rumbled.

“Damn right,” Tony said. And he wasn’t joking. There were a few things that could make Tony stop with the snark. Incandescent rage was one of them.

Jim paused, staring at them like he was seeing the Avengers for the first time.

Natasha sympathized. It was hard to get out of the mindset that you had to do things yourself.

“If…” Jim frowned. “If Gunmar thinks he’s going to lose anyway, or not get a shot at me, he’ll kill Enrique on the spot.”

“So no Thor,” Steve said. “That’s fine. I need him with Clint, Natasha, and Toby, on this side.”

“But this is safe…” Toby said.

“I don’t think so,” Steve said. “Gunmar is too well informed, and he knows that whatever happens, when the bridge is destroyed, he loses his best way out. So we have to assume he has some plan to breach the bridge. If so, you and Thor are best suited to plug that portal, with Clint and Natasha handling any other attacks.” He shook his head. “And I bet Gunmar knows that we’ll keep Thor on this side of the portal, so be careful. He may have surprises in stow.”

Thor plugged a portal with giant leviathans coming out of it. He doesn’t need Clint and my help, let alone Toby’s.

But Jim and Claire were both vital to the mission, and Toby, for all of his courage, didn’t bring anything to the mix that they couldn’t—but Cap wasn’t about to tell him that. So leave it to Cap to find a way to let him contribute, even if being near Thor was about the safest place you could be.

“Yeah, that day’s waiting period has trap written all over it,” Tony said. “So, who’s coming along?”

“Me, you, and Bruce.” Captain America gestured at Tony. “I know Gunmar’s type. Even if he can objectively think that we’re a threat, to him, we’re also… ‘fleshbags’ and weak. I’m just a slightly stronger human, you’re just a man in armor, and Bruce is…”

“Bruce.” Bruce grinned. “Not threatening at all.”

“Not until we get Enrique back. Then it’s Hulk Smash.” He turned to the Trollhunters. “Jim, we’ll go over the plan, but I need you to promise me—however furious you are with Gunmar, you’re fighting a delaying action until we get Enrique back, and then we all hit him at once.”

“That’s a better plan than mine,” Jim said. “I want to live to graduate from my sophomore year.”

Natasha saw Tony’s jaw tighten with the effort to probably not say the first five things that came to mind.

“Good. Remember, Gunmar is smart, and that means we have to be prepared for nasty surprises, not least of which is that sword of his, but we’ll have some surprises he’s not ready for. We’ll flesh out the operation before we head in.”

“And we will join Jim and the Fair Claire!” Blinky said.

“No,” Tony said. “You need to stay on this side of the gate.”

“But Man of Iron—”

“I have some little party favors for Gunmar, but they’re not too discriminating in what type of troll they bother. I’m thinking of calling them sunlight in a can.”

“And we can’t risk friendly fire in the Darklands,” Steve said.

Blinky sighed and looked at Jim in regret. “Then we will stay with Master Tobias.”

“And there will be songs sung of it!” Thor said, slapping Blinky on the back and nearly bowling him over.

Jim helped Claire up to her feet.

“I’m sorry—I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to lose it like that. I just—it was the first time I saw Enrique, and he was so close—” her voice broke. Jim and Toby got Claire in a hug, holding on to her.

Jim murmured into her ear, “I know, Claire. But you’re strong. We can do this…”

“I—” Claire didn’t say anything else for a moment, just hung on to Jim and Toby.

And everyone else quickly found something else to occupy their time, even, wonder of wonders, Tony.