Option one: Krel is the spy. So is Aja. They’re pretending to be human so they can better help their parents conquer the planet. Douxie uses the power of music to make Krel fall in love with him, and the power of love to convince Krel to betray his family and save the Earth.
Option two: At barely 100 years old, Douxie is the spy. Due to not being born until late in World War 1, he was never found by Archie, much less Merlin. Instead, he was raised by the Arcane Order as their weapon. Douxie was sent to Arcadia Oaks, and was immediately hit by a road block: he’s aged so slowly that he’s forced into attending classes at Arcadia Oaks High. Krel could just as easily be a nonmagical human as he could be his canon self (if an Akiridion, Douxie wouldn’t be able to tell until Krel or Aja revealed themselves), but no matter what he ends up convincing his classmate to give up the immortality given to him by the Arcane Order and fight on the side of Arcadia Oaks.
Option three: Once again, Krel is the spy, but instead there aren’t any Akiridions in this AU. Instead, he’s a changeling. He and Aja treat each other as siblings since they were both half-conundrum trolls (aka distant relation to Dictatious and Blinky), but their familiars are from different areas of the world, therefore they have different accents. Krel and Douxie have, for several hundred years, had a homoerotic rivalry that constantly teeters between something more sweet and something more violent. They can never actually call themselves lovers because they feel too much loyalty to Morgana and Merlin, but they could never bring themselves to injure the other in a way that would take more than a week to fully heal.
11. “i should’ve left you a long time ago, just like everybody else did.” from angst prompts
So I actually came up with an angsty theory for how Wizards will end (and what huge sacrifice will overshadow the otherwise happy ending), so that’s the context for this fic (as well as another angsty headcanon for what Krel’s role will be in Wizards).
If you want background music, I believe “My Immortal” by Evanescence and “Say Something” by A Great Big World ft. Christina Aguilera will work quite well for the situation.
As the Guardians of Arcadia, Jim, Claire, Toby, Steve, and Krel have many duties. They have to mediate between the various non-human communities and the humans of Arcadia Oaks. They have to defend their fragile but hard-won peace against anyone and everyone who wants to destroy it. They have to take care of one of their fallen friends. Though, in some ways, Archie could handle this on his own. In fact, at first he had acted like he didn’t want any outside help. As the time has passed, though, Archie has become thankful for when one of the five Guardians has relieved him of his otherwise lonesome vigil over a boy who will probably never wake up.
No, that’s not it. Douxie sleeps and wakes, and when he sleeps he seems like everything’s alright. Almost everything; his hair is completely white. It’s when he’s awake that everything his wrong. His eyes are black and blue and glowing. They’re not well-defined like an Akiridion’s, even though if Krel squints from far enough away they look like it. It’s a blurry, glowing blue dot in the middle of an empty blackness.
He doesn’t move like he should. He blinks and breathes, and he resists a little when Krel, Archie, or one of the others tries to move him, but other than that he stays far too still.
Currently his chosen position (if he even has the capacity to choose) is leaning his head on Krel at an awkward angle. Krel can’t bring himself to move the catatonic wizard, though, but the weight makes him slightly uncomfortable.
“I should have left you a long time ago, just like everyone else did,” Krel grumbles, then frowns. “I’m sorry, that came out wrong.”
It’s true, in a vague sense of the word. All five of them visit the apartment like a fine-tuned machine, but it’s been months since he sacrificed himself to keep time from destroying itself. It’s been months since he last did anything but blink, breathe, and stare. Everyone is giving up on him, or at least, everyone other than Archie. Krel fears that the day Archie gives up on Douxie will be the day Archie gives up on living at all.
According to Archie, Krel stays the longest with Douxie. Krel isn’t sure if Archie is grateful for the chance to leave Douxie’s side and stretch his wings, or if he’s just sad. Krel knows that Claire tends to alternate between staying the shortest and the second-longest out of all of them, because she was very nearly the one to sacrifice herself to time.
“I just, I don’t know why I’m staying here, talking to you, instead of dropping things off, calling Archie to get him to come back, and leaving you be,” Krel rambles. “You’re practically dead. We don’t know if you’ll ever come back. And, it’d be one thing if I was staying for Archie. But I’m staying for you. And, we didn’t really know each other, not like everyone else knew you. And I use to think that maybe it’s because I feel guilty? That maybe, if I had seen through the Arcane Order’s lies, I wouldn’t have helped to cause some of the damage to time. I could have even reversed some of the damage.
“But, that’s not it. I don’t know if I told you, but I’ve been seeing a therapist, lately, and I’ve talked to him about a lot of things. Like how I feel guilty about not saving my parents, and now not saving you. And I think I don’t feel as guilty anymore? Also, talking to Steve helped.”
Krel flexes his hands. “I don’t know if you can even hear me, but Steve told me how you felt about me. How you didn’t hold my time in the Order against me, and wouldn’t blame me even though I blame, or at least blamed, myself. How you had a small crush on me. And, in all honesty, I don’t know how I feel about you. But, ever since I left the Order and we became allies, my feelings for you haven’t been the same as the feelings I have for any of my other friends. And I don’t know if it’s because we were enemies at first, or if it’s just because we met under very different circumstances than how I met my other friends. But, I’ve been thinking about it for months.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever had a crush before. And I don’t know if my feelings for you are a crush, or maybe they’re something that if we had had more time together, they would have become a crush, or if they’re something else. I don’t know. I don’t like not knowing. I just want you back, partly because if I could talk to you and actually get an answer maybe I could understand how I feel about you. But I want you back, not just like this.”
Krel will never admit it, but he’s daydreamed about this moment before. He affirms their friendship, or admits that he might have romantic feelings, and Douxie begins to move and says something. And in one weird dream Krel had after Mary had dragged him to watch movies about Earth princesses, Krel had kissed Douxie and he went back to normal.
Douxie continues to stare ahead blankly.
Krel blinks back tears. “You should know that your head is heavy, right?”
Okay, so I know that Wizards is gonna take place in Camelot, but I personally think that the series finale will take place in Arcadia Oaks. Why? Two reasons.
First off, this is still Tales of Arcadia. This is still a show about teenagers battling the supernatural in the seemingly normal American town of Arcadia Oaks.
Second, everything comes back to the bridge. Kanjigar death and amulet finding? Bridge. Bular death? Bridge. Morgana fight? Bridge. Morando fight? Bridge.
That second to last one is the most important to me for a very specific reason. Please, if you will, picture this scene.
“We need more portals!” Steve yelled.
“Well, my wormhole generators can’t handle any more!” Krel said, druidic staff in one pair of hands and serrator in the other.
Claire scanned the battlefield, and ran to one very specific spot on the bridge. “Toby!”
“Yeah?” Toby bashed in the snail’s shell with his warhammer.
“This is where you destroyed my staff, right?”
He turned to look at her. “Yeah!”
Claire crouched down. Morgana had stolen many things from Claire. Weapon, identity, brother, body, mind, and soul. Morgana had claimed to be the owner and creator of the Skathe-Hrün. Morgana had claimed to be the Eldritch Queen, the Mistress of Shadows.
Morgana had taken so much from Claire. It was time to take the rest of it back.
Claire activated her magic as she stood up, pulling as she went. Fragments flew up from where they had been embedded in the ground, forming a curved staff with a silver handle in Claire’s hand.
Toby’s jaw dropped. “How? More importantly, won’t having the staff free Morgana? We really don’t need another all-powerful enemy right now.”
“She can try and take it from me,” Claire said, a giddy sense of triumph filling her voice even as the battle raged around them. “But please. I’m the one who made this in the first place, and this time I placed in some fail safes. Now, how about some more portals?”
Normal science and magic won't bring Krel's parents back, but dark magic and Gaylen's Core might do the trick.
Fic can be read as shippy or platonic.
Vaguely inspired by this post. And I mean really vaguely inspired.
AO3
FFN
Krel hears the doors to his lab open, and someone walk into his lab. It’s not Lucy, because Krel can’t hear her heels click against the ground. Still, Ricky has tried to get him to come to dinner before. “I told you, I’m not hungry,” he says.
“We’re worried about you,” says Douxie. Krel looks up from his work to scowl at the wizard. He must have messed with the various shields. That, or tricked Ricky and Lucy into letting him in.
“I’m fine. Leave me alone.”
Douxe walks closer. “When did you last sleep?”
The last time Krel slept, it was a full eight horvaths. It was a two and a half delsons ago, and he had woken up to a message saying there had been an attack on Akiridion-V. Aja was the target. Aja was okay. Aja was stubborn and making sure that she would still be able to be Queen on her own.
Aja should not be Queen. Not yet.
“Krel.” Douxie is leaning over Krel, staring at the spellbooks that Krel is trying to make sense of. Krel is not a wizard, but he is a scientist and magic has rules.
“This is dark magic,” Douxie says. Krel glances behind himself, one of his hands slowly making its way towards his serrator, just in case. Just in case Douxie is willing to be a hypocrite and kill Krel for deciding to use a combination of science and dark magic.
Well, Krel has no damning proof that Douxie has used dark magic before. Just the way that Douxie flinches slightly whenever Nimue or Archie refer to all dark magic being evil. Just the way that Douxie once looked panic for half of a secton when Toby mentioned that the color was starting to bleed out of Douxie’s hair, leaving it pure white slightly above the blue.
But Krel does not need his serrator right now. Douxie doesn’t appear accusatory. His gaze is at worst concerned, at best neutral, and either way his posture is nonthreatening.
Krel nods. “Normal magic and science won’t bring my parents back. I’m sure you’d understand, you were there when Archie explained the three rules of magic and then told us that those rules don’t apply to dark magic.”
Douxie’s eyes narrow. “Krel, it’s not going to work. Your parents, they won’t be the people you grew up with.”
“I know. They won’t fully remember me because they sacrificed some of their memories to save me and Aja.”
“They’re not going to know who you are and that’ll be in so many ways worse. They won’t remember you because you can’t bring people back from the dead in a new body - or in your case new core - without a cost!” Douxie’s eye turn a black and blue that is just close enough to Krel’s own eyes that it makes Krel uneasy, but he does not back down.
Krel stands up, if only so he can use his full height against the now-fully-revealed dark wizard if the need comes. “Sure, without adequate research I can’t. Same goes for being without a way to fully replicate the spell. Or without an adequate power source. But I’m not going to be hasty about it.”
Douxie’s gaze softens, but it does not return to gold. “I trust that you’ll be careful and meticulous, because they’re your parents and you don’t want to hurt them. But, Krel, here on Earth non-wizards call trying to bring back the dead ‘playing God’, and I’d say they have good reason. And, I don’t want you to get hurt for your hubris, not like I did.”
Krel stares at Douxie for a long moment, debating. He doesn’t want Douxie to ruin his plans, but lack of knowledge will ruin them as well, and Douxie is the most knowledgeable when it comes to the situation.
“I wouldn’t be playing with a god’s power,” Krel says slowly, waiting for any reason not to reveal the power source he will be using.
Douxie gives Krel no reason not to trust him, so Krel takes out a well-disguised container. From it, he pulls out a purple life-core.
“Gaylen had the power to create and destroy planets.” Krel looks up. It’s hard to read Douxie’s emotions because of how his eyes currently look, but Krel thinks there is a keen look to Douxie’s gaze. “I’m not, I don’t want to make another planet. Or destroy one, for that matter. But, if Gaylen had that much power, then surely by using his core I can bring back my parents.”
“That could work.” Douxie bites his lip, and then exhales. “I’ve been researching spells that could restore lost memories. I’ve even tried a few out, but they’ve never seemed to work. I... if we combine your technology and my spells...”
“We could both get our families back,” Krel finishes. A weight lifts off his shoulders. One less disapproving person to keep this a secret from. One more source of knowledge. One more person to help Krel not make a deadly mistake, while still not trying to keep Krel from doing this at all.
“Okay. But, before we start working on this,” Douxie says, a slight smile creeping onto his face and eyes returning to gold, “I have some ground rules. Call them, workplace safety, if you want. First off, we’re not going to go crazy with desperation. Which means that you need to step away and sleep for at least thirty minutes.”
Krel gives a halfhearted groan. One more person pulling him away from his work because they cared about Krel’s health. Still, he can’t bring himself to feel too annoyed.
---
A/N: Yes, Archie is Douxie’s dad in this. No, I couldn’t figure out a way to work this into the plot since this is from Krel’s POV.
So, like, I don’t actually want this to happen, but consider the following:
Toby, Steve, and Krel work with Douxie and Archie. And it starts out fine, but Toby, Steve, and Krel start having to do some morally grey shit. Douxie & the other wizards are totally fine with it, while Toby & co. are a little uncomfortable at first, but they get over it. They’re saving the world; they need to make sacrifices. Even if the person they’re saving the world from seems to be doing her battles through a girl with pink hair.
Cut to Jim and Claire. They realize that there’s an evil dark wizard doing bad stuff, and at first they suspect it’s Merlin. However, Merlin, as much of an asshole as he is, isn’t evil and isn’t the dark wizard they’re looking for. They start trying to figure out who it could be. They then meet up with Aja and Eli, who say that something is wrong with Toby, Steve, and Krel. The four of them go back to Arcadia Oaks, which is no longer the town they once knew. They sneak around to meet up with an informant. Said informant pulls off their hood to reveal pink hair. She says that she isn’t as strong as Mordred, especially not now that he has allies, and she needs help to save the town.
“So, Sir Mordred,” Archie asks that night. “Do you think we should let those three in on the secret? I think they’re loyal enough to you that we won’t have to worry.”
“Not yet,” Douxie says, scratching his familiar behind the ears.
Or tl;dr what if Toby, Steve, Krel, Douxie, and Archie are actually the villains of Wizards? But we, the audience, don’t find out until it’s too late?
