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Obviously Eli didn't trust anyone in Arcadia Oaks, regardless of whether or not anyone believed him about the monsters; he knew what he saw. So one day he just...stopped trying. "Eli!" Jim reached out to touch his shoulder.Eli backed away the best he could while still in his chair. "What do you know about monsters?" Jim asked with a phony smile pasted on his face; he seemed almost desperate, and Eli tilted his head. "They don't exist." That was a blatant lie; he didn't care, though.Many people have made fun of him by asking about monsters before; Eli's defense was up and wasn't going back down anytime soon. "Come on, Eli, please!" Jim whined, going quiet when Eli put his pencil down and stood up. "Listen, I have no idea what to tell you." All he knew right now was that if Steve heard this conversation, he'd shove Eli in the locker for an entire afternoon, and he didn't need that right now."You can tell me what you were yelling about a month ago." Jim groaned; Eli felt himself starting to become agitated but pushed that feeling down; he didn't want to be mean. "I cannot." He insisted, Jim grabbed his wrist only to be shoved away by Steve walking to his desk. When Jim glared at him, he received only an obnoxious smile in return.Jim wrinkled his nose like he smelt something bad, and Eli pinched the bridge of his own nose with a sigh. "You know the whole paranormal thing is just a hobby, right?" That was only half of a lie; Eli had spent years upon years gathering evidence. He believed in the paranormal at first, but that belief fizzled out into a silly hobby he spoke about at times. Jim looked frustrated, and Eli felt bad."Okay, um, if you have any questions or anything about myths, you can ask after school." Jim looked ready to argue, but Senior Uhl finally did something useful for once and ran in at the last minute, forcing Jim to sit at his desk and leave Eli alone...."When I said to ask me after school... I meant to leave me alone forever." That would've sounded disrespectful, but in Eli's squeaky 16-year-old voice, it just sounded like a nice way to tell Jim to go away. "But you said—" Eli slammed the door in Jim's face; he rolled his eyes when his mother shouted at him for slamming the door."It's not a big deal! Jesus! Calm the heck down!" "Elijah Leslie Pepperjack!"..."Elijah Pepperjack." Eli tensed up; his eyes darted around, but he saw no one and sighed in relief. He was becoming more paranoid lately, so he was likely starting to hear things; just as he was starting to move along, though, he heard his name again. It sounded more insistent, like it felt as though it was being ignored."Elijah Pepperjack." Eli turned around to find the source of the voice; it was nothing but a pile of rocks. He was about to walk away again when he finally found the real source of the sound. Something was buried inside the rubble, creating a soft glow against the rocks; he picked it up, dusting it off. "Huh, looks like an amulet." He said aloud, considering he had no friends or anyone with him right now, he wasn't saying it to anyone in particular.He still voiced his observation aloud for some reason, as though he needed to. Eli stared at it for a few moments unsure of whether to leave it there or take it. He moved to put it back down, but something nagged at him to take it. He tried to rationalize with himself: it could belong to someone, it could be dangerous, it was probably infested with germs, but each time a solution to each problem was shot back at him, so he sighed and slipped it into his pocket."Wow!" Eli squeaked, swatting Jim's hand away from him like it carried a disease. Which it probably did. "Please don't touch me." He giggled, shrinking away from Jim. The other boy had a peculiar expression on his face, a grimace, but his eyes widened ever so slightly with a hint of... hurt?Eli wasn't sure what it actually was; he wasn't entirely sure if he cared either. "Eli I really need your help." Jim's hands were clasped against his own chest in a sort of praying motion. "Uh, I really can't right now." Eli didn't really know if he was saying that he couldn't help Jim or if he simply didn't want to be anywhere near him, but he supposed it could be a mix of both.Jim was being weird, something about the way he was attaching himself to Eli despite their shared indifference for each other. Eli looked to the side out of habit; his hand twitched when he made eye contact with a disappointed-looking Toby, who was standing across the gym waiting impatiently for his friend."Uh! I promise I don't mean anything by this, but why aren't you with Toby?" He was trying to be smooth about it, but of course his voice cracked in that sentence. "You're more important right now." Jim threw his hands up in an exasperated manner.Toby stormed out of the gymnasium, having apparently heard their conversation. "You really messed up, Jim." Eli let out a breath, counting his lucky stars that Steve wasn't here today. "You're not understanding me; I can't help you! I'm sorry."...This made no sense; Eli wasn't ever a skeptic at any point in time. Maybe this was the timeline's way of correcting itself? Was Eli filling Jim's previous role in a way? Jim did feel bad about what happened with Toby, but he needed to hurry and find a way to get Eli to listen to him before it was too late."But you can help me!" How was he supposed to explain to this version of Eli that he helped save the planet multiple times? He would never believe that his best friend was Steve and that he finally fulfilled his dreams before it was all ripped away from him.The amulet picking Eli made the most sense, but this version of him would not be able to see that unless Jim gave him a push. "Stop!" Eli's voice broke into a loud squeak that immediately caught the attention of the entire gym, which unfortunately included Coach. "You're crazy! You're actually crazy!" Eli threw his hands up as if he couldn't even express how ridiculous this entire thing was.Eli ran off, leaving Jim both undoubtedly humiliated and alone. "Wow, if Dumbledore is calling you crazy, there has to be something wrong with you." Seems like Mary didn't change at least. "What are you two doing standing around?! I'll go grab Pepperjack; all of you better behave!" The coach yelled, which was really unnecessary considering that he was standing two feet away from Jim. "What a scene..."...Jim took a deep breath and knocked on Eli's door. The other boy opened it and sighed. If he was remembering correctly, he should've already met Blinky and Arrrgh. It was evident in the way he looked almost manic, eyes wide, pupils blown out."Are you stalking me?!" The other boy squeaked and grabbed Jim's wrist, pushing him inside before flopping onto his couch and having a staring contest with the ceiling. "I'm not!" Jim insisted."Then who showed up at my house at 11 pm last night?!" Eli still didn't look at Jim, likely too busy contemplating what had happened. "I wouldn't know." Jim flinched when Eli threw something at him. The amulet Jim couldn't read the amulet anymore; the text shifted and changed but wouldn't stay in one particular language.At least not for Jim. "Here...uh, can you read this?" Jim winced; he sounded more suspicious than he had intended. Eli stared at the ceiling, still not saying a word, which, considering that this was Eli, felt really worrying. The other boy held out his hand, and Jim dropped the amulet into it. Eli adjusted his glasses before squinting."In Justice of Mordr—for the good of all—for Morgana's reve—" Eli squinted. "There's no clear text here... It keeps changing." Jim frowned. "That... shouldn't happen." Eli gave him a look that indicated clear annoyance."Well, it is—wait, this seems to be solid!" The spark had returned to his voice, and Jim let out a breath he didn't even realize that he was holding in. "For the glory of Merlin, daylight is mine to command!" The transformation wasn't like anything Jim had expected.The soft glow that was present in Jim's initial transformation was replaced by a bright blaze that felt almost blinding. The soft, almost comforting clinks of the armor were interrupted by Eli trying to tear it off. "That's... strange." Jim wanted to scream, but he was honestly too shocked to let out anything more than a whisper.Instead of the armor resting atop his skin like it was supposed to, parts of it almost fused into it. One of the gloves was too big, more like an oversized gauntlet than anything. The chest plate wrapped around Eli like a rib cage, and one of the boots seemed to be made from scrap metal; it was like the amulet just took bits of armor and Frankensteined them. It was almost grotesque; it looked painful. "What happened to me?! How do I get this off?!"