I’ll be first to admit I suck at naming, and I really should come up with something better. Basically, the divergence for this idea is that the Fetch is discovered about 16 years before the start of the series, and Gunmar responds by ordering several replacements in quick succession. In more practical terms it means there are a few more Changelings scattered amongst the youth of Arcadia Oaks. Specifically, there are eight young Changelings at Arcadia Oaks High: Jim, Toby, Claire, Eli, Steve, Mary,Darci, and Shannon. They justify their meetings under the excuse that they are all part of a “Classics Club” endorsed by Strickler, either out of genuine interest, scholarship applications, or in order to salvage a falling grade. Of course, all is not well within the lives of these Changelings, as each is growing to question their place in the world:

• Jim is wrestling with issues on all sides of his life. He loves his mom, even if he feels guilty about having to lie to her about the “real” Jim, and as time goes on he’s becoming increasingly worried that the upcoming return of Gunmar and coming of Eternal Night will leave her with a place in the new order no higher than “slave” or, worse, “livestock”. And he’s not sure any of the Changelings will be safe in the new world order either; when Gunmar doesn’t need his infiltrators anymore will they end up as nothing but one big buffet? Recent events have given him a chance to perhaps fix things, but being bonded to the Amulet and being christened the Trollhunter would come with a host of problems even if he was just a normal human. He can’t rely on the mom he wants to keep in the dark, he has to pretend he’s a normal, ignorant human to Blinky and the rest of Trollmarket, and he can’t rely on the fellow Changelings he’s come to view as the only ones who can understand what he’s going through because they’d likely regard him as a traitor, even if he’s doing it for them. Set upon on all three sides and without anyone to help him, Jim has to decide who he can trust if he doesn’t wish to fall.

• Toby’s issues center around the fact that, quite bluntly, he’s gone native and everyone knows it. He does well enough when asked to do things that he hasn’t been thrown under the bus or offended Bular yet, but at the same time he’s also worried about “his” Nana, and struggling with the morality of what they’re being called to do. (On a side note, I wonder if it might be interesting to make Changeling!Toby of Krubera stock?)

• Claire was willing to do what had to be done, even if she finds it hard to not think of herself as a parasite, a creature that takes away the life of another and claims love that doesn’t belong to them. But then Enrique was replaced without warning her, and now she’s stuck not only dealing with an amateur who lacks any sort of subtlety, her own feelings of guilt are rising to the surface. Do they really have the right to steal both of this couple’s children?

• Eli feels both uplifted and constrained by the Janus Order. On one hand, he has access to knowledge and records that the average human seeker of the strange would positively drool over, but at the same time, knowledge is guarded and controlled, turned towards the furthering of the Order’s power to bring Eternal Night, and not only are his other theories laughed at or ignored (Aliens are real, he’ll tell you, real!), the new world that Gunmar is bringing doesn’t seem like it’ll have much of a place for scholarship or things that fit outside one particular paradigm. And this is before getting into the question of whether Eli has the stomach to do some of the grizzly things the Order would have him do…

• Steve didn’t use to have qualms about the Gumm-Gumm cause. Humans are weak and pathetic, cringing cowards or arrogant jerks who lash out at those they think are less than them to deal with their own sense of inferiority (Palchuk has never been known for his skills at self-reflection in any universe). But the eviction of his human dad and the arrival of Coach Lawrence has started to change his way of looking at things, for all that he tries to fight it and honestly doesn’t comprehend what it is he’s feeling.

• Darci is feeling particularly claustrophobic. Her “dad” has always been overprotective and the arrival of puberty and the possibility of boys has sent him into an aggressive overdrive, which is pretty bad considering the sort of secrets she needs to keep. Her position as school mascot has provided a perfect outlet, a time when she doesn’t have to worry about keeping up appearances as a normal girl or as a member of the Janus Order, but can just be herself, a feeling she’s not all that used to. Still, she’s playing a very dangerous game; she’s already done one game wearing her true face under the mascot suit, and while the thrill was intoxicating, she knows that she’s getting a bit too loose with safety in the name of feeling okay. One wrong move and she could be in a lot of trouble…

• Mary would be disgusted if you suggested she and Domzalski had a lot in common, but she too has gone native, abet in a subtler way. She just wants to be a normal teenager, and doesn’t get why Eternal Night have to happen now. Heck, why does Eternal Night have to happen at all? Gunmar’s stuck behind the Bridge like most of the Gumm-Gumms, and while Bular and whatever sympathizers are around might be tough, they probably can’t handle a full human military. And while that’s a nuclear option considering what it might do to the Order, she still can’t see why they should help them. Why trade a world of smart phones and fast food and modern society for some rundown dictatorship in a bleak wasteland ruled by some overpowered thug? Mary knows no one would listen and keeps her voice down, but if someone offered a reliable way to change things, she would be all ears…

• Shannon… well, I’m not sure what to do with Shannon. We know so little about her compared to the others, so I might wait to see if we get a look into who she is in 3Below or Wizards. Still, from the small bit of hidden deviousness she displays (embezzlement?!) I feel comfortable suggesting she might be an outright polymorph in this AU.

• Strickler is left with a problem of his own. Despite his best efforts, he’s essentially a father to eight children to whom he’s grown attached. This has greatly increased his anxiety regarding the arrival of Gunmar and his desire to see Changelings strike out on his own, but at the same time he knows that that Bular would rip his head off given the chance, and without an option to escape all he thinks he can do is try to keep these children from getting themselves killed. And that’s before he finds himself interacting with Barbara enough to fall in love…

Ultimately, all nine find themselves caught between the cause to which they’ve been pledged and the good of “their people”, both human and Changeling. Torn between the Janus Order, Trollmarket, the Gumm-Gumms, and human society, will they be able to navigate towards a better tomorrow, or will they be destroyed by conflicting loyalties?