Chapter Text
Belos was locked away underground, rotting in a cell, his mind slowly getting chipped away into madness, Hunter knew that. But he couldn't stop his mind from wandering, going places his eyes could not see. He was letting his imagination go wild, thinking something was where nothing stood but air. The nights were the worse. Waking up from countless nightmares only to see two pairs of glowing blue eyes peering down at him. He felt bad for Darius, as he had walked into his room almost every night just to comfort him. He saw the eyebags growing on his perfectly kept face. He felt the guilt sink further and further with each passing day. That's why he did his very best to keep the house clean, get extra jobs to earn some more money, anything he could do to prove himself. Even though Darius has reminded him over and over again that he has nothing to prove and he should just "live a normal teenage life". Hunter knew he meant what he said, but he just couldn't bring himself to. He was always trying to prove himself when he lived in the castle, why shouldn't he here?
He was laying on his bed when he heard Darius call up to him from downstairs.
"Hunter! You have to get ready. It's your first day of school today!" Hunter sighed, remembering the date. He was excited to go to school, play for the flyer derby team, see Willow and the others. But he had to quit his jobs in order to go, which meant he couldn't support Darius. After Belos was taken down, Darius has lost his spot as head witch, which left him jobless. So he took up three different jobs throughout the week just to make sure Hunter had food on the table. And what made Hunter even more guilty was the fact that sometimes he never ate at all, and just put the food back, wasting all of Darius's hard work.
Due to Hunter being a grimwalker and not having any magic, he was limited in the tracks he could take. So he decided to take all the ones he possibly could. He was in the potions track, the bard track, the beastkeeping track, the plant track (curtesy of the human teaching him some glyphs) and that was all. He was able to do the bard track because of the galderstone that took the place of his heart. By channeling an already magic imbued instrument through the galderstone, he was able to create various different attacks and technics he could use. He found this out in one of Belos's books on grimwalkers that they salvaged from the ruins of the castle.
He quickly hurried his way down the stairs and into the dining area, not wanting to be late for his first day. Darius had put out some food for him, already munching on some of his own food.
"Do you have everything? Your books? Uniform?" Darius asked as Hunter shoveled the food down his throat. Hunter gave a brisk nod and packed his backpack, making sure he had everything.
"Forgetting something?" Darius called, looking at Hunter with a raised eyebrow and a smirk played on his lips. "Right, sorry." Hunter apologized and ran up to hug him, which Darius graciously accepted.
"I was going to say your shoes but this works." Darius chuckled as he pulled away. "Nice socks." He added as he stared down at the mismatching bird socks he had on his feet. Hunters face flushed and he placed a hand on the back of his neck, turning and grabbing his shoes.
"Have a good day, little prince!" Darius called as Hunter raced out the door. Even though none of them worked for the emperor anymore, the nickname kind of stuck with them.
Flapjack gave a chirp as he turned into staff form, falling right into Hunter's hands and letting him board him. He sped through the town, getting to Hexside as fast as possible. On his way there he decided to check penstagram for any unread messages. And surely enough he had some. A lot of chats in the Emerald Entrails groupchat, a few from Luz, a bunch from Willow and Gus, and one from the youngest Blight, Amity he had learned her name was. He decided to read that one first, wondering what it could be. It read:
Purple_Haired_Baddie: I understand we don't have the best first impressions of each other, but could we attempt trying to get along? If not for ourselves at least for Luz? She's been through a lot lately and a quarrel between friends is that last thing she needs to worry about. Truce?
RULERZREACHFAN: suRE
After he read through all the messages, he learned he was supposed to wait at the front doors for them, right on the steps. He was already nearing the school, seeing students walking in from all over. As he touched down he saw no one else from the group there, so he decided to wait a bit. Finally after waiting a few minutes, Gus showed up.
"Hunter! You actually showed up! I wasn't sure if you would." Gus said, walking up to him while raising his hand in a wave.
"That's kind of harsh.." Hunter muttered under his breath, a small smile on his face.
"Ready for your first day? Don't worry, you have me as your protector to keep you safe! You'll be completely fine. Everyone here is super nice, except for Boscha maybe but I doubt she'll give you any trouble." Gus assured him. Hunter nodded and sat down, his lack of sleep starting to show.
"What is it like? School I mean?" Hunter asked after a few moments of silence. Gus thought for a second.
"Well.. It's a great place to make new friends and learn new things. Now with the coven system gone, students are allowed to take on as many tracks as they wish. I think this will be really good for you man." Gus smiled up at him. Hunter gave a small one back. Just then Luz and Amity decided to show up, arms interlocked and talking to each other with blush tinting both of their cheeks.
"Hey guys!" Luz called as she walked up the steps to them. "Hey Hunter! It's good to finally see you after everything happened. How have you been holding up? How has Darius been? He's been treated you good, right?" Luz shot questions at him left and right.
"Hun, I think that's enough. Give Hunter his space." Amity said with a chuckle. Luz's cheeks flushed a bit when she called her hun.
"Alright, alright sorry. But if he every does something to you contact me and he'll have to deal with my wrath." Luz warned, just as Willow decided to show up.
"Hey everyone!" She greeted, looking at Hunter. He waved awkwardly. All 5 of them talked for a bit before the bell rang, signaling them to go inside.
"Hey Hunter, had Bump issued anyone to give you a tour?" Luz asked as she walked over to her locker.
"Yes, he said one of the students was going to come over and give me one. They should be here any minute now." He told her as he looked around through the crowd. After a few minutes he saw a student in the illusions track and the abomination track. The second they got over here, he immediately saw something strange about them.
"U-uh, hello? My name's, uhmm.. My name is Penny. I will be giving you your tour." She said, never once making eye contact. Something about her screamed at Hunter to never drop his guard. He made sure to keep Flapjack closer. Flapjack chirped in protest as Hunter moved him from the spot in his hair.
"Well let's go this way." She quickly hurried ahead, glancing back and forth. Something is most defiantly wrong... He thought to himself.
"Here we have the cafeteria, this is where we eat." She said quickly. Hunter nodded, taking in the new information. He was interested in the first part of her talking, but after a while he just tuned her out. He didn't fail to notice her glancing at him every few minutes. They entered an empty classroom, which Hunter thought was weird, and she brought him over to the center. Just as he was about to ask, she screamed.
"Now!" And a giant box, probably used for beast keeping, fell over him. He cried out in alarm, his battle instincts kicking in. He went to summon Flapjack, only to realize he was in the hands of the tour guide. He was frantically trying to escape her tight grip, but it seemed he was having little luck. He tried to call out, but he couldn't hear anything on the outside, and he assumed they couldn't hear him. He tried breaking the box, kicking it and punching it. His panic was starting to set in, causing him to grab his hair and pull at it. Penny, along with two other students surrounded his little prison. He saw her draw a spell circle around her mouth.
"Listen here, Golden Guard, we're not buying your little act here. A dog always returns to its master. In case you ever stopped to wonder or even cared, your duties with the emperor hurt people. Do you know how many lives you've taken? Or did you not care enough to count." One of them spat. Hunter's breath picked up, his mind spiraling in panic.
"Oh titan, ohtitanohtitanohtitan.." He slurred. He closed his eyes and tried to regain his thoughts, the students kept on talking. Of course I remember. I remember every single one of their names. How do you forget something like that?
"Not so scary are you now, Golden Guard?" One of them taunted.
"Shut up." He whispered, his body now all folded in. He couldn't think.
"None of those innocent witches deserved their fate, your the one who deserved to die." The third one snarled. I do, don't I? Why don't I join them. Maybe Belos was right, maybe I am just good for nothing, easily replaceable. He was letting his thoughts get the better of him. He was already breathing heavy.
"Shut up." He said through clenched teeth. They kept talking.
"Shut up." He said a bit louder. They still fucking talked.
"Shut up!" He screamed, grabbing his ears. He heard them laughing, and something seemed to snap inside of him. He started having thoughts that weren't his own. I am the Golden Guard. Suddenly everything went black.
~~
When the color returned, his hands were covered in blood. He stared down at them, the horror creeping on his face. He looked up and saw the three students tied to a table, bloodied and knocked out.
Monster
He sunk to the ground, clenching his hair. His breath picked up. He couldn't see anything except blood.
All you do is hurt people
He slowly got up, walking over to the students. He untied them as he wept, the tears pouring down his face. He was showing weakness, but at this point none of that mattered. Once he finished his task he walked over to the nearest wall and sank down, burying his head in his arms. He let it all out. He was a sobbing mess. He might not have heard the voices.
"Is someone there?" He heard someone call. He froze. Oh. Oh titan. He cursed to himself.
"Hello?" Another voice called. Judging by the footsteps there were two people, one boy and one girl. He heard a knock on the door, then it creaked open. He heard two soft gasps.
"Oh my titan, what happened here!" He heard the guy yell, running over to the bloodied students. "Em, get over here and heal them."
"Uh, Ed? Look to your right." He heard them talking. He was too delirious to realize he was to their right. He heard the guy suck in a breath.
"Holy shit, Em, it's the Golden Guard!" The guy, who he now knew was named "Ed" whether it was short for something or not. The girl, Em, gasped and ran over, forgetting her work in healing them.
"What do we do?" She whispered harshly.
"Continue healing them, I'll try and talk to him. He looks.. scared." He felt a hand placed on his knee. Suddenly he was brought back to reality. Hunter gasped and scrambled back.
"S-stay back! Please! I don't want to hurt you!" Hunter begged, staring at his hand. He was vaguely aware of Flapjack chirping comforting things in his ear, nesting on top his head. He saw Ed's face melt into sympathy. That's when he recognized the two.
Edric and Emira, the Blight twins.
"Hey, it's okay, I'm not going to hurt you." Edric assured, inching a bit closer, his hand out like Hunter was some beast he was trying to tame. Hunter couldn't help but whimper. Titan, he felt so weak! He was so vulnerable right now. Is this really how a solider should act?
"Take my hand." Edric said, reaching out. Hesitantly, Hunter obeyed. "Good job! Now, I'm gonna bring you over to the sink to get you cleaned up, is that alright?" Edric asked. Hunter gave a brief nod, his mind not fully in the right state. Edric led him over to the sink located in the back of the classroom and started washing the blood off. Hunter just stared at the water, not realizing how much of a mess he looked. Once Edric had gotten all the blood off, he drew a spell circle and cleaned up his uniform. Edric then led him to one of the benches, sitting him down then kneeling in front of him.
"What the hell happened to you?" Edric muttered, staring at Hunter's blank face. Then, Hunter passed out.