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Belos stood before Hunter and Darius, giving them instructions for an important mission that would help set the day of unity into place.
Darius was planning on sabotaging part of the mission and hoping Hunter wouldn’t notice it was intentional until Belos informed them Kikimora would join them.
Darius’ expression turned disgusted and Belos grinned at him. Besides him, Hunter began to shake a little and Darius gave him a strange look.
“It begins now, Kikimora will meet you outside.” Belos said and the two turned.
Darius walked the long halls nonchalantly while Hunter shook beside him, eyes wide and hands fidgeting.
Darius looked down and sighed, placing a heavy hand on Hunter’s head. “Kid, relax, it’s a simple mission like always. We’ll be in and out.” Darius said and Hunter scoffed, knocking Darius’ hand off his head.
“I know! I’m his trusted guard, don’t forget that! Still your superior!” Hunter claimed and tried to stand up straight but there was a small curve in his back.
Darius rolled his eyes with a smile, feeling an odd pull that made him lean towards the teen. “Sure kid, whatever.”
They met Kikimora outside and went to their specified location. There was some package they had to intercept and destroy the content of. Darius’ plan had been to steal the package himself and get it back to Raine and Eberwolf, but now with Kikimora he knew there’d be no way to successfully get away with it.
Kikimora was giving them suspicious looks and grinning, walking with her head high and running a little so she stayed in front of them the whole time. Darius found it slightly amusing and upon glancing at Hunter who had a hand over his mouth, he could tell the teen found it so as well.
They got to the port and hid, waiting for the package. Kikimora sat in a tree for a better vantage point while Darius and Hunter sat in a bush.
Hunter was anxiously peeking around, eyes trained to spot the package and it was moments like this, where Hunter was so tense over such a simple job for fear of failing and receiving whatever punishment Belos deemed necessary that Darius almost told Hunter about the CATs and the plan to stop the day of unity.
Darius wanted to save Hunter, bring him to the hideout where he didn’t have to worry about what would happen if he failed, Darius wanted to coddle him and tell him it was okay to fail sometimes.
Darius had told Raine about letting Hunter know but Raine shot it down immediately. Hunter was still loyal to Belos, there was a possibility that Hunter would rat them out to him and their entire plan would fail.
Darius was forbidden to let Hunter even catch wind of what was going on until he knew for sure Hunter wouldn’t tell Belos.
Darius could tell that moment was soon, but it wasn’t right now. Raine had promised him once Hunter was in the clear, he could coddle the boy all he wanted but for now, Darius fixed his gaze on the port before him.
“There!” Hunter said, pointing at a box and Kikimora dropped out of her tree. “I saw it first!” She claimed and Hunter frowned.
“No, I did!” He yelled and Kikimora shook her tiny head. “Nope! I saw it first, I just didn’t call it out!”
“Alright you two, let’s go get it.” Darius said and then slowly sank into his abomination form, sneaking over to the box to try and get a first glimpse inside.
He lifted the edge up and felt his blood drain from his face. Hunter rushed over sneakily. “What? What is-” Hunter glanced in too, eyes wide.
Inside were two teens, probably around Hunter’s age, tied up and asleep.
Darius recognized them from the hair color alone. “These are the Blights.” Darius whispered to Hunter, looking over at where Kikimora was slowly making her way over (she was being thoroughly stealthy, trying hard not to be seen).
“Those- Those are Willow’s friends.” Hunter mumbled and took a few steps back, tripping on his cape.
Kikimora suddenly disappeared from Darius’ view and he cursed under his breath, picking Hunter up to his feet.
“We can’t destroy this box, they’re just kids.” Darius had no clue why Belos sent them to kill these kids, or why they were knocked out in a box, but he sure knew there was no valid reason. He made quick work of their bonds, untying them and pulling them out of the box.
Hunter scooted over with wide eyes. “We- We have to!” Hunter said and then he hit his forehead. “But they’re kids! And Willow’s friends ! But- Belos said- Argh!”
Darius grabbed Hunter’s hand and looked him dead in the eyes. “Little Prince, listen to me, we have to let them go. I don’t know why-” Darius trailed off, remembering a very heated conversation with Alador from a few days ago.
“You have to tell Belos to stop!” Alador yelled and Darius scoffed, turning away. “I can’t tell him anything, Al.”
“He’s going after my kids! Amity because she’s covenless and the twins because they found out how to remove sigils!”
Darius rolled up their sleeves and confirmed it, their sigils were gone. Belos wanted them killed so they wouldn’t be in his way.
“Hunter,” Darius said with a level voice and Hunter groaned, tucking his face into his knees.
“He’ll be disappointed if I don’t!” Hunter yelled. Darius took advantage of Hunter’s distress to cover the teens in abomination, hopefully teleporting them safely to the Blight residence, and hopefully into Alador’s watch because the longer this went on, the more Darius was sure they had been sent here by Odalia.
“He’ll be disappointed no matter what.” A new voice said and Hunter and Darius looked up from their crouched hiding place to see Kikimora grinning with guards surrounding her.
“It’s them, officers, they stole your package!” She shrieked and Darius was on his feet in seconds, hand transforming into a scythe and trying to get the guards to stay back.
One snuck up behind him and grabbed the arm, twisting it behind him and at an angle where he couldn’t transform it back. Another one grabbed his free hand and snapped it down harshly, Darius crying out in pain as he felt something definitely break.
He went weak in the guards holds, hoping that whatever happened, Raine and Eberwolf would be able to save him from.
Hunter suddenly screamed out and Darius’ head shot up and he saw red, Hunter being restrained by three guards, all holding him at an awkward angle so he couldn’t do any magic (they probably didn’t know the teen was only capable of staff magic).
“Let. Him. Go.” Darius said through clenched teeth and Kikimora cackled. “No! They’re going to turn you in for messing with their package and I’m going to tell Belos how you two failed!”
The guards shoved Hunter to the ground, forcing his head into the dirt and teen was helpless to do anything but sob roughly. He was already beating himself up before between being loyal to Belos or following his morals and now this in the midst of it? The poor boy was obviously overwhelmed.
Darius felt that pull, the tug that Raine teased him for because he was “acting like a concerned mother.”
But this time it felt like someone was grabbing his heart in their hands and slowly pulling it out of his chest as the guards shoved Hunter’s face into the dirt.
“GET AWAY FROM MY SON .” Darius bellowed, pushing the guards off him with ease, growing in height due to the help of his abomination and knocking the other guards off of Hunter, turning to Kikimora with a harsh glare.
She squeaked and jumped down from where she’d been perched on the empty box.
“Darius! Sir! I was just- This was a test! A loyalty and strength test! And you passed! With flying colors!” She stammered. Darius shrank back down to normal size, giving her one last glare before crouching before Hunter, making sure he was okay.
“Hey you alright?” Darius asked and Hunter sat up, rubbing dirt off his cheek and Darius felt the anger flame again at how much they had gotten a jump on Hunter.
“Yeah, now… uh, did you-” Hunter flushed a bit and rubbed the back of his neck. “Did you just call me your son?”
Now Darius flushed, turning away. “Slip of the tongue, uhm, you’re hearing things.” Darius lied and stood up. “We’ve uh, we’ve got to go tell Belos we did our job.”
“I’ll tell him how you two failed!” Kikimora said and when Darius glared she shrank back. Hunter began shaking again as he stood.
“No, nononono, he can’t know we failed! He’ll be so disappointed! He’ll get mad and then- and then-” Hunter began hyperventilating and Darius put a hand on his shoulder.
“No, we’ll tell him we succeeded without fail. If Kiki even tries to say otherwise, I’ll tell Belos of her little act here.” Kikimora shook her head.
“Please don’t! He’ll be so mad!” She begged. “If you don’t tell, we won’t. And I’ll message Ala to keep the twins out of public view, Belos will be none the wiser.” Darius said.
Hunter was silent and then nodded small. “Yeah, yeah okay. He- He doesn’t have to know. Ughh, but- But we’re lying to him!”
“Kid, he’s lied to us before, this will be fine. Besides, we destroyed the package, didn’t we?” Darius gestured at the crushed box that had previously held the twins and Hunter nodded.
“Yes. Yes that- That’s what he told us.” Hunter said. “And if Belos does find out, I’ll tell him it was my mistake.” Darius said and Hunter looked up with stars i his eyes.
“You’d do that?” He asked and Darius smiled, feeling the tug again. “In a heartbeat. Now let’s go back before it gets dark.”