Chapter Text
Hunter's head thumped as he began to flutter his eyes open. However, when he awoke, he found himself in a cold sweat and lay on a bed that looked and felt... very familiar. He lifted his head only to reveal the truth of the situation He was definitely not where he was supposed to be. The bed he lay on-- the room he was in-- he knew it all too well.
Recognizing the castle's walls, Hunter panicked as he looked around from left to right. His breathing quickened and he combed through his hair in anxiety.
Why was he here? Why was he in the old castle? He was supposed to be in Luz's house, comfortably sleeping in the basement with Gus. But he wasn't there.
No, this had to be a dream. This can't possibly be explained. What, one minute he's saying goodnight to his friends and making his way to sleep downstairs in a human "sleeping bag", and the next minute he's awake in THIS place.
Either it was a dream-- or no, more like a nightmare-- or he had somehow time-traveled back to the past? No, that sounds like a Cosmic Frontier volume plot! And as much as he liked to be, he wasn't space engineer O'Bailey OR captain Avery!
Anyways, he shouldn't be focusing on his nerdy books right now. He needed to figure out how he got here. He glanced swiftly around the room, examining each and every small item he saw. The room looked exactly how it used to... so he most likely wasn't kidnapped, brought to the demon realm, and put in his old room. But looking at his surrounding very closely made him blind to his foreground. He looked at his bed, and there he was. Flapjack.
"F-Flap!" He shouted out, picking him up and squeezing him tightly to his chest. The palisman squealed and Hunter softened his grip. "Sorry buddy, it's just really good to see you." He replied, stroking Flapjack's back feathers. "Do you know how I got here?"
The cardinal tilted his head to the side with a confused chirp.
"Oh, um.. right." Hunter took a breath in to explain the situation. "I'm from the future. Don't ask how, I have no idea. But I woke up here. And I was just at Luz's place!" He exclaimed, almost in awe at his own words. "I'm just glad to see that you're here, I would've had trouble figuring this all out myself.."
Hunter thought for a brief moment before deciding to communicate with his palisman more. "Wait, so, if you're here and this is sometime in the past..." He began, squinting his eyes. "Have we fought Amity yet?"
Flapjack responded with another chirp, which Hunter immediately read as no. "Oh... but we did meet Luz, right?" Flapjack confirmed his conclusion.
"Alright, well I guess it makes sense." He sighed, still not knowing what to do with that information. An idea came to mind. "Oh! Maybe since I already know Luz, although I'm not her bestest friend yet, I can stay at the Owl House with her! Technically she told me I could stay there when we were in Belos' mind... but then again, that was in the future." Hunter held up Flapjack on his hand and smiled at him. "But I can try."
A sudden knock interrupted Hunter's calm attitude and had him racing out of his bedsheets. Who could be wanting him right now?
He motioned Flapjack to hide under the covers as Hunter walked to the door. Flapjack chirped, reminding him of his yet-to-be-revealed identity and Hunter frantically grabbed his Golden Guard mask and slapped it on. He came back to the door and opened it.
Of course, it had to be Kiki. "Hello, Golden Guard..." She grumbled. Hunter held the door open and waited for her to continue. "Uh, the emperor wanted to see you, but don't ask me what for. Apparently, I'm too unnoticeable to be a valuable asset to this coven..." She complained.
The emperor? Wanted to see Hunter? His heart rate increased but he tried to hide the fact he was confused and well, almost terrified to hear the name. "Oh? Ahaha, yeah, I'll be there in a sec. L-Like right now or...?"
Kikimora flailed her hands in the air ridiculously. "What do you think?!" She asserted, in a clearly bad mood.
"Okay. Yeah. Give me a second." He shut the door in her face and paced anxiously around the room.
"I don't wanna talk to him! Right now, I would praise him and obey him, but I don't think I'm capable to do either of those right now!" He cried. Flapjack looked at him with concern. "Oh, right you don't know anything." Hunter grabbed his Golden Guard attire, admiring it. "Belos isn't who we thought he was. He's sick and evil," He chuckled awkwardly. "Should've listened to Luz, huh?"
He slipped his clothes and shoes on in a flash before opening the door to see Belos. He knew he had to face this anyways, what was he gonna do, run away again? Then he and his friends would be in danger. Plus, he wouldn't want Kikimora calling him out for being suspicious.
He lifted his cape for Flapjack to hide under and took up the courage as he made his way to the throne room.
The walk was already stressful. Coven scouts called out his name, to which he ignored, except for Steve. Steve was an okay guy and part of the resistance, so Hunter took that in mind in case he needed more help.
Sweat dripped down his forehead, although no one could see it behind his mask, while his heart pounded against his chest. He refused the signals of his brain telling him to go back and finally arrived at his destination.
The door in front of him was big and tall and golden, representing Belos' authority. He shuddered as he placed a hand on the ring pull of the door. He took a deep breath in and then out, imagining Gus counting to four and back on his fingers. He frowned and pulled the door open softly at first, and then harder as he remembered how heavy the door was.
The first thing he noticed was the incomplete portal door, with Belos standing right in front of it. Then, he noticed everything else like the raised roof of the room, the perfectly symmetrical windows, and books and masks laying beside the portal pipes.
He flinched after hearing the door slam closed, and then panicked, even more, hearing Belos. "Hello, Hunter."
Hunter stiffened, not even bothering to take another step forward. He was frozen in place and it took him an embarrassing five seconds to respond. "Kikimora told me to, uh, meet you here." He managed, with tense shoulders and quick breathing.
Belos turned his head toward Hunter and nudged him to come closer. "Come here. Wouldn't you like to see how this works?" No, no he didn't, not really. But, he did as he was told and marched forward to Belos, still keeping his distance, which he normally wouldn't do. Belos raised his eyebrow before smiling. "Look, we've found every piece of the door, but without the power of the real key, it refuses to open."
It then occurred to him, only now, that he's already heard those words. Right before his mission to Eclipse Lake for the Titan's blood, Belos had this same talk with Hunter. A plan began to form in Hunter's mind, but before he could really think it through, he probably should reply. It would be best to just go along and try to remember what he asked before.
"What you said about, um, human rain. Does it boil?" Hunter tried not to look directly at Belos, and kept still, his eyes darted to the cold floor of the room.
Belos scoffed. "No, it doesn't. In fact, I've been there before, did I ever tell you about that?" He asked almost in a teasing manner.
Of course you've been there before, Phillip. How Hunter desperately wanted to call him out, to shock him and tell him all about the fact he knows the truth. He's a grimwalker, and Belos is a witch hunter. But, he was too scared to directly tell him that. Instead, he shook his head.
"The trees there are green..." He already knows that, he's been there. "...Nights are quiet..." He continued. "I look forward to seeing it again." He clutched his fist and stared at the door. Hunter didn't respond, instead, he let out a shuddered breath. Belos looked back at Hunter with a frown. "Are you okay?"
He was not okay. His heart was practically beating out of his chest and his mind wandered and his body trembled. He didn't realize it, so focused on behaving normally, but he was a mess. And he was... terrified.
"Hunter?" Hunter swiftly looked up at Belos.
"I'm okay." He breathed in exhaustion.
"You don't usually sleep in this late, you know. But I suppose it is good to get some sleep when you need it," He pretended to care. Hunter gazed down at his hands, which were shaking. Then, Belos gazed down as well. "Something the matter? I can tell." Hunter grasped his hand to stop its shaking, but it didn't work as he intended.
Instead, Hunter panicked and ran out of the room before Belos could ask him any more questions.
He slammed the door behind him and kept running, through the hallways and corridors, past the castle's rooms, and up and down the stairs. He didn't know where he was going, he just followed his gut. It led him to the front of the castle before he stopped in his tracks, embarrassed by himself.
"Ah, jeez. Now he's gonna-- Should I go back? I--" Flapjack chirped as he made himself visible and hovered around Hunter. Hunter found a wall and slid against it, burying his arms in his head and feeling like he was gonna cry. Flapjack pecked his arm and nuzzled his cheek but his efforts weren't that useful. Hunter still kept panicking with anxiety and fear and--
A hand reached out toward Hunter and he freed his head from his arms, looking up and seeing Steve. "Hey man, you good?" He kept the hand in the air while Hunter continued panting. Fortunately, though, he began to slow down as he took Steve's hand. "Did the emperor like- freak out or something?" No, he freaked out.
"No, I'm- Well, I- Titan.." He groaned, ruffling his hair madly.
Steve analyzed his behavior. "Y'know what, I probably shouldn't ask questions right now. I can get you back inside if you want--"
"NO!" Hunter yelled before shutting his mouth with his hand. "Sorry... I'm just going through a lot." He contemplated the idea of asking Steve for help, or maybe even just- asking him about what he knows.
"Do you know about the CATTS?" He asked quietly. "Wait what?" Steve seemed puzzled, maybe it was the idea Hunter knew about that or he had no clue what he muttered. "The Covens Against the Throne!" He whispered-yelled.
Steve was in shock, well he wore a mask but Hunter could tell by his tone and stance. "How... how do you know about that?" Steve took a step back.
"I'm not gonna tell anyone, I promise. The truth is," Hunter took a deep breath in, ready to pour out his heart. "I'm from the future. Don't ask how I got here, I don't know. What I do know is that in the future, the CATTS try to stop Belos' dangerous draining spell and you're a part of the rebellion. But you fail. Luckily though, the Collector ends up stopping the spell, but me and my friends end up in the human realm trapped. So right now, well, if I was there at the moment, I would be sleeping in Luz's basement!" He announced all of that with almost no pausing breaths.
"Wait, you're... serious?" Steve couldn't believe it, which Hunter understood, but cmon!
"Yes! I'm the Golden Guard, why would I talk bad about Belos willingly?" He made a good point.
Steve sighed. "Okay, so... what should we do about this? You shouldn't be here right now." "I know!"
Hunter inspected the area. "I think I should find my friends. Even though they probably won't believe me at first, I need to get their help. Luz will probably know the most about this, so I should-- visit the Owl House, right?" Steve nodded, going along with him, but honestly had no idea what he was talking about.
"Do you want me to take you there?"
Hunter was about to nod before he remembered. Ah, that's right, Luz was sick today! Stupid common mold. He didn't want to get sick and most of all, probably wouldn't be able to comprehend Luz or have her understand him, so he reorganized his train of thought.
"No, take me to Eclipse Lake."