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It was easier than expected, kidnapping the former Golden Guard.
He had honestly expected the kid to put up a bit more of a fight. All it took to knock out him out was some sleeping powder. It was a pitiful display for the so-called replacement Head Witch of the Emperor’s Coven, but it made his job easier. The ransom letter was sent and all that was left for him and his team to do was wait.
But he had forgotten how annoying the kid was.
“So you’re name is like Luke or something right?” the Golden Guard asked, looking way too bored for the situation he was in. “I mean, I recognize that uniform but maybe you’re someone just wearing it?”
“Doesn’t matter,” he was surprised that the brat even knew his name. “You’re going to allow me to achieve my dreams Golden Guard.”
The Golden Guard sighed, throwing his head back and slumping against the wall he was tied up against.
“My name is Hunter,” the Golden- Hunter said, flipping upside down and kicking his feet out. “I know your name so you could at least remember mine. And where are those other guys anyways, weren’t there like six of you?”
Luke grunted, adjusting his mask over his face again. His Guard Caption uniform had seen better years, but it was still functional enough. Maybe his presence didn’t demand respect anymore, but at least there were some witches with some sense of loyalty to the old path.
“They will be collecting the ransom from your guardians, if they choose to arrive. We all agreed that only one person needs to watch you, or is the misguided prince suddenly too high and mighty for my presence?”
(A white room, a replication of the old integration rooms they had at the castle. Luke could never deny how unsettling it was, how it always felt wrong.
But those were the sacrifices needed to be made, so a new one was constructed.)
Hunter scrunched his nose up, turning back on his front and pushing himself up against the wall. “Misguided? How am I misguided?"
“You are a traitor to your family name and a traitor to the very Titan you walk on,” Luke spat, his hands clenching around his spear. “You were given the world and you chose to spit on-”
“UUGGGGGHHHHH!”
Luke felt himself bristling angrily as the kid groaned loudly, bowing his head dramatically. “Man, I got captured by you loyalists? Now? Really? You guys are going to make my dad’s separation anxiety worse, he’s never gonna let me out of sight after this. It’s been two years, ever heard of getting a life?”
“My life belonged to the Coven-!”
“And so did mine but I’m thriving!”
Luke ran towards the brat (the traitor, the catalyst, this was all his fault) and held his spear against the boy’s throat, watching as the boy’s expression turned from annoyed to more subdued frown.
“You are going to be quiet,” Luke commanded, shoving the metal tip against the prince’s throat. “You are not going to speak unless spoken too. You are going to do exactly as I say. Do I make myself clear?”
Hunter stared him in the eyes, before glancing down at the spear pointed at him.
Then he smirked widely.
“I don’t think so buddy,” he said, grin growing cockier. “You don’t really want to try catching me again.”
Luke scoffed, a smile growing behind his mask. “I got you with my first shot.”
“You gonna forget the part where you let the Scouts do all the heavy lifting for you?” Hunter chuckled, leaning away from his blade as if it were nothing- “I don’t know how happy you should be when I managed to dodge and actually take out some of those Scouts. Y’know, I didn’t like that about most of you Captains, most of you refused to give credit where it was-”
His hand lashed out and the slap he delivered echoed across the small room, the boy falling from the impact.
“You dare call Head Witch Darius ‘dad’?” Luke taunted, watching as the disrespectful brat spit out some blood. “You dare call him family when he was just showing mercy for old time’s sake?”
Hunter looked at him, the eye on the right clenched tight and filled with so much hatred. It was almost fascinating, how much his expressions changed. The Golden Guard was wearing a mask so constantly, Luke assumed Hunter never worried about masking his own expressions.
So he continued, because he did need those snails from the Head Witches and the brat alive, but he didn’t need to spare Hunter’s feelings.
(Scouts have been punished far more harshly for less.)
“You must know about the previous Golden Guard. His mentor. You must have been told how devastated Darius was, especially when you came into the picture. A spitting image of the man himself, if you just had longer hair,” and he walked towards Hunter and traced the back of his head, feeling the mullet and the growl that reverberated across the boy’s neck. “And a scar right there,” and he slid a finger across his nose, pulling his hand back as the boy lunged at him with his teeth. “Of course, he was far more sophisticated than you are. It’s almost as if you want me to believe that the Emperor raised a beast. He would have found a way out by now, but I supposed you’re even less of a witch than he ever was.”
And Luke stood up, walking away from Hunter, content that the boy had learned his lesson. “It’s a shame truly. You could’ve have been so much more.”
The boy was quiet for all but five seconds, before airy snickers escaped him.
“I-I could’ve been…” and Hunter let out a harsh wheezing sound, before devolving into cackles, loud and untamed. “You’re telling me I could’ve been more?”
And Hunter laughed again, falling to his side in hysterics. Luke glared at him, clenching his spear a little tighter.
Did he hit him too hard?
“Tio is always telling me that I have teeth so I should damn well use them so sorry if I’m not to my dear Uncle’s standards,” Hunter spat out. “I could get out of here on my own. But you seem to have forgotten that I have no idea where I am and will only make myself a bigger target for idiots like you that can’t let go of the past, so I’m gonna sit nice and tight here and wait for my dad to come find me. Nothing escapes Tio’s senses.”
“…This level of disrespect would’ve gotten you killed before.”
(Who the hell was Tio?)
“And you think I don’t know that more than you? Most of these scars weren’t from missions Captain. And I think you know where they’re from.”
“If you acted like this then you deserved it,” he doesn’t even want kids but he can’t even imagine having to deal with someone like Hunter 24/7. “I’m surprised Darius didn’t give you more.”
And Hunter laughed again, smiling against the growing bruise on his cheek. “Y’know what? I believed that. I truly believed that every time he hurt me, it was because I deserved it. Why else would my Uncle hurt me? He loved me and he loved the Isles so of course I deserved it. It was always my fault, wasn’t it? Even when I just wanted to help him or hug him or hear him say ‘I love you’, it was always my fault.”
Hunter shook his head, his smile fading. “I was just a kid who wanted to make the person who was my whole world proud. I listened to every word he said because I was so afraid he would throw me away otherwise. How messed up is that? That I was so scared that my Uncle would treat me like trash if I ever disappointed him. And I was right! He was the one who killed the old Golden Guard, and I think you know that too.”
Luke glared at Hunter but didn’t dignify that with a response.
(The old Guard must’ve failed. He must have deserved whatever punishment Belos had for him.)
“Then Darius came and took me in. And it took me awhile to believe it, but he did it because he liked me. He liked Hunter, and I wanted to make him proud of me. And he didn’t want me to be some perfect kid. He didn’t care if I didn’t listen to him all the time. He didn’t mind my rambling, my hobbies, or that I made friends. He wanted me because he actually loved me.”
That didn’t sound anything like the Head Witch Luke knows.
(The Head Witch Luke knows was always so angry.)
“Darius is just so unbelievably kind, and I don’t know how I got lucky enough to have him as my guardian. I got to know Eberwolf and Raine and so many other amazing people, but he was someone my Uncle never was. He…Darius loves me. No matter what I do.”
And Hunter shot him a look, an angry thing, one that made him want to step back. “You think I could’ve been more? If I stayed Captain, he would’ve killed me. I would have been nothing.”
(Belos was looking for the Golden Guard before the Day of Unity.
The biggest supporter of the whole event, up and vanished so close to the date.
Hunter deserved it.
He had to.)
“You’re just mad that you wasted your life on a man that never learned how to love but I’m moving on. Deal with it.”
And Luke lunged, drawing a spell circle and throwing fire at Hunter. And Hunter turned yellow, dashing away and dodged and dodged and dodged.
But he couldn’t dodge forever.
Luke was a Captain Guard and he wasn’t going to let a child beat him.
(How dare the nephew of Belos move on, how dare he not repent forever, how dare he not try to make the Coven system work better, how dare he have people who love him now how dare he-)
He just needed to corner him, he just needed to take a better shot, he just needed-
A rumble shook the building around him, making him stumble and miss.
“HA! Took them long enough!”
And before Luke could question what Hunter was talking about, two giant abomination claws burst through the walls of the room and engulf him.
And the world went black.
“So, are they like dead?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care,” Hunter found himself being lifted into Darius’ arms after his dad patted him down, checking him over with a critical eye. “I mean I do care, the guy that did this to your face will pay.”
Eberwolf poked his head through the holes Darius made, and Hunter could feel himself being scrutinized under Eber’s piercing glare. “Not dead yet. We’ll deal with them later.”
Eberwolf scampered up Darius’ back and placed a paw on his wounded cheek, his growls echoing across the room. “Painfully.” The demon concluded, his fur spiked up.
Darius didn’t respond to that, putting a hand on Hunter’s back gently. “Baby are you hurt anywhere else? Did they do anything?”
“Besides try to manipulate me into thinking my years with Belos were good, nope,” he shrugged, swinging his legs a bit. He didn’t get carried like this often but it always made him feel… special. Important. “Does this mean I won’t be going to camp this weekend?”
Darius opened his mouth then closed it with a grimace, before shrugging. “How about we talk about that when we get home. And you get some rest.”
Hunter had a good feeling that Darius might check up on him a couple of times tonight. Maybe he should just ask if he could sleep with him, that might help Darius’ nerves.
“What kind of things did they say about Belos?”
“Things from someone who does not sound like they moved on at all. And I got to hype you both up. I don’t think he knows what a Tio is, but you both are way better than Belos.”
“Well I’m certainly glad we’re better than the bare minimum,” Darius said, standing up. “How about getting home now, hmmm?”
And the look Darius was giving him, a smile hiding eyes filled with worry made something in his chest so warm.
(He will always cherish, being loved for existing.)
So he smiled, nodding slowly. “Yeah. Let’s go home.”