(You guy's better get ready for a long chapter! Because the whole chapter [not counting this miny a/n bit] is 1905 words!!! AND it's one full episode for ya!)
Hunter opened his eyes and squinted from the light coming out of a window. Suddenly, he heard banging on a door near him and immediately sprung up only to realize he was in his old room.
"What the..." Hunter mumbled.
"The Emperor is calling you, Golden Guard," a random scout told him through the door.
"WHAT?! But- but does he know I- does he know I ran away and- oh my- oh my titan- why am I back here in the first place?!" Hunter exclaimed, voicing his thoughts on accident.
"Oh? I'll have to tell Emperor Belos about this right away~" a familiar voice replied.
"Wait, Kikimoron! I mean Kikishorta- I mean, dang it, it's really hard to take you seriously," Hunter sighed.
"It's hard to take me seriously too, isn't it, Hunter?" a menacing voice snarled from behind him.
Hunter whipped around to see his Uncle standing in front of him without his mask.
"U- uncle?" Hunter whispered.
"Hunter, why do you keep secrets from me? After I've done so much for you, you still betray me..." Belos stepped closer.
Hunter stepped back a few steps a bit too fast, causing him to stumble and fall over.
"They never cared about you, no one cares about you, except me," Belos said, his voice as sweet as caramel at the last two words.
"NO! No, you're wrong they cared about me more than you ever did!" Hunter exclaimed, quickly standing back up, but still stepping backward as his Uncle got closer.
"Trust me, Hunter, they only care about you because you were the Golden Guard," Belos insisted, stepping closer to Hunter.
Hunter stepped further backward, only to hit the wall, "S- stay back!"
Hunter looked away from his Uncle and squeezed his eyes shut, afraid of what would happen next.
"Look at me, Hunter," Belos demanded, but he couldn't.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't look at the cruel man he unfortunately still considered his uncle. Belos grabbed Hunter's chin and forced Hunter to look at him.
"Why did you keep a palismen without me knowing?" Belos asked.
Everything froze. Hunter couldn't breathe, he couldn't move, he couldn't think, he couldn't do anything.
"Flapjack?" Hunter whispered.
Hunter suddenly sprung from a couch and looked around quickly, he was back in the owl house. What had just happened? Was it all just a nightmare? Hunter felt too much fear to care, and he felt even more exhausted than yesterday if that was even possible. He could feel the sweat running down his face.
"Flapjack!" Hunter yelled, checking every room in the house, but no one was inside.
Hunter opened the door outside to see Eda and Luz, who were building something, look at him in shock.
"Hunter are you ok?!" Luz exclaimed, worry laced into her tone.
"Yes- no- I don't know! I just need- I just need to-" Hunter was finding it increasingly difficult to speak.
"Kid, you're crying!" Eda shouted.
Hunter looked up at the two in shock and realized that there were actually tears streaming down his face, not just sweat.
"What?" He asked quietly, "I- I, uh, didn't notice- but that- that doesn't matter! I still need to- I need to find-"
Hunter spotted Flapjack flying toward him.
"FLAPJACK!!! Oh my Titan, Flapjack, you don't know how worried I was!" Hunter exclaimed, hugging Flapjack carefully as his legs gave out beneath him, "I thought you- I thought they found you- I don't- I don't know what I would've done if you-"
Hunter was so preoccupied with worrying over Flapjack, that he didn't even notice that the Owl Lady had walked up to him. Eda put a hand on Hunter's shoulder, causing Hunter to involuntarily flinch away violently.
"Nerd..." Eda muttered.
"Can we, um, not talk about this right now? I just- I'm not in the mood," Hunter mumbled, looking to the side.
"Look nerd, I've learned from personal experience, that it's bad to be pushy in this kind of situation," Eda said, sitting down next to Hunter, "But I've also learned that bottled up feelings aren't the way to go, so I won't force you to tell me what's going on, but I want you to know that we're all here for you when you decide to talk. Luz, King, and I will be right over there, if you want, you can join us. See you soon, nerd!"
And with that, Eda walked back to Luz and King. Hunter sighed, in the Emporer's coven, you're taught that you can't show weakness, it's seen as a sign of vulnerability and needs to be stomped out, but Hunter had just had a whole mental breakdown in front of his former enemies.
This wasn't the Emperor's coven though, he wasn't there anymore, he was free. He was free from stupid rules, from dumb expectations, he didn't need to hide his feelings anymore.
Hunter wiped his tears as flapjack perched on his shoulder once more and walked over to his new family of some sort, "Hey, is there room for one more?"
"So, according to Phillip's instructions, the hardest part of making a portal was finding someone who knew how to build it. But a lot of the ingredients are pretty easy to find, "Luz turned to Eda, "Your crazy apocalypse supplies finally came in handy Eda!"
"Don't forget this," King reminded her, handing her the key.
"Titan blood," Luz stated, looking at the key, "I can't believe something this powerful was in the old key this whole time."
"Well, now you're going to have to break it to get the blood," Hunter shrugged.
"King, hand me... The shovel," Luz demanded dramatically.
"Um, a shov-" Hunter began.
"Here it is, Luz," King interrupted, handing an old shovel that was rusted in some places.
"How are you going to use that to break the key carefully?" Hunter asked.
"Watch and learn, pretty boy," Luz replied.
Luz laid the key on a tree stump and held the shovel above it as if she was going to stab the key.
"Wait-" Hunter called, but it was too late.
Luz lowered the shovel rapidly but stopped it from striking the key right before it touched it, or so he thought. Hunter looked closer at the key to spot one, large crack.
"King, the bottle," Luz requested dramatically.
King then handed her a tiny bottle with an even tinier corkscrew cap. Luz took the bottle, opened it, and poured the Titan's blood inside before pushing the cap back on. She then tied a string onto it, wore it around her neck, and tucked it into her hoodie.
"The remainder in the key should be enough for the makeshift portal to work!" Luz exclaimed, smearing the Titan's blood on the door.
Hunter was worried. What if the portal didn't work? How disappointed would Luz be? What if his uncle got there before she did? What would she do then? It seemed everyone else was also thinking about these questions, as Luz basically read all their minds.
Luz turned to them, "It's okay. If Belos is still trying to get to the human realm, he'll have to beat me to it!"
Hunter watched as Eda climbed into a strange flying bathtub.
"Are you sure this isn't gonna like, blow our faces off?" Eda asked.
"Nope!" Luz replied enthusiastically, earning a facepalm from Hunter.
"Well, here goes something!" Eda exclaimed as she started pedaling.
Hunter gasped. The makeshift portal pieces had somehow morphed into an actual portal in front of everyone's eyes.
"It... worked!" Luz shouted, running toward the portal.
"Did it?" King asked, "That looks real different from the old door!"
"Well, it does look more warped..." Hunter added in, recalling how the rebuilt portal looked like at the Emporer's coven.
"Yeah," Luz replied, taking her cloak from Eda, "But this is my one chance to see my mom."
The group looked at Luz with worry written all over their faces.
Luz tied a rope onto her waist, "If it looks like it's closing, pull!"
"Luz, as impressive as this is, I don't want you getting hurt," Eda stated.
"Once I make sure my mom is okay, I'll be right back," Luz assured them.
"Oh, you better be," Hunter mumbled bitterly.
"Don't worry, I will!" Luz replied.
"Just be careful, the human realm's filled with some real weirdos," Eda warned before winking.
"Yeah, you're a prime example," Hunter sniggered.
Luz suddenly pulled everyone into a group hug, even Hooty. Hunter didn't really have much experience with hugs, seeing how his first hug was only the day before, so it was definitely pretty surprising. (Did you know that he actually canonically didn't know what a hug was until Willow and Gus hugged him in Labyrinthe Runners?)
"Don't forget to mention me!" King shouted once the hug had ended, though Luz was still holding King.
"Okay!" Luz replied, sitting King down.
Finally, Luz walked up to the portal, looked at it for a moment, and jumped in. Only a few moments after, Hunter heard some kind of noise behind him. Hunter whipped his head around.
King looked at Eda, "Do you think she's safe?"
"She's made it this far, we just have to trust her," Eda replied.
"Hey, did you guys hear that?" Hunter asked, his eyes still examining everything behind him.
"Hear what?" King asked.
"I didn't hear anything either," Eda replied.
"Oh... I could've sworn I heard Luz..." Hunter muttered, eyeing an open window to the owl house.
(If you don't get what's going on here, I'll explain. When Luz is in that weird reflection realm, the first reflection she's in is the reflection of a window in the Owl House. She then sees King asking Eda if she thinks Luz would be okay and Eda answered by saying they just needed to trust her. So Luz in the reflection thinks she's just in the Owl house again, but then, the window opens, and since she's in the reflection, when it opens she was still in the glass. That caught her off guard so she yells out. Hunter heard her scream and looks behind him towards the source of the noise, an open window, but by then, Luz had already left.)
"Oh, are you missing her already?" Eda teased.
"No, I'm not! I actually heard her!" Hunter yelled.
It went on like this for a while. Eda and King teasing Hunter and Hunter getting extremely annoyed. That was until...
"Guys, look! The portal is closing!" King shouted, pointing at the portal.
"We got to pull her out!" Eda cried, tugging at the rope with King.
"Wait, I'll help too!" Hunter exclaimed, now also yanking at the rope.
"And pull, and pull, and-" Eda began.
Suddenly, Luz flew out of the portal, causing everyone else, including Hooty, to fly backward as well. The whole group fell onto each other, creating a pile.
"Luz!" Hunter shouted in sync with everyone else as he got up.
"I'm sorry, I had to pull you out, the portal was closing," Eda apologized.
Hunter glanced at the portal as it folded in on itself, creating a sphere, and disappearing.
King hopped onto Luz's shoulder, "Did you talk to your mom? Did you mention me?"
"Yeah, Mama... Mom can't wait to meet you guys," Luz replied quietly.
But Hunter caught the look in her eyes. He had seen it before too many times. She had lost something... And was probably hiding it to not worry Eda, King, and Hooty.
"Well, just rest up now, okay? And don't you worry, kiddo, with everything we've learned, we'll have a real working portal in no time!" Eda exclaimed cheerfully.
"I can't wait to eat human snacks!" King shouted.
"I can't wait to share parenting tips!" Hooty laughed.
"Who dubbed you a parent?" Eda countered.
Hunter noticed that everyone laughed... Except for Luz. What had happened in there?
Soon everyone entered the house except Luz and Hunter, but just as Luz was about to get in, Hunter grabbed her shoulders.
"Huh?" Luz asked.
"Hu- Luz, I know something isn't right. I've... I've seen that look in your eyes before, something happened. Look, I'm not really good with emotional stuff, so umm, I'll just say this. Everyone in this house is looking out for eachother, so," Hunter hugged her the way she did to him before, "You don't have to deal with whatever you're dealing with alone!"
Luz hugged him back, "Thanks, Hunter!"
"Any time," Hunter replied as they both broke away from the hug.
And with that, they finally walked back into the house.