I sit by him for the next few hours, even after he stops breathing.
His blood stains my dress.
The cave feels cold. It feels empty.
I pick him up and carry him out of the cave. His body is cold too.
The sun has begun to set and gold is sprayed across the meadow. But the meadow isn't magical anymore.
Not when he's dead, in my arms.
Why did he have to put that wall up? Why couldn't he have just let me protect him? I'm the one with magic, after all. Stupid Caleb.
———————————————
"You can't deny it now! Belos is trying to hurt people!" Luz exclaimed as she exited the memory.
(Y/n) exited her respective memory at the same time. Her eyes were glassy and red. What had she just watched? How did Belos factor into that memory? Was he Caleb? Was he Philip? He can't be. Belos is a witch.
It made no sense.
She didn't understand at all.
Luz noticed (Y/n) and immediately ran to embrace her, "Cousin (Y/n)!" She exclaimed, "You're okay!"
"Of course I am," (Y/n) giggled, "I said I would be, didn't I?"
Hunter frowned before he heard roaring and screeching. The three of them turned around to see the Inner Belos. The horrible, green monster swiped its claws at them and screamed.
They ran towards a glowing tree. The tree had a face that looked like a moon. It was decorated with glowing stars and crescent shapes.
Luz went into the memory first while Hunter hesitated. (Y/n) stopped next to Hunter with a worried face.
Hunter stared at the horrifying, distorted Inner version of his uncle and froze.
(Y/n) grabbed his hand and tugged him towards the memory.
"Hunter." Luz urged as she held her hand out to him.
Hunter put his free hand into Luz's and let her drag him into the memory. (Y/n) followed him with their hands still linked.
They dropped into the memory with a grunt and the Inner Belos stuck its nose through the memory. It sniffed,
We're dead oh fuck. We're dead. We're so dead.
And then it left. Everyone let out a sigh, relieved until Luz noticed what memory they were in.
"He's got the portal?! Did you know about this?!" Luz yelled.
Before them, was a fancy looking door with a giant, yellow eye in the middle. The door was hooked up to some tubes.
"Of course. I helped rebuild it." Hunter scoffed.
"Did you?" Luz asked.
"Hardly. I barely knew what it did. All I knew was door with funny eye."
"I can hear you." Belos hummed.
The trio heard giggled from behind them. Was it the younger Belos?
They turned around to see a silhouette of a child dancing around the walls.
"You caught me~" The child sang as he danced around the darkened room.
And he began to rhyme,
"To you who stray so far from home,
To me who's trapped beneath these bones...
We'll play forever,
Me and you!
When you paint the land in nine bright hues!"
He transformed into an image. An image of the head of the titan who screamed, and denizens of the Isles who blew away like dust.
The silhouette boy giggled, childishly.
"What can I do for you, Collector?" The Emperor asked.
"I'm bored! Is the draining spell ready yet? I wanna play and see everything go all- weeEEEEEEEE!" The Collector exclaimed as he took form of a statue and withered away as a demonstration.
"You'll have your fun on the day of unity."
"Betrayed, beguiled, alone, deceived!
We'll have our revenge on...
Ugh. Unity is so hard to rhyme." The Collector complained.
Luz looked to Hunter, confused. Hunter could only shrug.
Suddenly, Hunter and (Y/n) felt and saw themselves running into the room as memories. Hunter shuddered as the projections ran straight through him.
"Emperor!" (Y/n) from the memory greeted as she bowed alongside Hunter, "Hi, hello. Question, what's a flapjack?"
"Oh, I remember this." (Y/n) commented.
The memory continued and the three of them watched with interest, "Some of the titan blood did spill, but if you let me explain, I-" Hunter from the memory rambled.
"Leave." Belos commanded, without giving Hunter another look. "Now."
Hunter nodded and led (Y/n) out of the room by her hand.
Once Hunter and (Y/n) had left, the Collector revealed himself once again.
"Ooh, you were maaad! I thought you were gonna go all WAHHHHAH. On those kids!" He chuckled.
"Not as long as they stay on the right path. I say, 'The Titan has big plans for you.' And threaten (Y/n)'s life, and Hunter does what he's told. Unlike the previous attempts." The Emperor said.
"I'm starting to think you make those things just to destroy them." The Collector smirked, "You have fun with it. Admit it!"
"Of course I don't, Collector. It hurts every time he chooses to betray me. But, this time around, I can use the witch to make him obey."
"...What?" (Y/n) mumbled under her breath.
"It's tiring to keep pretending I'm proud of her. No, every time she enters this throne room, I just want to rip her throat out. That wench turned him against me. It's her fault."
They left the memory shortly after that. (Y/n) was silent and Hunter was confused.
"It sounds like he wants to wipe out all life in the demon realm. And the sigils help him do that." Luz said.
But (Y/n) wasn't listening. The only thing on her mind was Belos.
Was he Philip? He had to be... if he were, then that meant that he'd killed his own brother..
And what they'd just seen in the previous memory... he was planning to kill everyone on the Isles using their sigils.
He's evil. (Y/n) thought. He's pure evil. Nothing but evil.
Everything she figured she'd known was false. Her idol, the powerful witch she'd looked up to was really a genocidal lunatic.
And what was she? A reanimation of Ellaline? But how? And why?
She couldn't even begin to imagine what Hunter was going through.
Hunter refused to listen to Luz. He turned away from her and clenched his eyes shut.
(Y/n) softly put her hand on his shoulder.
He turned to look at her. His face was conflicted. He didn't know whether to be angry, or to be sad, or to believe any of it at all. He certainly didn't want to.
"Hunter, run away with me." She pleaded. "We can go somewhere far, far away, where Belos can't find us.. past the cities where Belos has no reach. We'll be safe... please."
"Yeah," Luz added, "You guys don't need to return to the castle.. you can stay at the Owl House if you want. I'm sure Eda would be cool with it once we tell her what we heard."
Hunter stared down a path of trees. The path of withered trees adorned painting of memories on them. Memories of past Golden Guards.
Shattered golden masks were scattered around the path, discarded like trash. The paintings displayed horrible images-awful images.
Images of how some of the past Golden Guards died.
One was blasted by red magic and another was petrified to stone.
Behind the trio, stood the child Belos. He stood in front of a fire and broke a tattered golden mask in half.
"Hey! Stop that!" Luz scolded as she dragged the child away from the fire while Hunter extinguished it. "Why would he do that?"
Suddenly, the Inner Belos appeared and screeched. Its roar was one of pure agony.
Little faces began to appear on the beast. They spoke,
"Get away from him! Danger! Danger! Run!" They warned.
Luz gasped, "Are those-"
"Palismen?!" (Y/n) blurted.
"We weren't running from the Inner Belos. He was with us. The whole time!" Hunter gasped.
They turned to the child who stood away, crying. His weeping turned to laughing as he struck the ground with a wooden sword.
He lit a rope which triggered a chain reaction, ultimately leading to the palisman beast being restrained by rope.
The small child began to contort and shape into a man—Belos. "Hello, Hunter, (Y/n). Hello, Luz." He said with a sinister smirk.
The palisman beast behind the trio roared and scowled.
"Ugh, I was finally able to catch it. This thing's been a thorn in my side for years. All these weepy palismen souls. Their voices constantly nagging me. Vile." He sneered.
Belos grabbed a bird in his hand, clutching it tightly.
"But without them, I wouldn't be able to do this." His arm morphed into a goopy wirlpool and crushed the bird in his hand.
Hunter winced and tensed at the sight of the bird being crushed, (Y/n) tried her best to comfort him by taking his hand into her's.
"Ah, I'm feeling better already. Thank you for distracting it. I knew I could count on your prowess, Miss (L/n)." He smiled.
(Y/n) felt played. He wasn't impressed, nor was he ever impressed. He was just manipulative. All he had to do was compliment her and she'd do whatever he wanted her to do.
"What did you do to the other guards? To our family!" Hunter cried out, his hand drifting away from (Y/n)'s. "It wasn't wild magic, was it?"
Belos glared at him with a look of disappointment, "What a shame. Out of all the grimwalkers, you looked the most like him." He said.
"..what?" Hunter croaked out, his voice beginning to break.
"And you..." He turned to (Y/n). "I've been waiting a long time to do this." Belos chuckled as he clenched his fist and dragged both (Y/n) and Hunter into the dirt of the wilting forest.
"(Y/n)! Hunter!" Luz called out.
(Y/n) shot a vine at Luz to grab onto as Luz threw her jacket to Hunter to grab onto.
Luz held her jacket in one hand and (Y/n)'s vine in the other.
She tried her best to pull both out of the dirt that pulled them down,
"No, no, no! You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay! Just hang on, just- agh!" Luz strained as the two were sucked under the dirt.
"I was really expecting him to last longer than the others. I thought the whole bring back Ellaline thing was a genius idea."
"I'm gonna tell everyone about the Day of Unity! That you've been lying about the Titan for years!" Luz jeered, angrily.
"Yes, this has gone on longer than I'd have liked. But no one ever said being a witch hunter was easy."
"Witch... Hunter? So all this time, people have been mindlessly helping a witch hunter?! How could they be tricked so easily?"
Belos smirked, "I wouldn't be so judgmental if I were you."
He pulled up a memory,
'These pretty little words should make pretty good kindling.' Two guys mocked as they held up a book of sorts.
'That doesn't belong to you.' Luz asserted.
"No. No, no, no!" Luz muttered in horror.
'It's okay, we can help!' She kindly said to a brown haired man.
Luz watched herself from just a few days ago helping Philip Wittebane.
'I know you wanna get home, but nothing is worth hurting people!' She yelled.
Philip touched something on a disk and casted light upon a wall, 'I just need to live long enough to see this through." He said.
"No, no, no! You're Belos! You're just Belos!!" Luz crumbled to the floor as tears fell from her eyes.
"Please, do me a kindness and call me by my real name." Belos said.
"I... can't."
'You're Philip Wittebane, aren't you?"
'I can't believe I taught Philip something new!'
'I'll go talk to Philip.'
'Philip why did you bring us here?'
Belos smiled and chuckled darkly, "Ah, it does feel good to hear another human say that name. I had to change it when Philip was run out of too many towns." He continued to speak with a mocking smirk, "I've told you once before, Luzura,
Perhaps we were destined to meet."
Luz stood up and glared at him, "And what about Hunter, what's a grimwalker?"
"He's a better version of an old friend, but thanks to you, I'll have to make another one."
"But why? Why go through all this?!" Luz argued desperately.
Belos smiled and held up a Golden Guard mask, "I'll do anything to save humanity from evil."
"No." Luz stared daggers up at the man, "You're evil."
"Can't reason with crazy." The Emperor scoffed and frowned as he extended his arm and shot at her a scythe.
"Now!" (Y/n) shouted.
Hunter placed down a plant glyph as (Y/n) twirled her finger.
In front of Luz sprouted a vine and ice wall that blocked Belos' scythe.
"Luz!" Hunter called out.
(Y/n) ran up to the pair as Luz blasted a hole through the wall with a fire glyph, "Let's go." (Y/n) commanded.
Luz took Hunter by the wrist and ran with him as (Y/n) followed closely behind.
They could hear a count down.
"Three." Eda said through the walkie talkie.
They ran past Belos who was groveling in pain.
"Two."
Hunter looked at Belos, conflicted. That was his uncle, wasn't it?
"One."
The three of them paused near the walkie talkie. "Eda now! Please! Now!!" Luz yelled.
And in a flash, they were back in the Owl House.
"Are you three okay?" Eda asked.
Luz stared at them as a chill went down her spine. She had no thoughts. She couldn't process what she'd just heard.
What had they just seen?
Hunter sat up and stared at the ground. (Y/n) stared at him.
Flapjack and Pip ran up to their owners, chirping happily.
'You're back! You're back'
"He knows. He knows we were in there." Hunter gasped. "We can't. We can't go back!" He began to panic and hyperventilate.
(Y/n) put her hand on his as an attempt to comfort him.
"Kid, breathe." Eda said as she offered her hand to him.
Hunter stood up and (Y/n) followed suit. He panicked, his breath was heavy and quick. He noticed his Golden Guard cloak was still on. He rapidly yanked it off.
(Y/n) didn't know what to do. She was still trying to process it all, herself.
Hunter grabbed her hand and ran out the door as quickly as he could with their palismen following.
"Hunter! (Y/n)!" Was the last thing they heard before they entered the dark forest.