"He liked everything I liked. He loved to watch me carve... he loved playing pretend with me... but most of all, he loved me."
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"Once, I saw Philip- I mean, Belos, use a glyph to teleport to the skull. But... it may take some digging to find it." Luz told Willow as the latter picked up a pair of tweezers.
Willow smiled at Luz, "Remember, Luz. No schemes, no plots, no ruses." She told her.
"And definitely no shenanigans." They said together.
Willow began pulling memories out from Luz's brain. They looked for the one of her trip through the time pools, but it wasn't coming up.
(Y/n) looked around the room, bored, before spotting a space set of tweezers. Curious, she picked them up and dug into her ear, pulling out a random memory.
The memory was as clear as day. It was a simple image of her and Hunter reading together in his bed with their palismen curled up beside them.
(Y/n) smiled sadly at it. She wanted to go back to that time. That time of oblivious bliss with Hunter and their palismen. When they thought they were both making the world a better place.
"I think we found it." Willow said, bringing (Y/n) out of her reminiscence.
Willow pulled an image from Luz's ear and showed it to her. "Woah, it's so clear! We can use this to get to the skull!" She exclaimed.
"Finally." Hunter complained, standing up, "We can get moving again."
"Before we go, look what I found." Willow said to Hunter, taking the picture of him and Flapjack out of her pocket.
Hunter stared at the picture with a confusing look on his face. Was he sad? Happy? Angry?
"We're all gonna miss Flapjack, but... we know he loved you the most." Gus said to him.
"And we just wanna let you know, we don't care who you're supposed to be. 'cause you are one of us now. Never forget that." Willow told him. She subtly looked to (Y/n) too, silently letting her know that grimwalker or not, she was part of the gang as well.
Hunter stared at the photo and looked up to Willow and Gus. Tears were welled in his eyes.
"Hunter, are you okay?" Luz asked him.
Hunter was silent for a second. "I... don't know." He said.
"Oh, um. I'm sorry..." Willow stepped back, feeling awful. Should've read the room better, she lectured herself. "I didn't mean to make things worse..." her voice quaked as she excused herself from the room and left to the halls.
"I guess this is my fault too." Gus said to Hunter.
Hunter was shocked, "What?? How!?" He exclaimed.
"I've known you were a grimwalker since the Day of Unity. I was waiting for you to bring it up yourself but... I... I- I don't know. Maybe if I weren't so afraid, none of us would be hurting right now." Gus told him. "You too, (Y/n).. I've- I've known."
Hunter wanted to say something, but what? "Gus, I- I-"
"It's okay. You stay here, we'll find Willow." Gus said to Hunter, signaling with his hand for (Y/n) to follow him.
The pair left the photo room and ran after Willow.
"Wait, Gus! (Y/n)!" Hunter called after them, hurrying behind. "Guys! Wait up, please!" He shouted into the halls.
Gus and (Y/n) walked past rows of lockers as they tried to follow Willow. "Do you.. do you smell that, (Y/n)?" Gus asked, slowing down.
(Y/n) took in a whiff of the air. There was an aroma that was unknown to her. It smelled strange. Like essential oils, but sweeter.
Gus recognized the smell. He felt his body go cold in realization. "It's sleeping nettles." He said, looking up to (Y/n). She had the same look on her face, a look of shock and fear.
Their eyelids suddenly began to feel as if ten pound weights were attached to them. Never in their lives had they been so tired.
And then they blacked out.
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"But... he's so hateful now."
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"Hey, (Y/n)..? Gus?? Guys wake up." Hunter said to his friends, trying to wake them up. "Gus? (Y/n)? Can you hear me? Come on, wake up."
Gus opened his eyes first. He swatted Hunter's hands away from him, quickly trying to get away. "Ah! Bosha!" He cried out in fear.
"It's okay! It's okay, it's just me." Hunter said, cradling (Y/n)'s head into his lap as she woke up.
"What... happened?" She mumbled. Hunter slowly helped her sit up.
"I remember smelling sleeping nettles." Gus said while he looked around his surroundings. They sat inside of a tunnel, unaware of how the wound up in there.
"Yeah, and... I think I saw Kikimora, which is definitely a bad sign." Hunter said, pointing to one end of the tunnel, "That way is all caved in so-"
"This way. Yeah." Gus interrupted him with an irritated tone, "I'm ready to kick some new Hexside butt."
Gus began walking in the opposite direction from where Hunter pointed while (Y/n) followed him.
Hunter sat back and held his knees to his chest. "Oh, Flapjack... Everyone's on edge and I don't know what to say... I wish you were here." He mumbled and buried his head into his arms.
Meanwhile, Gus and (Y/n) walked through the tunnel, stumbling across Willow.
"Willow!" Gus cheered, happy to see his best friend.
Willow jumped, startled by his sudden voice and a vine rapidly wrapped itself around Gus and (Y/n)'s ankles, suspending them in the air. The two were taken by surprise as they both let out a yelp.
"W-Willow! It's just us! Don't worry!" (Y/n) told her.
"Sorry!" Willow apologized, drawing a spell circle to release them.
But the vines didn't retreat. They grew, rather.
"Uh, haha! Sorry!" Willow said, her voice quaked again. "Must've done the wrong spell..."
Willow drew another circle, but the vines only grew and grew. They wrapped around her and her friends. Willow's hands began to shake. Why couldn't she do her magic correctly? She felt like she was back in abomination class where all she could do was fail.
"Why.. can't I do the right spell.?" She mumbled below her breath. She kept trying and trying to release them, but the vines only grew and grew. The more she tried, the more her eyes began to glow.
"Gus! (Y/n)!" Hunter yelled from behind Willow.
Willow turned around to face Hunter, "Oh, Hunter!" She said, making yet another attempt at drawing a spell circle, "I had a little run-in with Boscha and got stuck down here. Gus and (Y/n) just... surprised me." She said.
"What's going on!" Hunter asked her, panicked.
"I've got it all under control." She said. Willow tried again to free her friends, but the vines only encased them more.
"Uh... I don't think it's working!" Gus anxiously said.
"I can do this. I can do this. I can do this! I can do this... I can do this...!" Willow kept reassuring herself. She grabbed at the vines, ripping them, hoping to dig her friends out of the prisons she'd put them in.
Hunter tried to approach her, but was dragged away by a tangle vines.
More and more vines grew from the ground and surrounded her before she became trapped in a cell of plants.
"Hello..?" She said. She didn't know who she was talking to; there was no one there. She was alone again. She felt like the lost kid at the fair again. The world felt so big and so empty, yet claustrophobic. "(Y/n)?? Hunter?? Gus???" Willow called out.
Gus mumbled as he tried to wave her down. She quickly ran over to him, finding that (Y/n) was right next to him tok.
"Gus! (Y/n)!!" Willow whimpered as she tried to free him. She pulled at the vines, trying to let him out, but the vines wouldn't break. "I can do this! I can do this!" She said, over and over and over to herself.
Willow drew a circle spell, trying yet again to free him from her vines, but it only sent more vines stabbing her way.
"I can do this!" She whimpered with her voice breaking as she tried to tear the vines again. "I can't do this..."
Hunter watched his friend fall to her knees hopelessly.
"Willow!" (Y/n) tried to yelled to her. "Just take a step back, what's wrong!" But alas, Willow couldn't hear her muffled voice.
(Y/n) twirled her finger and an icicle appeared in her hand. She tried to cut her way free from the vines, but it was no use, Willow's plant magic was too strong.
"I can't control my magic." Willow cried. "I can't help my friends. Why have I been trying to be someone different? Bosha was right... I'll always just be... half-a-witch Willow." She whimpered as her vines wrapped around her and entrapped her.
Hunter watched from afar, feeling his heart break as tears welled in his eyes. In a flash, Hunter shot forward, as if he were a bolt of lightning. He dashed straight through the vines and tackled Willow out of her self made restraints.
"You didn't make anything worse, you didn't do anything wrong! You guys mean the world to me, and I... I didn't know how to say that yet. Just please don't call yourself that ever again. You've been holding in a lot, haven't you?" Hunter said to her, staring into her glowing green eyes.
"Willow! Reliable people need someone to rely on too!" Gus shouted.
"It's okay to cry! Let it out!" (Y/n) shouted as well from beside Gus. "We'll be fine!" She continued to saw at the vines using her blade of ice, though it was fairly useless to do so.
Tears rolled down Willows face as she cried, "I miss my dads!" She whimpered.
The cave began to crack and crumble from above. An illusion of Gus appeared above Willow's head, getting Hunter's attention. "Hey!!" He shouted, telling Hunter to get them out of danger.
Hunter put his arm around Willow and dashed towards Gus and (Y/n), putting his arm around her too. (Y/n) grabbed Gus and gave Hunter the go ahead to get them out of there.
The blond boy dashed the four of them upwards, through an opening in the cave. They flew out and slid down a hill nearby.
The four of them took a minute to take in what had just happened.
"Hunter, how did you do that?" (Y/n) asked him in awe.
Hunter rubbed his eyes and raised an eyebrow, "Do.. what?"
"You have magic dude!" Gus stood up and cheered.
"The.. magic of friendship?" He guessed.
(Y/n) rolled her eyes, "No, Goldilocks! The magic of Flapjack!" She told him, putting a hand over his heart.
Hunter looked up at her, his brown eyes making contact with hers.
But before he could say anything more, he heard the sound of a blast being sent their way. Without another thought, he teleported his friends to safety. And just in time, as a purple beam short forward and destroyed everything in its path.
The four of them looked to see where the blast had come from. And Luz was sat there, with her mom, holding a staff in her hand. "Sorry! I'm still getting the hang of this!" She laughed.
"Luz has a staff." Gus said unbelievably.
"Why does that make me nervous.?" Willow added with the same tone.
But then before they could get another word in, Kikimora tore through the forest behind them. "There you are! I'm done playing hide-and-seek!" She shrieked, firing a cannon of abomination goo at them.
Willow quickly blocked the shot with her plants. "Yep, that's better." She said, drawing a spell circle and trapped Kikimora's abomatron in fallen trees, "(Y/n), care to help?" She asked with a smirk.
(Y/n) twirled her finger in a circle, "Gladly!" She replied with the same smirk. Kikimora was encased in a layer of ice, further restraining her.
(Y/n) propelled herself up towards Kikimora with a column of ice and managed to land her feet on top of the abomatron. She bent down to Kikimora's level with a snarky smirk on her face, "Hey! Long time no see!" She taunted before slapping Kikimora silly.
Kikimora broke her abomatron's cannon arm free from the ice-tree restraints and aimed the cannon at (Y/n).
Willow quickly flew over to (Y/n) on Clover and grabbed her hand to pull her away, just in the nick of time before Kikimora could fire at (Y/n).
Luz and Hunter gasped from the ground but Gus grinned instead. "They're fine. This is child's play for us!" He told them.
Willow threw (Y/n) towards Kikimora like a trapeze routine. (Y/n) twirled her finger and conjured a transparent orange staff in her hands.
"Woah, what did I miss?" Luz said in astonishment as she watched the pair work together.
But before (Y/n) could land a hit on Kikimora, the gremlin seized her midair with the abomatron's hand.
"Titan dammit, not again!" (Y/n) groaned before being hurled away.
Hunter teleported upwards in a flash of light and caught her midair.
Luz's face dropped further in astonishment, "I missed a lot!" She exclaimed.
"It's going to work one day, don't worry." (Y/n) told him as he fell from the air and landed on his feet. "Thanks, babygirl." She joked with a wink.
Hunter blushed and looked away, "Don't make me drop you." He mumbled in a flustered mess.
"You wouldn't." (Y/n) smiled before pressing a kiss to his cheek and hopping out of his arms.
"I don't need this wretched school to start my own empire. I'll make my own! And I'll start by taking you apart, piece by piece, brat by brat!" Kikimora growled.
She raised her arm to strike but was hit by two flaming grudgeby balls.
"Stop right there!" A voice shouted. It was Mattholomule. He led an alliance who held a banner labeled the H.A.S. "Miki, I can't say I'm surprised by this. As for you, Rouka... I know there's been nothing but chemistry between us. Be that as it may, I-"
"Matt, that's a robot." Bosha interrupted him.
Mattholomule shrugged before the H.A.S. hurled their flaming grudgeby balls at Kikimora.
Amity flew towards the group on her palisman, "They'll hold her back. Let's get to the skull!" She shouted, leading the sextet away.
Luz paused and pulled out the picture of the teleportation glyph. It was a combination of a bunch of other glyphs.
She, Gus, Willow, Amity and (Y/n) all began drawing out the glyph as quickly as they could.
All the while, Kikimora fought off her assailants and stomped towards the septet. "This is my empire now! You have to obey ME!" She shouted.
"Power hungry much?" (Y/n) sassed back. Enraged, Kikimora fired a cannon aimed at (Y/n). "I should learn to keep my mouth shut..."
Hunter ran over to her, shielding her from the blast before Luz activated the teleportation glyph.
And in a flash of bright, golden light, they were elsewhere— inside of the titan's skull.
"We.. we made it!" Gus cheered.
"Oh! Oh my gosh!!" Willow jumped up and down with Amity.
But while the others were celebrating, Luz stared at her staff which glowed a deep purple, "uh guys..?" She said, getting their attention. "Come meet my palisman!"
The sextet crowded around the staff, excitedly, and guessed as to what it would be.
A dragon?
A bird?
An otter?
A spooky bat?
A snake?
A fox?
"You're close..." Luz smiled. And out from a puff of purple mist flew a winged serpent, then a dragon, then a scorpion then finally, a cat-snake like creature. "She's a snake shifter! Her name is Stringbean, and she's perfect!"
Luz let Stringbean off of her staff and let her play with the other palismen who crowded around Camila.
"Hey," Said Willow, "thanks for what you said back there. You guys mean a lot to me too." She smiled at Hunter and (Y/n) before walking over to Gus.
"Good job, Hunter." (Y/n) smiled up at Hunter as she took his hand into hers and let her head drop onto his shoulder.
And Hunter smiled back, giving her forehead a kiss, "You too, (Y/n)."
(A/n): I JUST WANNA GIVE WILLOW A HUG I LOVE HER