Chapter Text
The forest was blurry, that much was obvious. Even as Willow looked closely at the ground she ran over, the edges were…fuzzy. Maybe Luz doesn’t remember this too well? Maybe she’d ask H-
She couldn’t. He didn’t exist. A weird hollow feeling grew in her heart at the thought that her weird, nervous, dorky friend didn’t exist. She hadn’t had much time to think about it, deadset as Amity was on figuring out what was going on. She swallowed harshly and pushed on.
Willow’s head spun as she followed the path of blurry broken branches and heartfelt sobs from up ahead. Her boots seemed absurdly slick in the mud and it was a struggle to keep her feet under her.
She could hear people behind her, calling her name. But she had no breath to waste on calling back to them, entirely focused on the two kids up ahead. She couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t let them get away. She needed answers and they had them.
Her feet hit the ground hard. Rocks poked through the thick soles and she grit her teeth and pushed herself harder.
The group finally stumbled out onto a beach, Hunter’s powerful stride breaking. The sun was still up here, just above the water, an odd difference from the dark forest and the swirling nebula above the battle they had just escaped from. The two slowed to a hasty stop, staring out over the boiling water blankly. Memory Luz’s hand slipped from Hunter’s gloved grip, thudding lightly against her thigh. The child soldier didn’t seem to notice, pulling her down to sit on a nearby smooth rock and waving his staff, manifesting a med kit. He wrapped her ankle with his usual intensity, the smooth bandages bolstering her ankle’s strength.
“What…why did you…?” She didn’t seem to have enough energy to finish her question, looking down at Hunter with wide eyes filled with hurt. “Hunter, they…”
“I-I promised,” Hunter forced out, his gaze drifting down to the battered leather of his gloves, before returning to his work. He drew out healing glyphs, placing them carefully onto the bandages and making sure they were secure. “I promised I’d keep you safe.”
“But the others…” Luz’s hands balled into fists. “I can’t stay here! He’ll kill them!”
“They’ll be fine, they’re strong-“
“He’s a monster ! H-he’ll tear them to pieces! C’mon Hunter, you should know-!”
A short pause and then Hunter looked up towards Luz with such a broken look that Willow couldn’t stop herself from stepping forward to hug him, or just place a comforting hand on his shoulder — only to pass right through him.
It shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did.
“Hunter I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-“ Luz frantically said, trying to fix what she’d impulsively uttered.
“No, you’re right. He is a monster.” The boy stood, walking away until he was inches from the boiling water, staring down at it with a look that spoke of both untold sadness and rage. “But they’re strong, much stronger than I ever was.”
“Hunter-“
He turned, chin raised as if daring her to cut him off. The moonlight reflected off the water and traced him in a silvery-ish light from behind. “They’re going to be fine. I was told to keep you safe and that’s what I’ll do.”
Luz frowned as she stood, taking slow steps up to him. “I can’t just stay here though, you know me. I have to he-AGH!”
She plunged into the sand as she stepped, Hunter immediately throwing himself forward to grab her flailing hand. But the human girl vanished into the ground before he could and Willow watched as Hunter didn’t hesitate before falling into the sand after her with a shout.
“What was that? ” Amity called from the edge of the trees. Willow looked up, relieved to see her friends. With her desperation to not lose the two memories as they ran through the woods, she hadn’t even thought about her friends catching up. She suppressed an urge to feel guilty, reminding herself to apologize later.
“Time pools,” Inner Luz gasped, hopping down the sandy slope. “I studied these with Lilith. You have to be super careful so you don’t get stuck in them by high tide.”
“We gotta follow them. Who’s with me?” Willow challenged the three kids, holding out a hand, a small but fierce smile on her face. Gus hopped down and took it with a look of determination, Amity and Inner Luz linked their hands and followed as well. Willow spared a moment to appreciate Amity’s care of Inner Luz, with the guardian looking more spooked than all the others combined.
“Let’s go solve a mystery gang,” The human-witch nervously chuckled, her own hand squeezed tightly in Amity’s grasp. Despite her fears, she pushed on and Willow spared a moment to appreciate her friend’s iron will.
They stepped into the odd patch of sand.
Popping out of the sand was a weird feeling.
The force of stepping through the portal propelled her up into the air enough so she didn’t have to climb out of the portal but the sensation of sand in her hair wouldn’t leave no matter how much she shook out her head. It wasn’t just her hair though. There was a fine dusting all over her skin that wouldn’t leave when she brushed her hands all over to clean herself off.
Judging by the way everyone was shaking their heads and doing awkward shimmies, she wasn’t the only one who had felt it.
Ugh, memory sand is the worst.
The first two who went through the portal weren’t as swept up in the impromptu dance party, instead trying to figure out…when they where?
“A time pool, of course!” Memory Luz said, smacking her forehead, then coughing at the sand she basically threw in her face. “Ugh, me and…me and Aunt Lilith went on a whole adventure to see them, how could I forget!”
Hunter was on alert, frown on his face and his palisman still a staff by his side. Despite the sand that covered him from knees down, his only discomfort seemed to be his hands, turning his body away from Luz, likely to shake the gloves out. “Alright, so we have two options. Either try and go back through the portal right now or-“
The ocean cut him off, both him and Luz shrieking at truly impressive volumes as a wave of boiling hot water swept towards them on the beach. Willow flinched as the water swept through them. Before she could run, the waves rolled over their legs, but to everyone’s surprise, left only a pleasantly feeling of mildly warm water feeling instead.
“Oh! I…oh.” She exchanged a look with Gus, who just shrugged in turn.
“Let’s not question it.” The two shared a solemn nod and turned to face the memory ahead of them. They watched as the two in the memory took action, Hunter snatching Luz’s wrist - glove hastily shoved back on - and they bolted for the tree line, only pausing to watch as their way home was covered in a couple inches of boiling water.
“So…what was that other option?”
“…trying to figure out what time period we’re in, it is!” Hunter said, snapping his fingers and stalking off through the trees. Luz huffed a weak laugh and followed, pausing only briefly to kick sand into the boiling ocean and stuck her tongue out before following.
The group of two bedraggled child soldiers and four ghostly teenagers in memory form staggered through the woods, pausing to let Hunter examine the plant growth and animals to try and figure out when exactly they were.
After the blonde teenager stopped for the fourth time in a couple feet to look closely at some random leaf, Luz had apparently had enough. She left out a loud groan, grabbing Hunter’s shoulder lightly with one hand and tugging.
“C’mon, why don’t we just find civilization and ask there?” She complained. Hunter spared her a dirty look over his shoulder but otherwise didn’t move. “This is going to take a long time, and doesn’t even prove what time!”
“For your information human ,” the witch boy snapped in a way that spoke of easy companionship and long standing arguments. “I was looking because these plants are currently extinct and no longer are able to be studied. I’m learning as much as I can so I can write it down when we get back.”
Luz nodded solemnly, even though she rolled her eyes with exaggerated silent sighs once he turned back to the plants. Willow watched the two interact with amusement. She wasn’t the only one, considering Amity’s stifled giggling and Gus’s open snickering.
“They really do act like siblings,” the purple haired witch said, a smile resting on her face.
“Oh I see,” the human said seriously. “This is just because you’re a big nerd.” Hunter groaned but didn’t refute this, as if it was an ongoing argument he had lost too many times. “Why not just take some to the present then?”
Hunter spun around, looking incredulous. “Take things from one time to another? Are you kidding? You said you studied them with Lilith, did you not study the consequences?”
“I…no?” Luz said. She shrugged, a sheepish smile forming. “We didn’t get too far…”
Hunter visibly bit back a sigh, instead pinching the bridge of his nose with two fingers. “Of course not. Well, fine, have a crash course.” He stood up, holding one of his hands flat, palm down, in front of him. “Okay so picture this. Time is like a flat line right? And everything in that line, every dot on that line, is what keeps it flowing smoothly.”
“Like a graph?” Luz made a face. “I never did very well in math class.”
“I stand by that point,” Inner Luz muttered quietly, eyes fixated on the scene ahead. Willow spared her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder before focusing on the conversation happening in front of her. She couldn’t help but feel that this was important.
Hunter rolled his eyes. “Just-just try and follow along okay? For every action that is done, there’s a sequence of events that follow it. Besides the fact that it could be an invasive species in present times, it’s not a good idea to mess with the past and the natural order. Otherwise it jumbles the line, which hurts the present of whoever time traveled there.”
“So is this sort of like the ‘if you killed your grandfather’ thing?” Luz asked, cocking her head to the side.. Hunter’s brow wrinkled. “It’s the idea that if you killed your grandfather, your father wouldn’t exist, he’d never have you, so you couldn’t kill your grandfather, he’d have your father, you’d exist- Paradox.” Luz waved her han vaguely.
“Titan’s Rule of Paradoxes.” Hunter looked intrigued, finally leaving the five pointed leaf behind and walking further along. Luz let out a quiet mumble of “finally” he ignored. “That’s what it’s called here. But yeah, it sort of keeps things from getting stuck in a nonsensical loop.”
“How?” Luz hopped up on a root, glancing briefly before she tilted too far and stumbled back across the path. Hunter watched her with an unimpressed face before she stuck her tongue out and he turned away with a roll of his eyes.
“It sorta…deletes things, for lack of a better way to word it. They just kinda disappear.”
“Woah…kinda like the Matrix…”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
The group of two and the four mind travelers continued on mostly quietly, conversation feeling stifled under the heavy cover of the trees looming overhead. But that wasn’t the only reason Willow held her tongue. There was a lot to consider here,with the information they had just learned. She wasn’t…quite sure of what to make of it. Hunter had disappeared, right? Maybe this…Titan’s Paradox had something to do with that. But she had never heard of anything like that, it just seemed…weird. How could someone be erased entirely? Why would Hunter be erased? What had happened to cause this?
Shifting stars. A childish voice laughing in delight. An inhuman roar and glowing blue eyes.
Willow shivered.
“Do you…do you think that maybe this Titan’s Paradox thing has something to do with Hunter’s disappearance?” Gus’ voice came from behind her. Willow blinked and half turned to see behind her. Gus didn’t look at unsettled as she felt. Instead, he looked…intrigued, like he had finally figured out how to solve a Rubic cube (a delightful toy Luz brought back from the human realm for them). He stepped up onto a nearby root for a moment, windmilling his arms to keep his balance much like Luz had before. Willow watched him warily, ready to leap forward if she had to but he hopped off without incident and running a few steps to catch up with the group.
“It has to be, it’s the only thing that fits so neatly,” Amity reasoned, looking around. She stumbled slightly as the dirt underneath turned to maintained cobblestone, Inner Luz pulling her back to her feet. “I’m okay, I’m fine.” Gus jolted as if struck by a sudden thought, his eyes intense.
“Does that…do you know if it’s reversible?”
Amity’s brow furrowed and she started chewing on the corner of her lower lip. Amity and Inner Luz’s hands were still interlocked Willow suddenly noticed with amusement. Inner Luz rubbed a thumb comfortingly over the back of Amity’s hand, faintly glowing a pale orange. “What if…this paradox thing. Is the reason for our current future?” She looked up, yellow eyes wide and worried. “I…there was an emperor. And he was cruel. I know that.” Willow nodded, her own mind replaying the awful moment she saw the monster explode from the gold and white cloak. The way that even from so far away she saw Luz’s face split in terror and Hunter’s insistence on running.
“And if we bring Hunter back…” Gus said, picking up on what Amity was leading up to.
“Then we bring that past back,” Inner Luz finished. “And…I don’t know if things are as smooth in that universe.” Her mouth was pursed in a way that made Willow think she knew more than she was telling and she was keeping herself from talking on. The plant witch narrowed her eyes as Inner Luz caught her gaze. Later , the human mouthed, cutting her gaze at Gus, then Amity. Willow followed her gaze. Gus didn’t seem too worried, caught up in the puzzle but Amity’s expression was doused in worry and her free hand were balled up in her skirt in the way they always did when she was nervous. Ah, I see .
“Wait, guys look!” Gus leaped forward, pushing on Willow’s shoulder and spinning her abruptly. Willow yelped, barely catching herself on her heel. Gus winced in an apology and Willow saw what he had been so insistent that she look at.
“Who is…that?” Amity asked hesitantly.
Willow couldn’t answer.
As the ghostly teenagers had debated what exactly the ramifications of bringing their missing friend back, they had been walking. They hadn’t noticed it, but they had walked into a village. And in front of them, or more technically in front of memory Luz and Hunter, was a man.
He looked peculiar, eyes wide and crazed with deep shadows underneath them. His brown hair was matted and tangled, coat dirty and looking like he had slept in it for months. Also worrying, he held a crooked knife aggressively in his hand. As the horrified teens watched, he turned slowly from the stall he was browsing, a ratty battered satchel slung over his satchel. Horror…then recognition lit his gaze. “You…” he said, starting towards them. “You!”
“Hunter?” Luz said quietly. “Hunter, we need to go.” The lady at the stall was visibly glad to see him go, which Willow got but if the alternative was him running after her friends she couldn’t approve. was breathing hard, stumbling towards them but Willow couldn’t tell if it was because the man was tired or drunk.
His face was familiar in a way that made her want to punch it. Hard.
“…Luz what exactly happened last time you were here?” Hunter asked the question on everyone’s mind, raising his staff and backing up with his arm held protectively in front of Luz. Luz breathed in, and Willow realized with a start there was a deep set but tired fear on Luz’s face.
“That’s…that’s Phillip,” she said, locking her fingers onto Hunter’s shoulder. “Your…”
“My uncle,” Hunter said grimly. “Alright got it, running.”
“Lose him in the forest!” Luz yelled, pulling on Hunter’s arm. Hunter let go of his staff, the wooden stick disappearing and the red bird springing to life to follow them. The two spun as one and raced in the opposite direction they had been walking, the same one they had just come from. Something screamed behind them, sputtering midway and choking into a roar. Willow didn’t stay to find out. She pushed Amity ahead of her, grabbed Gus’ hand, and followed.
Willow got brief deja vu from the whole ‘once again running from the same guy, through the forest, not knowing where she was going’. She was beginning to get tired of this. She knew she wouldn’t stand a chance against that monster - memories flickering through her mind, she launched herself forward to protect her friends and failed, batted away like nothing, mud sucking her into the ground and keeping her from getting up - but the magic underneath her skin was bubbling in a way it never did, anger taking root and blooming into a wish for revenge.
Birds took to the skies behind her, cawing out their alarm. Branches snapping and heavy grunting and breathing followed their every step. They ran through creeks and water splashed even after the group of teens left it behind. Feet hit the ground hard and they kept running, pausing only at the foot of a small clearing. Hunter stood still, ears twitching as he listened intently, chest raising up and down at a worrying rate. Flapjack rested on his shoulder, listening just like him.
Willow wished she could comfort him, but she didn’t step forward like she did before. Gus grabbed and squeezed her hand tightly. She opened her mouth to say something but was cut off as her ears caught a far off noise. The unfamiliar but unmistakable sound of a tree splintering under the weight of something horrible cracked through the air, before it stopped.
It all stopped.
Hunter realized what it was at the same time as Willow, but without the protection of being a memory. He grabbed Luz, teleporting back in a yellow flash a few steps to avoid the tree that had been thrown at them .
“Are yo-?” he started, but never finished, as a slimy green hand whipped out from the dark forest and smacked him away.
“Hunter!” Luz screamed, scrabbling away from the villain hunting them. Flapjack screeched in that ear splitting way birds could do, darting towards where their witch had been thrown. Luz watched them only for a moment, before returning her sight to the hand. And not a moment too soon. The hand dropped limply to the ground, before shrinking…into itself? The proportions returned to normal as a shadow walked from the tree line, as Phillip shifted from monster to man, a maniacal grin on his face that kept twitching, like he was trying to tamp it down and it wasn’t working.
“He’s like a horror movie villain,” Inner Luz whispered, not at all reassuringly.
“Well well well, Luzara, we meet again.” The man took a slow step forward, then another. An old intimidation tactic, Willow knew. Hunter had ranted to her once about it, she faintly remembered. She adjusted her glasses, just for something to do to keep her hands from shaking in rage. How dare this man threaten her friends. How dare he get away with it .
Luz wasn’t going to take this sitting down though. She scrambled to her feet, a stick clenched in her hand. “ Phillip ,” she sneered back. She took a step back, raising the stick like she was about to play the human realm game Base Ball. “What do you want?”
“You know how to make them, don’t you?” The man continued walking forward, an odd jitteriness in his step. His eyes were lit with a wild light. Willow had read about madness, but it was different to see it in the fading light of day. A threat that seemed to grow larger as the shadows darkened.
The bushes moved behind Phillip.
“You know how to make Grimwalkers…and you’ve used my brother’s corpse to make them.” He snarled, in a way that was less man and more beast. Willow stepped forward to shield her second friend ever, standing just off to the side because she could do nothing . “You owe me the knowledge at least, I deserve that. I deserve to have my brother back, give me my brother back .”
“No,” Luz growled. “I know what you’ll do to them. Go away. Leave us alone.”
Phillip sighed as he visibly pulled himself together, as if Luz had only refused a second helping of dessert. He tilted his head back, looking down his pointed nose at the teen girl in front of him. “Don’t make me do this the hard way Luzara,” he said, shaking his head like a disappointed parent. “I don’t want to be the bad guy, despite what you may think. But I need him back. He’s mine. My brother.”
“Well screw you,” Luz bit back. “That one is my brother.”
“That’s my girl,” Amity whispered.
Phillip’s composure shattered. He went to leap forward, knife in his right hand, likely to shift but was cut off but the rage powered teen who leaped out of the bushes behind him, locking his arms around his throat and leaning his full weight back. A red bird fluttered through the air, divebombing Phillip’s hair and yanking on what they could reach.
“Woah!” Gus yelled, ducking, even though Hunter passed right through him.
“You give me him back!” Phillip screeched, alight with fury. “Or I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you! ”
Phillip’s head was tilted far back, with him clawing at Hunter’s arms with one hand. Blood dripped down but Hunter clung on. Flapjack dived again, ducking beneath a flailing arm, and pecking his nose. Phillip swatted at him, sending the bird spiraling away.
“Flapjack!” Hunter yelled, twisting one mean hand in Phillip’s hair. The blond boy’s face was twisted in a feral sort of fury and Willow nearly stepped away out of shock of seeing him like this.
She remembered him as strong yes, but never like this. This seemed less angry and more…Willow’s eyes slid to Luz, on the other side of the small clearing but still uncomfortably close to the fight. Desperate. Phillip there his head back and then forward violently. Hunter’s grip loosened and he fell off, rolling away to avoid Phillip’s stomping nearly on his ribs.
“Leave him alone!” Luz stumbled forward and swung her makeshift weapon, the wood hitting the man hard in the ribs. When Phillip spun to face her, Hunter snatched a scarred right hand covered in glyphs, twisting the wrist and pulling at the fingers until something snapped and the knife slipped free. Phillip’s face went red out of rage.
Willow took a deep breath.
Hunter reached for the knife.
Willow exhaled.
His fingers caught on the handle, curling around the hilt.
Willow opened her mouth.
Hunter pulled the knife in, a swift arc that ended in Phillip’s chest.
Willow screamed. She wasn’t the only one. Gus and Amity shrieked too, clutching at each other, with Inner Luz standing solemnly behind them like she remembered this.
Luz screamed too.
Hunter’s eyes were wild, mouth tight and one fist clenched in the fabric of the coat. The other wrapped around the hilt of the knife currently buried in the man he was clinging to. Phillip was frantic, twisting every which way, which only widened the wound. Luz backed up, clutching her stick tightly. Her face was slack and pale, but there was a harsh glint in her eyes that kept her rooted to the spot where she stood. Phillip finally twisted forward so hard, he flung Hunter over his head, falling to his knees in the process.
“Hunter he…” Gus started, even as they watched Hunter flip through the air.
“He stabbed a man,” Amity continued in horrified fascination. Her gaze was firmly stuck on her girlfriend, stiff and terrified but alive and unharmed.
Willow thought back to the conversation that Luz and Hunter had had on the beach, where Luz called the emperor a monster and Hunter had agreed and called the others stronger than him.
She thought back to the conversations she remembered now that she and Hunter had had in her room, at the Owl House, on the school bleachers. Whenever he could get away and they could talk, to just…be teens. With someone who got the struggle to be a full witch, and the years of hurt that came with it.
She remembered the moment she and Amity had seen the memory where Luz and Hunter met, the sudden realization that thrummed through her when the bandanna came down and she saw the scar that carved through his right cheek.
And she understood.
“You horrid witch spawn!” He screamed, tearing the knife free. Luz brought the stick down hard on his head, where he had fallen too close to her. He shrieked, face hitting the ground and almost bouncing back up form the force of his anger. Blood ran down over his shirt and through his coat. Willow swallowed hard. Don’t look. Don’t look. Don’t look. “Horrid brother, you betray me once again! Join forces with a witch? I’ll cast you back into the earth!”
Hunter just spit a string of foul words back. He had rolled with the momentum of the toss and popped back onto his feet, scooping his palisman up with one hand. He ran past Luz, snatching her wrist and pulling her along with the other hand. She winced as he did and Willow suddenly realized it was because of the blood soaked into his gloves.
Her mind couldn’t move past the moment the crooked knife caught the light of the sun, mid air, before that shine vanished as they blade plunged into flesh.
“Where’s the time pools?” He barked, eyes still locked on the furious man crumpled on the ground. He was struggling to his feet, green slipping across his skin. But…slower. Weaker. He was dying, but the panic wasn’t wearing off. Luz shot the teen boy a look but didn’t say anything. She just pointed, slightly off to the right and they went.
Their pace was fast as it always was it seemed now, but they didn’t have far to go. They made it onto the beach which fortunately had a much lower tide.
“Start checking for the pools,” Luz ordered, sticks piled in her arms. Her face was stern. She pushed them into Hunter’s hands, ignoring his confused noise. “Let me know if you find our present.”
“…what are these for?”
“To mark the pool, duh.”
With a minimal amount of grumbling, the teens set to searching. The ghostly teenagers watching them settled down to wait.
Willow sat near Hunter, alongside Inner Luz. Amity hesitated, but chose Luz (as expected) with Gus. Hunter’s face was an odd sort of certain, like he was trying to cover up his real feelings. The two in the memory worked in silence through the sand, but the feeling was anything between them but comfortable. Flapjack sat next to the pile of sticks, occasionally flying into the air just to grab a stick and deliver it into Hunter’s hands. The piles the two had both depleted, Hunter’s a little quicker with the way his hands kept shaking, dropping the sticks into the pools rather than placing them beside. Willow watched as he squeezed his hands shut, then slowly released them, as he breathed out slowly. A self soothing tactic. Hunter was clearly lost. He kept glancing at Luz, but she was firmly not looking at him, eyes trained on the sand even when she wasn’t sticking her head in to see.
“Are we going to talk about it?”
“Talk about what?”
“What I…did.”
“…”
“Luz I’m sorry, I just-“
“You…you shouldn’t be.”
“…what?”
Luz was quiet for a moment, on her knees staring down at the stick in the sand in front of her. “He was going to try and kill you. It’s…fair. Enough. That you…”
“…did it first?”
“…yeah.”
“That’s not why I did it though.” Hunter wasn’t looking at her either. This seemed to be a conversation best had when not looking at the other’s face. He took another stick from his pile, a stout stick that forked into two ends at the end. He ran a finger alongside the side, before sticking it into a patch of sand nearby. Flapjack chirped reassuringly and Hunter sent them a wane smile before letting it drop.
“Then why?”
“He hurt Flapjack,” Hunter growled, eyes flickering up to the tree line like he expected Phillip to appear again. “He was going to hurt you.”
“I-ooh, I found the portal. But I can take care of myself Hunter.” Willow could hear the frown in Luz’s voice. Over Hunter’s shoulder, she saw the human girl turn and look at him, her eyes narrowed.
“Good, and I know Luz,” Hunter said evenly, despite the tense undertone. He didn’t look over at Luz despite her finding the portal. “We met when you were proving that. But B- he’s different. He’s…” He glanced at his own arms. “He’s dangerous.”
“I know,” Luz said simply.
“And I…I wasn’t ever strong enough to beat him. He…he hurt me, because he could.” The uncertainty in Hunter’s voice was clear. “I just…I don’t ever want any of you guys to ever go through that if you don’t have to.”
“Enough that you’d…kill? To stop it?” Luz said. Hunter turned and faced her. They met each other’s gazes evenly. This felt momentual. Something to remember. Willow watched as all the fear, all the nervousness was washed from Hunter’s face.
“Yes.”
Luz’s chest rose. It fell. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay. I trust you, and you know him better. I’m not…okay with it. But…but I guess it’s not like he’s a random civilian. He’s…a cult leader.”
“I…know he is. I swear I wouldn’t have done it…if I didn’t think it was the ri…”
“Hunter?” Luz asked, slowly rising to her feet and taking a step closer.
“Luz.” Hunter spun, jumping to his feet. “Luz I just killed a man.”
“I…know? You-“
“Luz I killed the man responsible for my creation.”
Luz blinked. Realization lit her gaze. “You talked about the timeline-“
Hunter raised his arms. They were shaking immensely but that wasn’t what drew Willow’s attention.
The blood dripping from his gloves was disappearing.
“What the…” Amity said quietly.
“Hunter…” Luz said slowly. “Hunter, what-“
“Titan’s Rule of Paradoxes,” Hunter said serenely, eyes fixated on the blood as it faded from existence. Willow’s heartbeat slowed. Her eyes were stuck on the fading blood. “I killed the man who created me before he created me. Therefore I can’t exist. But I killed him. It’s a loop.” His head snapped up to look at Luz. “Okay listen, and listen close.” He grabbed her arms, pulling her close. “Luz you gotta take Flapjack and get back to the present. I don’t know what is going to happen because Be- he features so heavily in the future, Luz you gotta go. Go now.” He pushed Flapjack into her arms, then pushed at her arms, sending her back in the sand.
“What about Hunter?” Gus asked worriedly, looking at Willow. “Willow, what’s going to happen to him?”
Willow shook her head, never moving where she was looking, eyes wide.
Luz blinked. “Where are you going? Hunter!” Her voice was edging into panic as her arms curled protectively around the palisman in her arms. Flapjack chirped loudly but didn’t try to escape.
Hunter didn’t look at her. “Where’s the portal back? Where’d you find it?” He dropped back to his knees, running his hands into the portals.
“I-yeah, that one over there, with the rock by the two sticks,” Luz stuttered out. “That doesn’t answer me, Hunter-“
“Alright, you go-“
“WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” Luz hollered over whatever he was about to say. Hunter looked up at her, up on one knee, then the other. His face was serious, but his eyes were…scared.
Willow had almost forgotten, it seems, that this too tough teen wasn’t just a walking encyclopedia or an exasperated older brother or a dangerous soldier. He was a child, just like the rest of them, dealing with powerful forces out of control.
It didn’t make her feel better.
“Luz, I’m gone. I don’t know if I can go back, since we killed him here . You need to get back to our present before the Titan’s Rule kicks in fully and you get stuck in this present. The blood’s already vanishing, you need to go .”
Luz’s eyes widened. “A-alright. Alright.” She took a step closer to the portal. Then another, until she stood just on the lip of it. “I…how do I fix this? What do I do?!”
Hunter opened his mouth and…nothing. “I don’t know,” he choked out. “I don’t know what to do. I never got to-“
Willow didn’t even have time to feel fear because of that statement before Hunter flickered . His face seized and he collapsed into a painful looking crouch.
“Hu-“ Luz started, reaching forward, her eyes wide and her lip wobbling because she was a kid, a kid, a kid who was losing her brother and didn’t know why-
He shoved her. She fell in.
Willow didn’t move, but something shifted inside her. Amity and Gus had followed Luz through the portal without second thought. Willow wanted to, she knew she had to, that’s how the memory went. The tugging sensation behind her naval pulled too, like an anchor that she couldn’t cut.
But looking at Hunter’s terrified face, frozen in the last place Luz had seen it…
“C’mon Willow,” Inner Luz said, behind her. “It’s time to go.” Willow turned towards the guardian, anger ripping through her, wanting a target, wanting a victim , someone she could yell at without feel bad about it but-
Inner Luz’s face was drawn in sorrow, valiantly fighting back tears. Her hand was held out, an offering for comfort Willow couldn’t help but want desperately after what she had just seen. The plant witch couldn’t bring herself to spew any vitriol towards her friend who didn’t do anything wrong.
Hunter was gone because he cared enough to fight for his friends. Willow would fight for her friends too, but she wouldn’t end up like him. She’d get him back.
She took Inner Luz’s hand and stepped into the timepool.