#wow! hunter noceda au update in 2023! incredible!

[sergeantsporks]

Writing Request:

Suddenly remembers Another Shot In Life

Takes places after the finale:

After a disastrous day in the demon realm (Hunter comes across some people who loss their palisman because of him) Hunter decides to take some days for himself in the human realm. There, Vee tries to encourage him to stay permanently, reminding him that here he could have a fresh start as she did, a place where he could just be himself without any reminders of the Golden Guard or Belos, while Hunter tries to argue against this with how he has friends on the boiling isles, promises to keep (making palisman) and life goals (School and Flyer Derby) They get into an argument, and in the process both ended up touching on some sore topics (Vee being the last basilisk and Hunter being the last grimwalker). They drop the subject and decide to just spend some time comforting each other before Hunter leaves.

Author's Note: Because of the "remembers another shot at life" line, I GROSSLY misread this as a request for a scenario set in the "Camila is Hunter's Mom Now" universe, and by the time I realized my mistake, I was in too deep to change/feasibly rewrite this. All that to say, this fic is written with the Hunter Noceda AU logic and background in mind, so Hunter's motivations, goals, and relationships are different (and Flapjack is still alive), but I tried to stick with the general concept of the plot. Sorry 'bout that.

xx

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.” Hunter stalled at the portal door. “I mean, I haven’t been back to the demon realm since…”

Camila stood next to him, watching the magic shift and swirl across the surface of the portal. “I know.”

“But I mean—I know it’s different now, and he’s not there, and Luz is really excited about the university, and maybe it’s time I give it a look. I can’t just stay away forever.”

“No one will make you go, Hunter.”

“I know that.” Hunter twisted his hands around each other. “Luz and Jade have been talking.”

“A dangerous combo.”

“I think Jade wants to go to the isles someday.”

Camila smiled warmly. “That sounds like her.”

“So…” Hunter shrugged helplessly. “I guess I want to be the one to show her. And Thomas, if he ever wants to come. If I can do that without Jacob hovering over our shoulders the whole time. But I definitely can’t show them around if… if I can’t even walk through the door.” He squared his shoulders, taking a deep breath. “Okay. Okay, I’m ready.”

Hunter stepped through the portal. He expected it to feel magical somehow, or at least strange, but it was just like walking out of the house into the outdoors. Maybe a slight temperature change. But nothing special.

A hand grabbed his halfway into the portal, pulling him the rest of the way in.

“Hey!” Luz said brightly, “You made it! Are you ready?”

Flapjack fluttered out of Hunter’s pocket, soaring around the room with a cheerful song. Hunter smiled watching the little bird.

“Glad to be back?” he asked. Flapjack chirped an affirmation, landing on his shoulder and nuzzling against his face.

“Eda’s already at the university,” Luz explained, holding her hand out for her own palisman, “Aaaaaand, so. There’s been a breakthrough in technology removing sigils.”

Hunter’s gut dropped. “Oh.”

“I know you don’t really… have yours… anymore…”

Hunter rubbed his wrist where the scar left by the Collector sat, blotchy and red against his skin. “Right.”

“I was just wondering if you might be interested. Does it still bother you sometimes?”

“Itches sometimes. But that might just be the…” Hunter scratched at it. “…the burn… Do you think I should get it checked out?”

“That’s up to you. It’s just in Latissa. On the way if you say yes, not a problem if you say no.”

The Collector burning the sigil off had stopped Belos’ attempt to kill him. But what if there was something deeper under the skin that he didn’t know about?

“Yeah. Let’s go. It’ll only take a minute, right?”

Hunter was used to people getting out of his way in the Isles. He was used to fearful looks of respect as he passed and citizens falling away to let him through.

But the way people moved for Luz was different. There were cheerful hellos, nods of respect, and ‘of course, go on through’s.  People cast him quizzical looks, let him through easily enough since he was with Luz, but overwhelmingly… no one knew who he was.

It didn’t feel good, per se. But it didn’t feel bad, either. He hadn’t considered that people might be angry at him for being the golden guard until the nurse at the old Latissa police station had looked at him for just a second too long and his heart started to race, but no one seemed to recognize him without his mask and cloak.

What happens if they figure it out?

But for now, he and Luz walked into the clinic without a care in the world. Or, at least, it seemed that way until Hunter saw Darius Deamonne, and everything seemed to tilt just a little out of focus, like a camera lens that was a little bit blurry, but still able to catch a picture. Luz went straight to Alador Blight, explaining the situation to him, while Darius and Hunter stood awkwardly next to each other.

Hunter broke the silence first.

“Hi, Darius.”

“G—Hunter. Glad to see you look well.”

“Oh. You too.”

More awkward silence. Hunter circled his thumbs around each other

“Camila said you helped find me. Or—well—you and Eberwolf.”

“Ah. Yes. I suppose we did.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Darius cleared his throat. “And I apologize. For my previous behavior towards you.”

“Oh.” Hunter scratched at his wrist. Darius had never been kind. He’d ignored him, mostly, and had been curt when they’d had to interact. But he’d been no worse than any other coven head in that regard.

“I don’t know how much Luz told you, but I went into Belos’ mind, along with coven heads Eberwolf and Raine, and, somehow, Luz herself. And while there, we saw some… disturbing things. Regarding the nature of your relationship with Belos.”

Hunter opened and closed his mouth without saying anything. He felt like he’d been sucker punched. He hadn’t known. Luz hadn’t gone into too much detail about what had happened on the day of unity or the days leading up to it. Sometimes he’d wondered if she was hiding something. And she might be, if she’d seen everything and was trying to keep it normal between the two of them. Not that she hadn’t known already what had happened between him and Belos, but still.

“And I like to think that if I’d figured it out in the coven, I would have reached out to you,” Darius continued, “But whatever I might have done, I know that I didn’t actually do anything to help you in reality. So I just wanted to apologize for treating you poorly, when I could have helped.”

“Oh.” Hunter chewed the inside of his cheek. How was he supposed to respond to that?  “That’s alright. I might not have run away if you had.”

Darius accepted his reply with a gracious nod and stepped back as Alador approached, holding up his sparking glove.

“It’s quick,” he promised, “And painless. Hold out your arm?”

Hunter glanced at Luz, and she gave him a quick nod. He held out his arm, Alador put the glove right where his burn was, and nothing changed at all. It didn’t itch. But he didn’t know that it had stopped forever, either.

Time will tell.

“Thank you,” he managed, and then it was back outside, to freedom and the skies with Flapjack and Luz.

Hunter swooped, twisting and doing a barrel roll in midair with a whoop. He hadn’t been able to fly in the human realm; he’d never found somewhere that he really thought was secluded enough, and he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed it until now. He aimed Flapjack down at the ground in a steep dive, pulling up at the last second and flipping in the air.

“Nice moves.”

Hunter yelped, losing balance and falling halfway off his staff so he was clinging to the underside.

The witch next to him laughed. “Sorry! Didn’t mean to startle you.” She waved up in the sky. “Hey, Luz!”

“Willow!”

Luz swooped down, helping Hunter upright. “Hunter, this is Willow, Willow, Hunter.”

Right. Luz had talked about her friends before, he knew who they were. Willow. Captain of her own flyer derby team (whatever that was). Plant witch. Luz’s first friend in the isles, discounting Eda and King. “Hi. Hello. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too. I’ve heard a lot about you!” Willow grinned, pulling a lazy loop-de-loop in the air. “Welcome back to the isles.”

“Thanks.”

Willow pulled ahead, skidding down in a graceful landing at a massive blue tree. Flapjack chirped excitedly to see it, fluttering out of his staff form as soon as they landed and soaring up to inspect the branches.

Hunter’s breath caught in his throat. “Is that…”

“Palistrom,” Luz confirmed, her own palisman twining around her wrist, “Eda’s dad had a seed, and since Belos is gone, we’ve been able to grow this big one, and reseed the forests!”

“Wow,” Hunter murmured. He put one hand on the tree’s thick trunk, shivering at the contact. “It’s beautiful.”

Flapjack chirped an agreement, landing back on his shoulder.

“Come on, let me give you the tour!”

Luz grabbed Hunter’s hand, tugging him through the university. She pointed out each classroom, naming the courses. There were classes for each of the original coven tracks, but there also seemed to be dozens of combination classes, for any kind of magic mixing you could imagine—classes on training your beasts and abominations to get along, safety crash courses on keeping your living plants and your potions separated, and countless others.

“Here—look.”

Hunter squinted at the sign above the door. “Human… exchange program?”

Luz bounced up and down. “We were thinking we’d start small, with people who already know. Like Jade, you know? And then, if things go well… maybe we start telling people about the demon realm?”

Hunter swayed on his feet, dizzy at the thought, although he wasn’t sure why. “Oh.”

“But I wanted to ask you first,” Luz said in a rush, “Vee, too.”

“Right,” Hunter said slowly, “Because if we tell people about the demon realm, they’ll… figure out… where Vee and I… came from…” He ran a hand through his hair, sick at the thought of some of his classmates coming here, seeing everything, seeing where he’d come from, and… “Uh,” he managed in a strangled whisper, “I’ll think about it.”

“Oh, noooo, you hate the idea—look, forget about it, we can—”

“No. No, I’ll think about it. It’s a good idea, I’m just… not sure… if I’m ready for it. And I want to talk to Vee, first.”

“Yeah. Understandable. Okay.”

Flapjack preened his feathers, nonchalantly warning Hunter that one of the university students was staring at him, and had been for the last minute or two. Hunter glanced around and saw the one Flapjack was talking about��the student had to be at least five or six years his senior, and he’d never seen their face before. The moment he locked eyes with them, they startled, then headed right towards him.

“Um—” they started apologetically, “I’m probably wrong, but… did you… by any chance… are you the golden guard?”

Flapjack turned to staff form, and Hunter took a step back, holding the weapon so that he could either fight or hop on and fly away at a moment’s notice. “Who are you?!” he demanded.

They held their hands up. “Sorry! Sorry, I, uhhhhh…” they glanced around. “I was a coven scout just half a year ago. This is… my second chance. So. I understand not wanting to be recognized, and I won’t talk to you again if you want to keep a low profile. I just… wanted to ask you something.”

Hunter glanced back at Luz, who shrugged. Maybe she had seen everything in Belos’ mind. But something about this scout felt more private. “Could you give us a second?”

She nodded, bounding down to a different platform and classroom with Stringbean’s help.

“What’s your question?”

“I… noticed you have a palisman. Um. I was just wondering—since you helped collect palisman at initiation, and since you were higher ranked, do you… do you know what happened to ours? Do you know where they were kept?”

“I…”

Memories of broken wood, of green magic spiraling upwards, of lifeless palisman tossed carelessly aside flashed through Hunter’s mind. Soul after soul devoured and destroyed, just to feed someone who should have died a long time ago. That same gloved hand gripping Flapjack tightly, ready to destroy him if Hunter stepped out of line.

Flapjack nudged Hunter’s face with a chirp, and he followed the sound and touch back to the present, one hand gently touching the palisman on his shoulder. But he couldn’t help remembering every palisman he’d given Belos—which one had been this scout’s?

“They were destroyed,” he said numbly, “I’m sorry.”

The ex-scout blinked. “What? No, that can’t be right, Lilith had hers, and you have yours, and… and you didn’t start out as heads of the coven, I—” their eyes searched Hunter’s face, flicking back and forth as if hoping he would say ‘psyche! We kept them in a secret cave, I’ll lead you to them right now!’ “They can’t be…”

“I’m sorry,” Hunter said again, “I…”

“But that’s not fair.” The words came out of the scout in a whisper, like they couldn’t quite believe it. “You got to keep your palisman. Why do you get to have one when you destroyed all of ours?” Their eyes filled with tears. “Why… why is mine… why-?”

Hunter felt sick to his stomach.

He had destroyed palisman. Had collected them from scouts, even knowing what would happen to them. Had gone out in search of more—even if he’d ultimately let those escape with Luz.

He wouldn’t trade Flapjack for anything, but that didn’t stop a cesspool of guilt from opening in his stomach. He slowly backed away from the scout.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I didn’t—I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m—"

I don’t even know whose was whose.

I just… handed them over.

Half-dazed, Hunter hopped on his staff, pushing off and leaving the scout behind. He flew high, clinging to his staff like a hug more than a proper ride.

Why did I escape?

Why did I get to keep my palisman?

He didn’t realize where he was flying, didn’t stop to steer, just let Flapjack take the lead until he soared right back into the living room, and into Camila’s arms, where he stayed, shaking like a leaf.

“Hey—Hunter, sweetheart, are you okay? Where’s Luz? Did something happen?”

“I—” Hunter squeezed his eyes shut. “Luz. She’s probably wondering where I went, I need to go back, I need to—”

“Stay,” Camila said firmly, “I’ll get her. Take a minute, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

She gave him a squeeze, then let go, disappearing into the demon realm. Hunter paced anxiously in front of the door, almost certain that the scout had followed him, or something worse.

Vee fell into step next to him, pacing back and forth with him. “Bad first day, huh?”

“Mmm.” Hunter twisted the strings of his hoodie around his fingers. “It’s too soon.”

“For you?”

“For the Isles. They’re still rebuilding. Trying to figure out what to do without a coven system. And I’m… too close to Belos. Maybe if I’d been part of the rebellion, people would be willing to overlook the golden guard, but I just ran away. I ran away from him, so I’m still associated with him, and—and—I mean, I didn’tdo anything to fight back, did I? I messed up the Isles, and I didn’t even help fix it, I just ran from the problem, and—”

“Hunter. Belos was the problem. Not you.”

“Yeah, but—”

“You didn’t have to fight him. That wasn’t your job. He was hurting you, and you needed to get away.” Her face crinkled in a half-smile. “Besides, I seem to recall Luz saying that you threw a shoe at him and knocked him out cold.”

“That didn’t help anyone.” Hunter sighed. “Which is the problem. How can I just go back to the Isles now that it’s fixed, when I didn’t do anything to help fix it? It feels… wrong.”

“So don’t go back,” Vee said simply.

“What?”

“Don’t go back. No one is making you. I don’t agree that you somehow need to earn the right to go back, but if being there just makes you feel guilty, then don’t go. I thought you said you wanted to stay here in the human realm with us, anyway?”

“I do,” Hunter admitted, “But the Isles aren’t the same anymore. Now that Belos is gone… I don’t know, I never wanted to go back because he was there, and then because of the bad memories.” Hunter started to pace again. “But he’s not there anymore, and I have bad memories with him here, too, so maybe I should give it a shot? And I want to do something to help clean up the isles, Vee, I know Belos is to blame for what happened, but if people who never hurt it in the first place, like Eda, are helping fix the damage, then maybe I should help, too.”

“Wha—you didn’t even want to go this morning!” Vee sputtered, “And you came zooming back after an hour like you’d been burned! Hunter. Listen to me, Hunter. If you only want to go back because you feel obligated, because you feel like you have to make up for what you did—that’s not a good reason to go back. Just stay here. I’m not planning to go back.”

“Well, it’s different for you!”

“Oh, yeah? Belos made that draining spell off of what he learned from me. Do I need to make up for that?”

“That wasn’t your fault!”

“But you getting raised into a soldier was yours?”

“Really, Vee? Are you really going to try to insist that you getting chained up and tortured so that Belos could study your magic holds the same amount of blame as working for him? That’s what you want to say?”

“Are you really going to try to insist that you looking out for your own health and running away from Belos was worse than fighting him and getting killed?! You decided to start over here, just like I did. What’s the point in going back? Just to beat yourself up for not dying some kind of martyr? You left the Isles for a reason.”

Hunter threw his hands in the air. “It’s just—I don’t think it’s something you can understand!”

“And why not?!”

“Because there aren’t basilisks anymore!” Hunter burst out, “Maybe you really don’t want to go back, but it also isn’t really an option for you! You don’t—” he bit down on his tongue, acutely aware of how bad the next words out of his mouth would sound.

“I don’t what? I don’t belong there?!”

“Vee, I didn’t mean it in a bad—”

Vee shifted, getting taller and blonder, her ears lengthening and her eyes turning magenta. “I can pretend to be a witch just as well as you, grimwalker.”

Hunter fumbled for words, staring at her. Usually, she looked like Luz, but right now, she could be his sister.

Vee sighed, settling back to her usual form. “Neither of us belong anywhere,” she said, her voice cracking, “I just thought that we could not belong together.”

“I really didn’t mean it like that,” Hunter said in a small voice, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” she said tersely, “I know what you meant.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I don’t want to fight.”

“Me either. I just… I know I didn’t have a lot of options, I guess I… I don’t know. It’s not just that I think I need to help, I also want to. I want to see what the Isles turns into without him. If that makes sense.”

“It does. And I guess I know you wouldn’t be gone forever, I just… I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you, too. Maybe I can make it a place you will want to visit.”

A tiny smile flitted across Vee’s face, and she leaned her head against his shoulder. “Well. I kinda like how you turned out without Belos controlling you. I think the Isles will turn out pretty well, too.”