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Some days just kind of put you through the wringer. Gus was pretty sure anyone who'd been on the Boiling Isles recently had to know that. Something about an attempted mass genocide really did that to you... Gus grimaced and blinked his eyes fully awake.
For as horrid as the Day of Unity had been, what with the whole not even knowing if his own father was okay after some kind of God-child started tearing the world apart as a follow up to the mentioned attempted genocide, that wasn't what was keeping him awake right now. There was only a limited amount you could do besides just cry about literally being trapped in a different dimension after a traumatic event, but Luz had some experience with that. They probably wouldn't be coping at all without her. But once again, that wasn't the problem for Gus at whatever the hour it was on this not-so-fine early morning.
Quietly, he managed to shift his head from the pillows it was slumped against to look around at his companions trapped here with him. Willow was still there, thank the Titan, and as he was beginning to get some feeling back into his hand, he could feel where she was still keeping a tight and protective hold on him. On the other side, though... A certain traumatised blonde kid was noticeably missing. And Luz too.
Earlier, before the... dreams, Gus was sure he'd drifted off with Hunter's arm wrapped around both him and Willow. It hadn't even seemed out of place! Hunter had been hanging off of Willow due to the whole sigil business nearly all day, and he'd clung to Gus like some kind of living shield ever since they'd all been sent tumbling into the Human Realm. It was sweet, honestly. He couldn't tell how much of it was some kind of older sibling instincts (That Luz assured him Hunter had.) and how much was Hunter's need for comfort without an ability to easily ask for it, though.
Luz's disappearance was also troubling. In all likelihood, she'd probably just run off after Hunter, but Gus wasn't stupid; he'd seen her when they'd first got to her house. She was taking leaving the Demon Realm hard. Possibly even harder than Gus himself and he'd lived there for literally his whole life! In that case, there was no telling what exactly Luz was to up to, and there was equally no telling what they'd do without her there to help out in such an unfamiliar place.
Shakily, Gus raised his free hand up to where he could see it in the dim light and began to breathe to the count of his fingers. There was something somewhat nauseating about either Luz or Hunter running around in such a state. And that was on top of the discomfort he'd woken up feeling only a few minutes prior. Though, as long he could manage to just not accidentally trigger an illusion (Because, yeah, magic seemed to still work fine for witches in the Human Realm...), it would be a start.
Any other time, it would have been kind of heartwarming realising like he now was that this breathing technique remind him just as much of Hunter as it did of Willow. But remembering why he'd had to teach it to Hunter brought back rather stark memories of his dream, which, in itself, had mostly just been a memory from the fight yesterday anyway. Gus sat up a little; he needed to find and talk to Hunter.
If you'd somehow managed to explain the mess of the last twenty-four hours to Gus in the past, he'd probably have assumed Hunter was just struggling with the whole seeing his uncle go splat against the wall thing. Or maybe the nearly dying from the draining spell. But, nope! Now Gus had a new theory! And, unfortunately, it explained rather a lot of his friend's behaviour since Gus had found him at Hexside...
Titan, honestly, it was just so messed up. Maybe that was why it was keeping him up. At least with the day of Unity Gus had had days to prepare mentally for what was to come and, even though it was only a small bit of consolation, being at the Collector's mercy had a higher survival rate than the draining spell for his dad. But this current issue was something Gus knew had to have already happened because he'd seen it whilst rooting through the Emperor's memories.
As it turned out, seeing people that looked like the newest, shiniest and most fresh out of trauma-club member of your friend group die over and over again at the man who was supposed to be said friend's uncle's hand was slightly viscerally disturbing.
He'd literally only been in the memories for a few fleeting seconds and Titan, what he'd seen was insane on multiple accounts. First of all, sure, he and Willow had privately agreed that Hunter had definitely left something out of his story about what happened in the Emperor's mind even before his weird behaviour upon reuniting with Luz, but he hadn't thought it was something like this! And second, if Gus was right and Luz was the only other person who knew, had Hunter even talked about this (Whatever this was) to anyone?
So, yeah, having this walking disaster of a witch (If, uh, that was what Hunter was...) and one of his best friends, who had a tendency to self-blame and was actively grieving just like everyone else, roaming around the house in the middle of the night with no support sounded like a recipe for a lot of sitting on issues and collapsing under pressure. And that was never fun. Ever. Trust him.
Amity was still asleep like she had been like Gus had seen her in the night earlier. But earlier, she'd been clinging to Luz like a lifeline (Aw... Those two were kind of sickeningly cute at times...). That meant Luz had somehow managed to slip out of the room without disturbing her girlfriend. How had she done it, then? Gus was tempted to cast a light spell to see a little better, but decided against it on the off chance that he woke Willow, Amity or the sleeping basilisk on the end of their row (Vee?) up. Instead, he just squinted.
And... Bingo! (Ha, he'd always wanted to say that in the Human Realm! Shame it hadn't been out loud...) Anyway, there, in Amity's grip, was a spare pillow where Luz's arm had once been. Slowly, as to not shake their little group huddle too much, Gus reached for another of the spare pillows that Ms Noceda had brought through for them, during some time when Gus was asleep, it would seem, as he didn't quite remember this happening himself...
Just like he'd seen characters in shows on the Crystal Ball do, he then proceeded to swap out his hand in Willow's grip for this pillow, as if her palm was some kind of booby-trapped pedestal. Well, based on her not inconsiderable strength, maybe that wasn't entirely inaccurate. This was the girl who'd managed to completely incapacitate the Golden Guard upon first meeting...
Once he was sure Willow was still sound asleep, Gus made his escape, aiming to slide silently out of the den they'd all been huddled in. he actually nearly made it all the way out of the room before being noticed as well! But, alas, his fortune still mainly seemed to be running on Day of Unity levels, so he'd scarcely made it to the doorway when the basilisk batted her left eye open, unnaturally bright iris staring him down.
As much as Gus hated it, especially before going to attempt to have a conversation with Hunter about just maybe being a construct of the Emperor, he was still a little bit fearful of Luz's demon doppelganger. Vee, as her name was if he remembered correctly, genuinely did seem to be really nice, but his last experience of a basilisk had been on Luz's first day when one had broken into Hexside and had nearly crippled the entire school. Before Luz had managed to use her strange human ways to stop it, of course, but that was beside the point.
Vee was a lot smaller than the other basilisk and definitely had a friendlier look in her eyes, but, hey, Gus couldn't really help being unconsciously wary. Shyly, he waved to her.
She blinked open her other eye and continued to stare. If Gus was reading her expression correctly despite the dark, she only really seemed confused, though. He tried to point at the two blank places on the other side of Amity, but the somewhat dazed basilisk seemed unreasonably alarmed and began reaching for the first aid kit she had settled by her side.
Okay, that wasn't working, then. He took one long, shuddery breath and then tried again, this time using a small (And hopefully not too bright...) illusion to gesture to the missing Luz and Hunter. Mutely, Vee nodded in understanding and flapped the tip of her tail to the left, seemingly signalling to Gus where they went. He shot her a quick smile before dashing off.
Not knowing the layout of Luz's house all that well certainly didn't help, but when he ended up hearing whispery voices almost immediately around that corner, he realised it really wasn't the end of the world (again), either. He shifted nervously on his feet. It probably wasn't a good idea to just barge into their conversation, so maybe he could just wait for a moment? He could gauge the severity of the situation this way as well.
"No, no, I know it's not– I didn't... But he's out there all alone with someone who could just accidentally poke him too hard and, poof! It's over, Hunter! He's just a little kid!"
Gus perked up and straightened against the cold wall. That was a very distinctly Luz-sounding voice and she had just mentioned Hunter, so it seemed his two targets were here, safe and sound. Or, uh, safe and sound-ish. As safe and sound as any of them could be at this point, honestly...
"It should have been me, then..." Hunter mumbled, and, uh oh, Gus knew that tone of voice, "I– I'm the oldest here, right? And I should have been the one with Belos in the first place, not you..."
Yeah, it had been immediately obvious that Luz hadn't been fairing too great, but Hunter sounded like he was on the edge of a breakdown. Had he not processed what had happened earlier? Or had he... been trying to hold it in for Gus or something? Because Gus definitely would have noticed if this guy had been hyperventilating whilst sheltering Gus in his arms like he was the world's most traumatised stuffed toy.
Some muffled footsteps sounded and then a light thump. Gus couldn't tell if either of them had just fallen over or if Luz had just crashed into Hunter for a hug or the likes. He hoped it was the latter.
"H-hey, no, come one! That's not fair! You wouldn't be here if you'd gone to Belos. That's one choice I stand by," a sniffly retort from Luz, quieter than before as well, hopefully just due to the direction her voice was carrying or something.
"Then I'm sorry I couldn't do my job... Luz. I was supposed to be your escort,"
So, those two kind of just seemed to be working everything out on their own, then, huh? Maybe Gus could just go back to the other room and try and sleep, then. Hunter didn't need another push in the wrong direction. And Luz deserved to talk things out on her own terms.
Gus shivered and slumped against the wall he was half already leaning against and half hiding behind. If only it were that simple... If he were to shut his eyes right now... He'd see a face just like Hunter's, dead in front of flames with a great, bleeding gash. Or he'd see visions of his father, face marred with glowing lines like Hunter's had been. Or even worse, he'd see some kind of amalgamation of both – maybe the Collector would even be there too...
"I mean, if I ran off, that's on me. And I seriously don't think you could have done anything more after the, uh, whole..." Luz paused and Gus could only assume she was making some kind of gesture, "Thing... How're you feeling, by the way? That... looked kinda painful,"
Of course, thanks for yet more reminders, Luz... Gus sighed: he shouldn't blame her. They'd all been injured in the ship crash and fight against Belos, but it was unequivocally Hunter who must have sustained the greatest amount of damage due to the draining spell. But he'd refused to let anyone else patch him up. Luz had been fine with it at the time... She'd just taken to fussing over Amity's various scrapes and bruises whilst Gus watched Willow continue to glance over at Hunter in the corner every so often. It wasn't as if they'd all left him completely to himself...
The small incision on his cheek ached now. it was almost funny, actually: he had a so-called 'band aid' right over the area where Hunter's most prominent scar was. He dreaded to think how that monster of an injury had come to be on his friend.
"I'm fine, Luz – just a little sore. Go check up on Blight if you want to fuss over someone again," then it was Hunter's turn to pause and Gus just knew it was because he was embarrassed by his next words, "Or Captain... Her arms looked way more scraped than mine earlier when I... checked her over,"
He smiled thinly. Seeing Hunter get all worked up over worrying for Gus or Willow was vaguely amusing at times. Not the most right now, admittedly, but it was better than nothing.
Luz sighed defeatedly, "I don't want to wake her... And besides, we should probably be sleeping right now ourselves. Or... At least trying..."
"Right..." Hunter mumbled.
Yeah, like Mr Perpetual Eyebags over there was even going to try...
"Talk more later?" shakily, Luz offered.
Hunter was on the verge of saying something, probably some kind of agreement, when the pair of Gus's friends ended up rounding the corner and spotting him. Whoops. That probably looked a little suspicious, didn't it? He didn't mean to spy on them...
"G-Gus!?" Hunter squeaked and jumped up onto one leg.
"Uh, hey?" timidly, he offered.
Hesitantly, Luz approached him and, at a nod from him, scooped him into a hug. She was still wearing Eda's Grudgby jacket, he noted. That made sense – Gus was still wearing the little trinket he'd stolen from Graye, and Hunter looked to have not even bothered to try and change at all. After the Hexside incident, that seemed pretty in character for Hunter, though.
"You okay? We weren't too loud, were we?" nervously, Luz chattered.
"No, I just... woke up and you two were gone," vaguely, he explained.
Just behind him and Luz, he could see Hunter shuffling from one foot to the other.
"Sorry for worrying you, then. We were just gonna head back now anyway, right, Hunter?" inquiringly, Luz stuck her head out to turn to their other friend. Gus couldn't see her face now.
"Uh, y-yeah!?"
Wow, that sounded more like a question than an answer. If Gus had thought Hunter was actually going to sleep before, he still would have thought there was no chance of that after hearing Hunter's frankly pathetic attempt at a response to a simple question. (Sorry, but it was true!)
Gently, Luz then began to steer herself and Gus back towards the room where the others were all situated. Speaking of not sleeping, he wasn't going to sleep like this either, was he... If there was any hope of getting any more rest that night, it was going to stem from confirming a few things with Hunter. So, yeah... Gus ground his heels into the floor slightly.
"Hey, Luz, actually, could I just speak to Hunter quickly?" he held up a hand to halt her and looked back at the boy trailing miserably after them.
"Huh? Oh, sure!" she waited expectantly for a moment before realising what was up, "Oh, alone? Uh. Right! I'll just... be in the other room, then. I'll talk to you later too, if you want, buddy,"
He nodded gratefully, "Yeah, that'd be nice. See you then,"
Luz hung around for another long second before darting skittishly off. That left Gus to turn to Hunter, who seemed more than a little nervous at the prospect of talking about something big with Gus, alone. To be fair to the guy, his phrasing of asking to speak with Hunter had been perhaps more than a little ominous...
"So, uh, what's up, Gus?" hesitantly, Hunter began to ask.
Silently, Gus sank to his knees and patted the floor beside him. Hunter complied and sat down next to him in a tight huddle. He then offered Gus an arm which, yeah, he gladly took. One of his hands still found its way instinctively up the little magnifying glass he wore around his neck, though.
"Sorry if this gets too heavy, man, but it's just been bothering me since yesterday," slowly Gus prefaced.
Hunter shrugged and then gestured for him to continue.
"Oh, and also sorry if this is too personal, but... What do you know about the past Golden Guards?"
Instantly, Gus could feel his friend tense from the way the arm around his shoulder became tighter and slightly twitchy. Unfortunately, that just confirmed his suspicion that Hunter did have at least a bit of an idea about what had gone on with what Gus had seen. That wasn't a good thing for Hunter objectively, but that didn't stop the small sense of relief appearing at the knowledge that this wasn't going to be a conversation of complete nonsense.
"Uhm," Hunter swallowed dryly, "A bit? Did you..." he never finished the question.
"Yeah... Sorry, dude. When I was trying to incapacitate Belos earlier with this thing," he clinked a nail against Graye's amplifier, "It kind of projected a bunch of his memories at me. They..." he sniffled and had to pause to breathe, "The Golden Guards, that is, were they a creation of his?"
That was really the only plausible explanation. Gus hadn't seen all that much, but how else did you explain a man who looked just like Hunter being brutally murdered before a memory of someone rising literally from some kind of grave? If Hunter was a construct... That would make a lot of sense, actually.
Hunter nodded mutely.
"I'm sorry..." Gus shut his eyes and huffed out a shaky breath, "I didn't mean to bring up bad memories. I just, I couldn't sleep, Hunter. I woke up 'cause my brain just replayed this memory of a man who looked exactly like you being stabbed with this knife and it looked just like any old regular knife, but there was so much blood–"
"Hey," Hunter's hand had a firmer grip on his shoulder, "You need to do the breathing thing? I can... count?"
He held up his spare hand in front of Gus's face and began to lift up and down various fingers. Distantly, he could notice that Hunter was attempting to breathe with him. Except, once again, Hunter really wasn't good at demonstrating this and there was a light whistle blowing through the gap in his teeth.
"Thanks. I didn't mean to just dump all of that on you there... But, yeah, I just wanted to know what was going on, man. I guess I thought– uh, think that maybe it wouldn't be as bad if I understood,"
Hunter stared at him reproachfully for a moment before responding, "Okay. If, uh, it'll help you, Gus,"
Gus settled in place and waited for Hunter to start talking. His friend seemed to need a moment to collect himself prior to starting his story, which was fairly understandable honestly, so he just waited as patiently as he could. After about a minute of perhaps a touch of awkward silence, Hunter began.
"I don't know exactly who the guy you saw, my... original copy, I suppose, is. All I know is that Belos decided he was a threat or something and then... Yeah, he was gone after that," Hunter contorted his face, "For a while, anyway. Because he wasn't satisfied with just the killing. He started to... revive? Us. Belos wanted a better version of that original guy – one who wouldn't do... whatever it was the original did. Not betray him in some way, I presume," the guy managed to stumble through an explanation.
"Then you're...?" gently, Gus prompted.
"A Grimwalker. Some kind of clone. I couldn't really find that much information on them, though..."
Gus... might have heard of those before? He thought they were supposed to be extinct though... Actually, if Belos had been reviving basilisks, then why not grimwalkers too?
"Cool," he grinned up slightly at Hunter, "Thanks again for telling me. I was a little freaked when I first saw it, but never really had time to process..."
"I get it. I don't really think I had time to process it either... My– Uh, Belos kinda tried to uhm, dispose of me after I found out?" nervously, somewhat manically, Hunter laughed.
Ouch, that'd do it... Gus tried to imagine how he'd feel if he'd been the one to find out he was a clone. And then promptly nearly be murdered. It was kind of a hard scenario to envision...
"In the trip into his mind?" his friend nodded grimly, a small motion, "Yikes..." he hesitated for a second, "Hey, Hunter, when we get back and fix everything, you're welcome to come and stay with me and my dad, you know. I promise we'll find you a place," blazoning forward with some newfound, strange optimism, Gus assured.
Hunter let out a sound somewhere between a sniffle and a snort of laughter.
"Believe it or not, that's not the first offer like that I've had..." he exposited wearily.
Gus smirked, "Luz?"
A solemn nod, "Luz,"
That really was hardly surprising. Luz had always been quick to offer up the Owl House as a place to stay, even as far back as when she'd first shown up on the Isles and they'd done the Moonlight Conjuring together. Even if she'd most certainly gone behind Eda's back for that one.
"Well, the offer still stands, man. Makes up for you looking out for these last couple of days – thanks for that, by the way. You're like some kind of brother I never had or something,"
Hunter snorted again.
"I'd rather have you as a brother than Luz as a sister. She'd be bullying me into doing her chores for her constantly, or something..." he grumbled.
"She's been with Eda for months, what do you expect? I hear that they literally base cleaning duty off of bets..." casually, Gus informed.
Of course, cleaning the Owl House wasn't something anyone would want to be doing right about now... Especially if that Owl House was the Collector's one... He shuddered slightly at the thought.
"Oh, are you cold, Gus? We can head back now, if you want," concerned, and evidently having felt Gus's little shiver, Hunter questioned.
He did kind of just need to sleep again now... And, actually, Gus also did feel kind of better after just talking things through with Hunter. This guy had survived the sigil plan, and this guy was perfectly fine! Uh, sort of... The man Gus had seen in Belos's memories may have looked like Hunter, but he just had to remember that that was really not Hunter. Easy enough, actually. That man smiled too much to be Hunter...
"Probably," concisely, Gus responded.
Carefully, Hunter helped him up and then began to cart the two of them off towards the room with everyone else. He too looked a lot more at peace than when Gus had first overheard him talking with Luz, thankfully.
"And I, uh, I don't know what your dream showed you, but I promise I'm not trying to go anywhere now. Belos is gone, right? O-or he will be. And I have you, Gus the Illusion Master, to help me out! I–I'll be fine!" Hunter still sounded a bit frisky, but generally way less so than earlier.
"Yeah, I know. I think I was just worried 'cause of the whole sigil thing... Thanks for taking me seriously though..." Gus sighed contently.
And then Hunter gave him possibly the most sincere smile he'd seen from the guy since the Entrails team photo that Willow had taken.
"Of course! I wouldn't mess with you,"