A while had passed and in that meantime Hunter had told the three Coven Heads what he had seen....of course he had left out the thing about the Grimwalkers, Philip and the Collector, the latter he didn't really understand anyway.

The three had listened to him attentively, were partly shocked and on the other hand they had already expected something similar....

At some point the three had to go back to the Emperor Castle, Hunter was supposed to wait here during their absence. Darius had promised to come back...

Hunter knew he would come back, but while the three of them were gone to avoid raising suspicions, his own thoughts finally got to him. They drove him crazy. He was a copy! Was he even a personality of his own? Or was his thinking and acting like this missing dead person.

At some point he couldn't take it anymore, he had to get some fresh air. So he ran, left a message for Darius and the other two and left. When he got outside he took a deep breath, felt that he was shaking, he kept running as long as his feet would carry him. At some point he couldn't take it anymore and he wanted to get rid of the rest of his Golden Guard clothing.

He couldn't go to the Owl House, couldn't go back to the Castle, couldn't go back to Darius' hiding place...which other places did he know...? The school! He had also left his Emerald Entrails clothing there. Flapjack chirped at him to turn around, but the blonde shook his head stubbornly and ran to the hexside.

When he got there he snuck inside and looked for a suitable place, soon he found a room that was closed for renovations. There he set himself up and, with the help of Flapjack, snuck through the school to get some more things he needed...to his surprise, he also found some legend books about Grimwalker, which he also took with him.

He had already changed and was carrying a yellow bag with blue bows, inside he had Darius Mentor's diary, he hadn't been able to finish it yet...he wanted to finish reading it first before giving it back to Darius.

When he was there a few hours passed, at some point he also received some messages from Darius "Where are you? We're worried! Are you alright? Shall I come to you?", but Hunter ignored them...he knew that Darius was just worried...

A few days passed, Darius, who kept writing, alarmed, by the letter he had left behind, looked for him while he was at work, Eber and Raine helped, but they didn't think of looking at school, and even if they would have it had gotten difficult in penetrate the school unobtrusively as coven heads.

Flapjack, still at Hunter's side, helped him. He made sure Hunter had everything he needed, even when he was more busy reading the Grimwalker books. Once Flapjack meant well and looked in one of the trash cans for better food as his owner had only eaten Hex Mix since they got here, but when he came flying out of it with a half-eaten sandwich, Gus, one of the children which were a part of the Emerald Entrails, spotted him.

"Huh! I remember you!" Frightened, the palisman dropped the sandwich, chirped, and quickly flew off to warn his owner. "Wait! Get back here!" the boy called, following on his own palisman turned to a staff. He followed Flapjack to the room where Hunter was hiding, standing there on the stage and looking around questioningly where the bird was, where had it gone? Then, as a shadow fell on him, he gasped and raised his palisman to see Hunter.

"What are you doing here Golden Guard??" Hunter didn't know what to say for a second before deciding to act like he once did when he still was the golden guard. "Wouldn't you like to know...But ressed assure Gus, I-" as Hunter suddenly heard loud rumblings behind him and when Gus looked behind him, he saw the sleeping bag and some other utensils that made him know that Hunter wasn't just staying here for a few hours.

The blond stood in his way, cheeks flushed with embarrassment, so he couldn't see any more. This made the younger look him in the eye again. "I'll ask you one more time....What are you doing here, Hunter...?" Gus lowered his palisman and looked questioningly at Hunter.

Even now he didn't seem to want to answer until his palisman stubbornly chirped and tugged at his lock of hair. "Ow ow ow ow! Ok fine!" He looked at Gus and crossed his arms, avoiding his gaze. "The truth is, my living situation has been compromised...maybe!" He looked Gus in the eye and the younger one realized that he probably didn't like talking about this topic. "So I just need a place to crash....Temporarily!! Hexside was the only place I could think of...."

"How vague of you...?" Gus had replied, was not sure how to react, than something git in his mind. "Do you know where Luz is by any chance?" Hunter looked over at him in surprise, even a hint of concern in his eyes. "She's....not with the owl lady...?" An announcement from Principal Bumps stopped Gus from answering. However, after this he turned back to Hunter, he had to go, as announced in the announcement for all students.

However, he couldn't leave Hunter like this. He'd seen all the Hex Mix packs and his conscience wouldn't let him run away like that. So he had given Hunter his lunch box, he wasn't really hungry for its contents, then he ran off leaving Hunter behind. When Gus was gone Hunter looked into the lunch box, rather perplexed, when Flapjack landed on his shoulder, chirping. Hunter nodded. "Yeah...it's...really nice of him..." he murmured hesitantly before sitting down with Flapjack and, after a moment's hesitation, ate the contents together with him. When they were done, he decided to thank Gus and wait hidden outside the room where the reason for the announcement was, but as he approached he heard an all too familiar voice.

It was the voice of Adrian Graye, the illusion leader. He heard him talking about giving Gus a coven sigil, which wasn't the illusionist though, and then he heard Gus shout "Stay Back!" and the entire environment changed. Hunter took advantage of the fact that the illusion leader was briefly distracted by this act and asked gus how he did it. Hunter didn't really know what had happened before.

He sprinted, pushed Adrian gently but firmly to the side, grabbed Gus by the arm and pulled him away. Luckily for them, Adrian didn't followed but only looked after them for a moment before turning away.

Hunter, meanwhile, pulled Gus behind him until he ran into a wall he hadn't seen through the illusion. "Why are we here??" he then asked and looked around confused, when he looked at Gus he was a bit startled. "Woah Gus...Wha- Is your eye okay?"

The younger one rubbed his eye and put on a focused expression before looking worried. "My spell, it's still active!" "Well, you're a witch. Unspell it.", the light blonde said, was confused why the smaller one didn't think of it on his own. "No! I don't know how!" he then reacted, which made Hunter look worried.

Since Gus didn't know what to do next, Hunter suggested finding a teacher and asking them for advice, which is why the two set off again. Gus then asked Hunter why he saved him from the sigil and the former right hand man from Belos tried to make excuses by saying he owed it to Gus for the sandwich. Of course, the younger one didn't believe that.

When they were standing in front of some stairs, Hunter stopped questioningly and looked at them. "Are these real steps or illusion steps?" He took a step and fell down the stairs. "Real steps...", he gasped in surprise when he reached the bottom. Gus came down the stairs normally while Hunter straightened up.

The younger one tried again to find out why Hunter had helped him and used the sandwich as an excuse, but he didn't seem to have a chance. "Come on. If we wanna find a way through this, we need to trust each other...What's going on with you...?" This sentence convinced Hunter somehow.

He had a strange feeling, about to say something that would give Gus an answer, but just as he was about to speak, two Coven scouts came running and Hunter bit back his answer. He immediately grabbed Flapjack, who had transformed into a staff, and set about clearing the scouts out of the way, but unfortunately he failed miserably and found himself engulfed in Abomination Goo.

The other scout tied Gus up with Plant Magic while the first scout approached Hunter. "Wait...aren't you the golden guard??" "Seriously?? Dude! What the heck?? We're on the same side!" The first scout made the Abomination goo disappear again, and the two approached Hunter, telling him that the Emperor was very concerned for his well-being and had sent out search parties. Hunter gasped in shock, felt his heart beating faster.

Belos was looking for him! Belos would now know where he was! He got nervous and didn't say anything, stood in front of the two scouts with hanging ears and partially avoided their eyes when the first scout said they wanted to escort him back to the castle.

Hunter felt himself starting to tremble as he tried to form an excuse, but before he could have failed anyway as his shaking could now be seen, Gus activated a fire glyph in the background, with the help of a Abomination Goo puddle at his feet, brought the two scouts to the ground, also deactivating the plant magic and he ran in the direction of Hunter. "Follow me!" he then called and ran, closely followed by Hunter. However, the two scouts were also behind them.

They managed to flee down an alleyway that looked like an empty hallway to the scouts, but Gus and Hunter had entered through a door into a room similar to Gus's. Hunter took a deep breath when suddenly his inner fear returned. "Oh Titan! He- He's looking for me!"

His breathing quickened and he grabbed his head, walked around the room a bit and then dropped to his knees. "He'll know I'm here! I gotta run! I gotta hide! I got- I gotta..", he buried his face in his hands when suddenly Gus touched his shoulder and he looked up as if stung. "Hey...try to breathe. Like this.." Gus then showed him a trick and when Hunter tried it it actually worked. His heart was still pounding painfully against his chest, but the feeling of breathlessness was gone.

"Did...you run away from the Emperor's Coven...?" Gus then asked. Hunter just nodded softly "why...?" The younger looked over at him worried. Hunter opened his mouth to reply but not a word left his mouth....it ended up wondering him why he should even tell him and he stared at Gus and then folded his arms. Gus knew he didn't want to talk about this topic...so he decided to open himself up first.

"Not too long ago, when I showed a little talent and started taking more advanced classes, it always felt like anyone who wanted to be my friend had an ulterior motive...until I met Willow! And eventually Luz and some others."
Hunter looked over at him a bit glumly as Gus got up with a smile and walked over to some photos of him, Willow, Luz and another boy. "So yeah, not everybody's great, but not everyone' bad either, you know? For what it's worth, you can trust me. I promise not to mess with you.", he looked over at Hunter who was only thinking about the matter with Terra who he also thought had been on his side... "That's..not worth anything...stop acting foolish...", he avoided Gus' eyes and looked away to the side.

"All right, tough guy. Let's keep moving then." Gus left the room and Hunter got up to follow him, glancing at the photos for a last time, would he...have friends like that one day...? Luz also seemed friendlier than he had initially thought...did he and she become a little like friends...? They had definitely been through a lot together... He decided to think more about it when everything started looking normal again, so he left the room and after a short time found himself with Gus in what looked like a normal hallway of the school.

"Is this real?" Hunter asked, not being too sure about that. Gus grabbed to a water cooler and put his hand in a piece of sticky gum. "Weah! Yes! Yeah we made it trough the illusion! High five!" The younger one held up his outstretched hand and Hunter looked at him quietly for a moment and more than just confused, what did Gus want from him...? So he also raised his hand to copy Gus movement. Gus then clapped his own hand into Hunter's and happily walked on, while Hunter, a little startled, held the hand Gus had clapped in. What just happened?

Then suddenly Willow came around the corner and made a surprised sound when she saw the two of them. "Willow! You're okay!" Gus said happily and started walking. Hunter felt his cheeks flush when he saw Willow...he hadn't seen her since the Flyer Derby game, but he couldn't exactly explain why he felt this. "Augustus! I've been looking everywhere for you!" Willow said until she looked at Hunter and took a step back. "Whoa! What is he doing here??" Hunter felt a pain when she said that, of course he knew that what he had done back then wasn't right, but he had thought that they had parted on relatively good terms.

"Oh, don't worry. It's cool. He helped me escape from Graye.", said Gus and added in a whisper: "I think he ran away from the Emperor's Coven. Also, he hasn't showered...in a while...be nice." "Interesting....anyway, let's find the others before these illusions get any more weeeh." She shook her hands.

Hunter saw this and it confused him. He hadn't known Willow long, but from the way he'd met her, he wouldn't think she would react like that. Maybe it was also being able to judge people better... after all, over the years he had learned when it was wise to talk to Belos and when not and what kind of punishment awaited him. Gus agreed and the two started moving, at least until Hunter teleported in front of her and raised his staff ready to fight.

"Who are you??" "What are you doing??" said Gus surprised and pushed himself between Willow and Hunter's staff. "Willow is on our side!" "That' not the captain!", the blonde warned him. "You're scaring me, Hunter..." Willow then said anxiously and Gus looked back and forth between Willow and Hunter in confusion. "Have you ever seen her play Flyer Derby? There's no way she'd be afraid of me."

This convinced Gus, yes...hunter was right....he decided to trust him and slowly took Hunter's side. Willow was just holding out her hand for an excuse when a voice cut her off. "Oh! Again! Cut!" All three of them flinched and Willow transformed into a Coven Scout. "Severine! You had your chance, and you blew it! Not that I'm surprised...", Adrian Graye suddenly appeared behind the Coven Scout and had an annoyed and disappointed expression on his face.

Hunter widened his eyes and hoped he wasn't like Terra. Adrian chatted with the Coven Scout, stepping closer to all of them, at least until Severine sadly walked away. "And you two..." he then began and looked over at Gus and Hunter. Hunter was tense, especially as Adrian got even closer. "...you are making my job very difficult..." Hunter grabbed Gus' hand and ran, not wanting this situation to end like the one with Terra did, so he ran until Belos appeared in front of him and his heart sank.

He stopped immediately and looked up at the huge man in fear. "Belos...", it escaped his lips when someone suddenly kicked him to the ground, it was Adrian. He kept Hunter down with his foot and held Gus with his hands. Then Adrian snapped and Belos transformed into two scouts...an illusion...

That at least calmed Hunter down a bit. At least until the two scouts dragged him to his feet and he tried to escape. One of the two suddenly opened a spell that should kill him and scared and startled he widened his eyes. The other scout stopped him and instead of killing him, the first one played a flute that released sleep fog. Hunter's eyes grew heavy while the last thing he saw was Gus...

It felt like hours had passed when he opened his eyes again...actually it hadn't even been one. But when he opened his eyes he noticed Flapjack and also Skara and Viney. He sat up and looked around, seeing Amity, Willow and some unfamiliar faces, among others.

Startled, he jumped up and called for Gus, thinking that this was an illusion, but he fell to his knees and was still quite confused. But the two girls tried to calm him down again. "Woah! It's okay. Try not to stand so fast," Viney said. "This isn't an Illusion. You're in the healing homeroom." Hunter didn't have time to feel even a little reassured by this, Principial Bumps already approached him and spoke to him.

He told him that the Flyer Derby team saw him and wanted to save him, but he himself wasn't convinced yet. Hunter frantically tried to convince that he wasn't on Adrian's side but was on Gus' side the whole time, but the illusion teacher suggested trading him for Gus. Full of fear he widened his eyes, he couldn't go to Belos!! He tried to defend himself and at one point he seemed to have used the right words because Willow stepped forward and said she believed him.

Eventually they all calmed down and Hunter indicated where Adrian and Gus should be, then they all sat down to discuss a plan.

On their way to the gym, they noticed how suddenly the illusions disappeared. Hunter didn't know if that was a good or bad thing for Gus, though. They ended up fighting some Scouts until he, Amity and Willow sneaked into the gym and saw a weird sight there.

Gus was trapped inside a blue sphere, the same color as his glowing eye before. In front of the sphere lay or sat a few scouts and also Adrian, holding his heads on the ground. They were conscious, at least that's what he noticed from Adrian, who was mumbling something about memories, wanting them to be stopped before he fell backwards. They didn't all seem really approachable.

Willow explained that Gus was, because of the magic, trapped in his head and the others were affected by this too. Then suddenly an abomaton with a scout came into the room and the three were forced to split up, so Hunter was supposed to help Gus out of this situation.

He didn't know how to do it, but he decided to try whatever came to mind. So he ran to Gus and reached out for him. Suddenly his head hurt and he painfully remembered the things in Belos' head and also other moments, they were painful memories and now he understood why Adrian and the scouts were so devastated. But his fear couldn't stop him now!

Gathering his courage, he fought the fears and finally touched Gus shoulder. The environment around him changed and he saw Gus talking sadly, but every time he reached out and wanted to touch him, he disappeared like an illusion and appeared in a new place.

When they got to Gus' room with the surroundings, Hunter decided not to touch him this time. "I can't even trust myself anymore..." Hunter looked down at Gus worried and finally sat down next to him on the floor. "It's hard when you can't trust yourself...I spent my whole life believing I was doing something good for someone good...but...it was a lie...and some part of me still wants to believe in that lie. Just like you want to believe you're dumb or whatever...but it's not true!" Gus looked up at him. "I promise, I wouldn't mess with you. So uh...how did this breathing thing go again..."

Hunter gasped for a lot of air and then blew it out again, whistling because of the gap in his teeth. Gus chuckled softly and than they suddenly were back in the gym, the blue magic ball gone.

They both stood up and Hunter watched as Willow hugged Gus happily, he was about to sneak away when suddenly Willow pulled him into the hug as well. "Thanks Hunter...", she whispered softly and he felt himself getting warm and blushing. "What is this?" he asked about the hug, never having seen or felt anything like it. "Just go with it." Gus said and Hunter somehow wondered if whatever they were doing they had learned from Luz.

When they finally stepped outside the school, they watched Adrian being dragged onto the Emperor Castle ship by two scouts, he was still incapacitated and not looking too well...Hunter was genuinely wondering what he had seen, what he had experienced in his past....but he also knew that every Coven Head had some history of some kind of trauma, but that Adrian was so knocked out by the memories.....on the other hand, he wondered if he would have been too , when he hadn't had more in mind to help Gus.

One of the scouts threatened to tell Belos about this, but after Bumps pointed out that he would be happy to hear how easy adrian was to defeat, the scout just grumbled and was no longer their problem.

They watched as Severine resigned and the remaining scouts finally took off with Adrian on board and flew away. Gus and Hunter watched the ship together. "Is Graye gonna be alright?" Hunter then said and looked at Gus, who was looking up at him.

"Uh...probably." they giggled together. When the other students came and asked a few questions, Hunter answered them after getting an affirmative nod from Gus and finally Bumps asked him to tell them all about the Day of Unity....and so he started telling what he knew... .