screech*
"I'm sorry." Tate dejectedly as he softly held his raging palisman. "It's been days and I'm still saying it."
Tate stared at his devastated Palisman in his lap with pity as he heard thousands of cries coming from them. Thry were still somewhat connected to the Palismen in Belos and today...the connection was gone. It could only mean one thing.
'Hollow Mind already passed.' Tate thought to himself dejectedly. 'Hunter should've ran away after that. I might've changed the story, so i need to find Hunter before Belos can.'
Tate's thoughts were interrupted by a surging heat coming from his palisman that caused him to panic and cover his entire body and metal arm in magic to protect himself.
His palisman was engulfed in rage and Tate sighed.
"I'll grab a normal sword, you can stay on my shoulder today." Said Tate tiredly, patting Phoenix on the head before putting them on his shoulder. He could still feel the raging heat coming from the palisman, but he decided to bear with it-
-because regardless of anything, he had work to do.
xxXxx
After saying goodbye to his grandparents, Tate headed towards Hunter's hiding location, Hexside.
Tate wondered how Hunter would react to his sudden appearance when they haven't met since Tate left the coven. Most likely due to Belos's intervention.
He thought over what could happen as he eyed his old subordinates and the head of the illusion coven infiltrating Hexside.
"Hmm, i can try and blend i-" said Tate to himself with a hand on his chin before remembering the burning palisman on his shoulders. "I'll just hide somewhere."
Tate then got into Hexside's secret hallways using a path near the entrance.
"I really need to thank Eda for this secret pathway." Said Tate as he crawled inside the school with his palisman still on his shoulder.
Soon, he made it into where all the secret pathways in the school meet. He looked all around too see if anyone was here and there wasn't.
"I guess the detention track don't have a reason to use these anymore." Said Tate calmly before turning to his palisman. "You okay, buds?"
Phoenix let out half a chirp and Tate took it as a sign that things were getting better. He nodded before looking around for a specific door.
"Hunter should be behind the stage...but where's the stage?" Tate asked himself before his foot hit the doorknob of a trapdoor. "If this should follow story telling logic, i think i found it."
Tate opened the door and saw the blue curtains. He smiled before hopping down without another thought.
This turned out to be a bad idea after he fell onto a cloaked figure...Hunter as he was running away from Gus.
"Tate?" Asked Gus in shock.
"Ow...wait- TATE?!" Exclaimed Hunter in shock and joy.
"Just thought i drop in for a sec." Said Tate as he got up and readjusted his glasses. "Sorry for that by that way."
"It's fine!" Said Hunter eagerly.
Gus ignored Hunter's eager tone and asked. "Why are you two here?"
"I was looking for him." "It's none of your business."
Tate turned to Hunter with a raised brow to which he replied by avoiding eye contact.
Gus had the same reaction before he and Tate noticed Hunter's pile of books and snacks behind the school stage which he quickly hid.
Hunter's palisman, Flapjack, soon started urging him to tell them about the situation.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow! Okay, fine!" Said Hunter as Flapjack stopped biting his hair and perched on his shoulder. "Truth is, my living situation has been compromised. Maybe. So I just need a place to crash. Temporarily! Hexside...was the only place I could think of."
"How...vague of you. Do you know where Luz is, by any chance?" Asked Gus raising a brow.
"She's not with the Owl Lady?" Said Hunter in surprise.
"She's out sailing to some island and should be coming back soon." Added Tate with a shrug. "My mom messaged me about it when she was in the owl house recently."
Lilith actually did that, which made Tate very comfortable with saying it.
Gus went silent before summoning his lunch bag and handing it to Hunter. "I'm not sure what he's going through, but that much Hex Mix can't be good for your stomach."
Tate smiled before Bump announced that all students are to go to the gym and Gus left.
The moment Gus was out of sight, Hunter hugged Tate like a bear and began tearing up.
"I can't believe you're here. I thought Belos would-"
"Heh, catch me? You know that's not gonna happen." Said Tate with a smile not noticing his palisman flying off with Flapjack to the floor next to them.
"Belos told me that wild magic corrupted you, and i-" said Hunter before his widened as he remembered something. "I-i need to tell you something. I'm not who you think i am. I'm-"
"A grimwalker?" Said Tate nonchalantly, causing Hunter to jump in fear. "Hmm...i guess since you told me this, I'm also not who you think i am."
Tate then began whispering his greatest secret to Hunter. Hunter's eyes widened as he had to jump back in fear once more.
"Yeah, i knew everything from the beginning. Lame, i know. I haven't told even my mom, so...don't tell anyone...like, at all" Said Tate with a wink and Hunter nodded with a determined look. "Now, Adrian Graye and the coven are here and they want to give everyone here coven brands. Eat that sandwich quickly and be ready to help Gus, he'll need it."
Hunter gave another determined nod before asking. "Wait, what about you?"
Tate turned to Hunter and let out a smile as Flapjack became friends with the sad cluster of palismen that was Phoenix in the background.
"I'll be helping around."
xxXxx
Tate with a steel blade immersed in blue aura watched as the whole school fell into chaos. His palisman perched on his shoulder.
Tate took a deep breath and chopped the heads of two coven heads who began panicking upon realizing that Tate was here from his spell that kept them alive as decapitated heads as well as the fact that the whole school has transformed into a giant labyrinth.
Even Tate quickly got lost in the flood of new scenery and found himself with two familiar students.
"Whoa, what? How did we get here?" Asked Amity in confusion.
"Your friend, Gus, did this." Said Tate calmly.
"Tate?" Asked Amity in confusion.
"What are you doing here?" Asked Willow curiously, causing Amity to give her an odd look.
"You know each other?" Asked Amity raising a brow.
"Of course, I'm pretty famous." Said Tate with a fancy bow.
"We met him while he was being attacked by the emperor's coven a while ago." Added Willow cheerfully. "But why ARE you here?"
"To-" said Tate before chopping off the head of a coven scout trying to attack Amity. "-stop these guys."
Amity and Willow jumped back at the apparent ruthlessness of Tate killing a person with no hesitation.
"He's not dead, I'm not evil." Said Tate tiredly.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Said the decapitated head of the skull.
The two now looked disturbed before another coven scout appeared from behind Willow.
"Willow, watch ou-" Amity couldn't finish before Willow caught the scout with her vines.
"I got it." Said Willow with a chuckle.
"Lucky shot, Willow." Said Amity cheerfully. "I just got a text from Ed. He, Bump and a bunch of others are in the Healing Homeroom. We should find our way over."
Willow stared at Amity with a look that made even Tate feel bad.
"I can talk to her if you want." Said Tate calmly.
"It's fine." Said Willow dejectedly.
"The only time anyone says that is when they're not fine. Maybe we can try showing her what you can do-" Said Tate with a smile. "-by having you save someone Amity knows is strong."
"Hmm..." It took Willow a few seconds to come to a decision. She took a deep breath and answered. "Alright."
It was time to fake his defeat.
xxXxx
"Oh no! I've been caught and my sword fell! What ever will i do?" Said Tate dramatically as a coven scouts trapped him in a stone prison.
"Hold up, did i actually catch you?" Asked the scout in confusion.
"I got this!" Exclaimed Willow as she began following the plan and tried to save Tate.
"No, i got this!" Amity interjected as she tried to save Tate herself canceling out Willow's magic in the process.
Seeing as he wasn't defeated and that more scouts were coming over, the scout decided to do the best thing he could...run away with Tate and he succeeded even as Willow nearly broke the wall with an enormous amount of plants that shocked Amity.
"Uhm...what now?" Asked the scout.
"Are you asking me?" Asked Tate in confusion.
"I didn't expect to get this far, okay?" replied the scout.
"I'm very disappointed in you right now." Said Tate with a frown. "You're supposed to incapacitate your enemy."
"Like this?" Asked the coven squad captain as he entered the scene with a blight industry's abomaton.
"Fudge." Tate muttered before the abomaton hit his head with a hammer transformed hand that knocked him out despite him protecting his head.
xxXxx
"Ugh." Tate woke up groggily in the arms of an abomaton next to Gus and in front of none other than the head of the illusion coven himself.
"Hello, Silver." Said Adrian with an evil smile.
"Why am i dreaming of something so ugly...wait, no, it's real." Said Tate nonchalantly, causing Adrian to to frown. He noticed his palisman in the hands of a scout unharmed which calmed him down a little.
"Now that both of you are awake, let's begin the speech." Said Adrian calmly. "at first, I thought that fooling children was a waste of my impressive talents-"
"Wait, impressive? When was the last time you impressed someone with your talent?" Asked Tate genuinely, making Adrian glare at him. "No, I'm serious. Have you ever heard of this guy, Gus?"
Gus just sighed dejectedly while held down by coven scouts. "You've done it again, Augustus. You can't even tell Willow apart from the fake one."
"I'm not playing these games." Said Adrian trying to act unbothered before turning to Gus and gesturing towards the illusion of the looking glass ruins. "You! Come on. Are you listening? This is my speech. Now, this is YOUR doing?"
"Yeah. It's all my fault." Replied Gus dejectedly.
"Oh. Right. All about you. Now how about telling me how you know about the Looking Glass Graveyard? I've been looking for the Galdorstones. They'd make great gifts for the Emperor. Where did you say you found them?" Said Adrian only to be met with an angry glare. He then took off his mirror earring. "Ah. Boring. See this mirror? It's a handy little magic amplifier. It'll help me sort through those little memories of yours."
"Ah, stop! Wait, this hurts!" Tate was disturbed by the scene of Gus going through this pain and quickly tried getting out of the abomaton's grasp.
"Oh, don't be so dramatic." Said Adrian before the gym returned to normal.
"You!" Said Tate angrily.
"Oh, what are you going to do-" Adrian was cut off by a blue light coming from Gus.
Gus was quickly enveloped in a blue bubble that affected, Adrian, Tate and Gus himself.
Tate tried to battle his fears, to come out on top...but that wasn't the case. Tate was quickly defeated by his horrible memories.
Every horrible moment from his time as a human to the current time flashed in his mind. It was agonizing. Every time Lilith despised and insulted him, every moment where he was bullied in his previous life...and the moment at which he died.
There was no chance he could escape especially since he was in the arms of an abomaton...alone, at least.
Phoenix saw his breakdown and quickly broke out of the coven scouts grasp by heating itself up to the point that they melted the scout's gloves.
"Capture that bird!" Said the scout, causing the abomaton to leave Tate to attack the palisman.
Unfortunately, while doing so, the abomaton was about to crush Tate. This made Phoenix change direction and block the attack with their flames.
But they couldn't do it for long. They called out to Tate as Hunter arrived to calm Gus down knowing that it could save Tate too.
Phoenix was one step ahead, however, as they began calling out to their owner. They knew what he was going through. They knew the pain of death and pain of living with a monster.
They reached out to Tate and their warmth brought him back to reality.
Now awake and holding his palisman sword once more, Tate fought the abomaton and evaporated it in a pillar of flame.
And then, he saw that Hunter was comforting Gus. But it wasn't the end, there were more abomatons and even though Amity and Willow were powerful, they couldn't win against this many abomatons.
Tate quickly went to fight with them and with the help of the school's students, the abomatons were all destroyed.
Soon, Hunter and Gus came out of the illusion together and Hunter was hugged by Gus and Willow, Adrian was on the floor and the emperor's coven was defeated.
With no threat in sight, Tate's body relaxed and he quickly passed out.
Willow, Amity, Hunter and Gus quickly ran to his aid and made sure that their friend was, at least physically, unharmed.
xxXxx
Tell me how i did. Leave a review.
Toodles.