“WAKE UP!”
The words echo around in her head, coming out of nowhere and pulling her out of the deep sleep she had been engulfed in.
Then the pain came. Overwhelming, all consuming, like she was being burned from the inside out.
Eyes opening as she opens her mouth to scream, Hunter can seen nothing but the brightest, most blinding light in existence as ever atom in her body seemed to burn at once.
And then, as quickly as it had started it was over. The pain ceased, the voice disappeared, and all that was left were the thoughts of an exhausted, barely conscious mind.
Her head falling to the side of it’s own accord, two faces appear above her, she doesn’t recognize either of them. Despite that, there was only one thing she knew, only one thing that mattered.
The only thing that had ever mattered.
“Lilith- where is she?” Hunter asks with as much worry as her body could muster, before darkness claims her once more.
Consciousness returns to her slowly, each time she wakes only for seconds before unconsciousness claims her again. Each time a face she does not recognize standing over her.
“Tony, come on, it’s perfectly safe!” A woman, hair as bright as the sun and clothes the color of the sky. She doesn’t know her.
“That thing wakes up and takes a bite out of ya, don’t blame me.” A man in strange glowing armor, holding his hand up as he steps back in worry.
“You can’t stay here forever,” A man in leathers is standing beside the old woman she saw the first time she woke.
“There is nowhere else I should be,” she responds, her hands on the side of the bed she was sleeping on. Her head hangs low, and she does not believe that it is age that is the reason.
“Just saw that Stark guy poking around the mirror table,” Lifting his hand to motion backwards, the man does not look at her as he speaks to the woman, the only one not to do so.
“Find me as soon as she wakes,” The woman sighs as she steps away. “And Blade… be nice.”
“Always am,” The mans voice, calm and deep echoes above her.
Hunter loses consciousness once more as the woman turns to walk away.
“UUH!” Gasping for air, Hunter’s eyes open wide for the first time since she had been woken. Her throat raw and lungs burning with the effort.
Lifting her hand, she grabs the same wall that the woman had been leaning against, her fingers gripping it as she pulled herself up. Her armor creaks and scratches against itself with the movement, her muscles screaming in protest as they move for the first time in who knew how long.
Letting out a deep shuddering breath, Hunter looks out towards the exit to the small room she was in, able to see bright colors and deep greens in the day light. She can’t bring herself to enjoy them. “So cold… the air burns with every breath… has it really been so long?”
Feeling her heart increase it’s beating in her chest as worry begins to eat at her, Hunter forces herself to remain calm. Wherever she was, whoever it had been she saw, she would handle them as she always did.
Pulling herself out of the coffin she had been lying in, Hunter reaches for one of the daggers still on her belt. Her swords might be gone, but she was not unarmed and never defenseless.
Body screaming at her in protest, she strides forward, ignoring the pain in her limbs as she had so many times before.
Metal plates scrape against each other as hard leather boots move across the stone floor, her eyes squint as she adjust to the brightness, all while her ears are listening for any sound.
The wind, a few birds, and only the scraping of her armor.
Stepping out into the light, one hand raised to keep the sun from blinding her eyes, Hunter looks around the small clearing she was in. Finding herself at the top of a small staircase, at the bottom of which sat a small path, flanked by beds of flowers on either side, with trees behind them. “I know this place,” Her voice is raspy and hoarse to her ears and she can feel her throat burning with disuse. “It was always empty.”
Walking down the small staircase, Hunter stops a few steps down the trail, her hand still clasped around the hilt of her dagger. “But now I sense…” Her grip tightens as she draws the short blade from it’s sheath, the feeling of eyes on her as unwelcome as ever. “I am not alone.”
Turning slowly, Hunter glares at the figure hunched atop a pillar beside the staircase, a lit brazier just halfway down it, the man she had seen with the old woman.
“Got to admit Hunter, you make one hell of an entrance,” He says before rising to his feet, and in the same movement takes to the air.
Turning to follow the movement as his feet pass overhead, Hunter takes not of everything she can as he lands in a crouch in front of her, his back towards her.
The long leather coat, the sword on his back, the strange thick garment he wore on his torso, and the bizarre metal contraptions on his legs.
Taking a step back as she place the familiar scent, Hunter raises her dagger. He should not be here. None of his kind should be.
“Guess that makes two of us,” He continues as he rises to his feet, turning to face her as he crosses her arms over his chest. She makes note of the odd metal plates on his forearms, and even stranger metal cylinders on the band around his upper arm.
“You should have struck when you had the chance, vampire. You will not live to repeat your error,” Her body was still screaming at her for moving, the weight of her armor near crushing, and still she keeps her dagger steady.
Her armor didn’t seem to be rusted, it would protect her from it’s fangs, but it was what she didn’t recognize that worried her.
This thing should not be alive, let alone in this place.
“Cute, and Caretaker told me to be nice,” He shakes his head with a scoff, making no move to reach for his weapons.
It was the only thing that keeps her from darting forward. Exhausted and weak as she felt, she would not suffer a foul creature like this to profane this place with it’s existence.
Anger aside, she was not sure she could win this fight in her current state. But it was better to be killed than suffer it’s presence.
“Relax slayer, I’m a friend. You just don’t know it yet.” The vampire remains calm, nothing but his lips moving as he speaks.
It was far from reassuring.
“I have no friends,” her voice is steady, even as she feels her fingers begin to tremble as her body begins to succumb to exhaustion.
“Wow, Sara really wasn’t kidding about you.”
“Sara- what have you done to Sara?!” Darting forward, blade extended, Hunter closes the distance between them until her knife was at the monster’s throat.
She could not tell behind the glasses over his eyes, but she does not think he even blinks. “Me? I haven’t done anything to her, doubt I could even if I wanted to. She’s a friend, she’s the one who asked me to wait here for you.”
“Sara asked you- that was her standing beside you… before,” Slowly lowering her blade, Hunter takes a step back as she turns her body away from him.
Armor or no, not getting hit was always preferable, and a smaller target was always harder to hit. “But what would Sara want with a vampire unless…”
What had happened to Sara? Why wasn’t she here? What was she doing with an abomination like him?
“The name’s Blade and I’m no ordinary vampire. I get you’ve been outta commission, but I figured you’d notice we’re having this showdown under the frickin’ sun.”
She had noticed, and it had caused more questions than answers, none of which were pleasant.
“A dhampir? Daywalkers are a myth,” She’d personally killed over a dozen monsters that claimed to be as such. They had all burned under the sun just the same. And yet, he was a vampire, she could smell the corruption in his blood. Like iron and rotting meat.
If dhampirs were real…
Lilith. She needed to know where Lilith was.
“Says the half-demon monster hunter,” The vampire’s, Blade’s voice is almost mocking.
“I do, and last I checked vampire’s are monsters.” The blade in her hand turns slightly as she twists her wrist, waiting for the lunge.
“You wanna take a run at me, go ahead, but I got my name for a reason,” Not even bothering to uncross his arms, Blade doesn’t back down. “I’ve probably killed more vampire’s than you’ve ever seen, hero.”
Sara brought him here for a reason.
Despite her better judgment, every instinct screaming at her to put an end to this creature then and now, slowly lowers her hand as she sheaths her dagger.
Sara must have had a reason.
“Such fighting spirit,” Hunter remarks as she relaxes, although her hand remains loose over the pommel of her blade just in case. “I cannot recall the last time I threatened one of your kind and they didn’t immediately run, no wonder Sara took a liking to you.”
The confusing as the idea of Sara letting a vampire live, let alone befriending one, was, Hunter had no interest in discussing it with him.
She needed to talk to Sara. She needed to find Lilith.
And if letting a single abomination lived got her that, so be it.
“Right, as much as I’d love to see how much weirder this conversation can get, we should probably go moving.”
“Agreed.” There were far worse things in the world than this dhampir. “The prophecy is moving forward, and we’ve wasted enough time here already.”
Scoffing, Blade merely turns and starts walking down the pathway. “Man, the others are really gonna love you.”
Stopping mid-step, Hunter keeps her eyes trained on the vampire. “Others?”
“Yeah, you got a little fan club, I think. But why spoil the surprise,” He doesn’t stop or turn to look back at her as he speaks. “Hope you’re up for the challenge, chosen one.”
Watching the foul creature walk away, Hunter waits until he had gone far enough down the path that he could no hear her before letting out a sigh. Her shoulders slump as much as they were able to, relieved to have the burden of her armor lessened.
For all of two seconds before she straightens them once more and follows after the beast.
If this was a trap, she would kill it and find Sara herself.
Dhampir were supposed to be a myth, and she had no problem correcting that mistake.
The mockery in his tone only made her want to remove his head more.
Shaking her head, Hunter continues down the trail, past the first bend and down the hill, her eyes scanning the area in front of her for any sign of life, vampire or not.
It is only a short walk before she begins to hear voices. “Wait- did I miss something or did Nico just raise the dead?”
Another new one.
How many people were here? And where was Sara?
Continuing her walk down the path, her questions and fears only grow as she looks at the four figures at the bottom of the hill, seemingly waiting for her.
Standing beside the dhampir, was another man. Shorter, with short dark hair save for a white streak atop his head. Fists on his hips, he turned to look at her with a wry, uncertain smile before he quickly wiped his palm on the blue trousers he wore. The leather jacket he had on, the only protection he wore, would offer him no protection from her blade should he provoke her.
As she approached however, she noticed something different about him. Something almost familiar.
It’s not until she is closer, close enough to smell the perpetual scent of coal and ashes that clung to him that she realized why. A spirit of vengeance, another one.
Where was Jeremiah? What happened to him?
The two women beside them wore even less protection. The shortest, a scrawny girl with long blonde hair, wore a top that left her arms and collarbone exposed, with unreadable white markings on the front like the intertwining branches of a haunted forest, save for a leather bracer around one forearm. Too thin to offer any real protection, even from glancing blows and her trousers were just the same. She at least had the decency to wear heavy boots, she might need to try if she needed to work her blade through the thick leather.
Lastly, was the strangest looking of them all. The same height as the spirits host, her black hair had been pulled entirely to one side, exposing a shaven side of her head. Dark makeup covered her lips and eyes, as metal rings stuck out of her ears. The jacket she wore was covered in colorful flat pieces of metal, the sleeves were pulled up over her forearms, exposing bracelets of various materials and a single hand in a fingerless glove. The belt around her hips was covered in metal studs and her pants, the same material as her jacket, seemed tight enough to cut off circulation. Even her boots were strange, going up almost to her knees, and laces crisscrossing the front all the way up to the top. And while her jacket might have covered her arms, Hunter doubted that her purple blouse covered any more than the blonde girls.
Other than the dhampir, none of them seemed to be wearing any sort of protection, and Hunter had a dozen plans to kill them if need be before she reached them.
The spirit would be first, she could not allow him to transform. And while she sensed magic about the women, she was confident that she could reach them before their spells affected her. Leaving only her and the dhampir.
“Greetings, ancient one,” The strange looking girl suddenly blurts out as she waves with a single hand.
Stopping dead in her tracks, Hunter tilts her head as she looks at the bizarre girl.
“Ahem,” she coughs before continuing, “Hunter, don’t know if you remember me but I’m-”
“The witch, who called me back from the grave?”
Wake up. Her voice had been the one she heard.
“Told ya,” Blade looks at the witch with his hands out towards her.
She keeps him in view in the corner of her eye.
“Oooor Nico, either works. And this is-”
“Robbie Reyes!” The spirit host interjects, his excitement as clear as the vampire’s disdain.
She did not care, the feeling was mutual.
“Oh man, never thought I’d be standing next to you,” Robbie continues as he steps forward, extending a fist towards her. “Got quite a rep. Caretakers told us… stories.”
Staring at the extended fist, Hunter tilts her head. If he was trying to strike her, he was doing a terrible job.
He retracts the fist as Hunter’s gaze returns to him, face impassive.
“That’s Illyana,” the witch- Nico motions towards the short blonde girl beside her.
Nodding, Illyana meets her gaze before nodding. “Privyet.”
“And I think you’ve already met Blade,” Nico finishes introducing the others as Hunter turns her head back to the vampire. The taller man crossing his arms once more as he meets her glare.
Whatever he was, he was not a coward, she would acknowledge that.
He would die all the same however.
Looking them all up and down, Hunter turns and takes a few steps down the line they had formed, never letting any of them out of her sight. A witch, a vampire, a spirit of vengeance and whatever Illyana was, she sensed magic about her and something far darker but she did not know what, and now this Caretaker individual. What was going on here, and where was Sara?
It dawns on her as she approaches the witch, the answer obvious now that is occurs to her. “Of course, Sara has reformed the Midnight Suns.”
The prophecy has been set in motion, and Sara had been preparing.
She hopes that Sara had prepared well.
Jeremiah, Yelena, Endra, Will, Agatha… where were they?
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Hunter doesn’t allow herself to dwell on the question. It doesn’t matter. If they were not here now, they could not help.
The lump does not get smaller as she feels her stomach drop.
“Whoa,” Blade uncrosses his arms as his head tilts back slightly, surprise in his voice. “How did you-”
“A witch powerful enough to bring me from the dead, a host of a spirit of vengeance, a dhampir,” Hunter almost smirks as she turns to Blade, almost. “And… I am not quite certain what you are… save for powerful,” Hunter’s unease only grows as she looks at Illyana. An unknown and a powerful one, it was never a good combination. “Why else would you be here when I was resurrected?”
“You can tell all that just by looking at us?” Robbie’s awe is prevalent as he looks at her.
“I can feel your power,” She knew of no better way to describe it. And she wasn’t sure she would tell them even if she did. “I always do.”
“Sooooo… welcome home,” Nico draws on as she turns around, motioning to the large stone building behind her. “I guess we-”
“I never left.” Hunter interjects, studying Nico as she turns back to face her.
“Right. Well, we can fast forward through the tour then,” Nico turns back towards the Abbey as the rest of the new Suns follow her.
Hunter waits until all four had started walking to follow behind them.
Nico continues to speak as they make their way into the castle, about the bedrooms, dorms she called them, the forge, and large main room. Filling the silence on their way into the Abbey, and explaining that she had Robbie to thank for whatever why-fy was.
“Oh! And we’ve go some new house guests,” Nico’s voice perks up as she turns to face her, now walking backwards in the direction of the library. “If you think we’re a fun bunch, just wait until you meet them. And speaking of… we’re here.”
Stopping on the otherside of the threshold, Nico holds her arms out towards the various people in the room.
Blade was on the far side of the room, standing on the opposite side of the mirror table from the old woman she had seen earlier. Robbie and Illyana stood to one side, watching her with either awe or cautious distrust. The bizarre armored man was talking to a mans face above his wrist on the other side, while the brightly colored woman sat on a table near him. Another man she didn’t recognize, almost as colorfully dressed as the woman, wearing a bright red cloak and a spattering of grey in his otherwise dark hair and goatee stood beside her.
All turn to face her at once.
Pushing her shoulder back, Hunter ignores the insects she can feel on her skin. Their gazes as uncomfortable as they were unwelcome.
Palms sweating as her toes curled in her boots, Hunter doesn’t allow herself to show her discomfort.
“Got to go, show’s about to start.” The crimson and gold armor says before lifting a hand to press against the wrist the face was hovering above. In the blink of an eye it was gone, and the armor turns to face her, the glowing eyes almost as unnerving as the glowing jewel in it’s chest.
She hoped that it was as important as it looked. Whatever magic controlled that armor, she doubted her blade would be able to pierce it. And she didn’t know where her swords were, let alone her mace.
Spiders crawl up and down her back as she steps forward. She can feel the eyes on her, every single person in the room doing nothing to hide the fact that they were watching her.
As she approaches the mirror table, Hunter feels her gaze pulled to the old woman standing beside it.
Turning to face her, the woman smiles as she speaks. “Prophecies be damned, it’s good to see that face again. You look like it was yesterday…”
That voice- it couldn’t-
“Sara?” Hunter’s voice almost cracks as she looks at her, unable to believe what she was seeing. Sara was millennia old but she had never looked older than her early fourties, at least that’s what Agatha had said. The woman before her was far greyer, with a great many more wrinkles and eyes more tired than Hunter felt. “You look… older.”
Sara’s smile doesn’t leave her face as she looks away, her head bowed as she turns to the mirror table.
Or to the figures walking around the far side of it.
The new members of the Midnight Suns stand on the far side of the table from her, as the caped man and bright woman stand on the left. The walking armor comes to stand beside her on the same side as the strange man and woman, it’s glowing eyes turned to her as it lifts up a single hand curled into a fist, it’s thumb pointed upwards.
Hunter follows the direction for a second, but there was nothing on the ceiling.
“How long was I in that crypt Sara?”
“No more than a few centuries,” Sara’s tone was light, even if her words were anything but. “You were… missed.”
“Centuries?” Her heart felt like it was about to explode out of her chest as she repeats the word. Everything, everyone- “And… and what of Lilith?”
Lilith. Lilith. Lilith.
Lilith is all that matters. The only thing that matters.
Slowly, Hunter feels her heartbeat return to normal as she forces her mind to focus on the one thing that was important. The reason she was brought back. The reason she existed.
She feels like she’s lying to herself as she forces her face back into an emotionless mask.
“Fallen by your hand… until now.”
“Yeah, so, speaking of Lilith,” The armor speaks up beside her, it’s voice… wrong as it interjects.
“Tony…” The brightly clothed woman warns.
“What? The kid’s literally speaking of Lilith,” The armor continues.
“Tony…” The cloaked man follows the woman’s example.
“That’s my name. Tony,” the armor continues, undeterred by the interruptions, before the front of the helmet lifts up of it’s own volition, revealing the pale, mustached man she had seen when she woke up the second time. “That’s, uh, Carol and Doctor Spooky over there,” Tony motions towards the others with his hand, pointing at each as he introduces them. “Here to help.”
“Help with what exactly?” Making no attempt to disguise her distrust of the strange individuals, Hunter turns towards the armored man with a challenging gaze.
The armor might be impressive to look at, but that did not mean it was useful. And it said nothing of the man wearing it. Or of the others.
A cloak was for travel, not fighting. It was a miracle Doctor Spooky hadn’t been strangled with it a long time ago.
At least Carol seemed to have some sense. No metal bits that could be ripped out of her flesh, no garments that could be easily grabbed to throw her off balance, even her hair was cut short much like her own. The colors she wore left much to be desired however. She would not blend in anywhere. Any decent archer would be able to pick her out and hit her from over a hundred yards with ease. Lilin would find it even easier.
Awake for less than fifteen minutes and every person she had come across seems to have no idea what they were doing. Not even the vampire.
That jacket of his was as impractical as Spooky’s cloak. Although in his case, Hunter was more than okay with it.
Never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake. Sara had had her reread the Art of War over a hundred of times before she was twelve.
“I dunno, throwing the magic amulet into the volcano? Smiting the dragon mother?” Tony asks as Carol and Doctor Spooky groan, both lifting their hands to cover their eyes as they do so. “You tell us kid. You are the chosen one, after all.” Tony lifts his hands and makes a strange gesture with his index and middle fingers as he says the last sentence.
Chosen one. Hero. How many times had she been called that? It was hard to say, but far too many.
Far, far too many.
“I am a hunter, nothing more.” Hunters voice comes out as almost a growl as she glares at the armored fool.
Her hand was back on her dagger before she realized it.
“Do you recall anything of that last encounter, child?” Sara interjects behind her.
Hand falling from her hilt, Hunter turns away from the man in armor, eyes closing as she takes a deep breath, racking her mind for the last thing she could remember before waking in her tomb.
“There was… a voice… the rest is… hazy.” Attempting to remember anything was like trying to recall a dream. Ever time she thinks she has something it slips away.
“A voice?! That’s it? A voice? That’s what we have to go on?” Tony asks with clear frustration.
“Results of a long crypt sleep most likely,” Sara sighs as she braces her hands on the mirror table.
“A minor inconvenience,” Spooky speaks up. “Everything required to restore Hunters memories is contained in my Sanctum. I will simply alert Wanda to prepare the necessary rituals.”
Watching as Doctor Spooky lifts his hands in front of him, fingers curled and pointing to form strange shapes, blue light begins to form around and between his hands. Brightly glowing shapes that begin to flicker as soon as they appear.
Face contorting into a look grimace of effort, strange noises come from the lights as they continue to flicker.
“What, straight to voicemail?” Nico mocks as she leans back.
“Some Sorcerer Supreme,” Illyana adds with a smile.
Arms falling back at his side, Doctor Spooky huffs towards the two women. “Must be magical interference caused by this little… pocket dimension of yours.”
“Perhaps Agatha could help,”
The eyes that turn towards her are not curious or worried this time before they quickly look away. Groaning and sighing before doing anything but looking at her.
It was almost worse than being blatantly stared at.
“Allow me,” Sara interjects as she lifts her hands towards the mirror table. “Alato.”
Glowing light comes up from her hands and the table simultaneously as it comes to life. Shapes made of light rising and falling as they give shape to buildings, cities, mountains, and whatever else was necessary.
“Whoa, what kind of network are you running here?” Carol asks as she leans forward to get a closer look.
“The all seeing eye of Ereskigal who judges… bound to enchanted Babylonian soul glass,” Sara explains as the table continues to form new shapes and locations.
“We just call it the mirror table,” Robbie motions over the ever shifting surface helpfully.
Large rectangular shapes suddenly burst from the surface, the largest in the center as the table zooms in ever closer, giving shape to a woman made of red light. “Wanda!” Illyana gasps.
“A dark force… pushing against the wards. Stephen, where are you?!” The woman speaks, worry evident in her voice.
“That’s impossible,” Doctor Spooky sounds equal parts terrified and unconvinced. “Nothing on Earth can possibly affect those wards.”
“Wanda’s in trouble,” Nico points out.
“Wanda is trouble.” Sara’s tone is harsh as she turns to the witch.
Silence fills the room for several seconds before Blade speaks up. “I’ll go.”
“You’ll need my help, of course,” Doctor Spooky adds.
“Then let us make haste, Doctor Spooky. Our hunt begins now.” Stepping back and turning away from the table, Hunter heads back towards the grounds of the Abbey, where the portal to the rest of the world always was. “I need my swords, Sara.” She calls back as she exits the room.
“Of course, just give me a moment,” Sara sighs, but Hunter was already gone.
Raised from the dead, alive for less than twenty minutes, all of the faces around her different, her entire body screaming at her for rest, and already her hunt has begun.
It was why she existed after all. She was the Hunter, and neither pain, exhaustion, the passage of time, or even strangers and fools would keep her from her quarry.
Lilith was hers. And she would not rest until she sent her back to hell where she belonged.
“I am coming mother.”