The Hunters' Fate: Overcoming

My Experience With Fate (Z)

I'm falling.

Falling down and down and down.

Something about the experience made me feel important. But it also made me feel small. I don't know where exactly I'm falling to, but I know that I'm plummeting to my death.

I know that the death waiting for me at the bottom I won't be able to come back from, and I know that if I don't start fighting I'll stay falling until I embrace that death.

I hear a voice calling my name, and I see a light coming from above me. I don't know why, but I feel that I should get up there.

I remember the Falsicornu jewel and grab it out of my pocket from the clothes I was wearing on our mission, the clothes I'm still wearing now. I don't know how the jewel would work when I'm falling, but maybe I can make it?

I raise it in my right hand and feel it activate. My body jerks as I stop my unstoppable plunge and I start to move straight up.

I'm getting closer now. I can see someone's face. It looks familiar. Like maybe I can trust them. I somehow go faster.

I feel myself coming back to my body with a rush. I hear the beeping of machines and the cold air, I see the glaring white interior of the room and the face of the woman above me, I smell some type of cleaning chemical in the air, I feel the sheets beneath me, and I taste some type of medicine on my tongue.

I sit up quickly and put my feet off the hospital bed. The woman, who I now recognize as the medic who first tended to me, shoves me right back down. My weak body can't fight against her.

"Stella," I whisper hoarsely.

"Just stay here and sleep, kid." She pushes me down firmly. "You need it. I'll get your friends."

That seems like a nice deal to me, and I don't feel like arguing, so I fall back down, lie limp on the stiff bed, and I fall asleep.

* * *

I have never had friends. Well, not real friends. Not the type of friends who would check up on you, be worried if you were hurt, or just be there for you in general. No matter how hard I tried, I was never somebody anyone would call a best friend, or even a close friend. A friend to all is a friend to none, right?

But, something changed when I met Stella, Rain, and Milo. Something changed when we went to that attic together. Something changed when I decided to trust three people, when I decided to let them trust me.

Before I knew it, I had three real friends. I was someone three people would call a best friend. I was someone that had friends, and that might have been the most beautiful thing I'd ever experienced.

I'm met with that beauty now, as when I wake up, Stella, Rain, and Milo are surrounding me. When Milo sees me wake up, he comes forward and gives me a huge hug. Stella and Rain join in and pretty soon we're all holding each other.

I don't know who's the first to start, but pretty soon we're all crying in our little lump of people. I don't think I'll ever be able to stop. And, from the sound of it, I don't think my friends will either.

* * *

We did eventually stop crying, and when that happened it was time to go. We thanked the nurses, I got up on shaky legs, and we headed outside.

We let the guards at the front gate know that we were leaving, and they told us they would tell our crew that was with us.

We walk away from the base for a little bit before I get too tired to keep going, and we stop and rest. A demon portal summons before us and I know that Lilith is watching our movements. We step through without looking back.

* * *

In a lot of ways our Future Fate made sense. You remember, the stuff the Academy used to measure our worth? Yeah, that.

It makes sense in the sense that we're talking about how much we're changing the world, because we are very much changing the world. I mean, we did kind of start a World War. I don't really think that's a good name for it, though, I think it's more of a World Rebellion.

It also applies to the "most successful Hunters in the world." How is success measured anyway? Can it be measured? Is success just a lie we tell ourselves to motivate ourselves? Probably.

We are the most successful Hunters if you think about it in terms of media. I bet everybody in the world knows who we are, either for the better or the worse. It's too late to go back now, so we just have to plow through and hope that everything somehow turns out okay.

Luc and Lilith were waiting for us when we got back to the Underworld. Luc opened his arms and hugged us all. We reported back to them what happened, even if they already knew, because something about it made us feel better. Then, we all went to discuss our next moves.

We're now sitting in the room that I have deemed the "decisions room." It's usually where we find out what we're doing next. It's us four and Lilith and Luc. I think their brothers are off training or something. We're surrounding the table, an uncomfortable silence hanging in the air.

Luc clears his throat, the quiet shattering in the air. "We all know why we went and destroyed Base Pilo, right? It was because they striked us first, at Hutchers' Fort. It was done in cold blood and with no strategic planning, which was a major fault on our part." He gets a pained look on his face and moves his gaze to Lilith, then back to us. "We've decided that the demons alone can't go about this without the sinful parts of ourselves getting in the way. We've tried, but old habits die very, very hard. So, we're going to get into contact with heaven."

"Heaven?!" I blurt. "Like, angels with halos and wings? Up in the clouds, heaven?"

"Is there another heaven I'm unaware of?" Lilith retorts.

Luc rolls his eyes. "Yes, heaven. We're going to try to talk to Deus about it, see if They can figure something out, maybe help us."

We sit in stunned silence.

"We're going to meet God?" Rain asks, dumbfounded.

"Yes." Lilith puts her chin in her hand.

Stella jumps up. "When?"

"In a day's time, if all goes correctly," says Luc nonchalantly.

"A day?! What am I going to wear?!" Stella starts looking around the room, a panicked expression on her face.

"What you're wearing now would be fine," Lilith mumbles. "They see beings in their deathly, most emotional, terrified states. I doubt that They would be too upset about your outfit."

"Wait, what do you mean, beings?" I ask.

"Were you not listening?" Lilith puts her hands on her hips. "Deus is the deity of the entire universe. All living, breathing creatures in the galaxy were made by them."

I'm confused. "Wait, so does that mean you guys are the demons of the whole universe?"

"No, just Earth," Luc informs. "Or planet 17AH."

We process this information.

"Do you really think They could help us?" Milo asks.

Luc shakes his head. "They're quite literally God, Milo. The all-powerful being that looks over the whole universe? If They can't help us, then nobody can."