Wake Up, Go To School, Save the World, maybe?

by Shotoman

Summary:

Luz Noceda has been living at the Boiling Isles for over a year now. Adventures were had, regimes were damaged, goodbyes were said, then retracted. Relationships were upgraded. Now a new year is starting at Hexside Academy, and despite all the changes, Luz is still... well... Luz.

Notes:

So, quick notice and warning, this story was written as season 2a was airing, and the continuity, character development, etc. of the story contrasts greatly with season 2b, putting it in an alternate timeline.

Chapter 1: Prologue: A Lovely Couple

It was the first day of school at Hexside Academy, and Amity Blight sighed happily as she walked into the school's front pavilion, watching the various multi-formed students mill about in the pre-class shuffle. After the very turbulent year she'd just gone through -- strangers from another world, shuffling of the social order, rebellions, emotional goodbyes that proved to be temporary, etc. -- it was nice to get back to something normal again, even if she herself was a very different person now than she was a year ago, and not just that she was letting the dye grow out of her hair, leaving it about 20% brunette to 80% mint green.

"Hey, Hot Stuff!" said the upside-down face that suddenly appeared in front of her face.

Case in point...

"Hey, Luz," Amity responded, a small blush dusting her cheeks as she looked up. As she suspected, Luz was hanging upside-down off of Eda's staff, hovering just right to put the two face-to-face. Luz gave Amity a quick kiss on the cheek, causing her smile to widen and a quick flush of pleasure to redden her face just a little bit further before swinging off the staff and landing cleanly on her feet. She waved the staff off as it flew away.

"Thanks for the ride, Owlbert. Give Eda my love." Luz turned her full attention to Amity. "Sooo," she said, a playful smirk on her face. "How's the most beautiful girl in Hexside today?"

Amity smirked. Luz wasn't the only one who could press buttons anymore. "Oh, I don't know, Batata, how are you this morning?"

Luz's eyes widened ever so briefly as a very satisfying dusting of pink appeared on her cheeks. Then she snorted before releasing a hearty laugh. "Ohohoo, Cramity! Lookit you, hitting me with a Reverse Card. When'd you get so smooth, Blight?"

Amity started walking as she gave a playful 'Hmph.' "I've always been smooth, Noceda."

Luz hopped in front of Amity, walking backwards so she could lean forward and look her in the eye (not for the first time Amity cursed the surprise growth spurt her girlfriend went through over the summer while she stayed practically the same height.) The look on her face was obviously trying for sly, but missed by just enough to be absolutely adorable (and how unfair was it that she'd grown to be simultaneously cute and hot?) "That's not how I remember it," Luz teased.

"Oh?" Amity responded with a raised eyebrow. "And how can you remember what you never noticed?"

At this Luz actually got a little defensive, twirling a finger around one of the long sidelocks she'd grown out from her otherwise short hair. "I noticed! Sometimes. Sort of. Maybe. Yop!" This was the moment the Universe apparently noticed that Luz Noceda was walking backwards and caused the inevitable to happen -- Luz tripped, fell backwards and landed on her back. Amity chuckled and walked over her prone form.

"Ami? ¿Querida? Little help?" Amity continued walking another two steps. "Amity!" There was a definite whine in her voice. Amity decided to show mercy and turned around to stand above the heap that was Luz.

"You're ridiculous," Amity said as she casually drew a magic circle in the air. 

As she was levitated off the ground, Luz tried for that sly look again. "You know you love me."

As she placed Luz on her feet, facing right-way-forward, Amity playfully rolled her eyes. "Yes, I do," she admitted. "Though the reason why is a mystery that haunts my nights."

Luz squealed as she clung to Amity's arm. "So you do think about me!" Luz waggled her eyebrows.

Amity tried to keep a straight face, come up with a witty reply, anything, but Luz had finally won this one. She laughed. 

A voice interrupted them from the direction of the school's front entrance. "Hey! You two done flirting yet? We wanna hang out a bit before class too!" The two girls looked up to see Gus waving at them with a big smile on his face, Willow standing behind him, leaning against the door frame.

"Flirt?" Luz took on a very fake affronted tone, even as she gripped Amity's hand, fingers intertwined. "We do not flirt. We banter. There's a difference."

Willow couldn't help but chuckle. "You two absolutely do flirt. All. The. Time. It's adorable, really. But still, do you think you can put it on pause for just a few minutes?"

Amity whistled appreciatively as they came even to the other two. "That was a surprisingly biting comeback there, Willow. Where'd you pick that up?"

Willow smiled sweetly even as the snark continued. "It's just a little thing you pick up being friends with you two." Even after all these months, Amity couldn't help but feel a small flutter in heart at being included as one of Willow's friends.

"I love the new hairstyle," she said. "Any reason in particular?"

Willow blushed a little as she ran a hand self-consciously through her shortened and straightened hair. "No reason. Just... wanted to try something new."

"Well it looks good," Luz agreed, her free hand raised. "Up top!" She made one of her weird/cute squeaking sounds as Willow returned the high-five.

Amity lost herself in the next couple of minutes of small talk. Gus was going on about some new aspect of his Illusions, Luz was still absolutely going to Study Everything, and Willow was quietly listening to them both ramble. This was... nice. Very nice, actually. In all actuality, her life was still a bit of a complicated mess. Her parents were still The Blights, her teacher Lilith was still a wanted criminal along with Luz's... whatever-Eda-was to her, and she and Luz still had enemies out there on the Isles who would have liked nothing more than kill the lot of them and make sure the Emperor's Coven would rise above the "setbacks" they'd inflicted on it over the summer. But here she was, with the best girlfriend in the world, and friends who actually liked her rather than were assigned to her. Whatever the future held, she knew she could face it.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the bell shrieked. "Ah! School time!" Luz squealed and began running off.

"Luz!" Amity called back. "Your first class is Potions on Mondays!"

Luz skidded to a stop then ran in the opposite direction. "Thanks Ami! Love you. ¡Nos vemos chikas!"

"Hey!" Gus called back. "I'm not a chika!" Luz blew a playful raspberry as she ran around the corner.

Amity rolled her eyes with a smile. "That girl is exhausting."

"I bet," Willow said, a much better attempt at sly on her face than Luz could do.

"Oh, get your mind out of the gutter."

Chapter 2: Neutral Grounds

The school day was freshly underway, so there was no one outside to see the group of three Coven guards meet up just outside of the grounds. The colors of their robes and the beaked masks showed that they belonged to the Emperor's Coven. The Squad Leader turned to her two subordinates. "You know your roles in this mission, correct?" The other two nodded. "Then let us begin." The Squad Leader made a magic circle one foot in diameter and the three Coven members vanished from sight.

~*~

The Squad Member moved unseen through the halls, heading straight for the Abominations classroom. His target was one Amity Blight. Privately, he was rather surprised if he were honest, even if the orders were to take her alive. Bearing the name Blight should have made her off limits by default. That said, Amity Blight had been directly involved in many of the events that led to the Emperor's Coven being as weakened as it currently was, so either she was likely near-disowned as a result, or Emperor Belos had decided her removal was worth more than the trouble the Blights would cause. 

The Squad Member snuck into the room, the invisibility spell and his skills keeping him unseen and unheard. Blight herself was there, in the front of the class, nose buried in her notebook as her pencil never stopped. The Abomination Teacher was lecturing in the front of the room, dangling in the arms of his personal Abomination, just as the Squad Member remembered from his days here. The Squad Member situated himself in a back corner of the room, planning on a snatch-and-grab as class ended.

When the bell shrieked, the Squad Member was surprised when the teacher pointed to the Blight girl. "A moment of your time, if you please, Miss Blight."

"Of course," she agreed. Once the last classmate exited the room, the Blight kid folded her arms with an almost put-upon expression. "With all respect, I was already prepared to take care of him."

...Wait, what?

The teacher chuckled at that. "And I have no doubts as to your ability to do so," Here the teacher looked the Squad Member right in the eye. "But as long as you are on these grounds, you shouldn't need to." The teacher drew a quick magic circle, and the Squad Member heard a very unnerving sound from behind him. He turned and the last thing he saw was an Abomination coming out of the wall, grasping at him, its maw a wide open black void.

~*~

Luz groaned as the potion she tried to mix turned orange and bubbled out of the flask when it was supposed to turn purple and stop boiling. She rubbed at her temple. She did want to learn potions, really. Both as part of her Study Everything plan, as well as to help out Eda and Lilith with their business. The problem was potion making was way too much like chemistry class back home, which she just wasn't any good at.

"Having trouble, Miss Noceda?" the teacher suddenly asked from behind, causing Luz to almost hop out of her chair with a sound somewhat like "abababada."

She looked up at the teacher looming over her, grinning guiltily. "Oh, sorry. I'm trying, really. This stuff's just... hard."

"Hmm," the teacher said, a finger scratching her chin. "Maybe a demonstration will help inspire you?" Before Luz could even say anything, the teacher made the mess that was Luz's attempted potion disappear and placed a purple bottle on Luz's desk and popped the cork. Smoke began rising from the bottle as one would expect... for a moment. Then the smoke launched itself toward one of the ceiling corners as if it were a viper. The smoke wrapped itself around the Coven member who thought he was hiding up there and dragged him down to the teacher, who casually opened up one of the classroom windows. "Well, off to the Principal with you."

"Are you kidding me?" the Coven member cried before the smoke actually started dragging him outside. "You're not kidding. No. Noooooooo!" And away he went. This being a class attended by Luz Noceda, none of the other students even spared a look at the sudden drama.

Luz smiled brightly. "Okay. That was pretty cool."

~*~

The Squad Leader was a bit nervous. She hadn't heard back from the other two yet. Which, given that lunch was about to start in two minutes, probably meant that they had failed. Great. That meant she was going to have to make the risky move to snatch-and-grab both kids in the middle of the lunch rush. Honestly, if the Emperor hadn't given her such a strict time limit, she'd abandon the plan for now, maybe give it a try as school was ending, but here she was. On the one hand, there were a lot of possible witnesses, on the other, at least there would be a big enough crowd that confusion would be easy enough to generate. 

The bell shrieked, and before long the cafeteria began flooding with students. It didn't take long for the targets to walk into view, both at the same time, hands linked. Good, they were effectively one target. She now just needed to...

CLANG!

The Squad Leader fell bonelessly to the ground, as the cafeteria cook behind her took a wistful look at his now-dented-and-ruined frying pan, then just grabbed her by a leg and dragged her out.

~*~

A smell not unlike a very strong cigar was what woke to Squad Leader up. She groggily opened her eyes, then immediately regretted it. Her head felt like it was splitting open. Actually, it might well have been doing just that, this was the Boiling Isles, after all. She'd have to get that looked at. She was bound to a chair. That was the first thing she noticed. She turned to her left, and found one of her squad members tied to a chair, smoke rising from his robes. Ah, that was the smell then. To her right was the other squaddie, covered head to foot in grey goo. Finally she took in her actual surroundings.

She woke immediately, fear taking her heart in a way it hadn't since she was a teen.

She was in Principal Bump's office.

She was in Principal Bump's office!

"Ah, you're awake. Good." The man himself was just entering the office, what little of his face could be seen twisted into a smile that still radiated disappointment. "I was hoping Belos wouldn't have stooped to this. I guess I underestimated him."

Despite the three of them keeping their mouths shut to prevent the old man from possibly discerning their identities, they still somehow conveyed their shock at what Bump and just said -- both what he said about the Emperor and his blatant refusal to use his proper title. His smile now was conveying wordlessly that, yes, he said what he meant and that they were welcome to call him out on it. None of them did.

"Now, I don't blame the three of you for today," Bump continued. "You're just following orders. That is something I do understand. So. Just this once, I'm not going to punish you three directly. However, that courtesy will only be extended just. This. Once. The staff have been informed they will no longer be required, or even encouraged, to be gentile with any further trespassers. Is that understood?"

The three Coven members nodded.

"Excellent. Now, remind Belos for me. The school is neutral ground. I gave my personal word that the Clawthornes and their family have safe passage on these grounds. If anyone were to make a liar out of me, I would be most displeased. Understood?"

They nodded again. "Good!" He said, good humor returning to his voice. "Off you go." A quick spell circle later and his office was empty of company. Or so it seemed. Bump sighed as he looked at a shadow in the corner of his room. "Looks like you were right. He's gotten more aggressive."

From the shadow stepped former Coven Head Lilith Clawthorne. "You really should not be surprised. With all the damage we've done to the Coven over the last few months, especially our recovery of the portal to the Human Realm, well, he would not, can not, take that lying down." She absently ran a hand through the grey streak in her hair. "It's likely a matter of principle now."

"We're going to have to raise our security. Next time he'll actually send some elites."

"I agree," Lilith said. "If you have any further need for my expertise, do not hesitate to contact me. I refuse to let anything happen to our girls."

Bump couldn't help but smile at that. There was a fire to that statement that he would not have expected from Lilith even four months ago. Further conversation was interrupted by the sound of a scroll ringing. Though it couldn't be seen under his hood, Bump rose an amused eyebrow as Lilith rolled her eyes and answered her scroll. "Yes, Edalyn?"

"Hey, Lily!" Eda's slightly rough voice sounded from the scroll. "Just calling to check in on ya!"

Lilith almost chuckled. If it were anything except for Luz, her little sister would have been more than happy to wait for Lilith to return before badgering her. "He did send a squad. It was dealt with by the staff, relatively quietly. No harm to Luz, Amity, or anyone else."

"Oh. Okay. Good." Eda was trying to be casual, but both Lilith and Bump could hear the relief in her voice. "We're still going on a revenge run for this, though, right?"

A smile graced Lilith's face. It wasn't much, objectively speaking. Just a very small upturn of lips. But that look promised such pain to so many people that Bump couldn't help but feel a bit excited. "Oh, Edalyn. That goes without saying." 

Eda whooped at that. "All right then. Get your butt back to the house. We got some glyphs to make." And the call ended. 

Lilith turned back to the Principal as she withdrew a sticker with a glyph on from somewhere in her robes. "Will that be all?" she asked. He answered in the affirmative, and she nodded. Lilith stuck the sticker to left hand, then activated it with her right, and she vanished from sight. "Then by your leave." And she was gone. 

Bump chuckled to himself. They finally refined that glyph to run on something other than holding their breath. The Clawthornes just kept surprising him. And it did always warm his heart seeing parents actually involved in the welfare of their children.

If that involvement happened to result in some chaos and pain, then so be it.

Chapter 3: Calling Home.

Camila Noceda dropped down on her couch with a sigh. As a veterinarian, she generally kept to a reasonably steady schedule -- compared to, say, an E.R. nurse -- but that didn't mean that long days weren't long, and she didn't get a little tired. Especially with the empty apartment she had to return to now, what with Luz over in the Demon Realm and Vee off on another Summer Camp (A normal one this time, more fun in the woods, less balancing checkbooks). She was about to turn on the television to get some relaxation time before bed (she had no trouble admitting to enjoying her very stereotypical novelas. They were both hilarious and strangely compelling), when her phone went off, notifying her of an incoming video call. Her tiredness instantly melted and a smile graced her face when she saw the I.D. of the caller. "¡Hola, Hijita!" she said when the call connected. 

"¡Hola, Mamá!" Luz said as her image appeared on the screen. Camila smiled at what she saw. The phone -- or scroll, rather -- was far enough away to give a cozy, but full-body view of a smiling Luz and her girlfriend Amity, who's legs were draped over Luz's lap and her arm was draped around Luz's shoulders, presumably (though Camila did know better) to bunch up for a better visual. They were sitting at the worn, homey couch Luz always sat at during these calls, when they weren't being made from her room

"Hello, Ms. Noceda," Amity said, a small but warm smile on her face. 

"Amity, we've been through this," Camila chided. "It's Camila. Always Camila for you." 

"Sorry, Ms. No -- ahem -- Camila." a small blush graced Amity's face as a smirking Luz ruffled the other girl's hair. "Old habits die hard, I guess." 

"So what's the occasion?" Camila asked with a smile, which then dropped. "I didn't lose track again, did I? It couldn't possibly be Saturday already?" 

"Nah, Mom," Luz laughed. "Still just Monday. It's just that Eda and Lilith are... out... and King just came down from a massive sugar high and passed out, so with no distractions around --"

"DID SOMEBODY SAY DISTRACTIONS?" a screechy voice suddenly interrupted as a vaguely owl-like face suddenly took up the whole screen. 

"Hello, Hooty," Camila said with a tired smirk, even as a small part of her started wondering when this became her life. 

"HI, CAMILA!" Hooty shrieked. "WANNA HEAR ABOUT THE RARE, POSSIBLY ONE-OF-A-KIND BUG I DISCOVERED TODAY?" 

"Did you eat it?" 

"I ATE IT!" 

"Hey, Bird Tube!" Amity's voice called, even as what once would have been a disconcerting FWOOSH noise could be heard and the lighting of the image became red tinged. "What did I say last time?" 

"OKAY, OKAY, I'LL GO, I'LL GO, GEEZE..." Another FWOOSH as the red lighting got brighter for a moment. "YEOWTCH! I SAID I WAS GOING..." and then he was gone, leaving the happy couple alone to talk. 

"...ahem," Luz continued, as if the interruption didn't happen. "With there being relatively few distractions, we thought we'd just call and say 'hi.'" 

Camila's smile widened at that, even though she had to ask. "So, what happened?" 

Luz's smile wavered considerably. Honestly, she really needed to work on her Poker face, given what Camila knew what she was getting into over there. "Happened? Nothing happened. Why would you think something happened?" 

"Oye, no me mientas," Camila scolded. "You said that both Eda and Lilith were out, and I know what that usually means even if I hadn't seen the look on your face when you said it. So, come on. Out with it. What happened?" 

Luz slumped, even as she tried to be casual. "Not much, really. The Emperor just sent a couple of ninja assassins to the school is all." 

Amity rolled her eyes. "They weren't ninjas, Luz. I don't even know what a ninja is. They probably weren't assassins, either. I'd put my snails on kidnappers." 

Luz rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Tomato, topato. They didn't really even get a chance at us, anyway. The teachers -- oh, and one of the cafeteria guys, can't forget him -- took 'em down before we could get a shot at 'em."

"I still say we could've taken 'em," Amity said, a small pout on her lips.

Not for the first time Camila felt a sudden urge to insist Luz return home right now, given that not only was somebody sending kidnapers / assassins after her daughter, but it was common enough for her to be so casual about it. That urge was quashed pretty quickly by the sight of Luz smiling and ruffling her girlfriend's hair again as she told her it was okay to let others take care of them sometimes. Whatever dangers the Boiling Isles presented, there was no denying Luz was living her best life over there. And besides, there was a reason Luz was so casual about it. She could take care of herself in such matters, as she'd proven many times over the last year. Not only that, but as this story proved, she was not alone, and had plenty of people to keep her safe.

"So, yeah," Luz said, a lopsided smile on her face. "You know Eda. Doesn't matter nothing actually happened. The fact they even tried something put her in a full on tizzy. Soon as Lilith came back from whatever she did today, Eda dragged her into an afternoon of glyph making and then stormed out with her to teach the Coven a lesson or two. They used up all the good paper, too." Luz pouted a bit at this, more concerned with her supplies than the mayhem that was undoubtedly happening somewhere right this very moment. 

Amity giggled into the back of her hand. "Oh, don't let Lilith fool you. She was just as eager, she just hides it better." She rolled her eyes and sighed. "She's gonna egg Eda on just as much as Eda does her, until..."

"Boom!" Luz finished, grinning. Then the two suddenly stopped short, eyes wide, having heard something that the scroll did not pick up. They looked over their left shoulders for a moment before turning back to the call. "Literally," Luz added, her grin turned nervous.

Camila admittedly felt happier than she probably should that there were people willing to take retribution in her daughter's name.

"So, apart from the whole ninja thing," ("Ninjas" Amity grumbled with a smirk) "How was your first day of school?" she asked.

Luz lit up and began ranting about all the cool magic theory she learned and the three or so new glyphs she had planned because of it, while Amity settled herself in for the long haul, her head resting on Luz's shoulder. In truth, Camila didn't get a word of it, but she still smiled a little sadly as she watched the sheer enthusiasm on her daughter's face. The irony was not lost on her how sending her to that camp ended up being the best thing for her, due to the fact she actually sent her to the exact opposite place.

Once Luz hit the end of her monologue, Camila said, "And now you're waiting for Eda and Lilith to get back for the night." Her face turned a little wry. "So what are the two of you up to now?"

Luz's ears turned a bit pink. "Oh, you know. Studying. With the books, and the learning, and the... yeah."

Amity's expression also turned wry even as her ears also pinked. "Yeah. Studying books. And... other things."

Luz turned completely red at this. "Ami! Not in front of my mom!" Amity cackled as Luz buried her face behind her girlfriend's shoulder.

Camilla raised an eyebrow at that. "Niña, hemos tenido esta charla antes, ¿verdad?"

"Si, mamá."

"Puedo confiar en que no dejará que estas "otras cosas" se salgan de control, ¿verdad?"

"Si, mamá."

Camila nodded, satisfied at that, though there was the problem of Amity looking far too pleased with herself. Camila grinned. "So, Amity, 'other things?' What 'other things?'"

Camila had never seen such a pale face go so deeply red quite that fast.

Chapter 4: Sisters of the Bad Girl Coven

"Lily, you are such an insufferable showoff!"

The smile on Lilith's face could only be described as smug. "You don't like it?"

Eda couldn't help but grin. "Now, I didn't say that." Leave it to Lilith to not only freeze an opponent, but to freeze him into the base of a twenty foot tall ice sculpture of a Grudgby trophy, topped with highly detailed figures of both Lilith and Eda in their old Grudgby uniforms fist-bumping each other. "It certainly does send a message."

"Yes, well, that is sort of the point of tonight, isn't it?"

"True," Eda said with a shrug as she tossed a handful of glyph papers into the air. A tap of Owlbert's staff to the floor caused the papers to explode into a blast of lightning bolts, which lashed out and dropped the platoon of Coven guards that were rushing the sisters, causing them to spasm for about a minute. Since the sisters never really cared about leading any sort of resistance against the Emperor and just wanted to live their lives in peace, they'd more-or-less left the Coven to its own devices once they finally got Eda's portal back from the Emperor himself, resulting in something of an unofficial truce. Sure, they were still technically wanted criminals so meeting out in the open still equaled arrest attempts and such, but that was just the way of things. They were okay with that.

But then Belos went after the girls directly.

So Eda and Lilith opted to raid the Conformatorium.

Yeah. They had a message to send.

Lilith drew a stack of glyphs that could pass for a deck of cards. "So, Edalyn, let's make this interesting." She spread the cards in a rough circle around her, then tapped the ground with her raven staff. Each glyph transformed into a miniature Abomination, each about a foot tall. "The one who frees the most prisoners wins."

Eda laughed as she hopped onto Owlbert and drew a hand of glyphs, fanned out like a Hexas Hold-Em hand. "You're on, Lils!" To the figure frozen in the ice she waved. "See ya Warden!" And she was off, zipping around the "ring" of each second floor, slapping glyphs on each cell lock, which promptly exploded. The Abominations took the floors Eda didn't, jamming their arms into the locks, reforming them into proper keys and unlocking the doors manually. Lilith stayed on the ground floor, using her staff to scratch marks into the stone, between using various elemental spells to take out any guards that rushed in to apprehend the intruders.

Eda's grin was wide and mischievous, bordering on Evil. The kids would not approve that she and Lily were attacking such a big target (which is why they were told the target was a much smaller Coven facility on the East side of town, with Lilith and her amazing Hexas Hold-Em face to tell them this). Both kids' voices whirred in her head. The Conformatorium!? Are you crazy? Lilith you're the responsible one, you're okay with this? What do you mean it was your idea? A likely disparaging something said in that language Luz knew. And so on. But Eda and Lilith had something to say.

The Clawthorne sisters were here.

The Clawthorne sisters were strong.

The Clawthorne sisters' kids were off limits.

As Eda cleared another ring of prisoners, she could hear Luz's voice reminding her that they weren't even close to getting hurt in school today. She told Head Luz to shut it. She could hear Amity complain that their retribution was far in excess to the actual crime. She told Head Amity to go away, it was already annoying enough dealing with Head Luz.

Suddenly Lilith was at her side, riding her staff side-saddle. "Well, well," Eda said with a smirk. "Finally decided to join us, Lily?"

"Indeed," Lilith said, tossing a handful of glyphs in the air. A tap to the head of her raven staff resulted in a spray of icicles, each of which unerringly hit and shattered a lock, freeing an entire floor all at once. 

"Hey!" Eda complained, laughing. "That's cheating!"

"I don't remember ever setting rules for the contest, Edalyn." Oh, the smug was an almost palpable thing in her smile.

"Don't forget, I can play that way, too," Eda said as she tossed out a handful of her own glyphs, which, upon a tap to Owlbert's head, turned into spheres of golden light. The modified spells streaked out in a spread that disintegrated another two floor's worth of locks.

You used up all the good paper. Why? How? And more to the point, why? Seriously, shut up, Head Luz.

A few minutes more, and all the cells were open, a stampede of prisoners charging through the facility, mowing over any guards they come across. Eda felt no guilt or remorse. It wasn't like these were actual threats to the public. Most of 'em were here for things like writing weird fanfiction or eating disgusting things. Or just talking to the weirdos. "I think I win, by a full floor."

Lilith nodded. "I concur and concede. Though in fairness, I was a bit delayed." With a smile she pointed down at the bottom floor. Eda followed her gaze. When she saw what Lilith had done, she cackled. The smug grin on Lilith's face was almost cute now. "Still think I'm an insufferable showoff?"

"Yes," Eda said bluntly. "I never said it was a bad thing."

~*~

It took quite a while to actually activate that final glyph. Eda and Lilith had to fly through the whole facility several times to make sure there was no one left in the place, and they levitated out the ice sculpture the Warden was trapped in, landing several blocks away with it. The sisters each put on a pair of sunglasses (Luz had insisted sunglasses were required for moments like this. Who were they to argue?), then simultaneously tapped the ground with their staffs. The Conformatorium went up in a column of fire. 

A fist bump may have been shared.

~*~

It was far too late when the sisters returned to the Owl House. Late enough that even Hooty just grumbled out a sleepy salutations when Lilith fondly pat his head. When they walked into the foyer, they stopped short. Then chuckled. Scattered throughout the room were a number of books -- mostly textbooks, but the one that was actually on the coffee table and open was Azura book seven. Sitting in the dead center of the couch, snuggled together, were Luz and Amity. Luz was somehow sitting almost straight up, but her head was lolled back and her mouth wide open. Amity was using Luz's shoulder as a headrest, a few strands of her own hair stuck to her face, thanks to the small dribble of drool. Between them, they had a firm grip on each others' hand, fingers intertwined. 

The sisters shared a look, then Lilith just grabbed a blanket that was draped over one of the other chairs and went to cover them up as best as she could. The only reaction either of the kids gave was a small twitch from Luz and a mumbled "¿Cuántas tazas de azúcar se necesitan para llegar a la luna?" before she started snoring again. Lilith and Eda shared a fond eye roll before sneaking back upstairs, careful to step over that one step that creaked extra loud.

Chapter 5: Firsts

Nine months ago:

They had yet to kiss, and it was kind of driving Amity crazy. Naturally, it was Luz that broke that stalemate, because of course it was. It happened largely by accident, because of course it did.

It was a meeting of the Top Secret Azura Book Club, in Amity's secret room at the library (Fortunately, despite teasing promises, Ed and Em did not, in fact tell anyone about either), though by this point they'd talked all the Azura that could possibly be talked until the next book came out, and both girls had finally gotten comfortable being together together without nearly passing out and becoming gibbering messes around each other. They were finally able to just do best friend stuff again, and Amity wasn't even thinking anything particularly romantic for once. Today, she was helping Luz out with her latest glyph, which amounted to her making a magic circle and letting Luz take a picture of it with her phone. "Now, don't be too surprised if you don't get it right away," Amity said, probably for the hundredth time. "Abominations are different then most magic, and your glyphs are a unique magic all by themselves. We don't know if they're compatible."

Luz shot Amity a smile. That smile. The smile that still caused Amity to melt into a puddle of goo if she wasn't careful. She managed to not embarrass herself by keeping her mouth firmly shut, but she could feel the heat spread through her face. "True," Luz said. "But we don't know that they're not compatible, either."  Amity would have admitted that was fair enough, if she could trust herself to open her mouth at all just then. Luz then got to work on the new glyph, looking back and forth between her phone and the drawing, an adorable look of concentration on her face that caused Amity to stare shamelessly, a finger unconsciously tangling itself in a purple lock of hair. 

After a couple of minutes, Luz seemed to be satisfied with her work. "Well, here goes nothing." She tapped the paper with her finger. To Amity's surprise the paper instantly curled up into itself, then with a splorch became an Abomination. A tiny Abomination, about six inches tall, but an Abomination nonetheless. Luz leapt to her feet, and started shouting out various nonsensical sounds -- and by this point Amity could tell when she was doing that versus saying things in that second language Luz knew. Amity's attention, for once, was not on Luz, though, but the Abomination.

She placed her hand, palm up, on the table in front of the Abomination, and it almost tentatively stepped onto it. "Wow," Amity said, inspecting it. "This... this doesn't.... I mean, it isn't... Luz, this is...." Amity found herself making a heady giggle. Amity then noticed the sudden uncharacteristic silence from her girlfriend (Girlfriend! Eeee!), and she looked up, seeing Luz staring at her with a weird, blank sort of look. "What?"

"I could so totally kiss you right now," Luz said without changing expression, then she gasped, obviously not having meant to actually say that.

Amity dropped the Abomination. "What?"

"What?" Luz parroted, her face suddenly red and her eyes darting back and forth in clear panic. A panic Amity was certainly familiar with. But then, Luz being Luz, her face screwed up into a look of determination. "No. You know what? I said it. I meant it!" Next thing Amity knew Luz was kneeling in front of her with a big, excited smile on her still red face. "Can I kiss you, Amity?"

"What?"

"And I don't mean, like, a cheek kiss, either. I mean a kiss kiss."

......

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

WhatWhatWhatWhatDidIJust....?

Abort! Abort!

cnwoigl;yas.j,mviuluwgbilvk 

It was seeing Luz's smile start to waver that caused Amity's thoughts to become coherent again, and she realized she was staring slack jawed for perhaps a bit too long. "Yes!" she barely squeaked out, before coughing and repeating herself more clearly. "Yes." Luz's smile returned, twice as bright, as she leaned in.

Their first kiss was... yeah, okay, honestly it was weird and awkward and neither of them had a clue what they were doing.

It was nice, though. Like, really nice. Amity could feel that last lingering bit of tension just release as she sighed through her nose. When they separated, Luz had a giddy smile on her face, that faded almost instantly. "Amity? Ami?" (Ami? Where did that come from? Luz never called her Ami before. It had a nice ring to it, though.) "Are you okay? You're crying."

"What?" Amity asked, her hand brushing her own cheek to find that, yes, there were tears streaming down her face. She couldn't help but smile, though. "I'm fine, Luz. I'm just really, really happy." Ah, there was the adorable smile again, and Amity came to a decision. Luz had already made the first move, the least Amity could do was gather up her courage and properly reciprocate. She took a deep breath and said, "On go date to want?" Ha, ha. Very funny, brain. "I mean, do you want to go on a date? A real date? With me?"

Luz's smile shifted. It was... softer was the only word that came to mind. She cupped Amity's face in her hands and brought her forehead to meet hers. "Oh, Ami. Of course I do."

Their second kiss was only slightly less awkward than the first. It still felt nice though.

~*~

"WAKE UP KIDDIES! SQWAAAAAAAAAAAWK!"

"Gwuah!" Amity cried as she fell out of the couch, tangled up in the blanket. "HOOOOOOOOTYYYYY!"

"HEY, IT'S SEVEN O'CLOCK ON A SCHOOL DAY. YOU KNOW THE RULES."

Amity blinked, her ire temporarily calmed. "Oh. Right." Though she'd die before saying it aloud, she was kind of glad for Hooty's wake up call. That dream had a tendency to go sour right at the last minute, the kiss morphing into another, more desperate one, framed by the light of an open portal. Amity shook her head, clearing that thought away as Hooty continued to try to wake Luz up.

"LUZ. LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUZ. LUZLUZLUZLUZLUZLUZLUZLUZ." Luz barely moved. Amity was actually almost kind of impressed.

Finally she responded, clearly still about 98% asleep. "Estoy dormido. Váyase." 

"C'MON LUZ. TIME TO GET erk!" Luz's hand shot out and apparently managed to close around what passed for Hooty's throat. "Estoy dormido. Váyase," she repeated.

Amity chuckled. Like the rest of her life, Luz's morning routine could be a little unpredictable. Though there was a slight pattern. If Luz was the one to get up on her own -- which did happen more often then not considering she was generally a doofy ball of sunshine made flesh -- she was a very happy little morning person. If waking up were someone else's idea, though...

King padded down the stairs, yawning a cute little squeak of a yawn. He stopped on the bottom step, looking up at the scene before him. "Yeah, I'm not getting up into that." And he vanished into the kitchen. 

Amity chuckled and plopped onto the couch next to her sleeping girlfriend. "Luz, ¿Amor?" she said, poking Luz in the cheek. "It really is time to get up. Come on. Up and at 'em." Here she pinched her cheek. Which caused Luz to jerk awake. When she saw Amity's face kind of hovering above her she smiled. 

"Mornin', Ami," she said, still a little groggy. 

Amity chuckled. "Good morning, Amor. Are you awake now?" At Luz's humorously thoughtful nod, Amity pointed at Hooty. "Then if you don't mind...?"

When Luz saw the death grip she had on Hooty, she immediately let go with a squeal. "Omigosh, Hooty! I'm so sorry!" 

"THAT WAS REALLY MEAN, LUZ." 

"I was asleep, Hooty! I didn't do it on purpose, I'm really, really sorry!" And out came the puppy dog eyes. 

"AW, I CAN'T STAY MAD AT YOU." And Hooty gave Luz an affectionate, if maybe a little harder than necessary, nip on the ear before withdrawing back to the front door. 

Luz chuckled for a moment, rubbing her ear, before her situation came to her. "Ah! I'm late!" And she was instantly gone up the stairs. Amity chuckled as she picked up her scroll off the table to check for messages. There wasn't much she could do until Luz had finished with the bathroom anyway. Huh. Ed sent her one about three hours ago. She clicked the message.
 
Ed: So, Mittens, what can you tell me about this? [link] 

Knowing she'd regret it, Amity checked the link. 

Conformatorium Destroyed by Clawthorne Sisters 

....

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Chapter 6: Eggs and Bakey

I could really use a shower, Amity thought to herself as she finished brushing her teeth. Waking up on the Owl House sofa in yesterday's clothes -- again -- and waking up too late to properly get ready when so many people shared one bathroom -- again -- was not going to leave her feeling minty fresh as Luz had sometimes put it. At least there was a clean school uniform waiting for her in Luz's room -- and wasn't that a scandalous thought, though Amity didn't care about that; she cared that it meant the Owl House family cared. Luz's muffled shouting had stopped, only having lasted a minute or two. Unsurprising, really, since the fight boiled down to Don't put yourself in danger like that. I care about you too much and Of course I'll do it again if they try something, I care about you too much.

So, she was certainly unsurprised when she came down to the kitchen to find Luz sitting at the table, drawing up a number of experimental fuzed-spell glyphs as she ate, Eda resting her chin on Luz's head, with her arms loosely draped around Luz's shoulders. The basic "fight's over" position for those two. King was sitting on Luz's lap, and when he saw Amity come down the stairs, he quickly wrapped his little forearms around Luz's middle and made a sound that she supposed was supposed to be a hiss. "Go away! My Luz time!"

Amity chuckled as she grabbed a bagel from the pantry and some apple blood from the fridge, and excused herself out the front door. It wasn't like she couldn't relate. The sight that greeted her outside, frankly, still astounded her, even after the last almost-a-year. Sitting on a stump not far away, in her apparent favorite "low battery" shirt, was Lilith, having what seemed to be an amiable conversation with Hooty as she practiced her own glyph drawing between sips of tea. How that friendship grew so strong was a mystery.

Not that Amity was one to talk.

Amity walked up to the stump, and wordlessly gave Lilith a Look, as she bit into her bagel. Lilith didn't scoff, but it was a close thing. "I do not offer any apologies for last night."

"I don't need any," Amity responded, heat in her voice. "But you should offer one to Luz. Do you know how badly she'd take it if anything..." Amity sighed, finding it hard to finish that sentence.

"Edalyn can take care of herself," Lilith responded with a huff. "With her current mastery of Glyph Magic, she's at least as powerful as she was before -- almost moreso in some respects due to the sheer versatility of the magic and the lack of strain it puts on the caster. And if something were to overpower us, I'd make absolutely certain she'd come home, whatever it took."

The Look Amity was shooting Lilith now was less I'm mad at you and more Are you really this dense? "Wow, after all this time personally getting to know you? It still kinda boggles my mind how much of a dummy you are at some things." 

"HEY!" Hooty responded in an affronted tone. "LULU IS THE SMARTEST WITCH I KNOW!"

Amity gestured to the house demon as if that just proved her point, and Lilith had the gall to giggle at it. Amity hadn't reached the almost passed out there level of temper yet, but she could tell it would be a close thing. She took a deep calming breath before saying, "You do know she'd be devastated if anything happened to either of you, right? Yourself included?"

This time Lilith did scoff. "Why would she care what happens to me?"

Now the disbelieving look was shared by Hooty of all creatures. "LULU, I'M AFRAID I'M GONNA HAVE TO RESCIND MY PREVIOUS STATEMENT ON YOUR SMARTNESS."

"What?" Lilith said, defensively.

Amity pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, look. I'm not gonna lie and say that of the two of you Eda isn't Luz's favorite. That goes without saying. But that doesn't mean she doesn't care about you in the same way I know you care about her." She looked up at a now stunned and slightly blushing Lilith, who at least knew better than to deny that last statement. "Now, it's not like she's verbalized it this way or anything, but she's totally slipped and verbalized it this way: if Eda's Mom 2, you're something like... Aunt Lilith. And if you ever say I told you that, I will squish you with the biggest, goopiest, smelliest Abomination I can possibly summon."

Lilith looked doubtfully at her still-sometimes apprentice. "You'll have to forgive me for finding that hard to believe. I mean, I know we live in the same household, and Luz has been very patient and cooperative when it comes to teaching me Glyph Magic and everything else, but... I mean, all that could only be for Edalyn's sake, couldn't it? After the way we started..."

At that Amity could only laugh. "That's the thing about Luz, Lilith. She isn't like most of the other witches here, myself included." She shot Lilith another Look, one that clarified how lucky Lilith was that Amity's leg was broken when she nearly got Luz and Eda killed last year. "She forgives things abnormally readily. It's not like we started on the best of terms, either. The only person in the world I know for a fact she despises is Emperor Belos, and even that's more because of what he's done to you two rather than to her. I mean, I think she'll even find a way to get along with the Golden Guard after she lights him on fire once." Amity ran a hand through her hair as she chuckled at that thought, then startled when she heard the front door open. "Just... apologize to her, okay?" And with that she turned her attention to the still-annoyingly-tall human leaving the house.

"Hey, Ami!" Luz said, twirling Owlbert's staff once she cleared the door. "Sorry I took so long. King got really clingy. That was it. Nothing sappy or sentimental between me and Eda at all." She smirked and waggled her eyebrows, eliciting a chuckle from Lilith. Luz got the staff in flying position. "Well, hop on!" And Amity did so, forgoing side-saddle to get as much grip on Luz as possible. 

Before they took off, Lilith called out, "Uh, Luz, before you go..." She sighed. This was obviously not something that came natural to her. "I cannot promise that nothing like last night will ever happen again, but I do apologize if I worried you."

The look on Luz's face was, in Lilith's opinion, dazzling. No wonder she was just as eager as her sister to smite anyone who could possibly try to hurt her. "Aw, thanks Lilith. I know better than to say 'don't do it again,' but... don't do it again." And with that she was off, spiraling through the air an a rapid series of what she called 'barrel rolls,' Amity's voice shrieking Luz's name as they disappeared over the horizon.

Lilith chuckled as she turned her attention back to her friend. "I don't think I'll ever understand why Amity keeps letting Luz fly. She knows what will happen when she does."

"OH, I DON'T THINK IT'S THAT HARD TO UNDERSTAND," Hooty responded. "I MEAN, IT'S JUST BASIC MATH. LIKE 2 PLUS 2 EQUALS STAG BEETLE."

"Oh?" Lilith said with a smirk. "Enlighten me, Hootsifer."

"WELL, IT'S THE SAME REASON SHE CAME OUT TO CHEW YOU OUT ISN'T IT? AMITY IS HAPPY WHEN LUZ IS HAPPY. MESSING WITH AMITY IS SOMETHING THAT MAKES LUZ HAPPY. SO 2 PLUS 2 EQUALS AMITY LETTING LUZ MESS WITH HER, SO BOTH ARE HAPPY."

Lilith rose an eyebrow in appreciation. "You know, Hooty. Sometimes, every once in a while, you are actually really quite smart."

"THANKS, LULU! YOU'RE LIKE THE ONLY ONE WHO SAYS THAT ABOUT ME AND I DON'T KNOW WH--IS THAT A BUMBLEFLY?"

Chapter 7: Ominous

"Luz! If you wanted me to hold on tighter, you only had to say so!"

Luz laughed as she evened out her flight path. "Oh, come on, Ami, where's the fun in that?" Amity just grumbled something under her breath, but she did snuggle into Luz's back, so Luz considered that a win. They spent the next minute or two in comfortable silence, Luz gazing out over the utterly unique view of the Boiling Isles before Luz spoke up again. "Amity? Thank you."

"Hm?" Amity had not nearly dozed off on a staff flight and there was no proof otherwise.

"You know, for talking to Lilith?" Luz was weirdly awkward. "Me and Eda have been trying to convince her for forever that I don't, in fact, hate her -- anymore -- and... I think you might've actually cracked the rough and tough outer shell, just a little. So... thanks."

A single huff of laughter escaped Amity's lips. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Luz chuckled herself. "Oh, por supuesto que no. The great and powerful Amity Blight wouldn't be caught dead doing something nice for her own girlfriend."

Amity giggled even as she tightened her grip around Luz's waist. "Nope," she agreed. "Never ever."

Luz was quiet again for another minute before a thought came to her. "You didn't tell her about that time I accidentally called her 'Aunt Lilith' did you?"

"Now what kind of girlfriend would I be if I did that?" Amity's voice was far too innocent sounding.

"Oh, I dunno," Luz responded. "The kind that takes great pleasure tormenting me in front of my moms and other parental figures?"

"It's not my fault they're literally the only people you actually get embarrassed for. I have to get in my licks where I can."

"Hmm..." Luz seemed thoughtful for a moment, before she did another surprise barrel roll, causing Amity to shriek in surprise. "Hang on tight," Luz said with a grin.

"What do I even see in you?" Amity said once her voice stopped shaking enough to be understood.

"Oh, just a little thing called the Luz Noceda charm." There absolutely would have been finger guns if both Luz's hands were not busy with driving at the moment. 

"Well, aren't you two cute?" a sudden unexpected voice said, which startled Luz into veering off course for a moment. "Rotting my teeth and clogging my arteries all at the same time." The pair glared at the newcomer, who was, and there was no other word for it, lounging on his odd one-winged artificial palisman staff. "Hey, String Bean. Hey, Shorty." Despite his near featureless golden mask, the snide smirk was easy to imagine.

"What are you doing here?" Luz asked, annoyed.

"What?" the Golden Guard said defensively. "I can't just pop in and say 'hi' to my favorite arch foes?"

"NO!" both Luz and Amity shouted.

"Okay, okay," he muttered, lowering his hood and running a hand through his slightly outgrown white hair. "Look, it's probably what you expect. The Emperor is not happy about last night's... performance... by the Owl Lady and Lilith. I mean, he is really mad. I think I actually saw his mask go red from the heat."

Luz harrumphed. "Well then, he shouldn't have sent ninjas to the school to kidnap and / or assassinate us."

The Guard laughed at that. "Oh, don't I know it. Except for the ninja thing. What even is that? I'm just glad I was stopping an out-of-town uprising when it all went down." And if he specifically found an out-of-town job the instant the rumors hit him on the Emperor's plan, that was no one's business but his own. "But now I've been assigned." He said the last word almost as a sigh, like he couldn't believe he had do deal with all this.

"So, what, you're going to attack us at school now?" Amity asked.

The Guard laughed even harder than before. "Are you kidding; and mess with Bump the Grump? No thanks."

"So..." Luz didn't like where this was going. "You're going to attack us on the way to school then?"

The Guard rolled his head in a way that made it clear that he was rolling his eyes and he wanted them to see. "If that was the plan, do you think I would've announced myself so brazenly? Naw, I would've launched an ambush, shot you down before you even knew what hit you. It would have been easy." The sudden, evil sounding reverberation in his voice made both Luz and Amity tense. "But!" he said, his voice back to normal again. "When I look at you two, I don't see a pair of subversive super-criminals. All I see is a couple of cute girls going to school and making googly eyes at each other. And yes, you absolutely do make googly eyes at each other. It'd be cute except that you do it in the middle of a life-or-death battle. Seriously, guys, time and place. And as long as that remains all I see when I see you two, you'll get no trouble from me."

Luz rolled her eyes. "But all bets are off as soon as we step out of line, right?"

The Golden Guard clicked his tongue and shot a pair of finger guns at Luz. "You got it. And of course, Eda and Lilith are arrest-on-sight. I mean, they destroyed a major Coven outpost and left an ice sculpture of themselves behind (Luz had to chuckle here. "Showoff," she muttered). Oh," he turned his attention to Amity now. "And I'm not gonna be the only thing you have to worry about. The Emperor has decided to... ah, hire out."

"You're cryptically hinting that the Emperor is buying weapons from my parents, aren't you?" she grumbled deadpan.

"I am cryptically hinting that the Emperor is buying weapons from your parents," he said, with far too much cheer. "You get a gold star." He ignored the glare Amity was shooting him here. He started counting on his fingers. "Hmmm... ominous threats, vague inferences... I think that's everything I came for. Byeeeeeeeeee." And with a red flash, he was gone.

"What is his deal?" Amity asked rhetorically.

"I do not know," Luz replied, annoyed. "What a buzzkill."

Suddenly the Guard was back, standing on his staff and taking a mocking bow. "Thank you, thank you. I try."

"I will light your cloak on fire!" Luz practically shrieked.

Amity couldn't help but chuckle at that. Lilith probably assumed she was speaking metaphorically when she brought that up earlier. She was not.

"... Fair enough," the Guard said, almost meekly, before vanishing again.

Notes:

So, I've put myself in an odd position with this fic, by writing a time-skip story right as season 2 starts to air. I always get into these fandoms at such awkward times that way. I did know going into this thing that my story and the canon are just going to diverge eventually and I'm fine with that -- the desire to write Lumity beyond the blushy stammery stage and already into the comfortable-with-each-other stage, and to a lesser extent writing Eda and Lilith at a similarly comfortable stage, was just too enticing an idea for me to refuse once it entered my head.

Little did I know I'd already get contradicted within a week of starting this thing.

Specifically, as part of showing how far along the glyph making was, I had Lilith use an invisibility glyph and had Bump comment to himself on it being new as far a he knew, then suddenly canon Luz makes an invisibility glyph with an oddball weakness. I let it stew for a few days, debating on whether it was worth making a retcon or not -- in this case, since it was a matter of a single line that wouldn't have affected my plot or plans for the story in any way, I did go back and make the change. This will likely not be the last time I have to decide this, and I know it's a common fanfic writers dilemma all around, but it's the first time I've put myself quite so deliberately in this position -- I usually prefer to write between episode stuff or things starring background characters that have more malleability, so I'm stepping on the canon's toes a little less.

Oh, well. I knew what I was getting into when I started writing this thing.

Also, Luz wanting to set the Golden Guard on fire is now a thing. Like wanting to literally light him up. It wasn't a thing when I started the fic. It wasn't a thing when I decided to add the Guard to the fic. It wasn't even a thing when Amity mentioned it last chapter. But it's a thing now. Sometimes the characters just speak and I must listen. Can't say I feel too bad about it, though...

Chapter 8: Emperor of the Boiling Isles

Notes:

You know how I left a note last chapter about how I feel a little out of my comfort zone due to stepping on the canon's toes? Well... (Closes eyes and leaps into the abyss...)

Also, Keeping up A-Fear-ances did happen in my story, a lot can happen in a year. Heck, I expect Lilith to return before the season's up.

The first time Emperor Belos had met Luz Noceda face-to-face led to his first setback in a long time. (Defeat. It was a defeat) ... It was a defeat. No matter what he claimed to either himself or the Coven. It was an easy defeat to cover up, despite the fact that the whole of the Isles was watching, as it was the most aggravating sort of defeat; the sort where the contest itself was won soundly, yet somehow, somehow, all the objectives slipped through his fingers. (Even then, it's not like you escaped the combat uninjured, did you? How close were you losing an eye, hmm?) When all was said and done, Eda Clawthorne had escaped petrification, Lilith Clawthorne turned her back on the Coven and escaped with her sister, and most importantly, the portal had been destroyed, and the Emperor did not yet realize it could possibly be rebuilt. It was infuriating.

And yet...

The Emperor could not help but be impressed. 

This girl, this human girl, with naught but a handful of offensive spells that she couldn't even cast with her own power, challenged the Emperor of all the Boiling Isles to combat and came out the other end with a battle trophy, this despite the Emperor having soundly defeated the considerably more impressive Clawthorne sisters. This girl, a young girl with a world, a home, and a family waiting for her to return, had the determination to destroy the only known way home, just to keep the portal out of his hands, and had the foresight to not bring the key with her, just in case. This girl, with a known penchant for poor judgement and harebrained schemes, showed the charisma and wisdom necessary to force Lilith Clawthorne into admitting to mistakes she'd been hiding from for decades and bring her to her side. There was a very important takeaway to be had from all this.

Luz Noceda was dangerous.

(And doesn't that just stick in your craw, as she is a human child.)

Her power and skill certainly improved over time, but that was not where her danger truly lay, she never matched him in that department. (How, then, do you explain your current state?) No, it was her ability to break down barriers and connect unexpectedly with others that made her a threat. In a matter of days, she toppled the single-track system of Hexside Academy that the Emperor had gone through great lengths to enforce, and Principal Bump declared the school a neutral, safe place for all who attended. Eda Clawthorne, cursed Wild Witch, wanted by the Emperor's Coven and a near loner by pure necessity, took her in as an apprentice within a day, leading to a never ending source of setbacks, defeats, and headaches. Lilith Clawthorne, who had spent literal decades in conflict with her sister, turning a blind eye to her own contributions to the feud, was brought back into the family thanks to the girl, bringing her knowledge and education to the fledgling rebellion. Everywhere that girl went it seemed she gained allies that by all rights she should never have been able to even speak to civilly.

In particular, Amity Blight.

(Another teenager. Such majesty and power you must wield to gain such exemplary archenemies.)

The loyalty the Noceda girl received from Amity Blight was, frankly, preposterous. Amity Blight was, for some reason, so loyal to the Noceda girl that she deliberately and in front of all defied the will of her mother, the effective head of the storied Blight Clan. Amity Blight made it clear that a random human girl was more important to her than the family name and reputation. And that ended up being the last straw that led to his current state. (Again, teenagers.)

The Emperor could still picture it, easy as if it were yesterday. Eda and Noceda were double teaming him in combat, using a wide enough variety of glyphs with enough skill that Eda almost might as well have not lost her magic at all. A double attack by a vine and an Abomination knocked him a few steps back, and that was where it all went wrong. Belos instantly felt all his strength leave him, dropping him to his knees. Of course, he'd been knocked back into a large glyph symbol, one he did not recognize. Looking behind, he saw that it was the Blight girl who was tapping the glyph with one hand, the other maintaining a proper spell circle. Lilith was behind her, that infuriatingly smug smile on her face.

The human spoke. "My glyph magic, Lilith's research, Amity's magic power, and Eda's pure bullheaded stubbornness. You never stood a chance."

The Clawthorne witch smirked and ruffled her hair. "Flattery isn't gonna keep you from being grounded for this mess, kiddo."

Belos fell forward, still trying to process what was happening. "Once, after living with Eda -- and later, Lilth -- for a while, I thought that I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy," the human said, a blank look on her face that conveyed a deceptively strong suite of emotions. "Then you just had to threaten my family. Both of my families." Belos was certain that despite her words, he saw regret flicker across her face before it hardened. "You deserve this." That was where it clicked.

Cursed!

As the four of them turned to leave, Noceda pausing only to pick up the re-folded portal, Emperor Belos could only laugh.

(And here you now are, barely able to walk down the hall without getting winded, your magic either gone or sealed, and a voice in your head to keep you company. Your Coven is just barely keeping hold of the Isles, uprisings everywhere, and you're left relying on the Golden Guard to be your mouthpiece.)

The Emperor ignored the mocking voice in his head as he collapsed onto a chair. It was a different curse than the one cast upon Eda Clawthorne. A better researched one, with no potentially dangerous transmorphic side effects. They just stole his magic away was all. Again, infuriating.

The Noceda girl had vanished shortly after that, apparently going home, finally. Leaving the Emperor more-or-less at square one. With her gone, it was basically just him and the Clawthornes again. That he could deal with. He was nothing if not a patient man. It was only a matter of time before he regained his power, regained the portal, and could restart his plans.

Then Noceda returned.

(I'm beginning to get concerned over your obsession with a teenager.)

And now there was this week's situation. There was no way he could afford not to respond to the loss of the Conformatorium.

(And, really, what did you expect? It's not like you don't know how overprotective those two have become.)

Well, then. It was time to respond.

Chapter 9: The King of Her Heart

The King of Luz's Heart.

That's what she called him back then, on what probably was still the hardest day of his life, when he learned about the truth about himself. Well, the important part, anyway; that he was not, in fact the King of Demons he once thought he was. She allowed him to keep his name and his dignity with a definition that, if he was truly honest with himself, meant far more than what he previously thought it was. He was already putty in her hands -- not that he ever admitted it -- but that was enough to earn his undying loyalty for all time. Now, though, he wasn't entirely sure if that was still the case.

Now the Cupcake Crusher had taken up residence.

"Wow, you are just mopin' up a storm, aintcha?" 

King leapt into the air from where he was looking out the window, he arms and legs flapping around aimlessly before he landed basically on his own face. He turned to glare at Eda. "The great King of Luz's Heart does not mope!"

Eda smirked as she crouched down to get closer to his level. "Are you certain you're not jealous of a certain green haired witch girl?"

King sputtered. "W-w-w-why would you even think that?"

Eda chuckled. "You only go full on third-person complete 'King-of-Luz's-Heart' royal title mode when Luz's really on your mind."
 
King harrumphed and turned back to the window. "Yeah, well... non'yer business."

Eda's face softened a little before she grabbed King with one hand and went back to the couch. "YOU DARE MANHANDLE ME? PREPARE TO SUFFER MY WRA...eh?" King's rant interrupted itself when Eda placed him on her lap and began running her fingers through the fur on his back.

Eda's smile was more sincere than it normally was. "Hey, c'mon King. I'm not the best at this mushy stuff, but you are family. Always have been. You can talk to me."

King stubbornly stayed silent for a minute or so, but finally sighed. "It's not just the Cupcake Crusher," he admitted, even as Eda chuckled at his stubborn insistence on calling Amity such things. "I know Luz; just 'cuz she loves that girl doesn't mean she doesn't love me. She's got plenty of the stuff to go around. I know that, but..."

Eda was intrigued; King powered himself through the talk she was already prepared to have with him. "But...?"

King looked up at Eda, and deep, deep down she had to admit that the look on his face tugged at her heart in a way she hadn't had to deal with in a long time. "It's just... I mean... okay, look suddenly one day she just popped right on into our lives, right? And she just sort of... became one of us. Then one day, she left. Then she came back. And she says it's for good, she's a Boiling Isles kinda girl and all that, and I believe her. She doesn't lie. Not about stuff like this. But... ah!" King pawed at his face for a moment in frustration. "It's stupid. It's dumb. Not even worth talking about."

Eda's expression was pensive. "Try me."

King looked away, mumbling to himself. Then said, loud enough to be understood, "Whenever she goes out, to school, on a date, her once-a-month visits to the Human Realm to see her mom and stock up on human foods, well, I..." He trailed off, still unwilling to finish the thought.

Eda knew where he was going with that, and the smile came back, maybe just a little sadness to it. "You're scared she'll leave again." It wasn't a question.

King immediately turned to face Eda again. "I'm not scared! I'm not scared about anything!" He couldn't take holding her gaze very long and amended, "...Except that. Yeah. I'm scared of that."

Eda chuckled a little as she continued to pet King. "Well, I got a secret for ya." She leaned down, all secretive and conspiratorial, and she instantly had King's undivided attention. "Deep down? I'm scared of the same thing."

King's eyes widened. "Wha...?"

But Eda just laughed as she straightened back up again. "But I don't really think we have much to worry about there. You know what Cam said about when Luz went back?

"Wait, Cam?" King said, confused.

"Yeah. You know, Luz's mom? I talk with her a time or two a week -- something about the responsible adults coordinating on the kid's life or something."

"Cam?" King asked again, his eyes narrowing in that way that showed he was smiling.

Eda looked genuinely confused. "What? I give people nicknames. You know this. I don't see why it's a big..." She stopped, suddenly realizing who she was starting to sound like, then laughed. "Oh, I see where your little demon brain is going with that. Well I hate to burst your bubble but Cam doesn't even swing that way and I got Raine, remember?" She couldn't help but give King a noogie here. "You do know two people can just be friends, right?"

"It's not my fault!" King cried under the playful punishment. "Because A) Raine's been off with their little resistance movement so long, I forget they exist ("It's been, like, two and a half weeks," Eda muttered.) and B) you can only listen to Luz's shipping stories for so long before you start seeing it everywhere. Especially since her life basically is one and she still doesn't realize it, even after picking up a girlfriend."

Eda cackled at this and let King go, returning to the previous petting. "Yeah, okay, fair enough. Now where was I...?" It took a moment to reconnect her train of thought. "Oh right, what Cam actually said." Here Eda picked King up to look at him in the eye. "Did you know, when Luz went home, she could only ever talk about us?"

King's eyes widened. "Really?"

Eda chuckled. "Well you know, not just us. Willow, Gus, Amity, all of us. But it was apparently all she talked about. Like, she apparently couldn't shut up about us." Her demeanor dropped a little as she placed King back on her lap. "And then there was school." She sighed a little here.

That got King's attention. As far as he ever saw, school was one of the things Luz cherished. "What about school?"

Eda chuckled sadly as she apparently read King's mind. "It's different for her there than here. The subjects are all things she doesn't care for or can't wrap her head around. Even the stuff she'd like, like creative writing and stuff, just... well from what Luz and Cam said, the class didn't exactly live up to its name. And she's a strange, weird, and wild kid. Which is what we love about her, sure, but over there..." Eda sighed. "Let's just say that Luz absolutely meant it when she said she was a Boiling Isles girl. She can see it, I can see it. Even Cam can see it, even if this place scares her to death. So, even though things change, even when she does get homesick sometimes, even when she leaves for a quick visit... well, I know she's always gonna come back. She's home here."

King actually felt a bit conflicted. On the one hand, he was filled with relief that his fears were unfounded, that Luz was here to stay. On the other, there was a weird spike of anger he felt towards those people in the Human Realm who couldn't see how amazing his... his... his person was. He was going to allow her extra snuggle time without complaint tonight.

The moment was interrupted when the door swung open, and Hooty dragged in an angry and contrary Lilith. "Hootsifer, stop! I'm not a child! I can fight too!"

When Hooty dropped her, he said, "I KNOW YOU CAN, LULU. IT'S NOT ABOUT THAT. IT'S ABOUT ME DOING MY JOB AND KEEPING YOU ALL SAFE." Then he was gone and door slammed shut. This was followed by the very distinct sounds of Hooty's particular brand of violence when serious intruders were on the property.

"Lily, what's going on?" Eda asked as she grabbed a pair of binoculars to check the scene.

"Coven attack. Big one. I estimate three times more troops than I was ever allowed in my previous attempts."

Eda nodded at that. It seemed to track, though even with the heightened body count Hooty was still beating them off handily. Something still seemed off... as she swept her gaze over the impromptu battlefield, she caught a glimmer of reflected light off to the side. When she trained her sight on it, she cursed, even as the masked figure apparently realized he was being watched and shot a pair of finger guns her way. "They brought the brat."

Notes:

Why did I start writing this story now? Season 2 goes so faaaaaaaaaaaaaast...

Welp, "Through the Looking Glass Ruins" is the first episode I can't really write around without making bigger changes than I'd like, so looks like I found my divergence point.

(EDIT) Oooor not. My brain's been a-percolating without my input all weekend, so I've got some ideas after all. So far it's just a few minor line changes to "Firsts," but I have an actual chapter coming up that sprung directly from that episode (not the next one, due to pacing, but probably the next. Also, current Amity green hair vs. past Amity purple hair will be addressed.)

Chapter 10: Security

To those who didn't know him, and to many who thought they did, the Golden Guard was a cocky little brat who had the unfortunate distinction of having the power to back the boasting up. He made it a point to project this persona at all times. Like now, when he finger gunned at Eda when he noticed her looking at him through the front windows of the Owl House. Behind the mask, though, Hunter was... conflicted. Not enough to actually sabotage the job or anything. But he didn't take any joy in taking on the Owl Lady, or any of Luz Noceda's chosen family, even if he honestly still didn't quite get the concept himself. The ominous threats and vague inferences he left with Luz were the best he could do as far as giving an honest warning for her to stay out of things for once, please. He really hoped she listened.

Hunter chuckled at that. Yeah, right. And maybe pigs would stop flying.

The Golden Guard sighed as he ducked the flailing form of one of the Coven soldiers that got sent flying his way by the raging house demon. He looked over at the face at the end of the weird extended tube, and saw it give him a knowing look even as it continued fighting off his forces. He didn't even want to bring them, but Uncle insisted. So he let them take the first shot at getting past the house demon. If for no other reason than to see what he would be up against -- he'd never tried a direct confrontation with it before. Given how fast it was dispatching a triple-sized team, it was pretty powerful, but from what he could tell, it was mostly physical power. Something told him there was more to the strange demon than was on display.

After all, it wasn't like foot soldiers brought a lot to the table. 

The house demon would be finished with the riffraff soon enough, so Hunter took a moment to look up at the spot of red he could see hidden in a nearby tree. "You stay put," he said, a fond smile on his face, even if the mask hid it. "This won't be long." One way or the other.

The Guard turned his attention back to the house demon, just in time to see the last member of the opening act scramble away. "HOOT WANTS SOME?" the house demon screeched. 

...Did he just... make a pun?  Hunter managed to keep his laugh from being more than just a little snort even as he pointed his staff at its flailing tube-like body. I kinda love these guys.

Still, duty called. He let a small red sphere of magic build up in front of his staff, then released it as a huge blast of power which slammed into the side of the demon's tube-like body. It squawked in pain and fell to the ground for the briefest of moments, before immediately picking itself up from the ground and rearranged its face into large monstrous, demonic owl face and made a sound between a screech and a roar, before charging at him.

Oh.

Mistakes had been made. 

The house demon dove into the ground, and the Golden Guard willed his staff to fly straight up as quick as possible, himself dangling from it one-handed. The house demon erupted from the ground, his monster face huge and his mouth open in a great black maw, trying to swallow him. The Guard summoned another small ball of red light and casually dropped it into the open mouth, where it blew up, causing smoke to erupt from the demon's mouth as it dropped back to the ground. The Guard stopped his upward thrust as he spun his staff into the crook of his arm and clapped his hands together. This caused the dirt around the demon to form into no fewer than six large hands that clapped down on the demon's tube-like body, pinning him down. 

The Guard dropped to the ground not far from the house demon's now-normal face and spun his staff back into proper position, just for a little flare. He gave the demon a quick finger gun and said, "Hey, don't feel too bad, you did pretty good there. I'm just better." 

He took two steps before he heard the demon say in an annoying, cheerful voice, "WHAT'S THE PASSWORD?" 

The Guard turned to look at the demon, who was grinning at him with his usual idiotic look, though there was something about it that sent an absolute chill down his spine. "What." 

The house demon suddenly and with no effort broke free from all six dirt hands and the scary, large, wild owl demon face was suddenly right in the Guard's face. "PASSWORD!"  

"Uh, 'owl pellets?'" 

Next thing Hunter knew he was being chased by another big black void of an open maw. "Not the password! Not the password!" he found himself repeating. 

Just as the house demon was about to apparently eat him whole, the Guard vanished in a quick flash of red, appearing in the sky, riding his staff (properly this time, thank you. He knew when to take things seriously. This was one of those times). The house demon didn't take long to find him and the chase was on again. The Guard got an idea. He fired off another bolt of magic, not at the moving tube body, but the large stained glass window that made the centerpiece of the Owl House itself. It shattered and the demon howled in pain, thrashing wildly about, actually hitting the Guard and sending him spiraling to the ground. 

The Guard kept his staff clutched to his body as he rolled along the ground, his years of training managing to get him to roll onto his feet and point his staff at the house again. 

"You will not hurt my friend any more, if you please." Hunter's eyes widened a little at the sudden interruption, even if no one saw it. The sentence was said calmly, collectedly, very little obvious emotion. 

Hunter still heard the absolute fury under the surface. 

Standing on the front porch, a bandolier of potions around her torso, a raven Palisman staff in one hand, and a notepad in another, stood Lilith Clawthorne. And she was angry. Not her usual keeping-a-lid-on-it-and-letting-the-anger-simmer-under-the-surface mad, either. The fury was clear as day on her face. 

"Lily! Get back in here!" Eda whisper shouted from within the relative safety of the house. "Hooty can handle this guy! You know he can! It wasn't all that long ago he was beating you up!" 

Lilith ignored her.

The Guard spun his staff back into a neutral position where he could lean on it. "Hey there, Boss. You're lookin' pretty good, all things considered. Still have that massive stick shoved way up your...?"

"I see you're still an impertinent brat," Lilith said, her eyes narrowing.

The Guard laughed. "You kiss your mom with that mouth? Hmph. 'impertinent.'"

Lilith dropped her notepad and tapped it with her staff, which caused the pad to erupt into a small army of miniature Abominations. Lilith withdrew another notepad, this one with her elemental glyphs, and Hooty withdrew himself in order to pose behind her. "You will either leave on your own power, or because of us. It is your choice," Lilith said.

Hunter scratched his chin. "Huh. Wild Magic Abominations. Neat." He grinned behind his mask as he snapped his fingers.

Four large golden spheres suddenly appeared on and around the grounds with a set of loud thuds, each stuck in a miniature crater. These spheres opened up various openings which leaked out purple ooze. It took but a minute for them to form into the latest model of Blight Industries Abomitrons -- much more powerful than last year's model. "You sure you really want to do this?"

Lilith's glare intensified. "Absolutely."

Not far away, hidden in a tree, a small, newly arrived owl Palisman was having a chittering conversation with a small red cardinal Palisman. After a few moments, the two nodded at each other, then the owl flew off at top speed, back in the direction it came from, as the cardinal turned its one-eyed gaze back on the battle, a worried expression on its face.

Chapter 11: Colors and Meanings

"Mittens!" The stereo cry caused Amity to groan and Luz to chuckle. Edric and Emira waved from where they were waiting beneath one of the many trees lining the path to the school and they jogged up to the pair. Oh, Luz noted, they'd changed up their hair again. Em's hair was now a deep grape purple, but with a streak of her natural green hair going the full length of the loose ponytail she was currently wearing. Ed had, apparently, learned the joys of hair gel, and had his hair spiked up like those models in the posters of a chain hair salon, hair bleached blond with red tips. Looked like they were still showing solidarity with Ami, even with her current return to the old look. Luz felt a little warm and fuzzy, even as her mind flashed back to the first time they'd done so.

Six months ago:

"Yowsa Wowsa!" Luz exclaimed when the twins opened the front door of the manor. "You guys look... very different." Em's hair, while still in the usual braid, was now a deep apple red, and Ed's was now blue. "Lookin' good! Uh, what's the occasion?"

The twins shared a Look, then Em started, "So, you know how Mitten's roots've started growing in?"

"Well, Mom's been bugging her hardcore to re-dye her hair," Ed continued.

"You know, the whole Blight-children-must-match-with-the-family-hair-color thing."

Ed grinned. "So, Mittens dyed her hair, all right."

Em's grin matched Ed's. "And, let's just say... it's still not green."

"We're so proud."

"But, Mom's gonna be... well... absolutely furious, and we just sort of realized..."

"We don't need to match, either." / "Why do we need to match?"

Luz chuckled at the not quite simultaneous twin thing they did. But then her smile turned a little sad. "So, sharing the pain, huh?"

The twins smiled warmly and sincerely at Luz as they placed a hand each on her shoulders. "Hey," Em said. "Don't give us that look, Cute Stuff. You'll break our hearts."

"And you know how sensitive a soul I am," Ed said, only halfway teasing. "We're the troublemakers, remember? We're usually in hot water with Mom. This is no biggie."

"But enough about us," Em said as the two pulled away, giving Luz room to enter. "You're here to see Mittens, right? She's in her room."

Moments later, Luz opened the door to Amity's room and stopped short. "Yowsa..."

Amity rubbed the back of her neck and gave a crooked, embarrassed grin. "Too much, you think?" Given her complexion and overall style, it was really only a matter of time, Luz figured. While Amity kept the cut the same, the purple was now replaced by stark black, with bright red -- well, Luz didn't know how to describe it, really. Saying the red was highlights would imply a subtlety that just wasn't there, but calling it red 'streaks' didn't seem right either -- with emphasis on her bangs. It was actually very well done. On most anybody else, it absolutely would have been too much, but on Amity...

"¡Ay que preciosa!" Luz squealed as she enveloped her girlfriend in a great big hug and kissed her on the end of her nose -- a surefire way to get her blushing from chin to roots.

"You like it?" Amity asked, a little shyly.

"Are you kidding?" Luz enthused. "You are super cute!"

"Careful there, Mittens," Ed called from the doorway. "Luz might, just might, be a bit biased." Amity used a quick spell to slam the door in his face, but his and Em's laughter could still be heard from the other side.

Luz shrugged with a chuckle. "Not my fault you're always super cute, in any color."

"Even the green?" Amity asked, only half joking.

"Even the green," Luz said immediately. At the shocked-but-trying-to-hide-it look on Ami's face, Luz elaborated, "I get it, I do. It just never meant The Blight (tm) to me. It just meant Amity." Luz tightened the hug, basically turning it into a snuggle. "But the cool thing about all these other colors you're doing? It means you're figuring out what means Amity to you. Not me, not your parents. You. So, yeah, I might be a bit biased."

(Luz didn't actually remember the conversation, but Amity swore it went like that, and it did sound like her.)

"You forgot to tell us you were spending the night, Mittens," Ed said to Ami with a teasing tone, which brought Luz back to the present

"Yeah, we almost didn't get the Illuso-Mittens ready in time to fool Mom." Em said, grinning herself.

Amity blushed slightly. "Ah. Yeah. Sorry about that. It... wasn't planned."

Em grinned knowingly. "So. Fell asleep in each others' arms again?"

Amity's blush deepened. Luz found it adorable, of course. "No! Yes. Shut up."

"Well, regardless, you owe us one now," Ed singsonged.

Amity sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "What is it?"

"Hmmm..." Em pretended to be in deep thought. "How about... an afternoon with just us and Luz?"

Amity was reluctant, but not for the reasons one might think at first. Sure, the twins certainly turned Luz's head initially, but Luz got over it pretty quickly after the first Library Incident, and they even stopped with the play flirting once it was clear that Amity was laying a claim, so to speak. However, any time they spent time alone together usually resulted in unexplained property damage and new rules at school. But... she did owe them, so she sighed. "Fine. As long as it's okay with Luz." Which, of course, it absolutely was.

Ed, Em, and Luz all fist pumped at that, causing Amity to smile, even as she said, "I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"

"Probably," all three of the others said at the same time, their smiles far too innocent looking.

After that brief moment of levity, Em gave Amity a semi-serious look. "I don't think I've ever seen you let so much of the brunette show before. Still not sure on the next project?"

Amity shrugged with a grin. "Actually, I think I'm gonna just go natural for a bit. Except for a lock of my bangs that I'm leaning towards... hot pink, maybe?"

The twins laughed as Ed playfully slapped his little sister's back. "Oh, both Mom and Dad are gonna hate that. I absolutely approve."

Amity laughed genuinely with her siblings, because there was no denying this was partly her motive, though most of it was, in all honesty, because she remembered actually liking her brunette hair before her mom started making her dye it. It wasn't like her dad cared that much over what her hair looked like. She just wanted to see if, well, she still actually liked it that way. Like the current return to green, which did cause a little bit of stir when Luz first saw it.

Two months ago:

Amity was startled from her homework by her scroll suddenly sounding out her special alert for messages from Luz (that being Luz singing rather... enthusiastically in her other language). She immediately stopped studying to check the message. She froze. 

--Guess who's back and here to stay! On my way to see you!

The message was accompanied by a selfie of Luz, a bit taller, a new hairstyle starting to grow out, and very obviously back at the Owl House with a very happy Eda and King crowding into frame. Amity stood up suddenly, causing her chair to clatter to the floor. "Luz's back!" After actually running into her door in her hurry, Amity was charging through the house in a very undignified way. "Hey, Mittens, where's the fire?" Ed called from the top of the stairs as she very nearly fell down them. Luz wasn't even there and she was making her trip over her own two feet.

"Luz's back from the Human Realm!" Amity called back and was gone before she could hear his reply. She threw the door open to, she didn't know, run all they way to the Owl House, only to stop short. There on her front porch, panting and sweating, holding Owlbert's staff in one hand, was Luz. 

The smile on Luz's face froze as she saw her. "Ami, are you okay?" she asked in concern.

Amity grew confused. "Uh... yes?" She phrased it as a question.

Luz surprised her again by firmly but carefully gripping her shoulders as her eyes darted every which way, looking her over. This was certainly not how Amity was expecting their reunion to go. "Are you sure?" She continued her inspection, muttering under her breath, "Lo juro por Dios, si ella te pusiera la mano encima..."

Amity didn't understand the words, but she could hear the intent behind them. She was still confused until Luz's eyes glanced up at her head.

Oh for... Amity forgot she re-dyed her hair again last week, and went back to green. It wasn't even quite the same shade, evoking Azura rather than Blight -- or rather Azura as portrayed by a very good fan artist Amity followed. She hadn't had the chance to warn Luz about it. Amity clapped her hands over Luz's cheeks, and held them there as she looked her full on in the eye. "Okay, Luz? Hon? ¿Batata? Back up, rewind. It isn't like that. At all."

Luz still looked concerned, but at least Amity had her attention. "It's not?" 

Amity smiled, and said "Te prometo." (One of the three or so phrases of Luz's language she actually knew outside of a handful of pet names; they helped calm her down when she was in a tizzy like this.) "I just... kinda... found I missed it? I figured there were other meanings to it than just Blight." At Luz's blank stare she laughed. "You don't remember do you?"

"Remember what?"

At this, Amity let go of her girlfriend's face and covered her own face with a hand. She sighed, but was smiling. That was something that took some getting used to; Luz's ability to drop what was for Amity life-changing truths, then forget the conversation took place, not out of malice or insensitivity, but just because to Luz she stated something obvious like "rain boils your skin off." "A few months ago, someone once told me that the green could just mean Amity, and that I should find what is Amity to me, and not anyone else."

Luz grinned. "She told you that, huh? Sounds smart. Did she say anything else?"

Amity pinked a little even as she kept her grin. "She also said I was 'super cute' in any color."

Luz laughed. "Yep. She definitely knows her stuff."

Amity nodded. "I just... I think I just realized that there are enough good memories attached to it, that I didn't have to abandon it entirely you know?"

Luz got that look of contemplation on her face, and nodded. She seemed to get it.. At least she calmed down. Then a wry grin formed on her face. "Also, you just confused the heck out of your mom so when you change it up again it'll hit just that much harder, right?"

Amity laughed. "Yes, that too."

"Ha! I knew it!" Ed's voice came from the balcony above them. "I told you Mittens didn't betray the cause! OW!"

"Ed..." And there was Em.

"Will you two just go away?" Amity called up to them.

"Never."

Amity pressed a pair of fingers to her temple. "Luz, I'm warning you ahead of time so it doesn't take you by surprise, but next time you come here it's highly likely that I'll be an only child!"

"You know you love us." Of course that, they could synch up perfectly.

Luz chuckled. "You do love them," she reminded her.

Amity could only sigh. "Yeah. I know." She cast Luz a look. "Well, now that the surprise drama is over with..." she nearly tackled Luz in a big hug. "Welcome home, Batata."

"You know, I've always kinda wanted to see you in the natural color," Luz said, snapping Amity from her sudden remembrance.  "I mean, I know what it is, obviously, but I've always wondered how you looked in it. Pretty hot, I'll bet."

"Are you two flirting again?" Gus said, having only just caught the tail end of Luz's statement as he and Willow approached. 

"Gus, they're always flirting," Willow reminded. "We've been through this."

Luz and Amity looked at each other before bursting out laughing. "It was actually pretty low key today," Amity said. "Good morning you two."

Before the conversation could continue, Luz got smacked in the face by a small, fast moving object. This happened often enough that she was easily able to catch it as it bounced off from the impact, and already recognized it before it had slowed down enough to be clearly visible. "Owlbert? What're you doing back here little guy?"

Owlbert hooted what sounded like an entire paragraph to Luz, and though she didn't have the connection with him that she would eventually have with her own Palisman (She was working on that, it turned out that carving your own really was the long way), she was close enough to both Eda and Owlbert himself to get the gist. She sighed. "Eda's in trouble, isn't she?" Owlbert hooted in agreement and Luz shook her head. Given the weirdness surrounding the flight, she had a pretty good idea of who was bringing the trouble. "Great. Second day of school and I'm already gonna miss."

Notes:

Whelp, Lumity is now official, and as such I think I've officially strayed into alternate universe :)

I still plan to use whatever I *can* from the rest of the season (Eda's new transformation is absolutely making an appearance in the upcoming action chapter), but there's no going back now.

Chapter 12: The Suspense is Terrible; I Hope It Lasts.

Luz began talking even as she dug through her bag for her anti-magic cloak. "Sorry guys, I gotta go take care of a thing. Can you cover for me to... day?" Her train of thought derailed as she pulled her cloak out of the bag and turned to her friends, only to see Gus and Willow already holding their own Palisman staffs, and Amity was tying her Abomination pack to her waist, little Ghost already resting on her shoulder (Luz had long given up asking how he always seemed to show up out of nowhere, as the answer was, always, "he's a cat"). All three of them were grinning at her. Luz couldn't help but grin herself. "I'm not going to be able to convince any of you it's too dangerous, am I?"

"Nope!" Willow responded.

"So I should probably just skip the conversation entirely so as to not waste any time, shouldn't I?"

"Probably," Gus confirmed.

Luz rolled her eyes fondly as she threw her cloak around her shoulders. "What am I going to do with you three?"

"We learned it from watching you, all right?" Amity said, the other two nodding sagely.

Ed grinned, a little nervously. "Me and Em are more than happy to stay behind. Let you guys handle the unknown dangerous Owl House stuff."

Amity chuckled at her siblings. "Seriously, almost get eaten by a Slitherbeast one time..."

Em shrugged, smiling. "What can we say? We're just not the thrill seekers you are." She then got serious. "But if you do find you need our help with whatever-this-is, call us immediately."

"No joke," Ed added.

Amity did not admit aloud how actually kind of touched she suddenly was.

"Whelp, come on if you're coming," Luz said as she got on Owlbert's staff. Amity positioned herself behind her (It was long ago established she preferred to fly with Luz rather than by herself. Partly because, surprise stunt flying aside, Luz was actually the better flyer of the two, and also because, well, Amity liked to hug Luz from behind. Ghost for his part, as both a linked Palisman and a cat, tended to pretend he was just too good to let Amity fly on him when Luz was around.) Ghost curled up into Amity's shoulder as they took off, followed shortly by Gus and Willow.

"So, what's up exactly?" Gus asked as he cruised up beside Luz.

Luz shrugged. "Not sure exactly, but my money's on the Golden Guard."

Willow blinked in surprise at that. "The Emperor's Coven guy? That's a pretty extreme assumption from an upset non-linked Palisman. What makes you think that?"

Amity answered. "For one thing, he threatened Luz and me on the way to school."

"What?" the other two shrieked. Willow in particular looked rather shaken. "And you just... came to school like everything was normal?"

Luz shrugged. "Well, if I let every threat to my life keep me from doing things, I wouldn't do anything."

Amity chuckled as she gave Luz an extra squeeze. Gus and Willow gave each other a look. "Y'know that's fair," Gus said. "But you know that's not normal, right? Not even on the Isles."

Luz had to laugh a little at that. "Yeah, well. Never claimed to be normal, did I?"

After a few minutes, the group neared the general location of the Owl House. "Okay, Luz," Amity chided. "We're not going to just dive in without a plan. You know, like usual. We might actually have the element of surprise on our side for once, so land a little ways into the woods so we can see what's actually happening and make a plan."

Luz rolled her eyes in fond exasperation. "Yes, mom."

Amity grinned and lightly whacked her girlfriend on the back of the head. "Don't you take that tone with me, young lady," she teased.

"Ew!" Willow shuddered. "EwewewewEW! Never, ever do that again! You guys are so weird sometimes!" Amity responded by crossing her eyes and sticking her tongue out at Willow. Willow mirrored the expression.
 
Gus sighed. "I'm, like, two years younger than all of you. How is it that I'm the the mature one?"

"I mean, one of us had to be," Luz said. "And I think we can all agree it was never gonna be me. Landing time. Follow me!" And she started a gentle descent, for Luz, Gus and Willow falling back to follow her lead.

~*~

The Golden Guard had to teleport several times in about three seconds to avoid all explosive potions being shot at him, finally taking to the air. He had to admit, Lilith kind of surprised him with her first move, dumping two thirds of all her potions into the House Demon's mouth, who then started firing them off at him like some kind of ballistic weapon. While the House Demon was focusing on him, Lilith herself was keeping the Abomitons busy, dancing between their attacks, responding with various elemental attacks, none of which actually damaged the Abomitons, but did keep them away from the house and focused on her.

Hunter dodged another attack from the House Demon then was surprised as he got swarmed by a good number of Lilith's mini-Abominations, who had leapt off the roof of the house when he got close enough to it. "Wha-where-who?" he sputtered before casting a quick exploding sphere of energy, disappating the clingers-on immediately. With another teleporting dodge to avoid another grouping of potions, he glared at Lilith and with a quick gesture, caused the ground beneath her feet to wrap around her ankles, keeping her immobile just long enough for one of the Abomitons to swipe at her unhindered. A grey streak swooped past and the arm of the Abomiton, removing the arm before it could land its hit. Lilith used a plant glyph to free herself as the Abomitron regrew its arm. Hunter was distracted, though, by the sight in front of him.

Pure black eyes glared at him, as yards-wide wings kept his new opponent hovering in the air before him. So, Eda becoming a half-cursed harpy was a thing now. Just. Just swell. "Okay, kid," Eda said, a beastly growl underscoring her words. "I'm only going to say this once. Get off of my lawn."

Before Hunter could respond, he was nearly jostled off his staff by a mighty "WEH!" which caused one of the Abomitons that had gotten too close to the house to slide back a few feet, leaving the little dog demon standing on the front porch. The heck? "You guys are a lot harder to deal with than you used to be." His power began to crackle around him in the form of red electricity. "I'm gonna have to kick up my game."

~*~

Gus whistled. "I dunno, Luz. They seem to be holding up pretty good on their own. Do they really need the assist?"

Luz was going through her bag as she spoke. "Trust me, you haven't see the Golden Guard when he gets good and mad. I have. We only got past him during the Raid because he was... conflicted." 

"And those Abomitons are nothing like the ones we fought last year," Amity piped up.

Luz's attention was grabbed by a little cardinal flapping right in front of her face and chittering at her. "Oh, hey there, Rascal," she said with a smile as she stopped what she was doing and held out her hands for it to land in. It continued chittering at her, and though she was even less bonded with the Rascal than Owlbert, she could still basically get what he was saying. "Yeah, I know. He's being dumb again. We're gonna stop him, but it's probably gonna hurt a bit." She could see Rascal get a little sad at that. "Hey, you know he makes it impossible to be gentle with him." Rascal chirped at her then flew back into its hiding place.

"What was that all about?" Willow asked.

Luz sighed as she continued to dig through her bag. "It's kind of a secret? And not our place to tell?" she said, even as Amity opened her mouth to comment.. Amity closed her mouth with a sheepish look. "But it is one of the big reasons I'm going to set the Guard on fire. Ah, here we go!" Luz brought out a handful of Glyphs, which Amity recognized.

"Luz, are those Strengthening Glyphs?" she asked, as small but noticeable note of coldness entering her voice. 

"Yeah," Luz said, her own demeanor quite sheepish. "I had Lilith show me how they're made. I know there's bad memories attached to these things, but they're useful. And I can at least see a move and a half ahead and know we're gonna need as many advantages as we can get." She looked up. "Am I wrong?"

Amity sighed. "No, you're absolutely right." She held out a fist so Luz could stick a Glyph on the top of it. "Let's get this over with."

Luz got a little awkward. "Oh, and I haven't been able to test them yet."

"What."

"Well, I don't have any magic at all and Eda and Lilith's bile sacs are still messed up, so..."

Amity, Willow, and Gus shared another Look, before Amity turned back to her girlfriend. "Well there's no time like the present."

~*~

The Guard dodged past a diving swipe and managed to blast Eda in the back with a bolt of magic, causing her to crash and tumble along the ground for a few feet. "Well, okay, ow," she muttered as she stumbled to her feet. Then gasped as one of the Abomitons took up her field of view. "Aw, crap," she muttered. Before it could do anything, though, it was grabbed from behind by an Abomination that was actually a little bigger than it was, which suplexed it into the ground. The Abomiton splattered into a formless pile for a moment before reforming and began grappling with the new Abomination.

Another Abomiton was now surrounded by three illusions from that Goop kid, each now about six feet tall, over muscled, and wearing multi-colored tights (Luz had been bringing him 'comic books' from the Human Realm), though Eda was somewhat surprised when two of them managed to grab the Abomiton's arms and the third one actually punched its head off. A huge vine suddenly shot from the ground and wrapped itself around the Guard. That's when all four of Eda's dumb kids walked out of the tree cover and into the yard.

The Guard looked down at the four of them. "You kids should be in school," he said in his threatening reverberating voice.

"And you're trespassing," Luz responded.

The Guard chuckled at that. "It's not trespassing when you're on official government business."

"Can you show me any paperwork?" Luz asked.

The Guard laughed at that. "That's what I like about you, Luz. No one banters with me the way you do." The vine suddenly exploded in a red light, and the Guard landed just a few feet in front of Luz, smoke coming out of the visor of his mask. "I'm going to miss that."

Luz fanned out a handful of Glyphs, as Amity, Gus, and Willow prepared for their own casting. Her eyes narrowed. "Hoy te quemarás."

Notes:

Some minor edits got made to previous chapters on account of the way the season progressed. Minor things... fixed Camila's job descriptions, added mention of Vee, edited Eda's and King's heart to heart due to the existence of Raine, etc.

Slightly more major changes were made to Chapter 5. Mostly kept it the same, but re-conceptualized the dream as their first kiss as girlfriends rather than the point they got together.

Chapter 13: Fighty Time! Fighty Time! Blood Blood Blood Blood!

Luz opened up with, unsurprisingly, Fire Glyphs, sending three Owlbert-enhanced columns of fire at the Golden Guard, who teleported around them, only to be taken by surprise by a blow to the back, which caused him to stumble forward. He managed to stop himself from stumbling into a suddenly created column of earth that would have sent him flying had he not stopped himself. Growling, he turned to face his attacker, who was, naturally, Amity, her arms covered in Abomination slime, large, spike-knuckled fists clenched at each end, her Palisman staff nestled in the crook of one arm. "Oh, so that's how it's gonna be?" the Guard asked.

"That's how it's gonna be," Amity said with an actually kind of scary smirk. She rushed him, a spell circle formed before he could blink, sending a wave of Abomination his way, he teleported a little to the right, only to take a trio of ice spheres to the side of the head, with enough force to almost knock him to the ground. He had to drop into a roll to avoid another blow from Amity, and he launched himself into the air to get himself out of their easy range. 

"Okay, all right, sure," the Golden Guard said when he had a second. "You guys have gotten pretty good."

"You ain't seen nothin' yet," Luz said as she tossed a Glyph paper to the ground at Amity's feet. Amity stepped on it, and the Earth Glyph generated another small column of dirt that send Amity flying right at the Guard. 

"Aw geez!" the guard cried as he leapt off his staff and spin kicked the Blight kid as she reached him. To his surprise, his foot passed straight through her, with just a minimum of resistance, the two halves of her body turned into purple-grey goo and fell back to the ground. The Guard blinked in surprise as he landed back on his staff. Then, upon seeing a shadow pass over him, teleported straight up a few feet, to see an Abomiton fly under him and crash into one of the others, which was being held in place and tied down by a number of large, spiky vines. Ignoring as Lilith ran in and froze the two Abomitons together with an Ice Glyph, he turned and glared at the Abomination that had thrown it, the Blight brat sitting on its shoulder, smirking at him. "Okay, seriously, what is this?" he said in exasperation. "Our last fight was a month ago. There's no freakin' way you guys got this much better in one. Month!"

"You'd be surprised what can happen in a month," Luz said with a grin. "Though actually you've just been weirdly lucky in somehow always barely missing the Harpy Eda thing."

"Wait, what?" the Guard said.

He was blindsided by a a long, thin, feathery arm that clotheslined him, knocking him off the staff. "Hey, kid, did'ja forget me?" Eda said, her gold fang glinting thanks to her grin. (Hunter had, in fact, forgotten about her. The brats used a blitz of an attack as a distraction! He was actually kind of impressed.)  She spun in the air once, and swung her arm to launch him straight to the ground. Painful as the landing was, he did manage to summon the staff back to his hand before anybody could grab it and keep him powerless, and he stood up, absolutely furious if the scarlet flames that were licking his body were anything to go by. He looked around and saw that only one of the Abomitons was still active, and even it was just barely so. It was being held in place by vines and earth, with the Illusionist kid's weirdly solid illusions continually pounding on it as Lilith was launching giant icicles that were likely seconds away from piercing the armor of its torso. The Guard turned back to his three really annoying attackers and the flames flared even more. "That's it!" he shouted. "Everyone dies!"

He zipped up about fifty feet into the air, stood on his staff, raise his arm above his head, then spun it like a clock hand, almost as if he were casting a large spell circle. Instead of a circle, twelve red spheres of light appeared in a circle in the air around him. Luz's eyes widened. "Gather!" she shouted, and all the witches immediately clumped together around her. An Earth Glyph brought a dome of dirt and rock to form over them all. Meanwhile, King dove back into the house, and Hooty stretched his tube form out long enough to wrap himself around the house forming a cocoon-like shield. Just in time for the Guard's attack to launch; beam after beam after beam, razing the area for multiple minutes.

Luz and her friends and family were relatively safe under her dome, a Light Glyph providing visibility. Nobody said anything for a moment, and everybody was a little nervous as the sounds of magical impact hit their improvised shelter like rain. "I, uh, guess you were right about him getting mad," Gus said, his nerves causing his voice to almost crack.

Luz laughed. "Yeah, this's about par for the course. Dude is an emotional roller coaster."

Amity rolled her eyes. "Like you would not believe." 

Willow looked between her two best friends before looking back to her third. "I'm starting to worry about how blase they've become about this kind of thing."

Gus nodded. "I know, right?"

Eda, who was crouching on her knees and had her wings folded up as tight as possible to take up as little space as possible, was also looking at Luz and Amity with a concerned look on her face. "Yeah. It's actually kinda getting to me, too. And that should tell you something."

"I'd appreciate it if you all didn't talk about us like we weren't here," Amity said with a huff.

"Besides," Luz said with a grin. "We're absolutely gonna freak out about this later. We do a coin toss to decide who goes first so the other can provide proper support, then switch places."

"Luz, honey," Lilith said, a concerned look of her own on her face. "That doesn't make us feel any better."

Luz shrugged, then cupped her hands around her mouth. "How you doing Hooty?"

Hooty popped up out of the ground at her feet, his face twitching, but mostly smiling. "IS THIS WHAT A FULL BODY MASSAGE FEELS LIKE? IT KINDA HURTS BUT BOY AM I FEELING THE STRESS KNOTS LOOSENING UP."

Luz smiled fondly as she scratched the bird tube's head. "Hey, Hootster, when we give the signal, how do you feel about special delivering the Golden Guard my way?"

Hooty's smile widened. It was kind of unnerving. "I'D ABSOLUTELY LOVE TO."

Luz chuckled and looked up, a glint in her eyes. "Oh no." Amity said.

"What?" Gus asked.

"I have a plan," Luz gushed.

"...Oh no."

Upon seeing the pure, bare excitement on Luz's face, the poorly disguised amusement on Amity's and Lilith's, and the naked fear in the other two dumb kids', Eda cackled.

~*~

The attack finally ended, and the Golden Guard sat on his staff, breathing heavily. Maybe he shouldn't have gone quite that nuts with the attack. Given that he had actually come close to blacking out before the end of it there, it was safe to say that he'd let the anger burn a little too hot. A second or two after the attack ended, the Owl House group erupted from a small mound of earth, scattering in different directions, and the House Demon unfurled itself from around the house, and it relaunched its attack on him. "Oh, come on!" He groused as he resumed the mad dodging of a mad House Demon.

It wasn't just the House Demon, either. Oddly dressed, over-built, solid illusions; elemental attacks, with a focus on ice; a Harpy-formed Owl Lady; focused sound attacks from the dog thing on the roof. All of which were attacking from different angles, all at once. Another blitz attack. And he could tell there were some attacks that were missing. Another distraction. The problem was...

The Guard cursed as he barely dodged a swipe by the Owl Lady, a swipe so close that he felt her finger across his back. Then he saw her grin. "Oh no." And the tiny Fire Glyph she placed on his back erupted like a rocket sending him flying out of control. "Not this agaaaaaaain!" he wailed as he desperately used his staff to keep some modicum of control over his flight path. The Glyph burned out after a couple of seconds, but the Guard had barely enough time to dodge another spray of icicles and another lunge by the House Demon.

The problem was, even though he knew it was a distraction, it didn't keep it from being a very effective distraction. But he was the Golden Guard. He wasn't about to let a group of Wild Witches, who either had no magic of their own or were kids, stop him. He clapped his hands together and a red shockwave of magic erupted outward, scattering his attackers for a brief moment, but it was enough for him to retaliate. Once again he had the House Demon pinned to the ground, this time using solid bedrock for the pinning hands. He then pointed at the dog thing on the roof and fired a small bolt of magic at him. The little guy barely dodged with with a startled weh, and he leaped off the roof and into Eda's arms, who glared at him with a hiss. 

Not letting up, the Guard launched himself forward, and, taking a cue from the Blight brat, formed a fist and used his magic to create a large, spike knuckled gauntlet of red energy around his fist and landed a hit that caused Eda to drop the little demon (Lilith did a mad dash and caught him so he wouldn't get hurt) and send her flying off into the distance. A quick razor wind spell dissipated the spandex-clad illusions that had surrounded him, and he glared at the little guy who was casting them from the house porch. The Guard launched himself into a low dive a aimed right at the kid even as he scrambled to get into the relative safety of the house. The Guard was stopped by suddenly getting tangled up in a from-nowhere group of vines, which constricted so fast that he was slammed into the ground. 

"That's one of my best friends you just went after," Willow said as she took her place next to Lilith. The Guard knew, he knew she'd been missing from the blitz until now, a suspicion confirmed by the sunglasses she was wearing. (He suddenly felt his stomach drop at that. Sunglasses usually meant the end of a Luz plan.)

"Thank you, Willow," Lilith said in that infuriatingly prim way of hers. "But I would not have let him harm a child in front of me."

Before the Guard could make a rude comment about the irony of that statement, the Owl Lady landed next to her, so suddenly she may as well have teleported. "You just tried to fry my kid!" she snarled, a more primal growl underscoring her words.

The Guard blinked behind his mask. "Your 'kid?' Dont'ya mean your p-"

"Finish that thought and I'll remove your throat." Eda interrupted, her voice that particular kind of calm that makes most people terrified, her owlish features beginning to ruffle and expand.

"Woah woah woah woah, Eda! Eda Eda Eda Eda!" The dog demon sputtered as he scrambled up the Owl Lady to rest on her shoulder. "Calm down. Calm down calm down calm down." He knocked on the Owl Lady's head a couple times ("Hey!" she grumbled), "You too in there. I'm fine. Don't go full beast on us, 'kay?" At that the Owl Lady calmed down a bit, her feathers settling back in place -- which caused the Guard to release the breath he didn't actually know he was holding. The vines tightened around him just a little for good measure.

"Hooty?" Willow said. "Special Delivery."

And at that the House Demon broke free of his bonds again ("Oh come on!") and before the Guard could teleport or burn the vines, he was gobbled up whole by the House Demon.

Hooty, his cheeks bulging and the sounds of spellcraft mutedly coming from within his mouth, looked around until he saw Amity standing a few yards away, holding a spell circle in each hand, a grin on her face, and wearing yellow tinted sunglasses that still allowed her eyes to be seen (Luz had insisted that they really needed to be fully opaque black lenses, but Amity insisted these fit her style better, and Luz, naturally, caved). She jerked her head to her right, and when Hooty looked, a few feet in that direction, stood Luz.

Her sunglasses were the small round sort, and she was in a slightly crouched position, her feet spread just a little wide, both hands gripping Owlbert's staff in an over-the-shoulder position. Directly behind her was Amity's oversized Abomination in the exact same position, holding what could only be described as a log, tapered to make a comfortable handle and covered with an obscene number of Fire Glyphs, in place of the staff. King, who had kind of gotten into Human Realm sports over the last year ("The complete lack of deathtraps is a little disappointing, but I find I actually care about what the whole team does.") laughed maniacally. "Hey batta batta, swing batta batta!" he crowed, as Hooty horked a quite literally screaming fastball at the Abomination.

The Guard only got half a shield spell thrown up before the Abomination swung.

To those who weren't wearing their eye protection, the light was blinding. 

Chapter 14: Bad and Sad

Tok. Tok. Tok.

Hunter groaned and blearily opened his eyes. Nothing but black. Wha...?

Tok. Tok. Tok.

Oh, right. The mask. Hunter reached up to straighten the mask, then decided to just rip it off. He was completely unsurprised to see his Palisman sitting on his chest, glaring at him with its good eye. "Yeah, yeah, I know." Getting a look around he saw that he was lying in a furrow he'd dug in the ground somewhere in the forest, no Owl House in sight. How far did Luz send him flying? Little Rascal chirped at him angrily. "Hey, language," Hunter grumbled playfully. "Where'd you even learn that?"

"Oh, please," a sudden voice spoke up. "Like you're any better. I was there that time you stubbed your toe, you know."

Hunter looked up to see Luz leaning against a tree, smirking at him. He groaned, "I thought we agreed to never speak of that again."

Luz chuckled. "The way I remember it, that conversation amounted to you saying 'you saw nothing,'" said in a deep voice that sounded nothing like Hunter himself, "and me laughing at you."

Hunter dropped his head back to the ground, defeated. "What are you even doing here?" he grumbled.

Luz shrugged as she pushed off the tree and began walking towards him. "For one thing, I volunteered to keep you busy while the others move the house."

Hunter looked at her with curiosity. "You can do that without a Moonlight Conjuring?"

Luz shot him a deadpan look. "Uh, huh. And, gee, why would we possibly need to learn something like that?"

Hunter had the grace to look a little sheepish. He held no illusions as to who were the aggressors in this particular rivalry. "Right, sorry."

Luz grinned and produced a handful of fire Glyphs. "Also, I'm not entirely convinced that finishing move back there counted as properly lighting you on fire."

Hunter took a moment to take stock of himself. There were several notable scorch marks throughout his Coven uniform, some of which were still smouldering and smoking, so he felt he could actually make a case that he had, in fact, been properly set on fire. Instead he just closed his eyes with a groan. "If you're gonna do it, do it. I'm far too tired to care right now."

Luz stood there blinking at him for a moment before putting the Glyphs away. "Aw, I can't do it like this. It'd be like kicking a puppy."

Hunter cracked an eye open and smirked at the human in front of him. "You going soft on me, Noceda?"

The Glyphs were back in Luz's hand and her expression was unimpressed. "Oh, I'm sorry Hunter, what did you just say? I could'a sworn I heard 'Oh, Luz, I'm so cold. Perhaps a bonfire would help.'"

Hunter had both hands up in surrender as he chuckled for a moment, before he then hissed as pain shot up his right side, and he grabbed the injury. Luz was immediately kneeling at his side, Glyphs gone, a concerned look on her face. "What is it? What's wrong? You okay?"

It was Hunter's turn to be deadpan. "Oh, I don't know, could it possibly be that an exploding log to the side might have cracked some ribs?"

Luz poked him in the forehead, annoyed. "You don't get to be uppity with me for defending my home and family, Mr. All-Right-Everyone-Dies."

"... Fair enough," Hunter grumbled. Then Luz started unfastening his leather armor, causing him to redden in the face. "What the Titan are you doing?"

"First aid, what else?" Luz said casually. Then noticed the look on his face. She chuckled and flicked him on the forehead again. "I dunno what you were thinking I was doing, but I'm pretty sure you already know you're not my type."

"Shut up," Hunter grumbled. Master of witty banter he was.

Luz grumbled as she continued to work. "There are a lot of buckles on this thing."

"Yeah. It's a bit of a pain," Hunter agreed. Then he looked at Luz suspiciously. "Do you even know proper first aid?"

Luz laughed. Hunter ignored how it kind of sounded like an evil cackle. "I was such a wild child even before arriving at the Isles Mom made sure I knew some basics. Got me a few proper classes before I came back again. Then there's the Healing Track classes I take as school. So, yeah, I know what I'm doing. Mostly."

"Oddly enough that doesn't make me feel better."

Luz stuck her tongue out at him as she unfastened the last buckle and opened the armor up. She then brought out her pocket knife and Hunter blanched. "LUZ!"

"It's for your shirt. I need to be able to look at the injury, geez! What have I ever done to you to deserve this lack of trust?"

"You hit me with an exploding log!"

Luz rolled her eyes before she got to work cutting into the side of Hunter's shirt. "Yeah, in a fight, where you were trying to arrest or kill us. You know I'd never stab you in the back. If I do ever kill you, you'll be standing, facing me, and armed."

Hunter studied Luz briefly while she continued to cut along the seam of his shirt. "You just quoted something, didn't you?"

Luz just grinned. "Maybe." That's when she cut enough of the shirt away to see the injury underneath and winced. "Oooh, that's a lot of bruising."

Hunter groaned something that sounded like "exploding log."

"Yeah, yeah," Luz said with a smirk. Then got serious. "I'm going to prod a little. I'll be gentle, so it's really important that you tell me if it hurts, okay?"

Hunter nodded as she got to work. So far so good, nothing the bruising wouldn't account for. "So, a Glyph-covered club? Pretty clever. Ever consider making one for yourself?" Luz shrugged in that way that Hunter knew meant she had, but didn't want to admit it. "What's keeping you? I mean, I guess you'd have to figure out something to protect the club itself, or it wouldn't last long."

"That's part of it," Luz agreed. "Also, both Mom and Eda are a little wary about me making actual weapons. I think they're concerned I might acquire a taste for blood or something." Hunter grinned at that, then hissed in pain as Luz apparently found the injured rib. "Yeah, that's pretty bad. Hold on a second." She began digging through the school bag Hunter hadn't noticed she had with her. "Ah, here we are." She pulled out a pad of stickers and withdrew three with Glyphs on them.

Hunter raised an eyebrow. "What, you have healing Glyphs now?"

Luz nodded. "You can thank Lilith for these, she figured them out. Somewhat related, we now have a 'do not disturb' rule between 1 and 6 in the morning, unless it's an emergency." Hunter gave her a confused look at that, but decided he didn't actually want to know and kept his mouth shut as she attached three Glyphs to his side in a rough triangle around the affected area. She tapped them in sequence then sat back and watched them glow. Hunter himself sighed as a soothing cool burst of magic surged through his side. "Okay, this'll take a few minutes and is... whatdyacallit?... battlefield treatment? You'll want a real Healer to look at it when you get back."

"Of course," he sighed. 

A few moments of silence passed, then, "You going to be okay?" Luz asked. "No digging your own grave?"

"You guys are never going to let me live that down are you? What do you care anyway? You..." 

"Hit you with an exploding log, I know. Get over it. Question still stands. You going to be okay?"

Hunter sighed as he thought about his answer. "More or less, I think. Failure still comes with... consequences, but with the damage your family's caused the Coven over the last year or so, Uncle can't really afford to be as brutal as he might have been once. And with Kiki gone, well, I'm even more important to keep around and in one piece."

Luz hummed. "Why do you still do this? I know you hate it."

Hunter's face was carefully neutral as he said, "You know why."

Luz shook her head. "I know the story," And she suspected she knew more of it than Hunter himself, but that was a can of worms she wasn't ready to open yet. "But I don't know why. He's abusive to you, Hunter. You know he is." Hunter didn't answer, so Luz sighed. "Has he sent you out on any Palisman hunts lately?"

At the sudden change of topic, Hunter blinked in confusion. "Technically that'd be classified information, and you are an enemy..." At Luz's unimpressed glare he shrugged. "... but no. He hasn't." He thought for a moment. "He hasn't sent anyone out, now that I think about it. Not since you Owl People interrupted the Day of Unity. Why?"

Instead of answering Luz asked, "Has he, I dunno, melted any since then?"

Hunter thought on that for a minute. "Not in front of me. Which is really weird now that I think about it. Why?"

Luz sighed, and there was a small smile on her face. "So there were some good side effects. Good." Then she remembered that Hunter was looking at her and got serious. "Okay, uh, you're probably going to be mad..."

~*~

He was, indeed, mad. But not, surprisingly, at Luz and her family. They were just protecting them and theirs. He knew that. So the anger wasn't directed at them, per se, but it was there. "So... you cursed him," he said with a scary sort of calm, even as he paced back and forth in agitation. 

"Yeah," Luz said, herself still sitting cross-legged on the ground. "Lilith and Eda put it together. Designed it to lock away his magic. We didn't even think about it maybe, also, slowing or stopping his... condition, 'till later."

Hunter didn't answer, but he did stop pacing to look at her, his expression scarily neutral. Then he put his mask back on and Luz's heart sank a little as she watched Hunter shift back into the Golden Guard, his posture going from ramrod straight to casually leaning against the Rascal's staff. "Whelp," he said, his tone going sarcastic and carefree. "Looks like you beat me again. We'll meet again, you haven't seen the last of me, et cetera, et cetera." He hopped on the staff and gave Luz a two finger salute. "Ciao." And he was gone in a golden flash of light.

Luz stared sadly at the blank spot he left behind. "Bad and sad," she muttered to herself. Seriously, one day she absolutely was going to set the Golden Guard on fire, if only so she could give Hunter a big hug afterwards. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of her Tomagochi alerting her to a new message. She and Amity absolutely could text like normal now, but the Tomagochi had kind of become their own thing at this point.

The message, once translated, read: House is moved. U OK? Luz smiled. There was her awesome girlfriend, being awesome.

Ya. Hunters gon.

Come home then. Missing you.

At that moment, Owlbert landed on Luz's shoulder, causing her to grin. "Here to lead me home?" Owlbert hooted. OMW. Love u :)

Owlbert turned into his staff form and Luz hopped on. Just before pocketing the Tomagochi again she got another alert. Love u 2. The smile on Luz's face was wide and sincere as she flew off. Home Amity said. It had a nice ring to it.

Notes:

I was hoping to get this chapter up before the fic hit 5000 hits, but missed by a few. Oh well.

Hunter and Luz are really fun to write.

Chapter 15: Epilogue: Exhausting

Thing 1: Just checking in. You okay Mittens?
                  
             I'm fine. I've had worse fights with the Guard. :Amity

             But I have to ask, have either of you noticed anything weird with mom and dad? :Amity

             More than usual, that is. :Amity

Thing 1: No. Why?

             It's just, yesterday there was a kidnapping attempt :Amity

Thing 2: Wait what?

Thing 1: OMG are you serious?

             and today the Guard brought some current gen Abomitons to the fight. :Amity

Thing 2: Can we rewind a moment to the KIDNAPPING ATTEMPT?

             I'm fine, Ed. :Amity

             It was just some coven goons coming after Luz and me at school :Amity

             The faculty took care if it before I could even do anything. :Amity

Thing 1: Is that salt I hear?

             No. :Amity

             But I could have taken them. :Amity

Thing 2: Geez Mittens, why didn't you tell us this?

             What? :Amity

Thing 1: Mittens, hon, kidnapping attempts are not normal. 

Thing 1: At least at the school.

             I think my sense of normal has become a bit skewed since I met Luz. :Amity

Thing 2: You think!?

Thing 1: Wait, you said the Coven made an attempt. THE coven?

              Right. :Amity

Thing 1: And the Golden Guard brought brand new Abomitons to arrest the Owl Lady? 

              Right. :Amity

Thing 2: No wonder you're asking about mom and dad.

Thing 1: We haven't seen anything out of the ordinary.

Thing 2: But we'll snoop harder, keep you posted.

              Thanks. :Amity

Thing 1: Is this why you've been away from the mansion so much lately?

              Well, yes and no :) :Amity 

Amity smirked as she looked away from her scroll to the now-sleeping Luz using her lap as a pillow. They were relaxing on the big couch in the Owl House foyer, Amity sitting, more-or-less straight and proper (old habits and all), with Luz sprawled out on the couch dead to the world and King sleeping on Luz's stomach. It was all very domestic, really. The scroll gave one last notification (Thing 1: LOL, okay. I can take a hint. We won't bother you anymore. That means you Ed.) Amity put her scroll away and just... let herself enjoy a quiet moment, her fingers idly playing with Luz's hair. Life had gotten complicated since her human came into her life, and most certainly not in the typical ways of a girl in love. Her life became more like the cartoons she used to watch on the crystal ball. On one hand, the typical life issues were still something she just had to deal with; family issues, school, Grom and crushes, the occasional monster threat. Then there were days like today, where she found herself battling the head of the Emperor's Coven himself -- the same Coven she once thought she wanted to join -- to keep her girlfriend and the new family that came with her safe. They were the unofficial de facto faces of the Revolution, and had done more damage to the Emperor and his coven than any other group, including the BATs, much as most of them would never admit it.

And yet. 

She wouldn't trade it for anything. She was happy. How long had she gone without being happy before Luz basically fell backwards into her life?

Lilith, enjoying a cup of tea on one of the smaller chairs, chuckled, bringing Amity back to the present. "Apologies," she said. "I've just never seen her sleep like that so early in the day. Even after a day like today." She stopped in thought for a moment. "Especially after a day like today."

Amity shrugged. "It only happens when she lets herself calm down and sit still for more than five minutes. You can guess how often that happens." She cast a fond look down at her girlfriend's sleeping face. "I think she burns up more energy than the rest of us just... existing, but tends to not realize how much she's gone through until it's too late."

"Do you think that's a human thing or a Luz thing?" Lilith asked, curiosity in her voice. 

"It's almost certainly a Luz thing."

The front door slammed open as Eda came barging in, already mid-conversation on her scroll. "Of course I had to, Rainestorm, they went after my kids," she was saying in irritation. "Don't act like you wouldn't've done the same. ... Well it's not my fault you guys are stuck up on the Knee, you're the one that insisted..." And she vanished into the kitchen.

Lilith rolled her eyes, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips, and Amity shared a chuckle, then the two fell back into a comfortable silence for a couple minutes, snippets of Eda's argument drifting into the room. 

Then, apropos of nothing, Luz sat straight up (sending King sprawling with a "Weh!") and shrieked in a way that caused both Amity and Lilith to jump in fright and Eda to charge into the room in concern. "What? What is it? What's going on?" the Owl Lady asked.

The look on Luz's face was, in a word, haunted. "I was your crush during Grom last year," she said, her tone equally haunted.

There was a brief moment of silence, then Eda started cackling. Lilith hid her amusement by taking a draft from her cup, and Amity managed to keep hers down to a small snort as she brought her scroll back out to take a picture of Luz's expression (She then took a second one when said expression changed to a cute little put-upon pout that may or may not be going straight to her desktop background.) "Yes," she said, mostly keeping her voice from cracking. "You were."

Luz covered her face with both hands as she flopped dramatically back onto Amity's lap. Amity couldn't be one hundred percent sure, but she thought she heard a muffled but disgusted "That's what friends do" from behind the hands covering Luz's face.

This time Amity did laugh.

King crawled back onto the couch, but was obviously a bit disgruntled. "You couldn't have waited another week and a half?" he asked. He flopped onto Luz's stomach. "Months of forcing myself not to even say the word Grom, poof! Nothing to show for it."

Luz removed her hands from her face and looked at King in confusion, "¿qué?"

Amity, having found the file on her scroll she was looking for, called back to Eda. "Hey, Eda. Tell Raine they won the bet."

Eda, who had calmed down a bit, brought the scroll back to her ear. "Sorry about that, babe. Just the kids being the kids. Good news! You won the Grom bet, so now you have to find time to come down and visit."

"Wait," Luz said, horror dawning on her face. "There was a betting pool on this? And Raine was in on it? We didn't even know them when Grom happened."

Eda snorted. "Yeah, like I wouldn't have told 'em this story. It's hilarious. And adorable. Hilaridorable."

Amity was trying to be a good girlfriend by not laughing further at Luz's misfortune. She was failing. "Luz, hon, everyone was in on it. Boscha was in on it." She pointed at a name and number on her scroll.  "And I'm about eighty percent sure that this one's a pseudonym and burner scroll for the Golden Guard."

Luz covered up her face again and groaned. Amity, her giggles now under control, started poking at the hands hiding Luz's face. "Hey. Hey Dork. Look at me."

Luz parted her hands like a pair of curtains and gave a pained look up at Amity, who took the opportunity to lean down and kiss her right on the lips. It was a quick kiss (they were in public and that was still a little embarrassing, plus their positioning wasn't great) but given the stunned look on Luz's face when they separated, the point got through. Amity grinned, despite the heat she could feel in her own face. "Love you."

The next thing she knew Luz had sprung up and wrapped her in a mighty bear hug (and King found himself face first on the floor again). "Love you, too," Luz said, as Amity returned the hug.

"And that's my cue," Eda said. "I'm getting outta here before you two rot my fangs out."

"You love us," Luz called back, the grin clear in her voice.

"Uh-huh," Eda replied noncommittally as she retreated back to the kitchen.

"You do realize," Amity added before she could stop herself, "that was a positive affirmation."

"Uh-huh."

King scrambled up to his feet to go after Eda. "Wait, take me with you. I can't take 'em when they're like this."

Luz had separated from Amity with a grin on her face. "Sounds like someone's jealous about hug time again."

"Wait, no I --" And then Luz sprung from the couch and tackled the little demon, before lifting him up in a snuggly hug of his own "I never consented to this! Unhand me woman! Eda heeelp!"

Amity took another picture as Luz continued to snuggle King and King continued to struggle to get out of it (or pretended to in any event). 

Still exhausting. Still worth it.

 

~*~

He was silent as he sat on his perch on the Rib, his little red Palisman snuggling into the crook of his arm. On one hand he felt foolish. The fact that Uncle hid his loss of magic, along with the improvement of his condition, shouldn't rattle him like this. Uncle kept a lot of things secret. That was the purview of the Emperor after all. But, after years and years of lies both grand and small, little abuses and big alike, he had apparently hit -- what was the phrase? -- the straw that broke the giraffe's back. 

So now, here he was, sitting and stewing on one of the dead zones of the Isles, waiting for an answer to come to him. He knew the time was fast approaching for him to make a decision; he couldn't continue to be loyal to the Emperor while continuing to give one of his biggest enemies slack, nor could he continue to think of Luz as a... friend, while still clinging to the Emperor and the Coven. 

He'd say he was deliberating for hours, but in truth, it had been months. And finally, finally, he made a decision. He stood up, Palisman on one shoulder, artificial staff in one hand. Without so much as a word, he threw the staff as far as his rather respectable throwing arm could throw it, and the Palisman turned into a staff in his hand. Then he vanished in a burst of gold energy. 

 

Notes:

3/20/22: I swore that I wouldn't let anything from season 2B affect the story, since it has been long finished. Then Amity started calling Luz "sweet potato" in Spanish, and I HAD to include that, so I replaced the three instances of "amor" with "batata". Why? Why are they so adorable?