New Skin (Redux)

by Gakriel_Lvs, Mr_Nomnomnom, SnootSnootBasilisk

Summary:

Taking place after the Echoes of the Past, Luz is awoken from a nightmare unlike any other to discover her arm covered in scales. As the human struggles to contain her new affliction, she will learn just how far she's willing to go to protect her friends and family. Will Luz find a cure in time, or will her soul be forfeit to the monster inside?

Notes:

Takes place after Season 2 Episode 3: Echoes of the Past

Chapter 1: Affliction's Beginning

 

Luz’s leg muscles burned as she ran down halls of the Owl House, pumping the cool air of the home in and out of her lungs in deep, ragged breaths. Ahead, she could see the hallways were pitch black with only patches of green carpet illuminated by pale, silver light. From behind she heard the hissing and growling of the creature that had been chasing her through the house, it was getting closer. Luz had been running for what seemed like hours through hallways,  up and down stairs, looking for help. A way out.  However, such things eluded her. All she found were more empty pathways for her to be chased through.

“Eda! King! Lilith! Hooty! Help!” she cried out for the umpteenth time as she turned a corner, but her pleas for assistance were met with only more hisses and snarls. If she doesn't do something quick it will be on her any second!

Luz whipped her head from side to side, looking for anything to assist her. She spotted a vase sitting on a hallway table to her left. Thinking quickly, she grabbed it and spun on her heel to aim at whatever was chasing her. From what little the moonlight revealed, she could make out it was a snake of some kind. A BIG snake. A snake with glowing, yellow eyes,white fangs and…arms? A basilisk! How did it get inside? Did it get Eda? Did it hurt King?

Luz shook her head as more and more questions entered her brain. She can think of that later. What mattered now subduing the beast.

“Take this!” she yelled at it as she hurled the ceramic as hard as she could. It howled in pain as the vase shattered right in its face, the moment of confusion causing its serpentine body to tumble over itself. The creature tried to uncoil itself but all it did was tie itself up into knots.

“Bullseye!”  She yelled confidently. “And now to tie you up!” Luz reached into her pocket, grabbed her trusty pencil, and began to sketch a large plant glyph on the nearby wall. Even with her heart racing and her mind buzzing with adrenaline, she recreated every circle, line, and arch perfectly from memory.

“Now eat this, sucka!” she proclaimed, slamming down on the arcane drawing. The glyph glowed with green light, drawing strength from the Boiling Isles itself. Luz couldn’t help but smile as she watched as plant life begin to spring forth from the mystical symbol. Soon vines ensnare her opponent and she could finally relax. Victory! But just as soon as it started the glow of the glyph began to ebb, the light grew dimmer and dimmer until all that remained was a pencil drawing with little sprouts erupting from drywall. 

“W-what?”Luz’s voice faltered, her heart  deep in her stomach as she stared at the dead glyph. She stammered in confusion as her confidence swiftly flipped to dread. She pounded on the glyph once more, but no plant life came to her aid. 

“No no no, this can’t be happening!” she cried out. Why isn’t it working? Isn’t she on the Isles? 

Luz gripped her pencil tightly, ready to make another glyph when a sudden growl caused her blood to freeze and her body hair to bristle. In her moments of dread following the glyphs failure, she had failed to realize the creature had  uncoiled itself, leaving it free and mere feet away from her. Without even looking she took a step back and turned to run once again, only to fall right on her face. 

A shot of pain erupted from Luz’s nose the moment it slammed into the ground as her head swam from the impact. She stayed like that for a few seconds, unable to get her bearings until a snarl brought her out of her stupor. She whipped her head back to see the beast had wrapped its tail around her ankle.“I’m dead” she whispered to herself as the snake began to jerkily pull her closer to it.

“No! Let me go!” she screamed in terror as she kicked at the tail, but it was no use: the appendage refused to loosen its grip,  tightening even more and eliciting yelps of pain from the human. She gave one final kick at the tail as she was pulled directly under its large, scaly body. Hot drool dripped down from its mouth and splattering across Luz’ face, earning a dry heave from her. 

“Leave me alone!” She shouted, her eyes narrowed as she punched at its body. She wasn’t going to just let herself get eaten! She’s Luz Noceda, apprentice to the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles!

Luz continued to whack at the snake demon, hoping it would cause it to loosen its grip on her foot; then she could run away and think of a plan. But it didn’t loosen its grip. Instead, it swiftly grabbed her arms and pinned them above her head, earning a hiss of pain from the human as she felt her wrists being squeezed. The beast lowered its face towards hers and Luz could see now that the thing that had been chasing her for hours had now taken her likeness.

The other Luz smiled and for a second the human felt a bit of relief. But that relief swiftly flipped to horror as she watched the smile continue to grow bigger and bigger, showing off razor-sharp fangs as the ends of the Luz-thing’s mouth reached its ears. 

“Please, stop.” the girl begged right before the almost-Luz opened its wide mouth and chomped down on her head.

Luz bolted upright in her sleeping bag, screaming at the top of her lungs. Her eyes darted all around, attempting to make sense of her surroundings. Everything bled into each other and even shapes were hard to discern, even in the light of the morning sun. Luz felt like she was close to being pulled back into that nightmare and that realization made her scream even harder.

“Don’t fear, Hooty is here!” the house demon proclaimed as it smashed the window and caused Luz to shriek at a level only canine demons could hear.

“What happened! Are we under attack?” Eda exclaimed, kicking the door wide open, her staff in hand and ready to fight off anyone stupid enough to attack her human student.

“Eda…I….I….” Luz tried to call out but her words stuck to her throat like glue so all she could give was whine. Eda frowned as she saw the pained look on her apprentice’s face.

“King!” she yelled down the hall.

“What?” said small demon shot back.

“Grab a glass of water and bring it to Luz’s room.” Eda instructed before looking at the bird tube.”And Hooty, clean up that mess. Luz isn’t in danger.”

“On it!” Hooty shouted happily before shoving the shattered glass in his enlarged mouth and carrying it outside to be vomited out safely.

The witch shook her head in resignation at the house demon’s antics before then turning back to her human charge. Luz had now pressed her knees to her chest as she shivered from the cold sweat that now blanketed her body. It felt disgusting to her but right now she didn’t have the energy to change clothes. 

Eda slowly made her way to the girl and sat beside her, wrapping her arm around Luz’s shoulder to help calm the poor thing down. 

“Kid, listen to me. It’s ok. It was just a nightmare. Just breathe, ok?” Eda said as the girl took her teacher’s advice and began to take steady, controlled breaths. Her mind was still reeling from the horribly nighttime vision, but each inhale the world became less cloudy and more defined.

“I’ve got the water!” King called out as he made his way to Luz and handed the glass to her. Luz looked at the water for a moment before tilting the glass back and chugging the water down, the cool sensation of it pouring down her throat allowing her to gradually escape the grip of terror that had seized her mind not too long ago. 

“Much better.” Luz said with a contented sigh as she wiped her arm across her mouth, the last of the fear having now left her. “Thanks King.”

“Of course! A good king doesn’t let his subjects suffer! Only the ones that rise against him!”  the demon boasted. Luz couldn’t help but giggle.

Eda smiled for a moment at the heartwarming interaction before turning back to Luz, her brow wrinkled in worry.

“Kid, mind telling us what happened? I’ve never heard you scream like that before.” she inquired.

The girl looked up at Eda with exhausted eyes. “I-I don’t know,” she stammered. “I was having a dream. At least, I think it was a dream. It felt so real. I was being chased by a basilisk and when it got close it…it….” Luz sighed and put her head on her knees, groaning in frustration as she failed to find the right words to express her horror.

Eda sighed and began patting Luz’s back.

“Well, you’re safe now. Besides, basilisks are extinct. I mean, except for the one that attacked the school.” Eda replied, trying her best to assure the girl of her safety, though Luz’s side eye revealed she wasn’t quite hitting the mark. “Anyways, you probably just ate something weird. You didn’t eat something you couldn’t digest again, did you?”

Luz shook her head. “Not that I remember.”

“Well, that’s good at least. I don’t think you want a repeat of the crabapple incident, even if it was pretty funny.” Eda snorted. 

Luz shuddered as she recalled Eda and King had told her she thought she was a “crab maiden” for several hours and they even took a video of her crab walking!

Eda gave one final pat on the back before standing up and stretching, her aching joints finally popping into place.

“Well, you just rest here for a bit if you need to before you shower. I'm gonna start breakfast in the meantime. Come on King.” The witch bent down to scoop up the little demon in her arms before exiting the room.

Taking her mentor’s advice, Luz stayed in her room for a bit to gather herself. Occasionally she would scratch her arm and take deep, steadying  breaths.  

“Ok Luz, time to seize the day.” she remarked, psyching herself up as she got up to take her shower and get ready for school.

Thirty minutes later, the smell of scrambled griffin eggs and gore bacon greeted Luz as the freshly-cleaned human made her way downstairs in her Hexside uniform. Thanks to her  inability to digest most things on the Boiling Isles her breakfast choices were limited to eggs and bacon or cereal. This caused her to eventually get used to the smells of the food but today her olfactory senses went into overdrive, the smell of the sizzling meat and eggs making her drool a bit as she entered the kitchen.

“Hey Luz.” Eda greeted the girl. 

“Hey guys.” She greeted back with a hand wave.  Luz took another sniff of the food. “Wow, that smells really good. Working on a new recipe?”

Eda shrugged her shoulders. “Just the usual obsidian pepper and boiling sea salt. You take a seat and I’ll get breakfast on the table soon.”

“Ok.” Luz responded as she sat down. She then turned to the little demon currently drawing something.

“Whatcha got there, King?” she asked her little tyrant.

“Just a drawing,” he answered before showing off his latest creation, “It’s you, me, and Eda standing over the bodies of our enemies!” 

True to his words the crude crayon drawing showed Eda and Luz standing beside King wear and crown and cape, three of them holding hands while  happily standing over a mountain of dead witches and demons.

Luz  smiled and rubbed the little guy’s  head. 

“Wow, that looks really good King!  Here, I’ll put it on the fridge.”

King squealed in delight as Luz took the drawing and stuck it on the fridge with a magnet right below the grocery list. 

“Alright kids, time to eat.” Eda called out as she set two plates on the table. The aroma of the breakfast wafted into Luz’s nostrils again as her stomach gave a loud growl in response, earning a raised eyebrow from the old witch.

“Hungry?” Eda chuckled.

Luz’s face turned as red as a screamato as she quickly made her way back to her seat.

“Y-yea, something like that.” she stammered as she grabbed her fork and began to fill her mouth with Eda’s cooking. The moment the gooey eggs touched her tongue it felt her taste buds went into overdrive, the sensation of the food filling her entire body with joy.  King and Eda watched in horror and amusement as the girl ravenously scarfed down her food, digging into it with a ferocity they had never seen her display before.  Eda could even swear she heard Luz growling at her meal as she held the plate up to her face to dump the remaining meat and eggs into her mouth. After two minutes of watching the display of gluttony, Luz finally finished and set her plate down to rub her full stomach.

“That,” Luz sighed in contentment.“Was amazing.” 

“That was disturbing.” King shuddered.

“Are you ok Luz?” Eda asked as she took the plate and utensils from Luz to place in the sink. “You’ve been acting a bit off today- And why do you keep scratching your arm?”

“I…what?” Luz asked, confused. She looked down and just like Eda said, she was scratching her arm “I guess I’m itchy.” Luz lifted up her sleeve to get a better angle to scratch when she paused upon catching sight of what had been the cause. 

There, extending from her elbow to halfway down her arm, was a patch of brown and white scales. To Luz’s eye they seemed to be quite smooth and looked identical to the scales of snakes back home.

“Eda, what  is this?” Luz gulped, the look of the scales reminding her of the basilisk in her nightmare.

Eda hmmmmed to herself as she inspected Luz’s arm, rubbing her thumb over the scales and noting their texture, She  leaned closer and gave them a sniff. She even began to pick at them but quickly stopped when she saw the human wincing in pain. 

“You sure you didn’t eat anything new or weird?” the witch asked. 

Luz nodded

“Did you run into any skin badgers? I know some witches are allergic to their dandruff.” 

Another nod. 

“I think I might have something to help.” Eda said as she turned and went to the fridge, opening the door to rummage inside. “Got it!” she exclaimed as she stood back up with a potion bottle in her hand, an emerald-colored liquid swirling inside. 

“Here, drink this” Eda instructed as she handed Luz the potion. “It helps with dry and itchy skin. My snake demon customers love it for when they have a bad shed.”

Luz gulped down the potion, gagging at the liquid’s horrid taste.

“Blegh!”

The girl looked down at her arm and to her dismay saw that her scales were still there.

“Eda, it isn’t working.” She whimpered slightly as she handed the empty potion bottle back to the witch.

“Calm down. It won’t work instantly, it’s a regiment.” Eda reassured her charge as she pulled out three more potion bottles, each filled with the same emerald-colored solution. “Take one of these every couple of hours and your skin should go back to how it was by the end of the day. Also, these have to be refrigerated so see if the school healer Miss Althea there can let you store them there while you’re at school. If she refuses, tell her I know about the broom closet incident.”

“Thanks Eda.” Luz said as she got up and hugged the witch. Eda instinctively stiffened before relaxing and patting the girl’s back. 

“Sure thing kiddo” Eda said with a soft smile. “Now, let’s get you to school.”

Luz nodded and went upstairs to grab her bookbag. Once she had it she returned back downstairs and patted King on the head again before making her way out the backdoor to where Eda was waiting for her on Owlbert.

“Here,” Eda said, holding up the potion bottles with a thick string attached to each bottle neck. “Attach these to your uniform belt..”

“You’re the best.” Luz said as she looped the strings around her uniform belt, securing them on her person.

“And don’t you forget it!” the witch boasted. Luz couldn’t help but giggle at seeing how confident Eda still was, even after losing her magic. “Now let’s get going. I don’t want to get a crow about how you were late today.”

Luz climbed onto Owlbert and held onto the witch as they sped off into the sky towards Hexside. The trip itself was relatively uneventful as Luz usually talked during the flight and right now her mind was occupied by the scales and the nightmare. When they dropped down in front of the main entrance Luz could already see her friends Gus, Willow, and Amity waving at her 

“Thanks Eda.” Luz thanked her mentor as she got off the staff.

“Sure thing. You have a good day, ok?” Eda said as she patted the girl’s head.

“I will. See you after school!” She called to the witch as she watched Eda fly off to go back home. Once Eda was gone Luz turned back to her friends and ran up to meet them. 

“Hey guys!” She greeted her witch friends.

“Hey Luz!” Willow and Gus greeted back almost simultaneously. 

“Good Morning Luz” Amity acknowledged.

“How are you?” Willow asked with a smile.

“Oh, I’m doing good! Yesterday King, Lilith, Eda, and I managed to find a tower in the Boiling Seas. It looks like that’s where King was born!” 

“That’s awesome Luz! You need to tell us all about it!” Gus requested enthusiastically.

“Sorry Gus, maybe during lunch. Right now I need to get these to Miss Periwinkle so they can be refrigerated. They’re for my rash.” Luz apologized as she motioned to the potion bottles swinging from her hip. 

“A rash? Human rash? Show me show me!" Gus begged, his eyes lighting up in fascination. Despite no longer being the president of the Human Appreciation Society, the young illusionist was still fascinated with everything involving humans and their culture. A chuckle escaped from Luz’s mouth at the sight of him bouncing on his heels in eagerness.

"Ok, but only a bit." Luz relented. She just couldn’t say no to him. She pulled up her sleeve but winced as the fabric caught on some of the scales in the process, causing a number of  them to be ripped off. Droplets of crimson swelled up from where her blood vessels were exposed to the air before gravity took over and they rolled down her arm to drip onto the stone school stairs.

"Luz!" The witch trio cried out in worry. They approached their human companion to help her but Luz held her hand up to stop them.

"It's ok, it's just a little blood" Luz said as she smiled, trying to not make her friends fret. However, her attempts at levity failed to change the troubled looks on her witchy pals' faces

“Come here, Luz. I got something for this.”  Willow instructed as she motioned Luz to approach her as she pulled out a small, violet seed from her uniform pocket. She then twirled her finger in a circle over the seed, the telltale green light of plant magic being cast trailing behind her digit. Once her spell circle was complete a thin, pastel purple vine grew from the seedling, the tip of the vine shooting straight up before succumbing to gravity and landing in Willow's palm, forming a coil as more of the vine sprouted. Once a good amount of the vine was gathered in her hand she stopped the spell and the vine's growth froze as the main coil was disconnected from the main plant. 

"Hold out your arm for me." She advised. Luz did as she was told and Willow wrapped the pretty vine around the human's arm like a bandage wrap, making sure the vine was directly over the wound. Within a few seconds Luz's blood stopped coming out.

"Wow! That's amazing, Willow!"  Luz exclaimed as she studied her new botanical bandage.

The plant witch couldn’t help but smile as she tied the ends of the vine in a pretty bow to make sure it stayed in place.

"No problem Luz. It's a Blood-Clotting Vine from the Right Arm. It should help with the bleeding, and it has sap that keeps it staying on tight. It also fights infections! Since none of us use healing magic I figured it would be a good idea to keep some of them on hand." Willow explained.

“Hey Luz, I’m sorry I asked you to show the rash.” Gus apologized with a low whine. “I didn’t think it would cause you pain.”

“It’s okay Gus.” Luz reassured the boy. “Besides, now I have this awesome vine on my arm!” Luz stood proudly as she showed off her botanical bandage, acting like a video game character that just got a cool item. Amity couldn’t help but smile gently at the camaraderie before her.

“Now, I need to go to Miss Periwinkle to drop these off. Later taters!” Luz said enthusiastically as she turned and entered the house of learning. 

Luz went down various hallways and rounded corners to make her way to the Healer’s Office. She had just made it past the second year Beast Keeping class when a grugby ball flew through the air and slammed into the living locker in front of her, eliciting a yelp from the human. The locker opened its singular eye and let out a ferocious roar before another ball slammed right into that ocular spot, causing the living object to vomit out the various textbooks inside its cavity before falling unconscious. Luz whipped her head in the direction the ball was thrown from and saw none other than Boscha: Hexside Grudgby Captain, potions student, and bane of Willow's and Luz's school life.

"Hey, what was that for?" Luz shouted at the triclops. Those things may have a habit of making her fight for her schoolbooks but she still enjoyed them and they didn’t deserve to be treated like that!

"Oh don't get your faeries in a bunch, it'll be fine. Better than you'll be, actually." Boscha asserted, her lips pulled into a smug grin.

Luz narrowed her eyes and frowned.

"What do you want, Boscha? Don't you have potions class to go to?"

Suddenly, a jolt of pain shot up her arm from where the rash was situated

  “Great, now what?” Luz thought as she hissed and looked down at the offending appendage. Unfortunately, that momentary distraction gave Boscha enough time to run up to Luz and slam both of her hands to either side of the multi-track student, trapping the girl between the locker and the triclops. Luz didn’t have time to deal with Boscha today and pulled out a plant glyph out, intending to use it to entangle Boscha in vines until the hothead cooled off.

"Danger!"

Luz cried out as she heard the word go off in her skull like a fireball spell, her eyes squinting from the pain. She gripped her forehead and whipped her head side to side with one eye open to see what direction she heard it from, expecting to see a fellow student or a teacher that she could call for help but she saw no one; the hallway was just as empty as it had been before. Luz didn't have time to question what she heard as Boscha slammed her hands into the lockers again, scaring the human and causing her to lock her open eye with the triclops. 

Luz’s heart hammered in her chest as her head began to feel warm and fuzzy, like liquid static was coating her thoughts. She shook her head to try and clear the mental fog but all it did was make her more dizzy. The human’s lungs seized up and her breath hitched in her throat. Luz’s mind began to race; she couldn't understand what was happening. She's been in far more danger before, so why was she panicking now? 

Boscha smirked in smug amusement at the sight of Luz devolving into a state of hysteria.

"Wow, you're such a Luz-er." the witch taunted. "No one wants you here, human. Seriously, how can you even attend when you can't do magic? Glyphs? Anyone can write some magical symbols on paper. It's nothing special. And neither are you."

"Boscha, please, stop!" Luz begged, forcing each word from her mouth like they were great weights. She could feel strength being sapped from her every second as her limbs grew numb and heavy. Luz suddenly squeaked in surprise as her legs grew too weak to support her body and she slid down to the cold tile floor.

Hungry!

Danger!

Consume!

Each word continued to ring out like fireworks in her brain, pain reverberating through her skull as tears pricked her eyes. Boscha bent down and roughly grabbed Luz's scaly arm, making the human wince as more lightning bolts of white-hot agony radiated down her arm from the scales. The bully pulled the multi-track student's sleeve back, watching as the scales spread further and further, Luz's fingers looking skinnier as her fingernails seemed to grow pointier.

"Luz, are you ok? Come on, it was just a little bit of teasing." Boscha asked, her tone now heavy with a surprising amount of concern. "You don't look good. Wait here! I'll go get a teacher!" Boscha then turned on her heel and ran away from the languishing human.

But Luz barely acknowledged the witch’s absence as she continued to hold her palms against her head, her skull pounding like she was in the middle of a Construction Coven site.  

“Stop. Stop. Please, stop!” Luz pleaded out loud with the mysterious voice but it would not abide, continuing to scream at her as molten pain flowed through her body. She cried out as she felt her body changing; organs shifting, bones combining, splitting, and reforming. The girl tried to crawl, tried to get away, to get someone. A teacher, a classmate, her friends, anyone. But her legs would not work.

Feed!'

The pain caused by her affliction continued to grow in intensity, now a boiling, searing inferno that filled her entire body. Her agony finally reached a crescendo as she raised her head and gave one last intake of air before releasing a primal scream of pain and suffering that echoed throughout the halls, grabbing the attention of everyone that heard it. Now devoid of any strength and unable to keep her head supported anymore Luz collapsed onto the tiled floor, her head smacking into the cold linoleum with a sickening crack as she slipped into unconsciousness.

 

 

Chapter 2: Status of me and the story

Chapter by SnootSnootBasilisk

Hi everyone. I want to give you all an update on my story since it's been going on two months since I posted the last chapter and I promised bi-weekly updates.

The truth is I underestimated just how stressful Christmas shopping would be. I work in retail and things were so bad on my mental health that I had to slip into my headspace almost everyday that month just to keep my sanity. Unfortunately, it appears it wasn't enough as I had done something....stupid. I won't go into details as I don't want to post any trigger warnings, and I'm ok, but it did leave a lasting impression on me.

I thought that I would be able to get back into it when the New Year came but I discovered an issue I didn't even realize: I am horrible with original content. If there's an episode or something I could retell, then I can go along with it and just make the necessary changes. But when it comes to original content I am left floundering. At this point I have been forced to write lore, timelines, plot outlines, etc just to keep everything straight in Chapter 2.

So, where does this leave us? Is this my way of saying that it's too hard and going to give up? Well, no. I am not giving up on this. I know it's going to be hard, but I promise I'm going to do my best to finish this. It is going to take awhile to complete though. I'm currently transitioning some of my editors, beta readers, etc., and I am about halfway through my 1st rough draft of Chapter 2. I am hoping to have it done by the end of the month.

To those of you that are looking forward to the next chapter, I just want to say I thank you for your patience and I hope to be able to give you a story you will find enjoyable to the end.

NOTE: if you want to offer your services as an idea person/beta reader, feel free to hit me up on Discord. Username is SnootSnootBasilisk

Notes:

Thank you all for reading! I can't wait to share more of this fic with you! It took awhile to rewrite this to the level that you guys deserve. After reading what I had posted the first time I realized that my writing was half-assed and you guys deserve better quality than that.

I would like to thank my beta readers, my fiance, Hairy_Comedian9630, Gakriel_Lvs, and Mr_Nomnomnom. Each other them provided their own unique perspective that allowed me to improve my writing.

Now, what kind of timetable are we looking at for this fic? Because of the higher level of writing and great amount of beta reading and rewriting, plus a Titan!Luz fic I have in the works, I am expecting these chapters to be posted every 2 weeks.

I hope you all enjoy this revival of my fic and as always, please comment on what you think! The more perspectives I have, the better!