"Fortify!" the white knight proclaimed as he finished surgery. He rolled Amity's legging back down to her ankle and rose to his feet. She was lying beneath him, still unconscious. Luz only got a slight glimpse of the thin pink scar that remained from her treatment. The knight bent down and picked Amity up from the ground, offering her to Luz.
"Fortify." he stated.
"Oh, um, thanks." Luz replied, outstretching her arms. The knight gently placed Amity in her arms before promptly returning to his comrades.
Luz stared at her unconscious friend, feeling a twinge of guilt for the trauma she had just suffered, in addition to the damage laden to Bonesborough.
"Captain!" she heard a deep voice boom in the distance, "This location has been secured. What are your orders?"
"Cadia requests reinforcements," another voice commanded, "And the Imperial Fists shall not leave them wanting! Back to the door, brothers! None shall destroy Cadia on our watch!"
"Fortify!" the soldiers cheered. They quickly resumed formation in the town square and marched back to the Owl House in an orderly fashion.
"Well, guess that how we'll find our way home." Luz said to herself before following the Imperial fists in a healthy jog, taking care not to jostle Amity around too much.
Her jog soon revved up into an intense sprint, however, as she realized the true speed the Adeptus Astartes were capable of.
"How the heck are they so quick?" Luz silently thought to herself, huffing and puffing with every step, "I doubt I could keep up even if I wasn't carrying someone. Ugh, well it can't be much further." She took a brief look at Amity, making sure she wasn't knock her around too much.
"Hm…" Luz thought, "I wonder what she's dreaming about."
Meanwhile, in Amity's dream…
"I'm gonna be the greenest Luz ever!" Luzuku Midoria proudly proclaimed, raising her fist in the air. Her moment of triumph was cut short, however, as another hero jumped into frame.
"F**k you, Dekuceda! Who gave you your quirk?! WRYYYYYYYYYY!" Amity Blightugo screamed to the heavens.
"Titan, you are such a deep character…" Luzuku offhandedly pointed out.
Blightugo raced towards Luzuku, and upon reaching her hoisted her into the air by the collar of her uniform.
"LOVE ME!"
Meanwhile back in reality…
"BWAH!" Amity cried, violently waking up in Luz's arms.
"Huh, hi Amity!" Luz wheezed, "I think, huh, we're almost… oh thank goodness!"
Luz came to a sudden halt. Shortly ahead of them, she and Amity could see the Owl House, perfectly restored. The space marines Luz had been pursuing march through the front door, chanting "Fortify!" the entire way. Luz fell to her knees, taking deep breath as sweat gathered on her brow.
"I'm sorry, Amity," Luz started, "But, huh, could you stand up now? I kind of need a minute."
"Luz, I can't…" Amity stopped as she noticed the lack of a cast on her leg. She gently bent her knee and felt no resistance or pain, understanding that her broken bone must have been fully healed. She slowly made got back onto her feet, being sure to shift most of her weight to the other leg just to be sure. Once standing upright she could tell that the use of her once-broken leg had been returned.
"I'm okay…" Amity whispered, "Wait, Luz, what happened back there? How long was I out?"
"Just… one second." Luz rasped, hunched over and gasping for breath, "Just… really tired."
"Here." Amity said, reaching her hand out to Luz, "I don't think I could carry you but... I can at least prop you up."
A helplessly nervous grin and luminescent blush covered Amity's face. Luz, finally feeling refreshed enough to at least stand, could help but smile at the friendly offer. She took Amity's hand and slowly rose to her feet, her legs gently shaking from exhaustion. Amity wrapped Luz's left arm around her shoulder and wrapped her right arm around Luz's waist. Amity led them towards the front door of the Owl House, refusing to make eye contact with Luz as her face remained flushed with red.
"Luz! Amity!" a shrill voice shouted from the house. The owl-tube that was Hooty stretched from the front door, stopping mere inches away from the duo.
"You guys would not believe the day I've had!" Hooty began, "Some guy destroyed the house, and then a bunch of other guys forcibly put me back together! The pain was agonizing and the experience will haunt me for years! Hoot-hooty-hoot!"
"Hooty, I was there for half of that," Luz dryly responded, "And Eda told me about the other half."
"Oh hey!" Hooty exclaimed, ignoring Luz's comment, "Guess what those guys that fixed the house gave me!"
Hooty's head turned towards the sky and stretched upwards. He opened his beak and grunted as a growing, electric sound hummed from his gullet.
"BWAAAAAAAAAAH!" Hooty shouted as a beam of cyan light shot from his gaping maw, briefly filling the sky with light. The beam stopped after a brief second, but the sight left Amity and Luz with their mouths agape in shock.
"Pretty cool, huh?" Hooty rhetorically asked, his head sinking back down to their level, "Those guys called it a 'volkite cannon.' None of the other birds will fly in my territory now!"
"That's, uh, great." Amity stammered, hoping he didn't remember their first encounter, "But, uh, Luz really needs to sit down and rest, so we're just going to head inside, okay?"
"Okay!" Hooty excitedly screeched. His body rapidly shrank back into the front door of the house, which opened shortly thereafter. Amity continued to help bring Luz towards the door, but after a moment Willow and Gus's heads popped out from the sides of the doorframe. Seeing their friends, the two excitedly rushed through the door.
"Luz! Amity!" the duo excitedly cried. Willow came to Luz's right side and wrapped her other arm around her shoulder, assisting Amity with her burden.
"Amity, they fixed your leg?" Gus asked.
"They?" Amity further inquired.
"Oh, wait… you were sleeping through that part." Gus started, "Yeah, so, apparently Vulkan came through one of Eda's portal doors, like Luz. Luz left the door open, and a bunch of other guys came through and fixed the city. One of them was a doctor or something and fixed your leg."
"Wait, those huge guys? In the yellow armor?" a shocked Amity asked, "Why would they help us?"
"I dunno," Gus shrugged, "But they seemed really determined to fix all of the buildings in Bonesborough."
"But why did one of them perform surgery on me?!" a growingly belligerent Amity asked.
"I honestly don't know." Gus admitted, "Willow and I weren't sure about the whole thing. But Luz seemed to trust the guy. She told us to come back heal while she waited for you to get better."
Amity's eyes widened and irises shrunk as blood rushed once again to her face.
"R – Really, Luz?" she sheepishly asked.
Luz, slowly regaining her strength, rose in stature as the group approached the Owl House. She turned her head to Amity with a small smile emitting an innocent and supportive glow.
"Of course I did," she cheerily replied, "That's what friends do!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Amity screamed internally. She turned her head away from Luz so as to hide her flustered expression.
The group continued to lug Luz until they had made it through the doorway. Upon doing so Hooty promptly shut the door. Lilith was sitting on the couch, staring unsurely at the floor and twiddling her thumbs, before seeing what we might as well call her adopted niece enter the room.
"Luz!" Lilith exclaimed as she leaped off of the couch, "Is she okay? Here, bring her here!" she insisted, gesturing to the couch.
Amity and Willow gently sat Luz down and Lilith hurriedly sat next to her. She gripped Luz's head with one hand and turned it towards her while using the other to pry Luz's eyelids open.
"Luz, how do you feel? Tired? Disoriented? Oh, Titan, are you concussed? Eda is going to kill me!"
"Lilith!" Luz said, swiping Lilith's hands from her face, "I'm fine! I just had to carry Amity most of the way here, so I'm a little out of it."
"Oh, thank goodness!" Lilith sighed.
"Wait…" Luz pondered, "Where is Eda? She came back here with you guys, right?"
"She's downstairs," Willow replied, "She wanted to make sure that portal-door was properly locked before anything else came through. Considering all of those armored guys got here just a few seconds ago she's probably had to start locking it all over again."
"And what about Vulkan?" Luz further inquired.
"Are you seriously concerned about him?" Lilith asked, "After he tried to kill us? After he declared war on the Boiling Isles?"
"Well…" Willow interjected, "Amity so of, um, killed him?"
"What? Amity, thank Titan!" Lilith exclaimed as she applauded the child, "I always knew I saw something in you!"
"Lilith…" Luz responded, "Remember when he first got here? He said how he died when he killed the Beast, but then came back to life…"
"Oh no…" Lilith murmured, clasping her temples, "We have to find him! If that psychopath is still on the loose who knows what…"
"Lilith!" Luz interrupted, "Who are we going to go to? None of us are on exactly good terms with Belos and the Emperor's Coven. Vulkan explained all of this to me: if he's killed, he'll resurrect somewhere, but at a random time and place. We have no way of knowing when or where he'll come back, and we don't really have anyone to ask for help."
"Well," Amity chimed in, "I could try to get help."
The group turned to Amity, shocked by the suggestion.
"Amity, we'd never ask you to do that." Luz insisted.
"Okay, but, hear me out," Amity answered, "Belos, his coven, and even my family don't know about us being friends." Amity paused and thought to herself for a moment, "Alright, maybe Edric and Emira, but after… whatever the heck Gus pulled at my house earlier they probably aren't on the best terms with my parents."
"Gus?" Luz interrupted, "What did you do?"
"Convinced the Blights that they stole money from Hexside." Gus proudly admitted, crossing his arms and grinning mischievously.
"Hehehe…" Luz helplessly giggled before regaining her composure, "But seriously, Amity, I don't want you to risk yourself for us!"
Amity walked towards the couch and kneeled before Luz, wrapping her hands around hers. She looked deep into Luz's eyes and spoke.
"For you guys, it's worth it." she said earnestly, "I think… I think things have gotten a lot better for us since you got here, Luz. I'm not worried, and I'm more than happy to help you out."
Luz's face reddened and eyes widened in reaction to the moment of sincerity from Amity. Lilith raised an eyebrow at the pair, while Willow suppressed the urge to giggle excitedly and Gus was just confused.
"Can I just do one thing before I go?" Amity asked.
"Um…" Luz started, still feeling somewhat shaken, "I mean, well, yeah, I guess?"
Wordlessly Amity pulled Luz towards her and quickly kissed her on the forehead. The moment was brief, and After Amity released Luz the two stared blankly at each other, each feeling a mixture of excitement, uncertainty, and a strange sort of comfort. As the emotions overwhelmed her, Amity quickly leapt to her feet and dashed out of the front door.
"I'm… uh… huzza…" Luz mumbled, rubbing her forehead in a state of utter perplexity.
"Ugh, finally!" Willow shouted, raising her fist in glorious triumph.