Chapter 1 – (Nobody's) Hero
2000
"Stop moving! You're making it worse!" Camilia yelled, her hands covered in blood as she attempted to clean around a bullet wound using a gauze with one hand and pressed the wound with the other one.
"Then stop putting too much pressure!" Eda yelled back, breathing heavily and gasping.
"Sure, I'll just let you bleed in your couch!" The orange haired woman growled in pain again as the hand on her stomach pressed even harder against her wound, but before she could complain again, she passed out.
Half an hour later, she woke up again, still feeling the pain on her belly. She looked down to see her wound now patched up, then her eyes moved to her side, where she saw the Latina woman cleaning up the coffee table where all her medical equipment was.
"Told you I wouldn't die from a simple bullet." She tried to sit, but was stopped by a wave of pain that was even worse than before.
"Don't move or I swear to god I will make you stitch yourself up again if you reopen the wound." The nurse spoke with anger on her voice, but it wasn't like other times where Eda knew she was just joking and the woman would be willing to help her again.
"Come on. It wasn't that bad. You know this is how things go. That's the job." She said as she moved in the couch to find a more comfortable position.
"No, that's not the job." Camilia answered, still mad. "I used to help you with minor injuries; A few cuts and scratches, not bullet holes. You need to stop this now, Eda. Without your magic…" The Latina spoke with worry on her voice now and she interrupted her before she could finish, trying to ease her concern.
"If I stop now, she will come back. Cartels and mafias are nothing compared to her and you know it. The city would burn just like it did two months ago." She took the nurse's hand in spite of the pain the movement caused her.
"You don't even know if she's still alive. No one does. That building burned to the ground." Camilia raised her voice but without yelling.
"And I'm still alive. No magic involved." She tried to sit again in spite of the pain and actually managed to do it, speaking again before the woman in front of her could say anything. "If I'm alive, I know she is. She took my magic, but hers was still there, even if it was dampened by the curse she used against me."
"Then let the police handle it. Your sister is about to become a detective, she can handle it just fine! You have to stop!" The short haired woman finally yelled again, tears pooling on her eyes.
"I can't stop. You know that." At her answer, the Latina let go of her hand and stood up from the coffee table she had been using as a chair.
"But I can." The woman took her bag filled with medical supplies and looked at her, a tear falling down her cheek. "I have a baby that I need to take care of by myself. I can't take this risk anymore."
"I understand." She nodded, saddened by the woman's words. "I can't ask you to help me and I'm really thankful for…" The nurse interrupted her with a sarcastic chuckle.
"Save it. You just have to accept that this is turning into a personal vendetta and maybe then you will stop too." Camilia started walking towards the door of her apartment while her words died in her mouth. "Next time you need help, tell King to call someone else." There was nothing she could say now. She could only look at the floor, nodding as if she had found some truth in the Latina's previous words. "I…" She turned to look at the woman as soon as the sound came out of her mouth, hope building on her chest. "I just hope I don't find out about your dead soon." And with that, she was out, leaving her there in pain that not only came from the bullet wound she had on her belly.
2021
Amity was looking at the newspaper on her hands while she drank a cup of coffee. The last coffee of her shift, a decaf one because she was about to go home and get some much needed sleep after all her work in that sixteen hour shift she had pulled off. Still, she liked the taste of coffee.
Yet, what she was reading on the paper was keeping her wide awake; The Owl Lady was on the front page. After twenty years of not hearing anything from her, everyone seemed to be ecstatic at her appearance, and she was one of them… kind of…
"Hey, mittens!" Her sister's voice took her out of her thoughts and she sighed in annoyance, dropping the paper on the table in front of her. "What are you doing here? Your shift is over and I heard captain Clawthorne gave you a couple free days for that successful raid you pulled off." Emira sat beside her, putting a paper bag on the table.
"I was about to leave. I just heard some guys talking about this…" She signaled the paper on the table. "And I needed to see what it was all about."
"Oh, yeah. I heard about it too." Her sister took out a sandwich from the paper bag and quickly gave it a bite.
"I think it might be a copycat." She took a sip from her almost cold cup of coffee. How long had she been there thinking about the article?
"Why? The 'troublemakers' became pretty famous recently, right? Maybe the Owl Lady got inspired again because of it." Emira spoke with her mouth full, something she hated deeply but decided not to comment on it.
"There have been vigilantes before them and she didn't come back. Besides, if this is the original Owl Lady, she would be almost as old as our parents, but look at her…" She signaled the article again, her finger pointing directly at the picture on it. "She looks like someone around our age."
"Don't you remember the stories? Pure witches with actual magic could live like, two hundred years. She might be on her prime just now." Emira took out a can of soda from the paper bag and opened it to drink a little.
"We are pure witches and we have no magic. No one has had any magic for centuries. There are no proven reports that the Owl Lady had any magic." Now it was her sister's turn to sigh in annoyance.
"Mittens, we both know that's bullshit. Even if we have no magic, it is impossible to explain what these heroes are doing now if they have no magic. No one falls off a building and lives to see another day unless they have…" Her sister finished the sentence as if she wanted her to actually finish it.
"A lot of good luck." She said, making her sister sigh again.
"Hey, what are you talking about?" Her brother came out of nowhere carrying his own paper bag and sitting at the empty chair beside Emira.
"Mittens has the hots for an old woman in spandex." Her sister said as she signaled the article for her brother.
"Jesus, Mittens. She could be our mother!" He spoke dramatically, faking disgust and making her groan in annoyance.
"Whatever." She stood up and took her cup of cold coffee. "I'm going home." She heard her siblings laughing behind her and she couldn't help but wonder how they were able to make it this long in the force. She knew being a detective was a tough job and, every time she interacted with her siblings, she just couldn't believe they were actually the top detectives of their precinct, something that was about to change now that she had the same position.
2015
"I'm coming!" Eda got up from the couch quickly when she heard a knock on the door, curious as to whom would be knocking. Probably a sales person since she wasn't expecting anyone.
Before she opened the door, she turned to look at the demon sitting on the couch and told him to hide with a look and a wave of her hand. Once she saw him getting inside her room and closing the door, she opened the front door.
"Hello, Eda." She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw Camilia standing there. It had been fifteen years since the last time they spoke, a thing she regretted deeply but knew she couldn't change.
"Cami…" That was the only thing that came out of her mouth, still not believing the sight in front of her.
"Can we talk?" Without saying anything, she opened the door completely to let her in, nodding unconsciously.
There was an awkward silence while the Latina entered the apartment and sat at the couch, growing even more awkward once they were both seated at it, just looking at the coffee table in front of said furniture.
"So…" She started speaking without even knowing what to say. What could she say to a woman she hadn't seen in years? Would an apology be the right thing? An apology for what exactly? Even after fifteen years, she couldn't fully understand if she had done something wrong to end their friendship and she also knew that Camilia hadn't either, which was why she couldn't find the words to say anything now.
"I'm glad to see you're in one piece." Eda was taken out of her thoughts when the woman beside her spoke.
"Yeah, well… I told you I was tougher than I look." She managed to answer with a faint smile on her face.
"You are…" There was a long an awkward silence again after that. She couldn't even ask why the woman was suddenly at her place after all those years of silence. "When I stopped seeing you on the news, I honestly thought the worst, you know? I thought that maybe someone had killed you and they buried your body so that no one would find it. Everyone talked about the sudden disappearance of the Owl Lady so… I just hoped you were okay."
"I stopped because… you were right… kind of…" She took a deep breath before continuing what she was saying, neither of them looking at each other. "After she took my magic, I kept fighting just to calm my anger. It wasn't really vengeance I wanted, but it wasn't justice either so… I stopped." Camilia suddenly took her hand and, in an impulse, she turned to look at her.
The woman she could see was just the same woman she remembered, just with longer hair tied into a bun. But those eyes filled with kindness, hiding behind her glasses, that round button nose and those lips that she always thought were very soft, they were still the same. They could still make her heart skip a beat like the first time she had seen them.
"I felt really relieved to hear about Edalyn Clawthorne and her successful toy store with her own designs. That article on the papers really kept me smiling for days. Besides, my little Luz loved her King plushy so much. She took it everywhere." They both giggled a little before the Latina kept going. "I was honestly surprised to know that you still live here even if you're now the owner of a very successful company. I thought that I would need an appointment if I wanted to talk to you."
"And what did you need from me, after all these years?" She asked without thinking, dampening the mood again and making the woman beside her look away.
"My daughter got into a fight a couple days ago. Well… she started it…" Camilia spoke with worry on her voice, a tone she had heard a lot back in the day.
"Nice." She joked, trying to make the mood lighter again. The dark haired woman chuckled at her comment and she just smiled at her reaction.
"The thing is… she got into a costume she made herself and then went out at night trying to beat up some thieves, even if she doesn't know how to fight and doesn't have any kind of magic." She could understand why the woman beside her was worried but she still couldn't figure out what she needed from her.
"Is she okay?" She asked with worry too, thinking that maybe the kid had been seriously injured and now her… friend... needed some money for the hospital bills. After all, she was right; she did have a little fortune thanks to her company now.
"Thankfully, yes. I don't know how, but she managed to stop both of them and got out with just a bunch of bruises and a sprained wrist." There was a silence again in which she didn't know what to say. Was she there just to reconnect their friendship then?
"Well… that's good… isn't it?" She asked, unsure.
"In a way… the problem is…" Camilia took a deep breath before finishing. "She says she wants to be a hero… just like the Owl Lady." Surprise manifested on her face and was soon replaced with anger when she thought she had finally decipher the reason for her visit.
"Are you going to yell at me for that? Because if that's why you came then, please, get the f…" Her name being yelled by the Latina made her stop suddenly and her face was once again filled with surprise when the woman looked at her with a pleading look.
"I didn't come here for that. You know I always thought you were doing the right thing. I wouldn't have helped you otherwise. The reason I stopped was because I thought you were changing, but then you stopped too. I think that shows just how strong you really were… are…" And then she was again where she had started; without a clue as to why the woman was there.
"Then, what do you need from me? No riddles, please." She asked, uncertainty on her voice.
"I know my daughter. She's… stubborn, like a certain someone I know…" She chuckled at Camilia's comment, remembering all the times the nurse had called her that in the past. "She won't stop trying to be a hero, it doesn't matter how much I worry about her. That's why I came here; I wanted to ask you if you could teach her what you know." The Latina took her hand again and she looked at it, not believing what she was listening to.
"Why?" That's everything she could say at the moment while her brain still tried to process everything.
"I don't want her to die and I know that I can't stop her. If she's going to be out there I want to, at least, know that she's able to defend herself. I saw you fight and I know that, even without your magic, you were really good at it so…"
2021
The sudden ding of the elevator brought her back to the real world. She had almost fallen asleep on that thing, tired as she had never been.
She quickly got out of it and started walking towards her apartment door, glad that it wasn't a long walk since there were only two apartments on the floor and the doors were really close to the elevator.
A sudden thud startled her before she could even take her keys out of her pocket. The noise came from the other apartment, the one she knew was and had been empty for a long while now.
Taking out her gun, she walked towards the other door slowly and quietly, listening to different sounds coming out from the place. Something moving, someone groaning, something moving again, something that sounded like clothes falling on the floor.
Once in front of the door, she took the knob and tried to open the door, but the knob didn't move, so she decided to knock.
"BIPD, open up!" She could hear someone swearing and then quickly approaching the door, so she put the gun down, thinking that maybe someone had moved in and she just hadn't hear any of it since she hadn't been home much recently.
"Coming!" A voice came from behind the door and she finally put her gun back in her sheath as the door started to open. "Hey, officer. How can I help you?" A Latina was behind the door, a little bit taller than her, with her hair messy and wet and hiding her body with the door barely opened.
"I'm sorry, miss. I live next door and this apartment was vacant the last time I was home so, when I heard some noise, I thought that maybe something was happening in there." She spoke with a stern tone even though she didn't need to, but she was just too tired to care.
"Oh, you're my neighbor! I thought it was weird how no one came to complain last night with all the noise I was making while moving in." The girl spoke enthusiastically, but still not opening the door fully. "I'm sorry. I would invite you in but, I just got out of the shower and then I hit my toe in the couch and then my towel fell off and then you knocked so… would it be okay if we spoke later? It's kind of getting cold." A small blush got to her face at the short haired girl's explanation and she got a little nervous without understanding why herself. Maybe she was too tired to function like a regular human being.
"Sure. I'm sorry to bother you. Have a good night, miss…" The girl giggled and suddenly extended her hand for her to take.
"Luz Noceda. And it's no problem, miss…" The girl tried to match her tone playfully and she actually chuckled instead of feeling insulted at the action.
"Amity Blight." She shook her hand lightly.
"Nice. Well… see you later Amity!" Luz smiled widely and waved her hand.
"Sure. Good night, Miss Noceda." The Latina giggled before shutting the door again.
And with the last bit of energy she could get, she finally got to her apartment and went straight to her bed to get at least twelve hours of sleep.
Hey guys! So, this is my first story for the owl house fandom.
As I always made clear whenever I start a story: English is not my first languaje and, if I end up saying something that you find offensive, it's not intended to and you should totally call me out on that. I've been learning the languaje for four years now but, as you know, there are things you don't learn unless you live and interact with natives so, I do my best to learn those words in the languaje's slang that might be offensive but I might miss one so, like I said, don't hesitate on calling me out for it in case it happens. We come here to have fun and it wouldn't be okay for me to offend someone due to ignorance.
As you could read, this story is going to be a super hero AU, but taking elements from canon that will, eventually, be very important for the plot.
I will try not to change the character's personalities (except those whom have not appeared much on the show because, well, we don't really know them much) which is why I didn't explain some things on this chapter.
There's going to be Lumity on this because I live for it and it gives me strenght but, I need to set up the plot first (I'll also have some other pairings, as you can see). Setting up might take me a while which if you, by any chance, have read any other of my works in other fandoms, you'll know that means it will take me like ten chapters to put things in motion before we start moving on the Lumity romance. Long story short: this fic is going to be kind of long (I always mess up how many chapters I think I will write but, having the story in my head, I can tell this might be the longest fic I've come up with).
One last thing: The image I put on the cover of the story was made by me. I've been learning how to draw for almost six months and I'm always looking to improve so, if you have any constructive criticism or tips that could help me, you can follow me on twitter at: gloomy_autum. I'll also be posting some art for the next chapters of this story there.
I hope you liked the premise of the story. I'll try to update as soon as I'm able to.
Thank you for reading, much love!