Disclaimer: Do not own Owl House

Summary: A "reboot" story. Luz doesn't save Eda from petrification in time. Luz afterwards, stays at the Owl House with King and Hooty, heartbroken, angry, vengeful. Amity comes to the house and tries to be there for her, eventually telling Luz how she feels. But after the emperor puts the doorway back together, he comes looking for the key to the door. And when his forces get to the Owl House, they attack, and many, including Willow, die. Then? Then Luz wakes up in her own world. Now, Luz has a choice. She can stay in her own world, or she can go to the Boiling Isles again, this time with the knowledge of everything that's going to happen. Dark Luz eventually. AmityxLuz-Lumity

Warnings for violence, character death

The second time around

Chapter one

No choice, I have to go back

Luz gasped, crying out as she sat up hard in the bed, blankets and sheets falling from her body as she sat up fast. For a second, Luz wasn't sure what was going on. She thought maybe she had been captured by the emperor, but she searched the dark of the room. She felt hot tears in her eyes.

Her mind was filled with two names. Amity. Willow.

She scanned the room and her mouth went dry as she recognized the contents of her own room-not the one in the Owl House that belonged to Eda Clawthorne, not the Owl House, but her room in her house in the human world.

She recognized the book-pile, with the Azura series at the front-showing off as paramount before all the rest of her novels.

Posters all over her walls, one for Azura, and a couple from different fantasy movies.

Her dinosaur figurine collection stood across the top of her wooden dresser, across the room, right next to the door leading into her room, that would lead into the hallway.

"I'm…," She whispered slowly, "I'm back."

Her heart clenched in pain. While it should have been a relief that seeing one of her best friends, Willow getting killed had just been a dream, and knowing that the girl she loved, Amity and her siblings would be in danger.

But this? She couldn't bear it if it had all been a dream.

If the world she had been in had all been a dream.

That her mentor, Eda, had just been a dream.

That her friends-King, Willow, Gus and the others had just been a dream.

That Amity had all been a dream.

She couldn't let herself believe that.

Hoping she was just back in the Owl House and that THIS was the dream, she pushed the blankets and sheets back from her body, jumped out of bed and ran across the room, opening the door.

"King?" She called out, searching the walls, but the walls were too wide for it to be the halls of the Owl House. Dread grew in her chest. "King?" She repeated, searching the wooden floor for her little boy.

If King was here, and the nightmare she had had, had just been that, a nightmare, then King was safe. And so were Amity and Willow.

Maybe even Eda was too.

Luz's chest hurt even worse at that. The petrified form of Eda flashed in her mind. Wow, what a horrible dream.

Luz went across the floor of the hall, searching the various rooms for King or Eda.

But she knew, she knew her surroundings were far too different for this to be the Owl House.

Luz closed her eyes as she felt her tears begin to flow.

Had everything been a dream? All of it?

Including her new life in the Boiling Isles and the people that she loved there?

Luz's eyes snapped open and her teeth clenched. No. No, she couldn't let herself believe that. She had to believe that it was all real. She HAD to.

She was imaginative, but not that imaginative.

She didn't have the mental capacities to be able to flesh out what she had seen. She had to believe that it had all been real.

That Amity had been real.

She had to.

She heard a door open and she turned to look at who had opened up the door, tensing up, almost expecting a guard from the emperor's coven and she gasped, when she saw her mother, Camilla Noceda enter the hallway.

"Luz?" Camilla asked, looking at her daughter, as she turned on the lights in the hallway, "Mija, are you alright?"

Luz felt her heart clench again, cold spilling into her. Before she could help herself, she had leapt at her mother, practically crashing into the woman as she wrapped her arms around her mother's waist, burying her face in her mother's chest, sobbing. "Mama!" She cried, the agony of everything she had experienced, the horror that had befallen Eda, Willow and Amity, and missing her mother as much as she had, she just let it all out into her mother, sobbing, sobbing and sobbing.

"Mama…" she wept again.

Her mother wrapped her arms around Luz and held her close. "Luz," Her mother whispered into her hair as she hugged her daughter, "Mija, what's wrong?"

Luz kept shaking as she wept, mind whirling. What was happening here? Had it all been a dream? Or something else?

When Luz had finally stopped crying, wiping her tears away as her mother still held her, and had seated her down on the couch, getting her some water, Luz quickly made up a story. She had said it was a horrible, horrible nightmare. And you know? Luz wasn't even sure if it was a lie, though she desperately hoped it was. She didn't think she could handle it if it turned out that Amity, Eda, Willow, Gus and King weren't real.

Even Hooty and Lilith, it would hurt to turn out not to have been real.

Hell, even Boscha and the emperor and Amity and the twins' rotten parents, Luz hoped hadn't been a dream.

Because if the bad had existed, well, then, surely the good had to, as well.

She had to believe that.

She had made up a nightmare that she had had for her mother. A nightmare that had involved sharks. Her mother seemed to believe it. She had kissed Luz's forehead and had sat with her.

During that time, Luz contemplated everything. She then wondered what today was.

"Mama," She said, "I'm sorry, but I got disoriented after the nightmare. Could you tell me what today's date is?"

Camilla looked at her daughter, confused, then said, frowning and looking troubled, "It's Sunday. The 15th of January. Are you-are you alright?"

Luz sat back, stunned. The 15th of January? It was months and months before she had first seen Owlbert dragging that sack of trash with her book in it? Luz swallowed. No, no, it couldn't be that she had just had a nightmare. Not just because she couldn't bear it, but because it didn't make sense. Had it all been a dream-including the many months she had spent in the human world, living a normal existence? She had first gotten to the Boiling Isles close to the summer. In the middle of May.

Had she also imagined the rest of January, February, March and April in a the human world with no magic?

Had she imagined that too? That seemed so, so unlikely.

"Mija?" Camilla asked, worried, hand going to her daughter's forehead, feeling for a fever, if there was one to feel.

Luz chuckled at this. "I'm-I'm alright, mama," She promised, though she wasn't sure if that was a lie or not, "I guess I just thought that it was Saturday."

Camilla shook her head, pulling her hand away from her daughter's forehead. "No, it's not," She said, "Sunday."

Luz nodded.

Okay, so assuming that no, she hadn't hallucinated it all, what did this mean then? How had she gotten back to her world? And what was more, how had she gone back in time, of all things?

How had THAT happened?!

Luz mentally went over the last few moments before she had snapped awake in her bed.

The emperor's coven had rushed her, Amity, King, Willow and the others. Edric had been thrown across the room, groaning in pain when he had hit the opposite wall, King had been restrained as he had struggled and yelled at them not to touch Luz, Emira had tried to use her illusions to hold some of the guards off, when a sleep spell had taken her down, Amity had stood in front of Luz protectively, trying to keep her safe from the forces of the emperor himself, despite Luz's pleading with her not to, then one of the guards had held up a vial, one he had said was filled with dragon's blood, demon blood, ogre blood, and magic shards of amethyst. And when he had thrown it at them, intent on blowing them up, one of the other guards had shot out a magic blast, boasting that it was a spell to "slow down time," so that they could enjoy their victims' suffering, when the bomb hit.

Luz's eyes widened and groaned, ignoring her mother's questioning words. "That must have been what did it." She said dryly, facepalming.

"What must have been what did what?" Camilla asked, "Luz, you're not making any sense."

Luz chuckled, dropping her hand from her face. "It's fine, mama," she said, "I just remembered that I ate a lot of snacks before bed. So that must have been what caused those nightmares."

Camilla nodded and checked the time on the digital clock on the table next to the couch. The red, digital numbers read 6:30 in the morning.

Luz grimaced when she saw the time. Very early in the morning. Even for her mother.

"Sorry for making you get up early, mama." She said.

Her mother smiled, leaning in and kissing her daughter's forehead again. "It's alright, mija," she said, "But you should try to get back to bed. It's not good for you to not get a full night's sleep."

Luz nodded, almost chuckling. Her mother, always the practical nurse.

Her heart hurt. She had missed her mother so much. And now she was planning on finding a way back into the Boiling Isles, and away from her mother.

If everything she had seen had been real, which she would not be able to tolerate if it wasn't, then that meant that she would be meeting Owlbert and Eda and King during mid-May. In only four months. She would be leaving her mother in only that amount of time.

"I'm fine, mama," Luz lied, nodding to her mother, "I should probably go back to bed, and you should too."

Camilla nodded, smiling. "Alright," She said, hugging Luz close, "Have a good sleep, Luz. And try not to have nightmares."

Luz smiled. As if people could help what they dreamed of.

When she had gone back to her room, closed the door and went to her bed, sitting down, she was left with a lot of questions, to say the least.

She couldn't believe that what she had gone through had only been a dream. She couldn't. And the guards mentioning a time spell and she had been taken back in time? That couldn't be a coincidence.

"It was real," Luz said, eyes narrowed, refusing to believe otherwise, "I know it happened."

She felt a pained thought full of yearning pass through her brain. (Amity and I happened, I know it,) she thought to herself.

So if she had been brought back in time, and the oncoming May, when she was eventually going to chase after Owlbert into the Boiling Isles and meet Eda and King and Hooty, would eventually come upon her, that meant that she needed to prepare for what was coming.

She shifted on the bed as she frowned in contemplation.

Could she change everything? Could she save Eda from petrification? And save Willow's life? And stop the emperor's forces from hurting her friends and Amity?

Could she prevent the tragedy?

"I have to try," she said, nodding, looking to her Azura book series, "I have to try."

She knew it was just a fantasy series-and the real fantasy world that she had encountered was so much more brutal than what she had imagined, but she knew that Azura wouldn't have given up. Not for anything.

And she couldn't give up. For her friends' sake, for Eda's sake, for Amity's sake, she couldn't give up. She had to try.

A thought struck her then. If she hadn't entered the world of the Boiling Isles, would everything have ended better for everyone else?

After all, how had Eda been captured and eventually petrified? She had been taken captive by Lilith. And how had that happened? Luz had decided to try to sneak into the emperor's castle to steal something. And that had been how Lilith had gotten her hands on her.

Which had led Eda to try to rescue her, and it had led to Eda being captured.

And how had Amity and her siblings been attacked and how had Willow been killed? Because they had been helping her. And the emperor had been after her.

That was when another thought struck her.

The key. The key to the door that led to the human world.

That had been what the emperor had been after.

She sucked in a breath in realization. Even if she hadn't gone into the world of the Boiling Isles? What likely was to still happen? The emperor would still hunt Eda, and he still would want the doorway to the human world and still would be after the key to that doorway.

Which meant, Luz not being there wouldn't make that much of a difference. Only this time? If Luz chose not to go to the Boiling Isles, when the emperor's forces began to invade and take over the Boiling Isles and then turn their sights on the human world, Amity would be amongst their number. After all, before Luz had entered Amity's life, Amity had told Luz that her mother had been trying to groom her to become a coven leader, specifically of the emperor's coven-to help the emperor gain power. And Edric and Emira had been groomed for it as well.

She grimaced.

So, in other words, she either could try to change a tragedy, or she could stand back and do nothing and the tragedy could potentially get even worse.

"Great," She said, shaking her head, "Just great."

And besides, how could she be sure that Eda wouldn't still get petrified? After all, the emperor had been determined to petrify Eda for not joining a coven-and so what good would not being there to protect Eda do?

"No choice," Luz said, nodding, "I have to go back."

So, she decided she had to start planning.

It was January. And she followed Owlbert through the portal in the middle of May. Which meant that she had four months to prepare.

Luz, ignoring how tired she now realized she was, went to the light switch next to her doorway, turned on the lights and went to her bookshelf, picking up her notebook, opened it up to a blank page and grabbed a pen and began scribbling notes.

What she scribbled across the page, were notes of what she needed to do. Notes of preparation.

Exercise-to get physically stronger.

Bring a baseball bat.

Bring multiple pieces of paper and multiple pencils and pens for spells.

Bring other things-a lighter, spray, and a switchblades.

She then drew the different glyphs. The ice glyph, the fire glyph, the plant glyph, the light glyph. After that, she grimaced. She knew that there had to be other glyphs. But those? Those she hadn't seen yet.

She decided that when she got there and saw more spells being used, she would use her phone to take a video and find the glyph in those spells, the same way she had found the light glyph in Eda's spell circle that first time she had found a spell.

She then lowered the notebook to her shelf and took a breath. It looked like she had a lot to do.

As the sun began to rise and the sunlight started to spill into her window, from between the blinds, she knew that she needed to get ready. It didn't matter that she had four months till she ended up in the Boiling Isles. She had to make every day of preparation count.

It was time to start getting ready.