The land itself was breaking apart beneath Luz's feet as she stood there, beholding the culmination of Belos'– Philip's plan: The Day of Unity. And above the chaos, as bones fell into the boiling seas and birds flew from the trees while their bark dried and cracked, as witches across the Isles collapsed in agony, a monochrome figure, more like a projection than a physical being, stood atop it all.
"Hey!" Luz tried to take up a brave pose. The best she could do was puff out her chest and hold her arms firm, while her knees wobbled in terror. "Collector!"
"Ooh, look, it's a human!" The Collector's voice came from behind Luz. She spun around and tried not to fall off the edge of the cliff. "Oop! Behind you!" Again, he was behind her; a twist of the head revealed he was using his state as a shadow of himself to hang off her back.
"I'm trying to talk to you, Collector!" Luz was almost begging them to stop playing with her. "You need to stop this! This is wrong!" She stamped her foot on the crumbling dirt for emphasis, causing some of it to break away at the bottom on the cliff she was standing on.
"A pitiful human, who abandoned her homeland, the arbiter of right and wrong, despite the fact she's been gone so long?" The Collector laughed at his rhyme and swept over to an undamaged tree, its magic slowly being drained by the Collector's presence. "Authority's not really my thing, Luz! I'm the one who gets to make right and wrong here!"
The harsh light atop the Emperor's Castle intensified and the process of draining the Isles accelerated. Throughout Bonesborough, witches with coven brands began to fade to monochrome, sinking into the ground, becoming shadows of themselves. The Collector, meanwhile, was delighted to see their feet fill with both color and dimensionality. "Hooray! I can feel my feet again! Hahaha!"
Luz looked down the hill at the Owl House. King was standing over Eda's unconscious body, trying to wake her up; she was completely out of energy after attempting to fight Belos in her harpy form. Willow, Gus, and Amity were busy trying to keep the house from falling apart using what magic they could still muster, while Hooty was using his head to prop up the house and prevent it from falling down the rapidly crumbling cliff.
Luz took stock of her options. Glyphs were out of the question, as the magic of the Isles was being drained, which was the source of power behind the glyphs. Her witch's wool cape could probably protect her, or someone else, for a little while, but it wouldn't be able to stand up to a direct draining attack. Luz decided to take direct action and ask the Collector. "Why are you doing this? What do you get out of all this?"
The Collector's lower body was gradually filling with color and shape, slowly gaining weight as it did. He looked at Luz with a wry smile. "I get to be free from beneath these bones! Obviously. Plus, I get a real body again, mine alone!" They swept over, trailing their newly formed legs through the air. "Really, though, this whole thing has already cracked my prison, so I'm basically free. Now I just need enough magic to make a body! Which this draining spell is helpfully providing!"
Luz's thoughts were flying at a mile a minute. She had an idea, but she had no idea if it would work. It could stop all this and save everyone. Or at least, everyone else. "Collector." Luz held her fear down as best she could and addressed the Collector with purpose. "I want to make a deal."
The Collector raised an imaginary eyebrow and circled Luz, taking a good long look at the scared girl. Realization dawn and a massive smile grew on their face as the implicit realization of what Luz wanted dawned on him. "Oh? Oh! Oh! Oh!" He slithered up Luz's back and put his hands on her shoulders, his face on the back of her head. "Are you saying… you want to be my body?!" As they said this, they moved their face to overlap with Luz's, her terrified expression sitting just below his terrifying smile. Despite his still mostly incorporeal form, he could feel her hyperventilating as he knew she was considering it.
She continued in spite of the Collector still monopolizing her face. "A-a deal, Collector! I'll give you my body, and in exchange, you stop the Day of Unity from finishing! And you won't hurt my friends–" Luz choked up as she thought about Eda, King… her mom, back home, "–or my family!"
"Hmm…" The Collector crossed their somewhat corporeal legs while they sat on Luz's back, thinking. "I guess a human body is pretty neat…" They peaked over Luz's shoulder and asked. "All I have to do is stop this draining spell, right?"
It took all of Luz's strength not to choke up as she answered. "Yes."
"Done!" The Collector detached himself from Luz and rose into the air, letting off a brilliant light to rival the one atop the Emperor's Castle. As they shone, the color and shape in their feet was flushed out to fuel the brightening light. Luz felt her feet lift off the ground, her body drifting towards the Collector's light. Pieces of him stretched out and began to anchor themselves within Luz's body.
"Luz?" Amity spotted the brilliant light of the Collector near where Luz had run off too. She could see Luz floating through the air towards the light, her body limp. "Luz!" Amity shouted, her body on autopilot as she ran towards her girlfriend. Her abomination started to lose its integrity as she ran off.
"Amity!" Gus cried, as a massive chunk of the Owl House that Amity had been holding up with her abomination fell and nearly crushed him.
"Amity, wait!" Willow called after her friend. She spun several spell circles in the air and her eyes glowed green, then massive vines burst out of the ground to hold the house steady. She looked after her friend and said with a soft tone, "We need you."
Hooty screamed in exertion and said, "Just hold on! I think we've almost got it all hooty again!" Suddenly, the cliffside shifted; Hooty could feel himself slipping. "Or not! Brace for boiling impact!"
"Luz!" Amity shouted as she ran up the hill. She had no idea what to expect when she got there. Luz was being wrapped in flat monochrome tendrils, slowly being pulled into the light, which had begun to form into an orange and blue disc surrounded by the blinded white light. Amity could see Luz's face stuck in a blank expression while tears dripped off. Amity breathed deep, then shouted at her girlfriend "LUZ! DON'T GIVE UP YET!"
Her eyes were clenched closed, as she feared the worst. And yet, the weak "Amity…" that came from above her was so much worse to hear. Luz had turned her head as much as she could to look at Amity in her golden eyes and was giving her girlfriend a weak smile. "It's ok, Amity… I'll protect you…"
"No, Luz…" Amity said as she tried not to break down from seeing Luz in this state, "I'm supposed to protect you! We're supposed to protect each other! Whatever this is, you don't need to do it! Please!"
"The deal made, the bargain struck! Unity shall be stayed, in exchange for this body of endless pluck!" The Collector turned their blinding disc towards Amity in order to address her, generating a face in the swirling colors to be more presentable.
"W-what? Luz?!" Amity wasn't sure how to respond to the face suddenly speaking to her. She desperately searched her girlfriend for an answer.
Luz confirmed her worst fears. "He'll stop the Day of Unity… He'll protect all of you." Luz looked away from Amity, from the eyes which held such love. "All I have to do… is this."
Amity wasn't sure what Luz was referring to, but she was certain it wasn't good. The Collector laughed at Luz and Amity's standoff, amused by their antics. Just beneath the din of their laughter, Amity could swear she could hear Luz's soft voice saying "I'm sorry, sweet potato."
The Collector was satisfied with his connection points within Luz's body; it would be a seamless transition from this existence to his new, three-dimensional form. He burned bright and bathed his two-tone light over Luz's body. The light that he had been emanating shed off of Luz now.
The tendrils that had been wrapped across Luz's body like a cocoon faded away to reveal her clothing and body remodeled to the Collector's liking, most notably being emblazoned with various patterns showing the phases of the moon. Even the witch's wool cape was touched by the Collector's light, as it twinkled as if it was the night sky and each twinkle was a star held in place by magic far more powerful than any Amity knew.
The most striking change was in Luz's skin and hair. Her skin was colored like the disc, orange on the left, blue on the right. Meanwhile, her hair had turned bright white and glowed as bright as the halo that surrounded her.
Luz's body gently landed on its feet, its eyes shut tight. Amity was about to approach, to ask if Luz was alright, when her body's eyes shot open, pouring out blinding light and forcing Amity to shield her own eyes and back away. With a flourish, Luz's body pivoted on its heel towards the Emperor's Castle.
Luz's body outstretched an arm to point at the castle. Without a word, a web of orange and blue lines ran out from where Luz's body stood, crisscrossing the hillside in an instant, forming a web beneath Amity's feet. She could only look on in awe as the web spread out too fast to comprehend to cover everything as far as the eye could see. She strained her eyes towards the castle, whose light had begun to dim as the web reached out further and further. Eventually, even the castle was covered in the web of orange and blue and the light that had gathered at its peak was snuffed out.
The land around them stopped rumbling and falling apart while the web retreated towards Luz's body. The citizens of Bonesborough who had yet to be reduced to shadows felt the burning sensation in their wrists disappear, though they were exhausted from being heavily drained of magic. Willow, Gus, and Hooty breathed a sigh of relief as the Owl House stopped falling off the side of the cliff. Throughout the Boiling Isles, witches and demons looked about to see who had perished in this tragedy.
Luz's body had ceased giving off the bright halo, though her hair continued to glow ever so slightly. Amity looked at her girlfriend with awe and said, "You… you did it, Luz." Luz didn't respond. "Luz?"
Luz's body spun around and charged Amity, wrapping her up in a hug that lifted her off the ground before she even realized what was going on. A big, stupid smile was on Luz's face as she held Amity. Amity breathed a sigh of relief; even though Luz still had the physical changes, it looked like she was back to normal.
Until the Collector started speaking.
"Oh, wow! Hugs are great!" Luz's body said in the Collector's voice. They dropped Amity out of the hug and she landed on her butt, confused by what just happened. "I bet I can do a cartwheel!" The Collector said as they broke into a run and tumbled into a cartwheel. Or at least an attempt at a cartwheel, as they ended up with their feet above their head when they smacked into a tree. "Oops! Gotta work on that, I guess! Haha!"
"Luz…?" Amity slowly walked towards Luz's body, a look of great concern on her face. The Collector quickly picked up on her concern and smiled at her, but that seemed to only make her concern grow.
"Boots… Luz! Gah!" Eda had climbed up the hill with King's help, having regained consciousness after the quakes stopped. She was holding her side with one hand, while King was supporting her by holding her other hand. "Thank the Titan you two are alright! What'd I miss?"
Eda tried to play it cool, but she knew something was wrong, based on Amity's expression and Luz's current appearance. No joking question was good enough to save this situation.
The Collector righted himself and did a quick stretch to make sure his new body was unharmed by his antics. The last thing they wanted was to see his new body shatter without a way to put it back together.
"Ah, having a body is such a delight! I wonder if I should give these folks a bit of a fright?" The Collector said, startling everyone. "Oops, too late! I guess there's no time for debate!" They said, mockingly hiding a mischievous smile behind their hand.
Eda looked Amity directly in the eyes and asked, "Boots, what's wrong with Luz?"
"I-I… I don't know?!" Amity looked back at Eda, more confused than Eda was expecting.
Off to the side, the Collector looked back and forth between the two witches and rolled their eyes. With a petulant shout, he said "Hey! I'm right here! Hmph!" He crossed his arms as he pouted.
Amity's expression went dark. She rushed over and grabbed Luz's body by the arms. "Where is Luz! What did you do with her?!"
"The light is no longer home, I'm afraid." The Collector said with a smile. "For a favor, was this body paid. To stop unity, a deal was made, of some ingenuity!"
"Stop talking in riddles!" Amity shook Luz's body in anger. She was desperate for any sign of Luz to surface in this… thing that was in her body.
"Ow! Jeez, that hurts! Ugh, fine. Luz is no longer in control of this body, she gave it to me! What a great deal right! And all I had to do was save a few stupid witches!" The Collector shrugged as they said the last part, almost as if it was something that was foolish to trade for. They blinked for a second, then broke into intense laughter. "Oh! Oh, I see! You're the stupid witches she wanted me to save! Hoo…"
Amity let go of the Collector's arms, who was busy wiping away a tear created by his laughter. She backed away, shaking her head. "No, no way, she couldn't have, sh-she wouldn't…" Eda intercepted Amity with King's help, stopping her from backing all the way out into the woods and off a cliff.
"I'd love to stay and play, witches!" The Collector started to walk off, waving as he did. "But I did promise her I'd keep you all safe! And, unfortunately, I like to play rough. In the meantime, though, I think I'll go play with my good friend Belos! I'm sure he's having one heck of a shock right now! Byeee!"
With one last wave, the Collector skipped off towards the Emperor's Castle to 'play' with Belos. Once Luz's body was out of sight, Amity collapsed, her strong facade finally broken. Eda tried to comfort her as best she could, but a pat on the back couldn't hold back the tears that flowed freely from Amity.
"It's alright, Boots." Eda said, holding Amity close. "We'll get her back. I promise you that. And when we do, I'm gonna give her one heck of a lecture!" She clenched her fist with determination. She could feel Amity's sobs intermittently being interrupted by a forced laugh at Eda's attempt at humor. Eda didn't make any more jokes, she just held Amity. And soon, her embrace included King, then Willow and Gus, and even Hooty. They stayed there as long as they needed and Eda obliged.