Is this…?
This is a spin-off one shot purely for celebration, this is in no way following the current events of the story.
This is inspired by Twitter user Sonisis' short comic about Sonic, Shadow, and Silver exchanging places and experiencing their daily life. With some guidance from The Owl House episode "Once Upon a Swap" and following the post, I decided to apply the story in a small spin-off with different focal characters instead.
Three pairs of eyes open all of a sudden. Awake, energized and-
Huh?
Confused. Though they simultaneously opened, the sight presented before them is different individually. After all, they are in different locales.
Where am I?
One of them catches a view of a grand castle overlooking most of the supposedly modern city she is familiar with. The castle itself has big orbs of light at its 'cage' and it, alongside the shattered moon that rises above it, slightly illuminates the nightly landscape and its residents.
The next one turns around to see a dim room, barely illuminated by torches and held up by pillars. A muddy mask with deer antlers sits on top of an ornate chair while a titanic heart beats on the ceiling. There's nobody here but the person senses that somebody's watching. Judging.
The final one notices the white bricks with the curvy blue roof and the yellow-green stained glass window in the center of a house. The door doesn't seem to be guarded by the owl-tube and any signs of life or lights are not present on the outside, possibly the activity is deeper inside.
"Is this… Vale?" The first person asks as she dusts off her indigo-and-white hoodie with cat ears and glances at the streets some distance ahead of her to see a mix of humans with animal features (-the faunus) and humans without. She pats her pockets to feel the sheets of paper and her pen.
"Whoa… Is this… A throne room?" The second person observes as she puts on her red hood over her silver eyes, checks her weapon strapped at her back, and approaches the mask marred with mud, her hand hovers slightly closer to the mask as she stares with intrigue and fascination.
"Is this not… The Owl House where the human supposedly lives?" The third one recognizes as he puts on his plain white hood over his face, his slight scowl and sour mood unprotected due to a missing golden helmet while he still has his metal staff on hand, glowing red at the gem.
This relatively peaceful period of observation would not last forever though, as a shadow looms over all three of them from behind, each a different silhouette from the other.
"Huh?! Who's there?!" The trio ask as they turn around.
The first one encountered a wolf monstrosity with pitch-black fur and a canine skull for a head with red eyes that glow like embers while red lines run along the contours of the skull and two red circles on the forehead, meanwhile bony spikes can be seen along the creature's elbows and spine as razor-sharp as the claws accompanying the bony plates and minor protrusions scattered across the limbs and even the back.
The second one watches a person draw a purple magic circle as wide as they can pull it, revealing hints of blue hair and brown eyes from her own dirty-white cloak. A giant abomination was summoned in between the two of them, the witch in question gives an intense glare as she casts some gestures, which the abomination follows and they both raise their arms.
The third one counts six hooded figures with bird-like helmets on them, the 'leader' among them walks forward with a spear and a Crow-Phone. They each draw their magic circle as they surround him in a semicircle formation. The leader lets go of the Crow-Phone and lets it fly away as they ready their magic circle as well.
"Is this… The kind of enemy that they fight?" They ask simultaneously.
"Help! Stay away! Grimm!" Someone shouts, a human with an otter's tail suddenly trips on the ground and panics as it tries to get away from the wolf-Grimm.
Oh no! An innocent person! The first one, the human mage, observes.
"Hey! Keep your eyes on me!" She shouts, donning her hood with cat ears, waving her arms in the air, and standing in between the otter faunus and the Beowolf.
She pulls out a glyph and slaps it between her hands, a flash of light erupts, blinding the Grimm and causing it to focus attacking her instead.
"Whoa! You have a mean swipe!" She shouts as she immediately ducks and backs away from the range of the Beowolf, she rummages through her glyphs, thinking of her next move.
"Where is the emperor?!" The witch demands.
"I'm gonna ask this nicely, please stand down…" The second one, the human huntress, raises her hands slowly and talks slowly to calm her down.
The witch slams her hands down, thus the abomination drops its whole body onto the huntress. The huntress retreats near to the throne with her semblance while grabbing her weapon, it transforms into a sniper-scythe and she finally pulls the trigger, spinning the blade. As her weapon twirls around her arms, she slices up an incoming abomination fist away from the rest of the body, giving her enough space to spin her sniper at the abomination head and fire a round without stopping.
It shoots through the abomination's head cleanly, the figure was about to collapse when the witch quickly redraws the magic circle again and the abomination stabilizes, the head reforming and the fist reconnects to the rest of the arm. The huntress tries to shoot three more times, but the abomination quickly stretches around all the shots and forms a mace with the left hand while a sickle is formed on the right.
"Stop regenerating and deflecting!" The huntress pleads as she parries against the sickle slash and launching herself away from the mace smash, she retreats with her semblance to her far left and turns to the witch controlling the abomination, "stop fighting and let's talk!"
But the witch doesn't relent, she throws her hands diagonally to the right, which the abomination follows as it extends its mace-hand toward the huntress. To which she dodges again with the help of her sniper and tries to slash the abomination away while simultaneously closing the distance between her and the witch, while the witch controls the abomination to always stand in between the two of them.
"You're kidding me… Stand down, scouts!" The third one, the half-a-witch guard, commands as he raises his magic staff.
But the coven scouts don't listen. This brings up an uncomfortable feeling of confusion and betrayal as they cheer in unison.
"For the emperor!"
Before they fire their spells. The guard instantly flinches and activates his magic staff, vanishing himself in a flash and he starts zooming to the left side, avoiding the firebolts and fireballs. He reappears and glares at the guards, once again ordering them to stop. But they continue anyway and he responds by redirecting the spells with a twirl of his staff, sparks flying everywhere in response.
"If I can't touch you, then I'll blow you away!" She pulls out slips of paper from her pocket and activates a sheet showing a glyph combo, a horizontal tornado erupts from them as she thrusts her palm towards them.
Fwooooosh!
The Beowolf gets lifted up from the ground and enveloped in the eye of the tornado before being blasted away some distance and crashing into a tree along the way. The wolf-Grimm slowly stands up and paces around the young girl and the otter faunus, growling aggressively with a thirst for blood.
"That's right, gran lobo feroz! You wanna eat something? Eat this!" She shouts as she pulls out a different piece of paper and launches a fireball towards the Beowolf, its armored shoulder takes a hit and staggers a bit as black ooze and smoke leaks a bit from where the fireball hit, the shoulder now caved out cleanly. Shortly after shrugging off the attack, the Beowolf rushed forward.
"If I can't get you to listen right now, then I'll have to take you down first…" The human huntress mutters, her voice laced with regret and reluctance as she closes her eyes, cocks her sniper, aims the scythe behind her, and launches herself towards the giant abomination with a pull of the trigger.
Bang!
Her weapon's inner gears start moving, orienting her blade from pointing to the side to facing forward and outward, changing form into a War Scythe. She pulls the trigger again and she spins horizontally, shredding the abomination into multiple small puddles and scattered sludges with hints of rose petals. Taking the opportune moment, her scythe collapses into its sniper rifle form, changes direction with a sniper shot and boosts with her semblance towards the surprised witch. Tackling her to the ground, she knocks the wind out of her by smacking her rifle's stock to the witch's stomach.
"This is ridiculous… Fine," the half-a-witch guard groans as he starts attacking aggressively this time, he charges forward and vanishes with his speed.
Bleenk!
He zooms around the group and shows up at the back, he swings his staff and it unleashes a red beam that launches the first scout onto a tree, knocking them out. The rest of the scouts leap to dogpile with melee magic spells at the ready, the guard flashes away and aims his staff at another guard, capturing them in a red aura and flinging them away from the rest.
A third scout manages to get really close and try to stab with a spear, the guard parries with his staff and they have a contest of pushing strength while the rest of the scouts gang up on the guard as well. The golden guard starts charging up the magic on his staff and he gets enveloped in a red aura, he vanishes into a red streak and he starts his assault.
The human mage takes a step back in surprise and launches one more fireball which the Beowolf dodges by skidding to the side, before leaping into the air with its maw wide open, attempting to eat her. She pulls out a different glyph and plants it to the ground, ice spikes erupt from the ground and pierce the wolf in multiple points before the biggest icicle pierces the chest. The Beowolf disintegrates into smoke and small orbs of light, ending its existence.
"Thank you, huntress!" The otter faunus looks up at her, mistaking the mage for a huntress.
"I… I'm not… A-Anyway, what are you doing here?" She asks her as she pulls her up and dusts her shorts.
"There was an armed robbery at a nearby shop!" The otter faunus explains as she pats her otter tail as well.
"But the forest is dangerous too, let's skedaddle!" The human mage reasons.
"OH NO! LOOK OUT!" The citizen panics as she points to something behind her.
A pair of red orbs -eyes, stare at the duo. Then another. And another. Another one. And many more start popping in as low growls can be heard.
"What?! How can anyone not feel overwhelmed? There's more of them!" The human mage grits her teeth as she pulls out the rest of glyphs, mentally keeping track of how many more she still has compared to the pack of wolf-Grimm. She also gauges how far they both are from the safety of the kingdom itself and its protectors, her mind racing like a cheetah as more and more concerned thoughts start cluttering up her focus.
As the human huntress gently props up the knocked out witch against the wall near the door, she gives a contemplative look at the purple-haired witch she doesn't even know while fixing the witch's hood, draping it over her sleeping face. As she stands up and collapses her weapon to her back while waiting for her to wake up, the torches flickered for a moment while the room instantly dims. The huntress couldn't see anything during that second before the lights were restored. The deer-mask is still on the throne, the ginormous heart still beats, but the witch she put aside was suddenly gone as a low and unnatural mix of a hum and a groan echo in the room, all the while she could hear synchronized marches of boots from the hallway beyond the throne room that she has yet to leave from.
"I finally did my job, I guess, but now it's awfully somber… What am I really doing…" Was all she muttered to herself as she walked back to inspect the mask and the throne.
The half-a-witch guard materializes a sword in mid-air and grabs it with his free hand. He uses it to counter the spears that the scouts are using, swatting some away while the others are straight-up blocked with the broadside of the blade, freeing the hands of the scouts for other magic spells. His staff glows and he uses it to lift himself into the air, avoiding the thorny vines growing underneath him. He fires more energy beams at the rest of the scouts blasting away two more scouts, a summoned abomination tries to capture him but he slashes it with the sword. He swats the sword's blunt side at one of the other scouts, disorienting them long enough for him to kick them to the ground.
Finally, the leader summons earth walls to surround the guard, but the latter responds by slamming his staff to the ground, releasing a shockwave that disintegrates the earth walls, the abominations, and the plant matter. The half-a-witch guard flashes forward to charge and takes an instant sidestep, surprising the leader and allowing him to knock the leader out with a full whack to the back of their head with his magic staff. As he watches the half-a-dozen downed scouts groan in pain and frustration, he exhales in relief, puts away his weapon and gives an uncomfortable stare at them.
"You're all fools taking me on like this. If it's like this everyday, no wonder some wild witches can't take you guys seriously," he comments to nobody in particular as he turns his back again on The Owl House and wonders how and why exactly they don't want to join the Emperor's side.
Amidst all of this, they share one final thought together.
Is this really how they live?
~Fin~
!_!
Notes: Congrats, everyone! The fic has been alive for a year now, so here we are celebrating it with a oneshot that teases a different side of the characters, especially with scenarios that makes them empathize even for just a moment. I hope we get to explore more of them and their dynamics/interactions, not just to different characters but also to settings and scenarios.
I'm really glad some of you guys stuck around for the year while the newcomers are always welcomed; additionally, all your comments, ideas, and criticisms are greatly appreciated. I would also like to thank amai_matcha who has been my beta reader, consultant, and primary source of ideas. I help her work on her own TOH & Amphibia fics too, so if you guys wanna check it out, go check her out in Archive of Our Own and in Twitter. I also commissioned her to make this artwork to celebrate the anniversary! Check it out in Archive of Our Own or Wattpad!
Unfortunately, the sad news is that this fic will be put into a hiatus for two reasons: college exams and TOH S3, but I hope I'll be ready to write again after a month or two once the workload lightens up and I'm not competing for attention with the shows themselves.
In the meantime, I'd like to promote this huge collab project called "The Owl House: No Way Home" that you can find exclusively on this YT channel named "Will Starshine". I'm recently there as one of the Script Writers, helping edit scripts to fit the characters while also adding original dialogue and even original scenes too when the opportunity presents itself, so it's more than just a beat-by-beat Marvel AU. If you guys enjoyed that and wanna give financial support, you can check out the ko-fi page "TOHNWH" and leave a note/message.
Now for the happier news: we've finally managed to hit the top spot overall for AO3 (out of 5 other RWBY-TOH exclusive works) and (out of 2 other works). Wattpad is still a tough place to share (and there are ton of other TOH fics that stand out better there), but we've actually earned ourselves a page in TVTropes, so that's an achievement all on its own, glad to know that folks are recognizing tropes that even I myself wasn't aware of using. I hope that the list expands and helps garner a bigger audience as we continue working on the fic.