Luz began to wake up, still a little dazed. She saw her weapons next to her and grabbed her knife. She began walking over to Boscha, unaware of who it actually is. Thinking it was an enemy, she raised her knife. Boscha quickly turned around and caught the knife between her forearm fins.
"Luz, wake up." Boscha said.
"B-B-Boscha?"
Her vision slowly cleared and standing before her was her friend, Boscha, wearing TOXIN'S SUIT?!
"I can tell by your reaction that you now know I'm Toxin." Boscha said as Luz stumbled back, quickly moving to catch her and place Luz in one of the chairs.
"And after I took that sniper shot for you, you brought me back to your place and patched me up." Luz said as she looked at her wound.
"Yep, you're pretty smart." Boscha said, wiping her hands with a towel, "Thank you."
Luz looked up in confusion. Boscha continued.
"You saved my mom."
"You're my friend, even if I wasn't... him, I would've done whatever I needed to in order to help." Luz said.
"And that's why you're a great friend and a great hero." Boscha said with a smile, revealing her third eye. "By the way, since you know who I am now, can you guess who Abomination is?"
"Firstly, I am no hero." Luz said, "Secondly, yes I have a sneaking suspicion of who it is."
Boscha noticed Luz staring.
"It's the third eye isn't it?" Boscha asked.
"Little bit."
"I figured you would. Since you know about magic, I figured I don't have to hide it when we're not in public. Go ahead and ask any questioned about being a triclops, I don't mind." Boscha said as she grabbed a rag to clean the table.
"What's it like having 20-20-20 vision?" Luz asked.
"Oh, you don't even know." Boscha said, "I see so much better than others."
"Why don't you talk about that another time?"
They looked at the doorframe and saw Amity.
"And it looks like my hunch was right. Amity, your business partner and roommate, is Abomination." Luz said with an unsurprised look.
"How about instead of focusing on us, how about we talk about the elephant in the room." Amity said, "You're the Vigilante."
"If by Mr. Hardcore, then yes. And you two are the other vigilantes, what's your point?" Luz asked as she tossed her knife with her other weapons.
"My point is, you're violent." Amity said.
"Yeah, that's how a vigilante is supposed to be." Luz said, "You don't stop criminals by politely asking."
"And you don't stop criminals by killing." Amity said.
Luz walked over to her.
"You don't get to question my methods until you've been through the shit I have." Luz said.
"Hey, why don't we just calm down and talk this out like normal people." Boscha said, "We can be friends, we can work this out as a team."
Luz went pale at that statement as a memory surfaced. Her father's voice echoed in her head.
'We're a team Luz. We'll always be one.'
"I don't need a team!" Luz said.
The sudden outburst shocked the two witches. Luz gathered her stuff and quickly left, breathing heavily as more thoughts started to make their way into her mind. Thoughts of her dad dying in her arms, his blood soaking her clothes and arms, the man's joyful face as he pulled the trigger to the gun. Boscha and Amity watched as Luz left, still to stunned to do anything.
'What the fuck was that?' Boscha thought.
'That look in her eyes.' Amity thought as she remembered Luz showing a moment of panic and shock before she screamed at them. 'Why did she have that look?'
Back with Luz, she was swinging through town and landed on a rooftop as she thought about Boscha's offer.
'I don't need a team! They don't need ME on their team!' Luz thought.
Luz slammed her hands on the roof's ledge, breathing heavily and on the verge of screaming. She felt her knees get wobblily and she fell backwards, sitting as she processed everything. She heard a voice. Lilith's voice. Luz looked and saw Lilith wandering around, calling out for Luz.
'She must've realized that I'm gone.'
Luz saw two people following her as she turned down and alleyway. They pulled out their guns and corner Lilith.
"Look at this, one of the most famous witches in the country. If we kill you, we'll become rich." One said.
Luz saw red. She jumped down and landed between them. She tackled one and started punching him, not holding back. The other one tried to grab her, but she turned and grabbed him by the neck. She ran over and slammed his head against a wall. She grabbed an old cinder block and started to smash his head in with it. On the fourth hit to the head, the block broke, and Luz threw the other piece at the other one that was long dead, but she didn't care. Her hands were soaked in blood, and she started to calm down, before looking at Lilith. Lilith looked shocked; only then did she realize... she never put her mask back on.
"Luz?"
Luz fell to her knees and started crying. Lilith instantly went into mama bird mode and ran over to Luz. She held Luz in her arms trying to comfort her.
"Mom…." Luz said, afraid to hug back and staining her with blood.
"It's alright. I'm here. I'm here." Lilith said, turning to gaze at the two dead men that tried to kill her.
Drawing a spell circle, Lilith set their corpse a blaze to turn to ash as she continued to hold Luz. Lilith couldn't blame Luz for rushing inside, she didn't know what she went through tonight but it must've been something very troubling.
'I have a feeling the Camila can help with this.' Lilith thought as she went to find her girlfriend.
Meanwhile with Luz, out of her vigilante suit, laid in her bed as she continued to cry in silence. The thought of being on a team again still making her emotional.
'I'm sorry, dad. I'm so sorry.' Luz thought, thinking her father dying was because she was on HIS team that night.
There was a knock on the door and Luz immediately pulled her revolver out and pointed it at the door.
"Luz, it's me." Camila said, "Can I come in?"
Luz shakily held her gun there for a second before lowering it. She remained quiet. The silence was enough for Camila to open the door and walk into her daughter's room. Camila stepped over the bloody suit and sat next to Luz before she gently took the revolver from her. Luz was still silent as she leaned to put her head on Camila's shoulder.
"This involves your dad doesn't it?" Camila asked, knowing the look in Luz's eyes.
Luz nodded.
"Luz, that wasn't your fault."
"You keep saying that but if I wasn't there that day, dad would've never taken a bullet to save me. I was just in the way, and he paid the price." Luz said.
"No, you weren't." Camila said, "No matter what, you were not the reason he died. It was that guy, and him alone."
"No matter how many times I hear that, it still doesn't change how I feel." Luz said with a groan.
"It won't change unless you believe it, Mija. So please, believe it." Camila said as she rubbed Luz's head. "But first, can you please tell me what brought this on, Luz?"
Luz sighed as she decided to tell her mother the truth but not reveal too much to protect her and the others.
"I worked with Toxin and Abomination a while ago before I was going to meet with them tonight. I took a sniper shot to save Abomination and they brought me to their base to patch me up." Luz explained.
"So, they know who you are now?" Camila asked.
"Yes, and I know who they are but I'm not going to kill them because they know how to keep a secret. We talked a bit, almost lead to an argument before Toxin suggested I join them as a team." Luz said as she sighed. "You can guess how I reacted to that and I can guess Lilith told you what happened after she found me."
"Hey, you had a normal reaction." Camila said, "You were diagnosed with PTSD after watching your dad die, it's only natural that you would do anything to prevent something like that again."
"But then you say it's been moved 10 years and I need to try to move past my trauma." Luz said with an eye roll.
"It's fine, everyone has their own pace, but you will need to try to overcome it. I don't want you living the rest of your life believing it was your fault." Camila said as she hugged her daughter.
"I may not have pulled the trigger, but I could've done something."
"You were just a child then; you could've have known what to do then." Camila said as Lilith walked into the room.
"And we know your father wouldn't have blamed you either. He loved you and valued your life greatly." Lilith said as she sat in the other side of Luz, putting a hand in her shoulder.
"You shouldn't take the blame of every bed thing that happens." Camila said, "There is no way you could do anything to stop it."
Luz knew that was then and this is now, but it still didn't fix her guilt.
"Can I be alone?" Luz asked.
"Okay." Lilith said.
The two got up and walked out of the room. They went to their room and Lilith started asking about this.
"So... she's that vigilante?"
"Yes." Camila replied as she turned to Lilith. "I originally had no idea but when I did find out, I realized that it was a coping mechanism for her guilt. Though she doesn't see herself as a hero, she has helped and saved countless people."
"And you don't worry about the danger?" Lilith asked as they sat in the bed.
"Every day and night." Camila said with a frown. "One time, the day I found out about her double life, she was bleeding out in the den while trying to remove the bullets that hit her. I can never forget that. I've asked her to stop... but she's too far in to stop."
Camila was beginning to cry. She had accepted long ago that this was something Luz needed in order to move on, but it's spiraled out of control! And every night she worries her baby may not come home, it's too much on her heart!
"It's alright, love. No need to cry." Lilith said as she pulled Camila into a hug and ran her fingers through her hair.
"I'm afraid, Lilith, I'm afraid that she's going to get in over her head. I keep thinking that she'll get hurt, or arrested, or... or..."
Lilith hugged Camila, knowing what that last one was.
"That won't happen, I promise I won't let that happen."
"How? I know you won't use a spell on her without permission." Camila said to her.
"Well, MAYBE I could bend my rules just once." Lilith said, even though she already did it with the truth spell.
"Love, I don't think even your spells could do something like that." Camila said, "Luz is naturally going to do dangerous stuff, nothing you can do could stop it."
"I suspect as much but maybe I could use a spell to help her heal faster after injuries?" Lilith suggested.
"Maybe that could help." Camila said.
Camila was a nurse (We'll just say she is because I don't feel like changing it) but Lilith had magic that far surpassed modern medicine, her casting one or two spells in Luz to help her heal faster would take a load off of Camila's heart and let her worry less.
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Don't read unless you've seen the new episode: I knew those books were pointless.