Hello and welcome to my first and probably only The Owl House fanfiction.
Name: Hollow Mind: The Empress and the Boy
Synopsis: An AU of the episode of 'Hollow Mind', in which Luz and Philip Wittebane/Belos swap places. Philip is the young human protagonist and Luz is the corrupt, deceitful Empress of the Boiling Isles.
Inspiration: Empress Luz AU; King Andrias (Amphibia); Shattered Glass (Transformers)
Preview: This story will be a short, 3-chapter retelling of the episode. Remember that this isn't a Luz-with-Belos'-personality or a Philip-with-Luz-personality. If anything, this Philip is, personality wise, the stark contrast of Canon Belos. The same applies to Luz, or as she is called, Empress Luzura.
Groaning, 14-year-old Phillip Whitebane opened his eyes and slowly got up.
"Miss Eda!" he called out, looking for the witch who had taken him in and become a mother-like figure over the last few months. There was no response.
He found himself in a long corridor. On the walls of both sides, there are multiple huge paintings. He was in an art gallery?
Philip looked to his front and gasped. Right there was a huge painting depicting Empress Luzura, holding her staff, while looming over himself, with King, Lilith and Eda, the latter in her Owl Beast form, all behind him. Below the painting was a plaque which read: "TRIUMPH OVER HUMAN CORRUPTION''.
Philip stood up and moved away from the painting.
That had been an horrid day, when the Hecates, the Empress' loyal enforcers, captured him and were about to have him publicly petrified. So many dreaded memories he dared not to think about.
Yet, what haunted him the most was the sheer malice he felt exuding from the monarch of the Isles in the few moments he had stood in her presence. If it hadn't been for his surrogate family's last moment rescue, he would be dead. A horrible memory that was…
Wait, memory?
"Is this…Am I…"
"You know exactly where we are, human." a cold voice cut him off. Philip turned around to find the familiar face of a green-haired witch girl with a ponytail - Amistad, the Emerald Guard, and Empress Luzura's right-hand servant.
"You got us trapped in the Empress' mind!" she shouted, furious.
Philip gasped, his fears being confirmed. The Empress' mind. He didn't want to be there. He didn't want to be anywhere near that vile woman.
"How do we get out of here? Is a teleportation spell from the outside the only way out?" after his last misadventured into someone else's mind, Philip had done what he always did and read about the subject to be better prepared if it happened again. Sadly, he didn't feel prepared for it, at all.
Amistad sighed. "Unfortunately. Although, I've heard that if the mind belongs to a powerful witch who masters different types of magic, their inner self might be able to help."
That was a no-no for Philip. "No way! I won't go anywhere near that evil woman."
"Evil?!" Amistad snapped at the human. "You take that back, human! The Empress is the most benevolent witch ever! She protects the Demon Realm from the true evil that is your kind. You humans are the evil ones." she pointed an accusing finger at him.
Philip groaned, exasperated with all that sham. Since he had arrived on the Demon Realm, it was plain and clear humans were persona-non-grata on the Isles. Humanity was perceived as violent, cruel, ignorant and avaricious. Philip had a lot of trouble being accepted and it was only thanks to the kindness of Miss Eda Clawthorne that he survived. The mindset that most witches had about humans was fueled by propaganda spread by Empress Luzura.
In the beginning, the meek Philip Witebane recoiled when someone on the street glared venomously, or other kids like Boscha bullied him. Overtime, though, he had grown fed up with all the misguided prejudice.
"Fine! Since we're inside her mind, I can see her memories and prove to everyone she's a liar."
Amistad scoffed. "Oh, sure! Just look at this place, these paintings. Does this look like the mind of someone evil?" she walked over to one depicting the form of a young witch girl of baked skin, alone, surrounded by dark shapes of red eyes. Amistad looked at it with pity.
"This is when her life-journey began. As a young girl, humans wiped out her family and took away her natural magic. That tragic experience was what moved her not to let anything like that happen to anyone else."
Philip made a face, not buying it. Amistad ignored him and moved on to the next. It was a young adult Luzura with long hair and tattered clothes. She was out in the wilds, surrounded by nature, facing the viewer. Displayed in front of her, in a circle, were the four main magic glyphs: light, ice, plant, fire.
Amistad's eyes shone with admiration. "Despite being rendered a powerless witch, the Empress rediscovered the ancient wild ways of glyph magic. But not only she learnt to perform magic again, but she also mastered different types of magic; thus she became the first Magna Witch of her age!"
Fun fact: Magna Witch is a title bestowed by the Empress to witches who master all 8 main types of magic. Under Empress Luzura's decree, Magna Witches were highly respected. Miss Eda was a powerful Magna Witch herself... until she fell out of favor with Luzura for harboring and helping Philip, a human.
The Emerald Guard moved to the next one, which displayed Luzura, now clad in much better robes, brandishing her staff. An aura of multiple hues exudes from her, casting out the surrounding darkness. It gave the woman an angelic appearance that Philip knew to be false. "And this was her debut. More and more humans were invading the Demon Realm to steal our magic. Everything was descending into chaos. Then, Luzura appeared and heroically fought back the human invaders. She closed the door between the two realms, promising a future of peace free of humanity's evil."
Philip had read about that, as well. Following Luzura's supposed crusade happened about 50 years ago. That would make it the beginning of the 1970s in the human world. If people were stealing magic or going to other realms, he would have read about it.
Amistad moved to the following painting that showed Luzura bowing as an obscured witch placed the familiar mask of a catupon her face. The painting gave off the image of a coronation.
Before Amistad could begin reciting, Philip beat her to it.
"Let me guess. This was the part when the people made her Empress and she decreed that the barrier wouldn't hold forever. Therefore, the Boiling Isles would have to prepare for war with the human realm."
Amistad would have retorted, but a soft giggle echoing through the hallway stopped her. Human and witch turned around to see a small child, giggling while hiding under a painting. The child sounded like a girl. Her face was hidden by a large, white witch-like hat.
"Luzura?" Philip questioned, noticing the disproportionate hat had the same color scheme as the Empress' robes.
The giggling child-Luzura(?) ran away and disappeared into thin air. Philip and Amistad looked puzzled at each other.
From the darkness of the corridor, a tal figure manifested. It wore a familiar feline mask, slowly pacing towards them.
"Empress Luzura!" Amistad eagerly approached and bowed to the apparition. "We beg for your assistance to return to the physical world, so that I may capture your enemies! And so" she glares at Philip "that slanderous human can be put in his place."
The Luzura-like figure stopped in front of Amistad. The child-Luzura figure emerged from behind it, put a finger to where her mouth should be and made a 'shhh'.
Suddenly, the adult-Luzura roared and started to transform. Its shadowy frame convulged and grew larger. Its body surface sprouted multiple faces everywhere, of different sizes and features. Faces that cried, screamed and roared.
"Amistad, get away from it!"
Acting quickly, Philip dashed between Amistad and the monstrosity, and activated a combo of fire glyphs. Unfortunately, in his rush he exaggerated the quantity of glyphs and the ensuing explosion pushed both children backwards. They crashed through a wall in the gallery and fell into a dark void.
Philip took out a hover glyph, grabbed onto Hunter, then activated it before they hit the ground. They managed to come to a halt near the ground, fortunately right before the glyph disintegrated. The duo fell face-first on the ground, alive and unscathed.
"Where are we now?" Amistad asked, after regaining her bearings.
Philip looked around. "I've read about mindscapes. People who live false personas or façades can instinctively create a fake mindscape. A phony front that corresponds with the mask. Now…we must be in the Empress' real mind."
A stark contrast to the gallery was the forest of dead trees where they found themselves in. Each tree had a painting framed in its bark.
To be continued…
Here's the first part. As you can see, Empress Luzura is, though still evil, the opposite end of the spectrum compared to Belos. Her policies are:
Wild magic is okay; Practicing different types of magic is a-okay; Being a weirdo is super-okay; Humans are evil and doing bad stuff to them is super-duper-okay.
This version of Luz is a hardcore misanthropic and under her rule, Humans are depicted as evil and power-hungry. And, FYI, there's no Hunter is this universe. The role of the (Golden) Emerald Guard belongs to another kind of Grimwalker. No prizes guessing whose.
Philip is the stark contrast of Canon Luz. Where she is chaotic and outgoing, he is organized and a bit of an introvert. Though I gave the subtle impression he has come out of his shell little by little since arriving on the Isles.
I won't give anymore details as I haven't done much worldbuilding yet. Sadly, I won't be able to present the next chapter before the S2 finale.