Hey guys, here's chapter 19 of The Misadventures of Vee. This will be more or less Gus' chapter. Here we go.
"Kids, vamanos, the Historical Society won't stay open forever," Vee heard her mom call downstairs.
"Coming, mami," Luz called back, eagerly tying her shoes. "This is so exciting, Vee. I can't wait for everyone to learn about the Human Realm. I can finally prove opossums are real—Are you wearing my jacket?"
Vee blanched. It suddenly occurred to the basilisk that this was Luz's room too. She'd been wearing her sister's clothes for so long now; she'd never thought to ask permission.
"Gah! I'm sorry!" She pulled off the jacket and fumbled with hanging it back in the closet. "I'll just transform myself into wearing a different jack—"
"Take it easy, Vee." Luz gently took the jacket and placed it back on Vee's shoulders. "I don't mind, we're sisters. What's mine is yours."
The novel concept amazed Vee. "R-Really?"
"Yeah, anything you need, feel free. Just don't go stealing my girlfriend," Luz teased with a wink.
As her sister grabbed another jacket, Vee reflected on this whole sibling sharing thing. It was yet another layer of the Noceda's bottomless generosity. Both Luz and Camilla had given her so much and Vee wanted so badly to return that kindness. Vee knew what Luz wanted, maybe even needed if she was serious about facing The Collector, and she could give it to her. Was it dangerous? Yes. Would Vee never rest to protect Luz? Also yes.
"Wait," Vee said.
Luz stopped at the bedroom door and faced Vee.
"Luz, there's… something I need to give you." Vee reached into her pocket and slipped on the ring. A swirl of pink smoke puffed next to her and Meera appeared, waving glow sticks and shaking her hips.
"Yes, BTS for life! OH!" Meera blushed and hid the glow sticks behind her back when she realized where she was. "Master, greetings! Was there something you desired?"
Luz gasped the deepest gasp and her eyes twinkled with stars. "We have a genie?!"
"No, I have a genie," Vee replied firmly, wanting to guard Meera's freedom at all costs. "But you're right, we are sisters, so… Meera, I wish Luz had a wand too."
"As you wish, Master." Meera waved her glow sticks and, in a puff of pink smoke, a wand came into existence in Luz's hands. "Indestructible and unlimited magic as before."
"A wand…?" Luz stared in disbelief at the gilded wood, speckled with comets. "Like a real wand? Like a real wand that can—" Luz cut herself off to scramble to her desk and draw something on a paper. She tapped the page with the wand. The paper curled and crumbled into a ball that became a sphere of pure light.
"It works!" Luz cried.
But her enthusiasm appeared to force a bolt of magic from the wand that struck the light-ball, making it expand to the size of a watermelon and explode. The shockwaves of light washed across the room, turning everything a shade of color brighter.
"Oops," Luz said, and then immediately grinned and bearhugged Vee. "I can do magic again! ¡Gracias, hermana! Gracias! Gracias! Gracias! Wait until I show Amity, everyone will—"
"No!" Vee grabbed Luz with a very serious look. "Luz, mom can't find out. Ever. She doesn't want you anywhere near the Demon Realm. She's still horrified by everything you went through and would go ballistic if she knew you had access to magic."
The joy faded from Luz. She gazed at the wand curiously. "Then why did you give it to me?"
"Like you said, what's mine is yours." Vee smiled softly. "Plus, you made it pretty obvious magic is all you can think about."
Sniffles of happiness came from Luz and hugged Vee even harder. "You are the best sister ever."
"Girls?" Camilla's voice came from the door. Luz hid the wand behind her back a millisecond before their mom stepped in. "Everybody's in the car except you two. What's taking you both so long?"
"Uh, sorry, mami, had to find my jacket," Luz excused.
"Meera? What are you doing here?" Camilla asked, then suddenly squinted at the walls. "Did you repaint your room?"
Vee distracted the woman before she saw the small crater in the desk. "Yup! I asked Meera to stop by and change the color scheme but we don't like it this way. Thanks, Meera, but I wish our room was back to normal, please."
Meera waved her hands and all signs of magic were removed.
"Perfect! You can leave now, Meera. Let's go, mom!" Vee said quickly, dragging both her sister and her mom out of the room before the latter noticed anything else out of place.
Gravesfield Historical Society…
Camilla drove up to the Gravesfield Historical Society.
"Have fun, kids. I'll pick you up in a few hours," Camilla told the Hex Gang, Luz, and Vee, "And girls, if you run into a dangerous creature from the demon realm, try to not get yourselves hurt too badly. Vee, make sure Luz doesn't get herself killed," she told her daughters as Luz's friends got out of the car.
"Si, Mama," both girls said in unison.
"Bueno," Camilla kissed her daughters' foreheads, "Love you."
"Love you," they replied as they got out.
Camilla then drove off, leaving the kids to themselves. Everyone turned towards the building. This was where Luz's friends would learn about human history. Well, American history anyway. If they were going to stay in Luz's world for while then they might as well learn about it. This could either be boring or exciting depending on who you asked. No doubt Gus would have a nerdgasm about it. It would be a day of knowledge for the six of them.
"Hey, Vee!" they all heard someone call out to the basilisk. They looked down the sidewalk to see Dani
"Hey Dani," Vee greeted her girlfriend with a hug.
Correction, it would be a day of knowledge for the seven of them. Eight if you eventually counted Vincent. If the MCH were involved, even if they were short a few people, then there's bound to be some sort of magical creature adventure at some point. Everyone walked into the building.
"And zis is zhe colonial era. Zhe time of vitch trials," Mr. Laurent gestured to the display, he and his wife happily giving the kids a tour of human history.
"So... who's the Emperor of Earth?" Hunter asked.
"Zere is no Emperor of Earth," Mrs. Laurent replied, confusing him.
As they walked, Vee couldn't help but notice Luz. She was biting her lower lip, occasionally looking to the side at her pocket. Her arms were trembling as well. Vee knew why. She knew her sister wanted to use her wand and she wanted to use it now. It was like she was about to burst from excitement.
"Hey, sis, calm down, would you?" Vee placed a hand on Luz's shoulder.
"I can't help it. I really want to use my new wand!" Luz beamed, pulling out the magical stick from her pocket.
"Our son can tell you more about zis era zan us," Mr Laurent spoke.
This was when Vee saw an opening. It was clear her sister wasn't going to drop this until she used that wand.
"Ooh! My sister and I can go get him," Vee volunteered.
"Luz, ve didn't know you had a twin," Mrs. Laurent said, looking at the basilisk girl.
The real Luz simply laughed, "No, I'm Luz," she corrected, "Vee and I are twins and people mix us up all the time. In fact, Vee just got back from a trip," Luz informed. Amity and Dani glanced at each other with smug smirks since they knew the real truth. Still, it was better the faux backstory Luz gave when Dani first met her.
"Oh, vell, it's nice to meet you, Vee," Mrs. Laurent smiled, "Vincent should be in his lab. Luz, you know where it is."
"Riiight," Luz said with a nervous grin, "Come on, sis, follow me," she said taking Vee's hand. Luz led Vee down the hall and turned the corner. When she was sure the others were out of earshot, she stopped, "Quick, switch jackets with me," she told her twin.
"Why?" Vee raised an eyebrow.
"So our backstories make sense," Luz told her.
Vee shrugged and took off her jacket, Luz doing the same. The twins put on each other's jackets. Honestly, it felt kind of weird at first... even though Vee had been wearing her sister's clothes for months, even the unmentionables.
"Ok, now, let's go get Vince," Vee said, taking Luz's hand once more.
"So, do you have to bathe in the sun to warm your body and move around?" Vincent asked, notepad in hand as he sat down, Tracey and Heather sitting across from him in his underground lab.
"Yes, but only every once and a while, and even then, I have to be in either my demon form or my snake form," Tracey said with a bored expression and the tone to match, her arms folded with one leg crossed over the other.
"Your demon form is that snake with arms that can sprout wings, right?" Vincent asked.
"Yes," Tracey groaned with a roll of her eyes.
"And Heather, do vampires really hate pumpkins?" Vincent asked the cheerleader's best friend.
"Yes, we hate pumpkins more than we hate garlic. Why do you think humans put jack-o-lanterns out on Halloween?" Heather replied.
"Fascinating," Vincent commented, writing down his notes.
Both girls sighed in boredom. This wasn't what they had in mind when Vincent asked them if he could "experiment" with them. Beth was here too, biting her lower lip.
"Hey, Vince, do you wanna... I-I mean, maybe we could... Ugh!" Beth stuttered.
"You want to help, Beth? Stupendous! Here, take the subjects' temperatures!" Vincent handed her a scanning thermometer.
Beth sighed and chose to go along with it. This whole "liking someone" thing was both hard and confusing. How did her friends do it? Heather and Tracey saw this. They knew what she was trying to do... and it was extremely painful to watch.
"Hey Vince, hey Beth, hey Heather, hey Tracey," Vee greeted them in a quick tone as she and Luz walked past them.
"Question..." Vincent spoke, clearly too distracted to even notice or hear the twins come in, "Tracey, have you ever shed your skin?" he asked. Tracey gestured for him to come closer. Vincent leaned forward... and received a sharp slap across the face, "OW!" he said, rubbing his stinging cheek, a red handprint appearing.
"Don't EVER ask a snake girl that!" Tracey snapped, her cheeks red with anger, and then added, "The same goes for basilisks!"
Meanwhile, the Noceda twins had gone into the back of the caverns.
"Ok, Luz, we're alone, so you can use your glyphs. Go nuts," Vee told her.
"Sweet!" Luz beamed.
The human girl then set out several different glyphs on the ground. She tapped the glyphs with her wand, each having a different effect upon being activated. Luz shrieked with joy, bouncing up and down in place. Her excitement had caused a beam to be shot up from the wand, hitting the ceiling of the cavern. Vee shoved Luz out of the way, missing being hit by a falling rock. The basilisk sighed. On one hand, she was glad to see Luz happy, but on the other, she really hoped she didn't go overboard with this.
"Kids, it's time to continue zhe tour!" Mrs. Laurent called from upstairs.
"Zat means you too, Vincent!" Mr. Laurent added.
"Aww!" Luz grumbled.
"Come on, let's go back," Vee said, draping an arm over Luz's shoulder as they walked back.
No one seemed to notice that Luz had left a glyph behind. After a few minutes, the cavern was completely empty. That's when something came out of the shadows. A big, dark, feathery creature stretched its neck from its hiding spot, plucking the glyph from the ground with its sharp beak.
Vee kept an eye on Luz as they went to rejoin the tour. Her sister's excitement had been replaced with frustration. Understandable, but she had to keep a lid on her impatience though. Otherwise, their mom will take the wand away and then—
An unfamiliar warmth entwined itself between her fingers. "Hey, you and Vee were gone for a while. What happened?" asked a voice that certainly wasn't Dani's.
All comprehensible thought was lost. Vee slowly turned her head as her mind raced to identify the reason why Amity was holding her hand and looking at her with an uncomfortable level of fondness.
"Are you okay?" Amity pressed, concerned. She leaned closer. Too close. Vee could smell the fragrance of Shade of Pixie, a popular flower from the Demon Realm, wafting off the witch. "Why is your jacket dirty, Luz?"
Luz! The answer all at once clicked. Vee scowled at the jacket that had been worn by Luz only a few minutes ago. This was interrupted by the sound of snickers. Near them were Dani and the real Luz, barely holding in their laughs.
"Vee, what did I say about stealing my girlfriend?" Luz gasped.
"I thought what we had was special! Cheater!" Dani accused.
Guilt and anxiety shot through Vee. She jerked away from Amity and blabbered. "N-No, it was an accident! The jackets! She thought I was you and and I froze and, and, and—"
Dani wrapped Vee in a hug and kissed her cheek. "Breathe, Vee, we were kidding."
The panic attack halted mid-freak-out. "...Kidding?" Vee asked.
"Yeah, we know you aren't that kind of person," Luz assured. "We were just having a little fun with you and my batata." Luz smiled sweetly at Amity only to be met with a horrified thousand-yard stare.
"I'm dating a twin," Amity whispered under her breath, eye twitching, cheeks blazing. "I knew the risks. My siblings showed me, I grew up living with the perils firsthand and yet I fell for the oldest twin trick in the book… Titan, help me."
"Ohhhhh boy…" Luz said nervously. "I don't think she appreciated the joke."
"Good luck," Dani giggled and dragged Vee away from the fallout.
Though she was worried for her sister, Vee was more worried about her girlfriend. "You know I would never cheat on you, right, Dani?"
Dani smiled lovingly at Vee and pecked her cheek again. "Wǒ zhīdào. (I know.)"
"Finally!" Mr. Laurent exclaimed when they got to the next exhibit room. The walls were lined with oil paintings of settlers exploring the land. Dioramas showed various stages of the construction of Gravesfield and a massive stuffed bear roared silently in the corner on its hind legs. "Now zat ve are all here, Vincent, vould you please?"
Vince didn't hear his dad; he was too distracted with aiming a pair of scissors at a lock of Tracey's hair. Tracey snatched the scissors away. "For the last time, my hair doesn't de-transform if it gets cut! How would I be able to style it if it did? Use your head!"
"Logical, yes, I see," Vince nodded, taking notes.
Heather, plucking electrodes from her forehead, turned to Beth, "Seriously, what do you see in him?"
Beth blushed.
"Vincent," Mrs. Laurent called, gently taking his notepad. "Your friends are vaiting for you to explain zhe Colonial Era to zhem."
"The what? Oh! Right!" Vince snapped out of his studies and bounded to the middle of the room. He faced the tour group and cleared his throat. "Traveling across the Atlantic Ocean over 450 years ago, the founders of Gravesfield chose this land for its natural beauty and its seemingly endless cave system filled with beautiful crystals. While not precious gems like rubies or diamonds, the crystals possessed 'an almost magical allure,' as put by Gravesfield co-founder Ezekiel Wittebane."
Vincent kept on pontificating, but something else caught Vee's attention. Out of the corner of her eye she spied Luz stiffen and sweat begin to drip down the side of her face. Vee had never seen such an intense focus before. Her sister was hanging on Vincent's every word.
"Luz, you okay?" she whispered to her.
"That's wrong!" another voice cut in.
Every head in the room snapped to Gus. The young witch looked just as surprised as the rest of them, as though he hadn't meant to blurt those words.
Vincent, clearly annoyed by the interruption of his lecture, kept his composure. "Wrong? This is history, recorded and preserved for generations, of a world you are not frommmmm…" he warily eyed his parents, "fully educated about. Multiple sources have verified that the lab explosion that killed Dr. Locksley was caused by—"
"Philip!" cried Gus. He grabbed his head in pain and clenched his eyelids shut. Between his lashes, Vee could see a faint blue glow.
"Whoa, Gus!" Hunter shouted, grabbing the boy's shoulders.
"I'll call zhe doctor," Mr. Laurent said, dashing out.
Whatever was happening to Gus, it was only getting worse. He grunted and shook, covering his ears and yelling, "Quiet! Be quiet!" even though nobody was making a sound except him. Everyone watched helplessly, not knowing what to do. Suddenly, just as quickly as whatever this was began, it stopped. The shakes, the glow, it all went away. Gus slowly opened his eyes and peered up at Hunter with a sleepy gaze.
"...Caleb…?" Gus muttered.
He instantly woke.
"LOOK OUT!" Gus dove forward, tackling Hunter and shoving the group away. Something huge impaled itself through the floorboards where Gus had just been. Vee swallowed hard when she realized she was looking at a long neck that bristled with black feathers as long as her arm. The neck contracted, pulling out of the floor a round face as white as snow that framed a sharp golden beak under a pair of massive eyes.
Those eyes shone with crescent moons.
To Vee and everyone else's disgust, the head twisted and turned far too many times in complete circles, bones snapping and cracking with every inch, until the head sat upside down on the shoulders of a 10-foot-tall body of an owl.
"Hoo!" the giant owl screeched. "Hoo! Who wants to learn? I do!"
In the brief moments of the creature actually talking with a disturbingly mindless voice, Vee spotted a paper on the owl's tongue. On it was a glyph, one of Luz's glyphs. That was the last thought Vee had before the owl turned invisible
"Oh, that can't be good..." Vee said with concern.
"That thing could be anywhere. Strike from any place," Dani said.
"Don't worry, guys," Luz pulled out an ice glyph, smacking it onto the floor, "It won't get passed this!" she pulled out her wand, tapping the glyph with it. The glyph then activated, creating an ice wall that separated them from the owl monster.
"Good thinking, sis," Vee smiled.
"Luz, you can use your glyph magic again?" Willow asked, she and the others surprised at that.
"I knew that glyph you tried to use on the Lightning Bugs looked familiar. My aunt uses the same ones," Dani commented. Her aunt had placed various glyphs on the items and weapons the MCH occasionally used. Granted, they rarely used those things, but still. Apparently, Luz had managed to learn about them while in the Demon Realm.
"It's so awesome I can do this again! Yeah!" Luz shouted excitedly. Just as before, her excitement had caused a bolt of magic to be fired from her wand. This time the bolt blasted a hole in the ice wall she created. "Whoops."
Everyone then heard a chipping sound. On the other side, they saw the owl's face, its beak breaking away at the ice. The giant looked at them all, more specifically Gus as it licked hungrily its chops. Gus flinched at that.
"Come on, kids," Mrs. Laurent said, she and her husband leading them down the hallway.
They turned the nearest corner. The plan was to get to the nearest emergency exit. However, that's when they heard the ice wall shatter. With a running start, the owl leaped over them, landing in the middle of the group. The owl screeched, Gus, Hunter, Vince, Luz, and Vee screaming as they ran in the opposite direction, separating from the rest. A chase gave way. The five teens ran around the building, being hunted down by the large bird. Eventually, they were all cornered into the library.
"Come on. We can hide in the caverns," Vincent said, only for the owl monster to appear where the entrance would be, "Or not..." Vincent muttered.
"This should buy us some time," Luz said, pulling out a fire glyph. Sadly, the owl quickly snatched it out of her hands and placed it on its tongue before she could even use it. The owl released a puff of fire from its nostrils. Great, now it could turn invisible and breathe fire!
"Damn it, Luz, stop making that thing stronger!" Vee begged in an annoyed tone.
The basilisk looked around. With nothing else to fight with, Vee took a book off the shelf and tossed it at the owl. Surprisingly, the owl caught it in its beak. The giant bird opened the book. It was a book on the art of war.
"My, my, what great knowledge this book contains," the owl remarked before pecking out a page from the book and devouring it, savoring its flavor like a fresh salad.
"Whoa. That thing is literally hungry for knowledge," Luz muttered.
"But why is it after Gus?" Hunter asked, looking back at the illusionist.
"Because..." Gus began. He did want to say this, but he knew he had to
"When we faced Belos, I caught a glimpse into his past. I'm the only one that knows that truth about Philip Wittebane and... Caleb," he begrudgingly admitted, rubbing his arm.
Vee glanced at the owl and saw that it was almost done with the book. Time was running out.
"Gus, we don't have much time. You have to tell us everything you know or else you're going to be that beast's next meal," Vee told him.
"Vee's right," Luz said backing her sister up, "I know it's hard, even scary, but we don't have much of a choice."
There was a brief pause. Gus didn't want to say anything. Luz was right about the truth scaring him. After seeing what Philip did to his own brother, who wouldn't be? However, it was better to be safe than sorry. Though hesitant, Gus nodded in agreement.
"Good," Vincent said, pulling out a fresh notepad to record what he was about to hear, "Let's take this somewhere else," he said as they all ran into the next room.
Slamming the door behind them, Vee barred the passage with several suits of armor. She believed they'd buy them some time until she realized the plate mail was made of light flimsy plastic.
"Oh come on!" she groaned.
"Out of the way!" Luz cried and slapped several glyphs on the pile. A couple of taps with her wand and the doorway was sealed with ice and thick vines. "There. That oughta—"
A pillar of fire erupted through the barrier. When the flames cut off, they saw the fire glyph disintegrate on the owl's tongue, out of juice. A crescent eye glowed through the singed hole, focused solely on Gus. "So much knowledge. So much truth. So scrumptious!" The owl began to peck and bash ferociously at the barrier that kept it from its next meal.
"We gotta do this now!" Vincent cried. He raised his pencil and pad. "Gus, hurry, what really happened?"
"Uh…" Again Gus hesitated but this time his worried sights landed on Hunter. "I'm so sorry," he said to him.
Caught off guard, Hunter could only say, "Huh?"
"I've been trying for days to figure out how to tell you the truth about Belos."
"Don't worry about that," Hunter urged. "There isn't time. I know Belos was a liar, I know he was using me, I know I'm a grim—" Hunter bit his lip before the last word could escape. "Just get the information out of your head, Gus, I know who Belos was."
A tear brimmed in the corner of Gus' eye. He whispered, "His real name was Philip and he was your brother."
Harrowing silence.
Vee couldn't process what she'd just heard. From the looks of it, neither could Luz or Hunter. Gus hugged himself, trying to recover from what he'd just exposed. Belos, the eternal Emperor of the Boiling Isles, the Voice of the Titan, had a… brother?
"NOOOOOO!" The great owl screeched and howled and threw its gigantic body against the door. Cracks splintered and fractured in the drywall. "Don't spoil my food!"
The spell was broken by Hunter. "What? Brother? What do you mean by—" He grabbed Gus by the shoulders, getting more hysterical by the second. "I can't be— there's no way I'm— Are you insane? You're joking right?!" He shook Gus and shouted, "I am not related to that genocidal maniac!"
"Hunter! Let him go! Relax!" Luz shouted as she and Vee tried to pull him off.
Two beams of brilliant incandescent blue radiated from Gus' eyes and the boy scowled at Hunter. "Unhand me, you filthy witch!" The hiss that guttered from Gus' throat was not his own. It was a voice Vee had heard when she was behind bars and still heard in her darkest nightmares.
Belos.
The sound of the man who once controlled his every action made Hunter drop Gus and cower.
"Gus…?" Luz said carefully. "Are you in there?"
The scowl whipped to a gleeful grin. "What did you wish to show me, dearest brother?" he asked in a perfect imitation of Hunter. A face wrecked with grief and fury took the grin's place and a young lady's voice demanded, "Why? He was your family!" The tears dried in an instant and the Emperor growled, "I am trying to protect you, Caleb!"
At the utterance of the name, Hunter yelped and slapped Gus across the face. The blue light dimmed until Vee could make out Gus's eyes through the color. The witch gasped with his own voice and grabbed his head in pain, "It won't stop, I can't make it stop. Please. Help!"
"We're here, Gus," Vincent said. "Tell me what to write."
"I—can't—too—many—voices." Each word was spoken by someone else in the boy's head. He dropped to his knees, clearly struggling to stay in control of whatever twisted magic had infected him when they faced Belos. He couldn't say what needed to be said.
"Help," Gus croaked in seven different voices.
"We're trying, Gus," Luz replied. "But how can we get the information out of you without you telling us?"
Then Gus grabbed, of all people, Vee. He looked at the basilisk with pure desperation. "Do it!" he begged her. "Please! Help!"
"W-What?" Vee said but she instantly knew what he was asking of her.
"Would that work?" Luz wondered slowly.
"It would…" Hunter said sullenly. There was fear in his words. The rush to save Gus was overshadowed by wariness. "The memories are somehow connected to Gus's magic. Remove that and the…" he gulped, "truth would come out."
A tinge of apprehension trickled down Vee's spine. "But I… do I have to?"
CRACK!
The owl's slobbering maw burst partway through the wall. "Give the delicious morsel to me! I want to learn!"
"We have no other choice, Vee," Luz said.
They really didn't. Vee squeezed Gus's hands, took a deep breath, and repeated to herself Miss Canis's words, "You are not a monster. You are not a monster. You are not a monster." She opened her mouth wide.
The first revolting thought that crossed Vee's mind was how tasty a witch's magic was, far better than the echo mice the Emperor's Coven force fed her. Vee immediately banished this horrible thought to the deepest recesses of her mind. She would never feed on witches or any other being. She was only doing this because it was an emergency. She was not a monster.
Her next thought was that something was terribly wrong.
Vee felt Gus's magic, thick with what she imagined were memories, mix with the foul magic from The Collector still in her belly. The sensation reminded her of a model volcano Vincent had brought to school once and how the vinegar and baking soda had shook and broiled. These magics were never meant to touch. Churning and bubbling, the savory witch taste was drowned by stale acid. The magic ballooned inside her, burning its way back up her throat. Vee couldn't contain whatever was happening to her.
She threw her head back and screamed.
Blue magic, strewn with crescent moons, spewed from her gullet into the air and stayed there.
"Vee!" Luz cried, hugging her dizzy sister. "What happened? Are you okay?"
"I… think so," she moaned then belched out a final moon.
"Is that my magic?" Gus asked, at last free of the pain. They all gazed up at the strange cloud.
"Not just yours," Vee said worriedly.
The last moon joined the rest and the cloud began to drip down the walls of the room. Around the group, wherever the magic cocktail touched, a new world took shape. Humans appeared, a whole crowd of them, but they were dressed in cloaks and bonnets and pilgrim hats as if they were settlers in the Colonial Era. The room was gone, they were outside now before a wooden building from the 17th century. It was like they had slipped into one of the Historical Society's dioramas.
"Where are we?" Hunter asked.
"Still in the Historical Society. This is an illusion. This is part of what I saw," Gus answered.
"Oh boy!" With a thunderous cry, the great owl stormed into the crowd. "An all you can eat buffet!" It licked its beak at all the humans and swallowed the closest one whole!
"Oh, my Titan!" Vee yelled.
"They're just memories," Gus assured her. "An illusion, remember? We have to find our way out before that thing gets us. Come on."
It took a moment but Vee realized Gus was right. None of the other humans had reacted to the otherworldly beast's entrance or its meal. They all faced the wooden building as though listening to someone. Vee fled from the owl with the rest of the gang, which just so happened to bring them to the wooden building's front steps.
When they got there, everyone gasped.
"And so," announced a balding man to the crowd, "we induct our newest Witch Hunter apprentice into our ranks. May you protect Gravesfield from the evils of magic with strength and bravery, Caleb Wittebane."
A high-collared cape was draped on the shoulders of a human who looked exactly like Hunter.
"Who… who is that?" Hunter wheezed. "Why does he look like…" His wheezing got worse as a man Vee didn't recognize placed a hand on Caleb's shoulder. He was slightly younger than Caleb and smiling with pride, while Caleb looked unsure.
"Philip," she heard Luz mutter.
An icy shiver trembled across Vee's entire body.
Philip.
Belos.
"We have to keep moving!" Gus said, pushing everyone forward. They stumbled through the Wittebanes as though they were made of fog and suddenly found themselves in a different illusion, this one was a forest. Vee could still hear the owl feasting beyond the trees.
In the opposite direction, she heard light laughter.
Another Philip phased through their group with a dark glare, hid behind a trunk and peeked around the corner. They were now in place Vee hadn't seen for some time. The cabin that led back to the Boiling Isles stood in clearing before them, looking far newer and far less rotted. On the porch, Caleb posed in his new cape to the amusement of a girl his age with distinctly pointed ears. A witch!
"You, Caleb? A Witch Hunter?" snickered the witch. "You can't even digest milk. Am I supposed to be afraid?"
"Afraid! No! Never!" Caleb appeared to have missed the joke because he broke his manly pose and spoke earnestly. "I joined only to appease my brother."
"You shouldn't let him control you like that, Caleb."
"I know Philip can be demanding sometimes, but he means well. Besides, this is a good thing. Now that I'm a Witch Hunter I can make sure they never discover you or Olivia while we find a way to end these awful hunts. Once people understand they have nothing to fear from witches, you won't have to hide anymore."
The witch harrumphed. "I'm perfectly capable of keeping a watch over my cousin while she plays hide-and-seek with her doctor friend myself. My cousin is barely hiding. It's a miracle she hasn't been caught already. I should stop but this world makes her happy, happier than home ever did. Still, I'll keep her safe."
"I know you can protect her, but…" Caleb took the witch's hands, "who will protect you?"
The touch and tender words lit up the witch's cheeks. She hid the reaction behind a cocky smirk. "Well, aren't you gallant," she said and kissed Caleb on the cheek.
The boy jerked back and slapped a hand on his burning face with a gasp. "D-d-did you—But-but-but we are not to be wed!"
The witch snorted. "Wed? You humans can be way too proper, it's suffocating. Can't a girl kiss the boy she likes?"
"You… you do?"
Shock and awe replaced the terror in Caleb's face. Vee could feel the spark between the two and knew she was seeing the beginnings of something beautiful between a human and a witch. Movement caught her attention. Philip, who had watched so silently this whole time she'd forgotten he was there, stepped away with a calculating gaze. He took one step and his foot landed on a torn scrap of leather. He picked up the out of place material and found on it… a glyph.
"Wait, is that one of Liv's—" she started to ask only for the Philip before her to be eaten by the great owl!
"Mmm, I know these are empty calories, but they are so tasty!"
"Run!" Luz screamed.
The group sprinted into the clearing, past Caleb and the witch, and through the trees which again parted like fog. This time they found themselves in a place they recognized.
"Yes! We're out!" Vee cheered. "We're back in the Historical Society."
"What did you wish to show me, dearest brother?"
Everyone snapped around to see Philip leading Caleb through the room.
"No, we're still in the illusion," Gus corrected. "This part happened here."
"Tell me, brother," Philip asked with eerie calm, "do you recognize these?" He showed several stones, sticks, sheafs of bark, and other things one might find in the woods. They were all marked with various glyphs. Sweat instantly dripped down Caleb's face.
"Oh? Those look like fun drawings. Some of the children must've made them," he lied.
Philip remained unsettlingly calm. "I know Olivia Clawthorne is a witch, Caleb, as is that 'girl' you have been courting. Do not try to deny it."
The cold power exuding from Philip seeped into Vee's veins. Even as a young human, he was as intimidating as he would be as Emperor. Caleb visibly struggled to hold in the truth while all Philip did was patiently wait. He did nothing yet appeared to torture his brother with every blink.
"They mean no harm!" Caleb blurted out. "We were wrong about witches, brother. They are not here to hex us or poison our food. They are travelers from a world we could not even begin to imagine. They are wise and can teach us so much and carry within them a power we can never hope to wield."
"Magic, yes," Philip nodded, showing no response to Caleb's confession. "Did you know Dr. Locksley is working with Olivia right now under our feet to discover a means to give magic to humans?"
"He is?" Caleb smiled, believing his brother would actually side with him. "That's wonderful!"
"So naive," Philip sighed. "You never did understand the potential of the Witch Hunters. There is so much power that could be yielded from our 'divine' cause. It doesn't matter whether witches are dangerous or not, Caleb. We can act with impunity, command anyone to do anything, because to the gullible people, we are but humble servants carrying out orders from on High. The Governor does not control Gravesfield, the Head Witch Hunter does, which will soon be me."
"Hold on…" Caleb took a step back in horror. "Are you telling me this entire time you have risen through the ranks, frightening others with tales of witchcraft, to control them?"
"Fear is a powerful tool, brother." Philip drew out a small crystal, one that looked like the many that Vee had seen growing in the caves below the town, and wrapped a glyphed leather strip around it. The glyph began to glow faintly. "And there can't be any fear if people believe magic is not dangerous."
"What are you going to do with that?" Caleb demanded.
"Put an end to Locksley's experiments. Since you are my only family, I am giving you this one chance to say goodbye to your witch before I set the Hunters on her. I suggest you make it quick." Philip turned and strode out of the room with the crystal.
"NO!" Caleb and Hunter shouted at the same time. Both dashed after Philip.
"Hunter!" Gus gave chase, followed by the rest.
They phased through more fog and found Philip and Caleb wrestling on the floor of another room, the crystal shining between them.
"I am trying to protect you, Caleb!" Philip growled.
"You are controlling me!" Caleb spat back. "I never wanted to be a Hunter! I never wanted any of this!"
A familiar strobing light came from a nearby doorway that led downstairs. Vee recognized the shimmer; it was the same unstable shimmer that had coursed through her when she and Vincent had met Dr. Locksley's ghost. The tragic experiment that had destroyed the lab must be happening in this memory. The crystal slipped from the brothers' grips and flew down the stairs.
Caleb sprang after it, speeding down toward the light.
"Caleb! Stop! Don't go down there!" Philip cried.
Hunter, his eyes bulging with hysteria, chased after his double. Again, everyone followed and suddenly found themselves outside. A massive crater smoldered before them. Among the few things still standing were Locksley's spires, covered with glyphs that crackled with magic. Philip, battered and bruised, wandered through the wreckage to the center of the crater, the epicenter of the explosion. There he found shards of crystals, singes of leather, and a hand reaching out of the dirt.
Philip stood over what remained of his brother, unable to react, shellshocked.
Soon the people of Gravesfield gathered on the edges of the destruction and one called out to him, "Philip? Is that you? What happened here?"
The call awoke Philip and his gaze fell upon Olivia by the spires, injured but moving. His composure and determination returned. Things had not gone as planned but he could salvage this. "Witchcraft!" he proclaimed to the masses. "The witch Olivia Clawthorne has claimed the lives of Dr. Locksley and my brother. To the stake with her, the stake, I say!"
A mob quickly formed, fueled by anger and fear, so much fear.
"This is… insane," Hunter whimpered, unable to look away from the hand.
"I'll say!" the great owl agreed, consuming more settlers. "The learning doesn't stop!"
"Move!" Gus ordered, shoving everyone away. Another wall of fog and they were back at the portal cabin. This time there was no Caleb and Philip was no longer hiding.
"Why? He was your family!" the witch yelled, tears streaming down her cheeks. She shoved Philip against the cabin.
"Unhand me, you filthy witch!" he roared back. "None of this would've happened if your kind hadn't—"
"My kind?! My cousin Liv loved you humans! She saw in humanity something I could never understand until I met Caleb. When she disappeared from home, I spent months searching until I found your world. I let her stay here, never letting her know I was watching from afar because I foolishly believed she was right, that you humans were worth it, that your brother could change you, but you never cared about him."
"Wh—How dare you?"
"Not once have you asked me whether I could bring him back with magic. Has that even crossed your mind?"
Philip's response caught in his throat.
"Thought so," the witch growled. "It's humans like you who manipulate and use others for your own gain that give your kind a bad name. You want to hunt witches? Fine." She ripped open the cabin door. The swirling portal lay beyond, scaring Philip. "Hunt them all down. Fair warning, you won't survive a week." She chucked Philip through.
Vee and the others were pulled with Philip to the other side where he landed unceremoniously in a pool of mud. The land before him was a terrifying landscape of bones and teeth and flying creatures he had only heard about in fairytales.
He was in the Boiling Isles.
Philip whirled around in time to see the witch trace a circle in the air and the portal door slam shut in his face. A key locked the door and the two flew into the sky.
"Wait! No! Come back!"
But the portal back to the Human Realm didn't stop. It continued, carried by unseen magic deep into the seemingly endless lands where it wouldn't be found again for hundreds of years.
"By the Titan…" Vee whispered, struck dumb by everything they had learned.
"It's true…" Hunter said, dropping to his knees. "He's my brother."
The weight of this revelation was too much for the boy to handle. One by one, the group came to his side and hugged him tight. Even Vee joined in. Vee didn't get how Hunter had been a human in the Colonial Era or how he had come back to life as a witch but that didn't matter. It didn't matter that he was the Golden Guard or the right hand of the Emperor. Right now, he was just a scared kid.
"Aww, now why did you have to go and do that?" the great owl moaned, turning visible over them hungrily. "I'd have preferred one big meal but I'll settle for five small ones. Lunch time!" The owl opened wide and—
"WAIT!"
The owl spun its head upside down and squinted at the rudely interrupting Luz. "Mmmm, yes?"
"Instead of settling for one person's past, how about the entire cumulative knowledge of humanity?" she suggested, offering her phone.
The owl gasped! "You had that this entire time? You've been holding out on me!" It plucked the phone from her grip and munched away. Luz cringed at the sound of her precious phone crunched into smithereens. "Hooo, yes!" the owl hooted. It basked in the new knowledge. "All the great empires and their rise and falls, delectable! The creation of farming and civilization, umami! The erecting of the great pyramids by aliens!" The owl's blissful face fell. "Wait, that can't be right. The pyramids were made by humans, weren't they? Hold on, is the planet round or flat? A square? Hollow? Lizard people? What is this dreck?!" The owl hacked and choked. "This isn't knowledge! You tricked me!"
"Sorry about that," Luz sang. "The internet is only about 30% knowledge; the rest is uninformed conflicting opinions with zero actual proof."
The owl collapsed, convulsing as its mind was defiled. "The moon landing was fake! NASA is fake! There is no moon! Elvis lives in Area 51 with Michael Jackson! The Loch Ness monster is a vegan! Our reality is but fanfiction of a children's cartoon! AAAAH! MAKE IT STOP! TAKE IT AWAY!"
"You heard 'em, Vee," Luz said smugly.
"See ya later, guys," Vincent said as he and his parents watched the others leave.
"Come back soon. And thank you for the help," the owl, who was male and named Gamma, waved a wing to them, having reverted back to his normal size which was that of a great horned owl. The talking owl was perched on Vincent's shoulder.
"No problem," Luz and Vee said in unison.
Luz, Vee, and the Hex gang piled into the car (Dani, Beth, Tracey, and Heather left a while earlier), Luz and Vee riding in shotgun.
"Did that owl just talk?" Camilla asked. Luz opened her mouth to speak, only for her mom to cut her off, "Actually, don't answer that. I'll probably sleep better if I don't know."
As they drove off, Vee looked at Hunter in the rearview mirror. He seemed to be reflecting and she was sure she knew what about. Knowing that your own brother caused your death must've been a lot to take in.
Noceda House…
Luz and Vee entered their room, the two of them releasing an exhausted sigh as they flopped on the bottom bunk, lying back.
"You know, that witch we saw in Belos' memories, the one that was trying so desperately to protect Liv, kind of reminded me of myself," Vee spoke.
"How so?" Luz asked, turning her head to her sister.
"She was wanted to protect Liv just like I want to be able to protect you and Mom. My new family," Vee told her.
"Aww, hermana!" Luz pulled her twin in for another tight hug, the third one today, clearly touched by her words.
On the way home, Vee had googled the witch that was Liv's cousin. Apparently, after Liv's death, her cousin had led a movement across New England in order to put an end to the witch hunts. Amazingly, she had been successful.
"Look, I know I can't stop you from going back to try to save everyone in the Demon Realm, but please do anything so hastily. No magical rescues, no faceoffs with The Collector... without talking to me first," Vee told her with a slight sternness. Although, a second later she realized she kind of sounded like their mom for a minute there.
"Is it so you can try to talk me out of it?" Luz asked.
"No, it's more like so you won't have to face anything on you own," Vee clarified, "We're sisters, Luz, we don't abandon each other. You may have some of your magic back but that doesn't mean you have to do everything by yourself. Please, promise me."
The words brought a glistening tear to Luz's eyes. "I'll give you something better than that." Luz nabbed a pad of paper from her desk and sketched out several glyphs on the same page, connecting them with lines to form a big circle. "This is something I figured out from watching Amity. Give me your hand."
Unsure where this was going, Vee obeyed, grasping Luz's palm over the paper. Luz gave the glyphs a tap with her wand. The glyphs shimmered and peeled off the page. On their own, the shapes crushed together into a band of magic that encircled their hands.
"I swear to you, Vee," Luz said, "no matter what, I will not jump the gun, no magical rescues, or ultimate faceoffs with The Collector without talking to you first."
The magic band closed around their hands, fading into their skin.
"What… was that?" Vee asked in wonder.
"An everlasting oath," Luz answered. "Unbreakable and magically binding. This way you know I'll keep my word."
"Wow…" Vee examined her arm for any traces of magic. She didn't feel any different and she couldn't taste the spell, but her trust in Luz had been cemented. "So… what happens if you break an everlasting oath?"
Luz blinked. "Huh. I dunno. Probably just stops me." Luz struck a mighty battle pose. "I'd be charging towards The Collector, yelling, 'Collector, this is your final day!'" Luz flopped on her face. "And then my shoelaces would be magically tied together and I'd trip."
Laughter rang between the sisters at the absurd image. The mirth was interrupted by the page Luz had used for the oath bursting into green flames. The fire lasted only a brief second, forming in the air a haunting skull that sneered at Luz with a disturbed moan before vanishing.
The ensuing silence in the bedroom lasted for a full minute.
"You know how to undo that oath, right?" Vee asked.
Luz gulped. "Hehe… not yet."
And that's the end of this chapter. This chapter was co-written with I Write Big.
So, the official season 3 will start October 15. We saw that poster and what Vee's (supposedly) new human disguise looks like. Will change her human appearance to match the new that's canon? No, because this story takes place in an alternate universe, and the best part about making an alternate universe is that you don't have to follow canon if you don't want to. Plus, a lot of people already know who and what Vee is, so there's no point in changing her human appearance anyway. Besides, I like the little twin angle going on between her and Luz, it's way more fun.
So, in the show, Jacob said Phillip and Caleb were lured into the Demon Realm by a witch and were never seen again. In this universe though, that statement is only somewhat half true, judging by what was shown in this chapter. Besides, we all know that history tends to sometimes be different than from what's written.
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