"So Amity kicked your butt, told you what's what, you made up with Skara and now you're a wimp?" Celine questioned as she walked with Boscha up the stairs to the second floor of the school. It had been two days since the incident in school went down and Boscha had been surprisingly quiet and out of the way for them, not talking about it until now. During those days, not only was her boisterous and over the top superiority lacking but there were noticeable changes in her appearance as well. Her hair was unusually frazzled with strains out of place at all angles, dark shades under her eyes indicating she hadn't been sleeping well and the wrinkles in her clothes all displayed a far different look to the one the school was used to.
The student walking the halls today was much more in line with the potion track student everyone had come to know and fear, with some minor changes. Boscha wore a large frown as she was getting annoyed already at the other girl's insinuation as she stopped on the steps. "Okay, first off she didn't kick my butt! She ambushed me and besides that I could have beaten her. Second, I'm not a wimp. I'm still Boscha Hasdrubal: Grudgby player, top tier student, top dog of this school and all the peons in it!" She shouted as everyone around took notice as she paused for a moment and her confidence dissipated slightly. "Sorry about the 'peon' thing everyone." She said before slapping herself.
"You see?" She gestured around her as they continued up the steps. "I just apologized...to people...for an insult. I'd never do that, but after the whole incident a few days ago I've been feeling off." The pair continued up the steps. "You know I bumped into someone at the market yesterday and you know what I said?" Not even turning her attention from Celine, Boscha shot out her hand and pulled a "Hex Me" sign off of an unknowing student's back. "I said, 'I beg your pardon'. Me. Boscha Hasdrubal, begged someones pardon."
"A few weeks ago I could reach out my hand and hurt someone, anyone, with my words or a prank," They kept on up the steps as Boscha stuck out her foot and tripped another student and reflexively grabbed the back of their uniform to keep them from falling and helped to balance them out. All of this without stopping or pausing her conversation. "and not even bat an eyelash. It was as easy as swatting a fairy. But after what happened to Skara, it's like I'm asking myself every waking moment why I would want to do that, why I ever wanted to do that. I feel like I'm losing it, losing me."
"Well, I'm no therapist but maybe you're just trying to change and all these things are just foreign to you. No offense but you weren't known as the nicest person." Celine explained as they walked down the halls of the second floor.
"Of course not. Nice never got me anything. I was hated, sure, but people knew not to mess with me." Boscha admitted.
"Is that what you're worried about?" Celine asked. "That people will start to see you as weak and you'll lose all of the power and respect you built all these years?"
"No?" Boscha questioned herself. "Yes? I don't know. It's all just jumbled. It's like I want to do the one thing but it's like my brain is telling me to do the old thing and my body wants to do both. Maybe I should have just gone on that trip." She closed her eyes for a moment and massaged her head.
"Maybe you should see a specialist for that. Anyway, I got to get to class early to check on my project. See you later." Celine waved before she veered off to her class to the left of the hallway.
As she continued on, Boscha heard a familiar beeping sound. She reached into her bag to find the black scroll given to her by Dieter when he recruited her. "Almost forgot about you." She opened it to find a message inside. "Something big going down today." It read. "Be prepared."
She quickly messaged back. "For what?"
"You'll know it when it happens." The response was quickly typed with nothing else coming through. Boscha had little time to wonder about the strange message as she spotted Skara walking towards her with Viney in accompaniment and quickly tucked the device in her bag. Even after their heartfelt moment at her home, Boscha still did her best to avoid Skara, though still giving her a wave or nod of acknowledgment here and there. She was still feeling a bit guilty despite the girl stopped by to talk.
Skara waved to her from a distance with Boscha offering a small return gesture as well. Viney, on the other hand did not look happy to see her. The three finally met in the middle of the hall as Skara had a big smile. "Hey Boscha."
"Hey Skara." The girl greeted as she looked to the multi-track student next to her.
"Boscha." Viney said simply with a glare, the look Boscha was all too familiar with.
"Viney." The three-eyed girl said with the tension in their voices all too apparent. Skara's eyes shift between the two nervously.
"So, you burn any of your other former friends with potions?" Viney said with a scowl as Boscha wore the same look.
"So, you catch any fish on that ear yet?" Boscha fired back.
"Ooookayyyy." Skara stepped between the two. "Definitely still some harsh feelings here. Viney, could I talk to Boscha alone, please?" Viney looked at Skara and then back to Boscha before complying and walking off down the hall. Skara gave a sigh of relief. "Sorry, she's still a little overprotective."
Boscha's features softened considerably once the griffon owner left. "And despite my quick wit I can't say I blame her."
"Now don't start that again. You both just need time." Skara reassured her. "Change isn't going to happen overnight. It takes a lot of time. Besides, no one's asking you to do a complete one-eighty turn around right out of the gate."
Boscha's eyes opened wide with surprise. "They aren't?!"
Skara laughed. "No, silly. You wouldn't be you anymore. Boscha, you've always had good qualities. You're a fierce competitor, confident, bold. It's the core of who you are. All you need to do is trim away some of the less positive aspects. Just make the small changes to start like maybe not try to insult anyone, even if they do it to you. Then little by little and before you know it, you'll be a Boscha 2.0, a fantastic grudgby player with confidence in spades, who's also a really great friend."
Suddenly it all clicked in Boscha's head. All the turmoil and the rapid changes that were conflicting with her old personality. In her effort to change, she was just stumbling herself by trying to force it while her mind was still clinging onto what she knew. "Huh, who would have thunk it? When did you get so smart, Skara?"
"Somewhere around third grade. Took you long enough to notice." She joked. "So, what do you think about the multi-track classes? Were you planning on signing up?"
"No, I don't think so. I'm full focused on the potion track. It's what I'm good at." Boscha answered, being careful with her words, remembering Skara's friendship with Viney. "Were you?"
"I'm not sure. The more I think about it the more fun it seems. Like mixing different tracks, what kind of possibilities could there be? My bard magic and beast-keeping. Or maybe mixing it with healing to patch up anyone that hears it. It all sounds so exciting." Boscha watched as her friend was giddy with delight as she thought about the combinations. The girl still wasn't sure why they would want multiple tracks as the students, sans the human who certainly wouldn't be sticking around, would eventually have to pick one coven. That fact aside, she was fine seeing Skara genuinely happy.
The two bid each other goodbye for the time being as they headed to their respective classes. It was only about a few hours later that Principal Bump spoke over the intercom about an important announcement in the gym. Boscha made her way there with the rest of the students as they filed into the gym. She found a spot right next to Celine as they and everyone else wondered just what was going on. It didn't take long for the principal to introduce Adrian Graye, Head of the Illusion Coven. Boscha was as surprised as everyone. True she had once been introduced to Vitimir, Head Witch of the Potion Coven, by her mother years ago and it was quite the experience. She could tell this was something different just by looking at the expression on his face and the disheveled manner of his clothing and hair.
What came next was unexpected as Graye explained his reasons for being there, only for it to mostly be a lie as Gus Porter exposed the illusion concealing the Emperor's Coven's true intentions. Soon the students and staff found themselves surrounded by coven scouts as Boscha's scroll rang at the most inappropriate of times. Before she could even be bothered to look at it, the entire area was blanketed in an illusion by the panicked Porter as everyone, Boscha included, scattered in a panic. The girl tried to find Celine, Skara, anyone in this ever shifting field around her caused by the illusionist. It only took a second for everything to go black as something was thrown over her head to obscure her vision and her arms and legs her bound by something she couldn't see.
Boscha could feel herself being carried off as she fought with all the might she could muster to get free but to no avail. Soon she felt herself being thrown down and her vision returned as the sack over her head was removed and she saw her captors: Several Emperor's Coven scouts looking down at her. Her center eye began to glow orange as she gritted her teeth in anger as she looked up to them.
"Easy their, Boscha. It's all good." One of them said as two removed their masks, revealing Morvo and Seth.
"What the heck?!" The three-eyed girl shouted in disbelief as Seth covers her mouth with his hand.
"Shh shh shh! Would you keep it down? You're gonna blow our cover." The four-eyed teen said as he slowly removed his hand. One of the other scouts then dissipated the abomination slime that bound the girl as she got up. She was then thrown a scout uniform and mask.
"Put that on, quick." The scout ordered as she gave him an odd look before putting it over her uniform.
"What are you two idiots dressed like that?" She immediately asked causing the two to look at each other and then to her in annoyance.
"Does no one follow our page?" Morvo asked as he pulled out his scroll and showed Boscha the new update on Penstagram. It showed the two boys with their new coven scout uniforms with the subtitle, "Emperor's Coven and Lovin' It".
"While we were in the Conformatorium they promised us we could join if we helped them spy on the school." Morvo explained. This all sounded all too familiar to Boscha.
"And check it out." Seth and Morvo both flashed the Emperor's Coven sigil on their right hands. "It's official."
"Why are you guys working for Emperor Belos? Graye is literally trying to brand everyone in the school." Boscha asked as she glared at the two.
The two looked to each other before Seth responded. "Yeah. So what? Everybody's going to have to get one sooner or later and with the Day of Unity coming up, why not now?"
"I...guess that makes sense." Boscha said hesitantly as she placed the mask on to conceal her identity.
"Exactly. Now come on. We've got to round up the rest of the school and we could use the extra hands." The lead scout said as the three joined him and another two scouts as they navigated the illusion filled school. Little by little, the team was making progress as they rounded up several stragglers from the gym that hadn't found their way through this labyrinth. They were all bound together with ropes as the leader of the unit left the three teens in charge of keeping an eye on them.
If Boscha was having second thoughts about this she wasn't communicating it as she went along with group and helped to keep the captured students in line. True, everyone had to join a coven, it was just how things worked. At the same time Boscha was having a hard time shutting out their pleading to be let go or the dejected looks on their faces. She was just glad that her own face was concealed so that they would never know she was involved in this.
The group halted as one of the scouts put up a hand. They silently turned back and gestured for the group to spread out into the area while Seth stayed to watch the already captured students. The scout gestured for Boscha to move right as she complied and cautiously looked around as she walked through what looked like the marketplace in town. She made her way to one of the stands and spotted something just around the corner as, what looked like the fringe of a Hexside uniform was slightly visible. Slowly rounding the corner, Boscha looked down to see the shaking form of Amelia who was tightly holding herself, most likely praying that the team would move on without noticing her.
The plant track student's eyes opened wide as she looked up to see the coven scout right over her as they locked eyes. She had no idea that the person under that bird-like mask was her former captain working for the coven scouts. Boscha could see the clear fear in Amelia's eyes at the realization that she had been caught. The three-eyed girl's mind raced as she thought of what she should do before slowly putting a single finger up to where her mouth would be under the mask. The green-haired girl was surprised as the scout slowly began to back away and had to stop herself from sighing in relief. Unfortunately, things didn't go as well as either had hoped as the lead scout appeared on Boscha's right, frightening her as they looked down to see the student hiding.
The scout immediately grabbed Amelia by the arm, bending it behind her back as they pushed her towards the rest of the group. They stopped and stared at Boscha who got chills just from the presence they seemed to generate. The scout then reached into their bag and pulled out a sigil glove and tossed it into an unsuspecting Boscha's hands as they bent Amelia's arm even further as she cried out and held out her left hand.
"Hey, we are supposed to wait and take them to Graye before..." The other scout protested only to be shoved away by the leader.
Boscha looked down at the glove for a moment and then to the pained face of Amelia as she slipped it on and slowly approached the girl. "No! Stop!" Amelia pleaded with little success as the glove was switched to the plant coven sigil and Boscha stretched out her arm. Just as she reached the girl's hand, Boscha promptly closed the glove into a fist and punched the lead scout, causing them to release Amelia. Morvo and the other scout attempted to stop her but the Hasdrubal girl threw her helmet at the former and hit the later with a fireball.
"Boscha?" Amelia said in shock as the three-eyed girl hurled a potion bottle at the captured students that dissolved the ropes around their wrists.
"Run!" She admonished as they ran in every direction and vanished into the illusion, trampling a stunned Seth in the process. Boscha took Amelia by the hand and attempted to flee herself only to be confronted by the now unmasked lead scout, revealed to be Ridwan, the blue skinned young man looking none too happy as he began to form a circle in the air. His attempt was cut short however as a large stone statue in the form of a coven scout barreled through the illusion and smashed him against a wall. "Well, that was lucky. Come on!" Boscha pulled a stunned Amelia along with her as the two raced away from the sight. As the other scouts gather their senses about them, they see the statue begin to crack as a blue fist punches through it and splits it down the middle.
The two girls continued to run down the halls in an attempt to find somewhere safe to hide from the scouts. Boscha stopped as she looked around to figure out just where they were. "Okay, what is going on?" Amelia finally sounded off. "Why are you in an Emperor's Coven uniform and what was that back there?"
Boscha was seemingly ignoring the questions as she felt the walls, her touch temporarily lifting the illusion. "There's those dumb stickers Matt put on his locker. That at least gives me an idea of where we are."
"Boscha!" Amelia shouted to get her attention. This caused the Banshee's team captain to bite down as she was dreaded what had to be said.
The girl's shoulders slumped as she leaned against the disguised lockers. "Okay. This was my fault." She said in a low voice as Amelia looked confused. "Some scouts came to my house and offered me some... things if I spied on the human and told them about whatever was going on in the school. That's how they knew about the multi-track courses."
"You caused all of this?" Amelia asked in an angered tone.
"They never told me about any of this. I didn't know about it until just before it happened. I never meant for any of this to happen." Boscha pleaded.
Amelia was unconvinced of her words. "Sure. Just like you didn't kick Skara off the team or try to force Luz to fight you. Now that I'm thinking that what happened to Skara wasn't even an accident."
"That's not true!" Boscha shot back in frustration as a tear appeared in her eyes as she forced herself to remember. "I made a mistake, okay? I made a lot of stupid mistakes these last few months. As usual I put myself before everyone else and it's cost me a lot, but I'm trying to fix things. I...I know I can't make things right with you all overnight but I'm asking you to trust me. At least long enough to get us out of this mess. If you want to hate me after, that's fine too."
Amelia's face began to soften as she listened. "Skara wasn't lying. You really have changed."
Boscha shrugged at the notion. "A work in progress."
"Is that why Amity kicked your butt?" Amelia joked as Boscha turned to her. "Skara told me."
The three-eyed girls face turned red as she stuck a finger out to make her point. "First off..." She was cut off as a large fireball came crashing between them that sent both flying backwards. Boscha managed to rebound from the attack, though Amelia wasn't as lucky as she hit her head against the wall and was rendered unconscious.
She was greeted by Ridwan slowly walking down the hall, wearing his dark shades as he formed another circle and two abominations formed that charged Boscha. "You just made a big mistake buddy." Boscha summoned a dozen grudgby balls around her and set them alight as she hurled two at the advancing abominations, successfully decapitating them as they turned into piles of goo on the ground. She hurled four more in his direction only for the Jiangshi to summon and ice wall that the balls melted into before losing their momentum. He then promptly punched the frozen shield and sent large shards of ice in her direction.
Boscha began to swirl the remaining balls to form a high speed defense around her to melt the incoming projectiles before they reached her. She then launched a counterattack with three more balls as he evaded them and hurled a fireball that the girl barely evaded, singeing her bangs in the process. The final three balls were hurled at Ridwan who evaded two and kicked the third into the air. He looked back to her with a smirk of confidence only to be surprised that she had the same expression, her arms stretched upwards as if surrendering. His eyes shifted to the ceiling to find the six flaming orbs she'd launched levitating high above him as she threw her hands downward, sending them crashing atop him in a massive fireball.
"That's game." She said as she pulled her hands back. Boscha was about to check on Amelia when she spotted a glimmer coming from the impact zone. Her eyes widened to find Ridwan standing unharmed as a yellow force field surrounded him. The field dissipated as he charged her with blinding speed, not even giving her a chance to mount any other defense. He grabbed her by her neck and threw her against a wall before marching over, picking her up again and slamming her against the lockers and then slammed her against the ground. The Jiangshi seized her by the collar of the uniform and lifted her off the ground.
The half conscious girl looked down at him as he bared his large fangs at her. "Sudden death then." She said weakly as he noticed an orange glow emanating from her third. Without any other warning his uniform burst into flames. He looked horrified as he tossed her away and fought furiously to put the flames out as they only increased in intensity as Boscha's eye widened even as she lay on the ground, her vision blurry as she watched as he eventually was consumed by the fire and collapsed in a heap as the inferno died out.
"Huh, I was aiming for his eyes." Boscha chuckled, although it caused her no small amount of pain. She placed a hand to her third eye and spotted the telltale blood trickling from it. Her mother had always warned her about using that technique in only the most dire of circumstances, so she figured Hana would forgive her this one time. The girl forced herself up, the world around a hazy, shuddering mess. She could still make out Amelia's form and groggily made her way to the girl. The attempt was short lived as she felt a sudden blow to the back of her head and crashed back to the hard school floor. Her eyes stayed open just long enough to see a charred boot obscure her vision before blacking out.
She could hear several things going on in the world outside her closed eyes as she heard a familiar voice. Boscha's eyes creaked open as she spotted Dieter in his coven garb seemingly yelling at Ridwan, who she couldn't believe was still alive. It was all muffled to her as her ears were still ringing. Out of her viewing range, a thorny vine shot out at the two, knocking Ridwan down and hitting Dieter in the face just before her vision cut out again. "A hundred and ten pounds, my butt." She could hear as she felt the ground moving beneath her despite her legs not moving.
Inside the school the illusion was finally dispelled as the fighting between the coven scouts and school members had resulted in victory for the students and staff. They saw off the defeated Emperor's Coven and cheered in victory before being informed of what the Day of Unity really brought. Everyone slowly began to head home, now frightened at the prospect of what was to come. Skara was flying on her staff as she spotted someone soaring at her at high speed. Amelia came racing from the forest on her own staff. "Skara!"
"Amelia, you're okay." Skara slowed down as the two landed and the gray-haired girl rushed over and hugged her tightly.
"Yeah, thanks to Boscha." The green-haired girl said as she caught her breath.
"Boscha?" Skara looked around for her friend. "Where is she? Is she alright?" Amelia's gaze turned to the ground as she slowly looked back to the other girl.
In the Hasdrubal home, Boscha had locked herself in the basement as she sat on the floor, tightly clutching the wrist of her right hand as she fought back tears in her eyes.