The radiology room was one that Luz was very familiar with, especially because her mother had to deal with so many broken bones on her part as a child, Luz was… clumsy… as a child to say the least. She viewed herself as stronger after each injury though, so nobody could particularly fault her on that, especially when every bone she broke was broken only once, never again. Luz was not someone to make the same mistake twice.

This… this was an exception. She had broken some ribs before and had obtained her fair share of abdominal injuries before, but this was different, worse, much worse. If it wasn't for the fact that Amity's spell had taken so much of the pain away, Luz would have much more to answer for, but the injury was not showing half as much as it would have before, yet another thing for Luz to be thankful for.

Amity was not as familiar with the room, or the planet for that matter. When Luz's mother had explained what the "X-ray" did, it meant trouble, she would surely be outed as a witch. That… couldn't happen.

Amity found herself panicked, looking around for something, anything to distract the healers so she could make an escape, but, unlike the Isles, there was nothing dangerous lying around. Titan, this is gonna be bad.

"Luz, do you have a plan?" Amity whispered to her crush, who was absentmindedly staring off when she heard her name and snapped out of it.

"I- I don't. I won't let them hurt you though, and remember, you won't be alone… no matter what." Luz reassured Amity, which worked thoroughly, probably more so than it should have.

The panic subsided a bit, but it was certainly still there. Even if Luz wouldn't let anything bad happen to her, which Amity wholeheartedly believed, she needed to find a way to save herself. Not only did her parents teach her better, but she was stronger than this on her own. She made the choice to come here, she made her deal, she needed to be the one to fix this.

I got this. A Blight has no weaknesses. I am a Blight. I am stronger than this.

The words chimed in her head, though they weren't in her own voice, even if they spoke in the first parent, instead, they were in a more distorted version of her mother's. Her mother's words. Would they be enough to push her through this? They had to be. She had to be strong right now, for her own sake, no, for Luz's. It was time to pull her own weight on this trip.

"I got this," Amity spoke flatly, just loud enough for Luz to hear.

Luz was trying desperately to find a way out of this, but all methods led to the same end, her mother finding out and things going awry. slight

The situation was getting dire, then Luz heard it, Amity spoke up, telling her that she's "got this". Luz trusted Amity, but she had only been in the realm for mere minutes, let alone the fact that this situation was probably far worse than she could have imagined. The implications of what would happen if her mother found out about Amity's bile sack were terrible.

Even if it was just her brain over-dramatizing things as usual or normal worry for her… friend's… sake, she knew that she needed to find a way to back up Amity if things went poorly. All she could do was hope that Amity's plan was better than she expected.

There… was no plan. Amity had no idea what to do, but she knew that she could get through this. She tried once more to look around and find something to use but found nothing. That was until she looked at Luz.

She didn't know why she hadn't thought of it before, but she was now. She started to think back to the first day she met Luz, what a day that was. It was the day of the Abomination incident.

Luz had been able to pass as a human, up until Bump was about to look inside her that was. All she had to do to get out of that was enlist the help of a friend and she could probably escape whatever security was at this healer, right?

"Luz, I need your help with this. I think that if we just run, we can make it like you and Willow did." Amity whispered to Luz while her mother was still setting up the machinery.

"What? Amity? No. That won't work. I-" Luz tried to explain, but Amity cut her off.

"Why not? You did it before… it worked then, so why not now?"

Luz stammered a bit, then stopped, collected her thoughts, and focused on explaining things to Amity. She couldn't run now. Not only were things different here compared to the Isles, but people were worse here, so if she was caught by the police, a pretty girl like herself, Luz didn't want to imagine how she would fare in any sort of prison situation, even if they put her in juvie.

She started to explain when Camila finally finished setting things up, her window was gone. Camila started to speak.

"Alright, so, if we make this fast, maybe we can get the two of you out of here sooner than I thought. And since Amity here hasn't done this before, you should go first, Mija." Camila let out with a sigh.

The girls both looked at each other once more in the dark room and silently agreed to have each other's backs.

Luz's screening went by quickly, not giving enough time for Amity to ready herself. She didn't understand why Luz didn't like her plan, especially considering that it wasn't much of one. Wasn't that Luz's style? Either way, Amity had lost all confidence in her plan and needed a new one, she wouldn't find one though. Luz stepped out of the small space where the screenings would occur and walked toward Amity.

"I don't know what's going to happen in there, but I have your back. If everything goes wrong, we can use your plan, but I just need you to go in there, not panic and get this over with. I'm sorry, you're going through so much right now, but if we have any hope of making things right after this, I need you to make it through, for me."

Amity was like a deer in the headlights, hearing each word come from Luz and letting them hit her like bullets. Her face was growing a deeper red as each second passed. How was Luz always able to say just the right thing to her, even when she didn't even know it was what she wanted to hear? She was so thankful that Luz was like that though because whether she would admit it or not, she was falling apart at the seams, and Luz needed to be the one to pull her together like she always did.

"Okay, thank you, Luz, for everything," Amity said as she pulled Luz into a deep hug. It only lasted a few seconds because Camila signaled for Amity to hurry up, but the hug was all she needed to face whatever would come.

Luz gladly reciprocated the hug, feeling her cheeks growing red again, she didn't push it away this time, however, instead, she welcomed it and enjoyed the tender embrace. Amity was nothing if not a great hugger, even if she gave so few out. After relishing in the hug for what was likely an awkward amount of time by Amity's standards, Luz let go finally, hoping that it didn't weird Amity out too much. She liked someone else after all, right? It was someone else that she was going to invite to Grom, not herself. She failed to push the negative thoughts away but didn't let them show, just like she always had. She gave Amity the most confident face she could muster as the girl walked into the secluded corner of the room for her screening.

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The day that followed was a slow one on the Boiling Isles, it was still early in the morning, so it was increasingly difficult for Eda to wake herself up. She couldn't sleep though, Luz was gone and she couldn't push the thoughts away for the night. It didn't help that when she did manage to sleep, she had some very… nightmarish dreams about what might have happened to her apprentice. It was messed up, to say the least, and Luz deserved none of it.

Eda was growing more and more discontent with the world that she was living in. It had taken so much from her already, but this, this was too much. Luz was like her own daughter, even if she had only known her for a few months. She had formed a connection with the girl that she hadn't formed with anyone in her life, not even her own sister. The world that took Luz from her… damn it. Damn it to hell for taking the one thing she couldn't live without. The only thing that stopped her from pushing herself over the proverbial edge was the thought that Luz was somehow out there and okay like her friend said.

She needed that to be the case. If it wasn't, she wasn't quite sure how she could bring herself to move on, in fact, she was sure that she wouldn't. If Luz was gone, maybe she should be too. If Luz didn't deserve to be happy, then nobody did, and if the Emperor had anything to do with it, powers or not, Eda would kill him. Belos would rue the day he was born if she found out that he laid so much as a finger on her leading to her disappearance.

Lilith was awake as well, much more so than Eda was. She sat in the living room, entertaining herself with the crystal ball that broadcasted the news, which was speaking about the Luz situation. The newscaster was none other than Perry Porter, Gus' father. He was one of the very few people in the media to be speaking against the word of the Emperor, going as far as to push claims of foul play on the Emperor's part on live television. It was a dangerous game he was playing, but a necessary one at that. Someone had to be on Luz's side and it made sense to be the father of one of her best friends. Perry Porter was a good man, one who would trust the word of a proven great person over that of an authority figure. It was a virtue that was all too forgotten on the Isles, which only served to anger Eda further.

It was a morning too peaceful for Eda's liking. It shouldn't be this way, not with Luz out there. We can't just be in here sitting on our behinds while Luz could be in danger, Eda thought. To her own credit, she was right. Nobody was doing anything. It couldn't stay this way. Eda would find Luz, dead or alive, she just needed to know. Living like this was torturous, more so than having to deal with a curse for the past 30 years. It was a cruel, evil hell that she was trapped in by whoever dared take Luz from her. She needed answers, and she was going to get them, so she walked right out the front door with her staff and flew into town, leaving King and Lilith staring at the open door with curiosity. They had never seen Eda like this, nobody had.

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Amity felt immensely worried as she entered the screening room. It was even darker than the other part of the room, and the fact that there was a large camera staring at her behind some one-sided glass didn't help. She felt so uncomfortable she could scream, but no. She had to be strong, for Luz.

She felt a cool breeze run up her back, which gave her goosebumps up her entire spine as Luz's mother commanded for her to stand up straight. She obliged and tried to be calm so Luz would be proud of her.

Much to her own surprise, the screening came and went, or so she thought. The camera scanned her lower body and seemed to collect enough information. She thought she was done because there was a pause, but the camera jerked up suddenly and she heard a slight gasp from the other side. She felt frozen in place, praying to the Titan above that she hadn't been discovered. It was only when the mother told her to leave the small room that she felt safe.

There was an odd new tension in the room. Luz awaited Amity as she left the room and was happy to see that she was fine. There were a few moments where they even thought they might have been out of the woods, of course, they still had to talk to Camila once more and hope she didn't say anything too alarming, but otherwise, they thought, for just a moment, that things might be alright.

Camila came out of the area behind the x-ray with a composed look on her face.

To Amity, that was a great sign, to Luz it wasn't. Luz knew her mother, likely better than anyone, even her own father, especially since he left when she was born. Due to that fact, Luz could tell when she was hiding something, just like Camila had with her only hours ago. She could see all of the signs, the slow walking, the sweat on her forehead, and the most telltale sign of all, her hand was shaking. She had seen something. Luz knew it. She just needed to make sure that she played her cards right in the coming moments, otherwise, this could end really badly for Amity.

The aforementioned mother walked up to the two slowly, sweating on her forehead, hand twitching, just as Luz suspected. It took her a moment to finally speak to the two, and when she did, she stammered a bit at the beginning before collecting herself. Whatever she found, it had to have been jarring.

"I- Urm- Your results are pretty much identical, and I'm glad to say that there are no signs that your wounds won't heal completely over time. There was something else, urm- never mind."

Luz had no idea what to do at that moment. Her mother saw something, she had to have. But why didn't she say anything? That was unlike her. Luz found little comfort in that, even though it seemed to at least comfort Amity. Luz, although thoroughly worried, decided to think more about Amity here and calm herself down a bit.

Amity on the other hand was thrilled at the news. They weren't out of the woods yet, they never would be, but she definitely felt that this was a much-needed victory. She didn't even try to hide her smile as she responded to the great news.

"That's great! Does that mean we get to go… home… oh yeah."

That was another thing that hadn't completely been solved yet. Luz knew that she would need to find a way for Amity to be allowed to stay at her house, but with how her mother was behaving right now, she had no idea what to do.

Amity felt the same way. She knew that she couldn't outright ask the woman. She suspected that Amity had tried to kill her daughter last night after all. She couldn't imagine why she would want her sleeping in the same house and likely room as her daughter now.

It was actually Camila who was the next to speak, much to the two teens' surprise. She looked at the closed door, walked up to it, locked it, and stared at the two.

To say that they were panicked was an understatement.

"Luz, she isn't from here, is she?"

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The ride into Bonesborough was not the same this time. There was an unfamiliar sense of urgency behind Eda as she flew into the town center. She needed something, she wasn't even sure what. Was it something to buy? Was it someone to talk to? Was it a sign? All she knew was that she needed something and she couldn't go without it for long.

She landed softly on the ground below her thanks to Owlbert's great flying experience and made her way into town on foot after giving the palisman a pat on the head.

She looked around with little enthusiasm, finding nothing to help her. She was growing frustrated. She was losing her patience fast. Not that she expected something to just fall into her lap but-

She laid eyes on someone. It was probably one of the worst people she could have seen at that moment, the face of the Emperor's Coven, the "genius teen prodigy", the Golden Guard.

He stood proudly in the middle of the marketplace, commanding people as always, being even more annoying than usual. Eda fought the urge to simply attack the boy, only for the fact that he was a child. If he wasn't the Emperor's son, she would have even felt bad for him.

She walked up behind him, somehow unnoticed until she tapped him on the shoulder. When he turned around, he was greeted with a very disgruntled face on Eda's part.

He nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight, in fact, he actually managed to jump out of his mask, which fell to the ground, revealing the boy's face, which was covered with a large scar that crossed his face. He had red eyes, yet another strange feature. Eda wasn't given much time to take in the look of his face because he quickly picked his mask up off of the ground. He quickly put it on and faced her with more confidence.

"Eda the Owl Lady? What are you-"

Eda was quick to silence the boy.

"Shut up," she took a deep breath and continued, "You know what I want. Where is she?"

She could practically see the smug smile that must have been hidden under his mask, which made her do her typical growl. He chuckled briefly before asking a question of his own.

"Which one?"

There was only so much snarky crap she could put up with, especially on a morning like this one, so upon hearing this, she grabbed him by the robes and held him with both hands. He squirmed a bit but Eda held firm. Some of his guards came around, but he waved them off. They listened to his order, backing up a few feet.

"I'm gonna save you the trouble because I'm pretty sure you know who I'm talking about. So I'll only ask you one more time, where the hell is she?!"

He squirmed one more time but he seemed to finally understand that he was beaten, so he told her to unhand him, which she did, and he quickly spoke when she dropped him on his back and stood over him, kicking his staff away.

"Fine, I get it. They're both in the same place anyway, okay?"

Eda responded with a quick "I'm listening," prompting him to continue, which he did.

"He banished them back to the human realm, both of them. I can't guarantee that they're safe but they're definitely better off than they would have been here. He would have killed them both."

She stepped off of him and didn't respond with words. She only sighed and let out a soft "Shit," under her breath.

She turned away from the boy who started to get up and walked away. It was only when he spoke again that she stopped in her tracks.

"For what it's worth, even though the Blight girl was pretty cruel, I don't think they deserved any of it. I'm sorry for what he did."

She didn't speak. She only let a single tear fall down her cheek while mounting her staff and flying away.

She was flying much slower now, whether it was to collect her thoughts or out of hopelessness, she didn't move any faster than she would have walked.

As she flew through the air, she let the cool breeze hit her face lightly as she continued her flight.

After flying with her eyes closed for a few moments, Eda spoke.

"I'll find you, Luz. I promise."

Back to the Owl House she went, now with a new goal in mind. She had to deal with the Emperor, and she knew this wasn't something she could do on her own, not anymore at least.

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Nobody spoke for a few moments, confirming Camila's suspicions. Amity was not from here.

It was also her who spoke next, saving the children from having to do so.

"Girls, I've seen one of those 'magic sacks' or whatever you call them once before."

Neither girl spoke, they only stared at each other in wide-eyed horror, unable to formulate a sentence.

"I also understand that it's very dangerous there, so I need to ask, Luz, is that where you've been the past few months?"

The question didn't hang in the air long, with Luz frantically nodding in response.

"Dios Mio, and is that where that terrible wound came from as well?"

She continued nodding.

"And Amity?"

Still nodding.

"Ay, cariño,"

Amity, who didn't understand what was going on, continued to stare at the two, mouth agape when Camila turned in her direction.

"And you, how did you end up here?" Camila asked in the softest tone she had spoken with over her entire stay thus far.

"I- We- Um-..."

She couldn't speak.

Luz was the first of the two to find her words, "Mom, let's just say that you probably won't see many new people with 'magic sacks' anymore."

The answer sufficed. Amity nodded with an exaggerated frown on her face.

"So I guess you really don't have a home to go back to then, do you?"

Amity responded to this question, which surprised her, and the way she did surprised her even more.

"Didn't have one before," Amity admitted.

Her house never really was a home, so she knew how she felt about that, but she hadn't ever admitted that to someone before. How did she just lose control of her thoughts so easily? For being a Blight, she would expect to at least be able to hold her own tongue, apparently not.

"Well, I know that things aren't going to be particularly easy for you here, but I would be cruel not to offer you somewhere to stay for as long as you need, plus, I am probably the only person here, besides Luz, who has any experience with the Isles."

To say that the teens were shocked would be an understatement. Not only did Camila know about the Isles, but someone had been here before… and she met them. The implications were not lost with Luz, wondering who the person could be, what happened to them, where are they now, among other things.

Amity, for her part, was doing a much better job at staying calm, even if she was just as shocked as Luz. She actually managed to let out an understandable response.

"Um- Yeah, please."

Camila looked at the two teens and sighed before continuing to speak to the two.

"Okay, well I'll be glad to take you home with me and Luz, but I will need more of an explanation later, okay?"

Amity nodded, Camila continued.

"Well, my name is Camila, as you know, I am Luz's mother. It's nice to meet you Amity. I know I didn't tell you that last time, I hope you can understand my panic. I'm sorry."

That was probably the most sincere thing Amity had ever been told by an adult. How Luz could have been raised to become such an amazing person was less of a mystery now. Her mother was great, just like her.

"Yeah, I understand. It's nice to meet you too, Miss Noceda."

Camila actually smiled at that, relieving any lingering tension that might have been leftover in the room. She continued the dialogue.

"So, we can leave pretty much right away. Having a daughter who is wounded is probably a good enough reason to leave work as any, so let's get going, straight home."

Luz was happy to hear that. Sure, the Boiling Isles was great, better than her home in nearly every way, but man did she miss sleeping in a bed. It only then returned to her that she had Amity with her. The fun they would have once they got home. There was only a week or two left of summer break, so Luz could only imagine what they could get up to in that time. Maybe she could even deal with her… problem… in that time.

Amity was also thrilled to hear that, having had enough of the whole otherworldly hospital experience.

The next few moments went by in a blur, which Amity found herself thankful for. They took the exact same path in and out every time, not deviating from the route when they were exiting as they did when they entered. It was probably the only thing she was used to in the entire realm, besides Luz that is. She found herself saying that in her mind a lot lately. Luz was so different than everyone else, and yet it was never a fault. The adoration that Amity held for Luz was stronger than she held for a single other person. Luz was everything to her. She was perfect. She was her Luz, and soon enough she knew she needed to make that official, especially having no way back to the Isles. She punched her ticket and she knew what she was getting into. It was about time she did something about it.

Amity was yanked from her thoughts when Luz tugged on her hand, which she had apparently been holding, likely the reason the thoughts ever started. Amity's vision came back to her and she realized that she was out of the healer. She saw Luz, Camila, and one of those weird carriage demons. Luz was pulling her toward it when she started speaking.

"Come on Amity, we gotta go if you wanna get settled in before bedtime."

Amity wanted to follow, especially since Luz told her the "Car" wasn't dangerous, but her instincts told her not to. The last time she trusted a demon, things didn't go well… for the demon that was. So whether it was Luz's word or Amity's confidence, she found herself able to follow Luz finally, entering the car as Luz held the door like the gentlewoman she was.

"Thank you," Amity told Luz, who smiled in response before entering the car directly beside Amity. Normally she would have taken the front seat, but sitting next to Amity felt like more of a win than air conditioning at the moment and she didn't find herself regretting it.

Suddenly, Amity heard an unfamiliar noise, that of the car starting. It was terrifying in her eyes, like the demon she was using as a mode of transport was growling at her. She gulped hard as the noise continued then stopped, continued then stopped, then the third time, it continued and stopped, but was followed by a louder noise. The car started to glow from all around and Amity started to feel a cool breeze inside of the car. It was a bewildering experience, but having Luz right by her side felt amazing. The aforementioned girl only wore an understanding smile throughout the whole ordeal, likely due to the fact that she knew the feeling, having visited a new realm recently as well.

The car started moving, which was more sudden than anything thus far, prompting Amity to throw herself at Luz in panic. She held her close, rubbing her back as the panic started to subside. The car was moving more steadily, now on the road with hundreds more.

It was a spectacle that Amity never thought she would see, mostly because her life had been planned out before she was born… this was definitely not "part of the plan".

The ride to the Casa de las Nocedas, as Luz called it, was shorter than Amity expected, having lived super far from Luz in the Isles, then she remembered that she would be living with her. Yeah, she was gonna die, she was sure of it. She was getting woozy at the thought.

When the car stopped, Amity felt relieved. She followed Luz out of the same door she entered and nearly fell to the ground once she left it, that would be if Luz hadn't caught her of course. She held onto her personal support beam and regained her balance.

"Carsick?" Luz asked as Amity bent down, breathing hard.

"Possibly…" Amity admitted.

Once she finally had a sufficient grasp of how to stand again, she faced Luz, who simply wore her otterish smile and turned Amity's head to face Luz's house. It was cozy, a single story with a nice, grassy front yard. It wasn't the Blight Manor by any means, that made it perfect.

"You coming?" Luz asked the girl who smiled at her childhood home.

"Like I'd let you leave me for even a second." Amity joked, the implications of her joke not setting in until several seconds after she said it. Smooth Amity, real smooth.

Luz only smiled and giggled softly at the attempted flirt, hopefully taking it as a joke, and extended a hand for Amity to grab.

It was basically the thousandth time she'd held Luz's hand that day, and Amity vowed it wouldn't be the last. She was actually getting used to this. She took the hand and smiled at the girl.

Camila watched with a slight grin as the two walked into the house, Luz practically in a sprint as she dragged Amity along.

"Amor joven…"