I'm back with my final Owl House story. I hope readers don't mind how short this chapter is. I did just get back into writing after taking a three-week break.
Camila was stunned when she opened her door and saw her daughter along with four other teenagers. Ever since Vee revealed the truth to her, she had feared this day would never happen.
She wrapped her arms tightly around her daughter hugging her firmly. Her daughter stiffened surprising Camila. Releasing her daughter, she told the injured teens to come inside.
Once inside, the woman asked Vee to bring her the first aid kit. The basilisk hurried out of the room. She wasn't sure how Willow, Amity, and Gus would react to meeting her.
Meanwhile, Luz was in the bathroom looking at herself in the mirror. She pressed her fingers against the star-shaped mark around her left eye. The skin felt bumpy. Pushing back the sleeves of her robe, she saw the blue skin darken the further down it went.
Her right yellow eye made her anxious. How was she supposed to hide this? The silver streaks in her hair could be explained away by hair dye. Her new height by a late growth spurt. The color of her eye changing? That wasn't medically possible.
Vee slithered into the bathroom and paused. The new look her sister had was somewhat weird even by Boiling Isles standards. "Are you okay, Luz?"
"I don't know Vee. Right now, I feel like my entire body has been zapped by static electricity." The teenager gripped the edge of the bathroom sink securely and was shocked when it cracked slightly.
"Ahh! I didn't know I was that strong!"
"This isn't witch magic. Does this new strength have anything to do with your new look?"
Luz nodded slightly. "Could you tell Mom I'll be down when I figure out how to change into regular clothes?" She plucked at the robe that appeared to be glued to her body now.
Vee nodded and grabbed the first aid kit. She hurried back downstairs where Camila was washing the last of the dirt off Willow's face. She held out the kit for Camila.
"Gracias, Vee. Is Luz coming downstairs soon?"
Vee relayed Luz's message which caused her adoptive mom to blink several times. Shaking her head, Camila started disinfecting the children's wounds.
The kids were lost in their thoughts to notice anything. They had just been through the worst moments of their lives. How could they convey that to Luz's mom when she had no frame of reference?
Camila waited until after their wounds were patched before asking them their names and how they knew her daughter.
"I'm Willow, Luz's best friend, and classmate."
"I'm Gus, Luz's friend, and classmate."
"I'm Amity, I'm Luz's girlfriend and classmate."
"I'm Hunter, Luz's friend and big brother figure."
Camila was blown away by this. Not only had her daughter made friends but she also had a girlfriend and been going to school in the demon realm. It was incredible to learn her daughter had ultimately found her niche in life.
Her gaze turned to the stairs. Why hadn't Luz come down yet? Surely it didn't take that long to change her clothes.
Noticing where her gaze went, Hunter spoke up. "It might take some time for Luz to figure out how to change. She's just gone through her third transformation twenty minutes ago."
"Transformation? What do you mean by that?"
The kids looked at one another before coming to a silent agreement. "It might be easier to show you than tell you," Willow admitted.
Amity drew a spell circle to project the story. Gus used the enhancer to directly download everyone in the house's memories. Hunter acted like the narrator.
A few hours later, Camila was grateful she hadn't had a heart attack. Her daughter had gone through so much without her. A part of her felt guilty not realizing how much Luz was suffering here and how it took going to a different world to be happy.
Vee had shown her the hidden pages from Luz's diary. It had been one thing to read them. Seeing how Luz's past experiences had affected her judgment in the Demon Realm was another thing entirely.
She was brought back to reality when she heard a loud squeak. Mousey had crawled out of Hunter's pocket and scurried over to the kitchen threshold. Standing there was Luz.
She hadn't managed to figure out how to remove the robe completely. Instead, she had hacked it to pieces until it resembled a hooded jacket. She had put on some khakis and barely managed to squeeze a t-shirt on.
"Mom, I really hope you can get the rest of this off with your seam ripper," Luz stated as she rubbed her cheek against Mousy's head. She tickled him and told him how happy she was he survived the trip to Earth.
Instead of responding, Camila hugged her daughter once more. This time, she apologized for not acknowledging how bad things were for Luz at school. She promised to try to be there for her more.
Luz shed some tears hearing this. How often had she longed to hear her mom apologize to her? To accept that it wasn't entirely Luz's fault for the trouble at school?
The others watched the mother and daughter moment. It was a relief to see Luz smiling again. Vee discreetly led the teens out of the kitchen to where they would be sleeping.
The next day, the kids went back to the old house to see what they could find to help rebuild the portal. Camila said if any of the kids got scratched, they were going to the fast care clinic to get a tetanus shot.
They didn't understand what she was saying until Luz showed them a video on human doctors giving vaccinations. Gus fainted so fast Willow almost didn't catch him. Amity was breathing heavily while Hunter had gone even paler.
It seemed getting shots was a universal fear among the residents of the universe. The kids wore double layers of protection as they slowly cleaned out the main room.
"Hey, Luz? Should we fix the rest of the house too? I mean we don't know if Eda might have left something in the other rooms," Willow asked.
"We should do one room at a time. Right now, we can't even take the stairs to the second floor because they're rotted."
"Oh, I can fix that!" Amity said as she summoned a small abomination. She handed it a hammer. "Remove the old steps. When you're finished, I'll have another task for you."
Abruptly Gus let out a girly scream. "Something is living in the ceiling!" he said while pointing to where the light fixture was. Two beady eyes were peering out of the crack.
Luz raised her flashlight to cast some light when she pulled it back. She didn't want to try using her new magic in an abandoned house. Instead, Vee shapeshifted into a taller version of Luz to see what it was.
"Ah, it's a cute possum," Vee awed. She shapeshifted again until she was inside the crack in possum form. The other possum growled uncertainly at the intruder.
Vee made encouraging noises to placate the marsupial. After a few minutes, the opossum calmed down. She made some soft growls and four babies came out of the dark.
The basilisk thought they were the cutest babies she had ever seen. They were also in danger with the group restoration efforts. She made some noises and led the small family to a safer place to live.
The kids returned to Luz's house that evening exhausted. Their initial search had turned up nothing. They had managed to clean the floor of the main room. Amity's abomination had "borrowed" lumber from a construction yard to put new steps in.
"Once we're sure they're sturdy, we can climb up to check out the second floor," Amity was telling Camila.
"I'm glad you replaced the old steps. Still, you need to pace yourselves. If you try to do too much at once, you'll burn out. I don't want any of you to get hurt."
"Don't worry, Camila. I'll make sure no one burns out," Hunter swore. Since he didn't know if Darius or anyone was alive back home, he needed to protect everyone here.
Maybe if he did a good job, Camila would let him remain permanently. If Darius was gone, he had no one to take care of him back home.
He was brought out of his thoughts as Vee and Luz entered the room. Luz was a bit wobbly so Vee was helping prop her up. "I hope I didn't take too much from you, sister."
"I'm good, Vee. Really, I'm just not used to you eating the magic directly from my body. We'll figure something out to make it easier."
Amity glared at Vee and demanded an explanation. Vee backed up in fear and Camila scolded the girl for scaring her child.
"It's fine, Mom. Amity, I told Vee she could take some of my magic to eat. She needs magic to transform. Also, I was fearful of hurting someone accidentally with it."
The friends looked at each other with slight guilt. The last forty-eight hours had been rough. The Collector forgot to give their big sister an instruction manual for being a celestial being.
A pattern was established over the next three weeks. Everyone except Luz worked the entire morning on repairing the house while searching for answers. While they were doing that Luz would practice gaining control of her magic deeper in the forest to avoid hurting anyone.
In a small clearing, Luz took a deep breath. "Alright, you can do it this time. Just focus on the target and use the smallest amount of magic you can."
Luz raised her right hand and stared at the can of soda she was using as a target. Narrowing her eyes, she sent out a blast of magical energy. The kickback sent her sprawling to the ground.
The magic blast missed the can. Instead, it went straight through the stump the soda can had been sitting on. Seconds later it turned to ash.
"Ugh! Why can't I get this!" Luz said as she smacked the ground. A wave of sparkles distributed across the ground turning it into glass. The teenager scooted across the glass in shock at what she did.
"Oh, this is bad. This is extremely horrifyingly bad. Calm down, Luz. You can fix this." She pressed her hand against the glass and beseeched for it to switch back.
The glass glistened as the magic started to change it. The glass changed into gemstones.
Luz groaned and tried again. This time the crystals changed into asphalt. Nearly at her wit's end, Luz tried one more time.
Finally, the ground returned to normal. The teenager let out a sigh of relief. "Note to self. Reality warping is triggered by intense emotions."
I have to get these powers under control. School starts again in a month. I don't want Vee to take my place again.
She checked the position of the sun. It was almost lunchtime. Her mom had a no-working after-lunch policy. The afternoons were for relaxing and having fun.
She had enough time to try one more power before heading home. Luz started at her long shadow as she willed it to move.
It didn't budge at all. Luz tried skipping around and making poses hoping her shadow would change into something different. That didn't work either.
"Come on, Luz. You can't quit yet. If a star child can manipulate his shadow, then so can a follower of Azura!"
Maybe what she needed to do was think of this like a game. The Collector always wanted to play games. Maybe that was the key to their power.
She leaned down and touched her shadow. "Want to race against me back home?" The shadow didn't reply. Instead of being discouraged, Luz started sprinting back to her house.
She was nearing the old house when she happened to glance down at her shadow. To her astonishment, her shadow wasn't next to her. It was sprinting ahead of her!
"Hey! Get back here! I'm supposed to win not you!" The teenager laughed as she started running even faster.
The shadow ran even faster. It wanted to get dibs on lunch. It was in such a hurry that it forgot one important thing. Shadows don't have eyes.
Luz heard Willow scream followed by the sounds of something crashing to the ground. Fearing for her friend's safety, she jumped over the shrubs and burst out of the forest.
"Willow! Are you okay?" Luz called out. She didn't hear a response because her shadow was thrown back at her.
She tumbled to the ground with her shadow. The shadow got up to run away only for Luz to pounce on it. "Oh, no you don't! Go back to where you belong!"
Her eyes glowed bright yellow and the shadow went stiff. It reattached itself to her. Luz's eyes stopped glowing and pushed herself up. "Sorry about that. I was trying to see if I could manipulate my shadow as the Collector did."
Amity assured her girlfriend they understood. The boys were preoccupied with pulling a painting off of Willow. Her head was stuck in the middle of a landscape
"Put your back into it, Gus!" Hunter snarled.
"I am! Not all of us have powerful arm muscles!" Gus snapped.
"Guys, stop arguing and get this off me now!" Willow wailed. Vee was holding onto Willow with her tail wrapped around a tree. She didn't want the girl to faceplant in the dirt.
"On the count of three. One, two, three!" The boys pulled with all their might. The painting came off as their butts smacked the ground.
Willow flobbed about but managed to stay standing thanks to Vee. "Thanks for the help."
"No problem. Glad I could help."
Luz hugged her best friend and asked what had happened. Willow explained how Luz's shadow ran into her as she was carrying the painting out. She lost her grip and the painting went flying. When it came back down it fell on top of her.
"I'm sorry, Willow. I didn't mean for that to happen. Ugh, these new powers are so annoying!" Luz punched the tree and yelped when it started to float away.
Willow's vines grabbed it as she tried to bring it back to the ground. "The pull is too strong. Vee, drain it of magic!"
"On it!" Vee opened her mouth and started sucking the magic. The tree slowly descended to the ground. Amity summoned an abomination to hold the weight of the plant.
Once the tree was replanted, Willow used her plant magic to restore the tree's connection to its roots. The teenager smacked her hands together, pleased by her efforts.
"I think I should teach you how to meditate," Hunter commented. He glanced at Luz who looked away. "Don't be upset. You're going to figure this out."
The kids headed back to the house. Camila had gotten them some burgers and fries for lunch. "Hello everyone. Did you find anything useful today?"
"We've found nothing helpful. We cleared out every room and still found nothing helpful," Gus moaned. "I guess our only choice now is to try to build our own portal door."
"Where do we even start?" Amity asked.
Luz was hesitant to remind them of Mousy. Phillip/Belos had created the portal door originally. At least, she thought he did. Considering how much he lied how could she be sure he didn't steal the portal from someone?
Camila told the kids they could talk about that later. "You've worked hard enough today. Enjoy your meal because we're going to the thrift store for some clothes for you four."
Since their arrival, the kids had been wearing old clothes that had been stored in the basement. Manny's old shirts fit Hunter while Willow wore Camila's old outfits. Amity was close enough in size to wear Luz's old clothes.
Of course, Vee didn't need clothes considering she could shapeshift. The lone challenge had been Gus. Camila had lucked out that one of her colleagues had been about to donate her son's old clothes.
"Why do we need more clothes? These clothes fit fine," Amity inquired.
Camila explained that they needed to have some outfits that hadn't been worn through. Plus, they all needed to replace their undergarments. She gave Willow and Amity a pointed look when she mentioned that.
The girls blushed brightly. The boys looked at each other and shrugged. They didn't have any idea what Camila was insinuating.
Later, they all piled into the car and drove to a nearby thrift store. Once inside, Camilla told them the kids could each get three outfits. "Remember, they can't have rips or stains on them. If you need help, ask Luz or me for assistance."
The kids started looking through the racks. The clothes in the human realm were vastly different from the ones they were used to. They were more colorful and made up of fabrics not found on the Boiling Isles.
Each of them was drawn to a different type of outfit. Willow went straight to the sports section. Gus was drawn to the outerwear section. Amity was grabbing anything purple off the shelves.
Hunter stumbled over to the costume section. He didn't understand that the costumes were not everyday wear. Vee just looked around to get inspiration for her own look.
When the kids showed off their first outfits, Luz thought they looked great. Camila on the other hand, wondered if the kids actually understood what she meant by outfits.
The jacket Gus had was swallowing him. Willow's outfit was fine but she needed to get regular shoes instead of just skates. Amity had over-accessorized her outfit.
Hunter was smiling in his costume so much Camila didn't have the heart to make him put it back. She squealed in joy when she saw Vee in her own persona.
"Ah, you're so cute, Vee! I love your hairstyle," Luz said as her mom hugged her sister tightly.
"It's easier to have my ears out than attempting to shapeshift them," Vee replied. "Also, we don't have to spend as much money on me because of my magic."
"Si, that is a great bonus," Camilla added. She turned back to the kids and explained what their next two outfits should look like.
Once they were finished at the thrift store, Vee took the boys to get ice cream. That gave the girls a chance to go to a bra store to be fitted. All three of them were blushing when they came out of the store.
"There's nothing to be ashamed about. Naturally, you're still growing into your womanhood," Camila assured the girls. "You should have mentioned you needed new bras sooner."
"Mom, can we please stop talking about this? It's going to be hard enough to sneak these into the house without Gus wanting to see what's inside our bags."
"I could use my magic to put them inside our room so he won't snoop," Willow suggested. Amity and Luz agreed that was a great idea.
The next day, Luz was taking a break from practice. She needed to help her friends get home. They needed her limited expertise to get started.
In the clubhouse, she pinned up the drawing of the door. "Okay, I had Mousy replay the chapters on the portal door's construction. I can't be a hundred percent sure this will work any better than my first one."
"Matthomule taught me about construction magic. I'll be glad to look over the blueprints. I might spot something you missed."
"That would be awesome Gus!" Luz and Hunter started to move when they heard movement behind the wall. An angry opossum jumped through the blueprints and went after Flapjack.
Flapjack flew out of reach as the creature tried to grab him with its teeth. The other palismans chased after the marsupial. The kids were yelling for the palismans to stop as the entire room spiraled into chaos.
It took the whole day to catch that opossum and release it far from the clubhouse. Luz had to redraw the blueprints with Gus looking over her shoulder.
"Why are there gears in the door frame? How do they help operate the door?" he asked.
"I think they're for helping the Titans Blood throughout the door by making this part," she pointed to where the eye was, "rotate in a circle. I may be wrong."
"We're going to need a substitute for the Titans Blood. Do you think your magic can be used as a power source?"
Luz shrugged uncertainly. She was still endeavoring to get control over these powers. "I don't know if it's a good idea to mix my Celestial magic with Titan magic. What if mixing the two generates an explosion?"
Gus wanted to slap himself. "I keep forgetting we're working with two different types of magic. What if we use the palismans to provide the power? Then we're not mixing magic."
"It's worth a try. Is there anything else that you think is wrong?"
Gus pointed to the doorknob. "There are two different doorknobs on either side of the door. Why would you need that if the portal connects to a door here in the human realm?"
"I'm not sure. My portal door only had the same type of knob on both sides. This time, I think we should try to have two different knobs." Luz wanted to make sure nothing went wrong with the portal door.
The kids spent the next week constructing a portal door. Camila had donated four hamster wheels to the kids for their palismans to use. They also placed glyphs on the door itself, hoping they would trigger once the portal was activated.
After double-checking to make sure their door matched the blueprints it was time for a field test. They hooked the jumper cables to the door and signaled for the palismans to start running. For a second a portal appeared before the door exploded, sending flaming pieces of wood everywhere.
"Someone get the fire extinguisher" Luz yelled.
"I got it!" Gus said as he started twirling it in circles. Vee snatched it from him and used it properly. "Oh, that's how it used."
"Read the instructions before using something for the first time," Vee quipped.
Amity used her abomination goo to smother the fires out. She looked around to see if there was anything she missed and saw her girlfriend crying. "Hey, it was just a first try. We can try again."
Luz didn't stop crying. "H…how? This is …the second…time a portal I built failed. I should be able to use this power to fix our problem and I can't!"
Sheets of rain started pouring down drenching the kids. Willow quickly grew some plant cover so they could walk back to the house. "Luz, I like the rain in the human realm but we're going to drown if it keeps coming down like this."
Luz closed her eyes and pinched her fingers together. "One, two, three, and four and five. One, two, three, four, and five." The rain stopped and the sun returned.
When Camila saw the expression on her daughter's face, she knew something was amiss. "Luz, why don't you take a nap in my bedroom? I'll be up to check on you in a few minutes."
Luz dragged herself into her mother's bedroom. She was frustrated, tired, and confused. "Ugh, can't the universe cut me so slack? I've already stranded my friends on Earth. The Boiling Isles has probably been turned into a giant playground by now."
She fell face-first on the mattress. "My mom has to take care of six kids because of my mistakes. Ugh, why can't something go right for a change?" she muttered into it.
Pulling the rest of her body onto the bed, Luz pulled the covers over her head and was out like a light.
Luz found herself floating once more in the In-between space. Something felt different though. She started to shiver and realized it was cold. It had never been cold before when she came here.
"Of course, it's cold here, I wanted to replicate my home!" an angry female voice shouted. Someone spun Luz around quickly. The person then thrust Luz's chin to get her to look up.
It was a woman, dressed similarly to the Collector. She also had a star-shaped mark over her left eye. It felt as if her gaze was bearing into Luz's soul and tearing it apart.
"YOU! You are the reason I'm stuck in this place! Why did you have to let that little brat out of his prison?"
"You mean the Collector, right? Because I haven't heard them use male pronouns before."
"I don't care what pronouns he uses! How dare that brat take my powers and put them into such an inconsequential life form!"
Luz was dismayed when she heard this. "They did what?"
"You heard me, human. He decided to get back at us for making the last Titan imprison him. So, what if we hunted down all the Titans so they couldn't use their magic against us? It's our job!"
Luz was confused and frightened. Yet her anger was worse. This being was responsible for King Clawthorn being the last of the Titans?
She broke free of the celestial's hold. She pounced on the woman before slapping her hand on the center of her forehead. "Show me everything," she hissed.
The woman's memories came flooding into her mind. That the older celestials called themselves the Archivists. That they cataloged and amass knowledge and beings.
The Collector was the youngest member of their species. The older siblings despised them because they wanted to play and make friends. Why would the most powerful beings in the universe make friends with lesser life forms?
The idea was preposterous! Then they came across the Titans whose magic repelled their own. They tricked the Collector into lowering the Titans' guard before exterminating the race.
It was a bonus when they were locked up. The older siblings were freed from watching over that little brat. They could continue their lives without being pestered into playing games.
That was until the Collector was freed. They had taken the very life essence of this woman and used it to recreate Luz as his big sister. Breaking the connection, Luz stood up.
The celestial woman stood up. "How dare you! First, you take my life. Then my powers, and now my memories? You should be ashamed of yourself!"
"No, you should be ashamed or imprisoned! How dare you commit genocide against an entire species! You are a horrible older sibling by taking joy in one of them being locked up and alone for centuries!"
"The Collector shouldn't have taken your life. That doesn't excuse your actions! Since you enjoyed watching your younger sibling suffer; I'm going to give you a taste of your own medicine."
Before the woman could respond, Luz used her magic to fuse several of the floating cubes to make a huge one. With a wave of her hand, the cube trapped the celestial inside it. Forming a fist, the cube shrank back to its normal size.
"Let me out of here you imp! No one can treat an Archivist like this!" The woman pounded on the walls of the cube trying to break free. It was a waste of time.
Luz made a small chest appear in front of her. She placed the cube inside it and locked it. She then hid the chest on a small patch of land covered with bramble.
"I wasn't born with these powers. I vow though to never use them to harm anyone. I won't become a selfish, arrogant, power-hungry maniac like you did."
Luz yawned and rubbed her eyes. She glanced at the clock to see how long she had been sleeping. According to it, she had been resting for two hours.
She got out of bed and was heading for the kitchen when she stopped. She stood in front of her mom's vanity and looked at herself. She was pleased by what she saw.
Her golden eye, star-shaped mark, and blue skin had vanished. She touched the skin around her left eye. She could still feel the mark only it was now hidden under an illusion.
She grinned madly. "Take that Archivist! Victory is mine!" She ran out of the room ready to tell everyone about what had happened.