Edit: Added in a few lines to ease some worries regarding Amity not existing and a few other things. Also because I straight up forgot to add it in in the first place :P
A/N: another update! Heads up this story will only have about five chapters covering important events, mostly because I do not have the energy to write a full pledged story of this AU so I'm writing it down while I still have enough motivation to do so since I want to at least complete this one while I'm on break from the Basilisk AU
By the way huge thanks to Shadowsnake89 who gave me great advice in writing this chapter. If you readers have the time, check out their story titled "The Karate Niña" it's pretty good!
Anyways, enjoy the story.
"This... is... all... your... fault!" Luz screamed with hatred in her eyes as she repeatedly slammed Philip's face into the ground.
The man was now helpless to fight back even as she turned them around and began to strangle him with her bare hands.
Philip desperately tried to push her off, but she would not relent. She has been waiting for this day for a long time.
"Luzura!" She hears Amelia, who was still lying on the ground, paralyzed by an earlier attack by Philip "Stop. You don't want to do this! You're not like him!"
A part of her wanted to relent and listen, but she refused. She finally had the man responsible for all her suffering, who hurt her friends...killed Mare...
She has him at her mercy and she'll be damned if she lets him go.
She didn't care about the timeline anymore. If she has a chance to take out this monster and stop him from murdering even more people and palismans and then turn into that damn emperor... she's taking it.
She couldn't help but relish in the fear in Philip's eyes as the man most likely realized that they were going to die right here. Unable to accomplish his twisted goals.
"That's right, 'witch hunter'. Your story ends here. It's over. " She says with a mad grin as she tightened her grip on Philip's neck.
And slowly but surely the life began to fade from Philip's eyes and eventually...
Snap!
Lilith stood frozen in shock as she stared at the person known as Empress Luzura. Now that she had a better look on the supposed Empress of this timeline she was certain now that it really was Luz.
She took note of Luzura's outfit which was an elegant and comfortable light blue tunic seemingly made of high quality wool, a good part of which is adorned with golden embroidery emphasizing their status as Empress. Luzura also had what appeared to be gloves marked with strange symbols.
Lilith assumed they were possibly glyph combos
But that begs the question how was her niece still alive? She would have to be at least over a hundred years old by now!
She wanted to apologize to the poor girl. It was her fault that they got left behind, but she couldn't find the right words to say.
She felt her heart break when she noticed more details about her niece's face. Their eyes were... tired as if they have seen so much yet was also full of wisdom. There was a large scar running across where their left eye would be if not for the eye patch
'Oh Luz... What did you go through to end up like this? ' She thought sadly as she finally opened her mouth to speak "Luz... I-"
But she didn't even get a chance to finish as Luz just stepped forward and walked past her.
Two tiny creatures also flew in after the empress. A red cardinal with a scar on their left eye, and a purple dragon. The two creatures perched themselves on Luz's shoulders.
Lilith thinks it's just her imagination, but did Luz smell like Apple blood? She was very familiar of the drink courtesy of Edalyn and right now Luz reeks of it, but she didn't comment on it to not sound rude.
"You know who I am" Luz stated in a neutral tone.
Lilith was surprised by that statement before realizing that with how complicated, time travel was Luz, probably never expected to encounter her again. Oh titan were the two of them the only ones who remembered the old timeline? Was that timeline erased now because of what her niece did by changing the future?
She didn't get to think about it much when she noticed Luz was giving her an expecting look.
"Y-Yes. It's me, your cool aunt Lilith? " She couldn't help but cringed saying that out loud. Hopefully that was enough to convey the message she was trying to say.
Luz seemed to stare at her with an unreadable expression for a moment before they let out a sigh.
"Well I can't say I'm surprised. The Lilith of this timeline doesn't react the way you did whenever I visit"
Lilith was once again taken back. She didn't stop to consider that there was another version of her in this timeline. She wanted to ask but Luz beat her to it.
"You're probably wondering if there's another you running around right?"
Lilith nodded
"Well call it a hunch but I would say that isn't the case judging by how different you look compared to two hundredish ago"
She got a confused look at that before Luz picked up a handheld mirror from the table and handed it to her. When she took a look at herself she almost dropped the mirror.
Like Edalyn she looked so much younger! And her hair! '
'Wait. Could I' Lilith thought before she tried casting a spell circle and much to her delight it worked! She could do magic again! "Oh my titan" she couldn't help but smile at the fireball she had created "But how?!"
"Beats me. Time travel is complicated as hell and I never really bothered to comprehend it. But anyways lets get down to business" Luz said in a serious tone before dramatically lying down on the couch much to Lilith's confusion.
"So... do you like what I've done with the place" Luz said casually gesturing to...well everything.
Lilith knew what she was referring to and she had been itching to ask "Luz...What did you-" she began to ask only to see that her niece had her eyes closed and looked like they were asleep
"Luz!"
"I'm up! I'm up" Luz suddenly darted forward, startled from her nap "Sorry I have this killer headache from that party last night. You should know that the Deamonne family throw great parties and make even greater apple blood. It's pretty good" she said with a yawn.
"Ok?" Lilith said confused
Luz then put a hand on her head "God this hangover is killing me! Flapjack if you please"
Lilith then watched as the bird creature let out a chirp before flying into Luz's left arm and much to her shock turns into a tattoo of themselves along said arm
Before she could even question this her niece suddenly snapped her fingers and the last thing she saw was a flash of white light
When Lilith opened her eyes she found herself lying down in a bright and colorful forest.
She sits up with a groan and gasp at what was in front of her
In front of her she notices a tree with a huge painting in it. On the painting was an image depicting Luz battling a giant snake monster while onlookers cheered for her. Below the painting was a plaque which says "Battle Against the Great Serpent King".
She immediately stands up, noticing other trees with paintings in them nearby.
She moves backward with a cautious look on her face "What is this place?"
"We're in my mindscape"
Lilith turns around and immediately spots Luz who was sitting under a tree and lying on a bed made of flowers.
"Your mindscape? Why did you bring me here?" Lilith asks.
Luz only lets out a yawn before saying
"Because I have a freaking hangover. I brought you here so my inner self can show you what happened instead"
Luz then snaps her fingers once more and her inner self who looks exactly like her the day she first got left behind. Though Inner Luz had a purple glow
Lilith couldn't help but feel guilty looking at Inner Luz then back at Luz. Her heart ached seeing how much her niece has changed
"Hi! I'm Inner Luz! I'll be your guide for my mindscape. Please save all your questions at the end of the tour" Inner Luz said enthusiastically before signaling for Lilith to follow
Lilith looked back at Luz who she saw had now fallen asleep before eventually following Inner Luz who led her to one of the paintings.
This one depicted her niece seemingly drawing a portrait of a girl who looked suspiciously like her former protege.
'Wait. Is that?'
She then saw Inner Luz look at said girl with a loving smile as she lets out a happy sigh
'Oh...Oh! So my niece...' Lilith look back at Luz briefly and back to the painting.
"So here's where it all started. Where I began to change the future"
Luz's plan to get back to the Present!
1. Keep a low profile!
2. Wait for Aunt Lilith to come back to rescue her!
3. Keep Waiting!
4. Stay Sane!
5. Try to find time pools
6. ???
7. Profit?
On a balcony, a now adult Luz gave a nostalgic smile as she stared at the old crumpled paper where she had written her plans from over ten years ago when she had first gotten left behind in the past.
She had been admittedly very paranoid back then. Too scared to even come out of her room in the inn too long let alone the town. Out of fear of the bloody fly effect.
Could you blame her though?
She had seen enough sci-fi and fantasy films to know that staying in the past would have consequences...probably in the form of Eda never being born...
She had attempted to keep the damage to a minimum by keeping a low profile until Lilith or someone rescued her. This of course meant keeping a low profile and not messing with anything too important.
At least that was the plan at first.
As it turned out waiting for rescue is really hard especially when days of waiting turned to weeks, to months and eventually...years.
She wasn't idling around too she made her own attempts to find time pools but without the technology her tia Lilith used not to mention Titans blood it was next to impossible and well...her mental state could only take so much.
But what really pushed her to the edge was a certain witch named, Amelia Blight.
Amelia to put it simply was blunt and straight to the point which was how she found out immediately that they liked her.
She couldn't even be dense about it not when Amelia told her straight to her face that they will make her, their lover. Her younger self at the time nearly passed out from blushing so hard at that.
Of course she rejected her. Despite this Amelia still remained a good friend who was always there for her even when she tried to avoid them. Amelia simply didn't relent.
Even when she finally broke down after accepting that she might never come home again and see her friends and mami.
Maybe it was a moment of weakness or maybe because at that point a large part of her had accepted that she really was never coming home. For some time after that incident she finally accepted Amelia's latest invite to a date.
After that choice she had decided to make a life for herself in Bonesborough. She made new friends, learned new things. It was honestly really great as selfish as it sounded.
She then thought about Amity which brought back feelings of guilt. She looks down on the wedding ring on her finger and fiddles with it.
"What if my actions causes Amity to cease to exist?" Now Luz knew she had probably already caused enough damage as is...but she rationalized that with the fact that Amelia has a brother(which actually contributed to her getting together with Amelia) who was already married plus the fact that Amelia wasn't really interested in having children which Luz could get behind with since a part of her wanted to keep the timeline intact to some degree.
So at the very least Amity could still be born.
But then she remembered about Emperor Belos. The cruel emperor of the boiling Isles who had witches locked up just for practicing magic freely, being an individual, and made people miserable by forcing them to conform to his standards
A large part of her wanted to stop that from happening. She knew that Belos started gathering influence during the savage ages according to a book. But she didn't even know who the guy was plus she haven't heard of someone who fit the description in all the years she has been in the past. Though admittedly it was probably because she wasn't actively looking for him
And that's not even considering the huge ripples that would cause.
Getting together with her girlfriend's possible ancestor was one thing but stopping a tyrant who shaped the Isles into the way it was in the future? ...no matter how she sliced it that would be a HUGE change.
...and while she had already more or less made peace with the fact that she wasn't going home...but she still wanted to maintain the timeline or at least keep it similar enough to keep her loved one's from ceasing to exist...but considering how Belos rule was...shouldn't she do something to stop that from happening? Was it really right for her to put the needs of the few over the needs of so many?
...on the other hand...who knew what consequences with messing with the past could bring? Would she become her own grandma? Would she cease to exist? Would reality shatter? Would that stop herself from seeking out the time pools? From getting stuck in the pa-
Luz groaned, her head hurt...
Luz was pulled from her thoughts when she heard the door to the balcony open. She turns around and sees Amelia walk up to her.
"Is everything ok honey? Aren't you coming back to bed?" Amelia asked her in a worried tone
She gave her a smile before saying "I just wanted some fresh. Go on ahead. I'll be back soon"
Amelia flashed her a smile and gave her a peck on the cheek before going back inside.
She then looks back at the paper in her hand. With a sigh she tears it apart before making her way back
"Who knew my life would end up like this"
Lilith could only stare in shock as Inner Luz finished talking about the latest memory which depicted Luz marrying Amelia Blight.
"Y-You married your girlfriend's ancestor?" she couldn't help but say in a shocked tone
Inner Luz only gave her a smile before saying "Why not? She's really nice. And it gets really lonely after years of waiting for a rescue that wasn't coming"
Hearing this Lilith couldn't help but feel ashamed. It was her fault that Luz even ended up in her situation
"Luz...I am so sorry about what happened. It's my fault that you ended up like this" Lilith says to Inner Luz
Inner Luz simply smiled "It's ok Lilith. I know you never meant for it to happen so you don't need to apologize. Besides it wasn't all bad and if it weren't for you I wouldn't have been able to make things better" she says as she glanced at a memory of Luzura sleeping on Amelia's lap.
Lilith smiled back before realizing "Wait. Make things better? Is that why everything is so different?"
Instead of answering, Inner Luz smiled before she gestured for Lilith to follow.
They passed numerous memory portraits which Lilith each took note of.
One portrait depicted Luz encountering the bat queen and bonding with the red cardinal palisman.
Some showed Luz meeting certain people which looks suspiciously like some of her old classmates and a few other familiar figure such as a witch with vines for hair, a witch with a crescent moon shaped head and many more.
Another even showed her talking with a few basilisks happily!
"Once I accepted my situation life was...good. Everything was peaceful and I was really happy" Inner Luz explained "I really felt accepted and understood"
Inner Luz gestures to a portrait of Luzura with her ears exposed to her friends who have smiles on their faces
Lilith couldn't help but smile before realizing that it possibly didn't last long as she looked at the still sleeping Luzura again. Someone doesn't end up looking like that without something bad happening to them plus there was the issue of how Luzura was still alive considering she would have to be over 200 years old and last she checked humans don't live that long
"It didn't last long did it" Lilith said to which Inner Luz frowned and nodded
"Not long enough" Inner Luz muttered before she led Lilith deeper into the memory passing by more portraits showing even more paintings of Luzura's life until they reach a painting depicting Luzura screaming in anguish as she held the corpse of a purple skinned witch with horns in her arms all the while a village burned in the background
Lilith's eyes widened in shock at this before she noticed that the area the memory portrayed was by the knee.
Lilith then noticed that Inner Luz has tears in her eyes which they wiped away.
"Who..." Lilith hesitated to ask
Inner Luz answered regardless "Her name was Mare. She was like a mother to us like how Eda was. She was the one who took us in when we first ended up in the past"
Lilith noticed that there was a hint of anger now in Inner Luz's words
"W-What happened to her?"
Inner Luz turned to Lilith with a dark look on her face
"Philip Wittebane happened"
A/N: Well hope you liked that. I pretty much speedrun what could have probably been a multi chapter arc covering the past and Luz's adventures if I was a talented writer but since I'm average enjoy this abridged version instead :P
If you have questions feel free to ask and I will answer as usual specially if some things weren't clear and too vague.
Also please don't ask about the time travel stuff and how it worked because it gives me a headache thinking about it too much LoL unless it's to clarify simple stuff like how long stuff happened or whatever
Anyways see you next time in the next chapter titled "The Fall of a False Prophet"
And boy am I looking forward to writing that after seeing what Belos did in For the Future. Curse you Philip!!!