Being leader of the Emperor's Coven had been simple for Lilith. It had eroded her soul to disgusting levels and led her to commit atrocities that she feared she'd never be able to make up for, but it had definitely been simple. If she had a problem, she threw guards at it until it was solved. Someone objected to Belos' latest decree? Just toss them in the Conformatorium. Free speech? Who needed that?

But, as she was discovering to her dismay, democracy was going to be much, much more complex. There were so many disparate factions in the Boiling Isles brimming under the supposedly unified surface that Lilith had helped create through fear. Everyone seemed to have a different vision of how the country should be, especially now that everyone had heard that Belos was dead and replaced by an imposter, and it was Lilith's job to unite them enough so that they'd work together and overthrow Zoe, ideally without creating a civil war after the fae queen was dead.

Most people in the Isles believed that Belos was dead, but not all of them. Some believed that Belos was still alive and secretly directing matters from behind the scenes. Others believed that the whole thing had just been an elaborate illusion. And not everyone who believed that Belos was dead wanted to get rid of Zoe. Some of them felt that the strongest should rule the Isles and since Zoe defeated Belos, that automatically made her the strongest. Others didn't see much difference between the two rulers, which Lilith could privately concede they had a point about.

After Grom, Lilith had relayed what had happened there live on BBN-HXN. She proclaimed Hunter to be the new emperor and declared herself regent since he was a minor. They would deal with establishing democracy later; right now, they had much bigger fish to fry and having the framework of the empire would be necessary for taking down Zoe. Zoe's forces withdrew to the imperial palace, leaving the rebellion in control of most of Bonesborough.

After that, Lilith had been enveloped with meeting after meeting with important figures in the Isles in order to get their support to strike against Zoe's forces. Zoe still controlled a significant portion of the Emperor's Guards, who were more loyal to the idea of possessing power than Belos himself, and it was rumored she'd summoned forth soldiers from the fae realms to supplement her army. She was said to be sacrificing people on a regular basis in order to return herself to full power. Lilith knew that she had to take her down before she could do that, because once Zoe was at full power, she'd probably torch the entire Isles on her way out just out of pure spite.

Unfortunately, the sheer urgency of the task in front of her meant that she'd had to make deals with some very unsavory figures like Valefar; Sselhtur, Voivode of the Vampires; and the Archduke of Pure Shadow. But the disgust that she felt for these individuals paled in comparison to the person she was meeting with right now.

While Lilith did not like the idea of having to work with her son's boyfriend's homophobic biological mother (she remembered very well just how horrible Odalia could be from her school days, after all), she was forced to admit that having Blight Industries' Abomatons on their side would be very useful, so she had no choice but to grin and bear Odalia's holier than thou attitude.

"Odalia, thank you so much for joining me," Lilith said with a practiced politician's smile. Just because force had usually worked for her didn't mean that she was completely useless with diplomacy. She was better at it than Eda, at any rate, not that this was an especially high bar.

Odalia shook her head in dismay and sat down in a chair on the other side of Lilith's desk in her new offices in the Bonesborough Media Building, now the Interim Imperial Palace. "To think that such a magnificent man as our great and glorious sovereign Emperor Belos could be ended by fairy trash. It boggles the mind. Some sort of base deception was involved, no doubt."

The good news about Odalia was that she truly despised the fae. Her uncle had made a deal with one and had, predictably, gotten tricked and turned back into a baby. Since then, Odalia was justly suspicious of the fae, actually getting right on the money for something for once. Even a broken clock was right twice a day, after all. So Lilith figured that it would be a relatively easy sell – if she didn't make any missteps.

"No doubt," Lilith echoed. "The emperor was a truly unique individual. No one can match up to him in terms of power or wisdom, not even his nephew. That's why we've decided to move away from monarchy to democracy. No one other than Belos is worthy of wielding such power, which is why we need safeguards to ensure our next rulers don't abuse their power, such as being accountable to the people."

Odalia did not look like she was very persuaded by her reasoning, so Lilith decided to throw her a bone. "We will likely take on a system based on my brother-in-law's native land's government. In such a system, you yourself could be elected leader of the Isles if you secured enough votes." Odalia's eyes lit up at the prospect of wielding such power without having to put herself at any risk. Lilith felt a smidgeon bad about planting the idea in her head, but it's not like Odalia wouldn't have come up with the idea herself anyway in the fullness of time. She certainly would ardently campaign against her presidential campaign in the future.

"Zoe promised she'd cure my children of their sinful afflictions," Odalia said. It was a testament to Lilith's ridiculous levels of self-control that she did not react to that statement in any way whatsoever. Even if she didn't have a gay son, Lilith would have been utterly disgusted by Odalia's absurd homophobia.

Lilith took a few deep breaths. "The fae are tricksters, as we both well know. What was were the precise words of the promise?"

"She said that when she was done, I won't be worrying about their sexual orientation any longer," Odalia said, clearly not realizing in the slightest what a moron she had been.

Lilith resisted the urge to roll her eyes. In her opinion, she deserved a medal for such a magnificent display of self-control. "That could just as easily mean she'd kill you. Or brainwash you into not worrying about it. Or that she'd kill them." Odalia looked horrified she hadn't realized this, and Lilith believed that she actually was horrified…that Zoe wasn't planning on actually forcibly changing her children's sexual orientation.

The worst thing about Odalia wasn't that she lied or deceived or manipulated. No, the worst thing about Odalia was the fact that she was even worse when she was genuine. She was just inherently rotten at the core, in Lilith's opinion. Certainly Lilith never would have allowed Hunter to date Edmond had he grown up as Edric Blight.

Focus, Lilith, she chastised herself. If she could deal with Valefar, she could deal with Odalia. Besides, she needed to keep Odalia busy, lest she decide to interfere in her children's lives. Once the revolution was over, one way or another, her children would be out of her reach, either through them fleeing forever into the Human Realm or them setting up laws that would ensure that she'd have no contact with them in any way whatsoever. They could be backed with spells, Lilith reflected. She let a slight smile come to her lips at the thought of Odalia being repelled with a magically generated restraining order.

"In any event, Odalia, your children are not going to change anytime soon," Lilith said. "You should get used to it, because I promise you, if you don't, they won't want you involved in their lives any longer."

Odalia scowled at her but said nothing, a sure sign that she understood Lilith's reasoning. As horrible as Odalia was, she was capable of listening to reason sometimes. She could be rather pragmatic at times – which just put the times when she was not in sharp relief. This, thankfully, appeared to be one of them. "Well, I can't say I approve of this newfangled democracy fad you're thinking of bringing to the Isles," Odalia complained. "But that would seem to be a later problem. You are quite right that Zoe is a threat to us all, my children included, and I pledge Blight Industries support to the cause."

Lilith leaned back in her chair, unable to stop a smirk of satisfaction appearing on her face. "Thank you for making the right choice," she said softly. An idea occurred to her. It was probably unwise to mention it, but she couldn't resist tweaking Odalia a bit. "You know, if we do keep Hunter on the throne, Edmond would become the prince consort if they marry. That'd be quite a feather in the Blight family's cap, wouldn't it?"

Odalia's face twitched as her homophobic side and her social climber side battled each other for dominance. It was frankly hilarious and Lilith wished that she had one of those camera things Eduardo had mentioned once. "I'm sure it's just a teenage infatuation that will fade," Odalia said eventually. "I'll find him a fertile girl of high rank to marry when the time comes."

"Of course you will," Lilith said. She was in awe of the fact that not one note of sarcasm had slipped into her tone. "Goodbye, Odalia."

And good riddance, she mentally added as the blasted woman finally left her office. At least the Archduke of Pure Shadow was good company, even if it was pure evil in addition to being pure shadow.

Gus was not a particularly athletic individual. He was short and scrawny. His strength was in his mind. But nonetheless, he was running as fast as he could. The message on his scroll said that Willow was in grave danger, and that only Gus could save her, but he had to come alone to the Hexside greenhouse. And even though he still hated Willow, she had been his friend for years, and he couldn't just let her die. That wasn't the sort of person he was. He wasn't exactly sure why she had reached out to him specifically, instead of Boscha or Luz or even her dads, but there wasn't time to ask questions. Not with a friend – no, wait, ex-friend, they were now mortal enemies now, he had to remember that – in danger!

There was a part of him that wished Avery was around to help. Even though Avery was ostensibly in the potions track exclusively, it was an open secret that they dabbled in all forms of magic through their glyphs. But Grom had completely exhausted them both physically and mentally and they were taking some well deserved time off. Gus didn't want to bother them with his problems, and even if he had tried, they probably wouldn't have answered their scroll anyway.

Gus rushed through the door and found Willow…looking like she was doing just fine. Well, physically at any rate. She looked quite frantic and was pouring through a textbook, muttering under her breath. When she saw Gus enter the room, she looked positively relieved.

"Thank the Titan," she said. "I was worried you'd already succumbed. Quickly, tell me your symptoms!"

Gus blinked. "Symptoms? Willow, what are you talking about?"

"You were poisoned," Willow said patiently, as if talking to someone in the baby class. "Remember? You sent me a message on your scroll saying you were poisoned and needed to meet me here so I could make the antidote. Oh, wait, you might not remember! Okay, that definitely narrows it down. Memory loss…let's see here."

Gus closed the textbook. "I got a message saying you were in grave danger."

"Trap?" Willow asked Gus, like it was old times, like they were still friends. With a clicking sound, the doors all locked and the entire room went dark. "Trap," Gus confirmed.

A spooky sound emerged from the rafters of the room. "It is I, the ghost of…friends disunited!" a voice said, and Willow and Gus both did identical face palms, because even when she was trying to sound creepy and ghostly, they'd recognize Luz's voice anywhere. "Yes! If you don't mend your fences by the time the clock strikes midnight, you will not leave this room alive!"

"LUZ, GET OVER HERE THIS INSTANT!" Willow shouted. There was the sound of a thud and Luz fell from the rafters with repeated sounds of pain. She took out her trusty flashlight that Eda had "acquired" from the Human Realm and turned it on. She put a healing glyph on her legs and activated it, healing what looked to be a sprained ankle.

Willow put her hands on her hips. "Luz, this is not a time for a cockamamie scheme to get us back to being friends! There's going to be open war in the Isles soon! My dads could die! Boscha could die! We could die!"

Luz didn't look like she was ready to back down anytime soon. "That's exactly when you need all the friends you can get your hands on! Look, locking people in a room until they work out their issues is a time honored method of conflict resolution on Earth…well, on TV anyway…" She suddenly looked a bit more uncertain. "This is all my fault. I have a responsibility to help fix it."

"It's not your fault," Gus asserted. "It was Willow's choice to let Boscha and her friends bully us. Me and Avery, anyway. This all would have come out eventually, you know. The two of them were planning to get married!"

"We still are," Willow said with a dreamy smile. "It's going to be wonderful. She's going to be Mrs. Boscha Park, and you're going to be the maid of honor if you want, Luz."

Gus pointed at Willow. "You see what I mean?! She doesn't feel a shred of guilt! She hasn't even apologized for trying to kill you!"

"Well, maybe if you had told me what was going on," Willow began, but Gus had been ready for that argument, and knew exactly how to handle it.

"And when should we have told you, Willow? Before or after you said you'd kill Luz if she turned out to be a changeling? Before or after you threatened to kill yourself?" Luz's eyes widened with pure horror. "You weren't reliable and you know it!"

Willow stamped her foot on the floor. "But I was right! Well, sort of." She turned to face Luz. "Luz, I told you I'm sorry." Luz nodded in confirmation. "I really am. To both of you. I never meant any harm. I just wanted to make everyone happy."

Gus had had enough. "I, I, I, I! It's all about you, Willow! I wanted this, I wanted that! What about us? Did you even think about how we'd feel? How I still feel? I'm done here. Luz, let us out, or I'm calling your dad."

Luz went pale at the very thought. She put a glyph on the door, activated it, and it unlocked. "Don't do this," she whispered. "You're some of the best friends I have. I can't stand to see you at each other's throats."

Gus strode out of the greenhouse without even bothering to respond to her, but Luz followed him out and through the halls of Hexside. "Please make up with Willow," Luz begged. "I can be very annoying when I want to be."

He stopped in his tracks and sighed. "Luz, this isn't your fight, okay? And we're not your best friends. You're a…" imposter "…guest here. We're not the Gus and Willow you know." Luz flinched. Oh, well done, Gus. Why not just set her heart on fire for an encore? He gave her a smile that he didn't feel in his heart. "Don't worry about it. Friends drift apart. It happens. Maybe with time I can forgive her…but it's a big ask, Luz. You can't force this stuff. Anyway, we've still got each other, right? And Avery, when they come back."

Luz gave him an equally insincere smile. "Yeah, I guess so. Sorry, Gus. I just thought it'd work for sure. You just needed to be reminded of why you were friends in the first place, I thought."

"We were friends in the first place because I thought Willow had my back against people like Boscha," Gus reminded her pointedly. "But she didn't."

"I guess not," Luz admitted. "I just can't imagine my Willow doing this to you at all. But you're right. That is kind of hard to get past." She took a deep breath. "But there's another reason why I'm doing this. If Zoe dies, then her enchantments are reversed, and I'll return to the Human Realm. Other Luz…I don't want her to come back to see her friends fighting. I've taken enough from her."

Gus couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You took from her? That's absurd, Luz. It was Zoe who stole her life from her! You've been trying your best to make sure she's going to be fine when she gets back. I'll say it again: This is not your fault." A thought occurred to him. He hoped he was wrong, but he suspected otherwise. "Do you usually blame yourself for stuff that happens around you?"

Luz gave a half-smile, half-grimace. "Kind of? For a long time, I thought I was selfish for wanting more…for wanting to be happy. When I came to the Isles, I didn't want to leave. If it weren't for Mami, I wouldn't have…and sometimes, I even thought about just staying and leaving her behind. Some days, I even tried to persuade myself it was for the best. I was such a troublemaker…Mami would be unhappy at first, I told myself, but she'd be relieved not to have to deal with me in the end."

Gus didn't know Camila Noceda, but from what he'd seen of Camila Serrano, that was the absolute last way she'd react. "I don't think that's true."

"No, me neither," Luz admitted. "But you know how it is." Gus did. He didn't like to think about those times, and they didn't happen often, but he knew how it was. "It was so easy to believe Zoe's lies, to think I was selfish and cowardly and stupid. She was just saying stuff out loud I'd believed deep down for a long time."

Gus reached out and squeezed Luz's hand. "Zoe is selfish. She put all this together because she didn't want to lose her power. She was just thinking about herself. She's cowardly. She couldn't even face you! She had to hide behind a disguise and her mind tampering magic. And she's stupid for thinking she could win against you. Sure, you lost her bet, but you'll win in the long run. I know it."

Luz hugged Gus tightly. She was crying, but she clearly didn't want Gus to see, and so Gus pretended he didn't see anything. "Thanks, Gus. And could you please try to make up with Willow? For me?"

He was going to regret it, he knew, but what else could Gus do in the face of his friend's tears? "Okay, Luz. I'll try."

Amity had hoped that going to Grom with Avery would improve her mood like Edmond thought it would, but it didn't. She didn't feel anything for Avery and had no interest in starting up a relationship with them. They honestly weren't her type, anyway. She liked girls and Avery wasn't one, no matter what their fears had told them. Amity had only asked them out to make Luz jealous, but that hadn't worked. Luz didn't seem to have a jealous bone in her body.

She still felt furious every time she thought of Luz. She'd fallen for Luz's lies hook, line, and sinker. All those compliments, all those cute bonding moments, even her decision for them to get morphing powers together, it had all been a manipulation to worm her way into Amity's heart. And there were so many warning signs. The real Luz's best friend kept repeatedly warning her that Luz was an imposter. Everyone was saying she'd been acting strangely. Amity should have listened, but she didn't and now her heart was paying the price.

But what made her truly angry was the fact that she still felt something for Luz. Luz had made her feel so special. Amity's world had been ripped out from under her; she was not a human with a special destiny but an ordinary witch with no real purpose to her magic. Luz had made her feel like she had a purpose again. To have that ripped away once more…to learn what exactly that purpose was…it was a pain unimaginable.

Amity had been so incredibly angry since she'd broken up with Luz. She'd taken it out on Edmond for hiding everything from her, yes, but she'd also taken it out on the completely undeserving Emma and Camila. They'd been so understanding, and how had Amity repaid them? With snarky comments and tantrums.

Once she returned to Earth, Amity vowed, she was going to never use magic again. She was going to pretend she was a normal human and try to avoid even thinking about the Boiling Isles again. Granted, that would be very difficult given the fact that her new sister was a basilisk and her siblings had witch significant others, but she was going to give it a try.

"Still feeling down?" Camila asked, somewhat obviously, given the fact that Amity was once more lying on the couch in her apartment, staring at the ceiling and brooding.

"You'd be down too if you were me," Amity muttered.

Camila sat in an armchair. "I can't pretend I know exactly how you're feeling, Amity. This is certain a very unique set of circumstances you've found yourself in. But I know what it's like to have my heart broken. The pain feels endless…but there is an end. It may be impossible to see right now, but I speak from personal experience when I tell you that you will feel better."

Amity laughed caustically. "Okay, so when?"

Camila shrugged. "How the heck should I know? All I know is that I'll be there for you whenever you need me, mija."

"Maybe if I could go out and get some fresh air," Amity suggested. She had been ordered to stay in the apartment until Zoe was defeated. Eda and Lilith had installed a huge number of defenses on the place to hold off Zoe's forces and, hopefully, Zoe herself. Amity knew that if Zoe got her hands on her, she'd use her as a hostage, maybe even kill her or put her into an enchanted sleep. But being stuck in the apartment had not improved her mood any.

Camila shook her head. "I'm so sorry, Amity, but I'm afraid that's not possible. And, look, I want your word that you'll stay here. I know how teenagers are. But I also know you'll keep your word. So please give it."

Amity sighed. Camila was right, as much as she hated that fact. "You have it, mami. I'll stay here for as long as you need me to."

Camila was about to say something, but there was a knock on the door before she could say it. Amity walked over to the door and opened it, only to find Luz on the other side. She froze. Dozens of potential sentences flew through her head at top speed. Her lips would not move to say a single one of them.

"Amity, don't slam the door on me, please," Luz begged. "I just want to talk."

Camila strode over to the door. Luz flinched and started shaking. "You want to talk?" she said. "I think you've said quite enough already. Do you have any idea how much you've upset my daughter? You broke her heart, knowingly and willingly. You knew it would end like this, and you still went ahead and did it anyway."

"Mami…"

"Don't call me that!" Camila shouted. "I am not your mami! I am not Camila Noceda! I am Amity's mother, and I have a responsibility towards her, not you! I don't care if you're sorry, because your feelings are not what matter here right now."

Luz looked confused. "But…I thought you forgave me."

Camila laughed and Luz looked like she wanted to crawl in a hole and die. It was impossible for Amity not to pity her, no matter how hard she tried. "Whatever gave you that impression? Why on Earth would I forgive you after you played with Amity's affections so callously?"

"But…you sent me a letter…" Luz said, and then she did a face palm. "Oh, of course. Eda sent the letter. Oh, we are going to have words when I get home." She took a few steps backwards. "Sorry…I guess there's been a misunderstanding. I'll just…go."

"No, don't," a voice said, and it took a few seconds for Amity to realize that it was her own. "I want to talk."

Camila looked at her with an incredulous expression on her face. "Cariño, you don't have to do this. You don't owe her anything."

"I don't," Amity agreed. "But she owes me. I want closure, and she can give it to me. Please, mami. Just give us this chance to talk."

"Okay, but if you make her even the teensiest bit sad, I'm going to town on you with la chancla!" Camila threatened. Luz looked like that certainly put a considerable amount of fear on her. Camila stepped out of the apartment, but Amity knew she'd be listening at the door. That was okay. Under ordinary circumstances, it very much wouldn't be, but this was a special case.

The two of them just stood there silently for a few moments, staring at each other. Neither one of them seemed to know what to say. "Why'd you come here, Luz?" Amity asked eventually. "To apologize again? Because I'm not accepting it."

"Uh, no, that's not it," Luz said. She sounded even more awkward than usual. "It's…the letter Eda forged, it said you were suffering from low self-esteem. You didn't understand how anyone could want to date you."

"It wasn't wrong," Amity conceded.

Luz looked heartbroken to hear confirmation of that. "I love you," she said. Amity rolled her eyes. "No, listen to me, I swear I've got a point here. I love you, Amity Serrano, just as much as I love Amity Blight, but not for the same reasons. You're different people." She started fidgeting with her hands. "You're so brave…you'll stand up to everyone and anyone if you think it's right. You're utterly fearless. You don't have a problem risking yourself if you think it'll serve the greater good. You're so frigging noble. It's just who you are. Those are qualities…well, I don't think my Amity doesn't have them…but Odalia made it harder for her to use them."

Amity couldn't help but feel flattered at this description. "Thanks."

Luz gave her a genuine smile. "I didn't fall in love with you because you were just like Amity Blight. I fell in love with you because you're you." She reached out to touch Amity's shoulder and then stopped herself, seeming to realize that casual touch was no longer permitted. "You're a great person, and I hope you find someone who's smart enough to see that. I don't want you hating yourself…because believe me, I know what that feels like."

"Why did Clara treat you like that?" Amity asked abruptly. Huh? Where did that question come from? Oh, well, might as well continue on that path now that she'd stepped onto it. "I can't imagine her being so cruel to anyone. She sure as hell was a lot nicer when she rejected me."

Luz shrugged. "I have no idea. Look, don't listen to Lucia. She's really nasty sometimes. I'm sure your Clara likes Vee for who xe is…" So her version of Vee used neopronouns? Interesting. "…and she likes you as a friend for who you are."

"Can you hug me?" Amity requested. "I…really could use one."

"Sure!" Luz said, sounding incredibly happy, and she hugged Amity. It wasn't anything romantic or anything vaguely resembling that. It wasn't like the hugs Luz had given her when they were dating. It was just a friendly hug. But Amity felt like some sort of weight was lifted from her when they hugged. It was the weight of her anger. It may return later, she knew, but for now it was gone.

Luz gave her an affectionate smile. "I'm gonna miss you when I go home, you know. I kind of wish you could meet my Amity. She's so kickass! Oh, man, you should have seen her go up against Belos. She was all like, 'Stay away from my Luz!' I was her Luz! I'd never been anyone's Luz before!"

Amity let out a giggle. Were they actually becoming friends again? She didn't know. But she kind of liked it. "I'm sure she'll be happy to see you again." She put out her hand for Luz to shake. "Friends?"

Luz blinked repeatedly as she looked at the hand. She must not have expected Amity to be so generous towards her. "Yeah. Friends." They shook on it. "I got to say, it feels so nice to not have this hanging over my head anymore! I felt so guilty about lying to you…it was the second hardest thing I've ever done, after lying to my dad, of course." That must have been very difficult, Amity had to concede.

"Mind waiting here for a second?" Amity asked. "I need to give something to you." She went into her bedroom and found the signed copy of Good Witch Azura book 1. She'd nearly forgotten about it until now. When she returned with the book, Luz's eyes lit up. "You got this for me?! Wow! You're the best!"

"Yeah, I got it just before…well, you know," Amity said. "Here, take it."

"Did you read it?" Luz wondered. Amity shook her head. She'd barely even touched the damn thing. Even looking at it reminded her of the nearly unendurable heartbreak she had experienced. "Would…would you like me to read it to you? You might like it."

Amity doubted it. She wasn't really a fan of fantasy novels with convoluted backstories and flowery language. But it would make Luz happy. And what else was she planning on doing with her afternoon anyway? Brooding some more? "Okay."

Luz sat down and opened the book. "Long ago, in the land of Nova Arcadia, there lived a good witch named Azura…"

It had been positively delightful for Eduardo to spend time with his daughter now that he knew the truth about her. It was tragic that Luz had been forced to endure the twin injustices of his own death and rampant bullying, but he was proud of her for managing to find her own path despite that. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that his counterpart would have supported Luz's actions in the Boiling Isles had he lived – though all the danger she had put herself into there (maybe about 60% of it unnecessarily) would probably have alarmed him even more than it did Eduardo.

Luz was filled with stories about her time in the Isles. She didn't like to talk about her life beyond them, aside from all the awesome things Camila Noceda had done for her, but that was okay. The two of them were father and daughter, but they were also relative strangers, and Eduardo was honored that she was trusting him to any extent at all. Besides, Luz had done seriously impressive things during her time in the Isles. She'd become the first ever multitrack student Hexside had ever seen, defeated Grom, and participated in the overthrow of Belos. Eduardo felt a surge of pride when he heard those stories – his daughter had done that.

In return, Eduardo told his own stories, not just of his life after he'd come to the Isles, but before them as well, the past that he shared with his counterpart. Luz had been enthralled by them, especially by stories of his urban explorations. He was pretty sure he had inspired her to conduct her own urban explorations in Seattle when she returned.

"And you're sure you have no clues that could help me solve your murder?" Luz asked him. She'd asked him that before, but it was clear she felt a greater sense of urgency now that she sensed her time in the Isles was drawing to a close. Her time with him was drawing to a close.

Eduardo could not help but laugh. "That is definitely not a sentence I would have ever envisioned anyone asking me, even after I came here!" Luz did not look amused. "No, lucecita, I've told you, I have absolutely no clue. How could I? Our paths diverged decades ago."

"Oh, come on!" Luz said, stamping her foot on the floor. "There's got to be something…Leo! You were talking on the phone to someone named Leo!"

Eduardo blinked, because he knew exactly who Luz was talking about. Leo Axel had been his mentor at the New York Daily News. He had delivered a guest lecture at Eduardo's university and had been impressed with Eduardo's incisive questions. Afterwards, they'd gotten coffee and struck up a friendship. Leo had gotten Eduardo a job at the newspaper because he believed in his potential. But he hadn't spoken to Leo since his Luz was a toddler. Last he heard, the cantankerous old man was living in a retirement village in Florida, but he could just as easily be dead now; they'd lost touch.

After explaining this to Luz, her eyes lit up at the potential of another clue. "Maybe he left behind some sort of clue? A notebook? You journalists take notes on things, right? You've got to help me figure this out."

"Leo did have a tendency to get paranoid at times," Eduardo recalled. "If we were running a sensitive investigation – especially if it was a potentially dangerous one – he would have made copies, both electronic and physical, of his findings and hid them somewhere."

"Where would he have hidden them?" Luz asked.

Eduardo scratched his chin, lost in thought for a few seconds. That was a good question. He was just making an educated guess; Leo had never actually asked him to hide any of his notes for him during his time at the Daily News. "My guess is that he would have actually asked me to hide them. I knew a ton of hiding spots all around the city back then, and with time, I would have learned many more. But where would I have put them…?"

He wracked his brains, thinking of every single secret that he had found in New York City. If he was going to hide a notebook where absolutely no one would look for it but the two of them, then where would he put it? "You know, I have absolutely no idea," he admitted. "There are just too many good hiding spots. But you know who might know? His wife Matilda. He told her everything."

Luz gave him a smile, looking beyond pleased to have another lead. Eduardo just hoped that it panned out. The thought of someone murdering him and getting away with it and leaving Luz in so much turmoil just made his blood boil. "Thanks, dad," she said. "This means a lot to me. I'm going to miss you so much when I go back home."

"I was thinking about that," Eduardo admitted. "You made contact with your own universe once, didn't you? Maybe I could pull that off again."

"NO!" Luz shouted. Eduardo was stunned and more than a little hurt. She didn't want to talk to him anymore when she returned home? Was it because she really only saw him as a replacement for her real father? "No, papi. I can't live with that hope hanging over my head. It'll take so much time for you to get a portal to the In Between Realm running, and you might not even succeed, and I just can't handle that. I can't. I'll go mad."

Eduardo could understand and respect that decision. "Okay, lucecita. You want to know a little secret? I'm going to miss you too. But I know this isn't your real home."

Luz started pacing and muttering under her breath, looking like she was trying to formulate the best way to say what she was going to say. She abruptly stopped in her tracks and looked him in the face. "The night before you died, you came back from your trip really late. Like, almost at midnight. Mami let me stay up until you came home, just that once. She knew how much I missed you. I swore I'd stay up until you were back, but…"

"You fell asleep," Eduardo concluded. Had Luz spent the last nine years feeling guilty because of that? Unfortunately, it seemed quite likely.

Tears formed in Luz's eyes. The memory, Eduardo knew, was not one she'd thought of for a very long time – she'd trained herself to avoid thinking about it because of how much it hurt. "You had to catch a really early bus to work, and you left before I got up. You got off the bus…walked across the street…and got hit by a car. I never got a chance to say goodbye to you. All these years, it's haunted me. I could have at least said good night, at the very least!"

"Hey, that is not your fault, Luz," Eduardo said. Luz let out a breath. While she probably knew that he was right on a conscious level, she'd likely been hoping for absolution for all these years, if only deep down in her subconscious. "So are we saying goodbye now?"

"I guess," Luz said with a half-smile. Her eyes were still wet with tears, but they weren't all tears of pure sorrow, Eduardo knew. "Papi, thank you so much for giving me a second chance to be your daughter. Thank you for just rolling with it after you learned the truth. And…well, thanks for being a great dad to your Luz. She doesn't know how lucky she is."

Eduardo reached out and gave Luz a hug. "Your mother raised such a good girl. I feel so bad I couldn't participate in that. I wish things had been different."

"You did enough," Luz asserted. "You taught me that sometimes, the good guys lose, so that's why we always have to fight to do the right thing, because nothing is set in stone." Eduardo gave a smile at that. It sounded like something he'd say. That smile quickly turned to a grimace when he realized that this philosophy was also what got him killed. "Um, do you have a message you want to give my mom?"

Huh. What message should he have for her? He didn't know Camila Serrano as anything more than an acquaintance. They certainly didn't have the deep, abiding love for one another that Eduardo and Camila Noceda had. Luz was asking him to pass along a message to a complete stranger, yet one who was in love with a version of him. "I guess…tell her she's a good mother and I hope her current partners are making her happy? I'm sorry, Luz, I really don't have much more to add to that."

Luz looked disappointed. She was doubtlessly hoping that Eduardo would pass along a message of love for her. But he couldn't. He didn't know her, and the only love he would ever have was Eda. "Hey, don't look so glum, Luz. You know what? Even after we say goodbye, you'll always have a place in my heart. And who knows? You two might see each other again. I've seen far stranger things during my time here."

"I don't think so," Luz admitted. "Some days I do…this isn't one of them."

"That's okay," Eduardo assured her. "I know what it's like to wrestle with that question. Wrestling with these things is what us Jews do. It's why Jacob became Israel – he who wrestles with God. I bet there'd be a lot of interesting theological questions if people found out about the Boiling Isles."

"Yeah, like is manticore kosher?" Luz joked.

Eduardo let out a laugh, even though it wasn't a particularly funny joke. He wanted to ease Luz towards more lighthearted conversation. "Hey, I know you don't like talking about your pre-Boiling Isles past, so you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but did you ever have a bat mitzvah?"

Luz gave him a huge smile. "Yes! Oh, I can't believe I never talked about it. Okay, so picture it. There I am in Ezra Bessaroth – that was our synagogue…" As Luz went into excruciating detail about her experience with the ceremony that marked the point of one becoming a woman in the eyes of the Jewish faith, Eduardo hung on her every word, unable to think of anything he'd rather be doing more.

Boscha could think of nothing she'd rather be doing less than what she was about to do. But it had to be done. She steeled herself for a few seconds, and then knocked on the door of the Porter residence. Truthfully speaking, not all that much time passed between her doing that and the door opening, but her anxiety meant that every second felt like an eternity. She was surprised to find that Gus was the one who answered the door, but that just made things easier.

"I'm sorry!" she blurted as soon as she saw him. Gus just crossed his arms, looking profoundly skeptical. Of course he did. What had she expected, that she could just utter that phrase and all would be well? Of course he'd think it was a trick – she'd tricked him in the past, after all.

"I'm too old for this," Gus said.

"Oh, come on, you haven't even hit puberty yet!" Boscha shouted.

"Yep. And I'm still too old for this." He started to close the door, but Boscha stuck her foot in to prevent him from doing so. "Just hear me out," she begged. "Hear what I have to say, and I swear I'll never say another word to you in my entire life if that's what you want."

Gus looked contemplative. "Okay. That does seem kind of worth it – if you swear an Everlasting Oath." Ugh. She hated those things, even if the one that Belos had made – no, wait, that was Zoe; man, that was hard to get used to – had technically saved her life.

"Fine," she spat. "I swear I'll never say another word to you after this conversation is over." Gus cast the spell and the oath was bound. He let her inside the house. Boscha was surprised at how…home like it looked. Hart Manor was cold and sterile. Elegant and magnificent, sure, but devoid of any real personality. It was a work of art, not a home. The Porter residence was much smaller, but it was also cozy. Beautiful in its own way.

Gus directed her over to an armchair. She was surprised at how comfy it was. The armchairs in Hart Manor had always made her back hurt. "Gus, I'm so sorry for bullying you. I have no excuse. I was a terrible person, and I did cruel and awful things to you, and I'm sorry."

He raised an eyebrow. "Well. Kind of liking your apology better than Willow's, I got to admit. You think I should forgive you?"

Boscha shook her head. "I wouldn't. I'm not asking you to. But I wanted to make amends. I want to be a better person. I want to be the person Willow thinks I am…the person I'm scared I'm not and won't be."

Gus actually looked like he was feeling sorry for her. There was a time, not long ago, when anyone looking at her like that – even Willow sometimes – would have caused her to react violently and cruelly, unable to abide the thought of anyone pitying her. It was better to be feared than loved, Tasha had told her, but even worse than being loved was being pitied, because it meant you didn't have power over that person. Titan, she was messed up. But now, Boscha actually felt a sense of warmth within her that someone cared about her welfare, even to a limited extent.

"Boscha…you hurt me a lot," Gus said after a long period of silence. "I'm not sure you understand how much you hurt me." Boscha nodded, and closed her eyes. Gus was going to hurt her. That was fine. She had gotten used to being in pain long ago. "What are you doing?" he asked, sounding confused.

She opened her eyes again. "You…were going to teach me a lesson?" she asked, confused. "Sorry, I guess you want me to be looking when you hit me."

"What?!" Gus shouted. "No! Titan, no, Boscha, I'm not going to hurt you! Oh, man, your mom really did screw you up, didn't she?" He looked down at the floor, actually looking somewhat ashamed. "A part of me kind of thought you'd made it up." How Boscha wished she had.

Gus snapped his fingers. "Stand up," he ordered her, and Boscha obeyed. He walked over to her, and Boscha readied herself for whatever he'd do to her. Surely he'd been lying about not hurting her. What would he do? Punch her? Slap her? Kick her? The anticipation, she had learned long ago, could be worse than the actual pain.

And then he wrapped his arms around her in a hug.

Boscha blinked her three eyes repeatedly. What was he hugging her for? Had he lost his mind? Did he not understand who she was, what she had done to him? Perhaps she had driven him insane? It really seemed like the only rational explanation. "Boscha, you're not a bad person," he said, and Boscha really couldn't think of a sentence she'd disagreed with more in her entire life. "You've done some really bad things, but you're not a bad person. It's going to take me a long time to move on from those things. We're not friends, and I'm not sure we ever will be. But…I don't think we have to be enemies either."

"You forgive me?" Boscha asked incredulously.

Gus shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. Hating you kind of seems pointless, know what I mean?" Boscha did know what he meant. She'd spent so much time hating her mother, herself, and everyone around her, even Willow at times. It had never gained her anything.

"What about hating Willow?" Boscha asked.

"I'm…trying not to," he admitted. "But it's hard. You bullying me…well, it's not like I expected anything different from you. But I trusted Willow and she betrayed me. I'm not ready to forgive her yet…but maybe I will be someday? I don't know." He turned around and faced the window, and Boscha knew it was her cue to exit.

"Oh, Boscha," Gus called out. Boscha turned to face him, but she couldn't speak a word to him because of the Everlasting Oath. But then Gus made a spell circle and she could speak again. "The oath is unbound."

"Thank you," Boscha whispered. She wasn't just thanking him for unbinding the oath. She was thanking him for his forgiveness, for not hating her, for his kindness. She thought about telling him all this. She could do that now. But she was pretty sure he understood anyway.

It was not outside the realm of possibility, Zoe ever so reluctantly conceded, that she had made things more complicated than they needed to be. She did so love her convoluted plots, and everything had been going perfectly well. She had arranged the circumstances that had led Luz to take her deal with meticulous precision, drugging Edric and switching his normal brass knuckles with cast iron ones to lead him to attacking her stupid brother. That had given her an excuse to put Amity in an enchanted sleep, and thus for Luz to take her deal. She had foreseen that.

What she had not foreseen was how badly things would end for her when she followed Luz into the alternate dimension. That damn addendum to the deal had forced Zoe to send Luz to a dimension where Eduardo was alive and her father. There weren't honestly all that many of those – in most of the universes out there, he'd gone to the City Hall station and explored there instead of going on a date with Camila, but in nearly every one of those universes, the portal had already dissipated by the time he arrived. Unfortunately for Zoe, Eduardo's presence in the Isles had created a chain reaction of events, including the rebellion.

That damn rebellion had nearly killed her twice. She could forgive the first attack, because they thought they were attacking Belos. But the second time, they knew they were attacking her, and that was an insult that could not stand. It was only their stupid compassion that allowed Zoe to escape what would have been an agonizingly painful death. Zoe would kill them all when she got her power back. She'd personally kill every last rebellion member who begged for mercy, for she was merciful. The ones who refused to beg, she'd trap in a mental nightmare landscape for the rest of their lives. And Lilith? Well, she'd flay her sister alive in front of her, and let her go to have those memories haunting her for the rest of eternity.

If not for the stupid rebellion, and her own desire to see Luz suffer at Grom, she could have returned home already as soon as Amity finally learned the truth, waiting patiently for the time when the Isles was going to be inundated with poison fire. She'd rule over a sea of the dead, but she'd rule. She was pretty sure the unique qualities of the poison fire would allow her to raise all the dead of the Isles as zombies. Mindless zombies, obedient to her every word. Just thinking of the idea caused a smile to form on Zoe's face.

But that would have to wait. She still wasn't all that much more powerful than an ordinary witch, and at the rate she was going, it would take months before she acquired enough power to transport herself back to Luz's dimension, and even longer to return to full strength. But slaughter on a mass scale would accelerate the healing process. And there would soon be plenty of opportunity to do that. The oracle witches were foreseeing that the rebellion would attack the imperial palace on the morrow.

Zoe was looking forward to it. After all, as the humans said, a battlefield awash with blood kept the doctor away. Actually, now that she thought about it, they didn't actually say that, which was strange, because that was the sort of thing one would think they would say. But that wasn't the point. She was going to kill all her enemies. She was just pulsating with happiness.

And she'd save the worst and most painful fate of all for Luz Noceda.