The New Founder
Disclaimer: I do not own "Owl House" or "Attack on Titan". All rights belong to Dana Terrace and Hajime Isayama.
This takes place in an Owl House AU where there is no Demon Realm (or at least the story doesn't take place in the Demon Realm) and many characters who are witches/demons and live in the Boiling Isles in cannon are humans in Gravesfield.
WARNING, THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER CONTAINS DEPICTIONS OF ANIMAL CANNIBALISM AND EXPERIMENTATION. DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE DISTURBED BY SUCH THINGS. Look for this symbol: (*)
Two Weeks Earlier…
Luz Noceda leaves the principal's office at Gravesfield High School with her mother. Waiting for them outside are Luz's friends Gus, Willow and Luz's girlfriend Amity.
"So, how did it go?" Gus asks.
"Well, none of the snakes were venomous so no major harm was done." Luz says.
A student runs past them screaming with a snake biting his head.
"Although one of them did bite Principal Hal." Luz admits sheepishly. "I've got two weeks detention."
"I told you that snakes were a bad idea." Willow says.
"And I told you to write an ACTUAL report instead of putting on a show." Amity says.
"I wanted to be creative." Luz argues.
"And I told you that I was willing to let you borrow my projector for that!" Gus states. "I got this new one that lets you do it in 3D."
"What? When did you say that?" Luz asks, not remembering Gus when Gus made that offer.
"That isn't the point, Luz." Camila says.
"Atleast I wasn't in detention for graffiti or punching a kid like auntie Eda." Luz says.
Camila shakes her head.
"Aye, Auntie Eda. I love that woman but she's a wild card."
"Not as wild as that weirdo who runs the Historical Society." Gus whispers to Willow.
"You mean the guy who thinks that some people in this town are descendants of witches and demons that came from Mars centuries ago?" Willow whispers back.
The two laugh. Camila grabs her daughters shoulders.
"Look, I admire your creativity but you need to learn some self restraint." She says softly.
…
Now
"L…Luz?" Camila gasps as she stares at her titanized daughter.
Luz continues to stare at her now tiny (to her) mother, surrogate aunt Eda, dog King, and girlfriend Amity. She looks at her own gigantic hand, then touches her face and feels the exposed flesh around her eyeballs and slits on the sides of her mouth. She looks down and curiously touches the ribs poking out of her torso.
Lilith moves in front of the group and raises her hands up.
"Everyone, we have to get out of here!" Lilith shouts. "Every living thing affected by the creatures turned into a cannibal and Luz has never had much restraint!"
"She doesn't look as mindless as the mice." Amity points out. "Maybe it's different when there's direct contact."
Camila steps forward. Lilith tries calling her back fearfully, but Camila doesn't listen. Luz stops examining her new body and notices her mother again.
"Luz…Mija…are you still you?" Camila questions.
Luz plants her hands on the ground, the force causes Camila and the others nearby to be knocked off their feet. Camila falls to the ground and Luz lowers her face to get a better look at them. Camila's heart is pounding in her chest. She had seen the video that Lilith showed her and she hoped that she wouldn't meet the same fate as the lab mice.
"Mama?" Luz asks.
Everyone perks up hearing this, and they feel a great rush of relief.
"Luz!" Camila shouts happily. "You're still you!"
Camila gets up and runs to hug Luz's cheek. Then she pulls back just as quickly.
"Ow! You're hot!"
"Luz! Do you feel hungry at all!?" Lilith asks, calming down.
"Uh, no. No, I'm good." Luz says. "But what happened to me? Why am I so big?"
…
Two weeks earlier…
At Gravesfield Veterinary Clinic, Eda Clawthorne fills out some paperwork at her desk. Her dog King walks up to her leg and rubs against it. Eda takes a break to scratch her pets head and Camila walks through the front door wearing a white coat like Eda.
"Hey Cammy! How's this kid?" Eda asks.
"Luz is going to be in detention for a couple weeks." Camila says, sitting at her desk. "She's hanging out with Amity now. Her father will drive her home later."
Camila groans.
"I don't know what she was thinking. Snakes!?"
"Hey, the kid could have done worse." Eda says, then she laughs. "You know when I was her age I-"
"I know all about your past, Eda." Camila says.
The front door opens and in rushes a woman with long black-dyed hair.
"Lily?" Eda questions.
"Eda, I can't believe I'm saying this. But I need your help." Lilith says.
Eda smiles and leans back in her seat.
"Well it's about time. So for what?"
"First can you send your co-worker out of here?" Lilith asks. "This is private."
"Nuh-uh. Anything you say to me you can say to Cammy."
"Hola." Camila says.
Lilith sighs.
"Ok fine."
Lilith reaches into her carrying bag and pulls out her laptop.
"What I'm going to show you two is completely confidential. You cannot tell ANYONE about this."
"Understood." Says Camila.
"I can keep a secret. What's up?" Eda asks.
Lilith holds out her lap top in-front of Eda and Camila. She presses the power button and a video starts to play.
"Ten years ago me and a group of scientists from Belos Enterprises went to Africa to examine abnormal plant growth in the region. There we discovered a creature that we believed to be responsible."
The first clip shown is of a group of scientists in hazmat suits extracting a spine-like translucent creature from a pool of water underneath a giant tree.
"Yeesh, what the heck is that thing?" Eda asks.
On the screen, the creature wraps itself around one of the scientist's necks and tries to strangle him while releasing a vapor. The other protected scientists rush over to pry the creature off of him.
"We believe it to be a type of prehistoric worm. It's a little hard to tell."
The screen shows Lilith examining the creature in her lap. The creature is in a sealed tank and Lilith reaches in with tongs to remove a tissue sample. But when she rips a piece of skin off that piece quickly evaporates as a new piece of skin grows on the creature in its place just as fast.
"Examining the creature's DNA proved impossible. All we do know is that it releases a vapor that affects organic matter.
The clip shows Steve introducing contaminated water from the creature's tank onto a tomato plant. The tomatoes and vines grow instantly with the fruits reaching the size of basketballs.
"Incredible!" Camila shouts.
"Lilly, you can make a ton of money off this!" Eda says.
"She can end world hunger!" Camila adds.
"Caleb Wittebane thought of both." Lilith says. "The creature proved to be beneficial to plant life. It caused incredible growth, good quality produce, the lab results didn't show any increase in growth hormones and the lab rats we fed them too didn't seem to experience any negative health effects. But then we wondered what the effects would be on cattle."
The clip shows Lilith using an eyedropper to put some of the contaminated water into a lab mouse's mouth.
"The effects were…monstrous."
Lilith steps back in shock as the mouse bursts with orange energy. When the energy fades the mouse has grown to the size of a small dog with a deformed jaw.
"Is that mouse ok?" Camila asks, concerned.
"None of the affected mice exhibited any of the natural instincts that it had before." Lilith says. "It would just wander around its cage aimlessly. It didn't reach when I tried to pick it up or examine it. I tried to take a tissue sample and it evaporated just as fast as the mouse's body healed."
"Just like the creature." Eda states.
"Caleb asked me to run tests on it."
The clip shows Lilith sticking needles into the mouse. Removing larger tissue samples (whole chunks of flesh and limbs). The blood evaporated. The larger chunks last longer but still evaporate as Lilith examines them with a microscope. She even cuts a piece of the mouse's head off, but it remains functional.
"The mouse showed no pain no matter what I did to it. And the tissue samples showed no cells."
"No cells!?" Camila asks, shocked. "How is that possible?"
"The thing is, I don't think this is actually flesh." Lilith says. "It's like…fake flesh that grew around the mouse when it came into contact with the liquid."
The clip shows an X-ray of the gigantified mouse. It shows a full x-ray of the mouse's bones with a small spine at the base of its neck. Lilith points at it.
"You see that?" She asks. "THAT right there is all that's left of the real mouse. As soon as I cut that, it died."
The clip shows the gigantified mouse, now dead with the back of its neck cut. It releases steam instead of blood and eventually evaporates away into nothing.
"Caleb was still interested in the creature's effects on organic matter so he asked me to do the same thing to a few other mice."
The clip showed Lilith looking anxiously at a pen filled with several gigantified mice. They just wander around avoiding each other.
"All the affected mice acted in a zombie-like state. They didn't try to eat any of the food I gave them, or drink any water. I came to the conclusion that they gained their energy from sunlight since they were inactive at night. I even left one in the dark for a few days and it was completely motionless. It didn't even regenerate when I cut it but it resumed its normal functions when I re-exposed it to sunlight."
"That's very…strange." Camila says.
"So we have a spine-like creature that makes mice huge and takes away their need to eat." Eda recaps.
"The mice showed no reaction whenever me or anyone else stepped into the cage. Or to any of our actions." Lilith continues.
They see various clips of different animals being put into the pen with the mice, but the mice ignore them each time. These animals include a dog, a snake, a cat and a chicken.
"And then…" Lilith looks disturbed, like she wants to throw up. "…this next part is horrifying."
"I had to perform stomach surgery on a cat last week." Camila says. "Show me."
"Ok." Lilith says hesitantly.
(*)
(*)
(*)
(*) She clicks on the next video. (*)
"I decided to see what would happen if I introduced regular mice."
The clip shows Lilith opening a box inside the pen, releasing a dozen regular mice. The gigantified mice stop their aimless wandering and turn their attention to their normal kin. Then, the gigantified mice lower their heads to the smaller mice, open their mouths, and bite down on them before swallowing as Lilith on the screen screams in horror.
(*) (*)
(*)
(*)
(*)
Camila and Eda scream in horror as well.
"OH JESUS CHRIST! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?"
"¡Ay dios mío! ¡Eso es lo más horrible que he visto en mi vida! ¡¿Qué, en el nombre de todas las cosas sagradas, acabo de ver?! ¡Ese ratón se comió a ese otro ratón!" Camila shouts.
Then she turns green, grabs a trash can and throws up in it.
"Lily! I thought you said that these things don't need to eat!?" Eda yells.
"They don't!" Lilith says, closing her laptop. "None of their organs work, at all. I dissected one, there was no stomach acid. The mice it ate were just sitting in a cavity! I tried introducing crickets and other small creatures, but they only noticed other mice!"
"Stop." Camila says. "Just stop talking about-" Camila throws up in her trash can again.
"Yeah, Caleb did that too." Lilith says. "He was going to discontinue the whole project but then…"
"He died." Eda finishes.
"Yeah. His brother Philip, the new CEO, ordered me to continue the experiments." Lilith becomes more uncomfortable as she speaks. "I found that when their stomachs get full they just regurgitate what they are then keep eating again."
When Lilith says that, Camila throws up again.
"I found that the more they eat the more their fur color changes so it seems like they can gain certain traits from what they eat. I suspect that's the reason they become cannibals, subconsciously they want to return to normal form." Lilith says. "Then we brought in a miniature goat to see if the effects would be different on herbivores." Lilith sucks in a breath. "They were not. Then he had me expose it to a trained chihuahua to see if the affected can retain certain memories even when chanted."
"And?" Eda questions.
"Somewhat." Lilith admits. "But not much. Then he started working with Blight Industries."
"Amity's folks?" Eda questions.
"Ugh, I don't like that woman." Camila says thinking about Odalia. "How such a horrid woman can have such a sweet daughter perplexes me."
"I think Luz is responsible for that." Eda says.
"Do you think Amity knows anything?" Camila asks.
"Doubtful." Lilith says. "Anyways, Phillip had me give some of the contaminated water to Blight Industries to see if it can be weaponized somehow. I don't have any solid evidence but I think they've been experimenting with it and I think they are trying to have it used in the military!"
"What!?" Camila shouts.
"Lilly, you have to go to the police or something." Eda says.
"The last person who tried to do something about it was my assistant, Steve. No one's seen him since. The Blights are coming in three weeks to take the creature so I need your help."
"Help with what exactly Lily?" Eda asks.
Lilith sighs.
"I want you to help me steal the creature."
Eda and Camila glance at each other. Then they glance back at Lilith.
"So, what's the plan?" Camila asks.
…
Now
"Ok Luz, I need you to stay calm!" Eda says. "That thing you touched did this to you. We don't know how to change you back but I promise we will find a way!"
"All that's left of your real body now is your spine!" Amity shouts. "But maybe if we surgically remove it from your neck then-"
"Wait Amity, you knew about this?" Luz asks.
Amity pauses.
"Uh..."
…
Three Days Earlier
Luz, Gus and Willow are playing video games in the Noceda living room. Camila had called Amity into the kitchen where she, Eda and Lilith were waiting for her. Amity had known Lilith as an associate of her mother through Belos enterprises. Amity asked what was going on and Lilith bluntly asked her what she knew about her parents dealings with Belos Enterprises. Amity just said that she knows that Lilith has been developing a serum for a biological weapon that her family's company is developing at Philip Wittebane's request and right now they are just trying to get it approved. Then they showed Amity the video clips.
"OH MY GOD!" Amity screams in horror and disgust.
"Shush!" Eda snaps. "Luz doesn't know about this!
"Amity? What's wrong?" Luz asks from the other room.
"I'm fine Luz! Your mother just showed me…"
Amity looks at Camila, Lilith and Eda's faces.
They tell her to keep quiet and Amity thinks of an excuse.
"…a disturbing video! It had a cat in it!"
"A cat with a human face!?" Luz shouts/asks.
"There was a cat and I saw a humans face in there too."
"Gross! Your reaction is more than understandable!"
Amity turns back to the three women and whispers.
"Ok, so what do you want me to do?" Amity asks.
"Try to find out as much about your parents work as you can." Lilith says. "I have a feeling they know something about what happened to Steve. In the meantime I'm going to try and convince Mr. Wittebane to send me as many of the weapons that have been developed already for further testing." Lilith says. "I'll make up some excuse that some of my older samples have gone bad, or I've discovered a reaction to metal or something."
"Then we're gonna break into Lilly's lab and burn all her research!" Eda exclaims.
Lilith groans.
"It's for the best." She groans.
"But before that we're going to rescue Eli and return it to its tree in Africa." Camila says.
Eda and Lilith turn to her shocked.
"You want to save that thing?" Eda asks. "Cammy, did you see the cannibal mutant rats?"
"That's not the creature's fault." Camila argues. "That's just how it was made. It may be the only one if it's kind. Do you want to be responsible for driving a species to extinction? All that's important is that we make sure it doesn't affect people."
…
Three hours ago
"But where are you guys going?" Luz asks her mother as she grabs a duffel bag.
They are in the Noceda household kitchen with Eda and King. Lilith is outside in Eda's van waiting for the two other women to come.
"Just a little project your momma, my big sister and I are working on." Eda says.
"It's nothing, really Luz." Camila says.
"You're making your super-tense "I'm lying" face." Luz points out.
Camila sighs.
There is no way she is going to tell her daughter that she's going to help them steal from her own work.
Luz looks between her mom and "aunt" Eda.
"You two have been meeting a lot lately." Luz points out. "You keep having these secret meetings and neither of you tell me anything."
"Well that's life, Luz." Eda says. "People don't always tell you things that are important. He k, it's because my sister didn't tell me what she's actually doing at work until three weeks ago that we're doing this now."
"What is it?" Luz asks.
Camila grabs Luz's shoulders.
"I promise you will understand someday Luz, but not right now." Camila says.
They hear Lilith honking the horn outside.
"Lilly's getting impatient." Eda says. "Time to go, Cammy! Oh and Luz, watch this little rascal while we're gone." Eda says before bending down and petting King.
Eda walks over to Luz and hugs her.
"Wish us luck, kid."
She walks out the front door and Camila faces her daughter.
"Alright Luz, we're going to be gone for a couple hours. Remember, don't open the door for strangers. No giving money to charities you don't know about if they call. Be sure to let King in the backyard to go caca every couple hours and dinner is in the fridge. Oh, and no giving King human food."
"Aww. But I really want him to try one of your famous enchiladas." Luz whines.
"Human food is not good for dogs." Camila reminds her.
Camila kisses Luz on the forehead.
"Adiós, mija."
Camila walks out the door, leaving Luz confused and King clawing at her leg.
…
Half an hour ago
Luz is sitting on the couch with King resting on her lap. She started watching the film adaptation of "The Good Witch Azura II" and writing down all the deviations from the source material she was going to write on her blog. However, she pauses the movie halfway through to call her girlfriend.
"So basically I know that my mom is keeping stuff from me but I don't know what." Luz says frustrated.
On the other line, Amity sweats in nervousness, knowing exactly what Luz is talking about.
"I…Know how you feel, Luz." Amity says. "My mom never tells me anything about her work either. I just recently learned what they have been working with Dr. Clawthron on."
Amity shivers, remembering what she saw in that cage.
"Really? Did she finally tell you?" Luz asks.
"No, actually I snuck around their work area by myself." Amity admits.
Amity's eyes widened, realizing what she just said and WHO she said that too.
Luz gets an idea.
"Hey, yeah. You're right." Luz says.
"No. No I'm not!" Amity tries to say quickly, but Luz doesn't hear it.
"Mama and Eda are never going to tell me anything." Luz says. "But I know where Eda's sister works. I can follow them there!"
"Luz no!" Amity shouts.
"Thanks for the advice Amity!" Luz exclaims. "Love you, bye!"
"Luz wait! Your mom, Eda and Lilith are-"
It is too late. Luz has already hung up her phone and she grabs King before heading into the garage, getting on her bike and riding it down the street towards the Belos Pharmaceutical Research Center. The little dog rides in the front basket. Amity tries to call Luz back several times but her phone is on vibrate. Finally Amity decides to put the research center in her GPS and follow Luz on her own bike.
…
Now
"Uh…."
"AMITY!" Luz shouts.
"They just asked me to find out what my parents have been doing with the stuff!" She turns back to Lilith. "Bye the way, we have a lot to talk about."
"Enough of this!" Roger Wrath shouts.
He takes out his gun and yells as he fires it at the now gigantic Luz.
"Die you giant freak!" He shouts.
However, Luz doesn't even feel anything. She is so big that the bullets do practically no damage to her knee. They melt once they hit her body from the heat alone and the skin is so tough the bullets don't even pierce them.
"Uh, can you stop, please?" Luz asks.
Wrath doesn't listen. He runs out of bullets so he throws his gun away and he takes out a flare from his pocket. He runs up to Luz's gigantic knee and tries stabbing her with it, screaming.
"The army's gonna be here soon! The bigger they are, the harder they fall!" He shouts.
"Ok seriously, stop, please!" Luz shouts.
Suddenly a part of Luz's flesh, the size of Wrath himself, on her knee bursts releasing a strong blast of steam. Wrath screams as he is forced back several feet and lands on the ground unconscious. Amity, Camila, Eda and Lilith all look at Luz shocked. They see the crater in her flesh steaming and sealing itself shut.
"What just happened?" Luz asks.
"I think you exploded a part of your body to make steam." Amity says.
"I did?"
Luz raises her hand and focuses on it. Suddenly, her hand releases a massive force of hot steam. When Luz looks at her hand again it is bone, but the flesh quickly grows back around it. Luz moves her fingers in amazement.
"Woah! What else can I do?"
Luz squeezes her other fist and it hardens into a crystal.
"Cool!" Luz exclaims.
Luz then licks her finger at a nearby tree. She imagines that it might be like Diamond-Head from Ben10 where he can shoot diamonds. A park of lightning emits from her finger and several giant shards of crystal fly at the tree. Destroying it and leaving massive shards in the ground.
"Awesome!" Luz exclaims.
Luz holds her hand up and imagines the crystal taking the form of a pencil. Lightning sparks and a giant pencil made out of crystal appears in her hand. Luz then creates a pair of crystal scissors, a crystal tennis racket, then a crystal hammer. She laughs the entire time.
"Incredible!" Lilith exclaims.
"Luz! Stop messing around, we have to go!" Camila shouts.
Luz drops the hammer and stares down at her mother again.
"Where? I'm too big to fit in our house!" Luz shouts.
"Ugh, kids right Cammy!" Eda exclaims.
"Is there any way you can make yourself smaller?" Amity asks. "Maybe steam the rest of your body away?"
"We'll I guess I-"
Luz stops talking and grabs her head as she gets a headache. Luz groans and she sees the brief flash of a man. When she sees him she hears: "Luz Noceda."
"Did you guys hear that?" Luz asks.
"Hear what?" Camila asks.
"I thought I heard…Gah!"
Luz feels another headache. She sees a brief image of the man again.
This time he says: "Founder Luz."
Luz groans in pain as she grabs the sides of her head.
"Mija! What's wrong!?" Camila asks, stepping closer towards her giant daughter.
Luz's head hurts as she sees more flashes of the man as she hears the words: "coordinate", "founder", "pathway".
…
The pain stops and Luz opens her eyes. She finds herself in a Sandy desert with a dark blue sky and there is a gigantic stream of light entering the sky, like a tree. Luz looks at her hands and down at her body. She feels herself, realizing she is normal again. There are no ribs sticking out of her and she's wearing clothes. She looks at the ground and sees many sand sculptures of the enlarged mice she found in the lab. In the distance she sees another sand sculpture except it is much bigger and shaped like a person.
Luz looks around until she notices the man from her visions, standing beside her. He looks to be about 19. He has long dark hair and markings around his eyes. He is wearing a black jacket and pants with a white shirt underneath.
He reaches out to Luz and grabs her face.
"Your in the nape. Don't let your world end up like mine."
Then, he turns Luz's face to the side.
…
Luz snaps out of her daze and she realizes, again, her surroundings are different. She is surrounded by red flesh and she realizes some of it is connected to her face under her eyes. Luz feels around and realizes that her arms and legs all have flesh attached to them too. Her vision shifts to her looking down at her mother, Eda and girlfriend, to her in the flesh and back again.
"It's like a mech." Luz says. "A giant flesh-mech."
"What?" Eda asks.
"Guys, great news! I'm not really big!" Luz exclaims. "This giant body just grew around me! I'm still back here!" Luz says happily while pointing to the back of her neck.
"Yeah, Luz. All the original bodies of the creatures affected were reduced to just a spine at the nape." Lilith says. "Amity already told you that."
"No, it's like I'm in a mech. Like Neon Genesis." Luz tries to explain.
Lilith stares at her skeptically for a moment.
"I didn't understand a word you said."
Luz grunts.
"One sec, let me try something."
Luz leans on her side, creating a small vibration that nearly knocks her family down, and lays on her left shoulder with the back of her neck facing them.
To their surprise, something moves under the skin of her neck. A tear opens up and releases a lot of steam. Luz's human body emerges from the opening and the attached flesh tears off her face and arms. It leaves scars under her eyes, the same as that man in her vision had. Her shirt also still has bullet holes in it from where she was shot. But she's still fine. Camila, Eda and Amity gasp in shock and relief while King barks in joy.
Luz pulls one arm out of her giant "flesh-mech" and waves to them.
"Guys! Look, I'm fine!" She yells. "I'm still human! I'm-woah!"
Luz's other arm tears out of the "flesh-mech" and she tumbled towards the ground. Camila quickly runs up and catches her daughter.
"Luz! Are you ok!?" Camila asks with tears in her eyes.
"Si, mama." Luz says.
Camila lifts up Luz's shirt and sees no bullet holes. Camila hugs her daughter tighter.
"¡Gracias a Dios!" Camila se disculpa. "I'm so glad you're ok."
King runs up to them and jumps up to lick Luz, who laughs.
While Amity tears up and Eda comments how sap-happy the display is, Lilith notices the giant body Luz was inside. As soon as Luz was removed it started steaming everywhere. It is definitely thinner now than it was moments ago, and it's still shrinking.
They hear sirens approaching.
"Aw crud, the fuzz is here! We've got to go now!"
"Si, si!" Camila exclaims.
She carries Luz to Eda's van and throws her daughter inside. Amity grabs her bike and throws it inside as she gets in too. Followed by King and Lilith. Eda jumps in the driver's seat. She steps hard on the gas and drives away.
Amity hugs her girlfriend.
"I'm glad that you're still small enough for me to hug you, sweet potato." Amity says. "But you should still probably go to a doctor."
"I'll take a look at her first thing tomorrow morning." Lilith says.
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