Amity was absolutely mortified about how she'd behaved when she didn't have access to her memories. She'd gone on homophobic rants, broken up with Luz, and even bullied some of the nerds in Luz's high school. Even the thought of how she'd disrobed and tried her best to seduce Luz, honestly believing that she'd be given no other choice but to grin and bare Luz's attentions, filled her with a deep sense of shame. It would be a while before she'd be over the horrible way she'd acted. But things could have been worse, she knew. At least she'd gotten away from Odalia's influence before things could go too badly.

She'd begged Camila to let her stay with her in Luz's room, just as Luz had stayed with her in her room when she'd almost been the victim of a love potion. Camila had been very reluctant, but Amity had worn her down with logic, emotional pleas, and puppy dog eyes. Eventually, Camila had given in. With how abruptly her memories had been taken away from her, Amity just didn't feel secure sleeping anywhere else. Like Luz that summer, she'd probably return to Edric's apartment soon enough, but for now, she'd switched out living situations with Willow and taken the top bunk in Luz's room. Luz even offered her usage of any of her stuffed animals to cuddle with. Amity had ostentatiously claimed she didn't need it and then proceeded to cuddle with Charlie the penguin each night anyway.

Now she was trying to make up for the incredible slips her grades had taken as of late. Not being able to remember any of the material did not exactly make for good test taking performance. She'd told her teachers what had happened to her and begged for extra credit to make up for it. She wasn't sure all of them believed her – Mr. Charleston, her science teacher, flat out thought she was lying – but they'd all known something was up and eventually acquiesced. Having "Mr. Jacobs" back her up helped a lot there.

Of course, while she'd had legitimate reasons for throwing herself into her schoolwork, she knew that a lot of the reason for it was that she was trying to distract herself. If she wasn't distracted, she thought about what she'd done without her memories, and the guilt kept on getting to her. Luz thought she was helping by giving her a clean slate and absolving her of all responsibility for her actions, but she wasn't. It just meant that Amity felt guilty for wanting to talk things out when Luz clearly just wanted to move past everything.

But eventually, it all just got too much for her, and she finally set down her pencil and walked into the living room. Luz was watching one of those baseball games she liked. "NO!" she suddenly shouted and put her head in her hands. By the looks of it, the game had just come to an end. "Ugh! Why?! Why did it have to be them?"

"Mariners didn't make it?" Amity asked casually. Luz let out a gasp of surprise, not having noticed Amity approach in the midst of whatever she was going through.

"Uh, no, they made it," Luz said with a somewhat wry tone. "The problem is, so did the Mets, and they're going to be facing each other in the World Series." Amity tilted her head. The name sounded familiar. She was sure Luz had mentioned that team at one point, but she couldn't quite remember their significance.

"They're better than the Mariners?" Amity guessed.

Luz rolled her eyes. "These days, it seems like everyone's better than the Mariners. But no, that's not the issue. You see, the New York Mets were my dad's favorite team. He was absolutely obsessed with them. So I don't know who to root for! If I root for the Mariners, I'm betraying my dad, but if I root for the Mets, I'm betraying my hometown!"

Amity couldn't help but smile a bit at her girlfriend's melodrama. It was so nice for her to be facing mundane problems like this instead of huge, world changing drama. "Who says you need to root for anyone?" she pointed out. "Just, you know, go to the game and enjoy it. You know, once we save the day." She knew that Luz had ensured that she, her family, and friends would all get tickets to the final game of the World Series. But it wasn't just to have fun. They would need to thwart Havik's evil plan once they were there too.

Of course, Raine and Eda were trying their best to make sure that wouldn't have to occur. They'd informed a wide variety of law enforcement agencies about Havik's villainous plot, but since they couldn't tell them where they'd gotten the information from without revealing that they'd kidnapped "Agent Johnston," they'd have to resort to claiming one of their oracles had prophesized it. And no one seemed to be taking that explanation very seriously. President Patterson had promised Eda that he'd talk to some people and ensure that security was upped there, but surely Havik would have planned for such an event.

So unless they got a lucky break, their team would have to deal with stopping the plot as it was being implemented. Fun, fun, fun. At least Swaard's death – presumably by one of Havik's assassins – had gotten the Boiling Kingdom out trouble for kidnapping him. Without Swaard alive to disprove it, the cover story that he was on a fact finding mission, only to get murdered immediately upon his return, was still holding water. For the moment.

"Luz, we need to talk about those things I said to you," Amity said.

Luz shook her head, a reassuring smile on her face. "I told you, Amity, it's all good for me!"

"Well, it's not for me," Amity responded. "I need to talk this out, Luz. It's haunting me." Luz nodded, and gestured for Amity to join her. Amity sat down on the couch next to Luz. "Luz, I'm really sorry I treated you so awfully. I just…you were always cool with your sexuality, so you don't really understand what it was like to just have that paralyzing fear of burning in hell hanging over you."

Luz shrugged. "Yeah, I guess not. Still…I did worry. You know, one of the first things I did when I got to the Isles was wonder if I died and was sent to hell. I freaked out for a second or two. But I quickly learned otherwise." She groaned. "Listen to me. Like any of that compares to what you went through!"

Actually, it did make Amity feel a bit better to know that Luz could relate, even a small bit, to what she went through. "Look, I had accepted, for the most part, that I was a lesbian by the time I met you. But I didn't really think I'd actually do anything, you know, sapphic, because I thought my whole life was planned already, and girls were so not a part of it. Then I met you."

"Ah, yes, I must have swept your heart away with my patented Luz charm at first sight!" Luz said, half-jokingly.

"You were covered in abomination goop and jeopardizing an academic achievement I'd worked hard to get, so, no, not really," Amity said dryly. "But as we bonded, I came to realize that if I was going to hell, then it was probably a done deal, and there was nothing at that point I could do to change it. And falling in love with you didn't…feel bad, you know what I mean? It felt completely natural. Why would something sinful feel so right?"

Luz reached out and squeezed Amity's hand. She'd been so careful about the affection she'd shown Amity lately, even though Amity had made it abundantly clear that she was okay with whatever affection Luz wanted to give her, so it was a nice change of pace to see her doing it so casually. "It's okay, Amity. I understand."

"But you didn't get that version of me," Amity told her. "You got the version of me who got a crush on…a certain girl who shall remain nameless…and went into total denial mode." Amity may have completely humiliated herself, but at least she hadn't told Luz about her one-time crush on Boscha (which she had gotten over before she even met Luz), and Luz would never find out. "So I'm sorry you had to deal with her." She put her hands in her heads. "I can't believe I called you a sweet potato!"

"Actually, I really liked that nickname," Luz admitted. "It was sweet. The rest of it, not so much." She looked Amity just beneath the eyes, her equivalent of making eye contact. "You do know that there's no pressure for us to do anything more…advanced right now, right? It's just, your inner self – well, Amelia, at any rate – really just threw herself at me, and I want you to know you don't have to do that."

"I know that," Amity promised her. "And I don't want to do it either, no matter what Amelia has to say about that. I mean, now! I, uh…" Amity's face was practically burning up. "Can we talk about something different? Please?"

Luz gave a chirpy grin. "Sure! Wanna know a secret?" Amity nodded. "You didn't actually go to the homecoming dance with Tim. You went with…drumroll, please…" Amity dutifully gave a drumroll, curious where this was going. "…Gus!"

Huh. Amity did not expect that. But in retrospect, she probably should have seen that coming. Tim's extremely chivalrous behavior at the homecoming dance had not at all matched his boorish behavior otherwise. Amity had asked out Tim not because he was nice but because she thought it was her place to ask out the highest ranking boy on the popularity ladder. She was honestly relieved to know that Gus had the foresight to replace him and give her a very pleasant evening, her breakdown notwithstanding.

"It's a real shame we couldn't go together," Amity said mournfully. "I know you were looking forward to it."

"Well, there's always next year," Luz said, her voice tenser than normal. Not having Amity present at the homecoming dance with her had been a sore point for her, Amity knew. "There's another dance in the spring, though! It's not as important, but that also means less pressure. Uh, so you're not angry about Gus? It's just, Tim was acting like a real jerk, and he ended up in the hospital, so he wouldn't have gone with you anyway…"

Amity put up a hand. "I understand. If he'd taken any liberties with me, I'd be really mad, but he was a perfect gentleman the whole evening. He wouldn't even kiss me." She was extremely grateful for that. She had never actually told Luz this before, but her first kiss with Luz was actually her first kiss ever, and she didn't want to have thought, even incorrectly, that Gus would have given Amity her first kiss, especially since it would have been his too most likely. "Say, what's with him and Skara?"

Luz looked contemplative. "You know, I think Gus is interested in starting a QPR with her." Amity didn't even bother trying to pretend she had the slightest clue what Luz was talking about. "Oh, it's something relatively new. A queerplatonic relationship. Kind of like being more than friends but not in a romantic sense." Amity, to be honest, didn't understand what that meant, but, hey, if it worked for both of them, then more power to them.

The front door opened and Camila walked in, a bag of groceries in her hand. She'd stepped out for a little bit to buy some food at the grocery store, though Amity suspected it was also to give her some space to facilitate a talk with Luz. "Hi, everyone!" she called out, as she started putting the groceries in the refrigerator. "How did the game go, Luz?"

"The Mets won," she said gloomily. "You think Dad would forgive me if I rooted for the Mariners?"

"Of course he would," Camila said immediately. "He'd probably have given you a bit of a hard time, but all in the spirit of healthy competition." She looked carefully at Luz. "Are you being serious about this?"

Luz gave a so-so gesture. "Kinda. It's…getting kind of close to the anniversary, you know. He's been on my mind lately. We still up to visiting his grave on that day?"

"As if I would accept an alternate outcome," Camila said. Amity knew that Luz and Camila would visit Eduardo's grave on the anniversary of her father's death and leave a stone atop his headstone, in accordance with Jewish tradition, as they did every single year. "And you are going to accompany us, Amity."

Amity was shocked by this. She hadn't expected to have been invited for a second. "But I'm not a part of your family."

"I won't hear any more talk like that out of you, nuera que será," Camila said sternly. "You are a part of this family. Even when you could not remember it, you were still family. And if he were here, Eduardo would most certainly agree with me." She finished putting the groceries away and gave a warm smile at Amity. "I hope you had a good discussion while I was away?"

Amity nodded. "But a private one."

"I understand completely," Camila assured her. Amity respected the way that Camila refused to pry into her affairs when Amity made it clear she wanted privacy. It was certainly different than the way her parents, and even her siblings, treated her. "So that was sure some wedding ceremony! Quite unlike my own, to be sure."

Luz gave her a teasing grin. "Wondering if your own wedding with Eda and Raine is gonna be that wild?"

Camila blushed in much the same way her daughter did. "Well…I think it's a bit too early to start talking about marriage now. We've only been together for a few months!" She sighed. "Besides, Eda doesn't really strike me as the marriage type."

"She was married in the past," Amity reminded her, although she wasn't sure that was such a persuasive argument now that she thought about it, giving that Eda's marriage with Grunkle Stan had only lasted twenty-four hours (even if, legally, they didn't actually get divorced until fairly recently).

"Yeah, and she married Dad in the alternate universe," Luz pointed out, which was definitely a more persuasive argument that Amity was jealous she hadn't thought of.

Camila looked like she was, if not necessarily persuaded by that argument, at least in a position where she wanted to believe it. "Yeah. I forgot about that. Well, I'll say this for your father, Luz: he certainly had very good taste in women! Something he passed down to you, no doubt about it." She winked at Luz. Amity felt her heart warmed by this casual mention of Camila's approval of her relationship. She knew, quite well by now, that she approved, but each time she brought it up, Amity couldn't help but feel joy and awe.

The doorbell rang and everyone tensed. "We weren't expecting company, were we?" Camila said slowly.

"I'm sure it's nothing," Luz said, and cast a scrying glyph to see who was on the other side of the door. "Yeah, it's just Caroline. Oh…" She gave a nervous laugh. "I…kind of haven't talked to her since Swaard died."

Amity's mouth opened in shock. It was one thing for Luz to keep Caroline out of the loop about her father having been murdered and replaced by Swaard back when they couldn't be certain of her trustworthiness, but to have not offered her any comfort when Agent Johnston was known to be dead by the general public was something that, frankly, made Amity think less of her.

Luz opened the door and gave a nervous grin at Caroline, who was wearing a murderous expression of fury. "We need to talk now," she snarled.

"Mom? Amity?"

Amity crossed her arms. "Sorry, Luz, I'm with Caroline on this one." Camila nodded in agreement.

"Okay, then," Luz said with a sigh. "Time to face the music."

Luz had a very good reason for not having comforted Caroline in her time of mourning. Well, it had sounded like a good reason in her head at the time, at any rate. She just simply did not believe she was capable of doing it. True, Agent Johnston was indeed dead and had been for some time, but the man who had been shot outside the consulate was Swaard. How could Luz comfort Caroline over the death of the man who had murdered both of their fathers? Luz was honestly quite relieved that Swaard was dead, especially since she didn't have anything to do with killing him. It was one less thing to worry about and he deserved it.

Even though Luz knew she couldn't have been of much help to Caroline, though, it didn't excuse her from having to try. She'd screwed up, she'd been an utterly crappy friend, and the fact that she'd been able to justify it didn't matter. She had to face the consequences of her actions.

"I know everything, Luz," Caroline hissed. "I know you've been lying to me, hiding the truth about what happened to my dad. I figured it out, you know. I recorded the whole thing." Luz was impressed. She wouldn't have had the presence of mind to have done that in Caroline's shoes.

"I'm so sorry, Caroline," Luz babbled. "It was all my fault. I really should have done something, but things just got so chaotic, and Amity got brainwashed, and I was trying so hard to cure her, and I should have been a better friend. I really should have. I should have tried to get you in the clear, but I didn't, and that's on me."

"Sorry doesn't cut it, Luz," Caroline snarled. "I had to kidnap Swaard, I put a bullet in my own father's stomach, I had to bury Swaard and pretend it was Dad!"

Luz shook her head. "That wasn't Swaard, Caroline. And it wasn't your father either, any more than I buried mine. We buried sacks of meat. Wherever our fathers are, if they're anywhere, it's somewhere else."

Caroline turned around. "I can't do this."

Fear coursed through Luz's veins as she suddenly realized the stakes of this conversation. "You are literally the first human being who ever wanted to be my friend. Please, I'm begging you, give me another chance. Don't stop being my friend. I can make it up to you!"

Caroline turned back to face Luz and rubbed her forehead as if she had a headache. "Luz…you really don't understand what I'm going through here. My father is dead…"

"I do understand that," Luz pointed out. "I understand what it's like to lose a father. And both of our dads were killed by the same guy, so there's that too."

Caroline pointed a finger at Luz's face. "Your father was not impersonated for months on end by his killer, Luz! Your father's body wasn't used to strike blows against the country he served and loved with all his heart! You didn't have to deal with someone pretending to be your father, serving you breakfast, comforting you after you got stabbed, offering you love and affection that was ALL A FUCKING LIE!" She started breathing heavily. "God, Luz, a simple card would have been something! My life's been collapsing all around me, and I've been kept out of the loop, and I do understand why, but it hurts. God, how it hurts."

She suddenly wrapped her arms around Luz in a hug. "You're my best friend, Luz. I needed you. I still need you. Will you be there for me?"

"Yes," Luz swore. "I promise. And we're going to avenge him, I promise you. Havik and Odalia won't be a problem soon enough. Not if our plans work."

Caroline raised an eyebrow. "No offense, Luz, but your plans suck."

"I'm going to attribute that obviously mistaken statement to the stress of grief," Luz decided. "If you were truly in your right mind, you would see the truth of the planner extraordinaire that is Luz Noceda." Caroline couldn't help crack a smile at Luz's melodrama, precisely just as Luz had intended. Sometimes, a little bit of levity helped with the grief. Luz knew all about grief, after all, far more than she'd ever wanted. "In any case, this wasn't my plan – it was Eda's. I'm just going to help execute it."

"Can I help?" Caroline asked.

"Not really," Luz admitted. "It's nothing personal – this is being handled by, you know, the supposedly responsible adults. I'm just getting the ball rolling because I'm so famous. But you can totally watch me roll the ball, if you like!"

Caroline nodded. "Okay. Luz…I'm sorry I got so upset with you."

"You had every right," Luz assured her. "I'd be a lot more upset with me in your shoes. But your dad's death isn't going to be for nothing. We're going to finally, finally get justice for him, and for my dad too." She gave a vicious grin. "So, what do you say? Wanna come to Seattle and watch the first step of the plan? It's gonna be fun!"

"Well, it's either that or trying desperately to avoid thinking about the fact that Swaard and my mom had a romantic getaway to celebrate their anniversary," Caroline said, "so, yeah, let's go." Wow. Caroline sure wasn't kidding about being messed up.

So with that in mind, Luz went inside and told Camila that the two of them were going to Bellevue to visit Avery, and then they walked to the nearby park and ride, where they hopped on a bus heading towards Seattle. Because, of course, while Luz's plan had indeed been suggested by Eda, it was also kind of a secret from Camila, who would balk at the whole idea. Of course, Luz would be in for it later on, since Camila would find out – everyone was about to find out, after all. "Hey, good news, you're my press secretary now," Luz casually announced as the bus approached Seattle.

"You can just do that?" Caroline asked.

Luz shrugged. In all honesty, she probably couldn't, but she'd cross that bridge when she came to it. She'd love to have Caroline as her official press secretary, but, truth be told, it was probably advisable for her to have a press secretary who actually, you know, had experience dealing with the real press. For now, however, all Luz needed was to have a person who looked like she knew what she was doing and was good at shouting at people, and Caroline had definitely proven her prowess in both categories, especially the latter one as of recent. She'd much rather have Caroline shouting at someone who wasn't her, even though she'd cooled down.

After she explained the plan to Caroline, Caroline gave a very unimpressed look at Luz. "Are you sure this wasn't your plan?" she demanded. "It sounds like something you'd come up with." Luz scowled at her. Her status as a master strategist being warranted notwithstanding, she'd been telling the truth and she resented the implication that she had not. Although Luz had offered suggestions, the plan had been 90% Eda's. It was just that, at the end of the day, Eda was really just as reckless as Luz; it was one of the reasons why they got along so well.

"It'll work," Luz assured her. "It's a good plan! Just get me on air, Caroline. I'll handle the rest."

As soon as they reached the news studios of one of Seattle's foremost local news channels, Caroline and Luz charged in with confident expressions on both of their faces. Caroline looked very professional. Well, as professional as she could be dressed in casual clothing. Luz probably should have let her go back home to put on something fancier, but what was done, was done. "Good afternoon," Caroline said haughtily. "I'm Caroline Johnston, press secretary to Her Royal Highness, Luz Noceda, Princess of the Boiling Isles. Her Highness wants to be interviewed."

The receptionist stared at her. "You're just a kid."

Luz conjured up a spike of ice and slammed it into the reception's desk. She would, of course, never hurt an innocent, but the receptionist had no way of knowing that. "I'm sure you didn't mean to insult our trusty and well beloved press secretary," she said in the most aristocratic tone available to her. All she had to do was channel her inner Enmity. That wasn't too hard, surprisingly enough.

"Um, no, no, of course not," the receptionist babbled, now looking rather pale that he knew that this wasn't a prank and that royalty was actually in the lobby. Luz felt bad for him; he looked like he was barely out of college. "Um, I need to consult with my bosses."

Caroline leaned forward and bared her teeth. "Tell your bosses that if Her Highness isn't on the air in one hour, we're going to another studio."

"Marvelous thing, freedom of the press, isn't it?" Luz said in a faux British accent that she thought was like the ones she heard on Downton Abbey. By the way Caroline looked aghast, it probably wasn't anywhere close to it. "All these choices available to us," she went on in a normal accent. "All these advertisers who would be flocking to sell ads to the first station to interview a member of the Boiling Kingdom's royal family. Tick tock, buddy. Tick tock."

The receptionist nodded frantically. Luz decided to throw him a bone. "And, of course, your own contributions will be noted in my conversation with your superiors, should you impress me." The receptionist looked very pleased by that and quickly went into the elevator.

"Luz, please do not try to do that accent on air," Caroline begged her. "We will never be taken seriously ever again." Luz stuck out her tongue at Caroline, who just sighed. "By the way, um, have you seen Avery lately? Cause they've been acting kind of…weird."

"Weird-weird or Avery-weird?" Luz asked. It was a legitimate inquiry. Even by her standards, Avery could be quite odd sometimes.

"Weird-weird," Caroline clarified. "I ran into them at the mall the other day and they were shopping for dresses. And wearing makeup." Now that was quite odd. Avery tended to eschew anything that smacked of femininity such as dresses and makeup. It wasn't unprecedented for them to wear either, but it was very rare, and doing both at the same time was just unheard of.

But Luz wasn't willing to sound alarm bells just yet. Everyone's sense of style changed eventually, and Avery may have just decided they could wear dresses and makeup without having to really bring gender into the picture. Luz could see how it might be alarming, but until she'd had a chance to talk to them herself, she was going to reserve judgment. "Maybe they're going on another date with Steph and wanna look good?" she suggested.

"No, things between Avery and Steph are officially dead in the water," Caroline said, a hint of sadness in her voice. Luz knew she had shipped the two of them. "Still, maybe there's another girl they've got their eye on. Eh, look at us. We've turned into a pair of conspiracy theorists."

The elevator doors opened and a man dressed in a very expensive suit, presumably the manager of the station, approached them and offered a bow to Luz. Luz really felt awkward at having a grown man bow to her as if she was…well, royalty, but still. "Uh, a handshake will be fine," Luz suggested.

The man shook her hand firmly. "I'm Ed Walker. Thank you for choosing our station to have your first television interview. Can I ask why you chose us in particular instead of, for example, CNN?"

"Time is of the essence," she explained, "and, of course, supporting local news is a responsibility of us all." She was really nailing this formal princess stuff. Of course, the real reason was that no cable news network was headquartered in Seattle, and she couldn't exactly go off to Atlanta or New York without Camila getting wise to her plans. "The receptionist here was really nice. He should get, like, a bonus or something." Walker nodded. Luz wasn't sure whether or not he'd actually do it. It didn't matter; she'd done her part.

"Well, Your Highness, it will take some time to get things arranged – we may not have you on the air exactly within the hour."

"That's fine," Luz assured him. The hour deadline had just been a threat to get things moving; really, they had all afternoon. She gave him a warm smile. "Thank you so much for agreeing to have me on the air at such short notice. It means a lot to me – to us all in the Boiling Kingdom."

Luz allowed herself and Caroline to be escorted up to the studios, where she got makeup applied on her and they gave a brief overview of the type of questions she'd get. She was honestly very excited. Of course, there was a lot to be nervous about too, but Luz was, as always, optimistic. She was gonna be on TV! How many people her age could say that they'd been on TV? Not to mention the fact that if this plan worked, Odalia would finally die. That was so much more important than the fact that she had absolutely no clue what she was doing and that she would be in a ridiculously large amount of trouble once she got home.

"Any advice before I go on air?" Luz asked Caroline just before the show was about to start.

"Put a stop to this horrible plan right now and go home with me before it's too late?" Caroline suggested. Luz laughed. She loved Caroline's deadpan sense of humor. Anyone would think she really didn't actually have any faith in Luz's brilliant tactical abilities, and that would be just silly.

Caroline stepped into the back of the studio – she would not be joining Luz for the interview – and then Luz's interviewer, Diedre Sorenson, walked into the studio and took her customary seat. Luz wondered, just for a second, if she'd made a mistake, but she dismissed the idea. She'd survived McHale's questioning. This would be easy in comparison.

"Well, thank you for joining us in this very surprise interview, Luz Noceda, princess of the Demon Realm!" Sorenson said perkily.

Luz held up a finger. "Just of the Boiling Kingdom. The Demon Realm is the whole world the Boiling Kingdom is on. Pedantic, I know, but, hey, I don't wanna start a war, do I?" She gave a huge smile at Sorenson and leaned back in her chair. "It's really nice to be here."

"You've been very reclusive," Sorenson pointed out. "All previous efforts to interview you have been rejected."

Luz shrugged. "Well, I don't like the spotlight very much." She certainly did not like the spotlight that was literally on her; it felt like it was a billion degrees under it. She was glad she'd had the presence of mind to use an antiperspirant glyph beforehand. "Celebrity can be a bit of a double edged sword. I mean, my AO3 account got doxed and now people know about all the fanfics I've written."

"I see," Sorenson transparently lied.

Luz leaned forward and gave a confident smile. "It's been one heck of an adjustment for me, I'll tell you that much. A year and a half ago, I was just an ordinary middle school student. And then I found the Boiling Isles. I found magic. And I fell in love with the beautiful, amazing Amity Bright! Hi, Amity!" She waved at the camera, knowing that her girlfriend would be watching. "I never wanted all this…chaos. In all honesty, Miss Sorenson, I really would have preferred if the Demon Realm and Human Realms stayed separate forever."

"And yet, it was you who chose to reveal the Demon Realm's existence to humanity, thereby provoking the single greatest change in our perception of existence in perhaps all of human history."

Luz shook her head. "I wasn't the one who did that. Check your facts. That was Odalia Blight. I just told the truth about the Demon Realm." She sighed. "It really saddens me that so many people out there hate me. It's not surprising, but it's really sad. I don't bear anybody any ill will. We just want peace."

"A lot of people say that they want peace before they start a war," Sorenson pointed out.

Luz burst out laughing. "Miss Sorenson, the United States has nukes. Nukes. The Demon Realm doesn't. How could starting a war possibly benefit us?" Eda was probably going to be very displeased that Luz said that on air, but Luz would take her lumps. Doing something that put Eda in a worse position sold the idea that this was a purely rogue decision on Luz's part.

Sorenson blinked a couple of times, not having expected Luz to admit to that. "Are you admitting –"

Luz groaned. "I'm fifteen years old, lady! I'm not an expert on war!" This wasn't going the way Luz intended it to go. "I can't speak officially about this stuff. It's really not my place."

"Well, then let's change the subject," Sorenson said with an affable grin. "To more teenage matters. Like the recent homecoming dance at your school, where your girlfriend chose someone else as her date."

Luz had to restrain herself from yelling in triumph. Sorenson may have thought she was making drama by providing her viewers with some classic teenage angst, but she had no idea that she'd walked straight into Luz's trap. "Well, there's a good explanation for that," Luz said calmly. "My girlfriend was the victim of a vicious mental assault on her by her own mother, Odalia Blight. It regressed her to a point before she met me – a point where internalized homophobia made her think she was a sinner for her feelings towards other girls. Fortunately, Amity is in her right mind again, thanks to the sterling efforts of the Oracle Coven."

While Sorenson seemed to struggle to figure out how to deal with that, Luz pressed her advantage. "Yes, indeed, Amity and I are back to normal and doing girlfriendy things together. Things like dressing up. And traveling." Of course, this was a blatant lie, but that didn't matter. Luz was giving this interview for an audience of one, and this most definitely got her attention. No one else outside Luz's inner circle would understand the significance of those otherwise innocuous phrases.

"Ah. Have you gone anywhere interesting?" Sorenson asked politely. Luz wondered if Amity was passing out from sheer embarrassment at this conversation. She would have to apologize to her later.

Luz looked at her sternly. "There are some things that a lady just doesn't talk about, Miss Sorenson. Shame on you for asking for such details."

Sorenson looked thoroughly bewildered. "Uh, okay. Tell me, Princess Luz, what do you say to the people out there who believe Odalia Blight's side of the story?"

"Side of the story?" Luz asked incredulously. "You mean her lies. Odalia is a coward and a murderer. She murdered my grandparents, brainwashed my therapist into betraying me, and tried to destroy everything that makes Amity herself. Good people are suffering due to her disgusting lies, like my friend Sean, whose parents got suckered by Odalia and tried to force him to choose between them and me."

"Do you have any comment on the events leading up to the death of Vice President Thompson?" Sorenson asked.

"No," Luz said curtly. She could tell that commenting on that would be a very bad idea. "I'm going to have to refer all discussion of that incident to Prime Minister Clawthorne."

She looked straight into the camera. It was time. God, how she hoped this would work. "I speak now directly to the coward known as Odalia Blight. Or maybe I should call you Half-a-Witch Odalia. You're a disgusting, sorry weakling who's had to strike from the shadows in a pathetic attempt to try to gain the advantage over me. I'm more powerful than you are, and I'm going to prove it."

She rose from her chair, walked over to the camera, and pointed straight at it. "Odalia Blight, just as I once challenged your daughter, I challenge you to a witch's duel. In seventy-two hours, at the Velodrome in Marymoor Park in Redmond, we will fight to the death. If you're not there, the entire world will know that I'm the superior witch."

Luz turned to face Sorenson. "Thank you for your time, Miss Sorenson."

"Wait, we're not…" Luz made finger guns at the camera and then walked out of the room with Caroline at her heels. "…done."

On the way back to Luz's house, Caroline seemed to be lost for words, obviously in awe of Luz's pure tactical genius. She decided she would leave Luz to the fate of having to deal with Camila's anger. This, to Luz, seemed very harsh, but also likely a just punishment for the crappy way she'd behaved towards Caroline recently.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR GODDAMN MIND?!" Camila screamed at Luz the moment she walked into the house.

"I can explain!" Luz assured her.

Amity crossed her arms. "Really, Luz? Cause I'd sure like to know why you lied about us dressing up and traveling on live TV!"

Luz gave a nervous laugh. "Look, I had to provoke your mom and that sounded like an awesome way to do it. No one outside the Demon Realm understands what that euphemism means – it's totally innocuous!"

"That does not explain why you think for a second that it's anywhere close to a good idea to fight a witch's duel with Odalia!" Camila said, her voice thundering. "She will kill you, Luz, and that's if you're lucky! Why do you think you can win such a fight?"

Luz scowled. "First of all, wow, way to be supportive, mom. Second of all, there isn't actually going to be a fight. The whole thing is a trap. I'm not even gonna show. Odalia's gonna go to the Velodrome and there's gonna be a whole army of LEC agents waiting for her. Also, this was Eda's idea, so, if you want to blame anyone, blame her."

"Oh, there will be plenty of blame to go around, I assure you, mija!" Camila said, as she grabbed her cell phone to call Eda. "Even if this plan works, and that's a big if, you are in huge trouble for doing a TV interview without my permission!"

Luz was willing to accept that. She'd suffer a lot worse punishment than just getting grounded if it meant that she could finally kill Odalia and put an end to the horrid cat and mouse game that was ruining their lives. Like Amity said after she got her memories back, it was time to win.

Sean was not amused that Luz had mentioned the situation with his parents on live TV. A part of him had hoped that maybe they'd come to their senses when Luz called them out, but, no, of course they didn't do any such thing. He was dead to them and they were dead to him and it would stay that way, as much as he longed for it to be otherwise. Sean had long known his parents were bigots, but damn it, they were his parents. And they'd loved him until Odalia had torn them apart. As terrible people as they were, it hurt to have them stop loving him and having Luz poke at that sore didn't exactly make Sean happy, especially now that everyone knew about it.

But still, Luz had meant well, and at least if her plan went well (a huge if, given what he knew of Luz's skill at planning things), Odalia would be dead as a doornail sooner or later. And thank goodness for that. As bad as Sean's parents were, he was reasonably (though unfortunately not entirely) certain they wouldn't have resorted to brainwashing him just to keep him under their thumb. Sean wasn't a man who enjoyed violence, but he would gladly make an exception for Odalia. It boggled the mind how such a sadistic fiend could have children who were such great people. Ah, the mysteries of life. They didn't get any less mysterious when new universes were added to the mix.

In the meantime, Sean had way bigger fish to fry, because Avery'd been acting very strangely as of recently. Sean had caught them reading teen magazines of the kind favored by stereotypical teenage girls, he was pretty damn sure he'd heard them practicing giggling in the mirror, and they'd dyed their hair blonde. And every time Sean had tried to confront Avery over these things, they'd just changed the subject. Sean wasn't stupid, so when Avery ditched school the next day, Sean ditched too and tracked them down (thank goodness Luz taught him tracking glyphs).

And it would definitely appear that Sean had been right to be concerned the whole time. The spell led him to a nearby Starbucks, where Avery was having a mocha cappuccino. This would be alarming in of itself, given that Avery always took their coffee as black as night, but it paled in comparison to whom they were having coffee with: none other than their mother Catherine.

"Sean, sweetie!" Catherine called out and Sean cursed himself for just standing there gawking instead of hiding. "Come on over here and have a chat with us! I won't bite, I promise."

Well, there was no point in pretending he wasn't there, so he pulled up a chair and sat down next to Avery. Good God, Avery looked…well, there was no way of getting around it. They looked like a girl. Things were a lot worse than Sean had foreseen. Catherine must have gotten Odalia to brainwash Avery. "Hi, Sean!" Avery said in a much more high pitched and bubbly tone than they usually had. "What's up?"

It was hard to know how to respond to that. He would have to tread cautiously, lest he end up brainwashed too. "Uh, not much. Just…chilling. So…what's up with you and your mom?"

"Aw, Avery wanted to have some mother-daughter bonding time with me, isn't that sweet?" Catherine simpered. Sean was actually starting to suspect that Catherine thought Avery was doing all of this of their own free will. If so, that was just sad. "She's so much more reasonable than before."

Sean carefully studied Avery's expression at this almost certain deliberate provocation. They absolutely hated being misgendered in any way whatsoever. They'd suffered to have their identity as accepted as it was; it was not something they treated cavalierly. But despite this, Avery didn't seem to have any reaction beyond giving an adoring grin at Catherine. "You know what would make this even better?" he said. "If both of Avery's parents could be here for this touching moment! So how's about I call Steve and –"

"If you so much as breathe a word of this to my ex-husband, I'm going to rip all your fingernails out one by one," Catherine said in just a chipper tone as she said before. Sean gulped. Message received. Not that the threat would stop him from telling Steve, but at least he knew that it was definitely a bad idea to provoke Catherine. She may have seemed sweet on the outside, but on the inside, she was a woman who knowingly participated in a plan that would kill thousands.

"Ah, you're such a joker, mommy!" Avery said with a giggle. Sean would likely have nightmares about that giggle, he knew. "I'm so glad we can be friends again, now that I'm finally over that awful phase." Their hand twitched slightly. Were they fighting the programming? "I really want us all to get along, Sean, without any issues, okay?"

Sean nodded slowly. He could sense the threat hidden behind that sentence. "Okay. Uh, well, I really should get going…I kind of cut classes because I was worried about you."

Avery wiped away a tear from their eyes. "Oh, Sean, you're such a good friend. If Caroline ever breaks up with you, you give me a ring, okay?" they said with a flirtatious wink. Oh, dear God. Avery, who thought guys were absolutely disgusting, was flirting with him. This was the most wrong thing he'd ever seen in his entire life, including a set of corpses nailed to the walls of T-Mobile Park.

Sean quickly backed away from the table. He was worried that Catherine would attack him in some way, brainwash him like she had Avery brainwashed, but she just returned to conversation with her child. He pretty much ran all the way to the Parapsychological Library, quite a few blocks away, driven by fear and panic.

"You'd better have a very good reason for playing hooky, young man," Steve called out, and then went pale when he saw Sean's condition. Sean was too tired from all the running to say anything. Camila helped him to a chair and gave him some water.

"It's Avery," Sean said without preamble, and gave the two of them an account of his alarming conversation with Avery and Catherine.

Steve grabbed the phone immediately. "I'm calling the cops."

"And telling them what, she brainwashed your kid?" Camila said skeptically. "They'll never believe you."

"Catherine's forbidden from contacting Avery in any way under the terms of the divorce," Steve explained. "I may not be able to save Avery now, but at least I can keep them from seeing their mom."

"You should call Mr. Sinclair first," Camila suggested. "He carries a lot more weight in this town than you do." Sean knew that Camila's view of the police had been dim for a long time, ever since they'd slacked off on the investigation into her husband's murder.

Steve nodded. "Good idea. Sean, thanks for figuring this out. When you get back home, do not act as if anything is wrong." Sean nodded. "I want you to go to school and tell Gus as soon as possible. We need to tread carefully here. I also want you and Luz to go over strategies for the duel with Odalia in Avery's earshot – if Odalia brought in Avery as another spy, we'll use that to our advantage." Steve grabbed the phone and went into the back room.

Sean put his face in his hands. Every time he thought they'd all scored a victory, Odalia found a way to turn it into another defeat. It was so frustrating. "Hey, things are gonna get better," Camila promised him. "Odalia isn't going to be a problem for much longer."

How Sean hoped she was right.

There were many things about humanity that Amity still didn't understand. She didn't understand why they were still dependent upon oil when it was clear that it would run out eventually. She didn't understand the mysterious language known only as memes. She didn't understand how the Electoral College got abolished in a series of vastly improbable circumstances back in 2012 (though, to be fair, neither did anybody else).

But more than any of those things, Amity didn't understand why people couldn't just leave her alone. She'd been besieged by people asking her questions about having her memories taken away and her actions during that time. By people asking her questions about her mother and if they really thought Luz could win against her. By people asking her questions about airplanes and how they worked. (Okay, that last one had just been Gus trying his best to distract her. It had been well meant, but way too much.)

Fortunately, she found herself refuge in the most brilliant of inventions, the library, when things just got too much for her. The library in Luz's high school was smaller than the Hexside one, but it was definitely more interesting, filled with absolutely fascinating fiction and nonfiction books. Amity had recently taken to reading a book that compiled the collection of a comic strip called The Far Side, which was utterly, sidesplittingly funny. According to Luz, there were two kinds of people in the world, people who got The Far Side and those who didn't, and she was very proud that, like Luz, she fell in the former category.

"Finding everything all right there, Amity?" the librarian, an older man named Mr. Clarke asked her. Mr. Clarke had been very understanding when Amity showed up in the library, even during the few times when she'd had to go there for a few minutes while she was ostensibly taking a bathroom break during her classes to center herself. This time, though, she was there legitimately, since it was lunchtime.

"Yes, Mr. Clarke," Amity said, and then an idea occurred to her. "Would it be possible for me to check this book out?"

"Well, yes, of course," Mr. Clarke said, surprised she even asked. "Do they not let you check out books in the Demon Realm?"

Amity rolled her eyes. "Of course they do! It's just that you have to fight the book for dominance first and there are a lot of books that could kill you horribly if you lost the fight. It's generally safer not to bother unless there's a real need for it." For some reason, Mr. Clarke looked quite queasy to hear this. Yet another strange thing about humanity to add to the list.

"Never in all my life did I think I'd have students here from a whole other world," Mr. Clarke mused as he checked out the book for Amity, which just entailed scanning it with a fancy gizmo of some sort. Much easier than in the Demon Realm, that's for sure. "It just goes to show, you can never know what the future holds." Amity clenched her fists at the inadvertent reminder of oracle magic. "Oh, uh, I seem to have struck a nerve there."

"My mother uses oracle magic," Amity explained. "Her specialty is mind control magic, as you may have heard, but it can also be used to see the future."

Mr. Clarke nodded. "Well, she must not be very good at it if she couldn't foresee what a strong girl you've become, Amity." Amity had never thought about it that way. But it was true. Odalia had always been very bad at the prophetic side of oracle magic, no doubt because she simply did not possess a mind that was capable of comprehending the idea that outcomes that did not fit with her expectations could possibly exist. "I may not know much about your realm, but I know people like her, and they're always a bunch of cowards at the core."

"Thank you, sir," Amity said, genuinely grateful. "You know, I volunteer at the library back home. I read to kids. It's a worthy calling. Though I'm pretty sure I wanna be a pilot when I grow up."

Mr. Clarke laughed. "Well, yeah, it's kinda hard for a library to compete with that! Ah, it must be nice to be a pilot. The thrill of the sky. Pure freedom." Amity grinned. Pure freedom sounded very nice indeed to her.

Just then, a loud and continuous alarm reverberated throughout the room. It was the fire alarm, Amity recalled from a fire drill they'd conducted earlier in the school year. But there were no fire drills she'd heard about before. Why was it ringing now? "It's going to be fine, Amity," Mr. Clarke said, as if sensing her thoughts. "I'm sure it's just a false alarm. They happen from time to time. Probably some prankster pulling the alarm. All right, everyone!" he called out to all the students in the library. "You know the drill, let's hustle!"

Amity followed Mr. Clarke outside the school and everyone lined up in their assigned locations on the football field. Amity went with the students of her next class, Edric's language arts class. Though she'd never admit it to anyone, Edric was a damn good teacher. She had been worried that he would grade her unjustly, though she wasn't sure in which direction, but as it turned out, he asked Mr. MacKinnon to grade her assignments to make it fair. Unfortunately, Mr. MacKinnon, who was used to teaching college students, had more exacting standards than usual and Amity was probably getting worse grades than her peers did. But such was life.

Sure enough, the whole thing appeared to be a false alarm, because everyone soon returned to the school. It was a relief that the school wasn't on fire at the very least. Amity wouldn't have put it past Odalia to set Amity and everyone she loved on fire solely out of spite. Of course, they had a test and that was not so good, but it was nice to have ordinary problems like that to worry about instead of, for example, burning in hell.

The first sign that Amity got that something was wrong was the faint sound of popping in the distance. It was so faint that it was no doubt detectable only to witches, because the only people who reacted were her, Willow, Gus, and Edric. Luz didn't react at all, nor did Vee, who was wearing a male human form that day. "Did you hear that?" Amity asked Willow, but she was looking at Edric, to whom the comment was truly directed.

"I'm just gonna go check on something, kids," Edric said, keeping his voice light. "Willow, as the most responsible person here, you're in charge till I get back, okay?" Amity would have resented that comment if it hadn't been so true. He stepped out of the room, his face expressing great worry. Amity tried to keep her mind on her test. She was going to get an A on this one, she was absolutely certain.

With absolutely no warning whatsoever, all of the lights in the room went out. Some kids took out their phones, but none of them were able to work. More pops, these ones much louder, reverberated in the distance. This time, it was loud enough to be noticed by the humans in the room. "Oh my God," a kid whose name Amity didn't know said. "Is there a shooter?"

The door slammed open and Edric rushed in. "EVERYONE UNDER YOUR DESKS NOW!" He slammed the door closed and locked it. Everyone hurried to obey him, the benefits of being a teacher, Amity supposed. She tried to steady her breathing, but the truth was, she was utterly terrified. Before her bile sac had been disabled, she wouldn't have been afraid of a human shooter – all she'd have to do was conjure a bulletproof abomination shield around herself – but now without her glyphs, which Camila had strictly forbidden her from bringing to school, she was utterly defenseless.

"Are we gonna die?" Vee whispered, sounding like a little kid. Willow reached out her arms instinctively in xyr direction, but Edric had placed them on opposite ends of the classrooms to cut down on canoodling. (And, yes, he'd used that actual word. No matter how respectable Edric got, he was a dork at heart.)

"No one's dying under my watch," Edric pronounced and he said it with so much authority that Amity couldn't help but believe him. And then there was a tinkling of metal and the door to the classroom was unlocked. Amity watched in horror as two men armed with assault rifles ran into the room. They were both dressed in makeshift tactical armor. They were clearly civilians, not members of Havik's mercenary army.

"There she is," one of the gunmen said, pointing to Amity underneath the desk. "And the basilisk is here too. Remember our orders. Show no mercy."

The second gunman grabbed Amity and slammed her head against a desk. Amity braced for death, but it never arrived. Of course not. Odalia wanted her alive; a simple death by gunshot would be too merciful for Odalia's taste. The gunman held her head to the desk and forced her to look in the direction of Vee's desk.

Edric cast a spell, not even bothering to maintain his cover, but it must not have worked, because before Amity's very eyes, the other gunman grabbed Vee, slammed xyr against a wall and fired a stream of bullets into xyr head. Vee's head exploded like a grape and the basilisk's corpse slumped gracelessly against the wall, landing in a crumpled heap.

There was sheer, awful silence for a few seconds and then Willow let out a shriek of rage that literally deafened Amity for the better part of a minute. She didn't hear the plethora of swear words that were coming out of Willow's mouth. But she did see the huge, very spiky looking vine that Willow conjured. With a single sweeping motion, both of the gunmen were bisected. Willow looked disappointed that they didn't die more easily.

"They're after you, Amity," Edric said urgently once Amity could hear again. "You have to run for it! Leave us behind; we can handle ourselves! Get out of here! Call the cops!"

Amity didn't bother responding; she just took Edric's advice and ran for it, trying desperately not to think about the fact that there were armed gunmen running around Luz's school or the fact that Vee was dead. Amity wasn't very close to her basilisk classmate, but xe was definitely a friend. Or at least, xe had been. Now xe was nothing, and, once more, it was thanks to Odalia, either directly through orchestrating this attack or indirectly for telling the lies that had fueled it.

"Amity!" a voice called out just as she reached the front doors of the school. She hadn't seen a single person yet, but she turned around to see Avery. They were wearing a sundress with very pretty looking flowers on it. It was quite unlike their usual style, but Amity couldn't say she didn't like it. "There you are. I've been looking all over for you. What the hell is going on?"

"Shooters," Amity said, her voice breathless from running. "They killed Vee. Mother – Odalia sent them."

Avery bit their lip. "All right. I know where there's a phone that might have been shielded from the attack. Follow me." Amity had no reason to disbelieve Avery, so she followed them into a science classroom, and then she gasped. The classroom was empty of students, but it wasn't totally empty of adults. Mr. Charleston was slumped over his desk, dead, with a bullet hole in the back of his head and there were at least half a dozen gunmen pointing assault rifles at her.

Amity turned to ask Avery if they should run and then Avery was pointing a pistol at her with a trembling hand. "I'm so sorry, Amity," they said. "There was no other choice. It'll all work out in the end, you'll see."

The door opened and a woman who must have been Avery's mother Catherine walked in, whistling perkily. "Mittens!" Catherine said, her voice airy and happy, as if they were good friends. "It's great to finally meet you!" Amity spat in her face. "Such a willful child. Ah, but don't worry, we'll get you straightened out – quite literally!" Amity's blood ran cold. "Avery is such a good girl – she helped me perfect the spell that will change your sexuality. She's so clever! I spent months working on the darn thing, but now it works perfectly. She should know. I tested it on her first."

Avery looked down at the floor briefly, an ashamed look passing on their face. "I had to," they whispered.

"It's okay," Amity said. "It's not your fault." She turned to face Catherine. "If I promise not to resist, will you withdraw your forces and leave the rest of us in peace?"

"You have my word," Catherine vowed. Her word probably meant nothing, because it was Odalia who was calling the shots, but if Amity was going to be forcibly converted, she would at least try to get something out of it. She held out her arm, as if she was asking Amity to dance. "Now come on, sweetheart! This is going to be great! Oh, you may struggle a bit at first, but in the end, I think you'll be so much happier when you can find a proper boyfriend, just the way God intended it."

Amity reluctantly allowed Catherine to escort her out of the room, arm in arm. She could have resisted, but then she'd have gotten shot, and while being dead did seem preferable to being turned straight and no doubt brainwashed to serve Odalia again, Avery would likely be killed too. Yes, Avery had betrayed her, but they hadn't been acting of their own free will, so it didn't count.

Catherine led her to the gym. Amity thought about making a run for it and getting shot on several occasions, but she knew that if she did, they'd kill Luz. If Amity submitted, there was no way Odalia wouldn't leave Luz alive to revel in her despair at Amity suborned to Odalia's will. Oh, Titan, why had her life come to this? Why had she ever thought she could win against her mother?

The room was strewn with the corpses of some of Luz's peers, two dozen all in all. Amity didn't recognize any of them, but that didn't make a difference; they were still just as dead. They'd died exceptionally violently, with all of their hearts being removed from their chests, maybe even before they died. The hearts were placed equidistant from each other along a ring composing the outer layer of a glyph drawn so big it took up the bulk of the gymnasium floor. There were no more gunmen in this room, but there didn't need to be. Standing in the center of the room was Odalia, grinning triumphantly.

"Hello, Mittens," she said with a triumphant grin. "I'm so glad you were able to join me today for the moment of my ultimate triumph." Amity rolled her eyes. What did she have to lose? "I'm terribly sorry to have to inform you that I won't be able to make my duel with your lover. I'm sending a champion in my place instead: you." Amity went pale. So this was going to be her punishment. Odalia would make her kill Luz. On the bright side, Luz wouldn't be showing up either, so maybe it was an opportunity to be deprogrammed? The thought gave her hope.

"I should have known you were too cowardly to respond to her challenge," Amity taunted.

Odalia shrugged. "I'm just smart enough to not walk into an obvious trap. I am, after all, a genius." She walked over to Amity and stroked her face in a mockery of tenderness. "I'm going to save you, daughter mine. You will be thanking me when I am done with you. We will get you back on the path that the Titan ordained for you. It is written in the stars."

There was suddenly a knife in Odalia's hand. "Now get into the circle and seal your fate, or I will direct my soldiers to track down your soon to be ex-girlfriend and have their way with her." Amity knew she shouldn't have been surprised that Odalia somehow found an even deeper level of depravity to sink to, but she was. She stepped into the circle.

"Excellent!" Odalia chirped, and then she rammed the knife straight into Amity's chest with a maniacal laugh. Amity staggered backwards, pain echoing through every fiber of her being, but Catherine surged forward, grabbed her arms and prevented her from leaving the circle. Blood dripped onto the glyphs and they activated with a surge of light.

Amity didn't feel any different than before. She looked over at the very feminine looking Avery, even though they still weren't really a girl, and she still considered them to look just as pretty as they did before, even if they were still not her type. Was it possible the glyphs had failed?

"And now that you are cured of your disgusting lesbian tendencies, I will cure you of the curse of disobedience," Odalia said, and then a gunshot rang out and a bullet smashed into her chest. Amity turned to see that Avery had fired it, the gun in their hands steady.

"Avery, you stupid girl!" Catherine called out and Avery shot her in the knee and then the other one for good measure. Catherine let out an enormous shriek of pain and then fell to the ground, unconscious.

Amity blinked a couple of times. "But…they brainwashed you!"

"I was never brainwashed," Avery explained. "I was undercover the whole time." Amity shook her head in wonder. What an impressive performance! Amity never would have guessed for a single instant. "I had no idea they were going to attack here. I thought I was trying to sabotage the duel – that's why I gave Catherine a fake glyph. But I guess Odalia decided not to wait."

They pointed the gun at Odalia's head. "Surrender now, Odalia," they commanded.

"Are you mad?!" Amity said incredulously. "KILL HER!"

Before Avery could pull the trigger, the gym doors slammed open and a gunman dragged in a kicking and screaming Luz. Amity let out a squeak of fright. "Drop the gun, Miss Harrington," Odalia said in a sing song voice. "I don't believe you can shoot me before my loyal soldier can kill Noceda." Avery, seeing no other option, dropped the pistol. Odalia used a healing potion on herself and let out a maniacal laugh as Luz was brought forward that echoed through the room. She was so busy laughing that she didn't notice the doors open and close briefly, but Amity did, and hope flowed through her for some reason.

"I think it's only fitting that you witness your girlfriend's return to the state she was before, back when she rightly dumped you," Odalia purred at Luz and readied an oracle spell, no doubt the same one she had used to take away Amity's memories.

Amity braced herself, but Luz finally managed to get herself out of the mercenary's grasp and ran straight for Amity, taking the spell herself just as Odalia fired it. Luz fell to the floor looking stunned. "What the heck is happening right now?"

"Get down, Luz, I'll explain everything later," Amity said frantically.

"Wow, you're pretty," Luz mumbled and did as Amity said. Why could Amity not stop herself from blushing even in the middle of a combat situation?

Odalia smirked. "An added bonus. She may have protected you this time, but she can protect you no longer." She readied her spell again, and then Vee dropped down from the rafters in full basilisk form, the invisibility spell laid on xyr suddenly dissipating and chomped xyr teeth into Odalia's neck.

Odalia screamed in continuous agony as Vee fed on her magic and her blood simultaneously. The gunman tried to shoot Vee, but the bullets bounced off xyr hide. One of them ricocheted and struck him in the forehead, leaving him dead on the ground. Finally, Vee finished with Odalia. Odalia tried to cast a spell, but she had no more ability to use magic. She was powerless.

Amity was not. It was time for her to do what she'd dreamed about doing for months. It was time to deal with her mother, once and for all, her way. Yes, she could kill her, but death was too good for this horrible monster in witch flesh. Amity was not feeling merciful right now.

"Any last words before I give you what you deserve, 'mother?'" Amity asked tauntingly.

"I am a Blight, and Blights do not beg," Odalia said scornfully. Amity was slightly surprised. According to Luz, her subconscious had expected Odalia to beg for mercy after being defeated. Evidently not. "Do your worst." Odalia then tried to grab Vee, but Vee easily sidestepped her and forced her to her knees.

"You know, I thought you were dead, Vee," Amity remarked.

Vee shuddered. "I almost was! But Edric turned me invisible and made an illusion to make it look like that guy killed me."

"I'm glad you're all right." They shared a smile. "Bring her outside." The basilisk dragged Odalia outside the gym to the pavement outside. Avery and an awed looking Luz followed her. Amity reached down to her stab wound and her hand was covered with blood. She used the blood to cast an absolutely gigantic glyph of the Empathy Spell, even larger than the fake glyph Catherine had created. What she was about to do, some might consider monstrous. Amity considered it justice. It was a justice that had long been denied to her, and had been such a long time coming. And now it was finally here.

After finishing drawing the glyph, Amity made a healing glyph also with her own blood and healed herself. "When I was a child, I used to wonder what it would take to get through to you," she said in a deceptively casual tone. "To make you understand that the way you were treating me was wrong. I thought if I could just come up with the right words, the right spell…I could make you understand my pain, and you'd stop. But as I grew up, I realized that was just a flight of fancy. You'd never understand, because you were incapable of empathy, incapable of understanding that other people have feelings too."

Amity gave the woman who had given birth to her an utterly savage smile and Odalia shuddered minutely in fear. "Except as it turned out, I was right the first time. There was a way to show you. It's a revolutionary new bard spell called the Empathy Spell. I created it. And I created it for this moment. I am going to use it on you. You are going to experience every single second of the abuse you gave me, all fourteen years worth of it, through my eyes." She smirked. "I did modify it a little, though. Ordinarily, you'd experience it just as I did, with no part of your conscious mind existing, but this time, there'll be a part of you constantly aware of everything, completely powerless to do anything about it. And then in fourteen years, I am going to do it again. And then again and again, until you are dead or I am. That is the price of threatening my girlfriend."

Luz whistled behind her. "That is the single hottest thing I've ever seen in my entire life," she whispered at Avery, who inched away from her slightly. "I'm so jealous of her girlfriend right now."

"You know," Amity went on, "I did wonder why you were going after me."

"It's because she's an utter bitch!" Vee called out.

Amity nodded. There was no doubt about that. "True, but that wasn't what I meant, Vee. I meant that I wondered why she was targeting me specifically, instead of Edric and Emira. But now I know. It's because you're jealous of me." She stalked over to Odalia and forced her to look Amity in the eyes. "I have surpassed you, mother. In every way that matters. Morally, of course, but also magically and socially. I am more powerful now than you've ever been and will ever be. I have always been more powerful than you. And if there's one thing you've taught me, it's that those with power win against those without."

"You are no true Blight," Odalia snarled, as if that was supposed to be an insult instead of literally the nicest thing Odalia had ever said to her.

"Finally something we can agree on," Amity said with a smile and then stepped out of the circle. Vee held Odalia down in the circle as she struggled frantically to escape, to no avail.

"Get her," Vee said. "I won't be affected by the spell since I'm a basilisk." Amity wasn't entirely sure if xe was right about that, but she knew she could bring Vee out of the trance if something went wrong, so she just nodded.

Amity Bright stomped her foot on the glyph and it activated with a thrumming sound and a flash of purple light, coincidentally – or perhaps not – identical to that of her hair color. Odalia went completely immobile. It had worked. Amity could see a distant flicker of agony in her progenitrix's eyes. Odalia was suffering the consequences of her actions – literally.

Luz ran over to her, an utterly adoring look in her eyes. "You are a beautiful cotton candy haired goddess," she said earnestly, and Amity couldn't help but giggle. "I know you have a girlfriend already, but please, please would you date me?!"

Amity flicked her on the nose playfully. "Aw, Luz, that's so sweet. I'd love to date you! In fact, I already am!"

"You're my girlfriend?! Wow!" Luz shouted, flapping her arms. "This is the coolest dream ever!"

"It's not a dream," Avery told Luz. "You just lost some of your memories to a spell. But don't worry, we'll be able to reverse it easy, with your permission." It was true. The actual reversal process was quite easy; it was just Amity's own issues, none of which Luz possessed, that had made it so darn complicated. "I'm your friend Avery, by the way. Pronouns they/them – don't be fooled by the dress; it's just a disguise."

Luz stared at them. "I have friends? Real friends? Not imaginary or reptilian?" Amity's heart cracked a little at the incredulity in her tone. "And a girlfriend who can do magic? And it's not a dream? Yeah, right."

"Well, if it's a dream, what do you have to lose by having us try to get your memories back?" Amity pointed out.

"Good point," Luz conceded. "Okay, sign me up! Uh, this is kind of embarrassing, since you're supposedly my girlfriend and all, but I don't know your name."

"It's Amity," Amity said with a dazzling smile. "Amity Bright."

Luz returned the smile. "I like that name. It suits you."

And as Amity looked back at the defeated form of Odalia, now forever trapped in the nightmare that was Amity's childhood, she couldn't help but think that it suited her future as well.