Eduardo had always considered himself to be a damn good journalist. During his time at the New York Daily News, under the tutelage of Leo Axel, he'd worked on hard-hitting stories that brought various social problems to the attention of New Yorkers and wasn't afraid to go up against power players that were previously thought to be untouchable. A councilman had even been exposed for taking bribes in part thanks to his efforts (though he'd just assisted Leo in the investigation), forcing his resignation.

But at the Bonesborough Devourer he was, as Luz had aptly pointed out, nothing more than a collaborator for the Belos regime. Eduardo deeply regretted this, but he didn't see that he had another choice. Most of the jobs in the Boiling Isles required the use of magic, and Eda's store didn't earn enough to support the whole family on its own. He had only gotten the job at the newspaper due to Lilith's influence, but if he got fired for going against the regime, she wouldn't be able to help him further.

So he kept his head down and wrote propaganda articles that made him sick to write. He hoped that one day, Belos would fall and he'd be actually able to write real news, news that couldn't be censored by the whims of Belos and his megalomaniacal chamberlain.

Before Kikimora had shown up, the Devourer hadn't really been that bad of a newspaper. It was less of a Pravda type outlet and more of a bread and circuses kind of outlet. It hadn't covered the news that it should have been covering, instead focusing on more minor and apolitical issues. But when Kikimora took over, it became the voice of Belos and, thus, so did Eduardo. Kikimora was an absolutely terrible boss. She was demanding, capricious, and volatile. She liked to throw things at people, and wasn't shy about torturing employees who didn't meet her standards in front of everyone.

Fortunately, Kikimora was too scared of Lilith's wrath to torture Lilith's brother-in-law, but Eduardo had still gotten yelled at a lot by the diminutive chamberlain. None of the articles that he wrote seemed to be good enough for her, though he could tell that she was just criticizing him out of spite, not because she actually disliked the articles. Well, Eduardo was no stranger to bad bosses. Kikimora would eventually get reassigned, Eduardo knew. Her role as editor was something of a punishment for completing an assignment technically successful but with way too much collateral damage. Eventually, it would be over and hopefully Eduardo would work for someone sane.

His thought process was abruptly disrupted when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and was shocked to see that it was Willow, of all people. "Shouldn't you be in school?" he asked.

Willow gave a dry, echoey laugh. "Why? So I can spend time with all the friends I don't have anymore?"

Eduardo had been shocked to learn that Willow had secretly been in a relationship with Luz's bully, and that she could have stopped that bullying. Yet he didn't hate her for that like Gus did. Maybe Luz hated her too. Eduardo had no idea. Luz had been so difficult to pin down emotionally lately. At any rate, Eduardo remembered being a teenager all too well. It was a very easy time in one's life to make mistakes. He knew that Willow didn't mean to hurt Luz. He also remembered all the help that Willow had given Luz over the years. Her friendship meant a great deal to his daughter, and that mattered to Eduardo. He owed it to Luz, at the very least, to try to get them to reconcile.

"Look, I know that you and Luz are not on good terms," Eduardo began.

"That's not Luz," Willow said. Eduardo blinked. What? "I came here to warn you. That thing isn't your daughter! She's a changeling. I've run tests, and she's failed every single last one."

Eduardo did not like the fact that he actually considered Willow's claim seriously. He didn't like what it said about him as a father. Before he came to the Boiling Isles, he would have rejected any such claims out of hand. But he'd learned to not assume that things weren't real since then. "If I remember the stories of changelings on Earth," he said, being careful to keep his voice calm so that Willow wouldn't think he was mocking her, "they tended to replace babies."

Willow shrugged. "I only know what I've seen. And I know that she's a danger to everyone around her. No one believes me, but I owe it to the real Luz to try to expose her anyway."

The idea kept on floating around Eduardo's head, and he just hated the fact that it almost made sense. Luz had been acting phenomenally strangely recently, and her meltdown on Bring Your Child to Work Day was just the tip of the iceberg. She wasn't reacting to things she should have been reacting to. She made occasional reference to events that Eduardo knew had never happened, and then hurriedly backtracked when she realized what she had done. There were dozens more extremely subtle changes that Eduardo had noticed. They weren't changes that most people would have noticed. But as Luz's father, he knew more about her than practically anyone.

"If you're right, Willow, and I'm not saying you are, then what can be done?" he asked her.

"Kill her," Willow said immediately, and Eduardo couldn't help but flinch. "It sounds drastic, but it has to be done."

Eduardo closed his eyes for a few seconds. "I don't see how that would bring back the real Luz."

"Luz is dead," Willow said bluntly, and Eduardo let out a gasp. "I'm sorry, but she is. The changeling wouldn't have let her live. The only thing you can do now is avenge her death."

The whole thing didn't make any sense. Well, very little did, especially now that Eduardo was in the Demon Realm, but this still wasn't adding up. Why would a changeling choose Luz, of all people, to impersonate? What had made her a target?

A wave of guilt crashed through Eduardo for even giving Willow's theory any consideration. Luz was just being a teenager. Eduardo knew that being a teenager sucked better than most; his puberty had been a nightmare. Sure, she'd been acting strangely, but who didn't at that age? She'd had so many disruptions to her life.

Something was going on. Näkijä had confirmed that much. But Eduardo did not believe that Näkijä was the sort of individual to cover up a changeling's actions. Whatever was happening, it was far more complicated than a mere impersonation by a changeling. Eduardo had no idea what might be happening, but now that he took that into consideration, he was pretty sure it wasn't what Willow was fearing.

"Willow, I know how stressful things have been for you recently," Eduardo said, and Willow's face fell. He couldn't help but pity her. Having everyone think she was crazy must have been an absolutely terrible feeling. "You've lost your friends, the love of your life is getting married off to a complete stranger, and you think your best friend has been replaced by an imposter. But I don't agree with this theory of yours." He leaned forward. "I want to help you, Willow. How about we all talk to your dads together, and we –"

Willow spat in his face. Eduardo practically short-circuited. What the hell had happened to the mild mannered, gentle girl who had been friends with Luz since they were in the baby class? "Screw you!" she said, and Eduardo couldn't help but gasp. "I thought you'd be able to help me since you're Luz's father. But I guess the changeling was right about you. You're too busy kissing Kikimora's ass to help out your family!"

"Willow, that's enough," Eduardo said in the firmest voice he had available to him. Years of wrangling King (and, okay, Eda too) had allowed him to fine-tune his authoritative voice to the point where King instinctively obeyed whenever he trotted it out. "I will not allow you to harm my daughter. I will be talking to your fathers about this, and if you lay a hand on my lucecita, you will not like the consequences."

Willow's eyes twitched a couple of times. "Fine!" she shouted. "You want to be that way, then fine! See how you like it when she has you replaced too! Don't say I didn't warn you." She stormed out of the offices.

After getting off from work, Eduardo stopped by the Park residence to talk to Gilbert and Sullivan (and, yes, those were their actual names, bizarrely enough) about Willow's alarming behavior, only to find that Boscha answered the door when he knocked on it.

"Boscha," Eduardo said, his voice cold as the arctic. Her horrible home life aside, he hadn't come anywhere close to forgiving her for bullying Luz, especially since she hadn't expressed the slightest amount of remorse. "I'm here to talk to the Parks. Stand aside."

"I can't let you do that," Boscha said, regret coloring her voice. God, what was with everyone today? "I won't let her get carted off to the Conformatorium!"

Eduardo was shocked that she'd even suggest such a thing. True, some parents had their children committed there, but Eduardo knew for a fact that the Park fathers were not those kind of parents. "That's not going to happen. I just want to make sure that her fathers are aware of her mental state, that's all."

Boscha cast a spell circle and an abomination formed in the hallway. It roared at Eduardo, who barely managed to avoid flinching. "Get out! Willow doesn't need their help and she sure as giraffe doesn't need yours!"

This was not a battle that Eduardo needed to fight, he decided. Willow and Boscha couldn't keep Eduardo away from Willow's fathers forever. He'd find some other way to contact them. He backed away from the door. "Boscha, please tell Willow that I'm not her enemy. Luz is not her enemy. We care about her." And with that, he walked away.

No one said that being a father would be easy, but being a father to Luz had been especially difficult. Not because of Luz being a bad daughter! Heavens, no! Luz was an exceptional individual and Eduardo loved her with all his heart. But her unique half-human status meant that a lot of his parenting had to be done with guesswork. Sometimes, Luz acted like a human; other times, a witch. She was both and she was neither. It had painted a target on her back, but it had also made her the incredible person she was today.

Eduardo was a damn good journalist, but that wasn't the thing he was most proud of. He was most proud of the fact that he was a damn good father. He had supported his daughter through thick and thin, and he wouldn't let a crisis of faith get in the way of that. Luz wasn't a changeling. She was who she said she was. She was his lucecita.

And he knew she always would be.

Luz was particularly bewildered when Principal Bump summoned her to his office. She was pretty sure that she hadn't actually done anything wrong recently. Well, no breaking of school rules recently, at any rate. The actual morality of her actions still remained up in the air, but she'd been keeping her head down and trying to be a model student.

As it turned out, that was the very reason why she had been summoned to the office in the first place. As Eda's daughter, she had a reputation for being a troublemaker, and the recent lack of trouble had gotten Bump paranoid that she was saving up for something particularly big.

"I don't know what to tell you, sir," Luz said honestly. "I'm just trying to do well in school and act responsibly."

Bump rolled his eyes and then looked at her closely. "You actually expect me to believe that, don't you? Titan, you really do." He sighed. "Luz, this is a very sensitive time. We have an inspector from the Emperor's Coven coming here soon, and –"

"OH MY GOD, THE INSPECTOR!" Luz shouted, not caring that she was raising her voice to Bump in his own office. "You have to not let her in! She's a basilisk! She's going to try to suck everyone's magic!"

Bump looked disappointed. "Really, Luz? That's the best you can do? You're going to have to try much harder than that if you want to live up to your mother's legacy. Basilisks are extinct. Everyone knows that. The giraffes killed them all, if you'll recall from your history lessons. They did not like threats to their power."

Luz couldn't blame Bump for not believing her. Heck, if she was in his shoes, she wouldn't have believed her either. But it didn't matter. Luz would just have to find some other way to stop the basilisk. Last time, she'd barely succeeded, and only accomplished it due to the intervention of her friends on the detention track. Lives were at stake, and Luz needed to do something to stop the basilisk attack.

"Given your…propensity for troublemaking," Bump went on. "I have decided that it is best that you stay away from Hexside until the inspection is over."

Luz felt indignant at that. She was no stranger to getting in trouble in school, even for things she hadn't done, but she'd never gotten into trouble for something that she might do. "That is not fair. You can't punish me just because you think I might disrupt the inspection!"

"It's not a punishment," Bump asserted. "Your absences will be excused and you will be exempt from any homework assigned during your absence. Your teachers will be told that you are ill. This will not go into your permanent record and no more will be said about this matter when it is concluded." He tried to give her a reassuring smile, only for it to fall flat due to lack of practice. "You should enjoy this time off. Spend time with family. Play wiffleball or whatever you kids do these days."

Luz could tell that further arguing would be pointless. Not to mention that having a few days off would allow her more time to stop the basilisk attack without having to worry about dodging school. "Well, I'd have to be an idiot to say no to no homework," she admitted. "Principal Bump…just be careful, okay? I don't want anything bad to happen to you." She respected Bump immensely, even if she didn't like him very much.

Bump narrowed his eyes. "Threats will not help you, Miss Noceda. Now away with you!"

Ugh. Trust Bump to come up with the absolute worst interpretation of her genuine concern-fueled warning. Well, Luz didn't need him! She was a warrior of peace, a juggernaut of awesomeness! She would do whatever needed to be done to save the day.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much time. The basilisk breakout, if she remembered the previous timeline properly, would occur in less than twenty-four hours. It would be a few days before Hexside would be attacked; the other schools would be attacked first. And though the government had successfully hushed it up at the time, Luz eventually found out that over a dozen people had died in those attacks. The greater basilisk – Number One – was ruthless and cruel. Yes, she had been tortured, but she chose to target innocent children.

But how to stop the breakout? As long as the basilisks were being tortured, they'd take advantage of the opportunity to escape. Luz wasn't sure what had happened to the other basilisks, save Vee, who had presumably shapeshifted into witches and hid amongst the populace, even after Belos' defeat. But she knew that if she were in their shoes, she'd do anything to be free.

Therefore, she had to free them herself in a way that she could use to persuade them that going for vengeance was a bad idea. Perhaps she could persuade the other basilisks to turn against Number One. But Luz was just one person, warrior of peace or not. She had raided the Conformatorium once, but they'd beefed up security since she and Amity had stormed the place, doubtlessly, and she wasn't confident that she could engineer their escape on her own.

Perhaps the rebellion could help her. Edmond could get a message to them. But that didn't seem like a good idea. They may decide that the best way to thwart Belos' plans for the basilisks was to assassinate them, and that wouldn't do. Number One may have deserved it, but the other basilisks did not. She couldn't take the risk that she'd get innocent people killed. Not to mention, they may not be able to act in time anyway.

So if the rebellion couldn't help her then who was left? Her friends and Amity? But how could Luz justify putting them at risk? And even if they succeeded in breaking out the basilisks, what then? She didn't have the resources necessary to hide them.

The answer, unfortunately, was staring her in the face. Eda was the only person with the connections necessary to get the basilisks into hiding, the power to break into the Conformatorium and free them in the first place, and the openminded nature to believe Luz when she told her about her "vision" of the upcoming attack. She'd been avoiding the woman who was her mother in two realms in two different ways long enough, and it was time to face her head on.

But when she returned to the Owl House, expecting to find Eda, she found Eduardo instead, sitting at a desk and writing a letter. A brief glance at it showed that he was writing to the Park parents. Huh. Why would he be writing to them?

"Hi, dad," Luz said gloomily. "Bump told me I have to stay home until the inspection is over."

Eduardo stifled a laugh. "I guess he's learned a thing or two since Eda's day, hasn't he? Did Eda tell you the story of how she tricked the inspector into thinking that it was actually Glandus he was inspecting?" Luz shook her head. "Oh, you've got to get her to tell you that one. It's absolutely hilarious."

"I need your help," Luz blurted out. Oh, great. Her stupid brain was going to cause her to do something stupid, wasn't it?

"Well, of course, Luz," Eduardo said instantly. "Whatever I can do to help you, I'll do. Tell me what's happening, and I'll see what I can do."

Luz tried to figure out the best way to put it. "I've had a vision. Remember when Camila told you that the Emperor's Coven was experimenting on basilisks?" It still felt exceedingly unnatural referring to her mami by her first name. Eduardo nodded. "Well, they're not all sweet like Vee. They're all going to escape tomorrow, and then one of them is going to start attacking schools and draining them of their magic. She's going to impersonate the inspector and attack Hexside."

Eduardo just stared at her. "You had a vision of this," he said flatly. Oh, God, he didn't believe her! What was Luz going to do now? "This is a very detailed vision for someone of your skill. You've had a lot of these kinds of visions recently, haven't you?"

"I guess I've just got a knack for the art," Luz said with a nervous laugh.

Eduardo clutched his head as if he had a headache. "I can't do this anymore," he announced. "I can't keep pretending like this, Luz! I know that something is wrong with you! Do you understand me? I know! You haven't been acting like yourself at all. I've tried to remain quiet because I hoped you'd confide in me. But I was clearly wrong. I don't believe Willow is right about you being a changeling, but something is wrong, and you need to tell me what it is."

Luz took several steps backwards. She felt dizzy. She was trying to breathe, but it was so hard. It felt like each breath was costing her something. Her hands were shaking. She couldn't think! God, she couldn't think. "I…I…"

"Está bien," Eduardo said, sitting next to her on the couch and stroking her hair. Wait, the couch? When had she sat down on a couch? "Todo va a estar bien, lucecita. I'm so sorry you're feeling so upset."

Luz was crying. Damn it, she was crying! Why did she not have any control over her body right now, just when she needed it the most? "I can't tell you, papi. I can't!"

"Why?" Eduardo asked, sounding bewildered. "I don't understand. Have I given you a reason to distrust me?"

"NO!" Luz shouted. "I just don't want you to hate me. Papi, you're the best father who ever lived, and that's why I can't tell you. You'd be so disappointed in me. I can't bear to have you disappointed in me."

Eduardo looked stunned. "Luz, I swear to God, that will not happen. There is nothing you can say or do that will make me hate you, mi lucecita."

Luz laughed, a horrible, alarming high-pitched giggle. "Oh, you're right there! You can't hate your lucecita. But I'm not your lucecita, and as much as I want to be – as much as I burn to be – I never will be." She stood up. "You want to help me? Then stay out of it."

Eduardo grabbed her arm and pushed her back onto the couch. "I can't do that, Luz. I am your father, and whatever is going on is clearly hurting you. I have a responsibility to keep you safe, and right now, that means that I have to keep pressing you on this matter."

Oh, God, he was going to keep pushing, wasn't he? He'd keep pressing her, and Luz didn't think she'd be able to withstand an extended interrogation from him. She'd already practically confirmed that she wasn't his daughter, even if he didn't realize that was what she meant. It was all going to fall apart for her. He was going to learn the truth, and he was going to hate her, and Luz would break. She'd fracture, and she didn't know if she'd ever be able to pick up the pieces.

Well, if that was going to happen either way, she might as well do some good before it all fell apart. "I'll make you a deal," she offered. "Help me with the basilisk problem, and when we're done, I'll tell you my secret."

"Swear it," Eduardo ordered her. "Make me an Everlasting Oath."

Luz took a deep breath, and then grabbed a sheet of paper from the desk and made the glyph to make an Everlasting Oath. "I swear that if you help me with the basilisk problem, I'll tell you my secret when we're done." She tapped the glyph and the magic sealed the promise into her. It was now set in stone. She had to tell Eduardo. She couldn't not do it anymore.

Eduardo looked relieved. "Good. I know this seems bad now, Luz, but I promise you, it'll all turn out well in the end. I will prove to you that I can be trusted. Remember when you told me you're bi?" Luz, of course, did not remember that. Eduardo's eyes widened as he realized this. "Uh, you were so worried. You'd heard all sorts of horror stories about homophobia in the Human Realm, and you were terrified I'd turn out to be homophobic too."

"But you weren't," Luz surmised.

"Certainly not," Eduardo said. "I told you I had your back no matter what. I told you how proud I was of you, that you had the courage to be open about your identity, that you were able to trust me enough to confide your deepest secret in me, despite your many fears."

He kissed Luz on the forehead. "Luz, I swear, whatever you have to tell me, I will understand."

Luz sighed. "If only you were right."

Eduardo wondered if he had been making a mistake when he made Luz swear an Everlasting Oath to tell her secret. After all, that was a big step. One didn't just swear those things cavalierly. Eduardo had never asked Luz for one before, and he had always looked down on parents who did. But this was an emergency, in his opinion. The idea that whatever Luz's secret was would make Eduardo hate her when revealed was eating her up from the inside. He was determined to prove that her worries were unfounded.

He just did not have the slightest clue what it might be or what it had to do with the strange, exceedingly accurate visions that she'd been experiencing lately. Could Luz be hooked on some drug? Was that the issue? Eduardo knew that there were some drugs on the Isles that made the ones on Earth looked tame. Perhaps Luz had tried a drug to boost her oracle powers, only for it to come at the cost of personality changes and lapses in memories? That would explain a lot, now that he thought about it, including why she was so ashamed to admit it to Eduardo. Maybe Avery had broken up with her because they had learned about the addiction and didn't want anything to do with her anymore? No, that didn't sound right.

Of course, Luz hadn't been showing any of the signs of being an addict. Eda mentioned having experimented in that kind of thing a lot in her youth. Surely she would have noticed? But now that Eduardo thought about it, Luz had been avoiding Eda a bit lately.

Well, it didn't matter. Eduardo wouldn't give up on his daughter. If she was an addict, as he feared, then he would ensure that she got all the love and support she needed to go clean. And if something else was going on, then he'd still support her. No matter what it was, Eduardo could not stop loving Luz, and there was no force in the Boiling Isles or on Earth that could persuade him to do so. And he'd prove it once she revealed her secret to him.

In the meantime, they had some basilisks to rescue, which was definitely a sentence Eduardo hadn't thought he'd ever say. Wearing a pair of sunglasses to prevent himself from getting killed stone if he looked into the basilisks' eyes (if he remembered his Harry Potter correctly, the eye contact had to be direct to be fatal, though who even knew if that was remotely accurate), he and Luz went to the central Bonesborough square. It was still being repaired after the "giraffe incursion" on the night of Luz and Amity's abortive first date. (Eduardo had no clue what had happened then, but whatever did happen, giraffes were obviously not responsible.)

"We have to start off by doing something so diabolical," Luz said, sounding as if she was quoting someone, "so criminally insane that they'll have to send us to the Conformatorium."

"Uh, Luz, I'm not really keen on criminally insane," Eduardo said, and then his daughter stepped on the nearby grass, which had a do not step on the grass sign posted prominently nearby. Oh, man. The Emperor's Guards took landscaping seriously. Everyone knew that. Luz was really putting herself at risk. Eduardo took a deep breath and joined Luz on the grass.

Not five minutes had passed before they were spotted by the guards and tossed into a paddy wagon. Luz looked smug. "Just as planned," she stated. "Trust me, papi, I've got this under control."

The carriage was filled with mean looking prisoners, individuals that could easily have become stars of their own blockbuster horror film on Earth just based on their looks alone. It was the last place in the entire multiverse that Eduardo would have ever wanted Luz to be. And yet she looked absolutely elated! Her face was filled with more joy than he'd seen on it in ages. Definitely more than she'd shown since she'd broken up with Avery.

"What's got you looking so cheerful?" Eduardo wondered.

Luz gave him a huge grin. "Because I'm doing something insanely reckless with you! Do you have any idea how long I've wanted to run one of these operations with you?" Eduardo grinned back. It was sweet that Luz wanted him to be involved in her interests, even if said interest was troublemaking. "No, of course you don't," she said, her voice melancholy. "Well, you will soon enough." Huh. What was he supposed to make of that statement?

Once the wagon got to the Conformatorium, the prisoners were processed by members of the Emperor's Guard. With Wrath dead, the Guards seemed to be treating their prisoners with even more roughness and contempt than usual, as if they were trying to make up for the weakness that his death had opened up. Luz and Eduardo were both carted off into a cell and tossed inside without the guards even bothering to figure out what their names were.

Eduardo wondered who the new warden was. Well, whoever it was, at least they wouldn't be homicidally jealous of Eduardo. Seriously, Wrath had been one creepy son of a bitch, and the only thing that he regretted about his death was the effect it was having on Camila. It was the first time Camila had ever killed anything sentient, and it was really doing a number on her. Eduardo, unfortunately, had been forced to kill sentients in self-defense before, and sometimes, he still had nightmares about it. That was a good thing, he figured. He didn't want to be the kind of person who could just get over killing someone.

"You'll never get away with this!" Luz shouted at the guards, seemingly just for the sake of it, waving her fist melodramatically for emphasis. "When my aunt finds out you've locked me up, you'll all be in a lot of trouble." Eduardo winced. He really hoped Lilith wouldn't find out. It would just be embarrassing.

"Luz, do you think Lilith knows about the basilisk experimentation?" Eduardo wondered once the guards, who hadn't looked phased at all under their masks, were gone.

Luz looked like she hadn't considered the question before. "God, I hope not." Interesting that Luz didn't invoke the Titan anymore. "I don't think so? But I can't be certain."

"So did you have a plan beyond getting captured?" Eduardo asked. It was a legitimate enough question. Luz's planning skills could be…well, subpar was the best word for it sometimes. Luz just gave him a disappointed expression, and then her mouth disappeared. WHOA! It did what?!

Before Eduardo's very eyes, Luz just seemed to melt, and it took several seconds of freaking out in fear and shock to realize that she was morphing. Her mass seemed to get smaller and smaller until she was a bug. She slipped through the bars and then melted back into her usual self. Eduardo had to fight the urge to hurl. It was very strong.

"Luz…could you please never do that in my sight again?" Eduardo begged her. "It's just wrong! And I say that as a man who's had to get used to more unnatural things than I can shake a stick at!"

Luz just shrugged and lifted the lever that would open the cells. She smirked. "No weak nerd arms here," she said. Was that a reference to something? Well, if it was important, Eduardo would figure out what it was later. "Let's get moving. Not a moment to waste."

As if on cue, two guards stepped into the chamber. "These are not the prisoners you're looking for," Luz said with a wave of her hand. Eduardo couldn't help but crack a smile. His daughter may have been dealing with a terrible secret, but she hadn't lost any of her nerdiness in the process.

"The penalty for escape," the guard said, his voice booming, "is now death. Prepare to meet the Titan!"

"I think it only fair to warn you that I'm going to personally complain about your actions to him if I meet him," Eduardo said, and readied himself to run. The guard made a spell circle and then with a clanging sound, the other guard hit him on the back of the head with his nightstick, knocking the hostile guard unconscious. Then the second guard removed his mask to reveal that it was Steve, Lilith's right hand man (and not Steve Harrington) underneath.

"Eduardo, Luz, what are you doing here?" Steve said, sounding extremely concerned. "Please don't tell me that you got sent here deliberately."

Luz shrugged. "What can I say? I've got my mother's troublemaking nature. Now how's about you take us to the place where you're keeping the basilisks…before things get ugly?"

Steve blinked. "You're here to free them? Right on! It's utterly unfair that they're being treated in such a manner. I know they're not witches, not even proper demons, but they're still people, and they shouldn't be treated this way!"

Luz looked shocked that Steve was actually willing to help them. Eduardo was slightly surprised himself, but not too much. Lilith's attaché always had a soft side to him. He was nice to children – not surprising given that he was a father himself – and get him around a cute animal (or King) and he would be just putty in their hands. If any member of the guards was willing to help them, it would be Steve.

"I'll take you down there," Steve offered. "No one will ask any questions if you're with me. But I got to warn you, they're not a happy bunch. Especially Number One. She's really angry. And ever since Tasha Hart became the new warden, she's had a lot of reasons to be."

Eduardo could only imagine. It certainly was no surprise that Hart, one of the leading experts in healing magic (and its ability to rend) had survived the fall off the cliff at the end of her fight at the Knee. Nor was it a surprise that she'd somehow wormed her way into supervising the basilisk torture. Wrath may have been a nasty piece of work, but at least he wasn't an outright sadist like Hart was. The basilisks were probably much worse off than before.

Steve led them deep into the bowels of the Conformatorium. Screams echoed throughout the halls, but most of the cells were empty. They'd clearly been filled at some point, though, as the bloodstains and, in some cases, skeletons in the cells showed. Eduardo had to shield Luz with his body from seeing some of the worst sights. Luz may have seen more than girls her age should, but there are some things that anyone, at any age, should not be seeing.

"I can't believe that you let all this happen," Eduardo said to Steve. "I know you. I've met your children. You're not a bad man at the core. And yet you just stood idly by and watched."

Steve stopped in his tracks. "You're just as responsible for this as I am!" he shouted at Eduardo. "You've done your part to prop up Belos with your newspaper articles too! Besides, I haven't stood idly by. I was the one who helped Number Five escape."

"Her name is Vee," Luz informed him. "She's in the Human Realm, safe."

Steve gave a wide smile. "That's great news! Look, I'm trying to help. This, right now? It's me helping. So maybe a little less complaining, and maybe a little more thanks would be in order, okay?"

"Okay," Eduardo conceded. Perhaps he'd been too harsh on Steve. The weight of the oppression being foisted upon the innocent people of the Boiling Isles – oppression that, yes, he'd helped perpetuate, even if in a comparatively small manner – had just made him want to lash out and blame someone, and Steve was a convenient target. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Steve said. "So what's the plan?"

"Oh, Luz is the one with the plans," Eduardo said, his voice impressively guileless. By the looks of it, Luz was not falling for it one bit. "I'm just along for the ride. Because, you know, it's a fun father daughter bonding activity."

Steve burst out laughing. "I can see why you and the Owl Lady are a good fit!" He rounded a corner, and then they were at their destination.

It wasn't much of a surprise that the basilisk experimentation was being kept secret. Yes, there was probably still a lot of fear and hate for the basilisks despite them having supposedly been extinct. But it was probably not all that easy to sell the idea of a benevolent regime when you were keeping sentient beings in cages and torturing them. Eduardo had seen a lot of terrifying things in the Boiling Isles: gorenadoes, zombies, the REALMS FROM THE BEYOND THE SHADOWS, and Hooty. But none of those things could compare to the horror that Eduardo felt in seeing the simple banality of evil involved in the basilisk project. They were just objects to the Belos regime.

And it was time that Eduardo did something about it. Fortunately, his daughter was not the only one who could scheme. Eduardo may not have been a natural schemer like his wife, but he'd acquired some skill at the art, and now he had a perfect idea for getting this project shut down.

But first, they were going to have to deal with the basilisks, which would be easier said than done. They probably weren't in the mood for negotiation. Eduardo was just going to have to hope they'd be able to talk them down. Hopefully being in the presence of the guard who saved Vee would help their case.

"MURDERER!" a basilisk whose cage was labeled with the Roman numeral for seven shouted out at Steve. Okay, maybe having Steve around wouldn't help their case any.

"I told you, I just faked Number Five's death!" Steve called out, sounding as if he'd had this conversation several times already.

"It's true," Eduardo called out. "Number Five – Vee – is in the Human Realm now. She's safe. My daughter has spoken to her."

He nodded at Luz, who thankfully seemed to get where he was going with that. "I'm Luz Noceda. Daughter of Eda the Owl Lady, the most wanted witch on the Boiling Isles." The basilisks seemed intrigued by that. Clearly, word of Eduardo's wife had reached them even there. "We are going to have a working portal to the Human Realm ready in weeks. We're going to bust you out now, and when we do, you can go to the Human Realm, and Belos won't be able to harm you!" Oh, that was not where he was going with that at all. But there was no taking it back now.

"I know you're upset about your treatment, but this plan that Number One has come up with to suck the magic from innocent children is not the way forward," Eduardo continued. "If you abandon it, we will take you to the Human Realm. You can shapeshift into humans. We will provide you with the resources you need to blend in there. You can lead happy lives."

Number Six made a face. "You don't need to convince us of that. Number One tried to recruit us, but we turned her down. We're angry, but we're not going to take it out on a bunch of kids!"

Eduardo looked over at the cage that contained Number One, and then did a double take because it was empty. Number One wasn't even there. They'd broken into the Conformatorium for nothing. Their target had already escaped. "Okay, does anyone know where Number One is hiding?"

A door on the other side of the room opened and Tasha Hart stepped into the room. "I do," she gloated. "And I already found her. She's a feisty one, but torture will tame any beast. Your dear friends in Hexside will be her next meals tomorrow, Luz." She strode over to them and grabbed Luz by the chin, forcing her to look into the eyes. Luz struggled to hold back a scream with a Herculean effort. "I'm particularly looking forward to when your beloved Amity dies. Such a moment should be captured for posterity, in my opinion. I'll use a crystal ball to record it, and then I'll play it on loop for you. How long, do you think, it'll take for you to break after that?"

Eduardo pulled out an ice glyph from his pocket. He didn't use glyphs very often, but this had been an emergency, so he'd snagged them before they left the Owl House. Hart just smiled a mocking smile at him, so Eduardo activated the glyph, which should have projected a spike of ice straight through Hart. Instead, absolutely nothing happened.

"Oh, I forgot to mention that I beefed up security around here, didn't I?" Hart said. "The emperor warned me that you might be showing up here, so I put up wards to make sure that you wouldn't be able to use your magic."

Steve made a spell circle and vines started emerging from the floor and wrapped around Hart's legs. "They may not be able to use magic, but I can, and now –"

Hart cast a spell, yellow light flared, and Steve's head fell off its shoulders and landed on the ground with an ignominious thud and a spray of blood. The rest of his body fell gracelessly to the ground mere seconds later. The vines turned to dust. "Not anymore!" she called out chirpily. She clapped her fingers and several guards emerged from the hallway where she'd been earlier. "Put these miscreants in Number One's cage. They are to remain alive…for now."

"When Lilith hears about this, you're going to be in deep shit!" Luz called out as the guards dragged her away. One of them seemed to stop in their tracks for a few seconds, seemingly disoriented, but then swiftly recovered enough to throw Luz into the cage. Eduardo was thrown into the same cage. At least they were with each other. That was a small mercy.

Hart cackled. "Oh, you silly, naïve fool. Lilith will have no power soon enough. And neither will her master. Belos will be powerless next to my ultimate weapons! I will be empress, and the Isles themselves will tremble before me!" Luz burst out laughing, a torrent of hysterical laughter that Eduardo was worried would engulf her for a few moments.

Hart smacked her across the face. Luz fell to the ground, hit her head against the stone floor of the cage, and was knocked unconscious. Eduardo wanted to beg her to stop, but he knew that all that would accomplish would be convincing Hart to hurt Luz more. "Enjoy your bravado for now," she hissed. "Soon enough, you will kneel before me, as will all who ever mocked me!" She and the guards left them behind, laughing maniacally as she did so.

Eduardo had always thought that his insatiable curiosity might be his doom. But now that it was near, he didn't take any pleasure in any way whatsoever in being right.

Willow couldn't remember the last time she'd ever been so unhappy, and the fact that it was all her fault didn't exactly improve her mood any either. She'd known that she was balancing on a tightrope trying to balance her secret relationship with Boscha and her friendships with Luz, Avery, and Gus. It was inevitable that she'd fall off. But even she couldn't have foreseen that it would happen so spectacularly.

Contrary to what Gus thought, Willow had been doing her level best to tone down Boscha's worst impulses and try to keep her from harming her friends. If Boscha wasn't bullying them, then someone else would be. It was likely that someone else would be Cat, who was a sadist of the first order and was even rumored to have gotten her last boyfriend by ensorcelling him with love potions. Boscha may have been a little rough round the edges – okay, a lot rough – but she wasn't using love potions on anyone either.

Willow did deserve the scorn that she was receiving, though. She'd knowingly allowed her friends to be hurt, and done it all so she could be happy. Not for the first time even that hour, she cursed Mrs. Hart for being a sadist and control freak that took pleasure in others' suffering and expected her daughter to follow in her path. If she wasn't around, everyone could have been happy. But now, Willow's secret was out, and she was paying the price.

Gus hated her guts entirely. Willow had resorted to every tactic in her arsenal, invoked every shared memory they possessed, absolutely everything she could think of, but to absolutely no avail. She and Gus were enemies now.

Avery had known her secret and never approved from the get go, but at least they had understood. It was not a huge surprise, however, to see that they were siding with Gus instead of her. Boscha and her posse had hurt them too, and it wasn't something they could shrug off.

And then, of course, there was Luz. Or, more accurately, "Luz." There was absolutely no doubt in Willow's mind that Luz had been replaced by a changeling. But all of Willow's efforts to convince anybody of that indelible truth had fallen on deaf ears. Even Boscha and her fathers seemed to think that it was a sign of her mental instability. Well, Willow was not insane. She knew that as surely as she knew her own name. She'd bide her time; the changeling would reveal her true identity soon enough.

Willow was left alone. Her friends were unwilling to support her; her girlfriend was unable to support her. She had no one to take her side in anything. And she wasn't all that unconvinced that she didn't deserve that either. Nonetheless, it still hurt. Not the least because while Boscha had come up with excuses to avoid Willow, and Skara really wasn't all that bad, Amelia and Cat were still nasty pieces of work who hated Willow with a burning passion. That wouldn't change anytime soon, and now Willow didn't have her friends to help protect her.

At least the changeling was out sick, although Willow couldn't help but worry that it was a ruse to get the rest of the people at the Owl House replaced by changelings too. But she'd done what she could to warn them. Eduardo had spurned her offers to help, and if he paid the price, then it would be on his head, not hers.

There was, however, some good news. Willow was being asked to represent the plant track in the show to the inspector for the Emperor's Coven. This was an extremely high honor, only given to the students with the highest potential. Willow had been doing amazingly well since the changeling had helped her get into the plant track. She couldn't help but wonder if the changeling had ulterior motives in that, but it was likely she was being paranoid there. The changeling was probably just running a patented Luz scheme to blend in.

Willow had been preparing her presentation for some time. It was a good thing too, because when she walked into her first period class the day after the changeling was supposedly taken ill, her teacher had informed her that the inspection had been moved up to that very day! Willow was looking forward to it. She had no interest in joining the Emperor's Coven herself. Her dream was to open up a humble flower shop. But making contacts in high places could only do good things for her future plans, whatever they may be.

And Boscha, it turned out, would be representing the abomination track! Willow knew that she still wasn't going to be able to make any contact with her publicly, but she was still eager to see her girlfriend in action, and maybe get some covert smooching done later if they could find the opportunity. Boscha was a genius when it came to abominations. Well, anyone would be skilled at it after being forced to study for ridiculous lengths of time by their mother, but Boscha had a knack for the field that went beyond that. She could even turn herself into an abomination, which only the most skilled abomination witches could do, albeit only for seconds at a time thus far.

So despite her grim and grey mood, Willow tried to put on a happy face as she walked into the Hexside auditorium. It'd cheer up Boscha at the very least, even if public appearances meant that Boscha would be obliged to say some cutting insult to try to wipe the smile off her. But Willow's happy face instantaneously disappeared when she who was sitting next to Bump. On one side of Bump was a stern looking black-haired woman that Willow didn't recognize, presumably the inspector. But far more worrying was the woman on Bump's other side: Tasha Hart.

It shouldn't have been all that surprising. Mrs. Hart was, after all, the head of the Parent Creature Association. It made sense for her to be there. True, she never bothered coming to previous inspections, but it was, technically speaking, her right. Willow supposed that with the huge damage to her reputation recently, she'd want to be seen serving the community, to say nothing of schmoozing with important members of the Emperor's Coven.

"Half a Witch Willow," Mrs. Hart said, almost seeming to smell Willow. "I can't believe that the plant track decided that they would waste my time by sending you."

Bump glared at Mrs. Hart. "I'd thank you kindly not to insult my students, Tasha," he said in a voice filled with barely contained hatred. "Miss Park is a valued member of the student body. Her teachers speak extremely highly of her, and I am sure she will impress us all today." The unspoken words or else hung over that comment.

Mrs. Hart scoffed. "I highly doubt that. Isn't that right, Una?"

Una nodded jerkily. She seemed very tense. Almost as if she was scared. But Willow had to be misinterpreting her facial expressions. Una was a member of the Emperor's Coven. What did she have to be scared of? "I can start at your earliest convenience, Principal Bump," Willow said diplomatically. She would completely ignore Mrs. Hart, she decided. That seemed to be the best way to handle things.

"Ah, I admire your enthusiasm, Miss Park," Bump said, sounding as if he genuinely did admire it. "But we're doing the presentations in alphabetical order, as we always do. We will begin with the abominations coven."

Students began to file into the room to watch the presentation. Willow was surprised when Amity's siblings sat down on either side of her. Viney sat down on Emma's other side. "What are you two doing here?" she wondered.

"Haven't you heard?" Emma said. "Amity's doing the abominations presentation. Last minute thing, I hear."

Willow's brow furrowed. "Uh, what happened to Boscha?"

"Looking forward to getting some smooching in with your girlfriend?" Viney said tauntingly. She did not look pleased to see Willow. Which made sense. Boscha had probably bullied her too. "Well, that's not going to happen today. She hasn't been in school all day."

Willow looked over at Mrs. Hart, who watched the stage with an eager fire in her eyes. A chill went down Willow's back. Why would Boscha be absent from school and her mother present, when usually the converse was true? Why was Mrs. Hart so eager about Amity giving the abominations presentation, when she should have been furious that her daughter (or at least the Hart name) was about to be potentially upstaged?

And then the answer occurred to her in a horrific flash of insight. Mrs. Hart was magically forbidden from harming Boscha even by inaction…and if she was planning an attack on Hexside, she would be obligated to ensure that Boscha was safe – if not necessarily free – before conducting it. "I think something's wrong," Willow said.

Emma looked at her askance. "No offense, Willow, but I'm not exactly trusting your intuition these days. I only sat with you because you looked lonely and you've got front row seats."

"No, I'm serious," Willow said. "Amity could be in danger!"

"What kind of danger?" Edmond asked, sounding serious.

"I don't know," Willow floundered. "But I think Mrs. Hart might attack her!"

Edmond shared a look with his sister. It was as if they were telepathically communing, and given what Willow had heard of oracle magic, they could have been doing precisely that. "If she does, we'll fight back. There's more of us than there are of her. But I think you're just being paranoid. Why would she do anything in front of the emperor's inspector?"

Willow had to concede that he had a point there. Mrs. Hart was more likely to ambush Amity than attack her in front of dozens of witnesses, including someone as important as Una. "Yeah, you're probably right," she conceded.

Amity's abominations were definitely getting better, Willow had to admit, as the presentation began. Of course, Boscha was way better, but for someone who was as much of a novice as Amity, it was an impressive showing, even if Willow thought there were better candidates to show off Hexside's magical prowess. Willow had heard talk of Amity's father having been an abominations prodigy almost as powerful as Belos when it came to his particular track, and clearly some of his talent must have rubbed off on his daughter.

After Amity finished her presentation by having her abomination hold her up in the air, Bump gave her a round of applause that he certainly would not have given her under normal circumstances. He really must not have liked Mrs. Hart.

"I have some questions for Miss Blight," Mrs. Hart announced. Bump reluctantly motioned Amity to go to the edge of the stage. "Actually, I only have one question. Do you fear me?"

Amity laughed. "No way! We totally kicked your ass and we'll do it again if we have to!"

Mrs. Hart gave a malevolent smile. "Ah, but how will you do that, Amity, without any magic? Una, now!" Una seemed to transform right then and there into some sort of serpentine creature. A basilisk, like the one that had impersonated Amity, Willow realized. Una lunged at Mrs. Hart, who made a spell circle, causing her to shriek in pain. "A witch chooses," Mrs. Hart said in a sing song tone. "A slave obeys."

Una let out a hiss and her – its – mouth opened up and Willow could feel the magic withdrawing from Amity. She tried to flee, but lost consciousness before she could take more than a couple steps. Bump tried to lunge at Mrs. Hart, who pulled out a knife and rammed it into Bump's stomach. Una drained his magic next, leaving him unconscious and bleeding on the floor.

Before Willow could do anything, Viney was dragging her out of the room, following the fleeing students, Edmond and Emma at her heels. "That is a basilisk," Emma said with equal amounts of fear and awe. "Why is she attacking this school with a basilisk?!"

"Individually, the witches here aren't very powerful, because of their youth, but collectively, that's a different story," Viney explained. "With the magic that Una's sucking out of everyone here, she'd become powerful enough to take on maybe even Belos." Edmond snickered; he seemed to find that idea funny for some reason. How strange. "Not to mention the faculty. They're really powerful."

"So what are we going to do?" Emma asked, sounding panicky. And no wonder. She'd nearly died due to one basilisk's attack on her.

Viney thought about it for a few seconds. "The thing feeds on magic, which means we need to attack it with nonmagical means." She snapped her fingers. "The arsenal for fighting Grom! There's plenty of weapons there! And, uh, well, I hear that someone, not going to name any names, certainly wasn't me, found the way to get into the armory."

"Then let's find that someone and get them to give us the combination!" Edmond urged. Everyone just looked at him. "Oh. Right. To the armory, then?"

Willow followed the group past hordes of fleeing students in the direction of the Hexside armory. Screams could be heard in the distance as Una feasted on the magic of Willow's peers. Willow really hoped that Gus and Avery weren't among them. The victims of the basilisk should be able to regenerate their magic in due time, but there was always the chance that the basilisk would destroy their bile sacs entirely in the act of feeding, and no witch could survive that. At least Avery didn't have a bile sac or magic, so they should be fine – unless Mrs. Hart decided to kill them just for the hell of it.

But Avery was one tough cookie. Everyone knew that they would be this year's Grom monarch. Their skill with glyphs was unparalleled, and blew Luz's skill out of the water. But just in case glyphs were not enough, they would have access to all manner of weaponry, which was being stored in Hexside's underground armory to use against the various creatures that occasionally menaced the school. Willow armed herself with a crossbow, Viney grabbed a mace that Willow was surprised that she could handle, Edmond grabbed a pair of daggers, and Emma grabbed a rapier. Between the four of them, Willow was sure they'd be able to take down Una. And if Mrs. Hart got an arrow to the brain…well, it was a chaotic battle. Who'd really miss her?

Now all they had to do was find the damn basilisk. That would be a problem, as who knew where the hell it was? But Una wasn't the issue here. It wasn't the threat. The threat wasn't the beast; it was the woman holding its leash. And Willow knew just how to draw her out. "I have a plan," she announced. "We need to get to Bump's office."

Viney and the Serrano twins didn't ask her any questions, which was good, because she knew that they'd try to talk her out of what she was going to be doing. Hell, Willow was pretty sure they'd be right too. But right now, she had to stop Mrs. Hart. She had to do what she should have done ages ago, before she allowed Boscha to make Gus's life miserable. She had to end things once and for all.

Once they arrived in Bump's office, Willow went to the crystal ball that Avery referred to as an intercom, and spoke into it. "This is Willow Park speaking, Tasha," she said, her voice laced with hatred. "Plant witch extraordinaire, champion baker…and your daughter's girlfriend."

The twins and Viney let out gasps. They hadn't expected Willow to just come out and say it, not after she'd spent so much time keeping it a secret. The entire school was listening. It was out in the open now. "Yeah, that's right. Pretty much everything you could imagine entailed in that role, we've done." A huge smile came across Willow's face as she recalled some of those moments. "And, Titan, it felt awesome! Boscha's a champion kisser, and as for the rest of it…well, I'll leave out the details in case not everyone from the baby classes has been evacuated yet."

Willow was amazed she was even saying such things. It was not the usual way she went about doing things. But it honestly felt kind of good to tell everyone. Of course, she'd probably remember this moment with horrendous amounts of embarrassment later, but at least she'd hopefully be alive to do so. "Although I've got to tell you right now, there's this thing she does with her tongue –"

"LOOK OUT!" Edmond screamed, and seconds later, one of the walls to the office exploded as Mrs. Hart, riding Una, smashed through it.

"GIRAFFING LOWLIFE FILTH!" Mrs. Hart screeched at Willow. "How dare you defile my daughter?!" She appeared too angry to even use her magic. Instead, she leaped off of Una and lunged at Willow, intent on strangling her with her bare hands.

But Willow was ready. She aimed the crossbow and she fired it…directly into Una's head. Mrs. Hart let out a scream of frustration as her most useful pawn just fell dead to the floor. Huh. Willow had expected a basilisk to be tougher. There was probably a lesson to be learned there.

Yellow light flared and pain enveloped every fiber of Willow's being. She could see sparks of lightning reverberating through her body. Oh, she thought distantly. I'm gonna die, aren't I? Well, that sucks. She just wished that she could at least see Boscha one less time before she died. But fate could be a cruel mistress.

It could also be a beneficent one too, Willow found out a moment later, as Viney slammed her mace into the side of Mrs. Hart's head with a surprising amount of force. With Mrs. Hart incapacitated, if only briefly, the lightning spell she was using was dispelled. Willow acted quickly, before Mrs. Hart got another chance to hurt her.

She made a spell circle and summoned forth a small, dainty looking white flower. Totally harmless at first glance. Most people didn't get a second glance. Mrs. Hart was about to find out why. "Oh, come on, what are you going to do with that thing?" she sneered at Willow, and the flower sprayed spores at Mrs. Hart.

The Paralyzing Daisy was so named because, just like it said on the tin, its spores could instantly paralyze even the most fearsome of demons. And that didn't just apply to muscle movements either. In less than one minute, Mrs. Hart's respiratory system would stop functioning and she'd suffocate. "You hurt your own child," Willow hissed at her. "You probably murdered her father too. She was just a little girl, she relied on you, and you hurt her again and again and again, and you made her think it was because you loved her!"

"Willow…" Edmond said, clearly understanding where this was going. "You're not a killer."

"I'm not," Willow agreed. "But for her, I'm making an exception. I love Boscha. That's real love, not possessive love, not this crazy demented excuse for it you have, but REAL LOVE! You don't even know what it means to love someone! And you're going to die ignorant of it."

Willow knew that if she was a better person, she'd spare Mrs. Hart. But she wasn't. She had had enough of Mrs. Hart's cruelty and the sheer, unending fear and terror it had brought into Boscha's life. If the emperor wouldn't punish her, then Willow would pick up the slack. "This is what you deserve," Willow said, her voice eerily calm, as Mrs. Hart breathed her last.

There was silence for a few moments. No one seemed to know what to say. Then the door to the office opened and Bump walked in. He staggered over to his desk, opened a drawer, withdrew a healing potion, and downed it. He looked at Mrs. Hart's carcass with some degree of satisfaction. "Hmm," he said. "It appears that some unidentified assailant has killed Tasha Hart." Willow blinked. "I expect given the chaos of today's incident, we will never know who was responsible for such a dastardly deed." His eyes fell upon the flower that Willow, the only plant witch in the room, had used.

"I guess not, sir," Willow said, trying to keep her voice calm and even. "I don't recall much of what happened. It's all a bit of a blur."

"Yes, I suppose this is a mystery that will remain forever unsolved," Bump said. Then he walked over and gave the corpse a good kick to the side of the head. "That'll teach her to mock the muffins I bring to the PCA meetings."

Luz opened her eyes. Her head was pounding and her vision was blurry, but she could distantly see that she was in some sort of cage. She couldn't remember what had happened to get her in there, but whatever it was had led Eduardo to be thrown into that same cage. Luz groaned and Eduardo looked over at her, looking deliriously happy she was alive.

"Oh, thank goodness you're awake!" Eduardo said. "You've been out for almost a whole day. I was getting really worried."

"Hang on a sec," Luz said, and she morphed into an otter briefly, then right back to half-human seconds later. Someone let out a scream of horror, and Luz was, despite herself, amused to find that it was Eduardo. "Sorry about that. Needed to heal my injuries." A neat side effect of morphing was that a wide variety of injuries could be healed by morphing and then demorphing.

Eduardo scowled at her. "Luz, I thought I told you not to do that in my sight again! At least let me close my eyes first!"

"I couldn't remember you saying that," Luz explained. "That's why I morphed, because my head injury was pretty bad. It's all healed now, though."

Eduardo breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay. Your scheme got us into this. Now how are you going to get us out?"

Oh, ye of little faith, Luz thought. If there was one thing she was good at, it was scheming. "You want to close your eyes, papi? Then close your eyes!" She morphed into a bug, slipped past the bars of the cage, and then morphed back into her normal self. Thankfully, no one noticed her before she morphed into the guard that had stuffed her in the cage – the one whose DNA she deliberately acquired on the way there. The guards didn't appear to notice that there was one more guard in the chamber than they used to be. Then again, if they were geniuses, they probably wouldn't have been working for the bad guys anyway – the late Steve notwithstanding.

Luz, whistling a casual tune, waltzed over to the wall containing the controls for the cages. She pressed the button turning off the wards for basilisk transformation, and then she did the same for the one controlling the wards for glyph usage. She followed that up with pulling all the levers to open all the cages.

The revenge of the basilisks was swift, brutal, and bloody. Were it being written about on a fanfic on Archive of Our Own, Luz reflected, it would surely force the writer to put a "Graphic Depictions of Violence" tag on the fic. She had no idea that witch intestines were that color, for example, or that they had not one, but two livers, each roughly half the size of a human liver. When they were done, the entire room was splattered with blood and several liquids that Luz resolutely avoided trying to identify.

"Oh, Luz," Eduardo said softly. "I'm so sorry you had to see all that."

Luz was sorry too. She'd been no stranger to death and violence since her arrival in the Isles, but this was not something she was going to easily shrug off. She'd see it in her nightmares that night, she was absolutely sure of it. Of course, she'd have bigger problems, given that she'd soon be homeless, as she wouldn't be welcome in the Owl House after revealing her secret to Eduardo. Well, at least the basilisks were free.

"I have a plan," Eduardo announced. "Disguise yourselves as these guards. We'll just waltz out of here, bold as brass. Then follow me to the Bonesborough Devourer offices. I have concocted a brilliant scheme, à la Luz, to expose this dastardly operation. It's absolutely perfect, and it cannot fail."

Luz couldn't help but let out a giggle at the gentle teasing he was doing. "Kikimora isn't going to let you write about this."

"Kikimora isn't going to get a say in the matter," Eduardo said in a surprisingly vicious tone. "The Belos regime isn't going to let us tell the truth – you're absolutely right there. But I'm not going to tell the truth. I'm going to lie my ass off." Luz was honestly impressed. Eda had rubbed off more on Eduardo than Luz had thought. "Let's get moving."

There were a total of ten basilisks involved in the experimenting program, and eight remained. They discussed Eduardo's proposal at great length amongst themselves, but eventually seemed to decide that they would go along with it, because they shapeshifted into the dead guards. Two of them each grabbed Luz and Eduardo and dragged them out, pretending that they were still prisoners. At Eduardo's suggestion, one of the basilisks informed the gate guard that they were escorting Luz and Eduardo to meet with Lilith. The guard gave them a wide berth after that.

When safely away from the Conformatorium, the basilisks shapeshifted into witch and civilian form, until they got to the office building that the Devourer was contained in. Once there, they shapeshifted back into Emperor's Guards. Eduardo strode into the Devourer's offices, the basilisks close behind him and Luz at his side.

"What is the meaning of this?" Kikimora demanded. "Where have you been all day, Noceda? You're on thin ice here, mister!"

"Don't kill her," Eduardo told the basilisks. "We need her alive."

Two of the basilisks grabbed Kikimora and sucked out her magic, leaving her unconscious. They stuffed her in a closet and locked it. "STOP THE PRESSES!" Eduardo shouted. "Man, I've been waiting my whole life to say that, and it feels good." The other employees just stared at him, wide-eyed. Eduardo turned to Number Nine. "Go down to BBN-HXN, and bring Perry Porter here. Do not hurt him. He's an ally." Number Nine gave a crisp salute and left the room.

The other basilisks turned into their natural forms, provoking gasps from Eduardo's colleagues. "Does this have anything to do with the Hexside attack?" one of them asked him.

Luz strode over to her. "Is Amity okay?" she demanded.

The reporter, not having any clue who Amity was, just looked bewildered. "I guess? A basilisk attacked the school. The only reported casualty was Tasha Hart, head of the Parent Creature Association." Luz knew that it was wrong for her to feel good about that, but she still felt that way anyway. Tasha had tried to kill her mami, had tortured her own daughter, and had killed poor Steve the guard right in front of her eyes. She deserved to die and then some.

The door opened and the disguised basilisk brought Mr. Porter into the room. "Uh…I'm going to guess there's a perfectly logical explanation for all of this?" he said hopefully.

"Kikimora has been secretly experimenting on innocent basilisks to harness their magic sucking powers in order to overthrow Belos," Eduardo said. Oh, this was a good lie. Luz couldn't help but be impressed. "We have the eyewitnesses to the plot right here. Tasha Hart was her accomplice. Steve Trevalier, a guard at the Conformatorium, blew the whistle on the plot, and Hart killed him for that. He was a good man, trying to do the right thing."

Mr. Porter nodded slowly. "Okay, and how much of that was true?"

"More than you might suspect," Eduardo said airily. "But it doesn't matter. As a fellow propagandist, you know as well as I do that truth is what we decide it is. Especially when we have Kikimora ready to confess…or, rather, someone who can look like Kikimora."

Mr. Porter let out a short laugh. "This has Eda's fingerprints all over it, if I don't miss my mark."

"Well, let's just say that she'll be quite impressed with me tonight," Eduardo joked. Eww! "Ready to make some news, Perry?"

Mr. Porter was silent for a while. "I never liked her anyway. It's showtime!"

One of the basilisks followed Mr. Porter out of the room. Eduardo looked satisfied with himself, as he should be in Luz's opinion. "All right, I'm the editor now, and I want to see a whole issue dedicated to detailing Kikimora's manifold crimes. We all know she's committed a lot, right? Also, I'm giving everyone a bonus, because why the hell not?" A cheer erupted from Eduardo's now subordinates. "All right, I've got to have a talk with my daughter."

Fear rippled across Luz's entire being. It was time. The magic was pulling at her. Eduardo had helped her free the basilisks, and now it was time for her end of the bargain to be fulfilled. She couldn't avoid it, no matter how hard she tried. The Titan itself would compel her. But that didn't make it any less scary.

Luz had known this kind of almost crippling fear before, back when she was getting ready to tell Camila about the Isles. Camila was a good, compassionate person, but it wasn't exactly the world's most believable story, and Luz was consumed for weeks with thoughts of all the things that could go wrong. She was good at catastrophizing (thanks for that, Lucia). Eventually, she figured that the mental health damage of telling Camila wouldn't be any worse than not telling her.

But she'd been wrong to worry in the end. Camila had taken it spectacularly well, although a mutual misunderstanding had at first made her think that Luz was actually coming out as bi instead (which she did anyway during the course of that conversation). But this was different. Even if Camila had thought Luz was insane, she would still think of Luz as her daughter. But Eduardo would know that she wasn't his daughter at all. Luz's best friend had utterly and homicidally rejected her after she learned of her changeling status; why would her father be any different?

Eduardo led Luz to the same couch that he'd comforted her on after she'd had her breakdown on Bring Your Child to Work Day. A basilisk in Emperor's Guard form had cleared away all the civilians, so the room was otherwise empty. They would not be overheard.

"I'm not who you think I am," Luz began without even bothering to wait. The magic was forcing the words out of her, but beyond that, she just wanted to get the pain and suffering over with. "I'm from another universe. I'm also from a year in the future. Queen Zoe of the Seelie Fae put my Amity – my true love – in an enchanted sleep, and then switched your daughter's consciousness out with mine. The only way I can wake her up is getting this reality's Amity to fall in love with me."

Eduardo didn't show the slightest change on the expression on his face. He motioned for her to go on. "There are…changes between this reality and mine," she said slowly. "I'm human. You married…someone else." Better to not mention that Camila was his wife; she didn't want to influence him in her direction if he wasn't going there already. "And then…when I was six…"

"I died," Eduardo finished. His voice was steady and calm. "The nightmare that you had on the day you broke up with Avery, that wasn't a nightmare at all, was it? That was reality."

Luz burst into tears. "It's been so hard, papi!" she said between tears. "I loved you so much, and then you were just gone! No warning! Someone murdered you in cold blood, and I was left with nothing but memories. Memories that fade. I can feel them slipping away from me."

Eduardo held her and whispered things in Spanish under his breath that she didn't catch through the noise of her sobbing. "Every day, it hurts. At first, people understand. They say they do, anyway. But eventually, you're expected to get over it, and I couldn't." She took a deep breath. "Anyway, fast forward to when I'm fourteen. I stumble on a portal to the Boiling Isles, and then I have all sorts of cool adventures, and things are way better than they've ever been. Until I ended up here, and you were back in my life and I had to lie to you."

There was silence. Lots of it. It seemed to go on forever. "WOULD YOU JUST SAY SOMETHING ALREADY?!" Luz screamed at him.

Eduardo blinked. "My apologies, Luz," he said. "I was lost in thought for a few moments. You know – and you're going to find this really hilarious, I hope – I was actually thinking that you were an addict." Luz couldn't help but let out a laugh; he was right about it being funny. "So this is definitely a step up, in my opinion."

He kissed her on the forehead. "Te quiero, Luz," he whispered. "Te quiero, mija. Te quiero, lucecita."

This couldn't be real. Eduardo was just okay with it all? "Just get it over with!" she said. "Shout at me, hurt me, kick me out, just do it!"

Eduardo inhaled sharply. "Luz, the other me, did he ever do any of those things to you?" Luz shook her head frantically. "Then why would you think I would?" Luz didn't know the answer to that. All she had known was that Eduardo would reject her, and she had no clue why she even thought that in retrospect. "Luz, you are so, so brave and strong. You're my daughter, and I will do whatever it takes to protect you, no matter what universe you're from. I believe you, and I'm really thankful that you're finally telling me this."

"I'm not your daughter," Luz said.

Eduardo looked disappointed in her. "On the contrary, Luz. Half of your DNA is my own. My blood runs through your veins. You are my daughter." He squeezed her hand. "All of your actions make sense now, when filtered through that lens. I do have a couple of questions, though, if you're all right answering them?"

Luz didn't see the harm in it. "Shoot."

"First and foremost, is my Luz safe?"

At least that was definitely a question she could give a reassuring answer to. "Yes," she said firmly. "In fact, she's safer than she would be here. We overthrew Belos. Eda's in charge now." Eduardo looked absolutely horrified. "She's really good at it, actually!" Luz added defensively. "Anyway, Other Luz is surrounded by people who love me and will kill to keep me – keep her – safe."

"Okay, question two," Eduardo said. "Is your mother Camila Serrano?" Luz didn't say anything, but her face must have said it all, because Eduardo just smirked. "Hah! Totally guessed it right the first time. We must have gone on that date and fell in love in your universe, am I right?" Luz nodded. "Well, there you go."

"What do you think of polyamory?" Luz blurted out.

Eduardo looked sympathetic. "Oh, Luz. I can see why you'd want all your parents together. But I have no romantic interest in Camila. Or, really, any interest in adding anyone to my relationship with Eda at all."

That hadn't actually been what Luz was thinking of. "No, it's not that," she said. "My mom, uh, she's with Eda. And Raine. At the same time. And, well…she thinks sometimes that she's betraying you by doing that. But you'd be okay with it, right?"

Eduardo thought about it for a few moments. "I don't know the woman Camila Serrano became in your universe. But if something happened to me, and Eda wanted to find happiness with two other people, then I'd just be grateful that she was happy."

Luz's smile was so big she thought it'd engulf her face. "Thank you, papi," she said. "Thank you for everything."

Eduardo stood up. "Okay, so I've got a brilliant idea," he said. "How about you and I get some ice scream? We'll have some father-daughter bonding time! Perry and the other basilisks have everything under control. I want to hear about those amazing adventures you've been having. I mean, you can't tell me that you haven't wanted to tell me."

"Only every day," Luz said, as she stood up as well. "Okay, but you've got to promise you won't get upset if, you know, hypothetically, I challenged a witch to a duel knowing only one spell. Or maybe almost got Eda eaten by a slitherbeast. Or sort of fought a duel with the emperor and cracked his mask."

Eduardo burst out laughing. "Are you sure you're not Eda's daughter, mija?" He ruffled her hair. "All right, lucecita. I promise."

Life was not easy when you were perfect, because everyone around you was, by extension, less perfect than you were. That was the cause of Zoe's recent woes, she was certain. It could not, of course, be a flaw in herself, because such things did not exist. Her plans had been thwarted by others, by that stupid Noceda girl's lack of jealousy, by Tasha Hart's idiotic failure to kill Blight twice over, by the nerve of the rebellion to use the iron bane to try to assassinate her, without even knowing who she was!

It was so hard to find good help these days, and Kikimora was certainly no exception to that. Zoe hadn't bothered to deny the blatant lies that Eduardo Noceda and his insipid colleagues had come up with. She was going to have to kill Kikimora to move onto the next stage of the plan anyway, and this way, she didn't have to bother coming up with an explanation herself.

"My emperor, I assure you these spurious rumors against me are completely false," Kikimora simpered as she accompanied Zoe, still in her Belos guise, in the Bonesborough Botanical Garden. "I knew nothing of basilisk experimentation and I am ever loyal to you."

"Your whining is giving me a headache," Zoe complained, and Kikimora was instantly silent, of her own free will. That was the lovely thing about power. People sought to anticipate your whims. Were she in possession of her full power, she would have rendered Kikimora braindead at the flick of her finger. But being stabbed with the bane had weakened her considerably, and she had already expended more power than she was comfortable with defeating and killing Belos, to say nothing of transporting Luz through both space and time. No, she'd have to continue to work through proxies until she got her strength back to its full capacity.

They rounded a corner, and then they stood before her next pawn. Zoe waved the staff that had once belonged to Belos, and then the ritual began. She could sense the lifeforce draining out of Kikimora and into her new pawn, could feel the life returning to that which had once contained none.

There was a gasp and the unpetrified woman in front of her fell to her knees, just as Kikimora closed her eyes forever. "Hello, Odalia," Zoe said warmly. "Welcome back to the land of the living."