Chapter 40
The Owl, the Raven, and the Mutant
Deep within the Emperor's Castle, in the section belonging to his elite, the Emperor's coven, a pale, dark-haired woman received a call on her pocket mirror. Any resemblance to a human-world smart phone was entirely coincidental. Ignore the fact that you could browse YouScry and Hextagram. Utter coincidence, all of it.
The woman groaned when she saw who the call was from. Ugh. THIS bitch, she thought. She did not need this. As leader of the Coven, she had more than enough on her plate without having to jump through whatever hoops the Emperor's personal aide wanted her to today.
"If this is about Eda, I told you, I'm working on it. She's a lot harder to capture than you think."
"I'm sure," Kikimora answered. "And I'm certain it has everything to do with her skills and nothing to do with your… personal relationship." Even through that high collar, Lilith could picture her self-satisfied smirk. "Regardless… that's not what this is about, although it is connected."
"Get to the point, Kikimora, I really don't have the patience for your minotaurshit today," grumbled Lilith.
"I was getting to it," the diminutive aide replied curtly. "It seems there has been another visitor from the human realm, and she's been seen with the Owl Lady herself."
"Another one?" Lilith queried. The Boiling Isles were turning into a veritable tourist spot at this rate.
"Indeed," Kikimora replied. "Here's an image of our new friend."
Lilith regarded the image her pocket mirror showed. She'd met Eda's human apprentice a few times. This… creature… looked absolutely nothing like her. She looked more like the offspring of a witchling and a demon, which, while not common, was not so uncommon that it was worthy of note. Either the human realm had a more eclectic populace than was widely known, or something was most definitely off here. "And you're saying she's from the human realm? She looks more like one of ours. One of ours with a very interesting family tree, but one of ours nonetheless."
"The Oracle Coven is not known for making mistakes, Lilith," Kikimora responded. "This creature most definitely originated from the human realm. Which means, she has a method of travelling between worlds. You are well aware that the Emperor is very interested in interdimensional travel."
"Painfully," Lilith shot back. "Though, for all we know, she's here by accident."
"Perhaps, but can we really ignore this opportunity?" pointed out the tiny red goblinoid.
"*sigh* I suppose not."
"Then you understand that bringing in this girl is your new priority. Take as many troops as you need. I want her captured. Alive, if possible."
"As you wish," Lilith agreed, attempting as best she could to keep the bitterness out of her voice. As much as she disliked the red runt (actually, she was thinking a different word that rhymed with it), the fact was that she was her direct superior, and the Emperor valued obedience. If Lilith wanted to stay in his favor, she would have to toe the line for now.
The Owl House
-PHOEBE-
The interior proved to be just as homey as the interior, though clutter was certainly a running theme. My father was a firm believer in order, both in life and in décor; this place seemed more of an experiment in controlled chaos.
"Luz! King! I'm back!" my erstwhile host, Edalyn Clawthorne, the so-called "Owl Lady" announced. "I've picked up a straggler, so try to be on your best behavior. Mostly talking to King here."
"A new minion to do my sinister bidding?" a shrill, high-pitched, almost manic voice answered. Triangle-shaped memories of an old nightmare began to nibble at the edges of my subconscious mind, and I felt my hearts involuntarily beginning to beat a bit faster in response to meeting the owner of the voice. "I like the sound of that!"
The owner of the voice proved to be far less fearsome than I anticipated. In fact, it resembled nothing so much as one of the adorable creatures in the popular "Mini-Mon" series of games. He was a short, doglike beast with a skull-shaped, horned mask covering most of his face. A dog-like collar only contributed to the overall impression of cuteness. I felt an overwhelming compulsion to just toss all logic and reason aside and snatch the little one up for a prolonged snuggle.
"You." It demanded. "You look pretty strong, and those wings probably give you a lot of mobility. I like that. So, from this moment on, you serve me. For my first command, I demand that you lift me up so I can get to the top shelf where Eda keeps all the good snacks."
…oh, logic be damned, I can't help it. "Awww, kawaii ne!" I found myself cooing. "Aren't you just the most precious thing!"
The creature sighed. "…yeah, I know. Why was I cursed to be so mind-meltingly adorable? *sigh* Go ahead, you know you want to."
"Forgive me," I said, scooping him up. "I'm not usually like this."
"Yeah, yeah," the little creature replied, resigned to his fate. "I just need to accept that this is my power."
A second newcomer, a Latina-looking girl who looked a couple of years younger than me, entered the room. "Sorry about King," she said, "he got away from-" Her eyes suddenly widened. "¡Dios mío, no puedo creerlo! You're… Magnetica!"
Oh, right… she'd said her apprentice was human, didn't she/ I assumed that meant humans were common here, even though I hadn't seen a single one until now, but… no, I was mistaken. She was from my world, and had just given me a not-so-subtle reminder that I was a bit of a celebrity there. Well, Phoebe Heyerdahl wasn't, but Magnetica certainly was.
"Magna-who?" Edalyn asked.
"I have your plushie! I have your bobblehead!" the girl gushed. "I've even seen every episode of the anime… in the original Japanese."
I groaned inwardly. "Oh, don't get me started on the anime. The studio got everything wrong. They had me shooting bubbles. BUBBLES. They did no research, they just looked at my blue skin, decided "Blue. Water. Bubbles!"
"I… I had no idea you felt like this," she said, but I was off on a rant now.
"Magnetism manipulates metallic objects. It can encode and read information on certain media. You know what it doesn't do? BUBBLES! I mean, you'd think the name would give it away, right? Magnetica. Not Bubble-ina. But nooo… they couldn't commit to even the most cursory attempt at faithfulness to the source material." I paused at her chastened expression. "Sorry, none of this is your fault. I shouldn't bite your head off."
"You wouldn't have been the first to try here," the girl replied.
"Hold on a second… I thought you said your name was Phoebe," Edalyn interrupted. "Not that I don't appreciate the usefulness of a fake identity."
"It's more of a secret identity," the girl answered. "Oh, my gosh… I know your secret identity. Well, some of it." She kneeled with a solemn expression. "I swear to you, I will never reveal it to a soul. Not even if they torture me."
"I… um, don't think that'll be necessary," I reassured. "But you know my name, and I still don't know yours…"
"Oh!" she said, realizing. "Luz. Luz Noceda."
"Well," I said, "Nice to meet you-"
"Luz!" shouted the boy from the marketplace. "There's sooo much you haven't told me about being human yet! So, does your tail come in first, or the wings…"
"Gus," his companion – Willow, I remember him calling her – interrupted. "That's personal. Luz can tell us about human puberty if and when she's ready."
"Where'd you two come from?" Edalyn asked. "I thought I left you back at the market."
"Oh, we followed you," Gus said. "And Hooty let us in.
"That's for calling me needy. Hoot." the owl-tube-thingy added.
"That was wrong of me," Edalyn replied. "You're also passive-aggressive!"
"Guys," Luz said, "I want you to meet Magnetica. From where I'm from, she's what we call a super-hero."
"Wow," marveled Willow. "I have no clue what that is."
"Well… you know how we don't have magic back in the human world? Well, a few people have something that isn't quite magic, but it's close enough. Some people get it by accident, others use super-science to give it to themselves, and some just use special gadgets and stuff like that, but the result is the same. And that's why she looks like that. I'm never going to grow any extra body parts… unfortunately…"
"You seem to know a lot about our guest," Edalyn suggested.
Luz blushed. "Back before I dreamed of being a witch, I dreamed of being a superhero," she admitted. "I would run around with a belt tucked into my pants and pretend a towel was my wings. And then I jumped off the car and broke my arm, and my mom put a stop to that. But by then, I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I would never get exposed to any weird meteorite gasses."
"It was an alien spore infestation," I corrected, "…though it did come from inside a meteorite…"
"So being a witch was your runner-up dream," Edalyn commented with a slight hint of jealousy, at least to my detection.
"Oooooh, Eda's got a rival for Luz's adoration!" teased King. "Well, other than me."
"I do not!" denied Eda. "It's just… how do I know she won't change her mind?"
"Eda, I was like ten at the time." Luz replied. "Three years before that, I wanted to be a unicorn."
"Ugh, why would you want that?" remarked King. "Those guys are jerks."
"I think I just… really want a tail," Luz admitted. "They seem so convenient."
"Mmm," Eda grumbled. "Let's just get back to business. Now, why are you here again?"
"Oh!" I had gotten so caught up in the conversation, I had almost forgotten the whole reason I came to this dimension. "Well, it turns out someone from this world is trying to sell magical artifacts in mine. Here's what we managed to confiscate, so far." I opened the satchel.
"So, what do we have here," she said, looking through them, pulling out the staff taken from Todd Lurman. "Hmm, yep, this is definitely one of ours. Looks like a recent model, too. No palisman, just a focus gem. You can't mass-produce palismans, so Big Spellcraft has been phasing them out. Shame. Nothing beats the personal touch…" She stroked the owl carving on the tip of her own staff, which cooed happily in response. "This one's useless with the gem cracked, anyhow."
"Oh, that was us. It was being misused and we had to quickly disable it."
"I've no doubt. This is a weaker model, but you could probably pull off some very convincing illusions with it. You could even potentially trap yourself and others in a dreamworld of your own making."
"That's exactly what happened!" I confirmed.
"Wow. Called it. I'm better than I thought. What else we got here… a pair of League Boots."
"Seven-League Boots?"
"Nah, this is a cheap pair, Two league, maybe two and a half, tops," she chortled.
"I'm beginning to think this guy wasn't selling your best merch," I reasoned.
"Well, that's just good business," Eda replied. "Y'know, it makes sense. I make money selling stuff from your world here, it just stands to reason someone else got the same idea, only in reverse. Of course, my stuff is mostly harmless junk. His could be pretty nasty if it got into the hands of the typical... no offense… human idiot."
"None taken. That's pretty much what's been happening. The problem is, we can't keep track of this guy. He moves around at random and can make his shop appear wherever and whenever he wants it to."
"Huh. I knew only one guy who knows a spell like that. Do you have a description of him, by any chance?"
"We've spoken to a couple of his ex-customers. Both described a tall, gaunt man in a red suit with a top hat, red hair, and a pointy goatee. Also, pointy ears and really intense green eyes."
"Yep, that checks out," confirmed Eda. "The guy you're looking for is Nepholius Cromp."
"…seriously?" I said stifling a giggle.
"What? It's a perfectly normal name, Phoebe," she replied, probably still nursing a bit of jealousy.
"Well, a name helps, but not if I have no way of locating him."
"Well…" she mused, rubbing her chin, "I might have an idea about that. A spell like Cromp's causes magical ripples when it appears and disappears. I can make you an amulet that can detect those ripples. I think I have all the ingredients I need for it, except one. And it's pretty hard to get. In fact, there's only one place to get it… in the Emperor's Coven's own headquarters."
"That… sounds bad," I said.
"Well, when you consider the fact that I'm kind of… wanted… yes, you could say that."
"Perhaps you should tell me what to look for, then I could go," I suggested.
"No, it'd take too long for you to find it. Besides…" she cracked her knuckles. "It's been a while since I got to really stick it to authority." She grinned impishly. "This is gonna be fun."
"Well, at least let me come along to watch your back." I suggested.
"I don't know," she considered. "What exactly do you bring to the table?"
"Fists that can shatter stone, for one. And the power to manipulate metals. Although I haven't felt much metal around…"
"Not surprising. Witchlings and iron don't tend to go together very well. When we do use metals, it's mostly mithril and orichalcum. You probably don't have any power over those. Those fists of yours do sound pretty handy, though… no pun intended," Eda agreed. "All right… looks like we've got a raiding party on our hands."
The wanted posters had gone up an hour ago, but so far, there had been absolutely no reports of a four-armed, three-eyed, winged, tailed, horned, blue-skinned teenage girl. A three-armed, four-eyed, winged, tailed, horned blue-skinned girl, yes, but not the other kind. Apologies were made and Hoebie Pheyerdahl was quickly released.
Lilith rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. The Emperor's mercy was not without limits, and she'd been straining at them lately with her failure to bring in Eda. She's always been a stubborn one, she thought to herself. Can't she see that it's in her best interest to submit?
"Lilith," a guard interrupted, "Our security mirrors have picked something up. You'll want to see this."
"Can't you just tell me?" groaned Lilith. What was it with people never telling anyone anything straight? It was like she lived in a world of amateurish writing.
"Oh. Right. "Well, the mirrors have detected that new 'creature of interest'. And the Owl Lady is with her."
What? She couldn't possibly be this stupid. Certainly not stupid enough to let herself get detected. It must have been a trick. "Which mirror was she caught on?"
"The headward-left hallway" the guard replied.
"Then that's where she won't be," Lilith replied. "But an illusion spell that would fool our security mirrors has to be cast from nearby, so she's most likely in the building somewhere. We just have to find out where."
Her face betrayed no emotion, but inwardly, she could not believe her luck. Fate had not only delivered the mystery girl, but Eda herself directly to her. Finally, everything was going to work out.
Outside the Castle
-PHOEBE-
"There, that should keep 'em busy for a while," Eda said after casting the spell. The two of us hovered around the outward side of the castle, garbed in a cloaking spell. 'Meanwhile, we get in through the wall here, courtesy of you."
I studied the outer wall. It was crafted of solid stone, and looked thick enough that even someone with my strength would have a tough time pounding through it. "This might take a while," I said.
"Normally, it probably would. Luckily I always come prepared." She reached into her bag and pulled out a small scrap of paper marked with a fist icon, slapping it on my arm. Instantly I felt a massive surge of power unlike any I'd ever experienced. Power that needed, no, demanded to be used. The wall that seemed so impregnable a mere minute ago crumbled as my fists connected with it.
"Power glyph," she explained. "Boosts everything tenfold. It'll turn even the wimpiest witching into a juggernaut, so someone like you? Well, you can't argue with those results. These babies are usually restricted to the Construction Coven, but I managed to get one off the black market. It won't last long, but hey, it got us inside."
We entered through the hole I had just made. "Now, what we need is a Danaterrium Crystal. They should be keeping those in the Restricted Materials room, which, unless they moved it, should be one floor up from here. The stairs are just down that way."
"You certainly seem to know your way around," I remarked.
"This ain't my first joust, kid," Eda replied, grinning. "You'd be amazed at how many restricted items you need to steal when you run a bootleg elixir, charm and potion business."
"I thought you sold human artifacts."
"Gotta have a bunch of side hustles if you're gonna live on the edge of society," Eda explained. "Now, let's get… oooh…" She suddenly slumped a bit.
"Eda!"
"Autonomous illusion and cloaking at the same time… it's taking a bit more out of me than I anticipated. I am not what I used to be." She shook it off. "I'll have to drop the cloak. It wouldn't be much use inside the building, anyway. Now, c'mon."
The loss of the cloaking would be a setback; moreover, I could feel my power surge already wearing off. I was hoping to use my boosted speed to whisk Eda and myself up to our destination, but that was no longer an option.
"Don't worry," Eda assured as we made our way up the stairs. "The guards'll be too busy chasing my illusion to bother us. We should be on easy str-"
"Hello, Eda."
The voice belonged to a tall, pale, dark-haired woman in a dark robe, leading a squadron of the hooded, bird-masked guards I'd seen all over the place. She regarded our party of two with a cold expression.
Eda groaned. "Hi, sis," she said. Sis? Drama bomb, as Rhonda might say. Now that I saw it, there was a resemblance…
"You know, for once, you weren't my priority," Eda's sister said. "I was actually after your new friend here. So how convenient is it that you decide to deliver yourselves both right to my doorstep?"
"Lilith," Eda replied, "have you ever stopped to question why the Emperor is sending you to capture a teenage girl?"
Lilith paused a bit, as if she was considering it. "I'm certain he has perfectly good reasons. Ours is not to question him, ours is to do as he wills."
"Spoken like a true conformist drone," Eda remarked drily.
"I didn't come here to talk politics, sister. I came to capture the girl. Normally, I'd grab you too, but since you're not the goal this time… *deep breath* I'd be willing to let you go. Just walk away and leave the girl to me. You'd live to flout the law another day."
"Nothing doing. She came to me for help. I'm not about to throw her to the direwolves to save myself."
Lilith raised an eyebrow. "You've really gotten soft since you took that human in. You used to be all about the hustle."
"What can I say, sis? Maybe I'm getting mellow in my old age."
"You're younger than me," Lilith reminded her, a fact that I found impossible to believe. Maybe it was the grey hair, or the voice that sounded like it came from a 70-year-old woman, but Eda seemed much, much older than her sister.
"True, but I'm wise beyond my years," she replied, raising her staff. Lilith, in response, raised her own. I readied myself for the fight. I had no idea what to expect from any of my opponents, but it was likely to be far more than the average Hillwood criminal had to offer.
"This doesn't have to be a fight," Lilith reasoned. "You can still walk away from this."
"You know I can't," Eda responded. Her staff began to glow, only to abruptly stop when she suddenly convulsed in pain. "Oh, nyx, not now," she groaned. I noticed, alarmed, that a few tiny black pinfeathers had sprouted on her upper arm.
"Eda?" I asked, concerned.
"Remember when I said I knew a thing or two about curses? Well, it's first-hand experience, kid. *sigh* The one day I forget my elixir…"
"Maybe we should get out of here…" I suggested.
"You don't have much time here, Phoebe," she replied. "If we don't get the crystal now, you're going to have to wait another month to come back and try again, and who knows what kind of chaos Cromp is going to cause in that time. Or if I'll even be in any shape to help you then."
"Eda…" I got the idea that this curse was more serious than she was letting on. It certainly explained why she looked so much older than her sister.
"You're looking for a twelve-sided crystal that cycles through the colors of the rainbow. It's in the room behind Lilith. I'll hold these guys off while you grab it, then we'll make a break for it."
"That's not happening," I said. "There's no way I'm going to abandon you after you stuck by me." I clenched my fists. "Looks like it's Butch and Sundance."
"…I have no idea who they are." Eda gave a pained smile. "But you're a real credit to your former species, kid." She addressed Lilith. "In fact, humans keep on surprising me. We could probably learn a whole lot from them, if we let ourselves."
Lilith had stood expressionless, at the ready to unleash magical mayhem, all this time. Suddenly, she lowered her staff. "You mentioned Cromp. Do you mean Nepholius Cromp?"
"That's correct." I said, confused.
"The Emperor's Guard has been looking for him for years, but there's been no sign of him at all. How do you know of him?"
"He's been in my world selling Boiling Isles artifacts." I explained.
"Magical artifacts in the hands of humans?" Lilith considered.
"At least three cases we know of," I said. "Possibly more that we don't."
The raven-haired sorceress paused to consider this new information.
"..stand down," she told her minions, stepping aside. "Take your crystal and get out as fast as you can. I'll figure out an excuse for the Emperor."
"Why?" Eda questioned.
Lilith averted her eyes. "Cromp is a greater concern, that's all. His trafficking in magical artifacts could be dangerous. Therefore, I'm making a calculated decision based on strictly pragmatic reasoning." She turned to me. "You turned out to be a rare human subspecies that was immune to magic, that's why we were unable to capture you."
"Not that I am ungrateful for your sudden change of heart," I asked, "but aren't you taking a risk defying your emperor?"
"Don't remind me" Lilith replied irritably. "Just deal with Cromp, and then I never want to see you in this realm again."
After her sister and the odd blue human departed, Lilith retired to her quarters. The guards wouldn't be telling anyone anything. They couldn't. They were mindless homunculi designed to do her bidding.
She'd told Eda and the one called Phoebe that she let them go to deal with Cromp, but that wasn't the truth. Not the whole of it, anyway.
The truth was, seeing the loyalty Eda had shown for this stranger that she had just met today, and seeing that stranger return that loyalty out of gratitude, made her falter. For a moment, the righteousness of her cause seemed in doubt. She'd believed that to conform to the Emperor's will was the greatest of virtues, and yet… she could not deny the solidarity these two strangers had shown to each other.
And yet… though doubt had found a foothold in her soul, the truth was that her sister mattered more to her than she could possibly reason, and only the Emperor could offer her the salvation she needed. Lilith owed it to her to make her see the light, especially since- no, she didn't want to think about it now.
Today, she had looked the other way. But this was the last time. Next time, she would bring her sister to the Emperor. For her own good.
The Owl House
-PHOEBE-
After we'd returned (under my power, since Eda was in no shape to fly), she'd quaffed an elixir, taken an extended nap, and then gotten to work on the tracking amulet. By the time she was done, I was cutting it pretty close on getting back to Earth. With nothing else to do while I waited, I sought out the only other person close to my age there, Luz, for conversation.
"So, how long have you been here?" I asked.
"Oh, a few weeks. I wound up here back at the beginning of the summer when I chased Owlbert – that's Eda's palisman – through a portal."
"That seems… reckless…"
"Yeah, well, he stole my Good Witch Azura book before I could even finish re-re-re-reading it! I couldn't let that stand! You know what I mean, right?"
"Not really… I think I remember my friend Lila mentioning she was a fan, but I must confess I've never read that I've never read that particular series."
"Oh, my god, you HAVE TO! RIGHT NOW! Lana Veranda is the best author who ever lived!" gushed Luz ecstatically. "It has everything… fantastic world-building, a narrative that takes familiar tropes and turns them on their heads in new and exciting ways… rivals becoming friends becoming lovers… I mean, the last part hasn't happened yet but you know it's gonna in the next book, 'cause clearly Hecate is nursing a huge crush on Azura and Azura would totally feel the same way if she wasn't so oblivious…" She shook her head. "Ugh, sorry, listen to me going on and dropping all these spoilers when you haven't even read the books, I just get this tendency to fangirl…"
"It's fine, it's fine," I assured. "I understand the feeling. I have been known to fangirl occasionally myself." I blushed. "I used to be a huge Ronnie Matthews fan."
Luz grimaced. "That old washed-up pop star? You know he didn't even do his own singing, right?"
"Well, I know that now… The point is that we can all get obsessive… some of us over more embarrassing things than others." Something suddenly occurred to me about what she said. "Wait, you said you came here at the beginning of the summer, right?"
"Yes…"
"And that it's only been a few weeks, right?"
"Riiiiight…"
"So, it would be July here?"
"Last I checked…"
"Well, when I crossed over, it was November back home."
Luz's eyes widened as she grasped the implications. "You mean YOU'RE FROM THE FUTURE?"
"That would seem to be the case…"
"Oh my gosh! Future knowledge! Okay, you have to tell me… Did Niko and the Era of Fantasticreatures have a happy ending?"
Sure she would be asking about matters of more import like world events and such, I was taken unawares by her question. "I, uh… I'm not familiar with that series…"
"Oh," she said. "Well, probably better that I don't get spoiled."
"Speak for yourself. I'm heavily invested in Napo-Lion's redemption arc!" interjected King.
"Woo!" Eda suddenly declared, interrupting the discussion. "I don't like to toot my own horn – oh, who am I kidding, I do that all the time – but this is some of my best work ever." She handed me a small amulet, with a gem at its center that slowly cycled through the colors of the spectrum (including some visible only to my eyes). "All right, here's how it works," Eda exposited. "While we're in this realm, the crystal just changes color on its own because this entire dimension is saturated with magic. Once you're back home, it'll turn black since your world is, for the most part, a magic-less wasteland. No offense."
"None taken."
"When Cromp's shop appears, it'll be like a magic beacon. The amulet's gem will light up, and its color will change based on how close you are. Purple when you're the farthest, red when you're right on top of it."
"Seems simple enough," I said. "Thanks again for all your help!"
"Don't mention it. And by that, I mean to the cops," she joked with a smirk.
"No, seriously. I only came for information, but you went above and beyond for me, and I won't forget it any time soon."
"Jeez, kid, you're gonna make me start to like helping strangers. That's bad for business. Okay, enough already. Away with you. If I get any softer, they're gonna start spreading me on toast,"
"Yes, I really should get going if I want to get back. My key's not going to work for much longer and I don't relish being stuck in this dimension for an entire month. Goodbye, everyone!"
"Good luck!" Luz replied. "Don't forget! Good Witch Azura by Lana Veranda! It'll change your life!"
"And don't forget to spread the word of my gloriousness to your people!" added King.
"Text me! My SpellBook account is HootHootHoot, Hoot hoot! Just the first three hoots. The other two is a verbal tic. Hoot!" Hooty commented.
Well, I probably was never going to see this place again. But I would certainly remember it.
A.N.: Well, that's the crossover! I tried my best to make it accessible to readers who have never seen The Owl House, but for those of you who haven't and have a subscription to Disney Plus, the first season should be available at the time of this writing and I would highly recommend checking it out, especially if you're already a fan of Gravity Falls (Alex Hirsch himself is the voice of King and Hooty).
Jose: As stated, her magnetic powers weren't very helpful, but the rest came in handy.
Veganmama: Thanks, I'm glad the chapter was understandable. As I've said, if you have Disney Plus the first season is available.
Next: Two chapters with the same title! And one of them has a moment we've all been waiting for…. Be here for "Homecoming"!