I don't own the Owl House. Owl is owned by Disney and Dana Terrace.
"God, this has to work, it just has to."
That was the only thought going on loop through Luz's mind as the Conformatorium's top warden, the demonic monster and one of her mentor Eda's romantic stalkers, Wrath forcefully dragged her to her seat in one of the many Boiling Isles' courtrooms in on of his big arms.
Why was she here in a demonic courtroom in the Boiling Isles?
Well, it all started about a month after Luz rescued her mentor Eda from being turned to stone by Belos' hands with King and Lilth's help. Speaking of her mentor's younger sister, she betrayed her former master in order to save her sister after Belos said that he wasn't going to heal Eda like he promised and after a little scuffle with Luz (which accidentally led them through the portal to human world), that made her realize that Eda's curse and everything that happened afterwards was her own fault, signifying her assistance in rescuing her younger sister as stated before.
When Lilth and King by her side, Luz had to fight Belos alone and it wasn't even a fight, it was more of the emperor just toying with Luz. When she was trapped and heard the shrieks of pain from her feral mentor getting petrified, she had to make a choice: Give the key to Earth to Belos or let Eda get turned to a stone statue.
Her response was choosing the third option.
She did give the key to Belos and he let her go save her friend but as she was lifted up, she secretly put fire glyphs all over the portal key which she detonated, destroying the portal and preventing both her and the emperor from using it.
Luz hadn't heard or seen anything coming from the Emperor's for weeks after the near fatal encounter.
Until now, that is...
Why Luz was here is pretty simple, Belos had Warden Warth and his guards kidnap King one night while Luz and the others at the Owl House were sleeping. Why they didn't just capture all of them is because he wanted to see Luz, Eda and Lilth suffer and what better way to do that then watch one of their own get turned to stone and the three being powerless to stop it.
Luz enlisted the help of people who she helped like the prisoners she rescued from the Conformatorium, and even some of her friends from Hexside such as the plant witch Willow, the illusionist witch Gus, and the even some of the former detention track students such as the healing and beast keeping witch Viney, the plant and abomination witch Jerbo, and the oracle and potions dog witch Barcus.
Even Principal Bump insisted on helping Luz and Eda rescue King because they helped him.
However, there were some students would chose to not to assist Luz and friends such as Boscha, who still disliked them for taking Amity away from her. Luz, despite being friendly to nearly everyone she met, didn't want the three eyed girl's assistance as she still hasn't gotten over how Boscha picked on Willow as well as her and Gus by extension.
There were two very big obstacles that were hindering the Noceda girl's efforts in rescuing the tiny demon.
The first was Lilth trying to gain the trust of everyone because even though she helped save Eda from the emperor, that didn't mean that they instantly trusted her overnight, especially Willow, Gus and Amity as they didn't still have forgiven her for nearly getting their human friend killed in her successful attempt to capture her older sister.
But after Barcus, (who has the power to sense a person's true intentions) used that specific power on her, he realized that she no longer means to harm anyone as she has done enough of that already. This did help lessen some of their animosity towards the elder Clawthorne woman a little bit, but not by much. Most surprising of all was that Willow, despite being the most bubbly of the students, threatened that if this another one her deceptive tricks, she will use the plants around her to strangle the elder witch personally and make Amity watch.
Speaking of Amity, she was other obstacle in the way, now don't get us wrong, Amity obviously did want to help the human that she had a crush on but the reason why she didn't want to help Luz initially was because of her dream to join the Emperor's Coven and her going into a panic attack just from being around Luz because of her feelings for the human girl. She also thought that Luz going up against Belos again was suicide, even with her and her siblings help and even even with the backing of Hexside. Coupled by the fact that her parents were also Coven members, it would mean that Amity would have to go up against her parents, and she couldn't bring herself to do it as she didn't have the mental backbone to stand up to them, even with Edric and Emira's encouragement, and to be honest, they were just as scared to fight their parents because of the same pressure they were put on just like Amity was, so they chose to stay out of the inevitable war that was going to occur between Belos and the Owl House crew.
Amity knew that she couldn't let her stuttering and mini freak outs from seeing the human girl get in the way of her crush's mission to save one of her friends, so she chose to cut out the middle witch and told Luz that she couldn't get involved with going against Belos for those very specific reasons (she hadn't told Luz her feelings, just the other stuff.)
Luz understood where she was coming from and told her that she won't force her to help her if she doesn't want to. And told her that she'll be alright fighting Belos' without her and her siblings as backup. She then gave the three Blight siblings a hug as they wished her luck in rescuing King with the backing of most of Hexside.
Knowing that trying to sneak into the Emperor's place wouldn't work, Luz and her crew decided to go up to Belos' castle directly and request an audience with him as they waited patiently outside, only resorting to retaliation if Wrath or the Blight parents attacked them first under Belos' orders, relaying this information to his assistant, Kikimora. And to the surprise of everyone from both sides of the conflict, Belos agreed to this as he stepped out of his castle and ordered Wrath, his guards and the other Coven members to stand down.
"Nice to see you again, Belos." Luz said with a bit of snark. "How's the eye?"
"Just fine human." Belos said with a bit of anger as he put a hand over the crack in his mask. "How's the mental trauma of not going back to Human world suiting you?"
"I feel like the Boiling Isles is like a second home to me, so I feel great." Luz said as she smiled.
"Kikimora had told me that you wanted to request an audience with me, correct?" The emperor of the Isles asked, "What for?"
"I'm going to be straight with you." Luz said as she began to explain why she requested this meeting with the emperor. "We just want King back and you want to capture us and do whatever it is to please with the Human world with your "Day of Unity" thing. So how about we settle this once and for all with the way my kind does it. By settling this in court?"
"Settling this in a court of law, is that what I'm hearing?" Belos said confused as to why Luz would suggest such a preposterous notion.
"Cause I guess in a way, we both want to do what's right for our respective people and are willing to do whatever it takes to do that." Luz admitted, shyly. "So whaddya say, you want settle this with public in interest? Or are you to scared to get your butt kicked in court by a 14 year old human girl."
Belos thought of this for few minutes. As far as he was concerned, this human was absolutely crazy. Why would she put the lives of herself, her de-powered mentor, his former now also de-powered subordinate, as well as most of her friends and her other home at risk just to settle this conflict of their's?
"Well that depends, what are your terms, human?" Belos asked.
"If we win the case, you give us King back and leave us alone." Luz said. "And on top of that, you un-petrify the other witches you have in your possession."
"Understood, but if I win, I have you and just you, turned to stone and make sure your friends watch and will be unable to stop me." Belos said.
Hearing caused a shiver to goes down the Noceda's spine, regardless she stood tall.
"So do we have a deal?" Belos asked as he held out his gloved hand.
Luz grabbed and shook his hand. "Fine, we have a deal."
"Excellent, once the preparations are complete I will send a member of my Coven to inform you. But until then, we're keeping your demon friend." Belos said before turning to walk away. "Now if you will so kindly as to leave us, I suggest you do it before I have my Coven members put you in the dungeon."
With that, the Owl House rebels and the the Emperor's Coven went their separate ways...
Flash forward to the day of the trial, Luz, Eda, Lilth, Willow, Gus as many others that joined them were being forcefully escorted through the city of Bonesborough in cages by Warden Wrath and his goons to a place called "The Hall of Law".
It is a place that was previously used to determined the punishment of those who broke the law and whether the law breaker should by either covert to a conven or executed in front of a cheering crowd.
When Belos became Emperor, he saw no use for the place as he enforced his rules of "Join a Coven to hone your magical potential or be petrified."
Now, because this trial, the creatures of the Boiling Isles will have a front row seat to the due process of justice.
Once they arrived, the cages were opened as the gang either jumped out or had to be carried out because they fell either asleep or were in deep thought.
Being escorted to the courtroom, the gang being to whisper to each other.
"I'm telling you guys. It's not going to work." Willow whispered to Luz and Gus.
"I am with Willow, that has got to be the stupidest plan I ever heard." Lilth whispered to them, attempting to keep her voice down.
"Oh trust me you two." Luz whispered. "It will work. I'm sure of it. It's like the ultimate distraction."
"And if it doesn't?" Eda whispered.
"Then I'm getting petrified." Luz whispered nonchalantly. "I just wished Amity, Ed and Em were here with us."
Eda felt sad seeing her apprentice like this, so she laid a hand on her shoulder, getting her attention onto her. "Well, kid, that's just how things are. You can't change everyone's minds, only they can. And given everything that they're going through. I honestly don't blame them for not stepping up."
"You have seen what Belos is like yourself, Luz." Bump whispered. "He has a way of getting into the minds of the weak willed and getting them to do his bidding through manipulation and deception."
"Yeah, that's true." Luz whispered.
"I'm sure Amity and her siblings will come to the rescue." Viney whispered. "We just have to be patient."
"And hopefully stall the trial unless they do decided to help." Jerbo whispered.
Hearing this caused Luz to brighten up a bit.
"Yeah, we just have to hope for the best." Luz whispered.
"That's my apprentice." Eda whispered as she ruffled the human girl's hair.
At last they made it to the court room which looked rather demonic, which was to be expected as this was the Boiling Isles with the barriers keeping the people of the jury and the people in court watching as well as the two representatives of both sides separated as the ground beneath them looked like the jawline of a demon's mouth with the the teeth acting as a barrier.
On the judge's desk was King in a small cage.
"Luz!" King cried out from his cage. "Get me out of here! I can't move my claws in here!"
"Don't worry, King!" Luz hollered out from the entrance. "We'll get you out of there, I promise!"
On one side was most of Belos' Coven, consisting of the Blight parents, Warden Wrath, some of his guards, Kikimora and some unknown Coven members. At the table in front of them was a human sized blue lizard who is acting as the emperor's lawyer.
On the opposite side was most of the Hexside students, which included Boscha and Skara (although it was rather reluctant for the three eyed girl as she wanted to see Luz get turned to stone, the reluctant part was actually going to the trial), both of Willow's fathers, Gus' dad and even some of the staff members of Hexside. In the table in front of them was a demon with green skin and a single eye acting as Luz's lawyer.
In the left corner, there was the jury that was filled with an assortment of monsters and ghouls.
In the far right corner stood the court stenographer, which was a four armed witch with six eyes.
As the group were pushed into the courtroom, the doors were immediately closed as two guards stood outside.
In a flash of light, Belos appeared in front of the courtroom before calmly taking his seat at the table next to Kiki, who was acting at his defendant.
"Hello, everyone. Shall we get this trial over with?" Belos asked condescendingly.
"To your seat, human." Wrath said as he snapped his fingers, causing to of his guards to grabbed a hold of Luz's arms.
"What the... Hey!" Luz protested.
"Let her go, you masked faced jerk wads!" Eda said as she attempted to pulled her friend free, only to be held back by Lilth.
"Calm down Edalyn, this isn't helping!" Lilth said as she struggled to her her older sister back.
Eda's eyes were filled with rage as some of the Emperor Coven's guards forcefully dragged Luz to her seat on the opposing table. Knowing that they're was nothing that she could do, she closed her eyes and calmly breathed through her nose to calm herself.
"Okay, I'm calm now. Thanks Lily." Eda said as Lilth released her grip before she approached her seat next to Luz.
With a fight prevented, everyone on Luz's side took their seats in their respective side.
In the chair high above them, another flash of light lit up the room forcing everyone to cover their eyes to avoid going blind.
When it settled, everyone opened their eyes and saw the judge.
It was someone in a black cloak with a large glass fishbowl that covered his face and his entire head, purple tentacles underneath his robe and a blue cape on the shoulder pads of said robe.
"Alright, now that everyone's here." The Judge Octopus said in a laid-back voice. "Let the trial of Luz Noceda and Emperor Belos commence."
With that, the judge took a gavel and slammed it down on pedestal, allowing the trial to begin.
I hope you all enjoy my first Owl House story and I'll try to finish publish the chapters as much as possible. See you all next time.