Luz struggled desperately, but even though the hands of the two assassins were rather small, they were both very strong and managed to hold her. "So where's the money?"

Luz shook her head and opened her hands, making it very clear that she had none. But the assassins didn't buy it. "Do you think we're stupid? We know you have money, we heard it jingling. If you don't want to tell us where it is, we'll find out ourselves!"

And while one of them held her, the other began to search her from head to toe, searching her pockets and even her shoes, but obviously they found nothing. "She must have thrown them away or hidden them around here!" they said. "Speak! Where are they?"

But Luz obviously didn't say a word. Then the assassin, furious at being ignored, brought the knife closer to her face. "Are you pretending to be mute, by any chance? Very well, as you wish. We will kill you and then we will find the money on our own. And then we will go and kill everyone you know, including your mother!"

"No, not my mom!" Luz screamed instinctively, and realized her mistake too late: despite immediately putting a hand in front of her mouth, the 'dlin-dlin' of the coins under her tongue was unmistakable.

"Uh, so you have them under your tongue!" the assassin who was threatening her exclaimed triumphantly. "Come on, open that mouth wide!"

But Luz obviously didn't obey and actually tightened her lips even more; even though she was now crying out of fear, she absolutely didn't want to lose the only money she had. Without it not only she wouldn't have been able to make a money tree grow in the Field of Miracles, but she wouldn't even have been able to buy her mother a new jacket, and even worse she wouldn't have been able to buy her spelling book again, and therefore her mother would have sacrificed her old jacket for nothing...

"Don't you want to cooperate? Whatever. I hope you'll enjoy the afterlife!" the assassin exclaimed and brought their knife down, hitting her on the forehead with the clear intent to kill her. Luz groaned in pain, but fortunately the wood she was made of was very hard and the assassin's knife couldn't penetrate more than a few centimetres; the killer growled in anger and used all their strength to swing the knife, creating a deep scar just above the puppet's left eyebrow, but then they gave up. "Damn! It'll take us forever to do this!"

"Forget it" the other assassin said. "She may be made of wood, but I can clearly see that she's breathing. Let's just hang her"

"That's right! You always have the best ideas!" the other assassin exclaimed with satisfaction, and they took a rope made from what looked like vines twisted together; with it they tied Luz's wrists securely and then made a noose which they placed around her neck. Then the two assassins hung the rope from a branch and prepared to pull the puppet up. Just at that moment, however, something fell to the ground in front of their feet; the two assassins' gaze lowered and they saw what looked like a golden coin. "Uh, looks like she's finally starting to spit out the money" one of them said, bending down to pick it up. "All it took was a little incitement and... hey!"

The coin slipped from their fingers and rolled away, as if it were alive. The assassin started chasing her and soon found themself jumping from side to side in an attempt to catch her, obviously in vain; their companion joined them very quickly. Taking advantage of their distraction, Willow flew towards Luz and landed on top of her. "Don't worry, I'll free you now!"

"Willow... why are you still here? You should run away!" Luz muttered under her breath.

"Did you expect us to leave you here? We don't abandon your friends!" Willow responded by quickly starting to gnaw at the ropes that tied the puppet's hands; crickets were creatures that already had very sharp pincers, and Willow had spent years training to pull weeds and invasive roots from the plant she lived in, so a rope made of vines didn't bother her at all.

Luz was touched that Willow was helping her; she had seriously thought for a moment that her friends had abandoned her. But she also knew that if the assassins found the cricket they would undoubtedly kill her. "You have to go! Just take Gus and run!"

"Forget it, I'm not leaving you here! It's not a negotiable choice!" Willow responded as she continued to gnaw on the strings. "And anyway, even if I wanted to, I would never be able to catch Gus while he's moving at that speed!"

"While he's moving...?" Luz didn't understand, but then she looked at the coin the two assassins were trying to grab. "Wait… that's Gus!?"

"That's right, he's using one of his illusionist tricks. Now stop talking, you're distracting me!" Willow responded hastily while trying in every way to cut the rope as quickly as possible.

The coin was in fact Gus himself: after the assassins had captured Luz, the spider immediately thought of a plan to save her. Willow had suggested jumping on the assassins' faces and beating them, but they both knew that the two criminals would get rid of them long before Luz could escape; so Gus had had an epiphany, or rather, he had remembered what that guy, Adrian, had told him earlier, that the best way to deceive someone was to use something they wanted. And since the assassins wanted money, Gus sought out a flower and soaked himself in pollen until he turned completely yellow, and then twisted his body and legs until he looked like an ordinary gold coin from above. Gold coin that had immediately attracted the attention of the assassins, distracting them long enough for Willow to free Luz.

Unfortunately, however, being able to move while maintaining this shape was not at all easy: Gus couldn't run on his eight legs as he normally did but only roll, pushing himself slightly with his hind legs. The result was that he initially managed to escape the assassins, but then he fell into a small hole from which it was impossible to simply roll out, and it was then that one of them grabbed him. "Gotcha! Look at that beautiful gold coin! Now let's go finish hanging that... AAAAGH!"

Not knowing what else to do, Gus had acted on instinct and bit the criminal's hand, who began to struggle to make him fall, but he didn't let go easily. "Damn, it's a yellow spider! They're poisonous!"

"Huh?" Gus wasn't poisonous, he was a very ordinary brown and black spider that would barely paralyze a fly, let alone kill an adult human; but now he actually resembled a yellow spider, which were instead known for their danger. Taking advantage of the misunderstanding, he jumped on the other assassin, who screamed in an attempt to shake him off because he was afraid of being bitten, and in getting agitated they collided with their companion, both ending up in a puddle. Unfortunately, however, the water washed away the pollen, and so when the two murderers resurfaced they realized the deception. "Damn, this bastard fooled us!" they exclaimed furiously. One of them, who was clearly the most angry, gave him a strong slap; Gus feared it would kill him, but instead the blow only sent him flying about ten meters into the air before he luckily landed on the soft surface of a flower, completely dazed. He managed to recover just in time to see that one of the two assassins had run towards him, raising their shoe to crush him, and he then found himself running from side to side to avoid being hit.

Meanwhile the other assassin had strode towards Luz and discovered Willow's presence. "Crickets too now? Die, you stupid insect!"

They started to raise their hand to crush Willow, but Luz suddenly moved and kicked them in the shins, so hard that she clearly heard a bone crack. The assassin screamed in pain and Willow took the opportunity to leap onto their face and target their eyes with a flurry of punches. The criminal was soon forced to retreat despite their anger, and for a moment Luz believed that Willow would be able to scare them away... but a cricket was no match for a human in terms of strength, and when by pure chance the assassin finally managed to slap Willow, the slap was so hard that the cricket's exoskeleton nearly shattered and she was thrown away like a grain of sand in a tornado. "Now you've tired me!" the assassin roared, and grabbed the rope with which they were about to hang Luz. "Die, you stupid puppet, and give us the coins!"

They pulled the rope with all their strength and Luz was dragged upward so hard that for a moment she feared she would break her neck; but even if this eventuality didn't occur, she soon began to feel suffocated. The noose prevented air from reaching the lungs; she struggled as much as she could in an attempt to free herself, but soon her strength began to abandon her. "LUZ!" was what Willow and Gus shouted at the same time.

The cricket took a leap and immediately flew towards the noose and resumed gnawing at it as fast as she could. "You again, you little insect!? This time I won't be gentle with you!" one of the assassins growled, but Gus caught up with them and jumped on them, resulting in the other assassin who was chasing him colliding with them and the two fell to the ground again. But obviously immediately afterwards they got up more furious than ever. Gus was sweating with fear, but despite this he didn't even think for a second about running away. "Willow, hurry and free Luz! I'll hold them..."

"OH MY GOSH, A BUG!"

Gus barely had time to look up before he saw what looked like a wingless owl with an immense mouth leaping at him, and he managed to dodge it at the last second. Only after he had escaped it he realized that what he had seen was only the owl's head and that its neck was so long that he couldn't see the end of it and it was moving like a snake. The two assassins screamed as soon as they saw it. "What is that monster!?"

"Ah! Intruders! I knew I heard someone!" the owl hollered in a rather annoying voice. "No one comes into my territory unless they're a friend! Get over it!"

The two terrified assassins ran away chased by that strange owl; even though she was now almost completely unconscious, Luz was still able to smile at that scene. Soon after Willow finally managed to cut the noose and the puppet fell to the ground. The last thing she saw before she passed out was what looked like the silhouette of a large bird landing next to her.

In the original book, Pinocchio is obviously not helped by anyone to free himself and is simply hanged by the assassins, but for some reason he manages to hold his breath all night and in the morning the assassins leave, promising to return the following night and asking him to get find dead; only at that point he finally faints and risks dying, but he is saved by the servants of the blue fairy. This version is clearly not plausible even if it is a fantasy story, so in this story Luz is actually hanged but only for a handful of minutes, enough to allow a human being to survive; she is also helped by Willow and Gus within the limits of their possibilities and in the end also by an unexpected intervention. There is also a further divergence: in the original book the assassins initially try to kill Pinocchio with knives, but they break on contact with the hard wood of the puppet; practically iron weapons don't even leave a mark on a wood body. This is also not plausible and therefore in this version the assassins leave Luz at least one scar; for those who haven't figured it out, it's the same scar on her eyebrow that in The Owl House she's been sporting since season two