Eda was taken a little by surprise by that question. "Why do you ask such a thing, kiddo?"
"Because… I hurt so many people" Luz muttered with a trembling voice. "I've always thought about myself and never about others... and Willow and Gus risked getting hurt because of me... and my mom... she probably..." she didn't even have the strength to finish the sentence.
Gus glared at Willow and clapped his paws together, as if to signal her to intervene. However, he didn't need to do so: the cricket felt too guilty when she saw the puppet's mortified face and heard her broken voice. Even though she wanted to remain stern and angry, she couldn't do it in the slightest. "Luz, I didn't mean..."
"Yes, you meant it! And you're right!" Luz exclaimed as she began to visibly tremble. "I never thought about it. I always took it for granted that you would be there to help me, and that Mom would be at home waiting for me and ready to forgive me for any mischief I did to her. I never considered how you must feel about running continuously on one side and the other to solve the problems I caused. I never thought about what risks you were exposing yourself to because of me. I have caused you so much sorrow... how can I not consider myself an evil person?"
"Now, now, don't overdo it" Willow tried to mollify her. "You're not an evil person..."
"Give me one good reason why I should think that I'm not" Luz told her looking her straight in the eyes.
Willow fell silent; she didn't know how to respond to such a direct and immediate request. But she didn't need to think about it, because the right words came out of her mouth almost by themselves: "Evil people have no remorse"
"Yeah, and they certainly don't cry" Gus added, stepping forward. "And they don't sacrifice themselves for others. It's true, you've gotten into trouble plenty of times, but every time Willow and I were in danger you tried to help us... and you were even willing to die to protect another person. This is not what an evil person would do"
Although her friends' words warmed her heart a little, Luz couldn't feel happy. It was as if her mind was surrounded by a dark fog that suffocated her. "But I... so far I've only hurt you. And I've only hurt my mom..."
The sound of Eda's loud clapping interrupted her. "Okay, that's enough. I've seen enough whining for one day, I don't think I could handle any more tears. I'd end up crying too and I have a reputation as a tough and unbreakable fairy to uphold" she said, then she stood up and took something from a shelf; when she returned, Luz clearly saw that she was now holding two small pliers in her hand. "Let me show you something, kiddo"
Before Luz could ask what Eda had in mind, the fairy inserted the two pliers into her left ear; for a moment she feared that they would hurt her, but instead she didn't even feel them, as if they weren't made of matter but of something completely different. A moment later Eda withdrew the pliers and Luz saw that they were holding what looked like a piece of black paper; the fairy shook it a little and an image appeared on it. Eda handed it to her and Luz was surprised to see that it was a picture of Camila. "This… what is it?"
"A memory of yours" Eda explained, twirling the pliers. "The human mind often tends to focus only on the negative things and forget about all the good things. It's a defense mechanism, if we want to call it that: if you remember the bad things better, you're less likely to run into them again. This, however, have the collateral effect that people often forget beautiful things... but luckily I have these little magical objects, which are able to take memories directly from the mind and give them shape. Now look at it carefully and tell me what you think"
Luz looked at the strange magical memory: it didn't take her long to recognize it, it was the first time her mother had discovered that she had come to life and they had sat at the table to talk. Camila was clearly confused like few times in her life, but the genuine smile on her face and her eyes filled with joy almost seemed to shine. Luz felt her stomach twist at the sight of that. "She seems… she seems really happy."
"Yeah. What were you doing at that time?" Eda asked her.
"Well... we were just talking" Luz answered truthfully.
"Exactly. You were just talking, and yet look how happy she was. She was so happy just because you came into her life" Eda said, then stuck the pliers in her ear again and pulled out another memory. "Let's watch another one, shall we?"
Luz grabbed the second memory; this time it showed the moment they returned home after she, Gus and Willow went to help Camila get rid of the Principal. The woman was scolding her, but there was still a strong hint of affection and gratitude towards the puppet in her eyes. And when she finished scolding her she returned to smiling even more than before.
Eda pulled out a third memory; this time it showed the moment Camila brought her the spelling book. The woman was without her jacket and was clearly cold, but just because Luz was hugging her, it felt like she was being warmed by the heat of a thousand suns. She had such an intense and smiling expression on her face that she seemed to have discovered the formula for absolute happiness. Finally a faint smile emerged on the puppet's face again as he looked at the memory. "Still convinced that you have only caused her sorrow?" Eda asked her.
Luz held the memories tighter, and for a moment she almost feared tearing them away. "But… this was before I… well… skipped school and…"
"And what should have changed? From what I see here you almost had your mother arrested, and yet look how happy she is anyway!" Eda pointed out. "Don't underestimate a mother's love, Luz, and above all don't underestimate your ability to make others happy. You have the gift of shining like a little sun whenever you want, you just too often forget to do it"
The smile on Luz's face grew wider, although her eyes were still quite sad. "Can I really... make others happy?"
"Do you still need to ask?" Eda said, and pulled another memory from Luz's mind; this time it wasn't about Camila, but rather it was the time when she was getting ready for school and was talking to Gus and Willow; both the spider and the cricket had very smiling faces, as if just exchanging a few words with Luz was enough to make them happy. They weren't saying anything important to each other, they were just wishing the puppet a good day and she was promising to tell them anything that happened at school, yet from their expressions it seemed like they were talking about the fact that after a year of famine the ears of corn were grown again. Well, maybe that was a bit excessive, but the level wasn't far off.
"Hey, I remember this moment well!" Gus exclaimed as he jumped onto Luz's shoulder and looked at the memory as well. "It feels like yesterday... oh, wait, it was actually yesterday. Dawn, it feels like forever..."
"It was a really nice moment" Willow said as she reached her friend, then she looked at him with an evil smile. "And by the way… now I remember that you also made a little statement at the time, right?"
It took Gus a moment to realize what the cricket was referring to, and when he did he looked down. "Fine, a deal is a deal. Remind me tomorrow, I'll ask Hooty to get me a shoe to munch on"
"Hooty?" Luz murmured. "Weren't you afraid of him?"
"Yeah, but he and I became friends... sort of. You needed my help with, you know, the nose thing, and I needed Hooty's help getting to Eda, so I got up the courage and I talked to him, and I found out he wasn't bad at all" Gus explained to her, then his eyes lit up: "There, see? Thanks to you I got over my fear of birds and made a new friend Of course, I'm not saying that you were right to tell all those lies, but in a certain sense it's thanks to you that I feel braver now"
Willow scratched her head, then she flew directly in front of the puppet's eyes. "Luz... I won't take back what I said just now, because it's all true. You're the living definition of a loose cannon, and I'm one hundred percent sure you'll get up to another mischief tomorrow" she told her, and Luz blushed visibly and looked down in shame. "But... thanks to you I finally had the courage to leave Camila's shop after all these years. The last two days in which I was finally able to fly free in the air were the most intense and at the same time the most extraordinary of my life. And it's true, I've risked my life a lot of times, and I think I've lost count of all the times I thought I was going to die... but those brief moments when I gathered courage and took punching those guys, I finally felt stronger than I ever had before. And then..." Willow bit her lip, and then she said: "Every time you stepped in to help me, instead of thinking about yourself... I felt like I actually had a friend besides Gus for the first time in my life. The fact that you were there tripping those circus guards or kicking those murderers to help me, instead of trying to free you and run away... it made me feel happy. And I know for a fact that if I were in trouble, you wouldn't hesitate for an instant to come to my aid. Because that's who you are, Luz: you're a mess and a reckless person, but you have a heart of gold. And... personally, I don't mind spending time with you at all, despite all the times I want to give you a slap on the wrist. I would have already gone away otherwise"
Luz's eyes sparkled and the smile on her face became almost as wide as her face. "Really...? You two... do you really think of me like that?"
"We may be alone and friendless, but we're not so desperate as to run after someone we can't stand" Gus told her with a chuckle. "We love you, Luz, just as much as you love us. Although we would appreciate if you would try to get your head straight"
If she hadn't been afraid of crushing them, Luz would have grabbed Willow and Gus and pulled them into a hug. The darkness that had enveloped her heart until a few moments ago had vanished, leaving only a strong warmth in her chest.
"See? Did it take that long to smile again?" Eda said as she continues to pull memories from Luz's head. "Look here, even that grumpy Bump seems happy in your presence... hey, wait a minute! Why the hell does he have this hair!? He's a decrepit old man full of ailments, so why does he have this thick black hair, while I, who am younger, now have all my hair gray and white!? He has to dye it, it can't be natural! Come on, what kind of justice is this!?"
Luz burst out laughing at seeing the fairy get angry like that; her laughter was so contagious that soon Willow and Gus were laughing too and Eda, despite being furious with her own genetics for what she had just seen, couldn't help but smile. "I still think you're a really weird fairy" Luz admitted.
Eda shrugged. "Oh, there's no doubt about that. But if I can make you laugh, then I don't mind being weird at all"
Luz couldn't help but laugh again, then she let out a yawn. Despite the irality, the tiredness was seriously trying to take her to dreamland. Her tired body was literally begging her for some rest. Eda noticed and made her lie down again. "Now sleep, kiddo. Tomorrow is another day"
Luz fell asleep within moments. Eda started to leave, but something stopped her: she looked down and saw that the puppet had unconsciously shaken her hand again. Eda's heart was taken by emotion and although she tried to keep her face stoic she couldn't stop a small tear from falling from her eyes. Maybe Gus was right and she really sucked as a fairy godmother, but she didn't regret at all having given life to that so naughty and at the same time so loving puppet.
I wanted to write these two chapters to show some fundamental traits of the characters, first of all that Luz, unlike the original Pinocchio, is able to understand when she makes mistakes and above all feels remorse for her wrongdoings, especially if they afflict other people like her friends. Secondly, it served me to show a greater construction of the relationship between Eda and Luz (in the original book there is almost no hint between how the relationship between Pinocchio and the blue fairy was born, they simply choose to love each other like they were siblings and that's it) and how Eda, despite being very strict when she has to punish Luz, still loves her very much and knows how to cheer her up, and above all that unlike everyone else she doesn't just consider her a bad girl but is actually aware that she has both qualities and defects (even if the defects are many). Finally, it served to further delineate Luz's relationship with Gus and Willow, who sincerely care about her given that, as Willow herself admits, otherwise they wouldn't have worked so hard to help her; this demonstrates how close the three friends are. Oh, and then it was a good opportunity to make a little reference to the canon The Owl House: the pliers that Eda uses are in fact the same ones that are used in the first season to extract Willow's memories, with the difference that these are less dangerous and they don't risk causing you to lose your memory if you accidentally ruin the photos.