"Mamá, I…I know I shouldn't have left. I never meant to lie, and…and it wasn't because I…"

Camila swept her daughter up in a hug. Truth be told, she was absolutely petrified. She'd dreamed of Luz being back for months now, ever since she'd learned her daughter was trapped in another world, but this was like something out of a nightmare. All the light Luz had been named for had just dissipated from her eyes, and Camila couldn't shake the horrible feeling that this was her fault.

"Hey," Camila said gently. "Hey, we'll have time to talk later. I'm just so happy you're home."

"Yeah, I'm home," Luz muttered. "But they're not."

Luz started to walk away and then she turned back. "I really have to stay here? For good?"

Camila really did not want to have this discussion now. She didn't want to have it ever, frankly, but of course that was not possible. But she really didn't want to have it now at the very least, for both of their sakes. She was worried they'd end up saying things they'd both regret. "Sweetie, we can talk about this in the morning…"

"No!" Luz snapped. "No, I think I want to talk about it now. How can you tell me I can't go back? I found things in the Demon Realm I've never found here. A community. Belonging. People who loved me for who I am."

"You think I don't love you?" Camila said, her voice as cold as ice. A part of her cringed internally. This was precisely why she hadn't wanted to have this conversation now. But her emotions were running high now and she didn't want to back down.

Luz threw her hands up in frustration. "No, you're not listening! The people in that room like Luz." She pointed at the bedroom where Vee, Willow, and Amity were watching them with anxiety written all over their faces. Camila wasn't sure Luz had noticed that. "Not some sanitized version of me! Not some basilisk pretending to be me! ME! You sent me to that camp because you thought I needed to fit in a box! Well, I don't. And I never will, mami. Never."

"So your solution is to run off?" Camila snapped. "Again?!"

"If you let me go back, I won't have to run off!"

Camila shook her head. Luz wasn't understanding. Why couldn't she understand that Camila was just thinking of her welfare? "Luz. I cannot, in good conscience, let you run off to a land run by a totalitarian dictator who turns children into lab experiments, any more than I could let you run off to Iran or North Korea!"

"But Belos is dead!" Amity said, contributing to the conversation for the first time.

Vee let out a soft gasp. "Really? You…you saw the body?"

"He got splattered all over the wall," Willow said grimly. "Trust me, he's pretty damn dead."

Camila sighed. "Look, I'm pleased to hear that. After what he did to Vee, he deserves to burn in hell. But that doesn't make the Isles any safer. He's been in power for decades – if there's one thing my minor in history taught me, it's that when a dictator who's been in power that long, is that intrenched dies, it creates a power vacuum. We could be looking at a civil war."

Amity and Willow shared a look. "Well, I think everyone's going to be a bit too busy fighting the Collector to have a civil war," Amity offered, then winced.

"This is supposed to fill me with confidence?" Camila snarked. "Even if this Collector person is defeated, even if somehow a better government is installed, it's still a Demon Realm! Where the rain boils! And they have, what was it, Vee? Painbows?" Vee nodded. "Look, when you are an adult, you can make your own choices. But as long as you live here, as long as I am responsible for you, you are staying where your home is. With your real family."

There was a flurry of footsteps and then Gus and Hunter emerged from the basement. "What's all this ruckus?" Gus complained. "We were trying to get some sleep."

"Nothing," Camila said curtly. "We will talk more about this in the morning…"

Luz stomped her foot on the floor. "NO! No, we have to talk this out now! Please, mami! There has to be some way I can convince you. Some way I can show you how much the Isles mean to me."

Camila looked at her daughter carefully. Luz was on the verge of unraveling. Camila could sense it. If she pushed Luz too far, who knows what could happen? Not all of the danger to Luz was external. "Sweetheart, I don't really see how you can show me that right now," she said extremely gently. "You're exhausted. I can see you're nearing the end of your limits. You'll be able to put together a more reasoned argument with some sleep. I mean, unless you can show me your memories or something like that…" She smiled to indicate she was just joking.

Gus let out a gasp and ran down to the basement. When he returned, he was waving a small hand mirror. By the way Vee was reacting to it, it must have been some sort of magical artifact. "We can do just that, Camila!" he said. "With this, we can project our memories of Luz's time in the Isles!"

Camila frowned. "Like, onto our TV or something?"

"I have no idea what that is!" Gus said cheerfully.

Luz nodded. "Yeah, mami, we could probably do that! I…it's a lot. There's some there that doesn't, maybe doesn't make me look the best. Or the rest of us. But…you deserve to hear the whole story. If you promise me to keep an open mind and make your decision once you've seen it all, I'll go along with whatever you say."

Well, that certainly seemed like a much better solution than continuing to fight. And Camila had to admit she was extremely curious to see just what had been happening to Luz over the summer. "I promise to do that if we wait until the morning so you can get some sleep, mija."

"All right," Luz said. "Te quiero, mami."

"Te quiero, lucecita."