A/N: Okay. So... apparently, I got confused about when I last updated this fic, and I blame the fact that the site follows the month/day/year format rather than the day/month/year format, which I'm used to. Thought I'd updated this fic two weeks ago, but it was actually nearly three, so... oops? XD Not that it matters anyways. I initially held off from updating too quickly because of the site glitching out with multiple things, including the traffic stats. But it looks like it's starting to be fixed today, so I saw that as enough reason to update this fic with a little bit of pushing. Quick reminder for last chapter: when we last left off, Luz had found out something about Lizzie and Xander from Principal Bump, while Lizzie and Xander both got caught up in the mess of the mystery OC whom they started to pursue. Chapter 39 is going to follow on from those events, with Chapter 40 hopefully ending the thirteenth episode so we can move on to episode fourteen; yes, I am using that one too. Sorry. :P I'll save my comments on the various events that are going to occur for the bottom of the chapter, as there will be quite a bit to unpack here.

In the meantime, thank you to everyone who has been favouriting, following, reviewing and reading this fanfiction. Your continued support is greatly appreciated. Had a hard time trying to see what was going on because of the broken view counter, but I am grateful for the attention I was able to see from the other stats. I'd also like to give a special thank you to WolfOfMusic101 for finally removing that disgusting troll review from the top of the reviews section. The admins have yet to remove it, but at least now it won't be the first thing people see when they enter the reviews section.

I hope you guys enjoy what this chapter has to offer.


Chapter 39: Messy Misunderstandings

Until she'd seated herself in the classroom that belonged to 'Potions 101', Luz's enthusiasm for what she was about to learn somehow managed to stay intact.

Her initial entry into the classroom exposed her to two rows of wooden desks—three per row—on the far-right side of the vertical room, containing two square stools with blue cushions behind each and one wooden desk at the front of the room where the stone floor slightly raised from the rest, with a rectangular blackboard stretched along the length of the wall behind it. However, Luz was quick to notice that the room didn't house as many students as she'd expected, with only five students in the same uniform as her (not including herself) scattered about at each desk (barring the middle one on the row next to the windows) and the teacher—a female creature with pallor-like skin, chin-length blue hair (or was it green? She wasn't sure), a beak for a nose and tiny, round spectacles perched atop it, dressed in a yellow outfit and hat with black sleeves and a red collar—being present.

Okay, she thought. It's no big deal. She could just make some new friends some other day, right? She was here to see what Hexside had to offer, after all, especially considering she was getting a good feeling at seeing the little chalk drawings of various sized potion vials and the words 'Let's mix it up!' on the board. And with those thoughts in mind, she'd settled on the only empty desk available, sitting in the seat closest to the windows with her back straight, a smile on her face, and her hands clasped on the desk, already attentive and ready to learn.

After a brief introduction, the Potions teacher announced that their first lesson was going to be about creating 'Fog Brew', making Luz fidget and nearly spring from her seat with a loud shriek of excitement. Fog Brew? She didn't know what that was. Not surprising, considering the focus of Eda's potions business was on homemade potions for remedies, which was what she was frequently used to seeing Lizzie make outside of her own magic-mixing concoctions. Still, she couldn't ignore the giddy feeling bubbling away in her stomach when the teacher went between the desks with small black cauldrons and recipe books, her mind drowning out the rest of the teacher's explanation at turning her gaze to the ceiling and placing a hand under her chin with a satisfied sigh. She allowed her imagination to run wild at the prospective ingredients she'd be mixing, prompting the witches from the play Macbeth to come to mind: eye of newt, toe of frog, wool of bat, tongue of dog, and so on. Would she be mixing anything similar, she wondered? It sounded like something the Boiling Isles would do too, wouldn't it? Eda did tell her a lot of their myths in the Human Realm was a little bit of the Demon Realm leaking in—

Thump.

Luz flinched and snapped to attention when her cauldron and recipe book were plonked on the desk in front of her, with the latter already opened onto the pages for Fog Brew. But that wasn't all. She raised a brow at seeing a row of thin vials filled with varying colourful liquids in a wooden holder beside the cauldron, prompting her to call out to the teacher just as she was about to move to the last desk at the front of her row.

"Excuse me," she said with the quick raise of her hand, managing to get the teacher to stop and look back with a forced blink. Luz lowered her hand to point towards the vials. "What's this?"

"The ingredients for Fog Brew," the teacher explained with a smile, turning around enough to tap a finger against the opened pages of the recipe book on her desk. "See? Says so right there."

Luz picked up the recipe book in both hands and gave the cursive pencil writing a skim-read, along with a quick glance over the pencil drawings of the glowing amber-yellowy solution itself (she had to rub at her eyes at one point to make sure she wasn't seeing things, because she swore it looked a little similar to Eda's elixir in colour, just with more orange). Sure enough, the teacher was right: the drawing of Fog Brew further proved this, showing a depiction of both a full round vial of the potion and a smashed vial with shading coloured smoke rising from its remains.

It was literally just fog.

"B-But—" Luz stuttered as she lowered the book and blinked widely at the teacher, holding one hand out towards it as if to prove her next point. "Don't potions have ingredients using body parts of creatures? Or plants? Why aren't we making potions with those?"

And Luz knew she was right. She'd watched Lizzie and Eda using such ingredients when they'd make their potions. Heck, she still remembered seeing Eda with that large blue forearm on her second day in the Owl House!

The teacher leaned back with a loud gasp while adjusting her spectacles by their frames, recovering swiftly with the shake of her head. "Oh, no, no, no!" She waggled her finger with a faint scowl. "Those potions are far too complex and dangerous for beginners." The teacher twirled on her heels and continued towards the front of the room. "You won't be learning to make potions like those until next year."

"Next year?" Luz repeated with the slight raise of volume in her voice, only to groan and faceplant the pages of her book, muffling her next words. "But I'll be back in the Human Realm by then…"

Of course, her muffled plea fell on deaf ears.

Once the last student had received their supplies, the other students of the potions class wasted no time in getting stuck in and following the instructions in their recipe books. Luz, meanwhile, kept her head in her book for a little longer before eventually lifting it after a few minutes had passed. Her eyes drooped with a quiet huff as they turned to the recipe for Fog Brew, simultaneously reading the instructions while automatically moving her hands for one of the vials and the wooden spoon sticking out of the cauldron.

"Liz was right: potion making isn't very exciting to watch when it's just mixing liquid," Luz mumbled, forcing a smile as she selected a vial of orange liquid and leaned closer to the cauldron to pour it in. "Still, I can spend the rest of my life studying this, right? Liz and Eda did it."

But the reflection of the lip twitching Latina teen she saw staring back at her in the bubbling and steaming water proved she was just lying to herself. She couldn't spend the rest of her time in the Demon Realm doing this. Still, it didn't stop Luz from pouring the entire contents of the liquid from the vial into the water, watching it swirl and dissolve to begin creating the potion.

"It probably wouldn't be so bad if we were allowed to mix magic with this," Luz muttered under her breath with the roll of her eyes.

It took a few seconds before her head snapped up with a wide blink, picturing the imaginary lightbulb that indicated she had an idea flashing on above her head.

Luz recalled that some time prior to their trip to the Knee, after she'd mastered all the main uses of her light glyph, she'd enquired with Lizzie during one of her potion making sessions in their shared room about whether she could try mixing her light glyph with an ordinary light potion. And while Lizzie had been intrigued by the idea, she'd been reluctant to indulge Luz in attempting an actual experiment to see if it was possible.

'I see where you're coming from,' she'd said to the young human while she'd kept her eyes focused on her work from behind her goggles. 'In theory, given what we know about the glyphs currently, there is a chance it could work the same way as with our magic. But I think we should hold off on that for a bit.'

'Why?' Luz had asked with raised brows and the tilt of the head from where she'd been sitting cross-legged opposite Lizzie. 'We could learn something more about my magic technique if we tried, right?'

'But it could also lead to unpredicted disasters,' Lizzie had explained while she'd paused what she was doing to look Luz in the eyes. 'The book said the magic was drawn from the environment when the witches of old would use it. That suggests to me we could be dealing with powerful magic. The lack of information at present is probably going to cause more harm than good if we aren't able to prep for it, hence why I think it's not worth trying for now.' Luz had pouted and slumped her shoulders at that, until Lizzie had given her a small smile and reached over to give the younger girl a rough pat on the head. 'Don't look so glum. It's just until we can find some more information on the glyphs, okay? Can't risk anything happening to you before you manage to learn any new spells, can we?'

Luz had relented after Lizzie's little attempt at a joke to lighten her mood; after all, she had made a valid point. But that was with the light glyph, wasn't it?

"Ice is just frozen water," Luz whispered as she reasoned with herself, continuing to follow the instructions from the recipe book and stir the potion inside the cauldron with the wooden spoon. "And when water heats up… it creates condensation, which is fog." She occasionally added the contents of the other vials when she needed to do so, continuing with her stirring and watching the liquid in the cauldron gradually turn the amber-like colour like the drawing in the book. "So, if I was to add my ice glyph to this Fog Brew… maybe I could create that thing that happens when it's foggy during freezing temperatures." She paused to furrow her brow and scratch at her chin with a finger. "What was it called again? Freezing fog?"

After a moment, Luz shrugged her shoulders and gave up trying to remember, eventually allowing her eyes to dart about the classroom while she kept up her stirring. The other students were preoccupied with their potion making and the teacher was back at the desk at the front of the room reading a book, sights that made Luz smile smugly.

A hand slipped into one of the pockets of her tunic, eventually pulling out a square piece of paper with an ice glyph drawn on it between her middle and index fingers. The Latina gave the other students and teacher another brief glance to make sure they were still occupied before she knelt on her stool, leaning over the cauldron and finally stopping her movement to rest the wooden spoon against the side of the cauldron. In response to her halted actions, she saw green fog slowly beginning to form and emit from the liquid inside the cauldron, but she paid it no heed—the instructions said she needed to stir it a little longer, but that was only going to happen once she added her extra and special ingredient.

"This is it, Luz," she whispered to herself with a quick deep breath, positioning one hand over the cauldron holding her paper glyph downwards so the symbol was facing the bubbling solution. "Time to see if this will help you reach your true magical potential…"

Meanwhile, in the corridor where the classroom was, Bump happened to be strolling through with his hands behind his back, his gaze occasionally wandering round his surroundings. He was doing a last minute check to make sure everything was in order before the arrival of the Emperor's Coven inspector, and so far it seemed like it was. Everything seemed quiet, everything seemed calm, which is exactly what he was hoping for.

And then, just as he was approaching the doorway to the classroom for 'Potions 101'… a loud bang sounded, immediately accompanied by a mixture of startled cries from the classroom's occupants and a sudden flash that forced Bump to a halt with a wide blink.

"What the…?" The aging principal stated in shock, his brow furrowing as he tried to process what he'd just witnessed.

It took a few seconds before he could bring himself to close the distance and enter the classroom, only to stop in the doorway with a gasp at the sight he was met with.

From the middle desk of the farthest row in the classroom, there was a faint white shroud of fog currently surrounding that area. Thin layers of ice stretched across the right side of the desk and up the bottom half of the middle window within that general area, with traces of rime having formed on the desk's edges. The recipe book and cauldron on the desk had, unfortunately, also become enveloped in layers of ice and rime, making it seem as though they'd been left out in the snow overnight and become frozen as a result.

The other five students in the classroom were currently stood out of their seats and staring wide-eyed at the current scene themselves, with the teacher frozen like a statue behind her desk with her spectacles having fallen off her face (she'd literally jumped out of her seat when the explosion occurred). The only oddball of the bunch was, of course, the culprit behind said explosion: Luz Noceda. Said Luz had dropped backwards off her stool when the ensuing explosion occurred, leaving her currently sat on the floor beside her toppled stool, staring up at her mess with a small gape until she'd heard the familiar gasp in the doorway.

Luz's head immediately whipped towards Bump, the action causing the aging principal to catch sight of the pieces of paper that was in the young Latina's lap.

It didn't take a genius to work out what had just happened, nor did it take a genius to realise that Luz was about to be in big trouble. The moment she saw Bump straighten out his posture and narrow his eyes at her, Luz let out a forced chuckle and shrugged her shoulders, only able to bring herself to say the following:

"Heh… Oops?"

Bump's expression didn't change, which Luz took as a sign to lose the smile and gulp thickly.

Yup. She was in big trouble now. And on her first day too.


Since the chase of the doppelganger had begun, Lizzie had struggled to keep track of anything that was going on around her the whole time she was being pulled along by Xander. But then again, it wasn't like she would have been able to the moment she'd noticed the strange shift in her cousin's behaviour.

Amidst the palpitations thudding furiously in her ears to drown out Bonesborough's lively chatter and their footsteps against the cobbled streets, all the while giving her the much needed push to continue moving, the medieval and monster-like houses and the various creatures they passed by melded together in a colourful blur within her peripheral vision, her green eyes never leaving the wrist being grasped in the hand of the witch who was the result of her trauma, and the same witch who had threatened to send her to the Conformatorium on more than one occasion. He had shown disrespect towards her on multiple occasions, whether behind her back or to her face. And that was just what she remembered of Xander Blackwood. The vague recollections she still had of Hexside bully matched up with his behaviour, so she knew this was supposed to be a normal thing between them. And yet… why had he grabbed her? Why had he helped her? She was convinced this wasn't supposed to be normal for him, but considering what she'd seen and heard during that crow phone call, that feeling she'd had at seeing him out of uniform and interacting with Bandit for the first time and that one flash of memory she'd had at the Knee… was she missing something?

Those thoughts were interrupted by her blended surroundings growing predominately red, something the blonde witch didn't notice straight away until the thudding in her ears began to die down, exposing her to the sounds of crunching leaves and light thumps on hardened dirt underneath her feet. The younger blonde shook her head back and forth with a wide blink and finally broke her gaze from her tranced state, allowing it to wander upwards. Her eyes widened at the red leaved canopies from the arched treetops towering over them, her jaw slacking the moment it clicked where the pair now were.

'Wait. Are we in the forests now?' And sure enough, her question was answered properly when she glanced ahead of her and Xander, where she thought she could see the blue cloak of her assaulter swaying behind them as they continued fleeing from them, now a little further ahead of them than they were before. 'How long have we been running?!'

The answer to her second question came when their sunlit surroundings breaking through the trees was soon disappearing, being replaced with a dark overcast that could have convinced the unsuspecting traveller it was already night-time if they didn't know any better. The usually vibrant tree trunks gradually exposed faded colours, with many containing snapped branches or having bony finger-like twigs attached to their ends instead of the bloodied leaves Lizzie was used to seeing. And it only got worse the further they went inside, with the usually flat landscape raising at the sides of the path they were following like an uneven slope, exposing large clumps of dirt and large tree roots that curled or wrapped round the rocky and red grassy terrain like snakes, mostly likely as a result of some of the trees growing in awkward positions instead of straight up in their attempt to find the nutrients they needed from the sun.

It was obvious to Lizzie now that they were no longer anywhere near Bonesborough. But that did beg the question…

'Where are we now?'

Xander's loud gasping brought Lizzie's attention to her cousin's face, her eyes growing wide at seeing how greasy and pale it looked. She could literally see the droplets of sweat glistening under the faint bits of sunlight managing to streak through to light up their path.

Eventually the pair's pacing began to slow down, and before Lizzie knew it, she was breathing heavily and coming to her stop, forced to lean forward and grip at her thighs to stay balanced. Her former adrenaline suddenly dropped the moment her movement ceased, causing her body to be hit by a barrage of pulsing aches in her limbs and back. When was the last time she'd ran for a long period of time? Probably during the 'the-day-that-they-agreed-not-to-discuss', she imagined. She recalled spending a good portion of that day chasing after Eda and King, along with fleeing from her own problems.

'Yeesh. I feel like I'm about to collapse.'

Xander, meanwhile, collapsed to his knees and released her wrist, bending forward with his upper body hunched over the ground and his hands keeping him up against the dirt. Bandit (who had stayed clinging to Xander's shoulders this whole time) shrieked and shuffled closer to his owner, nuzzling the top of his head against his closest cheek to try to comfort him.

"Curses!" he hissed breathlessly, daring to lift his gaze in the direction of where his doppelganger was.

They couldn't see them anymore, but the two could still hear the light footfalls of the thief gradually getting quieter and quieter until the silence lingering around them engulfed it entirely, indicating they were probably long gone.

"Ugh!" Lizzie finally lifted her head at hearing Xander's grunt of frustration, just in time to witness him weakly smack his palm at the hardened dirt path. "They got away! How were they so fast?!"

Xander listened to his breathless shouts ring out as an echo amidst the eerie silence before he allowed his posture to slump. Lizzie silently observed him sit back on his legs and stare at the leaf-less branches looming over them in the darkness, with only their heavy breathing filling in the absence of the usual noises one would have heard while being out in the forests, like the tweeting of birds, the faint buzzing of insect-like creatures, the occasional rustle of shrubbery or leaves from the trees. The creepy and seemingly abandoned atmosphere caused the blonde to shudder, prompting her to temporarily bring her thoughts to the reason why they were here to try to mitigate the uneasiness of their surroundings…

So much had gone on during that time that she hadn't had time to properly process why this person looked so much like Xander and why they'd targeted her specifically. But now that she finally had a chance to think about it…

'They knew about my potions.' Lizzie briefly broke away from Xander in favour of looking at her satchel, the recollection of seeing one of her explosive potion vials in the culprit's hand as they'd retracted. 'Does that mean they know who I am? And Xander…' She turned her gaze back to her tired cousin still being comforted by his palisman partner with a furrowed brow. 'They looked exactly like him. Was it some kind of illusion magic?' After a brief pause, her brow furrowed further at recalling Xander's fist making contact with the culprit's face, eventually shaking her head to dispel the thought. 'Nah. If that was the case, wouldn't the illusion have disappeared the moment the punch caught the caster off guard? Assuming they were the caster…'

A hand reached down to the wrist Xander had grabbed to give it a rub, her eyes never leaving her older cousin.

'And I still don't know why he grabbed me and brought me along, let alone helped me. Was it because the culprit took something of mine?'

Lizzie's internal question ended her train of thought as Xander looked towards her once he'd finally caught his breath and they locked eyes, causing him to raise a brow after a moment of silence.

"What?" Xander asked with a hint of annoyance. "What are you looking at?"

Lizzie blinked widely at the question and suddenly straightened up, naturally caught off guard by it. A question of her own soon left her mouth before she realised it.

"Why did you try to protect me and then bring me with you?"

Xander's reaction was delayed, yet the second Lizzie's words seemed to process in his head, his visible eye nearly bulged from its socket. The older blonde leapt to his feet at feeling the heat rush to his face, with Lizzie raising a brow at seeing his cheeks turn a bright red before he raised his arm to try to cover it. Bandit squeaked loudly out of surprise at the movement and clung to his owner's shoulder like his little life depended on it.

"W-Why is that so surprising to you?!" Xander stuttered and shouted as he turned his head away, his lone eye darting all over the place like he was trying to think of an excuse for doing what he did. "I-I am a coven scout for the Emperor's Coven, after all! It's been drilled into me to protect and help innocent civilians! What I did was just a force of habit!"

"Oh~?" Lizzie allowed a smirk to slip onto her face at witnessing Xander's embarrassment, putting her hands to her hips as she gave the older witch a look from head-to-toe. "That's hard to believe considering you've used dirty tactics that I'm pretty sure go against the noble code you're claiming the scouts go by~."

Xander scowled at that and folded his arms, with the red colour in his face slowly draining away as a sign of him beginning to calm down. That didn't stop his next words from coming out as a grumble. "Yeah, well, you should know by now that if it had been up to me, I would never have bothered joining them in the first place…"

Lizzie's eyes went wide with a slight gape at the last thing Xander said. A faint pang struck her chest the moment Xander's words seemed to conjure part of his conversation on the crow phone that she'd overheard on that day, especially because of how similar it was to a specific part she recalled him saying.

'You're the one who keeps making me go behind my superior's back! Are you trying to get me into trouble?!'

'Wait… Don't tell me… The 'sir' he was speaking with on that day…' But then Lizzie's expression relaxed, her brow furrowing at the last thing he'd said when she went over it in her head again. 'Wait a sec. What did he mean by 'you should know by now'—?'

A loud click of a pair of fingers brought Lizzie back to reality with a wide blink, prompting her to see Xander had moved closer to her face with a faint frown. "Oi! Boiling Isles to Elisabeth? You still there, or have you gone off with the pixies?"

Lizzie huffed at the sarcasm and lightly raised the back of her hand to swat Xander's away, returning her gaze to the path up ahead with drooped eyes.

"It's nothing." She didn't see the point in retorting. Knowing how they both were, they'd wind up bantering until the sun went down. "Although, I'd appreciate an explanation about what's going on with your 'fake'." Lizzie turned to Xander again while jabbing a thumb in the direction they'd just gone on. "My memory might be messed up, but I'm sure there's only supposed to be one of you…"

Xander rolled his eye and stepped away with a hand to his hip. "Hardy-har. Still not dropping the ruse, huh?" Lizzie's eye twitched at his sarcastic response. But after a moment or so, Xander scowled and ran his fingers through his hair. "But being serious? I have no clue either."

Lizzie's brows raised with a wide blink. "Wait, really?"

"Uh-huh." Xander turned his gaze towards the path, his lone eye narrowing like he was attempting to see past the overcast to find the culprit. "They bumped into me in the marketplace. And then next thing I know, those demon hunters were upon me and accusing me of biting one of them."

"… Biting?" Lizzie repeated with a squint. "Is that why he was trying to break your bones?"

Xander nodded at recalling the injury he'd been shown. "I can only guess 'my double' attacked him and they were chasing them until they ran into me. But even they should have been able to tell I hadn't done it, because those teeth marks didn't match up with mine at all."

"What do you mean?"

Xander faced Lizzie and held out his left wrist close to the younger blonde, tapping both sides of it once. "There were only two tiny punctures to his skin here and here. But I'm certain they were probably from a pair of fangs. And last I checked I don't have fangs." He then proceeded to pull the skin of his lips apart to expose his teeth, continuing to talk sarcastically despite how muffled his words sounded. "See?"

Lizzie released a snort before she even realised, her hand flying to cover her amused smile too late. The reaction left Xander furrowing his brow and gaping a bit as he let his lips go, naturally having not expected it. But Lizzie thought she saw the older blonde start rubbing a hand at his chest before she regained her composure with a short breath, her hands going to her satchel strap.

'I have to admit… it's weird seeing him act like this. But I suppose it's better than him getting all up in my face.'

"But you didn't know the fake prior to the theft then. That's strange," she eventually said through a sigh, her eyes flitting to her satchel against her side. "I thought if they'd been associated with you in some way, it'd make sense why they stole one of my potions. But since you don't… how did they know about them? And why did they take one?"

"Are you sure they couldn't be someone you're associated with?" Xander asked with a raised brow, a hand going to his hip. "I mean… you're with the Owl Lady. Titan knows the kinds of criminals she knows." Lizzie squinted and proceeded to focus back on Xander to lightly flick his closest ear, causing the older blonde to shut his eye and cover it with a hand. "Hey!"

"First of all, please don't insult Eda in my presence. And second of all, she doesn't know any illusionists or shapeshifters." Lizzie frowned at her own words for a few seconds before shaking her head. "At least as far as I'm aware."

"Shapeshifters?" Xander repeated. "You think they could be a shapeshifter?"

Lizzie's expression relaxed with the shrug of her shoulders. "I mean… that would explain why nothing happened when you punched them. As strong as illusions are, if they had been the sole caster, they would have dropped their guard after you hit them in the face."

"But illusions are capable of interacting with physical objects," Xander replied as he turned his gaze down to his feet, stroking his chin with a hand. "So, there is also the possibility that this imposter isn't working alone."

Lizzie's brows raised at Xander's comments, yet she decided not to say anything out loud about it. He was being surprisingly co-operative, so the last thing she wanted was to ruin the peace that had momentarily sprouted between them, as if it was supposed to be an unwritten truce.

'Yeesh. He's got good knowledge on magic for someone who struggled to master potions without it. But then again… I suppose he would be, considering he's in the Emperor's Coven.' She scratched at her cheek with a finger, her own gaze now downcast. 'He does make a point, though. We've assumed until now that the culprit is working solo, yet it never occurred to me that they could be working with others. Of course, we don't have proper evidence at this point to work anything out. So, how exactly can we—?'

A familiar, gargled cry of pain echoed from the path ahead, causing Lizzie to jump and turn her body to face the noise when this was followed by loud spluttering and further whimpers of agony, as if someone was attempting to spit something foul out of their mouth. The blonde witch's blood ran cold the second she identified the familiar cries to be Xander's voice, causing the colour in her face to drain and the palpitations giving rise in her chest. She didn't need to go over there to realise what had happened, because the sounds were already giving her a clue, and she blamed Hooty for being so familiar with them.

'Don't tell me… they actually…'

Xander's recalled words from that night in the library were already springing to life in her head, forcing Lizzie to droop forward with her eyes squeezed shut, a palm flying to her head as his voice now played alongside the horrified face she saw earlier.

'AGH! MY FACE! IT BURNS! ELISABETH, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!'

"Oi!" Xander's voice sliced through her consciousness as two hands gripped tightly at Lizzie's shoulders, harshly pulling her upright so she was looking her older cousin dead in the eye while he scowled at her. "Pull it together, Elisabeth."

Lizzie blinked repeatedly and shook her head until she felt a tiny, furry nudge against her cheek. She caught Bandit sitting on her right shoulder with a tilted head, prompting her to squint at the ferret palisman for a few seconds at the déjà vu she got from his reaction. Hadn't Bandit done something similar when they were stuck in that carriage together?

'I wonder why he keeps doing that…'

At seeing Lizzie's sense of reality had come back to the Demon Realm, Xander huffed and smacked a hand to the top of his head, his visible eye drooping in dismay. "Yeesh. What has gotten into you today? I've never known you to space out so much."

Lizzie scrunched her face up at the comment, her snappy reply leaving her mouth without giving herself a chance to process it.

"Well, it's kind of hard not to when they look like you and happened to steal the potion that I—" Lizzie smacked a palm to her mouth to interrupt herself, with Xander gaping at seeming to realise what she was about to say. In the end, though, the younger blonde shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, eventually speaking in a low voice once she'd dropped her hand away. "Never mind." Xander silently watched Lizzie start to jog on ahead, with Bandit staying settled on her shoulder. "C'mon. I have a feeling the culprit has just tried to drink my potion."

'Which is making me question if they actually know anything about my potions, after all…'

The older blonde wasted no time in following his younger cousin, her words from a moment ago still swirling around in his head while his left hand reached up to his eyepatch to give it a quick rub.

"Was she about to…?" he purposely mumbled to stop Lizzie from hearing him, only to shake his head and drop his hand away. "Not the time, Xander."

The two witches followed the pathway until they found themselves approaching a gigantic tree with faded bark and exposed roots seemingly blocking their path, prompting the pair to slow down and briefly allow their gazes to follow it towards the purple sky. Unlike the other trees around it, Lizzie could see it was the tallest one, yet like its brethren it looked just as unhealthy and lacking any foliage whatsoever.

'Wait a minute…'

Lizzie squinted and gave the tree another look from top to bottom, tilting her head a little to the side. She couldn't put her finger on it, but she swore there was something… familiar about this tree. She was certain she'd never stepped foot in this part of the forests outside of Bonesborough. If that were true, she would have recognised the area almost immediately back there too. So then why did it feel like she'd already known something about this particular tree?

Gagging from an unfamiliar but feminine voice brought Lizzie's and Xander's attention towards the base of the tree, where Lizzie's eyes immediately widened at sighting a discarded glass vial and cork close to the hardened dirt encasing the tree's roots. Traces of smoke and red liquid still lingered in splodges on the ground as it slowly dried up and dispersed into flames, giving Lizzie all the confirmation she needed.

"Oh, Titan…" She said as a high-pitched squeak, the colour practically draining from her face as her gaze remained fixated on the now empty vial. "Just how much did they drink?"

"Are they even drinkable?" Xander questioned as he followed Lizzie's gaze to the empty vial, only to turn to her at catching her shaking her head within his peripheral vision.

"Nope." She paused to gulp and give the collar of her shirt a light tug at feeling her face growing moist. "In fact, drinking them causes… terrible side effects…"

Bandit squeaked and tilted his head with a wide blink, prompting Xander's visible eye to droop.

"Bandit just asked what you mean by 'terrible side effects'."

"You don't want to know…" Lizzie muttered in reply, an eye twitching at the brief recollection she got of Hooty spewing a constant stream of fire from his beak with King clinging to the back of his head and laughing manically.

'Although, who can say if the same side effects that occurred on Hooty apply universally?'

That thought made her shudder.

Movement from up ahead brought the two cousins' eyes away from the mess on the ground and towards the arched hole in the trunk. A skinny and serpentine-like silhouette could just about be seen swaying and stumbling in their direction, prompting Xander to frown and step just in front of Lizzie, stretching his right arm out as if to keep her back. Surprisingly, Lizzie didn't object, but that was likely because her gaze was still fixed on the creature drunkenly approaching the little light surrounding them. It didn't stop her from taking on a wide stance of her own with a furrowed brow.

Eventually, the streaks of light peeking through the overcast exposed the creature in all its glory, causing the cousins to gawk at the unfamiliar features they possessed. The two witches were faced with a serpent-like creature with a humanoid top half and a long tail on its bottom half, appearing to be around their height. Aside from their underbelly and their chest being light green, they were covered in dark green and scaly skin, coupled with back-length, bushy pale blonde hair on the back of their round head and tufts of it on the tip of their tail and along the edges of their floppy ears. Humanoid arms could be seen on their top half as their hands covered their mouth and pointed-tip nose, with their eyes squeezed shut to stop the tears lingering in them from falling.

Lizzie and Xander remained as still as petrified statues, their matching green eyes never once leaving the serpent-like creature at hearing the whimpers of pain escaping from their closed jaw.

'What the…?'

Lizzie could tell right away that this creature was likely a demon. Witches could always be identified by their pointed ears, and while there were certain witches who did have animalistic or demonic features, they were primarily human-like in appearance unlike demons. And yet despite wracking her brain from the few lessons she recalled having with King in the past, she was struggling to identify this particular demon. Had King even covered this with her? She wasn't sure anymore.

'And it still doesn't explain why they tried to drink my potion…'

Lizzie pried her gaze away from the creature when she saw Xander glance at her from over his shoulder with a furrowed brow, appearing to be turning to her as if to ask what they should do. However, before Lizzie even had a chance to open her mouth, she caught a flash of orange within her peripheral vision. The younger blonde's head whipped back to the creature as glowing lines and curves began to stretch over them in a circle and form a net-like dome, her eyes growing wide at how familiar the setup looked.

'Wait a minute. That's…!'

The next thing Lizzie knew, she was gasping the moment the dome shrunk and enclosed itself around the creature, forcing them to scream and collapse onto the ground on their right side just as Xander turned back to the commotion with a wide blink and Bandit shrieking. The creature's arms were pressed together against their front while their tail was pushed against their body, giving them very little room to do anything other than wriggle around and whimper in attempt to try to move either of their body parts.

"Oh, no! No, no, no!" The creature shouted in a panicked, feminine voice, their white sclera and amber-coloured teary eyes now visible. "Please no!"

"Gotcha!" Xander and Lizzie whirled round at hearing the tall demon hunter's triumphant yell to see him and his shorter partner emerging from behind one of the trees to their left, with the former of the pair rubbing his hands together with a hearty laugh. "Well, what do you know! We finally caught a lucky break!"

Lizzie growled and took on a wide stance, naturally not surprised by this revelation. She'd seen that spell used by the demon hunters before, so they were her first guess.

'Tch! Their presence here further confirms that creature behind us is a demon.'

Xander, on the other hand, was left staring at the pair with a slight squint as they stopped a small distance away from them. But he was soon blinking widely at Lizzie when she spoke up in a venomous tone.

"What are you jerks playing at?!"

"What are we playing at?" The tall demon hunter questioned with a snide tone, tilting his head to the side and crossing his arms. "Shouldn't we be asking you that, you palismen thief?" At seeing Lizzie's body stiffen up with a wide blink, the tall demon hunter snorted and straightened up, pointing towards Lizzie's left side. "That's right! We saw that glowing vial fall out from under your cloak! We know it was you who knocked us out!"

Lizzie wrapped an arm around her left side and stepped back to Xander's side, prompting the shorter demon hunter to point between the two blonde witches. "You two scammed us. Your friend had you pull off that robbery so he wouldn't have to pay us and get the palismen free of charge."

Xander's jaw slacked at this revelation, with Bandit squeaking loudly in defiance and waving his front paws above his head as if in protest.

"Scammed you?" the older witch eventually said, holding out his arm towards where Lizzie was standing beside him with raised brows at their 'theory'. "Don't lump me in with her! She's the one who stole those palismen! I had nothing to do with it!"

Lizzie's eyes drooped with a quiet sigh, followed by an audible grumble under her breath. "Thanks for throwing me under the carriage…"

"Not that it matters now," the tall demon hunter continued, uncrossing his arms to pound a fist against one of his palms. "Originally, we followed you out here to get payback for humiliating us that night." He paused and released a low chuckle while looking round the two witches towards the creature behind them. "But it looks like you've paid your dues after all, seeing as you led us straight to the basilisk our boss wanted us to capture!"

Both Lizzie and Xander froze in place the moment the word 'basilisk' was mentioned, the pair feeling their limbs seize up as if they were slowly being petrified for crimes against the Boiling Isles. Had they both just heard the demon hunter correctly?

"Wait…" Lizzie muttered. "Did you just say…?"

"… a basilisk?" Xander quietly finished. "As in… the supposed-to-be-extinct basilisks?"

The two demon hunters nodded their confirmation, leaving the two witches before them speechless.

"Thought it was just a coincidence considering what happened at Glandus," the shorter demon hunter went on while focusing his gaze on the basilisk now sobbing and wriggling round inside the glowing net. "But it's revealed to be a shapeshifter that matches the description we were given. Shame it isn't the one that attacked the school, though. We could have handed it over for a reward."

"Who says we can't?" the tall demon hunter replied, exposing a wide smirk from underneath his hood with fanged teeth. "They don't know what creature caused that, and basilisks can drain magic. It could easily be passed off for the culprit, right?"

The shorter demon hunter ended up returning the smirk, followed by a low chuckle. "Oh yeah! You're right!"

"This day just got even better!"

The two demon hunters broke down into loud laughter with their heads tilted back and their hands on their abdomen, with Lizzie and Xander remaining still and silent amidst the mixture of sounds of merriment and sorrow. For a moment, the pair of witches forcibly blinked to make sure they weren't hearing things. But after a while, Lizzie felt the cogs inside her head beginning to turn, going over the previous incidents again in her head with this new piece of information.

'It makes sense. Basilisks are shapeshifters. They drain magic, which is used to help maintain their shapeshifted form.' Lizzie dared to look back over her shoulder to the sobbing basilisk, who had since buried their face in their arms and stopped moving around. 'That was why they took my potion. They must have smelt the magic infused with them…'

That last realisation had the young blonde releasing a breathless gasp, prompting Xander to turn his head to her with a raised brow.

"What's the matter?"

Xander flinched when Lizzie suddenly turned to him and gripped at his closest arm, his visible eye widening at the furrowed brow and quivering lip she gave him.

"We can't let them take the basilisk," Lizzie answered firmly, causing the laughter from the demon hunters to cease immediately.

The basilisk's sobs also slowly died down at hearing this, prompting them to peek at the two witches between the gaps in their fingers despite tears still lingering in their amber eyes.

"Wait, what?!" Xander shrieked, only to have his attention diverted when the tall demon hunter snorted and cracked his knuckles together.

"Oh? You're going to get in our way again?" The tall demon paused at hearing his partner copying his actions, a wide smirk eventually slipping on his face with the roll of his shoulders. "Looks like karma's gonna be dished out, after all!"

Lizzie let Xander go and faced the demon hunters with her legs spread apart, a scowl on her face. But it was Xander's turn to grab his younger cousin by the shoulder tightly, a faint frown of his own appearing.

"Hang on!" When Lizzie glanced over her shoulder at him, the older witch pointed towards the basilisk still on the ground behind them. "You do realise that creature is dangerous, Elisabeth. They suck the magic out of witches. They shouldn't even be walking amongst us right now."

"That doesn't matter!" Lizzie retorted as she relaxed her posture and deepened her scowl, pointing towards the demon hunters. "You might be right, but the demon hunters are no better! They go around capturing innocent demons for snails and don't care what happens to them! I mean, they captured palismen for you without even knowing what you were going to do with them! You know how sleazy they are!"

"Hey!" The shorter demon hunter cried out in objection, but Xander continued and ignored him.

"But that creature stole from you, impersonated me, and attacked them, yet you want to protect them?! Are you crazy?!"

"Are you?" Xander's shoulders stiffened with a wide blink, prompting Lizzie to lower her voice and soften her expression with a quiet huff. "Look, Xander. I know you hate me, but I know you're not stupid." Lizzie reached a hand into her satchel and pulled out a random potion vial for him to see (which happened to be one of her healing potions). "My potions are infused with magic. The basilisk probably only stole from me because it wanted a magical source to replenish itself. And it probably only impersonated you to avoid the demon hunters and attacked them out of self-defence."

"… So?"

"So, for a creature who's supposed to be dangerous, don't you think that's strange? If they wanted a magical source, they could have just drained us and not stolen from me, right?"

Xander stayed silent and broke his gaze away to glance at the basilisk behind him, his slight gape being the only indication that he was processing what Lizzie was saying. Bandit was soon moving along Lizzie's shoulders and leaping onto Xander's when his owner did this, with the younger blonde watching the ferret palisman communicate with a flurry of squeaks and wave his front legs around in an animated manner, as if he was a human waving his arms above his head. Lizzie had no idea what Bandit was saying, but upon seeing Xander's expression relax, she was hoping he was convincing him not to let the demon hunters take the basilisk.

"Ugh! That's enough!" The tall demon hunter groaned and took a step forward, prompting Lizzie to whip back around as he raised an index finger in preparation to cast a spell. "Stand aside before I make you!"

Lizzie frowned at this and shoved the healing potion into Xander's chest, causing the older blonde to flinch and catch it in his arms when the younger witch let it go. Lizzie's actions caused Bandit to fall silent, his gaze focusing on the blue vial.

"Free the basilisk from the net and then tell them to swill their mouth out with that potion," Lizzie explained to Xander without taking her gaze off her opponent. "It'll heal the burns they've sustained."

"What?!" Xander cried out, his gaze briefly flitting between the potion and his younger cousin with a wide blink. "Why do I have to do it?!"

"Because I've dealt with demon hunters before. And I happen to be an expert when it comes to distractions, as you should already be aware." Lizzie's frown deepened as she looked Xander in the eye, trying to show the older witch she was serious. "Leave the demon hunters to me. I can handle them until you free the basilisk."

Lizzie didn't wait to see Xander's reaction, already facing the tall demon hunter and quickly drawing a spell circle in front of her at hearing crackling static, managing to do so before he attempted to run forward and bring his right palm back now engulfed in orange electrical-like static. As a result, she missed the older witch's furrowed brow as he glanced down at the potion in his grasp, along with the gentle nudge Bandit gave him with the side of his head against his cheek.

Xander eventually looked up at feeling faint tremors underneath his feet to see an earth pillar rising from the ground in front of Lizzie, just in time to block the crackling energy the tall demon hunter thrust at her with his palm. He took that as his chance to swirl round and run towards where the basilisk was still lying on the ground, shouting back to Lizzie when she stepped away from the pillar upon witnessing it become engulfed in orange static.

"You're lucky I'm not on duty right now! This could have turned out much uglier for you!"

"Sure," Lizzie replied in a teasing tone, watching as the force of the attack from the tall demon hunter splintered the pillar into large chunks and broke it apart.

'But at least you chose to believe me for once.'

As the chunks landed off to the sides of where the pillar once stood, Lizzie wasted no time in spreading her legs apart, already planning on a counterattack as the shorter demon hunter ran forward and raised his index finger to cast a spell of his own.

'It's risky for me to do this, but it'll save me expending myself and Xander if we can just put them to sleep for a little while.'

"We won't let you get the drop on us this time!" the short demon loudly declared, prompting Lizzie to smirk, cross her arms and bend her index fingers on either hand to alight their tips with a glowing green light.

"We'll see about that!"

By the time Xander had reached the basilisk and had knelt beside it to begin removing the net, he dared to turn back to see what Lizzie was doing. He was left raising his brows at seeing her react quickly and move her arms in a circular motion in opposite directions, which caught the short demon hunter off guard and caused him to come to a sudden stop.

'I haven't mastered the spell yet, but now would be the best time to see if it'll work!'

Xander and Bandit watched closely as Lizzie touched her fingertips together and swept her hands off to the sides to conjure a green spell circle, the sight prompting the shorter demon hunter to take a step or two back warily along with his partner. Just like she did with Hooty, the blonde quickly brought her hands back and then shoved them forward, yelling as loudly as she could.

"Sleep spell!"

The spell circle propelled towards the demon hunters, causing the two demon hunters to take the initiative to step to the sides to try to avoid the oncoming attack. However, like it had done during the previous attempts, the spell circle wobbled and dispersed after travelling a short distance with a loud pop.

The two demon hunters straightened up and glanced at each other at realising the spell had failed, with Xander's brows raising with a wide blink and Bandit tilting his head to the side with a quiet squeak. Lizzie, on the other hand, wasted no time in stomping her foot and growling out of frustration, her hands reaching up to grip at her fringe.

"Oh, for Titan's sake! It still didn't work?!"

'But at least that proves I was right: even being in a situation like this means I still can't cast it.'

Eventually the tall demon hunter broke out into loud laughter and gripped his arms round his middle, hunching forward when he struggled to stay upright. The shorter demon hunter didn't react for the moment, scratching the side of his head as if he was struggling to process what he'd just witnessed. And then there was Xander… whose shoulders slumped with a slight squint.

"What are you doing?" he questioned with forced emphasis, prompting Lizzie to peek over her shoulder with a raised brow. "Why are you trying to cast a spell using a magic type you're not compatible with?!"

Xander's words caused something to click in the back of Lizzie's head, her eyes momentarily widening at recalling the previous conversation she remembered having with Luz at the Knee.

'Wait… That's it—'

But her little epiphany was interrupted by a loud and defiant shrill shrieking coming from above, which soon silenced the tall demon hunter's laughter and left the group frozen for a few seconds. Whereas the others were left blinking widely at processing the noise, Lizzie ended up squinting at realising the shriek sounded familiar. But why?

Before anyone had a chance to look in the direction of the noise, however, a black and pale blur swooped down from the air above Lizzie's head, causing the blonde witch to cry out in surprise and instinctively leap for the ground onto her front, covering her arms over her head. Meanwhile, Xander and the basilisk were gaping along with the demon hunters when it was revealed the blur was heading straight towards the latter pair.

"What in Titan?!" The tall demon hunter shouted as the blur slowed down and landed on the ground with a loud thump, allowing all five beings present to get a better look at the newcomer.

Lizzie found herself exposed to a pale-skinned, oval-shaped body with stretched skin-like bat wings attached underneath skinny arms spread out on either side and flowing, unkempt black hair as long as its body, standing before her on a pair of four-clawed feet. Because of her position on the ground, Lizzie couldn't see the front of the creature or the two demon hunters, but that didn't stop her from hearing the shorter demon hunter gasp loudly.

"O-Oh, Titan!" he stuttered as he began to visibly shake beside his partner, his knees looking close to knocking together. "I-It's her! T-The creature that was trying to protect those palismen!"

Xander frowned at hearing this, but those words were all Lizzie needed to hear to properly process the familiar features of the creature facing away from her, her jaw dropping.

'Oh, Titan. Does that mean…?'

Further confirmation came when the creature released a low hiss and made the two demon hunters flinch (not that Lizzie could see that from where she was), her thick accent and strange manner of speaking further confirming Lizzie's suspicions when she responded.

"You trespass in home again," she said, causing the shorter demon hunter to reach for his partner's elbow and tugging on it to coax him to fall back when he hunched his shoulders. "You leave now. You are not welcome."

"You heard the creepy bat thing! We've gotta go!"

The tall demon hunter didn't react to his partner's attempts to get him to retreat, even despite looking ready to shrink in on himself while quietly whimpering. This reaction prompted Lizzie to witness the familiar creature lean forward on her right foot and raise her wings with a slight bend, releasing a low and vicious growl.

"You leave now. Don't come back."

That finally seemed to do the trick, forcing the tall demon hunter to yelp and swirl round on his heels.

"You're right! We've gotta go! The basilisk isn't worth getting ripped to shreds!"

Xander, the basilisk and Lizzie listened to the two demon hunters' footsteps retreat down the path they'd previously come from, with Xander's and Lizzie's eyes drooping as the latter of the pair pushed herself up into a sitting position.

'Yeesh. For all that tough talk, those two were quick to retreat, huh. Maybe they're more spineless than we thought.'

Once the demon hunters could no longer be heard, Lizzie turned her attention to their 'saviour', who wasted no time in slowly turning round to face her, lowering her wings to her sides. The young blonde gulped thickly as the feminine face of the Bat Queen leered down at her, her tiny red pupils narrowed into slits and her black lips pressed together to hide her fangs. Xander and the basilisk silently gawked at the reveal of the face, while Bandit whimpered and darted under Xander's cloak upon his shoulders for cover, momentarily remaining a trembling white lump under the item of clothing.

Xander didn't recognise the creature at all, and while his mind was screaming at him to run over there to protect his younger cousin, he didn't think it was wise to make any sudden movements. Lizzie seemed to have the same idea, which is why she said and did nothing in the meanwhile, remaining as still as a statue and refraining from saying anything until the Bat Queen chose to speak.

'The Bat Queen is well acquainted with us now because of Eda helping her out. But after what Luz told me about her last escapade with Owlbert, she seems quite easy to anger. And she certainly sounded that way just now.' Lizzie felt a bead of sweat roll down the side of her face the longer she found herself staring into the Bat Queen's eyes, with the Bat Queen herself not even blinking as she continued to stare her down; she had to admit that was a little unsettling… 'I'm better off not saying anything until I know what's going on.'

After what felt like a century of tensed silence, the Bat Queen addressed Lizzie in a low and quiet voice, with her next words leaving Lizzie's brows raising.

"Hello again, Protector of Palismen."


A/N: First things first... Luz. It made sense to me that she would have tried to see if her glyph magic would be able to copy what Lizzie's can do when mixed with potions. But as much as I wanted to give Luz her own little set of potions, I thought it would be funnier and make more sense for problems to arise. It's revealed in this episode during the fight with the basilisk that glyph magic seems to be different to regular magic, which is why it hurts the basilisk. I suspect that means it has differing properties, so it made sense for it to play out as it does and not be compatible with potions. Also, yes, 'Freezing Fog' is a thing. I looked it up, which is why I had Luz combine her ice glyph with the Fog Brew. Thought it would work better that way instead of causing an explosion or something. XD

Then we have the mystery OC: yup, they're a basilisk. Lizzie isn't going to be involved with the Hexside basilisk nor the canon events of Yesterday's Lie in Season 2, so it made sense that the revelation of the basilisks and what is revealed during Season 2 comes from a different basilisk. You'll learn more about this OC in the following chapter, but I won't be surprised if you guys guessed they were a basilisk before the actual reveal. I dropped very obvious hints.

And finally, the Bat Queen. You guys remember in the eleventh episode where Lizzie finds out the Bat Queen owes her a favour? Well, that is about to come full circle in Chapter 40. Everything will become clear then, I promise. I'll admit, she's hard to write for, but I'm hoping I can do well in keeping her in character here and the next chapter, so... fingers crossed.