In the kitchen of the Noceda residence, Luz had just sat herself down to record another video diary. She clicked on the record button and sighed. "Dear diary, today is May 26th. It's been three months since Amity had arrived in the Human Realm and has been living with us. We have a new member to our group to help us get to the Human Realm. K, Masha's cousin and an FBI agent. We were very skeptical about him being there with us due to what he was about to do to Vee, but we eventually warmed up to him. Even though, he is a bit weird but then again, us weirdos have got to stick together. He has tried multiple times to use his FBI connections to get help with the portal since he says they have Terri in custody for experimenting with portals. But he theorises they want to test out portals as opposed to anything else. We also went to the San Diego Comic Bust thanks to Masha's parents who like to visit every convention in the country. I think you can figure out who Amity and I dressed up as. We went to try and find Dipper but unfortunately we couldn't find any sign of him. We had to leave early because well…..Let's just say those Cosmic Frontier fans get violent. I mean, they ran Marcy over after she saw Gus. But, some good news happened as well. When I heard that Hunter and Willow had become a couple, I was through the roof. Hunter having a girlfriend? Guess Amity and I can have triple dates with him & Willow and Vee & Masha. But besides that, the strangest thing has been happening to me. I've been getting mysterious phone calls from a person who seems to hang up when I answer. I don't know who they are. Maybe someone crushing on me? I hope not. Today, we're going to try a portal that K found on the deepest parts of the web. I sure do hope it works." She closed the laptop and adjusted the cap on her head.
A little bit later, Luz, Amity, Marcy, Vee, Masha and K were by the shack putting the finishing touches on the portal. Masha had finished taping some hexes Hold'Em cards on the door, K was on his laptop checking the portal instruction while Amity was making sure her Palisman, Masha's rat and a trained raccoon were going to power the portal via hamster wheels connected to an engine that was connected to a jumper cable that would be used to power the door.
Luz, Vee and Marcy stood on the sideline inspecting everything. "How are things going?" Luz asked K.
"Okay, according to SummonTheDarkLord667, this is what we need to do." K replied while eating a bag of potato chips. "It should work, hopefully. Though, sticking two TV satellites to a handheld mirror seems a little ornate."
"Well, we have to try whatever we can." Luz said. "No matter the risks."
"Does that include getting stuck in another universe that isn't the demon realm?" Marcy asked.
"A risk worth taking." Luz replied.
"Okay, I just need to check that everything is prepared." K declared. "Amity, are the animals ready?"
The respective animals began to run around in their respective wheels. "Ready." Amity replied.
"Vee, is the engine running?"
Vee turned on the engine. "Running."
"Masha, is the jumper cable connected?" K asked.
Masha attached the cable to the door knob. "Attached!"
"Marcy, put a chip in my mouth." K opened his mouth for Marcy to put a chip in.
Masha quickly ran off the porch and stood beside their girlfriend as they watched the power surge from the hamster wheels to the engine and straight to the door. But instead of a portal, it exploded, starting a fire.
Everyone but K began to panic as they watched the cabin continue to go up in flames. Thankfully, K calmly picked up the fire extinguisher and put out the fire.
"Okay, that didn't work." K remarked nonchalantly.
The one who was most devastated about this not working was Luz as she collapsed on her knees and took off her cap.
"No! No! No! No! No!" Luz exclaimed. "No! No!"
Amity walked to her girlfriend, got her knees and places her hand on her back. "It's okay, Luz."
"No, it's not." Luz argued. "I failed once again."
"Well, we'll try again." Marcy said. "We will get back."
"But what if the next one doesn't work?" Luz asked.
"We'll try again." Marcy replied. "And again. And again. And again. And again."
Luz sighed. "Again and again. Again and again." She stood up from the ground and put her cap back on before walking away with her head down while everyone watched on.
Recently, Luz had been feeling hopeless that she'll get her friends and girlfriend back home. She felt that it was never going to happen but she will do everything to give Amity some hope.
Everyone just watched on while Luz walked away in sadness. Amity especially. She knew her girlfriend well and could tell that she was feeling hopeless.
Marcy placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, Amity. We're going to get you home eventually. Even if the house is burning like right now, we will get you back."
"Uh…Marcy, the house is not on fire." Vee pointed out. "You are."
Marcy looked at the sleeve of her hoodie and saw that it indeed had caught fire. She screamed and began to run around in circles.
"Marcy! Marcy!" Vee cried as she tried aiming the fire extinguisher at Marcy but she couldn't keep still.
"Stop, drop and roll!" Masha cried out.
"Just take off the hoodie!" K yelled out.
While everyone tried to stop the fire from spreading all over Marcy, Amity just watched on while Luz walked slowly back to her home.
Later, the portal building group besides Luz were in the kitchen of the Noceda residence having some dinner that was being served by Camila which was a Chimichurri burger.
While everyone was feasting on their burgers, K was busy on his laptop looking up on the case of the recent animal murders that were leaving him baffled.
"Preston knows that he shouldn't do it, but why are they happening?" K asked himself.
Amity was looking sad as she ate her burger which was something Camila noticed. "Is there something wrong?"
"This little animal case, right here." K replied. "Unless you wish to see the images. I'm sure you've seen much worse as a-"
"K, I wasn't talking to you." Camila interjected. "Amity, Mija, you seem troubled. Is it too spicy?"
"No, it's fine." Amity assured her.
"I agree." Marcy interjected. They looked to Marcy who appeared to have tears falling from her eyes while drinking a huge bottle of water. "You should taste my Dad's spicy chicken wings!"
Some of the water that Marcy was desperately slurping on did hit Masha, whom happened to be sitting next to her.
Amity gave Camila a saddened look. "Camila, it's Luz. She's hopeless."
"Ouch." Masha remarked.
"Harsh words to say about your girlfriend." K remarked.
"No! No!" Amity argued. "I mean….She's hopeless. She has no Hope in her whatsoever. She tries to hide it but I know she's just suffering."
Camila gave her daughter's girlfriend a sympathetic stare. "Oh, Mija." She sits next to Amity.
"I don't know what I'm going to do." Amity said. "I want to help her, but I'm scared she'll just shut me out. I try and lift her spirits but she ends up feeling worst and I feel worse after. What do I do?"
"Huh, it's ironic she's like this." K remarked. "Her name in Spanish means light yet here she is being more of a Oscuro."
Masha narrowed their eyes at their cousin. "K, that is not helping!"
"Sorry, I never know when to leave my thoughts to myself." He responded.
"I don't know how I can give hope to my daughter, Amity." Camila said. "I mean, I doubt words can even help."
"But what would help?" Vee asked.
"We could try a musical performance." Marcy suggested. "Musical numbers make people better."
"Marcy, this is the real world not a cartoon." K said. "I'm FBI. Believe me, I'd know."
"Well, I'm out of ideas." Marcy said.
"How about we gut her like a fish and go inside her?" Darcy suggestion made Marcy cringe. "Too much. Yeah, too violent. Oh! We can sew a smile on her face! Or cut her cheeks so they resemble a smile!"
"I mean, today's fire must have been a last strew for Luz." Masha said.
"Yes. It's probably going to take months, maybe years for this project to fly successfully." K said.
"Speaking of, am I on fire again?" Marcy asked. "Because I'm feeling kind of hot. Either that or it's the Connecticut weather or some fireflies."
"I'm sorry, what?" Camila asked.
"Fireflies?" Camila reacted.
"Yeah. Well, specifically the Fieryous fireflies." Marcy replied. "There are a lot of species of fireflies in Amphibia. The Fieryous fireflies shoot fire from the bioluminescence from their abdomen. I got set on fire a few times."
"Like right now?" K asked while pointing to Marcy, whose sleeve was on fire.
She screamed, jumped out of the chair and quickly dunked her arm in the sink which thankfully had water. She exhaled in relief. "Okay! How did I catch fire?! I was nowhere near the stove!"
Camila stood up off her seat. "Marcy!"
Marcy froze in fear. "Ah! Sorry for being very flammable!"
"No!" Camila exclaimed. "I know how to cheer Luz up! Fireflies!"
"Uh…..I don't know if I can get them." Marcy said. "Because…Well…Amphibia….Cut off from it forever."
"No! Fireflies!" She pulled Marcy in for a hug. "Marcy, you hermoso genio."
"Uh….Muey Bueno?" Marcy responded.
Meanwhile, upstairs in her bedroom, Luz was staring at herself in the reflection of her bedroom mirror. She was currently looking at her wrists specifically as if she was thinking of doing something to them.
She then looked to her house keys on her desk and removed them from it. She placed the pointy part on one her wrist intending to chase some pain.
She didn't deserve to be alive after everything that she did. She neglected the Boiling Isles to save Amphibia when she could have been there to stop Belos. It was all her fault this had happened. Her fault her friends and girlfriend are now stuck here. She should just rid the world of herself to make everyone better.
She was then interrupted by her phone ringing. This caused her to scream and to accidentally drop to her key.
She picked up her phone and answered it. "Hello? Who's there?" But all she could hear was silence on the other end.
Across the state, Dipper was on the other end, sitting on his bed trying to think of what to say to Luz. He was worried for her due to her depression but didn't know what to say fearing he could make it worse. He just hung up on his phone leaving Luz to be confused.
"Huh?" Luz reacted before she heard a knock on her bedroom door. "No Mom, I'm not hungry."
"Mija, we're going out." Camila said. "Put your cap on."
Luz was disinterested but decided to go along with it to make her Mom happy. She put her cap on and left her room.
"Where are we going?" Luz asked.
"It's a surprise, Mija." Camila replied. "But I think you'll like it."
Luz sniffed the air. "Do you smell something burning?"
Then Marcy ran past them and straight towards the bathroom, fire on her back. "Aaaaaahhhh! Fire!"
Later, Luz, Amity, Camila, Marcy, Masha, Vee and K were in the middle of a field awaiting the fireflies. But Luz didn't know it was the fireflies. They had been waiting for the last 15 minutes and in that time, Marcy was playing on her game, Amity was standing with Luz trying to comfort her, Vee and Masha were exchanging cheek kisses, K was investigating a de-skinned animal while Camila looked on at the FBI agent with discomfort over his investigation.
"You sure you don't wish to study that anywhere else?" Camila asked.
"I would but I am too deep in thought." K replied. "You've been hearing of these attacks on animals going on, right?"
"Uh huh." Camila replied.
"Well, the pattern itself is rather inconsistent." He explained. "There are many without their body parts but other times, they are de-skinned leaving nothing but bones."
"Oooh, how beautiful." Camila sarcastically remarked.
"If you're a psychopath." K said. "Then yeah."
"What are we doing out here?" Luz asked her girlfriend. "I mean, it's warm and it's nice, but, why are we out here."
"Camila said it was something that could cheer you up." Amity replied. "But, I don't know when they're supposed to start. By the way, do I have something on my face? I feel a little itch."
Luz moved her girlfriend's head to face her where she noticed something on her face. It was a firefly emitting the green and yellow glow.
Luz had seen fireflies before, especially when she went on the field with her Mom and Dad, but she was always mesmerised by them.
"Amity…" Luz gently removed the insect from her girlfriend's face and placed it in the palm of her hand.
Amity, had never seen fireflies before so she instantly became mesmerised by it. "Wow."
"Be gentle with it, Hermosa." Luz said. "They're fragile."
Amity gently touched the insect, causing it to flash its wings before flying off to join a swarm of more of its kind, flying around the field.
Once everyone brought their attention to the insects, they all became enamoured and awed by its sheer beauty. All except for K, whom just stared at them blankly.
"Hmm, impressive." K remarked.
Vee was so hypnotised by its beauty that she unknowingly turned back to her basilisk form. "Wow." Vee said.
"Yup." Masha agreed before noticing their girlfriend was back to her basilisk form. "You're in basilisk form."
"Yeah, I don't care." Vee said. "K can just erase someone's memories if someone sees me like this."
"That's funny, I don't remember us having a mind wiping device." K remarked.
Marcy then pulled a jar and jar lid from her pocket as she attempted to use it to catch a few. "Okay, fireflies! Hold still." She positioned herself to catch one like they were some kind of prey. She pounded to try and catch one, but ended up landing on her face. "I'm okay!"
Luz chuckled at Marcy's clumsiness something that caught her girlfriend's attention. She smiled as she saw Luz genuinely laugh for the first time in a while. But she was also questioning why Marcy was trying to imprison them.
"Why is Marcy trying to imprison the fireflies in that jar?" Amity asked. "What have they ever done to her?"
Luz smiled at her girlfriend's naïveté. "Oh, Sweet Potato. We just catch them in the jars so we could look at them before releasing them so they don't suffocate."
Camila reached into her bag and pulled out two jars for Luz and Amity. "Girls. Would you like to try and catch a few?"
"Would I?!" Luz exclaimed with excitement as she walked up to her mother to get her and her girlfriend their jars.
Amity smiled as she saw that her girlfriend was doing something she hadn't seen in a while. She was finally smiling again. She genuinely laughed and she genuinely smiled and she showed genuine enthusiasm.
Camila turned to K whom she noticed didn't have a jar. "Would you like one, K?"
"I have my own practical way of catching insects." K replied before catching a firefly in-between his index finger and thumb. He brought the insect close to his face and began to stare at it. "Would you like to tell me who's been killing animals?"
Camila also noticed that Vee seemed to have fireflies over her body. She was amazed by how beautiful it looked all over her body while Masha took some pictures on their phone.
"They're beautiful." Vee remarked. "These must be the most beautiful creatures I've ever seen from this world."
"You know Vee, I read somewhere that fireflies emit the glow to mate." K said.
K's piece of information made Vee freeze with disgust and turned to her partner. "Sweetie, could you please gently stroke them off of me?"
While this went on, Marcy was just trying to catch a firefly with the jar. But with no success just like last time. "Come on firefly! I want to look at you!"
While Marcy continued to fail, Luz and Amity were staring at one in the jar that Luz had caught. The girlfriends stared at it as it shook its wings and jumped from glass wall to glass wall in confusion.
"Is beautiful Luz." Amity remarked to her girlfriend.
"I know." Luz replied before looking to her girlfriend. "Hey Amity, thank you for this. I've been feeling very down lately and I kind of needed this."
"Hey, it wasn't just me who deserves to be thanked." Amity responded. "Your Mom had the idea."
Luz looked to her mother, whom was helping Vee catch a firefly in a jar. Camila then saw that her daughter was looking at her and gave her a smile which must have been her way of saying 'You're welcome.'
Luz did mouth 'Thank you' to her mother in return before turning back to the firefly in the jar.
"Okay, I think it's time we release it." Luz unscrewed the lid from the jar which freed the insect as it flew out to rejoin its swarm.
Luz and Amity wrapped their arms around each other as they watched the firefly fly away. She was very thankful that her friends and family did all this for her to lighten her spirits. She was slightly getting hopeful that she could get back to the Demon Realm with her friends.
But did that mean she forgave herself for what she did? Abandoning the Demon Realm in its time of need to help Amphibia and letting Pacifica die. It was too upsetting for her to ignore this guilt that she smile quickly faded.
Then, Marcy ran out of the tall grass looking desperate and terrified. "Guys! Run! Run!"
"What, why?" Vee asked.
"What's wrong?" Amity asked.
"Is it a beat?" Masha asked.
"No! You remember that firefly from Amphibia I mentioned?" Suddenly, a giant firefly popped out of the grass and began hovering over everyone. The giant firefly itself looked similar to other fireflies in the world except it had a fiery abdomen.
Everyone stared at the creature with a terrified look, except for K whom was very intrigued. "How did that get here?" Masha asked.
"Must have snuck through the portal when Andrias invaded." K theorised.
"So, what do we do?" Amity asked.
"Well, do you wanna know how defeated mine?" Marcy asked.
"How?!" Vee asked.
"Run and come up with a plan!" Marcy replied with confidence.
Everyone looked at each other for idea but they just shrugged their shoulders and began running for their lives while the giant firefly began to prepare to shoot fire at them.