Sorry it took me so long to get this done. I was planning to get this done before Thanksgiving, but life had other plans.

School.

Video games.

Thanksgiving.

And those are only a few things.

Well, "better late than never" as they say. Hope you enjoy this final chapter.


Chapter 3

Watching and Dreaming

Luz, her friends, and the CATs all flew to the front door of the Collector's Castle and headed in.

Once inside, they were greeted by a familiar face. Amity stared at it with anger. The person in front of them was Odalia Blight, the woman who willingly helped Belos with his genocidal plan.

"Welcome all of you," she said.

Before she could continue, Amity interrupted. "Shut up, puta."

Amity formed an abomination fist and punched Odalia to the side while everyone walked on.

The eleven heroes walked down the hallways searching for King and the Collector.


The huge castle felt empty. The gang searched for hours and found no sign of King.

Eventually, they found a door. It was a big door and looked like it led to an important room. Darius morphed a key with his abomination goo and used it to unlock the door. With the door opened, everyone walked inside to investigate.


Luz and Eda were the last ones out, but as they were about to walk in, they heard footsteps.

The two turned to their right and saw someone they've been waiting to see for 2 months. King.

King saw his adopted mom and surrogate sister and was overjoyed. "Luz? Eda?"

"King!" Luz and Eda shouted in unison.

The trio ran towards each other and got into a group hug.

Once they got out of the hug, Luz started talking. "King, it's so good to see you again. There's so much to talk about."

"I wanna hear you two talk about your adventures all day," said King. "But first, we need to stop the Collector."

"What did you have in mind?" asked Eda.


Meanwhile, Amity, Willow, Gus, Hunter, Camila, Lilith, Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf entered the important-looking room. It was a huge room with lots of shelves. On each shelf were civilians of the Boiling Isles.

Lilith noticed Hooty among them. She ran over to him. She cried holding him in her arms. A tear fell onto Hooty. His voice spoke, "Sequestered at a darkness unto death, the dulcet tones of an angel awaken me. Be it you, Lulu?"

"It be, it be," Lilith replied, hugging her friend.

"That thing finds new and creative ways to make me wanna pummel him," Amity remarked.


Meanwhile, King led Luz and Eda to the Collector's bedroom. Once they got there, the Collector came out, having just got out of bed.

"You're up early," the Collector said to King. "And I can see why. You found Eda, and Luz. Now we can all play together."

King stood firm and said, "No."

"Excuse-a what?" asked the Collector.

"You heard me," King replied. "No. Collector, you can't keep doing this. Innocent people are getting hurt because of your games."

"So toys break all the time," said the Collector. He brought out a small toy of himself and broke it, just to put it back together. "You just fix them."

"You really think that justifies anything?" asked Eda. "You're wrong! A lot of people almost died to the Draining Spell! This 'Owl House' game of yours is also ruining lives! You've caused nothing but trouble mister!"

The Collector stood shocked hearing Eda say all those things. He backed up, all these thoughts flooding through him. He held his head as if he was suffering a migraine.

"No, no, no!" he shouted. "You're lying! There's no way you aren't! This can't be a repeat of Belos, or them!"

"Who's 'them'?" asked Luz.

"The Archivists," the Collector replied. "My siblings. 'Let's play a game,' they said. 'See those Titans down there? Go on down and see if they wanna play.' So I played, and it was great." The Collector gestured towards the hallway, where a lot of pictures were on the walls depicting the story he was telling. "The baby Titans were the cutest, just like King! And they were all so welcoming! But the Archivists were scared of their power, so one by one, they disappeared, until there was one Titan left. He thought I was the bad guy. He hid his egg from me and trapped me. But I showed all of them. Even when those trapper jerks started acting weird. Even when Belos lied to me! I found King! I found the last Titan, and he's my friend now! I don't care if it's pretend! I'll pretend all I want!"

"But it's not what you want, is it?" asked Luz.

"Believe me," said Eda. "We all know what it's like to be abandoned."

"King already told me about your adventures," said the Collector.

"It's different when you see them," said Luz, as she brings out her memory photos.


Luz, Eda, King, and the Collector flew over to the Owl House.

Luz was flying on Stringbean. Eda was in Harpy Mode and holding King. The Collector was using a warp star.

Once they made it to the Owl House, the Collector assumed, "It all started at the Bird House."

"The Owl House," Eda corrected. "Speaking of, what happened here?"

"You haven't been here a while," King replied.

Luz told her story to the Collector. "For me, it started in the Human Realm. Things were not great, but then I came here. I met Owlbert, Eda, Hooty…"

"And the King of Demons," King added.

"None of us felt like we fit in," Luz continued. "So we decided to get through it together."

"It was that easy, huh?" asked the Collector.

"It wasn't," Luz explained, reminiscing all the hardships she went through. "I had a lot to learn. After a while though, I found people that helped me get through it all."

Luz showed the Collector her memories of some of the things she went through, until she came across a photo depicting Hexside's Grudgby field.

The Collector pointed to the Grudgby picture. "That game looks fun. I wanna go there."


The quartet flew over to Hexside's Grudgby field.

"This is where we play a game called Grudgby," Luz explained.

"The ball can bite and the rules are nonsense," King continued. "But it's fun to watch."

"Nonsense?" Eda reacted, offended. "Hexside lets you play any sport these days. Back in my day, all we had was Grudgby, and we owned it."

"And you were the star player, we know," said Luz.

"Did you know Lilith was the captain?" asked King.

"Really?" Luz reacted. "Now that's a fanfiction I would read."

That's when the Collector saw some kids hiding behind the bleachers. He approached them and asked them, "Wanna be my Grudgby buddy?" The kids ran away out of fear, and this upset the Collector. He decided, "I wanna go somewhere different."

The Collector looked through Luz's memories until he found a picture of the Knee of the Titan.


The quartet flew over to the Knee.

"I'm glad you picked this place," Luz told the Collector. "This place is special to me. It's where I made my connection with the Isles."

Luz drew an ice glyph in the snow and cast it.

"A baby could do that," the Collector scoffed. "But I never saw a spell cast like that before. No one recognizes Titan Magic."

"Huh?" asked Luz.

"You don't know?" asked the Collector. "Glyphs are the Titan's language. It's how they cast magic. He must've given you the ability to use his magic. Did you convince him to do it, like… Belos convinced me to help him?"

"Whoa, that's not how things went," Luz explained. "I learned these glyphs during my experiences on the Boiling Isles. I didn't even think that the Titan might've been helping me. If he was, he wouldn't have been doing it because of me forcing him. He was helping me because it's the right thing to do."


That's when the quartet heard noises coming from the sky. They looked up and saw four cloaked figures coming down from the sky.

One wore a blue cloak and had a crescent moon face. Another wore a yellow cloak and had a star face. The third wore a black cloak and had a half moon face. The last one wore a white cloak and had a full moon face.

"Oh no," the Collector muttered. He knew what was happening. The Archivists have come.

"So, you're back, Cole," the Archivists told the Collector. "Let's keep things simple. Hand over King, and we will leave this place peacefully."

The Collector got in front of King and snapped, "I won't let you take him!"

"Then you leave us with no choice," the Archivists replied.

The Archivists grabbed the Collector and threw him aside.

King fired his sonic blast at the Archivists, but they all flew out of the way.

Luz brought out her glyphs, but the Archivist with the yellow cloak snapped their fingers and turned the pieces of paper to dust. Afterwards, they pushed Luz aside, sending her flying head first into a tree. This knocked her unconscious.

Eda got angry seeing Luz hurt. She felt the Owl Beast taking over her, but this time felt different. When the transformation happened, her eyes turned orange instead of black. She also grew not one, not two, but three sets of wings.

King also got angry seeing Luz injured. His eyes glowed blue, and he got a little bigger.

Eda and King charged towards the Archivists. The Archivists fired a beam, but King formed a shield and blocked the attack. Eda flew towards the one with the blue cloak and slashed its face.

The blue-cloaked god recovered quickly and remarked, "So you remember me, Beast? Well, don't think you'll win this time."

The Archivists came together and formed a huge orb. They fired it at Eda and King.

The Collector woke up and saw Luz knocked out and Eda and King about to be defeated. He wasn't going to let his siblings capture innocent people. Not again. He flew over to the Archivists and shielded the attack.

"Do you really think you can stop us, Cole?" the Archivists taunted. "Do you really think it's worth protecting these weaklings?"

"As a matter of fact, I do!" the Collector replied.

Luz woke up from her mini-coma just in time to see what was happening.

"I do think it's worth protecting these people!" the Collector continued. "It's the right thing to do. Now, as a good witch once said…"

Luz smiled. She knew where this was going.

"NOW EAT THIS, SUCKAS!" the Collector finished.

He fired a huge blast, sending the Archivists flying far away from the Boiling Isles. It was a very powerful blast, more powerful than anything he ever did before. It was too much for him to handle, so he passed out. He fell into the snow.

Luz approached the Collector to check on him, and thankfully, he was okay.

Eda and King came down. They saw that Luz was okay. This relieved them, and they turned back to normal. The trio hugged each other.

The Collector looked away. He felt bad knowing that he endangered everyone on the Isles just to live out some fantasy. No one will forgive him that easily, but that doesn't mean he can't help fix things. He told everyone he was going to let everyone out, and flew for his castle.


And that's how they saved the Boiling Isles. It was a relief seeing everyone released from the Archives. They were spared the worst of it, at least. Because of that, everyone got to reunite with their loved ones, and if someone thought they had no one waiting for them, well, they were in for a nice surprise. Still, there was a lot of work to be done, and not everyone was keen to change things, but they were ready to give it a shot. All of them.

As for the Collector, he and Luz made a pinky promise to keep trying their best. He decided he had a lot of growing up to do, so he decided to return to the stars. No one argued, but King whispered, "I hope I see you again."

Everyone got their happy ending. A chapter in their lives was over. A new one was just beginning.


A.N.

This was one rollercoaster of a finale. There may be only 2000 words in this chapter, which isn't a lot compared to the other chapters, but a lot still happened.

Without Belos in the narrative, I thought the Archivists would be fitting for a final battle.

Yes, the Collector is the one that saves the day in the end simply because I thought the Collector defeating the Archivists is just more fitting. Because of that, Luz didn't get Titan powers in this version of events. Thus, the Titan doesn't pass on and his glyphs still work.

And yes, the Collector's real name is Cole. It should be obvious why I went with this.

All that's left now is the epilogue, which will be a time jump.