You know, I've realized I do not actually like my pacing in this fic. The way I do things is that I order several plot points and main events in a chronological order and then I grab two or three or four of those to do a chapter, and each one of them becomes a section with a different POV. Usually it works but sometimes I end up with "filler episodes" bc of that, like the previous chapter. What I mean with this is that there are some sections of chapters where the plot moves and others where nothing much happens, it's usually not a big deal if I balance them out and put the "episodic" sections alongside the plot-heavy ones. But because I have most things planned out in a chronologic line, sometimes I have several episodic sections together, the last chapter is a good example of that: It's filled with events and interactions that I wanted to happen but they aren't that important to the plot. The cute Lumity scene could have been done in other ways with another person's POV and I could've fit it in a more plot-heavy section.
In order to fix that I'd need to restructure most of the recent chapters, but I don't have the energy to do it so don't worry, this is just me rambling about things.
Idk if anyone understood that, sometimes I can only understand myself.
Side note: Holy crap, DID YOU GUYS SAW THE SPECIAL!? It was freaking amazing, let me tell ya. I'm gonna go in a mini ramble about it for a while so here you go.
SPOILER WARNING
I really liked Luz's titan form. Maybe the fandom will burn me alive for saying this, but I really like Luz with long hair.
The older designs are amazing (Luz looks like an art teacher lol), and I really like the fact that they can still travel between worlds.
Still, with how good it was, there was a lot of stuff that I'd loved to see. So, I compiled a list of elements I feel like needed to happen in the finale:
-Evelyn/Caleb/Phillip flashback (I've been waiting for that to happen for the entire third season)
-Hooty origin story (Until then, we'll have to say Moring mark's comic is canon
-Hunter confronting Belos one last time (maybe to know his past)
-Raeda kiss/wedding
-Several interactions (Amity/Lilith, Darius/Hunter, Camila/Eda)
-Collector being friends with King
-The hexsquad reacting to Luz's death/new form, and them taking a bigger role in the final battle (Bc let's be honest, they didn't do much. The collector saved them all at the end so they didn't need to do anything)
And besides that, I think that Belos got away pretty easily. I didn't want him to have this abrupt end, I wanted him to suffer. I wanted him to realize that he was wrong and all the killing/backstabbing/lying/plotting that he did was for nothing, I want him to be aware that he killed his brother for nothing.
I know that they wouldn't been able to fit all of this in the finale, and that's ok, I'm just naming stuff I would've liked to see. In fact, I think I will write a one shot fanfic about the things I would've liked to see after this chapter. I will delay the next update of this fic but I do not care.
END OF SPOILER
The usual crap:
If you could send me a review that would be great! All feedback is appreciated! As long as you don't yell at me XD
English isn't my first language, please tell me if you spot any mistakes!.
Disclaimer: I don't own the owl house, all the characters except my OCs belong to Disney and Danna Terrace. This AU idea belongs to moringmark (Plz go read his comics, I beg you).
-Willow-
The streets of central Gravesfield / Friday November 17th 18:30 hs
Luz was hiding something, again.
The whole week she had been avoiding her in a really obvious manner and each time she invented some stupid excuse about homework or her part time job, it was getting exhausting. To top it all off she had skipped classes yesterday. They were in their way towards math class and she her phone beeped, after looking at it her eyes widened and she bolted in the opposite direction while yelling about forgetting something in her locker, she didn't come back in time to see the start of the lesson but somehow in the middle of the class she appeared out of nowhere: One second she was sure that there wasn't anyone in the seat behind her and in the other she heard Luz's voice answer the teacher's question, when she turned around she saw that she was sitting there with her arm raised like nothing happened. After class she asked Luz when she came back but she told her that she entered with the rest of the class, but Willow knew that she was lying by the way she wouldn't even look her in the eyes when she was speaking. She tried asking their classmates if they saw her come in but all of them weren't paying attention and mostly assumed that she had been there since the beginning of the lesson.
None of this helped their friendship and it was starting to tire Willow, they really needed to sit down and have a talk, and now she luckily had a chance to do it. Luz had finally agreed to join the track team after asking for permission from her guardian and now she needed to train to get in, and she had asked Willow to join her (she kept insisting that it would help her self esteem but she still wasn't sure about it). She didn't want to go but this was the perfect chance to finally corner Luz and ask her what was going on, and she wasn't going to take no for an answer! Willow was mentally prepared to stand her ground and not leave until she got her answer.
"Hey, Willow! Earth to Willow" She heard Luz talk and felt a tap on her shoulder.
"Huh? Did I say something wrong?" She turned to face her.
"No… in fact you haven't talked in a while. You had quite the intense look there for a bit"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just caught up in my thoughts"
They were preparing for their workout routine. Luz somehow convinced Eda to let them use a spare room in the owl house for this particular activity. Then they gathered mats, weights, and everything they needed for their improvised gym. And now they were going to Willow's house to grab the final things so they could start.
"I have to say that I don't know how you managed to rope me into this"
"Oh come on, you'll love it! I'm gonna make sure of it" her friend's extreme optimism was worrying her.
"Ok you have to keep in mind that I'm not at your same level, so let's start slow"
"You are not at my same level yet. Don't worry about it, you'll be able to punch a Boscha in no time!"
*pfft* "That's not why I agreed to do this"
"But you'd love to do that, right?" Willow remained silent and she smiled.
"You are a bad influence, Luz"
"I'm a great influence! But seriously, you don't have anything to worry about, I'll guide you" She tried to reassure her.
"That's why I'm worrying. When I think about you, 'careful and responsible' are not the first things that come to my mind" She was only half joking. She loved her friend but she tended to be clumsy and reckless.
"Hey I can be those things!"
They laughed and continued walking as Willow pondered on her previous thoughts. She could not find an actual reason why her friend was behaving like this; At first she thought that Eda was being hard on her but a visit to the owl house disproved that theory, the Clawthorne woman seemed mean but she actually cared and treated Luz with respect. Then she thought that maybe it had something to do with school but that didn't seem to be the case, she had amazing grades and Willow never saw her struggle.
No, if she had an issue it was from her old life back in her country. She was torn at this point: On one hand she felt like she shouldn't interfere in her personal life, but on the other she felt that it was tearing her social life and their friendship.
Well, she also had another theory. Albeit this one was… less likely to be true.
"The way her flowers were fixed the day she met her. How a patch of ice suddenly materialized in Boscha's way when she was chasing Luz. How she appeared in the classroom seemingly out of nowhere. And the most important of them all: The way her sudden disappearances always happened when there's a supposed incident with magical creatures (Gus always showed her the news on his site whenever it happened)" Most of her believed it was just a coincidence but there was a tiny part of her that yelled 'what if?'.
A sudden guitar riff startled her from her inner thoughts.
"W-What's that?"
"Oh, sorry. It's my new ringtone" Luz sighed in frustration and picked up his phone, then she started scrolling through it with a concerned face.
"Luz? Is everything ok? We are almost at my house"
"Yeah yeah, everything is alright" She swallowed hard and looked at her with an expression that said nothing was alright "You know, I was wondering if we could maybe reschedule this whole thing?" She said with a nervous tone.
"What? But we just gathered everything that we need for it! We've been planning this for days!" She couldn't believe what she was hearing
"Yes, but I think it would be better if we do it another day. It's just that today doesn't feel good to me" She started to back away while looking behind Willow's shoulder for some reason.
"Ok, none of that" Willow put the bags that she had been carrying on the floor and grabbed Luz by her shoulders while giving her a stern glare "Luz there's another reason why I agreed to do this, we need to talk. You have been very distant lately and always try to push us away, you tend to disappear and then give us crappy excuses afterwards, Luz we can that you are lying and it bothers us, Gus and the others are starting to get worried"
"Oh…" It seemed that she managed to get through her, she stopped trying to pull away and looked at her with sad eyes "Willow, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend any of you. I-I recognize this has become a bit of an issue and I'll try to not do it anymore" She sounded sincere but she still had her doubts
"Can you at least tell me what's going on?"
"It's… complicated" She looked over Willow's shoulder again and gulped "B-But I really think we should go, maybe we can discuss this in my home and-"
"No! Luz, you are doing it again. How do you expect me to trust you if you keep trying to escape from this conversation?" It really bothered her that she wasn't even looking at her in the eyes. The girl kept looking behind her for some reason.
"No Willow, this is not-"
"Ehem" A familiar voice behind them said "Am I interrupting?"
She turned around to see the last person she expected to see in front of her house. Amity Blight was standing in front of her door, dressed in a pink sweater with a cat's face on it and dark blue jeans. She looked peaceful, as if she didn't violate her privacy just by being there.
"Shiiit" She heard Luz whisper behind her "I tried…"
"Hi, Willow…" Amity waved awkwardly.
Willow clenched her first until it turned white. After all of this time Amity never sought her outside of school, she always guessed that it was because she had better things to do than to chase her around like Boscha's group used to do. So that meant that the last time Amity was here was on that fateful birthday party. Several painful images flashed through her mind before she could stop them. She blinked to disperse them and faced the other girl.
"Well, let's just get this over with. At least I have Luz at my side this time"
"As a matter of fact, yes, you are interrupting" She marched towards her bully and stopped when she was in front of her "What do you want, Blight?"
"I- it's just- We need to-ugh, fuck it" She seemed unsure and cautious, which was a huge contrast from her usual confident and cocky demeanor "Willow, can we talk?"
That question took her by surprise. Why would Amity Blight, bane of her existence, decide that she wanted to talk with her. Unlike the rest of the bullies in the school, who deliberately chased her around to tell her she was a waste of atoms, Amity didn't bother her if she wasn't in front of her so situations like the one where she met Luz were pretty rare. So in order for her to want to have a talk with Willow something drastic must've happened.
"Is this a joke? Or a set up? Are you trying to distract us while one of your friends pulls up a prank on us?" It wouldn't be the first time it happened.
"What? No! I really need to talk to you, it's important" She had a sad expression on her face but she knew that Amity was good at hiding her feelings "But I'd rather do it in private…"
"Oh really? You don't want my neighbors to listen to your insults? Well too bad because I don't want to hear them either" She grabbed her bags and walked past her.
Maybe Luz was rubbing on her, who knew.
"I came here to apologize" Amity blurted out.
Willow dropped her bags and turned towards her with opened eyes. The girl looked like she was bracing for a punch with her eyes closed.
"Say what?"
"What are you talking about?" Willow couldn't believe her ears.
"I… the way in which I've been treating you these past years is wrong and I want to apologize for that. I know you won't believe me and I don't blame you for it, but I came here because you need to know that I'm sorry and you need to know why I did it" Amity looked at her right in the eyes when she said that, not a pinch of malice inside of them.
Willow sighed, defeated.
"We better get inside"
xxxxx
Ten minutes later they were all inside Willow's living room sitting around a round table on green couches.
This was one of the most tense situations Willow found herself in and she hated the fact that she couldn't do anything about it. Usually she would be the one who tries to de-escalate things in a peaceful manner, but now she couldn't because she was the afflicted party and she refused to be anything but hostile towards Amity. One of the reasons why she didn't like interacting with the green haired teen (apart from the bullying and the baggage they had) was that it was hard for her to hate people, and doing it drained her energy.
Amity, for her part, looked uncomfortable as well. Even though she said she wanted to talk, now she looked like she was having a hard time getting the words out and insisted on avoiding looking at her in the eyes.
The person that could act as a mediator was Luz (she had connected with the two of them after all) but the girl didn't seem interested in speaking either. She seemed to want to bolt out of the room out of the sheer awkwardness of the situation and didn't want to get caught in the crossfire.
Seeing as none of the girls wanted to speak she decided to end their collective suffering.
"Luz, do you want to set up the things for our training in my dad's gym room?"
"Oh yeah! Leave it to me" With that she bolted out of the room with way more speed than necessary.
"Gym room?" Amity asked with an awkward smile "Are you two working out?"
"Could you get to the point already? Just say what you came here to say" She wasn't in the mood for a chit chat.
"Right" She cleared her throat "I am sorry for everything I did to you these past years, I truly behaved like a bitch"
Willow raised an eyebrow.
"Okeeeey. Why should I believe that?"
"What?"
"You have been acting like that for a long time and seemed to enjoy making me feel bad, but now I have to believe that you had a sudden change of heart and want to apologize? What guarantee do I have that proves this isn't some sick joke or an elaborate prank?" She was panting at the end of her speech.
"I guess I deserve this. *sigh* There's no guarantee nor proof but I swear that I'm saying the truth"
"So what, am I supposed to believe you just had a change of heart all of the sudden? Were you visited by the three christmas ghosts or something?".
"I- I can explain. There is a reason for it" she couldn't believe her ears.
"Well, let's hear it then. It better be a good reason" At this point she was clenching the sofa's armchair.
*sigh* "Do you remember my birthday party?"
"Of course I do! That's when you ended our friendship!"
"Yes…"
"Do you remember that there was a big scandal with the adults?"
"I think I do… I remember that my parents were feeling nervous and a lot of people were present that day" She remembered thinking how odd it was to see that many grown-ups at a kid's birthday party.
"Well it turns out that my mother used my party as a trap to lure in investors. She made me invite Boscha, Skara, and a bunch of other people because she wanted to use that opportunity to talk with their parents in private, and of course that in order to talk business with others she needed her business partner Grant"
"Wait, Grant? As in our actual mayor grant?" She didn't know where Amity was going with this but she was intrigued now.
"Yep, the same one that's doing all of those anti-gay campaigns" She had a face of utter disgust "Long story short: When he found out about your dads he threw a hissy fit and demanded them to leave" Amity said.
"Hold on" She finally had connected the dots but refused to believe it "Is that why you yelled those things to me? To get me to leave?"
Amity nodded
"But Boscha has two moms!" She argued "Why weren't they forced to leave as well?"
"Only one of her moms went, so Grant didn't find out. Besides they are rich investors remember? It grants them certain invulnerability" She casted her eyes down in shame "My mom couldn't disagree with her boss but didn't want to cause a scene by just kicking them out, so she decided it would be better if… you decided to leave on your own"
Willow tried to digest this new information but it was hard.
"I'm so sorry Willow" Amity sniffed and she could see her eyes were red "My mom didn't let me tell you the real reason because she didn't want rumors. What I told you that day was wrong: The truth is that you are not too weak to be my friend, I was too weak to be yours"
"I… I don't understand. If all of this was for Grant then why did you keep avoiding me after the party?" Willow asked.
"After that my mom was really focused on getting connections. She figured out that she could get closer to the 'right people' if I was friends with their children, so she forced me to be with them while forbidding me to be with 'the lower class'. She… didn't want me to be near you" From the way she cut that phrase it made her think that there was something else in there.
"I- I" This was a lot to take in and Willow couldn't process it quickly enough.
"The reason why I am telling you this right now is because I finally had a talk to my mom about it. She isn't very thrilled with the idea of us talking again, but she said she didn't mind as long as I kept my grades up and helped with the sales" Amity muttered the last part angrily "I'm not expecting you to forgive me nor I'm not expecting us to be friends again after all of this, but I want you to know that things are going to be different from now on. I swear" She stood up and looked at Willow with determination in her eyes.
Willow took a long breath and tried to do the thing that she always did in situations of stress: Keep it all in and try to organize her emotions in a neat structure, to wrap all of those feelings rumbling inside her in a tidy bag for them to be processed properly, but she couldn't. She didn't know what she was feeling, she didn't even know what she was supposed to feel at this point. All she knew was that for once she couldn't keep her feelings down and they were about to surface, right in front of Amity.
"Willow? Is everything ok?" Speaking of which, the cause of her inner turmoil was standing in front of her with worried eyes.
"I need to go" She suddenly decided that the best course of action was to leave this room right now. Willow didn't know where she stood with Amity right now but she wasn't ready to be so vulnerable in front of the person who she thought was her biggest enemy until three minutes ago "I can't deal with this right now. Sorry, I can't"
Willow got up from the sofa so fast that she bumped the table. Before the other girl could protest she dashed outside the room and slammed the door behind her. She kept going through the corridor for a while until she reached her room, she went inside and practically jumped into her bed, she grabbed a pillow to muffle herself and let a frustrated scream into it. She felt better after doing it, but she still was insecure about what to do right now, should she feel happy that the person who was her friend didn't actually hate her? Sad because of all the frustrations and lost time? Angry for her actions in the past? Angry about her mother's actions? She didn't know what to think, and that was scary. She was used to being this calm and reliable person who supports her friends, she wasn't used to this.
Not knowing what to do, she decided to ask Luz for help, her friend could also be helpful from time to time. Willow exited her room and headed towards her parent's gym room where she was supposed to be.
"Although I'm sure she stuck around to hear what we were saying for a while"
The gym room was a side project her parents had a few years ago. Basically one time her pops got an exercise bike in a yard sale, he was very excited for it and proclaimed that he was going to get back in shape. She and her dad thought that he wasn't serious so they didn't pay him any mind but he kept getting new things for his workouts like weights and a treadmill. They had to move all of that stuff to the guest room they stopped using once her grandma had passed away years ago.
"Oh hey Willow" Luz greeted her when she entered the room "How did it go?" She asked her with a concerned tone.
"It went" She grabbed a nearby chair and slumped on it.
"That bad? Do you want to talk about it?" She asked with a hopeful expression.
"Pfft I don't need to, you probably heard everything we said"
"Whaaat? No" She shot her a knowing look "Well, maybe a bit at the beginning" She kept staring at her "Ok fine I heard most of it, but it wasn't my fault! You have very thin walls and… I'm sorry Willow" She lowered her head in shame.
"It's ok" Honestly she couldn't bring herself to care after what happened "Back when we were in the street you tried to make me go away because you saw Amity before me, right?"
"Not… quite" Somehow Luz looked embarrassed. "I have something to say; A few weeks ago me and Amity talked after we had a fight, she told me some stuff about her and we found out that we liked the same book. After that we just decided to make peace with each other and actually started to hung out again"
"Wait… so you two have been friends for a while?" Is that why she kept disappearing?
"Yeah. Today she asked me what I was doing and I told her that I was hanging out with you in the evening. She didn't ask it directly, but I ended up telling her that we were going to your house at some point, I guess that's why she was waiting in your front door"
A sudden sense of betrayal flashed through her, as if someone stabbed her. She did think that it was weird how Amity was in the right place and time to intercept them, did Luz tell her other stuff about her? Could she trust her friend now? Was she going to replace them with Amity? Is this why she didn't want to hang out with them anymore? A multitude of thoughts passed through her until she made up her mind. No, Luz wasn't a bad person so she wouldn't do that to them. She might've messed up but that wasn't the end of the world.
"I'm so sorry Willow" She continued when she didn't speak "I should've-"
"It's ok" She interrupted her and got up "Do you think that punching bag is ready to be used? My dads haven't touched it in a while" She said, pointing at the hanging training gear.
"What?" When she refused to elaborate Luz went over and examined it "I think so"
"Good, I feel like I want to punch something" She stepped up and raised her fists.
*chucle* "As long as it isn't me" they both laughed and Luz proceeded to give her pointers on how to correct her posture.
As Willow focused on the punching bag she channeled all of her frustration. For all her life she had tried to keep her feelings under control by shoving them down. Well now she was going to try a different approach, she was going to let them out.
Thud!
With a yell she punched the bag clumsily, it hurt her a little bit but it felt good.
Thud!
She remembered how Amity was so nice to her when they met, she stopped some older kids from bullying her.
Thud!
Another punch and she envisioned Amity's birthday party, how her words hurt her and she cried the whole night afterwards.
Thud!
How Boscha and her cronies harassed her and Amity did nothing to stop them.
Thud!
How she made her feel worthless all of those years.
THUD!
With one final blow, she made the punching bag shake and she leaned to a wall to catch her breath. Her arms felt tired even if she didn't do much, Willow guessed that she really was in a bad shape.
"Soooo, did that help you feel better?" Luz came near her and offered a water bottle, she uncapped it and gave several gulps "I don't know if this is good or not but I feel better after I punch something"
"Yeah, that… actually helped me" Weirdly enough her emotions weren't pent up anymore "Thank you, Luz. I think I know what to do now" She then got up and walked downstairs with a determined look.
"You go get her girl!" She heard Luz's encouragement and smiled.
When she got back down she was surprised to see that Amity was still there, but then she remembered that she left their conversation in an abrupt manner so it made sense.
"Oh, Willow" She let out a surprised gasp "Everything ok? I heard some noises…"
"It's fine, don't worry about it" She cut her off abruptly.
"Right. So I didn't leave because I didn't know if you wanted me to leave or not. B-but if you want me to it's fine! I know this is a sudden change and I'm not expecting you to-" Willow raised her hand to interrupt her.
"Let me ask you one question, and then you can leave" She said with a hard glare.
"Oh, sure"
"Did your parents ask you to bully me?" She asked and Amity blinked several times.
"What?"
"Did. your. parents. ask. you. to. bully. me?" She took a step closer to her with each word. Amity was definitely taller than her by several inches, but that didn't stop Willow "Because all I'm getting from this is that your parents asked three things from you: To stop being friends with me, to be with Bosha and her friends instead, and to be the best academically. None of those things included bullying me and making me feel like shit for years!" She usually didn't swear because it was unnatural to her, but she didn't care right now.
"Willow…" Amity was taken aback.
"Did they tell you to put gum in my hair in sixth grade?"
"I-"
"Did they tell you to make me trip and fall with every chance you got?"
"Bu-"
"Did they tell you to humiliate me in front of class every day?"
"My parents…"
"Are real jerks? Yeah sure, I'll give you that. Listen, I know that this wasn't easy for you either, but you had a choice in the matter! However, instead of telling me the truth you lied to me and told me all of those awful things!" She felt tears starting to form in her eyes.
"I did it to protect you!" Amity rebuked.
"Protect me? What, do you think I couldn't handle knowing that your mom didn't want us to be friends? No Amity, I would've been sad but at the end I'd understood and accepted it, I could've taken that hit. But you know what I couldn't handle? Having my best and only friend telling me that she hated me for being weak, and then ignoring me for years! I cried myself to sleep, Amity! Thinking that I would never be good enough to deserve you or anything for that matter" She was fully crying at this point, with tears streaming down her cheeks and sobbing hard "It's funny, I think, because what you said that day was kinda true: You did think that I was weak, too weak to handle the truth, so you decided to shield me from it" She was panting at the end.
Amity just watched her with her eyes like plates. She was crying too and had an expression of pain in her face.
"Willow… I'm so sorry…" She reached out to her but stopped and retracted her hand, then she looked at the floor in shame "I- I don't know if I can make this better and I know I don't deserve your forgiveness, but let me promise you something. I won't let Boscha and her people bully you ever again! And I'm not letting my parents push us away either! If you decide to never talk to me again I'm fine with it, but you can count on my word!"
Willow, on an emotional impulse, lunged forward and hugged her. Amity stumbled backwards out of the surprise she felt but after a second she hugged her back. They just stood in the embrace for an entire minute, crying and sobbing. After a while, Willow let go.
"I… I think I need some time to process all of this" She cleared her throat and rubbed her tears away "I don't know if I'll be able to forgive you, and I know for sure that I won't forget what you did… but I don't hate you for it, I imagine that this was also hard for you" Amity smiled and nodded wordlessly "I'm glad you told me this, and I'm happy to know what you really think of me"
With that, she walked her to the door and said goodbye. Amity assured one last time that she could count with her for anything and she left. When she closed the door Willow let out a heavy sigh, today had been really emotional and not at all what she expected, but she guessed it was good in a weird way.
"Hello? Willow? Luz's voice came from the living room "I heard the door closing"
"I'm coming!" She called "Amity left already"
"Oh… Did it go well with her then?" She asked with an intrigued look.
"I… Honestly don't know" She shrugged "We are in a better spot than when we started, but I don't know where we stand now"
"I think things like these take time, you shouldn't rush it" Luz said.
"I guess" Willow then took a moment to look at her dark-skinned friend "How much of this did you know from hanging out with Amity? Be honest now" She wanted to trust her, but she was a bit hurt after today.
"Honestly nothing really. I didn't ask about this because I could tell it was a sensitive subject for her. If I had known I would've tried to set you two up so you could talk it up in private" She admitted sheepishly.
Willow snorted, Luz probably would've locked them in a closet until they figured things up. It was a nice thought but she could see a thousand things that could've gone wrong with it.
"Yeah no, I had enough of your shenanigans already" They both laughed at that "Luz, it's ok if you want to keep hanging out with Amity. Sure, it would be an adjustment, but I don't see anything wrong with it. Just stop making weird excuses when you do it"
"Aww, thanks Willow" She went forward and hugged her "But don't worry, I'm gonna keep being around you guys! You can't get rid of me that easily!" Willow smiled upon hearing that, it had been one of her worries.
"Ok, I think that's enough emotions for the day. So how about we continue our work out session?" She offered with a smile. She somehow felt more eager to train after this.
"Heck yeah!"
-Luz-
The outskirts of Gravesfield / Friday November 24th 21:00 hs
Luz stood on top of a destroyed water tower as she watched the scene below her. A slitherbeast had appeared in the hills near gravesfield and luckily she was able to localize it thanks to the app that Gus shared with her, she then managed to deal with it before it got close to any form of civilization. It was wild to think that a beast bigger than a truck was able to live on the woods near a city all this time without being noticed, they were all teleported to the human realm five months ago after all, but Luz knew how it had managed to stay hidden all this time: It was simply hibernating. Slitherbeasts were magical creatures that required cold to function, since they appeared on earth during the summer it was too hot for it to function, so it probably dug up a hole and put itself in a suspended animation until it was cold enough for it to go outside again. Now, why would Belos have one of those petrified in his vault? She had no idea, but this wouldn't be the strangest thing the emperor had done.
"Agh! Why did it had to be a Slitherbeast? Why couldn't it have been something smaller like a snake shifter?" She cursed in a low voice.
The truth was that tracking down a Slitherbeast was the easy part, but taking it down was hard. It had fangs that could chomp concrete and enough strength to tear down a building in one blow, not to mention that its fur repelled most spells. What people usually did with these was to cast a sleep spell on its open mouth where it didn't have any fur, but doing it wasn't an easy task. Luz managed to locate it and drive it away from human settlements, but the beast was too quick for her to cast the spell, she tried to pin it down but it just dodged her and continued its rampage. She chased it until they arrived at a warehouse, then it proceeded to chomp the walls away to look for food inside.
"This is horrible! Agh, I only I paid more attention in my beast keeping lessons"
She considered her options, perhaps she could lure it away with food and wait until it started eating to put him to sleep? But where would she get food? Not to mention that she needed to mask her scent in some way if she was planning on doing a sneaking attack, Slitherbeasts had a powerful sense of smell after all.
She was still debating what to do when the huge beast moved, for some reason it had decided to stop looking inside the building to get food and started running back towards the woods. His nostrils twitched randomly, indicating that it had found a smell it was particularly interested in.
"Oh no! Nonononono!" She quickly mounted on Owlbert to give pursuit.
"Relax, Lass. It's under control" An unknown voice with an accent she didn't recognize spoke from behind her.
Luz quickly turned around to search for the owner of that voice. She spinned her feet so fast that it almost made her fall from the top of the water tower she was in. Once she stabilized, she scanned the area for possible aggressors with a spell ready on her hand.
"Down here" The person spoke again. This time she noticed that they were standing on the scaffolding around the base of the water tank. Walking closer, she was surprised to see it was an elderly man with white skin dressed in a fancy black suit with a tie, he was leaning against the railing of the water tower and looked quite tired.
"Took you long enough. Been standin' here for a couple of minutes" The man looked at her with an unreadable smile and something clicked inside her brain. She knew him, he was one of the people in suits that were around when she defeated the elemental guardian "I guess that the big fella down there had all of your attention, you didn't even notice my old bones cracking when I had to climb those stairs to get 'ere"
Luz was on edge. All of her instincts were telling her to run, fire at him, or do both of them at once. These were the people that had been collecting magical creatures and they tried to capture her many times. But besides all of that, there was something else going on; This man was completely calm despite being near a massive beast bigger than any other on planet earth and a real life witch that was aiming her staff at him. Something about this man made her put her guard up.
"Oh, where are my manners? My name is Marcus" He extended his hand for her to shake, but there was no way that she was going to go near him "You can lower that, I mean you no harm" He said, pointing to her staff.
Luz did not lower that at all, instead she kept aiming at him while she looked at the fleeing form of the Slitherbeast. The creature was almost at the entrance of the forest at this point, if it kept going she was going to lose it.
"I can't lose time with this guy, or else the Slitherbeast will get away. I'll use an illusion to distract him and-"
"Oh, don't worry about that" The old man interrupted her thoughts "Like I said, the situation is under control"
As he spoke a rumbling sound resonated in the ground below them. She turned to see several pink lights in the ground surrounding the Slitherbeast, it got near one to smell it but then it backed away squealing as if it was hurt. The rumbling sound returned again and a metallic pillar emerged from the pink lights on the ground, as it had been buried, it was way taller than the beast and it had several pink lights on it. Then one by one twelve more pillars came out of the ground and formed a circle around the Slitherbeast, then electricity of a pink hue started appearing from each one of the lights and it connected all of them, effectively surrounding it. The creature let out a defensive snarl and tried to escape through the spaces between the pillars, only to be shocked by pink lightning when it tried to cross.
"Stop! No!" She cried and then turned to the old man (his name was marcus?) with a menacing glare "I won't let you hurt the Slitherbeast"
"Slitherbeast? Now that's a catchy name" He passed a hand through his grey hairs and laughed, as if he wasn't in danger at all "My people call it the Cryogenus rex, which is a wee bit stupid when you consider…" The man trailed off, not caring about her at all.
Luz decided to stop losing time with him and hopped on owlbert before he could protest. She flew towards the metallic pillars and started thinking of ways she could free it, she considered that it would be easier to put it to sleep now that it was trapped. However, something happened before she could reach it: Tons of white lights appeared in the forest and approached the newly formed cage. At first she thought that it was another trap (one meant for her) and gained altitude to dodge it, but then she realized that those were moving around. Curious, she dropped down to see them better and got scared when she realized that they were flashlights. Dozens of people in suits were using those to navigate the forest and they were getting near the imprisoned beast.
Luz clenched her teeth in frustration, this was far too much for her to handle quietly. She had been planning on taking them one by one in several sneaking attacks since it was nighttime, but their numbers were far too big to attempt that. She also scratched the idea of a direct confrontation, people could get injured if she tried that and she always tried to avoid that particular scenario, even if it was tempting. Releasing the Slitherbeast wasn't an option either, the creature would charge and probably kill several of them in the process. She looked around to find something she could use to her advantage in this situation, only to see that the man in the water tower was waving her down, she rolled her eyes and flew towards him.
"You should not be near them, they aren't as friendly as me" He scolded her when she landed near him.
Luz just glared at him.
"Look, Marcus right? Tell your men to stay clear from it or things are going to get ugly" She put the most menacing voice she could muster.
"I don't think so" He looked at her with a boring expression and sighed "You had the perfect chance to annihilate them back there and free the beast, but you chose not to. That tells me you are not the killing type, and the fact that you never killed anyone in your previous battles proves it. So don't waste your breath making empty threats lass,I know you are not going to hurt my men"
Luz repelled the urge to groan. This guy was good.
"The fact that I don't kill doesn't mean I'm not ready to fight. I don't want to harm people but I'm not gonna let you hurt the Slitherbeast"
"Oh but we are not going to harm it" He said, looking at his watch.
"Excuse me?" She pointed at the agents surrounding the huge creature "They have dozens of guns aiming at it down there, not to mention that the electricity in the cage hurts it, and you say that you are not going to harm it? Do you think I'm dumb?"
"Far from it, those weapons are a safety measure in case the beast escapes. You did a good job at not setting it free, otherwise it would've been bad" He explained.
"So? What are you going to do with it? Put it in the zoo?" She had seen that human method of incarceration and she was not a fan.
"No. We are going to do the same thing that you were plannin' to do, look" He pointed towards the people who were around the caged Slitherbeast. A few of them tossed something inside the cage, it was too far away for her to see what it was, but a few seconds later a green gas started emitting from the things they throwed "We are putting it to sleep, see? Once it's done we'll transport it to a safe location. I believe that's what you were trying to do before"
"How do I know it's not poison and you are actually trying to kill it?" Luz still remembered all those times the people in suits chased her down and tried to shoot her.
"I suppose you don't. You could try to go there and breathe it in to see if it is poisonous. But I don't think it would end up well for yeh"
Luz bit her lower lip. The guy had a point, she couldn't drop down and interviene right now or things would end in a disaster. She still didn't trust him, but right now she needed answers and he was someone who had them.
"Who are you people? And what do you want? Why are you always making life difficult for me lately?"
"Hold on there lass. That's a lot of questions to answer, and I have my fair share of those to ask you. So I propose we should do this rationally, you answer one question that I have and in return I'll answer one of yours, sounds fair?" He offered with a grin.
"Agh, fair. But I can refuse to answer if I want to"
"Fair. And I will also ask you to lower your weapon" He pointed to her palisman "We are trying to do this in a civilized manner after all"
Luz growled and prepared to argue. But then an idea came to her mind.
"Fine, but you go first" and she pointed to the holster that was almost completely hidden by his suit.
"Fine by me" He scoffed and grabbed his gun to toss it to the side. Luz did the same with owlbert "Ladies first" he gestured at her to speak and Luz scratched her chin thinking of something to say.
"Who are you people?" That was the first question that came out of her head.
"We are just a group of well intentioned people who want to keep things like your Slitherbeast from hurting humans. It's our mission to keep things from spiraling out of control, and that includes hiding the existence of magical beings, like yourself, from common people" Luz blinked, that was more than she was expecting "My turn, were you the one that caused the incident that brought several magical beings to our world several months ago?"
Luz winced. From the way he spoke, he had been itching to ask that question. Luz considered lying, but then she quickly discarded that idea.
"It wasn't my intention to-" She started but he cut her off by raising a hand.
"While I do think that intentions are important, I found out in my experience that the thing that matters the most are consequences. So now, I'll ask again: Were you the one that caused the magical incident or not?"
Luz nodded. She felt as if she was being interrogated by principal Bump.
"Good, you may ask your question" He didn't look mad at her or anything, his expression remained as unreadable as always. Luz looked at the field below, she could see that the green gas was cleared and the Slitherbeast collapsed. She got worried for a second but then she heard it's snores.
"What are you going to do with the Slitherbeast now that you caught it?" She was genuinely curious about that one.
"We will transport it into a facility to keep it from hurting any other person. But don't worry, we will feed it and take care to its other needs"
"So you are going to imprison it?" Anger flared up on her chest "You can't do that! It's a living being!"
"Oh really? And what do you propose we do? Let it harm people? This isn't an earth animal, there are no nature reservations or national parks that are appropriate for that thing, if we tried to release it into the wilds it would devastate the wildlife and probably cause the extinction of a dozen species. This may not be great for it but it's the best solution we have for now"
Luz wanted to retort, but she couldn't find an arguement to do so.
"Now, I believe it's my turn" He looked up at the starry sky and remained silent for a while "Oh yes, now that you mentioned it before, what are your intentions here?"
"My what?" Luz was taken aback by that.
"Your intentions. What do you want here? What's your goal?"
"Me? I just want to survive" she said.
"Oh? And chasing after a colossal creature is a part of survival for witches?" He asked with a raised eyebrow "What about all of those times when you fought against mythical creatures ten times your size, was that 'just surviving' too?
"I- That's not- It's different! I am the only one who could've stop them, so it was my responsibility to do it, walking away and pretending it's not my business would only make this disaster worse" Her mom always used to say that those who can do something to help people should do it, otherwise they were as guilty as those inflicting pain on others.
"So it's just some good old-fashioned altruism then? Or do you have another motive to do it? Perhaps you are seeking absolution from your misdeed" He inquired.
"You are free to believe whatever you want" Luz was biting the inner part of her cheek out of anger at this point. This guy was really good at this and it was infuriating "But the truth is that I do it to help people. Also, those were like three questions in a row"
"Hah! You got me lass, fair enough. You can ask me three more questions to make it even" He seemed amused by this.
"Your people have attempted to capture me, why?"
"My people tried to capture you because we are not sure if you are one of the good guys and we were planning on finding out in an interrogation room. But you have proven to be very elusive, props to you"
A thousand questions emerged from that statement, but she decided to hold herself, she only had three shots after all.
"Then… why aren't you trying to catch me
"Are you joking? I am far too old for that shite, chasing and fighting magical beings is for spry young lads who have nothing to lose. I shouldn't be here for all accounts, but they keep me around because I can do something that none of those thick-skulled fuckers can: I think outside the box" He turned around to observe his agents trying up the Slitherbeast below "The books for our recluits say that you should imprison magical beings first, and then figure out their intentions later. However, in my experience I found out that sometimes it's better to do things in a different way. Now, you have your final question, shoot your shot"
"Okey…" She didn't know what to make out of that, Luz still wasn't sure if he was an ally or an enemy. She shoved that aside for now and asked the question that most interested her "You said that your organization fights magical beings, does that mean that you have a way of traveling to magical realms?"
"Oh, itching to be back to the boiling isles I see. Sadly no, we do not have the means to cross dimensions with magic or science" That sentence made her head spin out of control.
"Wait, you know about the boiling isles? How? Why? Can you-" He interrupted her by raising his hand again.
"Nah-ah, you used all of your questions already, sorry lassie" With that he turned back and started climbing down the stairs.
"Hold on, what? You can't just leave!" Luz had been completely stunned by this.
"And why not? Are you going to take me prisoner?" He asked with a raised eyebrow as he kept going down.
"No but… I'm still talking to you! I-I-It's rude to just leave someone when they are talking you know!" Luz had no idea what to do, this old man had turned her upside down.
"Ah well. In that case you'll have to pardon my rudeness young miss, but I have a compromise this evening that I cannot miss, I'm very sorry" He kept climbing down the ladder with difficulty until he reached the ground, Luz mounted owlbert and floated at a relatively close distance to him "I will give you this advice for free though: Stay out of our way when we are working, we do not seek any quarrel with you but we can't tolerate any interference"
"Well then, better stay out of MY way when I'm working" Luz snarled back at him "I won't tolerate any interferences either"
"Have it your way lass" He turned around and started walking towards the forest. After a few meters he sighed and pulled something from inside his suit "Here, catch"
He tossed something to her general direction and she summoned some vines with her plant glyph to catch it. A part of her brain told her that it could be something dangerous but she doubted that, that didn't seem to be this man's style. Upon closer inspection she could see that it was a rectangle-shaped box, she didn't know the material but it was black like the night sky and had some golden inscriptions on it.
"What is this?" She eyed the box with curiosity.
"A magical relic" Marcus just kept walking.
"Really?" It didn't look at all like any magical relic she ever saw.
"That's not from your lands, so you wouldn't recognize it. It's called a… agh, I can never remember these bloody names, all you need to know is that it can be used as a storage unit" He said and resumed his walk.
"A storage unit?" She wasn't sure what he meant by that.
"When you encounter another gigantic beast, like I know you will, simply press that red jewel in the middle of it, the box will open and it will absorb the closest thing to it. Whoever you choose to put there gets stuck in a parallel plane of existence where they can't be harmed, if you wanna release them you just have to press the same jewel twice" Luz stood there blinking, trying to absorb that information.
"Why are you giving me this?" That seemed way too nice to be true.
"If you are planning to keep recklessly fighting against these creatures, then it would be better if you did that properly" He hadn't stop walking so he had to rise his voice to talk to her "You might find yourself in a similar situation without your help and if I had to choose between a rampaging creature or you, I'd choose you" Luz just stared at him, perplexed.
"How do I know that this isn't a trap? Why should I trust you?"
"Oh you shouldn't, I already called my associates and they are on their way" He yelled at the distance "They are heavily armed and aren't as friendly as me, so you might wanna go flying"
Luz cursed under her breath and took flight. As she left she could see a flashlight in the forest so she knew that Marcus wasn't lying about that at least, but other than that she couldn't know what to make of their whole conversation. She was sure of something though, they were going to meet again.
-Marcus-
"Good talk" He thought to himself as he marched through the forest towards the meeting point. He pondered on the information that he had gained today, while it was useful for sure there was no way his colleagues would believe him or trust his words.
"Marcus!" He heard the voice of Lawrence who, for once in his life, was on time "Are you out of your goddamn mind?!"
"Quite the contrary lad, didn't you hear me overmanuever that witch in our conversation? I still got the touch" He laughed upon seeing the boy's bewildered face.
"You- I can't believe it!" He started running around him while muttering to himself "You went against Lilith's orders and exposed yourself to a witch, what if she killed you?"
"Then I'd expect you to arrange me the best funeral that you can manage" He answered with an amused smile.
"I- you could've died! And then what? Do you expect me to tell Lilith that you were killed by a witch and I let it happen?"
"Of course, nobody else should have that honor"
"Shut up, this is the last time I let you convince me to do this"
They kept moving forward as Lawrence briefed him on the Slitherbeast's capture, luckily it went without any major incidents apart from that one guy that got too close to the cage and received a shock, but he was fine now. On his part Marcus discussed everything he had talked with the witch, his protege didn't trust her words like he predicted but he was sure. Even if the witch didn't tell him all the truth, all of the words that came out of her mouth were true.
"I'm telling you lad, if we keep cultivating her we could gain a powerful ally and, what's more important, information. I'm still not sure what's her aim or her plan in all of this, but I do believe that we can make some progress here"
"I'm still not sure, how do you not know that she didn't lie to you?"
"If you get enough experience you can tell when someone lies to you, it comes with age"
"So you want us to get closer to a being that can disassemble our molecules just because you had a hunch, got it"
He turned back at him to retort but a noise interrupted him. From the trees emerged the figure of Lilith who looked at them with disdain.
"I'm disappointed Marcus. Back in your glory days you would've spotted me trying to sneak up on you"
"Well, what can I say? It comes with age I guess" He approached her and shook her hand.
"Did you at least find something useful in your walk? Were you able to spot the witch?" Lilith asked eagerly.
"I'm afraid not, I saw her flying once far away but that was several minutes ago" Marcus tried to ignore the feeling of Lawrence drilling his eyes on him from behind, he could perfectly imagine his surprised expression.
*Sigh* "Then I'm afraid we have lost her. I'll have my patrols keep an eye on the sky just in case, since we don't know where she is there is always a chance of a surprise attack" She started marching towards the meeting point.
"Yes, it'd be wise to do that" Marcus looked back and saw that Lawrence was trying to say something but he quickly grabbed his wrist and shut him up with a glare "Who knows where she might be…"
Yep, I made this instead of following the events of 'understanding Willow'. I'm gonna be honest, I didn't like how the show handled Amity's redemption and I'm using this to vocalize it, because everything that Willow said here was right: The Blights didn't push Amity to bully her and it all would've been better if she would've just told her the truth since the beginning. Yes, she was a small kid when that happened, but that doesn't excuse all of the following years of harassment. The show should've followed it up but in the next episode they were pretty much friends already. Maybe Willow is a better person than me for being able to forgive her, but Idc, this is my fic.
I tried to put some Scottish stuff into Marcus' part. In one comment from Ao3 someone informed me that "lad" was Scottish and I thought that it would be interesting to have someone of that nationality in the fic so I just went with it. Tell me what you think about it, yay or nay? If there's someone from Scotland I'd appreciate some tips (And sorry if I offended you with this), I'll change his previous dialogue when and if I ever get confident with writing him like that, also according to your guy's feedback of course.
Reminder that I might do a one shot about the finale after this gets posted. So if I take more time updating this fic you know why.