Luz started walking among the mirrors, looking for any sign of life or even just something that would allow her to orient herself in that sort of labyrinth, but it was as if everything was always constantly the same. After a few minutes she began to feel seriously nauseous about the place; in the long run it was really annoying. She tried to fly to control the situation from above, but she found out that she couldn't; even though she still looked like she did after King lent her his powers, she still couldn't use any magic.

"So… Amity's worst nightmare is mirrors?" she murmured, touching the cold surface of one of them. The strange thing was that such mirrors didn't reflect her: it was as if she were looking at a wall, not a sheet of glass. "Well, I can't deny that this place is quite annoying to look at, but calling it a nightmare seems excessive to me..."

Realizing that by using her sight she wouldn't get very far, she closed her eyes and tried to hear as best she could. Initially she only perceived absolute nothingness, but then in the distance she heard what sounded like soft crying. She hurried to follow that sound, having some difficulty due to the fact that she was in a real labyrinth, but in the end she managed to find Amity; the girl was still in her witch form, but was huddled in a corner with her head between her knees. "AMITY!" Luz screamed as soon as she saw her.

Amity raised her head, but she kept her eyelids tightly shut. "L-Luz? Is that you? How...?"

"Long story, I'll tell you later. Listen, we're in a nightmare right now, and you really need to wake up" Luz replied, kneeling down next to her. "Why don't you open your eyes? Are they... glued, by any chance?"

"N-No" Amity sobbed. "I... I don't want to open them! I'd see myself in the mirror!"

"Huh? But all these mirrors don't reflect anything!" Luz told her.

"They don't reflect the real me! They reflect horrible things!" Amity answered her. "I don't want to look!"

Luz wasn't understanding. The mirrors continued to seem completely empty to her; maybe only Amity could see what was inside, since that was her nightmare? She decided she would investigate later. She knelt in front of her, took her face in her hands and brought her face close to hers. "Amity... now you can't see anything but my face. You can open your eyes"

Amity's eyelids fluttered; the girl was clearly afraid, but she trusted her girlfriend and opened her eyes. As soon as she saw her for a moment her terror gave way to surprise. "L-Luz? What's happened to you...?"

"It's King's magic, like I told you I'll explain it to you later" Luz answered her. Maybe she should have warned Amity earlier that she would look different.

Amity was clearly confused, but suddenly she stiffened and her face returned to terror: "No, no, no! I still see them!"

"Hey, hey, calm down! Just look at me!" Luz repeated to her.

But Amity shook her head, "It's no use! I see the reflection in your eyes!" she said with a small hiccup.

"Then look at my chin, or my neck, or my chest!" Luz answered her; but despite the situation, she couldn't contain her curiosity: "But what is it that scares you so much? What's in the... uh?"

She was shocked when she looked up and saw the mirror in front of her. The moment Amity opened her eyes, their reflection had suddenly appeared in the mirror, which hadn't been there before; now Luz could see herself, and she could see Amity. The puppet was virtually unchanged, and the mirror reflected her image exactly as it was; but the purple-haired girl... she was different. Although she was in the exact position of the real Amity, her contours were harder and thicker, and she seemed to have joints on her arms and legs, and her eyes looked like glass balls and her hair like purple threads; strings also came down from the ceiling and tied around her body and seemed to move every time she moved. It was as if she were... "A puppet?" Luz murmured. "Amity… do these mirrors reflect you like a puppet?"

Amity nodded shakily, and then she raised a finger in the opposite direction. "T-They do that too!"

Luz turned her head and saw the mirror behind them, showing another reflection. Again, she was completely unaffected; but Amity instead was taller, more toned, with slightly larger hips, longer hair tied in a refined ponytail and a much more mature and wise look. "That… is that an adult you?" Luz said confused. "Why should it be scary?"

"I don't know!" Amity screamed burying her face in her chest. "I... I don't know why, but this terrifies me! Just looking at these reflections scares me! I... I don't know what to do!"

Luz held her tightly to try to calm her, but at the same time she looked at the mirrors in hopes of understanding why they were so terryfing for her girlfriend. She tried to look at the other mirrors too, but she discovered that they all always reflected the same things: those on the left only reflected the puppet Amity, those on the right the adult Amity. "Okay, okay, let's try to think clearly" she said. "This is a maze, so to get out of the nightmare I assume we have to solve it..."

"It's no use" Amity stammered. "I've already tried countless times! No matter which direction I go, I always come back to where I started! And wherever I go, those reflections haunt me!"

Luz pitied Amity. The entire maze was made of mirrors, which meant that no matter how much she ran away, she would always see herself reflected in the mirrors. And if that terrified her at such level... it had to be terrible. But why did it scare her so much?

Luz didn't understand what was wrong. The mirrors didn't show monstrous things, they didn't make sounds, they didn't speak: they worked like normal mirrors, with the difference that they altered Amity's appearance a little. Once someone understood that, and Amity certainly understood it immediately, they would no longer have to be scary. But then why was Amity still scared of them...?

Wait.

Luz's eyes widened as the pieces suddenly came together in her head.

Amity was afraid of losing her freedom, but at the same time she almost seemed to be trying to make it happen. The more she talked about not wanting to act like a puppet, the more she obeyed her mother's orders. She was afraid of being completely chained by her, but at the same time she forged the chain herself, and seemed afraid to actually break it.

Likewise Amity wanted to be independent, free, mature; a person capable of making her own decisions and who did not depend on anyone, not even her own mother... an adult. But at the same time she held back many times, letting someone else decide for her, fearing she would make the wrong choice.

Luz's eyes widened when she finally understood everything. "Amity... this is it! This is your nightmare! Your worst nightmare... is actually choosing for yourself!"

Amity raised her head shakily. "What?"

"Think about it! You said it yourself, this labyrinth has no end... because you are a prisoner between these two choices!" Luz answered her. "On the one hand there is a puppet you, someone else's toy, obliged to always follow orders, but who is protected by a puppeteer and does not risk getting burned. On the other there is an independent and adult you, free from any constraint, which however has no protection and no guarantee for the future. And you are caught between these two choices, and no matter how fast you run, you are always faced with them!"

Amity's eyes widened as she realized that everything the puppet made sense. "But... but it's not possible... I can't be scared of..."

"Amity, this is no time to tell lies!" Luz exclaimed. "Not to me or to yourself! You know these choices scare you! You have to face them, or you'll never get out of here! You just have to... yeah, that's it! Tell me what scares you about them! Don't use your brain, just let them talk the heart, as our fairy godmothers taught us!"

Amity was speechless, and for a moment she still seemed intent on denying it, but then she nodded. Trembling, she turned towards the mirror that reflected her like a puppet, and she hugged Luz closer as soon as she saw it. "That… is terrifying" she admitted. "The idea of not being able to decide for myself... is horrible. When my mother told me the truth about why she had given birth to me, I felt used. And even before that, when she revealed to me that I was a witch and she had trained me in secret for years, it seemed to me that she was playing with me. And even before, when she demanded all that perfection from me, I obeyed and obeyed without ever saying a word. As if I were just her toy. I always said that everything was fine... b-but it wasn't true! I hated that horrible feeling of not being able to decide about my life!". She sniffed. "But... at the same time... it's comfortable. Knowing that there is always someone there to make sure you don't make mistakes... it's good. It means that there will always be someone I can go to when I need help... that I will always have a mother ready to protect me if I get into trouble... that if I ever screw up she will be there to caress my cheek and tell me: 'It's okay, Mittens, you did your best, now let it go, I'll take care of it'. It's... nice. I hate the idea of being his toy, and yet... at the same time, a part of me wants it so bad"

She turned her gaze to the other mirror, and again she held Luz tightly. "And because of that... that's terrifying too. It's all I've ever wanted... freedom, decision-making power... being an adult means doing what you want without being accountable to anyone. But at the same time it means that there is no one to advise you, no one to stop you from making mistakes, no one to help you. You are the one who has to take responsibility. If you make a mistake, there will be no mother who will tell you that she will fix it and that you will not you have to worry... on the contrary, you MUST worry! You can't run away... you can't hide between a parent's legs and wait for her to face the problem. You have to... you always have to choose... and face the consequences of all your choices". She bit her lip. "I... I don't know which one I want to be. At the same time I want both and neither!"

"I know" Luz told her. "Amity... I noticed it, when you were possessed by the power of Grometheus and said whatever came into your mind. You wanted everyone to be happy and free, but at the same time you wanted to shape them as if they were sculptures and watch over of them as a guardian. And even though you said that now it was your turn to decide, the truth was that you continued to follow your mother's orders; it was her you wanted on the throne, not yourself. All that power made you desire absolute freedom... but also absolute imprisonment"

Amity sobbed. "I'm sorry. I never realized I was so pathetic..."

"No, Amity, you're not pathetic! You're not at all! This fear, feeling stuck between two fires... I think everyone has it, even if it's a little more accentuated in you given the experiences you've had had, but that's normal! Don't ever think you're pathetic!" Luz exclaimed. "Amity... I think I've figured out the way out. You can't escape this labyrinth unless you solve the riddle, that is, make your own choice! You have to choose which person you want to become, permanently this time!"

"B-But I don't want to choose!" Amity screamed putting her hands in her hair. "I don't want to make this choice! I... why do I have to make it? It's scary! Deciding this is scary! If I choose the independent me now, I'll have to accept that my mother is doing something wrong and fight her, which I've never done in my life! I will have to look into her disappointed eyes when I ruin the plan she has been preparing for decades! I will have to be angry with her and... and a lot of other things! If I choose to be a puppet instead, I will become nothing more than her instrument... but at least she will continue to love me... and be proud of me... and... and...". She slammed her fists on the floor. "Why do I have to choose!?"

Luz looked at her without knowing what to say, but then the words came out of her mouth on their own: "Because Amity... that's how you get a real life"

Amity's eyes widened. "W-What?"

Luz didn't know where those words were coming from, or even if they were right, but she continued anyway: "A real life is one where you have to choose for yourself, where you decide what's right and what's wrong for you. All of us for a part of our lives... some more and some less... we are puppets of our parents, or guardians, or anyone else. We are loved and adored puppets, with the most beautiful life in the world, but we are puppets anyway. But the moment comes when you have to stop being a puppet, when you have to start no longer letting yourself be influenced by the judgment of others and forge your own path with your own hands... which can sometimes also mean going against your desires parents or tell them they were doing it wrong. You have to... grow up". Suddenly her eyes widened, and she started stammering: "Of... of course! How did I not understand this before! This is it! Being a real girl... means accepting that sooner or later you have to grow up!"

Amity's eyes widened at Luz's words. "The requirement you had to solve... understand what it means to be a real girl..." she murmured, remembering when Luz told her about her dream. "Do you think that's it?"

"Yes! Amity, think about it!" Luz exclaimed without holding back a smile. "Your mother, your father... they remained puppets. Your mother remained a puppet of her own obsessions, unable to accept any path other than the one she had premeditated, and your father remained a puppet of his own fear. They never grew up. Instead Willow and Gus... they were puppets who didn't decide their own destiny, locked in my mother's shop because they were too scared to face the world, but then they grew up and became the wonderful friends we know! And also Boscha, and Skara , and also Cat and Amelia... all of them were puppets who followed the script dictated by you, but then they grew up and became wonderful people! And you too! You were a puppet commanded by your obsessions, who followed every order of yours mother to the letter, and then you grew up! You stopped following orders, you stopped trying to be perfect, you stopped always acting like a puppet, even if you still haven't managed to grow up completely! That's the answer!". Luz seemed thrilled like never before. "And to think that I had it under my nose all this time... but I never understood it! I said I wanted to become a real girl so I could grow up, but I didn't really realize what that entailed! But now... I know! That's why Eda didn't want me to use Darius' lamp, because otherwise I wouldn't have understood it! I would have grown in body, but without understanding what this meant in spirit! As Eda said, my spirit would remain that of a puppet! Oh, it's all so clear now! Accepting that you have to grow up, this is what being a real girl means! There is nothing more to add!"

And as soon as Luz said those last words, suddenly her heart seemed to beat wildly and an intense light enveloped her body; Amity was dazzled for a moment and narrowed her eyes. When she reopened them, the light had disappeared and Luz was back exactly as before; there had been no alteration in her wooden body. And yet… the puppet felt different. "Luz... what happened?" Amity asked her.

Luz didn't know exactly what to answer. "I feel... well... more real, I think" she murmured, her voice trembling with excitement. "Amity... I think I actually completed the first requirement! I don't know how to explain, I just know it, it's like an instinct... I really understood what it means to be a real girl!"

"Oh, Luz!" Amity exclaimed jumping into her arms; suddenly the tears of fear on her face turned into tears of joy. "So… now you only have one requirement left to fulfill, and then you will become a full-fledged real girl, right?"

"Yes, exactly! I need to figure out what kind of people I want to become!" Luz replied with a broad smile, but then despite her happiness she forced herself to become serious again: "But we'll think about it once we get out of here. Now you have to free yourself from this nightmare!"

Amity's face lost all its cheerfulness again. She remained silent for a moment, then she whispered: "I can imagine which of the two choice you would recommend"

"I will agree with whatever you choose. I will be with you regardless of your decision. I do not intend to advise you anything... this choice is yours alone" Luz answered her. "I can just tell you this… Amity, honestly, which one do you really want?"

Amity bit her lip. She remembered that every time she took a small step towards her freedom she felt happier than ever. That time she had given up on her perfection, that time she had burst into tears in front of Luz, that time she had given Willow the position of team captain, that time she had helped her friends against the Titan Trappers... all actions that her mother didn't approve of, but which made her feel happy.

She was afraid. She was afraid a lot. The thought of making the wrong choice scared her. That wouldn't be simply telling her mother she no longer wanted the captaincy: it would be breaking free of her control once and for all, and stopping her because what she was doing was wrong. But it also meant forever giving up her guidance, her teachings, her help... perhaps even her love, that same love that had comforted her for fourteen years, however full of flaws it was.

Amity wished things would stay the way they were. But she knew she couldn't do it. Even though she was afraid of the future... she was no longer willing to give up her freedom.

"Puppet or real girl, Amity?" Luz asked her.

Amity closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and when she opened them again they were filled with determination. She had made her choice. "Real girl, all the way" she whispered, and then she stood up and without further hesitation went towards the mirror that showed her adult self, and she placed a hand on it. As soon as she did so, the mirror shattered and with it all of reality, and both Luz and Amity were hit by a beam of light.

Meanwhile, King was watching the battle between Grometheus and the Collector, making sure their attacks didn't hit Amity's body, when suddenly with a small flash Luz was catapulted out of her head. "Luz! Did you succeed?" King exclaimed when he saw her.

Luz rubbed her head, feeling somewhat dizzy. "I… think so" she said. "Amity… are you awake?"

And just then, Amity's eyes opened. But they were no longer red as when she was possessed by Grometheus' power, or empty and haunted as when she was a prisoner of the nightmare; on the contrary, they had become two wells of golden light, which seemed to emanate an extraordinary force.

As I have already explained in other chapters, in Collodi's original book "becoming a real boy" for Pinocchio just means behaving well; on the contrary, in this AU it is about something much deeper, which consists precisely in understanding what it means to be a real person and then understanding what kind of person you want to become. And being a real person means... well, simply accepting that sooner or later you have to grow up, and make your own decisions on your own, without multiple parents telling you what to do and who at most can only give you advice. Something that seems so simple, but whose meaning is actually very difficult to understand. And Luz manages to understand it thanks to Amity, since Amity herself was a puppet even if only in spirit