(A/N: IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ! Before we get started on this chapter, I wanted to include something important that I forgot to mention, and that's when this takes place in the timeline. So, assuming you've seen Amphibia, you should recall the 10 year time jump that took place during the epilogue where Anne, Sasha, and Marcy had their reunion for Anne's birthday. That's when this story takes place, a few days after that reunion. Meaning the year would be 2029, and Anne would have just turned 23. This means the story takes place 5 years after the epilogue in The Owl House, where Luz was 18 in 2024, also making her 23 in this story since she's a few months older than Anne. As for Gravity Falls, this story would take place 17 years after the final episode, which took place in 2012, making Dipper and Mabel 29. There, that should clear up how old everyone is and when this story would take place in all three series. Oh, and one other thing. I had some people say that it seemed like Bill told Anne and Sasha too much last chapter. Well, perhaps he did, but what can I say, that's Bill for you. The guy is highly arrogant and overconfident, thinking no one is a match for his power. That's his biggest flaw/weakness, and it's ultimately what led to his downfall. He just can't help but brag and flaunt his superiority to those he deems beneath him and doesn't see as a threat, that's just part of his nature and personality. This is why he had no problem of telling Anne and Sasha what he did, because he doesn't think they can do anything to stop him. So now that that's cleared up, let's get to the chapter. Last time, Luz requested Anne and Sasha if they could meet, meaning this is going to be a very interesting chapter.)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 3: Witch Girl

"That was the longest seven-and-a-half-hour flight ever!" Sasha practically shouted as she and Anne exited the airport.

Anne glanced at her with tired, red eyes. "When isn't seven-and-a-half hours a long time?" she grumbled tiredly.

Sasha just growled softly. "Still any news about supernatural occurrences?"

Rubbing her eyes, Anne glanced at her phone, where the news of what was happening in Gravity Falls was playing. "Nothing yet. I guess that means Bill hasn't found his statue yet. That or he's being discreet after having gotten a body." She swiped on her phone. "Although there have been sightings of a mysterious flying girl being reported from L.A. en route to Oregon. Maybe he hasn't gotten there yet. We didn't exactly clock in his flight speed."

"Whatever," Sasha muttered. "Where's your friend, Lucy?"

"Luz," Anne corrected. "She said she would be waiting for us right outside the–"

"Anne!"

The girl whose name had been called blinked and rose up onto her tiptoes, shielding her eyes from the sun as she began looking through the crowd of people. In the distance, she spotted someone amongst the crowd, jumping up and down as they waved.

Now looking wide awake, Anne's face lit up and she turned to Sasha. "That's her! Come on, let's go!"

Grabbing Sasha's wrist, she yanked her along as she began making her way through the crowd. The girl she had spotted had begun eagerly making her own way towards them as well. Sasha nearly tripped several times as Anne pulled her along before releasing her when they reached the girl they were seeking.

"Luz!"

"Anne!"

Letting out excited squeals as if they were children, they launched themselves at each other, falling into a tight embrace as they began excitedly jumping up and down like school girls.

"I can't believe it's really you!" Anne exclaimed.

"I can't believe it either!" Luz cried. "We haven't seen each other in person since we first met in Amphibia!"

"I know! I know!"

Sasha suddenly felt like a third wheel as she watched the two long-distance friends interact. As Luz and Anne broke apart, she took the opportunity to look her friend's friend up and down and found that she wasn't impressed.

For supposedly being a witch, there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary about this Luz Noceda. She seemed like a normal human girl wearing a beanie with long locks of brown hair hanging down on either side of her head. The most unique things about her seemed to be the scar she had over her left eyebrow and a tattoo of a red bird on her left arm.

Her clothes were a little peculiar though, particularly the beanie she was wearing, the pink and purple head accessory seemingly having the face of a snake on it, making it look rather childish. Overall though, there was nothing about her that said "witch". Or "magical girl", as Anne had technically classified her as.

"Luz, this is my friend, Sasha," Anne introduced. "Sasha Waybright."

The supposed witch in question was all smiles as she turned to the blonde girl. "Sasha, it's so good to meet you!" She immediately grabbed her hand and enthusiastically shook it. "Anne has told me all about you!"

Well, not everything, Sasha hoped. She certainly hoped Anne had left out how she had used passive aggressive bullying to get Anne to do what she wanted in the past, or how she had attempted to execute Hop Pop, or how she had betrayed her and Marcy in Newtopia. At the very least, she hoped those events had been sugarcoated. Those were mistakes she would prefer to have been left in the past, and if they were going to be brought to light, she preferred to tell the herself.

"I-It's n-n-nice to me-et y-you too," Sasha stammered from how hard Luz was shaking her hand.

Releasing her hand, Luz got right up into Sasha's face. "You've got to tell me all about your time in the toad army, and how you led Wartwood in the resistance! Anne was only ever able to give me vague details since she wasn't there for a lot of it! Can you start with how you and your toad friend obtained Barrel The Brave's Warhammer?" She let out another excited squeal. "I just love backstories!"

Sasha fought down the mild irritation she felt at Anne having kept such a big secret from her and Marcy regarding the witch girl, especially since she had been able to tell Luz about their adventures in Amphibia. From what she could tell so far though, one thing was for sure, this Luz would have indeed gotten along very well with Marcy.

Which brought up the whole reason she and Anne had flown all this way, and she awkwardly tried to steer the conversation in that direction. "Uh, sure, I'd be happy to tell you my, um, backstory later, but we're on a bit of a time schedule right now."

Luz's eyes widened in realization and she slapped her forehead. "Doh! Right, the whole reason you guys came here! Sorry, I can get distracted pretty easily sometimes. Come on, you can explain in the car."

Sasha almost raised an eyebrow at this? Car? Witches drove cars? Didn't they fly on broomsticks instead? Or maybe that was just a stereotype. After all, Maddie hadn't flown around on a broom. But then, based on what Anne had told her about Luz, their two types of witchcraft were different.

Luz led them to where she was parked and they climbed into the car, with Anne taking the front passenger seat besides Luz and Sasha sliding into the backseat. Starting up the car, Luz drove them out of the airport parking lot and onto the main road.

Now that they were out of earshot of any bystanders, Sasha couldn't resist saying, "You're not exactly what I was expecting for being a witch."

Luz glanced back at her in the rearview mirror with an amused smile. "Oh? What were you expecting?"

Sasha didn't have an answer to that. Aside from seeming a little geeky, Luz didn't strike her as anything out of the ordinary. "I… don't know. Guess I'm just surprised you're so… normal."

Luz chuckled. "Thanks for that. Most people tend to think I'm weird."

Anne made a pfft sound. "Girl, Sasha and I spent months in a humanoid amphibian alternate dimension. Now that was weird."

Another chuckle escaped Luz. "Yeah, I guess it would be. But I suspect that the Boiling Isles may be a little weirder than Amphibia. Oh, Stringbean, it's ok, you don't need to hide from her."

Sasha had no idea what she meant by that last part, but then Luz's beanie suddenly floated off her head and transformed into a snake-like creature that floated in the air. It turned to Sasha, flicking out a forked tongue, and she leapt back in surprise.

"What the heck is that!?" she exclaimed, pressing herself into her seat as the snake-like creature floated back to her curiously.

"Oh, that's Stringbean," Luz replied simply, as if this should have been obvious. "She's my snake-shifter palisman."

"Palis-what?"

"My palisman."

Anne glanced back at her with a raised eyebrow. "Dude, I told you about palismen on the plane, remember?"

Yes, now that she mentioned it, Sasha did recall her saying something about them. But then Anne had done a lot of data dumping on her during the plane ride about everything Luz had told her over the years regarding her adventures in the demon realm.

"Yeah, you told me about a lot of stuff in the plane," she remarked. "With everything with Belos, the Titan, the Collector, the Owl House, the Owl Lady's curse, and stuff, it was kind of hard to keep track of it all."

A bashful look crossed Anne's face and she rubbed the back of her head. "Yeah, I guess I did throw quite a bit at you."

Luz just seemed to find Sasha's lack of understanding amusing. "It's fine. I know it's a lot to take in. It took me a while to get used to everything too. Anyway, palismen are basically magic animal companions we create or adopt that help us perform magic. They're like a cross between familiars and magic wands, only they become staves instead of wands."

Sasha attempted to wrap her head around this. "So they're like those pets owned by students who went to that magic school in that movie series Marcy used to make us watch when we were younger. What was it called again? Something about a boy with a scar named after a hairy pot? Can't believe they made eight of those when there were only seven books." She paused for a moment before Luz's words registered. "Wait, did you say that they become staves?"

"Oh, sure," Luz replied, and came to a stop at a traffic light. "Show her, Stringbean."

The palismen suddenly transformed, becoming a full-length staff with Stringbean curled up at the top. Luz snatched up the staff and pointed it at a traffic sign on the side of the road with some graffiti on it.

"Check it out," she said, and her staff flashed. The graffiti on the sign suddenly disappeared, leaving it spotless.

Luz glanced back at Sasha with a smile as the blonde girl stared in shock. She had seen Maddie perform magic before, but the frog girl's magic always seemed to consist of mixing potions and other items together to cast her spells. Luz had done magic with just a gesture from her staff.

"How'd you do that!?" she exclaimed.

Luz snickered. "It's magic."

Anne smirked. "Told ya."

The staff turned back into Stringbean, who nuzzled Luz affectionately and she scratched under the creature's chin. "Palismen bond with their masters. They sense what magic they want to use and help direct and control it, and amplify the magic by adding their own to it, or they'll use their own magic instead of having their master use theirs. Unfortunately, I don't have a magic bile sac since I'm not a biological witch, so I rely on Stringbean and glyphs to perform magic."

Sasha raised an eyebrow. "Um, bile sac?"

Anne gave Luz a confused look. "But I thought you said that the glyphs didn't work anymore after the Titan finally passed on."

Luz's face lit up. "Oh, right, I guess I forgot to tell you. About five years ago, King realized that he had his own glyph language, so I began searching and found them all. Now I can use glyph magic again with the new glyphs. Watch."

She pulled out a piece of paper with a strange design on it. With a tap of her finger, the piece of paper curled up into a ball and became an orb of light. Both Anne and Sasha stared at the floating, glowing ball in astonishment. While Anne had known that Luz could perform magic, she had never actually witnessed it, and she held her hands out towards the ball of light.

"And you discovered this five years ago?" she exclaimed. "Dude, how could you not tell me you could use glyphs again?"

Luz gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry. With the whole permanently moving to the Boiling Isles, getting ready to attend college at the University Of Wild Magic, and starting to track down the new glyphs, I was so busy back then that I guess I kind of forgot to mention it to you."

Anne sighed. "Ok, I guess that was a lot on your plate, so you're forgiven." She leaned in closer to the orb of light. "Man, this is so cool."

"Light," Sasha said.

"I know, right," Anne replied.

"Light," the blonde girl repeated.

"It sure is," said Luz.

"No, light."

Anne glanced at her. "Yeah, we know it's a light."

"No," Sasha pointed forward, "light."

A horn suddenly sounded as the driver behind them irritably honked at them. Both Luz and Anne looked forward to see that the traffic light had turned green, and who knew for how long now.

"Oh, the traffic light," Luz noted bashfully, waving away the orb of light and stepped on the gas just as the traffic light turned from green to yellow.

They made it through, but the car behind them ended up getting stuck as the light turned red again. Understandably angry, the driver stuck his fist out the window and shook it at them. Anne stuck her head out the window and shouted, "Sorry, dude!" back at him.

Pulling her head back inside, Anne gave Luz a smile, happy for her. "That's really great that you can use glyphs again."

A fond smile crossed Luz's face. "I know. I mean, I know I can use magic with Stringbean, but using glyphs holds special meaning for me since they were how I discovered how to use magic on my own. I really felt the loss when I could no longer use them, but it made sense that they wouldn't work anymore after the Titan passed."

Sasha gave her a peculiar look. "Wait, I'm confused. Didn't the Titan die long ago? I thought the whole demon race and civilization spawned or whatever from his rotting corpse."

Luz smiled at her in the rearview mirror. "Oh, yeah, he did, sort of. But it turns out he wasn't actually dead-dead yet. He was more along the lines of in the process of dying after being fatally wounded by the Titan Trappers out of revenge for sealing away the Collector, who they worshipped as a god. His body was dead, but his heart was still beating. So, technically, I guess he was officially still alive, even though his body had already been decomposing all this time."

Sasha's eyes widened in astonishment. The Titan had been in the process of dying for all these years, all these centuries, millennia? Was that like when a person was legally pronounced dead, but would then be revived a minute or two later? Or maybe it was more akin to removing an organ from a dead body that could still be used in a transplant? Regardless, if the Titan had only been in the process of dying for at least thousands, if not millions, of years, or however long it took for sentient life to spawn from its remains and evolve, then how long was a Titan's actual lifespan?

Before she could wrap her head around being able to live for so long, a thought occurred to her. "Hey, wait, Anne, I thought you said that glyph magic doesn't work in the human world."

Anne's eyes widened and she gave Luz a questioning look. "Hey, that's right. You told me that glyphs rely on the Titan's own magic to work, so how are you using them here now?"

A smirk crossed Luz's face. "Yes, that would be the case, usually. Glyphs need to be in a certain proximity to the Titan they belong to in order to work. So King came up with a way so that I can use glyph magic even in the huma world. Here, look."

She picked up her necklace, which had two objects on it. The first was an eclipse pendant, and the second was a small capsule containing a dark purplish-blue liquid.

"This is Titan's blood," she explained. "King gave me some of his to carry around so I can use glyphs even in the human world as long as I have this on me. Not that I'm ever without Stringbean here." Her palisman hissed happily and coiled around her neck. "Eda also made me individual stamps of glyphs for me to use, so now I don't have to spend a bunch of time drawing them."

"Oh, yeah, Eda," Sasha replied, recalling what Anne had told her about Luz's mentor. "That's the Owl Lady, right?"

"Yup, that's her. She and King are like family to me. All my closest friends are really."

Anne sighed, thinking about the Plantars. "Yeah, I can relate."

They drove in silence for a short while after that, all three seemingly lost in their own thoughts. Luz broke the silence though as the main reason for their get-together came back to her.

"We can exchange more stories later," she told them. "For now, tell me more about this whole thing regarding your friend."

Anne slapped her forehead. "Oh, right, duh. She's the whole reason we came here. So, ok, do you remember how I told you about the Core and how Marcy was forcibly hooked up to and possessed by it?"

Luz nodded. "Yeah, she became Darcy, short for Dark Marcy. But didn't Sasha free her from it?"

A sigh escaped Anne. "Yeah, she did, but as it turns out…"

She then went into detail of how Bill had taken over Marcy and, according to the interdimensional being, how he had managed to do so, along with his plans to obtain a body of his own and take over everything. Sasha chimed in as well, adding details she thought might be important that Anne had either missed or glossed over.

"And then he flew off in Marcy's body," Anne concluded. She gave Luz a desperate look. "This is way out of mine and Sasha's expertise, so that's why I texted you. I know that you're involved with all this magic stuff, and since that seems to be what we're dealing with, I hoped you'd be able to help us."

Luz was trying her hardest to keep her eyes on the road and not stare at Anne in shock. "That's… That's really… Wow, ok, that's quite a story. I can see why you texted me. I'm glad you did."

Sasha leaned forward, practically jumping out of her seat. "Then you can help us save Marcy and stop this Bill guy?"

An uneasy, apologetic look crossed Luz's face. "I'm sorry, but I really don't know all that much about possession. I've only ever seen it once when my friend, Hunter, was possessed by Belos. Honestly though, this sounds more akin to Eda's curse that a possession."

"Ok…" Sasha muttered, not sure how the two subjects were related. "How did Eda get cursed? I know her sister gave it to her, but how exactly did it happen, and how'd you fix it?"

Luz fidgeted uncomfortably. "Well, from what we understand, the Owl Beast was a creature from even before the Boiling Isles were formed that was archived by the Collector, or one of his siblings, in a magic scroll in order to preserve its dying race. That's what the Archivists do; collect and archive the last of a species so they don't go extinct. Eda's curse was to have the Owl Beast's… uh… soul? Essence? Life force? Something… It transferred the Owl Beast into Eda, where they basically fought for control of her body."

Sasha just stared, trying to comprehend what Luz had just told her. "Uh-huh… So, how did you get rid of the curse then?"

Luz bashfully glanced at her. "Well… we… didn't. I guess you can say that Eda and the Owl Beast came to a kind of understanding and now have a symbiotic relationship of sorts."

Sighing, Sasha sat back in her seat. "Great, so much for that. What about your friend Hunter then? How did you… un-possess him? Did you do some kind of exorcism or something?"

A sigh escaped Luz. "No, nothing like that. Hunter managed to regain control of himself enough to nearly cause his own death, which basically forced Belos out of his body."

"Then it's possible to resist the possession," Anne noted. She glanced back at Sasha. "You think if we can reach Marcy somehow that she'll be able to regain control?"

The blonde girl crossed her arms in thought. "I don't know. Maybe. She didn't manage to when she was taken over by the Core."

"Yeah, but Marcy is older and wiser now," Anne replied, clearly grasping at straws. "And the Core was a collective conscience of a whole bunch of different minds. Bill is just one person."

Next to her, Luz cleared her throat. "I don't mean to rain on your parade, but I don't think we can rely on a battle of wills. Belos was a human who had mutated into a monster, and he was weakened and dying when Hunter overpowered his control. And even then, it damaged him so severally that Flapjack had to sacrifice his life in order to save him. This Bill is an unknown, inhuman being who sounds pretty powerful. I don't know if your friend will be able to overpower him. Plus, it sounds like he's a copy of the original Bill's mind existing in Marcy's head that took her over. That's a little different from your standard case of possession. No, I think this is going to take some pretty powerful magic to save your friend. Or to defeat Bill if he manages to gain a body."

That didn't sit well with Sasha. "Well then, can't you do it? Anne told me how you beat that Belos guy after he practically became a god when he took over the Titan's heart. Can't you just, I don't know, access that power again?"

A humorless chuckle escaped Luz. "I'm afraid it's not that easy. That power was only temporarily granted to me by the Titan himself, and like I said, he's actually passed on now. Besides, I pretty much had to die in order to meet him that time."

Anne's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "What!? You died!?"

Luz chuckled, more genuinely this time. "Yeah, kind of. Belos hit me with this magic that caused my body to rot away. I ended up in this place that's sort of an in-between place of all realms, including the world of the living and the dead. That's where the Titan had been ever since he was struck down by the Titan Trappers since he wasn't completely dead. He managed to get to me as my soul was crossing over to the afterlife and pull me back. He then brought me back to life and temporarily granted me the use of his powers until he finally moved on. So, yeah, that's not an option anymore." She gave Anne a slightly guilty look. "Guess I left out the part about me actually dying when I told you about meeting him because of how morbid it was."

Both Anne and Sasha stared at her before exchanging bewildered looks. Sasha was feeling particularly overwhelmed with all this information that was being thrown at her. Even now, she still half expected to wake up and find out that this was all just a dream.

Anne, however, was understandably taking this better, having already been aware of Luz's adventures, even if she was receiving new information. As such, she got over her shock a lot faster.

"Hey, I get it, dude," she replied. "I died too after all."

At her words, Luz did a doubletake, nearly crashing the car. Tires screeched as she slammed on the breaks and gave Anne a shocked look. "Wait, you died too!?"

"Oh-ho, yeah," Anne commented with a small laugh. "When I used the stones to destroy Amphibia's moon, my body completely disintegrated. Huh, you know, I wonder having no moon affected the tides and water levels." She glanced at Luz, noting her shocked look. "What? Didn't I mention that?"

"No, you didn't!" Luz practically shouted. "You just said that after you destroyed the moon that that multiverse guardian deity saved you and offered you a job! You never said you actually died!"

Anne blinked. "Oh. Well, yeah, that did happen. Guess I left out the whole dying part. I mean, I never made it to that in-between realms place you mentioned; I just sort of woke up in the Guardian's domain. It said it made a copy of me just before I died."

A disturbing, haunted look suddenly crossed Anne's face as she stared off into the distance with a far-away look in her eyes, and her tone became unsettled and foreboding. "To this day, I still have no idea if I'm the original Anne in a new body or if I'm really some sort of clone of the original Anne who actually did die that day. Am I really Anne, or Anne 2.0? Does that mean when I die there will be two Anne Boonchuys in the afterlife? If I am the original Anne in a new body, is my body even actually human, or just some artificial vessel? Am I actually some kind of living zombie? Am I just some soulless golem? Am I actually my own age, or did I start over when the Guardian created my new body? So. Many. Questions."

If Luz were an anime character, she would imagine that she would have sweat-dropped at that, but instead she gave Anne an uneasy smile. "That… must have caused you some pretty serious existential dread."

Anne's eyes slowly shifted to Luz. "Oh, you have no idea."

Sasha looked back and forth between the two, feeling left out again. But if she needed to die to feel included, then she was fine as is.

"Soooo…" she muttered, "I take it from all that that you can't exorcise Bill, or defeat him if he manages to get his own body."

Luz grinned sheepishly as she began driving again. "Sorry, but it sounds like this Bill Cipher's situation is a little beyond what I'm capable of. But don't worry, I think I know someone who can."

"Really? Who?" Anne asked. Suddenly, her eyes widened and she sucked in a deep, gasping breath in excitement. "You mean you're going to…?"

"Yup," Luz replied with a smile, "I'm taking you two to the Owl House."

(A/N: And Luz has entered the picture. And she's taking Anne and Sasha to the Owl House, so we'll be getting some more meetings soon. That's going to be fun. I would like to mention something regarding Luz's appearance though. Since she's older than she was in the series epilogue, I decided to go with her beta appearance. In case you didn't know, before the series comes out, Luz was originally imagined as older, and some beta concept art of her was made. I tried to have this older Luz look like those early designs. You can actually see a picture of how she looks in her original concept art down below, just replace the DOTs with actual periods. And if you enjoyed this reunion of Anne and Luz, not to mention Sasha's meeting of Luz, just wait until they meet more of TOH gang.)

staticDOTwikiaDOTnocookieDOTnet/the-owl-house/images/9/90/Luz_earlydesignDOTpng