Short chapter for this one, first half nothing much but the second half is interesting.
Bonesborough Library, Night
" Oh wow, Boiling Isles romance. That's totally lame. I mean, unless you guys are into it. "
" I think I'm into- "
Before Edric could get his hand on the book he wanted, the whole library shook with tremors.
" Seems like we're not the only ones who broke in. " Said Emira, pointing at a light coming deep within the building. Too curious to let this go, the three kids walked towards the light. Turning another book aisle they discovered what they thought was the one responsible for this tremor.
" Titan? " At this point, Luz wondered if Titan would appear in every adventure she had. The Last Titan was within the main aisle, she was sitting inside a tall and long barrier lined up with strange markings on the ground, there was a book floating beside her glowing with Wailing Star magic. As they walked to her the barrier encased a large space of the main aisle as it almost reached the ceiling and a lot of book aisles, something inside was happening but it was hard to discern.
" Wait, Titan? As in the False Titan? Most wanted criminal on the Boiling Isles? " Emira could not believe they would meet the most famous demon alongside Emperor Belos in what she thought was the most boring place.
" I thought she would be taller. " Edric's remark when they stopped before the barrier was retorted when Titan stood up and turned to face them. " … I stand corrected, you are very tall. "
Titan flashed a confident smile, always liking the reaction she brought from every demon that crossed her path. " And hot. " And the beauty she naturally displayed, Emira's comment, and the twins' blushes were rather cute.
The book didn't follow as she walked through the barrier, knowing the kids would ask the big question. It was Emira who asked it. " So hum, what are you doing back there? " Her attempt to sound chill was adorable, and so was Luz's interruption.
" Hey, I'm her biggest fan, only I am supposed to act nervous around her. "
" Now, now. I'm handsome enough to attract more than one witch or demon or human. To answer your question I'm using the Wailing Star to bring to life stories that were written by other titans in the forms of murals, trust me it was not easy to bring copies of them here. "
" What kind of stories? " As usual Luz was the most interested in titan culture and as usual Titan loved to oblige.
" Their magical discoveries and achievements, the enemies they fought, the species from other worlds that visited our planets, and more. " Titan's dramatic gestures only accentuated the lore she talked about and the greatness behind it, and Luz loved it.
" Can we see? " Luz was desperate to watch those murals come to life, stories of the past written by an ancient race that has long disappeared, that's totally basic fantasy stuff! Sounds, lights, and tremors were heard, seen, and felt coming from the barrier before silence reigned again. She had to watch it. She walked to the barrier- *Bonk* and didn't go through. " Ooooowww. "
" Ah ah ah, those are for titan eyes only. "
" Oh come on, us trespassers can help each other out. Besides, if you show us what's inside we won't report you. " The Blight sister could only stare at her twin brother, to actually try to blackmail the False Titan her brother was more dumb than she thought.
" Oh no, now I'm really in a pickle/drittle here, but what's this? " She showed her empty hand and in one twist of her wrist, a card appeared. " Oh me, isn't that a staff ID, and with my name on it no less? Come to think of it, I suddenly remember that I volunteered myself to guard the library tonight in case trespassers would be tempted to mess around with the magic of the Wailing Star. "
All three kids suddenly felt they were in for a world of trouble. Each word Titan said just made them more and more alarmed, Luz because she highly regarded Titan, the Blight because they thought that the criminal would do unspeakable things to them despite her current mirthful attitude.
" And what a coincidence. " She drew one finger and pointed at each of them. " We have one, two, three and four, four trespassers. " Lastly, she pointed behind the teens to a random aisle.
" Four? " Questioned Ed.
With a spell too fast for anyone to understand, Titan thrust her palm and a vine came out, it reached all the way to the aisle she had pointed. It went above it and behind, the sound of someone being caught was heard. Titan yanked the vine upward, the momentum followed and everyone could see a figure being thrown high in the air screaming. Titan dispersed the plant and caught the fourth trespasser bridal style.
" Amity?! "
The youngest Blight was still dazed from the unexpected flight but when she got her bearings she immediately complained. " Put me down this instant! Or I swear I will- "
" It seems that the heavens have sent an adorable goddess. "
Amity's words died in her throat.
" How sinful it would be for a demon like me to corrupt such cuteness. "
The toothy feral grin Titan displayed created certain reactions in everyone. Amity could not understand why she felt her heart beat out of her chest, and those sharp fangs made her face explode in heat.
" Omt mittens, lucky you. "
Titan turned her attention to the twins. " Would you like to join in? " She said in a low voice as she opened her mouth and licked her teeth before snapping it shut.
Their confident behavior suddenly went away, the two teens were like a griffin caught in headlights. "N-no, thanks. "
Luz was just Luz, she just thought that Titan was awesome and attractive and could make cool witches like the twins blush, which made her on a whole other cooler level than them.
Not wanting to feel any more of this, Amity clumsily got out of those fluffy stron- ARMS, just arms.
Titan clapped her hands loudly to get everyone out of their daydreams as she dropped her smile and got a bit serious. " Enough with the teasing, could anyone tell me why you are all here? And don't think you're off the case Amity, I have permission to be here, but you don't despite also working here. "
" W-well I mean- These three were causing trouble and got in unauthorized! " Amity was quick to be a goody two shoes.
" Hey! "
" It's true. " Luz was honest.
" Double hey! "
" And there was no other internal personal motive for being here? " Titan looked down hard on the four kids, her eyes giving off some kind of pressure, like an adult scolding kids. She looked at Amity and Luz, Amity knew enough about Titan that lying when she was already in this mess wouldn't work, Luz couldn't imagine herself lying to Titan, like at all, like ever, she could read her like a book, get it? Because they were in a library. So the two just looked away, Titan accepted that so she looked at the twins next.
" We just wanted to mess around a bit. "
" Nothing more than harmless fun. "
They just lied through their concealment stones.
" So you didn't come here to invade Amity's secret hideout, which can be opened by a secret switch disguised as a book in the romance section, just so you could post her diary for everyone to see. "
" WHAT?! " Amity yelled beyond a witch's vocal cord capacity. Luz once again realized that she got away from getting into more trouble, thanks to Titan, again… Was there some kind of curse that made the two meet up at whatever mess they encountered?
The twins didn't even bother to look at their sister, they didn't see the harm they could've brought. Amity looked at Luz with disappointment. " And you were going along with this? "
" What? No no, I was just- "
Emira cut her off with an arm around her shoulders. " Oh lay it off, sister. The human is fun to be with, I'm sure she would have been okay with our little prank. " Luz suddenly felt very uncomfortable around these two as she realized the mistake she made by letting them bring her along with their mischief.
Edric walked beside Amity smugly. " Besides, it's not like it's actually true. You're not gonna trust a criminal over us, right?! " The twins desperately lied but Titan was having none of that.
" I'm supposed to guard this place so I put an observation ward around the whole building, I knew where all of you were and what you were doing. " Which was also why she had to cut this conversation short as she felt the tale approaching them. Let's make this quick. " Listen, what you two are doing can be considered as horrible, you might think that as siblings it's fine but compared to how some siblings had friendly banter and pranks it's very different. " Amity was glad that at least Titan was on her side, at least she thought so. " You three are just like your parents. "
Edric quickly fought against Titan. " Hey, we don't need your boring sibling advice so don't talk about what you don't know. "
" Your dad is intelligent but has his freedom restrained by your mom who is a bi- I mean horrible demon that is incapable of feeling and showing maternal love and is only thinking about herself and her status, ready to wrong anyone she even remotely sees as an annoyance. "
Emira tried to continue her brother's pathetic attempt at arguing. " Ok, so you know. Still doesn't give you the right- "
" I'm a criminal fighting against Belos, do you really think I care about what I'm not allowed to do? Plus, you're one to talk mister and miss 'publishing my sister's personal thoughts to the Demon Realm'. By the way, Amity you need a better way to lock your secret hideout, a book switch is so Savage Age. "
Before the twins could try to verbally fight against Titan, even though they had run out of arguments and had already lost but didn't want to admit it, they heard a beast growling with heavy steps coming closer. Titan turned back and started walking away as she talked. " I'm also going to leave you to clean this, I might not report you to Malphas if you take care of this. " She went back into the barrier and stood close to the edge with her head looking up as if looking at something tall.
The origin of those sounds was a crooked-looking Otabin, the twins looked afraid knowing that they had a hand in this, Luz felt guilt upon seeing the nice Otabin turn into this when she could've fixed it, Amity was worried about the character of her favorite child tale wondering how it could've turned into this.
Luz looked back to Titan. " Titan! "
" Unless you're about to die, I'm not gonna help. "
" What? "
" Listen Luz, Otabin is not your fault and you did nothing wrong. "
" I came here illegally. "
" Which is very nice, already growing like Eda and I, good job. But no matter what plan we make before trespassing Eda and I will always encounter trouble no matter how sneaky we try to get in. "
" That's a strange analogy but okay. "
" Not only that but if you want to be the main character of your own story then don't expect me to save you all the time, you have to fight your own battles, grow as a person. You may want to be a hero, even though it's a horrible path, but I am not. So, you get into some mess, whether it's your fault or not doesn't matter, you're obviously going to try to fix it in your own kind and weird way. "
Before Luz could summon any depressive thoughts about how the next words would be that she needed to limit herself because she was never able to fix anything like all the other adult humans would, Titan magically turned her around. While they talked the Blights had already run away but Otabin had stayed. " And what better way than to start right now? "
Not even trying to confront the crooked character, Luz activated a light glyph to blind it, then she ran away as quickly as possible, hoping to find Amity and clear the misunderstanding. Otabin growled but didn't follow her and instead charged at Titan who casually grabbed the floating book without turning back. Otabin clawed at the barrier and even used his long needle to pierce the barrier to no avail, Titan only summoned a pen and opened the book with blank pages, she tapped the pen on her chin as she thought. Otabin kept stabbing and doubled his effort upon seeing a crack beginning to appear, Titan began to use her pen and began to fill the empty pages with words uncaring about the cracks spreading further and further. In a minute she was done writing.
" Stop trying to resist, you will be my friend. This edge has no purpose, you will meet your end. "
Otabin went for one more thrust hoping to break the barrier.
" Push him back. "
Suddenly two black smoky talons hit Otabin and threw him away, when he got up and looked at Titan he saw two black figures with wings that seemed to be made of smoke, but the hit he felt was definitely solid.
Finally, Titan spoke to him but still didn't look at him even as she made a spell circle to fix the barrier. " Try as you might Otabin, it is useless. You will never make me your friend, that is hopeless. Go chase your other prey, unless you prefer to end up friendless. "
Otabin growled at this daring demon, but he knew he couldn't do anything, so he turned away and searched for the other kids.
As he disappeared Titan looked back to look at the smoking figures, to anyone they looked like bird demons but only she knew that those were the harpy sisters, just without color so that nobody could see the similarities. " Make sure the kids don't get hurt too much, intervene only when necessary. " The misty harpies flew away as they followed orders. Titan wanted to make sure nothing went wrong, things should go as they're supposed to but she preferred to be safe.
Finally alone, Titan walked further inside the isolated space. There were so many murals that came to life and were reenacting the events they were about, thankfully she had enough crystal balls to record everything, she'll write it all in her database later. Furthermore, with a little archivist tech, she weakened the Wailing star's magic so that not only would the scenes go on like movies unaware of their surroundings so that nothing would change, but they also were unable to interact with the world so no damage would happen, it was like watching 4d videos. The plays from the nursery tower were what she, King, and Lilith theorized about long ago. One in particular caught her eye.
" Ain't no way, ain't no freaking way. " She was witnessing an army of talking frogs, newts, and toads from another world trying to invade the Demon Realm with an army of robots and a flying castle. " That actually happened? " With their powerful magic, the titans made the amphibian army retreat, and they were never seen again. " Talking frogs, who knew? "
She looked around the other plays and finally arrived at the ones that belonged to that other titan on the other side of the Demon Realm. It had scenes that she didn't know about, such as a family of titans piling up their bodies before dying to form the highest peak in the realm, playing catch which led to accidentally throwing a meteor to who knew what planet, and a rebellion led by young titans to create more food. But there also was what she already knew, the first witch to be born, the Owl Beasts' kidnapping, the archivist wiping out the Demon Realm for the first time. The next and last one she made sure to isolate it and not have any Wailing Star magic on it, it would be useless to show what she already knew.
(Art on AO3)
.
.
T̶̛̹̪h̶ä̸̸̶̫̻̱̤͚͙̳̦͙̲̳̻̲̟͇́́ͮ̇̈́̋̎͑̉͋̉̆́̐͗͊ͧ̉́͂́͊ͮ͒͢͢͝͞t̴̵̡̛̠͎̼̜̞͕͚͙̜͖̓ͬ̄̓̌ͭ̎͊̈̍̏͋ͧ̈́̏͌̀͘͢͜͞ d̵̷̵̟̱̝̲͙͉̙̤̦͎̦̟͊̂̋̌ͭ̆͗̈ͩͬ̕̕͜a̵̞̭̦̖ͫ̍͛̓̐̅ͥ̔̾ͧ̔m͎̪͙̱̾̉̅́̚n̢̩̲̟̥͍̦͈̠͌ͨ͗̀̆͂͛͊ͯ̉̇ͩ͘ Ả̶̹̤̼̪̟ͨͨ̓ͯ̊͛̋ͧ͑̈̍͘͝r͓̂̅ͣ̌̀c̙͖̦͍̽̆̄̔ͬh̢̧̢̛̘̣̠̯̬̰̫͈̜̜̯͇̯͉̘̮̜̽̔̇͒͛̅ͩ͗ͥ̎̊ͫ̀̆ͥ͑͝͝i̲͙͈͕͓̱͇ͫͦ̓̑̽̃̆ͨ͌̋̓͢t̷̡̺͓̳͔̣̍ͪͯ̊͊̆ͩ̃ͬ̂̋ͧ͜ȩ̷̛̻̬̲̹̠̩̘͍́͋͋̓͆ͧ̊ͧ̕ç̺͔͖ͣ͞ţ̷̴̶̢̡̛͚̞̬̦͍̹̜͓̜̳͔̻̱͎͓̘͔̪͑̑̇̔͑̿ͫͮ̿͒̒ͯ̚̕͘͘͘͟͢.
.
.
Already filled enough by this trauma, with intense hatred she walked away. You could hear thunder from outside, the world responding to her rage as she tried to keep herself in check.
Titan language was written at the bottom right the mural, it said: With this vision comes the end of the old Demon Realm and the Era of the Witches, Titans, and Archivists.
…What did that mean? Was it because she broke time that this titan couldn't see any other events? Or was it because it was as written, that through her time portal currently the Demon Realm was no more than ruins, a desolate place without any form of life? In that case, what did that make her? Was she so different that she wasn't a part of the witches' era, that she was part of a destroyed world or something else? Or maybe she was doomed to die after everything was over?
… She actually didn't know how to feel about this, all she knew was that it wasn't her current problem, the question of 'what now' would come when she would have the Architect's blood on her hands a second and final time.
Even though she already tried to embrace death before figuring out time travel, she didn't care about her future so she turned her back to it and walked back to the other scenes. It didn't matter, she already proved that not even the laws of the universe could hold her, if she could break time then whatever that titan of the past thought of when making this mural was meaningless.
Later, After Sunrise
Titan came out of the library, leaving the doors open. She got out just in time to see Amity leaving with the Azura Book 5. She approached Luz while keeping her stare at the horizon, she stopped beside her and cleared Luz's thoughts with her words, as usual. " De enemigo a amigo, la dificultad es alta. Befriending enemies takes time, especially when their own situation is complicated, although it's not my place to tell. "
Luz looked down, this night was… complicated. She had fun with the twins but she also almost got pulled into a horrible prank against Amity who hated her, then together they had to fix Otabin which fixed the misunderstanding but also left the two in some awkward associations, they weren't friends but weren't enemies either. And this time Titan didn't help to magically clear all troubles.
" But I know that it would be a piece of grinylere cake for you, you're Luz the Human after all. "
Luz looked at the tall witch beside her, she had some kind of loving gaze as she overlooked the city. How could someone like her put so much faith in a simple human? " How do you know? "
" Ha! Good one! " The Titan of the Light's sudden chuckle took Luz by surprise, the tall woman looked down on the human with her arms crossed, confidence never wavering. " You managed to get the Strongest Witch as your mentor, the King of Demons your roommate, befriend and heartened two students with incredible potential in plant and illusion magic, instigated a prison break, broke the rules of Hexside, animated an entire house on your first Moonlight Conjuring, and discovered an ancient magic. Even today you were brave and confident facing Otabin and showed great determination by trying to fix your mistake. It hasn't even been that long since you've arrived. "
" Hehe. " The little witch in training rubbed the back of her neck, suddenly blushing and shy when all these accomplishments were pointed out to her, she never thought about those as actual deeds compared to all the stories she read, especially since she never amounted to anything in the Human Realm. But when Titan said it like that, maybe she could allow herself to have a bit of hope. " I guess I made quite the performance. "
It was exactly what the Time Traveler wanted, it took a lot of therapy to get out of her self-guilt behavior, it was only when King and her figured out how to let her borrow his powers that she had a boost in fortitude, erasing all past doubts. This time she would be there for the little Luz, to make sure that no sense of responsibility for saving the Boiling Isles fell on, that no fear of dying and losing everything would nest within her human heart. She knew it would take a long time but they would get there, Titan would make sure of that.
" What about you? You don't count? "
Obviously, Luz would mention the non-inclusion of the old titan. She turned around to face the library and summoned a book in her hand as it opened on its own. She traced a circle and pointed at the book, out of the doors and around the building came various symbols she used to form her observation ward and her barrier. When all the symbols got in, the pages were smoking with the symbols written in ink black instead of glowing orange. Titan closed the book and unsummoned it, at the same time an Echomouse came out of her hair and crawled to the palm of her hand, she had almost forgotten it. Titan scratched its little head as she answered Luz.
" The moment you and I arrived in the Demon Realm I decided that I would be by your side no matter the circumstances, even if you didn't want me I would've supported you one way or another. So no, I don't count. "
Luz wondered, she was getting used to Titan doing things that blew her fantasy nerdy mind like how she just spoke Spanish, not that she didn't enjoy it, for once she was just as curious as Eda but in a positive way and wondered who was Titan, who was this witch who trusted and cared for her like this. " You don't even know me. " She asked despite the numerous times the older woman knew her every thought.
Titan stopped petting the little creature and allowed it to go back into her puffy hair. She lowered her body still standing on her feet, getting on Luz's level, once again smiling like she was the most wonderful thing in the world. " Maybe I don't know you, maybe I do, maybe I'm just guessing at every turn, maybe I know you more than you know yourself. But that's my secret to keep. What's a mystery for the both of us is if in less than a year I will get to know you better as you go through life or you'll become someone so great I won't be able to guess your thoughts. I would be more than happy to see either of those futures come to be. " As she spoke those last words she gently stroked Luz's hair, who looked blankly at her. " Now then, " She stood up and lightly pushed Luz forward. " How about you go back home, I need to stay and fix the magic lock the twins broke, and the books aisles, and give Gary some therapy, poor guy needs it. "
Luz walked away, mind empty. As she went further into the forest she reached her brown hair where it was touched by another, recalling the nostalgic and familiar warmth she kept feeling yet not remembering where she had felt like this before. Titan was someone close to her. Determination written on her face she decided from this point onward, she would get to know Titan better, not as the popular demon and criminal known across the Isles but as the great titan living in The Owl House.
To Be Continued
If there is something wrong tell me.
As always, art is made by me, the mural doesn't show the complete design of the Architect, that's something I'm working on.
Not everything is going to be just a slight-modified version of the canon universe, it's just that most of season 1 is full of things that needs ... needs ... whatever, I'm to lazzy to explain. There will be some originality obviously, I just couldn't find it for this chapter when I wanted to stick to my ideas.
As written in my profil, I got the next three chapters ready, just need some little glittering, finetuning, adjusments, tweaks and whatnot. Chapter 13 is on a writer's block for whatever reason, that little shit, doesn't stop me from continuing as Chapter 14 can prove it.
Lasty, COMMENTS, I WANT LOTS OF COMMENTS, WHOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO- I'm done.
TheAbsoluteZero, sparkles.