-Amity-

The Owl house / Sunday January 22nd 11 am

The first hours after she woke up were the worst ones.

When she managed to escape all her thoughts were focused on putting as much distance as she could from the manor. Once she got tired of running she started to look for food and shelter, which was pretty easy to find thanks to the money that she had brought with her. Then Luz found her and all the thoughts she had kept bottled up broke out as soon as her friend started interrogating her, she was an absolute mess, and she barely noticed when her friend had brought her to the Owl house.

After she showered and ate, Luz left her alone in their guest's room, which was only a really big closet, spacious enough to fit the Bed mattress that Amity was in and a small table. The latina had told her that she could stay here for as long as she wanted, and then left her to her own devices after asking if she wanted anything for the hundredth time. Amity was glad that Luz and Lilith cared about her, it was a refreshing notion that she welcomed after the last few days, but she needed some time alone, her social battery was almost depleted.

She collapsed on the mattress and slept for hours. Later she woke up in the middle of the night, sweating about a nightmare she didn't remember. After thatshecouldn't go back to sleep so she decided, against her better judgment, to open up her laptop and check her socials, she just wanted to check on her friends.

It was a bad idea.

Her whole page was flooded with mentions and messages for her. Asking if she was okey, if the rumors were true, congratulating her for being so brave, wishing that she died for commiting a sin, telling her that she was just confused, thanking her for siding with mayor grant, and comments of people telling her she was a traitor to queer people for what she did.

It was too much

Then there were the concerning messages from the twins asking about her, she wanted to reassure them but she also saw a message from someone else; Her mother.

She immediately closed the laptop. She didn't need to read the words to know what she wanted to tell her, she could hear it clearly with her voice.

"Honestly this is beneath you, mittens. When are you going to realize that you are far too old for these childish games? Come back immediately, and you better apologize"

She drifted off to sleep with tears in her eyes.

If there was a way to describe Amity's current emotional state, it would be tired, which was odd considering that 'tired' wasn't an emotion.

Normally she would be worried about bed bugs, spiders, and rats in a place like this (She meant no disrespect to Eda, but Amity was sure that this place had cobwebs older that her) but right now she simply didn't have the energy to care about that stuff, she knew that she had to let the twins know she was ok, she knew that she had go back to school, she knew that she had confront her mother eventually, but she just did not care for any of that. A big part of her wanted to just lay here until she rotted up to her bare bones.

She heard some knocking on the door but she refused to answer. Luz had come before, offering her a bowl of cereal and telling her to eat, so she thought that it might be lunchtime now. It turned out that she was wrong; A few seconds after the knocking Lilith opened the door.

"May I come in?" She asked while standing in the doorway awkwardly.

Amity nodded and she stepped right in.

"I came here to check on you, how are you feeling?"

She grunted.

"I had a feeling it would be like that" She chuckled and came closer to her "By the way… I also wanted to tell you that you don't have to worry about school tomorrow"

Amity raised an eyebrow at that "Are you saying that I should skip classes?" It felt so out of character for Lilith.

"Heavens no!" She laughed "I'm saying that you don't have to go, because there aren't going to be any classes tomorrow, or maybe the rest of the week for that matter…"

"What!?" This got her attention, anything that helped distract her from her current issue was welcomed "Do we have a holiday?"

"No. The wild witch crashed a monster into it" Her expression became grim "There aren't any injured, but you can imagine…"

"Oh… How damaged is it?" She knew that the witch meant well, but she had also seen the destruction that resulted from those fights.

"Not that bad, only one wing of the building was damaged and even then it wasn't completely destroyed" Lilith said "Still, they are going to hold off on doing anything until they are sure that the building itself isn't going to crumble to pieces"

"Oh, well good for me then"

"Amity I realize that this isn't my place to talk, but… do you want to talk about it?" She asked while biting her lip "You don't have to if you don't want to, but it might help you"

Amity wanted to say no, to lash out and stay hidden away in her little bubble of protection forever, or until she was forced to leave it. But on the other hand, she knew she needed this.

"She told me it was my grandfather's collar" She admitted.

"What?"

"The tracker" She felt sick only by saying it. When Lilith just stood there without understanding she sighed "We were in his house when he passed away, he had been sick for a while and we… we were already expecting it" A single tear went down her cheek "I wasn't in his room when it happened so when I arrived he was already gone. I cried a lot, but then she calmed me down and gave me that necklace. She told me that grandpa said he got that for me, and wanted me to have it" More tears "I was still sad, but I was also happy that I got something to remember him by. Even after the years passed and my memories of him faded I still took it with me everywhere, it became a part of me…"

"And she used that to track you…" Lilith's face was furrowed in worry.

"No, it was a tracker from the start" She gave a dry laugh "I should've realized that my grandfather was too poor to buy a gem necklace like that, mom always complained about it. She wanted to control me, to track me, to pin me down, to make sure I was wherever she wanted all the time" She started remembering all the times where her mother seemed to know exactly where she was, like those times she went to dates with Leah "Her father died, her children were devastated by it, and all she could think was on how to weaponize that tragedy to suit her needs" She started clutching the covers so hard that her knuckles turned white "I can't believe I never saw that coming! And I can't believe that it took much to run away! I've been fantasizing about it for most of my life, especially since the twins left, but I never had the guts to actually do it until something this bad happened to me" She was really cursing her weakness.

"Amity, don't be like that. It takes real courage to leave a situation like yours" Lilith tried to console her.

"Yeah right, you need to be really brave to run away…" She blew a raspberry "Mom was right about something… I'm too weak to handle reality"

"Ok, that's enough" The older woman got up and took her covers away from her, then grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Hey!"

"Listen to me well, Amity" She spoke in a dead serious tone "In my years working for the government I've met or heard about several children like you, who got screwed by their parents in one way or the other, some of them had it better than you, some had it worse. All of their stories are different but they have something in common: Their parents told them they are weak, they told them they are trash, they told them the abusive behavior is for their own good, and that they should be thankful that they are even feeding them! Amity, parents aren't perfect and everyone has some things that they hate from theirs, I am not the exception in that matter, but even I know that keeping a roof over your kid's head is the bare minimum! Everything that you told me about Odalia tells me that she is just like them. Escaping an abusive household requires a lot of courage, so never say that you are weak"

With that she broke. All the emotions that she wanted to keep at bay flooded her, she started crying even though she thought that her ducts were completely dry, and buried her face on Lilith's arms while she rubbed her back.

"Never… say that you are weak Amity Blight" She whispered in her ear and for a second Amity believed it.

They stood in that embrace for a while until she pulled back. Her eyes were puffy and red, but she felt stronger somehow.

"Now what?" She asked after a while.

"What do you mean?"

"What am I supposed to do? I was actually planning to stay on this bed until I absolutely had to move" Or until the world ended, whatever came first "But I have the feeling you are about to say that I shouldn't do it"

"You are welcome to stay and rest as long as you see it fit, but I do think that we need to address some things first. Mainly the legal matter"

"Legal matter?" She asked.

"Amity, you are a minor" Lilith pointed the obvious "And as much I'd love to have you here, your parents would sue Eda and me in a heartbeat and claim that we kidnapped you or something, that won't end well for anyone"

*sigh* "You are right, but what do you suggest I do? I don't think I am in a condition to go see my mom right now" In fact she hoped she could avoid that woman forever.

"I know, but what about your dad?" Lilith asked "I don't know much about him, I merely interacted with Odalia during our student years, but he might listen to you. Speaking of which, you only mentioned your mom before, was Alador a part of her plans as well?"

Amity thought about this deeply. She didn't truly know if he was involved in her schemes, but his reaction when he heard her mother's plans told her that he was out of the loop. Still, she didn't know if she should trust him or not.

"I don't think he knows about it, but that doesn't make it any better" She huffed "He's barely at home, all he does is work and he never talks to us, nor does he show interest. When Ed and Em left for college he forgot about their departure date and showed up one day after they left, and he was supposed to take them to the airport. He was really shocked when he found that their rooms were already emptied and they were gone"

"Well, in that case you are allowed to be angry at him. But don't you think that it will be easier to talk to him instead of Odalia? You have to confront one of them sooner or later" She reminded her.

"Fine… I guess it would be ok if you can communicate with him without my mom finding out"

"Leave that to me, and while we are on the subject" She grabbed something from her pocket and gave it to her, it was a business card with a number on it "I got you the therapist that you asked me for"

"Huh? Oh, yeah…" She had asked Lilith for that but then she got busy with exams, so they ended up postponing the search.

"It wasn't easy to find someone capable who specializes in teens and would be outside of Odalia's reach, but I managed" She smiled "I did a background check on her, she's clean, not to mention very talented"

Amity smiled and hugged her previous mentor. Today didn't start well, but she had a feeling that tomorrow was going to be better.

-Luz-

The skies above gravesfield / Monday January 23rd 1pm

Luz felt really bad.

This week school was closed and everyone was happy about it, everyone but her.

She was fighting a paper dragon (long story) when said beast tried to run away from her. In order to prevent this, she fired several spells at it and it worked, the problem was that it had fallen on top of the school. Luz wasn't aware that they were close to the building, but by the time she had realized it was too late, the dragon destroyed an entire wall. She had tried to fix it (after checking if there had been any injuried) but the people in suits showed up and started shooting at her, so she had to go.

"Ahh man, I can already tell that my haters are having a field day with this" She refused to check social media just because of that "Maybe Gus is right, I should do something to help my public image. But what should I do? That meet and greet at the school is not possible now, and it might be dangerous if I get close to people"

Right now she was flying towards a new emergency: Gus' app had picked up a new sighting of a magical creature in the western side of eastville, near gravesfield. It was a bit further than her usual fighting grounds, but nothing that she couldn't handle.

"Ugh its

She was so focused on her dilemma that she didn't hear anything coming near her until it was too late. A gust of wind rushed past her and she was knocked out of owlbert. It happened so soon that her brain didn't have to react, she was already on free fall by the time she noticed it.

"What the- what was that?" She extended her hands to cast a wind glyph to stop her fall, but with another rush of wind she was knocked out again by whatever hit her the first time. She tried to look at it to see what it was, but it was too fast, the only thing she managed to see was a yellow flash before it vanished "Enough!"

She unleashed her magic in a wave and it seemed to work, whatever was hitting her was coming for a third attack, but her spell managed to stagger it momentarily. She used her wind glyph and boosted herself away from it, putting as much distance as she could from it. As she hovered in the sky she saw Owlbert flying towards her and she used her wind to rejoin him.

"Owlbert!" She extended her hand towards him and her palisman turned into a staff again, then she looked back to see what had attacked her. Her opponent was still recoiling from her last attack so she was able to see them well: They had a red cloak over some black clothes, their face was also covered by a red mask that resembled a bird. However, what caught her attention was that they were flying while mounted in a black staff that ended in a statue which resembled a red bird.

It was a palisman.

"What's going on? Are they a wild witch too?"

The witch did not waste time and charged straight at her. They dashed at her with an incredible speed and they used a spell she had never seen: A flash of light that teleported them forward.

"Wait! We don't have to fight!" She put her arms in front of her to try to dissuade him, but it didn't work. The witch collided against her, which sent both of them flying backwards "Stop it!"

They tried to engage in hand to hand combat as they spiraled out of control in the sky, but they didn't have enough room to maneuver so they ended up having a slap fight. The other witch was stronger than her so she tried to put their hands away from her face, while the red-cloaked stranger attempted to beat her up with their bare fists. Their position gave her the advantage and she managed to land a headbutt, which untangled their bodies. Being finally free from the melee, Luz took the advantage and managed to put some distance between them.

"Ouch! I think that hurt me more than them, I shouldn't have headbutted someone wearing a helmet" She rubbed her sore forehead and assessed the situation; Her opponent was also sent flying away, but managed to stabilize themselves. Both of them just stood hovering in the air for a couple of seconds, looking at the other with an intense glare.

"Why are you doing this?" She said after a while "Did I do something to you?"

"You got me stuck here" Their voice was definitely male, but it felt wrong. It was somehow distorted, like those funny programs Gus had shown her.

"Did you come from a portal a few months ago?" She thought that if a wild witch had managed to come to this realm she would've known by now.

"How else would I've gotten here?" He asked in a mocking tone.

"Sorry! I thought maybe you came from one of the new portals that have been appearing around the town"

The other witch's demeanor shifted for the first time since he attacked her. His whole posture stopped being so aggressive and he seemed genuinely interested in what she was saying.

"New portals started appearing?"

"Yes, how do you think those monsters appeared?" She said to him.

He didn't respond, instead he lunged at her with his teletransportation spell, but she was ready for it this time. She conjured her magic and readied her fire glyph, but she'd made some additions to it this time.

The new glyph combo allowed her to fire three fiery bolts at the time, instead of just one attack. Also this new spell made the heat more concentrated, turning the fire trails into heat rays that looked like fireworks.

"That won't work on me!" He roared and proceeded to completely dodge her attacks by maneuvering his flight and safely teleporting away. Even when the fire beams curved to catch him, he just flew out of reach.

"His palisman is faster than mine, that must be its hidden magic" Not all palismen were the same, their abilities depended on multiple factors: How good the carver was, the quality of the wood, and the bond with their witch. The most exceptional palismen had hidden skills that almost worked like spells, she was never able to unlock one with Owlbert because he wasn't her palisman, he was her mother's. Therefore, their bond could not be strong enough to unlock his hidden magic "No, it's not just that. His flying skills are really impressive as well, I doubt that I could escape him"

If retreat wasn't going to be an option she would have to be more creative. She became invisible and then created several illusions of herself, they scattered and confused him.

"This won't work on me!" He yelled and shot lighting bolts from the tip of his palisman.

Some of the illusions faded from the attack, but she was still fine. Making sure to avoid the magical projectiles, she flew towards him and casted her soundwave glyph at full blast.

The effect wasn't that damaging, but it was enough to knock someone out and leave them dazed for a while, which meant that he was knocked out of his palisman. They were a few hundred feet above the ground, so he would have plummeted to his death, but she didn't let him. Luz used her wind Glyph to land him safely and then summoned her vines to contain him.

"Nghhh!" He struggled against them in vain. She didn't want to give him any room to move his fingers and draw a spell circle.

"Enough! I am not going to hurt you, but you need to stop trying to hurt me!"

"Gah! Stop trying to convince me with your lies!" He spat

"I'm not lying!"

"Yeah sure!" He gave a dry laugh "Just like you tried to convince me that there are new portals showing up from nowhere, and I'm supposed to believe that? Hah! Don't make me laugh"

"But it's the truth!" She didn't know why this person annoyed her so much, maybe it was because of their annoying voice.

"It 's not!"

"It is!"

*grunt* "Can you just untie me?"

"Not until I know you aren't going to try anything funny!"

"Oh my titan, just release me! This argument is stupid!"

"You started the argument!"

"Wow, you really went there? How childish can you be?"

"Well, at least I'm not the one trapped by a plant!"

"At least my tantrums don't make the ground shake!"

"Well at least I'm- wait, what did you say?"

It was true, the ground was shaking. At first it was so weak that Luz wasn't able to sense it over their argument, but then the rumbling sound got louder and the shaking got stronger, to the point she had to be careful to not be knocked prone.

"W-What's happening?!"

"You aren't doing this?" He sounded genuinely confused.

"Why would I be doing this?"

Before he could respond the ground beneath them crumbled and opened. A massive set of jaws appeared from it and tried to swallow them whole but just missed them, she was so startled that she lost concentration in her vines and the other witch was released. The two of them took off to the sky in their palismen as whatever was chasing after kept breaking the floor. She only looked back after she was sure that they were at enough height, what she saw in the ground left her speechless: It was a humongous creature (almost as wide as a house and as tall as a two-story building) with brown skin, no eyes, no fur, no hair, no scales, and a massive mouth made of endless rows of razor-sharp teeth. It had thick arms, but instead of having a hand they ended in one big claw larger than her own torso. It's back was wide and muscular, decorated with fins that resembled its teeth.

"What's that?" She asked

"A land shark" The red witch said "But those only appear in the dessert behind the titan's skull or other titan islands"

"Something this big wouldn't even fit in the emperor's vault, do you still think that I'm guilty of the newest attacks?" He looked at the beast and shook his head in disbelief "Thank you. Now, what are we going to do about this?"

"There are so many wrong things with that sentence. First of all, there's no 'we'. Second, what do you want to do about this?" He gestured towards the behemoth "There's nothing we 'can' do about it, not to mention that there's nothing we 'should' do about this. It can't hurt us now, so let it be"

"Are you kidding? Do you want to leave something as big as that roaming around? What happens if it tries to go to a city?" It wasn't the biggest monster that she had faced in the human realm, both the elemental guardian and the dragon were bigger. But until now all the massive monsters had the decency to fly around instead of walking, that wasn't the case here. The land shark could cause a small earthquake by digging beneath the surface, so it could practically bring the city down by just passing by "That thing can cause a catastrophe by just wandering around!"

"But there's nothing we can do! Have you seen that?!"

He had a point, she had seen his firepower and it did not rival hers, the two of them did not have enough to bring it down or capture it. It wouldn't change even if she asked for help from her friends again and gave them magical relics (Something that she definitely wasn't going to do). There was no one that she could call for help.

Then something buzzed on her pants, at first she thought it was Eda checking on her, but her heart leaped from her throat when she saw that it was the number from the people in suits. Opening it she saw she got a message from them.

The witch woke up, you can come to talk to her if you want

A dozen emotions ran through Luz's head. She wanted to check on her, but she couldn't right now. She was about to type a reply when an idea came to her.

"Wait, what am I doing?" She started to furiously type in her phone.

"What are you doing? There's no time to type in your phone!" The red witch flew towards her "Anyway, you still need to answer some stuff. If you aren't the one opening the portals, then who is?"

"Shh, give me a second" She kept typing

"Don't ignore me! You still have to answer for stranding me in this dimension, hey! HEY!"

"It's done, they are coming" She closed her phone and looked at the beast below

"Who is they?"

She looked back at him with determination "I summoned help and now it's on its way. In the meantime I'm going to do everything I can to make sure this thing does not move away. I promise you'll get some answers after this, you can stay and help or wait to see if that monster kills me, pick your choice"

With that she descended towards the land shark.

"Oh in the name of… wait!" He called after her.

I hope I managed to write the Amity scene well. I do not have any personal experience with child abuse (Luckily) so I hope I managed to create the right theme with that

I tried to replicate the whole 'sibling energy' thing that Luz and Hunter had going on in s2e6. Also I hope I didn't make him look too weak, but just to be certain; If it was a fair fight Hunter would've won. Flapjack is faster than Owlbert and he is physically stronger than Luz. The only problem there is that Luz isn't going to play fair.

I know this is shorter than usual but the next parts might take a while and I wanted to post something before you guys forgot about this fic, see you later!