Chapter Text
Hunter staggered back, appalled, “You- You survived!”
Luz?- or Belos?- Beluz?- cocked their head to the side, “I did. Now….I believe we have some unfinished business..” Belos raised his monstrous arm, the claws seemingly extending as he launched a swipe at Hunter.
He rolled to the side to dodge, he held Flapjack close and looked over at the monster possessing his friend. Belos had his monster hand deep in the ground, it stretched upward as it emerged with the vial of Titan’s Blood.
“Ah,” he swirled the blood in the vial, observing it in the moonlight, “There you are.”
Hunter looked around and then at Flapjack. The bird seemingly nodded as they went into their staff form. The teen got up and launched a blast of magic at the vial to knock it out of Belos’ hand. He turned and that’s when Hunter attacked. Using Flapjack he circled Belos, using this to blast any magic he could. He blocked it with his monstrous hands but they hissed, so it did some damage. Eventually when he believed Hunter to be gone he hit him in the back of the head with his staff, pressing his palisman to his neck.
Belos struggled and looked up at Hunter, for a moment their eyes went brown and they sounded scared, “Hunter please!”
He faltered, his expression going shocked as Luz seemingly broke through. But he was mistake as Belos’s blue eyes reappeared. He launched his arm at Hunter, striking his face and causing him to stagger off of Belos.
“Pitiful.” He spat, as he staggered upward, hunched as his arms dragged on the ground.
From the fog emerged Camila, Vee, Gus, Willow, and Amity. Belos turned to them and grinned as they stopped.
“Is that-“ Camila couldn’t even finish as she saw just what happened to her baby. They raised a hand and curled it menacingly, seemingly staring into the hurt mother’s eyes.
Hunter staggered to his feet, clutching the cheek Belos struck. Belos turned to the teen, “It really is a shame things had to be this way Hunter. You always were my favorite Grimwalker.” The last part of that was filled with so much malice, it felt like another blow to Hunter.
“Grimwalker?..” Willow questioned, her gaze turned to Vee. Who shook her head, she didn’t know what he meant either.
“Leave Luz alone!” He stood up, his arms out allowing his cut to bleed, “It’s me you want! Leave her alone!”
“You always were a loyal one,” Belos lamented, “However it’s a shame to see where those loyalties landed. I plan on reforming this human, bringing her to the light and finishing what I started.” Belos stood up straight, raising a hand nod looking Hunter in the eyes, “Starting with them!”
Belos then turned and launched a hand at the group. It was deflected by Amity summoning her palisman to block the blow. While she covered for the two, Gus and Willow summoned theirs, and the three flew off into the battle. Belos took swings at the witchlings circling him on their staffs.
Gus faked Belos out with an illusion of the three, only to fly right by his head, “Luz come on! You’re in there!” He circled again holding out his hand, “Come on! High five!”
Belos high-fived alright. Right into Gus’s stomach, winding the kid and launching him off of his staff and onto the surrounding land of the marsh. Willow took this opportunity to grab his arm and slam it down, Vee jumped in front.
“Hang on Luz!” She called, and began to drain the magic from Belos. He was pulled forward, tugging on his arm desperately to release himself. He soon had enough of his and readied his other arm for a strike.
“Vee watch out!” Amity flew in, grabbing Vee and placing her onto land before Belos would attack her.
The three witchlings flew towards him again, however Belos broke through Gus’ illusion defense and smacked Gus and Willow away. The large, cold hand grabbed Amity and pulled her down so she was face to face with him.
Amity squirmed I’m his grasp and looked up, scared, “Luz please! I know you’re in there. Come on, break free!”
For a second, Amity swore she saw the hazel eyes of Luz. Her Luz. She felt a smile form on her face, “Batata?”
However, that happiness was short lived as Belos raised her high, his hand now firmly around her neck.
“Seems another one of you demons lured in another poor human in with your debaucherous wiles,” he growled before his face went back to its cocky expression, “No matter. I’ll be done with you shortly.”
He readied his arm, the claws extending, before the side of his face was blasted by a bolt of magic. He dropped Amity, who quickly flew towards the others on Ghost. Belos turned his face, rage filling his eyes as he faced Hunter. Hunter had recovered and retrieved Flapjack. He hopped on his staff and flew at Belos, to which he was promptly launched off of.
As he flew to the other witchlings, Flapjack removed themselves from their staff and flew at Belos, pecking at his antlers to no avail. Belos gave an unbothered look as he grasped the bird in his hand.
“No!” Hunter reached forward, but was promptly stopped by his pain. Willow pulled him back to a sitting position.
Belos feigned a look of pity, “That’s right, you wouldn’t want me harming your precious palisman, now would you?” For a moment, Hunter believed him. Believed that he would show pity. But once the smirk arose on his face, Hunter’s hopes were crushed. “But then again, I don’t care what you want. Goodbye, Evelyn.”
And much like those hopes, Flapjack began to be crushed in Belos’ hand. They chirped for help as Belos brought the palisman closer to his face, only for his own hand to shakily reach up and throw Flap down. Belos growled in pain as Flapjack limply flew over to Hunter, almost falling into the boy’s arms.
Tears filled his eyes as he looked down at his palisman, “It’s ok Flapjack…y-you’ll be ok.” He turned to Camila, who had placed a hand on his shoulder. He whimpered into her arm.
Belos staggered, the same hand that betrayed him formed a fist to punch him in his dumb face. He collapsed to the ground and rose to all fours. Shutting his eyes, when he opened them, the piercing blue went away in place of hazel. Luz’s voice was back with no Belos echo to it. Luz was back. Though she struggled to keep control.
“You know what Belos?” She began, staggering to her feet, “You’re right. We don’t belong in the Isles.” She held back the claw that arose to scratch at her, “And we don’t belong here either. I may have helped you. I may have messed up,” she trudged to the deep waters, “And my friends and family may hate me for all you did….but I still love them.” Tears formed in her eyes as she spoke, “I will love them to the ends of both world.” She collapsed to her knees and picked up the vial of Titan’s blood, “And I will make sure you never hurt them again!”
With that, Luz chucked the vial into the deep, murky waters. She shut her eyes again and when she opened them, they were blue again. Belos regained control and let out a scream of protest as he jumped in after the vial. Water filled his lungs, and he felt weak. Too weak to swim back up. Luz watched from the back of her taken over mind. Neither of them could harm anyone now.
The group gasped.
“No no no no,” Hunter tried to get up, only for Camila to push him back down.
“Move.” She commanded as she swam dived into the waters.
The silence felt eternal. Bubbles slowly stopped forming at the surface of the waters. And then-
Camila breached the waters, Luz in her arms. She arose from the water with a gasp for air. She swam back to the shore, the kids helping her and Luz onto the land. Amity took Luz, resting her head in her lap. Luz’s face contorted in expressions of pain before she let out a scream. The goop seeped from her skin and her eyes glowed a blue as bright as the moon.
It formed and molded on the island into a weaker form of Belos’ monstrous form, that still easily towered over the kids. He let out a howl in pain and glowered at the group.
“You poor excuse of a human!” He spat, slamming his fist onto the ground. Willow and Gus readied their staffs, but didn’t strike.
They lowered them as Belos huffed, turning to the alter and smashing the vial onto it. As the blood trickled down the marble, it shimmered and circled the inside of the arch. From there a portal emerged. A flash of light came from the iridescent galaxy the portal reflected. The group shielded their eyes.
“This is for the good of your souls!” He turned his head to the group, “You’ll thank me later.” With that, he backed into the portal. And like the wind, he was gone.
“THAT’S BEEN THE BELOS YOU’VE BEEN FIGHTING?!” Camila shouted, utterly shocked that CHILDREN went against that thing and lived.
“Guys,” Amity spoke up and everyone turned to look at the witchling. Her ears were folded down and tears swelled in the corners of her eyes, “Luz isn’t breathing!” She sounded panicked. And at the state of Luz no one could blame her.
Half of her face was covered in a scar, another snaked down her arm and over her eye where her previous scar was. Amity was right, she wasn’t breathing.
“Vee,” Camila turned to her basilisk child, “Call an ambulance.”
Chatter arose as Vee called, concern and panic. Which was the last thing they needed.
“I’m not getting cell reception.” Vee said grimly.
With that, more panic arose. Gus began to panic, Willow tried to calm him down. And now Amity was panicking, tightening her grip on Luz’s costume and holding back her fearful sobs. Flapjack looked weakly at the chaos before flapping their way onto Luz’s chest. Everyone became silent as the palisman looked back at Hunter, nestling his hand before laying down on Luz’s unmoving chest.
The green, luminescent palisman magic seeped from Flapjack’s open wounds onto Luz. They shut their eyes and small balls of lights floated from their now deteriorating form and into the sky. Hunter watched in silent sadness the lights fade into the sky, he turned his gaze back down to where Flapjack once was.
Luz let out a pained groan, and opened her eyes, her right one glossed over from Belos’ interference with her scar over it, “Hey guys..” she said weakly, “Did…did we win?”
She let out a pained smile as Amity helped her sit up and hugged her from behind. Gus and Willow released into sobs and joined the hug. Luz laughed weakly, she hugged them back.
“We were so worried!”
“We thought you were gone!”
“Don’t ever scare us like that again! You aren’t allowed to die before we do!”
Camila broke up the four’s group hug, “Alright everyone, give her some space.” She looked at Luz, “How are you feeling mija?“
“Sore, and shaky.” Luz hissed as she tried to sit up more herself.
She looked up at Hunter, who stood over her sitting form. She looked at the ground.
“Hunter, I’m so sorry about Flapjack. I couldn’t get back control in time and-“ she was interrupted by a tight hug. Hunter was hugging her. She killed his palisman. And he was hugging her. “I- I don’t understand.”
“Luz,” he began, still hugging her as if she would float away if he let go, “It was Belos. Not you. And Flap….” He let out a shaky sigh, “I’ll miss them….a lot….but I know what they did was to save you. I’m just glad my little sister is ok.”
Luz felt tears form in the corners of her eyes. She hugged him back, tightly. If she let go she would’ve fallen. And slowly, she erupted into sobbing. Burying her face into Hunter’s shoulder, she let it all out. Everything she’d been holding back. The guilt. The pain. The anxiety. The memories. All of it.
Maybe she did belong somewhere. Here. They all still cared about her. They wanted her safe, even after all she’s done. She could stop being strong for them. For once, for a brief moment, she could cry.
And cry she did.