Chapter Text
Alador stumbled his way past the unconscious bodies of the majority of the Boiling Isles. His body was running on fumes at this point with him barely escaping the onslaught of his Abomatons, plus his coven sigil restraining his magic. If it wasn’t for his newly resurrected paternal worry, he probably would have collapsed by now.
That’s probably why he saw Perry and the Parks slowly getting up despite their coven sigils burning them. All four men seemed to notice each other all at once it seems as Perry started stumbling towards him.
“Blight! Call of these things!” The single father exclaimed desperately as he got closer to him.
“I can’t Porter!” The abomination user snapped back, shoving his way past Perry. “Besides, I need to get to the kids! They went to confront the emperor!”
“They’re what? Eda said they were going to rescue your daughter!” Harvey snapped, only being held back by his more thoughtful husband. “Why are they confronting the emperor?!”
“To save Luz,” he snapped once again as he made his way up the stairs to the raised platform. “Now, find Edalyn and anyone who can help!”
Sure, he knew that the coven heads were the only ones on the platform, but they were strong enough to help save the kids. Plus, King informed him of the switch plan with his mother and Raine Whispers.
Why is he having a class reunion during this?
“Blight!” Perry called out as soon as they reached the top. All of the coven heads and Eda lay unconscious as golden cracks slid up their arms. Of course, they had to be unconscious. Why couldn’t anything be easy for him?
“Porter, untie Lilith! Parks, I need you to get Eda and Raine,” the inventor commanded as he sucked up his pride and kneeled next to the coven head of his coven. He placed his hand on Darius’ arm and started shaking him roughly.
Darius Deamonne’s last thought before losing consciousness was that he was happy that Hunter was far away from here. There were many reasons why he was happy about that. One example was that he was happy Hunter was with his friends and nowhere near Belos. Another example was because he couldn’t face the Little Prince. He couldn’t look him in the eye and tell him that they all failed.
“Darius?” Hunter asked the abomination magic user two hours before he had to rendezvous with Luz. He was at a meeting point between Hexside and Bonesborough and he agreed to meet the older witch.
“Yes, Little Prince?” Darius responded as he sent an abomination message to Raine
“Why did you give me a scroll? Why did you give me sewing lessons? Why-“ He raised his hand, effectively silencing the teen.
“Once at a time,” Darius chuckled softly.
“Why… Why have you helped me? I’m Belos’… nephew, ” Hunter stumbled over his relationship with the tyrant. “Most people would have… disposed of me, or consider me a lost cause. But you gave me a scroll, checked up on me after Graye invaded Hexside, and gave me these clothes! Why?”
Hunter’s eyes were wide as he silently pleaded for an answer from the man. An answer, not even Darius was sure of. Hunter had a point about how some people wouldn’t do what he did. Sure, the abomination witch could make up an excuse on why he did, but Hunter deserved to know the truth. No matter how little he knew.
“I… Saw the…” Darius stumbled before he took a large inhale of air before exhaling. “I have concluded that I have been acting horrible towards you due to some… past misconceptions on my part. However, getting to getting to speak with you that I realize how wrong I was.”
Hunter stayed silent as he processed the head witch’s answer. The teen kept squeezing and unsqueezing his gloved hands by his sides. His palisman sat on his shoulder, tweeting softly into his scarred ear.
“Once this is all over,” Darius continued and placed his hand on the blond’s other shoulder. “How about we continue our sewing lessons?”
A light lit up slightly at the mention of their secret sewing lessons. “I would like that.”
Now they won’t be able to have those sewing lessons. Now, he won’t be able to right all the wrongs he’d done to the Little Prince. They failed and Darius was a coward. Just like he’d always been.
“-arius! Dammit, wake up Darius!” Ugh, why couldn’t he just die in peace without being reminded of that annoying hack? “Darius, I don’t have time to wait for you! The kids went to the emperor!”
Wait, was that the hack? And what did he mean that the kids went to Belos? They were supposed to be at the hack’s house.
Darius pried them open as fast as he could, and he couldn’t help but scowl at seeing Alador’s face. So, he pushed himself up using the arm that wasn’t on fire and turned his head to the side. In an attempt at trying to distract himself from his arm, he looked around at his surroundings.
Eda and Raine were both being held up by the Parks, and imagine his surprise when he noticed that the Owl Lady was missing her arm. His eyes widened and he had to beat back the instinct to ask her what happened to it. That wasn’t important right now, so he continued observing those around him.
The next person to catch his eye was Eda’s older sister. Lilith (and that worm tube on her back) were being helped up by Perry Porter with Eber whining right at the reporter’s feet. Darius let out a low whistle and the small demon’s ears twitched in response. Eber quickly turned towards him and he booked it to his pseudo-brother.
“Alador!” Eda yelled as Harvey Park helped walk her over to them. “Where are the kids?!”
“They went to save Luz from the Emperor! We need to leave now!” The hack snapped, face becoming bright red as it used to when they all attended Hexside.
Wait, if the kids went to the Emperor then that means that Hunter is…
“How do we get there?” Raine panted as they leaned against Gilbert Park. “We can barely stand as it is…”
Alador sighed and spat out that if he and Darius combine their remaining magic then they can teleport them all using abomination magic. If this was any other time, Darius would have made the inventor regret implying that he needed his help, but right now the kids were in danger. Hunter was confronting Belos and he was also suffering the effects of the draining spell.
“Then what are we waiting for?!” All of the awake adults stumbled closer to the two former friends while Alador helped the coven head stand up. Once they were close enough to the two that is when they started.
Using his non-sigiled arm, Darius panted upwards and Alador copied his actions. Then, as quickly as they could, brought their hands down in a half-circle.
Abomination matter bubbled underneath everyone’s feet and rose to cover them all in a purple dome. Slowly the dome shrunk down and the feeling of weightlessness overcame them all. The others murmured their uneasiness while both Alador and Darius said nothing. The coven head was used to traveling via abomination so it usually didn’t take too much out of him. Although, he wasn’t being drained of his magic, so once they reached their destination both he and the hack nearly collapsed to the ground.
“Where are we?” Gilbert asked quietly and Darius looked up to see what he was talking about. They were in the head, but they were on a bridge next to a large pair of finely crafted doors.
SHIERKKKKKKK!
Darius’ head snapped to look behind him, as did the others, and his heart all but stopped beating in his chest.
There was a large sludge monster with elongated limbs and antlers standing on the other side of the bridge in front of their children. That… That thing had one of its limbs transformed into a curved blade and held it up into the air. Their children were all clustered together and were trembling in fear. Eda’s kid was holding Alador’s daughter in her arms, Perry’s kid was standing behind those two, and the Park’s kid held a weakened Hunter in her arms.
Hunter had blood dripping down his forehead as he barely was able to hold himself up with his one useable arm. Sure, all of the children were covered in various scratches and various amounts of blood on them, but Darius was focusing mainly on Hunter. That’s why after he saw the head wound, he immediately saw the golden cracks adorning his pale skin. The cracks had advanced so far on the boy that they covered half his face.
“Well, this is interesting…” An all too familiar voice drawled, causing the three weakened coven heads to freeze. The monster turned towards the group of parents and its glowing blue eyes stared at them with unwavering intensity. “Well, now I have to make sure you don’t interrupt me.”
Belos brought down his weaponized limb and struck the bridge that separated the children from their parents. The impact created a large boom that echoes through the inner lining of the skull. It caused everyone’s teeth to clatter together and covered their ears with their hands.
CRASH!
The bridge cracked and splintered from the impact site up to halfway up the bridge before large chunks started breaking off and falling into the abyss below. With each chunk that fell off, the more their hearts tightened in their chests.
“Now…” Belos turned back around and once again raised his arm. Eda yelled out and feathers started to overwhelm her body. Those around her jumped back in fright as none of them wanted to be caught next to the Owl Beast.
Imagine their surprise when instead of Eda’s curse form, they were met with a harpy version of the wanted criminal. Well, the majority were surprised. Lilith seemed used to it, while Raine was all but drooling at her.
She flapped her wings and was able to get off the ground a little bit before she crashed back down. The impact forced the woman to revert to her normal form as not even she was immune to the negative effects of the draining spell. They all were weak and could do nothing but watch as their children were at the mercy of that tyrant.
“Whatcha playing?” A child’s voice cut through the tension in the air. While Darius, who was watching the whole thing, wasn’t even sure when the kid appeared. Sure, his attention was focused on the blond teen, he should have noticed the sudden arrival of the newcomer.
“Collector?” Belos gasped and took a step back, despite his arm being held by the ‘Collector’. He slowly turned around and a large frown graced their soft features. “You’re free. Just as promised.”
“As promised?” The Collector asked and placed his pointer finger on his cheek. “I remember someone throwing me off a bridge. I’m not angry though. Say, you wanna play tag?”
The child swirled his finger, and the goo twisted and shortened the gap between the monster and the unknown entity. Now, the two were face to face and Darius observed that the man who he hated with every fiber of his being was trembling in fear.
“I’m it.” The Collector placed his finger against Belos forehead and faster than anyone could blink, the tyrant was sent flying. Green and black goop splattered against the skull wall next to the group of adults, luckily missing them.
Everyone stared in silent horror at where Belos was now splattered while the Collector gleefully laughed. The man, who was once thought of as the most powerful person on the Isles, was slaughtered by this entity.
An entity that then turned towards their children.
“You guys look slow too. Do you need a head start?” The Collector asked as they walked over to them with his finger raised.
“Whoa, whoa, Collector!” Eda’s pet called out and placed himself between the Collector and their children. Both Eda and Lilith gasped in horror as the young demon had a large crack in his skull. “Buddy, pal.”
“King!”
“Remember what we talked about? You gotta help all my friends outside, or uh, we won’t get to play Owl House,” King said and emphasized the last part.
“Ug, Owl House. Uh, gosh. I love that game!”
“The memories last a lifetime!”
“I play it every day!”
“I play it every hour!”
Hunter was the only one who didn’t say anything as he just squeaked in pain. King continued explaining that everyone can only play if the Draining Spell was stopped.
The Collector hummed and walked past King towards the large crack in the Skull. The children, who stood in front of the crack, started to scramble their way out of the path of the entity. Well, Hunter was picked up and helped out of the way. As he was helped out of the way, the former Golden Guard’s eyes made contact with Darius’ eyes.
Darius could see the absolute terror that Hunter held in his eyes, and the abomination coven head wanted to do nothing but tell him that everything would be okay. However, he knew that was a lie and he couldn’t lie to the blond. Not again.
Suddenly, the sharp pain that was covering his entire arm and halfway up his neck disappeared. He looked down at his arm before his head shot back up. Hunter’s golden cracks were also gone, as well as the rest of the adults.
The Draining Spell ended because the child moved the moon. He moved the moon like it was absolutely nothing.
“If we’re gonna play Owl House,” the Collector giggled and placed their hands on their hips. He turned around and jumped up into the air. “We’re gonna need an Owl House!”
The walls of the Skull started to break apart and a blue light covered the five children. This only left the small demon and the palismen not floating near the Collector.
Perry called out and reached toward his floating son. It was as soon as the reported move that the others started to move. The Parks drew circles in the air, but they weren’t able to do much. Harvey’s abomination was barely holding it together and Gilbert’s attempt at extending the broken bridge wasn’t stable enough to hold a feather. Unfortunately, those two were the only ones who had enough magic to get them to the children.
“Flapjack!” Hunter cried out. “Go to Darius and take King with you!”
The bird palisman chirped at the teen before mournfully nodding. Transforming into staff form, the palisman swooped underneath the small demon and shot straight toward him. Then the other palismen followed not long after.
“King!” Eda cried out as he was dropped onto her shoulders.
“Eda!” Lilith called out and grabbed ahold of her sister’s remaining arm. “We have to go!”
“No!” Perry shouted, shocking everyone as he has never raised his voice ever. “I’m not leaving without my son!”
“Or our daughter!” Gilbert added, scowling at the former coven head. Before Lilith could retort, the bridge tilted upwards at an angle and caused the adults to drop to the ground. As it lifted, they rolled backward and through the now-opened double doors. They only stopped rolling backward when the hack fell against a sole door in the middle of the secluded room. He used his remaining energy to create abominations to grab the fumbling adults.
“We have to leave! Now!” Lilith shouted. “I’m sorry! Hootsifer, open the door!”
“The bird demon extended his body and used his mouth to turn the doorknob. It swung open and revealed someplace that was pouring rain, and because of nothing holding Alador up he fell backward.
With the rest of them being pulled through after him.
“King!” Eda shouted and held onto the door frame as King started being pulled away from her.
“King, you promised you’d play with me! You pinky-swore!” The Collector called out and started pulling at the small demon harder. Eda had to hook her feet against the door frame to keep ahold of him.
“Edalyn!”
“I’m not leaving my kids behind!” The Owl Lady snapped at her sister. “I promised to take care of them!”
“Eda,” King started. “You have to let me go. You all have to let us go! You guys can’t help if you’re here too! Let me keep you safe!”
“King,” Eda cried mournfully. “I-I can’t!”
“Eda, I’m so happy I had you as a mom.” King took a deep breath and let out a loud shout. A shout that was so powerful that caused Eda to be dislodged from the door and anyone still standing on the other side of the door to be shoved roughly to the ground.
As soon as they were all through, the door slammed shut.