Chapter Text
“Luz, I’m so happy I had you as a big sister.”
She knew what King was going to do.
She knew.
But she wished she didn’t.
She shook her head as her tears began to cloud her vision. She opened her mouth to refute once more. She was pushed back into her friends before she could do or say anything more.
Gravity slammed the group into the wet grass, leaving imprints of the harsh landing.
Luz was the only one who had managed to not fall completely flat on the slightly squishy surface. Within seconds she was back on her feet, racing to the door before it could disappear.
“No! King!”
She needed to help him. She needed to save him. To save Eda. Save everyone.
They were all relying on her.
“We’ll see each other after The Day of Unity.”
Eda’s voice rang out through her mind.
“When we succeed. We’ve got King the Titan and Luz the Human on our side.”
“This isn't goodbye, I command it!”
Luz needed to get back to help them. She promised.
The old wooden door slammed shut just as she ascended the stairs. She grabbed the handle so hard she thought it would snap.
King needed her. Eda needed her. The whole of The Boiling Isles needed her.
She was too late!
She was too late…
“We gotta stick together!”
Luz opened the door, her adrenaline spiked, ready to return to the fight.
Hastily she opened the door, desperate to help everyone. Luz could feel her adrenaline spike and her heart skip a beat.
She was ready to return to the fight. To prove to everyone that she could do something right. To try and make up for everything she had messed up. She couldn’t just leave them all behind.
Eda.
Raine.
King.
The CATS.
Everyone in the Boiling Isles.
This was her fault. She had to fix it. She had to make it better.
She was the one who showed Belos how to use the glyphs. This was her fault. Everyone in the Isles was suffering and it was her fault.
“We gotta stick together!”
There was nothing but the room. No King. No Chaos. No Collector.
Nothing.
It just remained the same old wooden shack full of debris and things left behind by those who once lived in it.
Luz stood in the doorway. Unable to think, unable to move, unable to breathe.
We gotta stick… together.
She was too late.
Luz could feel everyone's eyes staring at her. Watching. Waiting for her to do something. But she couldn’t.
What could she do? What could she say? There was nothing that she could do to make this better for them.
This was all her fault. She couldn’t face them. She had just trapped them in this world with her. There was no way home.
Don’t look.
Don’t look.
Don’t look.
She looked.
She looked and there was an immediate understanding in her friends.
She watched as they stared at her. Waiting for her to do something, anything. Do what Luz does best. Find the positive.
But there was nothing.
No way to spin this. No way to make this better. No way to fix this. She couldn’t fix this.
Eda was dying. King was gone. Her friends were all trapped on Earth. And no matter what they couldn’t go back.
She watched as the confused, hopeful smile faded from Amity’s face. She watched as Gus’ uncertainty turned to terror. She watched as Willow was silently holding herself together. She watched as Hunter realised there was no way back.
She couldn’t watch anymore.
She had nothing she could say or do to comfort them; she only made it worse. She was the reminder to each one of them that they were trapped.
She could only stare at the old, rotting floorboards, suddenly finding them very interesting as Gus sobbed with fear in the background. The sound of heavy rain tried to silence the boy.
Hunter moved first.
He slowly surveyed around them, taking in the new area, checking for danger, threats.
For Belos.
His instincts screamed at him to keep moving. To find cover and an escape route. To count their supplies and make a plan. That was what the Golden Guard did. That was what he was trained to do.
But he wasn't the Golden Guard anymore. He was just Hunter. And Hunter’s friends needed him right now.
He looked amongst the group, trying to determine the best course of action. Luz stood motionless near the doorway, her eyes fixed on the empty space where the portal had disappeared, as though willing it to reappear through sheer determination.
Nearby, Gus sat on the ground beside Willow, tears streaming freely down his face. He wiped at them with the sleeve of his shirt, but they refused to stop and Willow didn't seem to notice.
Hunter's chest tightened.
Normally, she would have been the first to pull Gus into a hug. The first to reassure him. The first to remind everyone that they would figure something out.
Instead, she simply sat there.
Silent.
Her eyes were unfocused, staring at nothing. Her shoulders were rigid, her hands hanging limply in her lap.
It unnerved him.
Hunter had seen Willow in terrible situations before. He'd seen her angry, determined, exhausted, even heartbroken.
He had never seen her like this.
Seeing the Captain, the person he relied on, the one to keep everyone together standing so frozen made the situation feel frighteningly real.
Swallowing the knot in his throat, Hunter walked over. Gently touching Willow's shoulder causing her to flinch violently, snapping out of whatever trance she had begun to spiral into.
Willow opened her mouth and took a long and shaky breath. Her voice cracked even before she could say anything.
It shouldn’t have been this way. They all had a plan.
She swallowed hard, forcing herself to breathe before she completely fell apart. She looked over gently rubbing Gus’ back, offering words of reassurance, barely audible over the rain. She opened her arms, offering extra comfort.
Gus clung to her almost immediately.
"I-I don't..." His voice disappeared into another sob. "I didn't even say goodbye..."
He squeezed his eyes shut, diving further into the girl's arms.
Willow's own breathing hitched at the sentence. There were a million things that she wished she could say to offer the boy comfort. She wanted to promise him they would get back. She wanted to say Luz would fix it. The three of them always solved things together.
But she couldn't make herself say the words.
Not when she didn't believe them.
Instead she simply held him tighter.
Amity hadn’t taken her eyes off Luz. Not since the door had shut.
She saw every small gesture. The way Luz clenched her fists. The way her shoulders hunched. The shakiness of her deep breaths.
Luz should have turned to face everyone by now with a big, completely unrealistic idea that somehow she made work. She was Luz after all. She always made the impossible things possible.
So why hadn’t she moved? Why wouldn’t she look at her?
An awful idea slowly wormed itself into Amity’s mind.
What if Luz didn’t know what to do?
The revelation took the breath out of her lungs.
Because if Luz didn’t know...
Who did?
“Luz.” Amity spoke, now standing. “What do we do?” Her voice shook, tears welling up swiftly.
She couldn’t look. She wanted to be okay. To be happy Luz. To turn and smile and figure out a way to make this better.
But there was nothing.
She couldn’t move. She couldn't speak. She couldn't feel anything.
“Luz. C’mon, talk to me. What do we do?” Amity asked again, this time more forceful.
When Luz still didn't answer, panic began replacing desperation.
Amity stepped forward before stopping herself.
She wanted to hug her. Shake her. Just... something to make Luz react.
“Luz!” She begged, her arms wrapping around herself.
Hunter stood up from beside Willow and Gus and walked his way over to Luz. It was becoming more hectic by the minute. Gus had only become more hysterical, Amity more desperate and Willow more unsure.
Hunter knew he couldn’t take charge.
Luz had to.
This was her world. Her domain. She was the leader. The one everyone needed. And he hated that thought.
Because he knew exactly what it felt like to have everyone staring at you, with the expectation of answers you don't have.
He'd spent years pretending he knew exactly what he was doing.
Giving confident orders. Acting fearless and certain. Making decisions that would change everything. All while praying Belos wouldn't notice he was terrified.
And for one moment, Hunter didn’t see Luz. He saw himself. Except she wasn't like him...
She wasn't pretending. She was breaking.
“Breathe.” He spoke up from just behind her. “You need to breathe.”
Within seconds her head whipped toward him. Her eyes full of fear and desperation. She couldn’t be strong. Not right now.
For the briefest moment Hunter saw the look he'd worn countless times in the throne room.
The look of someone desperately waiting to be told this wasn't their fault. And Hunter refused to let her carry that weight alone.
So he stayed.
Luz felt like the world was spinning and she couldn't do anything.
She was frozen.
She felt her chest tighten and her breathing become shallow.
“You need to breathe.” Hunter repeated to her. His voice was calm and steady, deliberately slower than everything else around them.
Yet, somehow, being reminded to breathe made it harder and harder for her. She could feel herself getting dizzy as her hands started to shake uncontrollably.
She tried. She really did. But every breath stopped halfway, like her lungs had forgotten what they were supposed to do.
She could hear everything going on in the background and yet nothing was processing. A lump in her throat formed and quivered and tears wanted to flood down her face. But they couldn’t.
Luz found herself staring hopelessly at Hunter. Waiting for him to just tell everyone what to do. Use that Golden Guard authority voice full of fake confidence and bravado and make everyone believe it was okay. But he didn't.
Hunter carefully stepped forward placing both his hands on Luz’s shoulders.
“You need to breathe. They need you.” Luz tensed at the last sentence.
Hunter watched as guilt washed over her face so quickly it almost looked painful.
“Stop. Close your eyes. Shut everything out.” He instructed her gently but firm. “Now one step at a time.”
He paused.
“Calm them down.”
Luz couldn’t say anything. This was too much. What if she just messed up again? What if she said the wrong thing? What if they looked at her expecting answers she didn't have? What if they realized she'd ruined all of their lives?
A single tear escaped and hastily made its way down her face. She took another shallow breath and shook her head.
Hunter resisted every instinct to keep talking.
Belos would have barked another order. Demanded results. Given the boy a permanent reminder of his failure.
Despite the voice in the back of his mind that sounded far too much like Belos, Hunter remained silent, giving Luz another moment to ground herself.
She opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. A small quiet buzz from her pocket filled the short silence between the two.
Hunter's eyes flickered toward the sound before returning to Luz.
He ignored it. Whatever it was could wait. Luz couldn't.
A single tear escaped and hastily made its way down her face. She took another shallow breath and shook her head.
“Do you live near here?” Hunter asked, slightly tilting his head to the bushlands around them.
The question wasn't what she expected and her mind stumbled over the question.
It was a simple question. One she actually knew the answer to.
Finally, Luz was able to take a deep breath before nodding silently.
“With your mum right?” Hunter asked again.
Another easy answer.
This time the nod came faster and more natural.
“Which direction do you go to get to your house?”
Luz pointed to the right, her hand shaking.
“That way.” Her voice quietly spoke.
Hunter nodded at the answer.
“Okay. That’s where we’ll go.” He gave the girl a reassuring smile.
“That’s what we tell them.”
He saw the smallest change in the girl. Her breathing wasn't normal. But it wasn't getting worse anymore.
With that Hunter walked back out into the rain towards Willow and Gus. Offering both of them comfort.
“Luz! Just talk to me!” Amity yelled at her girlfriend. “Please! What are we going to do?!”
Luz’s hands shook at the sound of Amity. So unsure, scared, desperate, angry.
For a terrifying second, she almost froze again. She found herself looking to Hunter again for comfort.
He nodded and mimicked taking a deep breath. Luz found herself copying him, tightly gripping her hands to make a fist.
“We are going that way,” Luz announced, pointing in the same direction as before. “We’re going to my Mamá’s house.”