Chapter Text
Emperor's Castle; 900 hours
Luz took a long drink of apple blood, she had just spent the last three hours going over the Castle blueprints, to make sure she knew which route to take for their plan. After all, raiding the coven precincts would be nothing like actually raiding their main headquarters.
Her contact scroll rang, it was a caller with no ID; she answered it, after all it was a secure line and only one person had access to this particular scroll.
"Luz, are you ready?," Raine asked sounding anxious
"I'm fine Raine, just tell Katya to start already," using her cloak to disguise the underside of her face.
"I'm just worried about you........... Luz maybe we should just call this off, you don't have to-HEY!" she tried saying until another voice came on the line.
"Raine we've been planning this, for the last 2 months, everybody's in position, it's a little too late for second thoughts now," Darius, took the scroll from Raine ignoring their protests he addressed her "Luz proceed with the plan, I'll tell the others to get in place,"
Luz cut the call and summoned Owlbert, she could understand where Raine was coming from, but she wasn't the scared 12 year old she'd taken in 4 years ago, ever since they'd been exposed as a revolutionary they'd lost their post as a coven head, and been taken up leadership of the BATS
She waited for the signal, but in a few minutes she would wish she had taken Raine's advice and called it off. Meanwhile at the fornt of the castle, nearly a whole squadron of scouts were suddenly attacked by a team of 5 wild witches.
"Fwee evildoers foe we awe the wawiows of justice,"yelled one and cast fire spells at the guards feet to throw them off of balance. Suddenly some music began to play and forced the the guards to move, some bonked themselves on the head while others knocked out each other.
"Focus Tinella" Katya yelled after her deputy, she sighed and went back to playing the flute so the spell would work. There weren't many guards here maybe 100, under normal conditions there should have been about 10 times as much by now. This plan was a gamble; she could only hope Luz was using the time well.
Luz had sprung into action the second she heard the commotion; she mounted owlbert and swooped towards the castle and dipped into an open window. She kept flying gaining momentum, when all of a sudden a wall of red energy appeared infront of her. Her face grimaced and she mentally cursed hopping off the staff shifting her body into a drift sliding underneath the wall, missing her nose by a hairs breath. Her momentum carried her half way across the corridor before she could get back on her feet.
"Wow, I really thought I had you for a second," said her attacker- A figure dressed I golden armour, and mask, with a white cape. The Golden Gaurd, the emperor's right hand man. She was expecting him to show up, but it didn't make things any better, she hadn't seen him face to face in years
"Hi Luz, How's the family?
"Good, How's the tooth gap?"
His eyes narrowed behind the mask and he tensed. Luz sighed this was not gonna be fun.
"Come on cant you just let me go if I ask nicely, for old times sake?"
"HA! Don't make me laugh, Either you turn yourself in or I'll take you in by force," red energy surrounded staff.
They both circled each other for a few seconds, until they charged each other.
Emperor's Castle-Nearby Room; 915 hours
A massive horde of guards stood awaiting a command from their superiors.
"Kikimora ma'am; why exactly are we planning on ambushing the wild witch," said the squad captain "The Golden Gaurd instructed us to-"
"I don't care what that brat had to say," the demon retorted "This is my chance to expose him for the useless fraud he is and my capturing the second most wanted criminal of the isles will finally prove my worth to the Emperor," she cackled.
"Umm, I don't know Kiki, isn't that kind of...messed up, like isn't he on our side," a huge grey demon wearing a raven mask, and a cowl.
"I wouldn't be questioning my superiors, if I was you, Wrath," Kikimora said "Or wasn't being demoted from warden not enough for you, maybe something more expendable," the tiny demon threatened, and Wrath just grumbled and turned his face down, shuffling his feet.
"That's what I thought, now as they both tire each other out, we'll wait for the right time, that's when you will all rush in and capture her. Any questions?" No one spoke up
"Good, now on my mark, 1...2......3! " They all charged in.
Back to the fight
Hunter was able to hold his own against Luz, but this was wearing them both out, she may have been stronger, but he was faster. He might have had the advantage if it wasn't for her reflexes. After years of training together, they'd both gotten a good handle of each others abilities, Hunter's 'instant movement' may have seemed like a powerful skill, but since it specialised in close quarters combat, his targets, and attacks were limited. But at the same time he knew many of her weaknesses as well.
She drew an ice spell, throwing a glacier at him; he used his instant movement to get behind her, but she anticipated it, and the minute he appeared he got a swift kick to the face, throwing his mask off.
"There! I was tired looking at that stupid mask, "
Hunter tasted blood in his mouth, and spat it out, he wasn't expecting this, she wasn't just good, she was far better than the last time they'd met, he wasn't sure he could win this anymore.
"You've grown predictable Golden boy," she said with a smirk, she lowered her staff slowly challenging him to come at her.
Hunter didnt rise to the bait and i stear teleported to the ceiling and shot a volley of lighting blasts leaving cracks across the walls and floor. Luz was forced to constantly move, giving her less time to gain balance and launch a counterattack; so she took the most obvious option she had, she flew straight at him.
Hunter was obviously not expecting her to be so suicidal, and wasn't able to react as quickly, that gave her enough time to draw a special spell.
"Spicy Toss!" she yelled as a huge blast of flame enveloped him, He was able to get a shield up, but not before sustaining a fair share of damage, with some of his hair getting singed. Ironically Luz was not any luckier than him, one of his bolts hit her straight in the chest, she was thrown against a wall, and crumpled to the floor.
Immediately hundreds of scouts charged the room; some of them helped him to is feet, but the majority of them surrounded Luz pointing there weapons and spell circles at her, Kikimora standing over her.
"Hello, Rouge Witch," she said venemously, snapping her fingers, and immediately anti-magic cuffs were slapped on her wrists.
"KIKIMORA!" Hunter yelled "What the hell is going on!, These scouts were supposedto be gaurding the rest of the castle!," he was fuming "I told you I would handle the Rouge Witch myself !"
"Yes and it's clear you failed quite horribly at that," Kikimora said and pointed her finger at him "Look at the state you're in, you should be thanking me, for saving your life," she waved an expressive hand. "As for the gate, you already know that the informant, said only 6 wildes will be attacking, we have 2 squads waiting to surprise them. Anything short of a miracle wouldn't be able to save them."
As if on cue a magic viewing screen popped up, displaying a view of the gate. It was in shambles, scouts lying around unconscious, the walls, and worst of all it wasnt just 7 invaders, it was what looked like the entire assembly of the BATS, with Raine Wisphers in lead, breaking the vault door with a single strum of her violin.
Kikimora seemed too stunned to fully process what she was seeing, and kept stammering "W-w-what?"
"A SET-UP!" Hunter yelled "IT WAS A TRAP ALL ALONG!"
He turned to look at Luz and froze.
She was gone.
2 week earlier; BATS Headquarters
"It won't work," Luz said flatly her feet proped up on the table, her arms folded against her chest. Raine looked at her over their glasses
"Firstly feet off the table and secondly why not? It's brilliant, we have a small squad of witches attack their main entrance, while you go, and steal the artifacts undetected, it's foolproof."
Luz fiddled with her pencil balancing it between her nose and lips as she spoke
"Its a good plan, but there's only one problem to it,"
"And what is that?," Raine asked patiently.
"Hunter," said Luz, and Darius snorted
"That's true enough, something like that wouldn't be enough to fool him, he'd scope out every scrap of the castle, while leaving the scouts to handle the distraction."
Raine rubbed their forehead sighing
"What are you suggesting we do then? We've invested too many resources into this hiest we can't just abandon it,"
"We're not abandoning the plan at all," Luz said
"We will have a seperate distraction, and someone will reach the vault, break in, and steal the minor relics, we already agreed the special relics would be too much of a stretch.
"But," Luz said with a sneaky grin "The only difference is...we switch up the roles, I'll be the distraction while you lead the BATS into the castle and storm the vault,"
"What! You want us to bring in the entire rebellion in for this? We don't have enough firepower to go into direct war with the Emperor's Coven,"
"If everything goes according to plan there won't be a war, practically a walk in the park," she said as she further explained her plan. After some fine tuning, it was decided, and was put into action.
A wild witch, 'leaked' some information to the coven, about their fake plan, which had them prepare accordingly, to have as few gaurds as possible at the front gate, and the rest in place to capture Public Enemy 2. They practically played right into their hands, and now Luz was carrying out the second half of her plan.
When she had been handcuffed, she felt someone slip something into her hands. Her ADHD made it difficult to sit still, but she had to try and keep up the look to convince everyone she was actually knocked out, and at just the right time, she was able to activate the viewing screen, showing the carnage that her mentor was unleashing at the other end of the castle. She took the opportunity while all attention was on the screen, she uncuffed herself and cast an invisibility spell.
Summoning Owlbert she took to the roof and just in time too, as it was at that second they noticed she was gone. Luz knew the plan was to leave now, but she knew that if this army made its way to the other side, before her comrades managed to get away, a lot of them would end up arrested, even petrified.
She would have to improvise.
She took out the vial Darius had given her strictly for emergencies and unscrewed it making herself visible. She yelled out "Hey!" instantly everyone turned to look at her and she threw the vial at one of the scouts, "Catch," she said. He instinctively caught it and then all Hell broke loose.
Hunter barely had enough time to set up a shield around himself, he looked over and saw that Wrath was safe because Steve had set up a similar barrier around them. To his immense satisfaction, Kikimora was caught in the blast and was almost fully covered in.....goop?
The entire squad of scouts gathered there were stuck to the floor covered in abomination goo as heavy as liquid metal, even when some of the more beefy gaurds, managed to crawl on to their knees, the goop, would form whole abominations which would drag them back to the ground. Kiki was In hysterics, screeching and yelling.
"Wrath, if you don't get me out if this right now, I will have you deported to the toes, you worthless rat-worm spawn!"
The warden, muttered, and shook his head as he ran over to pull her out. Hunter didn't waste any time, and dashed off on his staff to reach the vault, when Luz dive-bombed him forcing him to dodge, and blocked his path.
"Oh ho ho ho, no," she said brandishing her staff, menacingly "We are not fuckin' done, you throw me into a wall, and you just try to leave? Hell.No,"
He gritted his teeth, and charged her, but only now she was in her element, or to be more accurate, she was standing on her element. She drew a spell circle, and an army of abominations rose up and swarmed him.Hunter wasn't expecting the attack and was almost instantly overwhelmed.
Luz was feeling quite confident, until a pillar of flame, burst through her summons from behind, barely missing her. Wrath stood, his mask off, roaring fire at the abominations, Kikimora on his back yelling obscenities at him.
She cursed silently, flames like those would cause a lot of problems for her army. In the brief second she turned her attention off of Hunter, he took the opportunity to escape the abominations grasp, and lunged at her.
Hunter tried to throw her onto the floor but using Owlbert she was able to push them against a wall at the last minute to try and cushion the impact.
Atleast that was the plan instead the wall crumbled under their momentum and they both broke through, ruble falling over them, Luz looked up, confused, she'd studied the plans well, and this room wasn't supposed to here and it was huge, It also wasnt furnished like the other rooms, rocky floors and walls.
"Nonononono..." she heard Hunter mutter as he crawled to his feet
"We can't be here, We have to get her out of here," he yelled out at the others behind him.
Wrath was to busy fighting the abominations, and didn't respond, Kikimora jumped off of his back and ran at her casting multiple spell circles, while Steve helped Wrath. She got to her feet and tried to dodge, but she wasn't fast enough, and Hunter managed to strike her side with a stone construct.
Her body crumpled against the impact, she was swept off of her feet. Luz tasted blood in her mouth, this was not going according to plan. She tried to come up with a plan, but Hunter kept attacking her and wasn't giving her enough time to focus, her hand was broken as well making dodging even harder.
Leaving the abominations to melt Wrath had morphed his hand into a hammer and managed to hit her just she was thrown back from Hunter's attack.
Not ideal, this was definitely not ideal.
The army of abominations had taken almost all of her magic, she was running on fumes now.
She steadily stood up pacing her breathing as she realised she was surrounded by them, her back against a wall.
There was nothing else she could do to buy time for the BATS, she had to get out of here now. Using the last of her mana she cast an invisibility spell again.
"Where is she?" The Warden asked trying to sniff her out, the demon would find her eventually if she stayed still, mounting owlbert she tried to fly away as silently as possible.
Kikimora and Wrath were casting spells in random places trying to catch her hiding.
Eventally Wrath ran outside to try and catch her leaving, pretty smart actually, but she now knew this place like the back of her hand and would find another exit easily.
She was almost out of the strange room when she felt her instincts scream at her that something was wrong, her tired magic-drained brain remembered something.
'Where's Hunter?'
Just as the thought occured before she could even panic he teleported behind her and creating a giant hammer made of red energy he sent her flying away from the exit back into the room.
A quick gasp from the impact was all it took to remove her invisibility, it wasnt a pleasent trip either, she bounced off the ground multiple times and still kept going, almost like skimming a rock across a laske, except here the rock was her body and the lake was hard stone floor.
She cursed herself for forgetting, he of all people was most used to her invisibility spells and how to find her. She didnt need to worry about it before because the havoc Raine was causing was enough distraction for Hunter to miss her completely, but now all he had to do was keep an eye out, watching for a slight disturbance in space, even just a blur.
Luz tried to pick herself off from the ground but as she could got to her knees she felt Hunter's staff held right above her head.
She froze
"Rouge Witch, in the name of Emperor Belos I find you guilty of terrorism, conspiracy of mutiny and assination and you will be arrested and petrified as is desrving of your crimes,"
Hunter had managed to bring back his mask and grimaced slightly looking down at Luz, he didnt want this, but she made her choice and now she had to deal with the consequences.
Luzs breathing was shallow, her brain that had never failed her with a plan till now was struggling to find a way out of this.
'Maybe if she used a light spell she could distract them long enough to- No'
'Maybe if she grabbed Kikimora as a type of hostage- No'
'Maybe-'
'Maybe-'
As she tried to brainstorm a fist of rock smashed into her face sending her reeling back again.
"Kiki!" He yelled, "Thats enough we got her!"
"I decide when its enough! This brat has sullied my pride and will pay the price for crossing me," she laughed cruelly cracking her knuckles as she walked forward.
Luz meanwhile had been sent back and was leaning against a pipe of sorts.
She didn't even realise she was trembling, was it magic reflux? No she was just depleted, was she...was she scared? She hadn't trembled like this since that night.
She would not let herself be petrified, she would get out of here...but her body felt so heavy and her eyes were on the verge of closing, her breathing felt laboured.
She leaned back trying to steady herself against the pipes, instead it moved back with ease, it wasnt a pipe.
It was a lever.
Suddenly there was a flash of light, for the first time Luz noticed the door in the room, there wasn't, much special about it that differentiated it from others in the Isles, but fatigued as she was she could sense that it radiated power.
The door opened and a bright light enveloped all three of them lifting them off the ground bringing them closer and closer, Kikimora was screeching, Hunter tried to grab something to drag himself back to the ground but he couldn't get to anything in time. Luz's eyes were almost fully shut, from exhaustion and pain
The last thing she remembered was Kikimora screaming "I'm going to die!" before she blacked out.
XXX