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Luz stood on the edge of a cliff, looking out towards the Boiling Sea. She pulled a light glyph out of her pocket, staring at it with tears forming in her eyes, before letting it go, the wind carrying it through the sky and out of her vision. Amity stepped outside, looking for her girlfriend and trying to get away from Hooty.
“You ok, Batata?” She reached out and grabbed Luz’s hand, cupping her face with the other.
“...It’s over. It’s finally over.” Luz leaned into the touch.
“I know. And we’ll fix everything soon enough.” Amity rubbed her thumb against Luz’s cheek, wiping away a small tear. “It’ll be ok. We’ll be ok. Promise.”.
“Luz! Come see what we found!” Edalyn yelled from the woods.
“I’ll be right back, hermosa.” Luz gave Amity a quick peck on the cheek, then ran toward where Eda and King were in the Red Woods.
“What’s going on, guys?” Luz asked.
“Look! We might’ve found you and your mom a way home!” King said excitedly, grabbing her hand and leading her to the swirling pool of colors.
“Woah.” Luz muttered under her breath. After all this, I can finally go home.
“Let’s go, Mija. I understand why you might like this place; it’s got your quirks and everything, but it’s just not my style.” Camila flinched as she heard the demon bird lurking in the woods screaming in what she assumed was pain. “And we also have to help Vee, I don’t think she’s doing too well in the human realm alone.”
“It’s ok, Luz! We’ll see each other soon enough, right?” Amity, who had now caught up, intertwined her fingers with Luz’s, guiding her slowly towards the portal. “I’ll always be right here when you need me, and I know that you’ll be there when I need you.”
“I will. I swear.” Luz put her hand on Amity’s cheek and kissed her, warmth spreading through her body. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, her sadness fading thanks to her awesome girlfriend. After she pulled away, Luz turned to King and picked him up, giving him a huge bear hug.
“I’ll be back soon! Don’t overthrow the monarchy while I'm gone!" She put him back down and headed through the portal, with promises of coming back.
She never did.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Luz tried not to think about the demon realm.
After all, it had been 3 years since she last saw them. Eda, King, Hooty, Lilith.
Amity.
She missed them. More than she could admit to herself. The more she thought about them the worse she felt but she couldn’t think of anything else. Even after all that time thinking about them though, her recollection of them had started to blur. She couldn’t remember which one of King’s horns was missing, the color of Willow’s eyes, or Hunter’s scars. She forgot Eda’s laugh, Lilith’s smile, and surprisingly, Hooty’s voice was starting to disappear from her mind. And what color was Amity’s hair? She remembered it being green, but it faded and mixed with memories of purple and pink hair.
“Luz!”
“Hm? What happened? What’s wrong?” Luz woke up from her daze as a pair of fingers snapped in front of her face.
“The bell rang like, five minutes ago and you’ve just been sitting there like you’re having war flashbacks!” Kirby said, shaking her shoulders to try and ‘wake her up’.
Even after shutting herself off from the world, hiding all of her quirks, feelings, and personality, Luz had still managed to make one friend. They were a pretty energetic kid, extroverted, and friends with almost half the school, but most people didn’t know why they chose to hang out with Luz Noceda of all people. The weirdo who came to school full of energy one year and came back to school depressed the next, something seemingly strange happening over the summer.
“Oh. Sorry. Just lost track of time y’know?” Luz laughed hollowly.
“Are you sure you’re ok? I’m here if you need to talk about stuff.” Kirby smiled at her kindly, using their thumb and index finger to tilt her head towards them.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll be better by next period at least.” She pushed their hand away, squeezing it in affirmation.
“Ok… But please tell me if you start feeling worse. I just want to help, and I can’t do that if you push me away. Now let’s get to class, we’re gonna be late.” They reached their hand out to Luz, and as soon as she took it Kirby practically started dragging her through the school, and towards their English classroom.
They walked into the room, just as the teacher was calling attendance, and somehow managed to not be marked as tardy. Titan knows she couldn’t deal with another detention. She sat down in her seat and just stared out the window, looking at the kids talking and playing in the nearby park.
Huh. Park. Why did that feel so familiar?
“Luz Noceda!” The professor yelled, for what was probably the third time.
“Present.” Luz replied.
“You need to stop daydreaming and start paying attention. Maybe that way you can stop failing my class.” He ticked off her name on the attendance list as everyone else started laughing. He quickly got them to quiet down and kept taking attendance, but not before she was called a ‘freak’ and a ‘weirdo’. Kirby shot her a sympathetic glance from across the room.
After finishing attendance, they started the lesson. The plan was to go over some vocabulary words, and then do a small overview of the book that they were reading. Luz had tried to read the book, but something about it felt off. It made her feel uncomfortable, so she put the book down and never finished it.
The teacher cleared his throat. “Everyone bring out your copies of ‘Emperor’s Extension’ by Caliph Talonbarb.” Luz held back a wince. Something about that gave her an uneasy nostalgia.
She absently took the book out from her backpack, opened to a random page and read the first line.
“‘Fosa, I’m so happy I had you as a big sister.’ The boy was then slaughtered by the tyrannical emperor for treason, never to speak to his sister again.
‘This is what happens to people who become blights on this planet.’”
Luz then felt a heartache tug at her for reasons she didn’t understand. It all felt like déjà vu, so sentimental she had to shut the book and ask to use the bathroom. Kirby gave her another caring look as she left.
Once she got there, Luz splashed her face with water to wake herself up from this seeming curse. Again, a vague memory rose in her mind from that word.
Ugh! She went into a stall and locked the door, trying to calm herself down. She sat on the toilet seat and buried her head in her hands, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. Eventually, tears streamed down her cheeks and fell warm onto her legs. Luz couldn’t imagine her mom seeing her so sad. It hurt to even think about it.
She heard someone walk into the bathroom, having been alone this whole time. A knock came on her stall door. “Luz?” It was Kirby. She couldn’t let on that she was crying; she refused to be comforted by someone without feeling like a burden. Luz rushed to dry her eyes with toilet paper and put on her best smile. She opened the door. “Hey Kirby…” she said with little concern. Their eyebrows crashed with concern. Luz hadn’t done a very good job of hiding her emotions, she supposed.
Stupid…
“Luz!” Kirby pulled her in for a hug. Luz put her arms around them as well, appreciative of the gesture. She sniffed. “I don’t know what to do, Kirb…” she croaked, her voice hoarse from crying.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to, but you can tell me what’s wrong whenever you like.” They pulled away from the embrace and picked up Luz’s hand with both of theirs. Were their cheeks reddening?
Kirby’s expression turned startled and they dropped their hands, letting Luz’s fall to her side. They coughed. “Whenever you like,” they repeated. “Come on. Class change is in two minutes.”
Luz felt confused feelings. She didn’t know how she felt toward Kirby, just that they were a wonderful friend that was there whenever she needed them. She intertwined her fingers with theirs as they left the bathroom, though, since she needed all the comfort she could get.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amity never stopped thinking about Luz.
After the portal to the human realm closed and neither of them could go back through, Amity spent the next three years looking for a way to get back to her. She was sure Luz never forgot about her, about what they had.
After Luz left and the portal closed, the Boiling Isles was forever lacking something. It was somber without Luz to brighten each day for the citizens, always getting in over her head and being stupidly loveable. Amity missed her so much. I’ll get her back , she thought. Or maybe she’ll find a way to come back to me. She has to.
Although, Amity wasn’t sure if Luz would even want to come back. Edalyn Clawthorne, her adoptive mother when she’d lived here, had an incident a year ago. She’d forgotten to drink her elixir to tame her curse, therefore turning herself into the Owl Beast, with no control over herself. Overtaken by her curse, Eda had mauled and murdered Lilith. The irony in that was almost amusing if it hadn’t been so sad.
Lilith was the one that had cursed Eda, and in her final moments, it had come back to bite her in the worst way possible.
When Eda gained control again, she was so furious at what the Owl Beast had done, so resentful of this curse even though having tamed it with elixirs and befriending it in years past, that she decided she would get rid of it once and for all. She killed herself.
There wasn’t even anyone to mourn her. A year before the incident, Raine Whispers, Eda’s spouse, had died at her hand. She was playing them a song, Eda’s Requiem, and had forgotten that her curse corrupted magic. And so when she played it, Raine slowly turned to stone . So afraid of becoming a puppet, they chose not to move at all. Petrified, just like Eda almost was.
King had left the year Luz did, accompanying The Collector on his adventures in the cosmos to cope with the loss of not being able to see his sister. He didn’t know about Eda. He didn’t know about Lilith. He didn’t even know about Raine.
Amity sighed as she made it to the workshop. Soon after the Hexsquad discovered that Luz was stuck in the human realm, they had all planned to meet up in one of her parents’ old showrooms every few days, to try and rebuild a portal to Earth. They had slowly reconstructed it to look and act as a workshop and testing facility, so that they could build things faster, and test things without damaging the nearby woods.
Still, though, after all the improvements, tests, and ideas, they didn’t have a working gateway. The closest they had ever gotten to something even resembling a portal was a small, pocket sized device, that had been able to open a gateway for around ten seconds, before overheating and exploding. But it gave them hope. At least they knew it was possible.
“Amity!” Hunter walked over to her, holding a small tablet-looking object in his hand.
“Hunter? What’s that? And where are Gus and Willow?” Amity questioned, slinging her bag off her shoulder.
“I was just so excited, I couldn’t wait!” Hunter said giddily. “This tablet was one of my side projects, it gives us the ability to contact The Collector!”
“The Collector? Why would we need to talk to them?” She stared at him confusedly.
“Well, if we get access to him, we might be able to get King here for a while, and remind me how Luz got access to the human realm to visit Camila and Vee?”
“Titan’s Blood!” The memory came flooding back. “I’m still pissed at you for that.” Amity squinted at Hunter.
“The only issue I see is the fact that King might not be powerful enough for his blood to create a rip in the fabric of time.”
“But remember that time passes differently while they’re traveling through… the multiverse? Space? Wherever they are, time probably goes slower here.”
“If you’re done here, then I can go ahead and call them and we can get Luz back faster.”
Amity’s heart stopped. She would finally get to see Luz, Her Luz after all this time. She smiled, her vision becoming blurry with tears of happiness. “What are we waiting for then?”
Hunter finished getting off the phone with The Collector, telling him to bring King to the workshop as soon as possible, just as Willow and Gus made it inside.
“Hey guys! What are you doing?” Gus asked.
“We have a plan to bring Luz back, and this one has the highest possibility of working!” Amity said, passing the tablet to Willow.
“That's what you say every day.” She giggled.
Suddenly, Amity heard an ear-shattering crash from the far wall of the factory.
“We’re here!” King announced. “Hey, um, where 's Eda?”
Everyone in the room winced, excluding King and the Collector. Tears pricked the corners of Amity’s eyes. No. She wouldn’t cry. Not on the day she was getting Luz back. She led them both to a secluded part of the factory and sullenly explained to them what had happened.
“What are you talking about...? Where’s Eda?” King pleaded, looking around for his mom.
“I’m sorry, King. You’re the last Clawthorne.” Amity tried to hold it together.
“No. No, I’m not! This is just some prank right? Eda set you up to this didn’t she? She’s probably waiting somewhere to tell me it’s just a joke!”
“She’s gone, King. I’m sorry.” Amity repeated. She felt horrible for King, but couldn’t take this anymore. It was torment seeing the little guy like this. “We might not be able to get Eda back,” She started, grabbing King’s claws. “But we can find Luz again, with your help.”
Tears streamed down King’s skull and wet his fur. Amity wiped a drop off his cheek. She wished she could take it all back, that they could just go back to their weekly adventures with Luz, oblivious to the Emperor’s plans. Though, it was too late for that now she supposed.
“Me and Hunter came with a plan, and if we use your blood, we can make a portal to the human realm. We can bring her back.”
King nodded, sobs racking his body. “I-I don’t know what to do Amity. She can’t be gone. They can’t both be gone.” He grabbed his shirt sleeve, pulling it up to reveal his arm. “Just take it, please. I don’t want to be alone, not again.”
Amity nodded, holding her hand out as Gus placed the needle in her palm. “You’re gonna feel a little pinch, ok?” King nodded, and she inserted the needle, filling it with the thick, blue substance.
“Good job buddy.” She planted a kiss on the top of King’s skull. She got up, turning around to face the Hexsquad.
“Let’s go get our Luz back.”
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Luz set down her backpack next to the piles of unfinished and failed assignments at the door. She collapsed onto her bed, covering her face with her hands. It hadn’t been a good day. The only good part had been Kirby. Kirby who had comforted her despite not knowing what was wrong. Kirby who stuck with her no matter what rumor was going around, or what others thought of them.
Luz felt her heart speed up as she thought of them. It hadn’t done that since… Amity. Luz groaned. She couldn’t fall in love with Kirby. She still loved Amity… Right?
Luz heard a knock at the door, and Vee walked into her room, peeking out the side of the door. “Hi Luz. Are you ok?” Vee stood at the doorway, looking at her kindly.
“Hi Veebee. I’m fine. Just had a rough day at school today.” Luz smiled at her reassuringly.
“Alright. We’re just worried about you. Try to get some sleep. I could maybe,” She mumbled something really quickly.
“What did you say?” Luz sat up.
“If you want, I could pretend to be you tomorrow at school. Like old times. Just don’t tell Mom, she’d kill me.” Vee whispered, smiling.
“Thanks, but I’ll be fine. I think people will notice if I just suddenly become really attentive and smart for a day. Also, I’m kinda excited to go to school tomorrow. I’ve got this friend-”
“Oh I see.” Vee smirked. “I’ll let you go to your partner in peace, don’t worry.” She quickly ran outside, leaving Luz alone again.
She sighed, walking over to her desk and looking at the drawings of King and Eda on her bulletin board. They were the only things she had left of them to even slightly remember what they looked like. The lines were messy, and sketched, and Luz knew they were inaccurate, because she drew them a year after she left, but she still kept them up, trying anything to remember her loved ones.
“Hello? C-can you hear me?” Luz spun around, hitting her shin on the desk.
“What?” After a second of silence, Luz rolled her eyes. I’m probably imagining things.
“Luz? Can you hear me?” Ok, that was definitely real. Luz turned to face her desk, looking around for wherever the familiar voice was coming from, until she looked at her window. There, in the reflection, was… No. It couldn’t be.
“Luz? Luz it’s me!” Amity felt tears roll down her cheeks as she looked at her girlfriend.
“...”
“Remember me? It’s me, remember? It’s Amity! Please! It’s me!” She banged on the cube.
“Who are you?”