The light of abyss (The owl house x Marvel)

Luz and Amity arrived at the Owl House that afternoon to find a mess created by Eda recklessly experimenting with Glyphs that Lilith had just barely managed to figure out a fix for by the time the two girls got there. After that was cleaned up and poor King, who'd been trapped in ice, was wrapped in blankets to warm him up.

On the plus side, it turned out you could combine the glyphs to create new effects. That was cool. Hopefully, Luz would get to experiment with that herself later. Hopefully. If things went well with her mom.

Not long after, Eda summoned and opened the portal door in a clearing not too far from the Owl House.

"So why are we all the way out here?" Luz asked.

"Because your mother might want to come to see where you've been all this time," Eda explained, "and a scenic forest scene is probably a better first impression than my junk pile or Hooty."

Amity shuddered, no doubt flashing back to her first meeting with Hooty.

"Now, I don't know how long this is going to take," Eda continued while pulling a furled parchment from her hair, "so here's a list of every human food I know of for sure that's safe for witches. In case, well... If this takes long enough, Boots is gonna need to eat." Luz took the parchment and checked it over. "I was gonna give that to you anyway since we all know that Goops at the very least will be dying to visit the human realm, but it's extra important right now."

Luz noticed something off about Eda's body language. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Eda declared without making eye contact. "It's just... This day sort of snuck up on me, is all..."

Luz hugged her mentor, and tellingly Eda didn't resist.

"...Amity," Lilith began, "before... This, I'd like to speak with you. Privately."

Amity glared at her former mentor, taking in the ratty and ill-fitting clothing she was now wearing. "If you can't say it in front of others, I don't want to hear it from you."

Lilith sighed. "Very well. I'd like to properly apologize for my behavior at the covention and, in general, my conduct as your teacher. I... Looking back, I knew your circumstances and... I should have known better how you would have taken... I am sorry I violated your trust and personal convictions, I am sorry I used you in a scheme, and I am sorry that I wasn't and couldn't be the kind of mentor you needed."

"I appreciate you saying that," Amity said cooly, "but it's going to take a lot more than that to..." Amity's emotions flared into anger. "No, if you think that's the only thing I'm... You tased me and tried to 'Gwen Stacy' my girlfriend!"

"And I'm sorry—'Gwen Stacy?'" Lilith started to apologize again only to break off in confusion.

"Uh, Amity, to 'Gwen Stacy' someone is referring to the 'killed them to make someone else hurt' part, not the 'thrown off a bridge part,'" Luz corrected awkwardly.

"Oh, my bad," Amity then corrected herself, "you tased me and threw my girlfriend off a bridge."

"Amity, I hurt a lot of people," Lilith admitted. "I did things I knew were wrong because I fell for the Emperor's lies because I believed him when he said he would help me cure my sister. Help me clean up a terrible mistake I made... I spent over thirty years running away from problems I caused, trying to fix it instead of just taking responsibility for my actions, and making a bigger mess in the process. You are one of the people I hurt, and I owe you an apology. I'm trying to be better. That's all I wanted to say."

Amity went into an angry, face-scrunchy blush for a moment but just when Luz thought that she'd pass out, Amity instead blew and forced herself to calm down. "Fine. I've been awful to people too, and been given a second chance that I don't think I deserve. I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't give you a chance, but... I don't like you. You shattered any trust I had in you when you gave me that glyph and it's just gotten worse since then... If you want my... It's going to take time before I can so much as respect you again."

"That's still more than I deserve," Lilith agreed. "If there is anything I can ever do for you, don't hesitate to ask."

Amity grunted, then took Luz's hand. "Off to the human realm?"

"Off to the human realm." Luz agreed.

The two girls stepped through the portal door and Luz couldn't help but smile as Amity gasped. "Everything's.. Green?"

"Yeah, most plants in the human realm are green, except for like, flowers," Luz explained. "It's honestly kind of interesting that leaves and grass and such are mostly red in the Demon realm, given how uh... I mean, even plant magic is green and there are plenty of green plants so..."

"Huh," Amity acknowledged. "That is interesting."

"Anyway, my house isn't too far away from here," Luz gestured to the path through the forest. "My Mom's probably worried about me. She has to have realized that I never went to camp by now."

"Luz," Amty asked as they walked. "Your mom isn't... Like mine, is she?"

"No!" Luz declared, wide-eyed. "She's... I know my Mom loves me and wants the best for it, it's just... I don't think she understands me. I don't... fit in around here. I'm not normal. You know what started all of this? I tried hard to prove that my... weirdness, I guess, could be useful. Most of my interests aren't... Not the kind of thing they test on here. I worked so hard on a book report and... Got so caught up in it that I forgot that you weren't supposed to bring live snakes and fireworks to school."

Amity blinked. "That's not allowed in human schools? Even with a permit?"

"Nope!" Luz declared, then laughed bitterly. "The camp was supposed to help me fit in better but... The pamphlet, it was just... Mom said she did her research to make sure it wasn't a... bad place. But.. It felt like if I went there, they'd try to change me into someone other than me. Maybe I did need a reality check, but... Not like that."

Amity squeezed Luz's hand, which Luz appreciated. "So I've been meaning to ask you," she said, clearly trying to change the subject, "what was with that form you took at the conformatorium?"

"So I'm not 100% sure how I got it, exactly, but..." Luz trailed off, she didn't want to spook Amity after Grom. "Um... Remember how I uh, was talking about heroes and villains here in the human realm, and I talked about... Symbiotes?"

Amity blinked. "You have a creature from another planet in your body?"

"No, but... It's the only thing I can think of for these people," Luz continued. "I've got all the signs and... You're taking this pretty well."

"...I mean, it'd be a little weird if you did have another creature inside you all this time, but not that weird, so why wouldn't I take it well?" Amity asked.

"I mean, after Grom..."

Amity's eyes brightened with realization: "Oh, Luz. After... I had a nightmare about a depraved serial killer going after the people I love. Not about... so if it's one of those symbiote things, that's fine. They weren't the fear that Grom picked up on." Amity gave Luz's hand another squeeze. "And even if I was afraid of symbiotes and not specifically that Carnage creep, I could never be afraid of my kind, loving, cuddly, awesome girlfriend. My first thought when I saw you like that was about how adorable you looked."

Luz felt heat rising in her face but smiled. "Thanks, Amity. so anyway, remember when I said my blood tested for pure evil? I think what happened was that I got some symbiote goo in me and that it got mistaken for some kind of weird malevolent stuff and I guess something in the Boiling Isles made it all come out. I can't do the Shadowy aura anymore. I try and the whole symbiote form thing pops out, so like... Was the shadow aura like, aeosolized symbiote goo? Can't detonate glyphs anymore, either. That must have been some kind of bad reaction to the free-floating symbiote stuff. Though honestly, that was only ever good for hurting people so I'm not sad to see it go."

"I mean, I can see some situations where destroying a spell construct and making the witch who cast it feel like they got punched in the bile sack could have been useful," Amity replied diplomatically. "Like against that scout who branded you. Or when we were fighting Lilith."

"Maybe but... I guess seeing how bad it hurt you got me... spooked," Luz admitted. "Besides, I really don't think powers like mine and the glyphs were meant to mix. Anyway, another thing that happened was, well, Eda knitted me a witch's cloak out of witch's wool while we were at the palace. I was wearing it when I transformed and the symbiote gunk sort of... ate it."

"Oh?"

"I was upset at first, but the cloak comes back whenever I transform and all my symbiote goo protects against magic the way Witch's wool does so Eda says it's like her gift to me is part of me now and always keeping me safe, which made me feel better. Anyway, we're here," Luz finished.

Once through the forest path, the two found themselves on the outskirts of an ordinary small suburb, nothing much but a street and a few houses burdened by forest.

"Wow," Amity said as she turned to look at her surroundings. "I'm not sure what I expected human buildings to look like but, not this... They're so... Uniform."

"Yeah, human buildings are like that," Luz acknowledged. "My house is this one right here next to the path and... Mom's van is gone. I hope she didn't like, drive all the way to the camp when I didn't get off the bus home."

"So, a van is some kind of transport?" Amity asked. "I've been wondering about that."

Approaching the house, Luz tried the door only to find it locked. She reached for her key only to realize that it was in her bag. Which she'd mistakenly left back at the Owl House. No matter, Eda had taught her how to pick locks. She'd even gotten Luz her own set of picks... Which were also in her bag back at the Owl House.

"Ah, beans," Luz cursed. She then turned back to Amity, "so I have no way of getting in. We basically have to wait for—Oh. Never mind."

Just as Luz was explaining that they were locked out, she noticed a familiar van driving up. Luz stood up straight and noticed from the corner of her eye that Amity was adjusting her hair.

The car pulled up and Luz prepared to greet her mother and face the music, only to freeze as she realized that her mother wasn't the only one in the vehicle. Her mother got out, as did two others. Luz hyperfocused on a girl who could have been her identical twin, down to the clothes they wore, but heard the feminine voice of the other teen as they spoke.

"Thanks again for the ride, Mrs. Noceda," the teen said.

"It's nothing, Masha, I'm just so glad that Luz made friends at camp," Luz's Mom said, "but are you sure you didn't want me to drive you home?"

"It's fine, my parents texted me and said they were out till this evening anyway so it was either be the only kid to stay at the camp and wait for the bus or come home with you and spend more time with..."

It was then that the trio noticed Luz and Amity standing in front of the house. Luz's mom looked back and forth between Luz and the doppelganger. "Luz...? But...? What's going on?"

The doppelganger was just as shocked as Luz was, it seemed, but she broke out of it first: "I'm not going back!" she shouted in a voice that very much wasn't Luz's before darting past the house into the woods.

Luz, operating mostly on instinct, chased after. She barely noticed that her girlfriend was following her as well.

After a few minutes, she started to catch up and heard her doppelganger whine "Why couldn't this have just worked out!?"

As Luz got closer, she noticed something in the path ahead. "Hey, wait, stop!" She called out but the doppelganger ignored her and so stepped right into a snare.

Yanked upsidedown by her ankle, the doppelganger screamed and struggled and then, almost resignedly, slacked and shifted with a sound akin to a snake's rattle, melting away from a copy of Luz into a—

"Basilisk!" Amity shouted from behind Luz and the two girls skidded to a stop. And tree enough, that's what Luz's doppelganger was. She was smaller, cuter, and more humanoid in the toro area than the greater basilisk that Luz had fought on her first day of classes at Hexside.

"Please," the basilisk begged from the snare, "I didn't want to hurt anyone, I just..."

Luz approached the poor thing but Amity called out to her, "Wait."

"Amity," Luz replied, "she's scared and helpless. I've got a feeling that she's not like the one that attacked Hexside."

"A basilisk attacked Hexside?" The basilisk in the snare asked, going very quiet and pale.

"Yeah, a greater basilisk possing as an inspector," Luz explained as she found the metal thingy that was keeping the snare tight. She didn't know what it was called but this was far from the first time someone had set up illegal traps in these woods and her Mom had taught Luz how to deal with them.

"She got out!?" The basilisk screeched. "But, she was crazy. We left her behind on purpose because she only ever talked about how witches were nothing but food and that she'd make them all pay by hitting them where it hurt. How did she get out!?"

"No clue," Luz said with a shrug as she finished undoing the snare, letting the basilisk down. "She wasn't exactly in the mood to chat and I was more concerned with stopping the rampage and getting back the magic she took."

"Wait, you fought her? But... How?" The basilisk asked.

"Well, I don't have any magic of my own so she couldn't drain me," Luz explained, "and I had some help from some friends who had some very creative applications of their magic, so it wasn't that hard to save the day. I don't know what happened to her after we crushed the magic out of her though so..."

"I don't think I want to know. If she's..." The basilisk dragged a reptilian hand across her neck, "That might be for the best but.. The idea doesn't make me any less sad."

"I get it, so... What's your story?" Luz asked.

"I'm... Not supposed to exist," the basilisk started. "Basilisks went extinct a long time ago. But The Emperor's coven did something to bring us back, they wanted to study how we drained out magic... They kept us in a hidden dungeon in the confomratorium, they experimented on us and forced us to drain magic from poor innocent creatures." The poor thing was shaking, so Luz changed tactics.

"So what's your name?"

"Number Fi—Vee," the now-named Vee started before correcting herself. "My name is Vee."

"Well, Vee, you got out. That's the important part. You survived and escaped and now you can get better."

"...I didn't really escape," Vee admitted. "After Number One and Number Two were taken for testing and never came back, Aiyayeye and Ivy started talking about how we needed to get out and a Scout overheard us. Instead of, you know, he... Unlocked the cell doors and left. The three of us snuck out after that, but we had to split up so we'd be harder to find. I snuck around Bonesborough for a while, then I saw, well, you, a human, and I snuck into that tent and through the portal."

Luz blinked. "Wait, Eda closed the portal as soon as she found out I came through it and you couldn't have seen me until after... did she open it back up after bringing me up front and I didn't notice?"

"I have no idea," Vee admitted. "I came out near that old house in the woods but then I heard someone coming and I panicked and... I didn't mean to steal your life, but you were the only human I'd ever seen, and... Camila thought I was you. She was so nice to me and..."

"Wait, she came back?" Luz interrupted. She'd been on her way to work when Owlbert had stolen Luz's book. "If... If it wasn't for you, Mom would have thought I'd run away."

"You did run away!" Vee shouted, voice full of sadness and bitterness. "you had it good, a roof over your head and a parent who loved you and you still ran! Why? Because you were afraid of a camp that was supposed to help you!? A place to make friends? Or did you just hate the idea of learning how to be a functional member of society?" Luz swallowed, but couldn't answer. "I was so scared the first few days at the camp. I expected that when Mo—Camila got home she'd find you and it'd be all over for me but after a few days I realized you weren't coming back and that if it weren't for me, she'd have been worried or heartbroken. I hope whatever you found in the demon realm was worth it."

"Don't talk to her like that," Amity began, "you don't know—"

"Amity, don't," Luz interrupted. "She's right... Even if Mami hadn't come back, she'd have realized I wasn't at Camp sooner or later, and... I... I didn't mean to hurt anyone, but I still jumped at the first chance I had to... I guess I've been pretty selfish." Luz looked back to Vee. "You must hate me."

"Yeah, I do hate you a little," Vee admitted. "But I'm also grateful. If you hadn't run away... I probably never would have learned that people as kind as Camila existed. So, thank you. Even if I have to find somewhere else to live now—"

"No, you don't," came a familiar voice. The trio in the forest turned to see that they'd been followed by Luz's Mom and the gothy teen who had come home with her and Vee. Luz's Mom had spoken up.

"Hey, um... How much of that did you hear?" Luz asked.

"Everything," the teen, Masha, replied. "So just so I have this straight... The Luz I made friends with at camp wasn't the real Luz, she was some kid fleeing from horrible, inhumane conditions in a place called the Demon Realm who sort of accidentally an identity theft. Meanwhile, the real Luz was having an Isekai adventure in the Demon Realm, but now she's back with this... Cotton candy-haired elf chick?"

"What's an elf?" Amity asked.

"And you," Masha fished while turning to Vee specifically, "are not human but instead some kind of shapeshifting snake demon?"

"Yeah, that's about right," Vee finished.

"That's wicked," Masha declared with a smile.

That was interesting. Basilisks could blush. Masha didn't seem to pay it any mind, but...

"I have the weirdest case of deja vu right now," Amity admitted.

Luz turned to her mother. "Mom, I can explain."

"One thing at a time, Mija," her Mom replied. She then kneeled down next to the basilisk. "Vee, is it?" Vee nodded. "You wrote such lovely letters. You don't have to go anywhere."

"But, your real daughter—"

"Would never want me to abandon someone in need, right Mija?"

"Yeah!" Luz added. "I've already got a bunk bed, I can move some of my stuff to the basement, and then we can be roomies!"

"There are laws in place for people like you," her Mom continued. "To protect people, especially children, from other worlds who need somewhere safe to be. There are services for this. We can get you a legal identity, and paperwork, we can enroll you in school, and get financial aid to help take care of you. If you want we can apply to get you citizenship, and if you want to stay with us then you can for as long as you would like."

Vee's eyes got noticeably wet. "Thank you," she said quietly.

"Now, I hate to ask this, but... Can you change into something a little less... Eye-catching? At least will we get inside."

Vee tried to shift back into Luz's form. Tried being the operative word, as her ears with still basilisk ears and gold irised eyes, as well as pale splotches on her face. "Um, this is as good as I can get. I need magic to change and I haven't fed in months."

"It's good enough for now," Mom confirmed. "We'll figure something else out later."

Then she stood up and turned to Luz.

"Now we can talk."

"I'm sorry," Luz started a dam of feelings that had been bottled up inside for weeks suddenly breaking. Nerves about telling her mother where she'd really been combined with new feelings about how ungrateful a daughter she'd been and how much she could have hurt her Mom. "I ran away. I just... I couldn't do it! I couldn't go to someplace that would try to make me into someone I wasn't!"

"Mija, I told you, I looked into it, it wasn't one of those places."

'I know, but..." Luz started hyperventilating.

"To be fair," Masha interrupted, "it took me about a week to be sure that it wasn't a really well-hidden troubled youth camp. And the logo on the pamphlet of the kid being shoved in a box did not help, you can't exactly blame someone for being scared."

"See, she gets it," Luz said, trying to play off her extreme reaction as a joke.

"They," Masha corrected.

"Huh?"

"I'm nonbinary," Masha explained.

"Oof. Sorry," Luz apologized.

"It's fine," Masha replied, "I still present pretty feminine so it's an easy mistake to make. I'm thinking of getting my nails done in Enby pride colors to make it more obvious."

"So humans have special words for that kind of thing, too?" Luz heard Amity mutter to herself.

Luz's Mom sighed. "Mija, I'm sorry I drove you away. Things will—"

"It wasn't you!" Luz interrupted, panicking. "It was never you. You're the reason I came back." Tears were starting to stream down Luz's face at this point. "It's just... It's everything else! For as long as I can remember, people have picked on me for being me. You remember the snake-skin incident in pre-school, right? Don't think I didn't hear what the other adults were saying. As I got older it kept getting worse and worse—I can't help but look for exit routes whenever I find human. I try to make friends and I keep screwing up, no one understands me... You know, with that book report... I was trying to prove that you wouldn't have to worry about me. That I could... But I got carried away and didn't think things through and just caused more trouble."

"Mija..."

"But... The Demon realm is different," Luz continued almost hysterically. "I have friends there! I got enrolled at a magic school, I'm getting consistently good grades for the first time I can remember, I... I wanted to stay. Every part of me wanted to stay, I'm not... I relate to the people there. I feel like I belong there... But I couldn't just leave you behind either so..."

"Mija!" Luz's Mom shouted. "I'm not mad. Please calm down. We can talk about this later... How did you get home? Can you go back, if you wanted to?"

"Yeah, there's a portal," Luz explained as a bit of the weight was pulled from her shoulders. "I could just come and go whenever I wanted... If you'll let me?"

"I'd need to meet your friends first," her Mom said, "and probably your teachers as this 'magic school' but... You handled this whole situation with Vee with a lot of maturity and wisdom. And part of the idea of sending you away was to help you make friends, so... If you got what you needed, then... Why don't you start by introducing your friend here to me," she finished with a gesture toward Amity.

"Right," Luz said while trying to forcibly compose herself. How did she go about this? She'd had a plan for how to come out to her Mom, it involved a slide show. Not just an impromptu introduction to her girlfriend in the woods after a very emotionally trying series of conversations... "This is um," she said as she stepped back and took Amity's hand. "She's my... ugh, um..."

"¿Señora Noceda?" Amity began. "Mi nombre es Amity. Soy la novia de Luz. Ella es mi batata. Ella me da coraje. Sé que no hemos estado juntos por mucho tiempo, pero... La amo."

Luz looked wide-eyed at her awesome girlfriend. "You speak Spanish?" She did. It was far from perfect, but...

"Just a couple of words and phrases," Amity said with a sheepish grin. "There were some textbooks and a translating dictionary in that pile of human books Eda sold to the Library, when I recognized your language I started trying to learn. I wanted to surprise you, but then I figured... This is as good a time as any. How'd I do?"

Luz was prepared to answer but was cut off by her mother pulling both Luz and Amity into a tight hug. "Tell me everything."