The light of abyss (The owl house x Marvel)

Later that night, after King was tucked into bed, Raine fell asleep on the couch, and Eda wandered off upstairs after her fifth apple blood, Luz and Amity, who had stayed over citing a need for GF cuddles to recover from her stressful week, snuck out and flew to the Conformatorium.

Luz shifted to her symbiote form on the way, while Amity had changed into some borrowed clothes that had a hood she could use to disguise herself.

"Okay, the first time I broke in here most of the prisoners were in cells at the top of the tower," Luz explained, "so we'll start from there and work our way down."

"Got it," Amity replied. Luz could feel she was a little nervous.

"Yeah, we've got this," Luz said to reassure her. Then the two flew in through the top window, the same one Luz climbed through on her first day in the demon realm. Landing, the two banished their staves and... "Well, that was lucky."

The sight that greeted them was Warden Warth standing before a cell with three witches in it. He seemed to have been in the process of taunting them when Luz and Amity came in and he turned to face them.

And got one good look at Luz.

"Ah, Titan take me,"

"That can be arranged," Luz quipped. "But if you'd rather do this the easy way, we're here to liberate the rebels captured this afternoon so if you could just... Go."

"You know I can't just—"

"I know about the basilisks," Luz added. "In fact, I should probably be beating you up on their behalf right now considering how they were treated but I'm kinda in a hurry." She emphasized the statement by clenching her fist and making her cloak billow without wind.

Warden Wrath proceeded to summon a scroll-like device and speak into it: "This is Warden Wrath, all Conformatorium Guards take a fifteen-minute break effective immediately." He then turned around and started trudging down the stairs while mumbling about how he was going to get fired at this rate.

"That was easy," Luz mused before moving to the cell. Standing in front of the cell Luz could recognize one of the witches inside as Katya.

"Hey," Luz greeted. "don't worry, we're gonna get you out of here. Your leader's safe and..." Luz then noticed that the lever on this cell was up. "This cell isn't locked." She then demonstrated by placing a finger under one of the bars and then gently flicking it up. She'd never get used to how strong she was in symbiote mode.

Cell open, the BATTS stepped out. The short one with the roden ears looked at Luz suspiciously before Katya noticed and spoke up, "It's alright, Amber. She's a friend. She's Eda's apprentice."

"Oh, okay," the... Luz couldn't tell if she was smaller or just younger, replied. That meant that the last one had to be Derwin.

"Do you know if there are any other prisoners?" Amity asked.

"There shouldn't be any," Katya said. "They've really cut back on the arbitrary arrests ever since the riot and we've saved almost every captured wild witch in Bonesborrogh in the last week."

"Okay, do you guys have palismen?" Luz asked.

In response, Katya summoned a staff with a stag beetle figure on top but the other two remained empty-handed.

Luz called back Stringbean. "Okay," she said, "we've got three staves for five people so who wants to ride with who?"

Derwin ended up riding with Katya while Amber rode with Luz as they flew back out the window they came in through.

"Okay, Raine's at the Owl House so we'll take you there but um... Raine and Eda sort of told us to let them handle busting you out so um... Act cool," Luz said.

"Wait, why did they—"

The question was cut off by the three staves being grabbed out of the air tendrils of dark purple slime, riders and all.

As they hit the ground in the woods not far from the Confomrtorium and were released, Luz checked to make sure Stirngbean was okay. She was fine, looking around everyone was fine, but...

"Well this just got a lot more complicated," came an elegant and... Somewhat campy voice.

Amity looked away from the dark-skinned witch who had spoken and made an effort to pull her hood down past her face but was interrupted.

"Don't bother, Blight," the witch said, "I recognize your palisman."

Amity then stood and shifted into her cool and cute slime form. "I guess that means the Titan Bone is a bust," she quipped.

"Now see here—" Luz did not let the witch, now identified as Darius, finish as she instead leaped at him and swung her fist at him as it shifted into a blade not unlike Jean-Luc's. Darius ducked it by transforming into an abomination and flattening himself against the ground before slithering away. "Okay, that was uncalled for."

"No, it wasn't," Luz replied as she flipped back and landed on all fours. In addition to weaponization abilities, she'd also become as flexible and agile as Jean-Luc... However she did not have the equilibrium to do any of the wall or ceiling crawling that it did, so her Spider-Man impressions were rather limited at the moment.

As she retreated, Amity charged, Two abomination-witches wrestling in a way that took full advantage of their fluidity of form for a moment before Darius countered Amity's spiked fist with a sword materialized from his mass, forcing her to retreat.

When Amity was clear Luz called Stringbean to her hand while she split her cloak into tentacles which she set to stretch out and place plant glyphs around Darius which activated and generated a mass of vines that stretched out and wrapped around Darius.

He escaped, slashing through them with his blade but they bought Luz enough time to draw a spell circle with her staff, channeling her power and Stringbean's into a gout of white-hot flames that Darius went wide-eyed as he summoned a giant abomination to eat the blast.

"Alright, seriously, you need to—" Darius was cut off by tufts of grass on the ground undulating as the soil they were embedded in rose up and became dirt abominations, just like the ones Jerbo invented. From the corner of her eye, Luz saw Amity, having shifted back to human form directing them as spell circles traced her hands. "You have been mixing magic!"

"I kind of had to," Amity declared as the dirt abominations moved to engage Darius. "I can't beat you with just abomination magic. I think we've proven that conclusively. If nothing else, you're more experienced than I am." Darius was forced to parry blows from the half-a-dozen dirt abominations. "You can turn any abomination I summoned against me with a blink... But you need abomination and plant magic to control these! Your coven sigil means you can't turn them against me."

"Well you're certainly a clever little brat," Darius began as he struggled against them, "but—"

"And then there's what happens when I add a third magic!" Amity proudly declared as the circles framing her hands grew a bit wider. "Abominations, puke!"

"Wait, what?" Darius asked as the dirt constructs he was surrounded by opened their mouths and projectile vomited a noxious smelling, green, sap-like substance all over him. Darius proceeded to make a wide variety of incoherent noises to express his disgust as the sap spread over his form and hardened into a tough, opaque shell fully encasing the abomination coven's head.

"...So did you not need our help?" came Katya's voice from behind them. Turning, Luz saw that the three BATTs had summoned their instruments. Amber looked to be just about to play something.

"Nah, we had it," Luz answered. "But we should probably get going. Now." She then walked over to where Amity was standing. She'd called Ghost to her hand and was now leaning on her staff. "You okay, Sweet Potato?"

"I just dueled one of the greatest experts of abomination magic in recent history for the second time today... Wait, what time is it? It's not after midnight is it? The point is, I'm exhausted. Spent. If that hadn't worked..."

"Well it did work, and you're amazing Hermosa."

"Thanks, Batata," Amity said with a big smile. "I'm getting a lot of mileage out of my potions theory class."

"It is," came an androgynous voice from off to the side. Turning again, Luz and Amity saw Raine Whispers standing at the edge of the clearing. "After midnight."

And Eda was standing next to them, and she was mad. "What in the Titan's name are you two doing out here!?"

"Um... Jailbreak," Luz said as an explanation. "Kind of turned into a duel. Wait, is it still a duel when it's two-on-one? Anyway, we rescued the BATTS."

"We told you to let us handle it," Eda reminded them.

"Yeah, but... This is my third jailbreak and Warden Wrath is afraid of me, I figured I could just handle it easy, but then... Why was he even here?" It hadn't occurred to Luz to ask during the duel. "Also why are you here... And sober. You were five apple bloods in when..." Eda was still mad. Eda was still mad and now Luz felt really, really bad.

"I faked it," Eda replied. "I was drinking the mild stuff so that Raine and I could plan a jailbreak once we were sure you two were down for the night. Now, that... Grr, ugh... Luz, do you... Understand just how much danger you're in just being here on the Isles?"

"...Not that much?" Luz replied.

"Comparitively none," Amity added. "It's insane how much danger there is in the human realm. Even with the Emperor taking an interest in her with his lies about the Titan she's safer here than she is back there."

"Plenty," Eda asked. "You are in plenty of danger because the Bonehead-in-charge took an interest because you helped me escape his clutches. Because you gave him a bloody nose that day and I can't keep you safe if you just go running off into... I told you so you wouldn't go and..."

"What Eda is trying to say," Raine helpfully interrupted. "Is that jailbreaks and rebellions aren't your responsibility? They're ours. Dealing with Belos and his corrupt system is something that we, full-grown witches, should be doing so that withlings like the two of you can inherit a better world. At your age, your only concerns should be um... We're passed Grom season, right?"

"Yeah, Amity was queen," Luz replied. "It's when we got together. But if I can help, then I should help, right?"

"I get that that's how you feel, Luz," Eda added and... she was more sad than mad now. "But... I know you just want to help, and that most of your adventures here are just.. That. Fun adventures. Or else something that just sort of happens around you, but... This kind of thing is different. If I tell you to stay out of it, that means stay out of it. This is... Give me your phone."

Luz didn't like Eda's tone when she made that demand. "...Why?"

"Because I barely know how to parent, " Eda said. "Stuff like love and affection and nurturing come surprisingly easy, but... I have no idea how to... I'm going to call your mother, and I am going to ask her what sort of punishment she'd give out for this kind of thing."

"Uh, no," Luz said as panic started to build up in her. "She, she doesn't need to know about this. I... Totally learned my lesson, I'll never do this again." Luz's Mom had been very understanding but if Eda said things the way she'd said them just now then, "if she... She might change her mind about letting me stay here when the portal's fixed if you... I promise I'll be good."

Eda seemed to see the fear in Luz's eyes. "Fine. Promise me that if I tell you to let me handle it again that you won't stick your nose in and I won't tell Cam. But if I get even a hint that you did something like this again without a damned good reason..."

"I promise," Luz said a little too quickly. "No more jailbreaks, no more... I'm sorry."

Eda started taking a few deep breaths and... pulled an Elixir from her hair before downing the whole bottle in one gulp. Had, had Luz really stressed her out that much?

Luz was interrupted from those thoughts by the sound of cracking. The resin imprisoning Darius was starting to give, and a moment later it shattered entirely.

Darius quickly returned to his flesh and blood form, breathing heavily, then froze when various instruments and palismen were immediately pointed at him. "Oh, Titan take me."

"That can be arranged," Raine declared with dead seriousness. "How does it feel to have been beaten by two school girls, Darius?"

"Why are you even here?" Amity asked.

"I was trying to thread a needle," Darius declared petulantly. "It's so very hard to rescue rebels who were on the Emperor's radar without getting caught yourself."

"...Okay, now I'm confused," Katya said.

"Eberwolf and I have been plotting to take down Belos and dismantle his empire ever since he killed Hunter."

"What happened to Hunter!?" Luz demanded.

"Not the Little Prince, human," Darius dismissed. "The previous Golden Guard. My friend and mentor. I'm not sure what's going on but not long after my mentor's cold-blooded murder a toddler starts living in the palace under the Emperor's care, with the same name as a man who I watched succumb to his injuries. They're clearly related, they both call the Emperor their uncle, and the new one gets groomed to take my mentor's position... I don't know what kind of sick game Belos is playing, but..."

"If you're a rebel too," Raine asked, "then why set a trap? Why not just warn us?"

"Well for one it's not like I knew you were in charge of this little... I was going to say band but that's a little on the nose. Trust me, it would have made things much easier if I did. Our plan was to capture the rebels, let them be in custody just long enough to be registered as such, then bribe Warden Wrath to let us 'handle things personally' and then take them away to join our rebellion. Then I would have let them contact you so you could be properly looped in."

"...He's telling the truth," Amity said. "At least as far as I can tell."

"This an uh," Eda pointed at her head, "type thing?"

"Yeah," Amity confirmed.

"Okay, you've explained why you're against the Emperor," Raine observed, "but what's Eberwolf getting out of this?"

"Is outrage that the Emperor would murder a loyal soldier in cold blood not enough?" Darius replied. "Eber values loyalty, proof that the Emperor doesn't was all he needed."

"...Eda, he's outnumbered and exhausted," Raine declared. "I think my students and I can handle him if this is a trick. I'll call you in the morning, you can take the girls home."

"Gotcha, Rainestorm," Eda replied. "Boots, you okay to fly?"

"Yeah," Amity confirmed. Then she looked back at Darius. "I still want the Titan Bone."

"Alright, fine, whatever," Darius said dismissively, and then... Eda leads Luz and Amity back to the Owl House.

"Boots, you go on up," Eda said once they were inside, "I need to talk with Luz for a little bit."

Amity froze until Luz said, "Go on, it's okay." Then she reluctantly went up the stairs.

"Okay, Luz... I am very upset with you," Eda began.

"I know, I'm sorry," Luz replied. "I... I just..."

"Luz, I get it. You wanted to help and you got an idea in your head and just acted on it, I'm the same way, but... That doesn't make it any less frustrating when you go and rush into danger after I tell you not to," Eda said.

"I'm sorry, I'll try to be better," was all Luz could say. She was wracking her brain to try and figure out how to make it up to her mentor when Eda pulled her into a hug.

"But just because I'm mad at you," Eda said, "that doesn't mean I don't still love you. I want to make sure you know that."

"Eda, I... I'm sorry," Luz said again. At this rate, she was going to start crying, "I..."

"Hey, calm down," Eda said. "As long as you keep your promise, we can just end it here. No punishment, no more hard feelings. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Good. Now get up to bed."