Summary: We're going deep into your, miiiiind! Your psyce will unwiiiiind!
Willow looked at the latest memory she just pulled out. "Aww, you look so adorable here." Willow showed off a baby Luz hanging out with an adult man. "I didn't know you could have so many pigtails on your head."
"What can I say, I'm all about breaking the limit." She laughed. They were going over memory magic today, so they got to use tweezers to pull photos out of each other's heads. Magic could accomplish such amazing things.
"Now remember class, you must be very careful." The teacher explained. "These photos, until developed, are a direct link to one's memories. What happens to them, happens to the vision we have within our heads." A fair problem for perfect clarity on any event they thought of. "Agustus, have you and Lucifer finally made progress?"
"Yes mam." The boy responded, tugging on a rope attached to the magical tweezers. "Lucci's body heals fast, and he's durable, so the photos are just … really … stuck in there." The boy huffed as he tried his best to pull against Lucci.
"Hold on, let me give you a push." Lucci placed a hand on Gus's shoulder and nudged the kid…a nudge coming from a kid that could rip an entire tree out of the ground, so Gus was sent down into the floor hard as a flurry of pictures came following along.
"I've heard of being hard headed, but that's just ridiculous." Luz snorted, getting a light laugh out of Willow as they began picking them off.
"I actually have a picture where we used him as a battering ram." Willow showed off the picture.
"And as you do that, I'll show her the time you wanted us to plant you into the ground like a tree and bury you neck deep." Lucci showed off one of his own.
"Aww, adorable baby witches." Luz cooed as she gazed at them. "Huh, didn't know Amity dyed her hair." Oh right, her childhood memories included a lot of Amity memories too.
"The brown spots didn't give it away?" Lucci asked.
"Ed and Em have natural green hair, I just thought it was apart of it." Luz shrugged, looking over more of their pictures. "A lot of yours and Willow's have the same moments…but they each look a little different." She pointed to an example of them in a room full of cake batter and abomination goo, Willow's looking a darker shade of light than Lucci's
"Different people can remember the same moment differently, it's all about perspective." Gus picked up a picture. "What's with this ball pit?"
"Ball pit?" Lucci looked over curiously. "Oh no, those are eggs."
"What were you doing in the middle of a bunch of eggs?" Luz asked.
"You don't want to know….so many angry griffons that day." Willow shuddered.
Lucci looked through the pictures. "Aww, my first arson." He said proudly.
Willow looked at his shoulder. "And my first strangling." She remembered fondly.
"Oh look, there's the first thing we stole together." Lucci pointed to another shared memory. "We buried so many guards just for that one plant."
"It was a talking plant that rapped, that was too ridiculous to not try and steal." Too bad it also tried to eat them, so she had to mulch it in the end.
"And you're trying to encourage this?" Gus asked incredulously.
"You guys were such good friends, what happened?" Luz asked as she looked through pictures. "Vegetable wars, animal attacks, Coven fights …" She paused. "Birthday party?"
Lucci snatched that picture away before Luz could get a closer look at it. "We should let these develop."
"Ooh, that's an important memory for you both, isn't it?" Curse that lovable human curiosity and intuition. "The three of you looked soo cheerful in this one."
"Hey Luz, look at this picture." Willow gestured to one of Luz's, showing her bleeding out on the stage. "I thought you said earth has no magic."
"Oooh no, that's just a little skit I pulled when I was auditioning for a school play. I really went all out for the death scene." Luz chuckled. "I got the idea from a little something my dad told me once."
"Your dad?" Lucci's eyebrow was raised. "You always talk about your mom, but this is the first time you've ever talked about your dad."
"Aaaaaaaaaghh." The school bell screamed.
"What do you know, it's lunch time, we should go now and completely drop learning about backstories for today!" Luz leapt out of the room and fled into the hallways.
"Not so pleasant when the shoe's on the other foot, is it!?" Lucci pointed out the small bit of hypocrisy. "Maybe she'll finally drop the subject and just let things be."
"We both know that's probably not going to happen." Willow sighed, having already gotten used to the Luz pattern by this point. "Just as long as we both agree to keep the past buried and unopened, we'll all be happy."
"Yeah yeah, out of sight, out of mind, I know the drill by now." Lucci grumbled as he rolled his eyes. "Forget about the past and never bring it up."
"Exactly!" She gave a light pat on his back. "Glad we can be on the same page! I know how rare that is for us."
"Once more, I continue to be traumatized by all my friends." Gus muttered. "At least I don't have any memories I wanna keep buried."
"You mean this one of you crying in the hallways while the shadows laugh over you is something you want people to know about?" Lucci pointed to Gus's.
"Yeah, it's how I met Willow." Awww. "Even bad memories can lead to something good if you put the right perspective on them."
"If only." Lucci groaned. "You guys go ahead to lunch. I'm going to get my thoughts in order..literally." The Clawthorne began putting his own pictures on display.
"Alright, see you then." Willow waved as she and Gus walked out of the room. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think we're finally getting along again."
"You call that getting along?" Gus asked.
"Yeah, just like the old days." Where they laughed constantly, now they did that while trying to strangle each other. "We can have fun again without any Blight's getting in the way."
"What about Luz getting curious?"
"She's always curious about everything. Just have to constantly draw her attention away, like a mouse tied to a string leading away a snorse." Seriously, her attention span was shot.
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Amity messed with her scroll as Boscha droned on. "Multi tracking is crazy." The girl said as they moved on. "If we're gonna be locked into covens anyway, why bother trying to play with multiple types of magic?"
"Maybe they'll create their own smaller coven that uses those mixed Magic's specifically?" Skara suggested. "Seriously, there's like a hundred or so sub-divisions, mixed magic ones don't seem that out of the question."
"I couldn't imagine mixing magic myself." Cat responded. "I already get icky when I have to hit someone … physically that is, not socially or mentally."
"You could always try illusions." Amelia suggested.
"Nah, what's the point of flashy light shows?" That was a fair point. Illusions literally had no physical capability whatsoever. It slightly baffled Amity that illusion magic was one of the main nine.
"Hey, it helps when you want to put a little more dazzle in a performance." Skara shrugged. "The visuals capture the eyes of the audience, and my music captivates their ears, so they have no choice but to sit their buts down and listen."
"Didn't you blow up the stage last week?" Amity asked.
"Nah, that was just Lucci trying to master a fast tempo. Apparently he played 'too fast' for the string and set his viola on fire." The girl explained with a cheerful smile.
"Of course, leave it to the criminal in training to mess up playing with strings." Boscha rolled her eyes. "If Lucci really wanted to do something with his life, he'd play Grudgby or something with all that freakish strength." Wait, did she just use Lucci's first name?
"What the fuck?" Amelia asked with mild horror. "Boscha acknowledged a low class by name?" A mild exaggeration, but not unwarranted.
"She's been doing that ever since my buddy was her knight in sparkly robes." Skara chuckled. "And took on a greater basilisk to protect us both."
"That's it, stabbing you." Boscha grabbed Skara by the ears, dragging her away.
"Come on, don't go too hard on the girl." Cat tried to plead. "I'm still recovering from the last time, and the blood was brutal to get off my uniform."
Amity would have responded, but saw something terrifying out of the corner of her eye. "You guys … go on ahead, I'll catch up."
"Why? Is there something in the photo room?" Boscha asked. "Is it haunted by ghosts? Are there cute ghosts in there?" Tone down the thirst girl.
"No, just cleaning up a mess." It was a good excuse as the school's prized student.
"Ugh, uppity types." Boscha continued to move. "But if you see any ghosts, point them my way!" Seriously? Amity didn't take Boscha to be aroused by the undead.
Amity shook off the slightly disturbing ideas from her head as she entered the room. She heard memory class was today, but she didn't expect something so revealing, and something so shameful to be displayed for the whole school to see.
A photo … one depicting a very familiar sight. One that haunted her to this day, and would forever weigh on her. The birthday party … where everything went wrong … Amity shook her head.
Okay, okay, solutions … of course! "Just … cut myself out." She pulled out some scissors. "Just me …" It would probably make things better too. If they forgot what she did back then … maybe they'd be better people now. Just a single snip and-
"You know, Luz has this…funny thing about her that makes you want to believe her even when you know it's a bad idea." She found herself freezing, not needing to turn around to know who was right behind her.
"Lucci.."
"And the thing is, she's so insistent, so determined, and so genuine in wanting to make those ideas happen…you just can't help but actually want them to be true. You think to yourself, 'I really, really hope she's right about this'.
"If you just let me explain-!" She turned around to face the music.
"So imagine just how much it hurts, how much it really, REALLY kills me on the inside when for a moment I believe her optimism, I believe her when she says it's possible for us to be friends again….and I see YOU doing something as backhanded like this!" Lucci yelled, taking a single step that cracked the floor. "You hate us so much you'd rather break our brains than acknowledge the past exists!? What the Titan is WRONG with you!?"
"Lucci, it's not that simple!" She readied her abomination.
"It's never that simple is it!?" He shouted. "It's not that simple to admit you hate us and never wanted anything to do with us." He accused. "It's not that simple to just acknowledge we were your friends once and that you could be a better person!"
"Lucci please, it's-"
"I should've known, I should've freaking known this was going to happen!" Lucci yelled as she swore his eyes were beginning to glow pink. "Why did I let myself fall for the friendship con again!?"
"If you'd just let me-"
"NO MORE EXCUSES!" The boy rushed forward, blowing through her abomination and grabbing her arm tightly.
"I'm sorry, alright!?" She screamed the words she's held back for so long. "Is that what you want to hear?! I'm sorry!"
That only seemed to get him more mad. "Sorry? Sorry!? Yeah, that came ten years too late!" Amity knew that already…she's always known that. "You wanna play by the rules and be a petty jerk? Fine, I'll just drag you to principal Bump and tell him you planned on screwing up Willow's brain." The boy began dragging her to the door.
"Fine! I'm a jerk! I'm a bully! And I rather burn the past than own up to it!" She began making her spell circle for fire. "So you want to drag me to Bump, fine, but not before I do what I need to do!"
"Don't you dare!" The boy shouted, yanking on her arm, and throwing off her aim.
Fwosh
And set another set of pictures on fire. "No …" Lucci stared in horror. "Those are … are …" He paused. "What are those again?"
"Who's did I.." She got a sinking feeling as she took a closer look at the burning photos…photos of a younger Willow, Lucci, and Amity going up into ash. "No, no, no!"
"Who's did what?" The boy asked, a strange pink flicker dancing around his body as he seemed to get smaller. "Who're you?"
"No, Lucci! I didn't mean..it was just supposed to be the one! I didn't mean to.." She found herself getting lost in her indecipherable mumble of a botched apology.
"Lucccciii, who'sss that? That's a funny name." The boy laughed as he got smaller and smaller. "Lucci, Luuuulu, Cicci." Well … that couldn't be good in the slightest. Oh Amity was dead.
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Gus banged his head on the table. "My report is gonna bomb." He muttered in failure. His need for perfectionism had doomed him, as he couldn't find anybody that was interesting, famous, and notable for the perfect interview. How his dad did this for a living was well beyond him.
"Aww cheer up buddy. Life may give you hardships here and now, but that just means you'll be rewarded later on."
He looked up to the body cast Skara was wearing. "What's the reward for that?"
"Oh this, pfft, it's just a little scratch here and there. Boscha can get so sensitive with her feelings every now and again." The girl waved off with a wince.
"Again, I wonder why someone like you is friends with Boscha at all." Willow muttered as she bit into her lunch. "It's somehow more baffling than Lucci's crush."
"What can I say? I just like finding the connections and resonating with the harmonies that connect us all as people." She answered. "So Luz, how do you like multitracking? Everyone's got mixed opinions on it so far."
"Awesome. Check this out." The girl grinned, pulling out one of her glyphs and tapping it … as a flower popped up. "Bam, third glyph."
"So far this is my favorite one." Willow smiled as she gently poked the flower. "We are so going to explore this in the next plant class. I'm not going to rest until your able to grow an entire jungle. It'll compensate for all the forest fires we cause."
"Size is easy, I just need a really big circle. Variety is where I'm finding the issue." Luz admitted. "If I draw the lines just a tad off or diagonally I get an entirely different plant than what I want."
"So weird. Usually it takes mental concentration and focus for the rest of us to cast different spells." Gus noted as he observed the strange magic. "I used to get the worst splitting headaches trying to keep up my illusions, but now making them is almost like breathing." If only using any other kind of magic came easily.
"I guess because it's not me using the magic, just the paper." Luz thought aloud. "I think my most potent achievement is making the light glyph activate a strobe setting." She placed another glyph that light brightly on and off multiple times. "Great for parties."
Gus pondered. "Is Glyph Magic the way to go for this report …" He questioned aloud.
"I said you should've just gone with your dad, but no, he wasn't interesting enough." Willow rolled her eyes.
"That's the average choice anybody else would've made! If I'm going to do a report, I need it to be the report to end all reports!" Gus thought he made that specifically clear.
"You could try Lucci." Luz said as she slid the glyphs off. "If you manage to break through his backstory, it would be legends praising your name."
"I'd definitely find it interesting, ow." Skara coughed. "Speaking of, where is he? I could use a little of that special healing spit. My arm's itchy and I can't reach it."
"Isn't one of your buds a healing track student?" Willow asked.
"She wanted to save her energy until practice, that's when Boscha gets brutal." Skara chuckled.
"So many concerns." Gus muttered. "But yeah, he is taking a while …" He looked to the direction of the cafeteria entrance, seeing Amity walk to them. That was pretty rare.
"Luz!" She whispered with a shout. "I need you to come with me, now!"
"Amity demanding for help, this can only mean something Good." Willow sarcastically droned. "What's happening? You got an a- on a test or another veggie incident?"
"This is no time for jokes, come on before it's too late." She demanded as she grabbed Luz's arm, dragging her away.
With nothing better to do, and mild worry for her safety, the rest of them followed as they moved through the hall, making it into the photo room and finding a small child resting on the ground. "Am Am!" He shouted with joyous laughter.
"Is that-Amity you-?!" Willow's face quickly kept shifting between confused and rageful. "Lucci, is…is that you?"
"Lu..Lu...ci…silly name." The tiny boy repeated back with a silly grin.
"Weird." Luz muttered with confusion. "He looks just like he did in his …" She stared off, gazing at a pile of ash. "Pictures … YOU BURNED LU-"
Amity ran up, placing a hand on the girl's mouth. "Could you keep it down?"
"Of all the time to keep up the miss perfect student act , you burned Lucci's memories!" Willow grabbed the Blight and began thrashing her back and forth. "You misserable piece of shi-"
"Guys, all this yelling's not making the little guy feel better." Skara pointed to the now pouting little Lucci."
"Don't be a meanie! Am Am super nice." The boy argued as he shrunk down even more, his clothes sagging beyond belief.
"This is adorable and horrifying … just like the melon dog." Luz nodded, picking up the little sag of clothes that now contained an even tinier Lucci. "Aw, who's an adorable little emo boy? That's you, that's you little Lucci." She poked his nose.
"Awwawah." The tiny tyke responded by playfully slapping the girl's face.
"If he's just losing memories, why is he turning into a baby?" Gus asked with bafflement.
"I don't know. He just started forgetting more and more about his life and starting getting younger." Amity explained, looking stressed out and guilty looking. "This wasn't supposed to happen, I didn't want to burn all his memories-"
"So you were trying to burn them." Willow caught on to how Amity worded that, pointing accusedly. "That's why you were here, because screw his health and safety , I have a perfect reputation to maintain."
"It's not my fault he got in the way, I was trying to snip one of yours-!" Amity slapped her hands on her mouth. "I mean-!"
"Oh your dead now, Blight!" Willow charged at the girl and tackled Amity into the ground. "I am going to do what I should have done ages ago!" Vines began to pin the girl into the ground as Willow began squeezing on the girl's neck.
"Willow, calm down!" Gus tried to pull her off.
"Calm!? I've been calm for the last ten years, taking this sorry excuse for a witch's abuse without doing so much as raising a finger, I'm done being calm!"
Lucci began tearing up. "Waahhh … WAAAHHH!!" His scream had enough power to shake apart the room, cacks growing in the ground as Luz was sent into a wall.
"So he was super … even as a baby …" The human winced.
"Willow…if we…want to..fix this…you gotta..let me go…" Amity pleaded, trying to get the vines off her neck. "I'm the only..one that keeps him calm…like this."
Willow glared even harder, looking like she was tightening the grip, before she let go. "Fine, but after this is over, I'm tuning you to mulch."
"Perfectly…reasonable.." Amity's face was just as purple as her abominations as she slowly made her way to the bawling baby. "It's okay, little Lucci. I'm fine, see?"
The infant looked up at her, giggling. "Aww …" Skara cooed. "He's so innocent … so, how are we fixing this?"
Gus raised an eyebrow. "I thought you of all people would be the one to keep him innocent."
"First off, just got him to call me a buddy, not losing that." Amity winced at that. "And second, I am not changing his diaper."
"The answer's obvious right?" Gus brought up. "We just tell a teacher."
"No, no, no, no!" Amity waved her hands, doing her best to keep Lucci calm. "If the staff find out about this, I'm dead, I'd be one hundred percent dead in the ground."
"And that's a bad thing for us because?" Willow answered, crossing her arms.
"Don't worry Amity, I have a plan." Luz got out of the wall as she dusted off the rubble. "We get the most famous outlaw in the Boiling Isles to help."
"... You know, maybe the staff finding out and me getting expelled isn't the worst situation." Amity muttered to herself.
"It's either Eda rips you apart or I do." Willow pointed out. "And I've been wanting to figure out if I can grow a whole tree inside someone's stomach."
Amity thought about it for a second and gently handed the child over to Skara. "Just make it quick Willow, that's all I ask."
"Willow, we're not murdering anyone today, or I tell your dads." Gus warned.
"Gus is right, we're not going to kill anybody…probably." Luz announced. "You're all over reacting anyway. Eda can handle this like any rational adult can."
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"I AM NOT AFRAID TO MUTILATE CHILDREN! YOU'RE GONNA WISH YOU NEVER TOUCHED MY BABY BOY!" Eda was trying her best to set the brat on fire, only to be stopped by the other children. "LET ME AT HER! LET ME TEAR HER TO SHREDS!" Regressing her son, she knew Blights were nothing but trouble.
"Awaaaaaaaahhhh!" Her baby cried from all the commotion as he was held in the little bitch's hands.
"Eda, I normally love it when you go mama bird on us, but right now you really need to keep calm and keep it down!" Luz announced as she pulled so hard Eda's hand came off.
"WHEN MY BABY IS IN MY ARMS AND HER SKULL IS IN MY BOOTS, THEN I WILL CALM!" She shouted, trying to use her stump as a bludgeoning tool.
"As much as I agree with your rage, miss Eda, we can't kill Amity yet!" The park girl announced. "His impressionable baby brain imprinted on her. If she dies, he won't calm down!"
Her baby imprinted on another woman. Her desire to strangle another sapient being has never been so high in her life … well, other than Cuttie and Bismuth. "As soon as I fix my child, you are going into the ground, am I understood?"
"Believe me, I won't fight you on this, I just want to fix it." The little bitch sighed as she put Lucci up to eye level. "Okay little guy. You need to head back to you mama now. Stay good for me."
The child stared in confusion, reaching their hand out to the bitch. "Mama." They stated, the hand stretching out of the arm and holding onto the girl.
"I know this is all but signing Amity's obituary, but that's just so freaking cute." The bard girl Lucci hung around with cooed.
"You know, I almost forgot Lucci could stretch." King muttered as the baby giggled. "Why did he ever stop doing that?"
"It's too straining on his body and stresses him out, that's why he only ever lengthens his arms and legs a few inches." Not to mention the ears he constantly kept pointy. "If I had to half hazard a guess, he's shifting his body around to compensate for what he's going through mentally. And with his memories turned to ash.."
"He's now mentally and physically a baby …" Luz finished. "But you can fix it right?"
"Yes, but the technique is both super dangerous and highly illegal." Eda responded.
"And that's stopped you before?" King questioned.
"No, but I am going to do this solo." She answered. "I'll go inside his head, work through fixing his memories since I know him best, then have Luz get me out."
"Ah Eda..I can't do that." Luz answered. "Glyph magic, remember?"
"Riiight." She nodded. "Alright, Gooops, you're up."
"Illusion kid, can't do anything else but illusions."
"We'll you're gonna have to try, the only options are getting me out once i'm in are you, Park, and Bardie. And the last one is injured all over."
"Ah, quick thought, why don't you send me in?" Luz raised her hand. "Lucci's been protecting me the whole time I've been on the Boiling Isles. Restoring his memories is the least I can do for him."
"Because you don't know everything about him. You only met him a little over a month ago." Eda muttered thoughtfully. "Hmm … I guess I can send King inside, though it's risky …"
"If we're talking about risk…then I can go in." The bitch raised her hand as her head was held down.
Eda stared at the girl, before cackling. "Hahaha, oh that's a good one. She thinks I'm letting her anywhere near my son's head after setting his memories ablaze."
"This isn't the time to be petty, Eda, and she raises a good point." Luz argued. "A lot of the memories that were burned were memories of their time as friends, that means she can be vital to restoring them."
"May I remind you, again, she's the one that set them on fire." She countered. "It's not just pettiness, I don't trust her holding my child right now as it is." Their hand was still twitching with intent to stab.
"Please, Eda, I know I've been nothing but terrible to him, and you have every right to hate me, but please, let me fix my mess!" The bitch cried. "My family's only good at causing pain, let me at least be the first to take it back."
Even with all the crying, Eda was still inclined to kick the little brat to the curb after setting her head ablaze. "I distrust Amity as far as I can throw her, and believe me, I can throw her pretty freaking far." The park girl spoke up. "But Luz also had a point…so send all three of us in. I can keep Blight in line."
"As the other girl who psychologically damaged my son's trust issues for years to come?" She asked skeptically. "I'd sooner send Bardie inside."
"Eda, please, we're running out of time!" Luz exclaimed. "Do you really want Lucci to lose those fourteen years you had?"
She hesitated, before groaning. "If they make this worse, I am putting you up there on the chopping block." The owl lady threatened.
"I promise you Eda, it's going to be nothing but hard work and business in there." Luz saluted. "Isn't that right, little guy?" She poked her finger at her baby boy.
The little guy blinked almost owlishly. "Coocoo?"
"If his brain wasn't on the line, I'd almost consider keeping him like this." She smiled. "Okay, let me just put him to bed and we can get this started."
"You sure you can do that?" Bardie asked. "Because he's been pretty active all afternoon."
"Hey, I didn't raise Lucci for the last fourteen years without knowing what calms him down." Eda rolled her eyes as she picked up the little guy.
"Gawah." They looked almost afraid.
"Hush now, hide, all you little ones." She gently rocked him. "Rush now, into the middle of nowhere." Eda tugged his shirt, ripping a hole for his stomach rock to get plenty of exposure to the room. "Singing and laughter will die."
"…That's supposed to calm him down?" Luz asked.
"Believe it or not, that is a very popular lullaby." Park answered.
"Dreamless sleep follows the Nowhere King." She continued rocking him back and forth as she made her way over to a jar. "When his kingdom comes, darkness is nigh." Eda reached inside, dipping her fingers in Lucci's favorite poison.
"Quiet, crawl through the in-between." The owl lady placed her finger inside of his mouth to suckle, just like old times. "Silent, secretive feeling." They gently moved to the couch, where she detached her finger and began to caress his ears. "Of fearsome hatred that reaches the skies."
"Are you sure that's sanitary?" The bitch questioned.
"I asked her the same thing." Hooty called out. "But she said it was cheap, and it worked on Lucci and King." She watched the little demon's eyes bulge out of his head in muted horror.
"You will bring joy to the Nowhere King.." Eda began wrapping up, watching as her precious little baby's eyes finally started to get heavier and restful. " When he sees the light leaving your eyes."
She smirked. "Mama's still got it." Eda then took at the three girls that were apparently her son's best hope. "Alright, I'm going to send you in there now, but be warned that the mind is a dangerous place to be. There's no telling what you'll see in there, especially after little miss prissy here turned it to mush."
"Understood." Park nodded.
"Oh, and keep a look out for the Inner Lucci. They're the gatekeeper of emotions and memories. He should help…if their not too angry and try to murder prissy pants on sight."
"I'll make sure he doesn't do anything." Luz smiled.
"I never said stop him, I just said don't get caught up in the murder spree." Eda clarified. "Feel free to use her as a living shield." She began using the spell.
"Ah, I suddenly don't think this is a great-" Too late bitch. She was going to pay, one way or another.
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Luz watched as the light faded, revealing … the Owl House. "Eda, I think you messed up the spell." She said. "Eda? Eda!?" The woman wasn't around.
"I think this is Lucci's mind." Amity said, looking at the walls. "Look at the walls, don't they look a little off?"
"Yeah…they look a little…crystally." Willow felt it up, as the walls shined a little, like a light hitting a gem.
"So the inside of a brain looks like someone's home?" Luz asked with a bit of disappointment. "I was expecting a wild array of chaos and mystery, like a forest, or nevada."
"It's more like this represents Lucci's mind rather than everyone's brain." Amity clarified. "Different people have different mindscapes…I guess this is where Lucci feels the most safe and secure if this is where he puts all his memories."
"It is a nice hideaway." They jumped, turning around to see Lucci, wearing a trenchcoat and having a grin that fit his namesake. "What can I do for you all?"
"Lucci, is that you?" Willow asked.
"Lucifer Clawthorne at your service mam." They gave a tipping hat gesture. "What can I do for ya fine ladies this eve'n." It looks like he really didn't remember Willow or Amity if he could be this gentlemanly with them.
"Well, we're from the real world, and we came to fix Lucci's brain before he loses his memories forever."
"Fixing the brain eh? You're just in luck, I have exactly what you need." He reached into his coat, pulling out a pen. "A special little tool I cooked up, that can trace over memories and bring them back as they were."
"Ooh, yeah, we totally use that!" She reached out for it. "This might be easier than I thought."
He pulled back. "Ah ah ah, I didn't just say I'd hand it out." The boy countered. "You expect me to trust someone that just waltzed into my brain?"
"I mean, sort of, it's your brain that's turning to mush dude." Luz spoke back.
"If it does it means I just get a reset at life, no skin off my back." Lucci shrugged. "The things you could do with this are so much more disastrous. Imagine if someone tried restoring a memory wrong and made him act like he shouldn't." The boy clicked his tongue.
"This isn't that time to be paranoid, Lucci, we're on a time limit!" Willow yelled.
"Well, I supposed I could trust you … if I had some collateral on hand." The boy relented.
"What?" Amity said, baffled. "Are you bribing us when we're trying to save your brain!?"
"No, a bribe means I pay you and you look the other way." He shrugged. "I'm offering an exchange of goods."
"Oh titan, of course Lucci's inner self is a con-man." Willow slapped her forehead exhaustedly. "That pen probably won't help us at all, will it?"
Lucci just looked at Willow with a blank expression, before snorting. "Tch, I suppose out of all the people I could never con, it'd be you, Park."
Luz looked in confusion. "You know who she is?" That was a bit surprising. He wasn't supposed to have any memories after all.
"Will will!" They turned as a child Lucci jumped onto the girl, laughing. "You're here! We can play!"
"What?" Amity looked baffled as the rest of them watched the smaller Lucci climb all over Willow. "There's more than one?"
"We have lots of fun in here." The child laughed. "Come on, let's play Will Will! Am Am!"
"What's going on here?" Luz turned back to the con man Lucci. "Why are there two of you and why do you both have your memories?"
"We're the core parts of Lucci's inner self, we know everything even when the memories get damaged." The con man shrugged. "Speaking of, how do you plan to financially compensate for the damages Blight? Insurance doesn't cover head damage."
"If you just bring us to the…ugh, talking to Lucci is pointless." Amity groaned.
"It all pointless in the end." They turned to a Lucci wearing a lot of black in the corner. "We'll still be lonely, restored or erased …" The Lucci looked at the ceiling. "Friendless we are, abandoned by all, drifting in the wind without a care in the world …"
"So we have the paranoid Con-man, the happy child, and the emo singer to sum up Lucci's personality." Luz observed, pointing to each one. "..Does anyone feel like those traits sort of..clash with each other?"
"Nah nah Lu Lu, we have lots of fun doing stuff." Child Lucci laughed. "Mr Connie cares a lot about Mama, so we hang out when we're with family."
"If yah can't trust family, who can yah trust?" Con man Lucci shrugged.
"And Mr Emo sings all the time about his feelings, and it's really nice to relax too."
"..Even the most positive part of me thinks I'm a lonely Emo loser." Lonely Lucci shirked into his corner. "Why did I bother coming here? No one wants me around."
"Somehow I don't think we're going to get much help from any of these Lucci's." Willow muttered as Child sat on top of her head. "Unless…hey, kid Lucci…you wouldn't happen to want to play a game of fix the memories with us?"
The child gasped so dramatically Luz could swear her heart was skipping a beat. "A new game? How do you play?"
"It's a…scavenger hunt sort of deal." Amity caught on and played along. "You take us to the memories that have been broken and point out what needs to be fixed. The more you point out, the more chances you have at winning."
"Ooohhh." The boy looked thoughtful. "We better hurry then. Mr Mad is already playing."
"Mister mad?" Luz asked. There was another person up here!?
Crash
They looked as a FOURTH Lucci came flying from a picture. "Stupid son of a …" They growled out. "Hey, I could really use the …" They trailed off, staring at the group. "BLIGHT!" They shouted, flames radiating from their body.
"Ahhh! Angry Lucci!" Amity shouted, using her abomination magic to swallow up the new Lucci and keep him in place. "Look, I know you hate me more than anything else right now…!"
"Why would I ever hate you, Am-Am?" Child asked. "We're best friends!"
"Hey kid, don't think about treating her nicely!" Angry shouted. "She's nothing but a stone cold horrible person that set our memories on fire!"
"Yeah …" Emo sighed. "We don't have friends … except Luz." Well she felt flattered.
"Look, we can all chat about how much we want to kill Amity later." Willow spoke up. "And believe me, if there's one thing me and Lucci agree on, it's dissing on Amity."
"Yeah…the only thing." Con man rolled his eyes. "A relationship as fragile as a wet paper towel."
"Okay, clearly you don't trust them." Luz said with a bit of exhaustion. "What about me?"
The four Lucci's looked at each other. "... I'd con you, but I wouldn't leave you high and dry." Con man shrugged.
"She's the only one that sticks around…even though I don't deserve it." Lonely spoke as he sunk even further into the shadows.
"Best sister!" Child jumped from Willow's head to her own.
Anger just looked at her blankly before scoffing from their prison. "Just follow me and I'll show you where you need to go. I'm the only useful person in this whole hobble to begin with."
"Hey, I'm useful!" Child shouted. "I can count to ten!"
"Yes, you're very helpful, and super positive." Luz patted the adorable cinnamon roll's face. "Okay anger management issues, lead the way."
========================================================================
Anger groaned as he took the group to the first picture. "This is how it's gonna work." He explained. "You go inside, fix what's broken, and move on to something else."
"Why is everything in a crystal wall here?" Luz asked. All four Lucci's silently raised their shirts, showing off their gems. "Right, keep forgetting that."
"Part of me wonders if I can chip it off and sell the shavings that I don't need for cash." Con man muttered.
"Really?" Anger questioned. "You're part of the self survival instinct and you want to damage the Diamond?"
"I thought it was a qwartz?" Child asked
"It doesn't matter in the end." Lonely said. "It's a rock that makes us freaks compared to everyone else. What a strange little child, a crystal in a shell, wandering the road with powers not of his own."
"Let's just get this over with, we've wasted enough time as it is." Willow grumbled as she stepped inside the memory, holding in an inner rage that Anger could immensely empathize with.
Heading inside, they all found themselves in a more wintery area, snow piling up on the ground. "Is this the Knee?" Luz asked.
Child began giggling. "Snowball fight!" He shouted, grabbing some piles of snow. "I made a bunch of them bubbled up last time, and let it rain down on everyone!"
"And then the two of them brutally retaliated." Anger recalled as he glared at them.
"Hey, we said no holding back." Amity countered, before blinking. "In fact…this was the day we officially called ourselves LAW." The blight chuckled. "We promised to be stronger than anybody and do whatever we want."
"Too bad for some people, being strong and doing whatever you want means constantly picking on people for ten years." 'Willow grumbled.
"Or leaving behind those that would drag them down." Lonely sighed.
"So, how do we fix this?" Luz asked. "Ducktape, stitches …" He appreciated the attempt to get them on track.
"To fix the moment, you have to repair what's damaged." Anger pointed to a hill that was on fire, melting away the snow around them.
"Alright Ice Glyphs, let's freeze some flames." Luz walked over, doing her best to put out the flames, setting off pillars of ice that covered the whole snowy hill.
"She's getting pretty good at that, isn't she?" Amity observed with the tiniest bit of a blush forming on her face.
"Oooh, does somebody like her?" Child giggled and pointed out. "Do you want to snuggle up with her all day and live in a house with her forever?"
"What, no, stop talking." The girl shook off, moving away from Child.
"Oh my, such fine information." Con man chuckled. "If only someone could pay me to keep my lips sealed."
"You know, I remember you being a lot less money-grubby before." Amity glared.
"And I remember you not being psychotic enough to set memories on fire." Anger glared at the girl. "Guess time does things to people, such terrible, horrifying things. You really live up to your name, Blight."
"I wish this side of Lucci came out more often, this is great." Willow snickered.
"Yeah, maybe then I could figure out how to send you to the elbow without Luz harping on me." Anger rolled his eyes.
"So close yet so far, our memories always dance around us." Lonely sang.
"Hey, don't start turning on me, this is all Amity's fault." Willow barked back.
"But you both stopped playing with us." Child answered with teary eyes. "LAW is three parts Will Will."
"Okay done!" Luz cut them off once more, the memory playing out as it should. "Rocket sledding, you guys had a blast back then."
"Yeah, that's about when Lucci started getting the hang of using his shield spell." Amity looked over as they saw past Mom and younger Willow slide down and crash into the younger Lucci and Amity. "Eda said it had something to do with how he was feeling."
"Aka, we were dumb enough to actually think we could be happy." Willow griped.
"Such is our life." Lonely lamented as they walked out of the memory. "Happiness is but fleeting."
"Aww stop it; there's plenty of good times." Luz argued. "Like … the eggs." She smiled as she moved to the painting. "You guys had fun then, right?"
"Yeah, we did, until Willow almost got us killed." Amity muttered under her breath.
"Ah, excuse me?" Willow stopped them. "Last I recalled, I was the only reason why we got out of that one with our butts intact."
"Yeah, because we pushed you into using your plant magic when the griffons started flying! If we weren't there, you'd be cowering on some tree branch while we got ripped apart and eaten!"
"Oh, like you little mud men were doing any better against them!"
"I regret this already." Anger grumbled. "LAW was never meant to be, and me and Luz should just do this on our own."
"Seriously, we had to have good times …" Luz looked around. "Like … the birthday party!" The two girls were tense. "You look so happy!"
"No! We're not doing the birthday!" Amity shouted, blocking anyone from entering.
"Are you saying to … keep that memory erased ? After the damage you caused to my head!? " Anger growled. "Give me one reason not to rip your head off your neck as I move past you!"
"There's no reason, you should do it." Willow suggested.
"Of course you only like us when it pleases your rage boner." Con-Man rolled his eyes. "Because that's all we're left feeling in the end. Just aimless and bottled up anger."
"You could have been something else you know!" Willow shouted. "We're not the only ones making bad decisions with our lives! But no, you chose to be a criminal with all that wasted power!"
"Of course it would end up like this." Lonely sighed. "Come on Luz, let's get you out of the danger zone as they all tear each other apart."
"I guess the game is over." Child pouted. "Nobody wins….except him ."
"Him?" Luz asked. "You mean there's another Lucci in here!?"
Anger turned from the Blight he was about to murder. "The only one left is Pink, but he doesn't do much-"
Shink
It was so fast they could barely process it. Even Amity, who was now sporting a pink spike embedded into her shoulder, didn't seem to comprehend what just happened for a few seconds. "AAAGGGGGG." Then she began to scream.
They turned to the sound of footsteps, seeing Pink walk forth, hands raised with spikes. "Eliminate."
"I thought you were the angry one!?" Luz screamed as she put up an ice-pillar to barricade themselves from the defense system.
"He is!" Con man shouted. "That thing's just emotionless logic! It probably thinks you all are intruders." They explained. "I could save you for a discount price of a couple snails."
"Can't one of you just…tell him we're trying to help!?" Amity yelled, trying to cup her injury.
"Are you?!" Anger countered. "And besides, he doesn't really listen to us. He barely acknowledges we exist to begin with."
"No!" Child jumped on Pink, not slowing down their progress at all. "Don't hurt friends!"
"Eliminate threat." Pink responded blankly as they continued to walk through the shattering ice. "Protect the mind. Eliminate threat."
"There's only one way out!" Lonely grabbed Amity and carried her to a memory. "Scatter! He can't get them all at once!"
Pink raised their hand, creating nine razor disks and chucking them into the group. "Damn it!" Anger flared his body. "See what you're making me do!?" Anger flung the fire towards Pink. "YOU'RE MAKING ME PROTECT PEOPLE I DON'T LIKE, PINK!"
"I am simply following my objective." They responded, unphased by the flames. "Eliminating threats to mental health."
"Go!" Anger order. "Con, Lonely, Child! Protect the girls! I'm going to hold Pink off for literally a second!"
He watched as they all proceeded to drag the girls, jumping into paintings. Pink stared at Anger for a moment, looking at the paintings. "Processing biggest threat …" There were a lot of things, and people, Anger hated. At the top of the list, there was no one he hated more than himself right now.