Summary: Time just ... makes no sense
Steve pulled on the popper. "This party rules!" His one day off of the year had finally come, and what better way to spend it then with one of his oldest friends? "Steve is having a great time!"
"That makes one of us.." The woman of the hour herself laughed a little weakly. "I..appreciate your enthusiasm Hootsitfer, but was a party really necessary?"
"Of course Lu-Lu!" That freaky worm bird thing shouted, for once not trying to rip out his entrails. "Not everyday someone become the new assistant curator for the museum of supernatural history!"
"I'm so proud of my girl." An old lady hugged Lilith. "Doing what she loves best, no longer hanging around the Emperor, and best of all, a legal job!" She turned to Eda. "You should take notes."
"Oh now you lay down the judgment after thirty years." The owl lady rolled her eyes as she took a sip of her cup of mangled limbs. "I've had a pretty full schedule in the last few months, money for once has been a secondary priority."
"We got a cool twenty five million from Willow." Lucci grinned. "Hurray for lawsuits!"
"I'm usually on the other end of that." The human muttered. "Still though, congrats Lilith. Guess all that historical knowledge is finally becoming useful."
"Oh, it's nothing too terribly big." Lilth blushed just a little. "The little misadventure with the harmony core helped reignite that spark I once had I suppose ."
"If you start looking into Crystal Devils, I'm going to lose interest fast." Lucci muttered. "I have about a thousand years worth of memory about it I would rather burn."
"What does he mean by-"
"Far from it, dear nephew." Lilith continued, interrupting the woman he assumed was her mom. "I've begun research into a new exhibit for the museum.." She brought what looked like a timeline plaque. "The complete history of deadwardian ballisters!"
"... Interesting …" The furry child nodded slowly, whispering to the two kids in the room. "Eda always called her a nerd; but I didn't know the rabbit hole was this deep."
"Be nice." The human said quietly. "She's worked hard for this, the best we can do is give her our support."
"Oh, that's the curator now." Lilith smiled brightly, running to the door. "I'm glad to see you make it Flora-"
"Yes, yes, yea, great to see you too Lilith, can't stay long, I have griffons to tame and snorses to ride." The woman rudely walked in and used a whip to grab her own cup. "Quite a long way from your days at the emperor's coven. All those hours of tutelage and this is where it led."
A few seconds passed before Lilith's mom spoke up. "Sweet flea, who is this and do I have permission to feed her to the Cockatrices?"
"They're my old mentor from the emperor's coven…and my current boss." Lilth laughed weakly. "Everyone, this is Flora Displora."
"Nice to meet ya Flora." The human extended her hand. "Please don't dissect me."
"I would if I could, but I got a schedule to keep." The woman used her whip again to grab something from outside and forced it right into Lilith's hands. "I'm just here to drop off your supplies from your old office. Not that there's much here left keeping, but thought maybe you might feel sentimental about this junk."
"Oh … actually I see a few old projects in here, thank you." Lilith gave a shaky smile.
"Okay, what's with the cold shoulder here?" Eda asked. "Your could've just dropped this off without even coming inside."
"Full disclosure, I was told to spy on you by the Emperor himself, to see if you were trying to do something foolish like break the curse or invade his castle." They all tensed. "But now I see you're just a worthless has-bin not worth the effort. Honestly I don't see why he's so insistent your nephew may actually be a threat."
"Stay a while and I'll show you personally." The boy glows pink as horns grew out of his head
"Like I said, places to be." She chuckled, getting on a griffon. "I'll go discover an unknown species now, tata!" She began flying away, leaving an awkward silence.
"…Was that what you had to deal with everyday?" The human asked.
"Yes … except now that I'm no longer in the system, I feel a bit more … spitefulabout it." Multiple feathers began to pop up along their body.
"Don't stress out too much about it, sweet flea, we all know how amazing you are." Her mom patted the woman on the back. "Isn't that right everyone?"
"Yeah! All hail Lulu!" Steve cheered loudly.
"Lulu is the best!" The owl shouted. "Lets kill in her name!" Wait what?
"Hooty, put down that ax!" Lucci cried out.
"Let us begin the blood sacrifice!" Maybe Steve should've appeared via crystal ball chat.
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"Good news is that Hooty didn't kill any of the guests." Eda heard her soon speak as they wiped off the blood from the kitchen floor. "Bad news is that we're gonna smell like phoenix blood for the next week."
"Smells like liquid smoke." Luz sniffed it off her arm. "I feel like I've been marinated for a barbeque.
"Yeah, so many flames, none of them life threatening." King noted. "So I take it Lilith's taken it pretty hard?"
"She's having a midlife crisis in the bathroom as we speak." Eda pointed upstairs.
"Oh, so witches get those too." Luz nodded. "Is it the same doing stupid stuff because you wasted your life thing humans have?"
"More like trying to figure out the meaning of life." Gwendolyn shrugged. "For some reason everyone goes mad and thinks the answer is forty two."
"Occasionally I get dreams that life is nothing more than the games of a giant turtle that gods use as a sandbox; but that was probably a hallucination from fire honey overdose." Lucci raised his hand. "Just keep yourself busy and have fun, life doesn't need to be more complicated than that."
"Meh, you do you." Luz shrugged. "So, how about we make it up to Lilith and go on a crazy hunt to prove she's awesome?"
"Don't you have to work on finishing the portal door?" Eda asked.
"Didn't you ban me from any more attempts at half hearted guesses after Lucci jumped in like he heard the siren song?"
"I found Vee, so I regret nothing."
"And without half hearted guesses, the best I've got is waiting on the echo mouse to give us an answer. And Piper always sporadic at bes-HOOTY, DON'T YOU DARE EAT HER!"
"She rejected my A-pellet-izers, she must die!" Her girl began wrestling Hooty for the cage.
"As-I-was-saying!" Luz ripped it from Hooty's grasp. Damn. She was strong. "I've hit a dead end. I'd make the portal again like last time, but I don't know what I missed in Philips notes."
"Too bad you can't just go back and ask the guy yourself." King shrugged as he bit into a donut.
"... Why can't I!?" Luz shouted. "Magic can do anyt-"
"I'll stop you right there." She spoke up. "Magic is a paint brush, not a paint roller. Even if you could devise a spell to go back, it'd be much easier to speak to his spirit."
"…Can anyone here do.."
"Not good with Oracle magic." Lucci reminded them. "Maybe we could get Celine to do it …"
"I recall you and Lilith actually looking into the subject of time travel magic when you two were still in Hexide." Her mom spoke up.
"Oh yeah … I feel like I've been demoted to exposition lately." Eda muttered as she grabbed a book. "Lets see … wormholes, gravity holes, bottomless holes … ah, Time pools. Legend says that the algee of the boiling sea mixes with traces of titan's blood, causing pools of time. Hey Lilly!"
"Coming Edalyn!" A short stumble down the stairs and her sister was with them. "I was in the middle of organizing my old projects."
"These kids are asking about time pools." She pointed.
"Time pools … ah, right." Her sister reached into the box. "I made a device that should locate temporal anomalies, but without a decent power source the range doesn't go far."
"Just plug it up to Lucci." King suggested. "He's got power for days."
"Nuh uh, my Magic's weird. I'm more likely to blow it up than function it." Lucci waved his hands.
"Then I got the next best thing!" Luz ran upstairs, and grabbed the titan's blood glove, ripping off another finger.
"You sure you wanna waste that? It's a limited resource." Eda pointed out.
"I got three more fingers left, and after that I can tear up the palms into thirds.
"I'm kinda with the oracle magic." King stated. "Even if you find a pool, how would you know where … or when, to start looking?"
The mouse, almost on cue, stood on its hind legs and began projecting. "Piper, you have the weirdest sense of timing." Lucci noted.
"Date entry … unclear. The timescale of the Boiling Isles is only known by its seasons, not named by its months. Given the locals calling it the Deadwardian Era, I assume no more than ten years have passed … hopefully."
"We have our time!" Luz shouted.
"I have gathered all the necessary ingredients for the portal door, and now must simply construct it." The image showed the man walking into a cave. "I will seek out a being that knows all in order to help me complete my goal." Stars began forming, before it showed a ring of moons spinning around a face covered by a sun and a moon. "The Collector."
Lucci gave an involuntary shiver out of the corner of her eye. "Something wrong, Kiddo?"
"Nothing, just…a weird sense of dejavu." He shook himself. "So time travel adventure?"
"Oh yeah, here we go!" Luz ran out the door … before running back in. "By the way, be careful when you go back in time. We don't know if the universe runs on closed loop, multiverse theory, or paradoxical eradication."
"And that's enough for me to opt out of this one." King left the room.
"You coming Mom?" Lucci asked.
"Of course not." Mom grabbed her arm. "She has to meet your grandfather."
"Wait what!?" Eda panicked. "You can't do this to me!"
"Nonsense Edalyn, you have nothing to worry about except your own nagging sense of guilt." Her mom began dragging her towards the door.
"That's EVERYTHING to worry about!" She screamed. "Kids, help me out here!"
"You mean I can finally meet grandpa!? Oh boy, let's get going!" King grabbed her other arm and dragged her even faster towards her doom.
"Best to let them have their happy moment, we got time traveling to do!" Luz exclaimed with her fist raised up high.
"Take me with you!" Eda begged as she scrapped her talons against the ground.
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"Soon, I will become the most successful historian in the world!" Lilith screamed in excitement. The titan's blood was exactly what she needed for her tracker, and the path to the time pools was set. "Your normal run of the mill historians can only discover crumbs and pieces of the past, well now I'm about to step right through it and see it unfold right before my very eyes!"
"Alright, so I tend to avoid Oracle stuff." Lucifer shook his head. "Run me by what a paradox is?"
"Okay, imagine it like this." Luz displayed a map. "You go back in time, and accidentally destroy the portal door. Are you with me so far?"
"Why would I destroy the door?"
"It's a hypothetical scenario. And I did say accidentally."
"That does sound like something he would be prone to do." Lilith agreed.
"So, in that scenario, Eda would never go to the human realm." Luz went on. "Which means you'd never come to the demon realm, which means you never go back in time, which means you'd never accidentally destroy the portal door."
"That sounds like a never ending loop where nothing happens."
"That's the point. A paradox is pretty much a loop of contradictions in space time." Luz explained. "So there's three explanations for what would happen. The closed loop theory, multiverse theory, and the deletion theory."
"I'm familiar with the closed loop concept." Lilith raised her hand. "It states that fate is absolute and time can never be changed. Therefore going back in time and making changes in actuality creates the events that lead up to the present." Most users of oracle magic were bound to that when looking into the future.
"Exactly, next is the multiverse theory." Luz nodded. "It states that every decision we make creates its own timeline and universe where that thing happened. And time travel would create another universe where those actions and changes would take place. For example, would you stop if I told you to stop? Now there's two universes, one where we kept going forward, and one where you stopped."
"That would mean there's infinite worlds every time I decided whether or not to take a nap." Lucifer looked like his head was going to split.
"That's how the theory works, yes." The human nodded.
"Wait, what about deletion theory?" Lilith questioned.
"Time doesn't like paradoxes and instantly straightens itself out, either erasing anything that caused it in the first place, or time itself begins breaking down like a fragile egg."
"... So my options are you can't change anything, infinite incomprehensible universes, or death on the highest order." Lucifer groaned. "Why couldn't we just stick with a portal that puts you in the past and we ask the past how something works?"
"It's important to get the exact details down, dear nephew. That's doesn't even cover how time moves when one travels into the past." She said as she looked at the nearby trees, and gasped. "Look, wrinkled trees!"
"And we're getting excited about old wood why…?" Luz asked.
"The bark on these trees are sixty years older than the ones surrounding them!"
"So what, freshly planted?" Lucifer questioned.
"Or … something nearby is keeping them young! We're close!" Luz shouted with the excitement that any true historian adventurer should have.
"According to my readings, the time pools should be … right here!" She exclaimed as she pushed some bushes out of the way, over to … the completely normal beachfront.
"... I'm sorry you wasted your Titan Blood Luz." Lucifer stated blankly, looking over the sandy beach.
"What, no, this can't be right!" She screamed, taking a step forward. "My readings shouldn't have been wr-"! She found herself tripping over a rock she swore wasn't there before.
"The beach, you ruin everything." Luz sighed as she walked forward. "Why, why must you be a cruel mistress, only pleasant in anime, and bringing nothing but-wooh!" She screamed, falling into the sand.
"Quicksand!" Lucifer shouted, getting his palisman out, and wrapped it around his arm. "Sugar, reel her in like a fish!"
The boy pulled back his arm, only for Luz to crawl out of the sand, panting. "DINOSAURS!"
" Dino-what now?" Her and her nephew asked at the same time.
"Ancient creatures, meteorites, something crazy!" She shouted. "All I did was walk around, and suddenly-" She fell into the sand once more. There was silence, before she came out again. "Fancy hats! Really tall and pointy!"
"Wait … maybe the reason they have so little information …" Lilith mused, pulling on a stick, carefully poking the ground. "Is because they refract the sand on both ends …"
"So the time pools are mixed within the sand?" Lucifer asked, poking the ground.
"It appears so. The algae gets buried beneath the surface and the boiling water seeps in trace amounts of titan's blood over time." Lilith marked the spot Luz went through, before looking at another. "I wonder how many there are?" There was only one way to find out. Sticking her head into the sand, Lilth took a deep breath, and took a dive into the past…where she was met with a kick to the head.
"My readings shouldn't have been wr-!" Lilith heard … herself cry in frustration and fall, before slipping into the present again.
"I just traveled five minutes into the past … I'm a time traveler!" She exclaimed, not even mad about the bruise on her forehead. "And time travel works in a closed loop, so good that we know this now."
"Oh, this one has knights off for an adventure!" Luz shouted, before going into another. "... This one proves they quested in vain!"
"Okay, now this I have to try!" Lucifer shouted. "Geronimo!" He cannonballed into another spot.
"Wait, Lucifer, you shouldn't go.." She was too late to warn him as he disappeared into the ground. "….All the way through."
"Crap, do we have to go after him now?" Luz winced.
"Do you trust him to not run off and explore?" Lilith questioned what should've been obvious.
"Good point. Don't worry Lucci, we're coming-!"
"Damn it, damn It; damn it!" They heard shouting coming up from behind them; and coming from another hole was said boy in question, only this time dressed differently. He he had an eyepatch for some reason; his usually curly hair was now straighted out, black, and in spikes. "Im…Im back…Im back.."
"Where did you go-" She began to question, only for the boy to charge in and hug her from seemingly out of nowhere.
"Oh, you have no idea how much I missed you." Huh … this was an unexpected show of emotion. Welcomed, but very unexpected.
"... You messed up the timing." Luz spoke, looking him over.
"Can't… closed loop… nothing changes." He let go, looking at the ground. "Nothing ever changes.."
Lilith stared at the boy. "You are giving me the strangest sense of deja vu right now."
The boy shook his head. "I'll… I'll explain later. So, we still on the Philip time thing?"
"Yeah … you were gone for like, seven seconds dude." Luz noted. "... We can break if you need it."
"No! No! Totally don't need to rest or anything! I'm fully into this time adventure! Let's get going and find that time pool!" Her nephew began sticking his head through the sand. "That one leads to lava." His head was on fire from that one. "That one leads to killer plants." A flytrap was biting his ear. "Ooh, this one has a young me playing with Willow and Amity." Abomination goo was sliding off his head. "That explains why I thought I saw a clone of myself one time."
"You'd think that would have popped up during that trip through your memories." Luz noted.
"That one is just a bunch of cave dwellers." Lucifer kept going. "That one is a bunch of people worshiping my head out of the ground as a god." He continued, with a gold chain. "And that one is my civilization crumbling to the ground."
"Time shenanigans, fun." Luz stuck her head in again, and pulled right out. "Got it, deadwardian era is right here! Lady thinks I'm a crab maiden."
"The same kind that curse women to have horrible diseases that last for generations when eye contact is gained?" Lilith questioned.
"I guess so. Can't have them know I'm human during this period of time, so best to stick with that story." She placed a helmet on herself. "Let's get moving!"
"Indeed, though, we should do it as quickly as possible." Lilith adjusted her hat. "The tides are low at the moment. If we're not back in time, the boiling water will be on top of us as we reenter."
"Hurry or bubble us home, got it." Lucifer muttered. "Okay people, let's go meet a human, and hope they're not an asshole and prove Luz isn't an exception to her species."
"I've seen his journal entries, the guy's probably a local folk hero being constantly swarmed by fans." Luz waved off. "Finding him is going to be a piece of cake."
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"We spent three hours with nothing." Sugar saw the human girl fall to the ground. She had reservations about the boy traveling through time; but he reassured her that he wasn't trying to change the timeline this time. Still, the snake was not comfortable being even further into the past then last time.
"I guess he embellished himself a tad. It's not uncommon in autobiographies." The boy's aunt noted. "At this rate it would be easier to find a local legend than a single human."
"Speaking of, this is supposed to be the savage age, right?" Lucci asked, wiping a finger on a wall. "It doesn't seem that savage…heck I think this place is the cleanest BoneBurrow's ever been."
"But it's still got that familiar charm about it …" Luz noted.
"Get your fresh pixie pie, get it while it's screaming!"
"… Can't put my finger on it." The girl scratched her chin.
"I admit, it is peculiar." The aunt nodded, taking notes as they walked around the rather peaceful scenery. "This is the period of time most undocumented by the emperor's coven. For there to be such a drastic contrast between what Belos recorded and the truth.."
"Oh geeze, Boolos lying. How original." The boy rolled his eyes. "It's not like he's never done that to you before."
"…Touché."
"Wait a second." The human stopped. "Sugar, you've been around before Lucci. Recognize anything?"
"Hsssss!" She responded.
"She's only forty years old. She works hard to maintain her complexion." Lucci translated for her.
"Sorry."
"Hhss."
"At this point I'm starting to think you just have the same bad relationship with Palisman that Lucifer does with most wildlife." The aunt noted.
"Thanks for the reminder." The girl pouted. "Let's just call it a day and look at banisters. I don't wanna crawl through boiling water after the shooting star incident." She began walking off.
"Hhhss." Take her advice and get out here while the sun is still high. They already risked too much doing this the last time.
"Probably for the best." Her boy thankfully didn't fight it. "You'd think someone with round ears would've been easier to find back then. It's like Luz's most distinguished trait back home."
"Oh, what do you got here, ole' round ears?" A gravelly voice announced, the girl instantly covering the sides of her helmet on instinct.
"Look I can … explain …" She trailed off, staring at something. They all turned to see … a round eared man being bullied by two demons.
"Give it back, that journal is very important!" The man shouted, jumping up.
"Oh really?" The man was in between two one eyed hunters. One with a green fang and one with a red fang. "Is that what you told Blue Fang before he disappeared?" The green fanged one glared.
"I told you once and I'll tell you again, I do not know what happened to that man!" The man shouted, before being kicked across the street.
"Some celebrity." Lucci rolled his eyes.
"I can't believe this, after the bonds of fellowship we forged-"
"The bonds where you still don't pay us a fraction of the five thousand snails we shared?"
"I assure you, when I complete my task, you'll have your snails..!"
"Cheap words, like the ones written in this book of yours." The red fanged one grabbed the book and began a fire spell. "Burning it for kindling ought to fix that."
"Freeze!" The human shouted, freezing the demon over. "Drop the book!" This was a bad idea.
"What the…" The green fanged one stood agaped, before shaking his head. "Whatever kid, he's your problem now. And trust us, he's way more trouble than he's worth." He began brewing the red fanged one out.
"Hhss." They should leave, now.
"I want to too, but I don't think that's gonna be possible." Lucci pointed to the girl, helping the human man pick up the journal pages that had fallen out.
The man, instead of being grateful, immediately snatched the pages from the girl's hands rather rudely. "That's private. I can't afford to let a single word be desecrated." Prick.
"You're Philip Wittabane, correct?" Luz asked. "The human?"
"… Who's asking?" Another red flag.
"I am Luzara…"
"Really?" The boy asked rhetorically.
"This is my cousin Steven and my aunt Lilly.."
" Really !?" The boy reiterated again.
"And I've heard of your exploits, and as someone who wants to get back home too..I was hoping we can talk."
The man stared at them blankly for five seconds. "No." He said plainly before limping away.
"Well that answers that." Lucci deadpanned.
"Geesh, this guy's a jerk." The aunt agreed.
"No, no, we've come too far now" The girl exclaimed. "I … we ... we're…we're on a quest … for the Collector!"
The man stopped limping away, giving the first sign of investment in them he had since they met. "Are you now?"
"Guys, I really don't get a good feeling from him." Her boy whispered. "Something about his voice just rubs me the wrong way."
"Well he is literally my only ticket home, so we play it by ear and have the worst on standby." Luz whispered back. "Yes, we seek his wisdom in order to return to our home far, far away."
"Is that so?" The man tilted his head curiously. "Then I believe my quest shall be beneficial to both our parties if we travel together."
"Yes!" The girl ran forward, leaving Lucci and the aunt in silence.
"I bubble you the first sign of the big beast trying to kill us all?"
"I signal you first sign of an obvious trap room."
The two stared at each other for a long while. "The guy is a total creep, right?"
"Undoubtedly. The way he talks…it crawls under my skin in the most uncomfortable way." The aunt shivered for a second. "I think this is the first time in a long while we've ever been in total agreement with each other."
"Meh, hard not to when Luz is back to her naive self … the de ja vu is lovely." He smirked as he walked forward. "Wanna come up with more names to call the golden screw?"
"Already have twenty in the back of my head. The Molden Guard. The Golden turd…" The family outing was nice, but they were still walking into a trap. Why couldn't they just go back safely and drag the human against their will?
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Luz grinned widely. "You're a glyph user too!?" She shouted out in excitement. It was a shame that she couldn't be entirely truthful to the man to preserve the timeline, but that didn't mean they couldn't share some information with each other.
"Yes, it took me ages to find them." The man said. "Light … how did you find such an extraordinary thing in nature?"
"Constellations." She answered. "... Also am I the only one that finds it weird that light and fire are both basic elements?"
"They're both just forms of energy with a similar function!" The man agreed. "Not to mention ice is simply the lack of heat."
"Exactly, but every witch I talk to doesn't seem to see the redundancy." It felt good to soak with another human after all this time. Sure she came to this realm to escape humanity, but Philip was just like her!
"Between you and I, most of them don't have a head on their shoulders to begin with. They gave up on glyphs when they could be doing this." The man walked through the cave, showing off … glyph combos … except while she was in class 101, reaching on 102, this man was in 199!
Combos everywhere, and not just normal combos, there were combos drawn in overly larger circles for even BIGGER combos. "Philip, this is amazing! You combine glyphs too!? I just began scratching the surface with this!"
"With time and experimentation, anything is possible." The man began drawing again, this time around the three of them. "It's took me forever to figure out this combination. Almost like the world itself is trying to stop me from learning it."
"Guys, isn't he amazing!?" She turned back to the other two, who had mostly been quiet in the back for the entire time.
"Oh yeah; so great that you've met your best friend Philip." Lucci rolled his eyes. "Being lured to a deep dark cave isn't a bad sign at all."
"Like we haven't been lured into deep dark caves before." She rolled her eyes.
"... I can't even begin to describe how disturbed that sentence is." Lilith muttered.
"And here." They turned, seeing Philip finish the glyph and tap it. Man, she wasn't looking! Now she wasn't going to know how-
Flash
How … to … "Is that Bonesburrow?" She asked, pointing to the town that seemed MILES away.
"Precisely. The view is lovely from the Titan's skull, isn't it?" The man smiled.
"Glyphs can teleport?" Lucci asked with surprise.
"We're in the Titan's skull!?" Lilith shouted. "This … this is sacred and untouched ground."
"Which is what they say to make people avoid it." Philip spoke. "I can't quite decipher these symbols, but I do know that what I seek is stored here."
Luz looked at the strange drawn figures on the walls. A sun and moon with a frowny face being pulled into a circle, held by a giant figure like from King's tower … and a pink woman.
"This…this feels uncomfortably familiar." Lucci spoke out loud.
"I don't blame you child. The boiling isles can be home to many secrets best left untouched." Philip answered. "But progress can't be obtained without risk." He then looked to Lilith. "I believe a woman of your scholarly intrigue will be more than able to complete this puzzle.
"Of course …" Lilith bowed, moving to the door. "Luzura, Steven, would you mind helping me translate this text right here?"
"Why did you have to use that name?" Lucci grumbled as they made their way to the door. "And Luzura, really?"
"Then next time, you jump in your own names." Luz rolled her eyes with a smirk. "What's the problem Lilith?"
"This is a trap, and I need you to take down Philip and keep him from moving." She responded bluntly.
"Come on, I understand Lucci being skeptical, but you?"
"Look, this puzzle is half solved already.." She pointed to the blue lines. "Someone's already been inside of here, and if you remember what the demons said, they haven't heard back from 'Blue Fang'."
"..Maybe the puzzle wasn't solved right and Blue fang sacrificed himself to save Philip?" Luz suggested.
"You saw those jerks. Do you really think they'd sacrifice themselves for him?" Lucci questioned. "What's the play?"
"Luz just needs to stop Philip from moving or doing anything. I'm sure you can handle whatever is inside. And I'll be on standby to help whoever needs me the most after I open the door."
"You guys are being paranoid, but I'll go along with it." Luz sighed. "I'll go over to him right now and prove he's not up to anything bad or untrustworthy." She walked and looked over the man's shoulder, where he was writing down a new entry. Sweet, maybe she can read a text that Piper missed. " ' I single handedly defeated the stone sleeper on the other side…unfortunately I couldn't save my companions, who tragically…sacrificed themselves…for….me…"
There was a few moments of silence. "... You shouldn't have-" She didn't give the man a second to react, instantly zapping him into submission.
"There's something called a stone sleeper! Lucci, prepare for a brawl!" She was NOT going to get everyone hurt because she trusted someone AGAIN!
"A stone sleeper, but that's from the hextacious…" Lilith began to say as the doors opened.
"Look out!" Lucci began glowing pink, tackling the claw inside of the room, thuds being heard.
Not wanting to waste her part, she pulled out multiple plant glyphs, tossing them onto Philip. "What the hell is your problem man!?"
"I needed a sacrifice to get past the beast on the other side. You and your family were even easier to trick than Blue Fang." Philip answered without a hint of regret.
"Not all of us are so gullible." Lilith noted, pulling out more glyphs. "Stone sleepers are notoriously heavy Steven, use it to your advantage!" She shouted out as she approached Philip, creating an ice glyph underneath the beast.
"Will do!" He jumped on top of the stone sleepers head and dragged it by the horns, making it crash into a wall with all the ice.
"So it was all a lie!?" Luz shouted. "The companionship, the trust, the Collector?!"
"Oh like you're one to talk, Luzara. I highly doubt your a crab maiden." He snickered. "You witches come up with the worst lies."
And that tore everything. "You want the truth?" She asked, taking off her helmet. "I'm a human, just like you."
The man's eyes widened in shock. "That…is impossible…after all these years, how did you come to…"
"The how doesn't matter, Wittabane, what matters is that you start giving me straight answers right now!" She glared. "I understand trying to get back home more than anyone, but nothing is worth sacrificing people for it!"
The man glared at her. "You say that as if these abominable blights should dare exist. Demons and witches, the unnatural evils that plague our world. The more I sacrifice, the better."
"Everything in your journal..all of it is just a bunch of hogwash!" She shouted. "You're not some daring folk hero, you're a self serving egomaniac with delusions of grandeur!" Just like Belos when she thought about it.
"Oh you poor naive girl, seems being trapped in this realm has wrapped your morality." The man tsked as he slammed his bound arms against the walls…burning the plant.
"Nope!" Lilith pushed forward ice glyphs, once more freezing the man…who melted them instantly. "How..!?"
"Like I said, sacrifices have to be made." He walked towards the doors as his sleeves burned…revealing glyphs carved into his arms .
Well, time to repress that optional power up for later, and focus on something more important. "Not going to happen!" Luz ran inside, creating barriers of plants and ice. "If I can't stop you, I can take it from there first!"
"Foolish girl, you don't even know what you're supposed to be looking for." The man smirked as he carried a shovel.
She looked around … "Is it on the single alter in the middle of the room?" She asked after a moment of processing.
"Steven, wrap it up!" Lilith shouted, throwing as many glyphs as she could at Philip. "Scratch behind its ears, that should sooth its savage nature!"
"I still hate that name!" Lucci shouted back, get on the head again and scratching the said area…and instantly making it fall to its side, in a rather puppyish daze. "And you couldn't tell me this beforehand!?" He asked, stretching his arm forward in an attempt to grab Philip.
"Rather hard to remember details when I'm almost crushed to death by a monster!" Lilith responded as they all surrounded Philip. "Shows over, bozo. Either take a hike or take that shovel and dig your own grave."
"If you think this will stop me, then you are surely-"
The front of the skull burst open, causing all participants to turn and gaze at … an eight foot woman, with pale peach skin, pink lips, curly and fluffy hair all over her back … and a pink gem inside of her stomach. Luz was prepared for many things in her life … but those eyes , filled with hatred that would make the devil himselfquiver in fear, frightened Luz like nothing else. "Philip …"
"If it isn't Quartz. I take it you still cling to your moronic ideals." The man spoke with annoyance. The woman raised her hand, producing a small pink hexagon while glaring at the man … and Philip moved as … the object popped out of existence?
BOOM
… Luz turned to see the torn clothing on her shoulder … then the massive hole in the wall … that thing was launched so fast it destroyed titan bone before she could even process it. "I WILL END YOU HERE AND NOW!" The woman's scream caused cracks to emanate across the entire area, pillars cracking in place.
"…Okay, I admit, feelings about the womb donor are more mixed than they were originally." Lucci mumbled. "So we should probably get out of here and let her kill him."
"No, we can't." Luz groaned. "We came here to get something, and whatever he was looking for, we're getting.
"Trust me, you don't want it." Lucci's mother spoke, stomping to the other human with pink spikes formed. "That object is nothing but chaos, sealed away for a reason."
"And something I desperately need." Philip growled.
"You need to stop living!!"
"And you should never have existed!" The bastard shouted, having carved glyphs in the ground and created arms to surround the woman. "It all started with you! You corrupted my brother, you warped his ability to judge right and wrong, and he is dead because of you!"
"DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK ABOUT CALEB LIKE THAT!" She created so many projectiles that an entire section of skull became nothing but dust. "HE'S GONE BECAUSE YOU CAN'T ACCEPT THE TRUTH! HE'S GONE BECAUSE YOU MURDERED HIM IN COLD BLOOD!" What?
"What I murdered was the shell of a man I could once call family!" WHAT!?
"You diseased ego driven madman! I don't care if it takes a hundred days or a million years, I will NEVER LET YOU REST IN PEACE!"
"So … starting to see what my conscience was talking about." Lucci muttered. "Belos would flee if he knew someone could cause this level of chaos."
The entire cave began to crumble above them as boulders and stalactites began crashing down. "Steven, bubble us, we're going to get crushed!" Lilit shouted.
"Bubble?" Philip asked, before his side of the cavern was demolished.
"Steven?" The gem asked as they bubbled themselves. "Wait, who are yo-!" Her side of the cave collapsed as well.
"And protect!" He formed a bubble as the walls began caving in, leaving them in darkness. There was a moment of silence, as they simply rested inside of the dark rocks.
"…I think we just created the reason why your name is Steven." Luz brought up.
"I think we just saw the reason why the Titan's skull is off limits." Lilith added.
"Hhhss."
"Don't rub it in sugar." Lucci groaned. "So, any ideas how to get out of here without being crushed?
"Bbbbrrrr." They turned to the stone sleeper.
"I can think of one or two ideas." Lilith smirked.
"Lilith, you've officially upgraded yourself to cool aunt Lilly." Luz smiled.
========================================================================
"Huh, the first giant wild animal I tamed, and it's a prehistoric mouse." Lucci rubbed the head of his latest companion. "Who's a good girl, Rebecca? You are, yes you are."
"Brbrbrbr." She purred at his head rubs.
"Too bad we can't fit her in the Time Pool." Luz noted. "Would be an awesome addition to the family."
"She was hibernating for thousands of years in that cave. Who knows, maybe you'll run into her in the present one of these days." Aunt Lily brought up.
"That would be cool." Lucci grinned. "So, we doing balisters, or heading home?"
"Really, you want to help me with my exhibit?" Lilly's eyes widened with a childish glee. This was definitely much better than Emperor Coven head Lilith..
"You've helped me the whole day, it wouldn't hurt to check out one or two before the tide sets in." Luz smiled. "Though it's too bad we have to leave soon, it would've been a great chance to ask your Mo-womb donor some questions."
"For once I actually would be behind that." Lucci nodded. "If that's the peak of what I can do eventually, then I want to learn as much as possible if we're gonna fight Belos." Seriously, she wrecked the skull with screaming and a few thrown objects. Not to mention hexagons … new shape to try out! "Then again, timeline and what not. By the way … you sure it was a good idea to show Philip you're human?"
"Not like it matters. By the time I'm back in the present, he's going to be long dead." She sighed. "I've gotta stop trusting people I just meet …"
"What do you know, she can learn." Lucci snickered. "At least we never have to see that jerk again."
"But there were more blank pages in that book." Luz said. "Which means he'd have to make more, which means-" Rebecca stopped moving … coming face to face with the man himself.
"How did he survive that?" Lucci had to ask.
"He has glyphs carved into his arms." At that explanation, Lucci said the first thing that came to mind.
"Don't even try it Luz." Lucci growled as the three of them jumped off.
"Ooh, it seems like we've all survived. Guess the Titan must've been merciful on all of us today." The man spoke as if he didn't lead them into a death trap.
"I am going to make this very clear." Lucci glared. "Tell us what we want to know, and I'll kick your butt."
"... Don't you mean-"
"If you don't tell us, we will use glyphs and spikes to kick your butt." Luz added on.
The man mulled it over. "Seeing as how both parties can benefit from a mutual exchange of resources, you perform one or two more sacrifices for me and I might tell you what you need to know."
"You heard the man." Lilith cracked her knuckles. "I'll take his face."
"Oh please, as if you'll actually do any…"
Crack
The man's nose cracked as it was bleeding profusely, becoming crooked and deformed. "You hateable sorcerers!"
Lucci walked forward, kicking the man in the stomach as he grabbed the bag. "Where are you …"
"Unhand-"
"Nope." He stomped on the man again, pulling out a mirror. "Nope." He tossed away the ego stick, reaching in for the journal. "Here Luz, take some pics with high clarity."
"Oh I'm gonna." She smirked. "Right after I do this!" She shoved a lightning glyph on the man's face. "Eat lightning, you bastard."
"GAAAHH!!" The man was burnt all over. "You side with these demons … with these witches, these monsters against your own kind!?"
"Why wouldn't I? It's either them, who accept me for who I am, or a nasty old bigot like you making both worlds worse." Luz responded as she took pictures of the journal with her phone..
"Anything on the Collector?" Lilith questioned as she and Lucci went to town on the man. He even added some small spikes for painful additions.
"It's all vague … just 'child from the stars' and 'knower of things'." She groaned. "What does he have to do with making a portal home?"
"As if…I'd tell you anything, Luzura.." Philip coughed. "You'll pay … someday … you will all pay!"
"Yeah, yeah, stay mad." Lilith glared, hopping on Rebecca. "Come on, kids, we shouldn't stay near the garbage for too long. The stink rubs off."
"Fair point." Lucci agreed, jumping back on. "You done Luz?"
"Just a sec …" She finished up with a couple of clicks, getting back on. "See ya never!"
"You will regret crossing Phillip Wittaba-" They didn't hear him finish as Rebecca's tail knocked him to the ground as they left.
"So this is what they meant by never meeting your heroes." Luz sighed. "Guess I'm back to square one again."
"I guess we should just wait until Piper pulls up a schematic for you to use." Lucci noted. "Two trips in the past, and both end up crappy…"
"Two trips?" Lilith asked.
"When I fell through the sand the first time, I wasn't gone for five seconds, I was thirty years in the past for about a day."
"Wait, that means time is warped .." Luz gasped. "What if we've been gone for a decade!? I can't handle an adult Amity!"
"That I can actually explain….sadly." Lucci groaned. "It all started when I jumped to the otherside…."