Boiling Gems (The Owl House x Steven Universe)

Summary: Oracle magic isn't all it's cracked up to be..

Luz looked over her glyphs. "Spirits … future …" Light had to be involved, it was ethereal energy away from organic matter, which ruled out plant glyphs. Maybe this was one of those cases where she mixes fire with light. Both were energy that you couldn't grab but could touch. Ice might also be involved, for the conceptual coldness of ghosts and, according to Osran, the 'solidity of fate'.

The school finally upgraded its defense grid, so Luz and Lucci could go back without worrying about the Emperor Coven…for now at least. Going by their track record, it wasn't going to be long before something else happened…then again, the date for the supposed 'day of unity' was coming up quickly. She needed to up the arsenal as quickly as possible for any threats coming their way.

Let's try … three light glyphs, two ice glyphs, and a fire glyph." She tapped the combination.

There was a dark blue glow, before an image showed itself. "Woho, future glyph!"The vision shouted, before vanishing.

"Woho, future glyph!" Luz shouted … "A one second vision." Which was useless…huh, maybe she could use it as a sort of distraction, slap it on an enemy's face as they see there butt's getting kicked one second before it happened. Either that or she needed to mix in more glyphs to see if it went farther into the future. "That's one way to incorporate oracle magic, but what about ghosts…Hey Celine, have any ectoplasm you can spare?"

"Hmm?" The girl looked up from her ball, bags under her eyes. "Oh, yeah, Casper leaks it all the time." She groaned.

" Hey, it's not like I can help it, I'm made out of the stuff! It's natural to leak!"

"Yes, just like it's 'natural' for a person to sweat, drool, or otherwise cry out twenty gallons of liquid a day." Celine snapped at the spector. "Because why do anything else? Why bother doing anything else?! Nothing you do has any consequence, your dead, you're free in your after life, roaming about and getting to live on a separate plane of existence, free to fly without having to suffer the fears and pain of the mortal witch!"

The class stoped, staring at the panting Celine. "… Do I need to send you to the guidance counselor?" The teacher asked.

"We have those?" Luz questioned. "Why the heck have they never come up?"

"Because anyone who goes to them is never seen again." The teacher explained. "We dump brain worms to distress the mind, but they always go too far and take over their bodies."

"Nope, I'm good!" Celine shouted as panicked as she should be. "Just focusing on work!" She gave a forced smile that Luz herself often put on. 

"Bark." Yes Barcus, this was very concerning.

"No, I do not smell like a midlife crisis, that's just the new perfume I'm wearing."

Luz sniffed. "I don't know how boiling isles did this, but I can smell the thirties on you."

"THIRTY FIVE IS NOT MIDDLE AGED!" … Every student turned to the teacher now. "...Not that I'd know what that's like…because I'm not…that." No one was buying that for a second. "Go back to your work!"

"Seessh, it's like everyone's on edge. You'd think this would've happened a lot sooner given how often this place is attacked." From Twicepta, to the monster school, to Cutburn.

"The inevitability gets to you." Celine muttered as she went back to her ball. "Doom comes to us all the same. Regardless of the life you live, there's no escaping fate."

"You sound like Osran." Luz muttered. "There's gotta be a way to fix problems."

"That's only possible when destiny wants it to be fixed…any other time it's fitting a square into a round hole. You can't control who fixes it, or when it can be fixed…nothing changes, nothing…ever…changes.

"Yikes, when were you so emo?" Luz joked.

"Maybe always…maybe deep down this was the true me, the part of myself I denied that tried to stay repressed, but couldn't manage to keep hold of. For this is what fate laid for me, so it how I shall always be." … Okay, time to deal with that.

=======================================================================

"Today is a Celine day." Gus turned his head from his lunch as Luz came to the table.

"Really?" He couldn't help but ask. "Skara I get, even with Belfry I get that…but Celiene?" They were more friends with Matthulomule than her.

"Multiple reasons." She stated. "First off, the Day of Unity is coming up within a month or so, and we need all the allies we can get considering that they have hundreds of Coven Scouts, nine Coven Heads, the Golden Gaurd, Abomatrons, and Belos."

"I think we've actually gone through most of the Coven scouts by this point, but I see what you mean." Amity nodded.

"Second, we kinda have a gap in dealing with emotional problems within the group at the moment. I'm pretty sure most of us are content." Luz paused, turning to Willow. "Unless you're hiding anything."

"Nope, completely open book. Still playing flyer derby, still the best in plants, sharing photos of Palisman with Hunter…"

"Why are you talking to that golden bastard?" Lucci asked.

"Didn't you talk with Kikimora?"

"Yeah, and that was a huge mistake that bit us in the butt." He groaned.

"Relax, it's just a couple of texts over Penstagram. It's not like I'm leaking our secrets to him." Willow waved. "And if he does betray me again, I'm ripping off his head and planting a tree in his neck, so there's nothing to fear."

"And third?" Gus asked Luz, trying to get the subject back on track.

"It's just a good idea to check on our friends outside the main group. She was going full emo in class today, enough to give pre-friendship Lucci a run for his money."

"Whoa, that's really emo." Amity agreed.

"Oh come on, if anything it was post manipulation Lucci!" The boy complained. "You knew how I was as a kid."

"So gullible you could be tricked into walking in front of a snorse and offering it cookies?" Willow asked.

"Again, can't be poisoned."

"I think it was the trampling of hooves you should have been concerned with." Amity noted. "But yeah, we can help Celine. Plus it's an excuse to not include Boscha."

"Sometimes I wake up and I'm glad I have so many friends….this is not one of those times." Lucci pounded his head on the table. "So how are we fixing Moon girl? Pressure her until she bursts open the emotional dam like Luz?"

"Nah, she's been explosive all day, so I don't think that road's gonna work." Luz tilted her head in though. "Maybe we should get Mattholomew involved and use a fire honey trap." She blinked. "Hey, my first natural isles metaphor."

"Oooh, we can have her give us fortunes for the future, and while she's doing that, we can slowly one by one confront her to tell us what's wrong." Gus suggested. "She runs a fortune telling stand in school."

"Why am I the one against intense confrontation today?" Luz questioned. "Usually that's my main thing."

"Because we've all learned from you how messy these situations can be, and the quicker we get this over with, the less painful it's going to be." Lucci responded. 

"Ah, so we're just going the 'bulldoze to the complicated part'. Got it." Luz nodded. "Alright, she's taking concessions over there. Who wants their future told first?"

"I'm out. No way is her crystal ball getting anywhere near me." Lucci raised his hands. "I have never had an experience with Oracle magic that doesn't end with my brain getting torn apart. Memory incident, nightmare incident, the tail end of the Basilisk invasion, time pool incident."

"Lucci's luck with oracles is worse than his luck with plants." Willow muttered. "What has the world become?"

"One where our problems keep escalating?" Gus suggested. "Almost makes me nervous to see what the future holds for us. I mean, I know what I want to do for the future, but to have a guarantee whether or not that'll happen…that's frightening."

"So … we wait until after she's done with Oracle magic to confront her?" Amity questioned. "Because I do have some reservations about knowing my future as well. Oracle magic is mom's coven, and she stopped short of mind control on me."

"Well, if it's a bulldoze plan, I guess it's my go." Luz walked up to the girl, slamming a few snails on the counter. "Tell me my future." Still the headstrong hero she always was.

The moon girl looked at her with a wince. "You sure you want to do this Luz?" Celiene asked with a worried tone. "Trust me, I've seen you in a lot of visions…if I give you a telling, you're going to know exactly how everything turns out. It might not be for the better."

"Trust me, I'm not afraid of nothing!" Luz shouted overconfidently.

"So you got rid of your fear of human faced cats?" Amity asked.

"Or trolls on the internet?" Willow added.

"Or that time you saw Hooty take off his skin?" Lucci brought up.

"Or Grom in general?" Gus questioned

"Glad to see you all have so much faith in me." Luz muttered. "Come on, Celine, don't leave me hanging, give me my future!"

"Fine, fine. Let me check." The girl rubbed her crystal ball c gazing into its swirling mass. After a minute or so, Celine stared in horror. "… Pain … nothing but … unfiltered pain …." She spoke in a solemn tone.

Luz scoffed. "I can totally stop a little pain."

"Those are the timelines you live ." The girl emphasized. "So many timelines….so much misery, nothing improves, nothing get better…why…why…WHY CAN'T I SEE PAST THAT DAY!?" The girl shouted, pounding her fists on the table, making the crystal ball glow and spark purple.

"EVERYONE DUCK!" Gus warned as a streak of purple lighting bounced all over the place…eventually hitting Lucci in the back of the head.

"Gaaahhh!!" The boy shouted, as pink and purple sparks mixed … before Lucci's body fell limp, as pink chains came out of it, being connected to the crystal ball.

"Lucci?" Luz asked, as she trepidatiously approached what was hopefully not a corpse. "Are you al…"

" AAGGGGGGGGGH!" Lucci's voice shouted…from outside as the chains reeled back..pulling out a spector that looks Lucci shaped, only see through and a lot more pink. " No, I am not alright! I felt like someone split me down the middle from the inside with a sword!"

"Lucci….you're a ghost!" Amity shouted, pointing to the crystal ball, where the pink chains were still reeling in…the chains that Lucci's body was still tied to. "And I think you're being sucked into the ball!"

"Someone stop it!"

"I've got you!" Gus jumped forward … and promptly fell through the Spector, hitting the ground.

"I've got it!" Luz raised a glyph, blasting fire straight at the ball.

"Hey, hey, easy with the merchandise, this stuff is expensive!" Celine moved it out of the way.

" This suuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkssssssssssssssssss!" Lucci shouted as his ghost was sucked into it.

"Get him out of there or I'll do it by force!" Willow pulled out multiple vines.

"Break it, and he'll get trapped in limbo forever!" Celine shouted. "Currently his soul is tied to the ball."

"I thought his soul was chained to his body?" Gus questioned, poking at the limp body.

"Gus, I don't think it's a good idea to touch that." Luz said, pulling him away.

"What, nobody's ther-" He was stopped, as Lucci's body got back up almost mechanically…. glowing pink with the most neutral expression he's ever seen on a single witch.

"Return consciousness." It stated in a voice so cold he felt a part of himself die.

"Oh no…of all the Lucci's to take over his body, it had to be Pink!?" Amity shouted. "Why couldn't have it been Child? Even Anger would've been tolerable!"

"Well, if gems are basically the brains of crystal devils, Pink represents the gem side while the other's represent his human/witch side…I guess without the spirit, the gem's is all that's left." Luz observed. "Meaning that he's pretty much survival instincts and raw power."

It began walking over to Celine. "Return consciousness." With every step, a new crack in the ground was made that shook the entire school.

"Hey!" Casper came out. "You don't get to boss my-!" Without missing a beat, the gem thing grabbed the ghost by the throat, slammed it to the ground, and created a ball of energy that felt like Gus was next to the sun.

"Return consciousness….or be obliterated."

"Wait!" Luz shouted, getting in front of Celine. "Celine is the know how on this oracle stuff. Calm down and let her undo this, or you're not getting your brain back!"

The gem thing stared at Luz for a moment, never changing that blank look, before turning to Celine. "One Minute."

"Okay, let me get him out first." Celiene went over to the crystal ball and rubbed it. A few seconds latter, Lucci's ghost came out.

" Man, that was trippy. I could feel it when she rubbed the ball…it was like someone was physically ticking my brain." The boy admitted, which seemed to calm the gem thing enough that it stopped producing a pink light show, letting go of the ghost's throat.

"*Hack hack,* Was that what looking at death is like for you people!?" Celiene's ghost friend coughed. " How do you people deal with your mortality?"

"I don't know. I barely get by nowadays." Celine groaned. "Alright, lets sever the connection and…" She rubbed the ball as her eyes glowed purple…only for pink sparks to cover it and shock her. "Ow!" Celine shook her hand from the burn. "Okay…this might actually take a while."

"What do you mean 'take a while'?" Lucci questioned.

"Normally when a ghost ties themselves to something on the physical plane, the connection that ties them down usually isn't that strong. It both allows them to have a limited access to the physical plane and keeps them rather controllable to oracles who can cut the connection at any time." Celiene explained. "But your soul….it's…shall we say…made out of snorseshit. It's going to be a while before I can sever a connection this strongly tied."

"… Do you mean … I'm STUCK LIKE THIS!?"

"It's not that bad being a ghost." The specter tried to alleviate him. "You never get hungry, or tired."

" Dude, I don't know how you cope with it, but I know what it's like to eat and sleep. I can't imagine a life not doing it! Being deprived of those sensations is going to drive me insane!"

"Eliminating threat to emotional state." The gem half pulled out pink spikes. 

"Lucci, calm down!" Luz shouted.

"Don't hurt her!" Lucci shouted.

The gem half paused. "Command aknowledged, searching alternatives." 

"It's like looking at the world's scariest Abomination." Amity shuddered. "Except I don't think we'll be able to smash this one to pieces."

"If this guy is so strong, how come Lucci isn't?" Willow questioned.

"Mental blocks." Celiene suggested. "This Lucci.." She pointed to the gem half. "Doesn't have this Lucci's heart." Celine turned to the ghost. "It doesn't have his personality, his fears, or his restraints. It's all mind, and a mind of pure fact doesn't have room to care about anything."

"..So a chaotic Lucci is actually less dangerous than a logical Lucci." Luz shivered.

"Yeah….what's the eta on putting him back in?" Gus asked. "So we don't have this guy constantly trying to kill us all the time?"

"You're gonna have to wait until after school. I have a…special spot with special tools to help with this." Celene sighed.

"Take us now." The gem half demanded.

"...Fine, it's not like my grades matter…nothing matters.." The moon girl sighed. "Give me a minute, I need to pack up my revenue for today."

"Can't you tell him to be nice?" Amity asked.

"I honestly just hope telling him to not attack teachers works if they try to stop us."The ghost sighed.

"Understood. Psychological damage will be used as alternative."

"...I never thought I'd ever have to say this, but Lucci." Willow turned to the ghost. "Thank you for being crazy."

"No problem."

=======================================================================

Boscha put the last book in her locker. Her boyfriend wanted to spend the day with his friends, so tomorrow it could be just the two of them. Now the question was should they make it an extreme high flying across the night school on palisman date, or another Cherry date? The latter had the advantage of having complete intimacy at all times with the constant stream of ecstasy flowing through their veins, but the former meant they could make out after getting the adrenaline flowing.

Of course, at some point she'd have to explain how adults had their fun if she wanted it to go farther than just making out … maybe she could make an example and rub his gem? He said that was a pretty sensitive area. She could do that while he kissed her third eye…damn it, now wasn't the time to think horny thoughts. She still had classes to pass.

She began to pull out her potions, only to see her crystal pass by. "Oh Lucci, what brings you here?" She grinned … only for her glowing pink boyfriend to walk past her without any reaction whatsoever. "What was that for!?"

"Ignoring distractions. Objective shall be completed."

"DISTRACTION!?" She yelled into the air, lighting the floor on fire. "Listen you cute glowing butter ball, just because you're strong doesn't me you have the right to-!"

"Don't mind him please." She turned to the familiar voice. "It's complicated."

… For a single moment, all higher brain functions of Boscha's head deactivated, processing the hottest thing known to witches. "Whaaaa…."

"Is she drooling?" Luz asked as the rest of Lucci's friends were passing by.

"Bawaaaahh…" Her brain continued to short circuit. Was this happening right now? Was she in heaven?

"She is…I need a photo of this right away." Half a witch took out her scroll. "Hello new background."

It was insignificant to the majesty in front of her. "Aaawwaaahhhh."

" Ah…angel? Could you….not look at me like that?"

She snapped out of it at the ethereal voice. "Crystal, I need you inside of me now."

"CONTEXT!" Luz shouted, holding her hands over Goops and Amity's ears.

"Luz, I already know, you don't need to protect me." Amity chuckled, before turning to Boscha. "I almost forgot about your ghost fetish."

"Her ghost what now?"

"Lucci, please possess me. Enter my skin and fill me with cool energy as our ethereal easeses coalesce into a beautiful swan song." She pleaded.

"Okay, not going to record that." Half a witch put her scroll away. "Gonna walk away before this gets weird."

"You say that like it hasn't already." Amity deadpanned.

" Boscha, you're kind of hitting me with a lot right now, and I rather not stay a ghost for longer than I need to.."

"Lucci." She grabbed ahold of his intangible arms. "Ever since I was a little girl, my greatest fantasy was to have a ghost for a boyfriend. Even if it doesn't last forever, you HAVE to let me live out my dream just once. I…. need this . You will make me the happiest girl who has ever lived on the boiling isles if you do this for me."

"Discomfort detected. Deleting threat." The pink Lucci raised spikes.

"HEY, HEY, HEY!" The ghost one flew infront of her. " I get your trying to protect me, but the moment you try to touch my Angel is when all bets are off. So much as look at her funny, and I'll make sure to never, ever reenter my body again." He growled. "I will never be apart of someone as horrible as that."

"Command acknowledged."

"A ghost who loves me defending me from danger …" She could feel her heart nearly beat out of her chest. "Take me now."

"I want to call this sweet…but…the necrophilia makes it weird." Luz winced. 

"Do they not have that on earth?" Half a witch asked.

"They do, but there's no ghost or zombies…so outside of fanfiction the only way this could happen is with…you know…regular dead people."

"Earth sounds stupid." Boscha rolled her eyes. "But seriously, can we enjoy this for just an hour?"

"We're actually our way to get Lucci's soul untied from Celine's ball, so…you can join us on the walk over there for however long that takes." Goops said.

"Why would you say yes!?" Half a witch shouted.

"Because if we said no she'd probably beat us up and take Lucci's ghost." Goops responded. "Like she wasn't going to get involved once she saw Lucci like this. Anything we try to do just delays the inevitable."

"Shall I restrain?"

"No, leave her alone…" The super hot ghost of Lucci looked at her. " Let her carry the ball. She's not going to let anything happen to it as long as I'm attached to it."

"You sure?" Luz asked him. "While she's that thirsty for ectoplasm, which you are currently made out of?"

" Just do it, I want to get back into my body in time for dinner."

"I promise to pay you back, my crystal." She cooed, kissing the ball and squishing it against her cheeks. "I'm holding you in the palm of my hands, oh, you have no idea how much this means to me."

The ghost blushed. "Yeah, just..just be careful how you touch it, it's like my gem, but all over."

She smirked. "I'll make sure to treat you just right."

"... You have nothing to say to that?" Luz asked the pink Lucci.

"Emotions indicate consent."

"Celine, get us to your place NOW!" Half a witch yelled. Spoilsports. Trying to take away the best thing that ever happened in her life.

=======================================================================

Amity was blushing super hard right now. It wasn't just her face, that would've been bad enough, but her entire body was red. And believe her, she'd would've taken it away if she could. Hearing Lucci and Boscha flirt before was bad enough, but the ghost thing added in a WHOLE new level of uncomfortable Amity couldn't have imagined anyone could reach.

"Oh your delectable intangibility brings a delightful aroma to this mortal plane, the paradoxical spirit lingering an everbeautiful persistence." Boscha recited like a poem. "For our connection of blood and wisps bring us a bond deeper than the closest of lovers could ever hope to compare."

"I shouldn't…but it's just so tempting…" Willow held a vine in her hand, one that was suspiciously close to her neck. "I have to hold it out, I have to hold it out, I have to hold it out…"

"Think of it this way." Luz attempted to hold Willow back. "Either way would give her exactly what she wants."

"..So it doesn't matter either way…I lose no matter what." Willow sighed.

"That's how life is." Celine said as she walked ahead of them, making her way to a metal door in the ground covered in leaves. "Let me disable the security system very gently so as to not-" Pink Lucci proceeded to rip the door off its hinges, multiple bubbles instantly attacking anything that tried to retaliate. "Oh we can do that, undo years of hard work and dedication on my part, because why not?"

"Eliminating distractions. No time to wait." The pink half responded.

"I'm just surprised you're so gung ho about reuniting with your soul." Amity scratched her head. "I would've assumed you would've liked being able to be outside for a while."

"I'm not designated for pleasure or comfort. Happiness of the conscious self is paramount." They stated. "Every action is to ensure they live as they wish. A Witch in the Boiling Isles who shall protect his mother and obliterate all enemies." They spoke with that dead tone. "Until they wish to die … I will not allow it." For a second, there was almost a hint of tone in the half's voice.

"Is that how you feel all the time Lucci?" Gus asked.

" No…sort of, protecting mom and the destruction of my enemies are the foremost thoughts in the front of my mind on most days, but I have more to me than that."

"The mind is complex, desires, hopes, and dreams are all regulated to specific portions to deal with the concept of consciousness and to distribute power."The half spoke as they walked down. "My function is to regulate your powers to the needs you have on a physiological and emphatic level."

"Emphatic?" Luz asked.

" The power is dual. Destruction and Creation. Choose to protect or choose to destroy. What you have is based on what you chose to embrace."

Lucci was silent for a moment. "Are all gems like that?"

"All previous information deleted upon transfer of user." Pink Lucci responded. "I know only what you know and what you should know."

"So much for that." Amity muttered as they walked down the steps.

"Probably for the best. I don't need to add to the identity crisis after the memory download from Triton. Learning more about my womb donor is already a tricky subject."

"Shall I work on deleting information?"

"Let's not mess with Lucci's brain more than we already have." Luz brought up. "Also, how deep does this place go? I feel like we've been walking forever."

"I made it deep enough … to survive." Celine sighed. "Even though we're this deep it doesn't fix anything."

"Fix what?" Willow asked, before entering an open area. "Oh …" That was all that could be said at what seemed like miles of shelves full of objects. "Is…Is this a library?"

"Partially, the non fiction books are five miles down next to the jars of salynaise. Ever since I've been dating Matt, I've been able to expand the space a little more and get organized."

"A lot of this is high grade stuff." Boscha noted, looking at the magic seals and gears.

"I'm pretty sure there's some of Mom's stuff here, back from her illegal selling days."Lucci looked over the objects.

"Man, what do you need all this for, the apocalypse?" Luz asked sarcastically.

"Yes." Celiene said immediately and bluntly. "Now where did I put that soul saw? That ought to cut Lucci free.

"... Can we get back to that?" Gus asked. "The apocalypse?"

"Yeah." She answered, looking through objects. "On the Day of Unity, there's nothing but eternal agony, and then nothing … no matter what."

Everyone paused at what she said. "You..You know what happens on the day of unity?" Amity asked.

"Not specifically…there's so much activity that day it's almost impossible to keep track of it." The moon girl moaned."All I know is that once it happens, nobody survives. The closest I got was a few seconds inside of this bunker … you know, before your pink half destroyed it."

" Sorry, can't really predict what this guy does." Lucci apologized. "But…But there has to be something we can do."

"You know … they keep talking about the future being in a straight line … but I see it more like a river." She answered. "Ebbing and flowing, I looked through a lot of things … any time I tried to start a rebellion I died. Any time I tried to poison Belos, I died. Any time I tried to warn people, I died … there's nothing Lucci. I know something bad's going to happen …" The girl let out a tear. "And I looked through a lot of futures to try and stop it."

"... How many?" Lucci questioned.

"You know … I stopped counting once I hit six digits." She turned to the boy. "You can change some things … but others are inevitable." Celine gave a weak chuckle. "Unless you can manage to kill every Coven Head and Belos within the next month in a single day, you don't have a choice but to accept it can't be stopped." She laughed harder. "You actually have a better chance surviving it now as a ghost, you could flee to the spiritual plane. Sure, it won't be the life you had, but it'd be something…ain't that a cruel joke…the only way to live is to die another way…how screwed up is that?"

There was an awkward silence, as even Boscha stopped her caressing of Lucci to just stare at the crying and broken girl. "What about the bunker, we get everyone we find and…"

"I don't know how intact the land is going to be…other than unusable. When I head into this bunker, it'll be closed permanently, a slow death where I live out my life without embracing the pain…it's a coward's way out I know…but I don't know what else to do."

"You have allies now, we can try something-" Amity tried to suggest.

"I already told you what to do, and nobody here has the unrealistic expectation that they can actually win against the Emperor." She sighed. "So live your last moments in happiness, or bunker down." The girl pulled out a saw. "Because those are the only good options left." She grabbed the crystal ball and began sawing the pink chains, which sparked purple as she grinded it against the astral metal. 

"What if.."

"Going out in a blaze of glory is the most painful option. I've seen it in a dozen futures, you ALL regret it just before you die." She answered. "Gus in particular because he never got to see giraffes."

"So…that's it….the day of unity comes…and we can't do a thing about it?" Amity asked.

"That's how fate is, that's what destiny wrote out for us." Celine sighed. "There's nothing to control…except what we do before we die."

=======================================================================

Celine worked through the chains in silence. "You regret learning Oracle magic now?" She asked Luz. "Because this is what happens to anyone who learns about it." Titan knows Celine did. "You go in, thinking you can have the answer to all of life's problems, only to understand what a nihilistic nightmare the whole world really is."

"The thought did cross my mind, and now developing the future vision glyph further is going to go on the back burner for a while." The girl nodded. "Although it is a bit funny."

"How so?" She asked.

"Orsan said it's a straight line carved in stone." Lucci spoke. "He never had options, he just said 'this is how it will be' … you on the other hand, other than the Day of Unity, have every option."

"Every option that leads to death.." She graoned.

"That's still more than what Orsan believed." Lux pointed out. "He believed in complete absolutes. No matter what happened, everything happens they way it's supposed to, every loop closes in the exact same way…you right now just proved that's not how it works. You just told us there's multiple futures!"

"So I can see better than a Coven Head, woopie." She rolled her eyes. "Your friend group does that kind of feat every other week, and you still don't stand a chance against all of them."

"On the plus side we can totally-"

"I'm not joining whatever army you have, and neither is Mat. We're going to survive." She reaffirmed. "Seriously, I already feel bad for leaving Steve Tholomew out there."

"Steve-tholomew?" Gus questioned. "Wait…Tholomew is their last name?!"

"How has that never come up when we had lunch?"

"Steve rolls off the tongue better." She explained. "It still doesn't change the fact that the Day of Unity still comes, and then nadda." She said. "There's agonizing pain, and then…nothing. I've never been able to see past the future beyond the day of unity."

"So you're saying no matter what, you can't see anything after the day of unity?" Luz asked. "You can't see the next year, month, week, day?"

"Anything past the moment the eclipse hits is completely black."

"... Then that means we can reverse it once it happens."

She paused her work. "Do what now?"

"We can undo the Day of Unity." Luz repeated.

"I… I don't even know where to begin on explaining how bad of an idea that is." Celine shook her head as she continued to saw the chains. "First off, there's nothing to SEE after the day of unity."

"You see black, I see a clear canvas for creation." The human retorted.

"Second, you're assuming that the day of unity is something that can be reversed."

"It's not like you know how it works, maybe it can." The human shrugged.

"If it starts in the eclipse, shouldn't we take the moon itself into account?" Boscha questioned. "Not like we can just go up and blow it up..unless that's a power Lucci has."

"Not as far as I know.,,hmm, maybe if I ram into it at supper speed unsing sugar, I can break it in half."

"You think that would work, pink half?" Willow questioned.

"Most of the energy would be spent forcing the organic cells to remain alive while in the void of space."

"So build some sort of suit for Lucci to wear in space, then ram the moon into pieces." Gus pounded his fists.

"Ah; breaking the moon has its on set of problems, given that it's own field of gravity has an affecting on this planet.." Luz said.

" How bad are we talking?" Lucci questioned. "On a scale of red leaves to the realm explodes?"

"No tides, so sea level sort of evens out and floods everything…" Luz said. "Maybe if you pushed it out of the way during the eclipse…"

"This isn't a piece on a checkerboard, you can't just slide the moon away like that!" Ceilene yelled. "Why are you all rallying behind this!?"

"What are we supposed to do, accept hopelessness and live our lives knowing nothing will ever make it better?" Amity questioned. "News flash, the last ten years of my life were like that, and it wasn't worth it."

"Luz at least gives us something to look forward to." Willow continued. "I rather put my trust in that blind optimism rather then your bleak outlook."

"And like I said before. Oracle magic is useless." Boscha rolled her eyes. "Except when it makes my boyfriend the epitome of attractive." She let out a purr.

"I am so mixed in how to feel about this." Lucci responded. "Look Celine. If you want to hide out here and spend the next thirty or so years living a boring and sterile life where you wake up just to exist, then by all means do so." He nodded. " I'm going to choose to actually live my life as I want it to go, no matter how short that turns out to be."

She stared at him, before going back to cutting the chain. "Good luck … for all our sakes I hope you actually win." Even if she didn't believe they could…she so wantedto be wrong.

Chink

The chains finally broke, releasing Lucci from the ball. " Yes! Back to my body!"

" Wait!" Boscha yelled. "Please, before you go back…pass through me just this once! Just a quick in and out for a second!"

The boy looked back and forth between his body and hers. "… One condition."

"Anything!"

The boy winced. "I kinda have this weird thing where I like … sucking on fingers. Not really sure where it came from." For some reason, Luz, Willow, Amity, and Gus all became more pale than Casper. " So…"

"Okay...a little weird, but not a turn off." Boscha nooded. "We have a deal Lucci, now get inside me!"

"Seriously, watch your mouth!" Luz shouted.

"Did Eda …" Amity whispered with mute horror.

"No doubt about it." Willow mumbled in terror.

"He can never know where it came from." Gus gulped. "We take this to our graves."

" Away…we…goooo!" Lucci flew up into the air, before flying into Boscha from behind, passing through her as the three eyed girl let out a face so lost in ecstasy that Celine wanted to censor it. That alone wanted her to have the apocalypse come faster.