Witches, Demons, and Heroes (The Owl House x MHA)

Despite everything that had happened today, the atmosphere of the Owl House was in good spirits. Hooty strung up some decorations, King was still wearing the cheerleader uniform for some reason, and Eda brought out the good tea set. Izuku was sat in the middle of the red couch, Willow to his left, Gus and King to his right, with Luz and Amity sitting together on the now moved green couch to accommodate Amity's cast while keeping the cozy closeness.

clink!

"Happy first break-up, kiddo!" Eda had put on a bowtie to 'dress up' for the not so formal occasion.

"Now you're sad and single again!" King waved some pompoms.

"Just like Eda!" Hooty had a party hat on.

"Yea-hey!" Eda scowled but huffed back into a neutral expression. "How'd it happen, anyways? Weren't you dating that grudgby girl?"

"Uh," Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. "I didn't walk with her to school."

Eda snorted. "Yeesh. Is that all it takes these days?"

"Aw don't sweat it too much, Izuku." Luz waved her cup around. "You'll be a great boyfriend to someone."

"If you say so," Izuku took a sip.

"You can do better than Boscha," Amity added while sipping from her cup..

Willow nodded along. "You deserve better."

"Guys come on, it's fine, really. I-" Izuku paused, searching his feelings, and paused again when he realized something. "I...don't even feel that bad about it." Was that normal? "Plus, Amity's the one with a cast on her leg!" He will ignore his own feelings for now.

"What? This?" Amity lifted the cast. "It's barely a sprain. Grudgby injuries can actually get pretty bad."

Luz gasped hopped in her seat a bit. "War stories! How many people did you break?"

"Heck yeah! Violence!" King threw his pompoms to the floor and crawled into Izuku's lap. "Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!"

"Welp!" Eda suddenly spoke up and stretched. "Don't stay up too late you crazy kids. You know where the door is, and Luz, makes sure Hooty actually locks up."

"You got it, Owl Lady." Luz saluted.

"Actually, Eda, um," Izuku fidgeted with his cup. "Can I stay here for the night?"

"Like a sleepover?" Luz beamed. "We haven't had those since we came to the Demon Realm!"

"Luz, we did nothing but sleepovers when I came to Connecticut."

"Yeah, but you've been living at the Castle now." Luz shrugged. "Can he stay, Eda? Please?"

"Can we stay too?" Gus looked to Eda.

"No!" Eda's voice went into a scolding tone. "My house isn't a hotel for wayward brats."

"Awww come on, Eda!" Luz pleaded. "We'll behave! I swear!"

"Pleaaase?" Gus and Willow were right on cue, and though a little late for it, Izuku simply looked at Eda alongside them.

The combination must have worn down Eda's resolve given her heavy sigh. "Fine." She still smiled. "Just don't give Hooty feet again."

"Just think of all the bugs I could eat if I did!" Hooty ate one of King's pompoms straight off the floor and predictably started coughing.

"Yay! Sleepover!" Luz cheered.

This was fine. Izuku was fine. This was not imposing in any way after he more or less called Eda a horrible irredeemable villain to her face in front of her own mother. Plus, it was just one night! One night while he thought about Hunter's plan. One night to just...breathe.

...

...

CRASH!

"WHOAWHOAWHOA-!" Izuku clung onto the mane of the Owl Beast as it ran amok through the house.

"Hang on, Izuku!" Luz shouted from somewhere else.

Izuku slapped a light glyph onto the Owl Beast's forehead, squeezing his eyes shut, but still flinching when the glyph activated and flashed.

The Owl Beast screeched and shook, but Izuku held on.

"Ready!"

That was sure a signal as far as Izuku could tell! "Come! On! Eda!" Izuku tugged at the Owl Beast in an attempt to steer. "Time to take your medicine!"

pbbbbt!

"Hey!" Izuku was half tempted to blow a raspberry back but saw Luz had a string of glyphs taped to a doorframe, holding one in her hand. "Incoming-!"

Bailing at the last second, Izuku braced for impact as the sound of struggling continued. He quickly got back up, seeing the Owl Beast tangled in vines.

"I know, Eda, I know!" Luz grabbed a handful of elixir bottles, crouching by the Owl Beast's face. "But it's for your own good!"

Izuku threw himself onto the Owl Beast again, trying to grab at the mouth and forcing it open.

Luz and King were able to start feeding the elixir until the Owl Beast coughed and slashed, releasing her front leg.

"She's getting free!" King backed away and cowered.

With her front leg free and Izuku on her head, there was only way thing for a rampaging animal to do: fight for its life. He saw the claw coming up, practically flashing in the light-

"Have a sucka, sucka!" Luz shouted as she slammed something orange into the Owl Beast's mouth, stopping her mid-screech.

Izuku took a second to realize he did not get slashed to ribbons and saw the Owl Beast was sucking on an orange icicle like a pacifier.

"Huh. How did-?" Izuku began to ask when Luz held up an ice glyph. "Oooh, right. Is it gonna work?"

"Probably." Luz smiled, but Izuku can see she was just as exhausted if not more so. "Let's get Eda to her bed."

"You're the boss," Izuku crouched, flinching when the Owl Beast twitched. He steeled himself and lifted, remembering to do it with his legs and not his back, while Luz and King did the same on the other end.

It was bit of a challenge, especially on corners, but when the Owl Beast started to revert back to Eda, the task became a bit easier. They got her into her nest-shaped bed and kept the elixir flowing.

"Thanks for helping, Izuku." Luz said while shoving another bottle into the still feathery partly beastly mouth.

"No problem." Izuku tried not to think of how he should have been helping from the start and decided to clean up some feathers. "It's the least I can do while I'm here." He picked up a handful of feathers. "What do we do with these?"

"Oh, put them in my room! I'm still deciding what to do with them, but you can't deny a good free craft supply."

"I dump them into Eda's bed," King demonstrated by throwing a handful into the nest. "Why? You wanna hoard them too?"

"No," Izuku set the pile aside. "They just remind me of the Harpy of Shizuoka."

Luz gasped. "If we get new phones, we should totally show his music to Eda! 'Stars and Moon' is so romantic!"

"Hey! You guys are talking about human stuff again!" King crossed his arms.

"We'll show you some of his songs too, King." Izuku patted the dog...fox...demon's head. He still had no idea what King was. But King was a kid. An excitable, bratty, stubborn kid, but it was kind of like dealing with Kacchan, minus the explosions.

"Thank you." And a lot more polite.

Though speaking of phones, Izuku's magic one began to buzz. "Time for school, Luz. Big field trip, remember?"

"Right! King, Hooty," Luz looked up to the house. "Make sure Eda gets her rest, plenty of water, nutritious meals, and some light exercise."

"You got it!" King swiftly took Luz's place feeding Eda her elixir. "Good luck with your heist!"

"Haha!" Izuku cringed. "Not a heist."

"It definitely is and it's gonna be great!" Luz patted his back.

It was a bit rough and only made Izuku cough. "Yaaaay."

Willow and Gus were just as excited, and definitely did not want 'spoilers' from Izuku. Fine by him, he had other things on his mind. The air-bus-dragon thing was making its way to the Castle with Hexside students on board, mostly of the same grade.

"No roughhousing!" He raised his voice to some rowdy students still cheering and causing a ruckus. "Don't make me turn this carriage around!"

At the back, going unnoticed between the loudness going on up front and in the middle seats, Izuku was going over his notes. He had written them in Japanese, hoping in the off-chance someone stole his notebook, they would not be able to read anything in it.

"Sooo," Luz scooted a bit closer to him. "How does it feel to go behind Lilith's back to steal something?"

"Like I'm about to betray all of my fundamental values and cross a line I may never come back from." Izuku felt he was not looking at anything in particular but then saw Luz's face. "But we're going to save Eda sooo maybe it's not as bad as I think it is...?"

Luz hugged him, squeezing hard. "Thanks. Really. For, y'know, helping me."

Izuku hugged back. "Always."

Luz gave one more squeeze for good measure before pulling away. "Just one more thing." Luz put up her hood, looking determined then pulled up Izuku's as well. "There we go!"

Izuku let out a little laugh. "Say, how did you come up with that plan?"

"Pssh," Luz waved it off nonchalantly. "I've been dealing with the Owl Beast for a while. It's like a wild animal, and mom taught me a lot about what do to. The first time was kinda touch and go for a second but nothing an oversized blanket burrito couldn't solve. Oh! There was also the time-"

A story to pass the time helped ease Izuku's nerves. If he thought of this as a rescue mission of sorts, maybe it would not feel as morally compromising.

Sneaking away from the group proved a bit more challenging. Principal Bump was surprisingly observant, Kikimora more so, and everywhere they looked there were Coven Scouts. Hiding from Lilith's gaze as she went to meet Belos made his heart pound in his ears. But there was an opening, when Kikimora was about to head into the Training Grounds, prime bragging time, and the two humans slinked back towards the Relic Room.

"Hey, kid!"

"Hi, Steve!" It helped that Izuku knew most of the Scouts. Steve especially was a pretty cool guy.

In the Relic Room, Izuku took watch by the door.

"Okay, the Relics aren't really guarded but we are going have to sneak it out the Castle without anyone noticing." Izuku kept his voice down. "We have to get back to the tour before Kikimora notices we're miss-" he noticed Luz going straight to the Healing Hat. "Luz? Are you listening to me?" She picked it up and it glowed.

"I-I can feel the magic! This is it!" She held it up, the glow disappearing. "We can save Eda!"

Izuku smiled, but he felt a shaking in his body somewhere. "And go home."

Luz gasped. "Ohmygosh-! Your mom must be worried sick!"

"Hey-!" Izuku rushed to her side and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "It's going to be okay! Once Eda's healed, maybe Lilith would ease up on the whole-" he tilted his head this way and that, "-trying to arrest her thing. And they won't have to go to Belos, and everything will work out!"

"Right! Right." Luz nodded but something must have tipped her off, her expression a bit worried and confused. "Why don't you want them to go to Belos?"

The image of the rabbit palisman flashed in Izuku's mind. The vibrant green becoming dull. The glowing liquid inside of it. Belos...doing something with it for himself.

"Just-" Izuku felt squeamish at the thought of seeing Owlbert or even Lilith's faithful cooky raven suffering the same fate. "Trust me, please?" He put his hands on hers.

There was a pause but then she smiled. "Okey dokey, smokey." Luz started walking.

Seeing he was further in the Relic room, Izuku looked around and his eyes went to the Bell. One more glance, he picked it up.

"Ooh, two." Luz smirked at him like a cat. "Breaking rules, sneaking around, stealing. Boscha really turned you into a bad boy."

"I would rather not think about that." Izuku did not really enjoy any of this. "If we hurry past the library, we can get to the next part of the tour."

"Always so punctual."

Izuku gasped.

Leaning against the doorway in a casual manner was Hunter, but the implied threat of his presence was crystal clear.

"Oh! Is he a friend of yours?" Luz asked cheerfully.

Izuku held up some glyphs, ready to use, getting Luz behind him. "I don't want to fight you, Hunter."

"It's Golden Guard." The mask seemed to reflect a cold expression. "And we don't have to fight!" He tried to play it off with a cheery demeanor. "Just put those Relics back, and Emperor Belos can let you two off with a warning. If he's feeling generous today."

"Sooo," Luz sounded like she was tilting her head, "not a friend."

"Luz," Izuku handed her the Bell, "take the Relics and go."

"What!? No! I'm not leaving you!" Luz held the hat behind her and also dug out a handful of glyphs from her pocket. "Weirdos stick together!"

"Wha-?" Izuku did a double take.

The Golden Guard sighed, twirling his staff. "I don't understand why you care so much about people who do nothing but hold you back." He used his magic, grabbing the hat and pulling it away from Luz.

"Hey-!"

Izuku grabbed Luz, trying to give her more leverage by pulling with her. The green rug going through the middle of the room might as well have been regular tile with how little help it was providing.

"You risked your life for some demon dog pet." The red magic was pulling with more force. "You're studying magic from a wild witch." Another tug. "You got to school to see her." One more, stronger this time. "I had hoped you would have come to senses when I got the principal to make you fight that monster, but that didn't work either!"

'That monster? Is Hunter talking about Grom? But how would-?'

Izuku took in a gasp as realization set in. "You mean-!?"

"Did you really think you were chosen to be Grom King for having good grades?" The Golden Guard sounded like he was about to laugh. "I just told the principal that if you weren't the one fighting Grom, I'd have him removed from his position and thrown into the Conformatorium. If he caused any trouble after that, he'd be executed." The Golden Guard shrugged, the movement of his gesturing also moving the hat.

"Are you insane!? What the-" oh Luz was livid if she was busting out real swears, "-is wrong with you!? He could have died!"

"And he didn't!" The Golden Guard actually laughed. "Look, I can't promise anything, but if you just let go-"

riiiip!

"NonoNO!" The hat was torn in two out of Luz's hands. "Eda's curse!" She tried to salvage its pieces, but it burst into red flames. "You-you-!" Luz slapped a fire glyph on the Golden Guard.

"Uhh, what's this supposed to-" And the glyph exploded like a firework, sending him flying around, screaming. The Golden Guard managed to wrap his legs around his staff and upright his himself, ready to teleport-

BOOF!

A mass of trees had appeared, entangling the Golden Guard in their branches.

Copies appeared in puffs of blue smoke, running in every direction amidst a larger fog.

"Run!" Willow shouted, using the Green Thumb Gauntlet to drag everyone out the Relic Room, blocking the entry with another large tree.

Izuku, Luz, Willow, and Gus were now running through the halls of the Castle.

"Why didn't you guys include us in your heist?" Gus put up an illusion, a wall of pure darkness, to spook some guards.

"You don't understand! Eda has this curse and-" Luz shouted about to get hit by a scout's spell.

Willow casted a spell, sending a monster flower to take the hit and go after that scout. "We're friends! We totally would have helped you!"

"This way!" Izuku pointed them down a hall, seeing a scout.

"Oh hey kid-!" It was Steve!

"Sorry Steve! Kinda in a hurry!"

"No problem!" Yep. Cool.

"So now what?" Gus looked out a window. "Even if we get to the front gate, it's not like we can fly!" Then gasped. "Or can we?"

"No, but we have the Beast Bell!" Izuku held it up. "I got it just in case the Healing Hat didn't work. If we use on the Owl Beast, Eda can keep it under control without the elixirs!"

Luz squealed. "Izuku, that's perfect!"

"Now we just have to make it out alive!" Willow flexed and the Green Thumb Gauntlet made a giant and extra muscular-looking tree arm.

BA-DUMP

"You wooon't."

"Belos...?" Izuku looked around, recognizing the voice.

A heart was beating loudly. Even when they covered their ears, the beating overwhelmed all other sound.

"There you are."

Izuku almost froze. Headwitch of the Emperor's Coven, standing at the end of the hall, blocking their way. She smiled, but the calm and cool nature had gained a sinister edge.

"I've been looking all over the Isles for you, Izu-" Lilith looked at Luz, and her she narrowed her eyes. "And your little friend too."

Luz put Izuku behind her. "The heist was my idea! Don't punish Izuku! Take me instead!"

"That's the plan." Lilith tapped her staff.

Blue strings of magic appearing, wrapping around Willow and Gus, focusing on their hands, pinning them to opposite walls. A swirl of blue flames surrounded Izuku and Luz with no time to escape as it formed a bubble around them.

"If you want to see your friends again-"

"NO!" The Golden Guard's voice shouted as he tripped on a bit of root still stuck to his foot. "Take them into custody!" He held up his staff.

"Or else what?" Lilith smirked, floating the bubble. "The little prodigy is going to throw a hissy fit? Wouldn't be fitting considering your position, now would it?"

Despite wearing a mask, Izuku could tell Hunter was seething underneath.

"Thought so." Lilith tapped her staff again, safely letting Willow and Gus go before her staff flew on its own, taking them with it while Lilith and Hunter began a casual walking pace, the bubble floating along.

'At that speed, it should come back by sundown,' Izuku clenched his hands to keep himself from reaching for more glyphs. When he felt warmth, he looked, seeing he was holding Luz's hand, and she was glaring daggers at Lilith. 'She needs us alive. We need to come up with a plan.' He squeezed, and Luz squeezed back. 'Somehow.'

...

...

"Weh, weehh, weh!" King held up a shabby cloth. "Behold! My masterpiece! By my mighty hand, my loyal minion shall be protected from all harm!"

"Is that a snake or a scarf?" Eda snorted. Although, for a little guy with clumsy little claws, King actually made something halfway decent.

"And I only made myself bleed three times!" Huh. What was this feeling in her chest right now?

"Hoot hoot! Something's coming this way!" Hooty shouted. "Let me get the cake ready!"

"Wait, I'm not done!" King knitted faster. "Ow!"

Eda set down the finished cloak. She stretched, cracked her back, and went to the door to welcome home her two human munchki-

"Um, Eda?" It was the Plant girl, Willow. Looking worried and wearing tree bark on her hand? The Illusion boy looked just as scared. "Something happened."

Eda looked up, seeing a flash of white along with blue, and recognized the palisman.

Curse be damned, she was pissed.

...

...

Luz had begun kicking at the bubble, though all it was doing was rolling them back and forth. The Golden Guard was pacing a tight circle around them. Lilith had placed them just inside the front entrance, most likely as bait for when Eda showed up. And if Eda used her magic-

"You aren't getting away with this!" Luz took a second to catch her breath before continuing to kick.

"Get away with what?" The Golden Guard stopped. "This is the Titan's will! Wild magic is dangerous and needs to be controlled!"

"Magic is a gift from the Titan! Differences should be celebrated, not shamed!" Luz argued.

"Don't act like you know anything about this, human!"

"Don't yell at her!" Izuku yelled.

"What!?" The Golden Guard's voice cracked. "But we had a plan!"

"You what!?" Luz looked at Izuku in shock.

"Hunter, your plan involved Humor Marriages!" Izuku shouted. "Do you really think people would be happy being matched up based on wha-wha-what? Their blood type!?"

"Bile! Type!" Hunter corrected. "You really haven't been listening, have you!?"

"Like Quirk Marriages? Only with magi-?"

BOOM!

Whatever that was had enough force to jostle the Castle around a bit.

"She's here!" Luz beamed, a fire in her eyes. "Go suck an egg, loser!"

"What-!?"

Izuku had an ice glyph, thought of Kacchan, and swung as wide as he could, the bubble bursting when the ice on his knuckles made impact.

Luz followed up with a light glyph, blinding the Golden Guard while Izuku put another ice glyph down, pinning him to the wall from the neck down to his ankles and wrists, unable to move his staff.

"Let's go!" Luz grabbed Izuku's hand, and they began running.

Izuku would like to think when he glanced at Hunter, it was to try and say sorry for the confrontation. But his eyes went to the staff, and seeing how the ice held him down tight, Izuku concluded the Golden Guard would not be a threat right now.

They went outside just in time to see Eda flying circles around Lilith, who barely blocked a blast of magic.

"Where are they?" Eda had a fury in her voice like no other.

"E-!" Luz was about to shout when Izuku shushed her, having them hide behind a spike as Lilith's staff went back to its owner. Izuku held up the fire glyph and pointed to his former mentor, who was entirely focused on Eda. Luz did a double take, smiled like a cat up to some mischief, and trotted up to Lilith as silently as she could under the cover of Eda's fiery approach.

"Your humans are sa-"

"Spicy Toss!" Luz shouted as she slapped the fire glyph on Lilith's back, sending her flying.

"Luz! Izuku!" Eda sounded relieved and dropped from her floating position, getting them both in a hug. "Huh, so that's what it feels like to give one of those."

FWOOM!

"Alright, save that for later, get behind me!" Eda levitated them so there was no debate, even creating a shield as Lilith landed across from them.

"Edalyn!" Lilith looked furious but put on a strained smile, seeing Izuku. "Your-" she hesitated, "curse. The Emperor can heal you, please, renounce your wild ways and-"

"Oh stuff it, Lilith!" Eda sent out another blast of fire. "He doesn't want to heal me! He just wants to control me! And you're no better being that tyrant's obedient little dog! Maybe I am wild," she twirled her staff, a glow of yellow-orange magic appeared along with what sounded like flames igniting. "But that just means I worked harder!"

FWWOOOOOM-HOOOOO

A rush of warmth and light exploded behind them, coming from a giant flaming owl.

"Whoa," Izuku felt like a little kid again, seeing a Pro use their power.

"I just thought of a new painting." Luz whispered alongside him.

And the fight was on with Eda striking Lilith into the sky.

From the ground, Izuku and Luz could only see two streaks of light darting and crashing into each other. It was hard to tell who was on the defensive and who was doing the chasing, but the reality was they were near most evenly matched in terms of power-OH GOD LILITH SHOT A FIRE BOLT AT THEM.

"GET DOWN!" Izuku fumbled for a glyph while Luz made some yelling sound as she did the same.

They ended up making an odd wall of vine-covered ice, their hastily made shield going up mere split seconds before the magic blast reached. At the same time, Eda had dashed down in a flash like lightning, levitating them to the other end of the bridge.

"Get out of here!" Eda restrained Lilith with some magic Hooty-things, preparing a big spell.

"But your magic-!" Luz was interrupted by a red light streaking nearby.

Izuku pushed Luz out the way, taking the brunt of the Golden Guard's dash with another ice glyph. Laws of physics still had some power, and Izuku ended up stumbling back, quickly remembering there was not a lot of space on the bridge. "AH-!"

"Izuku!" Luz barely managed to catch him before he fell and pulling him back to solid not-spike-filled ground.

The giant flame Eda had shot turned itself around, hitting the Golden Guard and sending him back into the Castle wall.

"Stop being a coward and fight me!" Eda was panting. "One on one, Lilith!"

"Can't keep up, sister?" Lilith was also looking haggard. "Is it the curse?"

"Maybe," Eda sounded strained. Izuku recognized it from their excursion with the sea goats. "But then how pathetic are you, that you can't beat me at my worst!" Creating a bigger circle, she shot fire ball after fire ball, Lilith protecting herself.

Izuku looked over his remaining glyphs, which was not very many. Two plants, a fire and a light-

"He's coming back!" Luz pointed out the Golden Guard as he began to fly by.

Izuku put two glyphs in his palm, seeing the Golden Guard to aim right for them. He took a deep breath, recalling Kacchan's posture, Hunter's timing with his magic-

"TAKE THIS!" Izuku shouted as he slapped the remaining plant glyphs onto the Golden Guard, seeing them glow and explode into a mass of roots.

"WH-AAAHHH!" The Golden Guard was weighed down until he crash-landed somewhere down in the pit of spikes.

"That should keep him down." Izuku saw his hand was shaking and clenched his fist to keep steady.

"You always thought you were better than me!" Lilith was cowering under her damaged shield, clearly waiting for an opening.

Down to fire and light. Which ones did Luz have?

"I am better than you!" Eda was not letting up on her end.

"THEN WHY WERE YOU SO EASY TO CURSE!?" Lilith shouted and it was the loudest thing he could hear.

A silence filled the air.

Lilith cursed Eda.

Lilith cursed Eda.

All of Eda's fatigue, the financial strain of the elixirs, dealing with the Owl Beast, having a child and Luz bear the burden of being the ones to put it back and keep it at bay when Eda had been overwhelmed by it. It was all Lilith.

Eda was many things. She was eccentric, maybe an alcoholic, but a good mentor. A con selling garbage but what else could she possibly do for income when the Owl Beast was just under the surface?

But Eda was never a villain.

It was Lilith.

"To be great, you have to make sacrifices," Izuku remembered her words. "You made sacrifices." Izuku hated how his voice sounded small. "To join the Emperor. You sacrificed your own sister!" And hated it more when he found his voice again.

"And-!" Lilith reached out. "And I can remove it! Please," she smiled, but her eyes were too wide and darting between the three of them, "you know I-"

"AAAUUUGGGHHH!" With an agonizing wail of fury, Eda blitzed towards Lilith, breaking her shield.

"ARGH!" The Golden Guard was back in a flash. This time, Luz used a light glyph to blind the Golden Guard while they dove out of the way.

"Get his staff!" Izuku lunged at the Golden Guard from behind, hooking the guard's arm from under in a full nelson and held on tight. "He can't use magic without it!"

"Right!" Luz was trying to pull the staff out of the guard's hands. "Sit tight, Eda! We're coming!"

Eda was using her magic to keep Lilith still. With the way her magic was flickering around Lilith, it was clear even from this distance, the strain was taking a toll on her.

Izuku pulled the Golden Guard's staff with all his might, but saw a flash of red, feeling the Golden Guard pull back-

"EDA!" Both Izuku and Luz tried to warn her when they saw the bolt of red magic go towards her.

"Huh-?"

Eda got hit in the back, knocking her down, her staff falling from her hand.

Lilith had saw her opportunity, thrusting her hand out. Blue fire wrapped around Eda before becoming a rope-like binding, with a bubble for extra measure.

"NO-!" Luz dashed straight forward. "Let her go!"

"Luz-!" Izuku gasped when he saw the Golden Guard's staff glow once more and the tip pointed towards Luz's back. "Don't you dare!" Izuku pulled again-

thwap!

And the Golden Guard took aim.

At Izuku.

fwo-boom!

Izuku was flung back. Something between a burning sensation had blasted him in the chest with the force of a punch or kick, as if he opened a hot oven and the heat physically hit him in retaliation. LIke the abomination explosion at Amity's place. Except this time, there was no clay-like sludge to provide a strange soothing coolness. The only thing there was the ache that left him shaking and heavy as he tried to pick himself up.

"Izuku!" Luz stopped just short of the bridge, almost knocked over entirely when the Golden Guard flew past her to Lilith's side.

Izuku tried to get up, but in the short moment of not moving, the adrenaline had dropped low. He could only see Lilith and the Golden Guard as the bridge began to pull away.

Lilith looked at them coldly. "Leave now and you might live long enough to go home to your families."

"You monster!" Luz tried to take another step.

"Luz-!" Izuku hissed out a wince. He looked at Lilith, seeing her smile and it twisted his gut.

ba-dump

When Izuku craned his head up further, he saw Belos looking down on them.

ba-dump

Emperor Belos turned his back. Saying nothing as he walked away.

ba-dump

ba-dump

ba-dump

The rhythmic thumping of that giant heart was still loud and clear.

"Are you okay?" Luz helped him sit up.

"I think-?" Izuku winced again, doubling over. "-! No. That's a no, ugh."

"Don't worry," Luz scooped him up in a princess-carry. "Team Night-Light sticks together!"

hooo

Luz gasped. "Owlbert!" And dropped Izuku.

thud

"Ow." Izuku groaned. He looked up at the Castle, then to Owlbert, and swore he could hear the giant heart beating again. "We need to go."

ba-dump

"Now." Izuku urged.

Luz nodded.

They hopped on Owlbert, Izuku needing a bit more help, hoping they could get some distance before any coven scouts started following them. Both of them kept glancing, waiting for the masked scouts to catch up. Izuku kept a tight grasp on his last two glyphs, fire and light. With Luz focused on flying, it was now Izuku's job to keep watch despite the pain in his chest and stomach. His breath evened out at some point, the ache lessening, and when it did, he wondered if the scouts were ever going to be coming.

But even with the Owl House in view, Izuku could still not shake the feeling someone was watching.

"Hey Izuku," Luz had a certain tone. "Wanna know what I've always wanted to try?"

"What?"

"The slide."

"The wha-?" He blinked and almost glared at her. "Luz, no."

"Luz, yes."

"No, no no! Not the slide! Anything but the slide!"

"I'mma do the slide!"

"Nonono-AH!"

They swooped down and thankfully the path ahead was clear of anything to crash into except for the house itself. Izuku braced, holding on tighter, feeling Luz do a sharp turn and pulling up slightly.

"Whoo-hooo!" Luz cheered but without wheels on the ground, their momentum continued. "Hooo-ohnotheground!"

thud/"OW!"

They laid on the ground for a moment in a pile of limbs. Just to...rest. Yeah. rest.

"Nailed it." Luz groaned.