Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In spite of the large shopping channel playing behind me, or all the different people from different dimensions surrounding me, my focus was plastered to one thing. Lying in front of me, whimpering as she slept, was the witch that saved my life, and it was my job to make sure that witch wasn’t in any distress.

Yes, you heard me right. I said witch. And I don’t mean really old mean person either, I mean there was an actual witch with magic and stuff. If you’re a bit confused, let me catch you up.

I was just chilling out in town with my ghost friend Scratch and my regular friend Libby when this really strange black goo began to spread all over the buildings and the road.

Scratch went to check it out when he got some of it on his hand. It started glitching out, shifting and going staticky and the spirit started acting really strange.

As the gunk spread throughout his body, he got this huge smile on his face. But it wasn’t a good smile. It was painful, manic. He said a few things to us, but his words stretched, jumbling like a broken tv.

That’s when Scratch leapt at Libby. He wrapped around her and squeezed her tightly while the blank gunk overtook her. I tried to pull her out but once the mystery stuff spread far enough, she tried to pull me close.

I really thought I was a goner, that I was doomed. But then a woosh of purple muck struck the two and knocked them backwards. This green haired girl jumped in front of me. Her pointy ears went flat, and her cool golden eyes glimmered in the sun.

Scratch and Libby tried to fight back but she kept pushing them farther and farther backwards. A blob of the purple mud she was controlling (with her mind!) wrestled with Scratch who was trying to morph into something strong enough to get away. A giant mud man tried to incase Libby in its grasp. The glitchy gunk crawled up its arms but it didn’t falter.

A circle appeared behind me, a portal of some kind, and someone riding a giant pink lion popped out. I know it sounds crazy but so does a witch girl with purple mud magic, and both of those things were right in front of me!

The four of us fled through the portal. It was hard to leave Libby and Scratch behind. I wanted to stay with them and find a way to help. But the girl on the lion convinced me the best way to help my two friends, and the rest of the people in town, was to find safety.

The portal led to the shopping channel I was inside now. One of my rescuers, named Connie, explained that this place was a safe spot that “the glitch” couldn’t reach and that, if it did, it was big enough for us to hide.

And then she explained the rest of what was going on.

Just like her and the witch, I was a character from a tv show, an animated one. Scratch and I were the main characters, the entire show being about our friendship. It was a lot of news to take in but, on the contrary, that news was incredible! You were meaning to tell me that Scratch and I were tv stars?! He was gonna be so stoked when I told him!

But that's where the problem came in. Nobody knew what “the glitch” was, or if there was a cure for it. And all I could do was sit around and pray we found something. In the meanwhile, we used the lion, that was from the same tv show Connie was from, to travel from channel to channel.

That’s how the witch lying next to me, Amity, was injured. She was from a show about a human exploring a world of witches, demons, and magic. The purple mud she was using to fight was called “abomination goo” which she moved around with magic coursing through her veins. While rescuing someone, the witch ended up using a lot of magic, which in turn made her really sick. It didn’t help we had to remove her left arm afterwards. It was overtaken by the glitch and we had to leave it on the tv channel we were on.

So now she was mostly unconscious, leaning on me while she tried to rest. I was keeping an eye on her for the time being as Connie and a few others discussed what to do.

There. You got all that?

“We know nothing about how witch bodies work. Who knows, a magic medicine or a potion specifically from her world might be the only way to help her. We need to go back” a blonde, named Sasha, growled.

She was very protective of Amity. The young witch was her apprentice. She taught her the art of sword combat that she learned from her world. She was the second in command to the general of an army of toad people.

And while they trained, they taught each other life lessons about how to be nicer people. They apparently both used to be the bully in their shows who one day realized how cruel they really were. They were working together to be better. It was probably one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.

An older brown-haired woman standing next to her nodded. She was also from Amity's world, but she was one of the human characters. She reminded me of my mom. They both had the same sort of motherly ferocity.

“There seems to be an organ near her heart that’s straining itself. It’s making odd sounds and Amity seems to be in pain there. I think that’s what produces the magic in her body and that failing to do so is making her ill. She probably needs some sort of magic transfusion”.

“Which means we’ll have to find magic to put in her veins,” Connie concluded. Her dark eyes fell to the ground in worry. “That doesn’t sound like an easy thing to do”.

“But we have to,” Sasha pressed. “Amity can’t stay like this forever”.

Said witch stirred at the sound of her name. Her cloudy dull eyes squinted open, though they weren’t focused on anything. She let out a moan and began to whimper.

“...Luz?” she croaked. “...Where?”.

“Luz is…away right now. But we’re here” I reassured. Amity barely reacted.

“...Molly?”.

“That’s right. It’s me, your puppy”.

Ever since she saved me, I stuck to the witch’s side. I sang her praise, rooted for her while she trained, I even asked her to show me some tricks. I’d never been a huge fan of magicians (they were just a bunch of glitzy professional liars) but Amity was no magician. She had actual powers!

Because of that, Sasha called me Amity’s “puppy”, and that sort of stuck.

Amity moaned again, this time it was a lot quieter, then shut her eyes.

“See?” Sasha spat. “We’ve got to do something before she gets worse”.

“Okay,” Connie murmured to herself before speaking. “The magic transfusion thing is just a theory. Maybe we can find a survivor that knows more about what's going on”.

“Then let’s go!” I rallied while holding my fist to my chest. “To the Witch Realm!”.

“...demon” Amity mumbled, only waking up long enough to correct me. “It’s … demon…uh…”.

The witch fell limp, more moans escaped her mouth as she started snoring.

“Alright, then…To the Demon Realm!”.

“To the Demon Realm!”.

One lion leap later, and we were in a different world. It didn’t matter how many times I’d done it before, I still got excited every time I did it. Though my excitement didn’t last very long, since the world we landed in was kinda…sort of…freaky…

We were near the top of a snowy mountain while the rest of the island Amity lived on sat below. It…had a face… a boney, eyeless face with horns. And a little up the way it had ribs, and arms and legs, and sweet baby corn, we were on a corpse, weren’t we?

No, no. That was perfectly okay. This world was supposed to be weird and I’m sure the giant everyone was living on didn’t mind the company. Still the sight gave me a bigger chill than all the snow did.

Sasha took her furry cloak off and wrapped it around Amity, who was resting on Lion’s back. The other person from this show, Camila, sat behind her, making sure she didn’t slide off.

“Don’t worry, Blight” Sasha soothed. She ruffled the witch’s minty colored hair. “We’ll find you some help”.

“So, what’s the plan?” I asked enthusiastically. “Where we goin’?”.

“We’re looking for any place someone can take shelter” Connie affirmed. “The glitch has already spread through most of the island, so it’s likely anyone who survived came up here to hide”.

“So, we’re looking for caves, or ruins?” Sasha hmmed. Her sharp blue eyes scanned her surroundings. “Where are we gonna find one of those?”.

“Lion? Do you smell anything?”.

The pink beast rose his nose up and tasted the air. He grred in response, then began to walk forwards.

“This way everyone”.

The crunches our feet made when they hit the snow drowned out the howling of the wind. I wrapped my arms around me in a desperate hug. When I had left my world, I didn’t have time to stop at my house and grab a coat. The most I had was a denim vest and tennis-shoes.

At least everyone else was warm. Connie had a blue jumpsuit she got at a space camp she was staying in, Sasha had wrappings and leather armor on, and Camila had a fall jacket.

A tap on my frozen shoulder brought my attention to my side.

“You should hop on Lion”. Sasha’s suggestion sounded more like an order. “You can use his mane to warm yourself up”.

“Nah, it’s okay” I said with a shiver. “I once stayed outside in a blizzard all because I wanted to fully utilize a snow day”.

“Fine. Then don’t help Amity warm up by giving her some of your body heat”.

Sasha didn’t fool me. I knew what she was doing. But despite me seeing past her ruse, what she was doing still worked anyway.

After I hopped onto Lion’s back, Amity stirred and looked up at me.

“...Luz?”.

Camila flinched at that name. It did belong to her daughter after all.

“Stay still, cariño” she hushed, sadness welling in her throat. “We’ll get some help for you soon”.

“Yeah” I reassured “We just gotta find it first”.

I don’t think the witch heard our response. Her attention was somewhere else entirely, if anywhere at all.

It was pretty hard not to feel bad for Amity. She was with the main character of her show, Luz, when the glitch first appeared, so I’d heard. And ever since she’d been injured all she did was mewl out for her like a sad little kitten.

Lion led us into some pine trees, their maple orange nettles clashing with the cloud white snow. The ground next to us rose into hills and then into small cliffsides. The snow turned into ragged rocks. A cave was bound to be nearby.

“Halt!”. The shredded voice made us all stop in our tracks.

“Who's there?” Sasha thundered back. “Show yourself!”.

“Show myself? You’re the one on our land”.

The blonde opened her mouth to shout back, but Connie jumped in. She made her voice sound a lot less threatening.

“We don’t mean any harm. We’re just looking for survivors. One of us is injured and we need help”.

That made the witch emerge from beside the rocky knoll. Unease quickly hit me when I saw him. The stranger looked to be straight out of a cult. He was draped in white, blending in perfectly with the surrounding, and he covered his face with a creepy golden mask.

The masked man took a good look at us before speaking again.

“You don’t look like you don’t mean any harm. You’re carrying weapons”.

“If we weren’t we would’ve been overtaken by the glitch by now” Sasha argued with a snarl. “They’re sheathed anyways”.

“The glitch”?” he echoed. “You have information on what’s going on?”.

“Yes,” Connie pressed. The tanned skinned teen took a few steps further causing the stranger to tense. “We’ll tell you everything, and in return you heal our friend”.

The stranger thought for a moment then answered with a “deal”.

“Who’s injured?” he continued.

“She’s up here” I called as I waved at him. “On the lion”.

His attention was brought to the beast in front of him. He stared at it confusedly; his caution remained but it was forced to share space with his curiosity.

“I’ve never seen a creature like this”.

“He’s not of this world,” Connie explained while rubbing the back of her neck.

“He’s not?”. The stranger looked closely at all of us. “You’re humans!”.

“Not all of us” Camila replied while propping Amity up a bit. She was practically a rag doll at that point. “She’s a witch”.

“The youngest Blight child” he gasped, while trying to hide his surprise.

“She was fighting off the glitch when she used a bunch of her magic at once,” I explained in a rush. “Now she’s super sick”.

“Magic deficiency. We should be able to help with that. Follow me”.

A little up the way the rock wall opened into the mouth of a cave. Worn and weathered pillars surrounded it, the patterns on them being wiped away by time.

“We need a healer!” the stranger called into the entrance before walking in.

Nestled into man-made crevices in the wall, a bunch of witches and demons of all different shapes and sizes took shelter from the cold. Most of them were dressed in white fur, and even the largest people there were scrawny and ruffed up.

A gray winged witch with intertwined horns squeezed from one of the crannies. They whistled out in alarm as they sprinted up to Lion. A handful of others followed them just as quickly, forming a crowd around us.

Camilia delicately handed Amity to the healer. Their feather-filled arms cushioned her slack body like a pillow full of down.

“Careful with her, Silver-wing,” a broader healer warned while she pointed to her patient's lack of an arm. “She seems to have gone through a lot recently”.

“She has,” Camila sighed. She hopped down to the ground only to be met by the large healer.

“Stay here,” he commanded. “Until she’s more stable, only the healing coven will be allowed to see her”.

“Yeah, no” Sasha scoffed assertively. “She’s not going anywhere without one of us. Camila here's our healer, so she can go with you”.

The blue, and I mean literally blue, demon looked over to the hooded man for his opinion. But before he could answer Silver-wing spoke first. She tweeted a bunch at him in reassurance, me understanding none of it.

“Okay, whatever. Let’s just get her somewhere more quiet” he grumbled in defeat after marching deeper into the cave. Silver-wing and the rest of the crowd followed, matching his pace.

“Molly,” Connie whispered once the healers were out of earshot. “Follow them. When there's any new news on Amity, come find us”.

“You got it!”. With a salute and a jump, I ran off in the same direction all of the healers went...only to find the cave split into two. And just like that I lost them.

That’s okay. All I had to do was re-find them. I went a little way down one of the paths and listened very closely for the sound of footsteps. When I didn’t hear anything I back-tracked and listened to the other pathway…uh…no. I still wasn't hear—

“You lost, cutie?”.

HOLY MOTHER OF BABY CORN!

I stumbled onto the ground and scooched back as far as I could, all while letting out a shrill scream. In response the person who called out began to laugh.

She looked very similar to Amity, who was the first thing to come to mind when I saw her. They both had the same pale skin and bright golden eyes. Though this witch was a bit older, and her hair was ten times as long and a darker green.

“Sorry for scaring you”. She offered her hand and helped me back onto my feet. “I’ve never seen you here before. Are you new?”.

“Yep” I answered. “I just got here, like a few minutes ago”.

“So, I’m guessing you haven’t found a place to stay yet? No worries. You can bunk with me for now”.

“Oh no. I’m not staying long. This isn’t my world”.

“Isn’t your world?”. The newcomer's eyes fell onto my ears. They then went wide in surprise. “You’re a human”.

“Yeah but, that's not what I mean”. As I spoke, I rubbed my arms in an attempt to warm them. The friendly witch noticed, prompting her to take off her white fur shawl.

“Here. Let’s get you warmed up”. With her arm, she led me away from the two split paths back the way I came. “My name's Emira by the way”.

“I’m Molly”. I grabbed Emira’s hand and shook it. “Molly Mcgee”.

“So, you’re not from the human realm?”.

“Well,” I drawled. Where to start? “I’m from a realm of humans, but it's not this world’s human realm. I’m from a different world, one full of ghosts”.

“We have ghosts here”.

“Yeah, but I’ve heard they’re different from the ones in my world. One of my best friends is a ghost. He and my friend Libby were overtaken by the glitch. I would’ve been too, but then a group of people from different worlds arrived and helped me escape with a portal”.

Emira nodded her head coolly. She was surprisingly understanding about the whole ordeal.

“You…believe me? Like, you totally accept everything I’m saying?”. I asked, a bit baffled.

“It makes sense,” she calmly answered. “There are thousands of realms out there, each their own world. And there's a portal between this realm and the human realm. Who’s to say there isn’t more?”.

“Well, I guess you guys are a lot more used to weird stuff”.

“Nah,” Emira chuckled. “You guys just think everything is weird, though Luz seemed to have gotten used to it pretty fast”.

"You knew Luz?”. My question surprised her a little bit.

“Yeah. She was a good friend of my sister”. The mention of said sibling drained the joy out of the witch. “She wanted to ask her out to Grom, a dance our school was throwing, but she never got the chance. They’d run off into the woods when that black muck started spreading. When my brother and I saw Luz again, she was covered in it and her body started glitching like some broken illusion”.

“Good friend of Luz…school dance…out in the woods…” I mumbled while connecting the dots. “What was your sister's name?”.

“Amity. Why?”.

Bingo!

“Oh my gosh!” I shouted out with a happy jump in the air. “Do I have some news for you!”.

Emira caught my excitement. Her ears perked up like a dog and the life had returned back into her eyes.

“Is it about Amity? Do you know something?”.

“Only that she’s with us now and is currently in this very cave!”.

With ninja-like reflexes, the excited sister pulled me closer to her and stared me straight in the eyes.

“This is no joke? You’re serious?”.

I nodded up and down with a silent, “uh huh”.

“Take me to her”.

“Trust me,” I laughed nervously. “I really want to, but I don’t know which tunnel they took her down”.

“They?”.

“The healers”.

Without another word, Emira snatched my wrist and hauled me back to where she first found me and down the left tunnel. I was scrambling to keep up with her. Darn, that witch was fast!

We both slid to stop in front of a curtain made of pine nettles. As she braced herself for what she saw on the other side, Emira crept up and delicately pushed through it. I couldn’t help but peek in with her. Connie had asked me to keep an eye on her anyways.

Everyone’s attention fell on us, including Amity who was more awake than she was the last time I’d seen her. She was now sitting up in the middle of the circle of healers, staring like a deer in headlights.

“Mittens?” Her sister gasped. I had to hold in a giggle. What did she just call her?

“Em?” Amity rasped back. She tried to struggle her way to her feet but everyone around her held her down. Her sister closed the space between them instead with two giant leaps.

The two crashed into a hug. She wasn’t able to hold onto her very tightly, but Amity clung to Emira as if she was a life preserver in the middle of water. Emira was just as afraid to let go. If she could’ve, she probably would’ve held her baby sister for hours.

The sight of tears dripping down Amity’s face was heart melting, yet also odd. For as long as I’d know her at least, the witch always acted all stoic and heroic. Just goes to show how special that moment really was for her.

I felt her. I was crying too, and I wasn’t the one who was just reunited with her sister.

“Mittens,”. The older sibling was barely able to speak past her sob. “I thought you were gone!”.

“I thought you were gone!” Amity replied through her own weeping. “How did you escape?”.

“How did YOU escape?”. Before Amity could answer, Emira went on. “You went through a portal with people from another world?”.

“How’d you know?” the younger witch questioned, partially dumbfounded.

“Molly kind of already told me”. My magical friend took a second to glance at me. I waved back at her.

“I see you’ve met my puppy” she murmured before her focus fully went back to Emira. “Your turn. How did you make it out of Bonesburrow?”.

“Ed and I were at the back of the pack when everyone followed you and Luz into the woods. By the time we got there, everyone was already being affected by that sludge and you were nowhere in sight. When we couldn’t find you, we were both going to run for it but Ed…Edric saw Luz and wanted to help her. He…I was able to escape, but he wasn’t”. With all her strength, Amity squeezed her sister even tighter. Once she noticed, Emira quickly shushed the other witch and rubbed her back.

“I know, Mittens. I miss him too”.

It was at that moment Emira noticed Amity’s missing arm. She jumped back at the sight like she’d just seen a huge spider. (Or maybe witches like spiders? Who knows?).

“Mother titan! What happened to you?”.

“I…don’t quite remember any details. It’s all really fuzzy. We were in Amphibia, right?”.

“Sasha’s friend, Anne, turned all blue on us and attacked,” I explained. “You were able to hold her back long enough for the survivors we found to escape, but the glitch overtook your arm”.

“We had no choice but to amputate it,” Camila continued. “I’m so sorry”.

“That's…okay” Amity sighed after a second to think. “Once I learn how to, I should be able to make a new one with abomination goo”.

“Well as soon as you get better, we’ll start training again. I’m sure that’ll give us enough time to catch up”.

I could just hear Sasha yelling at Emira. She may have been Amity’s sister, but Sasha was her mentor. She’s the one who handled her training.

“We’ll have to spend a few days here” Camila stated when she turned to me. “It has something to do with magic and “the knee”?”.

“Right. I almost forgot we're on a carcass right now”.

“The knee is the most magic-filled place on the titan” the blue healer from earlier confirmed. “It’ll give her bile sack a nice boost while we refill it with magic”.

“So she doesn’t need a magic transfusion then” I conclude.

“No, she will. But that's something we can do”.

For the first time in our entire visit, I was able to relax. Amity was going to be okay, and we didn’t have to fight off hoards to help heal her.

“I’ll go tell Connie and Sasha the news” I said as I pushed the nettle wall aside. “They’re gonna be so excited”.

…

“Good morning, Amity” I called while I pushed through the nettle wall.

I tossed a weird dinosaur-esc lizard to the waking witch. I thought it looked kind of cute, in a creepy way. Amity on the other hand, apparently thought it looked appetizing.

“Morning,” she yawned before taking a bite of her breakfast. She looked around, growing a bit confused. “Where is everyone”.

“Oh, you know. They’re all gathered near the cave entrance waiting to leave” I enthusiastically purred.

“Waiting to leave?” she repeated.

“Yep. We’re all going back to the shopping channel today!”. Despite how excited I was by the news, the greenette sunk.

“You mean we’re leaving the isles?”. She sighed. “Just when I was starting to feel at home again”.

“Hey,” I encouraged. “At least we’ll be safer”.

“I guess,” Amity mumbled. “When are we leaving?”.

“Whenever you’re ready”.

The witch rose to her feet, obviously feeling much better than a few days prior. After stretching, she headed towards me.

“I’m ready. Let’s go”.

The walk to the mouth of the cave went a lot quicker for Amity than it did for me. I could tell that, with each step, she tried to soak in the magic of the knee as much as she could.

“Is living in the shopping channel really that bad? Like, does it hurt?”.

“It doesn’t hurt,” Amity admitted after swallowing a bite of lizard. “It just feels…wrong, like I don’t have as much energy”.

“Well, you’ve gotten used to it once, and you don’t seem like you’re very weak”.

“Thanks, Molly,” my friend chuckled. “But I’m still going to miss this place”.

“If it helps, I really miss my home too…But we’ll get to go back once we figure things out, right?”.

Amity couldn’t bring herself to agree, so she just smiled sadly at me instead. I didn’t blame her for not having any hope. Like I said, we had no clue exactly what caused the glitch, so we weren’t anywhere close to finding out how to stop it. And we had no idea if the effects could ever be fixed.

The only thing we could do is stay positive. We’d definitely never find the cure if we never tried to.

“Morning, Mittens” Emira hollered when she spotted us up the way. She pranced up to her sister, giving her a quick side hug. “How are you feeling?”.

“Much better. I finally think I’m back to my old self again”.

“You still shouldn’t over do anything. Take a few more days to rest”.

“You’re sisters right, Blight”. From over where the masked man, who we found out was called the Golden Guard, stood, Sasha walked over to the three of us. The blonde rested her hand on Amity’s shoulder. “No missions until you’re one hundred percent”.

“And no training, either.” the older witch added, making Sasha scowl. “I know you want to start working on your magic more, but you need to take it easy”.

My fellow human wasn’t exactly sure if she liked her yet, and just like I thought she would, she wasn’t happy about sharing Amity’s training. Yet she said nothing. Despite her obvious bit of jealousy, she didn’t want to upset her apprentice.

“Everyone!”. The yowl stopped all the conversations around us. Everybody turned their attention to the Golden Guard. “As you all know, the humans who’ve been staying with us have access to a portal to somewhere safer. They will send you through in groups on this liger-like beast here”.

At the attention, Lion simply groomed his forearm. His chest fur puffed out a bit as he straightened his posture.

Everyone was led outside and paired into groups of four. Each group would hop onto Lion’s back, and he would jump back and forth from here to the shopping channel. It would take a lot of energy from the feline, but he was up for it.

In the meanwhile, Sasha, Connie, and I stood guard. Every witch and demon there were able to defend themselves. They all had some sort of magical ability. But they needed to focus on escaping, and we had more experience dealing with the glitch.

Everything was going surprisingly smoothly. In fact, so had the last couple days. We hadn’t seen any sign of anyone overtaken by the glitch and…oh gosh. I just had to say something.

From the corner of my eye, I spotted Emira creeping towards a cluster of pine trees. She stepped carefully and quietly. Her gaze wouldn’t leave the shadows they casted.

She nearly made it into the pines, but something quickly mulled her to the ground. The cry Emira let out was cut off by her terror. The thing that knocked her over left her breathless.

A witch that looked even more like Emira then Amity did held her down by her throat. His eyes were strained wide in his madness. His face was contorted, his smile twisting like a wriggling snake. Tons of stray pixels scattered around his entire body but were more prominent in the black slime seeping from his plain white eyes and his fang filled mouth. Parts of his body shifted back and forth, making his body look distorted.

If I hazard a guess, Emira and Amity’s brother, the one who was overtaken by the glitch at the school dance, was here for a family reunion.

Unlike his two sisters, he wasn’t in anything you’d wear to a dance, at least not anything a human would. He was decked out in a warm coat lined with fur. His earmuffs were also covered in fluff, warming his elf-like ears.

He began to laugh at the sight of his twin, the glitch making it more sound like howling. His sister's ear fell flat against her head. Her shivering from the cold turned into quivering in fear.

“Edric?!” I heard Amity cry in shock before she quickly shot past me.

As she ran, she drew a big circle of magic in the air. From the ground next to him, abomination goo sprang up. It formed a large hand around Edric that flung him off his foe. It then morphed into a giant abomination man that stood strong in front of Emira.

That giant figure was instantly torn apart by a bolt of electricity from behind. Another two people sprang out, over the three siblings' heads. One had skin as white as the snow on the ground and towered over the three children. The other was smaller. Scraggly brown hair poked out from under the furry hat she had on.

The latter made Amity freeze. I’d never seen someone so petrified. She squeezed her eyes closed, refusing to look at the person in front of her.

She then shook her fear off as she shook her head.

“I’m sorry, Luz”.

Amity leapt forwards towards Luz, another abomination man rising from behind her. That threw everyone into action.

Edric twirled his finger and made a dozen copies of himself appear; each one being covered with the glitch. Emira made copies of her own that masterfully weaved around all of Edric’s distractions. Just like their appearances, Emira matched Edric’s attacks almost perfectly.

Yet the closer she got to the real Edric, the sloppier her attacks got. The shape her brother was in made her slowly crumble on the inside, and that made her copies start to crumble on the outside.

The larger woman pulled out a wooden staff from thin air. She hopped onto it, balancing like a witch did on a broom, and flew high into the sky. Sasha and Connie raced out to meet her.

“Molly!” Sasha shouted while pulling out her two long swords. Connie pulled out a large pink sword of her own. “Help everyone onto Lion. We’ve got this”.

Long tube-like owl statues began to dart out of the ground. The expertly trained fighters sliced at them. They failed to cut them very much, but they were both able to climb up them. The two bounced around the older witch’s huge blasts of power, leaping from pillar to pillar.

Connie was finally able to reach the witch’s staff. As she pulled herself up it wobbled back and forth, struggling to balance the two's weight.

When Sasha grabbed the staff from a little wooden owl on the other side, all three of them plummeted to the ground. In mid fall the blonde grabbed the witch, careful not to hold onto her for too long, and shoved her downwards even more.

They all tumbled in the snow, Sasha and Connie being quicker to their feet. They both lunged at their enemy only to be stopped by the ground folding over them. They had lost their opportunity to attack the powerful being and were forced to continue to dance around her attacks.

Amity threw hit after hit at Luz, but the human kept dodging. From what Amity had said Luz only knew a few spells that she performed by drawing on pieces of paper. But now she was summoning plants, lighting stuff on fire, building large barriers with ice. Yes, she was still doing it with paper but that seemed like a lot more than a few simple spells.

While the two tangoed, the Golden Guard teleported around them in rushes of yellow magic. He got a few hits on Luz himself, but he too was struggling.

“Go help Molly,” Amity shouted while dodging some vines.

“You’re overworking yourself! You just–!”.

“GO!”. That strong shout was enough to send the Golden Guard towards me.

I was frantically trying to keep everyone’s attention away from the fight and towards getting to safety. I practically had to push every single person onto Lion's back. Luckily, the help from the Golden Guard was all I needed. The masked witch’s assertive shouting captured everyone's focus and made the line move a lot smoother.

In the meanwhile, my focus began to shift around the battlefield. When my eyes hit Emira, my heart jumped. Her brother had once again caught her by her neck and was harshly slamming her against the tree behind her. Her eyes struggled not to roll backwards while she repeatedly blacked out.

I did the only thing I could do. To distract him, I threw a snowball at the back of his head. And in response he…he fell to the ground!

He hit the snow beneath him with a grunt. His body glitched a few times before the coat he was in turned into a red vest. His earmuffs disappeared and a glowing green book appeared in his hands.

The sight shocked Emira even more than it shocked me. Her golden eyes filled with familiarity as something clicked.

“The library! It thinks he’s back at the library during the wailing star!”.

I scooped more snow into my frostbitten hands and hurtled snowball after snowball at Edric. My attack pinned him to the ground. All he could do was lay there holding the book in front of his face. Every once and a while snowballs, also glowing green, launched from the pages, but it was easy to dodge.

Amity noticed what was happening and got an idea of her own. She was finally able to reach Luz long enough for her to pin the human down with her knees. The abomination goo around her flew into her remaining hand and morphed into a twisted dagger. She held it right above Luz’s chest, causing her old friend to glitch into a different time. She was suddenly covered in abomination matter; her eyes open as wide as they could while she braced herself for when the knife came down.

While she was stuck like that, Amity jumped off of her and slipped behind the more powerful witch. Sasha was able to slice open her arm, which the Blight took as an opportunity to strike.

She wrapped her arms around her and yelled, “Parallel arm thing!”.

The older woman froze, glitching just like Edric and Luz did. She twitched into a raggedy red dress and went rigid in confusion. Amity quickly backed away, allowing her two allies to quickly restrain her hands and feet.

Finally the last few people hopped on Lion’s back and jumped into the portal. The golden guard watched them go, then began to shout.

“Let’s go!”.

In unison, we all raced to Lion. We climbed onto his back, pulling each other up in process, prompting the large cat to break out into a run.

“Come on, Lion. Just one more jump!” Connie encouraged before Lion sprang up into the air.

Then it was over. It took me a second to realize it, but it was over.

We’d won! Everyone was safe!

I let out a cheer while sliding off of Lion, then did a small victory dance when I hit the ground. I turned to share my celebration with the others to find that Amity was buried deep into Emira’s arms.

The older of the two siblings failed to hide her tears. The younger tried her best to support her while holding back her own.

“He…I…Is…”. Emira wanted to speak, she had so many questions. But her words jumbled into shocked stammering.

There was a moment of silence. Everyone stared on in concern while the two of them cried. Then Connie spoke up.

“Alright everyone” she called. “If you follow me over here, we can get you guys settled in”.

As all of the survivors left with Connie, I strayed behind a bit. I was hesitant to leave the sisters alone, though that’s what they probably needed.

“Molly?”. Emira’s voice stopped me right as I was turning around. “You said Mittens here saved you from the glitch?”.

“Uh…yep. She did that alright”.

“Can you tell me about it?”.

My gaze shifted to Amity, to see if she was okay with it. She simply looked back at me with wide tear-filled eyes, patiently waiting for my answer.

“Well, it all started when I was hanging out with my ghost friend Scratch, and my regular friend Libby”.

Chapter Text

My pounding footsteps echoed my pounding heart. Twigs snapped beneath me but I couldn’t hear it. The shouting of my many worried thoughts drowned any other noise out.

They fueled me, filling me with a fiery adrenaline that flung me forwards. Whatever cowardice I had earlier that day was gone. It was bad enough I wasn’t brave enough to face the nightmare creature principal Bump assigned to me, but then Luz of all people had to be the one to take my place. She wasn’t ready, both her and I knew that, yet she braved the beast anyways so my deepest fear wouldn’t be revealed.

It was embarrassing to say the least. Had the entire school seen Grom reject my proposal, I would become a laughingstock. And if Luz had seen it, who knew how she would feel afterwards? She was my only friend, one of the only people who actually cared about me. If she found out I wanted to ask her out and she didn’t feel the same way, it could’ve ruined our friendship!

But sparing my reputation and feelings wasn’t worth Luz getting hurt! Nothing was! I had to stop Grom from tormenting her, by any means necessary!

So out into the woods I ran. Luz had been chased by Grom into them after it turned into a monstrous form of her mother. It constantly cried out for Luz’s attention while the human cried out for help, the sounds making a trail for me to follow.

Luz’s mentor, the owl lady, was racing alongside me. When she had first heard that Luz was going to take my place in that night’s battle, she was both scared and livid. Yet she let her apprentice try, knowing that she’d be there to keep an eye on her. We didn’t discuss any plans, we didn’t have time to, but we both knew what to do. She would swoop in and carry Luz away from Grom, while I would finally pay my dues and face him.

We exploded out of the brush, into a clearing near the edge of a cliff. The only thing there was Grom, who had spread its sludge all over. It looked way different from the black gunk that normally made up the scary creature. It was littered with glitching squares of every color and it was all statically like a falty illusion.

Grom had morphed into a creepy distorted version of Luz with wide plain white eyes. The smile on her face was not the precious grin I knew. It was forced by some type of mania.

And the real Luz? She was nowhere in sight. Her disappearance made my heart jolt to a stop while it threw the owl lady into action. She leapt to the edge of the cliff, staring down at the depths in search of her apprentice. I, on the other hand, bounded out in front of Grom with my tiny fangs bared.

“A–A–AMI–I—ITY–Y!”. Its call was just as broken as its appearance, sounding like a cracked crystal ball.

“It’s over, Grom” I snarled back. “I’m done being a coward!”.

“A–A–MI–ITY! O—OO–VER HE–R–E!”.

I did as Grom asked. I shot towards it, ready to summon a large abomination to beat it into the ground. But the nightmare creature also rushed forwards. It latched onto my arms and pinned them to my chest. The twisted smile on its face grew deeper. It was a wonder how its jaw didn’t snap in two.

The glitching sludge on its arms quickly spread up mine. My body began to twitch as it sucked me into its clutches. I tried to lurch away, but Grom wouldn’t let go. His hold on me was way too tight.

“Eda!” I called out. “Help me!”.

I was barely able to glance over at the owl lady. Feathers now covered her sludge covered body, which she was trying to scrape off with her long talon like nails. One of her eyes had turned white, while the left side of her mouth cracked into the twisted grin Grom had.

Wait?! That meant…

“Luz?” I whimpered, causing the possessed human to laugh. “Luz! Please! You’ve got to snap out of it!”.

The human’s howling was drowned out by a whooshing noise and a thunderous growl. From behind me, a pink blade snagged Luz’s nose, slicing it open. I fell to the ground, all the gunk on me slowly seeped back off of me.

I was hoisted off the ground by a darker skinned witch dressed in a blue jumper. The moonlight lit up the courage in her brown eyes, her posture professionally rigid and ready for the next attack.

Beside her stood a furry pink beast with a thick fluffy mane. His smaller rounded ears flattened against his head while his white fangs gave off a dangerous warning.

“Bli—igh–ight!” the owl lady cried from behind. The glitchy substance had nearly overtaken her. “He—re”.

She pulled a suitcase from her shaggy gray hair then took off the small key hanging from her neck. She tossed them both to me. Her one golden eye begged me to take them.

“Get t–t—to the hu–man re–re–realm! Y–you’ll b–e–be sa—FE—THE–”. The older witch let out one more owl-like screech before she fell to the ground. The staticy gunk swallowed her whole, finishing her horrifying transformation.

The owl lady resubmerged from the sludge. The broken sound she made sent an army of chills up my back.

“Human realm?” the stranger behind me asked. “There's more than just one world here?!”.

“Yes!” I shouted back. “This key can take us there!”.

As I spoked, Eda summoned her staff. She raised it high into the air, then slammed its end into the ground. A ton of sparks traveled across the grass like snakes, all of them contaminated with the glitchy stuff that overtook her.

With the speed of a serpent, I pressed the eye in the middle of the key, causing the suitcase to fly into the air and turn into a door. Before Eda’s attack could hit the three of us, I grabbed the stranger and pulled her through the portal. Her pink pet quickly followed her, just barely missing getting hit.

The three of us collapsed onto the green grass below us, the sound of crickets being a sharp contrast to the commotion we had just left. All three of us were quick to our feet, my experience of training with the head covenness kicking in.

My battle instincts then faded away. The sight of my surroundings left me speechless. Everything looked so similar yet so different. Yes, there were trees and stars, but the leaves weren’t red at all, and the sky was a different color. Was this really what the human realm looked like?

“Are you alright?” the stranger asked in a rush.

“I’m fine” I replied habitually.

“Good, because we need to keep moving”. The younger witch instantly started marching forwards, her pace as fast as a rat-worm. As I traveled with her, I couldn’t keep my eyes in the same place. There were just so many new things all around me.

“Right. I know a human who’s from close to here. If we find her mother, she may help us out”.

“Do you know where she lives?”.

“No. This is my first time in the human realm”. My answer made my rescuer curse under her breath.

“We need to find as many people as we can before the glitch takes over this entire place”.

“It’s here too?! How do you know?!”. My eyes finally glanced over at the strangers' ears. Unlike mine, they were round. She was human!

“I’ll explain everything later. For now, keep your eyes out for anyone we can find”.

The forest cleared into a quiet town. It looked even odder than the woodland. There was a large black pathway with yellow lines painted on it surrounded by a bunch of houses. In front of each of them this hard-shelled monster rested, deep in sleep despite “the glitch” latching onto them.

The dangerous muck was everywhere! It curled out of every nook and cranny, swallowing the town whole! In the meantime, there was not a single soul in sight. The street was completely empty.

A yowl quickly proved me wrong. Over in the distance, near a small two floored house, a middle-aged woman was swinging a red bat at a wave of glitch reaching out for her. When we began running towards her, she noticed us. She closed the gap between us as fast as she could.

“¡Dios mío!(My God) Children!”. She shoved her way in between us and the large cat-like creature. She trembled in fear, yet she stood tall.

Those words. She spoke the same weird language Luz did. And she looked a lot like Luz too, same caramel colored skin and brown eyes and hair. Could this have been who I thought it was?

“It’s okay!” the younger stranger urged as she pulled the other human backwards. “Lions with us!”.

Lion let out a gruff in response to that. He stepped closer before crouching onto his stomach. My rescuer hopped onto his back, offering us her hand.

“Get on! Quick!”.

I did as she said, but the older human stayed on the ground.

“But that’s a lion!”.

“Is he scarier than that?”. The girl on the “lion” pointed towards the glitch creeping up behind us. “Now, let’s go!”.

I helped tug the older human onto Lion’s back. As soon as she was fully up, the large cat broke into a sprint. He let out a roar that sent soundwaves in front of us. They all bunched together and made a glowing blue hole in the air that he swiftly jumped into.

We slid to a halt on a smooth white surface. In front of us a giant, and I really do mean giant, window let rays of sunlight in. Across the way a man a thousand times my size stood in front of a table full of pots and pans.

“Are we in an infomercial?” the woman behind me questioned as she took in her surroundings.

“Yeah” the other human answered hesitantly. “There's a lot I need to tell you”.

We all slid off of Lion onto a counter as big as the titan themself. As we headed towards what looked like a huge toaster oven, the stranger started to introduce herself.

“I’m Connie, and this big guy here is Lion”. Lion gruffed a hello.

“He sure is…pink” the older woman beside me laughed nervously.

“That’s because he’s not really what you call a normal lion. He’s magical, if you couldn’t already tell”.

“Magical?” I repeated. “So, he’s not from the human realm like you are?”.

“He’s not from either, and neither am I. We’re both from a different dimension”.

“Like the multiverse theory?!”. The bigger stranger’s voice cracked in confusion.

“Kind of”. Connie slowed her pace. Her welcoming smile shattered. “I know this sounds really odd but... we all...sort of... actually live inside tv shows”.

The news genuinely shocked the older human. She did a double take. She looked over at the giant salesperson then back over at Connie, her denial trying to shove her away from the conclusion.

I, on the other hand, didn't know what that meant.

“What’s a tv?”.

“It’s a device that shows movies or shows,” Connie explained, hurt lining her voice. “They’re like plays but you can watch them whenever you want”.

“Like a crystal ball?! You’re telling me we’re in a human crystal ball right now?!”.

“I know it sounds weird, but it’s true”. The younger human was practically begging us to believe her. “You two are from an animated tv show, just like I am. I don’t know what it’s about but I’m guessing it has something to do with a human that goes to a magical world”.

“You mean Luz?”. My question brought a brand-new panic to the other woman, the words making her recoil.

“You know Luz? Do you know where she is? Is she safe?!”.

“Luz is in my world…she…she”. I gazed over at Connie, silently asking for help, but her attention was elsewhere.

Someone was approaching us, a very tall blonde in leather. Behind her was a weird pink frog looking creature. Despite how strong his hops were, he had a hard time keeping up with the girl.

“Sasha!” he unsuccessfully called out. “You’re supposed to be resting”.

“Shut it!” She snapped. “I was Captain Grime’s second in command. I can handle a little battle wound”.

When the stubborn soldier finally reached us, her blue eyes moved to Connie, then to me and the other stranger.

“These two were the only people you could save?”.

“Just like everywhere else, the glitch spread quickly there. And on top of that, a lot of the people affected were witches who have magic. Things got twice as dangerous very fast”.

“Don’t people have magic powers in your world?” Sasha prodded.

“The gems were dangerous enough,” Connie sighed back. “But the witch that confronted us looked to be as powerful as the diamonds”.

“That was Eda” I piped in. “She’s one of the most powerful criminals on the isles. She’s usually nice but that glitchy stuff changed her”.

“What was that stuff? What is it doing to everyone?” the older woman asked.

“We don’t know,” Connie uttered. “But it’s been going from channel to channel and consuming every show that airs on it. It reached your channel a few days ago, Sasha and Sprig’s world was the first one we were able to catch”.

“Does that mean it’s going to spread through the entire isles?! But what about everyone else?! What about my family?!”. My shock turned my many questions into shouting.

“What about my daughter?! I can’t just leave her there?! We need to save her?!” the older woman added, just as frantic.

Connie grimaced, her heartache radiating off of her like heat off a fire. It took a lot of strength for her to face the stranger.

“You’re Luz’s mother, right?”.

“Yes! Have you seen her?!”.

“We have, but…” the smaller human took a deep breath. “I’m afraid it’s too late for her”.

Mrs. Noceda’s eyes grew so wide, tears spilled out of them. She shivered like she was left out in the snow. I could only imagine the anguish she was feeling. According to Luz she tried to send her to this thing called a “summer camp”. To find out her child not only went to another world instead but that she was also overtaken by some weird glitch substance must’ve been agonizing.

“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Noceda” I murmured, sorrow hanging on my throat. “I tried to help her but by the time we found the clearing she was in, the glitch had already gotten her”.

When Luz’s mother saw the few tears run down my face, she forced down her despair enough to comfort me.

“Silencio, cariño (Hush, sweetie)” she sniveled as she grabbed my shoulder. “It’s not your fault”.

“I should’ve never traded places with her” I went on. “Now she’s gone, all because I was scared of Grom”.

“Don’t say stuff like that” Sprig pressed. “It’s not your fault the glitch came”.

“But it’s still not fair!” My howl rang through the air, the welling pain in my chest doubling. “Luz has to be the greatest person I’ve ever met, yet she didn’t make it! But me, the hellhound that’s been nothing but a huge bully for the last seven years, escaped without a scratch! Why’d it have to be her! Why couldn’t she be the one who got rescued!”.

Connie opened her mouth to say something but stopped when Sasha held her arm up.

“I’ll handle this”.

Connie and Sprig both decided to give the two of us our space. The former grabbed Luz’s mother by the hand and gently led the grief-stricken human further towards the giant toaster oven. The latter hopped beside her, the frog trying his best to comfort her.

“Alright” she sighed once the three were out of ear shot. “I see you’ve got some survivor's guilt”.

“No. I think it’s more than that” I replied. “I have a lot to feel guilty about”.

“Me too”. Sasha’s voice grew surprisingly soft. The fire in her sharp blue eyes dimmed. “Before the glitch hit, I’d just betrayed the king trying to help me and my friends back home. I thought they’d want to stay with me, to rule Amphibia together, but one of them got super angry about it. We got into a pretty bad fight and I sent her to the castle’s dungeon. Then the next time I saw her she was trying to keep the frog family that adopted her safe. She handed them over to me, asked us to protect each other and…that was it”.

I stayed quiet for a moment, my despondency turning into pity. At least Luz and I got to reconcile before the glitch came. Had it come earlier, like the morning after the wailing star passed, I don’t know if I’d ever be able to forgive myself.

“I’m sorry” I uttered quietly.

“Yeah. So am I, but I can’t let it get in my way. I promised Anne that I would take care of those frogs and that's what I’m gonna do”. Sasha noticed my wide-eyed gawk and returned it with an encouraging smile. “I don’t know the bad things you’ve done, but I do know that you can’t let them stop you. Then you’d never change”.

Her words made memories stir. Just like Sasha, I had made a promise of my own before the glitch attacked. The night of the wailing star, the night Luz had saved me from a monstrous version of a children's book character (don’t ask), I had promised her that I would try to be a nicer witch. I couldn’t break that promise just because Luz was gone. I had to keep going, if not for me then for her.

“You’re right,” I admitted after taking a deep breath. “I can’t waste this opportunity. Luz wouldn’t want me to”.

“Connie says you have magic,” Sasha hmmed, trying to take the conversation to a better place. “That might come in handy during rescues”.

“Er…yeah” I responded feeling a bit awkward. Magic was a common thing in the demon realm, but in the human realm any magic at all would be pretty rare. “I was actually the top of my class, and I studied under the second in command of the emperor”.

“Mind showing me what you got?”.

“What?”.

Sasha took a few steps backwards, her stance growing daringly strong.

“Come at me, witch”.

At first, I hesitated. Sasha was a human, and human bodies were a lot easier to damage than a witch’s. But then again, she was also a soldier. She couldn’t have been that fragile if she was able to rise up the ranks of an army of a different world. I was still careful. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I didn’t want to look weak either.

I launched towards Sasha, drawing a spell circle in the meantime. Platforms of abomination sludge lifted into the air as I leapt from one to another. Once I was over the human’s head, I finally dove back down. The steppingstones I made turned to sharp spears that careened towards the ground with me. While I landed graceful on my feet, the sharp pikes formed a circle around my target.

“Very nice” Sasha praised while looking closely at one of the spears. “But this can’t be the best you’ve got. I can tell”.

“Do you wanna see more?”. Titan! Why was my voice so breathy? Did that tiny trick really take that much out of me?

While on the isles, the magic in the air made it easier to cast larger spells. But this wasn’t the isles. This was a place void of magic. The only magic I could use was in my bile sack, which I also needed for my body to function.

Note to self: take it easy on the magic.

“Not now” Sasha said once I made the abomination bars crumble. “You look pretty tired”.

“Sorry, that spell usually doesn’t take that much out of me”.

“Don’t apologize. You just got driven from your home. Of course, you're gonna be worn out” Sasha began to walk towards the toaster oven once again, motioning me to follow her. “Wanna pick this up later tonight?”.

“Yeah. It might help take my mind off things”.

…

“Blight”. Sasha’s call broke me out of my conversation.

Mrs. Camila and a few other humans were explaining a few things about the human realm to me, Sprigg, and his family, like what that thing outside of all the houses were and how they were able to survive in a world filled with giraffes. Each of their human realms were slightly different. One human claimed her two brothers were able to build a whole roller coaster in a day while Camila said that it took construction workers ten years to build a simple on-ramp.

Don’t ask me what an “on-ramp” is. Despite the explanation I still had no clue what they were talking about.

Connie was with the taller blonde. Her deep stare relayed a sense of urgency.

“Sasha tells me you're pretty a good fighter”.

“Well, I was trained by—”.

“No time for that” Connie broke in. “Do you think you could help us with this rescue mission?”.

“I…I…”. The thought alone made me stammer in fear. They wanted me to go to another world and fight the thing that nearly killed me the day before?

“Com’ on, Blight. I know you’re ready” Sasha roused. “I’ll be with you the whole time”.

“You’re going too?” Sprig joined in. “But you’re still injured!”.

Sprig’s grandpa, Hop Pop nodded his head in agreement. He sat up a bit, on the edge of the abomination stool I made for him.

“The boy’s right. You don’t want that wound on your side breaking open”.

“How many times do I have to say it? I’m fine!” Sasha groaned with a roll of her eyes. She quickly turned towards Connie, her irritation itching like a fairy bite. “Let’s go”.

“No, frog darn it!” Sprig yowled, his voice slightly cracking. “The last thing Anne told us was to take care of each other, and I’m not going to allow her friend to die just because she wants to act tough!”.

“And what are you going to do to stop me?”.

“What part of “there's no time” don’t you guys get?”. The strength in Connie's voice matched that of a coven head. “Sasha, you sit out on this one! And Amity, you’re with me!”.

The human gave me no time to respond. She whistled for Lion and, before I knew it, we were both on his back. He took us to another version of the human realm, another quiet town with the strange black pathways. Those monsters, which I found out were called cars, were lined up on the side of it.

And just like our world’s human realm, it was also being slowly swallowed by the glitch.

“Find as many people as you can and meet me back here” Connie ordered. “Move quickly”.

“Right!” I affirmed, while I flicked my ear in acknowledgement. I raced away in the opposite direction, running as fast as I possibly could.

It wasn’t a few moments later that I suddenly heard screaming. Around the corner, a glitched girl had another kid in her grasp, slowly pulling her closer and closer. A phantom hung over them, also overtaken by the glitch. His choppy unnatural laugh was bone chilling.

With a simple spell circle, I sent a giant chunk of abomination matter straight into the spirit. In the meanwhile, an abomination golem rose from the road and shoved the young human away from her afflicted friend.

I slid to a halt in front of her, my golden eyes quickly glancing behind me to see if she was alright. What I saw made my heart skip a beat.

The mix of terror and complete awe on her face lit up something inside of me. I’d seen it before, many times on my adventures with Luz. But seeing it right then brought me back to the isles, back to Luz's short-lived fight with Grom.

My poor heart melted. The light in her bright brown eyes reminded me of the light of my life, and the vow I made to her.

I couldn’t save Luz, that fact was never going to change, but I could save this human. I was bound and determined too.

I helped the human rise to her feet before dragging her into a sprint. And, as I did so, I made another promise, one I was going to keep.

“Stay close, human. I’ll keep you safe”.

Chapter Text

“Don’t back down, Blight” I barked as I pressed my dagger against the younger witch’s blade. “All comebacks start at the bottom”.

“Give me a moment” Amity snarled back, showing off those small cat-like fangs of hers.

“This is war, soldier. You don’t have a mo–”.

With a yowl, the greenette slammed her foot into my knee, causing me to rear back, then slashed her abomination sword towards my face. Stunned, I fell backwards onto the ground, the sharp edge swiping away the present and throwing me into a recent memory.

For a second, just a split second, I saw my old friend Anne staring back at me. The branch in her scraggly nest of hair looked like a sturdy antler of a battle worn stag. Her deep brown eyes shone with fury, the honor radiating off her fiery.

Before the three of us were trapped in the magical frog world known as Amphibia, you would have never seen the teen look so valiant. God so much had changed in such a small time.

I could still hear Anne's war cry as she leapt at me with her sword swung in front of her. “Just try and stop me!”.

Without any notice I was back on top of the gate of Newtopia, my sword out as well. I had just found a tapestry in the king’s castle that showed his true intent, and now Anne was helping him escape from the dungeon and cut off the toad forces Captain Grime and I were slowly bleeding into the capital city.

Despite not being trained by Grime like I was, Anne fought like a pro. I was dual wielding two long blades, yet she danced around all of my attacks and held her own. She was just as fast as I was, each one of us struggling to get ahead.

That’s when Anne's frog friend started screaming.

“Anne! Something really weird is happening!”. To think I’d fall for tha–

Anne rammed her shoulder into my nose, and dashed towards the side of the tower Grime and Sprig were duking it out. Her gasp made me drop my guard (slightly) and join her.

I didn't know what was going on back then, but I still knew it was bad. The glitch had arrived and was already swallowing the toads below it whole!

“Hop Pop!”. I was too slow to stop Anne from climbing down to the ground and standing in front of the old orange frog. It’s like I already knew how futile her effort would be.

Sprig was right behind her, followed by Grime and I. The former headed towards his grandfather while I and the latter failed to save as many toads as we could.

“Where's Polly?!” he cried, grief already welling in his throat.

Another howl pulled my attention across the way. Stranded in her little bucket, the feisty purple pollywog kept breaking free from the glitch and bouncing into the air, only to drop back into the strange muck a few moments later.

Without a word, I sprang into action. I flipped into the air, over the glitch and yanked Polly free. Once I hit the ground, I sliced away at it with my sword like it was tall grass until she was reunited with her family.

“Sasha,” Anne gasped in astonishment. “You saved–”.

“Watch out!” I spat.

A wave of glitch grabbed onto my friend's arms and began to yank her under. I latched onto her other arm and began to pull with all my might. Grime and the planters created a chain, and started pulling too, but all of our strength combined was nothing compared to the massive chunk of sludge.

“Sash! Sprig! Hop pop!” I heard Anne call. She looked past my vivid blue eyes, deep into my soul. “Take care of each other…please?”.

I had no time to answer. She shoved me away from her, into the dirt, before her eyes turned pure white and a crazed smile grew on her face.

“Sasha!”. Amity scaredly shaking my shoulder made the bad memory crumble. “Are you alright?”.

“What?” I mumbled, still dazed. It took me a moment to realize where I was.

“Did I hurt you?”.

“Me?” I scoffed and laughed at the same time. “Nah, I’m fine. Just… had a tiny flashback”.

“Are you thinking about your friends again?”. My apprentice offered me a hand that I took with a sigh.

“Am I really that bad at hiding it?”.

“Better than I am” the witch sighed back. “Wanna talk about it?”.

“Can’t I just bottle it all up instead?” I joked.

“Apparently not”.

I grounded myself with a breath out.

“When I fell onto the ground it reminded me of when Anne pushed me away from the glitch”.

“I get it,” Amity hmmed after a moment. “The other day during training, when you got too close, I didn’t see you. I saw…”.

“Luz?”. The witch simply nodded.

“Just got to remember I’m doing it for her”. A few tears left Amity’s oddly golden eyes. “She’d want me to survive, cause she cared about me”.

“And so would Anne and Marcy. Hell, Anne literally told me too”.

“Then that's all you need, a reason to have hope. Cause other than each other, that's all we’ve got”.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and blinked the tear welling in my eyes away. Now was not the time to start bawling, not in front of Amity.

“You’ve been hanging with your puppy too much”. The young witch's laugh cut the tension.

“No. Luz did this long before I met Molly”.

The sound of rapid footsteps broke the both of us away from our conversation. Speak of the devil. Amity’s puppy must’ve known we were talking about her somehow.

“Hey” Amity greeted, though the urgency on Molly’s face made her add, “Is there something wrong”.

“Connie’s gathering a rescue party”.

“Where are we going this time?” I asked, growing much more serious.

“Well her and the Planters did some talking and we’re going back to your show, Amphibia”.

I froze at the name. We were going back to Amphibia? But it had to have been completely over-run by the glitch by now!

Amity noticed my unease. She scootched a little closer to me and lightly bumped my arm with her elbow. Without saying a word, she asked me if I was alright.

I straightened my shoulders and slightly puffed out my chest. In spite of all the pain I was feeling, my strength wouldn’t be swept away from me.

“Who is she planning on taking?” I questioned as I began to walk. Both Amity and Molly kept to either side of me.

“The planters minus Polly, you, me, Amity, and Lion of course”. While listing off names, Molly counted on her fingers.

“That's all she’s taking?”.

“Yeah. She’s only taking people with a lot of battle experience…and me”.

“Do you think you're ready?” Amity asked, her worry as plain as mine.

“Connie thinks so,” Molly answered unsurely. “She says my training’s going super well”.

“You’ll be fine” I roused. “Just as long as you stay focused and alert”.

The walk to Connie and the Planters took no time at all. Upon seeing me, the former sprinted towards us.

“There you are,” she greeted in a hurry. “We’re—”.

“Molly told us,” Amity said with a flick of her witchy ears.

“Are you sure we’re going to find anything?” I jumped in. Connie caught my concern like a cold. Yet she still stood tall.

“If we learned anything from rescuing Amity and the Mcgees, it takes a bit longer for the glitch to spread to certain areas. With how big Amphibia is, there's a chance there's survivors. Not to mention the human world in your universe”.

It made sense, frog dammit. Yet the idea of anyone still being alive in Amphibia still seemed ridiculous to me. Blame it on nerves, I guess.

“Where do you plan on going, exactly?”.

“I figured we’d check out the forest next to the frog town. Wart…something…”.

“Wartwood? How do you know about Wartwood?”.

“Right. I haven’t told you guys about the archives yet”. Connie’s gaze fell to the ground. “It’s not only another way to hop from world to world but you can also see every episode of every show it has”.

“Like streaming?” I concluded. The dark-haired teen nodded solemnly.

“I checked it out right after rescuing you and the planters, but it is extremely dangerous. I was only able to watch small segments from random episodes. I had no time to watch them all”.

That was a lot to take in at once. We not only lived inside tv shows, but also a streaming service?! Did that mean my entire trip to Amphibia, including stuff that hadn’t happened yet, was just sitting there for anybody to see? Did that mean I could see my future? Was that even my future anymore?

“Connie”, Sprig called from where he and his family were waiting.

“We’re coming,” Connie shouted back, before whistling for her pink pet lion. Where she got that thing, I had no clue. I never really had time to ask.

It was difficult to fit three humans, a witch and two frog people (Polly was forced to stay with our healer Camila) onto Lion, but with some balancing we were able to make the jump from the infomercial to my dimension.

As I slid off of the felines back a weird fuzzy feeling hit me. It was so odd being in Amphibia again. I almost missed the giant bug creatures and the damp humid air. The forest felt almost nostalgic to me despite being in a cage for most of my stay. If only I could go back to being a prisoner at toadtower. Grime’s army was definitely much more pleasant than the glitch was.

“Great” Amity grimaced while looking at the grass. “More green”.

“What’s wrong with green?” her puppy asked from beside her.

“There's always so much of it everywhere! It’s so unnatural”.

“If you think this is bad, you should see home world” Connie called from up from Lion’s back. “There's no plants at all, and some of the walls and utensils are alive”.

“What’s so weird about utensils being alive?”.

Before anyone could answer the witch, Sprig hollered out in alarm. The young pink frog stopped the rest of us by pointing to a group of bushes. There was a short and sort of stout frog hidden beneath the branches. He was wearing nice clothes with a cute little red bow round his neck. He looked…somewhat familiar. I knew he lived in Wartwood at least.

“Is that…it’s Toadie”.

Oh, that’s right. He’s the mayor’s little peon, or he was before the glitch got him. He sprung towards us with a cry, causing Spring to bound behind him and kick him towards Hop pop. The old man blew up his weird frog throat and bunted the little green guy far back into the forest.

“Good job, boy” Hop pop praised while Sprig hopped back to his side.

“Don’t celebrate too soon” Connie warned while jumping off of Lion and unsheathing her sword. “Listen”.

The sound of rustling leaves surrounded us. More and more former citizens of Wartwood crept from the brush, all of them soaked in black glitch gunk. I couldn’t tell you who any of them were, but Sprig sure could.

“Mrs. Croaker? And Loogle! And Stumpy! And Barry!”.

“I got ’em!”.

Suddenly my sight was nothing but a bright flash of blue as a wave of blasts surrounded us. Through the heavy smoke a greenish-blue frog with one eye blinked shut bounded towards. I definitely recognized him, despite all the hell being raised around us. This was the crazy old frog that blew up toadtower with boom-shrooms!

“Follow me!” he cried before leaping onto a low hanging branch. He pointed to a bush in the middle of the brush that seemed to be hollow on the inside. Sprig and Hop pop must have seen something like it before because they instantly dove into it and disappeared. Connie, Molly, Amity, and I caught their confidence and followed them.

Under the bush was a small hole that slid down into a giant burrow. It was stocked full of food and weapons, as well as a handful of other frogs. We all made it in just in time, except for Lion, who was way too big to fit.

Once she noticed him, Amity manipulated the mud with magic, and made the entrance wider just long enough for the large feline to get through. He slid down to our side, his claws getting covered with mud.

“How did you do that?” A younger frog asked as she hopped up to my apprentice. Her yellow eyes were wide with wonder.

“I used magic,” Amity explained before she had the chance to stop herself. Luckily for her, magic wasn’t too odd for this world.

“You’re a witch?”. The small pink-haired frog smiled. “So am I”.

“Really”. You couldn’t blame Amity for being confused. “Witch” meant multiple things where she was from. But as the frog went on about potions and curses, she started to understand what Maddie was talking about.

“Sprig?!” someone shouted from the shadows. They launched towards the smaller pink frog like a ferocious mantis and slammed him to the ground. Connie went to re-unsheathe her sword but Hop pop’s cackling made her relax.

“Ivy?!” Sprig hollered back, just as surprised.

“Where have you been?!”

“Oh, you know, just another dimension”.

A large toad in a ripped up purple suit approached us. He spun his gold cane around as he looked all of us over. When his eyes made it to me, he scowled.

“It seems there's more of y'all beasts in this world than we thought. Do y’all know Anne too?”.

“No,” Connie answered while standing a bit taller. “Anne was already overtaken by the glitch when I first set foot in your world, and it’s their first time here”.

She pointed towards Amity and Molly, the former taking a break from her conversation to address the former mayor with a wave. Molly waved too, obviously still shaken up by our recent encounter.

“You mean Anne is one of those monsters out there?”. There was a tiny hint of hurt in his voice.

“Everyone in Newtopia is, ‘cept for us” Hop pop joined in. “Connie here rescued us with that cat-thing of hers”.

Lion stopped licking his paws for a moment to gruff. He shook his fluffy mane, as if he were shaking our eyes off of him.

“Your say’in that thing saved you? It looks like a giant kill-a-pillar!”.

“Lion’s from another world,” Connie explained. “And he can jump from your world, to my world, to where we’ve been hiding from the glitch”.

“I don’t know,” the toad hmmed. “Hopadiah, you sure that thing is safe”.

“If he weren’t, we’d be goners by now, Mayor Toadstool”.

“All you need to do is get on his back, and he’ll take you to the infomercial”. Connie pointed to the large feline with her arm. All the Wartwood survivors just gawked at Lion, until Ivy dashed onto him.

“Com’on, guys. If the Planters say he’s safe, then he’s safe” she roused.

There was a bit of muttering before they all began to shuffle forwards. Mayor Toadstool joined them and began to form a more organized line.

“Simma down, everybody. You’ll all get ta go”.

“Connie,” I called with a celebratory smile. “While you take all the frogs to the infomercial with Lion, Amity, Molly, and I will stay here and wait for you. There's no room for all of us, and we want to make as few trips as possible”.

“Right,” Connie nodded. She raced over to her exotic pet and helped everyone find a spot to sit, while I met up with Amity and her puppy.

“Your first successful mission” I congratulated to the latter. “How are you feeling?”.

“I didn’t do much,” Molly admitted. “But what's important is everyone’s safe”.

All there was left to do was wait for Connie to get back. Believe it or not, that was plenty of time for something to go wrong.

The roots above us began to shake as something slammed against the ground. The dirt ceiling tried its best to hold but it soon crumbled and a flash of black and blue came bolting in. Before I realized what attacked me, it had already pinned me to the wall. Past the wide white eyes, and the fiery brush-filled hair, I knew who she was as soon as I saw her.

“Anne?!”.

What happened to her?! Why was she glowing? And why was she blue?! She’d never turned blue before! I didn’t even know she could do that!

“Stay back!” I barely heard Amity yell to Molly. “I got this”.

The mud below my old friend shot up and tore her away from me. It wrapped around her like a serpent squeezing its prey to death. With little effort Anne broke free and sent Amity’s attack right back towards her. The witch jumped out of the way and drew one of her glowing circles into the air, but before the spell could be summoned Anne flew to her side and slammed her fist into her jaw.

The blow was powerful, like superhero kind of powerful. It sent Amity rolling across the ground. As she did, she drew another larger spell circle into the dirt, and all the mud in the area rose and began to circle Anne like a bunch of sharks. Soon a large tornado rampaged through the bunker, moving so fast that barely being caught in it could tear you to pieces.

Anne didn’t falter. As nothing but a bolt of energy, she ricocheted up the cyclone like a tennis ball. She leapt out from the top and dove right into Amity. Her nails dug deep into the witch's arm, the glitch dripping into her now exposed veins.

The tornado melted into an army of thousands of hands that all tried to yank Anne away, but she wouldn’t budge. Within seconds, my apprentice’s arm was pitch black and twitching like a broken tv. In the meanwhile, she was being yanked deeper and deeper into Anne’s freakishly strong grasp. No matter how much she squirmed, Amity couldn’t escape.

I didn’t want to do it. The very thought made me want to hurl! But I had to do something! I had no choice! I couldn’t lose Amity to the glitch. I couldn’t lose her at all! She was the only one who understood what I was going through! She knew what it was like to fight past your regrets and strive to be better despite your pride begging you to be a huge jerk!

Her arm was already too far gone! She wouldn't have been able to escape being infected if it stayed on! It had to come off!

I unsheathed my sword and, as quickly as humanly possible, stabbed it into Amity’s shoulder. Her screams were agonized, I’d surely hear them in my very worst nightmares for years to come! Yet I continued to saw into it until I began to hear cracking. I then grabbed the part of the exposed bone and yanked as hard as I could.

With a hellishly loud popping noise, the arm finally gave in and released from the socket. Once she was free, I hoisted Amity onto my back, ran over to where Molly was standing, and herded her to the spot Lion took off from.

Luckily for us two humans and the now badly bleeding witch, Connie and Lion jumped back into the burrow before Anne could fully realize what happened. I hauled both Molly and Amity onto Lion before I quickly scrambled up myself.

“What's going–”.

“Go! Just go!”.

With one giant leap, we were back on top of the giant counter, safe inside the infomercial. Everyone had circled around, waiting to congratulate us on a job well done. That was until they saw the blood all over me and Amity.

“What happened?!” Connie shouted in surprise. Despite how much I wanted to start pacing, she pinned me down with her dark eyed stare.

“Her arm was badly infected. The only way she’d survive was if it came off!”.

“But what are we supposed to do about her bleeding to death?!”.

“Don’t say that!” Molly shouted from Amity’s side. “Everything’ll be fine! We just need to think positively”.

She pressed a piece of gauze as deep as she could into the hemorrhaging wound. It turned red in an instant. Wait…

“Molly? Where did you get that piece of gauze?”.

“I don’t know” she answered as if she hadn’t realized it was there in the first place. “I went to go and help Amity and it just kinda showed up”.

“We’re cartoons, remember” a kid with a freakishly pointy nose argued from the crowd. He pushed his way to the front. “She must have cartooned it to life”.

“We can do that?” Connie asked, frighteningly skeptical.

“Sure we can” he said while handing her a tourniquet he pulled out from thin air. “All you have to do is believe and make it happen!”.

“Fire” I said after the idea struck me. “We need to cauterize the wound!”.

“I’m on it” Phineas assured. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a couple of twigs. “Isabella taught me how to light one using just a few sticks. All you need to do is…”. The younger kid trailed off while concentrating.

After a little while, one of the two sticks lit a blaze. Connie quickally grabbed it and stuck it against Amity’s injury. Her screaming was muffled by the other stick, which Camila stuck in her mouth while taking Molly’s place next to her.

“Get back everyone!” she thundered commandingly. “Give the poor thing some privacy!”.

I took a few steps backwards, but mostly stayed in place. I couldn’t just leave, not after just tearing off one of her limbs!

“That means you too, Sasha” Camila said in a softer tone. She grabbed a suturing needle and thread from Phineas before he made his leave. “Hovering isn’t going to make her heal faster”.

I had to admit, Mrs. Noceda was right. She needed breathing room and Camila and Connie needed workspace. Reluctantly, I followed the dispersing crowd, my nerves making each step heavier than the last.

The scent of Amity’s now drying blood haunted me. It made me feel sick to my stomach, my head feel fuzzy and unfocused. The first thing I’d have to do is go to the sink and wash myself off. Though that felt a little unfair. Amity, who had just had her arm cut off was forced to lie in her own blood, while the person who did that to her got to clean themselves?

No. I couldn’t think that way. I took off her arm to help her survive, and now I had to do the same. We had to make it through this, no matter what it took. I shook the thought out of my head yet failed to lose my anxiety. I silently promised Amity that I would be back to see her. I would help her as soon as I could.

Chapter Text

“Grom will transform into your darkest fear”. As she spoke, my little sister paced the front of the owl house. She turned and pointed at Luz, the human standing between me and my brother. “What are you afraid of, Luz?”.

The sight made an odd feeling sweep over me. Hadn’t I seen this before? And hadn’t grom already happened? Amity had been saved by Connie and Lion after Luz had been corrupted. And Edric…

“Want to say our greatest fears” my twin suggested. Great titan, I knew what this was! “On three. One, two, being alone forever”.

“Being stuck with you forever” I said at the same time.

In hindsight, I wanted nothing more to take back my shitty joke, but I couldn’t stop the words from coming out. Involuntarily, I rolled my golden eyes and looked away from Edric. A blank expression fell onto my face, despite the shame welling in my stomach. I felt sick and panicked both at the same time, yet I was forced to go through the memory as if it were happening for the first time. I had forgotten how long ago it had actually happened, time moving very differently in the human shopping commercial, but what I did know was how this was all going to end.

My eyes moved to Luz for a moment, then back to Edric. He was no longer the memory of the brother I used to know, but instead a reflection of what he’d become. His eyes were wide and white while a deranged smile crawled up his face. Glitchy black muck seeped from them, causing him to shift like the picture on a broken crystal ball. There was no snow on the ground, but I still felt the icy chill of the knee. Edric wasn’t touching me, but I could still feel him bashing my head against a red pine over and over again.

Pushing through Luz, he viciously lurched towards me and latched onto the collar of my vest. The glitch dripped inside of my open mouth as I toppled to the ground with a holler. My violent wriggling meant nothing to my brother or his hold on me, my shouts for help not reaching his glitch filled ears. He just lumbered over me, waiting for me to either corrupt or die.

My eyes shot open as I awoke. I was no longer in front of the owl house, but back in the shopping commercial. I was lying on a beanbag made from abomination goo. My sister was nestled up beside me, the sound of her soft snoring calming me slightly. I needed a few deep breaths to regain myself. It was almost as if I saw that nightmare every time my eyes closed.

That’s when I noticed Amity and I weren’t alone. There was a crowd surrounding us, Amity’s “puppy”, Molly being at the very front. She stared at us with wide teary eyes, as if she was witnessing a miracle taking place.

“Having fun?” I deadpanned.

“I’m sorry” Molly began as she swallowed a sob. “It’s just so sweet. After everything that's happened, you finally get to be sisters again”.

“Well, show’s over. You can all go now”. A few people began to grumble in disappointment while some people idly looked away, pretending that they weren't there to spy on my sister and I in our sleep. The crowd dispersed in every direction, but Molly stayed where she was.

“Actually. I’ve come here to get Amity. Her training is about to start”.

I should’ve known her mentor was up to this. Ever since we all left the knee, Sasha had been less than patient to restart her apprentice’s training. She insisted Amity would grow rusty and careless if they didn’t keep at it while her bile sack fully recovered. But my little sister still needed rest, and all Sasha ever taught her was swordplay anyways. Amity needed a mentor who knew magic, one who’d be able to teach her new spells. Yet whenever I mentioned taking over her training, Sasha got pissed and shut the idea down.

Amity said she wanted to learn from us both, but to be completely honest, neither of us wanted to share. She had improved her defensive skills while training with Sasha, I must admit, but I could teach her both defense and magical offense. Not to mention I had more experience working with my sister. That snazzy fire spell she loved to use, guess who taught her that. It definitely wasn’t Ms. second in command.

“Tell her mentor that she’s sleeping. Oh, and tell her she can bite me while you're at it”.

“I refuse to be a part of your negativity” Molly asserted way too positively. “Amity cares about the both of you. Why can’t you just care about each other?”.

At the sound of her name, Amity stirred awake. She sleepily stared at me before her golden gaze found Molly. She then rubbed the sleep from her eyes and stretched her remaining arm into the air.

“What’s going on?” the greenette groggily asked.

“Sasha says it’s time for your training” Molly responded.

“But only if you’re feeling up to it,” I hurryingly added.

“I am,” she yawned. She turned back to me, offering me her reassurance. “As long as I don’t overuse my magic”.

“You shouldn’t use any magic at all” I warned, my voice growing softer in earnesty. “Give your bile sack a break”.

“My bile sack is okay. It’s been a few days”.

“If you didn’t use all that magic during the fight at the knee, I would agree with you”.

Amity scoffed and rolled her eyes. As she did so her ears went flat and she nudged me away from her. “Pardon me for trying to survive”.

“Don’t get pissy. You fought well, which is why you can afford to miss a few more days of training”. It was as if I were talking to a wall. I knew Mittens well enough to know she couldn’t just sit there and relax. The fact she actually took any time to recover at all was miraculous, let alone getting her to shut her eyes and take a nap. She wasn’t happy unless she was slaving away doing something she deemed productive, just like mom had trained her.

Amity rose to her feet and moved next to Molly. She shot the human a glance as if she were asking for help, but the brunette just stared at her confusedly. I knew Molly agreed with me. She was just as fearful for her rescuer as I was. After all, she was a part of the patrol that traveled to the knee in search of help. Yet, just like another certain human I knew, she was desperate to get Sasha and I on the same page. She thought there was some perfect solution to all this that we’d all discovered if we just listened and understood each other. If only life were so simple.

“Fine, go do your training. But I’m coming with you to watch”.

“I’m not a baby, Em” Amity grumbled back. “I don’t need you hovering over me”.

Those last three words hit a soft spot. Was she trying to imply that I was acting like mom? Mom wouldn’t have even given her the choice. She would’ve just demanded she stay and rest…well she actually would've forced her to train till her bile sack popped. That just proved my point.

“I just want to make sure you don’t get hurt. Is it a crime to care about your little sister?”.

“Sasha knows she needs to be careful”. I’d nearly forgotten Molly knew how to speak. “And some exercise might do her some good”.

“Molly’s right. If I keep missing my training, I’ll–”.

“Get rusty and careless. I know. I’ve heard Sasha’s spiel” I wryly hmphed. “Go. Have your fun. But if you get hurt you go straight to the healers and send Molly to get me immediately”.

“Yeah, sure. Whatever”.

“Will do” Molly added as a way to reassure me.

Watching both of them walk away made my chest grow tight. My heartbeat raced like a rabid ratworm, while the horrible memories flashed in my eyes. For a sliver of a second I saw my brother being drowned in the glitch by a corrupted, uncontrollably manic Luz. Then those cold nights in the cave on the knee came into view. I had thought I lost everything, but then a group of humans brought Mittens right to me. I couldn’t go back to that feeling of hopelessness. I couldn’t go back to having nothing again.

Since my mind was so deep in my thoughts, I didn’t know my legs were moving until I bumped into someone in front of me. I stumbled backwards a few steps, my golden eyes wide in surprise. The darker hair, darker skinned, human did the same, quickly offering me an apology before she even saw who I was.

“It’s fine,” I replied. “I’m the one who ran into you, remember”.

It took a few seconds for her brown eyes to meet mine, but when they did, she finally realized who I was. I had seen Connie around our shelter on the knee, and had even talked to her a few times, but neither of us properly introduced ourselves.

“You’re Amity’s older sister”.

“For nearly fifteen years now”.

“How is she doing?”.

“You should ask Sasha” I spat as my mood soured. “They’re training together right now”.

“Does that mean her bile sack has fully healed?”. Excitement lined Connie’s voice. I shook my head.

“It’s still hurting her. It will be for another week or so. Her and Sasha are training without magic today”.

“So, she’s still out for missions” Connie sighed. “Just when we need a witch too”.

“There are plenty of witches here. There's one standing right in front of you”.

“And you do have experience fighting the glitch” Connie murmured to herself. “And unlike the Golden guard, you are willing to go”.

“Why do you need a witch so badly? Is there magic in this world?”.

“You could say that. There are superpowers. The show is about a superhero fighting supervillains. If the glitch gets a hold of any of them, it’ll be like what happened inside your show. We’d barely get to rescue anyone”.

The far off look in Connie’s eyes clearly showed she wasn’t just thinking of my world. Her own show had powerful magic in it too, magic that came from a world in the stars.

And as far as anyone knew, her and Lion were the only survivors. Her friends, her family, someone named Steven (Amity says he was Connie's Luz. A bright and bubbly human that pulled her from her book filled shell), ALL of them were indefinitely gone.

“Who else are you taking?” I questioned as a way to pull Connie back to the present,

“Just you, me, and Sasha. Amity is still too hurt, and I don’t think Molly and the Planters are quite ready to handle something like this''. Great. Sasha was going to be with us. I couldn’t have been more excited. “We’ll leave once Lion is done seeing the healers. The trip to the knee wore him out a bunch so they’re giving him an energy boost before we leave''.

“Just let me know you’re all ready”.

“Actually. Could you go grab Sasha? I’ll check on Lion in the meanwhile. He should be about ready to go”.

Despite how much I hated the idea, I did as Connie said. With quick footsteps, I made my way past the giant microwave we all lived behind and to the window. Behind the curtains, a windowsill as large as the boiling isles itself lie in the early evening sun. Halfway across it, my sister and a tall blonde shrouded in a furry cloak and leather armor wrestled like two griffins viscously fought over a kill. There she was, the human of the hour. The one everyone wouldn’t shut up about.

Instead of calling out, I burst into a sprint. Before she even realized someone else was there, I rammed myself into Sasha and pinned her head to the ground with my hand. In response she grabbed the side of my head and shoved me off of her, all while spitting out a bunch of complaints. Amity joined in almost immediately, demanding I give an explanation for being there, let alone ruining their training session.

“Connie wanted me to fetch you”.

“And that meant you had to jump me?!” Sasha growled as she climbed to her feet.

“No. She did that just to piss you off”. I had to hold in a laugh. My sister knew me well.

“She says we’re leaving as soon as Lion is ready” I continued.

“We?” Amity repeated. “You’re coming with us”.

“Sasha and I are going,” I answered. “But you aren’t. You’re still healing, remember”. The younger witch bared her fangs at that, Her ears dropped defensively before she began to protest.

“But I have way more experience fighting the glitch”.

“And her fighting is just as sharp without magic. She’ll be fine”.

“Connie says this’ll be too dangerous without magic” I stressed. “This world has something called superheroes who have their own special type of magic powers. That's why you and Molly have to stay here”.

“I don’t have magic,” Sasha argued.

“And it shows” I purred slickly. “Titan knows why she’s letting you come along”.

“Because I’m the–”.

“Second command to an army of toads? Save it. You and I are going, and Mittens isn’t. That’s Connie’s orders, not mine”.

For a long moment, Sasha just scowled at me, her blue eyes filled with fire. But then she let her annoyance go long enough to address her apprentice. She gave her a white fanged (if you could call those little stubs fangs) smile as she pulled back her long silky hair into a snake-horse tail.

“You did great today, Blight. Even without your magic tricks”.

“I wouldn’t say that” Amity sheepishly hissed as if her words pained her. “I was slower than usual”.

“But you made up for it with strength. Keep fighting like that and I might be forced to give up one of my blades”.

“But what about “dual wielding”?”.

“Oh, I’ll miss it. But I know you’re worth it”. Sasha gave Amity a wink and a small nudge on the arm, before adding, “Now go get some rest. You’ve earned it”.

“That might be the smartest thing you’ve said all day” I joined in. “Now let’s get going. Lion should be done with the healers by now”.

Reluctantly, Sasha joined me and we both began the long walk back to our shelter. There Connie was waiting alongside Lion, both of them patient despite how heavily the anticipation weighed on us all. Other than the former’s warning, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. They had magic, but what kind and how powerful was a complete mystery to me. But whatever happened, it had to have been a lot easier than the fight on the knee, right? We wouldn’t be fighting our own corrupted loved ones. They would all be strangers.

The place Lion took us to was beyond any of our imaginations. Giant rocks jutted from the ground like claws reaching out towards the star filled sky, while others hung suspended in mid-air. In said sky, multiple moons sat comfortably and, in the middle, oddly surrounded by rings of light was an enormous pit that was the darkest shade of black I’d ever seen. Was that this world's version of a portal, similar to the ones Lion created? Your guess was as good as mine.

Hovering above a raging fire, partially hidden by a cloud of smoke, was a very tall, demon looking man with a boney face and pale light green skin. He had multiple sets of long gangly arms, all of them dressed in black along with the rest of the gown he wore. His posture, the way that he spoke, I’d seen it all before. He was donning the same arrogant facade my mother and her friends all put on when they talked to one another. He was a businesswitch…er…businessman. I was sure of it.

And most weirdly of all, the guy had a wand. It may have been different here, but on the isles, to put it simply, wands were for babies. And I know, Mittens had just gotten rid of hers about a month ago, but she never really needed it in the first place. She just struggled when it came to trusting in herself, and so did this stranger if he needed a wand to do all his spells for him.

He had his eyes on a group of jagged stones that had something brown and poofy trapped in the middle…Sweet titan! That was someone's hair. There was a kid in there!

“Connie” I whispered while shoving my shout back down my throat. “He’s going to kill them”.

“Me, Lion, and Sasha will try to break them free. You distract the alien wizard”, Gee, that was a little harsh. Just because he was an adult still using a training wand didn’t mean he was as bad as a wizard.

“I’m on it” I called as the four of us shot forwards.

Lion’s powerful roar made cracks climb up the stones, while Sasha launched Connie into the air. The older human snatched some of the rubble in the sky and drug it back down to the ground. She slammed it into the rocky prison, chipping away at it. Sasha slipped out a few daggers and started to dig. I flew right past them, stopping right in front of the wanded captor. His glower failed to intimidate me, nor did it make me anymore hostile. Perhaps if I told him about the glitch, he would let the child go and come with us to the shopping channel.

“And who are you supposed to be?” he hmmed while raising his chin.

“My name’s Emira” I greeted. “And I’ve come here to help you”.

“Help me? What could you possibly help me with?”.

“I come with a warning”. I drew a simple spell circle into the air. From it, an illusion of the glitch appeared. “This is the glitch. It travels from world to world–”.

“I’m not giving you any money”.

“We aren’t asking for money, we're asking you to come with us. There's a safe spot from the glitch in a human shopping commercial".

“Sure there is” the stranger rolled his eyes pompously. “Can we do this later? I’m trying to take some vengeance from the person who destroyed my resort”.

“As much as I love some good vengeance, it’s more important that you all get to safety” I urged.

“Are you saying this is not important? The Beyonder destroyed a lifetime’s worth of work. He destroyed my home!”.

“And we sympathize. But when the glitch arrives—”.

“Enough about this glitch!” he yowled. “You have ten seconds to leave my presence before I kill you”.

“You leave us no choice then” I snarled, exasperated. “If you don’t come back with us willingly, then we’re gonna have to take you by force”.

Once again, I drew a spell circle in the air, but this one was twice the last one's size. What came out was not just a simple illusion. Some of the spell was fake, the burst of fire I flung at his face, which my foe easily blocked with a wave of his hand. But the rest of the blaze that zipped behind him and crashed into his back was very real. He hollered in surprise and stumbled forwards, before he slightly spun around to check for a threat behind him. I summoned a rope that latched onto the back of his shoulder. In the meantime, I created a few copies of myself. One of them stood exactly where I was a moment ago while the others hid behind the nearby stones.

His weakness was his reliance on the wand. Taking it would mean taking away a good chunk of his power. Then he’d have to fight me with his own magic, if he had any magic without it at all.

As I climbed, the stranger lifted his wand to the sky and blasted power into some of the nearby rubble. Some he turned into bubble looking bombs that careened from the sky like boiling rain, while some he turned to steel weapons that stabbed at the ground. The three of my illusions dodged them expertly, all with a bragging smile on their faces. They weaved around the area, popping into the open then quickly disappearing as another came out on the other side. The stranger's glance spun as he tried to keep up, snagging against one then another from the corner of his eye.

Finally, frustration brought a yowl from his throat as all his attacks formed into four giant stone hands that circled around him. They launched forwards and burst into a blast of pure power, tearing apart everything including my three copies. His gaze circled the clearing, his mind still soaked in confusion. He wanted to see a body, to know for sure he had won. But he saw nothing.

I stretched my arm out as far as I could, reaching out towards the stranger’s hand. I was nearly there. I just needed to go a little bit further, and that stupid training wand would be in my grasp.

One moment I had the wand in my hand, the next I was in the air, being scorched by a beam of magic. It threw me to the rocky ground, smashing the left side of it against the nearby stones. Blood gushed from my scraped raw burns. I held my hand up to my face, as an attempt to keep it all in but it just poured through my fingers and into the dirt. I couldn’t see from my left eye at all and the right one was so squinted in pain I might have been completely blind. I stumbled around like baby cerberus as I attempted and miserably failed to get back on my feet.

“I must say,” my enemy gloated. “That was a cute little magic trick. But when push comes to shove, your power is nothing compared to mine”.

“Save it. Just kill me. And when you do, destroy my body so the glitch can’t use it to spread”.

“You truly believe in the glitch, don’t you? But let me assure you it is nothing to many in this multiverse".

“When it consumes you, I want my body to be the last thing you see” I growled.

“I won’t leave a body to see” The stranger huffed while readying to use his wa–He gasped when his cold eyes hit his empty hand. His wand was gone! Somebody had successfully stolen it.

“Guess who mastered the tip-toe baby” someone smoothly purred from behind. A bright red slender man with slicked up blue hair and a clean white suit bent the wand in his hand until it snapped in two like a twig. “I’ll give you a hint. He’s got his powers back”.

“Beyonder!” the stranger spat as the man snapped his fingers. The ground below the former melted into gunk, sticking him in place, before a poof of smoke transformed the latter to–did he just turn into a toddler? The Beyonder plucked him from the goo while a hearty laugh pushed it’s way out from his chest. In the meanwhile, my enemy was throwing quite the tantrum.

“Funny” Sasha griped. The girl with the poofy brown hair was now free from the stone and standing right beside her. “But we need to go before the glitch shows up”.

“We still have a few minutes,” the Beyonder said with another snap of his fingers. My wounds suddenly stopped bleeding. They were still sore and puffy, and I still couldn’t see from my one eye, but most of the pain was gone. I rose to my feet, still a little shaky.

“What do you mean we have a few minutes? The glitch—”.

“Came at the beginning of this episode, which means it’s still back on earth”. When none of us said anything, he continued. “You’re not the only ones who know what's going on. Now let's get out of here”.

At that Connie whispered encouragement to Lion, who was shaking on his four paws. Leaping from world to world wore him out enough, but jumping to a planet deep in space quickly drained him. The Beyonder approached him and gave him a single pat on the back. At his touch, Lion rejuvenated. His posture got straighter and most of the light returned in his eyes. We all piled onto his back, both Connie and Sasha having to carry me to the large cat, as he prepared for his leap. Despite how tired he was after, he had absolutely no problem jumping back to the infomercial.

I slid off of him as soon as we landed, falling off of my feet as soon as they hit the counter. Though the Beyonder made everything scar over, it all still burned. My movements were slow, my wounds still tender enough to make me weak. My chest also ached as my bile sack strained to make up for all the magic I had just used. I admit it. I overdid it. Not as badly as Amity had, but I definitely over did it. It took all my might to get back on my feet.

The new girl landed more gracefully but the look in her eyes was far off. She looked down at her hands, but she was really gazing into her whirling mind. She shook worse than I did, and she gritted her small human fangs together as she drowned deeper and deeper into her own thoughts. Very delicately, I tapped her on the arm. She jumped as if I had just struck her, scrambling a few steps away from me.

“It’s okay” I quickly soothed. “You’re safe now”.

“But what about my family? They’re on earth and the Beyonder said that the gitch you were talking about was on earth with them. I need to get back. I need to save them!”.

I sighed out my pain as my golden eyes locked to the human’s. I needed to tell her, despite how much it would pain the both of us. “The glitch spreads too quickly and once someone’s corrupted…”.

“So they’re all gone”. Her voice was nothing but a defeated whisper. “There's nothing I can do anymore. I failed them”.

“You didn’t fail them. None of us can stop the glitch, at least not yet”.

“It's…it’s all over isn’t it. I’m not strong enough to protect myself let alone anyone else. I nearly died, and now my family’s gone! Everyone I care about is gone and I’m too weak to help!”.

“You’re not too weak” I urged. “You’re alive, remember. You were able to survive something most humans wouldn’t”.

“But I would’ve been killed had it not been for the Beyonder’s powers. You have magic and Molecule man nearly killed you too”.

After a moment of thought, I brought the younger human’s attention to Connie and Sasha with my arm. Connie was comforting Lion, cooing compliments as she stroked his mane, while Sasha tried to squeeze info out of the Beyonder. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, since she was walking away from me, but the look on her face showed she was failing.

“You see those two. They’re humans like you. They have no magic, no superpowers or anything. All they have is whatever weapon they can carry, and they’ve done some pretty cool things. Connie went head-to-head with the rulers of an alien nation, only armed with a special sword. And Sasha was the second in command to an army of toad people, who kept her as a prisoner at first. They both lost people to the glitch, yet they keep fighting. You know why?”.

“Because they have to to survive?”.

“Because they have to keep moving forwards” I corrected. “And so do you, because there may be a way to defeat the glitch we just don’t know yet. It’s not over yet, because you can keep going”.

“But if someone like Molecule man shows up–”.

“You’ll be ready for it” I pressed “Because you have something more important than powers”.

“Moon girl magic?”she questioned confusedly. “Moon magic didn’t really work this time”.

“I don’t know what that is,” I admitted, before an idea struck me. It pained me to do so, but I summoned a small spell circle. From it came a rope that wrapped around the human like a serpent. I pulled it tight, not tight enough to hurt her but tight enough to trap her in place. “I’ve just attacked you with magic. What do you do?”.

She struggled for a moment, twisting and wriggling as her fear rose. Finally, she yanked on the magical rope, pulling me close enough for her to slam her forehead into mine. The spell fell as I staggered backwards. Pain shot through my face, but a feeling of pride overshadowed it. She may not have recognized it, but she understood exactly what I was trying to say.

“You see,” I said with a smile. “All you need to win is that brain of yours. As long as you learn from your experiences, you’re sure to find a way to best your enemies”.

The human’s eyes widened in realization. Fear still surrounded her, but I could feel a spark of trust flick between the two of us. For the first time, she gave me a thankful smile. She finally let the breath she was holding in ever since we arrived escape her with a deep breath out.

“Do you think you could help me practice?” she asked, still a little hesitant. “My moves are feeling a little rusty”.

“Actually. I’ve been trying to get some training time with my sister, but she has a mentor already” I couldn’t hide the small growl that rumbled up my throat. “So, I’m open to take an apprentice of my own. Who knows, maybe we can make the two of them jealous while we’re at it”.

“I’m not really the jealous type” my new apprentice laughed. “My name's Lunella by the way”.

“Well, Lunella” I chuckled back. “That's the first thing we’ll work on”.

Chapter Text

“So let me get this straight. If you don’t complete this list you created when you were younger, the whole worlds just gonna burn?!”. My gaze fell heavily on the brunette beside me, as did all of my curiosity. What she had just told me sounded too wild to be true. The future of the world resting on a list of trivial tasks written by a teenager… But, then again, perhaps it was true. It was the concept of a cartoon, and we were only as real as those cartoons were.

“And that’s any weirder than a superhero with a pet dinosaur?” she asked back, deadpanning through her pair of red glasses.

“Devil is no pet. He’s my partner in stopping crime” I argued matter-of-factly. “And if you think that’s weird and that the demons and talking frogs aren’t, I don’t know what to tell you”.

“No, they're weird too. This whole thing is weird”.

“I know. I knew there are thousands of universes out there, but I never thought mine would be a tv sh—”Both our conversation and I froze to a stop. My gaze slid to the right and landed on my mentor. The long-haired witch was talking to her sickly sister, who had started practicing her magic again a few days prior. When she wasn’t training me, she was mostly by her younger sibling’s side, to said sibling’s annoyance. Losing their brother had obviously shaken the teen, so she clung to the only family she had left with all her overprotective might.

“What?” Hailey asked before I shushed her. Putting my arm up as a silent way to tell my fellow human to stay still, I began to creep as quietly as I could towards my mentor.

I activated my stealth hoodie, making me completely invisible to the eye. Then, one foot in front of the other, I tiptoed around to where her back was facing me. I stepped as lightly as I could, evenly shifting my weight from one step to the other. I kept my pace steady but quick, not allowing my target any chance to walk away. I stopped for a second and silently took a deep breath. I had to stay calm and focused against the rising anticipation shooting through my veins.

Like a tiger who’d been patiently hiding in the grass, I leapt forward. I crashed into Emira’s back after a few large bounds. As we both toppled to the ground, she twisted around to where she was facing me. She nipped me on the arm, making me rear back in surprise. I loosened my hold of her, which gave Emira the chance to fight back.

The witch threw us into a tumble before kicking me off of her. I flew a few feet before hitting the ground with a thud. When I opened my eyes, grimacing as an ache shot through me, Emira was hovering above me. Amusement glimmered in her golden eyes, and her white-fanged grin made frustration surge through me like lightning.

“You bit me!” I spat.

“I did what I had to to win” Emira chuckled back while offering me her hand. I took it begrudgingly and let the witch hoist me up. “Let’s hope I’m not rabid”.

“You better get used to this” Emira’s sister jumped in wryly as she broke the space between us. “This is just how Emira trains people”.

“Oh please. I’ve never bitten you during training”.

“So, you’ve gotten even more insufferable”. Amity’s eyes shifted over to me. Despite her words, a look of apathy stuck to her face. “I feel so sorry for you”.

Hailey rushed up to the three of us, much to my surprise. I’d almost forgotten she was there. “Anybody want to explain what just happened?”.

“All these weeks Emira’s been suddenly attacking me from behind” I explained with a frustrated sigh. “I figured I’d give her some pay back”.

“And why didn’t you use that crystal tied around your wrist?”.

Unlike what I usually fight with, said crystal wasn’t one of my inventions. It was something I found while beating up some baddies on that weird alien planet I was stuck on with the Beyonder. I was able to shoot electricity from it…somehow. I didn’t have it figured out fully, but I had a few theories as to where the source of the electricity came from. I know. I know. You probably don’t care. Point is, it was the only thing I had on me aside from the suit. The rest of my usual gear was destroyed in an explosion caused by my mimi's ex-colleague. I was very lucky that my best friend, and manager, Casey had the suit ready for me and that I was able to find the crystal in question. I’d be totally defenseless otherwise.

“Because I didn’t want to hurt her”. I answered, still agitated.

“You don’t have to worry about hurting me, Lunella” Emira replied along with a soft slug on the side of my arm. “I’m not as fragile as you humans are”.

“Girl, I don’t know what humans you’re hanging out with–”.

“MOON GIRL!”.

The thundering cry made my heart pound against my chest so hard I expected my ribs would shatter. I could hear it beating in my ears, feel it beating in my eyes. My body shook like I was in a 9.0 earthquake, despite me being completely frozen. I stared down at my hands, but my vision was back on the alien planet, staring directly at Moleculeman as he manipulated the rocky matter around him. The look on his heavily wrinkled face, his tall and confident stature, and the long dark black clothes he donned brought back the horrible memories of being bashed and battered as he threatened to smash my inconsequential life to pieces. It wasn’t the first time I’d felt this sensation. Ever since that day, every loud noise had sent me back to that battle. The only thing that kept me from fully snapping was that the Beyonder had kept Moluculeman trapped in a cage to prevent him from exacting his revenge on him and Emira. Or at least he had been caged up till then, because hovering over me like a towering mountain was the dark purple haired green alien himself.

“H…H…How did you escape?” I stammered.

“When the Beyonder imprisoned me,” he began, his gravelly voice turning my blood to ice. “My anger, my festering rage, became so intense that my molecules started vibrating so fast that I developed these powers, I don't need my wand anymore”.

To demonstrate, Moleculeman turned his hand to a sharp spike that he then rammed into the ground. From it, matter jetted across the countertop tile, straight towards me and Emira. The latter grabbed me by the arm and pushed me away while her younger sister drew a magical circle into the air. With a massive amount of struggle from the witch, the black substance slid to a stop. Molecueman sneered at the scene in frustration, growling. That spawned a mocking laugh from Emira.

“You finally stopped relying on a wand. Good for you”. As she spoke the older teen drew her own circle into the air. From it came a flaming ball of pink fire. She took a step, preparing to pelt it towards her foe, but I stopped her with a panicked, “No!”.

“Molecules just expand even faster in heat! We need to cool him down!”.

“Okay” Emira purred. The greenette doused her flame. “I can do that”.

She rushed forwards while her sister’s hold on Moleculeman’s matter snapped. It zipped around, raging like a flooded river, as it chased after my mentor. It reached out from her left, causing her to weave right. As she passed the tendril of matter she drew a circle in it with each hand. Frozen ice branched from them, spreading in bursts. Within seconds, that entire arm had completely hardened like stone and the ice was at the alien’s abdomen. Moleculeman took a moment to be surprised before he spawned more arms to dash after Emira. With another circle, she summoned a golden whip that split as she slung it into the air. Each rope tangled with all his matter, tying his wrists into knots.

But those knotts didn’t last very long. Moleculeman made his arms turn to muck that slid right out of her trap. Yet, said trap wasn’t there to hold him. No. It was there to distract him while Emira drew a circle with her foot. Ice shot across the ground creating a ramp that Emira raced towards at full speed. She glided into the air and summoned giant chunks of hail that stabbed the alien on impact. All his extra arms froze completely the moment the ice touched them just like the first one.

When the witch landed on the ground, she circled Moleculeman like a shark. Emira then shot to the right, around her foe as he spun in attempts to follow her. She crashed into Moleculeman’s unfrozen back and clung to his long robe, his matter burrowing under her nails. He swirled and twirled trying to buck her off of him, but she leapt up to his shoulders and got into his face. With one final circle, she smashed a ball of ice into Moleculeman’s eyes, ice that latched onto him and dug deep into his mouth and nostrils. With a powerful but desperate shake, he threw Emira off of him and made what little bit of his matter that wasn’t frozen stick her to the floor. By then he could barely move; it finished encasing him soon after.

I took a deep breath. I thought I was–

With a giant yowl, Moleculeman destroyed the ice! Chips of it went flying everywhere as he expanded into a huge storm of molecules whirling in a flurry of fury. They all reared back into a giant wave, before every last drop of matter came crashing towards us like water bursting from a fire hydrant! I covered my face, bracing myself for impact…But the giant collision never came.

I opened my eyes to find Emira’s sister holding the matter above our heads with a giant magic circle out in front of her. The one-armed witch glared at me while she shook, desperation in her golden yellow eyes. “A little help” she gnarled. I couldn’t do anything in response! I was once again thrown into the tornado of memories! I could feel myself being slammed into the stoney ground all over again, all my aches and pains nothing compared to the helpless feeling taking over me like a hunted wild animal!

“Lunella!”.

Moleculeman was absolutely right when he said I was nothing! I was no hero!

“Lunella!”.

I was going to die right there! I would never see my family again!

“LUNELLA!”.

I was going to die! I was going to die!

The younger witch’s hold broke once again. All the matter pelted us in drops of rain that tore at our skin as it clung to us. Meanwhile, below us formed a mud-like lagoon that began to pull all three of us into its depths. I didn’t know if it was my own panic or if it was the fact I was drowning in the matter, but I couldn’t BREATHE! I tried to scramble away, to RUN as far as I could before I was completely swallowed whole by the rising matter, but I was literally stuck to the floor! My blurred sodden gaze looked over at Emira and her sister to find them writhing around like mammoths in a tar pit. Their mouths were full of the matter as it pooled down their throats into their lungs. Each tried to draw more circles, Emira trying to freeze the sloshing liquid while her sister tried to control it, but their circle kept crumbling into nothing but air.

And then, Moleculeman froze. All of the matter drenching me slipped off like water dripping down silk. I gasped for air and dropped to my weakened knees. Trembling, I looked up from the ground to find another alien had arrived. He was also tall, with red skin and only two arms. He was dressed in a neat white suit, had slicked up blue hair, and had annoyingly spiffy facial hair. I never thought I’d think it, considering he almost destroyed the earth over a science fair, but thank God the Beyonder was there.

“Need a little help, friend?” he purred smoothly. He glanced over at me with an elated smile. He was digging for something. Was it praise or gratitude? Or perhaps he was looking for some sort of validation. Whatever it was, I was too busy being exhausted and scared to give it to him.

“Beyonder!” Moleculeman shouted. “Let me go this instant!”.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that. Until you learn how to play nice, you have to stay in time out”. With a flick of the Beyonder’s hand, Moleculeman was drug back towards his cage kicking and screaming like a toddler. All the while, the Beyonder laughed at his misery. “Once again, I have saved the day. What is it you humans always say? “I’m on fire”?”.

I didn’t listen to a word he said. I may not have been drowning in Moleculeman’s matter anymore, but I was still drowning in my own mind. Much like the enraged alien, I too had froze. The three of us could have been killed, and all I did was stand there and die. I was Moon Girl for heaven's sake! I wasn’t supposed to be scared of anything! Not supervillains, criminals, or bad guys. All of them were no match to my moon girl magic. But not only had I bent in fear, something I vowed never to do, but I let my mentor and her sister down. I couldn’t defend myself, and, what's worse, I couldn’t defend them.

“Lunella”. Emira’s soft call startled me. “Are you alright?”.

“Me? Uh…yeah! Yeah, I’m fine!”. By the look my mentor gave me in return, I could tell she didn’t believe me. But she didn’t say anything further. Instead, she turned to her sister, who was breathing very heavily. She also looked paler than usual and sweat dribbled down her forehead.

“Easy, Mittens” she hushed as she rushed over to her. “Let's get you to a healer”.

“I’m okay”.

“And I’m the titan. Come on, sis. Don’t be difficult”.

I watched the two of them head towards where all of the witches were taking shelter, a feeling of listlessness taking over me like a deadly disease. My heart was beginning to ache from beating so hard and my head was starting to turn to nothing but mush. I needed a distraction, and the only thing here other than the giant endless shopping commercial happening on the horizon was training. That was it. I needed to go watch some training to take my mind off things. Maybe I would learn some new moves. Maybe I could finally find a way to surprise Emira! The thoughts gave me a newfound energy, one that pushed my feet towards the massive windowsill. Now that they were filled with new purpose, each step I took was a large bound.

But, even as my confidence started to return, the feeling of fear still lingered, itching like fresh welts. My focus was as fragile as glass, my nerves as sharp as knives. Like a frightened rabbit, my ears were pricked, searching for any kind danger lurking in the shadows. My fight or flight instinct was dialed to eleven. My panic was raw and inconsolable. Any moment could mean death for both myself and the people I cared about. Death was imminent and around every corner. It was only a matter of time something much stronger swooped down and wiped my tiny inconsequential life from the face of this multiverse. And the worse thing about it was there was nothing I could do about it but wait until that horrible moment arrived.

…

“That’s enough for today, Molly. Head back to behind the microwave and take a rest. You’ve earned it”. Connie sheathed her long pink blade and placed a hand on Molly’s shoulder. Molly smiled at her back despite her exhaustion.

For around an hour and a half, I sat in on the two’s training session. Molly was a good fighter for someone with little prior training, and Connie was a good teacher. You could tell that she was professionally trained in sword fighting by her stance and elegance. Both were heavily determined, and I had yet to see how the two of them did in battle, but I heard stories about them. Emira had told me of their battle in someplace called The Knee. Connie had fought off one of the most powerful witches on the isles while Molly had discovered that you could make people infected by the glitch think they were at a different time and place.

“Lunella, right?”. The sound of Connie’s voice broke me from my thoughts. She closed the space between us. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you”.

“About what?” I asked curiously.

“I need you to talk to Moleculeman”.

Just his name made all my trepidation come swarming back. My mind flipped back to early that day. Memories clogged my throat and tore at my skin much like the alien’s molecules. That hopeless feeling returned, making me want to curl up in a little ball and cry out for help. My heart hammered against my chest. My guts felt scrambled in a rat’s nest of knots. I shook like leaves in a typhoon.

“But…But Moleculeman hates my guts!”.

“I know. But we need someone powerful like him before we go to our next stop. It’s a dangerous place, even without the glitch, but it’s also prime opportunity to add powerful creatures to our arsenal. Is there any way you can get Moleculeman to turn a new leaf? Maybe try apologizing”.

“Apologize?” I spat incredulously. “But I didn’t do anything! His beef is with the Beyonder!”.

“Who Moleculeman is nowhere close to forgiving. But you may be different. You're not as…”.

“Obnoxious?”.

“Please, Lunella” Connie begged, her dark eyes lit in urgency. “We need everyone on our side we can get. Can you at least try to reason with him?”.

Before I could tell Connie to find someone else to speak with Moleculeman, the word, “okay” was already coming out of my mouth. Soon after that I was in front of the green alien. He was stuck in an invisible box that had an inside chilled far below zero. When he turned to look at me, he moved as slowly as someone with arthritis. Surprisingly, he didn’t have a scowl on his face. In fact, it looked as if all the malice had seeped out of him like pus from an infected wound. All my fear melted into pity. That assurance that cruelly mocked me earlier, that raw power that held me over my untimely death by a single thread, was gone. All that was left was an acceptance lined by bitterness.

Connie noticed Molculeman’s change in attitude too. She nodded at me to move closer and speak. I did just that, starting with a simple, “Hey”.

“What do you want?” he rasped. “Have you come here to mock me?”.

“No. I came here because I want to talk”.

“About the glitch?”. His anger slightly reared its head. “Your friends have already done that enough”.

“I wanted to talk about you”.

“About me?” he hmmed.

“I can’t speak for the Beyonder, but I’m sorry your resort got destroyed. I know it’s hard to lose something you care so deeply about”.

Molculeman’s expression was twisted with a ton of different emotions. Of course there was a grief as strong as steel, but there was also this despondency that shouted that the poor alien didn’t want to fight anymore. He had surrendered from his plans of revenge and was now left soaking in all of his feelings.

“What do you know about loss, child?” he gruffed, turning his face away from me for a moment.

“Other than my family being stuck on earth with God knows what invading it? Just today, when I nearly lost my mentor and was helpless to do anything about it. I felt so scared and powerless. That’s how you feel right now, isn’t it?”.

“At least you still have something to lose”. The anger had once again drained from him. “I have nothing”.

“You have us” I murmured.

He still refused to look at me, but Moleculeman smiled. It didn’t last very long. He soon went back to frowning, bowing his head in shame. Yet my words touched him somehow. We had connected, if not just slightly. “I’m sorry. I let my own pain spread to you and your friends. I haven’t healed myself one bit by seeking revenge. I’ve only done the same thing the Beyonder did, hurt others with my own carelessness”.

“Can we start over?” I asked after soaking in Moleculeman’s apology.

“No,” he answered with a sigh. “What I’ve done will never go away. But I promise from now on, I will treat you all with more respect. And I will take this glitch thing more seriously. I know what It feels like for your world to be shattered. I don’t want that to happen to you”.

I gave Moleculeman my thanks, finally getting the alien to look me in the eyes. Then I made my way back to Connie. She nervously read my expression and was happy to find a soft smile on my face. “I have good news for you” I said when I spotted Connie light up.

“Then it’s time. Run and gather the team. Tell them our next stop is Gravity Falls”.