Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“So many ways to tell a story, but that’s what makes them so interesting! You can never predict how they’re going to turn out!” - Professor [REDACTED]

***

“Done!” Bivalvan declares as the escape pods began opening up, “I’ve overridden the lockdown, we have to go now before Aggregor realises!”

All around him, his companions were holding off the horde of robotic guards protecting the area. 

“But…what about P’andor?” Galapagus asks with worry as he holds a metallic sphere in his fins.

“He knew what he was signing up for when he offered to distract Aggregor.” Ra’ad grimaces as he blasts the robot guards with electricity.

“But P’andor friend.” Andreas says, sounding confused as Bivalvan sighs.

“I know, but he made his choice. And unless you want his sacrifice to be for nothing, we have to leave now,” he says as he points to the open escape pods. With some reluctance, they all head to their own pods as Bivalvan fires a stream of high-pressure water that cuts the robots to pieces.

As this happens, suddenly an explosion occurs in the room next to the escape pods, a stray magnetic round tearing into the hull, shaking the ship and exposing them to vacuum. 

“Damn it, whoever's out there's gonna get us killed.” Bivalvan curses as he runs towards Galapagus who was knocked on his back from the impact, “On your feet, Galapagus.”

“But the Omnitrix!” He points a fin towards the sphere rolling away out of reach before getting sucked through the hole made by the stray magnetic round. Bivalvan doesn’t hesitate before lifting Galpagus and throwing him into an empty pod.

“Who cares? As long as Aggregor’s not getting it.” Bivalvan says as he heads to his own empty pod and typing in the command sequence to launch, “Whatever happens to it, it’s no longer our problem.”

***

“You fool! Stop this at once!” 

Aggregor roars as he stabs at the thick metal doors leading to his ship’s fusion reactor. Inside, P’andor grips the two fuel rods with his containment suit’s massive gauntlets. Even when the Prypiatosian-As from home had locked him in the suit, his experience over his natural abilities allows him just enough to begin overloading the two fuel rods and destabilising their containment fields.

He had been called many things. Murderer, thief, and criminal, but today the four currently escaping from the confinements of this ship towards the nearest planet in a stolen shuttle, they call him a hero and friend.

Hero…Not something he’d expect to die as, but honestly? It didn’t sound that bad.

“I can take it…I can take it…” he mutters to himself as he strains himself, the damned containment suit making his efforts painful as he amplifies the fuel cells with what nuclear energy he had within him. He ignores the screams of his captor to stop, the red alarms blaring through the ship as the fusion reactor begins to overload thanks to his efforts.

He spares one last glare at his captor through the containment suit’s grill, 

“I can take this.” he says firmly as he grins at Aggregor behind his helmet, “Can you?”

When the reactor blows up, taking the entire ship with it and Aggregor was consumed in nuclear fire, he took great pleasure at the sight of fear instead of his once unflappable expression. He was terrified, he had not seen this coming. One last victory to take to his grave.

***

In every universe, in every multiverse, in this vast omniverse that sprung from the Prime Timeline, there are always two constants. One, a battle in orbit of some planet, whatever reason they fight was inconsequential but from the battle there is always always a pod racing down from the skies, rocketing through the atmosphere before.

Two, there is always a child, stumbling from a campsite, drawn to the sight of a shooting star like a moth to flames.

“Come on, Willow! It landed over there!” A young Amity Blight races through the forest, with one hand grabbing Willow’s as she drags her through the forest.

“I don’t know, Amity.” Willow says fearfully as she looks around at the dark forest, “We might get into trouble with the camp counsellors.”

“Don’t worry, it’s close by. And we’ll be gone for a moment.” Amity assures as they finally spot a soft orange glow from already dying fires on nearby trees, “It’s there! Let’s go!”

The two of them enter the clearing and gasp at the sight of a crater, within it some kind of metallic sphere. 

“What do you think it is?” Willow asks in a hushed whisper.

“I don’t know.” Amity says leaning over the crater, “I think we should- Ah!”

She yelps as suddenly the dirt at the edge of the crater crumbles and she is sent rolling down into the crater.

“Amity!” Willow cries in worry as she jumps into the crater to help her friend.

Amity coughs as she dusts the dirt off her dress, “I’m fine, I’m fine. I just fell over.”

As she says this they both freeze at the sound of a hiss coming from the sphere, both of them turn to see the sphere opening up like it was some sort of container. And from within the sphere, a soft, green glow was seen, lighting up and revealing something inside. It looked to be some kind of strange bracer.

“Is…that a watch?” Willow asks as she adjusts her glasses, “What is that doing here? Did someone lose it?”

“What, did they drop it from the sky or something?” Amity asks doubtfully, “What should we do?”

“Maybe we should take it to the camp counsellors?” Willow suggests, “They might know what to do with it.”

“Good idea,” Amity says as she reaches out carefully to grab it, but the moment her fingers made contact with it, the strange device suddenly stretches and leaps towards her arm, wrapping itself around it as both girls scream.

***

“And done!” Luz declares victoriously as she slams down the empty Mr Smoothie cup, opening its lid to reveal that she had drunk every last drop.

“Dang it.” Amity mutters in defeat, “I really thought it would be this one.”

“Like I keep telling you, she drinks anything. I once saw her drink a chilli-liver-pear-onion smoothie. If she can drink that she can drink anything.” the brown-haired and green-eyed server says as he hands Amity a cup, “And here’s your two orders of strawberry-chocolate-cricket flavoured smoothie.”

“Thanks.” Amity nods appreciatively as she drinks from it, “Huh, it tastes just like the ones back home.”

“You guys have smoothies back in the Demon Realm?” Luz asks as she takes the second cup and drinks from it, “Why didn’t you tell me? We should head there sometime.”

“Oh well, there’s a weird reason for that.” Amity says, “See there’s this strange shop in the Boiling Isles that disappears and reappears seemingly without a pattern. The only thing it sells are smoothies, and actually, it looked a lot like this place as well. They have a mascot just like that, except it was pink, green and white.”

Amity says as she gestures to the dull grey Mr Smoothie mascot that functions as a sign, with its red straw and a cartoonish smiley face.

“Huh, better hope Mr Smoothie doesn’t sue for breaching the copyright.” Luz shrugs as she returns to her second smoothie of the day.

“Hey, that actually sounds familiar.” the server mutters, rubbing his chin.

“What are you talking about?” Amity asks.

The server leans over the counter conspiratorially, “You see, there’s a little urban legend around these parts of Bellwood. There are always twenty-two Mr Smoothie stores across the city, but one day a regular was on his way to Store 12 when he found another Mr Smoothie shop a few blocks from his apartment that wasn’t there the night before. But the strange thing was that this 14th Mr Smoothie shop had a different colour scheme, pink, green and white just like you said. And before this customer could go in and order it disappeared.”

Luz almost spat out her smoothie, “Wait, how come I haven’t heard of it?”

The server shrugs, “Hey, it’s a barely known legend. I figured it must’ve been a bad heatstroke, it was during a pretty hot Summer after all, and after I found out about aliens I thought maybe it was just one of them. Besides, nobody’s ever seen this Store 14 ever since then.”

“Wait, how long ago was this?” Amity asks and the server shrugs,

“About last year, give or take,” he says and Amity’s eyes widen.

“I saw that store only last month.” she says in surprise, “I was on the way home from the library and was thirsty.”

“So we got a dimension-hopping smoothie shop?” Luz mutters to herself, “We have to find it! I have to try whatever smoothies it serves!”

“That’s the first thing that comes to your mind?” the server asks and Luz shrugs.

“Hey, you’re the one who introduced them to me and started my addiction.” she jokes, “Can’t stop, won’t stop.”

The server sighs, “I’ve made a monster, haven’t I?”

“What do you say, Ams?” Luz asks, grabbing her friend’s hands as Amity’s face grew red, “Wanna help me track down a dimension-hopping smoothie shop and drink some delicious interdimensional smoothies?”

“M-me?” she asks blushing, “J-just the two of us?”

“Come on, we were spending the entire day together aren’t we?” Luz reminds.

“T-that’s because Kevin ditched us to show Gus his car, and Hope left with Willow to look at some Ledgerdomain plants,” Amity says remembering how they all suddenly left with mischievous smirks and barely audible giggles.

“That’s fine, come to think of it, we’ve never had an adventure with just the two of us yet, haven’t we?” Luz realises as she puts an arm around Amity’s shoulders, “Onwards then! Luz and Amity’s interdimensional smoothie hunt adventure!”

“Y-yay…” Amity cheers weakly in a daze.

***

“Sorry, we couldn’t find it Luz.” Amity apologises as they sat on a bench, dropping a device Luz had borrowed from the Plumbers to detect anomalous energy readings, hoping it could pick up dimension breaches or however, the smoothie shop was travelling.

“It’s fine. It was a long shot anyways.” Luz sighed with a smile, although she sounded slightly disappointed, “Still at least we had fun trying to look for it. I can’t believe we have an entire dimension hopping smoothie store under our noses, even the Plumbers database had nothing on it.”

“Who knows, maybe we’ll have better luck in the Demon Realm?” Amity says trying to sound encouraging, “It did show up quite recently there. Maybe it will happen again?”

Luz shrugs, “Fat chance. What are the odds of it just randomly appearing in front of us?”

Suddenly the device next to them beeps rapidly before in front of them, in a flash of blue, a Mr Smoothie store materialises in front of them as both Luz and Amity’s jaw drop.

“...And what are the odds I get Master Control?!” Luz shouts to the sky expecting Azmuth to suddenly beam down to unlock her Omnitrix’s Master Control. To her disappointment, he doesn’t.

“Come on!” Amity grabs Luz by the hand and drags her along, “Before it disappears!”

The two of them quickly dash towards the entrance, pushing open the twin glass doors and causing the bell hanging above to ring as behind them the door closes, just as the building suddenly shakes.

Looking back, both teens widen their eyes to find they were suddenly not in Bellwood. Instead, they appear to be floating somewhere in a dimension that was a mixture of different colours, like they were looking at a kaleidoscope.

“...Where are we?” Amity mutters as the two press their face against the windows.

“This isn’t the Null Void.” Luz says equally confused, “Unless something changed the background, I don’t remember it looking like a drug trip.”

Amity gives her an odd look as she shrugs, “Hey, turns out there’s a planet out there that uses LSD as air fresheners. It was a rough trip, let me tell you that. In more ways than one.”

Before Amity could respond to that, they hear footsteps behind them and turn to find a surprisingly familiar figure.

“Excuse me, but what are you two doing here?” 

“Rook?” Luz asks, bewildered by the sight of her partner, “What are you doing here?”

“Pardon?” The maybe-Rook looks at her strangely, “I do not believe we have met, miss?”

“Come on! It’s me, Luz! We’re partners!” Luz exclaims, waving her hands allowing Rook to catch a glimpse of what was on her left wrist.

“Ah! I see the mistake, I am Rook Blonko but it is evident I am not your Rook Blonko.”

“...What?” Both Luz and Amity say in unison, confused.

“Allow me to explain, are any of you two familiar with the concept of the multiverse?” the not-her-Rook asks.

“The multiverse theory? Yeah, enough for me to understand half of what Paradox says.” Luz nods.

“You mean that thing mentioned in the Azura spin-offs?” Amity asks curious and excited, “Where Azura and Hectate meet alternate versions of themselves where Hectate became the Good Witch and Azura was the rival that starts off bad but turns good?”

“You finished reading that?!” Luz asks distractedly but before she could delve into theories and discussions with Amity, the Rook 2.0 clears his throat.

“Ahem, I am unsure what this…Azura is, but yes. Imagine every decision you make creates ripples through your timeline, with enough ripples of significant proportions this causes the timeline to split into an alternate timeline and create another universe. I come from a timeline where you didn’t get the Omnitrix, miss…I’m sorry I didn’t get your name?”

“Luz Noceda and this is my friend Amity Blight.” she introduces herself before registering what he just said, “Wait, so I never got the Omnitrix on your timeline? Who got it then? Was it my dad?”

“No, it went to a boy named Ben Tennyson, I’m sure it doesn’t sound familiar to-”

“Ben got the Omnitrix?!” Luz exclaims in surprise, her eyes widening.

“Ben? The guy who works at Mr Smoothie?” Amity asks, finding the image ridiculous.

“Yes, he- Wait, Ben Tennyson works in a Mr Smoothie in your universe?” Rook’s doppelganger suddenly looks amused and pulls out a cell phone, “Do you have any photographs. I must share this discovery back home.”

“Sure, does airdrop work here?” Luz pulls out her own phone, sending it before asking, “So what about you? Part-time Plumber agent, part-time at this Mr Smoothie store?”

“Oh, no.” Alternate Rook shakes his head suddenly turning serious, “My Ben got kidnapped along with another version of himself by a rogue Chronosapien named Maltruant. My associate and I are currently attempting to scour the entire multiverse looking for him.”

“He’s in danger?” Luz asks concerned, “Do you need any help?”

“Hm, do you happen to possess a Galvanic Mechamorph form?” he asks, “The multiversal engine is struggling to keep up with the demands we placed on it and is as such malfunctioning. If you can also somehow locate Ben through this multiverse, it’ll be appreciated as well.”

Luz turns to Amity who looks concerned as well, “Do you think you can magic something up?”

She rubs her chin in thought, “I might, but I’ve never done anything on this…multiversal scale before. Do you have anything that he uses?”

Alternate Rook reaches for his pouch and hands over an empty soda can, “Yes. He was drinking this before dropping it.”

“You pick after his trash a lot?” Amity asks as she accepts the can.

“Littering is harmful to the environment.” Alternate Rook shrugs, “He was aiming for the trash can but he missed. I was holding onto it until we could find a recycling bin.”

“Huh, Ben doesn’t seem like the type to do that.” Luz notes.

“Does your Ben somewhat have an ego from saving the universe a few times?” Alternate Rook asks dryly.

“Ben with an ego? He’s a pretty sweet, down-to-earth kinda guy.” Luz says looking at Alternate Rook disbelievingly, “A bit sarcastic but having an ego doesn’t seem like him.”

“...Truly the multiverse is full of wonders.” Alternate Rooks looks at her in amazement.

Meanwhile, Amity focuses on her spell, drawing a spell circle and infusing it with both mana and bile, having the empty can float within the circle as her eyes glowed magenta, chanting the spell softly under her breath.

“I think I got something…” she says, sounding strained, “But it’s faint.”

“I’ll try to boost the signal somehow. Take me to this engine.” Luz says as she primes her Omnitrix, selecting Upgrade.

Alternate Rook nods and guides her into the store’s backroom where some kind of green-skinned humanoid alien in a brown steampunk costume was tinkering with a device.

“Ah, Rook, who are these two?” he asks as he fiddles with a wrench inside the device.

“Stowaways from the last dimension.” Alternate Rook explains, “One of them has an Omnitrix, let her give it a try.”

As he says this, Luz slams the primed Omnitrix, her cells instantly shifting from organic to biomechanical nanites combined together to form a singular organism made of a large black mass with purple circuitry patterns.

“How about I try giving it an Upgrade?” she says before leaping into the engine, instantly her biological nature allows her to recognise the faults within the machine and use her own supply of nanomachines to repair and modify it.

“I think I’m picking something up…about here.” she reports as a purple holographic map appears as she highlights a universe, “Some kind of signal of sorts. Not sure but it might be worth a shot.”

Amity walks in with the can within the spell circle, a beam of mana shooting from it and locking onto the same universe Upgrade highlighted, “I think that’s where you’ll find your friend. My spell is pointing me in that direction as well.”

“We got our destination, putting in the coordinates.” Upgrade reports before leaving the device, “You need some backup for this?”

However, Alternate Rook shakes his head, “No, you’ve done enough already. This is our fight, one we can handle by ourselves. Knowing Ben, he’s probably relaxing having defeated the criminals already.”

The green alien nods, “In that case, I’ll just drop you two back to your dimension first. Thanks for the tune-up, much appreciated.”

“You’re welcome.” Upgrade nods before pausing, “And do you mind if we take a smoothie on the way out?”

***

“Aw man, I should’ve asked for the recipe for this.” Upgrade smacks herself in the face after the 14th Store disappears in a flash of blue.

“Well, it’s certainly unique.” Amity takes a sip from the smoothie they bought before cringing at its taste, “Ugh, not a flavour I recognise. And the texture…”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” Upgrade says as she took a sip from her own cup, “But if you’re not having that…”

Amity hands her cup over to Upgrade as she put both straws in her “mouth” before inhaling, causing Amity to momentarily blushed at the realisation that both Luz and her mouth had touched the same straw.

“How are you tasting that? You don’t even have a mouth right now.” Amity asks looking at Upgrade confused, who was just poking the two straws into the area where her mouth would have been.

“Eh, Upgrade’s nanomachines are just sucking in the smoothie, breaking them down into energy and also sending signals to my ‘brain’ that lets me taste it.” she shrugs just as she hears a honk and quickly stops in time, pulling Amity back as well before they were run over by a…an abomination car?

“Watch it!” a witch in an automobile that looks like a metal car frame filled with abomination goo drove by without stopping, waving a fist angrily at them.

“...Did you just see that?” Upgrade asks a similarly surprised Amity as they stare at the abomination car driving on an asphalt road through architecture that was vaguely similar to the type she’d see in Bonesborough, only more standardised and cubical instead of the variety of designs she’d usually see.

On the asphalt roads were more abomination cars, some of different sizes and makes but all were made of abomination material stuck in a traffic jam that wouldn’t look out of place in a large city.

“That’s…those weren’t there the last time.” Amity mutters in shock as the two look around them, the whole area looks like some kinda mash between a modern city and Bonesborough, “We were in Bellwood, now we’re…here?”

“This isn’t the Boiling Isles unless I somehow missed all of this.” Upgrade mutters, “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”

“...Who’s Toto and what’s a Kansas?” Amity asks, still in shock as an abomination car honks its horn. All around here witches and bipedal demons walk through the sidewalks wearing clothes made of some kind of grey latex-like material instead of cloth or tunic. They were all matching as well, a kind of full-body suit with the only real difference being the colours of patches on their shoulders as well matching those of the main Covens.

“Tell me we aren’t in the future or something.” Upgrade whines before turning to a passerby, “Excuse me, what day is it? What year?”

The passerby looks at her strangely before looking at her with a mix of confusion and annoyance, “What do I look like, a calendar? Get a newspaper.”

He gestures down the street at a newspaper vending machine which both Amity and Upgrade approach but finds a tinted screen over where normally a glass pane would be in place to let the customers at least view the front page.

“Please insert 5 BlightCoins for preview.” an automated voice came from the newspaper vending machine.

“BlightCoin?” Amity mutters in shock as she finds the Blight Industry logo at the corner of the tinted pane of glass, “This…this is from my parent's company.”

“Your parents have a company?” Upgrade asks surprised before shaking her head and pointing at the lack of coin slots and a scanner in place, “Nevermind, I doubt we can use snails for this. This thing looks digital. Let me give it a try.”

Upgrade’s arm slaps against the scanner, causing it to fizzle before the pane of glass becomes clear, allowing Amity to peer through and read the front page, her eyes widening in shock.

“What the?! Celebration of the fifth year since the formation of the Blight Empire begins tomorrow? Head State Innovator Alador Blight announces new central power source for Boiling Isles? New age of progress declared by Empress Odalia Blight?!”

“Wait…Odalia Blight? Alador Blight? Is that your mother and father?” Upgrade asks not having known their names. Amity wordlessly nods,

“B-but this is impossible, the date in this newspaper is…it’s last week!” Amity cries in shock as she grips the edges of the newspaper vending machine, “What’s going on?!”

“...That alternate Rook mentioned the multiverse… You don’t think they dropped us off at the wrong dimension, did they?” Upgrade asks nervously as her singular optic meets Amity’s eyes.

“A universe where my mom’s an Empress...If you’re right, then how do we get home?” Amity asks nervously before Upgrade grasps her hand.

“Hey, it’ll be fine Ams.” She assures the green-haired witch, “Our first step is finding the Eda of this universe, there has to be a portal to the Human Realm. Then we contact this universe’s Plumbers, try to find some kind of dimension-hopping thing and hopefully figure out a way home.”

“That seems like a long shot.” Amity notes.

“Hey, don’t be such a downer.” Upgrade says, “Repeat after me. We can fix this together.”

“...We can fix this together,” Amity says with a growing smile, Upgrade’s confidence assuring her.

Before they can do anything, they all suddenly heard a scream coming from around the block’s corner and turn to see a pillar of smoke rising. Civilians begin fleeing from the area and Upgrade’s reflexes kick in, rushing towards the scene as Amity follows her.

As they turn around the corner, they both stop to see something flying and smashing into a trailer truck, 

“Stay here.” Upgrade told Amity as she rushes towards a figure she sees in the truck wreck, “Are you al- Tetrax?!”

She exclaims in surprise as she sees a very familiar Petrosapien lying in the wreck, the crystals that make up his head and face were cracked, making it look like a jagged scar running down his eye.

“Urgh, get back, I- A Galvanic Mechamorph?” he mutters in shock at the sight of her, “I thought I was the only agent deployed?”

“What are you talking about?” Upgrade asks confused as Tetrax’s gaze went to the Omnitrix emblem on her chest, widening in shock.

“That…By Sugilite, she’s replicated it,” he mutters softly in shock.

“Hey, I think you’re pretty concussed.” Upgrade informs recognising the signs as his gaze was very unfocused, “Listen to me, I-!”

Before she could finish, a fist smashes into her face and sent her flying back. Tetrax Shard stumbles to his feet, his mechanical gloves sliding back to reveal crystal fists that morph into dozens of crystal shards.

Without warning he unleashes a barrage of crystal shards at speeds akin to that of a machine gun, with Upgrade raising her arms to shield herself from the projectiles. However before they could strike her, they pause midair with a magenta glow surrounding them.

“Hey, she was only trying to help!” Amity shouts as she holds both her hands out, magenta runes circling around her wrist with a flick of her finger, the crystals fall to the ground useless.

Tetrax’s eyes widen in shock, “You?! But I was just fighting you!”

“Huh?” Amity looks confused at him before without warning, a blast of blue electricity was shot at Tetrax from behind causing him to scream in pain as he falls to his knees.

“Damn it, I thought I had more time.” he pants as they all look behind him to see hovering air was a blue and white jellyfish-like creature, but what shocked both Upgrade and Amity was a green Omnitrix emblem on the alien’s chest.

“You’ve led me on a merry little chase, and that trap of yours showed impressive ingenuity I’ve come to expect from you aliens.” it speaks in a feminine voice, “But the chase’s come to an end, terrorist.”

“Terrorist?” Luz softly mutters in confusion. She knew Tetrax had a questionable past as a mercenary, accidentally dooming his home planet of Petropia by working with Vilgax, but a terrorist? That doesn’t sound right.

“Luz, what should we do?” Amity whispers not knowing how to act with the two in front of them about to fight.

“...We stay out of their way, we don’t know how things work here.” Upgrade whispers back after a moment's hesitation, “For all we know, if we help Tetrax we might actually be aiding and abetting a terrorist.”

As she says this, the flying jellyfish alien swoops towards Tetrax just as he slams his fist into the ground, protecting him from another blast of electricity.

Before he could retaliate, the ground began shaking as a giant armoured creature sprang from below, shattering the crystal wall with a single punch and then decking Tetrax across the face before he can defend himself.

“Andreas smashes shiny man.” the yellow alien with drills for arms shouts at the floored Tetrax.

“Good work, Andreas.” the jellyfish alien flies over them, “I’ll take care of the rest.”

Mid-flight it bursts into a flash of green light as Tetrax fires a stream of crystals at her before a heavy object falls down and lands on top of his chest, cracking his armour and likely the crystals beneath it as well.

“Had enough?” a suit of heavy-looking armour with three orange slits in the helm asks Tetrax who responds by weakly raising his arm and shaping it into a blade.

“N-never…” he groans but barely has the strength to hold his arm up as the armoured alien slaps it away with little effort.

“Fine. The hard way it is,” she mutters in a voice with a heavy Russian-sounding accent before the slits in the helmet begin glowing hot orange, and a stream of energy firing down on Tetrax as he screams in agony.

Amity’s hand moves to her mouth in shock, the scream of pain coming from Tetrax unsettling her,

“We need to stop them!” Amity says but Upgrade was already rushing forward before the words left her mouth, slamming her Omnitrix emblem as she does so.

“That’s enough!” a voice interrupts the armoured alien who stops her beam to glance at Upgrade grabbing her by the shoulder and forcing her face grill to change targets towards the stone and crystalline body of Chromastone.

An aura resembling that of a rainbow ripples through Chromastone’s chest where she took the full brunt of the energy blast, gritting her teeth as her body took in the entirety of the apparently radioactive beam.

“He’s beaten. You’ve already taken him down, you don’t need to take him out.” Chromastone scolds her.

The alien stops her beam and snarls at her, “...Another alien? Brave to stand up for your friend but foolish.”

“Not completely right,” Chromastone says as she slaps the Omnitrix emblem on her chest, transforming back to Luz Noceda and surprising the armoured alien.

“You-?! Where did you come across that Bracer of Transformation?” the armoured alien asks but Luz stares back at her unflinchingly despite being dwarfed in size by the armoured alien.

“How about you transform back first? It’s rude not to show your own face in a conversation isn’t it?” Luz says unimpressed before calming herself, “Look, we’ve got off on the wrong foot, how about a do-over? I’m Luz Noceda, human, and you are?”

“Arresting you for the possession of unsanctioned artefacts.” the armoured alien snarls and steps towards Luz who doesn’t move an inch until Amity gets between the two.

“Hey, she’s just trying to be polite.” Amity says defensively, glaring at the armoured alien, “Who do you think you are?”

“Who am I? Who do you think you are for putting on that face?” The armoured alien roars undignified, confusing Luz and Amity.

“Er, why there two Amities?” Andreas asks confused from behind, scratching his head with a claw.

“Wait, two Amities?” Luz repeats in confusion before realisation as the armoured alien’s Omnitrix emblem beeps before disappearing in a flash of green light, replaced by a figure in an abomination-coloured cloak, with silver armour beneath it that reminds her of the Golden Guards. But instead of a bird-like golden mask, it was one that looks like a featureless cat with the texture of that of marble. On her left hand was to Luz’s surprise, a green version of the original Omnitrix she received back when she was ten years old, when it was more resembling a leather bracer instead of a watch.

With a flick of their hand, a mechanical staff with a glass orb filled with abomination goo inside a crescent tip materialises as they grabbed it, pointing the sharp end at Amity’s face. As she does this, she uses her other hand to remove the mask as Luz and Amity’s jaws drop at the sight before them.

“I am not fond of repeating myself, citizen.” A perfect copy of Amity stood before them with cold golden eyes, “Why do you wear my face?”

***

“So…you claim to be me…from another dimension.” the alternate Amity Blight crosses her arms as she leans back on the chair looking sceptical at Amity before turning to Luz, “And you are a human from her dimension that ended up with the Bracer instead?”

“Omnitrix.” Luz corrects, “That’s what it’s called from our dimension. And what are we doing here anyways? It feels…extravagant?”

She gestures to what felt like at least a four-star cafe. The kind with overpriced food and drinks that look more like pieces of art to be stared at instead of eaten. The entire top floor was vacant of everyone including the waiters once they served them drinks from fancy-looking cups and cakes but the only one helping themselves to the food was Andreas who was scarfing down a plate of pastries before reaching for another and scarfing it down.

“You said you wanted to talk in private. Be grateful we’re not having this conversation in the dungeons.” Alternate Amity looks at Luz disdainfully but she didn’t retort, unfortunately her Amity did.

“I’ll be grateful if you start minding your manners.” she scoffs.

“Amity, it’s fine.” Luz assures calmly, ever the diplomat, before turning back to Alternate Amity, “It’s true, and we’ll do our best to show that we’re telling the truth. But I have just two questions first if you don’t mind?”

“Ask them.” Alternate Amity shrugs.

“What’s gonna happen to Tetrax?” Luz asks concerned as Alternate Amity looks at her oddly, “The Petrosapien? The guy whose face you nearly melt off? The second question is what did he do?”

“Ah, the terrorist.” Alternate Amity nods in recognition, “He’ll be transferred to the castle dungeons, ironic considering he was trying to break out his fellow alien criminals we keep inside the dungeon.”

“Prison break?” Luz mutters thinking to herself, “Sounds like mercenary work…Maybe he was hired or something?”

“You know him?” both Amities ask her before turning at each other surprised and glaring.

“Yeah, Tetrax Shard.” Luz nods, “Former mercenary, thief, soldier of fortune turned vigilante. At least from our dimension. He’s a good friend and a good man. We used to work with each other, saved my life lots of times.”

“Well, whatever he was in your ‘dimension’ he’s a terrorist here.” Alternate Amity says, “Now back to my question, how can I tell you’re telling the truth?”

“Occam’s razor.” Luz says confusing everyone before she clarifies, “It means the simplest solution is the most likely. Why would we be lying? What could we possibly gain from lying to you that we’re from another dimension? Go through the trouble of making someone look exactly like you, and create a fully functional Omnitrix?” 

Luz asks as she flashes her own slimmer and sleeker recalibrated Omnitrix as Alternate Amity glances at her prototype Omnitrix, “So that just leaves our story as the only explanation. We got dropped off here by mistake, so we’re just trying to find our way home right now.”

“...You have a point.” Alternate Amity concedes reluctantly, “But for all I know this could be some alien trick. I’ll let you off but expect me to keep a very close eye on you two.”

“So you don’t like aliens?” Amity asks gesturing to Andreas, “Then why have him hanging around?”

“Andreas has proven himself to be a loyal and effective servant to Her Majesty’s will.” Alternate Amity says, sounding defensive.

“Andreas is good sol…sol…” Andreas says happily before struggling to find the word.

“Soldier.” Alternate Amity supplies patiently, “Sol-dier.”

“Soldier…” Andreas repeats, “Yes, Andreas am a good soldier. Bad guy comes and hit until they stop.”

“So what’s your story?” Luz asks Andreas, “I’ve never seen any alien like you before. How’d you end up here?”

Andreas looks to Alternate Amity excitedly, “Oh, can Andreas tell new friends?”

“They’re not new friends.” Alternate Amity corrects with a sigh, “But go ahead.”

“Okay! Andreas had four friends, and we were taken by bad man called Aggregor. But then ship starts shaking and Bivalvan says it may be someone else fighting Aggregor ship. Then all of us run to escape pod except for P’andor.” Andreas explains looking sad and downcast, his ears dropping, “P’andor stayed and blow up ship, make sure Aggregor no come after us.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Luz says sympathetically upon hearing the story, “But what happened to the rest of your friends? Did they make it?”

Andreas nods, “Yes. Amity’s father make small ship from escape pods, but so small could not fit all of us. Said Andreas had to stay. Nowhere to live but Blight gave home, gave food, and Amity taught Andreas how to read. Give me good books.”

“So they left you here for five years?” Luz asks in shock, “They didn’t try sending for anyone to come pick you up?”

“Er…Don’t know.” Andreas shrugs looking downcast and confused, “But is fine. Help Amethyst Guard fight bad guys like Aggregor!”

“Amethyst Guard?” Amity asks looking at her alternate self, “That’s what you’re calling yourself? Like the Golden Guard?”

“Golden who?” the Alternate Amity asks, looking confused.

“You know, Belos’ right-hand man?” Luz says confused, “Did he go by another name here? Who was the right-hand man of your Emperor Belos, you know, the one before your mom. I guess there was a coup at some point that led to your mom taking over?”

“...There has only ever been the Blight Empire before; there were only separate cities before Her Majesty united them under one banner. Who in Titan’s name is Belos?”

At this point, both Amity and Luz have lost count of how many times they were surprised. Before their minds can fully register this information, Alternate Amity’s hand went to a purple gemstone that acted as a clasp for her cape, similar to the necklace she sees Amity wear.

“...I understand.” Alternate Amity says to someone before standing up, glaring at the two, “You should be honoured, my mother and Empress have requested your presence. We move at once to the castle.”

***

“So…another relic appears.” Empress Odalia Blight, First of Her Name, Lord of the Boiling Isles, Prophet of the Titan, the Grand Unifier, stares into a crystal ball where the images of that relic belong to the human. A human!

And a duplicate of her daughter, but without the relic. Seeing such an image was mind-boggling but she shrugs it off. It wasn’t her Amethyst Guard so it wasn’t her problem, her focus was more on the human.

Another relic, with a form she has not seen her Amethyst Guard use before. Who knows how many more lay within her device? 

What would it take for her to bring this human under her rule? Position? Power? Riches? Lover? Perhaps the twins will finally be useful for something after all, or perhaps her Amethyst Guard could be able to bring her in by herself? The image of two shapeshifting guards enforcing her will, expanding her sphere of influence, especially if her Head State Innovator could present results in replicating the relic and creating an army of shapeshifting Abomatons. 

“If you think I’ll be the last…you’re dead wrong.”

She doesn’t turn to face her newest prisoner, simply tapping the floor with her sceptre and commanding her Abomatons to slam a hardened fist into her prisoner’s guts before throwing him into an empty cell, wrapping his arms with magically enhanced chains to prevent him from using his alien abilities.

“The Plumbers can focus efforts on you now that the Incursean War’s over! You hear me?! You think you can stand up to the full might of the Plumbers?!” the alien shouts as she leaves after overseeing the latest prison transfer, having hoped interrogation would reveal some valuable technological information of sorts but he refused to break even during intense psychic invasion attempts from her strongest relics.

“Save your breath Plumber.” a voice from the cell next to him mutters in a tone of defeat, “What is this, the tenth one this month? You’re really coming out of the woodwork.”

“Who are you?” Tetrax asks, “I’m a mercenary, I was hired by the Plumbers for a rescue operation to retrieve the task force that was sent six months ago! Where are they?”

“Another cell block above us, that’s my guess.” The voice answers, “Once you’re out of use to her, she’ll send you back up there.”

“What about you?” Tetrax asks, “Why are you here then?”

“She takes our genetic material for her abomination experiments.” the voice says through gritted teeth, “A few months ago she took one of us for that power source project of hers. Besides, she does her best to keep us hidden from Andreas.”

“Andreas? You mean that Talpaedan?” Tetrax asks, “Who are you? How long have you been here?”

“The name’s Bivalvan.” he says, his voice dangerously low, “And for the past five years, Galapagus, Ra’ad and I’ve been stuck in these cells. But you can swear to whatever spirits you believe that the moment I break out of this place, I’m killing that witch.”

Chapter Text

“Do we really have to go?” Amity whispers to Luz as they follow the Amethyst Guard and Andreas to what appears to be a sort of Abomination limousine with gold trims.

“What choice do we have?” Luz whispers back, “We’re stuck here, maybe your mom can help us find a way out or something.”

Amity scoffs, “My mother helping someone out of the goodness of her heart? She’ll want something. Something that can profit her.”

She whispers this as she glances down at Luz’s Omnitrix,

“Okay…sensing a bit of tension and drama.” Luz mutters, “But this is a multiverse! Who knows, maybe your mom’s not that bad here?”

“Just…we need to be careful alright?” Amity warns as they all entered the limousine followed by the Amethyst Guard except for Andreas, “Is your friend not joining us?”

“Andreas can’t fit in small spaces like this, so another transport will be sent to pick him up.” the Amethyst Guard explains before looking to the Abomination driver, “Take us to Castle Blight.”

“So…Blight Industries, BlightCoin, Blight Empire, your mom names a lot of things after the family?” Luz asks after an awkward pause as the two parties stare at each other in silence.

“Of course, the Blight family is responsible for all major development the Boiling Isles had undergone these five years after all.” the Amethyst Guard nods, “Before you wouldn’t even dream of having technology such as this.”

“How did it get this far?” Amity mutters as she looks outside the purple-tinted windows at this new Boiling Isles.

“One good thing the constant alien incursions have brought us is their technology.” the Amethyst Guard explains, “The Head State Innovator has proven successful in integrating their technology with ours, drastically improving the state of life within the Boiling Isles, bringing prosperity and security to our realm.”

Luz looks outside to see pairs of abominations with golden robotic parts patrolling the area, the citizens giving them wide berths with some having nervous looks on their faces as they hastily clear the way for them.

“A bit more focused on security I guess?” Luz mutters neutrally as she sees this, “Those abominations protect the city with you? Back in our Demon Realm, the city was patrolled by a bunch of guards from the Emperor’s Coven.”

“Again, I’ve never heard of such an organisation.” the Amethyst Guard shakes her head, “But organic guards are proven to be less efficient than the Abomatons the Head State Innovator designed. They are weaker, can be exhausted, and corrupted. The Abomatons on the other hand are powerful, inexhaustible and obey orders without hesitation. And it means there is no need for witches or demons to risk their lives.”

“You mean our father?” Amity asks, “It’s still weird to hear him get called that. Head State Innovator…”

“Wouldn’t he be like the Emperor or something, if your mother’s the Empress?” Luz asks and the Amethyst Guard shook her head, 

“No, the Head State Innovator has expressed no interest at all in the affairs of the state.” 

Amity nods in agreement, “Yeah, even back home my father wasn’t interested in running the company, just inventing. He left the bureaucratic work and actually ran the company to my mother.”

The Amethyst Guard smirks dismissively, “So instead of ruling the entire Isles your family runs one measly company? Even before the unison into the Blight Empire, House Blight has been one of the most powerful and influential families.”

Amity scowls at her counterpart before looking at Luz, “Was I this bad when we first met?”

“Er…” Luz hesitates to answer but fortunately, the Amethyst Guard interrupts her.

“Excuse me, what is that supposed to mean?” she scowls back at Amity,

“It means that you’re a little-!”

“Oh look! Is that the castle?” Luz quickly interrupts by pointing out the window at a castle built on the chest cavity of the Titan just like where the Emperor’s castle was located back in their dimension. She hasn’t seen it for herself, but the castle she sees now seemed very extravagant if compared to the European ones you’d find back in England on Earth.

It was somewhat a mix of Gothic and Renaissance styles, with towering spires, intricate carvings of gargoyles on stone walls, arched windows and dark material that makes it look imposing. The entrance they were nearing was made up of two massive double doors made of polished wood and adorned with intricate carvings she doesn’t recognise. 

Hanging above the entrance was a massive crest that she assumes belonged to the Blight family. A massive stylised letter ‘B’ right in the centre made of gold inside a deep purple background surrounded by golden engravings of griffins and dragons with the motto underneath written in Boiling Isles runes, which if her translation was correct, meant something amongst the lines of; “Dominion through Power”

How inviting.

“Yes, Castle Blight was designed by the isles' finest artisan and construction witches after the Empress united them all under her banner.” the Amethyst Guard explains, “It is where she meets representatives of the Imperial Senate to discuss the betterment of the isles.”

As she says this, the limo drives up to a drawbridge where it stops, a squad of abomatons approaching them looking more glamorous and gaudy than the ones she saw on the street, actually made from what appears to be golden abomination goo, wielding ceremonial looking golden spears with large emeralds on them, with silver pauldrons and headgear as well.

“...That seems a bit excessive, even for Mother,” Amity says after a moment of stunned silence. Golden abomination goo was just too expensive to be practical. But then she realises if her own mother did have the resources, she would more than likely keep a few around just to show off and flaunt her power.

“We have arrived.” the Amethyst Guard announces before the door of the limousine opens, “Follow me. The Empress will see you know.”

“So is there any protocol we’re supposed to follow?” Luz asks as they follow the Amethyst Guard out of the limo, flanked by three golden Abomatons on each side.

“Yes. Kneel upon greeting, only rise when told to, and speak when spoken to.” Amethyst Guard says dismissively as Amity glares at her,

“I don’t like her.” Amity whispers to Luz as they walk.

“Come on, I’m sure she’s just a sour lemon drop with a sweet centre, just like you Ams.” Luz whispers back, holding Amity’s hand for comfort. The action causes Amity to glance down at the gesture with a flush on her cheeks, “I’ve done this kinda thing before Amity, just follow my lead.”

“W-well, I’ll do that then.” Amity says struggling to keep her face straight before looking at her in concern, “Just remember what I said…”

“Yeah I’ll be careful,” Luz assures as the gates to the castle open with a creak and they enter the halls of the castle, and as they make their way through the maze that was the castle interior the two visitors glance to find tapestries and paintings on the walls depicting forms some of which were familiar to Luz and some aren’t, all having in common the emblem of an Omnitrix emblem on them as they were posed in victorious stances besides a woman in a purple cloak, wielding a golden sceptre. They either had them standing victoriously and shaking hands peacefully, or facing down hordes of enemies.

“So…that’s what you’ve been doing with the Omnitrix ever since you got it?” Luz asks, “Empire building ever since you were what, ten?”

“Of course. It is a great honour to help my mother with her vision of uniting the Isles.” the Amethyst Guard says, sounding full of pride, “Soon with the advancements we’re making, we will expand outside the Boiling Isles to encompass the world. And then beyond.”

“...Well that isn’t ominous at all,” Luz mutters under her breath. Even Amity seemed weirded out by her alternate self before they all stop at a set of double doors.

“We are here. Remember to be respectful to her Majesty.” the Amethyst Guard says as the doors were opened by two golden Abomatons, allowing them to enter a large hall lit up by crystal chandeliers in the ceiling, painted glass allowing in sunlight and displaying more pictures of Empress Odalia in multiple scenarios along with the Amethyst Guard by her side. Luz thinks she was beginning to see a theme.

“Your Majesty, I bring you the travellers from another realm.” the Amethyst Guard kneels before Empress Odalia Blight who sat upon a golden throne, a long indigo cape draped across her shoulder with a crown encrusted with precious jewels placed on her head. Not only that there were several necklaces, bracelets and rings all created intricately and all with similar precious jewels like diamonds, emeralds and rubies decorating them. 

Luz can already guess the person she was dealing with from just this. She’s seen enough of them during her time with the Plumbers as a diplomat, helping to ease the tensions after the Highbreed War.

“Your Majesty.” Luz greets and kneels like the Amethyst Guard as Amity copies her. Truthfully, kneeling never really sat right with her, but the things you gotta do for diplomacy…

“It is not common for us to receive visitors such as yourselves, especially from another dimension and wielding an artefact like my dear Amethyst Guard. The Omnitrix, or so I heard.” the Empress strokes her chin before gesturing to them, “I am Empress Odalia Blight,  First of Her Name, Lord of the Boiling Isles, Prophet of the Titan, the Grand Unifier. You may speak human, and introduce yourself.”

“My name is Luz Noceda, your majesty.” Luz bows her head, “Human, and wielder of the Omnitrix back home. Besides me is someone I’m sure you are already familiar with, an alternate version of your daughter from my dimension.”

“Yes, yes, I’m already familiar enough with my own. I’m sure the differences are negligible.” Empress Odalia says in a dismissive tone causing both Amity and the Amethyst Guard to flinch, “What I do want to know is what your intentions are for visiting my realm?”

“We simply got lost, your majesty.” Luz explains as best she can, “A…misunderstanding of sorts left us in the wrong dimension and our way out left before we realised we weren’t in our home dimension. Right now our intentions are to find a way home. Rest assured we have no ill intent to your realm, and we’ll be out of your hair as soon as we can.”

“An interesting story.” the Empress strokes her chin, “I was aware that only the Human Realm was the other dimension that exists. But it is not what you are talking about, is it?”

“No, your majesty.” Luz shakes her head before raising her arm with the Omnitrix, “It’s…a long story, but imagine a world where the Omnitrix didn’t land on your world and was picked up by your daughter, but instead it landed on the Human Realm where I got it.”

“Fascinating…” the Empress strokes her chin, “To think such realms exist. Tell me, what exactly are your plans now to go home to this dimension of yours?”

“We have our own plans, your majesty,” Amity speaks up, only for the Empress’ gaze to turn frosty and the Amethyst Guard to raise her head to glare at her,

“Maybe you’ve misheard me.” the Amethyst Guard hisses at her counterpart, “Speak only when spoken to.”

“My own counterpart must be lacking if she failed to instil such basic etiquette for speaking with royalty into you.” the Empress looks down at her from her throne, with a very familiar glare.

This wasn’t her mother, she shouldn’t have to act like this for her, but the glare made her tense up all the same before bowing her head,

“My apologies…your Majesty.” she says the last part with some hesitation, “I overspoke.”

“My friend merely answered your question, your majesty.” Luz spoke up defending her friend, “You did not specify that only I should answer.”

Empress Odalia forces a smile, “...You do make a point, still it is important to know when one is being spoken to. Nevertheless, it’s likely been a long day, and I believe you do not know how long you will be searching for a way home, is that correct?”

“That would be…accurate, your majesty,” Luz answers honestly and reluctantly.

Empress Odalia smiles more naturally this time, “In that case, until you find your way home I welcome you two as guests of Castle Blight. My abomination servants will prepare you one of our finest rooms, you are free to stay however long you wish.”

“That’s quite the generous offer, your majesty,” Luz says nervously, “We do not wish to trouble you.”

“Please, it’s no trouble at all, I insist.” Empress Odalia says with a growing smile. 

Both Luz and Amity look at each other with concern, before back at Empress Odalia who was patiently expecting an answer,

“...In that case, we accept your generous offer and hospitality, your majesty,” Luz says as she bows her head with Amity doing the same with some reluctance.

***

“My mother is the Empress! I’m her Golden Guard! And somehow, I even got the Omnitrix?!” Amity yells once they arrive in their room, and after both of them search it physically and magically to make absolutely sure they weren’t being spied on.

She was still trying to wrap her head around that idea, pacing around the luxurious room they were given by Empress Odalia that consisted of expensive furniture, some piece of art on the wall she didn’t recognise, and even more purple. She knows purple is a colour of royalty and riches, but honestly, she was going overboard with it.

“How does this even make any sense?!” Amity screams as her head spins, “I thought your Omnitirix only exists in the Human Realm?”

She turns to Luz who had been fiddling with her Omnitrix ever since they arrived, before looking up at Amity’s face with concern.

“...I did a little tweaking with my Omnitrix and I realise that somehow I’m still able to access the transformations I need Primus for.” Luz explains as she taps her Omnitrix’s interface, displaying a connection bar that was full, “After meeting Tetrax today, that can only mean one thing. It might be, and I could be wrong here, that Earth and the Boiling Isles switched places here somehow and some time ago.”

If Amity wasn’t freaking out then, she was now, “Switched places? What does that mean? How do two planets switch dimensions? You don’t switch two planets like they’re some kinda toy model or something! Do you think someone would notice that?! And how are you not freaking right now?”

“Oh I very much am. Because some of the implications are terrifying.” Luz says with a shudder, “But I figured it won’t help if both of us freak out at the same time.”

Amity pauses her near hyperventilation at that. Luz was staying calm for her, while she was acting like a child. She was a Blight, a witch and a magician, she should be better than this.

“I’m sorry, it’s…not very professional for me to do that.” Amity apologises, straightening herself but then Luz reaches for her hand, grasping it and giving her a warm smile.

“No, it’s human for you to freak out. This isn’t exactly something you see daily.” Luz assures before trailing off, “No wait, should it be ‘it’s witch of you to freak out’, I’m not sure what the equivalent is for witches?”

Amity chuckles, glad for the distraction, “It’s fine Luz. And if you want to freak out, you can. I’m fine now, really.”

“Good because honestly, I’m just barely holding it.” Luz chuckles, inhaling before yelling, “How the heck do two planets switch places? I really, really hope that it didn’t and this was just always the case in this dimension, but if this really is two planets switching places between realms?! I did that maths, or at least tried to, and I’m terrified just trying because oh my god it’s insane! This is insane! Maths is insane! And why is your mother the Empress? What happened to Belos?!”

“Wow…” Amity blinks, slightly taken aback by the outburst, “You got that out of your system?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Luz sighs glad to get that off her chest before sitting on the bed provided in the room, lying back and sinking into the soft mattress, “I wonder how much humanity changed in this dimension. I always wondered what if I never got my Omnitrix, what if dad was never part of the Plumbers…He was sick you know? When I was ten he got very sick and would have died if it wasn’t for some alien medical tech. Without that…”

Amity lies down in the bed with Luz, before reminding her, “Your father’s alive and healthy. You saw him earlier today.”

“Yeah but, just thinking that somewhere out in the multiverse he didn’t make it…” Luz mutters sadly as she turns to look at Amity, “I don’t like thinking about it.”

“We don’t have to.” Amity assures, “We can talk about anything else.”

“Thanks.” Luz sighs before focusing, “We still need to figure out a plan to get home.”

“What do you think?” Amity asks, “You said you got your other forms in the Omnitrix now. Is there one that can bring us home?”

“I’m not sure.” Luz says as she stares at the Omnitrix’s dial, “None of them are exactly multiversal in scale. The closest thing I got is Alien X, but I’m not even sure it’ll work. We’ll use it as a last resort cause she’s a tricky one. Our best bet is to find the original spot where we were dropped off. Maybe once we’re there we can try figuring out a way to contact Rook’s doppelganger or that guy who runs the Mr Smoothie.”

“And the Empress?” Amity asks cautiously, “I’m still confused why we even accepted her offer to stay. We can do fine on our own.”

“Because something made me feel that it wasn’t a request. We need to play it safe because she’s the ruler here, and if we do piss her off we might have to fight all those Abomatons we saw and your doppelganger.” Luz responded with a worried look, “And unless I’m wrong, she’s got Master Control.”

“Master Control?” Amity asks and she nods,

“Imagine if my Omnitrix doesn’t have a time limit, and I can transform into every single one of the one million alien forms locked away in the Omnitrix with just a single thought.” Luz explains as Amity’s eyes widen, “I had it twice in my life, and let me tell you it was enough that I could fight Vilgax to a stalemate. If she has that and has been training with that for years…I don’t like our odds in a one-on-one battle.”

“...So we play along and don’t give them a reason.” Amity sighs before holding Luz’s hand, “But I swear, if she does anything to try and hurt you, I’ll tear her limb from limb.”

“Er…you know you’re talking about a version of yourself, right?” Luz asks, a bit intimidated by the intense look on Amity’s face.

Before Amity could respond there was a knock on the door, 

“It’s the Amethyst Guard.” the voice on the other side of the door announces, “I have come to request the presence of Luz Noceda.”

Both Amity and Luz immediately leap to their feet and look away from each other in embarrassment as they realise how close they were just now.

“Coming, coming!” Luz coughs out before heading to the door and opens it to find the Amethyst Guard without her mask, looking at the two blushing teenagers confused,

“Am I interrupting something?” she asks.

“No!”

“Nope!”

“...Alright.” the Amethyst Guard says unconvinced before clearing her throat, “The Empress has asked for me to show you around our grand city of Bonesborough.”

“A tour?” Luz asks, “No offence, but we’re kinda busy trying to find our way home.”

The Amethyst Guard shrugs, “It is ordered by the Empress. Do you even have a clue to find your way home yet, human?”

Amity scoffs, “Well we do have a plan. We’re heading back to where we left off.”

The Amethyst Guard scoffs back at her, “Well that sounds like a lead, but barely a lead. We will be visiting some of the greatest minds in the Isles as we tour the city, you’ll have better luck asking them for assistance.”

“I guess our mother never taught you any manners, did she?” the Amethyst Guard looks at her disdainfully, “I expect better from a Blight. Are you sure you’re me?”

Before Amity could get angry, Luz gets between the two and glares at the Amethyst Guard, “Hey! I could say the same about you. Why are you being so rude to her?”

“...I apologise for that.” The Amethyst Guard apologises reluctantly, “I’m just not having a wonderful day. The near prison break by that Tetrax character has left severe damages and repairs needed. Repairs that add to my already cramped schedule.”

“Really? The castle looks fine from when we entered.” Luz says surprised.

“Illusions obviously. We can ill-afford for the populace to see our base of power with even the slightest crack in its walls.” the Amethyst Guard says, “Now do I get an answer to deliver back to the Empress?”

Luz shares a glance at Amity and could tell she didn’t like this idea but they both knew that declining the offer would get them on the Empress’ bad side, meaning they’ll get on the Amethyst Guard’s bad side, and an angry soldier with magic and Master Control was the last thing they needed right now.

So Luz puts on the best smile she uses in diplomatic missions, “Of course, we will. I saw the city on the way here and it’s amazing, almost like Earth actually. I'd love to see what other differences there are in this Boiling Isles compared to ours.”

“Excellent. An automatic carriage awaits us at the gate, I suggest you follow me now.” the Amethyst Guard says, “Our first stop is the Institute of Magic and Demonics.”

“The what now?” Amity asks, not familiar with that name.

“You might know it by a different name in your realm.” the Amethyst Guard suggests, “They used to call this place, Hexside School of Magic and Demonic.”

***

“So…this is basically New Hexside?” Luz asks as the abomination limo drops them off at the entrance of Hexside. This place looked nothing like her Hexside, it looked more…modernised and sterilised.

The old Hexside was a marvel to look at, an architectural beauty that wouldn’t look out of place within any fantasy book she’d read. This? This looked like a boring old school you’d find in the Human Realm with a plain cubical shape, sharp corners and plenty of windows and neutral colours.

Even Amity was taken aback by the radical change in design, “This…this isn’t Hexside.”

“No.” The Amethyst Guard agreed, “This is the Institute of Magic and Demonics. The premier imperial-sanctioned magical academy in the Boiling Isles.”

“But what happened to the old Hexside?” Luz asks still having trouble accepting the building in front of her,

“You can find out within the tour itself, the principal should be awaiting us by the entrance.” the Amethyst Guard responds as they approach the building, the two multiversal visitors sharing concerned glances at each other.

Then the doors to the school swing open, and both of them look surprised at the figure exiting, expecting it to be Principal Bump.

A tall woman with bright orange hair tied in a bun, with a pair of round glasses and familiar turquoise eyes came rushing out the door dressed in a blue suit,

“M-many apologies, Amethyst Guard.” the familiar figure bows, sounding nervous, “Had I known there was to be an inspection I would-”

“Save it, Principal Clawthorne. This is merely an…informal visit, I suppose you can call it. I bring visitors to observe this fine institute.” The Amethyst Guard says in a harsh tone, as both Amity and Luz drop their jaws in shock as they realise who they were talking to.

Luz’s jaw drops as her hand partially moves to her Omnitrix out of reflex and Amity almost falls back from the surprise.

“Of course, Amethyst Guard!” the alternate Lilith Clawthorne bows again before looking at the two shocked teens, “I am Principal Lilith Clawthorne, and I welcome you to the Institute of Magic and Demonics. I-?”

She trails off as she looks at Amity’s face before back at the Amethyst Guard, looking back and forth confused.

“Is…is this a test of some sort?” she asks, confused.

“No, this is merely a traveller from a different realm.” the Amethyst Guard explains, “A different timeline if you will.”

“Timeline?” Lilith’s eyes suddenly gleamed as she looks at both Luz and Amity with growing curiosity, “As in some concept of time manipulation magic?! I’ve been doing some research into phenomena such as ancient time pools in my spare time, but this is unlike anything I’ve ever read of! Fascinating, truly fascinating.”

“You will have enough time to sate your curiosity later, Principal Clawthorne.” the Amethyst Guard interrupts her, “The Empress asks for me to give our visitors a tour of our lands, so why don’t you show them how you operate our Institute?”

“Of course, of course!” Lilith bows again, “It would be my pleasure, please come in.”

They all followed Principal Clawthorne into the building, both Amity and Luz still staring at her in stunned silence.

“Is…there something on my face?” Principal Clawthorne asks nervously, reaching for her face before Luz and Amity snap out of their shock.

“Sorry, it’s just…you looked very different from where we’re from,” Luz says, still having trouble wrapping her head around the difference, in ways more than just her appearance.

“Oh? How so?” Principal Clawthorne asks, curious.

“Well, you didn’t have glasses and your hair was black and let down” Amity answers, still staring as well, finding it hard to imagine her being meek like she saw, literally bowing to an alternate version of her which was something she can’t see her old mentor doing to her.

“Huh, I was thinking of letting my hair down, maybe getting contacts. But dying feels unprofessional considering my career.” Principal Clawthorne mutters to herself as she plays with a strand of hair, “But enough about me, I should begin the tour. If you will follow me…”

The three followed Principal Clawthorne as they walk through the halls of the institute, passing through a few classrooms that the principal directs their attention to. Through the windows they see students in class, however, the usual sleeves that identify which Track they took, were all purple sleeves and white uniforms.

“Are these all Oracle Track students?” Amity mutters as they walk past the classes and the two locals look at her strangely,

“Oracle Track?” Principal Clawthorne asks, confused.

“Yeah, the Emperor of our world outlawed mixing magic because apparently it was ‘too dangerous’.” Luz says while using her fingers to put in air quotes, “So until recently, students could only choose one type of magic to specialise in, and when they graduate they can only use that specific type of magic from then on.”

“That’s…forgive me, but that seems like a rather idiotic idea.” Principal Clawthorne says sounding angered, “To forcefully separate magic like that is simply against the very notion of magic, like viewing a work of art divided by colours used instead of all of it in its entirety.”

“So you all mix magic here?” Amity asks, she’s starting to understand with the multiverse that things were different, but to hear one of the Coven system’s most die-hard supporters speak so against the Coven system was just…weird.

“All students are allowed to choose however many types of magic they wish to study, but the recommended and average types of magic chosen is three, with the latest records indicating the top three most popular courses are Abomination, Oracle and Construction. This is expected considering the rapid industrialisation the Boiling Isles has been undergoing.” Principal Clawthorne explains, briefly sharing a brief nervous glance at the Amethyst Guard, “Ever since nationalisation by the Blight Empire, the Institute has experienced a drastic increase in grade point averages by and quality of education. Once again, I am thankful to the Blight Empire for forgiving my predecessor’s transgressions against the Empire and allowing this opportunity for growth.”

There was a slight nervous frenzy in her tone as she hastily adds the last part, making Luz and Amity look concerned,

“...What exactly happened, how did you go from Hexside to this?” Amity asks as she glances around at the sleek and white interior of the institute.

“Well, it was during the final days as the old cities were absorbed into the Empire. Hexside’s previous principal, Hieronymus Bump, resisted the nationalisation attempt by the Blight Empire quite…violently.” Principal Clawthorn glances to the Amethyst Guard at her side before quickly looking back at Amity, “The damage during his…apprehension left considerable damage to Hexside, fortunately, no students were harmed, but the building itself was unsalvageable. We are fortunate that Empress Odalia was a former student and saw that Hexside could still offer much to her new empire, restoring it into the Institute of Magic and Demonics.”

“...Hexside stood before the Deadwardian Era!” Amity says after taking a moment to recover from shock, turning to the Amethyst Guard furiously, “You destroyed more than 500 years of history?!”

“Collateral damage is inevitable in neutralising insurgents.” the Amethyst Guard replied coldly, glancing at Luz, “Since you wield the Omnitrix as well, obviously you know the responsibilities and why collateral damage is sometimes necessary for the greater good.”

“...I wasn’t there so I can’t say what was necessary.” Luz responds trying to sound neutral but letting some disapproval leak into her tone, “But it’s also our responsibility to limit the damage, and destroying a school with kids doesn’t make you look good.”

The Amethyst Guard rolls her eyes behind her mask, “They were already evacuated, the old man was just stubborn about rather having his school get destroyed than ‘corrupted’ by our Empire.”

“...That’s extreme.” Luz admits, “I’m sure you did everything to talk him out.”

“Yes, I’m sure she did.” Principal Clawthorne mutters under her breath but the Amethyst Guard caught it.

“Pardon, did you say something, Principal Clawthorne?” she asks in a neutral tone and the Principal froze up.

“No ma’am, just agreeing with our guest.” she quickly says and the Amethyst Guard stares for a moment before nodding.

“So lots of kids are taking three tracks then?” Luz says trying to change the subject and divert the Amethyst Guard’s attention, “Then what about you? What kind of magic do you learn?”

The Amethyst Guard smirks at her, “Why all of them of course.”

“Nice, so do I!” Luz says excitedly before the Amethyst Guard chokes back a laugh behind her mask, “Is something wrong?”

“Pardon me, it’s just humans obviously can’t use magic.” the Amethyst Guard chuckles as Amity glared at her.

“But this human can.” she huffs before lightly elbowing Luz, “Why don’t you show her?”

“Well, alright then…” Luz says a bit embarrassed before pulling out a paper light glyph from her pocket, “Observe.”

She claps the glyph to activate it, expecting a small orb of light to form in her hands and take the two locals by surprise. Only for nothing to happen at all, as the paper glyph falls on the floor uselessly.

“Well, I’m observing.” the Amethyst Guard snarks with a smirk behind her mask as Luz reaches for other glyphs,

“Er, must’ve drawn the wrong glyph. Let me try this one!”

Luz activates a plant glyph instead, and when that fails she tries fire and then ice. But none of them worked to her increasing confusion and panic,

“Well, I’m impressed, really.” the Amethyst Guard says as Amity snarls at her,

“Hey, those glyphs worked perfectly well back in our Demon Realm,” Amity says defensively,

“Yes, I’m sure she’s a powerful witch where you come from.” the Amethyst Guard says with an almost unnoticeable tone of sarcasm, that nobody would’ve noticed if Amity didn’t know herself and what her own voice sounded like.

“Oh she is! Much better than you, that's for sure.” Amity shot back, as both Principal Clawthorne and Luz try to separate the two,

“Why don’t we continue on our tour?” Principal Clawthorne hastily suggests, “I think you would appreciate checking our latest progress on researching alien technology. Would you like to see our labs?.”

“Yeah, that’s a great idea!” Luz agreed as she held back Amity. As soon as the two locals focus their attention elsewhere, Amity turns to Luz,

“The nerve on that…!” she growls but takes a deep breath to calm down before looking at Luz in worry, “What was that? Your glyphs worked back home.”

“I don’t know.” she mutters as she picks up a light glyph she had dropped, “Maybe you need a different set of glyphs to work here? Or…”

“Or what?” Amity asks.

“Or maybe whatever powered my glyphs in our dimension, just doesn’t exist here?”

***

In the desserts that made up Old America, a small figure climbs out of a hole in the roof of what was once an advanced lab dedicated to quantum physics research, a bag full of components in hand as she whistles a tune to herself.

She can’t remember where the tune was from, lots of her memories were taken along with so many other things during the start of all this. Something a few of the more religious survivors would call, the War in the Heavens, Judgement Day, the Rapture or whatever. To people that weren’t totally bonkers, it was just The War or the Collecting.

She can’t remember how it came to be, but from the few settlements she ventured to that still had surviving former military personnel that hadn’t died during the Collecting, died of despair after what happened, or were lynched by other survivors, they had said something called Naysah found something in space (they actually had robots in space once to see things!), and they came to Earth asking for Earth to be collected and archived.

A lot of them didn’t take kindly to that and tried fighting back. Old America tried sending nukes at them instead, but it just annoyed them into redirecting those bombs back to Earth instead, which turned Old America and the rest of the world into what it is now, and then collecting what survivors they could find, leaving about 2% of humanity left. But now that number was probably lower.

People always wondered why they were left behind. Maybe they just didn’t care enough to find those that hid away, or maybe it was some kind of punishment? The latter was what those Star Cult whackos used to believe, that if they killed and preserved their own species the Star Gods would return from the stars to grant them paradise they rejected.

Of course, no one took them seriously and were killed with no survivors the first two weeks they tried what they did. Still, they remain a cautionary tale of stupidity out in the wastelands of Old America.

It didn’t stop a few similar whackos from trying similar things, just in different ways. Combined with a couple of warlords fighting over what little resource was left, it made living in Old America quite difficult.

She wonders what the rest of the world was like? She hears that there was a big continent across the ocean that was actually worse off. Was it Russia? Or was it called China? Either way from what little news she was able to hear, it looked like there was nowhere on this planet left for her or anyone to live peacefully in.

The key word is ‘on this planet’.

“You found it, you found it!” her only companion for the past five years yells, “That’s the last piece you need!”

“I can’t believe this is finally it.” she stares at the bag full of components in hand, with a smile of disbelief under her cloth mask, “I can’t believe it…five years of searching and we can finally get out of this place.”

“Yeah! It’s been so long! I can’t wait to go back to the Demon Realm!” her excited companion shouts from her shadow, “You’re going to love it there Luz! Oh, maybe there’ll still be some baby Titans there? You’ll love them! They’re the most adorable things in the entire universe!”

She chuckles at his excitement, “I’m sure they are Collie. I can’t wait to see them.”

“I can’t wait to be free there.” he gushes excitedly, “Oh we’re going to play so many games! You and I are gonna have a blast! It’s going to be so fun!”

The girl smiles as she hugs the tablet lightly with one arm, the other holding her bag of salvaged equipment, “I’ll take your word for it, Collie.”

“...Hey, I don’t think I’ve said this before…”  her companion taps his fingers, at least his shadow does, sounding embarrassed, “But thanks for finding me. I’d still be buried in that cavern if it wasn’t for you, and being found by you was probably the best thing that’s happened to me since meeting those Titan babies. So thanks a lot, Luz.”

“Aww. With how much you talk about how much you love those baby Titans, that’s amazing.” Luz Noceda smiles, “And right back at you, Collector. Two of us? We’re weirdos, and we weirdos have to stick together, am I right?”