Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

… Step ... Step ... Step ... Step ...

Covered and drenched in ashes and blood, she stomps heavily over the gravel paths into the city. The blood is not just her own, but many people's mixed together.

… … Step ... ... Step ... ... Step ... ... Step ... ...

Every single step stings painfully in her legs after days and days of fighting and without any sleep. It was nothing short of a massacre. And the worst thing: There was nothing she could have done to prevent any of it.

... ... ... Step ... ... ... Step ... ... ... Step ... ... ...

By the time she finally joined the group, they were already outnumbered seventeen to one. Her allies fell one by one until only she remained.

Gus. Willow. Liwin. Raine. Katya. Skara. Boscha. Amity-

'Ami-'

... ... ... Step ... ... ... Drop.

She falls to her knees, her body ready to give up.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!", she cries loud enough that the whole ground around her begins to shake wildly. Tears pour from her eyes, mingling immediately with the ashes and blood.

She has seen with her own eyes how her friends were brutally ripped from life in that ambush. The images are still vivid in her mind. Images of Gus, his head exploding and spreading blood and brain matter in all directions. Images of Willow impaled with blades and completely shredded within seconds. Amity being decapitated right next to her while she was still holding her hand.

And then came the flames. It all happened so fast that no one could have teleported to safety in time. Luz had to watch and listen in real time as the rest of them burned to death, all of them fully conscious. All except Luz, who couldn't be harmed by magic attacks.

Luz, the only survivor of the last defense against them. Luz, the last survivor of the Boiling Isles.

They won. They have won and moved on to the next world. They left her behind as the last witness of their crimes. Alone.

Tears of grief, fury, and despair interspersed with ash and the blood of her friends fall to the ground, only to evaporate instantly.

Everything is gone. Submerged in the flames of the enemy. The Isles still burn to this day, every single inch of it. The ground beneath Luz's feet is seething hot. Not that she cares anymore. Not that she cares about anything anymore. She falls forward onto all fours. Nothing matters anymore. She lets everything run free. Tears, emotions, her magic. Everything flows out of her. Her hate-filled tears drop to the ground, dark purple lightning flashes all over her body, wildly striking the ground and the air, becoming ever stronger and more intense by the minute.

"LUZ!"

Wild and uncontrolled, the lightning strikes any target, no matter how small or big, some even hitting the same spot two or three times. Deafening explosions ring out with every second.

Luz suddenly flies backwards many meters with severe pain in her face, as if heavily kicked in her face, where she hits her head on impact on the ground.

Minutes earlier...

"Seriously?", Amity asks incredulously as she and Maddie casually walk together along a corridor inside the underground housing area.

"Of course. After all, I learned from the best."

"Yes, but that you manage to write a whole book about glyph magic without ever being able to use it yourself."

Maddie grins. "That's just the theoretical aspect, after all, based on direct research and months of experimentation. The cave you were in that you told me about; I used what was left of the magic in it to further my experiments and understand the language behind it. The vocabulary. The grammar. The syntax. And the most interesting thing is that it works exclusively non-verbally. Words are not spoken, but written. So when Luz activates a glyph - what are you laughing at?"

"You talk just like Luz does.", Amity chuckles at her explanation, before taking on a slightly sadder tone, "Or at least like she did."

"Yeah. When I saw her earlier, she seemed different to how I remembered her.", Maddie remembers how little Luz reacted to seeing her again. It was as if she wasn't there. "I know you said you wanted to wait with the details for your meeting with the Commander later, but... Is it really that bad back over there?"

Amity stops in her tracks, her gaze fixed on the ground. "The day of the invasion, my brother and Odalia, my biological mother, were killed. And since then, they've been either abducting the inhabitants of all the major cities or slaughtering them in the streets."

"I... see... I'm sorry I asked."

The two girls remain silent for a while. Maddie, her gaze averted from the witch in front of her out of guilt, and Amity, unpleasant thoughts being brought back into her mind.

"It's okay, actually. Odalia's body was instantly vaporized, and I've erased the memory of my brother's death, according to Luz. So that's no longer a problem at all."

"... Did you actually hear yourself talking just now?"

"...", Amity stares blankly at the frog as she reconsiders her words, when both she and Maddie are suddenly overcome by a strange feeling. Something in the air that makes Amity's hair stand.

"What is that?", Maddie asks, but for Amity, this feeling is just all too familiar.

"That's Luz! Something's wrong!", Amity exclaims with urgency, before running straight back in the direction they just came from, back to Luz and Amity's room.

"Wait, what?", Maddie calls after her, trying to keep up.

Static electricity, growing more intense the closer they get to the source. Amity arrives at Luz's door with Maddie a little way behind her. She doesn't wait and yanks open the door to her room, only to be caught by a barrage of purple lightning and thrown across the hallway, with heavy burns where the lightning caught her.

"AAARGGHHH!", Amity grunts in pain. She has been hit in five places, and she notices a spreading pain at each of these points.

"Amity!", Maddie shrieks before instinctively pulling out a few throwable curses to attack whatever it is that has attacked Amity, and which she suspects, has Luz in its grip.

"No! Don't come any closer!", Amity shouts, her gaze not diverting from the open door of the room from which the lightning bolts are shooting out. "I can absorb some of the lightning, but you'd get fried by it. Her magic is completely out of control right now."

"Her... magic?"

Painfully, and with the help of the wall behind her, Amity manages to straighten up. She draws a magic circle, which causes her whole body to be covered in a thin layer of abomination goo. Maddie stares wide-eyed in amazement.

Every single step is filled with agony, but slowly Amity manages to approaches the door. She can already feel Luz's magic being absorbed by her abomination suit.

'Luz's magic is extremely intense. I can't hold out for long...', she thinks to herself as one lightning bolt after another strikes her suit. 'Really not.'

"Luz!", Amity calls into the room and immediately spots Luz lying on the bed, her face contorted, her body squirming from side to side. Immediately she rushes over to the bed, grabbing Luz to try to shake her awake. But in vain. "Luz! Wake up! You're having a nightmare."

Amity shakes her by her shoulders, but all Luz does is continue to squirm and whine as the half-human continues to spill magic uncontrollably into the surrounding area. The amount of purple lightning absorbed by her suit is also getting stronger, pushing the suit itself to its limits judging from the holes that are forming and spreading.

"LUZ!", Amity cries out as she continues to try and wake up her girlfriend. Unfortunately, also unsuccessfully. 'There's only one thing left I can do now before she destroys everything. I'm sorry, Luz.'

"WAKE! UP!", Amity screams as she reaches out with one hand and gives Luz a near-full-force slap. Luz immediately opens her eyes, the lightning disappearing at the same moment. With an expression of utter confusion, she stares silently at Amity. The witch notices that the other girl is shaking heavily and on the verge of tears. "Luz, are you okay? You had a nightmare and I had to-"

Luz latches onto her girlfriend, burying her face in her arms before starting to loudly bawl her heart out. She clings to her with all her might, as if she would disappear if she ever let her go again.

"Shhhhhh...", Amity strokes Luz's head as she's holding her close as well. "It's all right. It was just a dream. It's over."

Maddie appears at the door with a worried look for her friend on her face. Her eyes meet Amity's, who looks just as helpless as the frog is feeling right now. Not wanting to be imposing, Maddie remains standing in the doorway, even if even that feels rather awkward to her. She almost wants to reach for the door handle and give them both their privacy when Amity motions the frog over.

Maddie hesitates. On the one hand, this is an intimate moment between girlfriends, but on the other... She sighs inwardly before entering the room and approaching Luz and Amity, placing a hand on Luz's shoulder.

"Luz.", she begins, "I know you've had to go through some horrible things... And this is going to sound pretty selfish, but I'm so glad you're here. That I have my best friend back."

"M-Maddie?", Luz gasps. She lets go of Amity to just look at her frog friend. For seconds. It feels like an eternity that she stares at her without blinking, as if she's only now realizing that she's back in the real world. "Maddie. ... What happened here?"

Luz looks around the room. Every wall, every piece of furniture, the floor, and the ceiling are all covered with traces of melted spots but without any corresponding burn marks.

"Lightning. Dark purple.", Amity clarifies. Luz stares at her wide-eyed for a moment.

"Oh- I get it.", Luz lowers her gaze before discovering an open wound on Amity's thigh and widening her eyes in horror. "AMI! YOU'RE HURT!"

Her eyes dart over and over in search of more wounds, and sure enough, she discovers four more identical wounds. "Did I...?"

"No, no, no, don't worry. They don't even hurt."

That's a lie.

"Don't care! I'll heal them anyway.", Luz exclaims. She creates renewed-golden lightning that momentarily alarms Maddie. Amity had already anticipated this reaction.

"Don't worry, this is what her magic usually looks like.", Amity explains to her while Luz casts her healing spell. Now a little calmer and utterly fascinated, Maddie stares inquisitively at the golden lightning that simultaneously pierces Amity's skin and restores her to full health by closing each and every wound directly in front of her eyes.

"Wow...", the frog mutters wordlessly. Millions upon millions of questions flash through her mind at that very moment. 'Lightning as a source of her magic? No. After all, in nature, lightning doesn't come from the lightning itself, but from the clouds. Where does her magic come from? And how did she get it? I really have to ask her. That's the best basic material for my second volume. Buuut… given the situation, that can wait.'

"Would you want to talk about your dream?", Amity asks while Luz has almost finished her healing spell. She shakes her head.

"No.", Luz answers plainly before changing the subject, "I can't believe we're really here. And that there are actually survivors after all that Lady Olivia has told us."

"Lady Olivia?", Maddie asks thinking. "Isn't that the Newt who caught us in the royal library back then?"

"That's the one.", Luz says before chuckling lightly for a moment, "Although I have to admit I'd forgotten about that too until just now... Anyway, Olivia had told us that there were survivors here after Andrias' attack and we came here immediately. But then when we got here to the valley and saw all the damage... Well, you can imagine."

"I don't have to imagine.", Maddie speaks solemnly, "After all, I haven't been here much longer than you two."

"What do you mean?", Amity asks. Luz looks at her, also confused.

"I arrived about two hours before you two, give or take. I saw Dad's bakery in ruins, the house I grew up in completely burnt down. Even I couldn't contain myself at the sight. Luckily, Master probably already knew about the hideout. I was so glad to see that everyone was safe."

"Your... Master?"

"Oh, right. You don't know yet.", Maddie's mood takes an abrupt turn for the better, "I am, or rather was, a student of a level seven magic user. And I myself am now a level four magic user. You, on the other hand..."

"Heh, yeah. Congratulations, by the way.", Luz finishes her spell and turns her full attention to Maddie. "Yeah, I'm probably not even on the scale anymore."

"Speaking of which: How is that even possible?", Maddie wants to know, now that the conversation is moving in a direction that allows her to ask all her questions, "You don't even use glyphs anymore either, if I saw that right."

"Well, the short version is that I'm not completely human anymore.", Luz says, gaining a raised eyebrow from her frog friend, "As of right now I'm half human, and half Titan."

Maddie just stands there quietly, the gears visibly working in her head. "You changed your species???"

Luz and Amity chuckle at that, finding her outburst amusing.

"No, not quite. Okay, listen. I'll tell you... Remember our sleepover back in the castle?", Maddie nods, "When we escaped from the basement, I saw a ghost blocking my way. It looked like a wolf, except quite big."

"Yeah, I remember. We came back when we realized you weren't with us. We saw you and the wolf, who then somehow ran into you and, we suspected, possessed you before fleeing Newtopia with you."

"Yea, I figured something like that must have happened.", Luz says, deep in thought, "You see, that wasn't really a wolf, but some kind of companion of the Titan that he sent out to find me."

"The Titan?", Maddie asks, spitting out tea if she had any, "As in the kilometer-sized creature that forms the Boiling Isles that has been dead for frog knows how long already? That Titan?"

"You know about that?", Amity asks, seeming rather impressed.

"The source of my information is sitting right next to you.", Maddie replies snippily, at which Amity just wants to punch herself in the face.

"Yeah, right. Obviously...", Amity says, clearly embarrassed. Luz continues.

"Long story short: The Titan told me that he was responsible for me being pulled to Amphibia in the first place.", she recounts, increasingly upset, "You know, first he tells me that he took me from the Isles 'for my own safety', only to send me back there for the very same reason."

"You know, the more you tell me, the more I get the impression that you don't seem to like the Titan...", Maddie comments in a sarcastic tone. Luz doesn't reply to this comment with more than a disapproving look.

"Anyway... After he told me everything, he asked for my help."

"Seriously??", Maddie asks incredulously, "After everything he took from you? What did he want from you?”

"Granted, I haven't done anything in that regard yet. And honestly, the details are pretty irrelevant to me right now.", Luz says. She looks at Maddie, whose expression makes it crystal clear that she wants to know more. "He wants me to find someone, destroy the music box Andrias currently possesses, destroy some temples, kill Belos, and save the Titan’s only remaining descendant. The only thing I intend to do out of all that right now is to destroy the box. Or at least take it away from the enemy."

"Huh, ok. That's not a small number of tasks... I wonder what he's trying to do with all this...", Maddie replies thoughtfully, "Well, if he means the same temples I know about, I might be able to help you."

"What do you mean?", Amity asks.

"The temples I'm talking about were used to charge the gems that make up the power of the Music Box. Maybe he knew about the dangers of the box and wanted to prevent it from happening again.", Maddie suspects.

"Why are you doing this?", Luz asks, "Why do you want to help a mission that I was told to fulfill and I have no interest in doing?"

"Because I know you, Luz.", Maddie replies instantly, causing Luz to be taken aback quite a bit, "I know the Titan has caused you unimaginable grief and pain, but it has also given you a huge gift. You once told me that becoming a Witch was your greatest dream, and he granted you that wish."

"That's true, but-"

"I'm not done yet.", Maddie interrupts Luz, "I said I know you. And the Luz I know would never turn down a request for help, no matter who it came from."

Silence hangs in the air. Luz knows that what Maddie is saying is not wrong. But at the same time, there has never been a situation in her life, or in her imagination, where she can feel as much resentment towards a being as she does right now.

"Luz, I hate to say it, but I agree with her."

"Huh?", Luz exclaims, waiting for her girlfriend to elaborate.

"Don't get me wrong, I understand your reluctance. But at the same time, it's the Titan himself who asked you for help and gave you his magic to fulfill a task that he has no way of fulfilling himself. With his status as a god, he could have simply ignored all that is currently happening and just let it happen, but because he cares about all the beings underneath him, he has asked for your help. Helping him would therefore also mean helping everyone else."

Luz ponders Amity's words for a while, looking for reasonable counterarguments. Unfortunately for her, her reasoning is completely spotless and flawless. Luz sighs in defeat.

"Fine.", Luz states reluctantly, "But I insist that you help, Mads."

"I would be honored.", Maddie bows with a fat grin on her face. Luz can't help but at least smile at her antics. "Would you like me to make you a map with the locations of the temples?"

"Later. A little destruction will do me good once we're done here.", Luz speaks, "You could maybe help with something else: You wouldn't happen to know of any Titans still alive here in Amphibia?"

"Granted, for the longest time I didn't even know about the dead one here.", Maddie replies, gaining another defeated sigh from Luz, "But you did mention a person you were looking for. Maybe I can help you with that, if they're from the Valley."

"I'm afraid I don't know where this person is from. Their name is Valeriana."

"Huh?!", Maddie stands there, dumbfounded. Amity notices this.

"Do you know someone with that name?"

"That's my Master.", Maddie answers slowly as a gigantic realization hits her, "OH MY FROG! THAT'S WHAT SHE MEANT!"

"What's wrong?"

"My master! She knew about you! You're the reason we came back here!", Maddie exclaims loudly, "She said, and I quote ’We cannot risk missing her under any circumstances'."

"Should we go and find her right away then?", Amity asks, infected by Maddie's excitement.

"No.", Luz puts a huge damper on the general mood. "Just because I agreed to help the Titan doesn't mean I'm neglecting our primary mission. That still has top priority."

"Fair.", Maddie replies indifferently, "If you like, I could take you to the Resistance commander. She makes all the important decisions here. She'll be able to help you with whatever you need."

"Luz, don't you want to wait a bit? After all, you've just woken up from a nightmare.", Amity asks, to which Luz shakes her head.

"I'm fine, Ami.", She gets up from the bed, and even though her legs tremble briefly at first, she quickly stabilizes. "See?"

"Okay." Amity accepts, "Maddie, lead the way."

The group leaves the room and with Maddie leading the way, the girls walk through what appears to be a hand-dug tunnel through the underground. They pass through door after door, all numbered. The numbers go down by 2 the further they get to the end of the hallway. They pass the occasional frog, but none that Luz recognizes.

They approach the end of the hallway and arrive in a large cavernous space, buzzing with life and activity. Built into what looks like gigantic roots, Luz discovers a completely intact infrastructure. Among them are a store for armor and weapons, a 'Grub & Gone' based on 'Grub & Go', a Medbay, Stumpy's, a store for Battle Snails... and all of it brightly illuminated by a giant glowing mushroom that lights up the entire area from the cavernous ceiling. Spread over three levels, there are countless frogs, a few toads and newts going about their daily lives in a surprisingly relaxed mood. Some of them are going shopping, some are being trained in the use of weapons by toads, a few children are playing among the people, and a few people are sitting with a fishing rod by a small river that flows through the underground base.

Luz stands at the railing and looks around the base in amazement and surprise. Maddie and Amity, on the other hand, not so much, mainly because the two girls have only just explored the base together.

"Come on. The Commander's office is up ahead.", Maddie snaps Luz back to reality and follows Maddie's gaze to a wide wooden door guarded by a spear-wielding newt and a sword-wielding toad.

The three girls head straight to where they are stopped by the Newt.

"State your business here!", he demands to know whilst blocking the way with his spear.

"Is the commander available at the moment?", Maddie replies indirectly.

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No...", Maddie grows slightly irritated.

"Then get lost."

Maddie, Luz, and Maddie stand there, staring in shock at this level of pure disrespect while the newt merely returns to his position, completely ignoring the three girls. Amity is almost bursting with anger when the toad suddenly speaks up in a somewhat timid tone.

"Please don't hold it against him. He just has a tendency to take his job a little too seriously.", he says, which only earns him an annoyed grunt from the newt.

"Can you help us then?", Maddie asks the comparably much friendlier toad, "My friends have something urgent to discuss with the commander."

"I'm sorry, but the commander is in an important meeting right now.", the toad lowers his gaze, "B-but I'll tell her you were looking for her. M-may I please ask for your names?"

"I'm Luz Noceda, this is Amity Blight."

"Thank you.

I'll pass that on. Come back in an hour or so.", he replies. Maddie thanks him before the three girls turn around and walk away.

"Anyone up for breakfast while we wait?", Luz asks.

"You mean lunch, right?", Maddie jokes.

"I've only just woken up. So, it's breakfast no matter what time it is.", Luz explains.

"I'm hungry too. Let's go eat something.", Amity agrees, "There's a cafeteria back there."

Unanimously agreeing, the three girls set off in the direction of the cafeteria, which is not far behind Stumpy's. Once they reach the place, they are greeted by a hall in which frogs, newts, and toads are all eating their meals or are simply enjoying their free time together, spread across many tables.

"It's more of a tavern than a cafeteria...", Amity remarks. Luz looks around the room until she suddenly lets out an excited gasp.

"The Plantars are over there!", Luz exclaims. She takes Amity by the hand and drags her towards the table where her frog family is sitting. Sprig and Polly notice Luz immediately and practically jump up from their seats, across the table, and come to a halt in front of her, not wanting to overwhelm her again.

"You're better!", Polly exclaims excitedly. Luz crouches down and embraces the two siblings. "I- um, I mean, Sprig was totally out of his mind when you collapsed in front of us."

"Huh? I collapsed?", Luz asks, her eyes wandering to Amity and Maddie, who both nod slightly. "Oh, don't worry about it. I'm feeling better already. But- I'm hungry."

"Then come here and eat dinner with us.", Hop Pop invites her with a smile on his face before his gaze wanders to Maddie and Amity, "You two are welcome too. We've got plenty of room."

Luz definitely doesn't need to be told twice, as she grabs an empty chair from another table, and sits down with the Plantars.

"Thank you.", Amity thanks her before she and Maddie do the same and grab a couple of chairs. "Luz, Maddie. Want me to get you something?"

"Yes, please.", Luz replies.

"I won't say no to that offer.", Maddie also replies and Amity heads to the buffet-style table and puts together a breakfast for her two friends.

Sprig and Polly take their seats again, but before they are properly seated Luz speaks up, her tone serious.

"Guys, I need to ask you something important because I think you're the most likely to tell me the truth.", she starts, all eyes on her, "Where is Anne?"

"Anne?", Hop Pop speaks up in surprise, though this question was not totally unexpected. Sprig and Polly are also taken aback by this question. "She went home. Back to her world."

"O-okay, take a step back, please...", Luz says, not understanding, while Amity comes back to the table with two filled trays and sits down quietly next to Luz. "What exactly do you mean by 'she went home'?"

"Exactly what he said.", Sprig replies though in a sad tone, "It went like this: We all traveled to Newtopia together that day, gave Andrias the charged box, and he opened a portal where Anne and Sasha went through."

"And what was on the other side?", Luz asks critically, earning confused looks from the Plantars, "Okay, let me ask another way: Were you able to verify that the portal actually led to Earth?"

A silence surrounds the table, so loud that Luz can hear the hearts of everyone present pounding in their chests while almost every pair of eyes stares at her, wide-eyed. A feeling of unease spreads among the Plantars.

"W-what are you saying, Luz?", Hop Pop stutters at which Luz sighs.

"I'll take that as a no...", she pauses for a moment to collect her thoughts. "Sprig."

"Y-Yes?"

"Remember how I said, back then, that I suspected Andrias was evil? When I said that he wasn't trustworthy?"

"Yeah, I remember something vaguely.", Sprig tries to sound casual.

"Good. Very good.", Luz responds with a smile that makes the frogs' hair stand on end. Unbeknownst to them, the whole cafeteria has fallen silent, listening attentively to the stern lecture. Luz doesn't speak loudly, she doesn't shout, but everyone present notices every single word is covered in a layer of extreme anger. "Anne also knew about my suspicions, and so did M-... Marcy. And because no one listened to me, we're now in this mess."

The Plantars are covered in guilt and sit with their heads bowed. No one dares to disagree, because they all know that Luz is right, that if they had listened to her, all the inhabitants of the Valley would not have lost so much. But Luz is far from done.

"So, now let's summarize everything that's happened since then... Andrias used the Music Box to get rid of Anne and Sasha. Where they are, and whether they're still alive at all... heh, who knows. I certainly don't. So then at some point he kidnapped Marcy and let something take over her body."

"WHAT?", Maddie and the Plantars exclaim in unison.

"How do you know that?", Maddie asks.

"I'll get to that in a minute.", Luz doesn't answer her question. "So then Andrias decides to raise a huge army of Frobots. And this very army is currently on the Boiling Isles where Andrias, together with Darcy, as the possessed Marcy is now called, is kidnapping and ruthlessly slaughtering the population of the Isles at this very moment."

"Okay Luz, I think that's enough!", Amity grabs Luz's hand, which instantly snaps the half-human out of her angry rant. She loses herself in her eyes for a while, which noticeably lowers her heartbeat, calming her down in general. Luz lowers her gaze and takes a deep breath before she hesitantly raises it again to look at the Plantars, who all appear overwhelmed with guilt. She feels bad, and sorry.

"I- I'm sorry.", Luz apologizes, "It wasn't my intention to rant at you like that. You guys didn't do anything wrong."

"No, Luz.", Hop Pop interjects, "We knew about your warning, and we chose not to act on it. Your reaction is completely appropriate."

"But there was no evidence to support my claims. Not even circumstantial."

"Luz, what exactly are you trying to accomplish here right now?", Hop Pop cuts her off, completely throwing Luz off her game. She tries to find an answer to his question, but her mind has gone completely blank. She just stares blankly at the old frog, who returns her gaze with an unexpected softness in his eyes. "Because, if we're being completely honest, it sounds like you're trying to make your own warning out to be incorrect."

"Wha-? I don't- huh?"

"Hop Pop, I think you broke her.", Sprig speaks up after a longer moment of silence. The older frog just chuckles at that before getting Luz's attention again.

"Listen, Luz. I know you have pretty strong feelings about this, and that's completely understandable. But even if you hadn't warned us back then, events would probably have unfolded in exactly the same way sooner or later. So... what do you think about leaving the past in the past in this case? Well, what do you say?"

"Uh... umm...", Luz stutters as her thoughts visibly struggle to comprehend his suggestion. She widens her eyes in realization as she realizes how pointless her own points were, and lowers her head in shame. "Okay.", she replies quietly.

For the next while, the five of them devote themselves entirely to their breakfast, the mood too down for casual conversation. Almost a half hour passes before Luz has worked up enough courage to speak up again.

"Um, say Hop Pop...", Luz begins, her voice low, "If it's okay to ask, what happened to your leg?"

"Tunnel collapse.", Polly answers for him without missing a beat before turning her attention back to her food.

"... huh?"

Hop Pop releases an exasperated sigh at his granddaughter’s nerves. He stares at her intensely for several seconds before his gaze softens and he turns his attention to Luz.

"It's true. It was at the very beginning when we started to slowly explore this place and fill it with people."

"Um, if I may...", Amity interrupts him, "What had prompted you to bring all the inhabitants underground in the first place? I mean, your timing was more than perfect..."

"It was actually pretty close.", Sprig reports, "On the way back to the Valley, we had seen some of the Frobots flying on their way to Andrias’ palace. What convinced us that he was actually a threat was when we saw him and his troops heading in our direction. Hop Pop then rounded everyone up and evacuated them to our family basement, leaving only a small team of voluntary fighters on the surface."

"I- I think we saw them. Or what was left of them...", Luz admits solemnly.

"I know. And their sacrifices won't be forgotten.", Hop Pop tells her, "We've set aside a whole room to commemorate the fallen. If you like, I can take you both there later...", he offers.

"Only if there's time.", Luz replies.

"Good, to get back to the story. It was pretty cramped down here at first. All the side tunnels for the bedrooms didn't exist at first. So while Andrias launched his attack upstairs, we spread out our perimeter down here in several teams and began digging tunnels. One day there was an earthquake, which destabilized the tunnel in which I, Ben, the former commander, and one of the Toads had been working. The tunnel didn't have any reinforcements and it collapsed over our heads. I was lucky and only lost my leg. Unfortunately, the other two didn't make it."

Luz and Amity look rather distraught at the old frog, who, completely unperturbed, recounts how two people he knew were crushed to death in front of him. In the same accident that cost him his leg.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked.", Luz genuinely regrets her question. Actually, she regrets this whole conversation. This is definitely not the kind of 'family'-reunion she had in mind. Admittedly, she feels a little alienated. Sure, the Plantars obviously missed her a lot, but Luz can’t help but feel a bit out of place, and has no idea why.

With a frown on her face, Amity speaks up. "You seem to have coped well with that memory."

A short hollow laugh escapes Hop Pop.

"Oh no, not at all, dear. I don't have time for that.", he says with a disturbing smile on his face. "We're currently fighting for our survival. There will be plenty of time to deal with the trauma afterwards. Isn't that right, Luz?"

"Huh?", she asks, startled, "Wh-what do you mean?"

"Don't act so surprised. Pain has been written all over your face since the day you first arrived here... I naively assumed at the time that it was the Boiling Isles themselves that had you so battered, seeing that place as hell itself. But you've been through a very different kind of hell. Multiple times the way you look like. You- no, both of you have already lost so much. I can see it in your eyes... Can you say you've taken the time to process all this properly?"

"No.", Amity answers immediately and without hesitation. "While I was able to bury him, I...", she shakes her head as if trying to dispel an unwanted thought, "There are still too many people in danger."

"Mhm. My point exactly.", Hop Pop nods with his lips pressed together, "And while I'm definitely not in a position to help the forces directly, I can use my skills as a farmer to help feed all the refugees and aid workers here."

Glad that Hop Pop has changed the subject slightly, Luz speaks up. "And what about you two?", she asks Sprig and Polly directly. Sprig perks up and answers first, as Polly is still eating. He pulls out a slingshot from his back pocket and loads a cherry into it before gesturing the slingshot aiming across the room.

"I'm part of a unit that's taking back Amphibia!", he announces full of pride.

"And I'm training all these wimps in the use of heavy weapons!", Polly reveals with an enormous proud grin on her face.

"Heavy weapons?", Amity asks with doubt in her voice.

"I also work in research and development.", she adds proudly. Luz herself already knew about Polly's affinity for weapons of all kinds, but that doesn't stop her and Amity from looking at the other two frogs present with questioning glances. Only Maddie doesn't seem surprised. Both Hop Pop and Sprig nod at them in confirmation.

"Aren't both of you a bit... young?", Amity wonders.

"Well, I'm the best sniper around.", Sprig brags proudly.

"And I've got Frobo, who I'm studying with a few other people and developing countermeasures.", Polly reports.

"Frobo?", Luz asks.

"A tamed Frobot.", Maddie explains.

"HUH?!", the two girlfriends exclaim in shock. Amity is the first to find her voice again. "You managed to tame a Frobot???"

"As much as I'd like to admit it, no.", Polly replies with a dejected tone, "He just showed up one day and never left my side. Plus, he listens to my orders and my orders only."

"So you're more babysitter than researcher?", Maddie asks skeptically. In response, Polly merely pouts, angrily mumbling something under her breath. Her family and friends all giggle at that, which lifts the general mood enormously.

"Admittedly, you could probably team up with my father. He's currently trying to reverse engineer the technical plans and such using destroyed Frobots. According to him, progress is... slow.", Amity admits after a while.

"Huh... So if you want, I can give you the technical schematics.", Polly offers, "Although, come to think of it, I might as well let you have Frobo. On the condition that I accompany him, of course."

"NO WAY!", Hop Pop is fiercely against Polly's offer, "There's no way you're going into a war zone alone! You're staying right here where it's safe."

"And what about Sprig?", Polly demands to know, "He gets to join a strike force, but I'm not even allowed out of this cave?"

"Sprig is only allowed outside on the condition that he stays out of physical combat and only intervenes from a distance.", Hop Pop explains, "And if it were up to me, even that would be too much."

"No, no.", Amity tries to reassure the agitated frog, "The schematics are more than enough. Thank you very much."

Polly pouts at that while Hop Pop sighs in relief. On that, Luz speaks up.

"Don't get me wrong Hop Pop, I'd love it if you'd come back to the Isles with us... But I totally understand if you say your priority is Amphibia."

Sprig and Polly exchange guilty looks, torn between their desires to save their own home and help their friend. (And maybe seeing Anne again)

They know they are needed here, if only in a limited capacity given their age. But it's a fact that Polly's influence on Frobo has clearly helped the research and counter-defense against the Frobots immensely, even if she doesn't contribute too much herself. Unlike Sprig, who actively participates in field missions. Not as if anyone other than Sprig knows much about it. His missions so far have all been subject to a certain degree of secrecy, which the young frog takes excessively seriously.

For another half hour or so, they all sit and relax in the cafeteria, catching each other up on the latest stories. Luz talks about the resistance movement she joined, which was originally just opposed to Belos and the Coven system, and Maddie and the Plantars talk about how the Frogs defeated the Toads. There's actually no time for any more tales, as a familiar Toad suddenly enters the cafeteria looking for someone.

"LUZ NOCEDA? AMITY BLIGHT? ARE YOU HERE?”, the Toad Guard from earlier calls out, attracting the attention of absolutely everyone. Luz looks over at him and waves.

"OVER HERE!", she calls back.

The guard notices her immediately and approaches her table, forcing his way past several other diners. He salutes as he arrives at the table.

"The Commander now has time for you.", he reports before his gaze wanders briefly to Maddie, "Miss Flour, you are also expected."

"Hm?", the frog looks confused before she merely shrugs her shoulders in acceptance, "Okay."

"Commander.", the toad holds the door open for Luz, Amity, and Maddie to enter, before closing the door behind them and leaving the five of them alone.

Five, one might wonder. Yes, indeed. And both Luz and Maddie stare at the two figures in front of them.

"Master?!", Maddie calls out in surprise.

"Mrs. Croaker??? You're the commander???", Luz exclaims loudly.

The two elders sitting in front of the three girls at a log-shaped table look up at them in amusement. Luz's gaze is fixed on Mrs. Croaker. The half-human remembers her as a nice, but slightly frail-looking elderly frog lady. Now in front of her sits the same frog, only wearing a gray metal breastplate and a slightly rusty-looking helmet on her head. Her eye, which is afflicted with cataracts, is now adorned with a wide but fortunately well-healed scar and one of her hands appears to be missing two fingers. Her whole appearance has changed. She doesn't look old and fragile, but like someone with a lifetime of combat experience.

Maddie greets her master with a slight bow as Mrs. Croaker stands up and approaches Luz, a gentle smile on her face.

"Luz, dear... I'm glad to see you again.", she takes Luz's hand in her own before looking her up and down, "And healthy too... You are, aren't you?"

The frog grabs Luz's face with both hands using unexpected strength and pulls her closer to observe her more in depth.

'Whoa! I knew she cared for me, but for her to be so worried about me...'

"Although, there's something different about you.", Mrs. Croaker suddenly mutters, catching Luz's and Amity's attention, "Are you mutated? ... No, it's not that. But that's not a new head, is it? Can humans grow new heads? ... Luz, were you decapitated recently?"

Luz would like to laugh at this remark and dismiss it as a funny joke if it weren't for the serious look of concern in the frog's eyes.

"N-no.", Luz answers briefly and succinctly. She grabs Mrs. Croaker's hands and takes them away from her face. "I still have the same head, but..."

"But?"

"You could say I've mutated. Or rather, that I've been changed."

"What happened?", the older frog asks. Luz hesitates slightly.

Unknown to the two of them, the fifth individual had her gaze fixed closely on Luz, trying to assess and analyze her.

'That's her? That's not quite what I expected...', she thinks to herself with doubt and dismissiveness. 'Just one way to find out if she's really the one I'm waiting for.'

She grabs her staff with her glove-covered tail and points it directly at Luz, which she initially doesn't notice. A glowing golden beam of light emerges from the tip of the staff, aimed directly at Luz's chest. The half-human jumps back in alarm, while Amity and Maddie also take up fighting positions.

"MASTER!"

"LUZ!"

"Please don't resist!", the newt speaks in a calm voice. Amity creates two spiky Abomination gauntlets, ready to attack the newt. That is, until Luz speaks up.

"Ami, wait!", Amity looks at her in complete surprise, "She's not attacking me."

The witch looks back and forth between her girlfriend and the non-attacking attacker and ultimately decides to trust Luz. Despite her skepticism.

"Wise decision.", the newt says, "Don't worry, I just need to check something."

"Check what?", Amity demands to know in a distrustful and venomous tone.

The golden beam aimed at Luz begins to pulsate moments later, causing the newt's eyes to widen in surprise. Her gaze meets Luz's.

"You can use it, can't you?", the newt asks in a hopeful tone, "His magic."

Luz's gaze lowers and she observes the golden beam of light reaching her chest. She can't put her finger on it, but it feels like an answer is expected of her, that she must do something.

'She said his magic. Does she know about the glyphs? Or about the Titan himself?', Luz asks herself inwardly as an idea occurs to her, 'Maybe it'll work...'

The half-human summons her golden lightning, which instinctively travels to her chest and begins to wrap themselves around the beam of light, heading all the way to the newt's staff. Wide-eyed and more excited than ever before in her long life, she stares fixatedly at the golden lightning approaching her on the same-colored beam. They reach the top of the wooden staff, but do not stop there. At the tip, they begin to wrap themselves tightly around the old wood like a strand of golden silk. Winding down, round and round, slowly towards the Newt's tail, everyone, even Amity, gazes in amazement at the spectacle before them, which none of them even begin to understand.

The lightning wraps about halfway up the staff before the Newt snaps out of her astonishment and fascination and cancels her spell, which also immediately causes Luz's magic to dissipate into thin air.

"What exactly just happened?", Maddie speaks up after a few seconds of silence. Her gaze, however, is completely fixed on her master's ancient staff. "It... looks different." There's a clear visual difference between the part of the staff Luz's magic touched it and the part she didn't. While the lower part appears old, worn, and slightly brittle, the wood on top looks like... healed.

Suddenly, the Newt grabs her staff with her hand, stomping the end against the ground. A blindingly bright light surrounds her. When it disappears again, the four of them no longer see the newt in her dark robe, but completely clothed in white, surrounded by a benevolent aura. She drops to one knee directly in front of Luz with her head bowed.

"Wha-", the half-human stammers in shock. Those around them also observe the situation before them in shock and incomprehension.

"My name is Valeriana, and I have waited nearly a thousand years for your arrival, Chosen Daughter of the Titan.", she gives the others before her a moment to process what just happened, "I am a member of the Order of the Last Titan. Or rather the last member, to be precise. Our task has been, since its founding many thousands of years ago, the study of magic on this world, as well as on many others. We have learned, revived the past, and recovered lost knowledge."

"Other worlds?", Luz asks reluctantly.

"As a matter of fact. And on our many journeys, we encountered one being, the Titan.", Valeriana continues.

"But... hasn't the Titan been dead for millions of years?", Amity interrupts her.

"And does that mean you've visited the Demon Realm?", Luz asks.

"Yes. To both questions.", the Newt replies to Luz's delight and Amity's confusion, "Please let me elaborate."

"Please wait.", Luz interrupts this time, "Maybe we should all sit down for this."

"As you wish.", Valeriana rises and sits down where she was sitting with Mrs. Croaker before. The other three girls join her at the table and Valeriana starts to talk.

"Please wait a second.", Amity speaks up before Valeriana begins to talk and turns to Luz. "I know how much you love backstories, but don't you think we should talk about what we came here for in the first place first?"

Luz thinks for a moment. "Good point, Ami. Do you mind Ms. Valeriana?"

"Please, just Valeriana will do. And I don't mind postponing this.", the newt replies in an almost submissive tone. Something that particularly creeps out Maddie, who has spent all these months learning under her rather strict guidance.

"All right, Luz dear, what can I do for you?", Mrs. Croaker asks in a friendly tone. Luz's expression, on the other hand, is suddenly turning incredibly serious.

"I'll make it quick. King Andrias is currently attacking our world. The previous 'government' has collapsed, infrastructure has been destroyed, he is kidnapping civilians regardless of age or gender, or simply slaughtering them in the streets. The group we belong to has an idea on how to stop him, but we need help to make it work."

"If you're asking for troops or something, the answer is ‘no’.", Mrs. Croaker states sternly.

"Fortunately, that's not what we need. I know you guys have enough problems of your own here in Amphibia."

"Okay, in that case, I'm all ears. What do you need?", the older frog asks, her voice a little softer again now that this issue has been clarified.

"Space, mostly.", Luz says before Amity continues.

"Our plan ultimately calls for a surprise attack on Andrias' palace at a time when he can't deploy his Frobots. And before that happens, we would want to evacuate the rest of the civilian population. To here.", she explains. Mrs. Croaker doesn't seem entirely averse to her plan. "It- It would only be for a few days at most, too. We anticipate enormous collateral damage."

"How many refugees are we talking about here?"

That's the question Luz and Amity were most afraid of, and what could cause all this to fall through.

"Um...", Luz hesitates, swallowing nervously, "A couple thousand..."

"Huh."

A single word. This is Mrs. Croaker's answer to Luz and Amity's request, standing for neither acceptance nor rejection.

The older frog remains silent, looking at the group with an unrecognizable expression on her face. Luz in particular has no idea what's going on in her head, what she's thinking, and whether or not she's willing to help them. And to be honest, the half-titan is starting to panic.

Maddie, noticing this, speaks up. "Mrs. Croaker?"

The frog addressed looks up and peers into Luz's eyes with a slight smirk on her face.

"That might just work."

"Huh? What exactly?"

Without answering directly, Mrs. Croaker gets up from her seat and opens a chest of drawers against the wall, on the top drawer of which are countless rolled-up rolls of paper. She seems to be looking for something in particular, judging by her audible mumbling.

"Let's see, where is that thing? ... Nah, this is from last week. This is of Wartwood. That's from Loggle... There!"

Mrs. Croaker grabs a roll of paper and closes the drawer. She returns to the table where she purposefully grabs another roll and lays them out in front of the others, both next to each other. The first paper roll, which was already on the table, shows an out-of-date map of Frog Valley with several red crosses drawn all over the valley. The second roll shows a series of lines starting from a small circle. Mrs. Croaker speaks up.

"Look, since we've settled down here, we've also started mapping out everything while expanding this place.", she overlays the two maps, "The parts in black here around Wartwood are part of the original cave system. The few adjacent lines in blue represent the tunnels we dug ourselves. And do you see this one yellow line bordering the blue one heading all the way north? This is where we discovered an existing artificial tunnel system. This one tunnel in particular extends northwards outside the valley."

Valeriana raises an intrigued eyebrow at the mention of the tunnel. She briefly looks as if she wants to comment on it, but for some reason decides to keep quiet for now. Mrs. Croaker continues.

"We can't say how far the network extends. It stretches for quite a few kilometers to some of Andrias' production facilities. We use some of the tunnels for our operations, and I'm sure the facility will be perfect for your purposes."

"Really?", Luz and Amity both ask excitedly.

"I have a few conditions, of course.", Mrs. Croaker puts a damper on the two girls' joy. Fortunately, they quickly regain their composure.

"Of course.", Luz says in a very diplomatic tone, "Please tell us your conditions."

"You claim you can defeat Andrias and his troops. Those are some big words... My condition is this: convince me that you really can actually pull it off. That the people you send here won't suddenly stay here forever just 'cause you two promised too much."

Luz and Amity look at each other for a moment. "That's... fair. Ami?"

"During the time since after arriving on the Isles, we've already managed to destroy many of his forces. And as far as we've been able to observe, not once have reinforcements been called in.", Amity reports, "We suspect that Andrias is no longer able to open portals."

"Elaborate!", Valeriana suddenly speaks up, her tone stern.

"When they arrived in Amphibia, Emperor Belos had met with the enemy. In exchange for a promise not to interfere in the invasion, they gave him one of the gems to 'borrow'."

Valeriana lets out a deep, deeply annoyed grumble at that piece of news, leaving the others slightly confused, but no one questions it for now.

"Another enemy?", Mrs. Croaker asks, "An ally of Andrias?"

"No. The exchange was due to pressure from Belos.", Amity reports, "He had used his magic to take control of the palace."

Valeriana again growls at that.

"And you're sure they're not working together?", Maddie asks Luz directly, "From what you said about that Belos guy back then, he's at least as evil as Andrias."

"Andrias' and Belos' goals are both evil, but they don't share the same ones.", Luz clarifies, "Granted, we don't know Belos’ current goal. He has actually completely disappeared from the surface of the world since the start of the invasion. Not sure if that's a good thing or not, but at least it allows us to focus on one problem at a time."

"I think we're getting a little off topic here.", Mrs. Croaker speaks up, "I asked you to convince me that you can defeat Andrias and his army. So far, I've only heard about circumstances."

"There's not much point in revealing our exact plan...", Luz pauses to think, "What about a practical demonstration? I know you're targeting Andrias' production facilities."

"Do you want to join a task force?", Mrs. Croaker asks.

"More or less.", Luz replies, "I don't think our words alone will convince you, so I hope a practical demonstration will persuade you to accept our proposal..."

"What do you propose?"

"I'm sure you have a few particularly well-secured targets that you haven't been able to attack yet. Give me one or two of those and Amity and I will take them out.", Luz suggests full of confidence.

"Just the two of you?", Mrs. Croaker asks with a raised eyebrow, "I wouldn't mind giving you a few people to assist."

"Observers maybe?", Amity suggests, "I'm confident we can manage that alone."

At that, Valeriana speaks up, "I'd be happy to take on that role, if I'm allowed."

"You're not under my command. So you can do what you want. I'll have one of my people accompany you, though.", Mrs. Croaker insists.

"I don't mind."

30 minutes of planning and explanations later...

Immediately after the conclusion of the planning phase, all of them left Mrs. Croaker's office and made their way to one of the most remote parts of the underground base.

"Is this... concrete?", Luz wonders aloud. The gray, smooth walls were very different from the dark brown soil that the frogs had dug themselves through by hand.

"We just call it graystone.", Mrs. Croaker shrugs her shoulders. "It should take you about eight to ten hours to meet your contact. It's going to be a long walk."

"Who said we were walking?", Amity asks, smirking, before taking out her staff and hovering it over the ground in a flying position. Luz follows suit. Mrs. Croaker blinks silently at the two girls several times.

"I don't even know why this surprises me anymore.", she slightly shakes her head.

"Valeriana, can you fly?", Luz asks the older Newt.

"I cannot."

"Then you'll fly with me. Ami, can you take Maddie with you?"

"Sure.", Amity replies casually.

With that, Maddie jumps on Ghost up behind Amity and Valeriana sits sideways behind Luz on Owlbert. But before they fly off, Mrs. Croaker has a few parting words for them.

"Luz, I know you're powerful, but I still want you to be careful. All of you. Our best teams have not been able to capture this facility."

A small smile appears on Luz's face. "Thank you, I appreciate your concern. But the outcome is worth the risk. That's all that matters."

"Still... Take care of yourself."

"I will."

With a powerful blast of air, the two staffs shoot forward into the tunnel.

"What an acceleration...", Valeriana marvels at the staffs' abilities.

"Yeah, right?", Luz grins.

"Now that we have some time amongst ourselves, would you mind continuing our earlier conversation?"

"Right, you wanted to talk about your order, right?”, Amity speaks up, who is flying parallel to Luz. Valeriana nods in confirmation.

"Go ahead.", Luz gives her decisive okay.

The tale of our Order begins long before its actual founding. The founding members originally began as part of King Werara's research and exploration division. This was even before the founding of the first Amphibian Empire. Amphibia was already quite technologically advanced back then, if only relatively compared to the technological golden age of the Empire. The king at the time was a tyrant, completely megalomaniacal. Said the continent wasn't big enough for him. He wanted to rule the whole world. He ordered the research and exploration division to map the whole world so that he could further expand his power. The cartographers came back with nothing but maps of oceans. The king was furious as he learned that Amphibia was the only continent, had several of the cartographers executed on the spot and declared that the planet was no longer big enough for him. This gave rise to the space program. It took a couple of decades, but after a while the researchers managed to set up a scientific research station on the moon. But the king wanted more and traditional space travel was too slow and too expensive by his reckoning. He wanted to conquer new worlds faster. So the space program was scrapped, with the exception of supply flights to and from the moon. Researchers all over the world were instructed to develop a new method of extraplanetary transportation. The solution they came up with after years and years of research was called precision teleportation or something like that. The technology itself, as well as the knowledge of how it worked, was lost over the millennia since then. All the knowledge remains is the fact that the machine required vast amounts of energy and the moon was converted into a gigantic generator that was sent back to the planet's surface to power it. As you may have noticed, I haven't mentioned the Music Box at all so far. This is because the society of the time did not know magic as we know it today.

For the first test after its completion, the mad king gathered a fully armed army at the test site. The researchers successfully opened the portal, which was actually stable. The only problem was that no one knew exactly where the portal was connected to. A gas was flowing out of the portal which quickly proved to be deadly. It settled on the ground, surrounding all the soldiers and most of the researchers, and began to decompose each of them alive from the feet up. None of the soldiers and explorers stationed at the site survived. The king, however, was not deterred by this catastrophe and gathered a new army. For the second and each subsequent attempt, the king sent a team of specially protected explorers ahead to assess the target location before the king took the world. For decades, the king expanded his empire unhindered, planet after planet, some uninhabited, some inhabited. He didn't care, according to him everything belonged to him. He encountered primitive civilizations, which he subjugated or destroyed, but also advanced ones, which he immediately declared war on.

The first war he did not win immediately was against an advanced race called the Helenians. The Helenians were not only more technologically advanced, they were also able to detect planets under the control of King Werara, despite the distance between his worlds. It was a brutal war, and very one-sided. Day by day, the king lost contact with planets under his control and grew increasingly aggressive and panicked. In the end, it turned out that the teleport network itself was the weak point. In a desperate decision, the king cut the teleport connection from Amphibia to all his other worlds and ordered the researchers and explorers to find a way to defend themselves against this superior force, as it would only be a matter of time before the enemy found Amphibia itself. From that point, the king sent out explorers, not with the intention of taking over new worlds, but to gather new knowledge.

A few months later, King Werara was assassinated by his son, Prince Ardel, who was upset by what he must have called his 'cowardly retreat'. So while the explorers were still traveling in the vastness of space, the new King Ardel had assembled new armies and restored the teleport connections to the outer worlds.

What the new king did not know, however, was that the explorers his father had sent out had already found something.

Far away on a storm-stricken planet, a group of explorers had been stranded in a cave by a flood after following an unidentified signal. According to their estimates, the group was still half a continent away from their unknown destination. But with nothing better to do than wait for the storm to subside, some of the explorers had banded together and decided to explore the cave while the rest guarded their equipment.

The geologists among them had a field day analyzing all the rocks and mapping all the veins. At an apparent dead end, the equipment suddenly began to glitch out. The previously displayed coordinates were no longer correct and changed multiple times every second. It was either a nearby ore that was interfering with the devices, or an anomaly of a different kind. One of the geologists felt over the stone surface when he suddenly disappeared into that very wall. The other explorers quickly realized that it was some kind of portal, disguised as a simple rock wall, and hurried after it. On the other side they found a chamber of immeasurable size, full of huge, brightly colored crystals on all surfaces. The geologists went completely mad. The group called in the rest and they all spent nearly two months trying to figure out why these crystals were eluding their measuring devices. They were able to determine that part of the crystals were simply crystallized local earths, but the other part was a complete mystery to Amphibia's brightest minds. And they knew that this other part was imbued with an incredibly powerful energy that could not be measured with their machines. They knew they had found something, but didn't know what to do with it. They returned to Amphibia with some samples to work in secret on possible applications. The former King Werara was informed of the excursion shortly before his death. His successor and all subsequent kings were kept in the dark out of mistrust. Even Andrias only knew the "legend" of "the Source".

While the researchers worked, the explorers again traveled from world to world until they landed on a planet full of gigantic corpses. At least two of you can guess which world it was. This world was simply called the 'Giant Graveyard' back then. At first glance, the planet appeared to be fairly unremarkable, but one particular corpse stood out. It was in the form of intelligent life that had emerged from its rotting remains: taller than the average Newt, different skin and hair colors, pointed ears, and with the seemingly innate ability to transform the world around it with apparent force of will. Aka, magic, as it would be called today. A concept completely alien to the researchers of the time. The witches back then all lived in small communities of a few hundred people, similar to those here in Frog Valley. In terms of magical abilities, witches back then only knew spells like basic temperature manipulation, basic earth manipulation, and basic light manipulation. Thanks to the support of the witches of the time, the researchers were led to a cave in one of the knees of the deceased Titan, in which there was a lake, filled with a purple substance. The native witches called this substance 'Titan's Blood'. They imagined this gigantic corpse to be responsible for their existence as the all-powerful Titan, whom they worshipped and adored as their deity and protector. Even from a distance, the explorers' devices measured an energy signature uncannily similar to that of the crystals they had previously found on other worlds. When they asked their native leaders to take a sample, they fiercely refused, arguing that Titan's Blood is sacred and must not be desecrated under any circumstances. Wanting to respect their decision, the team accepted it, and prepared to leave this cave. Not even half a minute after they set off again, one of their guides suddenly stopped in their tracks, their eyes glowing gold. The explorers were quite nervous, but the locals looked at the witch in awe.

When the witch regained consciousness, they told the explorers that they could take samples. When asked what had caused this sudden change of heart, the other witches explained that it was the Titan himself who had spoken to them. Most of the researchers did not question what they were told and immediately rushed off to get the samples. The name of the researcher who did not immediately run along was Erwin Scen. Not long after, he became one of the first three founding members of the Order.

Back in Amphibia, all the researchers worked on the newly found materials. Scen, however, did not. He did not research possible applications. Instead, he was the one who would later find out that those colorful crystals consisted partly of Titan's Blood. The number of worlds where crystals were found at that time already amounted to six. And Scen was sure that there would be some in Amphibia as well. He put together a plan to sneak out of the facility at a particularly busy time with his exploration equipment and search Amphibia for those very same powerful crystals. Not to gain their power for himself, but to explore them. What is the Titan? What makes it so powerful? How did this Titan's Blood spread to so many worlds? Is the Titan really dead? And what killed him?

With his unauthorized departure from his post having officially betrayed the king, Scen set off. After a few weeks of operating under the radar following his betrayal, he found himself in northern Frog Valley, in a government building belonging to the Governor of the Valley. Scen located a portal inside the building that led to a cave that looked identical to the other caves, equally filled with colorful crystals covering every surface. Inside, he encountered said governor, who had set up a small office in the center of the cave on a small island, amidst all the crystals around him, along with a giant floating crystal directly above his desk. When asked if he knew what this place was, he replied something stupid that was not important enough to be written down for history. Scen asked to have a closer look at the crystals.

Scen stepped closer to the floating crystal, something that had never been seen in any other of the caves before. He touched the crystal and upon contact found himself surrounded by complete emptiness, the ground a liquid but not feeling wet. In short, Scen reported that a disembodied voice had introduced itself as a part of the Titan that had been cast out into many different worlds upon his death. He himself was only a disembodied existence, bound to Amphibia as every other part was bound to its respective planet. According to Scen, the two of them had been talking for several hours, and the researcher began to understand the witches of the Demon Realm as well as their view of him as a god, a deity. The Titan revealed the basics of the concepts of magic to the researcher, but made one non-negotiable condition: He wished for his magic to be used peacefully by all, however Scen was to do everything in his power to ensure that the Titan's magic did not fall into evil hands, aka. those of the new king. At least no more than has already happened. What Scen didn't know at the time was that someone had found a practical use for some of the gems he had brought with him, in the form of an energy source.

Scen hurried back to the capital as quickly as he could to see what his colleagues had created. He discovered a small box with three small Gems built into it, one red-pinkish, one pale green, and one pale blue. The Music Box that Andrias now has in his possession, in case you haven't realized it, built by a young, ambitious newt who has just been accepted as a researcher in King Ardel's research facility. Me.

Scen had a long chat with me and a few others, told us about his meeting with the Titan, and used one of the gems to perform real magic that the Titan had taught him. He showed us all this to get us to give up our research and destroy everything but the Music Box. Some of those present, despite what they saw, declared Scen mad and turned their backs on him. But not those who had seen the caves on the other planets with their own eyes. Those who were left believed him and even agreed with him. King Ardel was extremely unpopular and none of us wanted to make him even more powerful with unlimited access to magic. At the same time, no one wanted the enemy to completely destroy Amphibia if they found our world. So we made a deal: They would give King Ardel the Music Box so he could stop the Helenians from destroying our world, and in turn destroy every bit of official knowledge and research. Anything that could help build a second Music Box or even more powerful weapons. From that moment on, we called ourselves the 'Order of the Titan'. In secret, we continued to research the concept of magic and how it could be spread to the general population in accordance with the Titan's wishes.

For millennia we worked on exactly that. The power of the Music Box began to be used for civilian purposes after the end of the war, and more and more people in the civilian population began to learn magic. And finally, to prevent more of the wrong people from learning about the Titan, we had to do some ugly things: We destroyed all the devices that could detect the Titan's power, erased the coordinates of all the planets with crystal caves, destroyed the Governor’s house of Frog Valley, and erased the memories of many dozen people who weren't part of the Order.

Over time, we learned more about Titan's magic and began to value his words above all else. Even we, who didn't believe in spiritualism at first, fell one by one. We learned and passed on our knowledge to the people, while making sure that the powerful would learn nothing about it. For control and surveillance, we built hidden facilities all over the continent. In fact, we are currently in one of them. I can tell you more about that as soon as we reach our destination.

Then, about a thousand years ago, during the reign of King Aldrich shortly before his demise, the music box was stolen. According to stories, the perpetrator was a friend of Prince Andrias. Alarms went off all over our facilities, and as the only member on the planet, I went in search of her. It was a young frog. For about a week, they suddenly appeared to have vanished from the planet. One day I noticed her reappearance somewhere in Frog Valley. I sought her out that same day, and after some reassurance and explaining that I wasn't sent by anyone Newtopia, she proceeded to tell me that she received a vision from the music box about the destruction of Amphibia and hid it in another world where no one can reach and misuse it. Admittedly, I had mixed feelings about the whole thing. On the one hand, the vision may have been a warning from the Titan himself, but on the other, the frog's hasty actions meant that all the other members of my order were now stranded on other planets where they were researching new forms of magic. In the end, I came to the conclusion that I might have acted in exactly the same way if I had had to make her decision. I let her go and she built her own life, far away from the capital. And as the last member of my order in Amphibia, it was up to me to preserve our knowledge and teach magic to those who were deemed worthy.

And the rest is history.

"I'm sure you have many questions.", Valeriana speaks up after a very long moment of complete silence.

"That was... a lot.", Maddie comments quietly, "Not sure I caught everything."

Amity is the first to actually address Valeriana's question directly. "I think I speak for all of us when I ask: How fucking old are you?"

"Rude!", the old newt exclaims at Amity's unnecessary swearing, "But to be honest, I stopped counting after two hundred years."

"Do all newts get that old?", Luz asks curiously.

"No.", Valeriana answers without hesitation, "There are different ways to achieve a long life or even immortality. For example, my existence is linked to a special object. As long as it exists, I stay alive."

"Sooo cooool.", Luz is amazed, but unfortunately has to concentrate on flying, "Earlier, you said that Amphibia had teleport technology before the music box. Wouldn't that have made it possible to bring back the other members of your order?"

"I actually had the very same idea. But it was a fact that over time since the box was first used, every technology became dependent on the box itself as a source of energy. Over time, all other forms of power generation became obsolete, and so did the old technologies that relied on it. Within the Order, some of the techniques used are still documented, but nowhere in Amphibia are there ways to power teleporters."

"Yes, that makes sense..."

"Master, if I may also ask a question-"

"How many times do I have to remind you that you no longer have to call me 'Master'?", Valeriana exclaims, suddenly slightly annoyed.

"With all due respect, but calling you anything other than 'Master' just feels... wrong.", Maddie replies.

"Fine then.", Valeriana relents, "What do you want to know?"

"How did you know about Luz?", Maddie asks, which also earns her a curious glance from Luz, "I mean, you never spoke of her, and when you declared my training complete, suddenly nothing was more important than traveling to Wartwood."

"I'd be interested to know as well.", Luz adds, "You seemed to know about my connection to Titan before we met."

Valeriana sighs. "I'm afraid it's not easy to explain... I told you earlier that I am the creator of the music box. During the experimentation phase, there was an... incident, the details of which are not important. Since then, however, I have been able to sense every use of magic in relation to the music box. So when you and your girlfriend over there arrived in Amphibia, I knew immediately."

"You also had mumbled something about a request, Master."

"That's correct. It's about something that happened a couple hundred years ago. I received a telepathic communication from the Titan, but not from the fragment that is here in Amphibia. He sounded like he was under tremendous strain and pain. He only spoke two words before the connection was abruptly cut off: 'Help her'. And I just recently realized that he was talking about you."

"Okay, let me recap. The Titan told you 'Help her' many hundreds of years ago, and earlier today you pointed a beam of light at me, and that's enough to declare me the 'Chosen Daughter of the Titan' in your opinion?", Luz summarizes questioningly.

"Yes.", Valeriana declares plainly, a look of 'obviously' in her eyes.

"It does make sense if you think about it.", Maddie chimes in.

"True.", Amity says as well, "I mean, he literally chose you."

"Yeah, but daughter? I mean, I already have parents- ... Well, my mom...", Luz cuts herself off and contemplates her family situation for a moment with a frown on her face, "If I'm really supposed to see the Titan as a parent, then I'm really worried about my mom..."

"Why is that?"

"Well, my dad died when I was eight, the Titan has been dead for millions of years, Eda is... you know..."

"I know.", Amity says sympathetically.

"My point is that I don't want any more dead family members. Biologically related or not.", Luz states, her heart heavy, though she quickly buries it deep down within herself again.

"Speaking about that-", Maddie speaks up, but not loud enough for anyone to hear her. Instead, Luz continues.

"So... 'Daughter of the Titan'. Not sure if I like that, but I have to ask: What exactly does that even mean? Like, for me?", Luz asks. Valeriana sighs in rising frustration.

"It means that I will help you, no matter what you need.", she declares.

"Even if that means you actively fighting in a war on another world?", Amity asks with a critical tone.

"Indeed. If that's what she wants."

"Does that mean I have an actual follower now?", Luz wonders, slightly disturbed. 'Followers on social media are one thing, but in real life? I'm not running a cult...'

Luz grumbles softly at that.

"Not just one, Luz.", Amity speaks up teasingly.

"You're my girlfriend. That doesn't count... Doesn't matter now. I think I can already see the end of the tunnel up ahead.", Luz changes the unsettling subject.

"Smooth...", Maddie mumbles sarcastically as she rolls her eyes.

Nevertheless, Luz has told the truth as the four of them quickly reach the end of the tunnel. They come to a halt in front of a thick-looking steel door, in a massive hole has been hacked through it, based on the broken pickaxes lying around the opening. One by one, they climb through the hole and enter a huge room that brings a sense of recognition to both Luz and Maddie.

A huge room, so tall that it is impossible to see the actual ceiling. On the walls, on stone pillars that stretch up into the darkness, there are now several brightly burning torch stands scattered around, illuminating parts of the room. Between some of the pillars are several more doors, which have also been opened with brute force. In the middle of the room, three chairs of different sizes stand in front of a makeshift-looking table on which many different papers are scattered. Luz's gaze shifts to her left, where she suspects an oversized door and several huge black rectangles directly above it. Unfortunately, the light from the torches doesn't reach high enough for her to confirm it, so Luz gathers some magic and casts a series of light orbs towards the wall, revealing exactly what Luz had previously suspected.

"Marvelous.", Valeriana mutters under her breath.

"Maddie?", Luz speaks up.

"You recognize the room too, don't you?", the addressed frog replies. Luz hums affirmatively.

"You've been here before?", Valeriana asks curiously. The two girls nod. Luz explains.

"On our - well, my first flight to Newtopia, we came across this room by chance. But we didn't stay long.", Luz remembers, "We also had no idea what this room was for at the time."

"It was one of our surveillance rooms, this one specially designed for the valley.", Valeriana explains, "There's another one not far from here for the surrounding areas. But without the power of the Music Box, of course, nothing works anymore. Although..."

Without a warning, Valeriana grabs Luz's wrist who releases a startles yelp, and drags her to one of the three chairs, where she presses her hand on the stone armrest. "Try channeling your magic into the stone."

Luz does as she is told, and after a few seconds of nothing happening, something starts to glow brightly on the stone. This something flows along the edge and the outside of the chair into the ground like water flowing through a ditch. Hissing and droning noises sound from an unidentifiable direction, indicating that something is about to happen. For several seconds, nothing happens, until suddenly the ceiling of the room is illuminated by immensely bright lights, which suddenly blind most of the members of the group. Luz instinctively pulls her arm back to cover her eyes as the light switches off again shortly afterwards.

"HEY!", someone suddenly shouts from the direction of one of the other doors, from which a smaller-than-Maddie-sized frog emerges, "WHO TURNED ON THE LIGHT?"

"Toadie?", Maddie is the first to react to the small, light green frog with the dark gray chest plate on his upper body and a clipboard in his hand, stomping angrily towards them with small steps.

"WE'RE DOING OUR BEST DOWN HERE TO AVOID DETECTION, AND YOU'RE TURNING ON LIGHTS THAT MIGHT ATTRACT FROBOTS LIKE FIREFLIES!!!"

While Toadie continues to rant, Luz kneels down to Maddie. "Wasn't he the frog that used to follow the mayor everywhere?", she asks in a whisper.

"Yeah, but after Toadstool got arrested and he wasn't allowed to go with him, Toadie went a bit crazy and started getting on everyone's nerves. Not sure what happened after I left, but he seems to have been dumped here... Or he's here to organizing or oversee stuff. He's good at that.", Maddie whispers back.

"Oke, thanks, I see."

"AND HOW DID YOU EVEN DO THAT?", Toadie asks after his long, detailed rant, which Maddie and Luz pretty much ignored.

"Master Luz is the one who achieved it.", Valeriana blurts out without a second thought.

"WHAT??? Master?", Luz freaks out, "Where did that suddenly come from?"

"As the chosen daughter of Titan, it is my duty to serve you. That makes you my master, as well of every other member of the order if they were around.", Valeriana explains, "Or do you prefer a different title?"

"Just Luz. That's good enough.", Luz answers swiftly, hoping that it really is enough.

"I'm afraid that's not good enough for a being with your power.", Valeriana says, at which Luz just groans in response.

"Hey!", an impatient Toadie speaks up again, snapping his fingers in front of the two arguing. In response, all eyes are on him now. "Thank you. So, who are you? I recognize Ms. Flour over there, but not the rest of you."

Luz tilts her head in confusion, remembering well that she definitely met him- or at least the mayor at the time. 'I mean, back then I was standing on a stage in front of the whole of Wartwood. Surely he was there too... Or have I changed too much since then?', she wonders inwardly, 'I mean, I'm wearing a ponytail now, but is that enough to make him forget me?' Ultimately, Luz shakes her head to get this thought out of her head and explains the situation instead.

"Commander Croaker sent us. We're to take care of the boulder.", she explains.

"Just you four?", Toadie asks incredulously, "Do you have a death wish?"

"Actually, it's just the two of us.", Amity clarifies, pointing to herself and Luz, "The two of them are just observers."

"You're crazy...", Toadie shakes his head, "You two are human, aren't you?"

"Something like that.", Luz replies vaguely.

"Well... you're no Anne, but if you're anywhere near as good as her, then...", Toadie takes a long breath, "Follow me!"

Toadie leads the group through the same door through which he himself has just stormed in minutes earlier. For several minutes, the five of them walk through a series of corridors before arriving in another huge room with another unnecessarily high ceiling. This room, however, is full of various items of equipment, tents, and there is even a cooking area.

"It's so quiet. Is there no one here but you?", Amity wonders aloud.

"The scouts are outside right now to check out the current Frobots' patrol routes.", Toadie explains.

"And what are you doing here? As in, what's your job here?", Luz asks.

"I write reports for the Commander, and take care of the strike teams that come through here. Like you bunch.", he explains as the group arrives in front of a small, segregated area full of weapons and gear. "So, what can I give you suicidal bunch for your final equipment?"

Luz and Amity look at each other briefly, "Oh, we don't need anything."

The four of them can clearly see little Toadie's blood pressure visibly rising on his face, as well as him pressing his fingers very, very tightly into his clipboard. "Um, what?", he asks, having to take a double-take at what he just heard, "Could you repeat that, please? Because to me sounded like you said you wanted to tackle the boulder without any equipment."

"We have our staffs, and we probably don't even need them.", Luz comments as if it were the most normal thing in the world, which only makes Toadie's frustration and disbelief skyrocket even further.

"Fine!", he exclaims sharply, "Then you probably don't need a description of the location or the terrain either, do you?"

"Oh yes, that would actually be quite nice.", Luz says with a smile so innocent that it almost infuriates poor Toadie even further. Nevertheless, he tries his best to keep his nerves. He lets his mind wander, back to the time when he still had Mayor Toadstool to be around every single day, long before everything went down the drain for him. He sighs before leading the group to a nearby table, pulling out a rolled-up map, and unrolling it for all of them to see.

"So, listen up: The Boulder is one of the largest facilities for the production of more specialized Frobots. Talking about Bombers, talking about Tank-Bots, talking about Fire Frobots, and so on and so forth. As you can see here, most of the facility is located inside one of the outermost mountains that form the edge of the valley. At least twenty Frobots patrol the ground and air at any given time. The biggest problem, however, is that the facility has only one way in, which is also specially secured. There are no controls accessible from the outside or anything like that, which allows for attacks from the outside. As a result, we have no idea what the facility looks like on the inside and where one could cause the most damage. So you would be going in blind. I'm telling you, it's a suicide mission. Are you sure you won't change your minds?", he asks, genuinely hoping they'd heed his warnings. But a shake of Luz's head immediately shatters it again.

"We're going through with it. The fate of far too many people depends on it.”, Luz exclaims confidently, "I mean, all this stone might scramble things a bit, but I'm still confident that the facility will go offline today."

"You already have an idea, Luz?", Amity asks.

"I kinda want to leave it a surprise, but...", Luz pauses for a moment, "The Conformatorium."

"Ooooouuuuuuuhhhh.", Amity exclaims in understanding and excitement. Maddie, Valeriana, and Toadie look at each other in confusion. "Don't worry. You're gonna love it."

Thirty minutes later, the group finds itself behind a dirt cliff on the surface with the guarded facility in sight. It was Toadie who had reluctantly shown them the way after Luz practically grabbed him and dragged him along with the group. Amity and Maddie found his desperate attempts to free himself from her grip quite amusing, and even more so when he finally accepted his situation and got carried under Luz's arm like a pitiful sandbag.

"Maddie, did you bring the seed I asked you for earlier?", Luz asks. Maddie rummages around in her bag for a moment before pulling out a seed almost the size of her fist.

"Perfect.", Luz exclaims quietly yet with excitement, "You know, last time I did it without seed, but hopefully I'll have an easier time getting through the rock with one."

"Nothing you say makes any sense.", Toadie complains, before Luz sets the little frog down on the ground next to her and takes the seed from Maddie.

"Maybe.", Luz admits, "Keep your eyes on the base and you'll see what I'm talking about."

With that out of the way, Luz positions herself directly against the cliff and presses the seed into the earth, leaving her hands resting loosely on the surface. She closes her eyes and begins to feel her magic building inside her, shooting out of every single pore and winding its way down her arms into the ground and connecting with the seed. The growth acceleration spell, a variation on the basic plant glyph, requires two things like most complex spells do: Imagination and good concentration skills.

The seed sprouts, and it is up to Luz to control the direction in which it grows. For evolutionary reasons, the sprout immediately wants to grow upwards, where it can photosynthesize and absorb nutrients. With her magic, however, she forces it to grow in a different direction. The sapling breaks open and begins to grow rapidly away from Luz. The material, which grows faster and faster, solidifies in record time as it races through the loose soil. The soil itself becomes denser and harder, and the sprout makes slower progress. Instead, it grows wider with several offshoots, which also all try to push forward at the same time. The pressure increases with every second, eventually rising so much that the rock ruptures, which immediately triggers a chain reaction. The plant forces its way through, spreads the fissure and causes the ground in the entire area to shake slightly, which definitely does not escape anyone's notice.

When the plant suddenly bursts out of the rock into a space filled with air, complete chaos breaks out. Free from the pressure of the rock, the wood spreads rapidly in all directions, either destroying or absorbing everything in its path, every metal, every mineral, every possibly unnatural liquid. The main trunk is already five meters thick and continues to grow. Branches grow, trying to force their way through the rock surrounding the room, while the main trunk continues to expand both in diameter and height. Five meters wide, six meters wide, ten meters wide, and the treetop has already pierced seven floors and counting.

From what the five observers on the outside can tell, less than two minutes have passed since Luz began casting her spell before all of them can feel the ground shake beneath their feet. At the same time, Luz ends her spell, whereupon the three Amphibian natives look at the half-human with looks ranging from fear, to curiosity, to awe.

"I think that's good enough.", Luz exclaims quietly while wiping her hands on her pants.

"What- what exactly just happened?", Toadie asks, slightly anxious. In his eyes, this previously seemingly nothing but arrogant person has just caused the ground to shake.

"Just watch. It's not done yet.", is all Luz says to him before she moves to stand next to Amity where they intertwine their hands as they watch the upcoming destruction from the safety of their hiding place. With her head resting on Luz's shoulder, they watch as increasingly large chunks break out of the mountain and fall down the side of the mountain on all sides, even catching a few of the patrolling Frobots who have no idea what's happening in the first place.

There are explosions from inside the facility and more and more boulders begin to crumble downwards as suddenly the top of the small mountain explodes and a giant tree shoots out on top of it, rocketing high into the sky.

"Well, that should be it now. That should have destroyed the facility quite permanently.”, Luz says after a moment of silence while the others all continue to stare at the giant tree in front of them, "Although, the whole thing took a little longer than I had hoped... Must have been because of the rock. Anyway, you wanna head back?"

"H-how did you do that?", Maddie asks, ignoring her question, on the one hand completely astonished, but also slightly intimidated. 'That's at least level eight magic, if not ten or eleven'

"Wrong.", Valeriana states, causing Maddie to jump in shock. The others are left looking confused, "What you saw is just a simple level two growth spell, but amplified to the extreme with Master's magic capacity. As a result, it can no longer be defined using the traditional number system."

"Did you just read my mind?!", Maddie reproaches her former master, who merely clicks her tongue dismissively and shakes her head.

"You're just as easy to read as an open book.", she explains.

"Creepy.", Luz whispers to no one in particular, "Anyway, should we head back now?"

"Yes, please.", Maddie replies, flushed with embarrassment.

"Toadie?", Luz asks the little frog, who seems to be actively trying to avoid Luz's gaze. He nods sheepishly. 'That must have been pretty intimidating for him...', Luz surmises inwardly as she prepares her teleport spell, freaking out those who aren't familiar with it.

No more than a few seconds pass before the group of five find themselves back in Wartwood accompanied by a blinding light, more precisely they find themselves directly in front of the ruined Plantar house with an unimpressed Chuck standing guard outside the front door.

"You know teleportation spells too?", Maddie asks in amazement.

"Sure. How do you think I got back to Amphibia?", Luz asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Right...", Maddie admits sheepishly, "You'll have to show me everything you can do now sometime later."

"Heh, will do.", Luz promises her, "Come on, let's head inside."

Chuck unlocks the door and the group steps inside. Luz holds the door open for everyone, but keeps a close eye on Toadie, who continues to keep his head facing the ground. Amity has already pressed the mechanism to open the secret fireplace tunnel entrance when Toadie suddenly speaks up in a tiny voice.

"Um, Miss Luz? Could we have a little chat please? In private...", he requests.

"Um, sure.", Luz replies before turning to the others, "Go ahead to Mrs. Croaker. I'll be right behind you."

Half a minute later, with the others gone and the entrance closed again, Luz and Toadie are now standing among themselves in what used to be the Plantar family living room. Luz doesn't have to ask why Toadie wants to speak to her alone, as he immediately begins to explain himself.

"Miss Luz, I would like to apologize profusely.", the little frog still cannot take his eyes off the floor, "I treated you with utter disrespect, which was completely inappropriate, even given my ignorance of your abilities. Under Mayor- er, former Mayor Toadstool, this would never have happened and he would certainly have punished me severely for this sheer disrespect towards a guest... There is no excuse for my behavior earlier. All I can do is ask for forgiveness and offer to make amends."

Luz blinks several times to herself before dropping to one knee and looking at Toadie with a sympathetic smile. "I forgive you. No conditions."

At that, Toadie lifts his head and stares at Luz in complete surprise. "What, really?"

"Imma be honest, I was more offended when you didn't remember me from my first time in Amphibia whatsoever.", Toadie's expression shows utter confusion at Luz's words, "I was there when Sasha killed Hop Pop. I was the one who brought him back."

"Really? You?", he asks critically, "Although, now that I have a closer look at you, I can see a certain resemblance...", he comments, which earns a small chuckle from Luz.

"I'm glad I was able to give your memory a boost.", she says, "And I already have an idea of how you can make amends."

"Please, tell me! I'll do anything!", he demands, somewhat desperate. His conscience is probably quite heavily burdened by his actions.

"Stop calling me 'Miss' Luz. I already have the problem of Valeriana suddenly calling me 'Master', which I have to somehow talk her out of or, if necessary, train her out of. But really, just 'Luz' is good enough."

"All right... Luz."

"Perfect. Let's go join the others now, then. I'm sure Mrs. Croaker is wondering why we're back already."

Luz and Toadie follow the others into the underground base where everyone, with the exception of Valeriana, has already gone into Mrs. Croaker's office and is waiting for the other two to arrive.

"What took you so long?", Mrs. Croaker demands to know, "Is what I would normally ask after a mission. Because normally a mission like this takes up to two days, but you just left here earlier and you're already back... Let me guess, you just grabbed Toadie and immediately turned back?"

Mrs. Croaker sounds pretty serious right now, but at least Luz knows it's not meant as an accusation or an insult. She knows that, like Toadie earlier, the older frog cannot imagine that such a mission could be completed so quickly, let alone successfully.

"No, Commander.", Toadie speaks up, to the surprise of both the others as well as Mrs. Croaker. "I can report that the 'Boulder' has been officially destroyed. After Luz's efforts, it can be assumed that the facility will be unusable for at least a couple of years, but more likely forever."

"Seriously?", Mrs. Croaker looks like she's about to fall out of her chair in her disbelief. Luz, Amity, and Maddie all nod simultaneously, the latter of theirs with a smirk on her face, because despite the slight intimidation of Luz's magic, Maddie is immensely proud that her friend managed to prove Mrs. Croaker wrong. Toadie continues.

"I will provide a full report later, Commander."

"All right.", Mrs. Croaker slaps her hands on her desk and gets up from her seat. She walks up to Luz and holds a hand out to her, "You've proven yourself worthy and backed up your words with actions. And I will do the same. Your request for help is hereby accepted."

With a wide grin on her face, Luz accepts the handshake. Amity, on the other hand feels pretty giddy herself, evidenced by the fact that Amity gives Luz a big kiss on the cheek after the handshake is over.

"I knew you could do it.", she praises her.

"We.", Luz corrects her, "You were there too, after all."

Amity just rolls her eyes in response.

"Luz?", Mrs. Croaker speaks up, "We'll be all set when you're ready to send the refugees over. But please promise me one thing."

"Hm?"

"Kick Andrias' ass for us!"

"Will do!", Luz grins.

With that, Luz, Amity, and Maddie leave Mrs. Croaker's office, but hear her voice speak again one more time. "Toadie you stay! From now on, you will help me with the preparations for-"

"You know Luz, I'm curious: why didn't you teleport us right down here earlier?", Maddie asks right after they've left the office.

"Too risky.", is Luz's short answer, "The chance of error is too great. I might be good with magic, but not as good as someone who's been able to use it for their whole lifes. I mean, we could theoretically have appeared in the rock itself. Teleporting to open fields is safer."

"Makes sense.", Maddie agrees, "Anyway, I should go to my dad and say goodbye."

"Why? You're coming with us?"

"Of course. I can't leave my friends to fight all by themselves.”, Maddie argues.

"Alright. We'll meet you on the surface when you're ready."

"I'll be there. Don't leave without me!", Maddie says and runs off to find her father and sisters.

"Well, there wasn't much resistance from you...", Amity comments once Maddie is out of earshot, "Should I be feeling jealous?", she asks jokingly. In response, Luz slaps her upper arm with no force behind it.

"Maddie is one of my best friends here in Amphibia, but she's also well versed in magic. We'll need her help.", Luz replies more seriously than her girlfriend expected.

"I know. I just want to tease you."

The two girls lean against the railing in the large main cave and quietly watch all the action and commotion for a while.

"Oh, by the way, where's Valeriana? I need to talk to her too before we leave.", Luz wonders.

"Uh, she said something about having to find her bird..."

"... ... That woman is crazy.", Luz comments, shaking her head, whereupon Amity has to suppress a short laugh. "What do you think about her?"

"Apart from the fact that she's clearly completely crazy?", Amity asks, to which Luz nods, "Her long life and her work as a researcher, assuming her story is completely true, could help us a lot. She probably has a great knowledge of magic and technology and knows more about Andrias' and Darcy's technology than anyone else."

"Even though she's crazy?"

"You mean even though she thinks of you as a deity?", Amity grins, "I think you'll be able to live with that."

"Urghhhhh...", Luz groans loudly, "Alright.", she says, sounding defeated.

"Master Luz!"

"Oh, Valeriana. There you are.", Luz greets the Newt, who now has a purple parrot-like bird with huge red eyes and a golden necklace setting on her shoulder, "And you've found your bird..."

"Master, this is Leander.", Valeriana introduces him.

"Master! Master!", Leander chirps.

"Greeeat... Actually, Valeriana, I've been wanting to talk to you."

"Of course, Master. What is it about?"

"About the Titan, and the tasks he gave me.", Luz explains, at which the Newt gives her her full attention, "There are three things: I was supposed to track you down. I'm supposed to destroy some temples. And I'm supposed to... deactivate the music box. There's more, but only these three things concern Amphibia."

"The temples..." the newt mutters thoughtfully.

"I assume that the Titan wants to prevent something like Andrias' grab for power from ever happening again.", Luz surmises. Valeriana, on the other hand, seems slightly mentally absent.

"Disabling the mechanisms of two of the temples should be a simple matter.", the Newt eventually speaks up, "Not that it matters anyway, because recharging gems requires an energy source."

"I'm afraid I don't understand. What are these temples?"

"Oh I'm sorry, of course you wouldn't know, Master... Eons ago, three temples were placed on the continent that allow to recharge the gems of the Music Box once their magic has been depleted. However, the temples themselves are not generators, but merely methods of transmitting power from a person to recharge the gems."

"Does that mean that the gems on the music box are nothing more than batteries?" Luz asks, somewhat bewildered.

"More or less, yes.", Valeriana confirms Luz's theory, "Somehow your three human friends came into possession of a modified form of Titan's magic, which was fully transferred into the gems through the temples."

"Then what am I?"

"You are the Chosen Daughter of Titan, Master."

"No, that's not what I mean. I mean, how do I fit into that whole thing?", Luz wants to know.

"You are the source, the origin. You are free to do whatever you wish. There are no obstacles and no rules. You yourself would even be able to recharge the individual gems or create new ones if you so wish."

"I think I understand...", Luz says thoughtfully, "So having one of the gems would be completely useless to me, right?"

"Not necessarily...", Valeriana says before turning to her bird. She reaches for its golden necklace and removes a colorless stone.

"Don't tell me this is what I think it is!"

"Master, this is an almost empty gem that hasn't been used for thousands of years."

"You've been keeping something powerful like that on your bird???"

"Yes. It once served me as a weapon and tool, but thanks to my staff here, it was no longer needed. Please, I want you to have it."

Valeriana holds out the gem to Luz, who hesitantly accepts it. She holds it in her hand, but nothing happens.

"What exactly should happen now?", Luz asks aloud.

"Try to charge it with your magic and imagine something you need right now.", Valeriana explains vaguely as if it were the easiest thing in the world. And to Luz's surprise, it actually is. The half-human begins to transfer her magic into the gem, which slowly begins to glow a dark purple. She closes her eyes and tries to think of something she might need at the moment, but comes up with nothing. Nevertheless, she feels something moving and transforming in her hands. Luz opens her eyes and finds in her hands a sword made of dark steel with a purple gem embedded in the handle. The half-human is stunned.

"It's a sword...", she speaks to herself, "I wasn't even thinking about a sword."

"Maybe not consciously, no. But subconsciously you must have thought that such a weapon could be of help to you.", Valeriana explains.

"O-Okay.", Luz exclaims, "So now I have a magic sword...Well that's something..."

"It can also change its shape into different things. Imagine a piece of jewelry, for example."

Luz does as she is told and seconds later finds a thin necklace in her hand in which the gem has been incorporated.

"Wow..." Luz exclaims, kinda speechless yet feeling grateful, "Can all gems do that?"

"Heh, no master. I created this gem myself and cast the necessary spells on it. It's one of a kind in the universe."

"Wow... thanks.", Luz says, truly amazed. "While we're at it, I'd like to ask you for something."

"What is it?"

“Come with us to the Demon Realm and help us defeat Andrias.”, Luz states, to which Valeriana doesn't even have to ponder about it.

"Your wish is my command, Master."

Less than an hour later, everyone is standing in the Plantars' former living room, ready to leave. Luz, with her new convenient necklace, Valeriana, who has packed her entire tent and bird into a small and surprisingly light suitcase, Maddie, who is also carrying a small suitcase and a thick book in her arms, Amity, who is holding Luz's hand, and the Plantars who want to see them off.

"And you're sure you wouldn't rather spend the next night here as well?", Hop Pop asks, not wanting Luz especially to leave so soon.

"I'm sorry, but time is something we don't have much of.", Luz explains, "But I promise I'll come visit you as soon as all this is over."

"Okay, I'll take your word for it.", Hop Pop says, at which Luz leans down and gives him a heartwarming hug.

"Of course. I see you as my family after all... Same goes for you two.", Luz says, pointing to Sprig and Polly. The latter has been pouting the whole time.

"I still want to come with you.", she whines.

"I'm sorry Polly, but you're needed here.", Luz says diplomatically. She doesn't want to hurt her feelings with the truth that she's still a baby and therefore too young. "But your technical blueprints will be invaluable to us."

"I know, but still...", she whines. Luz smiles, reaches for the youngest frog and gives her a hug as well. Lastly, she turns to Sprig, who is wiping a tear from his eye.

"Please, please take care of yourself. I don't want to lose another sister...", his voice breaks for a moment. Even Luz and Amity get a lump stuck in their throats at his words.

"You won't.", Luz tries to reassure him, "And as for Anne.... Let's just say I have a plan."

"Huh? What plan?", he wants to know. Luz hugs him too, but doesn't answer his question.

The group leaves the house, where Luz uses the end of her staff to draw the same glyph combination in the ground that she used for her portal to Amphibia.

When that's done, she kneels at the farthest line, where she channels her magic into the glyph, and also like the first time, an event horizon forms, a stable portal to the Boiling Isles. Luz stands up and wipes the dirt from her hands back on her pants before approaching the event horizon and sticking nothing but her head inside.

"Okay, it's the right place.", she reports a few seconds later, "Maddie, Valeriana, you two go ahead. You'll find a huge mansion on the other side. Knock on it and tell them Luz Noceda sent you to help."

"Wait...", Amity interrupts her girlfriend, "We're not going with them?"

Luz turns to Sprig and looks him straight in the eye, "Amity, we're both going to find Anne."

The young frog widens his eyes in shock.

Valeriana and Maddie say their goodbyes to Luz and Amity and enter the portal, which closes immediately behind them. Luz kneels down again in the same place before them and opens another portal.

"Wait...", Amity speaks up again, "If we go to find Anne, does that mean that-"

"Yes.", Luz grins, "We're taking a detour to Earth."

"Oh my Titan...", the witch gasps. The two girlfriends had never really talked about it in depth before, but Amity had been hoping to go on a date with Luz on her home world for a very long time. She is so deep in thought that she doesn't even notice the portal opening up in front of her.

"Ami?", Luz brings the witch back to the present.

"Yes?"

"I've verified the destination. The portal leads to Earth. We can go."

"O-Okay..."

She doesn't dare say it out loud, but at this very moment Amity is more nervous and excited than she has ever been in her life. Her heart is pounding in her chest and her hands are getting a little sweaty. She also starts to feel slightly dizzy.

Luz takes her by the hand and leads her slowly to the portal. Luz turns to the Plantars one last time and waves goodbye to them before the two girlfriends step through the portal which closes behind them a few seconds later.

"Oh, it was nice to see Luz again... Though I hope it's not the last time...", Hop Pop says to no one in particular, "Hey, wait a minute... Has anyone seen Sprig?"