Elsewhere and Elsewhen

Luz was in her room going through multiple books. She had a large bulletin board next to her with notes related to the portal tacked onto it.

As she looked through more pages, Luz looked over to see the echo mouse running on its wheel before sighing.

"You and me both, buddy. I can't figure out what Cruz and I messed up when we made that ding-danged door." She then heard the sound of glass clinking from downstairs.

In the living room, Hooty was throwing a party. Gathered there was: Eda, Lilith, Gwen, Cruz, Morton, King, Steve, Tiny Nose, and a woman with pink glasses.

Lilith now wore a new dress while also wearing a pair of glasses. Her hair now was a bit fluffier the same as when she was younger.

"It is so nice to be surrounded by all of Lulu's dearest friends!" Hooty said as he held up a cup into the air.

"Yeah! All hail Lulu!" Steve cheered as Lilith looked over at him in annoyance.

"We're here to celebrate the new assistant curator of the Supernatural Museum of History," Hooty said as he raised his cup. "Here's to you, Lulu!"

"Cheers!" Everyone called out as they raised they glasses. Lilith gave them an awkward smile as she raised her glass.

Cruz looked down at his cup before shrugging and downing the contents. It wasn't the weirdest thing he'd eaten since getting to the Boiling Isles. Gizmo looked down at his partner as Cruz gave him a little treat.

Luz came down from her room as she peeked in. She saw everyone talking as she approached Hooty as Steve picked up an appetizer.

"Hooty! Did I miss the toast?" Luz asked

"Yes, but not the app-pellet-tizers," Hooty said as raised the plate with the appetizers on it.

"You want a- There's an extra one. I'm working on it." Hooty started to cough as he tried to regurgitate an owl pellet to add to the plate.

"No, no, no! That's okay. Uh, where's Lilith? We want to congratulate her," Luz said as she lifted up her party hat to show the echo mouse.

Luz then looked over and saw Cruz eating some of the strange food, not being bothered even a bit that it was squirming.

"I'm surprised you can eat that, Hermano. Doesn't it taste… weird?"

"You'd think," Cruz said as he finished his food. "Honestly, I've gotten used to the food here. My stomach can handle anything I eat now. I'm pretty sure it's because of the demon blood," Cruz explained. Suddenly, a whip flew into the living room and grabbed an appetizer from Hooty before flying out of the room.

The same woman wearing the pink glasses grabbed the appetizer as it landed in her hand.

"It's such a delight to see my little bookworm back in the historical world after all these years," the woman said as she looked at the appetizer before tossing it to the side.

"Uh, thank you, Flora, but it's just a small job. Only an assistant. I'm surprised you even heard about this," Lilith said with a weak smile.

"The Emperor wanted to make sure you weren't getting into any trouble," Flora said as she put a hand on Lilith's shoulder. "And to clear out your office. I left a box of your knick-knacks inside. Wish you took more from my tutelage, dear. History's supposed to be exciting, after all!"

Flora took out her whip as she swung it up and caught a griffin before bringing it down to the ground. She quickly jumped onto the griffin before whipping it as the two flew off.

"Who was that?" Luz asked

"Flora D'splora. Bad-girl historian, celebrity, and my former mentor in the Emperor's Coven," Lilith said as she frowned at her mentor.

"I have questions about that name," Luz said

"Yeah same," Cruz said feeling like he'd heard her name before.

"And I have questions about my life!" Lilith said as she turned to the twins startling the two. "All I ever got to do was desk work, while she goofed off riding wild snake horses and-"

"Snorses!" Luz said as her eyes lit up

"And, and eating mummy jerky! Well, I can be just as exciting as Flora. I'll come up with an exhibit that'll knock the Titan's socks off!" Lilith stormed into the house

"Congratulations on your new job!" Luz called out after her

"I don't think that's helping too much," Cruz deadpanned.

"After careful analysis during this Deadwardian Era, I believe the current human year is 1660. Or is it '70? The years are flashing by, but it will all be worth it. I've gathered all the portal ingredients, including Titan's Blood. All that's left is to seek out the Collector, and he will tell me what I need to complete my mission. But first, my companions and I must face-"

The image of the diary cut off. Luz was lying on the couch as she looked up where the image of the diary was. The echo mouse went back to sleep.

"The Collector. I've never heard that name," King said holding a balloon.

"Me neither," Eda said as she cleaned up. "What kind of jerk puts 'The' in front of their name anyway?"

"Says 'The Owl Lady'" Cruz said with a snicker. "At this point that's the only lead we've got."

"He's right. The Collector may know how to make a real portal door. He may know why ours is so unstable. I just… I messed up so last time. I need to do better," Luz said as she looked down feeling dejected.

"Hey," Cruz said as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "We'll do this together. There's no reason for all of this to be on you. I'll have your back, hermana. Now and always." Luz looked up to Cruz with a smile.

"Luz, I've got leg hair older than you," Eda said. Cruz gave her a look as he stuck his tongue out.

"This Philip guy worked on his door for years. Try not to beat yourself up too much. Like Cruz said, you two can do this together."

"You're right. I just wish we could go back in time and talk to him," Luz said before realization hit. "Eda! Is time magic a thing?"

"Time travel?" Cruz asked looking over at Eda in excitement.

"Not really,"Eda said as Cruz deflated in sadness. "But…" Eda walked over to her shelf as she grabbed a book titled "History's Top 10 Plot Holes".

"Back in the day, I was a bit of an urban-legend junkie," Eda said with a chuckle as she flipped through the pages. "Twig Foot, Lenderman, possums..."

"Those are real," Luz said as she looked up Eda as she scoffed.

"Yeah, sure kid."

Cruz pulled out his phone as she showed Eda a picture of him and Luz when they were kids. Sitting in the middle playing dead was a possum.

"Huh… would you look at that. Anyway, there are stories about these things called time pools. Mythical puddles that act as windows into the past, but they're never in the same spot twice. Me and Lily used to search for them. She'd say I forced her into it, but I think she had more fun than me."

"Lilith! Of course! Thanks, Eda!" Luz said as she grabbed the book from Eda as she and Cruz ran to find Lilith.

In the kitchen, Lilith was busy painting a little model baluster when Luz snuck up behind her.

"Lilith!" Luz yelled startling her as she dropped her paintbrush.

"Don't sneak up on people like that," Cruz said

"Sorry, Lilith. We can see you're busy with… all this," Luz said gesturing towards the models.

"What are you making, Aunt Lily?" Cruz asked

"I'm plotting out my first exhibit for the museum. It's almost as if the Emperor wanted Flora to tick me off," Lilith said as she stood up with determination. "Well, I'll show her that she's not the only bad-girl historian in town! I'm thinking… The Architecture History behind Deadwardian Balusters"

Lilith grabbed a board on Deadwardian balusters and showed the twins.

Luz looked at the sign and gave Lilith an awkward smile. Lilith realized that her topic wouldn't be as interesting to other people as it would be for her.

"This won't work will it?" Lilith said feeling dejected.

"Don't let Flora get you down!" Luz said trying to encourage her. "I even started calling you Cool Aunt Lilith in my journal. And Cruz has been calling you Aunt Lily for a while now."

"Uh, oh. Really?" Lilith asked feeling happy that Luz was also seeing her as an aunt now.

"You can be a bad-girl historian. And I know how," Luz said as she showed Lilith the page on the time pools.

"Oh, I remember these!" Lilith said as she grabbed the book. "In the Premysteric Era, it's theorized that coagulated Titan Blood mixed with the magical algae of the Boiling Sea created temporary holes in time."

"Time magic, baby!" Luz said in excitement

"Time travel!" Cruz said just as excited

"You can make an exciting exhibit on time pools, and maybe Cruz and I could get information on how Philip made the portal door!"

"I... did cobble together a device to find these with Eda," Lilith said. "It should be in the box Flora returned to me. But it was faulty. It needed more power than I could ever give it."

"I might have something that could work," Cruz said. "Give me a second to grab it." Cruz ran out of the room. After a few seconds he came back holding Amity's glove along with a small vial filled with more blue liquid.

"I'm not sure if the stuff in this vial would work but Titan blood should do the trick."

Lilith looked at her board before looking back at the twins with determination. "Let's do it!"

The three made their way into the woods as Lilith looked over at the book. She tapped on the page of the Time Pools before looking over at the twins.

Luz spilled some of the liquid from the vial onto a piece of a rag before attaching it to the device. She flew up to the top of the tree using the mechanical staff that Cruz made her.

As the wind picked up, the device turned on as it sent data and power to Lilith's device.

At night, Lilith's Palisman, Mike Socks, flew back with a piece of seaweed with a blue substance on it before dropping it on Luz's face. Lilith grabbed the seaweed as she put it on a map she had drawn.

The next day, Lilith had managed to narrow down their search. "Don't worry, you two, we're getting closer. I can feel it."

The twins looked tired before Lilith suddenly swung her knife at the tree next to her waking them up. Lilith grabbed a piece of bark before dropping into a test tube attached to the device.

"Ha! Exactly what I thought. These are wrinkling oaks," Lilith said Luz and Cruz leaned to look at the tree.

"They don't look very wrinkly," Luz said

"Yeah. They look like every other tree we've seen," Cruz added

"That's because something's keeping them locked in time," Lilith said as she opened up her book. "So, accounting for local plague patterns, the quake in the '30s, and the switch from boiling units to the empirical system, the time pool should be… here!" Lilith quickly pushed aside two large leaves.

She frowned when she saw that the other side only had an empty beach.

"But... I triple-checked all my calculations. My equipment is first-rate!" Lilith said before suddenly tripping over something. "Stupid rock!" Lilith kicked the sand in frustration. The twins walk onto the beach.

Luz was walking with her hands in her pockets. She kicked a small rock and saw it disappear into the sand as if it landed in water.

She bent to down to look at the sand in confusion as Cruz watched Lilith pace back and forth with concern.

"Hey, Aunt Lily. Do you think the liquid I gave you didn't have enough power?" Cruz asked

"I don't think that was it. I tested that liquid out first. And then, like you asked, I used the Titan blood. Both of them gave me a similar reaction. Of course the Titan blood was stronger but it was still comparable," Lilith said as she continued to pace.

"Maybe the Titan blood we used was too dry? Is it not algae-blooming season?"

Meanwhile, Luz still curious about the sand, stuck her head into it and saw what looked like a prehistoric Boiling Isles. A large creature walked onto the beach before roaring.

"Was it my tools? Are they broken?" Lilith asked herself as she took off her glasses before looking at her reflection and sniffling. "Am… I broken?"

"Come on. Don't say that, Aunt Lily," Cruz said trying to encourage her.

Luz coughed as she came back up from the sand. "Lilith! You did it!" Luz said as she held up an ammonite. "You found the Time Pools!"

"In your face!" Lilith said looking at her reflection.

Lilith looked around the prehistoric era as she saw the creature scratch behind its ear before turning to stone. She came back up from the sand as multiple sticks were laid out to mark where the Time Pool was.

"A Stonesleeper from the Hecktaceous Period," Lilith said as she turned to look at Luz. "Did you know that they have a ticklish spot behind their ears?"

Luz bent down as she poked another Time Pool. "Luz, are you listening?"

"Come on, time pools. Mama needs to commune with the dead," Luz said as she took a deep breath before poking her head into the sand.

Lilith looked over and saw Cruz come back as his face was slightly red.

"What happened?" Lilith asked

"Turns out the Time Pools can look into the future too. And I just got some spoilers," Cruz said

In her Time Pool, Luz looked around and saw three people wearing medieval style armor.

"Tonight I shall revel so hard, I shan't stand any longer!" Said a knight.

"I shall revel mineself to death!" A triclops said

Luz poked her head back up and saw that the same Triclops had been right. His skeleton was lying on the beach giving two thumbs up. The only thing missing was his helmet.

"No wonder no one's found these before. They're completely hidden from sight," Lilith said as she stuck her head into the sand.

As her head began to pop up, her past self came onto the beach and tripped over her head.

"Stupid rock!" Past Lilith said as she kicked the sand

Lilith pulled her head back up as she rubbed her forehead where she'd been kicked.

"I wonder if I can tweak your device so that it'll more accurately pinpoint these time pools. Maybe like a GPS for them. That way we can find them anywhere in the world," Cruz said as he took out a notebook from his bag and began to write down some plans for the future.

Luz poked her head into another Time Pool and looked around. She saw a younger Bonesborough in the distance.

"Whoa. It's a little Babysborough!" Luz noticed a woman walking nearby before calling out to her.

"Yo! What era is it?"

"'Tis the Deadwardian Era," the woman said as she looked at Luz in confusion. "What ye be doing in the sand? Be ye… a crab maiden?"

"Philip's time!" Luz said before diving back into the sand before poking her head back up. "And, yes! I am a crab maiden." Luz pulled her head back up from the Time Pool.

"Lilith!" Luz called out as Lilith came back up from a Time Pool.

"Luz! Cruz! Look, these are the oldest barnacles I've ever had on my head!" Lilith said with excitement as she had a crown of barnacles on her head.

"Why would you put those on your head?" Cruz wondered as he walked over to Luz. "What'd you find, Luz?"

"I found it! I found Philip's time!"

"Ooh, incredible!" Lilith said as she walked up to Luz and Cruz. "This will be a truly unprecedented exploration. N-Now, before we dive in, we must remember if the tide comes in, we could be trapped, paradoxes will be a danger, and don't get me started on the bloody fly effect, uh..."

Lilith cleared her throat. "But a bad-girl historian like myself is all about taking risks. So... let's boogie down to History Town."

Lilith began to dance while doing finger guns.

"She really is Cool Aunt Lilith," Luz said in a whispered tone to Cruz

"Oh my Titan, please stop," Cruz said as he covered his face.

Luz, Lilith and Cruz all crawled out of the Time Pool as they looked over towards the town. Lilith grabbed a straw hat from a nearby laundry basket. Luz grabbed the helmet from the medieval person's skeleton. Cruz took out the mask he wore during his night fights.

"Now, you two. We are technically in the Savage Ages, way before Belos banished wild magic. These denizens might be dangerous." Lilith walked into town as the twins followed after her.

As they enter town, Luz ended up bumping a demon before getting into a defensive posture.

"Good tidings, good witches," the demon said as he tipped his hat before walking away.

"Such savagery," Cruz deadpanned as they looked ahead into the town. They saw a bard playing a lute by a window.

Another witch came across a demon as they sat on the floor with a broken arm. The witch quickly fixed the cart before healing the demon's arm.

A small child created an Abomination before creating flowers and placing the flower ring on the Abomination's head before hugging it.

"This doesn't look dangerous. This looks awesome! Why did Belos want to banish wild magic again?" Luz wondered as she looked the town.

"Seriously, the town seems so peaceful. The magic just feels so much more… calm," Cruz said as he felt himself feeling serene being surrounded by all the different magic.

"Well… the Titan supposedly doesn't like it," Lilith said

"Come on, Aunt Lily. You know that Belos is lying about being able to talk to the Titan," Cruz pointed out before Lilith suddenly gasped.

"Oh, my gosh! Look at this thatch work," Lilith said as she took out her notebook. "Each segment looped by hand!" Lilith chuckled as she began to write down notes in her notebook. The twins smiled as they walked away.

"But I bet Flora would scoff at it." Lilith frowned as she closed her notebook.

Luz approached a demon that was sitting on a bench feeding birds. "Excuse me. Have you seen a human around?" Luz asked as she showed the demon a picture with Philip's silhouette. "Round ears, super smart. Honestly, he's probably a celebrity around here."

"Uh-uh." the demon shook their head as they shrugged.

The twins continued to show multiple witches and demons the picture of Philip but none of the townsfolk seemed to know anything about the human.

"Dance, human! Dance!" The tree peeked around the corner and saw two demons with a prominent fang playing keep away with Philip and his notebook.

"Give that back!" Philip said as he tried to get his book back. Philip shook his head in exasperation. "I can't believe this. After the bonds of fellowship we forged-"

"Bonds? Ha! You still owe us," the demon with the red fang said as he shoved Philip onto the ground.

"When I accomplish my mission, I promise you, you'll have your snails."

"Listen to this," the demon with the green fang said as he started reading from Philip's notebook. "With my new and bravest companion, Blue Fang, I set forth. His strength should make fast work of any task." He passed the notebook back to Red Fang.

"His pretty little words should make pretty good kindling," Red Fang said as he created a fireball as he started to burn the journal.

Philip gasped when an ice spike suddenly knocked the journal out of Red Fang's hand and onto the ground along with multiple pages flying in the air.

"That doesn't belong to you," Luz said as she and Cruz stepped in between Philip and the demons.

"If you take one more step, you'll regret it," Cruz said as his right hand was crackling with electricity. His eyes were glowing making his mask seem much more intimidating.

As Cruz and Luz stood in front of Philip, they waited for the demons to either walk away or make their move. As Red Fang was about to walk towards them, Green Fang stopped him.

"Don't waste your time on the kids. We should keep looking. And besides, I don't like the look in the kid with the horn's eyes."

Red Fang nodded in agreement. "Ask your friend there what happened to our brother, Blue Fang, and his Palisman."

Green Fang kicked Philip's journal as more pages were scattered. As Philip starts to pick up the pages, he groaned in pain.

Luz and Cruz started to pick up the pages on the ground. They see that one of the pages show Eclipse Lake.

"So he's already gotten to the Titan Blood," Luz said before noticing a drawing of someone in the corner of the page. "Who's that?"

"The hair style on that person looks familiar," Cruz pointed out.

"Wait. Who?"

Before Cruz could answer, Philip snatched back the papers. "Hmph! That's private."

"You're Philip Wittebane… aren't you?" Luz asked as Lilith joined the twins.

"Here to gawk? I may not have a bile sac, but I do have dignity," Philip said as he started to walk away.

"Wait! My brother and I heard about your exploits, and we know what it's like be far from home. Can we talk?"

Philip stared at Luz for a moment before squinting. "No."

Philip started to walk away again with a limp.

"Wait! I can give you snails! I can make you crutches! Um, uh... I can help you find the Collector!" Luz said in a panic causing Philip to stop

"Luz! We don't know where to find the Collector," Cruz said in a whisper

"I panicked," Luz whispered back. "I couldn't think of anything else."

Luz, Cruz and Lilith were walking through the woods with Philip as they told him the story that Luz had made up.

"So, Luzura. You, your brother O'Bailey, and your Aunt Dirtrude started traveling together after the Toe-gres attacked your castle and covered it with an impenetrable mist?"

"Yes. And that's why we, too, seek the Collector. We need him to tell us how to clear the mists, so we can return home. Snap, snap, snap," Luz said as she snapped her hands like a crab.

"Going a little dramatic there," Cruz said in a whisper as Philip led them into a dark cave.

"Now… anyone bring a torch?" Philip asked

Luz held up a light glyph before activating it and holding up the light orb.

Philip looked at the glyph in amazement. "Astounding! I thought I was the only one who used picto-glyphs."

"You use glyphs too?" Luz asked as she handed Philip a light glyph.

"How else could I have survived here? Plant growth, ice, fire... Took years to find them," Philip said as he took out his notebook and started to draw the light glyph. "Almost as if the world wanted to hide them from me. I even found one in a snowflake."

"My dude, me too! My brother found on in a plant and a burn mark."

"Warriors and scholars. Truly impressive."

"My brother even made this staff to help us with our glyphs!" Luz said as she held out the staff that Cruz had made.

"Truly brilliant! To be able to recreate the power of those staffs is something simply brilliant. Would you mind terribly if I were to examine it?"

"Here you go," Luz said as she handed Philip the staff. As he was examining the staff Luz squealed in excitement.

"Ah! I can't believe I taught Philip something new!"

Lilith and Cruz both smiled at Luz but they couldn't shake off the feeling they both got from Philip.

"We have to stay on our toes, Aunty," Cruz said as Lilith nodded in agreement.

As the four continued, Philip drew the light glyph multiple times as he lit up their path.

"Line there, curve there... fascinating. Absolutely… fascinating," Philip stopped as he felt Lilith critical eyes on him.

"Your niece and nephew are very talented. I'm sure they take after their Aunt."

"Oh," Lilith chuckled at the compliment. "Maybe I... had a little something to do with it."

Cruz smiled at Lilith trying to act like he didn't find Philip suspicious.

"Now, I know a few tricks as well," Philip said as he lifted up the light orb into the air before grabbing a stick as he started to draw a large glyph combination on the ground.

"What is this?" Luz wondered

"A shortcut… to the Collector," Philip said as he tapped on the glyph combo. A large light emerged from the combo as it engulfed the four.

As they opened their eyes, Luz, Lilith and Cruz saw that they were in large room which seemed to made out of ice.

"Whoa. Where are we?" Luz asked she walked towards the opening behind them. She gasped when she saw that they were in the Titan's skull.

"We're in the head of the Titan?!"

"Where?!" Cruz exclaimed in surprise

"W-We're what? But this is sacred ground!" Lilith protested

"I suppose that's why no one wanted to accompany me," Philip said as he hobbled towards a large door. "But every legend told me that the Collector lies there. Behind that door. I just can't figure out the mechanisms to open it. If I weren't so frail..."

Philip winced in pain as he kneeled down and clutched his right leg.

"It's okay, we can help! Puzzles are in my blood, literally. My mom and brother had to stop me from eating puzzles when I was a kid. You stay here and rest up."

"Thank you for your kindness, crab maiden." Philip placed a hand on Luz's shoulder as Lilith and Cruz walked towards the door. "Perhaps we were destined to meet."

Luz ran up to join Lilith and Cruz as they looked over the door's puzzle. "This mechanism is unlike any I've seen before. It'll make a remarkable addition to my exhibit. It's just..." Lilith began to hesitate as she started to contemplate something.

"Come on, we can't stop now! We're getting everything we could have hoped for!" Luz encouraged

"That's just it. Look. Most of this puzzle has been solved already. And Philip…" Lilith looked back towards Philip as he had his back towards them.

"The confidence, the compliments. He says everything you want to hear. It feels... uncomfortably familiar."

"Besides. We've seen parts of his journal. If he's smart enough to build a portal, then he should be smart enough to finish a puzzle that was already started. I'm just getting a bad feeling about all of this," Cruz said

"Some of this is pretty weird. But… it's the Boiling Isles! Everything's a little weird, right? Hey, why don't you keep working on this, and we'll go talk to Philip?" Lilith nodded as she turned back towards the door while the twins walked towards Philip.

From inside of his bag, a blue fang and a Palisman were sticking out. The twins looked over his shoulder as Luz read what he was writing in his journal.

"I single-handedly defeated the beast behind the door. Tragically, I could not save my companions?"

Cruz's eyes widened in realization why he kept getting warning signals from Philip.

"Philip… why did you bring us here?" Luz asked hesitantly

"What's behind the door?" Cruz asked as he turned back to the door.

"Ah! I did it! I solved the puzzle!" Lilith called out as she waved to them

"I needed a sacrifice," Philip said as he stood up

"A what?!" Cruz said as he turned to look at Philip his eyes glowing with anger.

"What'd he say?" Lilith asked when suddenly a claw emerged and grabbed her dragging her into the room.

"Lilith!" The twins yelled

"Well, with the beast distracted, I can finally get through those doors," Philip said as he put his journal away.

"You tricked us!" Luz said angrily as she grabbed Philip by the collar

"It was-"

"Destiny? Balderdash."

"I was going to say inevitable. You three were easier to trick than Blue Fang. Hopefully you two and Aunt Dirtrude can last longer."

The twins heard Lilith yell from inside of the room.

"You represent the worst in humanity," Cruz spat at him before he and Luz rushed into the room. Philip adjusted his jacket as if nothing had happened.

When they got into the room, they noticed a large creature holding Lilith in its claws before it noticed them.

"Lilith!" Luz cried out as the creature rushed towards them. Luz slammed an ice glyph on the ground as Cruz threw up a flash popper into the air causing the creature to drop Lilith as it started to slip on the ice trail that Luz made.

Luz grabbed Lilith as the three rushed behind a pillar. While they distracted the creature, Philip approached an alter as he took out a shovel from the fake injuring on his right leg.

"Hey! That better be your own grave you're digging!" Lilith yelled angrily

"Focus on not dying right now!" Cruz called out as Luz took out a fire glyph scaring the creature back. Cruz summoned a streak of lightning pushing the creature back more.

As Philip was digging he ended up hitting something as he smiled before pulling up a round mirror.

"Found you~" Philip said as he looked at the mirror with a moon shape on it.

The three quickly hid behind a pillar as Luz looked towards Philip. "I know you want to get home, but nothing is worth hurting people!"

Lilith yelped as she pushed the twins down as the creature broke the pillar using its tail before chasing after them.

"Oh, I disagree. It was nice making a cat's-paw out of you," Philip said as he drew a glyph combo on the ground. "Good luck with your... crab castle... or... whatever. You witches come up with the worst lies."

Philip tapped on the teleportation glyph as he was enveloped in light. The beast turned toward the light as Luz grabbed Lilith and Cruz before dragging them behind a pillar.

"Is this how it all ends for Lilith Clawthorne? Her body lost to time?" Lilith said in fear

"You were right about that jerkweed. I'm so sorry, Lilith," Luz said

"It's okay, Hermana. Everyone makes mistakes. If we ever see him again, I'm punching him in the face," Cruz said

"Oh, your humility before death truly heartens me," Lilith said as she smiled down at Luz.

"Yeah, I should have listened to you," Luz said before she gasped as she realized something. "Wait... I did listen to you!"

"Eh…" Lilith shook her hand in a so-so manner before Luz ran off.

"Luz!"

"She knows what she's doing," Cruz said as Lilith looked at him in confusion.

Luz ran up to the creature as it turned to look at her.

"Eda's gonna kill me, Eda's gonna kill me, Eda's gonna kill me!" Lilith said in a panic as she covered her eyes using her hat. Suddenly she heard a thud.

Lilith uncovered her eyes as she saw that the creature had fallen and was kicking its leg happily like a dog as Luz was scratching behind its ear. Cruz looked at his sister with a smile being glad he didn't have to use his petrification glyph on the creature.

"It's one of those Stonesleepers from the Hecktaceous Period!" Luz called out. "It must have been hibernating in here for ages. Aw. Do you like that, boy? Aw, you're a good boy." Luz continued to scratch the Stonesleeper as it purred.

"You were listening," Lilith said as she shed a tear.

"I probably should've looked at the Stonesleeper back when we found the Time Pool. Oh well, it's all good now," Cruz said happily

In the forest, Philip was walking along as he wrote in his journal. "And so I doggedly limped home, but I had my prize." He put his journal away as he took out the mirror. "How to describe you? Oval? Oblong? A round boy?"

From behind him, he heard loud thudding. When he turned around, he was shocked to see the Stonesleeper from back in the cave.

It screeched at him causing him to gasp. Luz, Cruz and Lilith jumped off the Stonesleeper as they stormed up to him.

"Tell us how that thing's gonna help you build a portal to the Human Realm," Luz demanded.

Philip looked down at the mirror before looking back at the three. "Oh, no. I need this for something else," Philip said as he put the mirror away.

"No? What do you mean no?!" Luz said furiously.

"I'm really tempted to mess with time paradoxes right now," Cruz said seething.

"I mean, if it's information you want, perhaps we can make an exchange. I'll probably require another sacrifice sooner or later," Philip said as he started to walk up towards the three.

Lilith walked up towards him as he continued to talk. "If you or your aunt want to—" Lilith immediately punched him in the face breaking his nose as he landed on the ground with a thud.

"Ugh! Ah! You hateable sorceress!"

"Stay mad," Lilith said as she turned back to Luz and Cruz. "Come, Luzura, O'Bailey. We're finished here."

Luz back away as she pointed at Philip. "Cool aunt."

Cruz walked up to Philip before punching him with the hard metal on his eye giving him a large black eye.

"I told you I'd sock you next time I saw you," Cruz said as he followed after Luz and Lilith as they climbed onto the Stonesleeper. Lilith and Cruz high fived each other.

As the Stonesleeper passed by, it knocked Philip over with one of its legs. Lilith noticed that Luz looked down feeling upset that their whole journey had been pointless.

"You know, Luz, if some jerk like Philip can build a portal, then I'm sure you and Cruz can too."

"Thanks, Aunt Lily. I'm sure you're right," Cruz said

"He's right, it means a lot. Hey, we have a little time before the tide comes in. You want to do something exciting?" Luz asked as Lilith looked at her with a puzzled expression

Back in Bonesborough, Lilith was watching a craftsman build balusters.

"Balusters, kids! Deadwardian balusters!" Lilith said in excitement as she wrote it down in her notebook. Luz and Cruz looked at her happily before a thought crossed Cruz's mind.

"Hey, Luz. Quick question."

"What is it, Hermano?"

"Where's your staff?" Cruz asked as realization his Luz.

"That jerk! He never gave me back my staff!"

Cruz sighed. "Oh, well. It's not like it matters all that much anyway. It won't last forever. It's got enough fuel for at most one month and that's it."

After getting out of the Time Pool, the three made a pit stop before they headed back home. Luz was riding on Lilith staff while Cruz flew on his own staff. "We got lucky today, you two," Lilith said as they landed in front of Eda.

"Next time those Time Pools show up, they could be on the other side of the world."

"Hey nerds! How was your nerd quest? You find that dead nerd?" Eda said as she walked up to them

"What a greeting from you," Cruz said rolling his eyes

"Layin' it on a little thick there, Eda. But, yeah, we found Philip," Luz said

"Whoa, seriously?" Eda asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. He stunk," Luz grumbled

"I punched him in the face. And Cruz gave him a black eye," Lilith declared proudly

"Groovy, Auntie," Luz said as she gave Lilith finger guns which she returned to Luz. Cruz back away from the two slowly.

"Uh, you gu— You guys need to stop that," Eda said before she noticed a pair of papers that Cruz was holding.

"Hey, Cruz, what're you holding?" Eda asked as Cruz and Luz slightly flinched.

"Well… you see Aunt Lily took us to get a couple of papers that Luz and I have been wanting to get for a while," Cruz explained as Luz walked up to him.

Eda looked at the twins in confusion when she saw that Lilith had a large smile on her face.

"The two of us talked about it for a while but didn't know how you'd feel about it," Luz said. "But then we saw how well you reacted to when King asked you about it."

Eda's eyes widened as she realized what they were trying to say to her.

"Eda," Cruz began as they took out the paper and showed her the legal name change documents. "We wanted to ask if we could add Clawthorne to our names. And if it wouldn't be too much trouble… if you could be… our mom."

Eda looked at the papers with wide eyes before they started to fill with tears. She pulled in the two for a hug with a large smile on her face.

"I would love to be your mom, you two. First King and now you two. How did I ever get so lucky?"

Luz and Cruz smiled as they smiled before hugging her. "We wonder the same thing," Luz said.

Back in the Deadwardian era, Philip arrived in the cave that he lived in as he clutched his broken nose and felt his black eye.

"Those barbarians. Those, those... witches!" Philip yelled angrily as his voice echoed out in the cave.

Philip rummaged through his bag as he let loose three light glyphs into the cave before his arm started to pulse as it began to swell up with multiple glyphs carved into it.

After a moment it stopped swelling and pulsing as Philip kneeled down as he grabbed a frog Palisman before snapping its neck and absorbing its essence.

Philip sighed as he took a deep breath. "It doesn't matter," Philip said as he picked up the mirror, his voice started to change to sound the same as Belos.

"I just need to live long enough to see this through." Philip wiped the mirror as it chimed and started to show images of stars and the moon with the Collector in the center as he looked down to Philip.

"And you're going to help me, Collector," Philip said as he grinned evilly.

Back in his tower, Cruz looked over at the data that he'd gotten from the liquid he'd given Lilith and the Titan blood that they'd used. They were identical.

"Well… guess that confirms what kind of blood is flowing through me," Cruz said as he looked down at the cut on his hand that he used to put the blood in the vial.

"It makes sense my blood wouldn't be as strong since I'm a hybrid and not full blooded." Cruz heard his door open as King walked in.

"Oh hey, King. Did you need something?" Cruz asked

"Eda just told me that you and Luz are Clawthornes now," King said happily as he walked up to Cruz

"Yep! Guess that makes Luz and me your siblings. How's that sound?"

"It's great! I've seen you two as my older siblings for a while. And now we're legally bonded!"

Cruz chuckled as he patted King on the head. Cruz looked back at the computer in front of him as he looked back at the data. He contemplated telling King about the results but he wasn't sure how he would take it.

"Hey, King. There's something I want to test out."

"What is it?"

"You said that Hooty took a blood sample from you to try and figure out what you are, right?"

"Yeah, but he couldn't figure anything out. Said they couldn't get any results or something. Why?"

"I wanna test it out with something real quick. Not sure if the results will turn anything up so don't try and get your hopes up too high," Cruz said

"Hey it's better than nothing. And you might give me a better answer than Hooty did," King said Cruz walked up to the window.

"Hooty!" Cruz called out as Hooty popped up at the window.

"How's it going Cruz?" Hooty asked

"Do you still have that blood sample you took from King?"

"Sure do! Didn't really help much but I'm keeping it nice and safe!"

"I wanna test it out real quick. Can you bring it out?"

"No problem!" Hooty said as he left the room before coming back after a quick second and dropping off the needle filled with King's blood.

"Jeez! You don't have to take this much blood from someone to test it out," Cruz said. "Also, I should be worried about where you were keeping this, but I also feel like I won't like the answer."

"Probably not!" Hooty said as he left the room

"Well that was… concerning," King said

"Better not to think about it," Cruz said as he placed a bit of the blood into a test tube before hooking it up to his computer.

"Do you actually think you'll get something?" King wondered

"Not sure, but I think I might. I'm testing it against another blood sample I had," Cruz explained

"Wait. Whose blood?"

"I'll tell you after the sample gets done in three… two… and… done! Blood sample data entered," Cruz said as he looked at the data on the screen before taking a deep breath and sighing.

"I'm guessing it didn't come back with any results?" King asked feeling slightly disappointed as Cruz turned to look at him.

"It came back as a match, buddy." King's eyes widened as he jumped up to look at the screen on Cruz's computer.

The screen showed a positive match between the three blood samples that it was given.

"Wait. There's three? Who's the third one sample from?"

"It's mine. I tested out my blood against it too. We already thought I might be the same type of demon as you because of my horns. And we were right. The three blood samples are the same. Biologically speaking, the two of us are actually related by blood. So it'd be like being half-brothers."

"So whose blood is that? Did you find some demon to take a blood sample from? Why didn't you tell me?" King asked in a slight panic.

"Slow down there, King. If I ever found a demon that looked like you, I would've told you in a heartbeat. There's no way I would've kept that a secret from you."

"The blood sample I got is something I didn't have until about two weeks ago," Cruz said as he took a deep breath before looking King in the eyes.

"King, the blood sample I'm comparing ours to is… Titan blood."

King was silent for a moment before speaking. "Wait, so you're saying that we're…"

"Yeah looks like you're a Titan. And I'm a human-Titan hybrid. It would explain why there's no other demon like us anywhere on the isles and why we have a unique magic in our roars."

King took a minute to process what Cruz had said. "Guess… I'm due for a growth spurt," King said with a weak chuckle.

Cruz picked him before putting him on his knees. "Listen, this doesn't change anything between us or the rest of our family in the Owl House. We can keep this a secret for a bit if it makes you feel better. I won't tell anyone until you're ready," Cruz reassured him

King slowly nodded. "Let's just keep this to ourselves for a bit. We can tell them later… when we're ready."

Cruz nodded at him as he King a smile. "No problem at all, King. Just say the word and we'll tell them together."

"Thanks, Cruz. Do you mind if I sleep in your room tonight?"

"Not at all. We should get some sleep, you'll need your rest."

"Goodnight, Cruz," King said as Cruz tuned off the light glyphs in his room

"Goodnight, King," Cruz said

King looked out the window as he saw the stars shining over the bones of the Titan and over Bonesborough.

"Goodnight… dad," King said hesitantly, not knowing if the Titan would ever truly be able to hear him.

From the cube dimension, the Titan watches on a cube as King snuggled up to Cruz before falling asleep.

"Goodnight… son."