19. Chapter 57: No Big Deal(1)

Seven years ago…

It was raining as a large snail pulled a covered vegetable cart down a dirt road. Steering the cart was a reddish-orange, elderly anthropomorphic frog with a light orange chin. He wore a grayish green waistcoat with a button yellow shirt and a light blue ascot, grayish-brown trousers, and light brown socks that slightly covered his frog feet.

"The weather is taking a turn for the worse, hopefully we should be back home soon," he said before the snail stopped herself when something ran in front of her. "Whoa there, Bessie! What's gotten you startled, girl?" he asked, noticing that someone had tripped while running across the road.

"Ah!" the little one cried in shock. The elderly frog looked at the human little girl, who looked back. "AAAH!"

"WAAAH!"

"AAH!"

"YAAAH!"

"Waaaahhh! Don't eat meeee!" the human girl cried. She seemed to be six years old. She was Thai-American with light brown skin, messy auburn hair with sticks and leaves sticking out of it, and dark brown eyes. She wore a purple striped collar shirt, shorts and sneakers.

"Wha-I'm not gonna eat you!" he told her. "I thought you were gonna eat me!"

"Why would I want to eat a weird old frog guy?" she asked him while in tears, shivering from the cold.

"Well, then it's settled. No one's gonna eat the other," he said while turning back to Bessie. "Well, see you around, weird creature!"

"Wait! You're just gonna leave a little kid alone in the rain?!" she cried, feeling the old frog wasn't going to help her.

"Oh, um… I don't know what you are," he told her, while hearing his conscience telling him to not leave the girl. "But… where are your parents?"

The girl looked down. "I… I don't know. I don't know how I got here… all I know is that… me and my friends were…" She started to tear up even more, which the frog didn't like seeing at all.

He sighed and offered his hand to her. "Come on, kid, let me take you into town and we can figure something out for you there."

The girl looked unsure for a moment, but she felt that she could trust him. "T-Thank you…" she said as she got onto the cart next to the frog. "My name is Anne Boonchuy, by the way."

"Well Anne, you can call me Hop Pop Plantar," he said, covering the shivering girl with a blanket. "Now come on, Wartwood isn't too far away. I am sure that my son and daughter-in-law will let you stay with us for at least the night…"

Anne nodded, but as they continued on their way down the road, neither of them noticed the music box they had left behind getting buried in the mud…

Years later.

The rain had stopped and the sun was out. Stepping in a puddle was the same human girl, Anne Boonchuy, now thirteen years old and known as Anne Plantar. She had grown taller and her hair was much bushier. Since she had grown up in Wartwood as a farm girl used to manual labor, she had managed to gain a more muscular build. She wore brown overalls with an 'A' sewed on, a yellow shirt, and black boots. She was carrying a basket in the woods while calling out for her brother. "Sprig! I got the basket you asked for!" she said in a country accent she had picked up.

"Alright! This will be good for our mushroom picking!" said a small, ten year old anthropomorphic pink frog with hot pink skin and a pale pink shaded underbelly. He was wearing a dark forest green hat with golden buttons and light green goggles. He wore a sleeveless jacket of the same color with black shorts. He hopped towards Anne. "Say, I saw Marcy nearby observing some of the flora over there."

"Really? Thanks for the info, bro." Anne nudged his arm before she started tiptoeing towards Marcy Leviathan.

The girl was Taiwanese-American and the same age as Anne, with shiny short black hair tied to a ponytail. She had olive skin with black eyes and was wearing a gray hooded cape, brown plated armor around her chest, a belt with a 'M' symbol, a green and blue patched long skirt with fur-trim brown strapped boots. She was sketching a unique looking flower in her journal.

Anne had spotted Marcy and was trying to sneak up behind her with a mischievous grin. But before she got the chance to surprise Marcy, the girl spoke up. "Hey, Anne."

Anne deflated. "Ah shucks, Marcy, I was about to get you good."

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to ruin it," Marcy replied bashfully, "But you almost got me there, Farmer Anne."

Anne smirked at Marcy. "There is always next time, Princess."

Marcy blushed, looking away for a moment before remembering something. "Hey, you know, I was thinking of looking around for this rare flower that I've read about and is said to be found around this area."

"A flower, eh? What kind?" Anne asked.

"Cosmos Atrosanguineus, known as the Chocolate Cosmos!" Marcy showed Anne a drawing of a rich reddish-brown petaled flower "It's said that it gives off a rich chocolate fragrance when it blooms. It's a flower that literally smells like chocolate! How cool is that!?"

"Now that's a sweet flower, am I right?" Anne asked, making a pun.

"And according to my calculations based on the weather conditions of this area, it'll bloom in just three days!" Marcy stated.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's find that flower!" Anne suggested, thinking they had found their next adventure.

"Say, where's Sprig, by the way?" Marcy asked.

"Oh, I left him to gather mushrooms," Anne replied before they were both startled by the sound of Sprig's screams.

"Guys! Run!" Sprig cried out as he jumped from tree to tree. "I was picking mushrooms and then a lionfly showed up!"

"Lionfly!?" Anne and Marcy screamed in panic.

Flying after Sprig was a large, lion-like creature with insectoid wings, insect eyes, and large jaws with incisors connected to its fangs. It had six thoraxes and a large, furry body. It roared as it spotted the trio.

"Run for it!" Sprig cried out as Anne grabbed him and Marcy, running with both of them.

"Hang on!" Anne shouted as she ran. While she carried the two of them, Marcy fired her crossbow and Sprig fired his slingshot at the pursuing lionfly, who dodged their attacks.

"He's still gaining on us!" Sprig cried out.

"Actually, that's a female, but usually they hunt in packs!" Marcy revealed.

And sure enough, several more lionflies joined the first one.

"Oh come on!" Sprig shouted.

Anne kept running until she saw a portal suddenly pop up in front of them. She had no time to think about it, she had to take a chance. "Hang on, you two!" she told them as she ran up to the portal…

Now.

"Who are you guys?" Sprig asked as Anne and Marcy got up and saw the group before them.

"No way…" Anne said in shock. "It can't be…"

"Oh my frog, it is!" Marcy said as she looked at Luz, Amity and Eda. "They're humans! We somehow ended up back on Earth!"

"Oh my gosh! We're finally home!" Anne cried out in tears, she and Marcy screamed in joy as they held hands, jumping in celebration.

"Woah, this is Earth?" Sprig asked, looking around. "I always wondered what your world was like…"

"Say, do any of you have a phone? Or do you know a police booth?" Anne asked, turning to Luz, Amity, and Eda, who were still processing what had happened.

"Uh…" Luz said.

"And I must say, nice outfits! What are you dressed for?" Marcy asked, looking at Eda and Amity.

"Oh my frog, look at this little guy!" Anne picked up King and gave him a hug. He let it happen, since by now he was used to it. "Aw, I almost forgot how adorable the pets on Earth are… you little…" Anne took a closer look at King, especially his skull cap. "Uh… Marcy, do you know any animals with skull caps like this one?"

"Not that I'm aware," Marcy replied in confusion.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," King spoke to them.

"…"

"…"

"..."

"Wow, you didn't tell me your animals could talk!" Sprig said, not realizing this wasn't normal.

"NEW FRIENDS!" Hooty popped up, causing the two girls to scream.

"AAAAAH!" Anne and Marcy held each other in panic. Anne threw King up only for Luz to catch him as the two girls fell down on the ground.

"Okay, we can confirm… this is not Earth," Marcy said.

"Bingo," Anne agreed.

"Wait, if you thought this was Earth… then where did you come from?" Luz asks them.

Anne and Marcy looked up at the group, and then each other. They now knew that they were not on Earth, nor in Amphibia…

Inside the Owl House, Marcy was explaining to the residents where they were from with elaborate drawings on a billboard.

"Okay, me, Anne, and Sprig come from a place called Amphibia, which is populated mostly by sentient amphibian anthropomorphic denizens. Frogs, toads, newts, axolotls, you name it," Marcy explained as she showed off a map of Amphibia. Luz, Amity, and Lilith were listening very closely while King, Eda, and Camila looked more lost as they tried to understand.

"So… you live in a frog world called Amphibiland?" Eda asked.

"Amphibia," Sprig corrected.

"But you said you were originally from Earth," Luz pointed out. "How did the two of you end up in Amphibia?"

"We were transported there by a magical music box," Anne explained. "We were only in kindergarten when we ended up in Amphibia and the music box sent us to different parts of the continent. Fortunately I was found by Hop Pop, Sprig's grandfather and my foster grandfather, who brought me to a frog community called Wartwood where I've lived ever since."

"And I ended up in the capital city of Newtopia, where I was adopted and raised by the king of Amphibia himself!" Marcy explained. "My dad King Andrias made me the princess of Amphibia! I have a dress and all, but I prefer my current outfit. I don't really do well in dresses, despite Lady Olivia's best effort."

"So you guys have your own king? We have something like that here, an Emperor who rules the Boiling Isles with an iron fist," Eda mentioned.

"Yeah, he's a total dictator." Luz added. "Hopefully your king isn't like that."

"Oh don't worry, dad's not evil," Marcy assured them.

"Yeah, he's a pretty jolly big guy for someone in charge of all Amphibia," Anne commented. "But you know, even if you guys are witches, you're the first humanish people we've seen in years. Besides Sasha, me and Marcy are the only humans in Amphibia."

"Who's Sasha?" Luz asked.

"Oh she was our other friend who ended up in Amphibia with us," Anne replied, sounding awkward. "She was found by the Toads and we all reunited with each other a few months after our arrival. We stayed friends as we grew up in Amphibia, but then a few weeks ago…"

"We had a falling out," Marcy replied quietly, thinking about the events at Toad Tower…

Several weeks ago…

Marcy was seen tied up in a cage, guarded by large toads in armor. Anne was facing off against a teenage girl with short blonde hair, sunglasses, and an X-shaped scar across between her eyes. She wore brown armor over her gray clothing along with a black cape, a large brown pauldron on her right shoulder, and a studded belt with a holster. She had wraps around her right hand, a glove on her left, and armored boots. She sported a grin when facing Anne with a sword, who defended herself with her own sword.

"Why do you look so scared to see an old friend, Anne?" Sasha asked, pink static surrounding her hair as she held up her sword.

"Sasha, stop this now!" Anne cried out, blue static flaring around her hair.

"That must've sucked," Luz mentioned.

"Yeah, Sasha had it more difficult," Anne said sadly.

"And she's pretty scary," Sprig added. "Like, the scariest human I've ever met."

"Bet she's not as scary as me." Luz commented.

"But enough about us, who are you guys?" Sprig asked. "Just what kind of world are we in?"

"Well you're in the Demon Realm, where a lot of what you humans consider myths originated from, and no you're not in the Bad Place," Eda explained. "This is the Boiling Isles, home to witches and demons alike, and I am Eda the Owl Lady, owner of the Owl House you are currently guests in, and previously the most powerful witch in all of the Isles."

"And I am her adopted daughter, Luz Clawthorne," Luz explained. "And this is my girlfriend Amity, my brother King, my aunt Lily, and my resurrected once deceased mom Camila Noceda."

"And don't forget Hooty!" Hooty called out.

"Yeah, and Hooty as well," Luz added.

"Wait, you have two moms as well?" Marcy asked. "I do too! Well, they're not really my actual moms, but they're the newts that helped my dad raise me and I pretty much consider them my moms…"

"Speaking of, what about your parents from the human realm?" Camila asked them and the girls fell silent for a moment, looking down.

"We um…" Marcy was rubbing her hands awkwardly while turning away.

"We don't try to think about it much," Anne admitted sadly.

Luz saw how uncomfortable the girls looked and she decided to change the subject. "So Marcy, you mentioned that you had two moms. Where does Amphibia stand on same-sex relationships?"

"They're pretty open-minded when it comes to that kind of sence, since some denizens can reproduce asexually while others can change their genders," Marcy explained.

"Yeah, me and Marcy are dating back home and the frogs of Wartwood have no issue with it," Anne mentioned.

"And I am pretty sure that there is something between my moms, Olivia and Yunman," Marcy admitted.

"While I've always been suspicious of Toadstool and Toadie's relationship," Anne added.

"Wait, am I the only one who heard her say that one of her moms was once deceased?" Sprig asked.

"Oh yeah, it's a long story," King replied.

"Camila originally passed away when I was a baby, but luckily Eda found me and brought me here. Unfortunately, we no longer have the portal she had when she first found me. But while I was raised in the Boiling Isles, the magical environment actually started to affect me as my body adapted and now I can change into a lizard bat creature," Luz explained. "So I was human once, but now I'm something else entirely."

"Uh… well I don't think we're ever going to turn into human/frog hybrids…" Marcy said.

"But we did get used to eating the food in Amphibia… along with some… other changes…" Anne replied.

"Well, you three may be stuck here for the time being, but I promise that I'll work on a way to reopen a portal to Amphibilooza. So until then you should just relax," Eda told them. "I made some pixie pies if you're hungry."

"Pixie pies?" Anne asked.

"Oh they're a delicious desert in the Boiling Isles, made from pixies as the name would suggest," Amity explained while Eda brought out a plate of pixie pies from the kitchen.

"Wow! You can see one limb twitching! Just like the bugs back home!" Marcy commented.

"It's not so different from the food in Amphibia!" Anne agreed.

"I call the twitching one!" Luz declared and the girls started to feast on the pixie pies like hyenas tearing into zebra flesh.

"Ah nothing like watching kids eat the fruits of a mother's labor, eh Cammy?" Eda asked, patting Camila's back.

"Y-Yeah…" Camila said nervously, trying to hide her disgust while watching them dig in.

"Ah, Eda, I predicted that I'd be hearing from you," Witch Rick said over the line. "So did the portal gun work? If not, how many have died?"

"No deaths, but your portal brought three unexpected guests to my home. Two human girls and a frog boy that came from some frog world called Amphibia," Eda replied through the crow, while getting the name right this time.

"Hmm, two humans from a frog world… let me guess, were they also raised there?" Witch Rick asked.

"Uh yeah, how did you-"

"It fits with the theme," Witch Rick said. "But I should be able to help out. Give me a day to work on something to send your three guests home."

"Great! I owe you one, Witch Rick," Eda told him.

"It's best if you don't," Witch Rick told her.

After finishing their pies, the Amphibia trio were chilling in the Owl House.

"Man, that was good pie," Anne said while chewing on a toothpick and laying on the couch.

"Yeah, who knew pixies tasted just like beetles," Sprig commented.

"You know, we also have a local witch back in Wartwood," Marcy brought up.

"Wait, you guys have witchcraft in Amphibia as well?" Luz asked.

"Oh yeah, we're familiar with all kinds of arts, including the dark arts!" Sprig declared, suddenly dramatic. "My ex-fiancé Maddie is our local witch."

"Ex… fiancé?" Amity questioned.

"Oh yeah, we once sold off Sprig's hand in marriage in return for bread to win a potluck competition," Anne explained. "The engagement didn't work out and was called off, but there were no hard feelings and Sprig stayed friends with Maddie while getting a girlfriend later on."

"You know, Eda does remind me vaguely of Maddie's teacher," Marcy realized. "She's a newt."

"Oh, does she also have a straight-laced older sister?" Eda asked, returning from her crow call.

"Wait, I thought Lilith was the younger sister," Sprig pointed out, causing Eda to have a hurt look.

"Anyway," Eda decided to ignore Sprig's comment. "I called Witch Rick and he thinks he can find a way to send you girls and Springer back to your home dimension of Amphibia. The human realm's out of the question since there's no Titan's Blood to use to get there. So just get comfortable, because you're probably going to be spending the night."

"Hey, I don't mind just chillin' in this place," Anne said, relaxing on the couch.

"But Anne, there is so much to explore around here!" Sprig pointed out.

"Yeah, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see a whole new world, I want to see as much of it as I can instead of being cooped up in here!" Marcy added in awe. "Just think about the wonders that await!" Marcy opened the window and looked up, spotting a flying eyeball passing by before it got eaten by a large cat with a candlestick on its head. Marcy didn't seem disturbed at all. "Amazing…"

Eda relented. "Well Belos doesn't know about you kids yet, so maybe it would be okay. But you'll have to wear disguises and be chaperoned by Luz, Amity, King, and Lilith, just to be safe. Lilith, you're in charge."

"Me? In charge?" Lilith asked, sounding excited. "This means I could show them all of the historical architecture in Bonesborough! I could even take you kids to the museum!"

"Just don't take too long and keep a low profile," Eda told her.

"I guess a little look around wouldn't hurt," Anne said as she got up. "Alright Boiling Isles, let's see what you have to offer us."

Meanwhile, in the human realm…

At Greasy's Diner, things were as normal as they could be for a resident of Gravity Falls. After the debacle with Gideon, the zombies, the bunker, the Lilliputians, the puppet show incident, and most recently another crazy video game character coming to life, Mabel eating out with Pacifica was considered tame.

"Hey, are you alright?" Pacifica asked Mabel, noticing her tired look.

"Oh, I'm fine, Paz," Mabel replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I've noticed the sweaters you've been wearing lately and…" Pacifica pointed at Mabel's latest sweater, a red sweater with black spider web patterns. "Are you going through some moody stuff lately?"

"More like trying to pass off as a Moody Judy around here, heha!" Mabel laughed, but it sounded forced. Pacifica had noticed the glove on her left hand.

"So… I have also been noticing that you've been acting a little… distant from Dipper, recently," Pacifica pointed out, she had a feeling that something went down between them. "Like, back at the mall I noticed you weren't with him when trying to find Soos a girlfriend…"

"Oh, there's a funny story about that! Never buy Soos video games, it won't go well!" Mabel laughed nervously, rubbing her gloved hand. "Gee, where is Lazy Susan with that coffee pancakes-"

"Why are you avoiding the subject?" Pacifica interrupted Mabel. "Seriously, Mabel, there has been something up with you this past week and I know it involves you being so distant with Dipper, does it have something to do with your hand?"

"No, no!" Mabel denied. "Paz, it-it's no big deal, I'm fine. This is just from an accident." As Mabel assured her, Tyler Cutebiker came over with a notepad.

"Hey, girls! Lazy Susan couldn't come today so I'm taking over her shift!" Tyler said. "Whoa, Mabel, are you alright?"

"W-Why is everyone ganging up on me all of a sudden?" Mabel asked while rubbing her own hair nervously.

"Mabel, Mabel, calm down-"

"I am calm!" Mabel banged her fists on the table, knocking over some utensils. One of them was a knife. When she saw it, her face paled. "I… I… I gotta go!" She got up and ran past Tyler, leaving Pacifica at the table.

"Mabel!" Pacifica cried out.

Mabel was outside, trying to calm herself down and prevent a panic attack. She still remembered what happened the day of the sock puppet show…

Mabel opened her eyes, finding herself out of her body. "Huh- what!? What's happening!? Why am I all floaty!?" she cried out. She turned around and was shocked to see her own body laying on the floor. She was even more shocked when she saw her eyes open. But they weren't her natural brown eyes… they were yellow.

"Sorry, kid!" Bill's voice came from Mabel as they grabbed the laptop. "But you're my puppet now!" They threw the laptop down on the floor and stomped on it.

"NOOOO!" Mabel cried out as she watched the laptop get destroyed.

The smashed laptop was currently in the bedroom of Dipper and Mabel, where Dipper was examining a poster board on his wall entitled 'Who is The Author?' The wall was covered with photos, notes, and newspaper clippings. Dipper was chewing on a pen nonstop.

"Come on, who are you!?" Dipper demanded. His eyes looked tired, his hair was a mess, and his shirt had sweat stains around his armpits. As he kept chewing on the pen, it accidentally broke. "Blech! Not again." He tossed it into a bin filled with broken pens as he heard someone knocking on the door.

"Dipper?" asked a voice that Dipper realized.

"Candy? Sorry, Mabel's not here right now," he told her as the door opened. "And… I go by Mason these days. Dipper is what Bill calls me."

"Sorry, Mason," Candy responded. "But… I actually came to see you." She was worried when she saw the state that the room and Mason was in.

"See me?" he asked her. "I… I thought you'd be worried for Mabel more."

"I'm worried for both of you," Candy said. "I know you two have been acting distant since the sock opera and when I ask Mabel about what's going on between you two, she brushes it off."

Mason had a look of guilt as he gave a tired sigh. "Yeah," he admitted, sitting down on his bed. Candy sat down next to him. "Mabel has been mad at me since the incident because I didn't tell her about my relationship with Bill. I thought he was someone I could trust, but he played me and now Luz is in danger because of me… I don't know how to fix that, so I'm trying to focus on finding out who the Author of the journal is instead."

"Is that why you've been cooped up in here?" Candy asked and Mason nodded. "Look, what happened to Mabel, you can't blame yourself for it. You weren't the one who hurt her."

"I am responsible," Mason told her. "And thanks to Bill, the laptop that could've given us some answers about the Author was destroyed." He brought up the smashed laptop. "To think that I even considered him a friend…"

Candy, unable to hide her concern for the male Pine twin, patted him on the back. "Hey, it's going to be alright. I'm sure that Mabel has forgiven you already and is just having a tough time talking-" She then noticed something on the laptop. "Wait, do you see that?"

"What?" Mason asked him.

Candy took a picture with her phone, zoomed in on the image, and showed it to Mason. "Look!"

Mason saw the logo magnified on Candy's phone. "McGucket Labs? Wait, Old Man McGucket?"

"Am I blanchin', Girl we blanchin', I live up in a mansion!"

In the Mystery Shack gift shop, Soos was sweeping the floor and singing along to the song while Vee was helping organize the Stan bobbleheads. Wendy was at the counter and she looked to be at the verge of madness.

"Ugh! I can't stand that terrible song! I can't get it out of my head!" Wendy complained.

"You mean 'Straight Blanchin'' by 'Lil Big Dawg? It's the catchiest song of the summer!" Soos replied.

"Why does he call himself 'Little' Big Dog?" Vee asked. "I mean, he doesn't look like a dog and he's not little."

"Oh it's just a stage name, people in the music industry all take one. Like Ice-Pack, or Sailor Boi," Soos explained.

"But what is 'Blanchin'?" Wendy asked. "Rappers can't just make up words!"

"'Blanchin' does sound like something the ghosts in the Boiling Isles worship," Vee mentioned.

"Rappers are visionaries, Wendy," Soos told his co-worker. "If they told me to eat my own pants, I would do it."

"Eat your own pants. Eat your own pants, yeah!" said the boombox.

Soos shrugged. "Guess I have no choice." He started unzipping his own pants while humming. "Doot, do-do!" Before he could go any further, Mason and Candy ran in.

"Wendy, Soos, Vee, we need to pick up Mabel and go see Old Man McGucket!" Mason told them.

"We'll explain on the way, let's go!" Candy told them while getting Wendy, Vee and Soos to follow.

"Hey! What about work? Kids!" Stan called out but they were already gone. "This counts as your break time!" he shouted. "Eh, it's a slow day anyway." He paused. "Wait, why is Soos eating his own pants?"

Mabel had calmed down and was sitting by a tree. Pacifica sat beside her to help calm her down. "Hey, we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," Pacifica assured her.

"Thanks, Paz," Mabel replied, rubbing her gloved hand.

Pacifica was still concerned, but it was at that moment Soos' truck pulled up and Soos popped his head out of the window. "Yo, dudes! I think Dip- I mean, Mason, found out who the author is!"

"Tell him that now's not a good time for Mabel!" Pacifica told him.

"No Paz, it's fine," Mabel said as she stood up.

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Pacifica asked her.

Mabel looked down for a moment before turning to her blonde friend. "I got to see this through," she told her while climbing onto the back of the truck with Wendy's help.

"Well, I'm coming too!" Pacifica declared as she climbed up as well. "Besides, someone's gotta watch your back."

Mabel smiled at her. "I appreciate it, Paz."

"McGucket, are you here?" Mason asked as the gang entered the junkyard.

"Here hillbilly-billy-billy-billy," Soos called out before they saw Nate and Lee being scared off by the old hillbilly after they spray-painted his shed.

"Get outta here, you salt lickin', hornswagglin!" He looked at the graffiti they left behind. "McSuckit… they got me good," he said solemnly before seeing the group. "Visitors! Come on in!" He led them inside. "Pull up some rusty metal, you're just in time for my hourly turf war with the hillbilly that lives in my mirror!" He turned to yell at the reflection in his bathtub. "Quit starin' at me when I bathe!"

"Uh-huh…" Pacifica leaned over to Mason. "Are you sure it's him?"

"It has to be him, he's the Author!" Mason whispered back.

"What's that?" McGucket cried out, overhearing them. "What's uh… this author business?"

"You can drop the act, McGucket, Mason has found a lead suggesting that you were the original author of the books," Mabel declared, pointing at the old hillbilly.

"Author? Oh dang it, looks like you've discovered my secret," McGucket lamented.

"A-ha! So you are the Author we've been looking for!" Mason pointed out.

"So you're the genius behind it all," Vee commented in awe.

"Yer right, I am a genius," McGucket admitted, going to turn on a lamp to show his desk. "This has been my life's work over the past few years!"

They all went over to the desk to see McGucket's work. They saw a stack of paper, pens, and the back of a book. "So it's true… you really are the author of-" Mabel turned the book over and her eyes widened in shock when she saw the cover. "...The Good Witch Azura!?"

It's true, the boom on the desk was a new volume of Azura.

"Hey, hey, don't look!" McGucket got in Mabel's way. "I can show ya what I have in the works, but I can't let yer read spoilers!"

"Wait, the Good Witch Azura book series was written by… YOU!?" Wendy asked in shock.

"Wow, talk about a surprising twist," Soos commented.

"Luz and Amity's minds will be blown if they find out," Candy said.

"So wait, all this time you've been Mildred Featherwhyle?" Pacifica asked, pointing to the name on the book cover.

"Yep, been using a pen name and a generic stock photo because my publisher told me that my face wouldn't be able to sell books for kids. Said I'd give them more nightmares than R.L. Stine ever could," McGucket explained. "I wrote these books as a side business to finance my inventions over the years."

"That… actually does explain a lot," Mason admitted.

"But why don't you just sell your inventions?" Pacifica asked him.

"Now what would you youngins' actually prefer to be more easily accessible: young reader fantasy books or highly dangerous death machines?" McGucket proposed.

"That's a good point…" Paz replied.

McGucket sighed. "I would appreciate it if you just kept this between us, I can't have the truth getting out," he told them. "Using a fake name is the only way I can be of good to anyone and do something worthwhile. Mildred Featherwhyle is a beloved children's author, but Fiddleford McGucket… he must have been a pretty big failure, even if I can't remember much about him."

"Look McGucket, besides this twist, there's another thing we need to ask you about," Mabel said while holding up the journal. "We found a laptop that has your name on it, and we believe it may be connected to this journal. Have you ever seen it before?"

McGucket opened the journal and turned through the pages. "I don't recall… everything before 1982 was all a blur, all just a hazy-" He then flipped to an image of the Blind Eye Society symbol, causing him to drop the journal and shriek. "The Blind Eye! Robes, the men, my mind!" he cries out as he cowered in fear, holding his head. "They… they did something to me!"

"The Blind Eye?" Mason asked, his eyes widening in realization.

"Those are the same guys that tried to kidnap Robbie…" Wendy recalled. "They must have messed with McGucket's mind!" She calmly approached the old man. "Think dude, what was the last time you saw those guys?"

McGucket shivered and pulled up a newspaper article. "T-This, I think, may be where I last saw them."

"The museum!" Wendy pointed at the article, which showed how McGucket was found outside of the Gravity Falls History Museum. "Alright, time to finally find these creeps. Because after what they tried to do to Robbie, it's personal."

"This might be the lead about them I've been waiting for," Mason agreed. "After all these years, maybe we can finally learn what their deal is…"

Marcy's jaw dropped as she toured around Bonesborough. "Wow… this place is so… majestic!" she commented, in awe of the town and its civilians. Both Anne and Marcy were covering their ears with horn-muffs and a helmet.

"She's really getting into this, huh?" Amity asked Anne and Sprig.

"Oh yeah, you get used to it," Anne admitted. "Just wait until she breaks into one of her princess songs."

"Her what?" King asked as music started to play in the background.

"And here we go," Sprig said, unsurprised. "I think this is just a thing with princesses."

Marcy walked through the streets, watching the Boiling Isles denizens pass her by. "What's that? What's that? There's horror everywhere! What's that? Do these hands come in a pair?" she sang while pointing at a stand selling decapitated demon hands. "What's that? So many wonders everywhere I look and stare!" She twirled past some monsters. "What's that? All these things are odd, so much that this world can share… what's that!" She hurried off while the others chased after her.

"Marcy, wait!" Anne cried out. "Sorry, she tends to do this."

"Oh don't worry, this is actually normal around here," Luz explained.

"You guys burst into song as well?" Sprig asked.

"It's been a theory by the scholars that the Titan has awakened the musical parts of us when we express our emotions," Lilith answered. "Of course, the background music we're hearing, we don't know where that comes from."

"What's that? What's that? Is this a meat store?" Marcy looked at a store window full of meat with eyeballs. "What's that? Is that a chicken-boar?" She pointed at a boar with feathers and a beak.

"What's that? Did that building just make a wink? A little redhead imp, and a three-headed chimp, and is that a flying blimp?" She pointed at Tiny Nose, a passing three-headed chimp, and an Emperor's Coven blimp passing by. "What's that? What's that!" She saw the Hexside building in the distance after climbing up a lamp post.

"A school just for witchlings, that's where they must have learned, the magic that exists here, which is something that's unheard!" Marcy sang while twirling down, before tripping.

After Anne and Luz helped her up, she continued singing. "The dirt is made of dead skin, would you look at that? This world is a dead body, a rotting carcass is where we're at! Oh look, what's that!" She pointed up at a griffin. "Is that a griffin I see? Oh frack, it's spitting out spiders, look out! It's raining arachnids that could be venomous, panic, scream and shout!" She ran, shielding herself from the spiders barfed up by the griffin, Anne and Luz following her.

"What's that? What's that? A purple gunk of flesh, how weird, what's it made, how it meshed? And why?" Marcy asks, looking at the Abomination passing by. "It looks so abominable, How do they make it so stable? Is it even alive, living tissues may apply?" She saw some Illusionist witches doing tricks. "Are they magicians or illusionists, or how I wish I could do that! What's that?"

She went through a park. "Oh wow, the grass, it's so crimson red. How crass, this guy looks like he's dead!" She pointed at a zombie-like citizen with a shovel.

"There are ghouls, there are witches, demons and more! But they don't seem so mean and there's a lot to explore!" Marcy declared through her song. "Oh it's just like Amphibia, but a lot more like Halloween o'dor… what's that!"

"Marcy, hold on a second!" Anne tried to catch up to her.

"Is she always like this?" Amity asked while running along.

"When she's like this, she's lost in her own world." Sprig commented.

"All the myths are true, I see a fox spirit passing by!" Marcy spotted Kitsuni, who looked at her in confusion. Marcy then looked up at the arm tower. "Is that tower an actual arm? I can see it waving 'hi'!" She then spotted a large centipede with a face. "This world is wonderfully creepy, it could give me a chill! But that only intrigues me, like that snowy knee hill!" She pointed at the Knee. "This world's excitingly unique, my interest has just peaked, it's like something I might have read, this is where our paths have led! I'll learn it, oh I'll learn it, Oh I want to learn it for my own, I've got to know it, I've got to know it, What's is that place that I have found, What… is… that-" As she danced around, Marcy hit a pole, causing her to fall back.

"Yer done, Mar-Mar?" Anne asked.

"Yeah, I'm good." Marcy gave a thumbs up and Anne helped her up. "But man! This new world would be quite the place to study, don't you think? My dad said that his ancestors were scientific explorers, I wonder what they would have made of this place." She turned to Lilith. "Say Lilith, didn't you mention that there was a museum?"

"Yes, Bonesborough has the Supernatural Museum of History!" Lilith suggested excitedly.

"I love history museums!" Marcy replied, equally excited.

"We should go right now!" Lilith said with her eyes shining.

"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" Marcy's eyes shined as well and the two headed in the direction of the museum.

"You know, this makes me think Marcy's actually Aunt Lily's secret kid or something," King commented.

Upon arriving at the Supernatural Museum of History, the group headed inside, Marcy and Sprig looking around in awe.

"So many exhibits to explore!" Marcy said.

"So many things to touch!" Sprig added as he hopped toward the displays.

"Yes, the museum is full of many historical wonders," Lilith commented while staring at the display of staircases. "Like the balusters from the Deadwardian Era! So fascinating…"

"Ooh, what is that?" Marcy pointed up at a skeletal display of a large creature.

"That would be the bones of the Stonesleeper," Amity answered, pointing to an information plaque. "It lived during the Hecktaceous period and when it slept its body would turn to stone to protect itself from its enemies."

"Fascinating, this reminds me of studying the creatures from Amphibia's own prehistoric eras, like the Sabretooth Scorpileo, the Stegabeetle, and the Mantasaurus Rex!" Marcy said.

The group began to tour the museum, exploring the different exhibits. In the astrology exhibit Anne stared in wonder at the displays on the stars and constellations of the Demon Realm. While looking at a star map, Luz showed Anne one of her ice glyphs and how she learned it from looking at the stars. She also let Anne tap it, creating a small ice block that Anne was amazed by. In the background, Sprig was touching a telescope before getting scared off by the guard.

At the biology exhibit, Anne and Marcy checked out a display of witch anatomy, including the bile sac, which Lilith explained to them was where a witch's magic came from. Anne looks visibly grossed out while Marcy was listening attentively, taking notes and asking questions. Luz, King and Sprig were playing around the activity spot, which had huge versions of organs for kids to climb into, while Amity watched over them.

In the zoology exhibit, Luz showed Anne, Marcy and Sprig around the displays of the beasts of the Boiling Isles. Marcy looked at the ones identified as a Silkidonus, the Snaggleback, and a giraffe. "I didn't know giraffes originated from here."

"Oh yeah, we banished those freaks," Luz explained.

"This makes me concerned about them now…" Anne replied before seeing a display that she was shocked to recognize. "No way… you guys also have the Moss Man!?" she asked, seeing the life size model of a grassy figure.

"Oh yeah, Jerbo said that this guy inspired his Moss Man Abomination," Luz recalled. "They used to live on the Boiling Isles, but they eventually disappeared. It is speculated that Twigfoot, who is like the Boiling Isles version of Bigfoot, is a descendant of the Moss Man."

"Weird, because me and Wally saw someone who looks just like this guy back in Amphibia," Anne revealed.

"Oh not this again," Sprig said, rolling his eyes. "We get it, Anne, you 'saw' the Moss Man."

"I did too, Sprig!" Anne argued.

"What's this all about?" Luz asked Marcy while the two siblings argued.

"Oh it's just that Anne and the local vagrant One-Eyed Wally said that they saw a Moss Man a while ago, but no one in Wartwood believed them since they don't believe anything until they see it," Marcy explained. "I believed her though, I mean there are weirder things in Amphibia."

"That reminds me of my mom trying to convince anyone here that possums are real," Luz mentioned, sympathizing with Anne.

Moving on, they arrived at the history exhibit, which was Lilith's favorite part of the museum. Anne had to keep a close eye on Sprig, who kept trying to touch everything when the guards weren't looking. Luz and Amity were looking at a mural depicting Emperor Belos, which Anne and Marcy noticed as well.

"So that's your emperor, huh?" Anne asked.

"Yeah, Belos rose to power fifty years ago and founded the coven system, which he said was the right way to do magic and was what the Titan wanted," Lilith explained uneasily, walking over.

"Wait, is the Titan like your god or something?" Anne wanted to know.

"Pretty much," Luz answered. "Both life and magic on the Boiling Isles were gifts from the Titan and it was said that the Titan helped guide the rise of our civilization here, communicating to various witches throughout our history and giving them the means to advance our society. Belos claimed to be the latest messenger of the Titan and people bought it. My mom believes Belos to be a false prophet, but she still raised me to respect the Titan and his gifts to us. What about you? Does Amphibia have any gods?"

"Several," Sprig answered. "For example, back home the local woodsmith Loggle believes in a god that is a giant, majestic Axolotl."

Luz shrugged. "It wouldn't surprise me if there is a deity out there that is a talking Axolotl."

"Anyway, those who don't join a coven when they come of age are labeled as wild witches," Lilith continued to explain. "You get treated as a criminal and once you are caught, you are either forced to join a coven… or worse." She sighed. "I was once a part of the Emperor's Coven as Head Witch, but I gave it up to protect my family from his clutches."

"We were all fed into Belo's lies," Amity added, looking down. "I bought it too once before I saw him for the murderous tyrant he was." She felt Luz pat her on the back and she smiled a little.

"He definitely gives me cultist vibes," Sprig commented.

Luz nodded and turned to look at the other murals, noticing one of Belos standing in front of a ruined Conformatorium… and slaying a familiar figure with horns sticking out of his hair. She froze up, which Anne noticed.

"Hey, are you alright?" Anne asked her.

"Yeah, just… remembering a fallen friend…" Luz said, keeping herself together while noticing that the mural led to some other displays as part of a new 'Dangers of the Fae' exhibit next door. "This is part of Belos' latest propaganda strategy: making witches fear wild magic by using the Fae as scapegoats."

"The Fae?" Marcy asked out of curiosity.

"Shape-shifting immortal tricksters from another realm," Amity explained. "The Isles hasn't had the best history with them, but me and Luz did manage to befriend one who had helped us on several occasions. Does Amphibia have anything like the Fae?"

"Hmm… maybe," Marcy answered. "I have heard a few stories of shape-shifting tricksters who take the form of frogs and flies. We call them the Good Folk, because in those stories they are actually very helpful toward others. There is even one story about a mysterious newt dressed in multicolored clothing who saved a village with his magic pipe."

"Wait…" Luz said. "The Pied Piper? That story has to be wrong, since the Pied Piper is not a good guy. At all. He once kidnapped an entire generation of witchlings."

"Oh," Marcy said, surprised. "Well, maybe it wasn't the same Pied Piper."

"I guess…" Luz said, glancing at the Fae exhibit and noticing a statue of a dark-skinned figure holding a flute while dressed in emerald green and other colors. She frowned at the figure.

"I also heard rumors that if a frog eats one of the Good Folk, they gain magical powers," Marcy was saying. "But I think that's highly unlikely… or is it?"

"Lilith, I thought I recognized you," said a voice.

Lilith, hearing the voice, turned around to see a witch woman walking up to her. The woman had dark bobcut hair with bangs, brown skin with her brown eyes and small, circular pink framed glasses. She wore a magenta puff-sleeve shirt with black arm sleeves, orange trousers and black knee length heel boots. She was carrying a dark purple monkey Palisman with a tail-like whip at the end.

"Flora," Lilith recognized, shocked to see her old mentor. "Wow, this is a surprise." She turned to her niece. "Luz, this is Flora D'Esplora: bad-girl historian, adventurer, celebrity, and my former mentor from the Emperor's Coven. Flora, this is my niece Luz, my nephew King, my goddaughter Amity, and some of their friends. I was giving them a tour of the museum."

"...I have so many questions about that name," Luz responded.

"Hola," Flora greeted. "It is nice to meet all of you. Especially you Luz, since I've heard so much about you. Like how you declared you were going to beat the Emperor someday. You actually inspired the Emperor's Coven to add a human exhibit to the museum." She pointed to said exhibit, which had a poorly designed model of Luz in her cambion form that made her look cross eyed.

"What the fuck?! That's supposed to be me!?" Luz shouted in anger.

"I don't know, it looks kinda like you," King replied, trying not to snicker.

"It does not!" Luz told him. "If I find the one who made that, I'll show them eternal damnation..."

Tibbles, who was in the background, overheard this. He started whistling innocently to himself and walking away while hiding his sculpting tools behind his back.

"I have been meaning to talk to you since you left the Emperor's Coven," Flora told Lilith.

"Really?" Lilith asked, surprised. She turned to the kids. "Can you girls excuse me for a moment so I can catch up with Flora in private?"

"Of course," Luz told her. "We'll wait for you."

Lilith nodded and walked off with Flora. Once they were gone, Amity heard her scroll buzz and she brought it out, checking her notifications. "Oh, Luz, did you remember the sleepover?"

"Sleepover?" Luz replied. "Oh crap, I forgot about that!"

"What sleepover?" Marcy asked them.

"Well, our friends offered to come over for a sleepover because I needed their company and their support after some recent events," Luz explained. "But we hadn't counted on taking you guys in, so we can just cancel it…"

"Oh no, you don't have to cancel for us," Anne insisted. "Just have your friends come over like you originally planned and maybe we could all sleepover together. It could be fun!"

"Yeah, honestly it'll be great to have a sleepover with some more non-amphibians for a change," Marcy admitted. "Besides Sasha, the only kids we've ever done sleepovers with are Sprig, Anne and Sprig's little sister Polly, Ivy, and Maddie."

"So who is coming over?" Sprig asked.

"Some of me and Amity's besties," Luz explained. "Willow, Viney, Skara, Cat, Amelia, and Bo, plus Amity's older sister Emira. You'd actually be the only boy."

"Only boy?" Sprig asked. "What about King?"

"Oh, while the girls are having their sleepover I'm meeting up with Gus, Jerbo, and Edric for a guys night out," King explained.

"A guys night out?" Sprig repeated, his eyes wide. "I've never had one of those before! Mainly because I've never had other guys to hang out with… can I come with you?"

"Sure, the more the merrier!" King replied.

"Sweet! Now I will finally know what it is like to have guy friends!" Sprig shouted.

"I don't know about this," Anne cautioned. "We should still be incognito."

"Yeah, not sure if Sprig should go out without us around here," Marcy agreed.

"Relax, Sprig can easily blend right around here," King assures them.

"Everyone is just going to think he's a biped demon," Luz pointed out. "So that shouldn't be a problem."

"Yeah! Please, Anne? Let me go with King and the guys?" Sprig asked his human companions.

"Well, alright, but please stay out of trouble," Anne told him, patting his head.

Back in the human realm, the Mystery Shack gang along with McGucket had managed to sneak into the Gravity Falls History Museum.

"Alright, keep your eyes peeled for anything suspicious," Mason told the others.

As they checked the exhibits out, Wendy noticed Mabel walking past the stuffed mountain lion display and she went up to her. "Hey, are you alright, Mabel? You just walked by a cat without petting it."

"Oh, I did?" Mabel asked. "My mind must've been elsewhere."

Wendy, concerned for Mabel, turned to Pacifica. "Hey, do you know what's up with Mabel?"

"Well… earlier at the diner, I asked about why she was being so distant with Mason," Pacifica responded. "Then she had a panic attack and I think it has something to do with the glove she's wearing."

"Yeah, I've noticed," Wendy replied.

"Alright McGucket, do you remember anything around here?" Mabel asked the hillbilly.

"Nothing I could recall…" McGucket replied.

"Guys, look!" Soos pointed at a shadowy figure down the hall.

The gang chased after the shadowy figure, who led them to a room filled with depictions of eyes.

"Well kettle my corn, he vanishafied!" McGucket declared.

"What is this place?" Vee asked.

"Definitely not the optometrist office," Candy replied, creeped out by the eyes.

"But where could that guy have gone?" Mason asked.

"I don't like this place…" McGucket said as he backed away, "I feel like all those eyes are a-watchin' me."

"Wait a second…" Mason saw that all the eyes were looking in the same direction, specifically at the wall behind McGucket. "They are! McGucket, step aside."

The hillbilly stepped aside, revealing a central eye. Mason pushed it, activating a staircase behind the fireplace that was in the room. "Jackpot! A secret passageway!"

"Hmm, we'll have to be stealthy," McGucket realized. "I'll hambone a message if there's trouble." He slapped his arms and legs, telling the others that coyotes were coming for their sweetbreads.

"I have no idea what that means," Mason told McGucket.

The group then started to descend the staircase, Mabel leading them. As they reached the bottom of the staircase, they could hear the sound of chanting.

"Novus ordo seclorum! Novus ordo seclorum!"

Following the chanting, the group from behind a red curtain peaked into a large room where red hooded members had gathered and were placing their hands on a chest. Their leader walked up to the chest.

"Who is the subject of our meeting?" he asked.

"This woman," the other members responded, bringing in Lazy Susan after taking the bag off of her head.

"Lazy Susan?" Mabel whispered in surprise.

"Tyler did say she didn't make it to work," Pacifica remembered.

After clamping Susan to the chair, the leader spoke to her. "What is it that you've seen?"

"Uh, well, uh, I was leaving the diner, and I saw these little bearded doodads, and I was, like, 'bwaaa?'"

"There, there," the leader told her while he pulled out a ray gun from the chest, the other members pulling down on their hoods. "You won't be like 'bwaaa?' for much longer…"

"What is that gizmo?" Susan asked while the leader entered 'little bearded men' into the ray gun. "It looks like a hair dryer. Are you guys barbers?" The leader then zapped Lazy Susan with the ray gun, causing her to scream as her memories were erased.

"We gotta-" Vee was about to step in, but was stopped by Wendy who shook her head.

"Lazy Susan, what do you know of little bearded men?" the leader asked Susan afterward.

"My mind is cleared, thanks to the Society of the Blind Eye," Lazy Susan responded robotically.

"It is unseen!" the Society declared.

"So that's how they do it…" Mason whispered.

"Lazy Susan, how do you feel?" the leader asked as Lazy Susan was released.

"I feel great! I can't even remember what was wrong, or what I'm doing here, or if I have four fingers instead of five!" she replied while being led away.

"Your memories are safe with us, buried in the Hall of the Forgotten," the leader said as he removed a tube from the memory erasing gun, wrote Susan's name on it and sent it up a pipe. "Meeting adjourned!"

The members began to disperse.

"Unsee you later," one said.

"Unsee you later!" another responded.

Once they were gone and the room was clear, the Mystery Shack gang came in. "I can't believe it… we are finally in the secret headquarters of the Society of the Blind Eye. If they're keeping Lazy Susan's memories somewhere, McGucket's might be kept there as well!"

"That's right, we'll just have to split into teams," Mabel suggested. "Pacifica, Candy, Wendy, we'll investigate around here and keep an eye out for those robed guys. Soos, Vee and McGucket will go with Mason to find this Hall of the Forgotten."

"Um… right, do as she says," Mason nodded as Soos's hat was sucked into the same pipe that the memory tube had been put into. "Follow that hat!" he said while leading his group after the hat.

The girls kept guard in the room, Wendy watching Mabel who was looking at the chair and the symbols around the room. Wendy decided to walk over to her. "Hey Mabel, how's it going? Is there anything you would like to talk about?" she asked.

"Nope," Mabel replied, waving it off. "Besides, we gotta focus on finding McGucket's memories and busting this Society!"

Wendy couldn't hide her concern for Mabel. "Look Mabel, there's something really going on with you and… I just want you to know what I know what you're going through. I've been through something similar-"

"No you haven't, Wendy!" Mabel shouted, causing Wendy to back away from shock. "Y-You guys don't get what I've been through! And I said that I'm fine!" She turned around.

"Mabel, trying to deny it is only going to make it worse," Wendy told her.

"Yeah, Mabel, she's only trying to help," Candy defended.

"Well what if I don't want to talk about it or want your help? In fact…" Mabel went over to the chest with the ray gun and picked it up. "Maybe I could just… shoot myself with this and then you guys don't have to worry about me?"

"Whoa, Mabel, that's really not a good idea!" Pacifica told her, strongly against it.

"Yeah, you saw what they did to Susan!" Candy pointed out.

"Look, dude, erasing your memories will only make things worse!" Wendy warned her.

"Oh come on, Wendy, we all have things we wish to forget. Like that terrible summer song you want out of your head?" Mabel suggested.

"Uh…" Wendy thought about it, only to be met by looks of disapproval from Candy and Paz. "Nope, not even a terrible song is worth erasing my mind over. Just hand it over."

Mabel looked hesitant as she held the eraser gun. It was at that moment an alarm started going off. "Are you guys hearing that?" she asked.

"Some kind of beeping sound…" Paz replied.

"...Or an alarm!" Candy realized before she was suddenly grabbed by one Society member while another grabbed Pacifica.

"Hey, let us go!" Pacifica cried out.

"Mabel, get behind me!" Wendy shouted while Mabel stood behind Wendy, only for a particularly large Society member to come from behind them and easily lift them both off the ground, causing Mabel to drop the ray gun and watch as it slid across the floor to where the leader of the society was.

"Welcome, unexpected guests…" Blind Ivan told them while he picked up the ray gun. "To the Society of the Blind Eye..."

Back at the Owl House, Luz was answering the door. "Hey, you guys made it!" she said, seeing Willow, Skara, Viney, Cat, Amelia and Bo.

"Wouldn't miss it!" Willow replied.

"We even brought snacks!" Skara said excitedly.

As the girls came inside, they noticed Anne, Marcy, and Camila. Amity introduced them. "Welcome, and for those who haven't met her yet this is Luz's human mother Camila. And these two are our guests for the time being, Anne Boochuy-Plantar and Marcy Wu-Leviathan, they are humans from a world called Amphibia. We accidentally got them stranded here with Anne's younger frog brother Sprig, but were working on a way to get them back home. Anne, Marcy, Camila, these are our friends Willow, Skara, Viney, Cat, Amelia and Bo."

"Nice to meet you gals," Anne greeted while shaking Willow's hand.

"Wow, you got some nice muscle there," Willow commented.

"Hey, them's the perks of being raised by a farming family," Anne told her. "Though princess here isn't as used to manual labor, you should've been there when I tried to teach her how to plow a field."

"Anne, don't tell them that!" Marcy complained, bringing her shirt up to hide her embarrassment.

"So I don't see Emira here, is she okay?" Amity asked Viney.

"She said that she wanted to come, but then something came up," Viney explained.

Meanwhile, Emira has been trying to cover her acne with zit scream.

"Why isn't this working!?" Emira cried out. "Come on, I don't want Viney to see me like this!"

"It is nice to meet you, Mrs. Noceda," Bo told Camila.

"It's nice to meet Luz's friends as well," Camila replied. "How did you all meet her?"

"Gus introduced me to her," Willow told her.

"I met her thanks to Gus as well, since he sometimes brings her to our school club, which is the Human Appreciation Society," Bo explained.

"We met each other in Detention," Viney replied.

"We technically used to be enemies," Skara admitted and Cat nodded in agreement.

"Ella destruyó mi primera casa(She destroyed my first home)!" Amelia said in Spanish.

"Whoa, was that a different language, Amelia?" Cat asked her.

"Yeah, our house demon Duo is forcing me to learn Spanish," Amelia replied. "I-I guess I shouldn't have assumed but since Luz said that she learned that she was Dominican-"

"Hey, don't worry, and it sounds like your Spanish lessons are going well," Camila told her.

"Thanks, Ms. Noceda. Does, um, Luz know any Spanish?" Amelia asked.

"Uh, not really," Luz admitted, a bit embarrassed by that.

"Well, maybe we can help teach her some Spanish," Camila suggested to Amelia.

"Yeah, I can help tutor her a-and make flash cards…" Amelia began to list off while Willow and Skara pulled Luz and Amity aside to relay a message from Boscha.

"Boscha… got transferred?!" Amity asked in shock.

"To Glandus of all schools!?" Luz replied.

"Yeah, it wasn't her choice," Willow said sadly. "But she wanted to apologize for the mess she caused for you guys on the day of the petrification ceremony."

"She admitted that you didn't deserve it and it went farther than she intended," Skara added.

"Wow, that's surprising for Boscha," Amity admitted.

"Yeah," Luz replied, equally surprised. "I know we haven't seen eye to eye, but maybe we should have a talk with her later. We do owe her that much for getting us back into Hexside."

"And for helping us with the Coachman," Amity agreed.

"Wait, you saw her there as well?" Skara asked them.

"We suspected it was her throwing potions, she must have been there with that fire guy, whoever he was," Amity explained. "But Glandus? Is she going to be okay there?"

"Um… Cat, you think you could fill them in?" Skara turned to Cat, who had come over to them.

"When I stopped by her place after Simon called me earlier, she was banged up real bad," Cat said with a nervous look. "There were bruises, whip marks, claw marks… it looked like she was tortured. I… I'm scared for her. I can't believe that Nicole would send her there…"

Luz and Amity shared a look of concern.

"Wait a sec, claw marks?" Luz asked as she realized something. Her eyes narrowed and her fists tightened. "Nina…"

"There has to be a way we can help her," Amity said. "She helped us get back into Hexside, shouldn't we help get her back as well?"

Luz nodded. "Of course. And the next time we see Nicole… I'm gonna kick her teeth to the pavement."

"Why not just flay her?" Amity suggested.

"No guys, that's wrong… we should tar and feather her for being a bad mom," Willow suggested.

"Man, you girls are dark," Anne commented, overhearing their conversation.

Eda came in with some apple blood, drinking it when she spotted Skara and called out to her. "Hey um… Titan, what's your name again, Skooby, right?"

"It's Skara, ma'am," Skara responded.

"Right, right, can I talk to you for a moment?" Eda asked as she led Skara to the other room. "I just um, wanted to ask how's dealing with the whole werewolf thing going? I had to deal with something similar to that when I was your age and it was not pleasant.."

"Well, after I joined the Beast-Keeping Track, I learned that there might be a way to form a bond with my inner beast," Skara told Eda. "Like compromise or something. How do you deal with your inner beast, Ms. Clawthorne?"

"Well… probably different from your idea of bonding," Eda admitted. "I mean, if you change the word 'bonding' with 'suppressing it with potions.' But hey, it's manageable."

But that didn't sit well for Skara. "I don't think I want that."

"What do you mean, kid?" Eda asked her.

"I mean, sure my time as a werewolf was awful, but I imagine that it must have been worse for my inner beast, locked away in the depths of my own mindscape for so long. I mean, it's still a part of me, heck it is me. So maybe I can find a way that we can both be a little happier. I don't know, it's just something I've been thinking about." She shrugged. "Besides, being a Bard Beast isn't too bad."

Eda nodded, thinking about her own curse as well and how she treated it.

"So what do witches do in their own sleepovers?" Camila asked, trying to hide her nervousness. 'This is the first sleepover you've seen your daughter having, what if it involves goat sacrifices? Or summoning Satan with the blood of her or one of her friends?'

"Well, teenage witch sleepovers are actually no different than human sleepovers," Luz admitted. "We do things like make-up, nails, heck I have an old game system I managed to hook up to the CB. We can play Merlock Kart."

"You got Merlock Kart? I used to play that with Dog all the time!" Cat said excitedly.

"That sounds safe, maybe you could do what I did back in my high school years. We had this game, Bloody Mary, where we-" Camily noticed the girls and Eda looking pale. "Um, what? Was it something I said?"

"Yeah, Bloody… BM is infamous around here," Eda explained, not wanting to say her name. "Summoning her is one of the most dangerous games that you can play and I do not recommend it, because she is no joke."

"Wait, Bloody Mary is real?!" Camila asked in shock, causing the others to cringe when they heard her say that name again. "Oops, sorry."

"Besides, I don't think we should be messing around with mirrors," Luz said, looking at Amity who quickly nodded in agreement.

"So… what's Merlock Kart like?" Anne asked, wanting to change the subject.

"Alright guys, tonight we go all out!" King declared as he brought Sprig, Gus, Jerbo and Edric to the artistic part of Bonesborough, the Dark Arts District. The walls were covered in street art and murals, while the sidewalks were full of street performers trying to entertain passerby's.

"Good idea suggesting the Dark Arts District, Gus," Jerbo commented.

"Thanks, me and dad used to come here all the time, there's a lot of hot spots we can go to," Gus replied.

"Gee, when I heard Dark Arts, I assumed it would be full of dark magic and junk," Sprig commented, looking around. "Kinda sounds on the nose if you ask me."

"Well we can't always come up with good names," Jerbo pointed out.

"Thanks for bringing me along, guys," Edric said, grateful. "I, uh, actually haven't done something like this before."

"Don't mention it, your sisters told us that you needed some cheering up and there is no better way of doing that than by having a night on the town!" King stated. "Ooh, like that place looks fun!" He pointed to a shady bar, where a goblin was thrown out through the window.

"Or, we can go to the karaoke bar," Gus offered the safer suggestion.

The boys entered the karaoke bar, which was filled with the normal denizens and a number of coven scouts. One of the coven scouts was up on stage singing.

"Don't stop believing!" Steve sang, wearing a shirt with his name on it. "In Belos!"

"Go Steve!" a coven scout cheered him on.

"Yeah, sing it!" another cheered.

"Didn't you say these guys work for your Emperor?" Sprig asked. "Should we be worried?"

"Nah, they're just here to have fun like the rest of us and keep the peace," Jerbo explained. "If we don't give them trouble, they shouldn't give us trouble."

"Whoo-hoo! I am so pumped!" Steve declared after he finished his song. He spotted King with his group and upon recognizing some of them, walked over. "Oh hey, you're Lilith's nephew, and you're Amity's brother. It's me, Steve!"

"You guys know each other?" Gus asked, turning to King and Edric who just shrugged.

"Are you here for karaoke too? Here is a list of all the available songs." Steve handed out the song lists.

Gus looked at the list. "Um, no offense Steve, but some of these songs, including the one you just sang, sound like the ones Luz listened to that are from the human world."

"What? No, this is a totally original Emperor's Coven track record, like Pat Benataur's 'We Belong in the Coven', The Beetle's 'Golden Guard Submarine', Squeam's 'Radio Belos', and Snailback's 'Photoglyph'," Steve insisted.

"I, uh, think I'll choose the Snailback song," Edric decided.

"So what's with the shirt with your name on it?" Sprig pointed at Steve's shirt.

"Oh this? I got it from the Steve Convention," Steve explained.

Steve was seen at the Steve Convention, speaking "Hey Steve!" to every Steve he met.

"What's up, Steve?" asked a male witch.

"Heidi-ho, Steve!" greeted an imp.

"Welcome to Steve-Con, Steverino!" said a demon.

"Finally, a convention for people like me!" Steve said, tears leaking from his mask.

"That was a fun convention," Steve reminiscence happily.

While Steve was talking to the boys, a carpet shark biped spotted King and realized who he was. Smirking, he got up and quickly left the bar.

Back at the Owl House, the girls were having their sleepover in the basement, Hooty having moved all the exercise equipment and other stuff to give them more space.

"You know, this won't be my first time sleeping in a basement," Anne admitted. "I sleep in the basement back at Wartwood too. It didn't seem ideal at first, but now I don't mind except for the occasional flooding."

"So what's it like in Amphibia?" Willow asked, interested in the lives of the two girls.

"Well, the continent is in the shape of a lily pad and it is filled with anthropomorphic amphibians," Marcy explained. "The main classes are Frogs, Toads, and Newts. The Frogs are considered the working-class farming communities that are the backbone of our society, the Toads help govern those communities in addition to serving as soldiers, and the Newts work as scholars, professors, mages, aristocrats, and other high-ranking positions."

"It isn't an easy place to adjust to," Anne admitted. "When I first got there, I was scared out of mind. Fortunately Hop Pop found me and brought me back to Wartwood, because if he hadn't I don't want to think what would have happened to me in the wilds. Sprig's parents weren't sure what to make of me at first, they agreed to let me stay and eventually I became recognized as part of the Plantar family. The town folk also considered me weird, but they've since warmed up to me. I did have to prove my worth though, which turned me into the hard-working farm girl I am today."

"And when I came to Amphibia, I landed in its capital city of Newtopia, where I was quickly found by the guards and brought before the king. He took me in and raised me. Eventually I was appointed the official Newtopia ambassador to Wartwood, though really that was just an excuse for me to spend more time with my friends," Marcy explained. "Me and Anne have had all sorts of crazy adventures together. Like that time Hop Pop turned you, Sprig, and Anne into mushroom zombies."

"Ugh, don't remind me," Anne shivered. "There was also that time I got cursed by that spiteful candy salesman. Or that time you went camping with us and we fought those cannibal mudman."

"And there was that time you and your family would have been eaten by cannibal horn frogs if it hadn't been for Polly," Marcy recalled.

"Yeah, she is never going to let us forget about how she saved our butts," Anne said as the two laughed. "But now that I think about it, there is a lot of cannibalism in Amphibia…"

"It sounds like you two are lucky to have survived in that place," Luz commented while Amity placed purple makeup on her face. "Not that we have it easy here. The rain is literally boiling."

"Me and Amelia once almost got eaten by a giant singing plant," Skara recalled.

"There is a forest near here that will turn you into a tree if you get lost in its mists," Amity mentioned.

"I remember seeing Luz getting chased by a giant Cerberus," Viney added.

"And there was the time almost all of us got turned into donkeys by that crazy Coachman," Cat remembered.

"Don't forget the monster that was literally living underneath our school," Bo reminded her friends.

"I guess if there is one thing we have in common, it's that our worlds are filled with things that want to kill and/or eat us," Luz told Anne.

"Say, um, what kind of makeup is that?" Anne asked, pointing to the stuff Amity was putting on Luz.

"Oh this is Abomi-makeup, it's pretty good for sleepovers like this," Amity replied.

"Yeah, the gunk is great for the skin," Skara said while covered in the gunk, which sprouted extra eyes all over her face.

"And it's what Titanwood make-up artists use in their movies," Luz commented as her make-up formed teeth for eyes and an eye as a mouth. "Wanna try some?"

"Yeah/Go for it!" Anne and Marcy accepted, allowing Amity to place the Abomi-makeup on them. This resulted in Anne having snakes popping out of her face while Marcy's face looked like an eight-eyed spider.

And so the girls proceeded to have a wonderful time together. Luz and Marcy faced off in a contest of their artistic talent. The challenge was drawing a griffin per request by Viney. Luz drew in her own style and Marcy did the same, but in more fearsome detail.

Next Anne and Willow had an arm wrestling contest. "Let's see how your strength compares to mine!" Willow declared as they grasped hands.

"You may be shredded, but so am I!" Anne replied as the two started wrestling. In the background, Marcy and Skara couldn't help but fawn over their girlfriends' bicep game.

Later Cat, Bo, Amelia, and Marcy were playing Merlock Cart while Skara did Willow, Luz, Amity, Anne and Viney's nails using magic, changing them into either claws or tentacles. Later still the girls had a pillow fight… by fighting against the living monster pillows that Luz ended up animating.

Eventually the girls ended up in a circle, talking and chatting with each other while eating snacks. Luz and Marcy were intrigued about how Luz and Amity met and got together.

"So you two were like enemies turned lovers?" Anne asked.

"Yeah, it was rocky but eventually we learned to overcome our differences and we grew closer together," Amity replied.

"What about you two?" Luz asked Anne and Marcy "How did you two end up as an item?"

"Well, me, Anne, and our other friend Sasha spent a lot of time with each other over the years. And as I mentioned earlier, I got myself appointed official Newtopia ambassador to Wartwood, which was really…"

"Just an excuse to see me," Anne finished, causing Marcy to blush. "And Sasha as well. Earlier this year, me and Mar-Mar and Hop Pop were trying to set Sprig up with his now girlfriend Ivy during the Firefly Festival. Both of us want to make that ship sail."

"But it was during that Festival me and Anne realized that we both liked each other, so we ended up asking each other out," Marcy explained. "Anne was red as a Dahlias when I said yes!"

"Honestly, I think we wanted to ask each other out for a while," Anne admitted, blushing from her girlfriend's teasing. "We just finally got around to it that night because of the romantic atmosphere and us almost getting eaten by love doves reminding us that life is too short. And even if Sprivy didn't happen that night, those two did eventually get together on their own."

"Aw, that's cute," Amity said. "Wait, Sprivy?"

"Yeah, that's Sprig and Ivy's couple name," Anne explained. "Mine and Marcy's is Marcanne. You and Luz would be…" She thought about it for a moment. "…Lumity."

"Hmm, Lumity…" Luz repeated. She smiled. "I like it."

"I have a boyfriend named Simon," Cat said, eager to be a part of this. "What would our couple name be?"

Anne considered it. "I think you and your boyfriend would be Simcat, while Skara and Willow would be Skarlow and Viney and her girlfriend would be Vinira. Me and Sprig also have a name for our sibling dynamic duo: Spranne against the world!"

The girls all shared a giggle after that.

"Man, we haven't done something like this since our last sleepover," Marcy admitted. "And that was back before… our falling out with Sasha. I may be a princess, but she was the sleepover queen." Both she and Anne sighed at that.

"What… happened between you two and Sasha?" Amity asked.

Anne was reluctant to talk about it for a second. "Remember when we explained that Sasha was found by the Toads? She was raised in Frog Valley's Toad Tower and the conditions there were more militant. Under Grime, the captain of the Toad garrison, Sasha grew up to become a soldier and was later promoted to his second-in-command. Amphibia was… tough on her. It got to the point that each time we saw her, she would have a new battle scar. And gradually she became more of a bully."

"When she was accompanying some other Toads to Wartwood to collect taxes, we figured out that the… previous mayor was embezzling the town's money. If not for Anne's interference, Sasha would have taken his life," Marcy said, remembering Sasha's anger.

"But we didn't realize how much she had changed until she helped Grime stage an uprising where they took Marcy hostage, intending to use her as leverage against Andrias, and tried to kill Hop Pop," Anne explained. "Apparently the Toads were tired of being disrespected by the Newts and Sasha was tired of being 'disrespected' by us, especially after I stood up to her in front of all Wartwood." She also thought that Sasha might have been jealous of her and Marcy, but she never said that part out loud. "Yet despite everything… me and Marcy don't want to believe that is beyond redemption."

"Sorry to hear that, we actually know what that's like," Skara said while she, Amity, Amelia, and Cat looked down, thinking about Boscha. "It is great that you don't think it is too late for your friend but… be careful. The only way to save your friendship is if Sasha is willing to change and some people don't want to change."

Anne nodded. "Thanks. You know, I actually did write a song for the three of us before the falling out. I was hoping that we could perform it together…"

This gave Luz an idea and she got up. "Wait right here, I'm going to go fetch Rocky," she said as she left to find her guitar.

"Who's Rocky?" Marcy asked.

"Oh, Luz's singing guitar," Willow answered.

"Singing guitar?" Anne asked in confusion.

While Luz was gone, Amity went over to Willow. "You know, it has been a long time since we did something like this," she admitted.

"Yeah," Willow agreed. She looked down for a moment before smiling. "But I am glad we can do this again, that we can be like this again."

Amity smiled. "Yeah, me too. I… I wish we had never stopped being like this."

Willow nodded, thinking about how she was not just friends with Amity again, but she was friends with Amelia, Cat, and Skara as well. Heck, she was dating Skara now. A few months ago, none of this would have seemed possible. "Hey Amity, do you still know how to braid hair?

"Yeah," Amity replied. "Wait, do you want to have your hair braided? You should probably ask Cat, she would probably be better than-"

"I want it to be you," Willow insisted. "It would be like old times."

Amity hesitated for a moment, but ultimately smiled. She didn't think it would ever be exactly like old times, since they had both changed so much since then. But while so much had changed… a lot also stayed the same.

"I once rose above the weh and confusion, just to start a revolution! I will be soaring ever higher, but I flew too high!" King sang while he was up on stage. "Though my eyes could see I was still a little demon, where my father is I wish I knew the answers, man, I almost hear his voices in my dreamin', as if I can hear him say!"

"Come along my Demon Son!" King continued to sing. "For there be a feast when you're done! And we shall play a game of catch so don't you cry no more!"

King was killing it, the other boys watching him and chatting amongst them, Steve had even joined them.

"So yeah, me and Ivy are like super close, even more so after we started dating," Sprig said, not being able to read the room and notice how depressed Edric looked. "What?"

"We told you to not mention about dating around Edric, he just broke up with his boyfriend!" Gus told Sprig.

"Oh, right," Sprig responded. "Sorry, man."

"Hey, it's cool," Edric told him. "I mean, I'm sure some of you guys have someone you're interested in."

"Not me, dude. Unlike my friend Barcus, who has a date tonight, I'm more of the married to the craft kind of guy. I have no time for relationships, at least until after graduation," Jerbo explained. "Too much drama anyway."

"Steve's got no time for romance, there was someone once but she became the one who got away because she was looking out for Steve's safety," Steve said, tears falling from his mask.

"What about you, Gus? What's the deal between you and Amelia?" Jerbo asked.

"What do you mean?" Gus asked him.

"We mean how you took her to Grom," Edric pointed out.

"As friends," Gus clarified. "I just wanted to thank her for being nice to Willow when she transferred to the Plant Track. It was no different from when me and Willow used to go to Grom together."

Jerbo and Edric looked at each other, then at Gus. "So like, you haven't picked up any hints from Amelia?" Edric asked him.

"Like how she joined the Human Appreciation Society to spend more time with you," Jerbo pointed out.

"Her best friend Cat was already in the club, she was interested in human law, and like I said we are friends," Gus defended. "I don't know what you're getting at."

"Hey guys, is sleeping part of this guys night out?" Sprig asked, noticing some of the patrons and coven scouts falling asleep at their tables. "And what's this mist?"

"Mist?" Edric asked as he noticed as well.

Jerbo was alarmed as he realized what the mist was. "That's not just mist guys… it's sleeping… nettles…" Jerbo fell asleep before he could finish. Steve, Edric, and Gus followed.

"Oh frog…" Sprig said as he was knocked out as well. Coming in were pirates wearing masks.

"Round them up," said one pirate, putting King in a bag. "The Captain's gonna reward us generously for this!"

As the pirates left with their captives, they were watched by a bat hanging out on a rooftop…

Back in the Falls, Blind Ivan was in a room full of monitors, showing that the Blind Eye Society had 'eyes' all over town. He tapped on a keyboard and the woman known as Director Gates appeared on a screen.

"What do you have to report, Blind Ivan?" Director Gates asked.

"It's the Pines twins, Director, they've discovered the Society's headquarters," Blind Ivan told her. "We managed to capture one of them and my men are looking for any other intruders."

"Which of the twins do you have?" Gates asks him.

"Mabel Pines, ma'am," Ivan answered. "What should we do with her?"

"What you always do… erase what troubles her mind," Gates ordered him. "You have my permission to proceed."

"Where'd they go?" one Blind Eye member asked out loud as he searched for the other intruders. He got his answer when he was grabbed. "Yah!" he cried as he was tied up by Soos and Mason.

"Alright Vee, do your thing!" Mason told her, unhooding the member and revealing him to be… "Toby Determined? So you are part of this!"

"Please unsee me!" Toby begged him before he saw Vee changing into her Basilisk form. "What… what are you?" he asked. She then started to change forms again and he gasped in horror. "No! My worst nightmare has become a reality!"

Standing in front of him was Vee as Toby. "You know, you really need to work on your self-image problems," she told him.

Elsewhere a tied up Mabel, Wendy, Candy and Pacifica were brought before the Society members.

"I really wish we had Grenda right now," Pacifica complained.

"I called her earlier but she had a dental appointment," Candy explained. "It was part of her affordable plan."

"Welcome trespassers… to the Society of the Blind Eye," Blind Ivan said as he walked over to them. "You shouldn't have come here though, as we do not give up our secrets lightly."

"What is your deal, you bathrobe-wearing freaks?!" Wendy demanded to know.

"And what's with the creepy British accent?" Mabel added.

"Well, I suppose we are going to erase your memories anyway," Blind Ivan said as he motioned for the other members to unhood themselves, shocking the girls with their identities.

"Bud Gleeful?" Candy asked in shock.

"Reverend Tats?" Wendy asked, recognizing the largest member of the Society.

Pacifica was shocked as she recognized her family's human butler and monkey butler. "Chapman and Chips!?"

"And creepy guy who married a woodpecker?" Mabel realized. "You too? How's the marriage going, by the way?"

"Oh, great, great," the guy with a woodpecker on his shoulder said before leaning in close to whisper. "Not great."