Chapter Text
Everything was falling apart. The ground beneath her was floating back, piece by piece being pulled by the being that called itself the Collector as they warped everything around them.
They had no chance to escape except for the portal, the entrance was already nothing more than a swirl of rubble that gravitated around the Collector. Luz knew that the only way out was to leave everything.
She didn’t want to leave though. Thoughts of Eda and everyone still left in the epicenter of the horrible spell that was disguised as the day of unity ran through her mind. Were they safe? Just because the spell was stopped doesn’t mean they’re safe, doesn’t mean Luz should just leave them.
But Amity had looked her in the eye and pleaded with her to run. Luz knew then that her girlfriend didn’t want to leave either, she still had family here with her siblings and father, but she knew that they had no choice.
It was either run to the portal, their only exit, or stay and face the thing that made Belos nothing more than a splat on the wall. Who moved the moon itself with a simple swipe of their fingers.
So Luz followed, letting Amity pull her arm and lead her toward the portal.
The portal that was cracking at the seams, ready and willing to follow the trail of rubble and toward the Collector.
She shared a wide-eyed look with King when she noticed it, and when she locked eyes with her little brother she knew he noticed it too. The power of the portal was flashing, white-yellow light dimming with each crack in the gateway. Even when she saw her friends open the door, the swirling pattern of the doorway dimmed and glowed just as much as everything else surrounding it.
Her steps slowed as the swirls and colors refused to change into the window to the human realm she recognized, as Hunter glanced around as if trying to find something in the mix of colors, until she came to a complete stop, her arm falling out of Amity’s grasp.
The portal wasn’t working. It was breaking apart. Their only exit, only way to safety despite its resulting isolation, was failing.
Luz scowled, determination bright and hot as lava fueling her movements as she scattered paper slips of plant glyphs on the ground by her feet.
The portal was going to fail. She wasn’t going to let it.
Planting her feet and activating every glyph she could she let loose the thick vines of magic and pulled.
The pieces of the portal snapped back together and as soon as the colors of the in-between realm flickered to forest green and the sound of rain Hunter jerked to attention. His panicked movements were now replaced with tense shoulders as he stepped back.
“It’s human rain. It’s ok” Gus was quick to reassure as he glanced at Hunter and Willow beside him before hurrying through the portal.
The other two teens were quick to follow, unaware of how in that brief second when they looked away the portal shifted. Instead of a forest hidden underneath a gray sky with wide trees and reaching branches, a landscape familiar to only one appeared with deep blue hues of dusk leaving the tall oak trees barely visible behind the harsh rain, only to once again be replaced by the old image of a new world.
Luz watched them all go as she continued to activate glyph after glyph, her breaths quickening in panic as the walls around them slowly shrunk more and more as they flew off toward the Collector behind her. Blinking tears from her eyes she watches as Amity stops just before the portal and turns back to her.
Immediately Luz knows what Amity is trying to say, what she’s pleading for all over again. She wants Luz to come with, but this isn’t just because she can’t bear the thought of- of abandoning Eda, it’s because she can’t leave.
The portal was falling apart still and it was taking everything Luz had to just hold it together with each second feeling more grueling than the last as she fought against the Collector's pull.
She tried to explain, tried to tell Amity to just go while she still could and that Luz would figure something out- she had to, no she would- and that they would see each other again.
But then the Collector started to pull on something that wasn’t just the walls around them.
The weight on her shoulder was quickly ripped away as a panicked ‘Weh’ reached her ears and Luz spun around and reached out a desperate hand.
“King!” She shouted as she grabbed onto his hand. Her eyes flickered back and forth between King and the vague body who was obscured by the sun behind them.
Her breathing became frantic now as her mind raced. She needed to figure out what to do- she need to- she couldn’t lose King she couldn’t lose her brother-
She could hear the Collector say something- say King’s name- and Amity screaming for her, but all she could do was watch helplessly as King was pulled more and more out of her grip.
Then all she could do was listen with tears freely falling down her face as her brother apologized. As he promised to keep her safe. As he said goodbye.
His magic pushed her back and in an instant her body was ramming into Amity’s and pushing the two of them back and through the portal. Luz’s hands sink in the dirt beneath her as she falls hard to the ground from the force.
Immediately she pushes herself up, shouting a desperate plea as more tears fall and meld with the soft pitter patter of rain while she runs to the door with an outstretched hand, all the while watching helplessly as the image of King slowly getting smaller and smaller- farther and farther away.
She runs to the door but before she can reach it a harsh bang rings out and Luz slams into the now closed door. She doesn’t let that stop her as she pushes herself back and grabs the handle, swinging the door open so she can follow him and-
But he’s not there. No matter how many times she closes and opens the door again, all that meets her is an empty decrepit room with the back wall of windows a shattered mess with vines and dead bushes covering the walls and floors around the old table and furniture.
After the third time she opens the door, Luz stops and just… stands there.
Her eyes slowly scan the room as if one of the plethora of cracks and holes in the floorboards would be a new portal, a new way for her to follow her- her baby brother.
But there was nothing.
Slowly she turns around, back towards her friends who watch her frozen with varying expressions of shock on their faces.
Gus is the first to break, the first it seems to feel the full weight of what a door showing only an empty decrepit room meant as heavy tears form in the teen’s eyes and he falls to the ground sobbing.
And still Luz just… stands there.
She wants to look away, away from the reality that peaceful non-boiling rain meant, what the decrepit room behind her meant, what her friends being here meant, but she can’t.
Instead she looks up and behind them, at the world around them, and one simple thought manages to breach the numb feeling that blanketed itself over her mind.
‘I’ve never seen trees like these before’
Despite what his sidekicks say, Hawks has a reason for waking up at quote “such an ungodly hour of the day”. He usually goes with the excuse that he likes to keep a routine and, well, you know what they say right? The early bird gets the worm and what could be earlier than five in the morning?
But the truth was, he liked the quiet such an early morning gave him.
Not that the city was quiet by any means, even from his penthouse of a home that sat at the top of the building the faint sounds of city life around him could be heard if you listen hard enough.
No, he means that at such an early hour there is nothing he has to do.
Sure he could get a jump start on work or he could go out for a leisurely patrol/flight around town. But that was the thing, he could. At five in the morning he didn’t need to do anything until an hour later where the sun would start to poke itself over the horizon and Hawks needed to get dressed and ready for the day ahead of him, but before then? He had an entire hour to himself.
Or, well, usually he did.
Instead of Hawks getting a good sixty minutes of freedom like normal he finds himself with only twelve as his phone dings with a notification. A ding that sends a chill down his spine.
See, he’s the number two hero now. Only one step up from number three but either way it meant he was busy. If he had his phone on anything other than silent it would be going off at every hour of the day be it with important emails or just silly social media notifications. That’s why his agency keeps an eye on his accounts, both professional and ‘personal’, there’s just so much.
This meant that Hawks only had sound on for two very specific things. Emergency situations, or when it came to this specific ring, the commission.
Hawks jumps to his phone and quickly reads and memorizes the orders before replying and quickly moving to get dressed, only actually processing the words as he gets ready.
There was a weird power fluctuation somewhere in the forests around the Fukuchi Mountains, and while that part wasn’t all that weird (or well, weird in the way that it was something Hawks specifically should look into), there were also signs of quirk usage in the form of heavy and widescale plant manipulation in the surrounding area.
That part in particular is what had the commission calling for Hawks. With his quirk it would take a matter of minutes to find the elusive person responsible for the disturbance. That is if the police havn’t found them by the time he gets there.
The first sign of quirk activity, the weird power fluctuations that preceded the plant movement by a good thirty minutes, happened almost two hours ago now and therefore so had the initial search.
And that wasn't a bad thing on paper. In fact, Hawks would happily (if a little annoyed though not by much since he wouldn’t mind a nice early morning flight) take the news that everything was fine and dandy and he was all good to head back home to enjoy the rest of his slow morning. But then there was the commission's secondary mission.
Hawks was to personally investigate the cause and apprehend whoever caused the power fluctuations. It’s easy to see that the commission is taking an interest in whatever quirk would be able to cause it, but as for why they’re interested Hawks doesn’t know nor does he really care.
He was given an order, and he had to obey.
Walking out and onto his penthouse’s large porch Hawks doesn’t resist the full-body shiver that runs down his spine at the cold air. It was only the beginning of November but still, even with Hawk’s heaviest jacket the winter air was unrelenting. Not to mention the rain that, while still just a sprinkle, did nothing to help against the chill.
Shivering again Hawks spreads his wings and fastens his goggles before taking off. At his top speed he can make it to the forest in less than ten minutes but this rain wasn’t doing him any favors and the cold made him want to turn back and curl up right there on the ground of his patio.
But Hawks was given a mission, and he would complete it. He had to.
He always had to.