To be Chained By Love, Part 2
To Be Chained By Love.
Amity
_______
Amity knew she probably should’ve stayed back with Camila. Made sure the soul was okay. Check the memories to see what was missing. But she needed help. Help save Song. Help make sure her friend stayed alive.
That was her wish, after all, and Amity had done a damn shitty job of respecting it. She was gonna make up for it.
But we can’t kill one person to bring another back.
Her step-brother's voice rang in her ears. She gripped Ghost as they sped towards the knee. She would make it up to Song. And despite how much that voice in her head begged for Luz back, she would make sure Song lived.
“What's the plan?” Hunter asked.
“You and Gus to recon, get back to us, and the Eda, Willow, and I will get Song out,” Amity told him. Hunter nodded, pulling to the left with Gus while Amity grouped with Eda and Willow.
“We going in spells blazing Boots?” Eda asked.
“Hunter and Gus are scouting, then spells blazing,” Amity responded. Eda nodded, diving toward the trees for cover. Amity and Willow followed, coming to a stop near a small clearing. They all landed, retreating into the darkness for cover. The Collector then burst into existence next to Eda, a grave look on their face.
“Another ring burned out,” they said. “Songy’s trying to use her magic! It’s just gonna burn out her glyph even more!” Amity gulped and put Ghost into hammerspace. She wouldn’t be needing her palisman for this battle.
“Kiddo, you shouldn’t be here,” Eda said gently.
“I wanna help,” Colin pouted.
“I know, but we don’t know how Song will react to you,” Eda said. “She’s made from the titan that put you in the mirror in the first place.”
“They should help,” Amity said, putting her arm on The Collector's shoulder. “The Titan Trappers might even be put off guard by your presence.”
“Yes! I can puppet them for you!” Colin said with glee, lifting off the ground. Willow shrugged her shoulders at Amity, who in turn nodded at the Collector.
“Yeah, go ahead and do that, but make sure Song is safe first,” Amity told them. The collector giggled creepily, one that Amity wasn’t sure she liked. Then in a blip of golden light, Hunter appeared.
“Follow me,” he said, signaling with his hands. Amity followed quietly, with Willow, Eda, and The Collector following closely behind. Amity could tell that the star child was having a hard time staying quiet, playing with their hands incessantly as they crept along the forest. Then she saw it. A clearing in the first lit by a great bonfire in the middle. Surrounding it were grungy blue tents with stars on them. Amity couldn’t see Song anywhere, but before they could approach, the Collector shot towards the center of the camp and snapped their fingers, which created a large-
BOOM.
“Heya Titan Trapper meanies!” They yelled, “No one hurts my friends!”
All hell broke loose. Titan Trappers either bowed to Colin or went to subdue him, rambling about the star child having been cursed. They began to puppet them one by one, but there were still plenty of trappers left, some having noticed Amity and the rest.
“FIND SONG!” Amity yelled, squeezing her hands. She felt her magic wash over her body. The different elements she was made of. Carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, lime, phosphorus, saltpeter, iron, fluoride. She separated them into categories and extended her arm. On her command, her arm morphed into a blade made of abomination goo, just like Darius had taught her.
Amity then slowly converted the rest of her body into the wonderful purple slime. The Titan Trappers looked shocked as she melted into a puddle and reappeared behind them, bringing her blade down to one of their shoulders. He howled in pain as Amity threw him into a tree, with Amity summoning a shield of goo to block a blast of magic from another.
Amity was vaguely aware of the others fighting off other titan trappers, but she was focused on the Collector, who zipped around, snapping their fingers and puppeting trappers. She was gonna have to get them to undo it later, but right now, that was acceptable. She barely registered some of the titan trappers pulling out a piece of mirror which they began to shove at Colin, who became afraid.
Amity recoiled as someone slung a boulder through her midsection, but she was able to reform from the abomination goo and twist the witch's arm backward as they tried to do another spell.
“Amity!” a voice rang out from the battlefield. Amity turned around, looking for the source. She saw Hunter waving her over, pointing towards a tent. Growling at the Titan Trapper she had pinned under one of her claws, she teleported over to Hunter.
“What’s going on?” Amity grunted, shifting her body to protect Hunter from a blast of magic.
“That tent,” Hunter pointed. “She’s in there!” Amity nodded, lunging through the tent flap doors. It was bad. Song was pinned face down to the ground of the tent; breathing half-titan breathed shallowly. Her eyes were open, the golden pools rusty, dim, and unfocused. Amity solidified her body and knelt down near her, running her hand gently through Song’s hair. The ground was sticky and damp, Amity's hands getting covered in purple fluids as she knelt near Song.
“Song?” Amity asked, giving her a gentle shake. Song whimpered, her eyes weakly focusing on Amity.
“Shoulder,” She rasped. Amity looked at Song's shoulder and nearly blew a gasket at what she saw. A bone-white harpoon had been impaled through Song’s left shoulder, and not only that had been left there. Then Amity realized why the ground was so sticky. Song's blood was caking the ground, all stemming from her torn-up wings. Amity swallowed back bile as she realized her friend was never going to fly again.
“Hunter!” Amity called. Her brother rushed in, the sounds of battle slowly becoming more frantic. Amity wondered why it was like that. Colin should’ve been taking care of them easily.
“Help me with her!” Amity told him, pointing at the harpoon. Song mumbled something, but Amity just shushed her.
“Don’t use your magic, Song,” Amity told her. “It’ll just hurt you.”
Song gave a weak nod while Amity reached underneath her right shoulder to steady her. Hunter grabbed Song's left side, and he and Amity hoisted Song together. Song screamed as Hunter held her damaged shoulder, but there was nothing they could do. Song was already bleeding so much; if they took the harpoon out, there was a good chance she’d bleed out.
“How are we gonna get her out?” Hunter asked.
“Colin’s gonna have to teleport us,” Amity grunted, shifting her stand to hold Song better. “There's no way we can fly her on our palisman” Hunter gave Amity a nod, pushing aside the tent flaps.
Before she could even react, Amity was on the ground, a burning pain coming from her stomach. She looked down to see a large chunk of her stomach had been burned through, leaving charred skin and clothes. Amity couldn’t even register the pain, just that something was wrong. Through blurred vision, she watched Hunter fend off two titan trappers, but she couldn’t see Song. She looked around for The Collector, but she couldn’t see them. They should easily be able to deal with these trappers!
Amity tried getting back up, but the pain in her gut wouldn’t allow her. Then a ringing filled Amity’s hearing. It was like her hearing was completely filled with the blaring of horns and the reverb of stereos. Amity clutched her head, trying to block out the sounds, but it was like they were coming right from her head.
Opening her eyes to look, she saw Song hunched over, drool dripping from her mouth in a furious snarl. Her remaining circle on her chest was glowing bright, the gold of her eyes as bright as the stars themselves. Her wings, torn and bloody, were extended to their full length, bent and crooked. Moonlight poured through the tears as Song used them to shield Amity from more magic.
A chill shot down Amity's spine as Song roared, purple-gold magic shooting from her mouth. Amity gulped, squeezing her hands to her head as she read Song's lips.
“DIE!”
The ringing in Amity’s ear went silent, and she looked weakly up at Song. The battlefield was silent, strewn with the bodies of Titan-Trappers. Amity’s friends were totally fine, but Amity was focused on Song. The Half-Titan looked down, her eyes rusted and unfocused. Amity just barely noticed before Song fell on top of her.
The last ring on her glyph had burned out.
To Be Chained By Love.
King
____
BOOM
King rushed out of the Owl House to see his Mom and Willow holding up Song. Her eyes were glazed over, the glyph on her chest blackened and dark. Camila wasn’t far behind King, holding the lamp and memories in her arms.
“King!” The Collector boomed, appearing next to him. He was shaking, holding a bag of shattered glass in one hand. King recognized it as the mirror that used to contain him. He’d have to ask about that later.
“We have to do it now, or else she’s going to die!”
“What?” King asked.
He barely even noticed Hunter rushing Amity inside the house, a gaping hole in her side. King looked at Song; her eyes glazed, the gold that should’ve been there replaced by sickly brown. He didn’t want to see Song die. He’d already seen his sister die. He didn’t want to lose the chance to know his second one. He never wanted to see Luz or Song, whoever they decided to be, die again, but- he remembered Hunter's words.
He needed to give Song that choice.
Willow and Eda layed Song down on her side and began working on her wings, which King noticed were torn and broken beyond use. Gus then began coaxing a harpoon out of Song’s shoulder, a harpoon that King knew in his gut was made from Titan’s Bone. However, the wound healed; it wasn’t ever going to be the same again.
But none of that mattered if Song died. King gulped and turned away from his half-sister to look up at Camila.
“Camila?” King asked, “Can I have the lamp?”
“What are you going to mijo?” Camila asked, lowering the lamp.
“Give her a choice,” Kind said, taking Luz’s soul gingerly into his hands. Camila then handed Colin the amulet full of memories. He then walked over to Song and got on his knees so he could make eye contact with her.
“King?” Song said, her eyes focusing slightly. “Oh, it's nice to see you.” She murmured sleepily, holding a claw out for King. King held his hand back and looked at Song in her eyes.
“Song, I want to give you a choice,” He told her, putting the lamp down next to him. “The choice to have the chance to live as yourself, or the choice to,” King gulped and wiped away a tear, “the choice to die as yourself.”
Song's eyes focused ever so slightly, tiny flecks of gold lighting up in them. “A choice?” she asked.
King nodded, grabbing the dirt expectantly.
“The choice for the chance to live?” She asked again. King made eye contact with her, and then almost unoticibnly, Song nodded.
She placed her claw over Kings and squeezed, murmuring, “I choose for the hope to live.”
King nodded, squeezing Song’s claw in return. He turned to Colin and gave them a nod. The Collector smiled, called out,
“Everyone’s back up!” Colin then pulled out the amulet, “I’m doing the memories first, and then we’re going to do the soul!”
Everyone began backing up, King’s mom giving him an assuring rub on the shoulder as she passed by. Colin then began unraveling the glowing blue chains they had wrapped around their body and began chanting out loud.
“Memoirs of stars, I summon you back,” Colin chanted, holding the purple amulet up high.
“Go home, be whole, live life on track!!” Colin then jabbed the amulet into Song’s neck, and she screamed, her eyes lighting up purple as the amulet crumbled to dust. Song then started convulsing, shaking, purple magic seeping from her body.
“IT HURTS! STOP IT!” She shrieked, trying to get up, but her injured body betrayed her. She fell back down on her knees.
“King, now!” Colin yelled, throwing the glowing blue chains over Songs seizing body. King grabbed the lamp that held Luz’s soul and stuck his hands inside, grabbing the burning ball of golden fire.
“Soul of the Stars and Earth,” King yelled, the words just coming to mind. It was completely intuitive. Like he just knew what to do. “Lost; nearly gone, but found again.”
“Chain of the suns, I call you down!” The Collector yelled, pulling the chains tight.
Song began to cry tears of sparkling pink and purple, trying her best to break out of the chains. She kept screaming about the pain, but King did his best to ignore it, knowing that this was the only way to save her. King quickly noticed Stringbean wrapped around Song’s neck, trying her best to calm the half-titan down. The Palisman had cracks forming around her small body, glowing with bright blue and purple light.
“To bind this soul back to the ground!” King continued, grabbing Song’s claw as he lifted the soul to her face.
“To make this being whole henceforth,” Colin yelled, trying the chains around Song.
They then began to seep into her body, becoming part of her. The fur on the left side of her body rapidly began to lose color, turning a pale white. King gulped, and steeled his resolve. He drew a three-ringed glyph with his left claw and shoved it forward. Colin sped down next to King and placed a glowing blue star in the center of the middle ring. Together they pushed it onto Song’s chest, replacing the broken one.
“IN HOPE THAT SHE LIVES ONCE MORE!” King howled, pouring magic into his words. King squeezed the soul and shoved it into Song's eyes. Song screamed, her titan's voice taking into effect, and King was blown back, hitting his head and falling into unconsciousness.
Three to Be
Song
_______
“Hey! You okay?”
Song felt a light tap on her shoulder, followed by a jab. She winced, waiting for pain, but didn’t feel any. She opened her eyes and looked around. She was greeted by lilac and white walls of milky water, very much like King’s inbetween.
“Necitas ayudo?” asked the voice, a hand coming into view.
“No, estoy bien,” Song said, waving away the hand. She pushed herself up, brushing the water off her fur before realizing that some of it had been stained white by the water.
“Aye, tu es muy alto!” the voice exclaimed. Song turned around to look at where the voice was coming from and was left stunned. In front of her, standing in the same old and tattered outfit that she wore, was a girl around her age.
“Hi!” The girl said excitedly, sticking out a hand.
“I’m Luz!”