Chapter 60

"Alright," Strange said in a tone that made Masha suddenly very nervous, "We've successfully isolated the location of the 'Demon Realm' in the cosmos relative to our dimension but the process of brute forcing the door open will still take time and well, in terms of time, we're out. So, we're down to plan R and plan S."

"Plan R," Magik interrupted, "is we do a blind jump with one of my stepping disks and hope that we come out near our lost kid and not like, on the other side of their planet or a hundred years in the future."

"Plan S... There is a certain, immensely powerful cosmic entity who our early research into possible connections between our dimension and their own lead us to," Strange lectured. "One with an association with the handful of genuine witches who were active in New England, one with a vested interest in the creation of interdimensional portals, and who died just over ten years ago."

"...Oh no," Ford, the science twin of the two cool old dudes said as if he realized something.

"I'm afraid so," Strange confirmed without actually explaining. "However, death isn't exactly a binary state for such beings... I'd almost certainly be putting myself in debt to a different, even more powerful entity, but I may be able to summon him and pick his brain. The fact that he's dead will drastically limit his power, and if we tell him that the plan is to, pardon my phrasing, screw over a Puritan witch hunter he may be amicable to helping us."

"So... What you're saying is that our best bet for saving this kid and who knows how many other people are to whip out the old Ouija board and scare up my brother's old jerk of the week?" the other twin, Stan said.

...Well, that was an interesting tidbit that Masha filed away for later.

"Not how I would put it, but yes," Strange said bitterly.

Ford sighed. "Do it. If it's the only way then..."

"Worst case scenario," Stan added, "I killed him once already."

"You killed a cosmic entity!?" Masha shouted on reflex. "But you're just a regular old guy."

"He threatened my family," delivered in a very stern tone of voice was the only explanation they were given.

"Alright then," Strange declared. "Illyana, Loki, I don't want to take any chances. Could you help with the containment circle?"

With that request, the man, the god, and the mutant began weaving magic together forming a circle drawn in three colors, surrounded by a number of runes and a set of thirteen white and seven black candles conjured from the aether and lit with a ghostly green flame.

"Stand back, everyone, and brace yourselves."

Masha, along with everyone who wasn't a sorcerer, retreated a few feet up the path. Noticing that Vee seemed nervous, Masha threw their arm over her shoulder.

"Evael feirb a tneitap eht wolla esaelp, ltoloxA taerg," Strange declared... Masha would have to figure out what that meant later, but then the sorcerer supreme moved to Latin: "Triangulum! Entangulum! Vene foris dominus mentium! Vene foris videntis omnium!"

Suddenly, everything went grey. The scenery that was, the people were still in color... Masha could have sworn they saw a glimmer of red in a tree in the distance but it was gone when they looked again.

In the center of the containment circle appeared a flat image of a black triangle appeared coupled with sinister, high-pitched, echoey laughter before an image of an open eye appeared at the top and then the whole image burst into blue flames which engulfed it. When they cleared, a two-dimensional, stylized Eye of Providence in a tophat with little stick figure arms and legs and a glowy, prismatic crack in the base part with the brick pattern.

"Oh, oh, oh is it great to be back in the land of the living," they said in the same high-pitched, slightly distorted voice that had been laughing. "Where am I?" they asked "Gravesfield? Ugh, haven't been here since the Revolution. Oh well, anything's better than..."

The figure noticed something, or rather someone, in the group that had retreated up the path and somehow managed to float right out of the containment circle and zoom up to confront Ford. "Hey, Sixer, how have you been sleeping?"

"Like a log," Ford replied.

"How's the chest wound treating you?" Stan interrupted.

...Masha wasn't an empath, but she could feel the pure rage radiating off this figure as their eye rolled to look at the other man. "Oh, it's just fine StAnLeY," they replied and on the man's name flashed red, their eye turning black as their voice became deeper and more distorted. Then they were back to normal and turned to face Masha. "He/Him."

"Huh?"

"I may not have your species' shoddily evolved XY chromosomes, but I use He/Him pronouns in this dimension," the figure declared. "You're probably thinking of me as a they, so I just want to get that cleared up."

"Oh um, okay. I use They/Them," Masha replied.

"Oh, I know, Masha," he said in turn and they were discomforted to know that the being knew their name without them ever saying. "I know lots of things... Parker!" He said as he floated over by Spider-Man. "How's the wife?"

"We had our anniversary last month," the iconic hero replied evenly.

This was apparently not what the figure expected. "Huh. I guess that didn't happen in this timeline. Eh, my fault for not paying attention to New York. Max," he deflected while moving over to Magneto. "Or is it Erik now? It's so hard to keep up. Still having that nightmare about Old Dolphy-Boy complimenting you?" This was met with a glare and the figure moved on. "Yo, Doctor M, had to make any hard choices lately?" he said as he floated near Dr. McCoy, who responded by closing his eyes and breathing through his nose. At not getting a reaction, they moved on again. "Little Val... Still, arguing with Lunella over who's the smartest girl in the world? My money's on the kid with the dinosaur, by the way: She didn't need cosmic ray mutations to get there, after all."

"Okay, Triangulo, we called you up for a reason," Mrs. Noceda interrupted. "You're either going to help us o te voy a sacar la dulce y misericordiosa mierda a golpes."

This sparked more laughter from the entity. "You think I'm afraid of an old woman and the flip-flop she keeps in her purse? Tell me, Camila... How come you didn't realize anything was up when your 'daughter' wrote back talking about how much she loved learning about mortgages? I mean, real out of character for her. And you were texting with her the whole time. Wouldn't she have said something then?" This made Camila flinch.

"You leave Mama alone!" Vee shouted, seemingly finding her strength when her adoptive mother was threatened.

"Oh, and here's the identity thief herself," the figure said. "Basilisk Number Five, Roman numerals that is. You had the chance to name yourself anything you could want and you basically chose to keep your slave name. Lame. How does it feel knowing that the only reason you're alive and happy is because you lucked into finding the one family that wouldn't begrudge you for trying to replace one of them? Anyone else would have... Well, your new sister does taxidermy doesn't she?" Then suddenly his eye became a mouth full of sharp, curved fangs that nashed in Vee's face.

Vee screamed, fell back, and lost control of her shape reverting to her true form. Masha immediately moved to put themselves between Vee and the figure. "Okay, Buster, you wanna go?"

"I'm not scared of a gothy teratophile either," the figure deadpanned.

In response, Masha punched him and their hand moved right through... "Huh..."

It then occurred to them that, well, the sorcerers in their group hadn't reacted all that strongly to the figure breaching containment. In fact, from the corner of their eye, she could see Loki holding Strange and Magik back.

Then it clicked. Masha went through their litany of magical gestures and opened their third eye... Of course!

Masha drew the ambient magic of Gravesfield to themself and then released it all in a pulse: Suddenly, all the color returned to their surroundings and the figure was back in the containment circle. Or rather, had never left to begin with.

"It was all a trick!" They declared. "He uh... The circle stops him from getting out, but... In order for us to see him, and for him to see us, the circle has to allow for perception so... So illusions are still on the table."

"Very good, Masha," Loki declared with a single clap of their hands. "Gold star!"

"Alright, it's safe to move it back in," Strange declared. Moments later, everyone was once again spread out in the clearing around the old shack, (Vee back in human form) and the interrogation began. "Alright," Strange began, "right now a fanatical puritan witch hunter who has extended his life through unnatural means is trying to murder an entire nation full of weird people for failure to conform to his own repressive and self-serving values. The only way we can stop him and preserve that weirdness is—"

"If I help you open WiTtEbAnE's portal so you can resce the baby Queen in Black," the figure interrupted, flashing red again.

"...Yes," Strange confirmed. "Can you?"

"Of course! I'm the one who thought that backward SoB wormhole theory in the first place! There's a trick for opening it from this side and boy, are you all gonna feel stupid that you couldn't guess it."

"...And?" Camila asked while stepping forward.

"And... What's in it for me?" the figure asked again. "I mean, don't get me wrong, if you'd asked me about this ten years ago I'd have done it just to spite old Philip but, well... You know, ten years ago I wasn'tixfnlqj dead! You want me help, you gotta do something for me." The figure's hand was engulfed in blue flame. "A deal: I tell you how to open it from this side, and I slip into one of your bodies long enough to hitch a ride back to Gravity Falls and get mine back. Capische?"

"Or," Magik interrupted while brandishing her giant glowy anime sword, "you tell us and I won't cut your soul to ribbons."

"You wouldn't have called me from beyond if you thought you had any choices better than me," the figure argued. "I hold all the cards here, and nothing can change that."

Just then, Camila's phone went off. She checked it on habit and..." ¡Ay, gracias a Dios! It's Luz's girlfriend, they're just outside the portal and Luz is trying to fast-talk this Belos jerk."

"Well, I guess we didn't need you after all," Strange deadpanned.

"...Okay, before we get too hasty," the figure began, his tone changing completely, "I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot. Now as I was saying—"

"When you get back to the Theraprism," Strange interrupted, "give my regards to Dormammu, would you?" Then, with a snap of his fingers, the figure vanished with a scream.

Camila's phone went off again. "Luz talked Belos into sparing her friends, he's about to open the door."

Everyone braced themselves and as the door opened and an old dude with a scar over his broken nose opened the door Camila suddenly became a woman possessed, moved faster than someone of her build should have, and punched him in the face hard enough to send him stumbling back.

As Camila backed off and started shaking her hand various heroes rushed in. Brainstorm stayed behind, as did the rest of the civilians, and... Vee was shaking and muttering to herself. Focusing an ear, Masha noted that their girlfriend was saying "For my hermana" over and over again.

"You wanna help?" They whispered.

"Yeah," Vee replied.

"But you're scared?"

"Umhmm."

Masha took Vee's hand. "Together? On three?"

"Alright... One... Two... Three!"

With that, they both ran into the portal while Mrs. Nceda called out behind them. Immediately upon crossing the threshold the ambient magic became like a hundred times denser and about twice as dark. The first sight they saw upon stepping into the demon realm was a little black witch boy with his eyes glowing blue doing somethingto an antlered skeleton monster made of rotten green slime. It didn't seem particularly pleasant for either of them but the boy faltered first. The monster then took a swing at the boy only for him to vanish in a flash of gold.

Moments later Masha caught sight of the boy again, now in the arms of an older boy who... Might be albino, question mark? Th older boy was also covered in glowy lines and looked very much worse for wear and... Bore a striking resemblance to depictions of Caleb Wittebane.

In response, the monster turned to face him and its head shifted into that of the old dude from earlier. "Hunter," he said, "why are you hurting me? All I—"

He didn't get to finish because Masha blasted him with "The Flames of the Faltine!" If this guy was Philip then this Hunter, who looked kinda like Phiip's brother, was probably related to him and they knew an abuser trying to gaslight a victim when they saw it.

The creature, back in full monster form, turned back to them but was then pelted by several masks that she assumed were only gold plated, given who they saw from the corner of their eye, which seemed to severely startle the creature. Then a web grenade hit the ground between its feet and detonated, trapping it, trapping Philip, in a mass of sticky silk-like goo just as Magick came up and sliced right through it with her mighty Soul Sword, which did not apparent physical harm to the creature or its bindings but caused it to howl in pain regardless.

"You shouldn't be here," Magick said as she turned to face Masha and Vee.

"Luz is family," Vee insisted nervously. "I need to help."

Magick gave them both a look, then replied. "Either guard Strange and Loki or help with the evacuation."

Shortly after that command was given, Masha noted that Dr. McCoy was escorting the two boys from earlier, the possible albino noticeably leaning on the mutant even as he used a staff topped with a cardinal (palisman, question mark?) to support his weight. The two were handed off to the Pines brothers, standing just outside the portal door, who helped them over the threshold. Beast then ran back to where a chubby but muscular girl brandishing a bee/hummingbird-topped staff was. The slime monster that was once Philip was entrapped in vines just as it managed to ooze out of its web prison.

"Over here," Vee said quickly and suddenly dragged Masha over to the other side of the room. There were Strange and Loki, but also Luz and Amity. Luz had gotten a nasty cut over her eye at some point and, like the older boy had glowing lines over her body and looked like she could barely stand even as she leaned on a staff topped with... Stringbean? Even leaning on her staff and with Amity helping her up she looked moments away from collapsing. Standing around them were Strange and Loki, working spells.

"Status report?" Masha asked.

"The mistress of abominable coffee that you're blackmailing me into helping rescue refuses to leave until she sees with her own eyes that the problem is resolved," Loki began, "and her girlfriend refuses to leave without her, so Strange and I are trying to reverse-engineer the draining spell in an attempt to find some way to cancel or reverse it but... Well, Moon Magic is outside my area of expertise."

"We just need to buy a little more time," Luz said shaky voice. "Just, just a little."

"Luz," Amity said with clear concern and... Was she crying? "You've pushed yourself so hard today. You don't... I'm sure King's got it handled, just... Safety's right there," she gestured to the door. "You don't have to—"

"Yes, I do," Luz insisted. "This is... I can't stop this myself, the least I can do is see it through to the end. To make sure that..."

"Okay," Amity agreed with clear reluctance. "Then at least let me..." Amity handed her cat-topped staff to Luz, letting her support herself with it in addition to her own, and then drew an orchid-colored circle in the are and manifested a badass-looking electric guitar made of bronze and something purple, the word "Dulzura" emblazoned on it, and started to strum and pic, playing a simple but rather tense and mournful melody as...

Masha suddenly felt invigorated, and could also smell the universe. "What's that?"

"The funeral dirge of the dark lord," Amity said suddenly. 'It was originally a warrior's march until... Well, the lord who had it composed didn't live to see it finished. When used with bard magic, it's supposed to give the listerns the stamina to..." Th witch sniffed. "See things through to the end. It's a basic bar spell, but... I just wish it wasn't something so morbid right now," she said even as she kept playing.

"It's fine," Luz said. "Feeling better already." It was pretty clear that she was lying.

"Luz," Vee started to say, "Mama will be... Really upset if you... And I've barely gotten to know you. Are..."

"Not gonna die," Luz said. "I just... Need a little more time. King... King's got this."

Vee looked to Luz, then back to Amity, then back to Masha, then nodded as if she'd explained some sort of plan. "Executive decision," she declared before shapeshifting into someone with the general appearance of Doctor McCoy and trying to pick Luz up and physically carry her over to the portal.

"No, no!" Luz demanded. "Put me down! This isn't fair, I don't have the strength to fight back right now!"

Loki and Strange more or less gave up on their own spell work but Amity kept playing as she followed after Vee. They were almost to the door when the rotten green slime of the monster that had been Philip oozed away from where it was fighting the others and reformed between them and the door.

"Four centuries, I've fought to protect humanity from Lucifer's Ilk and the monsters of this blasted perdition! I've sacrificed everything, even my own humanity to protect the world and on the cusp of my victory, I am attacked and besieged by monsters, sorcerers, and witchbreed from both worlds! No more! You all die here! And when this realm is cleansed, I'll turn my eye back toward saving the home I loved from itself!" The monster was shot in the back, courtesy of Ford at the door, but seemed to pay it no mind.

He raised a hand twisted into a blade and moved to swing it down. From the corner of their eye, Masha saw Spider-Man start to move to intercept only to have a full body shudder, and knowing what it meant when that happened to the world's most famous precog Masha braced themselves for the worst...

...Which never came, as the monster's blow was blocked by a floating little boy in blue and grey pajama-like robes.

"...Collector," the monster said with palpable fear. "You're... Free. Just as I promised."

"You lied to me, Philip," the... Collector said. "You pinky swore that once we were done with your boring game you'd let me out and we could play one of mine."

"Well, you see—"

"But I'm not mad," the Collector said cheerfully. "I just wanna play... How about... Who can poke the softest?" The Collector then booped the monster, Philip, on the nose... And he immediately splattered all over the ground. "Oops," the Collector then said. "Guess I lose."

"Collector!" called out a voice that was disturbingly similar to that of the being they'd tried summoning earlier. "Remember, you need to stop the draining spell before we can play."

"Ooh! Sorry, King!" the boy said with genuine cheer, and then...

Well, he floated to the center of the room and made the 'raise the roof' motion, and part of the roof actually raised up off of the structure they were in, revealing a red sky, an eclipse, and a whole lot of energy flying up in a pillar and wrapping around the moon. The Collector then pointed to the moon and dragged his finger, causing the moon to follow. Immediately as it was moved out of place the pillar of energy vanished as did the lines on Luz's body.

Luz, clearly still exhausted but getting her second wind, twisted out of Vee's grip and hit the floor in a crouched position. Amity stopped playing as Luz handed both staffs to her, and as the Collector seemed distracted by something she made motions to a little kitty-wolf cub-looking guy with a skull for a face to get over here but he responded by shaking his head and motioning for everyone else to get through the portal.

Everyone began to congregate near itLuz silently refused just as the Collector said "You know King, if we're gonna play that Owl House game you told me about... We're gonna need a house."

The ground began to shake as the structures there were in underwent more changes, bits of it moving and...

"Everyone through the portal, now!" someone commanded though in the confusion Masha wasn't able to hear who, and the next few moments were a commotion until everyone was on the other side... Except for Luz. She remained crouched in the structure on the other side and slick purple tendrils of living abyss formed a cloak around her. Spider-Man, not being one for leaving people behind, sent forth two weblines to try and tug her to safety only for Luz to jump at the last second and crawl in a disturbingly inhuman way toward where the small creature was standing.

"Come on, King," they could hear Luz say. "We have to..."

"I'm sorry, Luz," the creature, King replied. "Please... stay safe."

Luz tried to grab King but before she could he made a loud "Weh!" sound and she was sent flying back through the portal just as the door slammed shut.

Luz was caught by Strange, but immediately jumped out of his arms and threw the door open again but... No portal. Just the interior of an old house. She closed the door, knocked on it a few times in a rhythmless pattern, opened it again, and still no portal.

Luz then fell to her knees.

"It's going to be alright," Strange reassured. "Now that we've been there once, we can make a new portal. But that Collector figure... That's a variable we didn't prepare for, discretion is the better part of valor."

"He wasn't supposed to be a threat," Luz said...

"So how many omnipotent children are we up to?" Masha heard Loki whisper.

"Does my brother still count?" Val whispered back.

"It shouldn't take that long to find or make a way back there," Strange continued. "And with the draining spell stopped... Well, if you survived so did everyone else. We'll get everyone back to the friends and family soon. Until then... Your friend seems to have a decent grasp on... It's going to be okay."

Luz stood up and, almost robotically walked to where her mother was standing. Mrs. Noceda hugged her dought for the first time in months, and it started to rain just as Luz broke down crying.

TLOA

He'd thought he was so clever, hiding out in the middle of Whogivesafrig, Connecticut. Why would anyone think to look for him there? Then the other day a whole bunch of supers came out of the woodwork and damn near gave him a heart attack until he realized they weren't here for him. But, well, that raised questions: What reason did so many big names have to come out here?

Luckily, he was very good at camouflage and at moving silently, and thankfully enough they didn't have someone like Wolverine or Daredevil with them. He was able to find a vantage point in the tree line as they did their work on that old teardown of an antique house... It became apparent that they were on some kind of rescue mission. Apparently, the front door was a portal to some kind of hell dimensions or something, and a local woman's kid and her friends were stuck on the other side. He'd watched the heroes scramble to pull off the rescue before some deadline that was supposed to kill everyone on the other side of the door, even summon some kind of weird triangle spirit before getting a hail-mary and pulling things off just in the nick of time, pulling out four elves and girl that was... Black or Hispanic or Black Hispanic. or something. Obviously the local woman's daughter.

The kid was clearly not having a good time, but that wasn't what caught his interest. The girl had been touched by the Living Abyss, and it was deep in there. And there was power in the girl. Power she'd barely tapped... And even if he couldn't sense that, well, the sharp-dressed triangle fella had called her a baby Queen in Black.

Needless to say, the girl had his attention. He was still resting, of course. But once he'd regained his strength, when he was good and ready and fresh... He'd go for her, take the power she was wasting for his own.

He investigated the building himself, once the heroes had packed up their equipment and he was sure they weren't going to be back for the night. The door closing on its own was weird, but he'd dealt with weirder, and his thoughts turned back to the girl... Once he had her power... Well, there was one thing that wasn't in question.

There was gonna be Carnage.