Luz felt frustrated as they left the mall, seeing how quickly Hunter became withdrawn and sullen again. She'd made such incredible progress getting him to open up, but he was back to barely even looking at her again. She tried to make conversation while they waited for the bus, but he didn't respond much.

Luz asked him if he was okay. He awkwardly replied he was fine, just a little tired. She didn't believe him, but she pretended she did.

By the time the bus dropped them off by Luz's house, Camila's car was already in the driveway. Luz felt a pang of guilt for not being there when she got home, but hopefully her mother didn't mind. As they approached the front door, Luz was struck with a strange sense of uncertainty; did she knock on the door to her own house or just go in? It was weird to even stop to think about it, and normally she probably wouldn't have, but somehow, she still felt a little odd being back at home– as if she wasn't sure if she even belonged anymore.

Ignoring the weird feeling, she opened the door and called,

"Mamá, nosotros estamos en casa!"

She heard her mother welcoming them home, calling from the kitchen. They entered and found Camila was already getting started on making dinner.

"There you two are, I was worried you'd missed your bus. Here, come here Luz."

Luz approached and her mom gave her a hug and a kiss on her forehead.

"It's so wonderful to have you back home again, part of me wondered if last night was just a dream. Did you two have fun at the mall?"

Luz gave Hunter a glance and then smiled at her mom, saying,

"Yeah, actually, it was pretty awesome."

Camila was pulling vegetables out of the fridge.

"Good, I'm glad. They closed a bunch of stores there and opened a lot of new ones since you've been here, some of it must have been barely recognizable to you."

Luz nodded.

"Yeah ... hey, do you need help with dinner? I'm happy to help out."

As Camila sorted produce on the counter, she answered,

"Oh, yes, thank you, Luz."

Luz turned to Hunter, giving him an appeasing smile.

"You wanna help out too? Only if you want to, I mean– we could teach you a human recipe."

He shook his head, looking between her and Camila and answering politely,

"N-no, that's all right– I'm sure you'd like to spend some time with your mom, I don't want to get in the way of that."

Camila answered kindly.

"You'd never be in the way, but that's fine, you can leave the cooking to Luz and I."

Luz realized that Hunter might be rather bored waiting for them, though, and decided to go and show him how a human television worked. Once she'd showed him the basics of the remote control and the DVD player, she returned to the kitchen to help her mom with dinner.

The kitchen had the ingredients for soup spread along the counters, and Luz planted herself in front of one of the cutting boards to help with chopping carrots.

"So how was work today?"

Camila sighed. She had a group of potatoes by the sink and was washing them off. Shaking her head, she answered,

"To be honest, things have been pretty rough lately. We've been short-staffed ever since two of our assistants left. I've had to take up a lot of the slack. Losing our best tech was what hit us hardest, we've been so backed up."

Luz gave her a concerned look.

"Oh, no. So they quit? What was the reason?"

Camila smiled at her, reassuring,

"Oh, nothing bad, just unlucky timing. David moved to New York and Michelle started a new family, she wanted to work at home. We all had a nice going-away party. The rehiring process is such a nightmare though, ugh, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."

Camila then chuckled.

"I'm sure neither one of us wants to talk about my problems with office paperwork, though. Why don't you tell me about your day instead?"

Luz pushed her chopped carrots into a pile and started on the celery.

"Sure! Well, there was a lot of things at the mall that Hunter had no idea about, so I had a lot of fun showing him around. He really liked the arcade, we spent a lot of time there. They don't really have a lot of technology in the Demon Realm. Well, I mean, they have some technology, but not a ton? They don't have computers or anything, so there's no video games either. It's weird though, they still basically have TV and the internet, just sort of magical versions of them."

Camila gave her a somewhat bewildered look.

"Magical internet, huh?"

Luz laughed.

"Yeah! It's, like ... they have these magical scrolls they use sort of like the way we use smartphones? And it's ... hm, come to think of it, I'm not even sure exactly how it works. I don't know where the information and stuff is technically stored. Not that I know exactly how computers work, either, but. Eh, well it works somehow, so there's a lot of things that they find kind of familiar about the Human Realm, but there's also a lot of things that they don't recognize at all."

Luz realized something and added,

"Didn't Vee find a bunch of stuff confusing here? It must have been a big transition for her to suddenly live here, especially since she was hiding who she even was."

Dropping the chopped veggies into a pot, Camila explained,

"Yes, there was a lot for her to learn. There was so much she figured out on her own, though. I didn't even tell her, she just played along and must have picked things up as she went along. I honestly don't know how she did it. I know she learned a lot from her friends, but even then, she ..."

Her mother paused, looking lost in memory. Quietly, she said,

"She had me completely fooled. When I look back on things now, there were a lot of little signs that something strange was going on, but I ignored them. Or I found some way to rationalize them."

Luz remained silent, watching as her mom got out some cilantro to chop. She seemed to find the task comforting as she spoke.

"When I found out who Vee really was, at first all I could think of was the shock of knowing you were gone, and the shock of learning about all these fantastical things existing. I couldn't wrap my head around it. And there wasn't anyone I could talk to about it, other than Vee. It was ... terrifying. I felt very alone. Alone and helpless."

Luz felt a lump form in her throat as the guilt and sadness pressed down on her again.

"Mom ... I-I'm so sorry ..."

Her mother was still dutifully chopping herbs, not looking up and refusing to give into sorrow, although her voice wavered.

"In a way, taking care of Vee helped to keep me sane. She needed me, and it was something I could do. I couldn't do anything to get you back, but I could help this poor girl find her way. We were both hurting very much, but we helped each other."

She sprinkled the herbs into the pot, staring listlessly down into the soup.

"It started to get a little unhealthy, though. I realized that subconsciously, I was still treating Vee as though ... she was my daughter. It was so easy to do when she looked and sounded just like you. And Vee started to feel uncomfortable as well. She said she felt a little like a ghost, or an imposter who could never measure up. We both decided to put a little space between us. Give each other some time to process things."

Camila adjusted the burner and stirred the pot with a wooden spoon.

"I began to feel very guilty. Guilty that I hadn't noticed that my own daughter was gone and had been replaced. What sort of mother can't even recognize her own child?"

Luz protested,

"Mom, it's not your fault, she's a shapeshifter, she could fool anyone–"

Camila looked at her, answering sharply,

"I still should have realized. I should have, but I didn't."

She turned and paced away, speaking in a soft, ragged voice.

"What was even worse was that I should have prevented any of this from happening in the first place. I drove you away. You never would have stayed in that demon realm if I'd done better. I lost my daughter to some sort of literal Hell dimension because she preferred that over living here."

Luz moved closer to her mom, arguing,

"That is not true, mom, I swear! I didn't stay there because I hated you, it wasn't like that at all!"

Her mom looked at her with watery eyes. In a choked voice, she asked,

"Then why? Why did you leave?"

Luz stared at her. It felt as though her tongue turned to lead.

"I ... it ..."

The words tangled in her brain.

"I-it's complicated, mom, I– I met people there who I could understand, who were struggling with the same kind of things I was struggling with, and– I thought we could help each other, you know? And there was that camp, and I knew I– I didn't want to go to it, and–"

"So you ran away because of the summer camp?"

"Not just because of that, no! It was only supposed to be for a little while, just as long as camp was supposed to last, you know! I didn't think there'd be any harm in it–"

Camila's voice raised in pitch as she asked incredulously,

"You didn't think there'd be any possible danger in staying in some alternate dimension you knew nothing about? Luz, do you hear yourself? You stepped through a portal into another world and thought, 'This is a great spot to spend my summer'?!"

Luz scowled, crossing her arms.

"You weren't there, so of course it doesn't make sense to you. If you'd gone there, you might have understood. It was incredible there. You're going to fault me for being open-minded enough to actually explore something new and wonderful?"

Her mother suddenly looked very weary, as if the weight of too much grief was pressing down on her.

"Sweetheart, you know that I treasure you and your creativity, your sense of adventure. But if you're not careful, and you're never grounded to anything, there's a very real risk you could just float away. Do you understand what I mean? You have to think about the practical too. You have to think about your safety. The harshness of reality will catch up one day, whether you'd like it to or not."

Feeling the prickle of irritation, Luz argued,

"There you go again, talking about the Demon Realm like it's some fantasy of mine! Do you still need more proof that it's real or something?"

Camila shook her head.

"You're misunderstanding me. I know the Demon Realm is real. But I think your perception of it is, what word can I use– warped, distorted? You're looking at it through rose-colored glasses, like it's one of your fanciful witch adventures. And that's very dangerous."

Luz huffed back at her,

"I'm not! Maybe that was a little true at the very beginning, but not anymore! I've learned so much, and–"

Camila waved her hands and wearily sat down at the kitchen table.

"Luz, I don't want to argue with you anymore, please. It's enough for me that you're back now. You've got it out of your system now, you can let it go. Just tell me you'll stay here from now on and I'll be happy. We'll make it work, I promise."

Luz gazed into her mother's pleading eyes, feeling awful. Trying to word things as carefully as she could, she said slowly,

"I do want to be here, so please understand I don't want to leave forever, but ... there still is some unfinished business I have in the Demon Realm–"

Her voice picking up some heat, Camila snapped,

"Unfinished business! Luz, you're really going to prioritize that over everything else?"

"Mom, wait, you don't understand–"

She cut her off angrily,

"No, Luz, I think I do. You're still too busy indulging in your witch fantasies to make time for your human life."

Luz shot back,

"I already told you, they're not fantasies!"

"Do you even realize your little stories are hurting other people? Do you actually understand how many nights I sat alone and cried, Luz?"

Something in Luz snapped, an anger that had been coiling and coiling within and now broke free and rushed out all at once; she felt the words leap out of her like flames.

"No, mom, you don't know anything. You have no idea. You're so convinced I've been out there like some idiot role-playing my daydreams, but you don't even know the first thing about the Demon Realm. Do you know what these 'fantasies' have done?! What actually went on for me in the Demon Realm? Are you really going to dismiss all that I've been through these past months and just say it's all been meaningless?!"

"Luz–"

She cut her mother off immediately, shouting,

"No, mom– I'm going to tell you. I'm going to tell you everything whether you want to hear it or not."

She held up a finger to indicate the number one. Her voice harsh and clear, she spoke;

"I learned magic. Everything they did in school here made me want to break down and cry, they made learning things the most horrible thing to experience when it should be one of the greatest things you get to do in life. I got to actually love learning again, mom, and I was good at it. Nobody sat around and scolded me for not focusing or some crap like that. I read for hours, I practiced, I poured my heart and soul into it, and it felt wonderful. I loved every second of it. I got to learn what I wanted and I got to learn how I wanted, and nobody told me it was the wrong thing or the wrong way."

She indicated number two, carrying on with the same tone.

"I made friends. Actual, real friends, for the first time in my life. And not just one, a whole bunch. Everyone always blamed me, always said there was something wrong with me and that's why nobody ever wanted to be friends with me, I was too weird, I was too stupid, I was too whatever. But that was a bunch of bull, I knew it was, and finally someone other than you believed me. These people accepted me, they didn't care how weird I was, they– no, that's not right. They not only didn't care, but they appreciated it. Valued it. Mom, I love you more than I can even say, but I needed more in my life than just you. I needed friends too. And I actually found some."

She held up three fingers, not missing a beat and barreling on,

"I made a difference there. A real, important difference. I helped out my friends when they needed me. When something wrong was going on, I had the strength to step up and do something about it. We fought for student's rights to learn whatever they wanted and mix magic in any way that interested them. We fought off literal monsters trying to eat the students. Heck, on my first day there, I started a prison insurrection against the oppressive regime."

She took a breath, gesticulating as she ranted.

"And yeah, I messed up sometimes. Maybe a lot of times, even. But I learned from my mistakes, and I was stronger for it. I got to learn and grow. And I learned . . . so much. I can't even begin to tell you how much."

She took a few more slow breaths, trying to calm down. Once she felt some of the fire receding, she fixed her mother with a calm look. Her voice full of certainty, she said,

"What happened in the Demon Realm changed me forever. It mattered. And I'm proud of it. I'm proud of who I've become because of it. Nothing can take that away. So even if you're not proud of it, I still am."

Her mother had been listening to her diatribe in stunned silence, and now that she was finished, Luz didn't know how she'd react. At first, Camila remained silent, as if still shocked; then, her expression seemed to crumple in on itself, and she began to quietly weep. This hadn't been what Luz expected, and she wasn't sure how to respond.

"M-mom–"

Luz moved closer. Camila sunk her face into her hands, sobbing softly.

"M-mom, are you okay–"

Luz touched her arm and she shifted and pulled Luz into a hug. Confused, Luz hugged her back, trying to comfort her as she cried.

"I'm so sorry, Luz," her mother said softly, holding her tight. She repeated,

"I'm ... sorry ..."

Luz just continued to hold her, letting her cry. Eventually, her mother let go, wiping the tears from her face.

"You're right," Camila said softly, her eyes kind, full of love.

"I didn't understand. But I think I'm finally starting to."

She reached out and fixed a rumpled strand of hair in her daughter's face. In a gentle voice, she told her,

"I'll try to listen better. To everything. I want to know about everything my wonderful daughter has been through. Because, I want her to know I am– I am so proud of her."

Luz teared up, and her mother hugged her again. They both cried together for a while in the kitchen, and some of the awful weight that Luz had been carrying around for so long began to lift.

After some time, her mother pulled away again and said to her in a sad, aching voice,

"I just wish ... that you didn't feel like you had to do it this way. That you felt like you needed to run away from home and lie to me about what was going on. I never wanted you to feel like that was your only way out."

Luz's tears returned, her throat knotting up painfully.

"I-I know, mamá, I– I'm sorry I did that."

Camila touched her shoulders, telling her firmly,

"You could have talked to me, mija. I might not always understand, but I will always, always support you, no matter what. I want you to know that. I want to be somebody you know you can tell anything to."

Tears rolled down Luz's cheeks and she said,

"I know, I– I'm so sorry, mamá. I never meant to hurt you like that. I feel ... so terrible about that part. I knew it wasn't right, but by the time I worked up the courage to tell you, it was too late and the portal was gone ..."

She sniffled, wiping her face and saying shakily,

"I love you so, so much, mom. I started recording you a video every night, telling you all about the things that were happening. I didn't get to send them when we lost the portal, but ... I want to share everything, tell you everything."

She took a breath and squared her jaw, telling her,

"I promise that from now on, I'll tell you everything and not keep you in the dark anymore. No more secrets."

Her mother smiled, her voice full of gratitude and relief;

"Thank you, Luz."

They hugged again, perhaps the hundredth time, but it finally started to feel as though things were going to be okay. When Luz let go, she realized what she needed to do next. Taking a calming breath, she told her mom,

"To that end, I, um ... I have some things I need to tell you."

Her mother nodded, agreeing to listen.

And so, Luz told her mother about Emperor Belos. She told her all about his oppressive monarchy and how he was treating the people of the Boiling Isles. She explained his schemes for a Day of Unity, how he had the goal to unite the demon and human realms and create some sort of 'utopia' in his own vision. She told her mother that while they didn't know exactly what that would involve, they knew it wasn't going to be good. If left to his own devices, he would certainly make sure that a lot of good people would suffer. It was also very likely that whatever he had planned would also affect the human realm in a huge way– potentially a catastrophic way. The very fate of both realms could be hanging in the balance.

It was a pretty heavy thing to take in, hearing about an impending potential armageddon. Considering how wary Camila already was of the dangers of the Demon Realm, this certainly wasn't making her feel any better about it. But Luz had promised, and she wasn't going to mince words any more. Her mom needed to know the stakes. Luz went on to tell her that the portal she used to get here was still in possession of Belos, and she was only able to get here because Hunter decided to help her out. She explained that Hunter was technically supposed to be her enemy, but he was starting to realize the Coven he'd been serving wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Finally, she told her mom that this was why she needed to return to the Demon Realm– so that she and her friends could stop Belos. To Camila's credit, she worked very hard at taking everything in and trying to stay calm and collected. But, she understandably had a difficult time accepting the idea that her daughter wanted to spearhead a coup against a powerful and dangerous monarchy in a land full of demons and magic. It was, well, a lot to take in.

"I'm not saying that what you want to is unimportant, Luz. What you want to do is amazing. It's an incredible, wonderful thing to stand up against those kinds of injustices. And I'm so incredibly happy I've raised someone who cares this deeply. I don't think I could be any prouder. But I ..."

Camila sighed, removing her glasses to pinch the bridge of her nose.

"I guess what I really want to know is, why does it have to be you? There's this terrifying unspeakable evil that might be trying to destroy the world, and the responsibility of saving everyone has to fall entirely on my little girl? It doesn't seem fair. Don't these Boiling Isles have a whole army of people who can fight? Do you really need to get caught up in what is basically a war?"

Luz thought about her mother's questions for a while, her expression thoughtful and serious. Eventually, she answered, her voice quiet and calm.

"Well, it's not just me; it's also all my friends. I do admit our group is not a large one– we aren't an army. But we can't really apply those human ideas to the Demon Realm. Even one witch can be capable of incredible power. And when we work together, that becomes even stronger. So, what I mean is, I'm not fighting alone, but also, it's kind of important that I'm there, because it could make a huge difference for our chances."

Her mother sighed again, still sounding deeply worried. Luz continued,

"As for why it has to be me and my friends in particular ... well, I don't know. I guess it's just because we're the ones who are actually willing to speak out against what Belos is doing. A lot of people don't like Belos, but very few have been willing to actually step up and try to do something about it. So I guess ... that's why."

Camila gazed at her steadily, as if she was considering Luz's words. Her eyes were still full of worry, but a soft smile reached her face.

"Realmente eres algo especial, mija."

Luz watched as her mother closed her eyes and took a slow breath, as if bracing herself. After a moment, she said quietly,

"Ok. I understand why you want to go back to that place. Just ... give me a little time to think about all of this, all right? I only just got you back, and now I have to think about you leaving again ... I know the apocalypse won't wait around, but I just need a little time."

Luz reached across the table to squeeze her mom's hand.

"Of course, mamá."

Their quiet moment was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening, followed by a voice.

"Mom?"