Chapter 133: Hey! Scouts! Leave Those Kids Alone Part Two
Art by Crash X Fusion: They fight together for liberty, and a little vengeance.
Hexside falls under attack to the Emperor's Coven trying to brand the students, so everyone fights to take back the school.
Tropes that appear in this Chapter:
- Accidental Hero: In sticking to her stubborn beliefs, Awassi unintentionally saves her daughter from all the chaos at Hexside.
- The Ace: Emira mentions she's Hexside's top illusion student, using it as a reason to make Tamme stick together with her instead of trying to find the cheer squad on her own.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Lambi's father gets her to laugh by telling her how Awassi banned him from cooking ever again, cheering her up.Lambi: Just because I use the dark arts to make the food cook better one time, I'm not allowed to cook for you all anymore. [Lambi laughs.] Hey, I made a funny, didn't I?
- Adaptation Deviation: To "Labyrinth Runners". For starters, Gus, Amity, Boscha, and Hunter are absent. Felicia is the one who spent the night in Hexside instead of Hunter and instead of Gus, Emily is the one who puts Adrian in a catatonic state.
- Ambiguous Situation: Given that Ms. Traveler and Rosie are one and the same, and the prequel nature of Helluva Dad, has she really been Killed Off for Real?
- Amicable Exes:
- Implied aversion for Lambi's parents. They didn't work out because they followed different religions and Awassi's stubborness kept her from seeing reason with Lambi's father.
- Subverted with Emira and Tamme. Emira, who didn't care about the friends she was forced to have back when Odalia was pressuring her, stopped talking to Tamme after sabotaging and leaving the cheer squad, and not even properly breaking up with them. This is why Tamme hates Em, not because of the sabotage like Em believed it to be.
- And This Is for...: Willow gives Alburno a shiner and knocks his lights out for putting a shock collar on Skara.
- Asshole Victim:
- Alburno gets what's coming to him from Willow for putting a Shock Collar on her girlfriend.
- Adrian, despite regretting how he treated Emily at first and accepting her as his daughter, suffers a severe Mind Rape and No-Holds-Barred Beatdown at her hands because he had her parents killed.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Upon meeting up, Andrea asks Emily why she's helping Adrian brand the Hexside students. The illusionist is unable to answer.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- During Nina's fight with Emily, the werecat begins to see shapes. At first it looks like she's about to maul her former friend, but then the werecat slammed her claws to a locker next to Emily.
- When the scouts outside see Slasher, they fear he's going to wolf out on them. Instead, he pulls out a saxophone...and sends them flying with one note.
- Batman Gambit: Emily tricks the Shadowy Secret Expozers by disguising herself as Luz and leading them to Adrian and his scouts so they can capture the mystery solvers.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- The shadow who kept saving Willow's group from being captured.
- The PCA, the Parks, Tom, and Ukla attack the scouts blocking off the front of the school so they don't help the scouts being overwhelmed in front of the gym.
- Big Sister Instinct: Le'Belle develops this towards the Brooke sisters and Emily.
- Birthday Episode: Defied. Nina gets reminders for someone's birthday throughout the chapter, but we don't learn whose birthday it is. When asked, she just says it's someone who doesn't matter to her anymore.
- Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: Andrea hopes to get Emily and Nina to talk things out and be friends again but since Nina isn't interested in making amends, all Andrea gets is a front row seat to Emily evading Nina as she tries to kill her.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Raptor is seen again for the first time in 102 chapters, playing a crucial role in getting Willow, Skara, and Nina to safety.
- Sandra returns after not being seen since "Brawl Night, Part 1".
- Call-Back:
- While Willow hugs her dads, Sara's warning echoes in her head.
- Amelia brings up Willow's victory over Terra when discussing Willow's new powers.
- Ghost Rick goes after Captain Wolffe because she captured his family to get to him.
- Cassandra Truth: When Nina exposes Adrian's ruse in the gym, she accuses the Emperor's Coven of killing Ms. Traveler. She was right, but it wasn't anybody in the gym like Adrian said, but nobody believes them.
- Commonality Connection: Nina finds Felicia to be in the same position she had been in with Sonya, and encourages her to open up about what happened to her.
- Composite Character:
- Felicity takes up Odalia's role as the oracle who knows about the Draining Spell and sells out witchkind believing she'll be spared from it.
- Since Amity, Gus, and Hunter are absent, Emira, Emily, and Felicia take up their roles from canon-"Labyrinth Runners": Emira tries to make things right with a friend she left behind, Emily is the illusionist who ends up taking down Graye, and Felicia is the kid hiding out at Hexside because She Knows Too Much.
- Content Warning: One before the beginning and one before we learn what happened to Felicia.
- Continuity Nod:
- Emily-as-Adrian mentions Graye being a Hexside alumni when she enters Bump's office to set up the announcement.
- Felicia uses a ghost ball to help everyone escape, one of which asks Kikimora to be their friend. Later, Nina thinks about Bump mentioning the Abomination track ghost infestation.
- Emily knowing what the interior of the Owl House looks like stems from her brief visit after returning from the Underworld.
- Jeremy attempts to keep Amelia from interacting with Skara and Nina because they're lycans, and she disagrees with his views.
- Eve brings up Emily's team-up with the SSE when Hunter asked for their help.
- Eve relies on Archibald Corduroy's spirit to help her out of a bind, and Ghost Rick's shown to have been bonded to Summer.
- Emira lists Felicity as an even worse parent than her own, which makes her the fifth that Em knows of overall, after learning what she did to Felicia.
- Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: As Emily proceeds to wail on Adrian for his indirect hand in her suffering, Willow bear hugs Skara close to her and turns her away so she doesn't see the pounding.
- Cruel Mercy: Nina comes dangerously close to giving into her feral side again and stabbing Emily. She manages to resist the urge and tells Emily that she gets to live because Nina's showing mercy before leaving with Andrea.
- Daddy's Girl: Lambi is one to her father, who hears her out, supports her relationship with Nina, and encourages his daughter to stand up to her mother.
- A Day in the Limelight: The students of Hexside take up the roles of the focus characters, with Emily and Nina being at the epicenter while Skarlow, Le'Belle, Emira, and the SSE have major supporting roles to play.
- Deal with the Devil: Jeremy accepts a deal from the Emperor's Coven to be given a high-ranking position if he joins them and takes out Nina. This costs him Amelia's respect, and they part on bad terms with Jeremy leaving with the scouts.
- Demonic Possession: To turn the tide against Adrian and the scouts, Eve has Archibald possess her.
- Disappointed in You: Adrian says this to the Shadowy Secret Expozers after they fell for Emily's trap.
- Don't Call Me "Sir": Adrian tells Emily that he'll allow her to call him by name instead of by Head Witch Graye. It weirds her out but she goes along with it.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Adrian warns the Shadowy Secret Exposers to end their mystery solving days for good and soon, as the last mystery his team went on led to their end in more ways than one.
- Kikimora, the imp who tried to kill Hunter, captured Luz, and helped turn Lilith into a pariah, is shocked to learn that a coven head had the parents of the child he fathered murdered and covered it up while leaving the child to die.
- Everyone Has Standards: Le'Belle removes Skara's Shock Collar from her as part of her making up for what she did to Slasher and keeps Adrian from approaching Emily once his secret's out.
- Evil Is Petty: The only explanation for Felicity exposing Tabrella, because she just doesn't care who she hurts as long as her stories gets her viewers, including her daughter.
- Expy: Lambi's dad is one to the Lamb.
- Face Death with Dignity: Ms. Traveler knew Abel would show up to kill her eventually and dies needling him over the name he chose for himself.
- Foreshadowing:
- Nina states that whoever's birthday it is today is no longer important to her.
- Luz suddenly arrives at Hexside saying she's here to help and leads the SSE down several hallways toward an exit instead of using the Secret Room of Shortcuts. When the SSE get trapped, they realize too late it's not the real Luz.
- As Adrian rants to the SSE about how he's more successful than his former friends, he says he became head witch of his coven because he did whatever it took to get to that position. His murdering Emily's parents and covering it up with the hopes that she'll just die as a child prove that statement true.
- Forgiveness:
- Nina finally talks things out with Amelia after she seeing firsthand how Nina treats Skara.
- Gavin and Angmar make amends with Matt, but while Bo hasn't forgiven them yet, she shows signs of lightening up on them a bit.
- Averted with Emira and Tamme: while Tamme doesn't forgive Em yet, she accepts her apology and says it's a start.
- Also averted with Emily and Nina. While Emily regrets stabbing Nina and making her infertile, Nina refuses to accept her apology and wants her to feel her pain.
- Glamour: Emily disguises herself as Adrian as part of his plan to brand the students of Hexside. Later, she disguises herself as Luz to lure the SSE into a trap.
- He Knows Too Much: Due to Felicia learning the truth about the Day of Unity, Felicity decides to kill her to keep the truth from getting out. The scouts are told to find Felicia and bring her in, which causes her to panic when she's nearly captured.
- Hidden Depths:
- Pugsley mentions that he was a camp counselor the previous year.
- When asked by Andrea about her favorite type of music, Emily says she's partial to vintage stuff.
- Hyperspace Mallet: While fighting the scouts in front of the gym, Andrea uses a hammer she appeared to have pulled out of nowhere against them.
- Immediate Sequel: Like its sister chapter, things pick up from Willow's POV following her talk with Samshin in "Everything Changes After This".
- In Spite of a Nail: Adrian is taken out of commission by an illusionist, all of Hexside learns about the Draining Spell, and Severine leaves the Emperor's Coven out of frustration from her mistreatment.
- Internal Reveal:
- Willow tells Skara, Jerbo, Barcus, Edric, Amelia, Cat, Eve, and Witch Morty that she's a demigoddess, and Felicia tells Willow that she spied on her but didn't tell her mother.
- Luz's friends learn that Luz and Amity have returned to the Isles and that Boscha's with them, as Simon found a note from Boscha explaining where she went the previous night.
- The illusion maze allows Nina and Felicia to see what the Owl House is like. They learn that Emily knows what it looks like because she briefly saw the interior.
- The maze also lets Emira know what the Underworld is like.
- Adrian learns that the Shadowy Secret Expozers know Vanessa and that Stacy was the mother of Eve's friend.
- Several characters including Emily find out that Adrian is her real father.
- Cat informs everyone at Hexside about Merlin Meadows falling to the Emperor's Coven.
- Felicia tells everyone at Hexside about the Draining Spell.
- In the Hood: Felicia uses a hoodie to hide her injuries from everyone.
- I Want My Mommy!: Alburno says "mommy" right before Willow finishes him off.
- Karma Houdini: Felicity nearly mauls her daughter to death for learning she's supporting Belos' plans for the Day of Unity, and Felicia has to escape from her home before she finishes the job. Felicity also exposed Tabrella's being a mother and credited her daughter to let her suffer the consequences.
- Kick the Dog: A literal case. Alburno fits Skara with a shock collar to detain her, and for a while it keeps shocking her whenever she gets even a little emotional. Eventually it continuously shocks her after she hears what happened to Felicia, making her cry.
- Lap Pillow: As a way to comfort Skara over her pain from the collar, Nina lays her head down on her lap and strokes her hair to keep her calm.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Working together with Amelia, Nina gets the drop on Jeremy and takes him down for siding with the Emperor's Coven.
- Alburno put a shock collar on Skara to keep her from using her wolf form and it hurts her for a while. Willow gets back at him by punching him so hard, he gets a black eye and loses some teeth.
- For killing her parents, Emily forces Adrian to experience all of her trauma and pain before beating him up so severely, he's left catatonic.
- The Leader: Cat takes charge of sending students like the Baby Class to lead everybody else back to the healing homeroom.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Andrea pops up in front of Emily seemingly out of nowhere while she's searching for students. When Emily questions where she came from, Andrea says "the line break above them", as in the one separating the previous scene from the one they're in; Emily is left baffled.
- Let Me at Him!: When Andrea finds Felicia beaing patched up in the Healing homeroom, she tries to attack her but is restrained by Nina and Willow, the former explaining everything about the article on Tabrella to calm her down.
- Loophole Abuse: Adrian promises Emily that he won't hurt Nina if he sees her. To get around breaking his word to his daughter, he tasks Wolffe to "make it look like an accident".
- Luminescent Blush:
- Skara has one when she learns her girlfriend's a demigoddess.
- Amelia does this when Nina compliments her use of wood magic.
- Lured into a Trap: As the Shadowy Secret Expozers try to find a way out of Hexside, they come across Luz who claims to have heard about what was happening from Willow and has been helping students escape. She leads them through several hallways until they're ambushed by the Emperor's Coven, at which point "Luz" reveals herself to be Emily.
- Mind Rape: Emily forces one on Adrian that makes him experience every last bit of sufferimg she went through throughout her life since her parents were killed.
- Moment Killer: After Emira learns the real reason why Tamme hates her, Edric and the former troublemakers show up to lead them into the Secret Room of Shortcuts, with Edric mentioning how awkwardly timed their showing up was.
- Multi-Part Episode: Part 2 of 2 of the fic's version of "Labyrinth Runners".
- My God, What Have I Done?: After hearing about the Diamanto scandal from Andrea, Emily sees that her killing Tabrella's ex put the Diamanto family in an even worse position. She doesn't dwell on it for long, though.
- Never My Fault: Felicity tells Felicia that she only has herself to blame for Felicity attempting to murder her because she happened to overhear her learning about the Draining Spell.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In trying to kill her daughter, Felicity scares Felicia so badly that she lies when asked if she learned anything about Willow, so her secret is safe.
- Noodle Incident:
- Lambi's father was forbidden from cooking for his family when he used the dark arts to make the food.
- Tracy once broke a pinkie promise to Andrea, and Andrea made her regret it.
- Not Helping Your Case: When Adrian tries to justify his actions, he mentions that he thought without medicine Emily would die and that would be the end of it, but he then realizes that this doesn't make him look any better.
- Not Me This Time: When Nina accuses the Emperor's Coven of killing Ms. Traveler, Adrian asks around if someone did that, and everyone denies it. When Nina accuses Emily, Adrian defends her by mentioning she was with him the whole time.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Andrea spends the beginning of the chapter ranting in fury over what happened to Tabrella and swears vengeance on Felicia beliving it was her fault. She even pounces on the poor fox until Nina explains that Felicia's innocent.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Abel shows slight irritation when Ms. Traveler notes how the name he had chosen suits him, showing that she knows how to get under his skin.
- Pet the Dog: Le'Belle in spades has many moments. She helps Skara remove her Shock Collar, leads the scouts away from her group, and comforts Emily after everyone learns what Adrian did to her parents and after Emily beats him into unconsciousness.
- Precision F-Strike: Severine shouts "FUCK YOU!" to Wolffe right before she quits from the Emperor's Coven.
- The Quisling: Abel tells Felicity about the Draining Spell and she agrees to keep it secret on the condition that she gets to keep her magic.
- The Reveal:
- Nina's collar has been turned off since Friedday.
- Felicity knows about the Draining Spell, and tried to kill Felicia when she walked in on her call with Abel telling her about it, thus preventing her daughter from revealing the origin of Willow's upgrade.
- Todd is Felicia's father, and Felicity was lying about him walking out on her.
- The Illusion Coven resembles a movie studio.
- Tamme's on the Construction track but has been learning Plant magic as a hobby.
- The real reason why Tamme hates Emira was because she was a crappy friend and girlfriend to them, with Emira blanking Tamme after she quit the cheer squad.
- Bobby, Stacy, and Prof. Cuddlebuns became obsessed with finding the planesperic disk pieces while Vanessa quit after the "Horned King" impostor stole the piece they found. Bobby convinced Stacy to leave the Isles with him to find the other pieces, but she was killed by Cuddlebuns. As retribution, Adrian arranged for him to have a life sentence instead of an execution.
- Adrian is the one who altered Margo and Hamilskin's arrest records after refusing to bail them out and pretending Emily didn't exist so she'd be left to die.
- Sequel Hook: Lambi introducing Nina to her father and visiting him, how the Torso Villa was set ablaze, who the shadow that kept saving Nina belonged to, and Le'Belle having an official Heel–Face Turn. And with Emily returning to the castle, it won't be long before we see her reaction to Zee getting captured and branded.
- Ship Tease: Sheila takes in interest in Samwitch and asks Athena if her brother is single.
- Shout-Out:
- Two are made to Hazbin Hotel.
- When Lambi tells her dad about Nina, he has a similar reaction to Lucifer meeting Vaggie.
Lambi's dad: You like cats too! We have so much in common!- Nina tells Emily after sparing her life that she only lives because Nina allows her to, which Vaggie tells Lute in the Season 1 finale.
- Another two reference Spongebob Squarepants:
- Before working with Emira, Tamme tells her that if they die, she has to stay away from their grave.
- Kikimora being shocked by how evil Adrian is slightly mimics how Plankton feels about losing his restaurant because of Mr. Krabs.
- Just as Pinkie did with Applejack in "The Last Roundup", Andrea tries to make Felicia pay for (as far as she knew) breaking their pinkie promise.
- Raptor helping people by using echolocation to move through the illusion maze is how he got Skara to the Secret Room of Shortcuts in Moringmark's A Little Hint of Blue.
- Two are made to Hazbin Hotel.
- Spanner in the Works: Can anybody collectively say they expected Archibald Corduroy to be the one to expose Adrian for ruining his birth daughter's life?
- Sympathy for the Devil: After learning what Adrian did to Emily's parents, everyone in the gym lets her beat her birth father up because she deserved to, with Willow, Skara, and even Nina tearing up over Emily's distress. When Emily leaves with the scouts, Nina gives her a look of pity.
- Synchronous Episodes: This chapter's beginning is set during the events of "Hollow Mind at Last", but as a whole is set concurrently with the previous chapter.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Nina and Emily's fight was seen in the trailer from "Meanwhile, in the Emperor's Coven".
- The Un-Reveal:
- It's never revealed who the birthday reminders Nina kept getting on her scroll were for.
- What is the deal with the shadow that helped Willow's group? Given Dusty's behavior, it's implied to be his.
- Was It All a Lie?: After showing Emily mercy, Nina asks if they were ever really friends: Emily says they were once.
- Wham Shot:
- After Nina finds Felicia and questions why she doesn't look okay, she's shocked to see the fox reveal her black eye, bruises, and a part of her ear bitten off.
- Nina and Felicia find Ms. Traveler's office ransacked before coming across her dead body.
- The final shot of the chapter trumps this, as it reveals that Abel is Julia's killer.
- Nina gets a notification showing a breaking news article of Torso Villa set ablaze.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The SSE call out Emily for tricking and capturing them even after they worked together to defeat the Goblin and Venoma.
- What You Are in the Dark: Jeremy lets his hatred towards lycans decide his future, agreeing to join the covens so long as he can put Nina down ultimately turning Amelia against him.
- The Worf Effect: Ms. Traveler, who's never lost a fight in all her time at Hexside, is seemingly brutally killed by Abel.
