Morning Sunshine, Evening Moonlight
Scott blinked back at the tears. He couldn't risk it now. He was meant to be one of the strongest witches in the competition! The Necromantic Witch! Every one of his competitors either feared him, was stupid enough to make him an enemy, or was an ally. Most feared him. He had taglocks of everyone. Nobody was safe from a curse. Not even Bertha, the...weird being that Scott didn't quite understand.
Case in point, Scott was meant to be powerful. Crying was a sign of weakness. He couldn't afford to be weak.
That wouldn't bring Milo back.
So he wiped his eyes and continued on. He flicked through the Book of Shadows, analysing every word of every line until he understood the ritual perfectly and could do it blindfolded. The chalk on the ground was right. He had the right ingredients. He even had a sacrifice like the book said!
Taking a deep breath, Scott began the ritual.
---
None of the other witches had heard a peep from Scott in a bit. No curses, no pranks, nothing. He hadn't tried scaring Bertha, he wasn't on some sort of journey to collect ingredients or spells. Nobody knew where he was.
Cleo paced back and forth at Spawn. She gesticulated wildly to Bertha as she ranted on end. Scott had said he'd meet her there ages ago. He hadn't turned up.
"What if something bad happened to him? He's my ally! Not to mention he's not...mentally stable," Cleo shook her head. "No I'm sure he's fine. Maybe he's just resting?"
"Scott doesn't have a bed," Bertha helpfully supplied. "He doesn't sleep anymore after Joey and Pris tried getting his taglock."
"Oh. Right." Cleo mentally screamed. She was no closer to discerning where Scott was than before!
"But we could take a look at his base," Bertha suggested, gesturing at the Waystone in the centre of Spawn. "Maybe he's there?" Cleo frowned, but, seeing no other option, complied.
The two stepped up to the Waystone and teleported to Scott's house.
---
Scott's home was silent. Usually there was at least some small semblance of noise. But not anymore. Instead it was just uncomfortably silent. Suffocatingly so.
Bertha cautiously tread on the decayed ground as if it would catch fire at any second. Cleo's brows furrowed. The decay was pretty bad. It stretched incredibly far, almost halfway to the lake. Had Scott's magic caused this?
As the two of them looked around, a chalk circle caught their eyes. In the centre of it stood a figure hidden behind sinister black, gold and crimson robes. A hood was pulled over their head, but Cleo could easily guess that it was Scott. By the look of it, he was performing some kind of ritual.
"Scott?" She said, slowly approaching the chalk circle. In between the red and purple chalk were thin lines of salt. Odd. Scott stood, unmoving and unattentive. There was a swirl of shadows and darkness at his feet, growing and growing. Shadowy tendrils shot out of the depths, sapping the life out of the world around it. The decay on the ground groaned and spread, edging closer and closer to the lake.
"Scott." Bertha's voice was loud and firm, unlike what cleo had heard before. It sounded more...ethereal. Less human and more like an entity of some sort. "Stop this." But Scott didn't seem to be listening.
"I'm gonna try something, but I think I'll need your help." Cleo held out her hand to Bertha, and they readily took it.
She drew nearer and nearer to the chalk circle. With a sharp breath, Cleo stepped over the lines of chalk and salt, careful not to accidentally disturb them. Breaking the ritual could have dire consequences. She reached out and took hold of Scott's hand. Bertha gasped and uttered something.
Before she could blink, Cleo was no longer at Scott's house.
---
He was home. Home with Milo and Maxwell. Home with his family. No more disasters. No more magic. No more death. Instead, he was sat at the table with Milo, both of them happily eating and talking. In his mind, it was like nothing had ever happened. Perhaps none of it had been real. Maybe he'd just been living a nightmare and only just woke up to his actual reality.
Whatever the case, Scott had missed this.
"I love you," he blurted out. "I-I really love you."
"I should hope so," Milo replied with a gentle laugh. He took Scott's hand. "After all, we are living together. How would Maxwell cope?"
"Shared custody?" Scott joked. The duo grinned in the way they only did for each other and burst out in pure, unadultered laughter.
He could almost believe it was real.
The main giveaway was the decay on his hands. The blackened skin that flickered in and out of existence. A reminder. In the corner of his eye, Scott could see the outlines of two figures reaching out for him and calling his name. He shook his head. This was his moment. This was his time to lose himself and believe that Milo was still alive.
"Scott!" The voices called out. They were incredibly distinct, and he knew them well. Cleo and Bertha. It could be no one else.
"Sunshine? Are you alright?" Milo asked.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah. I'm fine." Scott leaned over and kissed Milo on the forehead. "Just...tired, I think."
"Do you wanna go up to bed now? I can clean up." Milo offered with a smile.
"O-ok. Love you." With a quick kiss on the lips, Scott stood up from the table and left.
"Scott, please," Cleo's voice begged. And Scott could see her now. He could see her hand wrapped around his own. "You need to stop. The decay, i-it's spreading. It's hurting you Scott!"
"But-...I'm finally back! With him!" Scott argued. His voice wavered, and tears pricked his eyes. "I-I can finally be happy again! I can live my life here, with him. I've tried to bring him back for so long. Do you know, Cleo? Do you know how long I've tried? Take a guess! Take a guess goddamnit, and tell me how long you think I've tried! Go on! Please!" Scott felt the tears falling down his cheeks. Cleo's hand wiped them away. Bertha stood beside him, their hand resting on his shoulder.
"Neither of us can imagine. But you need to come back. There's another way. Scott, come back." Bertha's eyes glowed with tender sympathy.
"I can't!" Scott pulled away. "I-I can't live without him."
"Yes you can. Please Scott." Cleo wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace.
The world around them fell apart.
---
They were back. Back at Scott's house. Only now, the Necromantic Witch was crying, weeping and wailing, clinging onto Cleo and Bertha for support. They feebly clung onto him, rubbing up and down his back and waiting for him to calm down.
Neither had intended to do this. But they did.
"I'm sorry," Scott hiccuped, his eyes puffy and voice hoarse. "I-I didn't mean to-"
"Don't worry about it." Bertha responded. "Besides, if it works, I can find a better way to bring back, uhh..."
"Milo."
"Yes, Milo." Bertha snapped their fingers in remembrance when Scott said the name.
"Sure?"
"Incredibly so."
"Okay." Scott smiled at both of them.
Those few seconds with Milo were worth it. Milo may not like what Scott's become, but that wouldn't stop him.
Nothing would.
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For anyone who doesn't know, we now have one video from Bertha's perspective:
From this we learned a few different things:
Bertha was the one to leave the threatening signs outside of Lauren's and Joey's houses for promotional purposes. She was hoping they would be intrigued and call the number... it obviously didn't work.
Scott can apparently bring pets back to life now, as he brought back Mertha, Bertha's pet goat.
Bertha has a very obvious soft spot for animals and can seemingly communicate with them. This could imply that she once was a nature witch, back when she still was a witch.
On that topic, Bertha is no longer a witch (she put on a witch hat and lamented how much she misses being able to wear it, so it seems obvious) and now mostly defines herself as an entity that is "No one and everyone, everything and everywhere all at once". Also, she's genderless and canonically uses every pronoun because of this!
We also learned that most likely the past Supreme Witch was her sister, and she did something to Bertha that Bertha still hasn't forgiven, and that seemingly prevented her from becoming Supreme Witch. Previously to that, they apparently used to be best friends
My current theory on the last point is that it's a situation similar to Eda and Lilith from TOH. With the less capable sibling cursing the other one in a way that would take away their magic so they can get the title they were aiming at. It seems to be implied that Bertha was the better witch from the fact that she mentioned that teachers would tell her that she would become the new Supreme Witch.
The difference here is that Bertha knows about the curse (or whatever else that something her sister did to her was) and never forgave her sister for it. Plus, if her sister really is the Supreme Witch as it seems to be implied, she's dead now, so there's no longer a chance for reconciliation, which is kinda sad to be honest...
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