Luz took a deep breath and then pushed into what, for sure this time, had to be where the Collector was. Seven false starts, seven, but this had to be the real one.
... And then she tripped as she went through the door. And she didn't hit the floor, because there was no floor. She found herself flailing as she fell to a small planetoid, and the only thing that stopped her from yelling was seeing two beds on it.
She still made a loud noise upon actually hitting it, however.
The child in the bed closest to the door, and thus her, threw themself up, clearly startled, "I won't let you take him!"
This woke up the other kid, one whose voice Luz instantly recognized, startled awake. "Weh?"
"King," the Collector said in a frightened tone, "someone's in our room."
"Collector, it's okay. You were just dreaming," King reassured.
Okay, opening, play it off as a joke. "Actually," Luz said while pushing herself up, "they weren't."
"Luz?"
"Yeah," Luz said with a laugh. "Sorry, I was expecting a throne room, not a bedroom."
"Luz!" King shouted and, seeming to forget himself, jumped for her...
...Only to stop in midair.
"King," The Collector said, "isn't it a little suspicious that your big sister shows up in our room months after you sent her away with a portal that doesn't exist anymore?"
"King," Luz began, "the first time you tried my coffee, you spent ten minutes twitching on the kitchen floor."
"That's Luz!" King shouted. "Only five people in the whole world know about that!"
That seemed to convince the Collector, but they still looked at Luz suspiciously. "And why are you here now?"
"While I was in the human realm," Luz said, "something happened and I ended up in the Inbetween Realm again. Did King tell you about that?"
"...He says that every so often you talk to his dad," The Collector said with a bitter expression and tone that didn't match their adorable face and voice.
"Well, King's dad told me—"
"I didn't care what he told you!" The Collector shouted. "I'm sorry, King, but your dad's a jerk! He hid you from me and locked me away in the Between realm for... I can't even count for how long for no reason! I, I... He's mean, he's, he's..."
"Gone," Luz said sadly.
"Huh?"
"The Titan's gone," Luz said, "I was... pretty badly hurt when I ended up in the Inbetween Realm the last time. I wouldn't have made it, except he gave me the last of his life and power so I'd live. But before he went, he asked me to do a few things for him." King was sitting there looking like he wasn't sure how to feel, and Luz wanted to pick him up and hold him and tell him it'd be all right, but right now she had to handle things with the Collector. "One of the things he wanted me to do was tell you, Collector, that he was sorry."
"Sorry?" The Collector asked, confused.
"He didn't know," Luz said, "he didn't know that the other Archivists used you. He thought you were in on their plan, that you came and befriended the baby Titans, knowing what the others were going to do. He didn't realize that you were a victim too until it was too late."
The Collector pulled their knees. "I wouldn't. I'd never... The Archivists were always so mean. I just wanted to play, and the one time it seemed like they might... King's Dad, he... He thought I was a bad guy?"
"He did, and he told me to tell you how sorry he was," Luz. "You know, he was the one who told us how to let you out."
"...I never wanted anyone to get hurt," The Collector said after a moment. Their voice was so quiet.
"But you're hurting people now," Luz said, seeing her chance to push.
"No, I'm not," The Collector said defensively.
"The people you turned into puppets," Luz said.
The Collector scoffed, "They're fine."
"Are they really?" Luz asked pointedly. "Trapped, helpless, unable to do anything as they're manipulated? Can you really say they're fine?"
The Collector looked very uncomfortable at that, but shook their head. "Who cares, they're just a bunch of itsy-bitsy spiders."
"I'm an 'itsy-bitsy spider,' or at least I was," Luz said, doing her best to hold rein in her instinct to defend actual spiders. "And King didn't know he was a Titan until we learned what living Titans looked like from the Titan Trappers, so he thought he was one of those 'spiders' too, and no one noticed."
"You ate Bill," The Collector countered. "How is what I'm doing any worse?"
King looked surprised at that, and Luz had to wonder how The Collector knew about that, except... The broken mirror? If Luz understood properly, that would have been how one of the other Archivists was sealed away in the In Between before it was broken to kill them, which supposedly reinforced the Collector's own prison, so... Maybe there was a connection even though it wasn't their mirror?
"...That was something that happened," Luz said evenly, "because I was... Sick. I'm taking medicine now to make sure that something like that never happens again. That was a bad thing I did, and it's something I regret. And even if I didn't, Bill was going to hurt King. Most of the people you turned into puppets didn't do anything wrong. Doesn't that remind you of anyone?"
The Collector was definitely distressed now, looking around, before... A lightbulb literally went on over the Collector's head, like in a cartoon. "But they were all living such boring lives before. I never liked how Philip locked away almost all of everyone's magic; the draining spell didn't need that. And work, school? Boring, now everyone gets to play all the time and do whatever I can imagine them to do."
"And what if one of the puppets breaks?" Luz asked.
"It's like breaking a toy, you just put the pieces back together," The Collector replied.
And that's when it all clicked. The Collector didn't understand mortality.
"Bring back your friends," Luz said.
"Huh?"
"Your friends. King's siblings and the other baby Titans," Luz explained. "If the other Archivists could take them away, then now that you're the last one, you should be able to bring them back."
The Collector's expression lit up, as if they had just discovered that it was raining their favorite flavor of soda. "You're right, I can!"
The Collector then stood up on the bed and snapped their fingers. Nothing happened.
Face screwed up in concentration, the Collector gave a clap thatt echoed through the steller bedroom. Nothing happened.
Now seething, The Collector threw out their arms, and a large burst of stellar magical energy washed over the room. Nothing happened.
"I don't understand," The Collector said while slowly deflating. "It's, it's not like I'm trying to hurt them or change them or anything. Their Titan magic wouldn't protect them from an invitation home, so, so... The only way they wouldn't come back is if, is if..."
"Is if they're gone forever," Luz said, "to somewhere they can't come back from. That's what death is. Most people who die can't come back," she explained, her thoughts wandering for a moment. "And even when someone does... It's a big deal. Even almost dying can change things."
"...Luz, are you okay?" King asked hesitantly.
"I'm not gonna lie to you, I was in a pretty bad place for a while, then I almost died, got involved in a whole lot of chaos, and drank some existentially suspicious wine, but I'm doing much better now. I'm in therapy and joined a support group. Also, Amity saw what I look like as a Titan, and I immediately began to understand how you must have felt when we first met."
Whatever King was about to say was cut off by The Collector's sniffing. The star child was crying. Luz felt bad for dredging up old grief, but it needed to be done if the Collector was to understand.
"Collector, the way you feel right now," Luz started, "A lot of the people you didn't collect feel that way. People are terrified that they'll never see their friends or family again."
"I never meant to hurt anybody," The Collector insisted. "I don't want anyone to go away like that, I'll," they swallowed, "I'll change everybody back. And put the Boiling Isles back the way they're supposed to be, and then... And then..."
"And then what?" Luz asked.
"And then I'll be alone again," The collector said quietly. "No one's gonna want to be friends with me after what I did and... The draining spell. I taught Philip the draining spell, that could of, it almost, the plan was to—"
"He tricked you," Luz said, "He used you. But he tricked and used everyone. It's what he did. You don't have to blame yourself for that, you're just a kid who was in the mother of all bad places, and he took advantage."
"And you have friends," King said while patting the star child on the shoulder.
"I know you're only pretending, King," The Collector said while curling up into themself.
King didn't seem to know how to respond to that.
"Collector," Luz said, "It wasn't that long ago that I was a sad, lonely kid who desperately wanted someone, anyone to connect with, to understand me, to... And plenty of my friends know what it's like to be sad, lonely kids, too. When this is all over, when everything's back to normal, I'll be your friend. And teach you how to make friends the right way."
"R-really?" The Collector asked while looking up at Luz with big, wide eyes.
"Yeah!" King answered for her. "Luz is great at helping people like that... And we can start over," he added. "Be friends for real this time."
"Yeah," Luz agreed. "Besides," she said as she got down to hug King and the Collector both. "Us weirdos have to stick together."
The Collector started crying in Luz's arms, and she just held them and let them let out Titan knows how many epochs of sadness.
"You okay now?" Luz asked when they finished.
"I think so," the Collector said. "Um, start over..." They backed up and held out a hand. "Hi, I'm The Collector. He/They. It's nice to meet you."
Luz tried to remember if she already knew that he used both sets of pronouns. Regardless, she took his hand. "Luz Noceda-Clawthorne, She/her. I'm sure we'll be great friends."
"Well now," came a sarcastic voice from just out of sight, "isn't this a touching and wholesome moment?"
With a scowl on her face, Luz changed into Titan form and summoned Stringbean and Toda Mi Amistad before turning to glare at the one who'd interrupted them.
"You're not welcome here, Mephisto."
AN: So I didn't mean to save the iconic line for when it would have the most impact, but I like how this turned out.