"Have fun Helia. I'll miss you." Flora told her boyfriend then kissed him on the cheek.
The couple was currently standing at the magic transport station. Helia was going back to his home realm Knightly for a few days to visit his old friends from art school. Flora had originally been meant to go with him but with the threat of Valtor becoming ever present she and the rest of the Winx Club were given extra training sessions to control their new enchantix powers with Grizelda.
"I'll miss you too my Flower. I'll only be gone for a few days but I'll miss you every second." Helia told her kissing the back of her hand before pulling her into a tight hug.
Having said their goodbyes Helia turned and made his way onto the magic transport pad. He smiled back at Flora as he saw her waving to him with a sweet smile on her face.
Moments later Helia was transported back to his home realm. "Arrived at destination. Welcome to Knightly. Enjoy your stay and please come again." Helia heard coming from the speaker as he stepped off the pad. Looking around it wasn't long before Helia spotted his parents in the crowd. He smiled and walked over to greet them.
Once she spotted her son Helia's mother grinned and as soon as he was close enough threw her arms around him. "Oh Helia, my baby's home. I've missed you so much. How are you? Are you keeping safe? We've heard all about Valtor. Are you being careful? Where's Flora I thought you were finally bringing your girlfriend over to meet us?" This was all said very fast and would have been real competition to even one of Stella's panic induced rants.
"Relax mom. I missed you guys too. I'm fine. I'm enjoying Red Fountain and my friends are great. We're all being careful. Flora couldn't come because she and her friends had last minute emergency training sessions for their enchantix powers. She was really looking forward to coming but it couldn't be helped, they need all the practice they can get to go up against Valtor. I promise I'll bring her home as soon as I can."
This seemed to please his mother though she did seem a little worried about him being so close to the Valtor issue. Seeing this Helia did the best he could to reassure her without lying. "Don't worry mom. Red Fountain is preparing us for this and Alfea is doing the same for the girls. We've been in this kind of situation before with Darkar remember? Just have faith." He told her giving her with a serious expression. This seemed to please her as she nodded her head though still had an over protective motherly look in her eyes but that wouldn't go away; she would always fret over her son.
With that Helia turned to his father. "Hi dad"
"Helia, my boy. How are things going at that new school of yours?" Helia's father asked him as he clapped him on the back.
"It's good dad. I really am enjoying Red Fountain."
"Good, Good. Come on let's go home your mother's gone all out with dinner to celebrate you being home." With that said the family made their way out of the station and to their home.
Helia had been home for three days. He was enjoying being home but did miss his friends, especially Flora. He was currently in his room and had just gotten off the phone with her when he heard his mother call to him from downstairs. "Helia, there are some people here to see you!"
Helia stood from his desk where he had been sitting as he talked to Flora and made his way down the stairs and to the door.
Waiting for him when he got there was a surprise. Standing in the doorway were three of his friends from art school, Liam, Lucas, and Ethan.
Liam was a tall guy with blue eyes, short dirty blonde hair, and pale skin. He wore a white t-shirt with green jacket, beige pants, and white sneakers.
Lucas was also tall with brown eyes, shoulder length brown hair, and a peachy skin tone. He was wearing an orange short sleeved shirt, dark blue jeans, and white and orange sneakers.
Finally, Evan was shorter than the other boys. He had brown spiky hair, blue eyes, and a tan complexion. He wore a red sweater black pants and back sneakers.
"Well look who it is guys. Seems like our old pal Helia finally decided to come home for a visit." Liam said. Helia hadn't been able to make it home over the summer break. First he had spent some extra time at Red Fountain catching up on what he had missed after he left Red Fountain to go to art school. Then he had gone to Lynphea to spend time with Flora and meet her family. Add to that Valtor and the Trix escaping and causing trouble he just hadn't been able to.
"Yeah he's been too busy saving the world at his fancy hero school?" Ethan said with a grin at him.
"It's good to see you guys too." Helia said laughing.
"Come on I think we've got a lot of catching up to do." Lucas said throwing an arm around Helia as they left the house, Helia calling out to his parents that he was going out.
The group of four walked through town and eventually decided on going to the local park. As they walked they talked about old memories of things they used to do as they passed something that reminded them of it.
They got to the park and found a place where they could catch up with each other. "So what's happened around here since I've been gone?" Helia asked the three boys in front of him.
"Eh. Same old, same old." Lucas told him.
"Yeah nothing's really happened around here. Same classes, same people, nothing new. The only thing that's changed is the worry over that Valtor guy but even he isn't that big of a deal yet, at least not around here anyway." Liam informed him of this.
Ethan cut in at this point. "Yeah we want to hear about you. You ready to come back yet?" he said this last part jokingly but it was clear that they really did want to know what was going on.
"No, I'm not ready to come back. I like Red Fountain."
"You must. Someone who didn't like it would have been on the first ship back here after battling the shadow phoenix. Don't look so surprised we all heard about that. People were talking about it for weeks. Of course we only know as much as the news reports do. Want to enlighten us a bit?" Liam leaned closer to the artistic hero in anticipation of finding out the details of really happened in Realix that hadn't been told to the press.
"There's not much to say really. My squad was there as back up to the Winx Club. They worked together and defeated Darkar and the Trix with a convergence of their magic." Helia told them basically what they already knew. They didn't need to know that Bloom had been turned evil and had almost given Darker the ultimate power. It wasn't important anymore and he didn't feel that it was his place to talk about it; it really wasn't their business either. The details of that day had stayed between the Winx, Specialists, Pixies, and heads of the three Magix schools. All anyone else really needed to know is that he was gone.
"Aw come on man, you were there. There must have been more to it than that." Lucas whined but knew that he probably would not get any more information than what had already been given. Helia thought back to that day. He and Flora had had their first kiss and then later he had been worried it may have been their last as well when she was hit and he was unable to move to her side. No, nobody else needed to know about what happened that day.
Liam saw that they weren't going to get any more of an in depth answer and decided to move things along. "So Helia, word has it that you got yourself a girlfriend. Is it true?"
Helia's face lit up as he thought of Flora, his flower. "Yeah I do." He told them with a dreamy look on his face as he got lost in thought.
The current residents of Knightly shared grins with each other. It was obvious their friend was caught up in his thoughts. This must have been some girl. Helia hadn't shown any interest in finding a girlfriend when he had gone to art school with them, but it seemed someone had caught his heart and had a tight hold on it.
"So…" Ethan encouraged. "Don't leave us in suspense tell us about her." Lucas continued.
Helia couldn't drop the smile from his face as he spoke of Flora. "Well she's actually a member of the Winx Club, her name's Flora. She's the fairy of nature and she's just amazing. She really gets me. I met her at the unveiling of the new Red Fountain. Brandon, one of my squad mates, introduced me to her and her friends. The second I saw her, I don't know, I just knew there was something about her. I was painting when they came over and her friend, Stella, took my sketch pad to see what I was doing and then she passed it to Flora. She knew exactly what I was going for with it. Anyway after that I couldn't get her out of my head. We didn't actually start going out until shortly before we went to fight Darkar. I've never been happier than when I am with her."
Liam, Lucas, and Ethan looked at each other. Helia was head over heels for this girl. That much was plain to see. This thought was only confirmed as he got lost in his thoughts again.
"Hello, you still with us Helia?" Liam asked him while he waved his hand in his face. Helia turned his attention back to them with a sheepish look on his face.
"Sorry about that."
Lucas had a question that he had been wondering about for a while. "So Helia, why did you decide to transfer back to Red Fountain in the first place? When you left you were adamant about not staying and now you keep talking about how great it is and how much you like it there. You're a pacifist for crying out loud. What's the deal?" Helia had to admit that he had been expecting this question. In fact, he had been expecting it to come up before now.
"Well you see-"
Helia wasn't able to finish his sentence because they were all distracted when a portal suddenly opened up across the park. A second passed with nothing before yelling could be heard. "Aaahhhh!" a loud yell was heard before anyone was seen but there definitely were several people there. Another moment passed and eleven people were thrown out of the portal and landed in a pile on the ground.
Another few seconds passed as the group of people attempted to right themselves and get back onto their feet. Upon closer inspection Helia's eyes widened upon realization of just who it was that had just came flying out of the portal "Flora!" Helia shouted as he ran to her and the rest of his friends.
"Helia?" Flora questioned as he reached her side and helped her up.
"What happened to you guys, what are you doing here?"
Before anyone had the chance to answer him laughter was heard coming from the still open portal. Out stepped the source of the cackling. The Trix were suddenly standing before them. "Well what can we say? We didn't want to leave anyone out when we destroy you." Icy told them in a tone of voice that clearly said she didn't think they had a chance.
"Oh how generous of you." Said Nabu, his voice dripping with sarcasm. This made the evil laughter stop and the glares to start.
Without another word the Trix summoned several monsters and flew higher into the air.
"We'll take care of these creatures you girls get up there and stop the Trix." Sky ordered. With quick nods as their only form of communication they got ready to fight.
"Let's go enchantix!"
In a flash of light the six girls had changed into their enchantix form and had flown up so that they were level with the Trix.
Back on the ground the boys had drawn their weapons and were ready to attack. These creatures were unlike any they had ever seen. Some stood on four legs and some on two. They all had claws, sharp teeth, and looked just as ready to fight as the specialists. Nabu held out his staff, Timmy turned the safety off on his blaster, Sky, Brandon, and Riven took out their phantom blades, and Helia pulled on his laser string gloves.
Without the slightest bit of hesitation the guys got to work attacking the monsters. As they were defeated they disappeared into nothing. Sky, Brandon, and Riven used their swords to destroy the monster, Timmy blasted them, Nabu used his magic, and Helia caught them with his gloves.
Up in the air the Winx were going head to head with the Trix.
"Solar Sunbeam"
"Enchantix Flame Burst"
"Green Luxurious Ivy"
"Techno Shock"
"Plasma Burst"
"Enchantix Sonic Sphere"
The attacks hit two of their targets but Icy had just been able to avoid it. Looking at the fairies in pure annoyance and anger now Icy chose a single target, figuring if she hit one it would distract the rest long enough to get enough of them down.
"Chill Strike!" the attack came so strong and fast the fairy was unable to get out of the way before getting hit.
Flora screamed as ice covered her wings and she began to fall, unable to keep herself in the air with her wings in their current state.
The five girls still flying yelled out in horror at the sight of their friend falling. "Flora!"
Riven had just taken out the last monster when the attention of the heroes was caught by horrified yells coming from above them. They looked up in time to see Flora falling and upon closer inspection would notice that her wings had been frozen in ice.
Helia reacted on instinct. Quickly taking in his surroundings he spotted just what he needed. Helia wrapped his laser string gloves around a nearby light post and used it to propel himself into the air where he caught Flora and landed back on the ground with her safely in his arms.
Before Icy or her sisters had a chance to attack any of the others they all flew down to regroup with Flora and the guys. Helia helped Flora to stand as she was still shaken from what had just happened combined with the cold she was no doubt experiencing from her wings which were still covered in frost.
The Trix taunted the group while still in the air. "Who's next pixies?" Stormy called down to them, her and Darcy having regained their bearings.
The girls looked at each other and came to an unspoken decision. Flora left Helia's arms and still on the ground the girls grasped hands and held them up toward the Trix. Focusing all their energy they called out together "Winx Club Enchantix Convergence!" a stream of power burst from the girls and hit the Trix, this time knocking them to the ground.
Before anymore could be done Icy growled out "This isn't over!" before the three evil sisters vanished back to wherever they were hiding out with Valtor.
With the Trix gone everyone's attention went to Flora who was still shivering. Helia wrapped his arm around her waist to keep her standing. As he did this Stella took it upon herself to get to defrosting her friends wings. Focusing her energy she brought forth the heat from the sun to get the ice off of her. After a few minutes all the ice was gone and the girls transformed back out of their enchantix forms.
"Thanks Stella"
"Don't mention it, anything for you Flo."
Helia turned Flora to face him. "Are you okay Flora?" he asked, his concern evident in his voice and posture.
"I'm fine Helia. More than fine now that I'm with you." She reassured him so only he could hear. He pulled her tightly to his chest and kissed the top of her head.
"Helia!" The twelve turned at the unexpected call and saw three people walking towards them. In their shock they had stayed behind as Helia and his friends battled the witches and in the chaos Helia had completely forgotten about them. "So?" started Liam. "Do things like that happen often?"
"Oh you have no idea." This reply came from more than half the group who then looked at each other and all started laughing.
The three who had not been a part of the fight looked at them confused but after a look at each other shrugged their shoulders.
"Guys these are some of my old friends from art school, Liam, Lucas, and Ethan." Helia introduced the others to them. "This is Sky, Brandon, Bloom, Tecna, Layla, Stella, Nabu, Riven, Timmy, and Musa." He gesture to each one with one hand as he introduced them, his other arm still wrapped around his girlfriend. "And this is Flora."
Ethan smirked at them. "So these are those new friends you keep talking about and we can't forget the girlfriend you can't get off your mind." The attempt to embarrass Helia had no effect; instead he just smiled and gave his confirmation.
Seeing that the attempt was in vain he got back to the earlier question that had yet to be answered. "So Helia you never told us before those witches showed up. What made you transfer back to Red Fountain?"
Helia smiled down at the girl in his arms as he answered. "I found something worth fighting for."
