The landscape was massive but sprucely littered with mesquite bushes, cacti and sage brush with a long stretch of empty highway running through it. There were not many places on earth that has this strange resemblance to a bad spaghetti western gone horribly over budget, of course this was not Earth and the lone figure traveling alone side the dusty highway was not a happy camper. Well that would be an understatement as the young lady had just spent the last few hours walking along this, possible infinite, highway with no real clues as to why she was here. She knew where she was and who she is, just why did she wake up in the middle of a dilapidated shack with a wound in her chest. Remembering a little bit here and there she could recall a glimpse of figure being silhouetted by the bright sun light and a tint of gold. Grumbling she wonder if she could contact Lord Darkar from this dismal plant, try as she might there was nothing so far.

"This bites." she mutter while gripping the dirty and one might add smelling traveler's shawl a bit tighter and tilting her head down to allow the brim of her beat up hat cover her eyes, being a fairy of darkness she did not quite realize that it would be a very bad idea to stay on a realm with constant and blinding sunlight. A very bad idea. She could have just taken flight and searched for the nearest transport station and pumble the one that left her here to die, that is such an awesome and inspiring plan that should inspire future generations to come to find those that left them in the middle of a desert and wail on them like a tent peg but alas there was a fault in her plan.

She had no winx left, it was all used healing the wound in her chest. She wanted to curse but bite her lip instead, why waste good insults on such a low life?

Not helping it she whistled the good, the bad and the ugly as the wind blew against her back then looking up. An illusion? A hallucination from the heat? A mirage? It was too good to be true as she could barely keep herself from running erratically like a fool to what could be false hope yet the gleam in her yellowed eyes had betrayed her she had no idea what his place use but perhaps she can get answers here, in this depressing town.

If only Bloom Buzushima had known the troubles she would encounter the young fairy of darkness would had just kept on walking to infinite highway.

(---)

Lead spaghetti.

(---)

Sleepy would have been an overkill of a word for this place, perhaps dead or deserted would better serve the current status of the streets of the town Bloom paid no heed to the large metal sign lodged through the windshield of a stripped out car, in fact she really read it at all. Passing various waste that could be called "cars" and a skeleton reaching for an old water pump, dust kicked up as she stood there in the bright sun in a cliché manner. Just one word reached her mind, "Losers."

"Who'd you call losers, vagabond."

"Who are you calling a vagabond, loser?" Bloom spun on her heels towards the speaker which was a man of small stature with a large gaiter case on his back, black suit with no tie and the bandolier attached to the case spelled out weirdo for Bloom. The man, with cold and very hard eyes, glared over the young girl as she just stood there.

"Vagabond, that is you." he said. "A person without a home and drifts from one point to another with no purpose. State your business and I will leave." Bloom wanted to paint the landscape with his internal organs but he had done one thing that caught her off guard, chuckle. "Yeah, I think I know something of your business here now."

She stepped forward in a threatening manner, glaring down at the man. "Well then, leave." kicking up dust at the man like a dog she found only empty space which was all right with her. Not skipping a beat scanning the buildings looking for anything useful like a hotel or a bar, so far every building looks about the same with the rotted wood and peeling paint. Going by guess work and blind luck she just approached a random door then stepped inside. Needless to say she was a little surprised to find a well kept room waiting on the other side. There was a glass cabinet with pieces of papers hung up neatly from her view to one side and a leather chair to another, ahead of her though is what caught her attention.

There was a wall to wall counter with a large pane of glass that separated the two sides of the room. Behind the counter she could hear someone or something moving around out of sight. She did not say anything while looking over the cabinet with the papers, there was photographs and sketches of people with dollar amounts underneath them, no doubt these are wanted posters. Bloom read someone them over finding these were just minor offenders, one was robbing banks and the other stole from a train. The top one were basic claim jumping, littering, kidnapping pixies from pixie village.

Wait a minute! Bloom double checked the wording and there it was in the paragraph of crimes that this man had kidnapped several pixies to be sold off from pixie village. In that twisted mind a plan was forming, if this man had been to the pixie village before then logically he would know where it was. Granted there was no true way of knowing if he will talk but the poster say dead or alive, if she takes it took far then at least there is a reward of dragging his body back to this place. Going to the counter she found a small bell which naturally was rung.

"May I help you?" a friendly voice spoke as a tall man dressed in a bed sheet with two eye holes cut out and a derby hat rose up from under the counter.

"I want to know about that man over there," Bloom pointed towards the poster despite finding this a very odd situation to be in. The "ghost" man looked over there and seems to try to figure which poster she was pointing to then return to Bloom.

"The kidnapper? That man has been in this area for about a few weeks now," the "ghost" man shook his head. "It is such a shame that there is no bounty hunters in the area, they all seem to be getting careless but no one is here to catch them."

"I don't need a history lesson, I just want to know where he is."

"He is at the Nightow Inn."

"Perfect." Bloom turned to be on her way as the "ghost" man watched. It took a second but he opened the locked drawer under the counter then pulled out a photograph of her, it was her so that meant there would be trouble.

"Better call the mayor about this."

(-)

It felt like being back at shadowhaunt under Darkar's control as she felt so helpless, only exception is that there is an ungodly loneliness surrounding her. It was only her and the capturers in this small building and they were not to talkative. Well, not to her anyway.

"What do you want to do with her?" the first man spoke who was a spindly person, wiry could describe him. He could be a doctor from the clothes he wore but it could be wrong, or at least she thought as the man had just spent the last hour carefully threading several scalpels through the skin of his hand. He twitched a bit but only stared at his mangled hand.

The second man only looked towards her then down at the large revolver in hand. This man was larger, dressed in a grey business suit and vest he kept himself well groomed and barely spoke much. "The boss lady said that we cannot kill her."

"Yes, I remember that but what will we do with her? Just leave her sit in here?" the doctor eyed the cage that she was in. He smiled wickedly when the idea came to mind, "hey, hey. I just remember that Alison lost another one yesterday, perhaps we could sell her the pixie."

"Excuse me, but I am already bounded to someone." the reply came in the form of a foot hitting the cage. The businessman glared down at the pixie then at the doctor before nodding.

With a squeal the doctor headed for a small cabinet in the corner. "Excellent! Now where did I place that growth potion?"

The pixie laid on the floor of her cage wondering why she was here and where was her friend, she could feel her friend out there somewhere yet she cannot connect to her clearly. Looking up at the somewhat crazed man with a bottle in one bloodied hand and a needle in the other she was scared, where are you, Bloom?

(-)

Bloom, What have I done?

It was a horrible feeling of what she had done to protect the codex but what is one against millions? Perhaps there was a better way to stop her from taking the codex, yet there was none coming to mind. Looking down at Bloom's made bed she felt her stomach churn, remembering the weight of the gun in her had and the smell of gun powder as Bloom fell against the wall. But the memory was not the only thing scaring her for life, just before Bloom died the dark fairy had sent a small amount of energy at her which had taken her eye.

"It's a nightmare, this cannot be happening." she looked up at Musa and the rest of her friends. They do not know about what happened, she could not let their enemy know where the codex was.

"But it is happening." Tecna did not want to sound cold but it is the fact that she knows, Bloom took the codex to Darkar.

"Now Darkar has three pieces." Layla added in.

"It seems pretty hopeless now," she added in.

"With an attitude like that we might as well give up now." Stella half snapped, half inspired. The sun fairy was trying her hardest to keep them from giving up and she admires her spirit for that. "Bloom is counting on us, even if she had gone insane. We cannot give up."

She nodded along with the others. Too bad they could never learn the truth, even if they are her friends. The burdens one has to carry to protect the universe is nearly unbearable.

(-)

The Nightow Inn, a broken down and half collapsed building that might had been three floors but there was a large chunk missing from the side of the building and that made things a bit difficult to figure out. That had no effect on her though and in a way it made her job much easier since there would be a lot less places to hide in.

Stepping lightly on the steps she looked through the window nearest to the front door. The glass was clouded by a layer of dirt and it was dim inside so it was somewhat hard to make out some things. Bloom could tell there was something in the lower hand corner of the window, possibly it could be a person and that his/her back was to her. Creeping back to the front door, she looked around one last time for any surprises. With a swift kick the door had collapsed upon itself as the dark fairy darted inside, she skidded to a stop to find the figure she had seen in the window was sitting in a large armchair. About five feet, she would guess the height but it was hard to know when someone is sitting, the hair was scraggly and had a straw-color tint to it, the clothes were crumbled and seemed to have mold on it. Bloom stood there, looking down at this figure.

"Damn doll." she grumbled before kicking the chair. How could she fall for such an obvious ploy? If anyone had seen it there would never be an end to it, just thinking about of such a thing caused some of her anger to resurface but she swallowed what she can for the man she is chasing. Chasing? She mused before thinking of the codex and the whole chase at Alfea before... Before... The amusement had drained out of her as the word question came screaming through her mind when it gone by as fast as it came, she remembered burning away the books before that glorified flying shrimp took the codex then it fuzzes for a while until the shack. Forcing herself to focus she observes the room finding there was nothing interesting. It was time to on.

Moving on she climb the small flight of stairs onto the second floor into in a small hall with a large section of the wall had fallen in on itself revealing an empty room with several beams fallen in to her left and several doors to her right. The first door she tried lead into a small room with just a drawer and a bed and another doll. The next room wield the same results as did the next one, frustrated she stood in front of the final door wondering what would be behind the final door. A new car? A trip around the world? A jalopy? Or maybe a box, one that sparkled with a question mark on it. Whatever it was it could not make this already dismal day any worse, with this in mind she gripped the doorknob and carefully opened the door. What was in the room was something she was not expecting.

The man, the person she had looked for since coming into this town that has the knowledge of the location of pixie village, was laying against a wall opposite of the door in a pool of blood with a shocked expression on his face. Lady luck had cursed her and spat in her face with this one, it was just not funny. Now was the time to just brake stuff and curse out yet she stood there not moving for several seconds that felt like an eternity before placing one foot in front of her. Observing the body so far only revealed a single wound where the blood was most prominent so it would be easy to figure out what he died from, there was nothing important other then that. Stooping down she reached out but held her hand just hovering inches over the body mulling over the decision before twisting and curling her fingers in strange directions as much as they can before completely becoming stiff and with a small burst of magic the large blood stain faded away before she looked towards the bed. If she cannot get the location out of this guy might as well get some money to use to get off this forsaken planet. Laying out the sheet carefully she lifted the body but almost gave out right away yet she was determine to let this crap to get the best of her.

At least there is a little money and a place to rest for while, only price was dragging around a dead body.

(-)

Surprisingly it did not hurt like she expect, it did not even sting when the needle had gone into her skin and the fluid was injected into her. Perhaps he just likes to inflict injury onto himself? Whatever the reason and now matter what she felt she knew that since the shot of growth potion she was growing at a slow but steady rate, she was already double her height. She did not know what the men often talked about or what "trade her off" and "begin breaking her soon" means but it did not comfort her at all, in fact she was scared of these people. Looking up at the ceiling of her cage she wanted to drift off to sleep and wake up in her friend's arms, surrounded by loved ones and this all was just a bad dream.

Bloom, wherever you and whatever you are doing please help me. She closed her eyes and fell into dreamless sleep.