A/N: Because the prologue was only short, I've decided to upload Chapter 1 as well. Please read, review and enjoy :)

CHAPTER 1

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

Tecna's eyes opened as daylight stopped the nightmare in its tracks. Her chest heaved, lungs trying to regain their supply of oxygen. Her fingers demanded to grip something solid and still, the quilt cover finding itself tightly between her knuckles. Tecna blinked her eyes but the image was still in her mind, Riven standing over her, his sword risen above his head, ready to deal the final blow. She could still smell smoke, feel the dust of ash between her fingers and the coldness of Timmy's eyelids.

A knock on the door snapped Tecna from her daze and she exited her room at Alfea, stretching her arms and legs as she walked to the door she opened it to see Musa, smiling. She quickly pushed her way inside, sighing with relief as she sat on the couch in the main lounge room. "That's better, home sweet home," she smiled before noticing her friend staring out the balcony window.

"Everything okay? I'm sorry if I woke you," Musa got to her feet. "I can always come back later."

"No, it's okay," Tecna replied. "What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be spending more time on Melody, working on your album."

"I am," Musa replied, before retaking her seat, Tecna sitting down to take her own. "Garrett, he's stopping my creativity. I can't think when I'm around him. Between him and Lyon following me everywhere I go…I just need some time to myself with good friends." She smiled and Tecna did her best to reciprocate it, pushing the image of her blood covered friend cowering on the ground from her boyfriend out of her head.

"So, what have you been up to? Must be boring to be here alone before the real action happens."

"I wouldn't call it that." Tecna replied, standing and walking to the small kitchenette. 'Boring' certainly was not the word that she would have chosen. She poured herself a cold glass of water and returned with one for Musa. "It's quiet here, I have everything I need to continue my research. I am just trying to figure things out as I go and the new semester begins in a week's time anyway. Thought I'd get myself settled back in."

"Sounds like a plan." The cool water bit at Musa's tongue while it soothed Tecna's. Her body temperature finally returning to normal as her blood pressure lowered. She knew that her heartrate was above average and it needed lowering. Musa's next topic of conversation however did little to help it return to normal.

"How are you feeling, after everything that happened with Flora's father and Miele?"

"I'm fine," Tecna replied honestly, physically she was fine, emotionally she was breaking apart into a thousand pieces. "My powers are still not working correctly but that is also a part of my research, to see what is happening to cause it."

"Faragonda has no ideas?"

"None," she shook her head, "she is looking into it as well to help me, has given me extra access to data and restricted sections of the library to search but even my realm doesn't have any explanation for what is occurring." She paused, wondering if the next sentence was a betrayal to speak out loud. "No logical explanation at this point in time."

Musa noticed a change in Tecna that she had not seen before. How her eyes seemed downcast more often, how unravelled she looked when she first entered the room, the token response to anything with 'I'm fine'. Musa knew, more than anyone, that there was something wrong. She had spent a good part of her life living with Tecna inside their dorm at Alfea, she knew more about Tecna than anyone.

"What about the dream?" Her friends eyes lifted at the question, widening slightly in the process. "I saw it, your eyelids, we've all seen it. I don't know why you haven't told us about it."

Tecna couldn't find the words. How could she accurately describe the dreams that she had been having? Could she leave out the part about Riven for fear of hurting her friend or choose to tell nothing and live with the results? Their dreams had been the one thing pulling them closer together over the past two years but they were also the things destined to rip them apart.

Musa took her silence as a sign and gave a hollow smile. "It's okay if you don't want to tell me or us what is going on but I hope that you will eventually."

"It's complicated," Tecna answered. "Too complicated for me to explain but I will try, one day, when I understand it myself."

The room door burst open and a flood of blonde and red hit Tecna's eyes, making her close them for a moment and then quickly recover. Her last memory of those two colours were unpleasant ones that she did not want to repeat. Her friends were alive, were here, all was well. At least for now.

"Musa! Tecna!" Hugs ensued between the four before they all took a seat, Musa choosing to sit on the floor this time.

"I can't believe that Sky's coronation is tomorrow!" Stella announced excitedly, practically bouncing on the lounge chair with joy. Bloom didn't share the enthusiasm. "You know what that means?" She smiled. "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Bloom with the baby carriage!" Stella chanted, earning herself a punch to the arm.

"Let's not get too carried away." Bloom smiled. "I don't even know where our relationship is at the moment, the coronation might mean that his training is over and that he'll be able to make contact with me more often but…"

"It's still so exciting though, Sky becoming the King of Erakleon!" Stella gushed, leaning dramatically back in her chair with a hand against her forehead. "Oh, whatever will you do?"

"As Queen." Musa added. "Trust me, running a Kingdom is hard work."

"Finally! That's what I've been saying this entire time! Being a royal does not mean that everything is a walk in the park!"

"We get the point, but Bloom all you can do is wait and see what will happen, that's all." Musa smiled, turning again to Tec who was quieter than normal. She tried to open her mouth to speak but was interrupted by Tecna excusing herself to freshen up for the day. After she closed the bathroom the room's mood changed instantly.

"What's going on, Musa?"

"I don't know, Bloom." She paused. "But she'll tell us in her own time…I hope."

The sun shone through the windows of Flora's home in Linphea but struggled to reach the darkness that had begun to grow inside Helia's heart. As he lay back on a hospital bed being x-rayed and questioned again about what happened, he couldn't help but roll his eyes and sigh. He knew that magic had its limits and that there was only so much that could be done to help him, but having to relive and remember it each time was driving him crazy. Flora's hand sitting softly in his gave him some sort of comfort, but he couldn't help but feel that he was holding her back from her life now.

When Faragonda had visited earlier in the week, she had given Flora her key to freedom. A necklace wit a flower pendant that held the Headmistresses winx. It allowed Flora to travel where she needed to and to enter Magix although she was no longer a fairy. The hospital was working on that as well, Faragonda researching at Alfea and asking various counsels for help but none could give her an answer about whether a fairy who had lost her winx could regain it. Or how long it would take.

Flora had been doing her classes by correspondence over the magi-net with Tecna forwarding her all the lesson materials and by setting up her laptop in class. Flora said that she was happy to do it, because it still felt like she was really there. Helia didn't believe a word of it. With Lily at work and his Uncle Saladin busy with Red Fountain, Flora had changed from his girlfriend to his carer and he hated it with every fibre of his being. Talking points about their days were the same, no wild adventures to report. They would spend hours at a time sitting in silence and the air between them at meal times was filled with the sound of chinking cutlery and Miele's stories from school.

If he could describe how he was feeling at this moment in time in one word, he'd pick 'burden'.

"Alright, Helia, you're free to go," the nurse announced, making him smile before lifting himself up in the bed using his arms. Flora moved around to the side of the bed to assist but he wave dher away. "It's fine, I've got it." Using his arms, he helped to slide his left leg off the bed, followed by his right. Carefully he placed his hands against the chairs arms and pushed himself back into the wheel chair, again lifting both legs into place on the footrests.

The walk or wheel home was awkward, a strange feeling that neither of them had experienced before. Helia stopped suddenly near a bench, his arms growing heavy. "Can I ask you something?" He questioned as Flora took a seat next to him.

"Yeah."

"Are you happy?" Helia asked, catching Flora slightly off guard.

"Happy?"

"Yeah, are you happy?" he repeated, searching her eyes for an honest answer.

"Of course I am, I'm with Lily and Miele and you. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you aren't with your friends, you aren't in Magix going on adventures and living the kind of life that you've always wanted. Instead you're with me, helping me into my wheel chair and making me food…" he paused, swallowing before he continued. "I feel like I am a burden to you, like I am holding you back from achieving great things and I don't want to be that person, Flora."

Flora knelt in front of his wheelchair, her hands encircling his. "You are not a burden."

"You say that but I am holding you back."

"No you're not!" Flora replied. "You, Helia are my future. You are the man that I want to spend the rest of my life with. You are my soul mate, the other half of me. You are never a burden, I want to be here to help you, that's all." Blinking back tears he looked away from her and to the surrounding trees, hearing the sounds of children laughing in the distance and the pounding of shoes against the pavement. "You would do the same for me."

"I would," he sighed, "but what would you think if I moved back to Red Fountain?" Flora's eyes widened in confusion, she thought that things were going well, why would he want to leave.

"Is it something that I've done? Are you happy?" Flora asked in response and Helia shook his head slowly from side to side.

"I'm not happy because I can see, deep down Flora, that you aren't either." He paused. "We are both struggling, that's true. We both have a long way to go, to heal. But I love you too much to watch you go through this, or to see the pity in your eyes instead of the way that you used to look at me." He smiled. "I can't watch you give up everything for me, so I have decided to return to Red Fountain after Sky's coronation, to try and get things back to being as normal as they can be, for both of us."

Flora smiled before wrapping her arms around Helia's shoulders. With her chin against his shoulder, and enjoying the warm embrace, she asked him one last question. "Will doing this make you happy?" Helia nodded, breathing in the scent of her perfume.

"Yes."

"So, what do you think?" Galatea asked, turning on her heels to show off the dress she'd chosen to try on. To Kylar it looked similar to the last one she'd looked at, after a while, they had all begun to look the same.

"I like it better than the last one," he replied with a smile, believing that light grey was definitely not the colour for Galatea's skin tone. Although he was a guy who had no idea of fashion, he knew whether someone looked washed out and pale or stunning in what they were wearing. After buying the dress and leaving the store, the two walked down Magix boulevard, hand in hand.

"Have you organised your suit for tomorrow?" Galatea asked.

"Yeah, I've got a back up one for formal occasions." Kylar replied. "I guess I should make an effort for this coronation thing, huh?"

"It's only the coronation of Prince Sky of Erakleon into King at the palace. Nothing special." Sarcasm dripped through her words making Kylar laugh.

"Okay I get it, its important."

Wandering the streets the pair stopped for a drink at the Magix Café. Kylar watched Galatea sip her strawberry milkshake and he couldn't help but grin. He truly was the luckiest guy in the entire Magical Dimension, or at least that's how it felt. But, as quickly as that thought entered his mind, he thought of the other guy. The one that Galatea was supposed to marry. It seemed cruel that he be robbed of his happiness at having found the one when she was already betrowthed to someone else.

"I love you," he announced making Galatea smile.

"I love you too, what's brought this on? Not the dress shopping surely?" He grinned.

"I was just thinking about how lucky I am to have you, and what will happen when we try to sort out this arranged marriage thing."

Galatea sighed, looking away from him and to the people passing by, living their lives care-free as everyday citizens. Some of them, she knew, had aspired to be princesses or to rule kingdoms, but if they actually knew how much work was required she was sure that they'd change their tune. "Do we need to talk about this now?"

"When will we talk about it?" Kylar asked. "The last time we spoke about it you said that in order for us to organise things the only person that can help us to change the agreement is your mother-"

"And as I explained to you before, she and I are not on good terms." Galatea looked at the ring on her finger, the royal ceal that Brandon had taken from her father's dead hand, growing agitated at the conversation. Kylar was getting the same. He leant forwards and took a hold of her hand.

"Galatea, look at me," he signed, making her return his gaze, "I don't want to fight."

"Neither do I but I refuse to speak to a woman who abandoned our family the minute Derrick was born. She is dead to us."

"But she's the only other person who can help to cancel this whole thing, to change the arrangements."

"I could always just say no," Galatea replied, pulling her hand away, "at the alter. I could just say no to the big question and it would be all over and done with."

"But it won't be! It's not something that is just going to disappear, especially if there's been an agreement between two planets. How are you supposed to keep the peace?" Galatea stood to her feet, choosing to look down at Kylar.

"I don't know!" She yelled, earning looks from other diners. "But I can't talk about this right now."

"Then sit, I won't bring it up again." Kylar promised making Galatea retake her seat, she took a sip again of her drink and silence filled the space so thick it was like fog.

A/N: Thanks for reading the first chapter. Please review to let me know what you think so far!

What should Kylar do?

A). Ask one of Galatea's friends to speak with her (if so which one)

B). Try to bring up the topic again

C). Organise her mother to come to Alfea behind her back

D). Wait for Galatea to talk about it