Part 2: Goodbye Musa

Her heart pounded as she ran and ducked behind everything she could use to conceal herself. Whether it was rubble, burning barrels or shrubs she was determined to hide behind anything. She had to know what happened to Riven; she had to know what happened to him after they took him away. Musa knew trying to spy would be the riskiest thing ever, but she had to at least attempt it.

She spotted a tall tree that had close enough branches for her to climb. She figured from the top branches she would get a good enough view of Domino below...and hopefully Riven and her friends. She sighed and managed to pull herself from branch to branch carefully until she was high enough to see. She perched herself on a large enough branch she could sit on with either of her legs over each side of the branch.

Musa couldn't believe that the sight below her was Domino, because it looked more like a war zone. Nearly all the buildings were reduced to rubble except for the town hall. Piles of rubble continued to violently burn, and nearly all citizens were captured and out of the streets. On the far side of town she could see all the pens stuffed with the citizens of Domino. In the mess she swore she saw a hint of Riven's dark purple hair...but maybe she was seeing things.

It was disgusting; the city reduced to rubble, but why? Just because some peaceful people didn't want to live in the city gave the Witches rights to kill and harm people. The remains of Domino had become what they described in history class at Alfea as the remains of a "post war". This wasn't right, none of this was right. She thought the world had grown up and matured since the Dark Days of war and mayhem, but yet here it was way below her feet.

As much as Musa hated to admit it...but the world hasn't really changed since then.

Suddenly out of nowhere an orb of dark magic whizzed by her ear, and Musa frantically looked around to see where it came from. Musa peered down and saw a group of four Witches standing around the base of the tree she was in, and they all stared at her with cold, grey, dead eyes.

"Come down little Pixie, and we won't have to resort to violence," one male Witch insisted to her, "We don't want to hurt you, but we will if we have to." Those words made her cringe.

Musa nervously bit her lip, "Okay Musa...what to do to prevent yourself from being killed..." She talked aloud to herself. She looked down again; she'd never hit the ground safely from way up here. Then Musa looked to her right and saw a somewhat close enough tree branch that she might be able to make it to if jumped correctly. The key word though was the might.

Another dark magic orb flew just underneath her dangling feet, the Witch spoke up again, "This is your final warning; come down now. We promise we won't hurt you."

Musa uneasily stood up on her two feet on the small branch, and looked down at the Witches, "Sorry Witchies, gotta' bounce." With those final words she leapt towards the other branch. Unfortunately she only managed to have her hands grab firmly onto the opposing branch. There she hung with her feet dangling towards the ground below, and her arms struggling to pull her body up.

Finally multiple rounds of dark magic were aimed towards her. They are nearly hit her, and Musa thought she was in the clear. Suddenly a long beam of dark magic was emitted out of a female Witches hand, and it encircled around her right leg. It began to forcefully pull her strongly to the ground, and Musa had no choice but to fearfully let go.

It was either that, or have her arms torn from their sockets.

She came slightly hovering, and slightly falling towards the Witch that was pulling her with her dark magic. Once she was close enough the Witch grabbed her forcefully by the wrist, "No, I'm not letting you do this!" Musa panicked and suddenly found herself kicking and punching anyway she could, but found it pointless as another Witch came and grabbed her other wrist, and one more came and grabbed and bound her legs.

They began carrying her away and towards the rabbit pens just nearby. She still struggled and fought against the tough grasps of the Witches, but it really wasn't doing much good. Either way she was going to fight, or die trying if it came down to it.

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The group of Witches seemed to stop, and Musa felt dark magic bound her hands behind her back, and her legs together. Then in a flash of confusion she was thrown to the ground, and she swore she heard one of them sternly say, "watch this one, she's unarmed but dangerous." She lay there on her stomach with her face in the dirt as she struggled to sit up.

Finally she managed, but as soon as she did she knew that was a mistake. Next to her she looked at her two friends; Riven and Flora...both of them bruised, scratched, bleeding, and in pain. She already knew Riven's story, and how he got attacked. But how could someone do this to sweet and innocent Flora? She couldn't imagine her putting up a fight, but it seemed this whole catastrophe was bringing out the absolute worst in everyone. She could only give them worried looks as she was lost for words.

Then she dared look across from her, and there she spotted the little backstabbing magenta haired ex-friend. She swore if it wasn't for these dark magic bounds she would have Tecna flat on the ground dead in less than a minute. She couldn't believe this anger that was building up inside of her. Tecna was someone she trusted so much, and yet she did the one thing she thought she'd never do; betray. If she wasn't going to be able to show how much anger she was in physically then Musa was going to do it verbally.

She felt her voice build up into a terrifying hiss, "This...this is your entire fault!"

"She resisted Musa...she fought back!" Riven tried to explain to her. She didn't care if there was some blood trickling down her arm. Just because she had a couple scratches wasn't even considered any proof to her to show her innocence.

She looked at Riven square in the eyes, "She...betrayed Domino!" She couldn't believe Riven would try and back Tecna up after everything that she caused. All she could remember when she looked at Riven was his stupidity as he tried to save the girl from the Witches, "Are you stupid Riven?"

Flora's quiet voice popped in, "We can't be blaming each other for this. It could have been a satellite image...tracker..."

She didn't dare say anything angrily to Flora. She knew all she was trying to do was make peace, but the least she could do would be to stay out of the way. She looked back at quiet Tecna with her hatred filled eyes, "I think it was a spy. A spy with magenta hair to be exact."

She swore she heard Riven sigh her name, obviously with frustration because of her persistent anger. Suddenly two Witches showed up and scanned Riven and Flora's eyes with an eye scanner. She watched in sorrow as the Witch ushered them away. The two of them would be sent to Magix to go under the knife. Finally this just left her with the spy; alone.

She fought any tears of absolute frustration as she spat her words at Tecna, "How did you change his mind? When you first showed up Riven didn't trust you one bit...But I told him you were my friend...she would never betray me. I guess I was painfully wrong." Those words stung Musa's throat.

She waited and listened to Tecna's pitiful words, "I'm not lying. I never...I'm on your side." Musa then watched as Tecna too was put under the eye scanner. The Witch looked at Tecna perplexed.

"Hm...Wait, are you Tecna? Icy wants to see you immediately."

And there was the last bit of proof Musa needed to confirm Tecna was the infiltrating little spy. Knowing that, her anger continued to build up, "I knew it! You were a spy!" She yelled at Tecna as she was ushered away, "How could you betray us!? Domino is gone because of you! I never want to see you again!" All Tecna could do was slowly peer over her shoulder at Musa as she walked away. Once she was out of sight tears finally flooded down Musa's face, "Why Tecna...why..."

Moments later another Witch finally came and took her eye scan and ushered her away from the horrible pens. He only let loose the magic bands around her legs, but her arms were firmly secured. She stayed as strong as she could as she was ushered onto a giant hovercraft. Inside, both walls of it were lined with these human sized glass tubes. Inside the majority of these glass tubes were Domino citizens; all with the look of fear and uncertainty.

She was ushered down, and to her surprise she was shoved and locked into a tube directly next to Riven. As soon as she was locked inside the magic around her wrists lifted. The Witch that brought her left, but there were still a couple Witches on guard as they waited for departure.

She rubbed her wrists to ease the pain, "Why would you back Tecna up?" Musa avoided eye contact with him. "After you and Flora left, a Witch ushered Tecna right away to see the lead Witch; Icy."

"You mean..." Riven trailed off.

"Yeah, it was her," she replied softly and pressed her forehead on the glass.

Riven only gulped, "Oh, I see."

"Riven..." She finally looked at him with sorrow in her eyes, and he looked back at her. They seemed to exchange the exact same emotions, "I don't want to go."

He pressed his palm up against the glass, and she did as well so their hands would match up, "If it meant you wouldn't have to go under the knife...I would do it just so you wouldn't have to."

"That's an awful thing to say," Musa looked at him in protest, "Especially because I plan on escaping this death trap," She angrily looked at him.

"Wait, Musa...What are you doing?"

She ignored him and viciously started pounding her fists onto the glass, attempting to make it shatter. The anger that built up throughout the day was finally going to be unleashed in this fury of violence, "They aren't going to make me a fairy."

"Musa, this glass is magic bound and impenetrable," Riven tried to get through to her, "It's pointless. You need to stop this."

"No!"

"Keep this up and you will be the first to go under the knife. Please..." He pleaded to her, "You can't just try and resist like this."

Tears streamed down her face as she still tried to break the glass, "I have to try." Suddenly an alarm sounded above Musa's tube, "Oh great, now what..." She stopped her violent beating and looked up. Suddenly a small hatch opened up just above her head and a light pink gas was emitted into her air tight tube.

"Musa!" She heard him shout at her.

"What...what do I do?" She looked at him in a panic. She had to admit she should have thought the Witches had a way to deal with resisters and fighters like her. Musa thought they would have at least have the Witches try and stop her physically, but it seemed they would take the coward way and to just gas her.

She then realized it was sleeping glass; to tame her anger. Her legs began to wobble, and her arms griped into the glass to try and keep herself from falling, "Riven...don't...change..." Her voice slurred with randomness as she looked at him through the pink gas. He looked at her with fear, and the look of 'I-Told-You-So'. She sighed as her body slumped over and leaned on the glass. All she could do was look at Riven in the state of confusion.

Maybe it was just the gas, but she swore she saw a couple tears trickle down his face. Why did she try and be brave and heroic by trying to escape. It seemed she too was acting just like Riven, and how earlier he tried to save that girl from the Witches even though his chances of success were impossible. He looked at her with most caring eyes, "You can fight

Musa couldn't help but fear that they might just keep her asleep and put her under the knife first...not even giving her the chance to wake up as a Pixie one last time. If that was the case, then this would be the last time she would ever see Riven like this. She continued to look at him with drowsy eyes as they slowly began to get heavier and heavier against her will.

"Good...bye...Musa," she told herself weakly as the darkness struck, and she seemed to fade away.

Well there's the end of this side story. And for anyone who is wondering, she will not awaken before going under the night. At this point the Witches would rush her away and she would ultimately become the first and only one besides Timmy's father to go under the knife.

All of this ultimately explained why Musa was the first one to undergo the surgery.