"I would like to ask you for your help in decorating and preparing the school for the welcoming party for this year's batch of fairies." Faragonda spoke as I entered her office. The five girls I was used to seeing around were already here, and turned to look at me as I entered. Well, this was awkward.

I blinked when what Faragonda said processed fully in my head.

"You don't need me here right? I mean, all I can do is just throw ideas around and be a deadbeat compared to them." I pointed out. Grandma merely smiled. Which is pretty creepy with the light creating a shadow over her face.

"That was the plan, John. You'll be in charge of handling the planning of the party, and the girls will be in charge of handling the logistics and overseeing the process of decoration and the like."

Stella looked pretty ticked off that she wasn't the one planning the party, and seeing that she really loves being in the limelight, I can tell why she's pissed at not being picked.

"Um, ok then. Stella will be in charge of the theme of the party, since I got zero clues on what you fairies and girls like, Techna will be making sure that the building's structurally sound and that any and all of the inventory used from the school will be maintained properly when not in the storeroom, Flora will be decorating the place to make the school look welcoming. Or more welcoming. Musa, you cover the sound checks and music for the party." I blanked out when I reached Bloom. Huh, everything's pretty much covered, and she doesn't exactly have any strong points that are useful in helping out in a party, that and she's pretty clumsy so I can't really assign her anything that requires any precise handling of-

"And me?" My childhood friend's voice jolted me out of my thoughts.

I looked at her, avoiding her eyes as I spoke. "Nothing you can do really." I shrugged. "Everything's basically covered. Now can I go grandma?"

The creepy smile returned twice fold, and I swear I can see her wrinkles grinning.

"You know that's not actually why I called you up here." God damnit, it's going to be her trying to get me to be more social, isn't?

"Yeah, I kinda got that vibe when you called me up after an entire week of basically ignoring me." I confessed. I looked at the Winx, and gave a sheepish laugh. "Is a 'Sorry' going to be enough or are we going to do the whole 'You ignored me so I'll ignore you' shtick?"

Flora's gentle look was the only comforting face out of the four deadpans.

"I guess I better explain myself. So I got a theory on my magic," Bloom immediately facepalmed at that. "That I wanted to explore, and I may have obsessed over it for the past week." I bowed slightly in apology. "So, sorry."

Wait, since when did I start bowing? What the hell?

"I told you so." Bloom muttered under her breath, and the Winx giggled slightly as she walked up to me. "And you," She jabbed a finger in my chest, before wincing and cradling said finger in her hands. "Don't forget about us. Did you know how worried we were when you just decided to ignore all of us and stay in the infirmary all day for the past eight days?"

"Very?" I asked, sheepish.

She gave a whack on my shoulder, before turning to the rest of the Winx. "Because of this, you owe us all an apology in the form of being at our beck and call for the whole day." Stella cackled with glee.

"No." It was my turn to deadpan. "I'm still busy with experimenting with my magic, and grandma promised me to let me go home today to grab more of my clothing and say good bye to Mom and Dad."

Bloom's face fell slightly after I said that, which is understandable since she might feel guilt for not letting me go home and not saying goodbye to my parents earlier. Not everyone is a fairy, or has parents like she does. "Then it's alright."

The rest of the girls looked on in confusion, as I patted her shoulder. "It's ok. I say hi to Mike and Vanessa for you." She smiled in thanks, and I looked up to Faragonda. "I'll go in about an hour, can you open a portal for me then?" She nodded, before mentioning that I would need someone to come with me.

"I suppose Bloom wants to come along?" I looked back to my friend. She grimaced, and shook her head. Wow, that's a surprise.

"Professor Palladium wants me to test the Simulation Chamber today, and he said that he needs me to push the limits of the Chamber so it wouldn't blow up like it did last year." She explained, clearly not liking it.

"So, who volunteers?" The rest of the Winx looked uncomfortable for 'replacing' Bloom's place.

"Since Techna's role in the party isn't required until later on, I suppose she could go with you." Grandma's suggestion made the girls sigh in relief, for not making them choose, and the technological fairy crumpled slightly.

"I'll go grab what I need then, see you in the courtyard later."


"Thanks for coming along Techna, even though you never really had any say."

She looked awkward without her usual technologies with her, but then Faragonda didn't want her to bring anything that could possibly reveal Alfea, so I guess the temporary ban on her is reasonable. I guess I'll just have to be quick so she won't have to suffer for long.

"No problem." She fidgeted around as we waited for Faragonda to send us off. Bloom supposedly gave her the coordinates of where I live so we would be transported right in my home, and only Bloom and grandma knew about the coordinates. With Bloom busying blowing up the Simulation Chamber, that left with grandma to open the portal.

"So how's your parents coping with you being away for so long?" Techna suddenly spoke up, taking me by surprise but I managed not to flinch.

"Um, they're kinda dead." It was her turn to be taken aback. "Yeah. Bloom's parents are my official guardians, even if I didn't live with them. Looks like they got a thing for orphans." I tried to joke, but the tasteless humor only succeeded in making her look like she swallowed a lemon.

"I'm... sorry...?" Her confused tone was so adorable, like a child who thought that she'd done something wrong and was waiting to be scolded. Actually, that's not cute at all. That's borderline mentally scarring. Huh, I am going crazy. Nice.

"It's ok, you didn't know about it." I waved away her apology. "Plus, I'm used to it. People never know about my past, and they always get so guilty for thinking that they're bringing up bad memories."

Her shoulders relaxed immensely after what I said. She must be relieved that I understand her apology, even if she didn't understand it herself. She IS pretty naive for a sixteen year old, though.

"How about your parents? How are they?" It was my turn to be awkward as she turned away from me.

"Is this a normal thing for people to do?" She asked after a while. "Talking about their past like the weather?"

I couldn't help myself, and probably confused the poor girl but I laughed so hard I was left wheezing. She looked in concern and confusion, and I stopped her from asking anything with a hand raised.

"Oh my god, we cannot tell Bloom what just happened. She will hit me so hard I will probably end up like the Trix." I calmed myself down enough, and struggled to keep in the giggles.

"See, the thing I found funny is that you said normal with me in the context. I'm not exactly the standard of normality." She broke out in a small giggle when she realised what I was laughing about.

"Exactly. On a more serious note, however, people talk about their past for a couple of reasons, but the main ones are that they are either looking for sympathy, a way of connecting to someone else emotionally, to search out people with similar pasts so that they got someone to talk to, or just to rant because they kept something in their chest for too long." She nodded as I explained. "It's just what I have learned from watching people," I frowned at that. "Which sounds creepier than expected." She giggled at that too.

"People aren't what you understand, huh?" I noticed verbally.

She nodded hesitantly. "I don't know what is appropriate to say, to do. I just know that people can be nice at times, and nasty at others."

I nodded, understanding what she meant. "But people do not represent person, you know?" She looked confused. "I mean, look at Stella. She doesn't seem like the golden standard for a role model, and she's a princess of an entire planet." Her eyes slowly glinted in recognition. "A person is unique when away from a crowd, no matter who that person is. Which is why you can deal with the Winx and me, and not large groups of people. So, don't focus with dealing with people, but narrow it down to a few persons instead."

Grandma chose this time to show up.

Oh my god, I just realised. Faragonda's my fairy grand mother. Not literally, but still. A certain childhood cartoon's theme song started playing in my head, but I muted it out by flooding my mental ears with metal songs. Banish thyself, foul creation that is Fairy Oddparents.

"Ready to go?" She asked. Techna and I nodded.

Faragonda gave a small smile, and started chanting some words under her breath for a moment, before a portal opened up in front of us. Despite being around magic for a full four months now, I couldn't help but flinch at the sounds it made when it opened. We walked through it, and I could feel the difference in air temperatures and the piercing sun's rays almost immediately.

"I'll expect to see you back before sun down." Faragonda's voice was the last thing we heard before it closed.

We were in my room, and the window showed that it was quite sunny outside. The messiness that I was used to was comforting, and everything was exactly where I placed it before I went into that coma a year ago. I took a look around my room, and laughed quietly, drawing Techna's attention from a figure of a comic book on my shelf.

"Never thought I would see the day where a girl would be in my room with me." I laughed slightly harder at her reaction, which was blushing hard and looking as if she had hit her foot.

"I'll go pack my stuff up before clearing what's in my kitchen so the apartment won't stink when I come back in the future." I told her, before grabbing a rather large bag that I once used for school. The textbooks of chemistry and biology made me reminisce. I used to hate biology, until Mr. Mark came along and taught me the wonders of science, then I was hooked on it. I chucked a few blank notebooks from my shelves into my bag, as well as my writing supplies. Techna sat on my bed, and took immediate interest at my laptop and MP3 player.

"Such primitive technology..." I heard her mutter.

"I must look like such the neanderthal compared to what you're used to." I joked as I begun chucking in some reference books of biology, physics and chemistry in my bag.

"Yeah, this was the craze a few centuries ago." Her whisper could be heard only in this silent room. Her fingers reached out to touch them with her brow creased, as if trying to understand how technology advanced from this to what she was used to.

"It's sad that these need batteries to work." She suddenly spoke up when I moved to folding clothing from my wardrobe.

"What do you recommend then? Removing the batteries?" My sarcasm garnered a glare from her. "What? It's a primitive technology that needs a power source to work. Unless you plan on circumventing the power source bit, which is impossible if you want it to still function." I struggled to fit all the clothing in the bag, and had to use another bag that I once used for keeping all of my shoes. Thank god Vanessa made it a habit for me to wash the bag every week, or it'll be stinking like cheese left in my apartment in the past year.

"If you think you can do it, then go for it. A powerless functioning MP3 player would be like the best thing to exist right next to food and magic." Her eyes shone with a certain light, and sharpened considerably. Is this what Techna looks like if she accepts a challenge? Because she looks scarier than Bloom when she's pissed off and having the time of the month at the same time.

"I'll... go clean up the kitchen now." I left her glaring at my gadgets in her grasp in my room. Damn, Bloom makes the weirdest friends.


"Is Bloom alright there? She said that there was an attack on the school when she last called." Mike was nervous. And rightfully so, because he hasn't seen me in a full year and I look like a complete stranger with my heterochromic eyes and white hair.

"Yeah, she said that they managed to fight off the 'Army of Darkness'." I scoffed at the lame name. "Oh, and she couldn't come, because a professor needs her help with testing something. She says hi."

My two adoptive parents looked pensive over the video call, and glanced at each other.

"John, we're so sorry that-" "Are you ok over there?" Vanessa started, but was cut off by Mike.

I gave a small somber smile. "Yeah. I'm coping well. Don't worry about it Mom." Still feels weird to call Vanessa 'Mom' and Mike 'Dad', especially when I knew them as 'Bloom's cool mom', and 'Bloom's weird dad', until I was fourteen.

Vanessa crumpled in relief. "Thank god." I heard her mutter under her breath.

"So how's the school? Any girl in particular catch your eye?" Mike gave a mischievous smile when he spotted Techna in the background. "Or is that who you're going to be introducing us to?"

I let out a huff in amusement. "She's taken already, Dad. And no, no one there in particular strikes me as the type that I would like in that way." His smirk still held when he passed the phone to Vanessa.

"So are you going to visit later?" She asked, obviously still nervous at talking to her 'son' after a year of silence. Well, I have to make up for that, but this isn't the time for that.

"No, I'm going to visit Mom and Dad later." Her eyes widened slightly, before she nodded, choking back on her tears. Shit, I should have tried to tell her in a gentler way.

"You go do that John. And tell Bloom that we love her."

"Will do. See you guys soon, hopefully."

They hanged up, and I placed the phone back on the table.

"Just one more thing left to do, then we can go back to Alfea." I told Techna, whom seemed to be dealing with less of her withdrawal symptoms of the lack of her comfort zone.

"Alright." She was zoned out, and was still staring at my laptop.

"I'll be back in about an hour, feel free to... do whatever I guess. Just don't do anything Faragonda won't want you to do."

She gave anod, and obviously didn't hear what I said. I sighed, and wrote a note and stuck it to the table in front of her, before leaving.


"Hi Mom, hi Dad." It was considerably less sunny now, and the graveyard was quiet save a few visitors. I knelt down, and wiped the dust off their tombstones.

"Sorry if I haven't been visiting lately, it's just that," I gave a quick look to ensure that no one was looking. "I got magic now. It's a long story, but Bloom's a fairy." I laughed softly at the irony. "And she was the one who was addicted to them too." I sat on the dirt in front of their tombstones, and started to regale my experience at Alfea, while making sure no one was close enough to hear it.

"The Winx are a bunch of nice people, and I'm sure Dad will get along with Stella quite well. Flora's what my sister would be like too." My eyes started tearing up slightly. "You'll start smothering them like Mom did Bloom when she realised she loved cupcakes." My laughter was mixed with the tears dripping down. The chuckling slowed to a stop, and I caressed the marble portrait of my mother.

"I missed you guys. It's been two years, but I really can't move on from what happened. I know I should, but I don't know how to. I keep feeling as if it's my fault that you died, even though I know you'll probably slap me and tell me I'm wrong." I bit my lower lip. "I can't really visit much anymore, because I gotta be monitored by Faragonda to ensure that the magic won't kill me."

The sky was far darker than what it had been when I arrived. I looked at the flower I planted between their graves three years ago, and couldn't help but remember the Forest of Flowers that Bloom and I used to go to.

"I will visit as much as I can, but I won't be able to be around again for this year." I stoodup, and gave in to the urge to bow. "Goodbye."


I returned to an ugly sight. Techna in her fairy form having her hands and magic out, with my laptop and MP3 player being dismantled for one, and half the living room covered in soot. You know the bottom half, the one with the floor.

"What are you doing?" She jumped and turned to look at me. Her shock turned into a sheepish expression.

"First of all, don't apologise because I'm sure you don't mean it, secondly, I want those in one piece and finally why the hell are your wings out?"

She gulped, and stuttered. "This-um, I'm trying to make your 'MP3 player' work without a battery?"

I tried to think of why she would do this, then I remembered that I basically challenged her right before leaving her to a private room where she can abuse her magic with basically no consequences.

"Are you at least going to be done with that soon? Cause we got about half an hour to head back before grandma starts popping some veins." I glanced at the window, and saw that the sun was setting. "Never mind, she's going to go ballistic on our asses now."

She quickly finished up what she was doing in panic and opened a portal. I grabbed the two bags I packed and went through first.

The other side was still sunny. Huh. Must have different time zones or whatever. Techna's glare went ignored as I skipped back to the building, to my sweet sweet hideout. Accidentally trolling someone is so fun, and she can't actually do anything since I was kinda right. To the infirmary! Wait, that sounds lame. Well, I got nothing to name it. To the infirmary it is!

Oh yeah, she still has my stuff.

"Pass me those or what's left of those after you're done." I said over my shoulder before I turned the corner. Might need a plastic bag for the scraps later, who knows.

Footsteps grew loud before growing soft. Huh, she's going away. Which makes sense since her room's on the other wing opposite of the infirmary. Now, gotta do some testing to get my mind off of the depression that'll set in later. Visiting my parents tends to do that.

Hopefully Bloom would leave me alone for the next few days, or I may snap at her again like I did last year. I still feel really bad about it, but she understands. Kinda. I hope she does, it'll be really shitty if she doesn't and she was being her old self of sucking up whatever shit people threw at her with no retaliation or resistance.

Actually... She did slap me after I pushed her away. Huh, so she did change. She was just being nice for a few days before getting fed up with me.

Nice, she's becoming less of a pushover.

I have taught her well.

... Resisting the urge to say 'Young Padawan'.

Wait why am I going back to the infirmary? Faragonda wanted to see me as soon as I came back.

My hand naturally went to slap myself.

God damn it why do I keep getting side tracked?


"I see that you're back. Where's Techna?" Faragonda asked, but with a knowing look. How does someone even HAVE a knowing look?

"She... Has a project she's doing now."

"She's playing with the technology she found there." That was so matter-of-factly I think she just read off a dictionary.

"Yup."

She chuckled slightly under her breath. "As expected from her." Her eyes softened a little when she looked up to me again. "How are you coping?"

I shrugged, not really wanting to discuss this now. "Eh, I don't really feel like discussing this now. Maybe later, when I'm done with sorting out with my inner angst." She nodded understandingly.

"Just know that you have friends who are more than willing to listen to you."

I laughed mirthlessly as I opened the door to leave.

"That's what I'm afraid of."


Week Eight Day Four

I've been trying to develop more than just reinforcing of my limbs, and the attempt to reinforce my internal organs have worked, so far. Over the course of Week Seven, I have been consuming alcohol under supervision of Faragonda and nurse, who is quite alright with me basically living in the infirmary, while reinforcing my liver to counter any and all effects of ethanol poisoning. The experiment was a success, and I managed to stay sober for three vodka bottles that Mike somehow delivered to Bloom without Vanessa knowing. Or maybe she knows, since she looked quite worried when I last talked with them. Maybe they think I'm an alcoholic now. Anyways, besides me bleeding into my digestive tract from the cancerous liver, the experiment showed that I could reinforce my internal organs. I had to negatively reinforce the cells ligamese or whatever enzyme it's called that inhibits cell division, so my liver has possibly lost twenty years of shelf life.

Also another thing I learned, negative reinforcement works as well as positive reinforcement. I can induce cell death by forcing my cells' ligamese to shorten, which in turn will reduce the amount of times it can divide and hence reduce that organ's durability.

Which leads to me believing that my magic may be focused on concepts and ideas instead of actual science, since I doubt ligamese is affected by any of the chemicals and toxins found in Alfea, judging by Faragonda's long age. This may prove useful, although I got to prove it first by finding something that I can reinforce with obvious results while not risking my life. Maybe an IQ test of sorts, but then I won't be able to have an accurate result since it's not a concrete test. A test of eyesight maybe? Without the ability to control my eye's shape physically without the manifestation of magic, I could reinforce the concept of 'sight' or 'sharpness of image seen' and see the magic manifest, unless it's invisible, in that case I can prove that my magic can and does affect the physical world directly. However, since I only got two eyes, and they don't regenerate like livers do, I got to be careful. I discussed this with the nurse and Faragonda already, and they have stated their doubts along with any capabilities of potentially giving me eyes with magic. So, on the off chance that I do go blind due to the eyes gettiing messed up, I got back ups.

Magic is an amazing thing.

A shorter entry today, but it's because I need to get more sleep so I won't be as angsty tomorrow when I wake, and I can fool everyone but Bloom that I'm fine, which will give me more time to mull over some personal issues.

John E. Mercer,

Goodnight

(The corner of the diary is torn out, making it stand out from the other pristine pages.)


Author's Note

Woo this is fun to write. Just saying, I got no betas, so I am looking for one on the third chapter because it makes sense. Also, in response to Raidentensho's review, (I love you for having an account and reviewing by the way), OH MY AKASHA! LOL! It's not going down that route, trust me. I've made some hints as to what John's magic might be, but it's totally not Unlimited Blade Works. After all, he isn't a kid that survived the Fuyuki Fire (or, going by this chapter's latest advancement, is he? DUN DUN DUN DUUUN! Nah he's not.) It's a trend I'm trying to go against simply because it doesn't make sense for my particular story. After all, he isn't Shirou Emiya. Some questions for you, dear reader. Who is it screwing with John's diary? What's with the scribling and torn page? Where are my pants? WHERE ARE MY-Oh wait, nevermind I found them. On my head.

THIS IS PANTCRAZEDMANIAC SIGNING OFF, SEE YA!