Blooming Decay

By: FunahoMisaki

(A/N: I own nothing and read last chapter.)

"You're welcome dear now you have a mission to complete. Try to help Griffin and her students out while you're there yeah?" DuFour asked with a chuckle as she messed up Blooms hair fondly again, causing the red head to turn serious again as she nodded and walked towards the well that led to the tunnels.

"Wait Captain! You forgot to get your personal phanto-weapon!" Timmy called to Bloom who turned and tilted her head at him.

"Do you have a sickle?" Bloom asked causing the boys to blink before Tank, who held most weapons in his subspace pocket, nodded slowly and used his watch to get the weapon out. He tossed the handle of the weapon to Bloom who caught it on reflex and activated the blade, causing the curved red phanto-blade to shoot out.

"Wicked. Thanks!" Bloom called over her shoulder as her eyes lit up again before she jumped into the well. The Winx girls rushed to the well to check on her and saw Bloom just as she took a sip from a vial full of red liquid before she recapped the vial and took off running down the tunnel way.

"DuFour?" Faragonda asked staring at the red clad woman who had looked after the red head worriedly for a minute.

"Yes?" DuFour asked turning away from the well and looking at the shocked teachers and students staring at her.

"I wasn't aware you had a daughter." Faragonda said looking between DuFour and the well Bloon had jumped down, causing DuFour to chuckle slightly.

"She's adopted if it makes you feel any better." DuFour said while Stella looked at her curiously.

"But when I met Bloom on earth she was living with two adults..." Stella said confused and causing DuFour to nod.

"Yes Mike and Vanessa Peters. They're her guardians while I'm in the Magical Dimensions. I wasn't aware she was magical until I saw her here at Alfea under an assumed name, trust me it was quite a shock." DuFour said with a chuckle while Griselda blinked.

"Wait. That's why you were so surprised to see her? You told me it was simply because you thought Veranda had dyed her hair." Griselda said causing DuFour to laugh.

"Of course I was surprised to see her. She was raised by me and her guardians on a magicless planet ever since she was a year old and not once in those years did I notice anything magical about her. Then suddenly my teenage daughter is in the Magical Universe, is a fairy with strong fire powers, and is my student. I think I had a right to be surprised." DuFour said causing the others to blink, that made sense. They would be surprised too if that had happened to them.

"Wait is that why Bloom likes singing so much? Because you taught her about the importance of incantations when she was little?" Musa asked tilting her head to the side slightly as she looked at the red clad woman.

"Not quite. She always enjoyed music and listening to me sing or play instruments so when she turned seven I decided to teach her how to play a few instruments and when she turned nine I taught her how to sing, although most of it is her natural talent. I taught her how she worded things, how things were written, and the importance of reading when she was little but not incantations themselves. I thought she was non-magical remember?" DuFour reminded causing Musa to blush slightly in embarrassment at having forgotten that fact.

"She knew I was magical but she didn't even know she was magical until she met Miss Stella." DuFour said with a chuckle, remembering how starry eyed Bloom had been at her magic when she was little.

"So you know that she is..." Faragonda trailed off not wanting to say the words she was thinking while DuFour's smile fell and she lowered her eyes.

"Yes, I know she is dying. When I found out she was sick...I tried every magic potion, every healing spell, every well everything I could to heal her but...none of it worked." DuFour said softly as she stared at the ground, she understood that her daughter was dying...but damnitt that didn't mean she had to accept it and she certainly didn't have to like it.

"The best I could do was create a new potion that uses different magical plants as well as her blood to stave off her sickness for a while. I've been giving it too her in secret ever since she started here, which is why it almost never seems like she's unwell. Although I've had to be careful with how much I gave her, too much of it in a certain amount of time would poison her rather than help her." DuFour said while everyone was dead silent in shock and horror, Bloom was dying?

"No way! I refuse to believe that Captain is dying and there's nothing that can heal her!" Timmy said after a shocked moment of silence, shaking his head furiously in the negative.

"And you think I want to believe it?" DuFour said her head snapping over to him with a small snarl on her lips, causing everyone to back up a few steps.

"You forget that she's my daughter! Adopted or not she's still my baby girl and I still love her! You think I want to believe that my baby is dying, has been slowly dying on the inside for years , and there is nothing I can do to help her!?" DuFour snarled at the boy, causing everyone to flinch when she put it like that.

"You think I want my baby to die before I do?" DuFour asked softer, her voice carrying an undefinable amount of sadness in it as she sunk down to her knees. She had always been so strong for her daughter but she couldn't be strong forever.

"Do you think for one second I want to find out what if feels like to have to bury my own daughter?" DuFour asked her tears beginning to fall for the first time in twelve years as she hugged herself.

"If I could I would switch places with my daughter right now, I would have done it years ago even! I would rather be the one dying...than having my little girl die without me being able to do a thing to stop it!" DuFour said curling in on herself and crying while Griselda and Faraogonda rushed over to comfort her as everyone merely stared silently.

That's right. DuFour was Blooms adopted mom...and she had to live with the fact that Bloom has been dying for years now.

They couldn't imagine how it would feel, to know your child, adopted or not, was going to die before you did.