AN: Yeah, It's taken me a while. Work sucks, and this chapter's been rewritten seven or eight times and sucks. Though I've gotten a few great ideas for the next few parts.
Same universe of course. I hope you did notice the turning point was as simple as Stella getting kicked out of Alfea and going to Cloud Tower, because her father didn't pull strings to get her back in, because he was remarrying about two years earlier and trying to get Chimera into Alfea? Which makes it so Stella is going to Cloud Tower when Bloom saves her, which... Yeah.
Not mine really, but the characters are way more fun then they're already being used. Need more witchy Bloom stories too.
-oOo-
Okay, this part she missed.
When she started at Cloud Tower, the first A+ she got was for energy focusing. It was quite literally the most fun she ever had in her life up to that point, being able to reach into the depths of her soul, pulling at what ever she could find there. It didn't hurt that in the same place where some people found darkness, lightning, or ice, she found fire and lots of it. And what a rush to have that much power just flowing from a simple thought from inside her heart.
Outside of Red Fountain she was just angry. Nothing like the cool and calm desire washing over her in the red hot flames now. That time she was little more then an animal. This time, this time she was something more. Something perfect, precise.
Ms. DuFours was a more focused on teaching her control rather then raw output. She now knew six different 'flavors' of fire and understood the theory behind seven more. Warming fire, shadow casting fire, fire that burned without needing air, living fire itself. She even found her way to draw out the sparkly fire deep within her soul. Her truest fire. But for all that training and specialization, not one exorcise that let her just pop off the limiters, and go whole hog.
Then they showed up.
-oOo-
Never let it be said living with Bloom wasn't frustrating.
Because it could be. She loved the girl like a sister, but Bloom was prone to mood swings, and Mirta was always dragged along on every one. There was something unlucky about being an empath connected to an overly emotional dragon and a disaffected princess.
So while it was a good thing that Bloom was holding off those... things, Mirta could feel that the other red head was not holding back any more, which would make her position a bit more... difficult overall.
Stella in one of her forward thinking moments, brought a tent along with her. Just a magical collapsible thing really, nothing too fancy. So the three fairies, Stella, and herself were not horribly cramped, but the tent wasn't designed for more then two or three people, and stuffing five into the tight space made focusing on magic fairly difficult.
Because Mirta was the only one that actually paid any sort of attention in medical class, she was delegated the responsibility of handling the three fairies, while Stella reinforced the tent from the inside, where as Bloom got to explode on the pack of wild dog things that smelled of emptiness outside.
The first fairy was completely unconscious. No movement, no breathing, her body was cold to the touch. In a different situation, she'd be more worried as the girl appeared to be dead. But the purple haired girl was an android anyways, so those problems were consistent with the gaping hole in her chest. Nothing that a field technician couldn't fix in an hour with access to a well stocked workshop, even though it did look like someone stole her power core earlier.
Fairy number two was a pumpkin. It was definitely more active then the average pumpkin, and it still seemed to be a fairy... Just a pumpkin for now. That one was stable overall... Except that she was a pumpkin. No sign of being cursed, just the faint smell of nothingness that probably came from the dog things. A god damn pumpkin.
Pumpkin!
Number three was still in shock. The Asian wasn't speaking, was barely reacting, and would not respond to any questions. Other then that, she seemed to be fine, just quiet and shivering like a mouse. Again like the others, no sign of a normal curse, just the overwhelming scent of nothingness again.
-oOo-
"Griff, the girl has been in my school for almost a month now. I've seen her wield dragon fire as if it was her birthright. You know exactly what that means."
"There's no proof that she is or is not Farigonda. I'd rather not force a girl down a path of insanity and chaos, simply because she might be the last member of a dead royal family."
"You fought along side Miriam and Oritel as well. It would be in everyone's best interests to at least expose the girl to her past."
"She's barely fifteen Fari..."
"There's little point in trying to hide her origins from her. If we try to hide her away, she will most likely discover them on her own, and that may lead her into reviving him."
"...Fine then. WE will tell her. But I do not believe she is capable of his actions, whether she knows of them or not..."
"She's easily angered, and loyal to the death."
"Baltor never understood loyalty. Though at this point it would be best not to involve Saladin."
"Oh, you received that report as well?"
"Replacing his damaged machine was simple enough, and no one was killed, so it was a worthwhile transaction. If only it was so easy to cover for my other covens."
"Having problems with Icy again?"
"That girl is so irritable of late. Earlier today I found her torturing a number of the younger witches for little reason at all. The past few weeks she's become quite the hellion."
Farigonda crossed her arms, pondering the statement for a moment. "In the good way or the bad way?"
"In the bad way, of course." snapped Griffin, shutting off the two way mirror in a huff of frustration.
-oOo-
Fire wasn't working.
They didn't like it, that was sure. And if she could make it sharp and hot enough, she could cut them and cauterize the wound before they could heal back.
Did she mention they could heal? A whole hell of allot of healing. They could, without question, heal faster then she could burn them with the simple stuff. And they seemed to actually like being hit with her Dark Fire.
They also seemed to be tentacled inside, so just cutting them seemed to make it harder to fight them in the long run. Demon beasts of some sort at the very least. Which meant someone had to have summoned them.
So Bloom had to change her style a bit, Golden Fire spilling from her fingertips. It would probably get messy before this was over, but too many people were depending on her for her to give up just yet. Anyways, it were just starting to get interesting in the first place.
-oOo-
Stella had to use that staff.
The staff her reject father gave to her.
The gift that was supposed to start her off on her journey to fairy hood.
The one she swore never to touch again. After he married her.
Bloom was at least trying to be rational. She could feel the circle of fire around the tent twisting and blocking for the most part. A fire elemental trying to protect the tent from the beasts outside that wanted the fairies with them.
Her energy was focused on supporting the tent, and she needed to use the Solar Staff just to keep herself going. The tent was magical, even fire resistant to a degree, but it wasn't designed to hold up during a full fledged firestorm. For that it needed even more magic, and to do that Stella needed to focus.
Of course, while one section of her mind was focused on charging wards and the elementals outside battling, she couldn't help but think of her father. What would he say if he knew she was using the staff to power her witchcraft? He'd probably just want to take back the artifact, and give it to that little spoiled bitch Chimera.
She had no love for Cassandra. And even less love for her little rat child. Why should she?
A thought which she couldn't focus on for too long. Needing to keep herself and the others alive had priority over hateful nostalgia.
At least until she could get home to a nice warm bath.
-oOo-
'Sister, you must come and find me...'
Sister? She was an only child. It definitely wasn't one of her coven mates. A battle really wasn't the place to practice telepathy with little warning.
'Bloom...'
Bloom? 'Pardon me.' Her telepathy was... not too great. Mirta could do it... technically. She didn't really like doing it, and it was much harder then just working with her empathy, but it was never her favorite form of communication. 'Bloom's busy at the moment, you should try again later.'
'She must go to Sparx...'
For a split moment, the small red head is flooded with a confusing single vision of a glowing nymph, blowing snow, and drowning. All followed by the sickening nausea of an anti-magic field washing over the tent.
At least she could tell the fires outside were dying down before she passed out.
-oOo-
The dream was getting annoying at this point. It was always started as while she was floating in the empty void between burning fire and running water.
Yes, her Earth parents were forced to admit she was adopted. That her father found her playing as an infant in a burning building. She already assumed it, considering most magic left Earth hundreds of years ago, the last trip home just confirmed her suspicions. So her Earth parents weren't her birth parents. She was still their daughter, even if she wasn't technically an Earthling by birth. She could deal with the fact she wasn't actually from the planet, but the dreams made the alternative sound so stressful, she figured that being raised on nice and quiet Earth wasn't really all that bad in comparison.
"Sister, you must come and find me..." Always begging. The female voice kept calling out to her. Promising information about her origins, about her true family. Never following through though, just begging.
"Ignore her, the watery tart doesn't know what she's talking about. You know you have to find me first!" The male voice made her angry for some reason. On an instinctive level really. Like if she ever met the body attached to the voice, she'd just start slapping him until her arm fell off. And there was no proof that would be enough to stop her.
"Him?! You simply can not, he's a lowly warlock, and killed our parents!" And of course the yelling. Disembodied female hated disembodied male almost as much as she did. Not that their arguments made it any easier for her to sleep.
"Shows how much you know wench, our parents are fine! She's obviously not a fairy, so why would she even listen to your moronic pleas..."
"You killed me!"
"I wasn't even on the planet when you died! It's not my fault you can't handle a couple of old hags! Our mother would be ashamed..."
"Ashamed? If anything the very idea that her oldest would try to kill the planet she loved..."
"Loved?! She was a water fairy forced into a marriage on a fire planet, I'm sure she would have thanked me for..."
"Will you two please shut up!"
Bloom shoots awake in an unfamiliar bed, Kiko sleeping in her lap, a brunette fairy asleep in a chair next to her, Mirta in her lap.
Sure, Mirta was a pumpkin at this point, but it was clearly the little redhead. Mirta was the center of the coven, they all could just feel each other by now. And she was in the middle of a medical ward, quite likely Alfea's, as they would definitely feel if they were inside Cloud Tower. The moon was out, high and bright in the sky. Waxing gibbous so it was probably late evening, about nine or ten.
The door creaks open, a blond head bobs into the room. "I thought you would be getting up." Stella slides in the door, fairies slipping in behind her. The Asian one who they found in shock, the purple haired one who had the nasty chest wound limped in on a metal cane. Ms. DuFours of course, followed by Farigonda, then surprisingly Ms. Griffin as well.
For an uncomfortable moment, the group stands around the bed, the brunette waking quietly from the shuffling in the room. Griffin and Farigonda making eye contact between each other, seeming to have an unspoken conversation around the crowded bed. Farigonda breaking the silence, "Girls, we need to talk."