A/N: Hello! I'm so thankful to all the people who took pains to review this story. Some of you have given me such great compliments! They encourage me to write more.
Anyway, to all the anonymous reviewers who had doubts concerning the plot - there's nothing bad or wrong about Flora coming from Linphea; it just puts Helia in a socially awkward position. As to why it is so, you'll have to read on.
Disclaimer: I don't own Winx Club.
The doors of the pod hissed open as Helia stepped through. He stared at the stranger in the mirror, marvelling at his transformation. This new Helia no longer had aqua eyes or long raven hair, but a buzz cut and dull blue eyes. Nothing that stands out.
He looked back at the pod, which looked like an innocent shower closet. Technology like this in the wrong hands is dangerous, which is why common use of it is unlawful. Today, it has temporarily changed my appearance. Tomorrow, it could be used to impersonate the king. It is perfectly made: so much so that even I would not recognise the simulated form of my own father. I have to get it out of there. And yet, the Transformation Pod was too large to just carry away. Helia's job was to find out how it had been taken into a secret facility far up north of his father's kingdom, and if possible, destroy it. It was not a task to his liking, but he had deeply considered his grandfather's words before taking it. He did owe something to his family and his motherland.
He pocketed the fake ID he had made the previous night, checked the placement of his laser string glove – hidden as a tattoo on the back of his hand – and refuelled the thrusters in his shoes. To complete his disguise, he adopted a slightly duck-footed posture and practiced his voice into a lazy drawl. I feel like Riven.
But thoughts of Riven brought back thoughts of her. Pushing Magix out of his mind, he walked to his private hangar and strapped himself into the pilot's seat of his jet. Flying was something Helia loved ever since he first tried it. It gave him a filling satisfaction, made him feel like a free bird – like an eagle, the king of the skies. He powered the jet and lifted off.
After a wistful, aerial view of his country, Helia landed in the secluded, snow-covered terrain of the Sasanqua Mountains. It was hard to think that an illegal lab would exist in this beautiful, flowery region, but Helia had learned that people could do anything to suit their purposes. He programmed the jet to return at a suitable time and watched it fly back, the familiar rush of a new mission rapidly regaining its position in his veins.
Slouching into his new gait, Helia made his way to the wrought-iron gates of the secret facility. A formidable sign gaped back at him.
'ENTRY RESTRICTED EXCEPT FOR AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL'
He flashed his ID at the guards and walked in. They didn't look twice at him. As soon as he was out of their line of sight, Helia vanished behind some trees. He pressed a button on his watch, letting his contacts back home know he had successfully breached the outer boundaries. Now to sneak into the lab itself.
The lab was made to look like a rocky hill, though in reality a solid steel structure. Have they employed the Transformation Pod's mechanisms to objects other than living beings? thought Helia. If nothing else, that is surely not lawful. There were armed guards posted around all its entrances. Helia knew that using his ID would lead him straight into a lobby or discussion room full of people, where he most certainly did not want to be.
Keeping to the woods, Helia edged around to the back. He threw a small rock in the opposite direction. Minutes later, a loud splash echoed across the area. The two guards in front of him rushed to check what was happening, giving Helia a clear shot at the window above their posts. Swinging his laser strings, he landed lightly on the sill and dropped stealthily inside. See, Sky? Explosions are not always necessary.
The chamber was a storage room. Specimens of various kinds hung in cryotanks: plants, animals and even a human corpse. All of them were modified somehow by way of appearance. The human looked as if he had grown a few extra limbs. Helia looked away, slightly revolted. Creeping past the exhibits, he peered through the keyhole. The corridor outside was deserted. Opening the door, he stepped into the hallway. According to his sources, the actual experiments were conducted on the second floor, one level above him.
Footsteps echoed to his right. Helia hastily dived behind the door, watching through the keyhole. Two men came into focus, holding a stretcher between them. A horribly mangled hand hung over its edge. They stopped at the Storage Chamber. One of them twisted the doorknob, and they came in.
Helia was long gone, already tiptoeing up the stairs to the second level. He peered around the edge of the stairway. There were people in coats: scribbling on clipboards, shaking test-tubes and performing surgeries. They had duplicated the Pod – its replicas were now hissing open to reveal combinations of various species of plants, animals and other beings. Helia saw a woman with the head of a Venus Flytrap, a half lion-half zebra and what looked like about twenty clones of the same redheaded person.
It seems the Pod is just one element in a much sinister plot, though Helia. He crept back the way he had come, and used another window to get out of the lab. Once safely out of the main gates, he summoned his jet.
He returned to the quarters temporarily assigned to him – his planet's Embassy on Linphea.
Everyone in the lobby stood up as he entered. Whispers followed his self-protective walk – hands in pockets, head down, shoulders stooped. They had all heard the rumours surrounding his rebellious behaviour after the war. So much for being a spy, he though bitterly. No quiet, secretive entrances for the Crown Prince. My curse is being my father's son.
Helia had thought long and hard, mulling over the situation in the lab in his mind. Scattered papers littered the floor in his royally spacious room. Helia had ignored the carved ebony desk completely. He often found that unconventionality gave him ideas. He had chosen to lie on his stomach on the rich, grassy carpet and work between poems and drawings. As much as he tried to resist it, being on Linphea made him sketch her over and over. Though it distracted him from his task, the eloquent descriptions of her emerald eyes in poetic lines gave his brain a break from thinking of the gruesome sights he had witnessed, enabling him to resume work refreshed.
Even though he was practically living in a treehouse with one of the most beautiful gardens in Linphea, it had been three days since the last time Helia had stepped out of his room. He didn't want to be pointed at, whispered at, looked at. People's judging eyes made him want to run away to happier pastures. Why is it so necessary to be conventional? he wondered. Why do you have to 'fit in'? Why is a misfit labelled a freak?
Pulling his thoughts away from Society's inscrutable ways, he looked back at the diagrams and maps he was making. The last time he had gone out of the Embassy, Helia had spied excessively and continuously on the goings-on in the experiment halls, employing his training in Redfountain to the best of his ability. The scientists were developing espionage technology far more advanced than any in existence. And as far as he knew the laws of the realm, it was not permissible to use unauthorised technology in the vicinity of natural environments such as Linphea or its neighbour, Clematis. Even his own gadgets had undergone careful scrutiny in both his own home and Linphea before he was allowed to operate them.
His next course of action had to be calling in Linphea's army to raid the lab and seize the equipment. The only problem was that the lab was secured against Elemental forces, and most of Linphea or Clematis's warriors used nature-based magic to fight. To summon soldiers from his own country would certainly attract suspicion, since a peace treaty had been signed between all the realm's kingdoms after the war. Well, most of them adhered to it, anyway.
And yet, something troubled Helia. This had to be an inside job. Someone within the realm was using the transportation portals that existed between the planet and its moons to bring in this equipment. No doubt all that would be weeded out by interrogators after the scientists were captured. But how? He didn't want any bloodshed to happen on the pure natural beauty of Sasanqua.
Helia had a plan, but it involved speaking to the commander of Linphea's armies: the King of Linphea - who was also Flora's father.
A/N: To be continued. And also, Flora is not going to make an appearance at her father's court when Helia is present there, since if you remember, she is busy rescuing the rest of the Codex pieces back in Magix.
Tell me what you think!