All right, Flora managed to escape for a few minutes, and we know that Guinevere is a true fairy at heart, not an evil witch. Tell me, what do you think of her, now that you know the truth about her? She doesn't seem so bad does she? Well, she's going to seem really bad again after this next chapter. Just read and enjoy!
Chapter 6: Rescued and Re-captured
Meanwhile, back at Alfea, Ms. Faragonda had just finished explaining the same story about Guinevere to the rest of the Winx Club and their boyfriends. They were all stunned to hear that at heart, Guinevere really was a fairy. They never would have expected it from someone who was as intent to do so much evil as she was.
"Isn't there something we can do to help her?" asked Bloom.
"Flora's also the only one who can break the curse around Guinevere," said Ms. Faragonda. "But the problem is Flora doesn't know that. So, what you need to do is find Flora, and somehow figure out how to cast the counter curse. And it's only a matter of hours before the spell takes over Guinevere forever. It's already after eight o'clock, so she only has four hours left. And I have a feeling that the witches will take her powers so they can have control of both realms."
"Then let's get to Lynphea, rescue Flora and Guinevere, and stop the witches from getting control of both their powers," said Helia."
"Be careful, all of you!" said Ms. Faragonda as the girls transformed. They ran back to the ship waiting outside Alfea's gates. Timmy hurriedly set the controls and started the ship, gaining speed every minute. But because of Helia hanging over his shoulder, pressuring him to go faster, he pressed a few buttons and thanks to some new software he'd installed on the ship's computers, it accelerated and went into an inter-realm travel mode. It went so fast that the girls all had to grab on to things just to keep standing. But it didn't really help and a couple of them were thrown to the floor.
"Are you girls all right?" asked Sky, helping Bloom up.
"Yeah," she answered vaguely, and he could tell she was worried about Flora.
She wasn't the only one. All the girls were nervous and anxious, and poor Helia was having absolutely worry fits. He kept pacing back and forth across the ship, and only after Riven threatened to punch his lights out did he sit down. He just gazed out the window and watched as the realm of Lynphea began to appear in front of him. Within a few minutes, they landed outside the palace of Lynphea. It was a relatively small palace, only two floors, but as Lynphea was ruled more by the Sage, and less by the King and Queen. It may be small, but it was grand nonetheless.
The realm itself was a paragon of beauty, with flowers in full bloom, trees that towered to the sky, and mountains looming up in the distance. They could hear a waterfall somewhere in the distance, and the sound of water come crashing down to the rocks was actually very soothing under the circumstances. It was very peaceful, but that just reminded them of their mission, considering that if they failed, all that beauty and tranquility would be destroyed forever.
"This realm is huge, where do we start looking?" asked Layla.
"We'll think of something," said Jason, putting his arm around her. This made her a little nervous, she still wasn't used to the idea of a boyfriend. He felt her tense up a little bit, and it felt like a prong shooting straight through his heart. He knew he was falling in love with her, but he wasn't sure if he should continue with a girl who felt she didn't need a boyfriend.
Tecna was meanwhile typing into her computer, with Timmy looking over her shoulder. "Got it!" she said. "It looks like Guinevere's good side took over for a little while and she let Flora go. Flora's flying west, trying to get to any means of transportation back to Alfea. She has barely any energy left, that's why she didn't cast a spell to get back. But the witches are following her and Guinevere's evil side took back control of her mind."
"Where is she now?" asked Musa.
"She's only a few minutes in that direction," said Tecna, pointing over her shoulder. One second later, they heard the unmistakable sound of a battle, energy blasts being fired, and the sound of a girl screaming.
"Oh no Flora," said Helia, going even paler than he already was, if that was possible. The girls flew in the direction Tecna pointed out and the boys followed closely in the ship. Within minutes, they spotted Flora flying as fast as her wings would carry her, but even from where they were, they could see that it wasn't fast enough. Icy, Darcy, Stormy and Evil Guinevere were behind her, absolutely gaining on her, and she didn't have enough power to make herself faster. She barely had enough strength to hold herself up, let alone maintain her Winx form.
"They're still so far away, how are we going to get to her?" asked Stella.
"Guys, each of you create a couple power beams, one in each hand," yelled Musa. The girls did as she said, a couple wondering what good that was going to do, but that was made clear about a second later, as she then she yelled, "now fire them behind us. It'll give us an extra speed boost!"
"Good thinking Musa!" yelled all the girls together as they picked up speed. This extra boost was just the break they needed, making them go faster than they had been. They called out to Flora, trying hard to get her attention, but they could tell she couldn't hear them.
Flora didn't even yet know that her friends were behind her. She was still trying to get away from the witches, but was getting tired. She knew she couldn't keep going like this for much longer, she was having to struggle to so much as keep her eyes open. She tried to go faster, but her Winx was almost completely drained. Icy raced ahead and was soon in front of her. Flora stopped short, realizing that she was trapped.
"Now we've got you pixie!" yelled Icy, ready to knock Flora out and tie her up again.
"Get away from her Icy!" yelled Bloom. "Dragon Blast!" The burst of fire took the witch completely by surprise, forcing her to back away from Flora. The princess of nature turned around and a wide grin broke out on her face as she saw her friends there, ready to help her.
"I was beginning to give up hope you guys would find me," she said, flying back around to them.
"Don't worry, we've got your back Flo," said Musa, giving her a smile and a wink.
"The last thing you have a chance of doing is saving her skin, believe me," said Guinevere, drifting forward, her hair flying wildly behind her, the feature that made her truly look evil and dangerous, along with her gleaming, red eyes.
"How about picking on someone your own size Guinevere," said Layla. "Aquarius Current! Ocean Blast!" This combo attack was one that had worked for a few times in the past, and though it did manage to keep Guinevere from attacking them for a few minutes, she didn't even dent her enemy.
"Layla, you and the others take out the witches," said Bloom. "I'll fight Guinevere."
"Got it," said Layla. She flew down to where the others were fighting the witches, and said, "okay Musa, you and I are going to fight Darcy. Stella and Tecna, can you take care of Stormy?"
"No problem," said Stella, more than ready to take out the witch she thought had the worst fashion sense. "But then," she thought to herself. "They all have a pretty bad fashion sense. Guinevere's is nothing to scream about either."
"Come on Stella," said Tecna, snapping out of her moment of contemplating fashion. "Digital Web!"
"Sun Burst!"
Surprisingly enough, they managed to take out Stormy fairly quickly, which made them both suspicious. What made them even more suspicious was that a moment later, she disappeared, and didn't reappear very quickly.
"Something's wrong here," said Stella. "Where did she go?"
"I don't know," said Tecna. "I can't see her anywhere."
Musa and Layla were holding their own against Darcy. "Sonic Blast!" yelled Musa. She knocked Darcy out of the air a few feet. "That's for kidnapping Flora," she yelled. She then sent another sonic blast at Darcy, which knocked her to the ground. "And that's for spelling Riven in freshmen year," she yelled.
"Come on, don't you think that hero wannabe is just a little too grumpy for his and everyone else's own good?" asked Darcy. Musa knew she was just taunting her, and it was working.
"Don't even think about trying to get Riven back!" she yelled, flying forward to attack again, but Darcy did the same as Stormy, and disappeared.
"Where did she go?" asked Layla, looking all over the place for the witch.
"Why do I get the feeling we've been set up?" asked Musa.
"That you have," said Darcy. She and Stormy suddenly appeared above the four fairies, and with one combined attack sent all of them crashing to the ground. The boys landed the ship and rushed out to help the girls, all except for Sky and Helia, who stayed in the entrance to the ship to watch Bloom and Flora.
Having the Dragonfire behind her gave Bloom an advantage in the fight against Guinevere, but not enough of one. Meanwhile Flora was trying to fight Icy. But Icy wasn't having much fun as she normally did fighting the girls, and this was because she knew how little power Flora had.
Guinevere nodded at Icy, giving her the signal to take Bloom out, so she could have a clear shot at Flora. Icy flew forward, and sent a round of piercing icicles directly at Bloom, also giving her a snide comment, "you know Bloom, it's hard to believe a lowlife pixie like you has a power like the Dragonfire. It's obvious you don't deserve it. Why don't you just hand it over to me right now, and perhaps, I'll think about sparing your miserable life."
Bloom, hating it when Icy made comments like that, flew towards her, completely forgetting about Guinevere. "You're going to pay for that Icy! Dragon Blast!"
But this was exactly what Icy wanted. She quickly disappeared, before the attack got anywhere near her. Then while Bloom's attention was fixed on looking for her, she snuck up behind the fairy, and hit her square in the back with another round of icicles. She fell down to the ground, landing directly in Sky's arms.
With all the rest of the girls now on the ground below, Flora was now completely unguarded. In the few minutes she'd had to rest, she hadn't been able to gain much of her power back. Guinevere now floated forward, ready to re-capture her and take her back to the palace.
"Guinevere, don't do this," said Flora, as Guinevere came ever closer. "There's still a part of you that's good. Please listen to that side of you, fight the curse and don't do something you'll regret."
"I'm sorry Flora, but that's not happening," said Guinevere. "Dark Shadow!" She fired a dark ball of light at Flora. She tried to shield it and did for a few seconds, but her Winx had completely left her. She transformed back into her normal self, passed out and fell. Bloom tried to fly over and get her, but she was too far away, and the wind was against her too. She knew she'd never be able to get to Flora in time.
Suddenly, a levabike came speeding out of the Red Fountain ship, flying directly at Flora. It was Helia. He reached Flora just a few seconds before she hit the ground. Keeping one arm on the controls of the bike, he reached out with his free arm and caught her around the waist, holding her protectively against his chest.
"Way to go Helia!" yelled Musa.
But his victory was short lived. He was about to drive the bike back into the ship but Guinevere fired at him from behind, and he crashed on the ground below. Helia kept his arm around Flora, trying to make sure he landed on the ground first, in order to keep her from getting hurt. He fell off the bike, throwing out his left arm to break his fall. A searing hot pain shot through it as he felt it crack, and he had to choke back a cry of pain; he wasn't going to give Guinevere the satisfaction of knowing he was hurt. He hit the ground hard, and Flora rolled out of his other arm. He slowly got up, trying to ignore the pain in his arm as he walked over to his girlfriend to make sure she was all right. The other girls and the boys ran over to him and Flora.
"Are you ok Helia?" asked Sky.
"Except for my arm yes," he said. "I think it's broken." Brandon tore a piece of his cape off and very quickly wrapped Helia's arm in a sling. "We'll take care of your arm later. Right now, we have to get out of here!"
"You're not going anywhere," said Icy. She and the rest of the witches appeared on all sides, surrounding the group, so none of them could escape. "Say goodbye to your friend. She's coming with us."
"No she's not!" yelled Stella. "Sun Blast!" But Icy deflected her attack and said, "nice try pixie."
"I hope you've enjoyed your last moments with her," said Guinevere, smiling cruelly. She fired an attack at the group which propelled them back into a cave behind them, leaving Flora lying on the ground. Guinevere then conjured magical bars out of thin air and put them at the entrance to the cave. They all watched as she picked up a rock and threw it at one of the bars. It disappeared before their eyes and they soon realized that it had turned it to powder. "The same thing will happen to you if you try to escape," she said. She turned around, hearing a groan behind her. Flora had regained consciousness.
"Flora!" yelled Helia. It took a moment for Flora to fully wake up, and by the time she did, it was too late. The four witches had surrounded her on all sides, and there was nowhere for her to run.
"Oh no," she yelled when she saw them.
"Flora, get out of here, run and get help!" yelled Bloom, but she knew she couldn't. Flora tried to duck under the witches, all floating in midair, and started running as fast as she could, but Guinevere wasn't going to let her go that easily. She fired a few attacks at Flora and the poor girl tried to transform but was still out of Winx. All she could do was run.
"Not so fast pixie!" yelled Darcy. She raised her hand and within a second, rope was tightly binding Flora's wrists and ankles again. She overbalanced and fell to the ground, struggling to free herself, but the ropes were too strong. She could only struggle helplessly as Icy picked her up, and started to carry her back to the castle.
"Flora, no!" yelled Stella.
"I can't believe it," said Helia, falling to his knees, realizing he could do nothing to help her. He just sat there, in a daze.
Flora was struggling to get out of Icy's grip, but the witch didn't let go of her captive. "Help me!" she yelled to her friends as they disappeared from sight. They rounded the corner and went back inside the palace.
Not good, really not good. The witches have Flora, the others are trapped, and midnight is approaching fast. What's going to happen to Guinevere once midnight strikes? Will the Power of Rampara be hers, and will the gate to Rampara open? You know it will, it won't be much of a story if it doesn't, but what happens when it does happen? Stay tuned!
