Hey everyone! In this chapter, we're going to concentrate mostly on the rest of the girls and their rescue mission. We'll start out with the group in the dungeons, then the one outside the palace, and then we'll get to one person going after Tecna alone. I don't think I have to tell you who that one person is going to be. Happy reading!
Chapter 7: Multiple Battles
A loud thud was heard as the Bloom, Sky, Musa, Riven, Jason and Layla landed in a large stone room. The place was completely empty save a few torches on the wall, and a door on one side of the room with a little barred window in it. They groaned as they realized that they were in the palace; they just hadn't gotten there in the manner that they'd wished.
Jason tugged on the door handle, but he and everyone else already knew that he was doing that in vain. It was tightly locked. He said, "does anyone see anything that so much as looks like a way out?"
No one did. He sighed, thinking that he should have known the answer to that question.
"Let's hope the others find a safer road," said Bloom. "They'll have a better shot at getting to Tecna in time than we will."
"In the meantime, how do you propose we get out?" asked Riven indignantly.
"We're just going to have to blast our way out," said Musa. "If Paritho already knows we're here, then what's the point of not using magic? It's the only shot we have and you have to admit I'm right."
"Yeah you're right," said Bloom.
"Stand back," said Layla. "I'm going to give it everything I have." She started to transform, but halfway through, she felt something keeping her from transforming. It was preventing her from reaching her Winx form, rendering much of her power useless, and even cut off her ability to use her Charmix. The experience was becoming too much for her to handle, and she knew she wouldn't be able to hold it much longer. With a shriek, she fell back into her normal form, landing hard on the cold stone floor.
"Layla, are you okay?" asked Jason, kneeling next to her.
"I'm fine," she said rubbing her head. "I don't believe it, something stopped me from transforming. It must be some kind of spell Paritho put up."
"If Paritho thinks he can keep us from using our powers, he's wrong," said Musa, as she started to transform. But the same thing happened to her as did Layla. She felt something pushing her back, keeping her from transforming, making her unable to so much as hear the music she needed that would help her fight. She also gave a shriek, and Riven caught her as she fell back.
"Are you okay?" he asked her as he helped her to stand up.
"Yeah," she said, taking a few seconds to hold onto him and support herself, which made him blush and stutter a little bit. "How are we supposed to get out of here if we can't transform?"
"Nothing can keep me from transforming," said Bloom.
"Don't try it Bloom," said Sky. "You'll just use up your Winx too."
"But Sky…"
"No, but Sky, you have to conserve your strength."
"I'm sorry, but I can't just sit here. We don't have time to just search for another way out or pray that someone or something will come along and rescue us! We're almost out of time now, and we have to do something! I know you don't want me to do this, but what other choice have we?"
Before Sky could stop her, she started to transform. She felt Paritho's spell trying to stop her, but it didn't affect her like it did Musa and Layla. Obviously when he cast this spell, Paritho hadn't counted on it trying to suppress the Dragonfire, and nowhere near was it strong enough to keep her down. She knew if she kept trying to power up, it wouldn't be able to stop her. Not that it wasn't trying. She could feel it holding her back, but it wasn't shoving her down either. She gritted her teeth and fought back, giving grunts of exhaust as she did. But she didn't give up.
"Come on Bloom, you've almost got it," said Musa.
They heard her give a small scream of power, then a bright light flashed through the cell. When they opened their eyes, they saw Bloom in her Winx gear, ready and willing to bust them right out of that cell. She created a large ball of fire in her outstretched hands, which she unleashed at the door, and it being made of solid oak and therefore not fireproof immediately gave way. They were free.
"Way to go Bloom!" said Layla.
As they walked out of their cell, they could feel that Paritho's spell no longer had an effect, which caused Musa and Layla to breathe a very deep sigh of relief. Neither of them had been looking forward to try and fight without their magic. The two fairies instantly transformed and flew to the door into the rest of the castle, hoping but not expecting to have an easy time getting to the upper floors. They were right not to get their hopes up. Guarding the door was a large troll, ready to do whatever it took to keep them in the dungeon.
"Perfect, just perfect," said Riven, pulling out his sword.
"You girls get upstairs and save Tecna," said Sky. "We'll keep this thing busy."
"We can't just leave you here alone," said Bloom.
"If you don't get to Tecna, she'll become Paritho's wife and there won't be anything we can do for her," said Jason. "Get going now!" Before the girls could protest, the boys were running at the troll and attacking it with everything they had.
"They're nuts," said Layla. "Come on, let's go!" The three of them flew out of the dungeons and made their way through the palace, which to their immense disgust was like a labyrinth.
"Musa, can you cast a spell that'll tell us which direction Tecna is in?" asked Bloom.
"No problem," said Musa. She sent a burst of sound waves ahead of her, which resonated throughout the palace. About thirty seconds later, they bounced back at her, which allowed her to hear whatever she wanted in the palace. She could hear the ceremony taking place in the throne room, and she gasped as she heard Paritho speaking to Tecna.
"With this ring, I thee wed," he said. She could hear the triumphant edge to his voice, causing her to give a shudder as she tried not to think of him slipping a wedding ring onto her finger.
"You guys, Paritho's already giving her a ring," she shouted.
"Oh no, they're farther on in the ceremony than I thought," said Layla. "That means they've already said 'I do.'"
"Let's get going," said Bloom, flying so quickly down the corridor that her wings felt like they were on fire. Being the keeper of the Dragonfire, it didn't bother her too much, but she wasn't concerned about that at the moment. She had to keep going, they had to keep going.
She continued, "we have to get to Tecna before the priest officially pronounces her and Paritho man and wife, and before she kisses him." The thought made a huge shudder run down all their spines.
"Follow me!" shouted Musa, taking the lead. She led the way down the corridor, occasionally sending out more sound waves to be sure they were going the right way. She just followed the directions they were coming from, Bloom and Layla following close behind. Every time a wave came back, Musa heard what was happening in the ceremony, and she realized with a jolt that the friar was skipping over some things that he was supposed to be saying.
"Oh no," she said. "Paritho must have told him to skip all the praying and all that stuff that makes a wedding a wedding. He's trying to speed the whole process up."
"Just what we need, more pressure," said Layla. They just kept flying, wondering if they would be able to take Paritho on when they got there.
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By this time, Flora, Helia, Stella, Brandon, Timmy and Guinevere had made their way to the palace and were searching for a way in. They considered it lucky that they'd managed to make it all the way there without being attacked or ambushed, and wondered if it was some kind of trick meant to lure them into a false sense of security. But they didn't have time to worry about it, time was of the essence.
They searched the perimeter of the palace but all the entrances were too heavily guarded and they couldn't risk being captured and sent to the dungeons along with the rest of the group.
"Is there a secret passage or some way in?" asked Flora.
"If Tecna were here, she'd be able to figure it out," said Stella.
"What am I, fish food?" asked Timmy, typing into his computer. "There aren't any secret passages, just a bunch of dark spells guarding the place. It'll be hard to sneak in without Paritho knowing."
"There's no way we can do anything without him knowing now," said Guinevere. "He already knows we're here, we wouldn't have been attacked earlier if he didn't know. And since we're already in our Winx forms, why don't we just break in?"
"If we do that, then the guards will be all over us and we won't be able to get to Tecna," said Flora. "We need to sneak in, we can't just burst right in."
"We don't have time to sneak in, it could already be too late," said Guinevere.
"Girls, girls," said Helia, coming in between them. "Before this turns into a catfight, maybe we should just come up with a plan we all agree on. Later when this is over, you two can hash it out, all right?"
"All right," said Flora and Guinevere together.
"Timmy, can you find Tecna where is inside the palace?" asked Brandon.
"Working on it," said Timmy. A moment later, he said, "she's in the throne room with Paritho. And, oh no, they've already started the wedding. She's marrying him even as we speak."
"Then I say we break in and stop Tecna before she kisses him," said Guinevere.
"Why not?" asked Stella.
"All right, on the count of three, we fire at that wall and we fly towards the throne room," said Flora. "One, two, three, Venus Vine Wrap!"
"Sun Blast!"
"Diamond Storm!"
The three attacks were enough to blast a large hole in the wall, big enough for all of them to get through. With Timmy leading the way, they started down the corridor towards the throne room, but something was waiting for them just up ahead. They stopped as they heard evil laughter coming from all around them, and in an instant Icy, Darcy and Stormy appeared, hovering in a circle around them.
"How improper of you girls, don't you know there's a wedding going on?" asked Icy.
"Yeah, I didn't think you girls would turn out to be wedding crashers, particularly not when your friend is the one getting married," said Darcy.
"It is the happiest day of her life after all, you don't want to ruin that for her," said Stormy.
"This isn't the happiest day of her life, it's the biggest mistake of her life," said Stella.
"And you can bet we're not going to let her go through with it," said Guinevere.
"If you pixies think you can ruin this wedding, you're sadly mistaken," said Icy.
"But if you want to make a move, you'd better go ahead and do it, they've already said 'I do,'" said Darcy.
"Let's make this quick, I want to be back in time for the kiss and your ex-friend will officially be on the dark side for life," said Stormy.
Timmy, by this point, was really, really angry at the witches and at Paritho for forcing Tecna into this mess. He ran at them, but got knocked back by a strong blow. The three fairies tried to fight them, but they didn't even faze the three witches. The girls fired several strong attacks at the witches, Flora and Guinevere using all of their power, but it still wasn't enough to get the witches to leave them alone.
"It looks like you're doomed," said Icy.
"No they're not!" yelled a familiar voice. "Dragon Blast!" and they turned to see Bloom flying towards them. The blast threw Icy back against the wall and she struggled and fought to get back up.
"Bloom!" yelled Flora. She saw Musa and Layla flying closely behind her. "Where have you guys been?"
"We just got out of the dungeons," said Layla.
"Riven, Jason and Sky are still down there fighting this huge troll that was guarding the dungeons," said Musa. "They made us come up here and try to save Tecna. But they still need help and fast!"
"Helia and Brandon, can you two go down to the dungeons and help them?" asked Bloom. They nodded and ran in the direction Bloom pointed out to them. Neither of them wanted to leave their girlfriends behind with the witches, but they didn't have much choice, and they knew they wouldn't be much help in a fight against those three.
"Timmy, we'll keep the witches distracted, get to the throne room and save Tecna!" yelled Flora.
He didn't need telling twice. He ran as fast as he could in the direction the witches had come from. He heard Icy begin to fly after him, but then gave a sigh of relief when he heard Bloom stop her. He just kept running and running, glad to not meet anyone as he made his way through the halls. He had a cramp in his side and it was hard for him to breathe, he was running so fast, but he didn't stop. He had to find his girlfriend.
There was a doorway just ahead; that was the entrance to the throne room, he just knew it. Hope rose in his chest as he thought he might get there in time to see his girlfriend. But that hope came crashing down to Earth with a horrible, sickening thud as he heard what the priest was saying.
"I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss the bride."
"No Tecna!" he yelled. But it was too late. When he reached the balcony that overlooked the throne room, he felt as though time had stopped, and so had his heart. He wished that the ground would swallow him whole, bury him away someplace where he could sit and grieve. For the second he got there was the second in which he saw his beloved Tecna kiss Paritho.
Author's Note: Okay before you say anything, I know that was a really gross way to end the chapter, with Tecna kissing not just another guy, but one who's a villain. I'm sorry I had to do that, truly I am, but it was necessary. It sets the stage for the next chapter, in which the gang will be introduced to Nirvana, and she'll explain the story in full detail to the. There's going to be a huge battle sequence between the villain and the girls, and Tecna may or may not rejoin the girls. But don't worry, she's not technically married to him because she didn't say "I do," so she has more of a chance of going back to her friends. Besides, I wouldn't let any of our favorite girls tie themselves willingly to evil villains with delusions of grandeur. See you soon!
