Chapter Nine: Caught!
"This is insane!"
"Valtor's dead!"
"We need to think about this!"
"I won't believe it!"
People had been shouting for a full ten minutes, at first it had just been shocked silence until Miss Faragonda had just slowly lowered the letter and whispered a simple "No" and then everyone had snapped. The Specialists had jumped to their feet and protested the entire thing, Lucus had started issuing orders to have the Winx Club girls arrested on the spot and Miss Faragonda had just been in stunned silence.
"We need to send out guards to capture the traitors immediately! We can't wait for them to get away, we need to act now while their still in the building" Lucus kept trying to walk toward the door but so far had not been able to make it out on account of the six Specialists blocking his way, shouting back at him.
"We were there, we know Valtor is dead and you can't just arrest the girls because some letter says some lie about them!" Riven had been shouting the longest and if he had been close to punching the man before they got the letter, he certainly was now. The only problem was that none of his friends were going to hold him back, they were just as angry as he was.
"What evidence do we have that Valtor is dead?" Lucus said looking at each of the guys slowly "I know you guys used to date those traitors...maybe you're covering for them"
"Don't you dare call Flora a traitor again" Helia said in a quiet angry voice. It was eerie when used by someone as kind as Helia.
"I will call them as I see them!" Lucus shot back starting to get annoyed with not being able to take physical action "Now get out of my way, if we just stand here they'll escape!"
"The girls are not evil!" Sky shouted into the man's face. Everyone flared up again, shouting some more. Miss Faragonda had finally broken out of her silence and stood up.
"Gentlemen!"
The men stopped shouting and looked at the woman. She looked determined and calm.
"We all need to calm down. Now I don't believe that the girls are guilty of anything but if Lucus here insists we will investigate the claims toward the girls" Miss Faragonda smoothed down the creases in her suit top and walked calmly toward the door and turned to the large group of men "We won't arrest them-" Lucus opened his mouth but shut it when Miss Faragonda raised a hand at him "We won't arrest them but we will keep a very close eye on them. We'll follow them until we can safely say that they are not guilty of a thing, agreed?"
The guys paused a moment before nodding. Lucus looked less than happy with the proposal but nodded tightly anyway.
"When those girls prove themselves guilty I want full control of the situation after that. They'll be in my care and I will determine the course of action after that" he left no room for disagreement and started to make his way to the door again, at the threshold he paused and looked at the specialists "Don't you have people you have to keep an eye on?" with that he left with a scowl.
The silence just as heavy as the first rose. Nobody said anything after such a loud confrontation. One at a time the guys left with their heads down with thoughtful looks on the faces.
Miss Griselda walked up behind Miss Faragonda after the room was empty "What do you think is going to happen? Do you think the girls are guilty of being Valtor's minions?"
Miss Faragonda sighed heavily and showed some of the worry she had kept hidden "Honestly I don't know. The girls haven't been the same since they got back. I don't want to believe what the letter said, especially about Valtor being alive again, I just hope the girls are ready for what's to come in the future"
...
"I can't believe we're breaking into the restricted section" Techna whispered as she held the flashlight in front of the lock that Musa was currently trying to break open. The girls stood in the dark, empty library in a huddle by the door in the wall, they had snuck in after hours when everyone had gone home "Do you guys know what 'restricted' means? Not allowed, do not enter, proceed through the threshold and you die!"
Stella who stood next to Techna with her arms crossed, staring bored at the wall sigh loudly "This coming from someone who snuck into a technology facility to steal top notch computer equipment for her own personal gain, you crossed the mother of all restricted sections that night Techna"
Techna rolled her eyes as the snap of the lock clicking sounded. Musa stood up and gestured into the room "Please make your way into the restricted section ladies, if in the event of a collapse of shelves in a domino effect you have my permission to run for the door or leap out the windows, enjoy your snooping and have a nice night"
The girls made their way inside. The room consisted of a few rows of shelves stacked against the wall and some books in glass cases. The girls spread out in different directions with their flashlights and searched quietly.
"You know if I had my powers I could light this place up so brightly, we wouldn't need...torches" Stella said the last word grudgingly, glaring down at the object in her hand.
Layla stood up from searching a low shelf and turned to Stella "I have a feeling we wouldn't need to be doing any of this if we had our powers. Bloom would have been able to fight back or escape or something. Instead she's in a coma upstairs as we speak"
Flora sighed sadly from her spot next to the glass case "I just hope we can find the book that lets us wake her up"
At that moment the specialists were huddled around the entrance on the other side, out of sight. It had taken ages to find the girls and follow them, to say they felt guilty about doing this was a major understatement. Overall they felt just plain treacherous. They didn't dare move when the girls started talking, each holding their breath to listen to what they were saying. It was one of those rare moments that they could listen to the girls talk without feeling like they were only getting half the story.
"We'll find it. It's Bloom's only chance of waking up" Stella said as she flipped through books.
"Ugh, I hate not having powers! Ok I haven't used them in a while but I liked the idea of having them if I needed them, you know...if all other weapons fail" Musa said as she sat on the floor with her legs spread out in front of her, flipping rapidly through her book "Hey look at this one. 'To stop time for ten minutes' now that would be helpful in a fight"
Flora raised her head from looking into the last glass case "I found it! 'Incantations of the Dark' "
The girls all dropped their books and huddled around the case. Techna reached out and opened the top of the case "Wow, the security around here is really lacking, they should upgrade their systems or at least use-"
Stella put her hand up "Techna...Bloom?" Techna shut her mouth and nodded.
Stella looked around uncomfortable "So umm...only evil can touch the book"
The girls looked over at her with their mouths open "Are you kidding me?" layla exclaimed. "What do we do now?" Flora said as she looked down at the black leather book.
Musa looked thoughtful for a moment "I think we could touch it" The girls spun their heads from Stella to Musa.
"Are you kidding me?" Layla asked again in disbelief.
Musa looked around at them in defence "Ok well it's worth a shot. I mean with everything with that letter and all maybe we could just try" she gestured to the book with her hand and settled it onto the glass surface while the others still stared at her.
"What letter?" Stella asked from across the case. Musa looked up "Didn't I tell you guys?" the girls continued t stare at her "Damn! Ok umm...well the school got a letter and it warned everyone that we were evil, no biggie"
"Oh my god! They what?" Stella said, lurching away from the case, Flora put a hand to her mouth "Oh no are we evil?", "And your telling us this now!?" Layla said as she stared at Musa in disbelief, Techna just put her face in her hands and shook her head.
"This is awful" Stella said as she walked away and leaned against the wall.
"Ok guys, back to the subject, I think we could touch it. Because...we could be evil" Musa said as she looked back at the book. Stella sighed from the wall and gestured to the book "Well?"
Musa tilted her head as she stared at the black thing. She didn't really want to touch it, if it only allowed bad to touch it what was the reaction it would have if good picked it up. Musa took a deep breath and with her index finger lowered her hand onto the book.
She let out a big gust of air as nothing happened. The girls frowned as they watched Musa pick up the big book and dust it off "Well...this is good for my morals" she muttered as she opened it.
Stella made her way back to the case "You know I was kinda hoping it would zap you or something" Musa glanced up with a humourless smile "Me too Stella"
Techna took the book of Musa and started flipping through the pages. It was silent in the room except for the sound of the pages moving. Outside the room the Specialists were doing their best not to burst in and yell questions at them. The emotions going through them were the same as the ones that had gone through them when they had finished reading the letter. They didn't want to believe it, they couldn't. There was only one more thing the girls had to mention to make everything true, everything very real.
"Here's the spell, 'To awaken those who magically sleep' and heres the spell to put someone in a coma. I guess the person who did this has books like this one" Techna said as she read over the spell.
Stella shuffled toward the door "Good, let's get back to Bloom and wake her up"
Techna closed the book "We should also call Valtor, tell him what happened and about the letter"
At that moment men wearing black and wielding laser guns smashed through the windows and ran into the room through the door. The girls or the specialists didn't even hear them coming and now that they were here, they sprung into action. The girls met the men head on, kicking out and attacking with accuracy. The only problem was that there were a lot of guys in the room and none of them on their side. The men shot at each girl as they tried to fight back, hitting them with their guns.
The shot hit each girl with pain and numbing shock. They had never been in this bad an ambush, they also had never been paralysed by a laser before. Their legs gave out from under them and they tumbled to the ground, groaning in pain as they went.
The shot was not meant to injure, only stop a person in their tracks. The guys watched the girls from the threshold of the room in shock. They couldn't move at all, they couldn't think about this. They had been trained to always think and react in these types of situations but right now there worlds were crashing down and they could do nothing but stare.
Lucus walked past the guys smirking "Ah, so you found them. Good job guys" He entered the room and walked over to the girls who were in a group being held up as their legs weren't working at the moment. More than anything, the girls were angry. They were angry at themselves for getting caught, for the pain they were going to cause their families and the Specialists and angry even more for the decision to join Valtor's side just to live.
The girls raised their heads and looked at Lucus and the guys in the doorway. Now they felt very bad about their decisions. They would always remember the looks of betrayal and hurt on their loves faces.
"So Ladies" Lucus said proudly "Which one of you can tell me the location of Valtor's hideout?" He looked at each girl, none of them dared say a thing, they each just stared at the floor in disgust.
Lucus sigh and signalled for the men to drag the girls away "So I guess we're doing this the hard way"
When the girls past the guys at the door none of them looked up. They all were thinking the same thing.
What can I do? Nothing. What can I say? Nothing. Will he ever forgive me?
Never.
...
If the girls thought that being trapped in their own house was like jail, they certainly didn't now. They had been in a jail call for a whole day and they were going crazy. After they had been put in here the girls had just stood there, condemning themselves. After a while Lucus had come a boasted to them some more but they had just ignored him and stared at the floor some more.
Hours past and nobody had said a word. They all sat in their parts of the call with their heads down and eyes vacant.
Flora raised her head from her arms and looked at each of her friends "What's going to happen to us?" The others looked up, relieved that someone had broken the silence.
"I don't know, I guess we go to prison now" Musa said as she stared out the window into the night.
"Oh god what are my parents going to think? There own daughter, a criminal" Stella said as she rose from her seat and paced the floor.
Flora looked startled "oh no, I didn't even think of my parents!" she groaned into her hands.
After a moment "We should have never accepted Valtor's deal, we should have just let him kill us and none of this wouldn't have happened" Musa whispered.
Stella sighed sadly; she had been close to tears all night but refused to let them free "Yeah well no going back now, we'll just have to pay for our crimes"
"What crimes?" Brandon's voiced echoed throughout the cell making all the girls tense. Over by the door stood there five ex-boyfriends, all looking rundown and as miserable as the girls felt. Brandon approached the call bars and looked at Stella who was looking back desperately.
"What have you done Stella?" he whispered. Stella bit into her lip, the tears really threatening to flow now.
"Oh Brandon, please don't ask me that" she shook her head slowly.
Riven, Timmy, Nabu and Helia all walked over to the bars. Helia crouched down to the floor near Flora who was sitting looking at him.
"Why are you here? How did you get down here?" Flora whispered at him.
"We beat up the guards" Helia smiled slightly at this.
Flora smiled back "Even after everything you're still trying to cheer me up?"
"The world doesn't seem so bleak when you smile" Helia said looking at the floor as he said it, he knew it was wrong to say but had to be said.
Flora smiled for him as a tear travelled down her cheek.
Riven stood a little away from the wall of bars separating them. He stared at Musa while she stared back. He didn't even have the strength to be angry anymore. Over the last twenty four hours he had been numb and silent. But right now he wanted to yell and question and plead to Musa to help him understand this mess but wouldn't let the words out.
"How's Bloom? Are you going to wake her up with the spell?" Layla asked sounding hopeful.
Nabu looked at the floor "Lucus said that he's going to keep her that way until he can figure out your punishment"
"He's going to leave her like that?" Musa said as she got up off the floor, she sounded annoyed and appalled "Why doesn't Miss Faragonda do something?"
Nabu shook his head "She doesn't have the authority, they agreed that if you guys were found guilty that he would be in charge of you until your punishment and right now your guilty that means he's in charge of Bloom as well"
Musa shook her head in disgust and shock "What can we do?"
Riven uncrossed his arms "You can tell us the truth!" emotion was finally leaking back into the ten people.
Musa flinched at Riven's outburst; it had been so long since he had yelled at her.
Riven stalked toward the bars and stood only a two feet from Musa "You said that you had died, what did you mean by that?"
Musa looked at him with a close to tears expression, she didn't want to cry, she never cried "We...we..." she was at a loss for words, after so many years so keep this secret it was a pain to try and tell someone "We left Alfea by ourselves, we weren't taken" she said finally.
The guys looked at her shocked. They hadn't been expecting that one.
Flora spoke from the floor "When we left we went to a faraway place where we were tortured for months, dying over and over again but it was only an allusion. After that Valtor came to us and he offered us a deal, he would let us live if we became his...assassins"
Brandon raised an eyebrow "Assassins?"
Stella nodded "yeah, killing people who he said we bad. He trained us and gave us weapons; he turned us into soldiers, his soldiers" She crossed her arms and leant against the wall.
"So we took the deal. And he killed us but we were reborn after. Apparently without our powers which we only noticed a few days ago" Techna said looking slightly ashamed of having ignored her powers that much.
"So after two years of doing that he brings us back here" Layla continued as she got up as well. The other girls who were sitting rose as well.
"Why?" Nabu asked
Layla shrugged her shoulders "We don't know, to kill more people"
After that there was silence. The guys were trying to wrap their heads around what the girls had told them and the girls were just relieved that it was out in the open.
"Well now you know" Musa said as she fixed Riven with an Are-You-Happy look "We the Winx Club are Valtor's Assassins. We Kill, steal and hurt anyone he says. And we did all this to save our lives and no jury in the world is going to sympathize with us"
"You won't need a jury, your fate has already been decided" Lucus's voice rang out around them. He leaned against the doorway with a smirk, a folded piece of paper in his hands.
"I suppose we should pack our bags ladies, we're about to spend the rest of our lives in the slammer" Musa said as she turned and walked away from the bars.
Lucus let out a short laugh and walked away from the door into the room "Actually Musa you're not going to Prison"
Stella raised her brows "Mental ward?"
"Nope"
"Human experiments?" Techna suggested
"Nope"
"Oh for god sakes what then?!" Musa yelled in annoyance.
Lucus took a happy breath before he met the eyes of the ten people in front of him.
"You've been sentenced to death"
