Chapter 9- Two Souls Meet

Daphne's spirit searched in vain. Where was the source of the light? Why would it beckon for her? She felt drawn to the light.

She'd been sojourning the death realm for…some time. Time here was practically meaningless, with no way of separating day and night, noon and midnight, dawn and dusk. Some time after she'd arrived in the death realm, there'd been a flash of light. Life and happiness filled Daphne's empty spirit. With the flash came a determination to live once more.

Daphne continued to wander in the general directions she'd noticed the flash. Eventually she'd come across the source. She had to. It was all she had left to hang on to. Without that hope, she'd fall into the hopeless state the other souls of Limbo were in.

None of the other souls had been affected by the flash. They all continued their meaningless mourning. Daphne took it as a sign. The flash was her only hope. She had to hang on to hope.

Limbo was like the life Daphne had before her demise. She had basically no contact with the living, she was forced to remain in the dim darkness of Limbo, and she often felt weary. She hated it, and wished for better.

Daphne caught sight of another soul. The soul was wandering in a direction opposite the flow of the masses. The soul's direction was the same as hers, which made it even more peculiar. The soul suddenly stopped and glanced at Daphne. Daphne stared in shock. None of the souls ever made eye contact with one another. She'd tried to converse with them, but they would continue to mindlessly wander, unaffected by her pleas.

The two souls stared at one another for some time. Then the strange soul made way toward Daphne.

"Can you answer me?" The soul asked the question with hints of caution in his tone.

"Yes." Daphne spoke, amazed. She was speaking with another soul! In Limbo! She wasn't as alone as she thought.

"Who are you, and why are you headed in the direction I am?" The soul drilled Daphne with the question, obviously suspicious.

"In life I was called Daphne, princess of Sparks and guardian of the sacred Dragon's Flame. But here, I highly doubt my name has any meaning among the damned dead." Daphne felt life spring in her as she spoke her name and title. Even her name gave her meaning.

The soul nodded slowly. Daphne began to note some of his features, though they were dim. The soul was definitely male and held himself with such a strong presence. His blurred face revealed sharp features such as high cheekbones. "I am headed that direction because that was where I saw the flash of light. It called to me. What of you? What were you once called and why to you sojourn in my direction?"

"My name…back when I was living…" The soul was concentrating hard, trying to recall his past life. "I've been here, for time…my name…" Finally the soul looked up at Daphne. "Back when I was living! I remember! Back when I was living, before I sacrificed myself for the island of Tyr Nan Og…I was called Nabu."

Daphne stared at the soul hard, and finally she saw him. "Nabu? But how are you here in Limbo? Bloom told me of your deed! You should've gone…well, elsewhere."

Nabu sighed. "I don't know. This was where I ended up. I'm traveling in that direction because I too saw the flash. It too called to me."

"Strange. We were obviously destined to meet and that flash is calling to both of us. Nabu it is a sign." Daphne felt excitement. "I think you and I are supposed to live again. Somehow, someway, we must return to our lives."

"But we died." Nabu said.

"Yes, but I believe some higher power has use of us yet." Daphne glanced back at the direction she was traveling in. "We need to find the source of that light Nabu. That source has answers to our questions."

"Well, we don't really have stuff to do." Nabu joked. "I guess we can continue our search for the fireworks display together."

Daphne felt a smile on her lips. "Yes. I suppose we could."

"Daphne, something I think I should mention…I saw a total of two flashes. I take it you're only speaking of one?"

Daphne looked at Nabu. "Two?" Nabu nodded. "Even stranger. Maybe I wasn't here for the first?" Daphne thought about this. Two flashes? She'd only seen one. "We'll have to investigate this."

"That and I used to get periodic visits from some wizards before the first flash. They came to me and told me to hang on." Nabu looked at Daphne.

"Did they call themselves by any names?" Daphne asked.

"No." Nabu looked ahead at the dimness before them.

"I don't know Nabu. I don't know." Daphne looked ahead too, all the while thinking about the meaning of all this. There had to be reason to all this madness and death. There had to be reason.

Bloom stumbled over sharp rocks, trying to escape Lilith. Lilith was trailing behind her, laughing maniacally and throwing large blasts toward Bloom. "You ruined it! Everything was mine! Mine!" Lilith screamed.

"You're mad!" Bloom shouted back.

"Angry! Yes!" Lilith threw more blasts toward Bloom. Bloom threw herself out of the way as the rocks disintegrated.

"No! Crazy!" Bloom shouted, again. This had been going on for maybe three days now, ever since Lilith had caught up with Bloom. Bloom had dragged the woman into the death portal to stop her from destroying Bloom's parents. Now that left Bloom trapped forever in the death realm, forever running from the crazed Lilith, and forever alone. Forever.

"You will die!" Lilith screeched horrendously. A blast knocked Bloom off her feet and Bloom hit the ground hard. Bloom laughed and winced. Something was cracked. "You dare to laugh at me!" Lilith snarled.

"Yes. It's been days! DAYS! Don't you see! Here in the death realm, I'll never die! Never! I tried to explain that to you, but no, you're a nutcase!" Bloom pushed herself to her knees and coughed up blood. "Yuck."

Lilith hissed viciously and prepared to throw another blast at Bloom. Bloom felt her dragon fire burn within her and let it out. Lilith screamed in agony, and was gone. Bloom destroyed Lilith.

Bloom felt tears fill her eyes and she sobbed. She was a monster. It was instinct and she couldn't control it. She would just take and destroy. Take and destroy. She took a life and destroyed a soul. Bloom curled up into a ball and let her eyes close. She was exhausted. She just wanted to die, to let it all go. But her sacrifice left her incapable of doing so.

"At least they're safe." Bloom whispered to herself. "That was all I wanted." The Winx girls, the Specialists, her parents, Sky… they were all safe. With her gone, they probably had no evil to deal with. Riven had been right. She just created trouble. If she'd just played princess like a good girl, she wouldn't have been in this mess.

Then you wouldn't be Bloom. Sky's voice rang through her head.

"I don't want to be Bloom anymore." Bloom mumbled, then she fell into unconsciousness.