In the last episode, after sensing the forest in danger, Link walked straight into a trap. After refusing to dishonor his loyalty to Flora, Diethro casted a spell on the anamist, giving him complete control over his power, transforming Link's old home into a jungle of darkness. Sensing Links's growing pain, Celeste leads Flora and the others to their father's castle. During an epic battle, Link transforms into a Pegasus. With his new found power, Link singled handily defeated Herald's forces and returned the forest to normal. Now Elise tirelessly studies to find the answer to this transformation.
Ch 10: Spark of Loyalty
Bloom returned to her room late into the evening after a day of wedding planning with her mother and Samara to find Elise in the same position she had left her in over 7 hours ago: eyes glued to an ancient anamist book about the War of Nightmares. Elise had been studying non-stop to figure out the mystery of Link's strange transformation. This made Bloom fairly worried.
"Elise have you been studying that book this whole time?"
"What?" Elise said without taking her eyes off the book. Bloom decided to intervene.
"Okay, study hall's over," She said as she picked the blue wolf up.
"Bloom, put me down!"
"No you've studied that book all day and I need your help planning the wedding," Elise gazed at her in confusion until she realized the time. She gave her signature wolf smile.
"I guess I have been studying for a while. What do you need?"
"I need to pick out colors for the wedding. Can help me?"
"Sure thing! Lets see, well aqua obviously!"
"Why aqua?"
"It brings out your beauty! And I thought the idea was to practically kill the groom with the bride's beauty!"
"Well said! Okay, next color..."
The door suddenly slammed as Tecna stomped angrily into, Lucio trailing her.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU, LUCIO!"
"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!"
The other girls and guardians walked in to see what the two were arguing about. Taking a look at Tecna's phone, Elise had a good idea what had happened.
"Okay, what's the matter?" The alpha asked the tech fairy.
"LUCIO FRIED MY PHONE!"
"IT'S NOT MY FAULT THAT GIRL STEPPED ON MY TAIL! IT WAS AN INSTINCT!"
Everyone let out an annoyed sigh as the two continued to argue.
"This may take a while," Musa said, picking up Celeste and planning to take her to a different room. Unfortunately, Tecna said something that caused all the anamists to worry over Lucio.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID SOMETHING THIS STUPID LUCIO!"
All the anamists shot their head to Lucio. His body stiffen and Elise could tell he was on the verge of tears. He still managed to sound angry though.
"IF THAT'S HOW YOU FEEL, FINE! GOOD-BYE!" Lucio stormed out the window and took off into the night. The moment he was gone, Link began growling.
"Not cool, Tecna," He stormed into the room he and Flora shared.
"Yeah!" Celeste said as she stormed into her room.
"You atta be careful what you say to Lucio!" Pit said with a growl.
"My brother's got feelings that are easily broken!" Luna roared as she ran to her room. Tecna and the others just stood there, shocked over the wolves outburst. Elise brought her paw to her head.
"Tec, why did you have to say it?"
"I was angry, okay! I didn't mean anything!"
"You used the word,"
"What word?"
"Stupid. Lucio can't handle that word,"
"What do you mean?" Tecna was growing worried about what she had said to her friend.
"When the twins were brought into this world, Lucio was the first born, making him the heir to the throne. Now Lucio is a smart kid but, his parents always pushed him to his limits. His grandfather was even worse. Whenever Lucio did something wrong, his grandpa would smack him with a whip and call him names. Stupid was the most used. As he got older, it just kept getting worse and worse. I think getting turned into an anamist might have been best thing to happened to him. So to avoid those memories, the other 5 of us took a blood pact never to use the word stupid in front of him again,"
As Elise finished the story, Tecna slumped to the ground, the full consequences of her actions clear.
"Oh Lucio! What've I done? I gotta go after him!" There was a flash of lightning. Elise jumped in front of the window.
"That's a high voltage storm out there! No one's going after anyone in that!"
"But Lucio..."
"Is the guardian of thunder, lightning, and storms. He'll be fine. Besides, he also needs time to cool off. Trust me, a few hours of stormy weather will do him good. He'll be back by morning,"
Tecna, who knew she was fighting a loosing battle, reluctantly agreed and marched to bed, not daring to fall asleep until Lucio came.
In the midst of the thunder storm, Lucio let out his pain. He knew Tecna didn't mean anything by it, but it still hurt. He could still feel the horrible whips of his grandfather.
*Flashback*
Angus let out a roar of frustration as his 8 year old grandson, Lucio, was thrown off the platform.
"LUCIO, YOU SHAPE UP OR ELSE!"
"I'm trying..." He boy whimpered. His grandpa lashed him and he let out a cry.
"TRY HARDER, YOU STUPID, WORTHLESS BOY!"
*End of flashback*
"I'M NOT WORTHLESS!" He screamed to the wind. Suddenly, there was a noose around his neck. Lucio was then dragged to the earth and with bash to the head was knocked out.
The next morning Bloom awoke to the sound of Elise's cry.
"EUREKA!"
Bloom saw Elise had dove straight back into her book.
"What is it Elise?"
"I now understand the meaning of Link's transformation. The original six, in order to defeat Diethro, transformed into these animals: a Pegasus, an Alicorn, a Hypogriff, a Griffon, a Phoenix, and a Dragon. This gave them complete unity with their element thus earning ultimate power,"
"Incredible!"
Tecna burst through the doors.
"have either of you seen Lucio?"
"Not today," Bloom replied.
"Didn't he come back last night?" Elise asked.
"No and I'm really worried!"
"Okay, girls gather the troops. Lets go track down Sparky,"
An hour later, the gang hadn't picked up a single clue.
"It's like he dropped off the face of the earth," Link announced. Tecna suddenly screamed in pain. The team began tending when Elise realized something.
"Guys, Lucio was probably captured last night,"
"No!" Tecna shouted, scolding herself for yelling at the guardian.
"Hey guys! Check this out: Tracks!" Pit called out. Elise saw they were indeed Lucio's.
"These couldn't have been made more than an hour ago. Come on!"
The gang followed the trail straight to a cave.
"Shall we Pit?" Stella asked.
"Of course!"
The light up the cave, revealing a power drained Lucio unconscious on the floor. His father was above him. Tecna became angry.
"You'll pay for this!" She charged the man but was blocked by soldiers. The fight was pretty even until Tecna was sent flying. The king picked up his sword.
"Now to get my twins back!" It seemed like the end for Tecna when...
"TECNA!" A pair of hooves stopped the king dead in his tracks. A yellow hypogriff stared him down with hazel eyes gleaming. Lucio had transformed.
"THUNDEROUS WAVE!" The men were sent flying and retreated. Lucio returned to his original form and collapsed. Tecna picked him up and started crying.
"Lucio, I'm so sorry! I didn't know about your grandpa. You're not the stupid one, I am. Please forgive me!"
"There is nothing to forgive," She crushed him to her chest.
"Lets go home,"
Back at Alfea, Tecna spent the rest of the day watching Lucio. Bloom smiled from the distance.
"She really loves him,"
"Of course she does," Elise said. "I think Tenca now understands how important Lucio truly is to her,"
"Well I know one thing: you're super important to me!"
"Love you to Bloom,"
In the next episode of the Winx, Celeste suffers from terrible nightmares and fears she may loose Musa. As the days roll by, the dreams become worse and worse. Can a song from Musa's heart soothe the fear of Celeste's mind?