Author's Note: Okay, I've finally posted. This chapter has the last flashback, as well as it has the most action. The next chapter is the final chapter.
Chapter Nine
Two days later…
"So what exactly did you parents tell you about saving them?"
"Something about finding you, and a portal between our worlds being weak today."
"But how do we find this portal? And how do we open it? And how can we be sure that someone's not just tricking us into letting out some evil demon?"
"It's a chance I'm going to take, if I ever want to see my parents again."
"That still doesn't answer the question of how we do it."
"Well, my mom said we need the combined dragon fire power of two. She didn't say how to combine it, though, or what to do with it."
"Maybe if you go to sleep, you'll have another dream vision."
"Can't risk losing time. Besides, what if she can't reach me?"
"Good point."
Ever since the first rays of – well, there was no sun on Omega, but there was some light – light reached us in the morning, Baltor and I had been pondering the question, "how do we save my parents?" The few clues my mom had given us were barely helpful now that I had enlisted Baltor's help. If only I hadn't been so clueless. Then she wouldn't have had to waste time reminding me to 'find the other with the dragon fire' and told me something that was actually useful!
Out of pure spontaneity (and boredom), I reached up and kissed him, just for something to do. Mmm… it was nice to forget about my problems for a moment and just relax.
"You must open the portal."
Wait… huh? What did I just hear? And why did it sound like my mom was saying it?
When he pulled back and started to berate me for wanting to make out in the middle of a crisis, I silenced him with another kiss to see if I wasn't going crazy.
"Combine your powers into one."
Yep, there it was again – my mom's voice telling me what to do.
"How?" I whispered under my breath, hoping that if my mom could hear me, she would answer it in the next kiss vision thingie.
"Bloom, what on Earth are you doing?" Baltor managed to say between kisses. "We have a crisis on our hands and you want to make out?"
"Just hear me out, okay? When we kiss, I get a vision from my mom about how to save them."
"What? That sounds ridiculous."
"Just trust me, okay?" I snapped, instantly regretting it. After all, one wrong move and he could walk away, damaging any chances of ever saving my parents.
His facial expressions registered his shock – it looked like someone had slapped him on the face. Quickly he regained his calm, but I could tell he was still surprised I had yelled like that. So was I, actually. I guess I just really wanted to save my parents. Still, I never thought I'd snap at him like that. "Baltor, I'm sorry," I murmured apologetically.
"It's okay," he said, brushing a stray tendril of my hair out of my face. "I understand why you snapped at me. You're just… stressed, I guess."
"Let's settle this later," I replied. "For now, I need to concentrate." Then, remembering the mistake I'd made my first night here, I fixed my mistake. "No, scratch that – we need to concentrate."
"That's my girl," he replied, wrapping an arm around my waist and bending down for a kiss. This one was so enjoyable I almost forgot to listen for my mom's voice, and when it did come, I almost wanted to forget about what she said. But a niggling little voice in the back of my brain reminded me that I could make out with Baltor anytime, but I only have one day to try and save my parents.
"Open the portal. Combine your powers. Bridge the gap."
"Well that was a big waste of time," I muttered under my breath. My mom seemed to be like a broken record – she could only say three things, none of which were very helpful. Although…
"I wonder what she meant by 'combine your powers'?"
"Maybe we have to try a dragon fire convergence."
"But we can't do a convergence – you're not a fairy."
"Let's just try it and see what happens."
"Okay," I replied skeptically. "Let's try to melt that ice block over there."
I slipped my hand into his and focused on what we were trying to do – melt the ice block. I could feel my power surging inside, and focused it on the ice block. Next to me, I could feel Baltor doing the same thing. "Dragon fire convergence!"
Something surprising happened: not only did we melt the ice block, but a strange, swirling, yellow-and-green portal appeared. "What in the world?"
"I think somehow we created a portal!"
"I thought no portals could be created in the Omega Dimension."
"Well, maybe this is an exception. Either way, someone or something is probably going to come out of this."
And someone did – two of them. One a tall man in armor, one a brown-haired woman in a pink dress. Oritel and Miriam – my birth parents. "Bloom?"
"Mom? Dad?"
"What are you doing here?" Miriam asked.
"It's… a long story."
"Well, you certainly took my advice. How did you do it?"
"It was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be," I replied, trying to prolong the inevitable: my parents figuring out the truth about Baltor and me. Of course they would have to find out eventually, but the later, the better.
Of course, my 'the later they find out, the better' idea didn't have room for a sweet, passionate kiss from Baltor totally out of the blue. Much as I tried to enjoy it, I couldn't shake the niggling little voice in the back of my head telling me I was in for some major trouble once we disengaged.
And I was right. As soon as we broke that amazing kiss, I saw both my parents give me slightly dirty looks. "Bloom, honey, are you under some sort of a spell?"
"Why would you think that?"
"It's just that… well…" Obviously she had a hard time bringing herself to say, "My daughter is kissing the man who sealed us away in an alternate dimension for seventeen years."
My father had an easier time saying it. "Bloom, it's just that your mother and I are concerned for your safety."
"What does this have to do with… what you just saw?"
"Honey, let me just come out and say it. We're worried Baltor might have you under some kind of a spell."
"Do you honestly have that little faith in my judgment? Do you think I'd be kissing him if I didn't have total faith in him? Mom, Dad, you missed seventeen years of my life. Just because you're my parents doesn't mean you can just start trying to control me the minute I save you from exile."
I waited for my parents to get mad at me for snapping at them, but it never happened. Instead, my parents looked at me with… respect in their eyes? How was that possible?
"Bloom, we are so proud of you."
"But how? I just yelled at you and tried to tell you not to control me in the same breath. Any regular parent would have yelled at me."
"You've learned to grow into your dragon fire powers and embody the spirit of the Great Dragon. That is the greatest thing we could ever want for you."
"You're not mad?"
"Honey, how could we be mad when you've grown up so wonderfully without any help from us?"
"Well, I haven't done it alone," I said, smiling a bit. "I had help – from my wonderful adoptive parents on Earth, and Miss Faragonda, and my wonderful friends back at Alfea."
"You're at Alfea?" my mom asked curiously.
"Yes…" I said, wondering what she was getting at.
She was shocked. "You've certainly come a lot further than I imagined you would have after all these years. And I must say, you've certainly grown into your impressive powers. I guess we can trust your judgment on this one little thing. After all, if you managed to get him to help you, then he can't be all that bad."
My dad was a little harder to convince, but my mom softened him up to the idea. "Remember when we were in love, and my parents didn't approve of you? Did that break us up? Obviously not. So why be like my parents? Chances are, Bloom's just going to go ahead and see him no matter what we say. Why just encourage her to break the rules? Speaking of which, Bloom, why are you in here anyway?"
I winced as my mom's words brought back images of what happened when Faragonda caught us. Geez, why did everybody have to pin it on me? What happened that made everyone blame me? And most importantly, why did Miss Faragonda believe them?
How did the most admired fairy in Alfea go to the most hated in a matter of seconds?
"Bloom, I can't believe you. I've talked to the other girls, and they all said this was your idea. I believe I'll have no choice but to teach you a lesson."
"Wait… what? This was as much everybody else's fault as mine! I mean, Stella, Musa, and Layla were all the witches, and Tecna and Flora even helped us with the attack plan. And the Red Fountain guys were helping us too. They figured out some of the more complicated details. Come on, you can't single me out for this! Everyone else is just as much to blame!"
"I'm very sorry for you, Bloom, but in these circumstances such a 'prank' could be considered quite dangerous, and the one behind it locked away for years. Now, I believe you were just bored, so I'm not going to punish you as harshly as the Council would probably like me to, but you will need to learn your lesson."
"What do you have in mind, Miss F?" I asked, vowing to take whatever punishment she handed me with grace and aplomb. It would probably be something like magic restriction, detention, or cleaning duties – or maybe a combination of the three. But what she said next was nothing I'd ever believed possible for such a small thing like a prank. Granted, we did scare everyone into thinking Baltor and the Trix were back, but still – it was a harmless impersonation prank. Nothing worthy of that big a punishment.
"Although it pains me to do this to you, Bloom, I'm afraid the lesson I want to teach you cannot be taught by a simple Alfea punishment. That's why I'm contacting the Magix Council to see if a stay in Omega would be possible."
My mouth dropped down to the floor. "Miss F, it was one little prank. If you have to punish me, punish me, but don't you think that's going a little far?"
"It would just be for a year – perhaps some time to think will do you well." She lowered her voice. "I want to believe you didn't do it, Bloom, but there's simply too much evidence against you. The best thing for you to do is just get through the year and come back next year ready to make up for this."
"So I'd still be allowed back to Alfea?" A small glimmer of hope, but a glimmer nonetheless. If there was any chance of still having a normal life once this whole stupid thing was over, I was going to grab it like the last chocolate in the box – or, if I was Stella, the last on-sale handbag in the store.
"Possibly – if the Magix Council doesn't consider you a threat. But Bloom, I'm quite worried that this might be your final mistake. There have been so many bad consequences over the past few years, most because of you, and it's just hard to say when the Magix Council will have had enough. So do your best to get through this, and I'll put in as many good words for you as I have to. Now you'd better go explain things to your friends. I'll have Griselda make a school-wide announcement after you're gone."
I trudged out of Faragonda's office feeling lower than pond scum. How could my friends have betrayed me like that?
"So, Bloom, what happened?" Stella asked, catching me on my way back to my room. She was so cheery and happy and peppy it made me sick.
"Like you don't know," I said bitterly, then yanked myself out of her grip.
"Wait, Bloom, what's going on?" She chased after me, stumbling a bit in her highly unpractical four-inch wedges.
"How could you guys give me up like that to Faragonda? You made it look like I spelled you into helping me or something. And now I'm gonna be stuck in Omega – for a year. Thanks a lot, Stel. I thought you guys were my friends." Then, without waiting to hear what she would say in response, I used a teleportation spell to hurry back to my room. I never wanted to see her or any of the others ever again.
Figuring the best thing to do would be just to explain what had happened to my parents (and hope they'd take pity on me), I explained everything, starting with that one afternoon Layla told us about her pranks and ending with my visit to Faragonda's office and fight with Stella. "That must have been awful for you," my mom said sympathetically. "To have your friends betray you like that… I can't even imagine it. Apparently you've gone through even more than I thought, which has only made you stronger – stronger than any of us know, least of all you."
"Wait – are you trying to say that I have power I don't know about?"
"The Dragon Fire gains power from things like anger, betrayal, and hurt. The more of those things in your life, the more power someone with the Dragon Fire possesses."
"So what can this 'new power' do?"
"Well, among other things, you have the power to break us out of here."
"But the Omega Dimension is escape-proof."
"Nothing can get past the power of the Dragon Fire."
"Well then, let's get out of here!"
My parents and I joined hands, and I focused hard on escaping, sure that my 'new powers' would take care of things. But just as I was imagining us back in Magix, my thoughts fell to Baltor, and how skillfully my parents had managed to make me forget about him. At the last second I let go of my parents' hands and rushed over to him.
"I can't believe I almost forgot you," I whispered, pulling him close for a kiss.
He backed out of my arms. "Bloom, being with you is… amazing. But you belong in Magix, at Alfea, on Sparx, with your family and friends. And let's face it, I seem to belong here. Go, live your life. Don't let me keep you from having the magical life you're supposed to have."
His words stung. "I promised not to leave you, and I'm not breaking that promise."
He looked me in the eyes. "Bloom, now I'm telling you: go live your life the way it's supposed to be lived. That promise doesn't matter anymore."
"How can you say that?" I cried, shell-shocked. "I never break my promises, and I'm not about to start now."
"Bloom, go!"
"No!" I turned to look at my family. "I'm sorry, but I choose to stay here."
My parents looked shocked. "Bloom, honey, are you sure about this?"
"I'm sorry, Mom and Dad, but I made a promise and I'm not going to break it."
"Bloom, you've been independent enough for today. You're coming back with us."
"No!" I yelled, feeling the enormous power inside me start to explode. "I'm not going and you can't make me!"
"Bloom, honey, calm down," my mom said, trying (and failing miserably) to calm me down.
"Not until you listen to me," I said, still in fury-dragon mode.
"Okay, dear. What do you want to tell us?"
I heard my father scowl. "Miriam, what did you just do? She's an out-of-control teenager with enormous power – never a good combination. And I'll bet you anything her demands have to do with him." Apparently he couldn't even bring himself to say Baltor's name. Well that was going to have to change. "I don't trust him, darling, and I certainly don't want him anywhere near my daughter."
"Our daughter," my mom corrected him. "And don't you remember what I told you? I don't know about you, but with a daughter like that, I don't want to get on her bad side. We've been separated for seventeen years – let's not shift into the typical parent-teenager bad relationship cliché as soon as we reunite. Let's give her a chance." Go Mom!
"First of all, I won't go back without Baltor, so if you two have a problem with that, I'll let you find your own way out of this place."
"Of course, dear. What else?"
"And I agree with Mom – I don't want to become the out-of-control-teenager-fighting-with-her-parents cliché. So I'll respect your decisions for me – but in return, you have to trust me to make some of my own. I need to learn from my own mistakes – you guys can't constantly be trying to guide me down the right path. After all, one woman's trash is another's treasure, so trash duty might reveal unexpected gems." At this, I smiled and winked at Baltor, who smiled and winked back, like two people in on a romantic secret.
"Bloom, we're sorry for forgetting you're not a little girl who needs to be told what to do. It's just… we've been absent for seventeen years of your life. Guess the parental instinct doesn't go away."
"Apology accepted, Mom."
"I'm sorry too, Bloom."
"It's okay, Dad. After all, the dad is supposed to be disapproving of the boyfriend, right?" I tried to crack a joke, in hopes it would loosen up the incredibly serious mood. It worked; my mom laughed, and my dad even smiled a bit.
"Now let's go – all four of us."