11. Weed 'Em Out
"You are definitely right girls, that earthquake was not a natural occurrence," Ms Faragonda said, her old eyes gazing out the large window in her office. "It is safe to say it was an attempt to find The Guide."
"Wait, someone else knows about The Guide?" Bloom asked, leaning forwards in her seat
The girls had immediately returned to Faragonda after the issue in Magix, the wise teacher however had already been informed and ha developed a good idea about what had happened.
"Yes Bloom," Ms Faragonda answered, and the girls gasped. "Even though we had been trying very hard to keep it secret, the information has gotten to the outside world. We currently have no leads as to who has been spreading it, but it is safe to presume they are very powerful and we must be very careful."
Bloom looked across to Flora who was sitting in the seat beside her and then looked behind, watching the almost identical frightened expression on all of her friend's faces. They could all tell that this mission was fast becoming much more dangerous than any of them had ever expected.
"But for now, we must not dwell on it," Ms Faragonda continued, obviously noting all of the girls faces and wishing to reassure them. "Until they act again, there is very little we can do. But now Winx, I must insist you rest. The girls at the school have really missed your classes and I have reassured them you will be returning to teaching next week, so you better not disappoint them."
"Thanks Ms F," the girls said, filing out of the office and making their way out into the hallway.
As they closed the door behind them, Roxy bounded out from around the corner and ran over to them.
"So, what did she say?" Roxy asked, her light pink hair bouncing behind her and her eyes lit up.
Roxy had really missed her time with the Winx, and life at Alfea- whilst more interesting than being on Earth- wasn't quite as action packed as last year had been, something she never thought she would miss.
"Nothing Roxy," Bloom answered, and Roxy placed her hands on her hips.
"Aw, don't leave me out!" Roxy cried, exasperated. "Come on!"
"She honestly didn't Roxy," Flora interjected, softly. "Faragonda told us to take some time to rest up so we can teach again next week."
"She doesn't know who made the earthquake," Musa added.
"But there is a high probability that they too know about The Guide," Tecna finished, and Roxy smiled a little.
"That's all Roxy," Bloom said. "Anyway, I'm pretty sure you have a class soon, so we'll see you later."
They all said goodbye to Roxy and made their way back to their dorm room, the girls collapsing down across the living room and kicking their shoes off, not having properly rested since their trip this morning.
"I'm exhausted," Stella exclaimed, closing her eyes and leaning back against the arm rest of the long sofa, lifting her legs onto Tecna and Musa who were sharing the couch with her, both girls to tired to struggle.
"Me too," Bloom added, sprawling out across the arm chair she had sat in before opening her eyes and realizing Layla was standing awkwardly by the door, gazing into space. "Layla, are you alright?"
Layla shook herself out of her daze and smiled strangely over at Bloom, tilting her head to the side.
"I'm perfectly alright Bloom," Layla answered, plainly. "I think I may go to sleep."
And with that, Layla walked off to her bedroom and closed the door.
"What the hell was that?!" Stella cried, siting up and crossing her arms.
"I thought everything was okay between you guys?" Flora asked Bloom, looking across at her from the opposite arm chair she was seated in.
"Me too," Bloom stated, standing up and making her way towards Layla's bedroom. "I'm going to see if she's okay."
Bloom slowly opened the door and entered the room, the curtains were closed so it was pitch black and there was no sounds of movement anywhere.
"Layla?" Bloom called, quietly as she stepped inside the dark room. "Layla, is everything okay?"
"Yes Bloom, everything is fine," Layla's voice said, however Bloom couldn't see her. "I'm just tired. Can you leave?"
"Are we okay? I mean, I thought we had sorted everything out earlier?"
"Of course we are," Layla answered, Bloom still unable to see her. "I'm just really tired. Do you mind?"
"Okay, well I'll talk to you later," Bloom said, uncertainty before returning to the door and starting to close it. "Sweet dreams."
She closed the door and returned to the others, shrugging off Layla's strangeness and talking with the others for a while before they all decided to go to bed. They all slept incredibly well, and the next day Layla seemed much better, which reassured Bloom. The girls spent Saturday in their room, ordering Pizza and playing music very loudly, inviting Roxy over to their chill out session from their busy few weeks.
"What's the plan? We can't wait around forever!"
He paced around the bubbling cauldron, the potion needing to simmer for at least a month to have the amount of power he needed to achieve his goal.
"The sooner we find her, the better," he answered, looking over at his partner who was crossing her arms and glaring at him from across the room. "Perhaps we need to try a new approach. Make her reveal herself."
"And how are we going to do that?!" she demanded, sourly.
"Let's introduce them to some of my friends," he replied, smiling slightly.
"What will that do?"
"Well, The Guide doesn't have powers," he answered. "She'll be defenseless."
She lowered her eyes at him, before breathing in deeply, doubting her partner's idea.
"We'll weed her out," he continued walking out to the balcony and raising his arms, beginning to cast a spell.
Monday came around much too fast, and the girls were back to their teaching duties, Layla seeming to enjoy working with the students again, noticed by Bloom in their first double lesson together.
After a long morning with Freshmen, the girls were all too excited to be splitting up to teach a class of Junior fairies, with Bloom, Stella and Flora taking one half and Layla, Tecna and Musa the other half.
"You need to tap into your emotions," Bloom instructed, as the three girls walked along the separate gaps between the desks.
They were doing basic warm-ups before trying to project their feelings into a doll, making it come alive. First, the girls had to open their minds and feel an emotion strongly whether it be love, or hate, or shock and then that feeling would be the core personality of the doll.
"You girls are doing really well," Flora praised, as a few girls started to glow a bright yellow, symbolizing their happy feelings.
As the three teachers met up in the middle, whispering to one another about how well everyone was doing there was a sudden explosion from outside, rocking the entire school. It sounded like something crashing through a barrier...
The three fairies quickly grabbed onto on the desk behind them to steady themselves, the students opening their eyes as the glowing disappeared from around them, the students all looking frightened.
"What was that!?" a girl in the back row cried.
"Stay in your seats," Bloom advised, crossing over to the window and opening it with Flora and Stella and looking outside, spying a group of flying gargoyles- the same ones from The Dimension- flying over the forest and towards the school, shooting large, red fireballs from their eyes towards them.
"They've upgraded!" Stella cried, panicking.
"But how are they here?" Flora asked, shakily.
"Maybe the followed us?" Stella suggested, but Bloom shook her head.
"Or someone sent them after us," Bloom stated, sternly. "C'mon, we've got to alert Faragonda."
She turned back to the class.
"Okay guys, you are juniors so you are allowed to stand and fight with us," Bloom cried, as the students looked frightened. "But, it isn't compulsory. Flora, take the girls who don't want to fight to the safety point behind the school and then find us. Stella and I will go tell Faragonda and make our way out to the Quad to protect the school, like all the other teachers. Let's go."
Flora led a few worried looking girls out of the room and into the busy hallway, passing teachers and student alike all looking worried about the impending attacks. Meanwhile, Stella and Bloom ran down to Faragonda's office, the headmistresses sounded the school alert alarm before Bloom and Stella led the rest of the class outside. They met up with Musa and Tecna and their class outside with Layla taking more students to the safety point. Soon, other teachers arrived outside, following by a few more students and soon a large group had rallied outside, Faragonda and Griselda leading the group.
"We have called Red Fountain, but the creatures will be here first so our first priority is your safety," Ms Faragonda explained, as she and Griselda raised their arms. "First, we will create a shield around the school; we fight as a last resort. Come along girls, all together."
The teachers, students and four Winx members raised their hands, combining their powers together as they chanted a spell to form a large shield to protect Alfea, a large Specialist Ship just making it through the barrier in time before it closed. A group of senior Red Fountain Heroes emerged from the ship, followed by Brandon, Riven and Helia who had come to help as soon as they had heard and quickly greeted the girls.
The group stood together as the creatures coming right up to the shield, pushing into it, flapping their giant wings and attacking it with the rays from their eyes.
"They're breaking through!" Brandon cried, taking out his green Phantoblade as Stella gripped his shoulder.
As the shield began to shatter, a few creatures were able to fly through, Helia locking them together with his Glove String and they fell to the ground, just before the top of the shield broke and thousands of creatures flooded through, flying right down towards the below fairies and Specialists.
"Okay girls, time for Belevix!" Bloom exclaimed, the three other Winx with her nodded their heads before transforming into their strongest fairy form.
Bloom led them up into the air, as they began to attack the gargoyle creatures: Tecna taking a group out with a long, lighting bolt shaped attack, Musa using a blast of high pitched music to cause another group to fall to the ground before Stella and Bloom teamed up to send a burst of bright flame towards them.
By now the rest of the fairies had transformed in their forms below, however weren't fairing as well as the four Belevix fairies. A group of fairies from Bloom, Stella and Flora's class before were trying to take on a large group of them and were being severely beaten, a small red headed one being flung into the air before large green vines erupted from the ground and caught the fairy before she hit the ground.
Flora and Layla sped out of the front doors, their bright Belevix wings fluttering behind them. Flora lowered the girl to the ground before she and Layla launched a combined attack towards the creatures, the gargoyle falling to the ground.
They fought them off for as long as they could, but as soon as they had attacked them and they fell to the ground, they quickly got back up again due to the inability to die. The only thing that was getting destroyed seemed to be the school, with the gargoyles often aiming their beams towards it and entire towers crumbled to the ground.
"They won't stop coming!" Bloom yelled, as she and Stella held back a group of attacks with their shields.
"What do we do? We can't hold them forever and the school is starting to fall apart!" Stella asked her, but suddenly Bloom's jaw dropped.
She saw a small green fairy with flowering pink hair buzz out into the quad, sending some attacks towards a small group of creatures harassing some magical rabbits.
"ROXY!" Bloom yelled, flying over to her as the pink haired fairy shot the creatures out towards the forest. "What are you doing here!?"
"I couldn't just sit around, I wanted to help!" Roxy cried, sourly.
"You HAVE to get back inside!" Bloom demanded, but a shrill scream from behind them gained both of their attention.
A small, white haired girl was standing in the front door frame behind them, surrounding by a group of creatures.
"HELP!"
"MARA!" Roxy yelled, and all eyes turned to her and Bloom.
Roxy sped over to her friend, the creatures' eyes started to glow as they prepared their strongest attack to send at the helpless fairy.