Chapter Ten
"That is a disheartening tale indeed," Faragonda raised her hands to her forehead. Tecna had seen her do this many times over the years: it never meant well.
"She came out of nowhere," Flora added. What she said was true: each time before, they'd known something about their enemy.
This girl, however, posed as alien software. Before the Kazen disaster, nothing had existed in Tecna's databases about the growing 'notorious' Shadow Dragon. Until this week, she hadn't realized how important it was to keep up with the minor planets. According to Xander (not that Tecna trusted him as a valid source), the thief was well known underground for taking on clients.
"The fairy thing came out of nowhere," Musa corrected. "I mean, who's ever heard of an evil fairy?"
"The criminal is a fairy?" Faragonda's head shot upward. "You didn't mention that earlier. What's her power?"
"We don't know, and she doesn't either." Aisha replied, "Her powers were weird, like opposites forced together."
"That's unsettling," Faragonda sighed. "Any more bad news? We may as well get things over with."
"Only one, headmistress," Tecna hadn't wanted to worry the others any more than necessary, but it wasn't something she should conceal. "As you know, when in an unfamiliar setting, I always use my handheld to scan for things like pollution, enemy magic, radiation-"
"Oh, get to the point already!" Stella urged, using volume to stress her point. She was still wasn't happy about events from the last few days.
"But of course. So after we all woke up, I got some diagnostics of the area. Under the magic radar, which-"
"Come on!"
"My device found them!" Tecna finally spit it out. The room was like a graveyard after that.
"Wha-What? Who is it, Tecna?" Bloom asked, though she likely knew the answer.
"At least one Trix was using magic either while or after the Shadow Dragon attacked us," the technology fairy clarified. "She had help." More silence.
"Which one did you pick up?" Aisha questioned.
"As the most likely: Darcy. Though in reality, it could have been any of them."
"What spell did she use?" Flora wondered aloud.
"It was too late to collect that data. With the assassin's entire magic thick in the air, my instrument hardly caught it at all."
"What do you mean?" Musa raised an eyebrow.
"When she knocked out Stella with the final spell, the magic she released was formless. All the young fairy had done was release most of her energy, a very poor strategy. It took care of us, but I'd be surprised if she didn't faint right afterwards." Tecna paused. "Anyhow, the fairy magic was everywhere; my tracker barely caught traces of anything else."
"What the heck?"
"How is-"
"How indeed," the headmistress leaned over her desk to stare the girls down. "Alright, then. What we don't know is worrying, but there has to be something we can still do." She sat back down, and then pulled out a pen and paper. "To tie it all together, please summarize everything you know for a fact. We can deal with suspicions later."
"Okay," Bloom said. "Here's what we know: Last Wednesday, the only prince of Borreania, Prince Kazen, was murdered with a spike to the heart by the Shadow Dragon, who until then was known only as a thief. She evaded guards and collected a key to the mountain village from our guide, Xander Rexim. When we confronted her, it was like she'd been waiting for us. First, we offered peaceful arrest, which she refused." Bloom trailed off, so Tecna took over.
"So we were quick to a fight, where the girl revealed the traitor among us, and Darcy probably defended her from our attacks, later turning them against us. We went down so quickly, it was embarrassing. After we all awoke, our criminal had vanished. I found the magical signatures while we were searching the area around us. We found an abandoned village, though it hadn't been empty for long."
"Everything else is assumption," Aisha finished.
Faragonda paused, "Thank you, girls. Two questions: Well, first of all, what happened to the specialist named traitor? Did he leave with the Shadow Dragon?"
"No," Musa stated. "He was knocked out as well."
"Why would they leave their own ally behind?"
"Well...we can't prove anything, but she was very upset to see Xander. Apparently, he wasn't supposed to be there," Flora answered. "Do you think the girl was mistaken about who he was? Took him for someone else?"
"You always believe the best in people," Musa said. "It's sweet 'n all, but rarely true."
"Sorry, Flora. I just don't see how that could have happened." Bloom finished for her.
"Aw… He seemed like a good kid. I can't believe he'd help a murderer!"
"Believe it," Aisha snapped.
"Ms. Faragonda, didn't you say you had two questions?" Tecna reminded the headmistress.
"Oh yes! Thank you, Tecna." Faragonda said, and then paused to think. "And I've forgotten it," she stood. "While several aspects remain a mysterious, I believe that shall be all for today. I shall inform the teachers and other schools of what you have said, and we'll meet soon again to discuss the near future. Good bye, girls."
"Bye, Ms. Faragonda!" they chanted as the six left the room.
…
"Was that Roy?" Tecna overheard.
"Yeah," Aisha answered the sun fairy, sounding far away. "He just called to ask about yesterday, update me on repairs. That sort of thing."
"I see," Tecna commented. "So how are repairs on Andros going?"
"Not as good as we hoped, that's for sure," she slumped against a wall. "Rebuilding's going fine, but the former minions are having trouble. Some are still violent."
"It's logical that things will take a while. I mean, it has not been long since Tritannus fell. As for the former mutants, cruel as it sounds, we might have to accept their experiences might result in… disabilities." Tecna had to be very careful with what she said. This was a sore subject for just about all of them, but especially Aisha.
"I mean, come on!" Stella added. "We do want them to be completely better, but it's starting to look like that won't happen. We just have to-"
"Don't say that!" Aisha stormed out of their room, nearly running Musa through as she tried to slip past.
"Whoa, what's her deal?" the new arrival plopped down in a chair, inserting ear buds. "Is it still-"
"What else could it be?" Stella interrupted. "Tritannus and company did a lot. You can't expect it to all get better like that!" the Solarian snapped her fingers.
"I know!" Musa snapped.
Everyone's quite agitated today, Tecna noted, and she could see why. Never before had the Winx been so humiliated. Their opponent couldn't have been older than fourteen, and obviously had no magical training. Tecna knew the Shadow Dragon was a threat and had to be treated as such, but she still wished she could study her sometime.
The fairy from Melody interrupted her thoughts with a loud sigh. "I guess we all thought things would be better once Tritannus was gone, but it looks like we're in danger all over again."
"What brought you to that conclusion?"
"I dunno. It's more of a feeling, really," Musa paused, taking one earphone out. "There are just so many loose ends. And it's been months since we've seen one of the Trix. While they are defintely not my favorite visitors, knowing they're out there really gets me worried, ya know?"
"Don't worry, Musa, those three will reveal themselves sooner or later." Stella chuckled. "They'll probably be all dramatic about it. Come out with some new plan to make us all bow down before them, just so it can explode in their face." The Solarian princess laughed, but it sounded forced.
Tecna considered this for a second. "I wonder why Darcy was on Borreania. Did she know of our plans, somehow?"
Stella gasped. "Do you think she and the Shadow Girl are working together?"
"I can see it," Musa said. "Maybe they're out on a killing spree. It sounds like something Darcy would try. I wonder if her sisters are in on it."
"I'm not sure," Tecna replied. "They sort of split up, didn't they?"
"Ugh! That's the thing!" Musa complained. "We don't know anything! We don't know where they are, we have only one clue as to where they've been, and we aren't even sure if they're together or not."
"I hope they're all together," Stella added. "Tracking down one is difficult enough!"
"I agree, Stella. But you can't forget the assassin girl. Whether or not she's allied with the Trix, she is still connected to the matter at hand." the technology fairy cut off, trying a different approach. "It makes sense that the Shadow Dragon's actions, the empty village, and Darcy's presence are all linked, but without more information, that link could be just about anything."
Musa understood. "Hey, speaking of-"
"Hi every-," Flora stopped in front of the door. "Oh, excuse me for interrupting."
"It's nothing," Musa reassured her.
Stella was the first to notice her friend's worried expression. "What's going on, Flora?"
"I can't find Bloom," Flora confessed. "I thought she'd be in here with you guys, but I guess not."
"I haven't seen Bloom since we left Faragonda's office, and that was a few hours ago. Sorry."
"It's alright, Tecna," Flora shuffled uncomfortably, refusing to take a seat. "So what were you all talking about?"
Musa sighed. "Just trying to make sense of everything. Aisha was in here too, but she left a while ago."
Flora's eyes widened. "Is she okay?"
"Well, she's very worried about things on Andros," Tecna explained. "It's only natural; I'm certain she'll be back soon."
"Oh," Flora sighed. "Poor girl. She must be really stressed, with everything else that's going on. And then there's Bloom, who's probably worried about Daphne…"
That's bound to be difficult, the Zenithian thought to herself. Even in the Magic Dimension, someone coming back to life was rare. Technically, Daphne hadn't been dead, but still. Coming back from decades in a disembodied state had to be hard.
Tecna still questioned Bloom's choice to call her sister back, even though she'd meant well. Daphne had been younger than all of them when she'd been turned into a half living ghost. She couldn't imagine how weird it must be to have a younger-looking sibling older than she was. And no one had decided which princess would rule Domino yet. To Tecna, it would make the most sense to choose Daphne. She was born first, she'd grown up as a princess, and she knew her home planet through and through.
But it seemed life in limbo had left a few permanent marks on the young nymph. It was said that Daphne felt feverish at all times, had lost almost all body coordination, and worse of all, and remained in a constant state of depression. Bloom's wish had seemed to make sense in the moment, but now, nobody was sure.
"Tecna!" Musa yelled, yanking her back to the present.
"What is it?"
"We're going on a Bloom Hunt. You in?"
"Of course!" she exclaimed, and the four fairies hurried out towards the common area. Girls were everywhere, some just returning from Magix, others playing it safe on their first weekend at Alfea. Whether for this year or something else, all the fairies seemed so happy.
"There you all are! Where's Aisha?" a familiar voice called out from behind. Tecna was first to turn around.
"Bloom! Where did you fly off to?"
"Just taking a personal moment, made a few phone calls." Bloom explained, waving her phone in the air. "Sky said Xander was only expelled for what he did. Can you believe he isn't in jail?"
"Bloom, are you sure you're okay?" Flora questioned.
For a split second, Tecna thought her friend would say something. But then Bloom smiled, "I'm fine guys. Why weren't you all in our room?"
"We were looking for you!" Stella exploded. "You can't just worry us like that!"
"You all are so jumpy. The Tritannus threat is over!"
"Really, Bloom?" Musa glanced around, trying to see if anyone was eavesdropping. "If all our problems are over… why does this feel like the beginning?"
A/Ns: PTV Speaks: Well, here's another chapter. I kinda like this one, even if it was edited a whole lot.
Anyhow, I have an important announcement to make: updates will no longer be weekly.
I said in an earlier chapter that we may switch over to every other week later on. Well, later has come. As tensions begin to rise, the chapters are just getting longer and more complicated. I've also grown busy with some other writing projects. So expect Chapter Eleven to come out February 28th. I'm sorry you all have to wait longer, and we promise to work much harder on the quality, hopefully making it worthwhile.
Umm... it was fairly quiet last chapter (but I still want to thank my beta To die upon a kiss for their insights and help with each chapter since six), so noting new there. SME hasn't contacted me yet, so yeah.