12. Stopping the Immortal
Mara wasn't one of those people who dreamt of adventure. She liked the idea of staying inside, with a hot cup of coco a lot more than battling evil creatures for the greater good. She just wanted to hurry up and get her magic so she could finish school and go home, instead she was now going to die at the hands of strange gargoyle creature things whom- from her observation- didn't seem to be able to die.
Maybe she wouldn't die? Maybe the rumors circulating the school about everyone being immortal were true? After all, The Winx did go to The Dimension of Life and Death, and even though no-one would explain why, the students could figure out any other reason why they would need to go there.
Mara shielded her face from the creatures, their eyes glistened and became a dark red and just as they were about to send their attacks, there was a sound of something re-bounding and Mara un-covered her face.
Roxy had managed to fly over and come between Mara and the creatures, holding up a large pink shield; the red beams re-bounding off the shield and hitting the gargoyles, the creatures falling to the ground, however merely stunned.
"Are you okay?" Roxy asked Mara, turning around and grasping her shaking hands.
"Yeah, thanks Roxy," Mara said.
"What are you doing here?!" demanded Roxy, as Bloom and Stella landed behind her.
"I saw you ran out and I followed you, I wanted to make sure you were okay."
"You shouldn't have come here-!"
"Neither of you should have come here!" Stella snapped, quickly.
"Mara, why didn't you transform?" Bloom asked her, and Mara bit her lip.
"I-I was just nervous, that's all," Mara answered, however Roxy shook her head a little.
"Regardless, you two have to get back to the safety point," Bloom replied, quickly. "We've got this handled. Now GO!"
The two young fairies hurried off down the corridor, before Stella turned to Bloom.
"We haven't got this handled at ALL!" Stella exclaimed, exasperated. "We've been fighting for hours and they just keep getting back up! The school is starting to fall apart; even Faragonda and Griselda have no idea what to do! Bloom, we've got to think of something. We HAVE to get rid of these creatures!"
"I know, I know," Bloom stammered, watching Tecna and Musa starting to catch the creatures in digital barriers instead of fighting them.
"How do you fight immortal creatures?" Stella stated, sending a few blasts over at some creatures starting to fly towards them.
Bloom continued to watch Tecna and Musa, the digital ball of creatures seeming to hold them in before they broke through it and Tecna and Musa put them straight back into the ball again.
"Maybe we don't have to," Bloom answered, turning to Stella. "Gather Musa, Tecna, Layla and Flora and wait in the middle of the quad. I've got an idea."
"What are you doing!?" Stella asked, and Bloom flew up into the air.
"Getting something," Bloom called, darting through a group of creatures before shooting a fire ball at a window that led to the corridor near their dorm room.
She flew inside, casting open the door and landing in her room, pulling out her travel bag from The Dimension mission and taking out one of the spell books, remembering a chant she read which could send people to different planes.
She found the spell, and pulled out the page before zooming back out into the quad, noticing how less energetic everyone seemed to have become, most of the fairies on the ground fighting and a few had even returned to their normal clothes as they had become very weak.
Bloom found her friends waiting in the center, looking quite puzzled and flew down to them.
"Okay guys, we need to cast this spell I found," Bloom explained, hastily. "We can't kill them, but we can trap them."
"Trap them where?" Musa asked. "Our shield barriers only work for a little while?"
"Trap them in the Void Plane, a place between life and death," Bloom said, the rest of the group nodded. "I remember reading it back before we went to The Dimension. C'mon girls! Let's do this!"
The six girls flew up into the air, getting into a circle as the fighters below looked up at them.
"Chant together!" Bloom ordered, and she began the spell.
"In this place, we gather together to fight a wicked source. Let them be taken to the Void Plane, to live their natural course. No death there, no death here. Take them from us, to give in to fear!"
As they finished the chant, there was a suddenly shift in the air, the six fairies looking at one another as the wind began to pick up, beginning to swirl around and around like a tornado as a gigantic purple vortex began to appear around the school, throwing the six fairies to the ground as the wind of the vortex roared, the people standing being thrown to the ground and grasping onto anything they could find. All of the creatures however were picked up, and thrown into the vortex and as fast as it appeared, it had gone, appearing to have collapsed into itself and disappeared, the creatures along with it.
The girls looked up, dusting themselves off and standing, looking around at the carnage left by the creatures and the vortex.
"We've been back for four days and already creatures are trying to kill us again," Stella sighed, before spying Brandon and dashing over to him, kissing him passionately before healing some cuts on his face.
"What just happened?" Flora asked Bloom, looking quite puzzled.
"We must have sent them to the Void Plane?" Bloom presumed, however seeming uncertain.
"It appears you have," Ms Faragonda said, her hair slightly messed up however seeming quite unscathed. "Clever idea Bloom, however, where may I ask did you get the spell?"
"I saw it in one of the books I took to The Dimension with me," Bloom answered. "Why? Is something wrong with it?"
"No, it's just that spell needs to remain out of the hands of anyone else," Ms Faragonda informed her, sternly. "It's a very powerful spell –as you saw- and not even Griselda or I would have been able to control it. You were lucky this time. May I see both the spell and the book?"
"Of course," Bloom said, holding out the paper she had ripped out. "Here's the spell, and the book's in my room."
"I shall get it later, we have a lot of cleaning to do," Ms Faragonda sighed, looking around at all the destruction caused by the creatures.
It was almost a week before the school was entirely re-built and the students had the rest of the week off to recover.
It was no secret anymore, the truth about The Guide was now fairly obvious and Ms Faragonda called an assembly the day after to explain everything to the girls, some seeming quite excited about their immortality and the others quite worried.
Bloom gave Ms Faragonda the book and she was very thankful, Bloom explaining she had taken it from the library and wondering how out of all the spell books in the library, she chose that very one.
Over the week each of the girls had received a phone call from their boyfriends, checking in to see if they were alright. This was apart from Flora who received a lovely hand crafted poem from Helia and Bloom, who had sadly received nothing.
"Maybe try calling him again?" Tecna suggested, as she, Flora and Stella sat together in Blooms' room, talking about Sky's lack of contact.
"Well, I've already called three times," Bloom answered, looking down at her quiet phone. "He is a King remember, he's probably just really busy…"
"Busy-Schmissy!" Stella cried, standing up and crossing her arms. "King or not, YOU are his number ONE priority! He should have called you immediately, and then every day after- just to see if you are alright and to remind you he's thinking of you, even though he couldn't be here for the battle. NO EXCUSES!"
At that moment, Bloom's phone went off and she quickly picked it up, noticing she had a message from Sky.
"A text message," Bloom stated, sadly and Stella's jaw dropped.
"WHAT!" she cried. "Oh I am going to fly all the way to Eraklyon and punch him square in the nose-!"
"Wait Stella, it looks like you don't have to," Bloom said, smiling and looking up. "He's here! He said to meet him in the East Tower. Luckily it's been re-built!"
"That's soo sweet!" Flora beamed and Stella grinned.
"That's more like it! I always had faith in him!" Stella exclaimed, before Bloom bid goodbye to the girls and hurried out of the room, walking hurriedly through the hallways way and jumping up the stairs to the tower.
As she emerged out onto the open area, she spied the blonde King leaning on the edge of the rail, wearing his casual blue jacket and pants, an outfit he hadn't worn in ages due to his almost constant King duties.
He turned around as she arrived and Bloom ran over to him, wrapping her arms around him and he kissed her sweetly, the couple standing together and looking out across the school, Sky's arm wrapped around her.
"So I heard about Magix and the battle here, what happened?" he asked, and Bloom dove into the story about their shopping trip and how everything started to feel like a few years ago with Valtor before continuing the story about the creatures and sending them to the Void Plane.
Sky commended her on her bravery, reminding her how good her leadership was before Bloom told her she and Layla had finally made up, which excited Sky even more. They spoke for almost an hour together, about everything and anything and Bloom was the happiest she had been in a long time.
"But you feel very passionate about finding The Guide, don't you?" Sky pointed out, and Bloom nodded.
"Yeah, I do," Bloom responded; looking out towards the lake as the wind caught her red hair and is blew gently in the breeze.
"Why?"
"I don't know," Bloom said. "I guess it's the same reason why we wanted to find Roxy last year, they remind me of me, especially with The Guide being here. It means they are at school, powerless. They must feel, alone, confused, helpless… kind of like I did."
"I don't think that's just it though… right?" Sky pointed out and Bloom smiled a little.
Did he know her that well?
"It's kind of… I don't know," Bloom replied, slowly. "I guess if no-one dies than no-one can truly live either. Everything will stop, be the same... forever. And, I also believe everyone should have the right to have children, when ready, of course. That's something that would never happen again if The Guide isn't found … and I… I don't know, I just think that the next generation is worth fighting for."
Sky beamed down at her, tucking a stray piece of her hair behind her ear.
"I think so too," he answered, holding her closely. "And you would be a fantastic mom Bloom."
"You think so?" she asked and Sky nodded. "That and, how boring is going to be when we're all like 5 trillion years old! We won't even be able to move!"
Sky suddenly burst out into laughter, causing Bloom to as well.
"I'm being serious!" Bloom laughed, however it caused them both to laugh even louder.
