Thank you everyone for being so patient with me updating my stories, I thought I would update tonight because I was bored!
Thank you to NeKo-ChIcK-XoX, cutegal, Queen Flora, Evelyn, iHeartBradyQuinn and alexawinx for your reviews.
Disclaimer: Winx Club not mine
Chapter 20 Storming the Palace.
The group all walked through the dark streets of Magix and into a wide park, with the only light coming from a few street lights on the corner, the group walked through the park and waited, Nicole was starting to get impatient.
"I thought they were picking us up straight away" She muttered, "Where are they?"
"Relax" Musa said to her, "They'll be here soon".
Nicole sighed and scanned the dark streets, this all seemed to unreal for her, just yesterday she thought she was an accident prone girl, just learning how to love. But now she was another girl, a girl that had a kingdom under attack and had to save it.
Just then a dark figure was seen walking towards them, Nova saw this and froze.
"S-Something is coming this way" She whimpered pointing to the dark figure.
The others all looked over; it was so dark that they couldn't see who it was. Brandon quickly pulled out his sword just in case.
"Girl's I'd be prepared if I were you" He said, the girls all transformed into their fairy forms and were prepared while Stella stood there once again with her mouth wide open.
"HOW DID…WHAT THE!" She shrieked pointing at the girls.
"Don't worry" Bloom said to her, "You'll be able to do this soon.
The figure moved closer towards the group and they all looked ready to fight when…
"Put you're weapons down before you hurt someone" A voice called out.
Brandon recognized this voice instantly and lowered his sword, "Sky?" He called out.
The figure moved into the light and sure enough it did reveal Sky, he placed a finger to his mouth.
"Ssh" He said, "I don't want anyone following us, if everything goes wrong then we could have witnesses here".
"Sky where's the ship?" Flora asked.
"We parked it in a dark alleyway, just so it's out of the way and so no one can see it, I'll take you all there now but you have to be very quiet, ok?" He said.
They all nodded and followed Sky out of the park; he led them down several dark alleyways before they found the ship.
"Right everyone on board" Sky said, obediently everyone ran onto the ship quickly, they were all greeted by Riven, Helia and Timmy and they all sat down ready for take off.
"Ok guys, everyone's on and ready for take off to Solaria" Sky said walking over to a seat.
"Alright time for take off" Timmy said flicking some switches on, soon the ship was hovering in the air and was speeding off out of Magix and through the atmosphere.
----
It had been about half an hour since they had taken off and there was some light conversation on the ship, Layla and Flora were getting to know Nova some more, Bloom, Tecna and Musa were helping the boys on flying the ship, Brandon had noticed that Nicole wasn't talking to anyone during the flight so he decided to go over and help her.
"Hey" He said to Nicole making her look up, "Are you ok? You seem pretty quiet".
"I'm just a little worried" She said looking at the floor, Brandon sat next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"It's just, when Nova said that she had seen my Father on the news looking paralyzed…it just made me think…what if he never remembers me? Then what would happen? I don't remember my true self, he doesn't, my kingdom doesn't and it's like the only person that knows Stella is you and the girls" Nicole said, Brandon noticed a small tear trickling down her face.
"Hey, don't cry, it will all be ok, I promise" Brandon said giving her a hug, "The magic that Chimera and Cassandra have put on your realm can be removed; there are people way stronger than them that can remove this within seconds".
Nicole sniffed, "You…you promise?" She asked.
Brandon smiled; "Of course" He said giving her a kiss on the cheek.
"Ok everyone, we'll be landing the ship in a about a minute" Riven called out, "We're landing in the forest by the palace so we don't attract any attention".
Soon the ship had landed quietly and softly in the dark forest on the outskirts of the Solarian palace; quietly they all walked off the ship and towards the palace, they were all hiding behind bushes and trees to conceal themselves.
"Okay I don't really want to rain on anybody's parade but do any of us no how to get into the palace without being seen?" Riven asked.
The group stopped, they hadn't thought of that or how to find Chimera.
"Right…has anyone here ever been to the Solarian Palace before?" Brandon asked, everyone in the group fell silent apart from one person.
"Well Stella and I used to play in the secret passages under the palace when we were younger" Nova told the group, "She said that they were there used to escape if anyone tried to harm them and I think they lead into the middle of the palace".
"Perfect" Brandon said, "Nova can lead the way".
"But what happens if we go into the palace and come face to face with twenty guards?" Layla asked.
"I think then we'll have to think on our feet" Musa told her.
"Nova, do you remember where these secret passages are?" Bloom asked.
"I think so," Nova said to Bloom.
Nova looked around the forest and walked over to a tall tree, she carefully pushed back a few of the branches revealing a small hole in the heart of the tree.
"Bingo" She whispered, she placed her hand over the hole and closed her eyes, she began to mutter a spell to herself and she repeated it over and over again, to everyone's surprise the roots of the tree sprang to life and spread apart to reveal a larger hole at the bottom.
"And here is our passageway!" She said proudly pointing to the hole.
"Wow how did you do that?" Flora asked, "I'm a fairy of nature and I can't even do that!"
"Stella taught it to me" Nova told her, "You're supposed to touch the heart of the tree which is this small hole here and say a spell, but you are only suppose to say it to yourself, not aloud. And then the roots open up and voila our secret passage!"
"What was the spell?" Tecna asked.
Nova winked at her and tapped her nose, "That's classified" She said cheekily.
She then bent down and crawled into the hole on her hands and knees, "Come on" She called to the rest of the group.
They all exchanged nervous looks and reluctantly followed her; they all crawled into the hole and found themselves in a small, narrow, dark tunnel.
"I think we need some light in here" Timmy called out from the back, "I can't see a thing".
"Coming right up" Nova said from the front of the group, she clapped her hands together and then stretched out her right palm, a small white light burst out of her palm brightening up the entire tunnel.
"There we go" Nova said happily, "My power is light, I can create light using every part of my body, I can even cover my whole body with it".
The group followed Nova down the dark tunnel; Nicole had her eyes on Nova's palm and stared at the light pouring out from it.
"Light…" She whispered, "What did you say my power was again?" Nicole asked turning to Brandon.
"Your power comes from the Sun and the Moon" Brandon told her.
"Does that mean I can control light as well?" She asked.
"Probably" Nova said to her.
"Wow that would be so cool if I could just open my hands and light appeared" Nicole said, she opened the palm of her hand hoping that something would appear.
Brandon saw this and smiled, "It's probably going to take more than just opening your hand" He said to her.
"I know" Nicole muttered staring at her hand, "Although it would be great if I said a word and it would appear like this…sunbeam" She said not expecting anything to happen.
To her amazement a small yellow beam appeared in the palm of her hand, Nicole's eyes widened as she held it.
Everyone stopped and stared at it, "How…how did you do that?" Brandon asked.
"I don't know, it just appeared" Nicole told him, "So is this my power?"
Everyone nodded and Nicole smiled, "Wow, I suppose I'm starting to become more and more like Stella now".
Nicole dropped the small beam and it fell to the floor and faded away, the group continued through the tunnel until Nova stopped.
"The exit's right here" She said pointing to the roof of the tunnel, we are going to have to be really quiet now".
Nova placed her hands on the roof and carefully moved it away, leaving a gap in the hole, she took a deep breath and poked her head out the top, she looked around making sure that no one was there, the room was empty.
She breathed a shy of relief and clambered out the top, "Come on" She whispered to the others.
Brandon pushed Nicole to the side while the others started to climb out, "Wait here until everyone's out, Chimera and Cassandra have probably bewitched the guards to recognize you as an enemy and they might try and kill you".
Nicole nodded and stayed behind Brandon, she watched as Musa climbed out first followed by Tecna, Helia, Timmy, Flora, Riven, Sky, Layla and the Bloom, then Brandon climbed out and he reached back down to Stella holding out his hand for her to take, Nicole took it and climbed out the hole.
The room that they were in looked a lot like an old store room with many things covered in white sheets, Nicole walked over to one sheet and pulled it off revealing loads of boxes, she opened one and saw loads of pictures, pictures of herself.
"Why are there all these pictures of me here?" She said to herself, these pictures were all different, some were photos with her friends, some looked like royal portraits that had been drawn but there was one that she was drawn to; it was a picture of what looked like a younger version of herself with a man dressed in royal clothing and red hair. She turned over the picture and saw some writing on the back.
"Stella and her father on her fifth birthday".
Nicole gasped, she looked at the photo and stroked it, "Dad" She whispered.
She stood up and ran over to another white sheet, she pulled it off and found more boxes, this time they were filled with clothes, clothes that looked her size. She opened another and saw many handheld objects, she picked up her cell phone and saw 'Stella's phone' engraved on the back.
She had no idea what was going on, all these things belonged to her and they all looked like they were being shipped off somewhere.
Something then caught her attention, a letter had been taped to one of the boxes, she pulled it off and read it.
Dear the Solarian Furnace
Thank you for taking these boxes, make sure they are all burnt to cinders before tomorrow morning.
Do not under any circumstances open the boxes; they contain private information that is meant for my daughter's and my eyes only.
Thank you once again.
Queen Cassandra of Solaria.
Nicole crumpled the letter in fury; she threw it on the floor with a loud scream.
"Nicole what happened" Brandon asked her.
"All this stuff…she…that witch is going to burn all my things, she's trying to erase every little memory of me" She screamed, tears streaming down her face.
Brandon looked around and saw the pictures and the clothes and was horrified. They really were evil.
"Don't cry Nicole, we are going to sort all this out I promise, they are not going to get away with this- ."
"Be quiet" Sky called out to him, "I can hear someone". The group fell silent and listened out for voices.
"Let me just check all the boxes, they should all be ready to be shipped out to the furnace".
Everyone began to panic; they quickly hid behind all the boxes and stayed quiet.
The door opened to reveal one of the women they had been looking for, Cassandra stood in the doorway staring at the boxes.
"It's her" Flora whispered, "Cassandra".
Nicole gritted her teeth and clenched her fist, she longed to jump out from behind the boxes and give her a good punch, she would have but she felt Brandon's hand firmly holding onto hers.
"Don't do anything" He whispered to her, she nodded but that didn't stop the desire to hit her.
Cassandra looked around and saw the opened boxes and sighed, "What happened here?" She said walking over to the boxes.
"Has someone been snooping through Stella's things?" She said laughing to herself.
"That stupid girl" She said, "So carefree yet so foolish, my Chimera makes a better princess than she ever did".
The group all were shocked, they looked at Nicole and saw she was ready to scream.
"I'm glad what Chimera did, that girl has done me proud, first she comes up with the fantastic idea of bewitching her father at the annual ball but the idea of getting rid of Stella was brilliant too".
Nicole saw that Riven had moved next to her to get a better view of Cassandra, in his pocket she saw three magenta daggers, carefully she pulled them out and held them ready.
"No one could have survived that fall, I hope that girl is where she belongs, burning in hell and soon if I have my way, her father will be joining her- ."
She was cut off by a magenta dagger flying out of the darkness and missing her face by a few inches, instead it pieced the wall and stayed there.
"Who's there" Cassandra called out.
Brandon realized that it was Nicole that had thrown the dagger, "What do you think you're doing?" He hissed.
"I've lost my patience with her, she's asking for it" Nicole said grabbing the second dagger and throwing it as well.
This time it ran through Cassandra's hair, cutting off chunks of her cream white hair.
"My hair" She gasped watching it fall "I'm warning you come out right now" Cassandra hissed loudly.
"Gladly" Came the reply.
From the darkness emerged Nicole looking angrier than ever, she held the third dagger at the ready.
"Stella" Cassandra gasped, "What are you doing here? I thought we got rid of you".
"Well you didn't, I survived but that fall cost me my memory, I have spent three weeks being completely clueless and wandering around Earth not knowing a thing, AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" She screamed throwing the last dagger, it cut into Cassandra's face, leaving a huge cut and blood poured out of it.
"How dare you" She hissed, "Do you think you can beat me? I'm full of dark magic and what do you possess, nothing but the poor, weak Sun and Moon. I can kill you within seconds".
"If you want her, you'll have to get through us first" Came a voice.
Brandon walked out of the darkness and stood next to Stella ready for the fight, then out came the five girls followed by the four guys.
"Think you can stop us now?" Helia said.
Cassandra laughed, "Please, you're all still in school, what makes you think you can beat a thirty three year old who has been using magic all her life?"
"Thirty three?" Nicole said, "I always thought you were about fifty".
Cassandra growled, "Why you little wrench" She hissed, "I'm going to make you wish you never said that".
She gave an angry yell and threw a huge purple thunder bolt at them; they all dodged it and started their attacks.
"Ninja daises" Flora cried out sending thousands of flowers out towards Cassandra, she simply burned them all with a green fire.
"Flowers? Seriously?" She said with a laugh.
"Sonic Boom" Musa said throwing her hands down on the ground, sending loud screeching sound through the ground and towards Cassandra; she however leapt up into the air and onto a pile of boxes.
"Why don't you just give up?" She called out to them
"Light Beast" Nova called out, light formed on the ground in the form of a beast and leapt up at Cassandra, it sunk its teeth into her skin making her cry in pain, with her other hand she punched the beast making it let go and run into the shadows whimpering.
"Pathetic" She called out to it.
"Nothing will stop my fire" Bloom said confidently, "Fire blast" She said sending fire towards Cassandra, she leapt down from the boxes and extinguished the flame with black water.
"Unfortunately for you, I did stop it" She said to Bloom.
"Water molecules" Layla called out sending water out towards Cassandra, she turned the water into ice cubes and they fell to the floor and smashed.
"Digital delete" Tecna cried out trapping Cassandra in a green ball.
"Digital delete, very smart" Cassandra smiled, she held up her hand and touched the ball, "Virus".
The ball disappeared with a loud bang, "Not smart enough though".
"We can't beat her with our normal powers" Layla said.
"Well we'll have to beat her with force" Riven said pulling out his sword, the rest of the guys followed.
"Get her" Sky said, they were about to charge at her when Nicole ran in front of them blocking their path.
"No" She said, "I want to be the one to beat her".
"But you don't know any spells and besides magic doesn't work on her" Brandon told her.
Nicole looked at him with a smirk, "That's why I'm going to borrow your sword" She said grabbing it from him.
"Nicole no" Brandon said trying to stop her but it was too late, Nicole was already charging at Cassandra with the sword in her hand; she tried to slash Cassandra but missed several times.
"Who do you think you are?" She said to him, "You're no warrior".
"I can try" Nicole said, trying to slash her again.
She missed and Cassandra threw a green orb at her, it struck Nicole sending her flying backwards and she let out a scream of pain.
"NICOLE" Brandon yelled trying to help her but Cassandra saw him and threw a purple web at the others, trapping them against the wall.
"You can try but you will never succeed" Cassandra said to her, she walked over to her and kicked her in the face; blood began to pour from Nicole's mouth.
"You're weal and you deserve to die" She said, "How do you want it? Quick? Slow and painful? I'll tell you what, I'll make the decisions" She turned her back on Nicole walking away.
Nicole knew this wasn't over, she reached out and grabbed hold of Cassandra's leg tripping her up, she fell to the floor with a crash.
"It's not over yet" Nicole said standing up and holding Brandon's sword, "Not until you're the one bleeding to death."
Nicole charged at Cassandra but it was too late, she had already recovered from the floor and was throwing green orbs at her again, Nicole dodged these well with Brandon's sword, she then cut into Cassandra's arm, leaving a huge gash.
Cassandra was furious, she threw more orbs at Nicole and they all seemed to miss.
Nicole sprang up onto a pile of boxes and then something happened, she felt a huge power surge run through her body, she started glowing a bright orange colour.
"My power?" She thought, she decided to try and see if it would work, she dropped the sword and held her hands out, an orange beam filed up her hands as if it was charging.
"This is it, it's all over NOW" Nicole yelled loudly letting the beam go, it charged towards Cassandra and knocked her off her feet, she collapsed down and didn't move.
Nicole froze, had she really just done that? Her power was very strong and it had just knocked Cassandra off her feet.
"Nicole…you did it!" Brandon said happily.
"Is…is she dead?" Nicole asked.
"I think so" Tecna said, "She's not breathing".
"Let's make sure then" Nicole said jumping down from the boxes, she picked up Riven's dagger that was still stuck in the wall; she walked over to Cassandra's body and stabbed her chest, the dagger sunk into her chest and blood poured out from it.
"Now she is" Nicole said, "Revenge is great and I did Solaria I big favour".
The other could not find any fault in her answer, Nicole picked up Brandon's sword and cut Cassandra's web open, allowing the group to break free.
"Come on" Nicole said pointing towards the door, "Where do we go now?"
"Well according to my tracker Chimera is on the third Solarian moon" Tecna said.
"I don't know where that is" Nova said, "How are we going to get there?"
"I can use my tracker to lead us there" Tecna told her, "Come on, I can disguise us as maids and butlers in the palace," She pushed a button on her tracker turning everyone's clothes into the Solarian uniform.
They all walked out of the room and followed Tecna's tracker to the moon, they ran down corridors and up stairs until they reached a door that said 'Entry to the Third Moon'.
"Okay, here it is" Tecna said turning everyone back into their fighting outfits.
"Is everyone ready?" Flora asked.
They all nodded and they opened the door, there they saw a long staircase leading up towards the small platform that was the moon.
They all charged up the stairs as fast as they could go, Nicole led the way, anger had completely taken over her and she needed to find Chimera fast.
"Come on where are you" She whispered to herself, "I'm going to hunt you down Chimera".
Finally they reached the platform, they all looked around trying to find Chimera, she had to be there somewhere, there wasn't really anywhere to hide.
"Finally Stella… you have finally decided to show your face on Solaria again. Let me just tell you this, turn back now, don't bother fighting me, it's all going to end the same way it did last time."
"Chimera" Nicole called out, "Where are you?"
"You're going to fall off the moon again Stella but this time… you're not going to get back up".
From the very edge of the moon came the dark shadow of the person they had been looking for, the person they had been waiting for, Chimera.
"You're going to lose Stella" Chimera said proudly with a smirk.
We have about two more chapters until the end now! Next one will be the big face off between Stella and Chimera. I hope you enjoy and please do review.