Welcome back, readers! After finishing the story I meant to leave it finished and finally write that Unicorns of Balinor fic I keep meaning to do. But then I spent two years having a string of minor but scary and very annoying health problems and needed easy writing to keep my brain from melting down due to stress. So I started playing with the Winx ideas I hadn't used in the first 24 chapters, and years on here we are. This continuation is not as good as the original story but I think it's good enough that you will enjoy it.

At the moment season four is 12 chapters long and season five is 6 chapters (for reasons you'll understand when we get there...) They're typed and ready to post. Season six is in limbo; I wrote a lot then realized I'd basically left out the plot. Oops. I'll start redoing it tomorrow, and I'm determined not to leave my readers hanging, but as the Mythbustsers say, "failure is always an option." We'll see what the future holds, but for the present please read, enjoy, and leave me nice reviews!

25

Mirta Story- Welcome to Your New Job

The opening ceremony at Alfea College had gone as well as possible, with the witches pulling their annual prank. Once everyone toweled off, Miss Faragonda gave the enchantix speech to the third-years while Professor Avalon did the charmix speech for the second-years. Mirta, sitting uncomfortably up on stage with the teachers, hadn't seen that speech in her second year, and it was pretty forgettable. The whole 'find your true self' thing was so vague!

Vecta accessed her personality data and got her charmix on the spot, to the teacher's amusement.

Then everyone got to go back to their rooms before dinner. Mirta was still getting used to her new room. It was in the teachers' wing, even though she was only the teachers' assistant, and it was twice the size of her old room. Someone had installed lovely pumpkin-shaped glass lamps along the walls, and a carpet-covered perch for Hexen in one corner. He was sprawled on it now, eyes wide as he stared at something visible only in his kitty imagination. Hexen looked like a normal cat—tabby-striped brownish gray, with green eyes, but he had an extra pair of legs in between the normal pairs. This made him half again as long as a normal cat. He'd been given the extra legs by his first owner, a powerful warrior-witch in ancient times. And now he was Mirta's cat.

They suited each other. Mirta was the first witch in ages with wings like a fairy's, but she thought of herself as pretty ordinary. She looked like an ordinary witch, with her pale freckled face, rusty-red hair, and dark green eyes. And she still had to work for a living—a distressingly large amount of work, the schedule on her computer screen suggested. Professor Palladium wanted help with all the labs and field trips and Professor Wizgiz was going to have her grade all the worksheets, and there was a summons from Miss Faragonda to see her at once.

The headmistress was dealing with all the usual first-day business, with the help of Miss Grizelda and Concorda, the school's guardian pixie.

"Ah, Mirta, come in. How's your new room?"

"It's great! Who did the lamps? Those can't be standard."

"Alfea is not a living building like Cloud Tower, but it is a magical one and suits itself to tenants it likes."

Mirta blushed, flattered.

Miss Grizelda said, "It's your work we wanted to talk about. You know it involves more than grading tests?"

Mirta nodded. "Miss F explained last year—with Bloom graduated and living on Domino you wanted someone to help protect the school."

"And I hope that the students will find you easier to talk to since you're so close to their age. In case any of them are considering sneaking into the Cloud Tower library."

"I'm not powerful like Bloom, but I'll do my best."

The headmistress smiled a little at that. "Now, there are a few students I'd like you to keep a special eye on. Comfrey is still recovering and her health is fragile, and Vecta's powers are still unknown."

"She's not limited by a human body so who knows what potential she might have!"

"You know these two already, and no doubt you'll find other students you'll be able to keep out of trouble. Remember, the students come first! If someone needs help, grading papers can wait!"

"Right!" Mirta nodded hard.

Concorda held out a jeweled pin in the shape of a pair of wings. "Wear this for a few days; it will tell the school you are now authorized to enter all the secret rooms and restricted areas."

"Areas? How many are there?"

"Quite a lot! Most of the headmistresses seem to have created a secret space for something. And don't go through any doors alone until you know what's on the other side! A few of those places were sealed off because they're dangerous."

Well that was worrying. Mirta pinned the wings to her shirt and reflected that Cloud Tower's secret rooms were probably much worse. "I'll be careful. What kind of rooms are there?"

Miss Grizelda said, "The atrium is nice, except for the monsters."

"Oh don't scare her Most of the hidden areas are just storage. There's a tower in the library you should visit." Concorda chirped.

Maybe it would be fun, exploring the school again. "Anything else?"

"Only some impossible advice- prepare for surprises."

The first surprise came a few days later, before the classes had hardly settled in. Professor Palladium was absent and Mirta found herself doing the lecture. The idea of standing up in front of the class filled her stomach with nervous butterflies, but all she had to do was read aloud and enchant some chalk to draw on the board. At first it was awful and she was sure her face was turning funny colors from sheer terror, but everyone seemed to be listening, not just listening but interested, then Anjita asked about the tree of life and negative energy, and Marzia had a story about witches leaving blackened footprints when they walked, which was possible but would mean a dangerous level of negative energy even for a witch.

And after that it was just like the study discussions Mirta was used to having with her friends and it was fun. Mirta hadn't expected this part of teaching to be fun.

After class Mirta found a message on her phone. Professor Palladium wanted her help at, of all strange places, the hospital. The bus was running so Mirta headed down there.

The last time she'd been here it had not been a good experience, and she was half afraid they wouldn't let her in. But the guy at the front desk just said, "Room four-oh-three, on your right when you get out of the elevator."

It was a suite of rooms, mostly empty ones, but she finally found the teacher. He and Doctor Martin and a lady doctor with the blue skin of the Aquarians were gathered around a machine with two funny-looking helmets attached to it. It looked a little like the machine for programming the magical reality chamber. Mirta greeted them with, "Are your programming a hospital scene?"

Palladium answered, "Nothing so much fun I'm afraid. We could use your help, but only if you want to volunteer."

"What's going on?"

"Two days ago a portal opened in the city and dropped an unconscious fairy on someone's lawn. She's been here ever since."

The teacher gestured to a nearby door, and Mirta peeked through. A fairy was asleep in the white hospital bed. She looked about sixteen and had curly orange-sherbert colored hair, currently limp and lifeless. "Will she be all right?"

"Completely fine, if she wakes up before her body deteriorates. Bodies don't last long with nobody in them."

Now the helmet machine made sense. The same technology that projected thoughts into magical reality could project thoughts into someone else's dreams. "You want me to go into her dream and wake her up?"

"If you want to try."

Well there was no question what Bloom would say. "I'll try. Only— why me? Why don't you do it?"

Palladium arched one golden eyebrow. "Would you want me in your head?"

"Uh... you're a guy..."

"And an elf, and significantly older. Your life circumstances are similar enough that the patient won't be overwhelmed by completely alien thought patterns."

That made sense, Mirta thought. If anyone was going to be poking around in her thoughts she'd rather have it be someone who might understand some of the strange stuff she thought about. "What do I have to do? Just put on the funny helmet?"

There was some more explaining, the doctors got very technical about brain wave interfaces, and Mirta didn't understand but didn't want to interrupt. Basically, yes, all she had to do was put on the helmet and remember that in a dream her magic wouldn't work the same way it did in real life. Everything would be symbolic, so she couldn't go blasting anything. Mirta didn't really like blasting things, but knowing she wouldn't be able to was a little unsettling. But if that was the way it worked... she sat down and put the helmet on. It covered her eyes, showing a magically enhanced view of the room. "Ok, turn it on."

She blinked and the room disappeared. There was no sky and no ground, just endless dark clouds in every direction. Mirta opened her wings and tilted them so she sank slowly. Clouds passed by all around her. It was horribly creepy.

"Is this what people's brains usually look like when they're unconscious?" She asked aloud.

"All normal. Head for the ground." Palladium's voice said.

Comforted by knowing the outside world was still there, Mirta folded her wings and dropped. It still took a long time. She didn't sense anything threatening in the darkness around her, just a lot of emptiness. Shouldn't there be something there? Symbolic thoughts or something? Maybe this fairy's spirit had already left her body for good.

At last she reached the ground. There was nothing here either, no plants or buildings. There should be something here to signify memories but the ground was bare.

"Amnesia." Palladium's voice was flat with disappointment.

Mirta imagined all the memories that should have been here being blown away by a violent wind. Nobody should have to suffer something that awful!

She walked for a little was, seeing nothing and feeling more and more pity for this fairy. Finally she couldn't stand it anymore. She made a light and held it up like a beacon. All the cracks in the ground were thrown into relief, suddenly given dark shadows. "You need to wake up! The world is still out there, the real world with light and color and people in it!"

The light revealed a strange shape in the rocks and ripples of the ground. It looked like a girl lying half buried in the ground. She was gray like the stone, like a carving, each hair outlined.

Mirta knew a turn-back-from-stone spell, but it took ingredients and this was a dream. Could she just dream of having the potion? Or since this was a dream—why would someone dream of being part of the ground? Maybe just... being alone? Whoever this girl was, she'd appeared by herself and she didn't remember any of her friends right now.

Mirta cupped her hands and summoned a ball of healing energy. Maybe just showing that she wanted to help would be enough.

It worked. Slowly as sunrise, the stone fairy filled with color, then finally sat up. In a voice that seemed to come from everywhere she asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Mirta. Um, I came to help you. What's your name?"

"Alyss." Said the whisper, and the name wrote itself in the dirt.

"Cool. I have another friend Alice."

Alyss looked around blankly at the empty plain. "What happened to me? This isn't real is it?"

"You're dreaming. We're really in the hospital in Magix."

"Magix? I've never been there. I was going somewhere, but I don't remember where. Or who I was with. Why not?"

Mirta shrugged uncomfortably. "Something bad happened. You got hit pretty hard. But you're going to be fine, and there are lots of people ready to help you find your family." Mirta tried to say this in a hopeful way. She knew she would've been freaking out in this kind of situation, but Alyss's form smiled a little.

"Like Princess Bloom?"

"Yeah, like Bloom. Let's try to get out of here. We can talk more in the real world."

"How?"

Good question. "Just fly straight up, I guess. Um, do you know how to transform?"

Alyss stood up, but her feet were still part of the ground. Pink wings slowly unfolded from her back and the bleak landscape covered itself in pale green shoots. She crouched to take off and the world faded away.

Mirta was back in the hospital, her head spinning. "Whoa..."

"You all right?" Professor Palladium asked.

"I think so. Is Alyss back?"

The patient stirred and moaned, and the lady doctor hurried to give her some water and do whatever doctory things had to be done for someone who'd been asleep for days.

Mirta got up slowly and straightened her hair after wearing the helmet. That had been a pretty creepy experience. Not the worst, but bad enough for a day at work. "Will she be all right?"

Alyss waved weakly. She coughed and reached for the water. "What happened?"

"You're going to be fine." The doctor said.

Mirta waved and Alyss smiled at her.

"Professor, can Alyss come live at Alfea? I don't think she's got anywhere else to go."

"Faragonda already has her on the dorm roster. Miss Alyss, when you get out of the hospital there's a room for you at Alfea, if you need a place to stay until we find your family."

Alyss smiled a little and nodded. Mirta said, "We'd better go. See you at school!"

As they left Mirta said, "So Professor... this kind of thing..."
Palladium grinned a pointy elf smile. "Welcome to your new job."

One of the great things about Mirta's new room was that it had a little kitchen and a table big enough for several people, if they didn't mind cramming in. Tonight Priscilla had a date and Lolina was working so it was just Mirta, Selene and Orion comparing stories over cartons of take-out. They all had jobs that provided stories: Selene was a police officer in training and Orion worked at the Magix Museum of History and was a student at Red Fountain school, except that he paid for his classes by teaching the students how to deal with magical dangers.

Selene's story for the day was, "He managed to get his car parked sticking halfway up a wall. I didn't even know the hovers would do that! Of course he got hauled in for causing damage while drunk..."

"I think I've got you both beat." Orion gestured with chopsticks, "There's a cat mummy in the museum basement."

"Alive?"

"Undead, anyway. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen its skeletal little tail vanishing between two crates. Some idiot probably raised it just for fun and now I have to figure out how to lay it back to rest."

"Or just leave it running around. It'll keep the mice out!" Selene said ghoulishly.

"Except that if it comes upstairs then everyone who comes to see the artifacts..."

"Oh right, the innocent members of the public. Forgot them!"

"Selene! You're supposed to be protecting the public!" Mirta laughed.

"Mirta, any chance you can do some witch thing to it? Or sic your cat on it?"

"I don't think he'd like that."

Hexen glanced up from washing one leg, gave them an opaque cat stare, and started on another leg. Mirta shrugged. "I'll check the library."

"So, you teaching tomorrow?"

Mirta cringed. Selene laughed.

Orion said, "Well, so am I. Weirdest student story wins tomorrow? Or weirdest criminal story."

The three of them clinked glasses.