I do not own Winx Club in any way!
Speech Key:
"The" – Oral/Normal Speech
'The' – Thoughts
AN: The last two were short, so this is the longer one, I think…
Review, but if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all!
-Displaced-
oO~Discussions~Oo
-Resort Realm-
"That was a close one," Musa sighed, slumping into a seat beside Bloom and Flora.
"So Valtor's taken control of the witches," Brandon commented. "What are we going to do now? Griffin's free and she's probably at Alfea, telling Saladin and Faragonda about what happened and what we did."
"First we're going to rest up," Tecna said in a tone that allowed no room for argument. "We can plan out everything tomorrow or even the day after. But we all need time to rest; we've been doing all this nearly nonstop and it's taking a toll on us."
The groups nodded and made their ways into the rooms they were sharing; the girls in one large room and the Specialists in another.
Winx~Club
"Man I'm bushed," Brandon said plopping face-down onto a bed.
"We all are," Sky pointed. "We've been helping the girls nonstop since finding them."
"Why are we still with them anyway?" Riven asked gruffly. "Our mission was to find the girls, and we did, so why the heck are we still sticking around 'em?"
"Because they know more about the situation than anyone else," Helia replied from his bed. "Those girls are probably the only things standing between Valtor and the destruction of the entire Magical Dimension."
"But I still don't get something," Timmy shook his head. "Those girls knew more than anyone else about everything that's been going on. Sometimes, they knew things before they even happened, while at other times they knew things no one else did. Remember what happened in the Obsidian? Everyone thought the king and Queen of Sparx were gone for good, but the girls knew that they were there. How? The girls knew about Darkar and about Valtor and the Wizards of the Black Circle. How?"
"He has a point," Sky admitted. "They don't seem to be the girls we've been hearing so much about."
"But the question is: What changed?" Helia asked. "How could they change so much in such a short time?"
"And there's the matter of their fairy forms," Timmy chimed in. The other Specialists looked at him oddly. "I've done a little research on the fairy forms we've seen on the girls."
"I heard that they earned their Charmix at end of last year," Brandon commented.
Timmy nodded and pulled out a palm-size mini-computer. "The Charmix is the second stage of a fairy's evolution to becoming a full-fledged fairy. It's apparently received once the fairy gets in touch with her 'inner selves'." A little hologram of the girls in their Charmix forms was shown.
"'Inner selves'?" Sky asked skeptically.
"It might mean being honest to themselves and to others," Helia suggested.
The guys thought for a moment before nodding and accepting the suggestion, since they really didn't have any other ideas as to what the phrase could mean.
"After the Charmix stage is the Enchantix," Timmy continued. The holographic image changed to one of the girls in their Enchantix forms "This form is earned by fairies after an act of great sacrifice by saving someone from their realm. It's supposed to be the form of full-fledged fairies."
"What kind of sacrifice are we talking?" Riven asked slowly.
"The kind where the fairy would give their lives up for the one they'd be saving," Timmy replied.
"Wait," Sky said, making the others look at him. He turned to Timmy. "You said that in order for a fairy to get their Enchantix, she needs to save someone from her realm. Bloom had her Enchantix before even reviving Sparx! So how was she able to earn her Enchantix?"
This stumped the boys. What Sky had said was true, if the information Timmy had was right (and it usually was). How coul Bloom have earned her Enchantix when she had no one from her realm to save? Was there another way to become an Enchantix fairy that no one knows about?
"I don't know," Timmy shook his head. The hologram then shifted to show an image of the girls in their Believix forms. "The next level a fairy can reach, if they fulfill the requirements, is the Believix stage. Not many fairies reach this stage because in order to do it, a fairy needs to prove they can make people believe in magic. With it comes two other sub-forms known as the Sophix and the Lovix. The Sophix allows them to have control over nature itself to a degree that most nature fairies can't control, while the Lovix enables them to survive harsh icy conditions."
"When would the girls have done that?" Helia asked. "From the looks of it, the girls seem to have had their Believix for quite a while now."
"Moving on," Timmy coughed as the image shifted to the girls in their Sirenix form. "This is the Sirenix form. It's supposed to be an ancient power that allows fairies to use their powers properly underwater. But the thing is that a fairy can't reach this stage without completing the Sirenix Trials with another form called the Harmonix. We've seen the girls in their Sirenix, so we can safely say that the girls passed the Trials using their Harmonix forms."
"Is this a form that most fairies go on to earn?" Brandon asked.
Timmy shook his head. "Like the Believix, not many fairies earn this. And even then, it's rare to find any fairy that's willing to go beyond the Enchantix level."
"Unless they had a reason," Riven pointed out. "Think about it. If the Enchantix is where a fairy becomes a full-fledged fairy, why would those girls want to more onto more powerful forms if there wasn't a reason?"
"Riven's right," Helia commented. 'Never thought I'd say that…' "Did something else happen to make the girls advance with their magic?"
"Wait a second," Brandon interjected. "We're all just assuming that the girls went through all of these forms between the time they got their Charmix and now. That can't be right. Getting the Enchantix would take a while since a fairy would never know when their life will be on the line. Getting the Believix can't be easy either; it takes more than just a day or two to get a whole bunch of people to believe in magic. Then there's the Sirenix; if what I'm reading here is right, then a fairy doesn't get a Sirenix Trial every day. Instead, the Trials come every other day or so and have a time limit; that alone would take a while to do. So my question is: When did the girls do all this?"
"We could ask," Helia suggested. "They may not tell us everything we want to know—"
"Then we'll just make 'em!" Riven growled.
"—but at least we might find out a little more about what's going on," Helia finished as though Riven had never interrupted him.
"I just realized something," Sky's eyes widened. "The girls have been making comments like 'the last time' and stuff like that. The way they said it almost sounded like they already did everything that we've been doing."
"Come to think of it," Timmy mused. "You're right. I just thought I must have heard wrong or something at the time."
"That's it!" Riven jumped off his bed and walked out the door with the guys following him. "I'm going to get my answers so if you want to come you can otherwise, just shut up!"
The boys looked at each other and shrugged before following after the magenta-haired Specialist.
They stopped before the door to the girls' room, Riven's hand raised to knock when they heard bits and pieces of conversation from inside.
The Specialists all looked at Timmy. The orange-haired Specialists sighed and took out his palm-computer and took out what looked like a small clear patch. He peeled the backing off and stuck it to the bottom of the door before gesturing for them all to go back into their room.
The boys all sat in a circle with the palm-computer in the centre, a hologram of static hovering over the screen.
They Specialists watched as the static was gone to be replaced with sound waves and it wasn't long before they began to hear the girls' voices.
"We need to figure out what we're going to do next," Bloom said to all her friends from her bed. "Valtor's definitely at Cloud Tower and I think he's planning on attacking Alfea soon. Ms. Faragonda's there and so is Professor Saladin and I bet that Professor Griffin went there after we left Cloud Tower."
"Alfea has already been attacked once," Tecna announced as she typed away on her computer. Her eyebrows rose as she looked around the room. Her eyes landed on the door and sensed a small piece of technology on the other side.
Quickly, Tecna typed a quick message and held it out for her friends to see.
We have eavesdroppers. We can keep talking; just don't give away anything specific.
"Who?" Flora asked.
"Icy, Darsi, and Stormy," Tecna answered. "Our barrier held up against the witches, but they left very suddenly. I don't know why, though."
"When did the Trix attack?" Musa asked.
Tecna punched a couple more buttons on her computer before looking up. "Earlier today when we were taking out Darkar and getting Ms. Griffin out of Cloud Tower."
"Do you think the witches left because Darkar was gone?" Stella asked.
"That's just what might have happened," Layla mused. "Darkar gave Icy, Darsi, and Stormy their Gloomix, so it only makes sense that if he's gone, so is the power that he gave them. They must have gone back to Cloud Tower when they noticed their Gloomix were gone."
"So what do we do now?" Flora asked.
"We're much too weak to do anything at the moment," Tecna told them. "Our magic levels are severely low because of how much we've been using them."
"So we just hang out here for a bit, then?" Musa asked.
Tecna hummed a 'yes' in answer.
"About two days should give us and the boys a sufficient amount of time to rejuvenate our strength," Tecna advised.
"What about Alfea?" Stella asked worriedly. "What if Valtor decides to attack while we're on vacation?"
"The barrier," Bloom reminded them. "The barrier we made around Alfea is charged with our Sirenix powers. I think it should hold Valtor back long enough for us to rest up."
The girls all turned to the fairy of technology, hoping that what the fiery-haired princess said was true.
Tecna nodded. "If all goes according to as it should, Valtor shouldn't be able to get into or harm Alfea. The barrier should be able to hold him off for at least a bit."
"But?" Flora asked with a raised eyebrow.
"But there is a small chance that if the barrier were put under enough stress and dark magic, it could give way," Tecna said quickly, wincing all the while.
"Man," Musa huffed. "We got ourselves into a huge mess. First the witches curse us into this place and now we're getting rid of every single evil dude we've faced so far."
"I miss our home," Flora said quietly.
"Our families must be really worried about us," Layla commented quietly.
"Mom and Dad don't get along well enough as it is," Stella groaned. "Me disappearing like that is just going to make things even worse between them!"
"Ms. F must be pretty worried, too," Bloom said quietly.
"And the guys," Tecna added.
"Maybe your boyfriends are worried about you," Flora sighed. "But mine probably isn't."
"Flora," the girls whispered.
"No way," Stella comforted the nature fairy. "Hunter's definitely got to be worried out of his mind."
"At least that's more than can be said about R…aiden," Musa said. "I mean, he just leaves when I was talking about how I loved watching the whale of Melody with my mom to go with some girl!"
"Just don't think about it and you'll be fine," Bloom assured the fairy of music. "You and Raiden had your rough moments, but I know he cares about you. The same for you, Flora; Hunter loves you, I know he does. Maybe he's just spending time with Krystal because they're old friends."
"That doesn't explain why he won't talk to me," Flora shook her head. "I don't mean to sound obsessive or clingy, but I haven't heard as much from him since Krys…sie showed up. And he introduced me as his 'friend'. Not girlfriend, but just a friend! We've been together for three years and…" She sighed and turned away.
"I felt a lot like you are now, Flora," Bloom said, going over to lie down next to the nature fairy. "When Skylar turned away from me because of D…iana's meddling and his father, I thought we were done for good. But then he managed to sneak out from under Diana's thumb and we made up. I know it sounds really simple, but you all saw how miserable I was. It's not easy dealing with being ignored by the ones you love."
"My Schnookums must be so worried," Stella whimpered. "I really miss him.
"Remember a few weeks ago when you found that amulet that turned you into a three-year-old?" Flora giggled. "You were absolutely adorable, but Blake just didn't know what to do!"
"But he stayed by me like a good boyfriend should, didn't he?" Stella giggled.
Layla sighed and looked away.
"Layla?" Stella asked. "Are you thinking about…?"
"Yeah," Layla whispered. "I miss him so much. And I think I'm starting to like Roy, but I just don't know… I feel like I'm betraying Nabu!"
"Sweetie, no one would look at you differently if you started to like someone else," Flora hugged the distressed fairy along with the rest of the Winx. "Nabu would want you to be happy. That's all he ever wanted; your happiness and safety above all. He loved you and even if you find someone else, he'll always be in your heart and in your memories. No one can take that away from you, Sweetie."
Layla wiped away the tears that had fallen during Flora's piece and smiled at the nature fairy. "Thanks, you guys."
Layla looked at Flora for a moment before chuckling.
"What?" Flora blinked.
"I remember when you had that huge crush on Hunter," Layla said in amusement. "You were so scared of telling him how you felt that I had to sneak into his room to find evidence of him liking you!"
"And then there were also those missed opportunities…" Bloom wiggled her eyebrows.
"But we still ended up together," Flora huffed, blushing.
"We all ended up with someone at some point," Stella pointed out.
"Though it took all of us and our boyfriends to push you and T…homas into going out on an actual date, Tec," Musa snickered.
Tecna just blushed and harrumphed.
"I remember when Skylar first told me he loved me," Bloom said with a wistful smile on her lips.
"That was totally sweet and romantic," Stella gushed. "In a creep roundabout way…"
"I was under a dark spell, so I don't think anyone expected it," Bloom reminded them. "And I get the feeling that he probably wanted to say it when we were alone. But you know something? When I was under that spell, I felt like I was being suffocated. I felt like my body wasn't mine anymore and was just watching what happened around me as my body acted on its own. But then Sky…lar told me he loved me…and I just knew that I needed to get out and go back to him and all of you."
Layla snickered suddenly.
The girls looked over at her with odd looks on their faces.
It was Musa that decided to ask the question. "What's up?"
"I remember when Stella, Bloom, Skylar, Blake, and I went down into the Underrealm and ended up in Downland!" Layla chuckled.
Stella huffed. "Don't even bother talking about that place! Not only was out time down there the WORST, but that Queen Amentia decided to take my beau as hers!"
Bloom laughed as Flora, Musa, and Tecna threw the blonde confused looks.
"Come to think of it," Flora commented. "We never did hear the entire story about in Downland…"
Stella just huffed and turned away as Layla and Bloom told the story of how Queen Amentia had taken them all prisoner and decided to take Blake as her husband, her plan only failing because of Amore's interference.
By the end of the story, the girls, including Stella all had a good laugh.
Tecna opened her mouth to say something, but a tiny snore interrupted her. Looking towards the source, the girls found their pixies in a sleeping heap, tired from playing around, most likely.
"They've been so brave while we've been here," Flora smiled gently as she took Chatta into her arms and tucked her into her bed.
"They've been really helpful, too," Tecna reminded them. "Without our Pixies, we wouldn't have known how things were in this place."
"But I think I'm more thankful that we have them here as a reminder of our home," Bloom smiled as the girls all slipped into bed with their pixies sleeping right beside them.
The Winx all bade each other good night and with a snap of Stella's fingers, the girls drifted off into the land of dreams.
Back with the Specialists, the boys were just sitting around the palm-computer with pensieve looks on their faces.
"That was very helpful," Riven sneered as he went to sit on his bed.
"Actually it kind of was," Helia mused from his bed, still deep in thought. "Did you notice how the girls put an emphasis on their boyfriend's names and how they paused at the names they mentioned?"
Each of the Specialists thought back to the conversation and realized that Helia was right; the girls had put an emphasis on their boyfriend's names, but what was most suspicious was when they paused at every name they said.
"You're right," Sky muttered. "It almost sounded like the girls wanted to say some other name…"
"Do you think they knew that we were listening to them?" Brandon asked.
"There's no way," Timmy shook his head. "Those patches should be practically undetectable."
"But Tecna's a fairy of technology," Sky pointed out. "It's possible she might have picked up on it and told the other girls."
"Am I the only one that caught them saying that they were cursed by witches into some place?" Riven asked.
"No," Helia nodded. "You're not the only one that caught that, but I wonder what they meant…"
"Well we can't wonder about that now," Brandon commented, jutting his thumb towards the window where the moon was high in the sky. "We need to get to sleep or the girls'll get suspicious."
The rest of the Specialists agreed and tucked themselves into their respective beds, falling asleep as soon as their heads touched their pillows.
Ciao,
TsukiyoTenshi