Previously
He could have easily done something for his own fun and he already had over hundreds of ideas running through his head about what he could do, but he decided not to the longer he watched them.
Helia, for the longest time since Alaric seen him, actually looked happy and relaxed. And it was all because of the girl lying on his lap.
Alaric was actually going to be the grown-up for the moment and let them have theirs, but he wasn't going to watch it.
Rolling his eyes, which had to be the hundredth time he done that today, and sighed, the beautiful blonde-haired man closed his eyes and went back to sleep. Being immortal he really couldn't sleep, so he settled with letting his thoughts run wild inside of him.
Last night had to be the best night he had for such a long time. It was the first time he was ever able to sleep in peace with no horrible memories or dream to haunt him. All thanks to the angel wrapped around his arms.
Flora had listened patiently as he went on to tell her the story about her life, hoping it would explain some answers to her questions and jolt some memoires. When he finished telling her the story, she was quiet as a mouse for the longest time. So quiet he was sure all the information he told her was overwhelming and scared her. He looked down and saw the reason why she was so quiet.
She was fast asleep, not snoring but her chest heaving in and out as she breathed, a soft smile worn on her face.
Helia smiled, kissed her cheek softly, and lightly brushed his hand against her cheek. "Sweet dreams, Flora. I love you."
He woke up the next morning, the first one woken up while the others were still sleeping, to the sound of someone crying. Stretching out his arms over his head, Helia went to the back of the Church.
Flora was sitting at the far back aisle, lifting her knees up to her chin and wrapping her arms around them. She sealed her slips together, trying to silence her cries, while streams of hot tears were rolling down her cheeks.
Helia put his hand on her should as he kneeled besides her. "Hey. It can't be all that bad."
Flora shrugged his hand off.
"Maybe I can help." He said.
The only response to that comment was a shake of her head. "No one can help me."
"What is it?"
"I remember."
"You do?" he asked, confused. Then the realization hit him and he began to smile. "That's great."
"No, it's not!" the ice-cold sharpness in her tone nearly was sharp enough to cut through him, causing him to nearly jump. "It's not great, Helia. It's anything but great."
"Flora-" Before he could finish his sentence, he was already interrupted by her.
"Everything you told me in the story rang a lot of bells inside my head and memories were coming to my head. I don't exactly remember everything, because there are some parts that are fuzzy and some that are blank. But I recall quite enough. I know I was born for the sole purpose of helping Libitina get back her power, and it's all because of me being her reincarnation and doing what I was born to do she gotten what she wanted. Like always. There's nothing I can do."
"Yes, you can," Helia assured. "You just as strong as Libitina and just as powerful as she is."
"You don't get it!" she exclaimed, gesturing her hands toward herself. "I don't have my power anymore. Libitina got what she wanted and now she's done with me. I'm worthless now."
Anger blazed in his eyes, adrenaline was pulsing in his veins. He gripped her shoulders tightly and got close to her, his sharp aqua eyes boring through her, and said, "Never, ever say or think that about yourself every again! Do you understand me?"
The fire in his eyes was so intense; Flora couldn't remove her gaze away from it. She could only nod, nervously gulping, as Helia continued on.
"You are not worthless! You never have been and you will never be," Stroking her cheek delicately, he softly said in a firm voice. "You're absolutely priceless. You're worth so much, there is no amount of money in entire universe that can put a price on how you mean to your planet, your friends and family, and to me. Libitina may have gotten what she wanted, but you can still stop her. You can still the save the universe from the wrath of the angel of darkness. You can still stop this and take back control."
Each time he said "you", he would giver her shoulders a slight shove, as if to knock some sense into her.
"But Helia-" Flora would say, only to get cut off by him, who wasn't finished yet.
"Do you remember what I told you when you were trying to save the flower of life at pixie village and you were so scared you would do something wrong?" Flora looked at him a bit confused and shook her head. Helia nodded and continued on. "I walked behind you, placed my hands on your shoulders and felt you tensing up by my touch, and told you this. Don't think. Use your heart, Flora. Your heart is very powerful, I know it. When you use your heart, you can achieve so many possibilities. And I, Bloom and Layla, and the rest of our friends will there for you every step of the way."
Flora was stunned by his words for a moment but slowly snapped herself out of it, a soft smile dazzling her face. "Thank you, Helia."
She leaned into him, laying her head on his chest and wrapping her arms around him as a sigh escaped her lips. Helia returned the embrace with one of his own, lying hid head on her shoulder and stroking her hair while feeling her fingers playing with his own hair. Although he couldn't really see it, he could still feel a smile spreading across her lips. If this were any other moment, Helia would have pulled back, leaned in close to her, and planted a sweet kiss to Flora's angelic, beautiful lips. He could have done that, only the time wasn't right. She knew how he felt about her, after he told her the story, and he could already tell she was remembering how she felt about him and how she was reliving those feelings right now. As much as he wanted to kiss her, it still wouldn't have been right. In a way, she was vulnerable and it would be wrong. So, he settled himself with holding her in his arms and never wanting to let go.
A loud sound between a tired yawn and clearing of the throat broke them apart. Both of them whirled their heads around to see Alaric stretching out his arms and sitting up in his coffin bed, looking tired as if he hasn't had enough sleep, and then watched a scowl darken his face.
"Just what I need to remind how miserable this day is going to be," he rolled his eyes. "Watching the star couple have their moments while I wake up."
"Morning to you, too, sunshine." Helia smirked, only to receive the screw-you finger from unhappy Alaric, who also gave him a look that said don't even think about pressing your luck.
"Morning." Bloom yawned as she woke up, and then Layla slowly got up after her. When she looked at Helia's direction and saw who was beside him, her eyes widened in surprise. "Flora! You're here?"
"Yeah," she replied with a nod. "I came last night after you were asleep and wanted to apologize about what happened yesterday. I'm really sorry."
"It's okay." Layla said.
Flora then turned to Alaric. "And I'm really sorry about what Raven did to you. She's just really protective of her, like an older sibling or some guardian angel."
"Yes, well thanks to that guardian angel my face was nearly in shards. Speaking of annoying birds, where is the demon? I want to properly repay her for nearly damaging my face."
"I don't really know. When I decided to go back to the church to see you all again, she and I sort of got into a fight and decided to go our separate ways."
"Why don't you tell us what happened to you over a nice plate of breakfast?" Whirling open her fingers around and around and walking over to the alter; Bloom did a quick spell she learned in cooking class. In a zap with some smoke, lying on a blue picnic blanket was eggs, bacon, and scramble eggs enough to keep all their stomachs stuffed.
As they ate while Alaric wouldn't touch any of the stuff, Flora was telling them what happened to her and how she got here.
"I don't really know how I got here. All I know was, while I was still sleeping, I was feeling so strange. Like…I was feeling spilt apart or something was being ripped out from me. Then when I finally opened eyes, I saw I was here, at this really strange place. I almost panicked because I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing here and because I was feeling so alone. Then, Raven came and showed me here to the church. Even though we were the only ones here, she was still very protective of her and stayed by my side. Or, at least she did until now and she disappeared."
"Disappeared?" Bloom repeated. "What do you mean she disappeared?"
Flora shrugged, as if she wasn't too sure how to explain it herself, and twirled a lock of her hair around her fingers. "I don't really know. All I know is that…when we decided to go our separate ways, she looked at me for the longest time and then flew up to the sky. She kept flying higher and higher till she disappeared from sight. And that was the last time I ever saw her."
Turning to Alaric, Layla asked "Do you think that could be a way out? Like some sort of passageway?"
Alaric drummed his fingers on his knee, considering it "Could be."
"Layla, do you think your powers regenerated yet?" Bloom asked. "Mine has but they're not as strong anymore."
Layla wasn't sure about that one. Closing her eyes and balling her hands into fists, she tried to muster all the Winx she had inside of her. A faint mauve pink glowed around her entire body, showing her Winx energy and also showing they're weren't as strong as before. "It's gonna be difficult using them like this. But it's better than nothing."
"I wanna try one spell before we leave. I've been worrying sick about Sky and the others," Turning to Flora, she continued "If you, I, and Layla combined our energies we can create a portal to show use what has been going on."
"Me?" Flora echoed. "But I don't-I don't think-"
"You were able to do that spell on us." Layla pointed out.
"Yes, but-" Flora started to protest, only to get cut off again. This time by Bloom.
"You still have your powers, Flora, but you only forgotten how to control them. Three Winx is stronger than two for this kind of spell. We have to see what's going on at Magix. I'm really worried about the girls."
Only reluctantly did Flora agree to try to help them with the spell. The girls stood up and walked farther down the alter, standing directly over the glass-window portrait of Jesus at his last supper with his twelve Apostles. Closing their hands and joining hands, Bloom and Layla thought about Magix, all the great and no-so great times they had there, their boyfriends and friends, using those thoughts to help direct their powers to a specific topic. Flora was mustering all the thoughts of friends she recalled from her memories and the place where they mostly hang out, using that to help fuel all the power she could feel inside of her.
The spell was a success. Slicing through the thin air in front of them, a visual portal appeared and showed them everything. Helia and Alaric quickly joined them to see what was going on.
Only now they wished they haven't seen it.
Magix was somehow looking ten times worse than it did when they saw it before, but it wasn't the sight of the nearly destroyed city that stunned them into silence. It was the sight of Morgana and her Guardian sisters getting overrun by the shadow creatures, who were multiple too many times it was impossible to keep track of them all. There has to over five hundred and that was just the total surrounding the three fairies, excluding the thousands more being created and joining the fight. As shocking that was, the real shocker was watching their friends getting beat up hard by themselves, dark Doppler-gangers obviously created from Libitina and were fueled with power from the energy of the Midnight Raven. The fairies, including young Roxy, and the heroes were trying with all their might left inside of them to fend off their doubles, but it was clear which side was having the better advantage of the fight and which one was close to losing the battle. Or close to completely losing the war.
They flinched as they watched Timmy take a hard punch to the jaw by his dark twin and then was knocked hard to the ground, the punch so brutal and hard they could actually feel the serve pain throbbing inside of them. Bloom held her breath as she watched her Sky getting tackled on the ground by his double, who was punching hard to the sides of his face back and forth. The more blood was spilled from his mouth and face, the more Bloom's heart would sink deeper and deeper. Layla watched Nabu firing a powerful energy blast from his staff, the attack bouncing off the double. Dark Nabu smirked at the stunned face of Nabu before releasing the same energy blast from his own staff, the spell twenty times hard and stronger than the first one, hitting Nabu hard in the chest and shocking his body, then knocking right through a glass door to the building, shards of broken glass mixed with spilled blood as they were splashed on the floor and Nabu was sprawled on the ground.
"Come on, tough guy," Dark Nabu taunted as he slowly walked over to the fallen Nabu. "Is this honestly the best you can really do? Because if it is, then beating you is going to be much easier than I thought."
So much horror and brutality was being displayed. As much they all hated watching it, their eyes were caught in a powerful trance and were unable to look away.
Finally Alaric got control of himself, deciding this was going on far longer than enough, and destroyed the portal with his clawed hand he used to slice through it right through the middle. "Well…that was interesting."
"Interesting?" Bloom exclaimed, her entire body tensing up uncontrollable with raging anger, converting into her fire power. So much anger was building up inside of her, feeding into her power, flames were flickering like wild tongues around her body, the flames brighter and wilder the more she was fuming. Even her thick locks of red were flowing wildly on their own, moving in wild waves of the blaze. "You call seeing our friends getting hurt interesting?"
"Well not, interesting per say like watching those three sisters on their reality show…" Alaric quickly ducked as flames were spouting from Bloom's eyes, her mouth, and hands, hurling toward his way. He prepared himself by dodging the punches Bloom was throwing with his fists and ducking the fireballs, then finally he grabbed the red-hot fire fairy by her wrists, ignoring the burns he was getting from touching her, quickly spun her around and around till he was sure she was getting dizzy and light-headed, and finally flung herself against the wall by their left, watching as she bumped hard by some alters along the way.
"Ow!" she mumbled, wincing, once the back of her head and her back were slammed hard against the stone-wall. Her raging anger died out in an instant and was forgotten as flaring pain was burning agonizingly and blisteringly every inch of her back and head. The pain was burning more severely as she sank to the ground.
"Bloom, are you okay?" Layla helped Bloom up and saw the red-head was biting her bottom lip so her pain wouldn't be known.
"I was perfectly fine till now and I saw what happened. Then my mood went from being clam to panicked, then from panicked to infuriated when he," Bloom directed Alaric with a curt nod of her head. "decides to act like Mr. Wise guy. Again!"
Alaric responded to that with a roll of his eyes. "I didn't mean it was interesting what was happening to your friends. I mean what Libitina had done."
"What do you mean?" a timid Flora asked.
"Ever heard a quote from a famous man, who once said 'I am my own worst enemy,'" Alaric answered. "For every force in all the universe, there is an opposite force and that opposite often lives inside of them. In every good person, there is always a dark side in them. Flora had one and that dark side was Libitina. You all have one, and so do your friends. That dark side knows very useful information they can easily use against you. Can predict your next move before you make it, know your strengths-"
"As well as your weaknesses." Layla finished once she saw Alaric's point on where he was going with this.
"Bingo," He winked, and then his amused expression sobered up to a more serious one. "A very simple yet clever move. Your friends will be delivered their ultimate death and Libitina won't even have to lift a finger for their downfall."
"That bitch!" Layla growled, causing Flora to nearly jump by the intense anger and hatred heard in her voice.
"We have to help them." Bloom said.
"We also have to get out of here first." Helia pointed out.
"Do you think we can open another portal?" Flora asked.
"Not here. The only reason why that spell worked was because it was a visual portal, being an hourglass and showing what was going on." Alaric answered.
"Then that means we need to go back all the way from the way we came from in the first place," Layla smacked the heel of her hand against her forehead, groaning at the thought of the lava oceans they swam, the horrible trip they took through hell, and those freakish sensations they were feeling as they went through those portals. "That one trip took us a whole day to go through. We don't have that much time on our hands."
"I don't think we have much a choice, Layla." Helia said.
"Its true going the way we came from would take us a very long time to get to your friends in Magix. Unless…" Alaric thought out loud, unaware he was saying his thoughts out loud.
The others exchanged looks with each other. Helia then turned around and was the one to ask "Unless what?"
"My father told me of a powerful spell he used to get him out of here," Alaric said. "It's a portal more quickly than anyone any of you had been through and we'll be in Magix in a moment of seconds."
"Aright, then do it." Bloom said.
Before he could begin, Alaric first instructed them to step back and give him some room, commenting he was not going to be blame or take any responsibility if something went wrong. Once they obeyed his request, he closed his eyes and his face melted down to a calming blank. His body from head to toe were radiating in bright onyx and pale blue energy dancing around his body. Moving his body and gesturing his hands in a series of fluid, graceful movements, which seemed to almost a mix cross between yoga and martial arts practice moves, and then finally threw his hands over his head and took in a deep breath, focusing all the energy flowing inside of him into one spell as he pronounced the enchantment in foreign tongue language. "Elv ceta congulata. Elv congle vetala. Cov veta rex!"
Beams of bright sapphire and onyx black energy shoot from his hands, hitting the ceiling over their hands. The energy beams erased the ceiling completely, using the wide open space to create a wide portal, which had the appearances of the heart of a tornado and blowing strong, wickedly hot air.
In a huff, Alaric was down on his knees, panting hard, and the smoke, along with the strong whiff of it, streaming from his body. Beads of sweat were dripping from his forehead, he looked more tired and like he was quickly running out of energy. Flora quickly went over to help him, kneeling in front of him and wiping the sweat of his forehead with a piece of cloth she ripped from her dress.
"Are you okay?" she asked, genuinely corcerned. It was clear she was still unaware of the pleasant moments Alaric had caused for her in the past and those memoires have yet to return to her.
"I am now. Thanks to the charming nurse tending my wounds." Although she was still wiping off the sweat from his face, a fainted red blush colored her cheeks and a soft, small smile was on her lips. He returned her shy smile with a charming one of his own.
Behind them, Helia was trying to tame the waves of jealously washing over him. She still hasn't remembered everything yet, and Alaric, being the pro of womanizing and a huge flirt, was using that as some sort of advantage for his own gain. Watching Flora and Alaric smile at each other made him more than just uncomfortable. He took in a deep breath before he started to do anything, and then, when he was sure he was calm enough, he went over to help Alaric get back on his feet. "You okay?"
"Depends on how you define okay?" Alaric said, his movements a bit more wobbly than usual. "If one definition is feeling like you had all the energy sucked out from you and left feeling extremely light-headed, then that's how I feel. Now I understand why my father said that spell is extremely powerful. It nearly too everything I had to conjure that portal."
"But are you sure this can take us to Magix?" Bloom said.
"Do birds have feathers?" he commented, pretty much answering the question.
"Then, let's go!" Layla joined her hands with Bloom and Helia, and Flora, who was sandwiched between the two young men, grabbed their hands. They all squatted down, preparing to jump in together.
A massive explosion erupted from behind, destroying the whole back and middle part of the church into tiny bits, the powerful force and energy waves from the explosion broke their people chain and knocking them right out the church, scattering them all over the landscape.
One by one, they slowly with extreme difficultly from the burning pain got up on their feet, and then gasped in unison.
Walking toward them with the same suave, cocky strut in Alaric's walk and looking like soldiers prepared for battle, were the same angelic yet demonic statues guarding the double, stone doors to this place. Only now, instead of being frozen like statues, they were alive and moving. They were taller than they looked before, now tall enough to tower over them all with a height of thirteen feet, their faces hard as stone, the vicious recklessness of a wild beast burning in their vivid eyes, and their weapons-swords and shields-were ablaze.
"Great!" Layla snapped. "Just perfect. As if we didn't already have enough problems already."
"We also have another problem then. The portal may be powerful, but it doesn't least long. If we're not through there in the next five minutes, then we can kiss going back goodbye." Alaric said.
"We can make it." Bloom was confident of that. She tried to convince her disbelief friends the same thing, and then turned her attention back to the statues still watching them with those untamed, wild eyes. "Who are you?"
"And what do you want?" Helia was quick to add.
The beautiful yet terrifying statues only looked at them for what felt like nearly forever. Till one nodded to the other, turned back to them, and spoke. His voice was soft yet extremely firm, the kind of voice noted right away for being powerful, wise with many centuries of knowledge. "I am Xavier and the one next to me is Luther. We are guardians to the place of None."
"And we have been guarding this place with our lives for over two hundred and seventy five million years. We protected it well from any ghouls and more importantly intruders." Luther said.
"Unfortunately, a demonic warlock disguised as a wise monk came here one day and spelled us. Molting out bodies into marble stone statues and we've been like that for more than thousands of years."
"Recently we were free from the spell, given life, and stronger powers by a powerful magical being, whose powers were nearly limitedness. She calls herself the dark queen and we are very thankful to her,"
"For bringing us, she is now known to us as mother,"
"And to show our gratitude, we must do a request she asked of us,"
"And that request was for us to stop you from leaving by any needs necessary."
The two brothers noticed the shock stunning the strangers' eyes and the color of their faces slowly becoming pale.
"Usually we don't tolerate violence," Xavier started.
"But we will have to make an expectation this one time for mother's sake." Luther finished his brother's sentence.
"I never thought I would ever hate momma's boys till now." Bloom mumbled. Each step the statues would take forward to them, Bloom and her companions would cower away."
"And who exactly is this dark queen you two are talking about?" Although he already had a really good guess who it could be, Alaric still felt there was a need to ask.
The statue known as Luther flickered his hand to the right and a lone shadow crawled from underneath their feet, sliding in front of them and taking on the form of a young woman dressed in an all black outfit.
Bloom and Layla gasped, Alaric kept his expression cool and was as steady as a rock but his teeth were tightly gritted, and Helia held Flora tightly in his arms, scowling.
The she-devil herself brushed loose locks of her golden-brown hair away from her eyes, her infamous, cruel smile spreading across her face once she saw she had their full attention. "Hello insects. Missed me?"
"Libitina!" Bloom exclaimed as Layla said at the same time "You bitch!"
Ignoring the fairies while reminding herself to deal with her former lovers later, the dark angel focused her attention on the girl hiding behind Julio. "So you're still alive after all? I would have almost never believed, till I felt that urge in my body once the spell was completed and I was freed. Disappointing though. I was actually looking forward to you being trapped inside me, seeing that's only fair since I was trapped inside you for the past eighteen years. But no matter. It's nothing too hard I can't change."
Helia was quick to bring out his sword and pressed the sharp tip against her throat, slicing a piece of skin and seeing a drop of blood rolling down. "You take one step forward; I will kill you right where you stand."
"A little boy with a new, sharp toy. How amusing?" The amusement glinted in her eyes as she shooed the tip away. "It's a good thing I am not really there; otherwise you would have never been so bold to pull a stunt like that with me. You and I both know, Julio, you wouldn't dream of hurting me."
"And what makes you so sure I won't?" Helia demanded. "Don't forget I killed you before, Rosalina, and will do it again if I have to."
"You still love," She giggled as she caught the surprise look in his eyes, her smile growing sweeter and darker with every step she was taking forward to him. "Your heart still longs for me, even though you hate it to. You still care about me when you don't want to."
Helia raised his sword to strike her then but before the sword could be raised, Libitina swat it away with her hand, sending it skidding across the other side. She then smiled sweetly as she slowly wrapped her arms around Helia and rested her head on his chest.
This may have been an embrace he, so, desperately wanted before, but that was in the past and it was something he didn't want anymore.
"I'm going to tell you a very interesting secret," she whispered. "I may enjoy playing with both of you, but you were always the one I was after. We can still get back what we once had, Julio. Isn't that wanted in the first place? Isn't that the whole reason why you put up being reincarnated again? To be with the girl whom you killed but loved ever so much?"
Similarities between this moment now and what he experienced back in Hell was so exact, it was shocking to him.
Frowning, he watched her as she cuddled up against him and allowed himself to stroke her hair only once before bringing down his hand. "Expect we can't."
Surprised by his words, Libitina pulled back, fixing her face to a cool expression. "And why not?"
"I feel absolutely nothing for you anymore," He scowled. He was almost shocked like she was by his words, but he didn't regret saying them since they were the honest true. "I hate you now."
The next thing Helia, Libitina pressed her hands delicately against his chest and he was hurled across the place, landing a few feet away from everyone and was sprawled on his stomach, his face slamming hard against the ground.
"Helia!" his friends exclaimed.
"You hate me now, huh? Feel absolutely nothing for me, huh?" Libitina smirked, watching him struggling and feeling his joyous pain. "That's rich. You always commented on my flawless acting skills, but you always seem unaware of the talent you have in acting, too."
"Damn…you-demon!" Helia murmured miserably as he got onto his feet, wobbling a bit.
"Hatred is the beginning of a love story, dear Julio. Not the end of one. You of all people should already be aware of that." As she whipped her hand to the right and rose up, balling it into a tight fist, a powerful force smacked Helia across the face and punched him upward to the chin. Satisfied with his pain, she decided she was getting bored and it was time to move things along.
Turning her back to the insects, she turned to her statue sons, who were waiting on her command, she ordered "I've through with these dolls. They're worthless as they are useless, and I seek no desire to keep them around. Destroy them. All except for her," she turned around to stare and point at Flora, smiling at the traumatized fear shown in the girl's eyes. "Instead of destroying her, capture her and bring her back to me. I have plans for that one, big plans."
With a snap of her fingers, she was gone. The statues withdrew their swords, spears, and shields.
"I don't suppose anyone has a death wish they want to make now?" Bloom was trying to make a little humor, but saw what little effect it did to seize the horrible moments. She gulped nervously.
"We already wasted two valuable minutes with that nonsense," Alaric said. "If we aren't through that portal in the next three minutes, then we're going to be stuck here forever."
"We're going to fight them." Layla said.
"I'm afraid you're going to find that most difficult." Xavier and Luther raised their flaming swords over their heads before stabbing them deep into the ground. Flames were shot up from cracks the swords ceased onto the ground and were traveling lightening fast toward the others, hitting them hard.
Helia told the others to get up and take their fight, quickly grabbing his sword and calling out orders like a leader. "Bloom, Layla, you two handle Luther while Alaric and I deal with Xavier. Flora, you go to someplace safe."
He didn't need to ask twice. Flora was already bolting from the scene, running as fast as her legs could go.
Only the brothers weren't going to let their prey get away from them so easily. While Xavier distracted the others' attention with energy blasts he fired at them from his hands, Luther shot a ghostly beam at Flora.
The flower fairy slowed her pace as the beam hit her from behind, barely able to cry out in pain as she was suddenly down on her knees with her head hanging low. The beam hit her back good and spread around her body, tightening into a second skin and molten into some sort of greenish-white shield. Inside the shield, Flora was almost like a frail animal trapped inside a cage, seeming so small and looking weak like the shield was sucking energy away from her.
"A flower can't survive long without light." Xavier smiled darkly.
"Leave her alone!" Helia tried to get a swing at him, but the brother caught his wrist before the fist could make contact with his face. He twisted his wrist halfway, not completely breaking it but causing extreme pain to fire up inside, raised the young hero over his head, and threw his aside like he was tossing aside a rag doll.
"As mother's sons, we must follow orders," Luther started.
"So we must destroy you." Xavier finished.
"Do you think we might be able to transform?" Layla whispered to Bloom as Luther was getting closer to them.
"We're going to have to try." Bloom whispered.
"Let's go Enchantix!" It took strong determination through difficulty and trying with all their might to transform. They were suited up for the battle and wasted no time getting into action
"Tongue of fire!" Bloom inhaled deeply and opened her mouth wide to release streams of fire exploding inside. Luther raised his shield in front of him to protect him from the attack, but the fire was pounding hard against his shield, refusing to back down.
"Tidal whirlwind!" While Bloom was distracting him with her fire spells, Layla was able to get a clear shot of him with her own magic.
Meanwhile, things were looking like a showdown between Alaric and Helia versus Xavier. The two were catching around the brother, communicating silently through their eyes and trying to figure out the best move on how to beat him.
"How's this for a plan?" Alaric mouthed to Helia, so Xavier couldn't understand what they were saying to each other. "You go save flower girl while I handle momma's boy."
Helia nodded, and then took off running.
"Halt insect!" Xavier commanded, and then turned around when he felt a hand tightly clasped on his shoulder.
"I wouldn't worry too much about him, big boy. I'll be the only one you'll be dancing with." Alaric smiled pleasantly, the smile slowly transforming as well as his facial features, morphing into something other than a man. Veins were popping out and clearly visible underneath the skin, his body grew taller and buffed up to something stronger his shirt and jacket were torn to shards, and his black eyes glowed with a monstrous glint, looking more like a demon.
"Hang on, Flora!" Helia cried to her and panicked, not only from not getting a respond, but watching the light in his beloved's eyes was slowly dying out.
He raised his sword and swung it against the beam shield, gritting his teeth and his hands suddenly staining as powerful shocks were bouncing off the shield and being transmitted into him, shocking him as well. The pain was unbearable, but he refused to give up. He still swung his sword against the shield, each swing harder with more force behind it than the last, refusing to give up and let Flora continue to suffer.
Finally with one last swing, cracks began ceasing along the shield and finally it cracked into millions and millions of pieces, breaking like glass.
Flora was freed and he was quick to catch her before she would fall to the ground. He stroke her hair soothingly as she took in wild gulps of much-needed air, then held her tightly in her arms when she calmed herself down and cuddled against him.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I am now, thanks to you." Flora smiled.
"Hey lovebirds!" They broke their embrace at the sound of Alaric's voice.
Even channeling his demonic energy, it wasn't enough in the end. As unbelievable as it was, for the first in history, someone else was beating Alaric in a fight and was the one with a much better chance and advantage of winning.
"I could use a little help over here!" He dodged the blow Xavier tried to make between his face and his fist. "This dance seems like it's going to need several more dancers."
Annoyed with the blonde one and wanting this nonsense to end immediately, Xavier followed the steps his older brother done to deal with the blue-haired one. He grabbed Alaric wrist as he was trying to take a blow to his face, lifted him up over his head but by grabbing him by his face, actually smiled as he watched Alaric struggling to break free from his grasp, and tossed him aside like a rag doll, knocking him into Bloom and Layla and watching them go down like bowling pins. "I had enough of these nuisances."
"As have I, dear brother," Luther said. "Let us end this."
"Yes, let's."
The brothers walked forward to each other, facing one another, raised their flaming swords over their heads, and letting out horrible shrieks loud enough to scatter an eardrum and make ears bleed, but also had a powerful melody behind it impossible not to listen to and was hard to concentrate on anything else expect blacking out. The energy of the fire oozing from their swords, dripping onto the ground, quickly spread around the entire landscape, combined with the energy from the horrific shrieks. The shrieks and fire energy created possibly the greatest earthquake in history, crumbling the Church down to the ground and ceasing cracks along the ground.
"Don't separate!" Alaric ordered as they huddled together.
The cracks of the earthquake slashed across every inch of the ground, and then the cracks widened into huge gaps fifty feet away from each other, revealing the wide ocean of searing hot, bubbling lava hundreds of feet below.
A huge crack slashed between Flora and her friends, widening into a wide gap that separated her from her friends, isolating her. The area of the ground surrounding her was crumbling into tiny pebbles and bits of dust. There was nothing left around to support her. Flora tried to balance herself with lack of space, but her left foot slipped and she fell.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" she screamed as she was falling fast toward the lava.
"No!" Layla and Bloom screamed.
"Flora!" Alaric tried to hold Helia back from doing anything stupid and reckless, saying he could die as well. But Helia didn't care; life with no Flora was death already. He freed himself from Alaric's grasp and flung himself off the ground, plunging himself toward the lava.
He quickly grabbed hold of her, the two of falling up-side-down to their possible death and holding each other tightly, as if their lives depended on the closeness of their bodies. "Can you fly, Flora?"
"I can't!" She screamed.
"Yes, you can. You still have your powers; you can still use them, and still fly. All you have to do is try."
"I can't."
The air they were cutting through was slowly going from lukewarm to musky, stuffy and stiff hot. He could already feel the unbelievable temperature of the heat nearly melting his skin off.
"You can do it, Flora!" he exclaimed. "Believe in yourself."
Although she was still unsure of her ability, she was willing to try. Flora closed her eyes and concentrated hard. She thought about the girl people claimed she once was, the girl from her dreams and flashbacks. The girl who seemed to have an enjoyable life although there were a few ups and downs in the way, the girl who had loyal family and friends, was the fairy of Nature and control all of Earth, and shared a special love with the same man whose arms were wrapped around her and holding her close.
I can do this, I can do this, I can do this, Flora repeated as she felt something within her growing stronger the longer she was concentrating. It was energy burning like fire inside her heart, but was calming and warm like the trees blowing by the gentle, crisp wind in the autumn morning.
She was transformed into a world of color, where everything was so beautiful, including the plaster of the brightest and lightest blue splashed in the background. It was almost like a dance and she knew every step and position of it. She twirled her hair and jumped back, curving her body back into a C, before crossing her fingers over her head. A blue-white flash showered over her, filling her body with such energy, as a flower chocker formed around her neck and a pink dress was formed around her body, the hem of the dress coming close to her thighs. Her discarded sleeves were wrapped around her arms, going up past her elbows and pink ankle boots, created from hundreds of flowers, were slipped on her feet.
Finally she twirled her body into a slow circle, flying high with a trail of petals streaming behind her before finally landing on her feet, and lifting one arm over her head while the other was outstretched, reaching out, with the background switching to leaf green with thousands of green-yellow petal flowers encircling around her before bursting into a gigantic sharp of a flower.
Flora's handmade dress was gone in the instant flash. Instead she was back in her Winx form, the first fairy form instead of Enchantix, dressed in a fairy dress primarily fuchsia and orchid in color, and consists of a sparkling one piece, bare shouldered top that conceals a pair of mini shorts of the same color, and ankle-high boots also the same color. A small orchid colored and shaped choker adorned her neck, while detached sleeves of the same color compliment her arms. Her wings were delicate as an angel's and colored lime green.
Her wings were fluttering hard when their heads were a moment away from being dipped into the lava, and she was using her concentration to help steady them.
Fluttering them hard, gradually she was lifting them up and turning them down-side-up. As she was getting used to the sensation of flying and feeling so light, she was going higher and faster.
Finally she got them out from there and landed them gently on the ground. Even though they were safety standing on solid ground, her arms were still wrapped around his torso in a tight grip and she didn't transform. She wouldn't even if she wanted to and could. The thrill of what happened to her still possessed her, kicking adrenaline high in her veins.
"Alright Flora!" Layla exclaimed.
"Way a go!" Bloom cried out.
"Well done." Alaric regarded with a nod of his head.
"I knew you could it." Helia said, hugging her.
Flora blushed as she smiled as he pulled away from the embrace, but still held her tight. Shyness over came by the closeness between them and the intensity burning in his eyes the longer his eyes were settled on her as he brushed back hair away from her eyes, letting his hand lingering on her cheek and caressing her cheek as his hand was lowered.
"Hey lovebirds!" Once again, the sound of Alaric's voice broke them apart. When he saw cracks slashing onto the ground where he was standing, he wasn't planning to take chances and quickly got out. He quickly transformed into his true demon, bat-like form, waiting till Bloom and Layla climbed onboard his back before taking off. He felt toward the recently embracing couple and pointed at the portal, which was their way back home, quickly getting smaller and smaller. "The portal is closing. We only have twenty seconds to get out of here."
Quickly Flora grabbed Helia again, fluttered her wings, and followed Alaric's lead. But soon they were stopping and dodging the multiple energy blasts fired at them, close to hitting them.
Flora glanced down and saw Luther and Xavier were firing blasts from their spears. She frowned, having just about enough of them. "Vine wrap."
Green energy oozed from her palm, spilling onto the ground like soft rain and sinking deep into there, vanishing from sight. Cracks were slashed around their area and luxurious ivy vines sprouted from the cracks, wrapping around the brothers' bodies.
Flora and Alaric zoomed with all the energy in their bodies toward the portal, reaching and getting through just in the nick of time with only a mere second to spare before the portal was closed shut.
Meanwhile at Magic, the fight between good versus evil, psycho against non-psycho, was still going on and taking a heavy toll. The remaining Winx girls, the RF boys, and the Guardians fairies were slowly getting exhausted from all the fighting they've been doing. The shadow creatures and psycho clones were getting stronger with each attack they were firing at them, using that new strength against them, and Libitina up on her high throne and enjoying the fight like a grand show.
Timmy screamed in pain as he took a powerful blow to the back of his head, an unexpected sneak punch delivered hard by his dark clone, and was slammed hard against the boulder, increasing the pain exploding in his head, and sank down to the ground.
"Timmy!" Tecna quickly rushed over to help her boyfriend. She got him up from the ground, wrapped one of his arms around her, and supported him as they fled from the scene, ignoring the chilled laughter howling from their doubles behind them. Tecna took him back to the same spot they all ran to for safety, seeing all their friends were there hiding out, and gently laid Timmy on the ground, using her remaining fairy dust to heal him. "I only so much fairy dust left."
"Lucky you," Stella said. "I ran out."
"Me too." Musa admitted.
"We still have to keep fighting, guys. We can't give up, we can't back down." Sky said.
"No offense, Sky," Brandon said. "But the whole prep-talk thing is starting to get unnecessary as well as annoying. We're getting our butts kicked hard, as plain and simple as that."
"I hate to admit, but Brandon's right, Sky." Nabu said.
"Yeah," Roxy nodded and winced at the pain exploding in her stomach, stinging brutally in her gut, which was the exact pain psycho Roxy kicked her hard with her high-heeled shoe. "I don't know how much more I can take of it."
"Dark Timmy punched, hit, and kicked me so many times in the head; I'm amazed my skull isn't being cracked to bits right now." Timmy said. "Though it may have already did, and I wasn't aware of it."
"They have to have a weakness. Everything allows feature a weakness." Tecna said.
"Even if they do, then they're real good at hiding it," Brandon said. "Psycho Brandon whipped my butt good."
"Dark Stella knocked me hard to the ground, thrown me through things, and blasted me hard with my own magic without trying that hard." Stella frowned.
"Tell me about it," Musa frowned, too. "Dark Musa didn't even break a sweat whipping my ass."
Timmy hung his head down in shame while Tecna was thinking hard to come up with a plan. Suddenly, an idea struck him, lighting up like a light bulb switched on, and a grin spread across his head. Tecna, seeing the sudden change of expression of her boyfriend' face, turned to him in confusion, till they had a silent conversation through their eyes and she was grinning herself, also starting to get it.
"That's it!" the brainic couple exclaimed.
"What's it?" The rest of them asked.
"The reason why we can beat the psycho is simple," Timmy said. "They're the other half of us, the other side of us that knows everything about us. The moves we do, the moves we're going to make. There's no way I can beat psycho Timmy, there's not way Musa can beat her twin, and there's no way Riven can beat psycho Riven."
Riven stared at his friend dumbstruck and considering him coldly, wondering if he was even aware of the things he was saying. "I thought you had good news, point-dexter."
"What he means is we can't beat them because they're us," Tecna stepped in to clarify. "But we can't beat ourselves, then we can beat each other."
Slowly, small smug smiles were lifting the corner of each other fairy and hero's lips as realization hit them.
Libitina wished this great show could on forever and ever, but knew like all other good things in life something great and good always came to an end at some point. And the time for this show to be over was now. Watching them get the hell kicked out of their asses was more blissful than anything else she was ever given, but knew the sooner they were destroyed, the sooner their souls would be hers for the taking. The strong, powerful she felt when she absorbed the souls of her former friends into was the same energy pulsing strong in their descendants. She could feel that identical energy pulsing strongly in them, and knew they would make excellent additions to her powers. "Psychos!"
"Yes my dark queen." The boys bowed low while the girls curtsied, acting like true gentlemen and ladies.
"I want you to finish the job," she ordered, her sweetly sick smile darkening her face and making her look like the true she-devil she was. "Destroy the nuisances."
It wasn't look before the Winx girls and the boys were being surrounded, each psycho facing their twin with a dark smile on their face, with both sides ready to finish this fight once and for all.
"Are you ready for death losers?" Dark Riven smirked, cracking his knuckles to warm up his fists before they do a hot dance number on his twin's face. Riven responded to that smirk with one of his own.
"Ready guys?" Sky asked.
They nodded, ready to take their cue and position.
"Switch!" they all cried, taking on another's psycho.
The psycho and Libitina weren't prepared for that sort of move and were caught off guard. Before Dark Sky could process what was going on, he was tackled hard to the ground by Riven, who wasted no time getting a few punches to his face while Sky pounced on Riven's double. Brandon took on Nabu's double, Nabu took Timmy's, and Timmy settled with being Brandon's. For the girls, they wanted to be real careful with their matches, not wanting to get the psycho whose powers were close to theirs. As a result, Stella took on psycho Tecna and burning the girl bit by bit with her sun powers; Musa was laying on phat beats as she took down psycho Roxy who didn't stand a chance against her tunes; Tecna was wiping the floors with psycho Stella; and Roxy was beating psycho Musa good and hard with her animal attacks.
Finally the psychos were beaten, and they had won the battle. With one final blast or any other attack, they winced in pain, looked at their twin, and then their bodies would crumple into dust. The dust swarm back into the original twin, giving back the energy stolen from them and completing them.
"We did!" Brandon cheered.
"Guess the psychos wouldn't handle a taste of their own medicine." Sky smiled, setting out a round of laughter.
But the laughter was cut off short when an explosion of red and black energy exploded in front of them, electrifyingly shocking them like they were struck by lightening and knocking them hard onto the ground. When they finally got onto their feet, trying to ignore the pain burning their bodies and wincing they were doing with each movement, they saw Libitina descending from her throne, walking down like she was climbing down steps of stairs. She looked so amused a few moments ago, but now there was an angry scowl darkening her face and even deeper, hatred-filled anger blazing in her eyes.
"I ask for one little thing," she said, talking more to herself than them. "Ask them to destroy you. A simple task I can finish off in two seconds, but of course they can't even seem to do something as simple as that. Looks like I'm going to do the great honor of doing the job myself." Her infamous smile was splashed on her face when she looked at them. "Don't worry, insects. I'll make your death quick and simple; you'll barely feel a thing."
She did plan to control their shadows into snakes, commanding the serpent to entangle around their bodies and squeeze the life out of them. But seemed a bit long and she wanted their souls now, so she decided to go with plan B: creating the ultimate death strike ball, powerful enough to cause them such pain they'd be dead the moment the spell touched their skin.
"Say goodbye, insects, and also do me one last favor. Say hi to Luna and the others when you met them in hell." She smiled pleasantly, pointing the tip of her scepter toward their direction, laughing silently at the fear and panic showing in their eyes.
This was their fate, but they didn't regret how they spent their final moments here in this world. The gang did a silent pray, held onto one another tightly, and closed their eyes in anticipation for their cold deaths.
Libitina gathered all the energy in her body to produce the strongest spell, her staff actually burning and smoking from the massive heat and power building up inside of it. The moment she was a mere second away from erasing them from existence, a line was drawn in front of them and that line grown into a wide portal, blowing such strong wind into their faces. The wind was so strong, they all had to cover their eyes, and Libitina was knocked to the ground by the powerful force.
When she, along with the others, got up and opened their eyes, shock was the only thing everyone was feeling. The others' shock was surprise but happy, glad to see the guest crashing their small party, while Libitina's was angrier than happy, more disappointed and stunned.
The crashers to their little party was Enchantix Bloom and Layla smirking at the shock expression on Libitina's face, a shirtless Alaric showing off his toned chest and cocking his head to one side as he looked at her, Helia equipped with his laser glove placed on hand while the other was busy holding his sword, and Flora in her first fairy form but looking brave and standing tall while facing her twin.
"Hello Libitina." Alaric greeted pleasantly.
"I honestly can't believe you," she said to him. "After everything I done for you, you desert me for a couple of insects. All this time I thought you were better than that, but it turns out I was wrong." She shook her head and rolled her eyes, dusting off her clothes once she got up and grabbing her staff. "Thank good heavens I was smart enough to turn down your marriage proposal. It wasn't such a hard decision to make since you were becoming a huge bore as well as a great fool."
Helia and Flora watched Alaric's face crumble by her harsh words, then he caught himself when he saw eyes were watching him, making his crumble face harden to stone again.
He shrugged, saying "And truth be told, Libitina, it wasn't so hard to leave you and help them. Everything we did have was wonderful, but now…you seem more like damaged goods. Helping them and bringing back your reincarnation back was a real no-brainer."
Baring her teeth at him, Libitina acknowledged the rest of them with the burning hatred in her eyes and the flaring anger. She saved her heated yet chilled glance at Flora, who was still trying to stay calm despite the fearful chills she was getting from looking into those eyes. Those fearful chills increased more as a cutting, mocking smile was playing on Libitina's blooded lips.
"Isn't one grand reunion? The descendants of my former friends who are my prisoners inside my power," she considered the Winx gang coldly. "The man who loved me too much." She smiled coldly at Alaric staying firm, but was gritting his teeth in anger from the thoughts and memories he allowed her to make a fool of him. "The man who loved me too little." Her cold smile was erased from her face, turning into a irritated frown as she looked at Helia, who returned her cold look with one of his own, and then lastly turned to Flora and her frown turned into a amused smirk. "And last and least, my reincarnation, Flora. It's really funny. It seems like every time I try to be disposed of you, you always prove to be so…lucky."
"It's over, Libitina." Helia said.
"Accept your fate and stand down." Alaric added.
Her amused smirk only grew more into a dark yet innocent smile she was easily able to fool anyone with. She clicked her tongue as she shook her head at their words. "Tempting offer, but I think I'll pass. Besides I've waited and worked too long and hard for this moment to taken away by a bunch of irritating cockroach insects. If you want me gone so badly, then we shall settle this little game the same way I finished my old friends. A battle to the deaths. I lose; you keep your lives and get your wish. You lose; I got more souls to collect. A fair win-win."
They all nodded, accepting her challenge. Before they started, Libitina asked that Flora was not part of the game and stay aside.
"It's a real shame we have to end things like this." Bloom said.
"If memory serves me right, sweetie, then the only ones who were shamed were your descendants." Libitina smiled.
They wasted no time quickly getting into the fight. Libitina was quick and light on her feet, moving with the grace of a dancer as she dodged attacks and tried to get a few blows of her own. Besides being a powerful sorceress, she was also a great warrior who seemed to master in many forms of material arts and self-defense.
Still, the gang was proven they were just as skilled too with their magic and fighting moves. The girls came together into a circle and combined their powers into one powerful, convergence attack that Libitina wasn't able to dodge easily because of its' massive size and was hit hard by it, then was knocked hard to the ground, sent craning roughly through it by the clear shots the boys were able to get her with their blasters.
Alaric pounced on her, wrestling with his former love all over the ground and letting out all emotion as he fought her. While Libitina was on top of Alaric, straddling his hips and taking a few punches to his face, Helia took that as an opportunity to strike her then.
He ran toward them, his sword held high, and stabbed her in the back, dipping the sharp tip very deeply in there, smirking as he saw Libitina was slowly down when she felt the stab.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!" It was a scream of utter pain from the stab, a girl screaming from the deep stab. Rosalina flinched and bit her lip, thinning her lips as she closed her eyes while trying not to make a sound and blood was pooling around her severe wound. The only problem was she wasn't the one screaming; she couldn't be if her lips were tightly closed.
They all, with the expectation of Libitina, turned around and were beyond shocked seeing Flora falling to the ground, screaming in pain at the top of her lungs from the hole suddenly stabbed into her back with crimson blood gusting from the wound.
"Flora!" Musa and the others quickly ran to their fallen friend. The music fairy gently moved her friend; trying to act with caution of her bruise, and used the reminding fairy dust she had left in her vial to heal her. The wound may have been healed, but Flora was still motionless from remembrance of the pain.
"Are you okay?" Bloom asked.
"I don't know." She answered miserably.
"What the hell is going on?" Helia demanded, turning to Alaric. "I stabbed Rosalina, so why did it affect Flora too?"
Alaric pushed Libitina off of him and frowned at Helia as he got up, dusting off the dirt of his expensive suit. "I was afraid that this would happen."
"Afraid what would happen?" Sky said.
"Afraid that because Flora is my reincarnation, the other half of me, anything that would happen to me would happen to her too," Libitina said before Alaric could open his mouth to speak, being the center of their attention and smirking at their stunned faces as she got back up, her staff handy in her left hand. "And as you can clearly see, what he feared actually came true."
"What the hell have you done, Rosalina!" Helia demanded, just about ready to tear her eyes out from her sockets, but the then realization suddenly dawned on him as he reminded what happened between them when they saw Libitina back at None.
She commanded Luther and Xavier to destroy them, all expect for Flora. For her, she ordered she be captured and brought back for her, saying she had big plans for her. He was questioning her actions because it was clear she didn't like Flora at all, but now he understood why. If Flora was to be destroyed, then she would also be destroyed too.
Seeing the understanding in his eyes made the smirk on Libitina's face change into a pleasant, cold smile as her red eyes were howling with such laughter he could already hear the sickening sound echoing in his ears. "Do you really think beating me was going to be so easy and simple like before, Julio? I did my homework over the last centuries while I was dead and quickly learned from my past mistakes. Besides, I do recall I told you all this the first time I met all of you again when I held you prisoners. You all can stop this by simply killing Flora. Our souls have been spilt into two halves, but we still complete one another and are still together in a sense. If my reincarnation is destroyed, then I'll be destroyed as well. However by destroying me, then you destroy her, too."
"You evil, manipulative, psycho bitch!" Helia roared.
Libitina's only response to that was her signature sweetly innocent yet coldly dark smile. "But you see, Julio, this is only the beauty of it. You destroy me and take away everything I worked-again-then Flora will be destroyed, too. By taking away my power, you'll be taken away from a dear friend," she glanced at Flora's friends before turning back to Alaric and Helia. "And you two would have killed the girl whom you love."
Alaric nodded, acknowledging the problem, and set his cold eyes on Libitina's cruel, smug smile. In a heartbeat moment, in swirls of black and white, Libitina had her back pressed against Alaric, his arm wrapped tightly around her neck in choking position, and the sharp tip of his claw was a second away from slicing her neck.
"Alaric, don't!" Helia cried. He panicked as he turned back and saw Flora was now in the position as Rosalina. She was lying on her back and her hands were at her neck, the sounds coming out from her sounded nearly breathless in a sickening way and chilled him from the fact she was suffocating. He ran toward Alaric and tried to pull back his claw, release the grip he had on Rosalina, and talk some sense into it. "Don't do this."
"Why not?" Alaric demanded, his eyes still kept on Libitina and he tightened his grip around her neck when he saw she was trying to escape. "It's simple and easy to rip her throat out. Like A, B, C."
"Because this is Flora's life we're talking about!" Helia exploded, and then lowered his voice as he got closer to him. "If you care about Flora at all, or feel for her like I did you do, then you'll reconsider. I want to make Rosalina for everything she has done, but we can't risk us seeking revenge for Flora's life. It's not worth killing her just because we want to get back at Rosalina. You know it's not."
Alaric had to look for himself how she was pulling through, and the anger in his hatred-filled eyes deceased a bit as she watched her trying to breath through his suffocating grip. He then glanced down at the original twin he had in his actual grip, seeing she was still suffocating but there also a small, smug smile tugging on her lips. A smile daring him to do what he must, asking if he really hated her that much and wanted to destroy her so badly would he risk the life of an innocent one to do so.
He leaned down and slowly brushed his lips against her cheek, feeling the softness of her skin and remembering how once, which seemed almost like a century ago, tasting her skin made him drunk with desire. He gazed straight into those challenging yet breathtaking ruby reds, leaned closer to her as he caressed her cheek, and whispered in her ear "You are so lucky I seem to have a heart for Flora. If there was any other way to hurt you without the pain affecting her, my claw will reach right into your chest, rip out your black stone of a heart, and eat it whole right in front of you."
Libitina smiled sweetly before kneeing him in a private place, smiling at his pain and quickly escaped. "You've gone soft on me, Alaric. That doesn't seem like you at all."
"It doesn't matter, Rose," Helia said. "Because one way or another, you are going down."
"Oh I don't think so, dim-wit," she smirked. "Because the only ones who are going down are you!"
Twirling her staff over her head, she stretched out toward the heavenly skies and closed her eyes with that sick smile growing into mischievous, cold grin. Dark energy from the crimson skies were streaming down like heavy rain, sucking into the crescent of the raven of her staff, which was glowing the brightest yet darkest shades of red and black. The dark angel herself was glowing both darkly and brightly, seeming to be the only thing radiating brightness in the whole place, and they had to shield their eyes from the blinding brightness. All the energy, coming from the spirit of the Midnight Raven deep in Rosalina's soul and from the darkness her magic had touched, came together into her staff.
When she opened her eyes again, they were the brightest ever seen before and were twice as frightening than before as they now looked monstrous and showed nothing but pure evil of the devil. Eyes sure to belong to a demon.
"By the power of the great Midnight Raven, die!" she shrieked, no longer sounding like herself, taking on a voice that was a mixture of the Raven itself and of a monster. "Death Strike!"
Before a shield could be placed in front of them or conjured up, before a step could be taken back, a great energy burst the size of the Magix city and was more powerful than anything ever conjured up combusted, setting out the most powerful explosion in its' wake. Everything standing in the way of its' path was reduced to burnt crisps, bodies were slammed hard, blood was splattered.
Soon, everything went dead silent. Everything was so quiet, too quiet for Flora's comfort. Slowly she put down her hands, which were originally used to cover her from the explosion, and opened her eyes when she was sure the thick smoke hazing her vision from before was gone. The first thing she saw was blood, so much blood practically splattered everywhere, dripping on nearby buildings, splashes all over the ground, and was pooling around her motionless friends.
"Oh dear god!" Her hands immediately came to cover her mouth, her heart skipping several beats, and tears were streaming down her face as she looked at them. Their wounds looked like they were beyond simple repair now, they were motionless like dead, and looked so peaceful as they slept in their unconscious state. She ran over to Helia, acting gentle so she wouldn't cause him more pain, brought his head to her chest, and kissed it countless times as more and more tears were running down her face. "Helia, please. Please don't do this to me."
"Don't waste your pity tears, you pathetic girl," Flora looked up, her eyes filled with endless tears as well as unlimited rage and hatred, at Libitina, who was taking slow steps toward her and looking so proud of herself for what she accomplished. "They were born fools and they now die as fools."
"How could you!" Flora exploded.
Libitina smiled as she squatted down to Flora's level. "You should be thanking your lucky stars right now, puppet. If it wasn't for the fact you're actually worth something to me, I would have destroyed you long ago but the only problem is I would have destroyed myself in the process if I did so. No matter what the fool you cradled in your arms like an infant has told you, remember this. You are me and I you. I'm your creator, the puppeteer pulling your strings. You only existed and were born to serve me. What hope could a useless, worthless girl have against her own creator?"
With that being said, Libitina got on her feet and walked back to her throne. Flora was left alone with her seemingly lifeless dead friends and was stunned into shock by Libitina's cruel words, which were spinning around inside her head. Worthless. Useless. Those were the cruel words acting as sharp knives stabbing her heart, causing it to bleed out.
That…girl was the caused for all unhappiness that has happened in the past and present, knowing the destruction she caused and blood shed on her hands yet smile pleasantly at it, as if it was part of her favorite game. Everything to her was a game. She partly was the reason why her father was dead in the first place, the reason why she dreaded her birthday this year more than anything, why some many innocent lives were taken, and why everything became nothing but a tangle of past remembrance and pain. So much pain, if they were drops of tearful rains, then the whole universe would be flooded.
Anger, like no other anger or any other emotion, Flora has ever felt before was boiling like lava in an exploding volcano, building up inside of her and causing her to explode. She closed her eyes and welcomed the anger, which seemed so sweet yet was burning hot as fire.
Yes! Flora thought as she felt all the power and energy burning up inside of her, magic flowing uncontrollably in her body, so much of it ready to burst out from her skin.
Libitina was whistling a happy, cheerful tune under her breath as she walked back to her throne, but suddenly she was knocked flat on her face when unexpected blow was slammed against the back of her head. Wincing in pain while tenderly rubbing her head, which was still recovering from the blow, and was stunned by what she was seeing.
Her reincarnation was glowing, an aura of the brightest yet darkest shade of green covering and twinkling around her body. She may have been glowing like a bright star, but the fire burning in her eyes she snapped open and bored her gaze into her showed nothing but true, pure hatred and anger. "You may have created me,"
An explosion of bright colors and lights of different shades of green and rose combusted, nearly blinding Libitina with its' brightness. When she was finally able to see again, she saw her reincarnation transformed herself into a fairy form that wasn't the same as the one she was in before. It wasn't the first fairy form, the Charmix power one, or even the Enchantix. Nevertheless was a fairy power stronger than any form, intensified and strengthen with much more power than the Enchantix.
Her whole body was still glowing brightly with that aura energy, but it wasn't as bright as before. Flora was now in a pink and fuchsia, petal-themed sleeveless, midriff-bearing top and a pink, petal-shaped skirt with a yellow string tying it in place and lime green frills underneath. Her wings were leaf-shaped and lined in emerald green with clover shapes lined in jade within, the background of the wings fading from hot pink on the bottom to orange in the middle to yellow on top with purple leaf "piercings" along the sides of the wing. There were purple and pink flower-themed wristbands on her wrists and she wore below-the-knee pink, fuchsia, and white platform high-heeled boots on her feet. Her hair was now in a pair of buns sporting turquoise blue bows atop her head, while the rest of her hair was flowing down her back, with peach highlights. Red and purple flowers decorated her hair, making it look even more natural and beautiful, her lips were painted bright yet soft rose pink, and pink eye shadow on her eyelids.
She looked beautiful. Strong and powerful. But most of all, she looked and was more than ready to finally put an end to this nightmare once and for all.
"But get this through your head, Libitina. Once and for all, I am absolutely nothing like you!" She raised her hands over her head, then brought them down in front of her, releasing a combination energy blast of the power of Nature and of the Midnight Raven that hit Libitina hard, knocking her right back down to the ground.
Blood was trickling down her face as she slowly got back on her feet, and she saw blood was also dripping on Flora's face as well. Only Flora wasn't showing anything to let there be known she was in pain; instead she was conjuring another energy blast she aimed at Libitina. Only this time Libitina was able to dodge it, taking a double flip back to avoid the blast and frowned unpleasantly, un-amused at her Doppler-ganger.
"Do you really want to play that game, little girl?" She smirked. "Because this is one game you don't stand a chance of winning. You know perfectly well whatever you do to me, you'll only be hurting yourself."
"I don't care. One way or another, even if it kills me, I will end you." Flora said, not making a threat, but a cold, solid promise. And she always kept her promises, not matter what the cost.
"As you wish then." Libitina smirked, before transforming herself into her witch form: a red petal-themed sleeveless, midriff-bearing top, black petal-shaped skirt with a red string tying in its' place and red frills underneath, black and red beaded wristbands wore on her wrists and black leather platform ankle-length boots. Her hair was free and flowing down but took on a darker shade of brown and sporting red highlights with a pair of buns tied with black bows on top of her head. Her eye makeup was done in a smoky style, giving her red eyes more edge, with black mascara and eye shadow caked around them, and her lips painted in a glossy rose red color.
It was ironic under the conditional circumstances; they were dressed in almost the exact same outfit and would have been exactly alike if it wasn't for the color scheme. And the fact Flora's boots were knee length while Libitina's were ankle.
They walked around each other, one smirking while another kept her face cool but expression.
"Tell me this, Rosalina?" Flora asked. "Was it all worth in the end? Betraying and destroying your friends, destroying the realms and your own home, causing so much misery. Was it really worth it all for the power?"
"I'm going to tell you something very interesting," Rosalina answered, darkly smiling. "When it comes to power, Flora, one must do what they must to get it. Sacrifices must be made and blood must be shed in order for one to rise to power, no matter what the consequences may be."
Flora nearly flinched. Those were the exact same words Alaric said a long time ago when she first him. Hearing Rosalina, a girl who used to be so kind and good, say them with such brutality and coldly evil nearly made her heart sink to the pit of her stomach.
"You're pathetic," She murmured quietly, yet the words seemed loud enough to echo throughout the deserted city. The scowl and dark glare on Libitina's told her if she valued her life, then she would stop talking but Flora wasn't afraid of her. Not anymore and never will she be again. She continued, saying "You are nothing but a pathetic, selfish girl who only feels good about herself when another's in pain. Who smiles and can actually turn the other cheek at the destruction she caused, never looking back and regretting any of it."
"Enough small talk, puppet. Only fighting inside." Libitina soared up to the sky after sprouting her raven wings, and Flora followed after her while unleashing some nature power.
As the fight continued in the sky with energy blasting, spell-conjuring, fists flying and legs kicking, with the occasional dodging and shielding, down below where the friends laid one of them was slowly breaking free of his unconscious trance. With a groan, Helia slowly fluttered his eyes before fully opening them, soon wincing as the intense pain was setting in and burning every inch of his well being in his body. It hurt to stay conscious, it hurt to take in breaths, and trying to sit up was more difficult than he thought it would be but still forced himself to do so.
He slowly rubbed his head, realizing how hard that explosion might have really hit him, and took a quick glance at the sky. Then his eyes quickly went back to the sky when he saw what was going on. "Flora, Rose! Stop!"
Libitina rushed forward to Flora, ready to kick her hard by the side. While her foot was still in mid-air, Flora was zooming away and was soon dodging the multiple dark shadow blasts Libitina were firing at her. As she flew, Flora turned back to hit Libitina with a few Venus blasts, but the dark witch protected herself with a barrier, absorbing the blasts.
As Libitina put her barrier down, Flora took that as the time to strike her then. She raced toward her twin and punched her hard in the face, the force of the punch knocking right through a building behind them and sent her craning through the carpet-covered floors. While Libitina was trying to ignore her pain and get back up, Flora wasted no time firing more Venus blasts that hit her hard and some others she managed to dodge. Quickly the dark queen summoned energy into the palms of her hands, holding them in front of her and releasing a powerful stream of searing hot, red energy that knocked Flora through the wall of the building and was slammed hard against the wall.
She could already feel searing pain burning up in her body, threatening to die down her energy and force her to withdrawal from the battle. That was exactly what Libitina wanted from her, but she refused to let her have the satisfaction. Libitina was coming through the huge gap she created in the wall, ready to strike her again, but Flora was prepared to take her down again.
Quickly getting up on her feet, Flora unleashed multiple Venus and pollen blasts from her hands, along with multiple vine wraps and poisonous thrones she commanded to hit Libitina. She lost how much attacks she flung at the queen, but knew the number was past a hundred and was causing smoke to haze her vision.
When she was exhausted and nearly drained, Flora stopped for a moment to catch her breath and regenerate her powers. When the smoke finally cleared, she was stunned to see Libitina seeing in front of her with not a scratch on her.
"The spirit of Midnight Raven protects. Because of its' power, I'm invincible." Rosalina unleashed a flaming death strike, twice its' normal size, at Flora, who was slammed hard yet again against the wall and then was crashed hard on the ground. She managed to dodge the objects Libitina tried to hit her with telekinesis power and tried to get Libitina back for that move, but then Libitina grabbed one of pillars supporting the floor they were and used it as a baseball bat to swing hard at Flora like she was the ball.
Pain, intense and brutal, exploded from the back of her head to her lower back as she hurled against the wall a third time and was crashed against the floor again. The pain was intense, as it was unforgiving, but she couldn't afford it to stop her and give up.
Behind her, Libitina was laughing while she walked closer to her. "Oh, dear little puppet. Don't you know the puppeteer always pulls the strings of their puppets?"
"Well, this puppet finally got her strings cut." Flora whirled her head toward her direction and fired beams of fiery red energy from her eyes, knocking hard to the ground and sending Libitina craning across the other side of the room. While she was recovering from the attack, Flora suddenly was flying down toward her and crashed them right the floor as she stomped on her chest hard with those high-heel boots of hers.
The two girls were wrestling in a rough-housing matter until they were crashed on the floor of the lower level and Libitina kicked Flora off of her. Grabbing the girl's wrist, Libitina flew up to the building, crashing right through the roof and spun Flora wildly around and around till the girl was sure she was going to be sick. With one last swing, she let go and flung Flora back to the spot where they left her friends, slamming her right through her throne and she landed a few feet away from them.
"Flora!" Helia cried out, but he got no response. He turned to his friends, whom he awakened shortly after he was up, and said "We have to do something."
"And what exactly can we do?" Alaric answered, a bitter tone heard in his voice. "In case you haven't noticed, we all practically paralyze from the waist down. The death strike may have luckily not been enough to eliminate us, but it caused more than enough pain to keep us immobile and unfortunately significantly drained most of our powers. I'm afraid Flora's on her own now, and let's just hope things will not end so badly."
Helia and the gang returned his gaze to the fight, seeing it was going from dangerous to deadly. Both girls were inflicted with harsh bruising and wounds, blood covering their clothes and caking some parts of the skin where very serve wounds were bleeding out.
Flora was down on her hands and knees, her head bent down in agony from all the pain killing her body. She dealt with the intense pain by biting hard on her bottom lip; biting so hard blood was filling in her mouth, and was trying to figure out the best way to end this with the remaining strength she had left within to fight.
Meanwhile, Libitina was gliding toward her, her feet never touching the ground as it was floating a feet above, with that cruel and inhuman smile lifting up the corners of her face. "That's right, pixie. Bow down before your grand queen and ruler."
Flora brought up her head to give Libitina the coldest, darkest glare in her eyes she ever given to anyone before. "You may be ruler of the universe, but you are not the ruler of me."
Libitina raised her hands over her head and spread them apart wide, the wide space becoming a massive energy, lightening-zapped, fire-burning ball she hurled toward Flora's way, which Flora was barely able to dodge without a burn on left side of her torso. "You are tired, puppet. Tired and in pain, I see. Why not you give up while you still have the chance?"
"Never!" Flora used her powers to sprout vines encircling around Libitina, but before they could fully grown and wrap around her body, she crushed them to pieces by the glow of her eyes.
"You surprise me, Flora," Libitina confessed. "You are so much like me yet so different. Why is it, when I was born again I didn't wish to continue finishing off what I started in the past?"
"Simple," Flora said. "Unlike you, I allowed myself to feel. I allowed my heart to be warm instead of a cold shell."
"I said there were some differences between us," Libitina clarified. "That doesn't mean we aren't too much alike. For starters, Flora, when you're alone do you ever feel your powers could be better?"
Flora turned her head, refusing to answer such a question. Libitina was able to see the shock in her eyes before she turned her, seeing her question was answered, and then continued with more questioning. "Do you often feel like you seem to be the least powerful one in your team? That your powers don't seem to help you out in battles?"
The girl still didn't respond, but she did see a lone teardrop rolling down her left cheek that answered her question. Feeling a bit sympathy as memories reminded her of the similar position she once found herself in, Libitina went over to place a sympathy hand on the girl's shoulder and smiled gently as Flora turned her head to her. "I know how you feel because, whether you chose to believe me or not, I felt the exact same a long time ago. I loved my powers more than anything and cared for Nature itself like it was my child to nourish, but I hated the insecurity and bitterness that came along to possessing it. I hated how villains and opponents would always target me as the easy one to destroy because my powers couldn't work to stop them. I hated watching my friends able to fight off evil easily with their powers while mine could only trap them for a moment before they easily escaped."
Flora lowered her gaze when she remembered countless that had happened before. She would trap the villain in roots and vines wrapping around their bodies, but it wouldn't hold them long and they were able to break free while getting a clear shot to attack her. Usually it was a spell or attack from one of the girls that was able to really take them down.
Libitina titled her chin back up, so her gaze would hers. "I know how embarrassing and awful it feels, Flora. That's when Alaric told me about the power of the Midnight, I saw an opportunity and knew I had to take it. Was it hard choosing to pursue or not to becoming one with the ancient spirit of the power after being told of the consequences? Yes. Did I ever regret making the decision? No, I did not. Thanks to the decision I made, I became the most powerful being in history. I became invincible and no one dared to defy or challenge me. The same thing could happen to you, Flora. You can all the power you ever dreamt of having and more. Much more. Join me, Flora, and you can rule beside me. You'll become the powerful princess of darkness, invincible and strong no one will even dream of crossing your path."
"Join you?" Flora repeated in a murmur, unsure what to say or think of next.
Libitina still smiled softly as she took a step back and stretched out her hand, beckoning Flora to take it. "No more insecurity, no more doubt. Accept who you are, Flora, and join me. Become the angel of darkness and then new princess of evil. We would become an unstoppable force."
Something about the way Libitina was talking to her was warm and gentle, sounding almost exactly like herself when she was Rosalina. Join her in the side of evil and become the princess of evil? The offer seemed tempting at first, with the promise of limitedness power, and seemed like something anyone would jump at the chance to get. Only…
Flora was too engrossed by her memories, remembering how similar event took place in one girl's path and how she sealed her fate by choosing the path she was now offered. She sometimes did get tried herself for being beat easily because of her powers, but… if she chose to do it, then she would have proved Rosalina right. She would have proven she was exactly like her.
She pulled back her hand she hadn't realized was slowly pulling toward Rosalina's, looked at her face that showed a soft smile on her face but evil laughter howling in her eyes, and used that hand to smack her across the face and kicked her high to her chin, knocking her down a few feet away. Flora scowled as Libitina growled at her and could already feel more pain slamming inside her, but refused to let that stop her.
It was time to finally end this.
"You are going to regret you did that." Libitina growled, spitting out blood while some of it was caking her lips.
"I already regret a lot of them, Rosalina," Flora said, scowling and not letting the anger in her twin's eyes intimidate her. "But the thing I mostly regret is actually being born from your soul."
"Ho-hum," Libitina shrugged. "Like or not, you were born from my soul. Like or not, the past is the past and there's nothing you can do to change it."
Wordlessly, Flora put her hands behind her back and was carrying two items in both hands as she brought them in front of her. The items were a sharp dagger she held in her left hand and a small vial of black powdery, liquid in her right. Libitina raised her eyebrow in questioning at the trick Flora did while trying to figure out. But the longer she glared at the objects being held in Flora's hands, particularly the vial of black liquid, her suspicious eyes widened in shock and recognition.
"What is that stuff?" Bloom squinted her eyes to see what the liquid stuff was, but it was still impossible to make it out other than its' color.
Alaric, on the other hand, was having much better luck seeing the substance because of his fantastic eyesight that was clearer than a hawk's. He knew the substance was familiar, but he couldn't exactly place the name of it.
Helia squinted his eyes, whose eyes weren't on the same level as Alaric's but was much sharper his friends'. He was able to make out the familiar substance, but he couldn't identify it right away. But after staring at it for a full minute, remembrance rushed to his head and his heart stopped, missing over dozens of beats.
"Helia, correct me if I'm wrong, but that looks a lot like-" Alaric said.
"It is," It was now Alaric's turn to become speechless, caught dumbstruck and baffled while the others were still left out in the dark, wondering what they were talking about.
"You guys mind letting us in on what's making you so shocked?" Riven asked.
"What's that stuff Flora's holding?" Layla demanded.
"That stuff is Black abyss," Flora unscrewed the cap of the vial, placed the dagger in front of her with the tip pointing to her left, and poured more than half of the black stuff onto the metal, the powdery liquid falling heavily like rain and shimmering bright purplish-black as it landed on the knife. "The deadliest, venomous poison known all throughout the universe. One little drop and the person will already be dead before they hit the ground."
Libitina only glared at the girl with pure, fiery anger and hatred in her ice-chilled eyes, wishing nothing more than she find some way to bring her twin pain without it affecting her. If there were such a way, she would have already done it long ago.
"But that's not the reason why the poison seems to have a connection with you, Libitina. It's much deeper than that," Flora continued on. "If memory serves me right, then I seem to remember the connection. This poison and dagger are the same things Julio used to kill you."
"WHAT?" they all, with the expectation of Rosalina and Flora, exclaimed.
Helia glanced closer, this time looking closely at the hilt of the dagger. With a jolt of shock running through his body, he saw on the sliver hilt were the initials J.G on it.
J.G, standing for Julio Gabriel.
His initials! His dagger!
"I thought it was destroyed," Helia murmured while his friends were silenced into shock, his eyes glancing at Alaric. "I thought you destroyed it."
Alaric shrugged, his eyes unable to take themselves away from the dagger in Flora's hand. "As tempting as it was, I couldn't. When I came to the throne room and saw all of you were dead, Libitina was sprawled on top of you and the two of you were holding each other's hands tightly. Before I could come close to her, her body turned to dust, which then disappeared from sight. Her body disappeared with the dagger still thrust into her chest."
"Please tell me, in the name of God, she isn't doing what I think she's doing." Musa whispered urgently to Layla.
"Depends. Are you thinking the same thing I'm thinking?" When Musa nodded, panic grew in Layla, who tried to gulp down the huge lump in her throat but it did little to relief her terror. "Then let's pray she won't go through with it."
"We have to stop her." Bloom tried getting up on her feet, but before she could lift herself up and get her knees up she fell face-flat back on the ground.
"Our powers are completely drained, and we were badly affected by the power burst. We can't do anything to help her." Tecna mumbled miserably.
Libitina didn't move a muscle in her body, but the deep hatred in her eyes grew more and more the longer they settled on Flora's face. She shook her head slowly back and forth, folding her arms against her chest. "You wouldn't dare."
"I very much would." This time a darkly sweet, innocently cold smile spread across Flora's face. Taunting Libitina, acting completely unafraid and fearless.
"Then you are even more of a fool than I thought," Libitina spat out the word coldly, her words deadly and dripping in venom. "You honestly don't get it, do you, silly girl? Whatever happens to me will happen to you. You will die as well if that poison touches me."
"I'm already aware of that," Flora acknowledged her words with a nod, her smile more taunting and vicious. "And if it will finally end you once and for all, then I'm all for it."
"Flora, don't do it!" Bloom protested.
"Don't be foolish!" Tecna exclaimed.
"NO!" Helia was so filled with shock, he was sure he was dreaming and what he was seeing wasn't real. She couldn't possibly think of doing something like that like she was.
"I have to," Flora said simply, as if those words were simple explanations to her possible action. "You were right when you said, whether I like it or not, there's nothing I can do to change what happened in the past. I may not be able to change the past, but I can do something to save the future."
"You wouldn't dare!" Libitina growled through her gritted teeth.
"For the good of all and to the end of the dark angel-once and for all!" Flora raised her dagger and then, without any hesitation or fear, plunged the cold knife into her heart. She barely had time to cry out from the pain, only softly gasping as her eyes widened in pain but then the light of life died down in them.
