Darcy stares in absolute horror at the blonde girl they ambushed - its undeniably princess Daphne Fyre of Domino, the unsteady stance and how she whirled around only to have her feet fly out from under her is confirmation of that. But…she's also Bloom in a different color scheme.
If you changed Daphne's hair to flaming red, she'd be Bloom's twin right now since her brown eyes are closed.
She'd never actually seen Princess Daphne before, only heard about her from the Nurse here! If she had, she'd have suggested they never look in Alfea's direction again!
Stormy's currently babbling hysterical nonsense, and Icy's currently looking around for one fiery-haired fairy. BAM! Icy says "Alright, time to go! Stormy, c'mon!"
Darcy swallows the bile rising in her throat, already knowing they'll never be able to go far enough to get away from Bloom with her sister in tow, and says "We can't get away. She'll find us anywhere."
Call it a hunch, or call it the enraged screaming she can already hear. A lot of swearing that's getting less and less human as it gets closer.
Thinking quickly, Darcy comes up with some semblance of an idea. "Take her and go, I'll impersonate her."
Stormy half hisses, half shrieks "Are you insane?! She'll kill you if she finds out!"
"She'll kill us all if she doesn't find her sister! Hunt us down and rip us to shreds before setting what's left on fire! You two take her to the cave, we've got everything set up already! If we do this right, we'll have her back by the time Bloom wakes up! Now go!"
Darcy quickly cuts a lock of Daphne's hair off, something to use to mimic her magical signature, and quickly makes it into a braid before tying it on her wrist and using it as the focus point of an illusion - a simple one, but they really don't have the time for her to craft a complex one right now with a dragon in the shape of a girl coming full-speed at them. And then she sends her sisters to the cave they decided to use to siphon a piece of the Dragon Flame from, having set everything up before coming here - something they're so thankful for, given the very deadly realization of just what Daphne and Bloom's relationship is and why Bloom has been so obsessively protective of her.
After clearing all traces of their magics from the area, Darcy quickly heads to the Infirmary to wait for Bloom - Alfea's big, yes, but not that big. Darcy's just grateful Bloom didn't get to them before Daphne was gone.
Darcy's just put the finishing touches on the illusion that will - hopefully - disguise her well enough that even Bloom will believe she's Princess Daphne, when she hears Bloom down the hallway. Quickly casting it, she sits on the nearest bed and tries not to look too nervous - she gets the feeling she's not succeeding, though. She's about to face a dragon, and has to convince it she's part of its nest, so to speak.
The door slams open hard enough to rattle the walls, and the first thing Darcy registers isn't Bloom, or even the flames surrounding her or the way her irises are actually on fire instead of just orange, it's the weight of her magic. The way it immediately targets her, seeking out any chink in her illusionary armor. Or, more likely, trying to find any injuries or spells on her since she's currently supposed to be Daphne Fyre. Darcy suddenly commends Daphne Fyre for her bravery, if Bloom does this every time she walks into the room.
When it retreats slightly, letting her take a breath in, she asks "Something wrong, Bloom?"
Because Bloom herself is nowhere to be seen, she realizes, until her head pokes up from behind her on the other side of the bed - was she…checking underneath the beds? That answer, Darcy finds out, is a yes as she waves that wand of hers and every single bed but hers suddenly floats in the air. Only to come crashing down abruptly as the spell suddenly ends - apparently Bloom didn't find whatever she's looking for.
Five minutes, she has to stall Bloom for just five minutes for Icy and Stormy to get on with the ritual, as it took Bloom a while to get to the Infirmary. Forget keeping Bloom in the dark, once she wakes up from the sudden power vacuum that having a piece of the Dragon Flame will almost certainly create, she'll be on a warpath. Which only gives them until she wakes up to get the heck out of Magix until they do something with that power.
After a minute of searching the room to the point of tearing it apart, Bloom waves her wand and then turns to look at her. After a minute of Bloom apparently trying to tear her illusion to shreds with her gaze alone, she says "Funny you should ask that. You see, while I was in that meeting, I got this terrible feeling. That something had happened to you, Daphne. And yet, even the Human Detection spell, that I mastered at thirteen, only reveals us in this room."
Darcy shrugs, and says "So? Just because you got a bad feeling doesn't mean anything happened. I tripped, that's all. Big deal."
Bloom's gaze sharpens, so Darcy gets down from the bed and says "Look, standing, walking around, all of it. See? I'm fine."
Bloom crosses her arms, looking a mix of doubtful and something else Darcy can't identify, and says "You're the one always going on about what Oritel would do, you know. You'll have to forgive me for being protective of the only sister I've got."
Darcy plants her hands on her hips, saying "Dad isn't here, in case you've forgotten, Bloom. Besides, its not like anything could happen to me here in Alfea."
Bloom's look turns to a sharp smile that's not-at-all comforting, and she says "Funny you should say that. Hogwarts was supposed to be the safest place in the UK, yet year after year I had to fight for my life. Darcy Trix."
All the Princesses and Prince Sky are in the corridor leading to the Infirmary, being younger and in better shape than their parents - and they broke all decorum and ran as soon as they were out of sight, Stella leading them to the infirmary where Bloom would likely go - when suddenly…the wall blows in. Or rather, out, given the detail that someone that looks an awful lot like Princess Daphne is lying in the rubble and dust. And then a blazing Bloom stalks out of the hole, hands consumed by fireballs and her wand sticking out of one of them…and vibrating and spitting fire with her clear fury, as if the expression on her face wasn't enough.
"You know, I knew you three weren't the brightest, considering you tried to distract us with the Whip, but I didn't think you were suicidal. You kidnap my sister, and then you think I wouldn't recognize an illusion spell when its right in front of me?" Her wand spits out a fireball, making a scorched crater on the floor where it was pointed. "The only reason you three walked away that night is because Faragonda said I couldn't take people out before they became active threats - you took my sister, all bets are bloody off!"
Gone is the calm red-head that was at the meeting, replaced by a vengeful dragon that's out for blood.
Stella swallows, suddenly wanting to eat her earlier words about being desensitized to Bloom's ability to terrify people - even she's scared stiff by this particular display. Just as all the rubble starts vibrating ominously, and the temperature in the corridor starts steadily increasing, she says "Um…Bloom? What's going on?"
Bloom's scary, yes, but there's a line between scary and scary-crazy. And Bloom's always been on the right side of that line…until now, apparently. Bloom lets out a very furious version of a laugh, sending another fireball towards the figure in the rubble, saying "What's going on is that my sister has been kidnapped, Stella."
The person that looks exactly like Daphne Fyre starts to fall out of the person-sized dent in the wall, but Bloom grabs her by the throat and holds her there, jamming her fire-spitting wand into the spot directly underneath the jawbone. And her hands suddenly sprout scales, making 'Daphne' let out a small shriek…right along with Princesses Galataea and Krystal. Stella can only assume that means Bloom's fingernails have turned into claws that are currently digging into her neck.
Sky's probably the least fazed by that, seeing as he works with dragons at Red Fountain, and asks "Isn't…she your sister, Bloom?" He's pretty sure all his dragon-handling classes don't apply here, but staying calm is probably still a good idea...
Bloom's lips twist upwards in what would probably be a sardonic smile if she wasn't so angry, and says "No. She isn't." 'Daphne' starts clawing at Bloom's currently scaled hand at the deeper, raspy, growling undertone to Bloom's voice, making little whining sounds as she does. Bloom loses that 'smile' and growls out "Drop the illusion, Darcy Trix, before I rip it off right before your head."
Krystal squeaks, actually squeaks at the very inhumane sound that just came out of Bloom's throat, and the woman being held to the wall quickly snaps her fingers and stops looking like Daphne Fyre. And is revealed to, yes, be Darcy Trix - a very terrified Darcy Trix. Eyes gone wide, face pale, and her hands shaking so much she can't even get a grip on Bloom's…hand around her neck.
Darcy tries to cast a spell on Bloom, tries to make her let go so she can escape, but she simply catches it with her free hand and crushes it effortlessly. "Where's my sister? TELL ME!"
Darcy starts gasping and sputtering for breath as Bloom's scaly, and very painful clawed hand reflexively tightens around her throat hard enough to make spots dance in her vision, and the spot where her wand is digging in starts getting burnt, but she manages to choke out "Never…find her…"
Bloom's upper lip curls, revealing a canine that's starting to lengthen and smoke escaping her teeth - Darcy's very certain she's about to die, her throat's going to get torn out as her head gets bitten off by a furious dragon-girl.
And then suddenly, two things happen simultaneously.
Bloom gasps, staggering backwards and both hands going to her chest, while Darcy suddenly gets a power-rush that rivals the fear she was just feeling.
Bloom, for her part, is trying to figure out what's going on. She's suddenly cold, a feeling she'd all but forgotten its been so long since she actually felt it - it started in her chest, accompanied by a sudden dizziness that usually comes with using far too much magic at once. And partially transforming using her Animagus form, something she and Wiz-Giz worked out in some of her spare time when she wasn't working on the counter-curse for Daphne - because even she has her limits when it comes to nigh-on impossible things, and not knowing where to start definitely pushed them a number of times - is so easy she barely notices when it happens bar a tickling sensation on her skin. And her rampage through the school shouldn't have caught up with her just yet.
Which can only mean one thing - one horrifying thing, at that. They took a piece of the Dragon Flame, and they used Daphne to do it.
"Darcy fucking Trix…" Darcy looks up at Bloom, still healing the puncture wounds in her neck, only to see the worst expression on Bloom's face to date. Oh, yes, and she's still awake. "You are so bloody fucking dead. You and your sisters."
Darcy barely manages to avoid the bolt of blue light that spits out of Bloom's wand in her direction - good thing she did to, because that spell disintegrates the wall. Darcy gets a cold chill down her spine, her earlier fear making a reappearance when she realizes Bloom's about to do her level best to - dodge that Diffindo! - have her head on a silver platter. Or whatever's left of her head, anyway.
Thinking quickly, Darcy casts a spell to blind Bloom by blocking all light from reaching her eyes…and runs. Full-out sprints, not daring to use her magic for anything other than keeping Bloom sightless.
She's given some motivation to really move it in her three-inch heels by Bloom's furious roar of "Oh no you don't, you bloody bitch! Get back here and fight me, you damn coward!" The explosion that sounds behind her and sends a piece of rubble flying past her face so fast and close that it leaves a scratch on her cheek is even more motivation.
Darcy quickly ducks a Diffoido and an Incendio Tria, not even looking back to see what they do or how close Bloom is. And then a Confringo that is so hot she can feel the hair on her arms shrivel up and die as well as herself getting the kind of burn that would usually take about five hours in the direct sunlight. In the middle of summer, no less. With Stormy deliberately keeping any and all clouds from forming.
And then she sees a wall of purple blocking her way, and heads into a classroom to hopefully keep Bloom distracted long enough to escape - maybe out the window. And then she sees a familiar red glow out of the corner of her eye, having had to stop when the glass suddenly caught fire thanks to a screamed ''speculo inflammare', and everything goes black.
When Aisha takes the Morphix Wall she made down, she heads into the classroom only to find Darcy Trix very unconscious, the glass window very melted, and Bloom Fyre leaning against the wall looking like she's about to pass out.
Bloom looks up at them, even as the parents finally get there, and tiredly says "Tie her to a chair somewhere and make sure she doesn't get away, will ya? I'm gonna pass out now." And that she does, falling sideways right after she stops talking.
AN: Hey, everyone! I know, Darcy's still alive - Bloom needs her to find Daphne, though, so don't be too mad, please! I sincerely hope you enjoy the beatdown I gave Darcy, because that was Bloom going full-on-dragon on Darcy's behind. If anyone's wondering why she was using mostly firespells...they come easiest to her - I know, shocking, right? - and she has the best control over them...meaning she could overpower them the easiest.
To say Darcy's going to wake up with a bad hair day is a massive understatement, along with the least of her worries. She'd better pray Flora drugs Bloom to the horns - instead of gills, I know, such a bad joke - with Magix's version of a calming draught. Maybe Palladium could help her strengthen it. Otherwise she really is going to raze Magix to the ground to find Daphne!
Anyway, enjoy! More updates coming soon! Please review!