Title: Is it Over Now?
Summary: We thought the war between the Trix and us had ended, but it was really the beginning of something much bigger that we never expected to happen in our wildest dreams. And who is that girl walking toward us? (Note: the girl is NOT an OC. Got it? )
Rating: T
Genre: Drama! Hurray for Drama! Bring on the pain.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Winx Club. That's probably good, seeing as I would destroy them all with my Red Squirrel Army! MUAHAHAHAHA!
Hi everyone! It's your favorite psychopath, Hawk-MAD, back with another story! And you all thought I was dead! For all of you waiting for Collide to update, I'm workin' on it!
Beware of the EVIL CHIPMUNKS OF DOOM! WE SHALL DEAFEAT THEM! MUAHAHAHA!
(Special note at the bottom for all reviewers!)
(June 6, 2007)
The war had many names. Some called it the Great War. Others called it the War of Pain. Still others called it the War to End All Wars. (A.N. OMG, I was watching a movie on WWI after I wrote this, and it began with this exact phrase! Freaky!) The most popular name was The Great Agony. A small population was still undecided as to what to call this horrendous tragedy. The titles varied from realm to realm. The worst, war-torn realms came up with the nastiest names, while the less war-torn and richer realms gave it friendly, almost noble names.
But, everyone who had participated all agreed on one thing; it had been the, coldest, bloodiest, widest spread, most expensive and most devastating war that all the realms had ever had the displeasure of being sucked into. Everyone lost someone or something that they held dear.
Half the survivors felt that it was a blessing that they were alive and they praised their God or gods in the remains of church, shrines, and temples. Others, however, thought it was a curse to live on. Their wails of pain could be heard throughout the day and into the night, until they cried themselves to sleep.
No one had ever thought this could happen. How had the Trix sisters returned to power? And how had they created a new army, an army of poisonous imps? It seemed like one day during the Winx Club's senior year, they had appeared out of nowhere with their new army and wreaked havoc everywhere. No one knew how they came or created their army and no one really cared. All that mattered to them was that the Resistance had finally destroyed Trix and their army and the realms were now free.
Everyone had one question on their minds. No matter what race, gender, political party, or age they were, one question circled their heads from the time they woke up to the time they fell asleep, "What do we do now?"
For Musa and Flora, that question still remained unanswered. They went through the days without much more purpose than to eat, sleep, breathe and fulfill their duties for the Resistance without using much energy.
Ever since the war ended, they'd both been sent out by Sky on scavenger duty. Their orders were simple; to find casualties, dead or alive, get medical attention for the ones that lived, radio back the description of the deceased, and see if the could find any useful supplies.
Their attempts were half-hearted, but that was fine because so far, the day had been slow. No survivors or useful supplies could be found in the wreckage that was once The Great City of Magix. There was the occasional dead body, but while most others on scavenger duty wept over the dead, both girls felt either sadness or grief anytime they saw one. The dead person's suffering was over, after all. It was the ones that were left alive that needed pitying; their struggle had just begun.
"So", began Flora as she laid down the shovel she'd been using to dig through rubble that day, "What do we do now?"
Musa sighed as she opened the flap to the dark green tent the two had been sharing for the past days they'd been on scavenger duty together and forced herself to try to be patient with her overly nice, and slightly naïve friend.
"You've asked that same question seven times today", she groaned as they both climbed into the spacious tent and onto their light green sleeping bags, "and I still don't have an answer. Will you please give it a rest?"
"Sorry", Flora mumbled, letting her hair fall over her emerald eyes, "It's just that, I don't know what to do, now that the war is over an' all"
"You along with the rest of the world", replied Musa bitterly.
The bitterness in her voice shocked Flora into silence. She'd never heard so much venom in her friend's voice, no even during the war. This realization scared Flora and caused tears to form in her usually bright eyes.
Musa looked at her weeping friend and mentally slapped herself. Why did she always have to hurt her friends, intentionally or not? Sure, she'd gone through a hard time, but so had everyone else. Musa had almost no control over her emotions, and she hated herself for it. Normally, Musa would have apologized, but it had been a long day, and she was too tired for apologies.
"I'll tell her I'm sorry after dinner", she told herself.
The two stared into space for a few minutes, unsure of what to say next, and began to reflect on what had happened in the last few days. It had all happened so fast. One moment, it looked as if the Resistance had no hope of winning against the powerful Trix sisters, and next, the entire war is over and the rebuilding has already started. Musa got dizzy just thinking about it. The Trix Sisters were gone, true, but so were many other Resistance members. Everyone had at least one thing wrong with themselves as a result of this war.
Musa herself hadn't escaped without some scrapes and bruises. The worst thing was the fact that she couldn't feel her right arm, not at all. You know how you sometimes wake up and you realize that you've slept on your arm, and now you can't feel or move it? Imagine that on a long-term scale. The doctor had informed her that it was only temporary. Musa really hoped so. Until the feeling in her arm came back, she wore it in a sling, where it jiggled sickly with Musa's movements.
Sky had lost his left leg when a piece of steel had fallen off a collapsing building and struck him. As soon as he was out of the hospital, he would be taking over command of the Resistance.
Tecna was in the hospital, due to a rock that had flown at her, courtesy of a tornado from Stormy, and hit her in the back. If she ever got out, she'd be paralyzed from the waist down.
Stella and Brandon missing in action. They'd run back to Alfea when the Final Battle started to get the refugees and injured to a safe haven. Two hours later, Alfea was bombed and destroyed. Musa and Flora had yet to find the bodies of them and their refugees dead or alive yet.
Helia was MIA as well, but no one cared about him. Why would you search for the dead body of a traitor after all? Yes, who would have guessed that in then end, Helia would betray them all? It all happened in the middle of the Final Face-Off. Flora had been pinned by her leg under a rock from Stormy. That's when Helia showed up. Flora had cried out for his help, but all Helia did was go up to Stormy and give her a kiss on the cheek and whisper, "Hello, dear. Am I too late?" He left with the witches and the Resistance hadn't seen him since.
As a consequence of that day, Flora lost part her leg. The bone was shattered from where the rock had crushed it and the break was so bad, that even magic could not have fixed it. The surgeons had cut off the leg just below the knee and replaced it with a metal rod that had a ball at the bottom for walking. Flora didn't seem that distressed about it. "Whatever happens, will have to happen", she'd said when Musa had asked her how she was feeling. Musa still wasn't sure whether or not she was referring to her missing leg or Helia.
Timmy had lost both of his hands in a freak computer accident. Musa couldn't help but feel a little bit responsible for the whole ordeal, because she was the one who'd asked Timmy to look up something on his computer when this had all happened. Then again, how could she have known that Darcy had hexed the computer to explode when touched? How had Darcy even been able to hex it?
Layla had gone a bit -how do I put this lightly- crazy. Who would have guessed that the toughest member of their group was afraid of blood? She could handle small doses, such as paper cuts, but anything over that was asking for trouble. Unfortunately, wars have lots and lots of blood. And where is there the most blood, besides the hospital? The battlefield. And where was Layla assigned to? The battlefield. Layla had lasted pretty well up until the Final Face-Off, but that was when she finally snapped. She'd been standing next to a Red Fountain graduate and talking battle tactics with him, when Darcy took his head clean off. Layla was still in the mental ward recovering from that experience.
Riven was gone, dead from an ice arrow (a specialty of Icy's) to the head two weeks before the Final Face-Off between the Trix and Resistance. They'd buried him right next to what was left of the levi-bike racetracks. They'd chosen a place right where Musa and Riven used to sit and have lunch on the weekends during her Junior Year. During the funeral, she could have sworn she felt him standing next to her, and she was pretty sure that she heard him talking to her about racing tactics with the same enthusiasm he used to have.
But the biggest loss was the loss of the Resistance's beloved Leader, Mascot, Mother, Friend, and Keeper of the Dragon Fire. Musa still couldn't believe that Bloom was gone. Bloom had always been a part of her life at Alfea and now that she was gone, there seemed to be a gaping hole in her already wounded heart.
And if that wasn't enough, it was all her fault that Bloom never returned from the prison camp. Why hadn't she gone back for her sooner? Musa closed her eyes as the painful memories came back.
(Flashback, May 25, 2007. One week before the Final Face-Off)
"Musa, look out!" Bloom cried as she knocked the be-wildered girl to the ground. Seconds later, an energy shock from Stormy flew over their heads. If Bloom hadn't gotten her out of the way, Musa's head would have been taken off.
"Thanks", Musa said gratefully as she got up and dusted her armored bodysuit off. (AN. For those of you that read Collide, yes I do have an obsession with killing Bloom and bodysuits)
Musa didn't really like the bodysuit, but now that the Trix and Resistance were at war, plain old Winx Forms just would not cut it.
"Who's stupid idea was it to have these suits made?" Musa called over the sound of the battle to Bloom.
"Timmy", Bloom yelled back, "along with several other technician-majors" after a slight pause, Bloom yelled again, "They're much more protective than sparkling belly shirts and micro-mini skirts, anyway".
"But they're black!" Musa whined, "and black is SO not our color! And the little slits in the back for our wings are NOT comfortable!"
"Yeah", Bloom agreed, "and they don't allow as much flexibility as the original Winx Forms did, huh. Then again, it's better then having a hole in your chest because you don't have anything protecting you from the Trix's blasts" Musa couldn't find any argument for that.
People who overhead this conversation probably would have been outraged. They were in the middle of a battle for their lives, and their leader and a soldier were talking about fashion! But the girls didn't talk about fashion for fun, oh no. They did it to calm themselves down. They did it to remind themselves of a time when fashion had been their top priority, and that, for some strange reason, comforted and calmed them. It was like when a nurse asked a hospital patient to describe his family while they were doing some tests. It was their outlet, a way to help collect themselves.
Suddenly, Bloom jerked her head to the right, where she noticed a young fairy trying to fight off a rather large imp. Bloom gave a short goodbye nod to Musa and then flew off to help out the unfortunate girl.
Musa looked around her as the battle progressed. Everywhere, there were fairies flying and blasting, specialists hacking away, imps clawing, and the Trix firing away. She heard screams of pain and triumph everywhere and there was no blocking it out. The noise was rapidly giving Musa a headache, so she started to hum a tune to blot out the worst of the sound.
"Nana Na Nannaana, Nanna Na Nanaana", she hummed to herself with growing volume (AN: Ok, think of the song she had everyone do during Magic in My Heart). Slowly, the music completely blotted out any sound and allowed Musa to think. She knew that at any second that her guard was down she could be blasted at by a Trix sister or be slashed by a flying, black, monkey-shaped, imp, but at the moment she didn't really care.
Things had been so painful for the past week. Everything had been painful since Riven had passed on. Sure, he'd been rough around the edges, and sure he'd had an ego the size of Red Fountain, but she had loved him with all of her heart, and he had loved her back with the same intensity, possibly more.
Like everything else, it had happened so fast. One second he was telling her how to kill an imp quickest, and the next he was pushing her out of the way of an ice arrow.
She could still feel his dead body, still warm, slumped against her stunned frame. She could feel the hot blood mixed with brain pouring out onto her bodysuit. She could only hear her own shouts of pain and sorrow despite the fact that a very epic battle was happening around her. She could still see his eyes staring into space, blank of any emotion at all. For a second, there had been no one else left in the world, but Musa and Riven.
Musa missed him so bad, and she felt so guilty and alone. She wishes so, so hard that…
Suddenly, Musa was forced out of her daydream with a loud yell, a bang, pain, and then complete darkness.
(End flashback)
Musa sighed loudly and shifted into a comfortable position, as the memory finished. The pain had been caused by a particularly bad blast from Darcy. When Musa had woken up three days later, things really got interesting.
(Flashback May 28th, 2007 four days before the Final Face-Off)
Black. That was all Musa could see. She was swimming in pain. She felt a hard, cool, surface under her.
'I'm asleep on a really uncomfortable floor', Musa realized. She shifted slightly, into a more comfortable position and went back to sleep.
"Musa", a voice whispered weakly in the distance, "Musa, wake up". Musa involuntarily groaned. Why the hell should she wake up? Everything hurt really badly, and she had the worst feeling of nausea. No way was she waking up! Not for anyone. No way, no sir, no how. But the voice became louder and louder, plus someone began to shake her. The shaking was really making her sore and the nausea was getting a lot worse.
"Fine", she muttered, "I'm up. I'm up darn it! WILL YOU STOP SHAKING ME!" Immediately, the hand that had been desperately trying to wake her stopped and was replaced by two hands wrapped around her in a tight hug.
"Stop…hugging…hurting…ribs…can't…breath", Musa gasped out as the hugger pulled her into a sitting position and she opened her eyes. A bushel of bright red hair greeted her.
'Only one girl I know has that shade of hair', Musa thought to herself. "Bloom…you're…hurting…me", Musa was able to grit out aloud. Instantly, the hug's grip slackened. Musa struggled to breath normally again, as the hugger, who was indeed Bloom, fussed over her.
"Musa", she gasped, "I'm so sorry! I didn't know that my grip was so strong"
"I'm fine", Musa grumbled as she rubbed her sore ribs. They would be so bruised in the morning, if they weren't already.
Musa took a moment to look at her surroundings. Concrete looking walls surrounded them on all four sides, no windows or cracks anywhere, with a door of the same material directly in front of her. The floor was smooth and cold and very uncomfortable. There was a toilet in the far corner of the room, but that was about all the furniture the room held. Musa knew exactly where they were.
"We're in one of the Trix's prison camps", Musa whispered wide eyed, "I think this one is Darcy's". Not many people came out of these places alive. But wait, that didn't make sense. Why did the Trix take them here? Why hadn't they killed them?
"I think they want to toy with us before we die", Bloom stated matter-of-factly, as if to read Musa's mind. The Trix would torture them until they died. Yippee. That sounded really fun. Musa looked over at Bloom, who was playing with her shoulder-length hair. Wait a second; Bloom didn't have shoulder-length hair!
"Bloom, what happened to your hair?" Musa asked. Bloom would never cut her hair, it was her crowning glory!
"One of the imps came in when I got here and cut it all off to humiliate me", Bloom said lightly, "I think it worked".
Out of nowhere, probably out of hysteria, Bloom began to laugh. Her laugh became louder until she abruptly stopped, gasped painfully, and clutched her side. Musa immediately grasped Bloom's wrist and pulled it away from her side to see what was causing her friend so much pain. What greeted her eyes was horrible. Running along Bloom's stomach was a wide, ugly, dark purple gnash. Musa gasped.
"Don't tell me an imp slashed you!" she cried fearfully. Bloom nodded her head to confirm a great fear of Musa's.
"Yeah", Bloom said sadly, "That imp I helped fight off was able to get one in on me"
"But the poison in the imp's claws will kill you in a week", Musa shrieked as tears crawled down her face. She couldn't believe that her leader would die in such a short time.
"It's four days, actually", Bloom corrected, "You were asleep for three days"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, FOUR DAYS!"
"Hush!" Bloom soothed, "That's not important. Listen, I think I know how to get up out of here!"
"What?" Musa sniffled, her interest peeked, "How can we escape?"
"Simple", Bloom replied with a smile, "I'll give you The Dragon Fire!"
(End Flashback)
"Musa!" Flora yelled from outside the tent, "Musa, could you come out for a minute?" Musa shook herself from her daydream and went out of the tent. She hadn't even realized Flora had gotten up!
"What's up, Flo?" Musa asked as she reached Flora, who was looking off into the distance with a puzzled expression on her face.
"Musa", Flora began, carefully choosing her words, "You said Bloom's dead, right?"
"Uh-huh", Musa nodded, annoyed that her friend would bring up a topic that was really sensitive to Musa, "Why, do you want me to magically produce her body as evidence!" This time, Flora was not fazed by Musa's bitterness.
"Well", she continued on smoothly, pointing into the horizon, "If Bloom is dead, then who, may I ask, is that?"
TBC……
I bet you all hate me now! Hurray for enemies!
Flames are accepted, but they will be given to the Red Squirrel Army in order to torch the Head Quarters of EVIL CHIPMUNKS OF DOOM! Join the cause. Send a flame.
(Special note for my readers)
All right, my Red Squirrel Army and I have talked this over, and we've decided to reward all my reviewers! And how will I do this? I will let you join my Red Squirrel Army, of course! And you will all be ranked! Cool huh?
First off, I am the General of the Red Squirrel Army, K?
Second, as Colonels, are my two other members of the Hawk Trio, my awesome beta, Hawk-EVB, and my talented illustrator, Hawk-Pichu!
Third, as a Major, is the excellent, funny, and wonderfully nice to me author, ChibiHorsewoman! And my brainy, anonymous, strange, yet awesome friend, DragonLover G-T!
Fourth, as Captains, are the crazy, yet talented authors, Xeedgulimon, musagirl15, and, purplenova823. I love your stories, guys!
Fifth, as Lieutenants, are the crafty authors whose stories I die to read, luckyroze20, and clueless97. And as well as the anonymous, but sweet G-Queen, FAIRY gal, not saying my name, Kira, and samemopinkwinx!
The rest of you that don't review you're still in the army, you are just the Janitors! But I appreciate you reading all the same.
Note: This is not meant to affect your reviews, or whether or not you review. I just wanted a fun way to show my appreciation to my wonderful reviewers! Now, my Red Squirrel Army, WE SHALL DEFEAT THE CHIPMUNKS OF DOOM!