A/N: Sorry for the bit of the wait loves! Hope this chapter makes up for it! Make sure to give me your love and thoughts on the way out! XOXOX!

Chapter 8

Cloud Tower: a tall, dark spire rising into the storm clouds above like a threatening monolith. Cloud Tower with only one way in or out - the main bridge that crossed a chasm so deep no one could see the bottom. Cloud tower surrounded by weather was so fickle and so unwelcoming, most turned back before they reached the front doors. Cloud Tower, the place where the most ruthless and powerful of witches went to study.

For such a formidable fortress, Bloom thought it would have better security.

It was surprisingly easy for them to use their fairy forms and simply fly in one of the top windows. They didn't even have to use the front doors, bypassing any kind of formal security measures, which was good seeing as though they were trespassing with the intent to rob. Well, more like take something back that was robbed from Stella. The morality of it all evened out in the end. Of course, Faragonda didn't know they were there; it was better that way. She would never have agreed to this, and that was something Bloom could not accept.

The girls crept through the dark, dank hallways slowly, using one of the torches that lined the stone walls as a guide. This place was a maze. How did the witches even know where they were going? Did they run into one another, blind as bats in these corridors? Or was it lighter in the daytime? Somehow, Bloom didn't care to find out. She wanted to get the ring and get the hell out before things got any more creepy. But it wasn't the school itself that was creeping her out; it was how her body was responding to the cold and the dark, as if she were comfortable in this kind of atmosphere. The thought was disturbing, so she shook it off, content to keep searching down each new doorway for some kind of signal that they were headed in the right direction.

"Are we there yet?" Stella whined, only to be immediately shushed by Musa.

These walls echoed, and badly. No doubt if Stella had spoken any louder, they would have been discovered.

Thankfully, a few more feet down and they approached an opening to what looked like a common room. It was a wide open space with a roaring fire on the back wall surrounded by dark velvet furniture and shelves of old, worn out books. All that were missing were the coffins and they would have a full-out gothic horror theme going on, Bloom thought.

"I think this is it," Bloom said, though there was nothing that let her know for sure. "Stella, put out your locator charm."

The blonde girl nodded and let out a soft blast of magic. The golden mist started to congeal and then move, the girls following it through a series of rooms before it passed through a locked door. Tecna took over and took down the barrier, and when the door opened, the golden mist was waiting for them.

They were definitely in the right place, Bloom thought. The room had three beds in it, one in each of the colors of the witches who had stole the ring. The space itself was bare and dark like the rest of the rooms, full only of texts, supplies, and a large black cauldron in the center. Truly, the witches were as gloomy in their personal lives as they were on the battlefield. At least they were true to their characters.

The girls broke up and scoured every part of the room. However, it was Bloom who came across the ring tucked away in a jewelry box in one of the witches' vanity drawers.

"I got it!" Bloom announced, drawing the rest of the girls in.

"Come to Mama!" Stella cried, extending her finger for Bloom to slip the familiar jewel into place. Once it was back where it belonged, she kissed the ring and spun in a circle. Truly, she was something else.

Bloom went to shut the jewelry box and put it away. However, as she tucked the box back into the corner, an open book on the desk caught her attention. She was still new to the realm of spells and incantations, but on first looks, this stuff did not seem good. There were long strings of harsh looking symbols followed by pictures of terrible, malformed creatures. They were the color of blood with fangs and claws and features that would send anyone running. And the numbers they were part of, just in the picture, seemed unimaginable. Just what were these witches planning?

"Guys, look at this," Bloom said, and she passed around the book.

"What is it?" Flora asked, fear lacing her words as she ran a hand over the page.

"The Army of Decay," Tecna read off the page, her fingers already flying over her portable computer as she looked up as much information as she could get her hands on.

"Whatever it is looks disgusting," Stella wrinkled her nose and frowned.

"My records are not showing any information on this so called army," Tecna replied, puzzled. "Perhaps we should take this to the Headmistress and have her take a look at it. She is quite knowledgable."

The girls looked at each other and shrugged. It was their best bet. Musa laid the book down and ripped out the page about the Army of Decay, tucking it into her skirt for safekeeping.

"We should leave before someone notices we're here," Musa said, looking around the space suspiciously.

Bloom nodded in agreement. This had been too easy. They hadn't come across as single witch their entire time at the school, and their luck was bound to change sooner rather than later.

The girls put everything back where they found it - minus the ring of course - and left the way they came. This time, however, as they reached the window they came in from, a huge group of witches was walking their way. They were all talking and laughing, clearly distracted enough not to notice the five fairies invading their home. The girls ran in the opposite direction, only to almost run into another group of witches.

"What is going on?" Flora asked nervously.

"They must've had a meeting or a meal or something and are coming back for the night," Bloom guessed, the most rational thing she could think of as to why the whole school's worth of witches chose this moment to show up.

"Come on! There's some stairs back here," Musa called from a few feet over, waving everyone her way. "Hurry! We can find another way out."

The girls nodded, barely missing the meeting of the two groups of witches as they scrambled down the stairs. They went a few flights down before jumping out into the next hall, thankfully finding it empty. There, they continued their journey, this one leading them straight into the library. The library was a huge, sprawling catacomb with rows upon rows of impossibly tall shelves of books. Who knew witches read so much? The girls maneuvered their way around the rows, careful not to bump anything on their way. Bloom passed rows and rows of potions in a myriad of colors and artifacts all encased in glass boxes as if too dangerous to touch. It was all so strange and interesting. She wanted to know more, she wanted to explore this part of magic though she knew that that wasn't acceptable for a fairy.

Bloom strayed from the path of the other girls - not like they had much of a path in the first place - curiosity taking over. She roamed over books with symbols she had never seen: a series of four eye-shaped stones converged as one, a fancy cursive V with two circles behind it, a ring with four thorns, and so many more. The power of the tomes sung to her, calling out to her power. Why couldn't the other girls hear this?

One book sung out to her more than the others: a large volume perched on a pedestal. It was closed, the words on the cover too far away for Bloom to decipher. As she got closer, she realized that it was not words on the cover, but letters. Five letters that spelled out her name.

Bloom.

Her heart rate picked up, pulse hammering under her skin.

Why did a book in Cloud Tower, the school for witches, have a book on her, a fairy? Was there a book for everyone in this vast collection? Why was her book out in the open for anyone to see? Was someone doing research on her? Was there something she was meant to see about herself? Could this book hold the answers to who she really was, and why strange things always seemed to happen around her? Could it explain the strange behaviors, the red in her vision, the claws and the darkness of her transformation? All of these possibilities were overwhelming, drawing her to the book.

It wasn't until she was at the pedestal, hand reaching to open the cover, that she realized that this was too coincidental. That this might be a trap.

Of course by then it was too late. She had pulled open the book to the first page, dust motes filling the air and igniting it into flame.

Bloom screamed.

"Bloom! What did you do?" Musa shouted as the library shook, fire sweeping the area at a frightening speed.

"I didn't mean to!" Bloom insisted, but it was too late for apologies. They had to focus on surviving now.

The fire was consuming everything in its wake, but not burning it. Magical fire then, Bloom surmised. It would not harm Cloud Tower, but the stinging, overwhelming heat was very real. It will hurt us, Bloom concluding, her lungs burning as she pushed herself to fly faster. It was impossible for her to go any quicker, but the flames were catching up, snapping at her feet, threatening to pull her in and cook her alive. Terror coursed through her veins. This was not the way she wanted to die. She had so much more left to do - her parents to save, her friends to make proud, a whole life to live that didn't end at the ripe young age of sixteen.

Bloom, came an ethereal feminine voice. Bloom spun around, desperate to find the source. Was it the book calling to her again?

Bloom, follow me, the voice continued, and suddenly there was a path cleared through the fire, the flames curling and spinning around to create a tunnel for the girls to fly safely through. At the end of that tunnel was a golden masked woman radiating power. Her arms beckoned Bloom towards her, puling her in.

"Do you guys see her?" Bloom asked, pointing to the end of the tunnel.

"See who?" Tecna asked, confused as she squinted through smoke and flame.

"Come on! Let's go," Musa cried as she led the way through the tunnel.

They barely made it, fire nipping at the heels of the girls as they pushed through to the end. The tunnel had led them to a window which they wasted no time jumping out. Just in time as well, the flames flooding through the rest of the corridor right where they were standing.

As Bloom flew away, she turned her head back to the school. All signs of fire were gone, as were all signs of the golden woman.

"The nerve you girls have is unacceptable!" Headmistress Faragonda shouted, her fist connecting with her desk. She was already half an hour into her lecture, and the girls were beginning to lose patience. They had been sitting in the Headmistress' office since the moment they stepped foot back onto campus, caught red handed by the ex-fairy godmother herself and practically dragged into her office by their ears. Now, even Miss Griselda was looking weary. There was only so much one could take. "I have half a mind to expel you all effective immediately!"

"Headmistress, perhaps you are being a bit too hard on the girls," Miss Griselda tried to intervene. When the head disciplinarian of the school said someone was being to harsh, then she was probably being too harsh.

However, the Headmistress simply narrowed her eyes and peered down a the girls shrewdly. "Give me one good reason why I should let you stay here at Alfea."

"We found this in the witches' room," Musa said, handing over the page from the book. "It was in a spell book left open by the ring."

"Our hypothesis was that they needed Stella's ring to enact some kind of ancient ritual to awaken something called the Army of Decay," Tecna explained.

For the first time in half an hour, Faragonda went quiet. In fact, her face paled, her lips thinned, and she had to sit down. She and Griselda poured over the page, exchanging worried glances. Whatever this was seemed even worse than they originally thought.

"You've heard of it, haven't you?" Bloom surmised, earning a tired glare from the Headmistress.

"Unfortunately," Faragonda replied slowly, pinching the bridge of her nose. "This is far worse than I had originally thought."

"It seems as though we have underestimated these witches' ambition," Miss Griselda mused darkly.

"Griffin must not be aware of what her students are up to. She would never allow such perversion of magic," the Headmistress thought out loud, folding her fingers under her chin.

"Anyone care to clue us in?" Stella asked, raising her hand as if this were class.

"In order to summon the Army of Decay one needs the power of the Dragon Flame, which they must have thought resided in your ring Miss Stella," the Headmistress explained, gesturing to the ring.

"That is impossible. The Dragon Flame was lost during the fall of the planet Sparks," Tecna spoke up, strong in her convictions. From the looks of the rest of the girls, it seemed as though they believed that as well.

"That is the belief of some, not of all," Faragonda said. "Clearly, the ring does not house The Flame, as there is no army ravaging the streets of Magix."

"Now what will they do?" Stella asked, wringing her ring around her finger worriedly. "Are they going to come back for the ring?"

"I doubt they would waste their time on something that does not work. More than likely they will go and seek out a new source, some other object of great power that could provide them with what they need."

"But what exactly is the Army of Decay?" Bloom asked, still confused.

"Nothing you need concern yourself with any longer," Faragonda replied stiffly, standing to dismiss the girls. "We have the pages of the rituals. Miss Stella is now in repossession of her ring. I will alert Headmistress Griffin to the activities of her students. All shall be sorted. Now, go back and get some rest. You must be exhausted, and you will need your energy for all the detention you will be serving over the next few weeks."

The girls all groaned but did as they were told, filing out of Headmistress Faragonda's office less than pleased or satisfied with the answers they had received. As they left, Bloom could hear the Headmistress and Griselda talking quietly amongst themselves in hushed tones. Bloom frowned, but kept on walking.

Whatever was going on, there was something the Headmistress wasn't telling them.

"THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING!" the ice witch screamed, throwing her jewelry box against the wall, breaking the antiquated wood in to splinters. It was not the first victim of her rage, pillow torn to pieces and furniture lying in shambles at her feet. Of course, one wave of her hand and she could fix it all. It was therapeutic to break things. It helped express her rage.

"Icy, we need to think of a new plan," the witch in purple said carefully as not to incite her sister's rage.

"Those little fairies stole the pages," she seethed, fists clenched so tight that her sharp, pointed nails cut little half moons into her palms. "Without those incantations we are as lost as we were when we first started out on this quest."

"We will get them back," the poofy haired witch ensured her sister. "What are a few measly fairies compared to us?"

"THEY'VE ONLY MANAGED TO BE A THORN IN MY SIDE!" Icy roared, sending spears of ice her sister's way, causing the girl to duck for cover.

"There is something we can do! We can lure them here," the purple witch continued with the idea and ran, hoping something would sound pleasing to her sister. "The red head - she triggered the failsafe in the library when they were here. Something must have caught her eye. If we can find a way to bring her back to us..."

"...we can hex her and make her bring us what we want," Icy latched onto the plan, feeling more like her evil self.

"I've always wanted a fairy slave," the poofy haired witch cackled.

"Darcy, take us to the library," Icy instructed the purple witch, who got up from her reclined position to created a portal. "Time to see what our little friend was reading."

The three witches walked through through portal into the library. It looked untouched, the fire not harming a single thing. They backtracked the magic to the source of the fire: a single book upon a nondescript pedestal. Strangely enough, the book was from the restricted section, a place full of strange tomes and magic. The cover of the book had the red headed girl's name on the front in big golden letters. Icy and her sisters frowned. Most creatures in the Magical Dimension barely get a footnote in the scope of history, nonetheless a whole tome dedicated to them.

Just who was this girl?

Darcy snapped her fingers, breaking the fire charm for the time being. They would replace it when they were done, but right now, they were doing some extensive research. Icy reached forward and opened the book to the front page. Immediately they were pulled into her history, shown impossible, incredible things. Immediately, they knew exactly who this Bloom was and exactly how powerful she could be. More than that, they knew exactly how much use she could be to them.

"No, it can't be..." Icy trailed off as the history stopped, completely shocked but enthralled by the possibilities of what they had just uncovered.

"Right in front of our eyes..." the poofy haired witch continued, staring at her sisters disbelievingly

"...In our grasp this whole time..." Darcy picked up, running a hand through her hair.

"Sisters, do you realize what this means?" Icy asked, empowered. "It means that the end is in sight. We are so close to getting what we've always wanted."

"I can practically taste the power," the poofy haired witch said, mania creeping in.

"Calm yourself Stormy, there is still work to be done," Icy quieted her excitable sister. "We will have to make sure this information is accurate, of course. Find some way to confirm it for ourselves."

"The Day of the Rose is coming up soon. Feel like making a scene?" Darcy asked, a mischievous glint in her bespectacled eyes.

"I love the way you think," Icy praised and Darcy smirked with pride.

"Once we know for sure, we can expose her, turn her friends against her. We can send her running straight to us," Stormy jumped to the end, already high off of the thought of victory. It was hard for Icy and Darcy not to feel it as well. Everything seemed to be coming together better than they ever could have dreamed.

"We would still need the ritual," Icy said.

"Leave that to me," Darcy insisted, placing a hand on Icy's shoulder. "I have something special planned."

Icy nodded her consent and turned back to the book, running her hand appreciatively over the cover. It was as if something from above had delivered them this book in their time of need. Delivered them the perfect opportunity to take what was rightly theirs and rule over the Magical Dimension just as their ancestors had intended.

"Funny. I was thinking of hexing this book to show our little friend a terrible fate, but the truth..." Icy trailed off, devious laughter lacing her words. "...the truth is so much worse."