I'm not dead! It's been, like, a year, so I'm sorry about that, y'all. Here's the Brella chapter that you guys have been waiting for.
I dropped my head down onto the metal bar in front of me, looking down at my legs dangling off of the platform. I had really liked Ismail, so breaking up with him had hurt more than I thought it would. I looked down at the phone in my hand and wondered if I should call him, take it all back, get him back. I didn't.
I heard Brandon's footsteps before I felt him sit beside me. I stared at his feet, dangling off the platform beside mine as we perched on the edge of this massive dome. I knew we had to talk, and I knew the conversation was too heavy for this early in the morning. Still, we had to.
"Why didn't you come back?" I asked, rolling my head to the side so I could look up at him with my cheek pressed against the bar. He leaned back on his hands and looked up at the new sky with a world-weary sigh.
"I did come back."
"A few years too late," I said, lifting my head to rest it on my folded arms, looking out at the sun rising over the barrier mountains. "You know, we came back."
"Hmm?"
"When time was up, we came back to Magix with the kids, all of us," I explained. "We went to Red Fountain and Codatorta said-"
I stopped talking so that I wouldn't start crying. Taking a deep breath, I went on.
"Codatorta said you wouldn't be coming back in the foreseeable future because you had 'grown attached' to your new lives," I said. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw him open his mouth to protest, so I clarified, "His words, not mine."
Brandon grimaced. I looked back out at the pink and orange sky, blinking back tears.
"I wish I could tell you, Stella," he began and I groaned before he could finish. He hurriedly continued, "But I can't until this threat has been neutralized."
"You should have never gone without us," I said, sitting up and turning to him. "The Winx Club and the Specialists are a team. That's the only reason our relationship worked; we did everything together so there were never any secrets between us."
Tears welled up in his beautiful eyes. He leaned forward and I did too until our foreheads touched and we were staring down at our hands, only an inch apart. One of his tears hit my pinky finger.
"I know and I'm sorry."
The tears I had been blinking back had begun to cloud my vision and stream down my face.
"I loved you so much, Brandon."
"I know, I know, I'm so sorry."
I began to really cry then, leaning my forehead further onto his for support. It was all too much and we both were so hurt by the other. Then he began to lean in.
I shot back and stared at him bewildered.
Awkwardly, especially with all the tears, I said slowly, "I'm not going to kiss you..."
He dropped his head into his hands and started sobbing outright.
"I can't do this anymore, Stella!"
"Then you never should have left!" I shouted back, standing to my feet. I was suddenly hyper-aware of how high up we were and I pressed my back against the dome.
"This is bullshit!" Brandon argued, turning around where he sat to glare at me with his red, blotchy eyes. "Helia and Flora got back together!"
"Because Flora never learned how to guard her heart! I did!" I shot back, feeling a little guilty as soon as I said it. He fell silent, so I turned on my heel and walked away.
As I opened the porthole in the side of the dome, I heard him quietly say behind me, "I wish you never had."
The inside of the dome was unbelievably cold, especially for a Solarian fairy. I rubbed the goosebumps off of my arms and walked the inner platform in search of my kids. Looking over the railing, I could see Tecna warily watching Eddie as Timmy showed him around the lab. Those two always got up so early, as opposed to my twins who only ever slept in.
Up ahead, Flora and Helia were chatting, low and quiet as they leaned their backs against the railing. They smiled when they saw me and I gave them a princess smile in return before hurrying to the little study pod that I had been assigned.
Lilly and Artie were curled around each other in the bed, legs tangled uncomfortably and hands knotted in each other's hair. I smile and sat on the bed beside them, smiling down at my babies. They were older now, but I still only saw those little swaddled infants when I saw them. Dragon, this is gonna be hard.
"Lilly, Artie, wake up."
I shook them gently. Lilly blinked awake but her brother stayed asleep. He was always my little night owl.
"Artemio," I whispered in his ear, kissing his cheeks until he woke up giggling. When he finally opened his honey yellow eyes, I saw myself reflected in them and smiled again. Lilly sat up and hoisted her brother up with her.
"I have something to tell you, darlings," I said tentatively, brushing Lilly's messy brown hair away from the apple of her cheeks. "Do you know where we are?"
They looked to each other, a silent exchange passing between their eyes, before turning back to me and shrugging in unison.
"Well, this place is called Magix. It's actually a different planet than Earth, very far away."
Lilly picked her teeth as Artie asked, "So... we're in space?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Oh, cool."
I breathed a sigh of relief. This was going much better than I thought it would.
"Also..." I gauged their tiny faces to make sure they were ready for the big reveal, "magic is real."
"Magic?" Lilly asked after a beat. Artie just stared at me confused.
I swirled my hand, pulling in the sunlight streaming through the window to make a shining ball of light. The twins gasped and reached out to touch it, laughing with delight when it didn't burn them.
Lilly swirled her hand like I had and tried to replicate my magic, but it didn't work. She kept on trying insistently until I laughed and said, "Not yet, darling. But one day."
The rest of the day flew by in a blur of introducing my kids to all the magic they'd been denied on Earth. With every happy shriek and giggle, I bit-by-bit forgot my encounter with Brandon that morning. That is, until later that day.
"Do it again!" Tess cheered.
I smiled and raised both my hands, one extended to the setting sun and the other reaching out the rising moon.
"Get ready!" I warned. "This is gonna be fabulous!"
Tess and the twins screamed excitedly as I pulled the sunlight and moonlight together into a swirling orb of orange and blue magic. Even once the sun had set, the orb was lighting up the driveway of MagixLabs, where Musa and I had taken our kids to show off what little magic we still knew.
"And check this out!" Musa added before blowing air into the orb. There was a song in her breath that bounced around the ball of light, echoing like a boombox. The kids cheered as Lilly and Tess started to dance, but all I could see was Brandon walking down the steps of MagixLabs.
I didn't realize I'd lost control of the orb until all the happy screaming was replaced with terrified screaming. Brandon came sprinting over as waves of light and music bounced all over the driveway, leaving scorch marks in their wake. Lilly pushed her twin over in her mad dash to get away from the light and Tess was chasing after the waves, not a care in the world. Musa, meanwhile, was trying to catch her daughter and then there was Brandon.
Brave, loyal Brandon, taking out his phantoblade to bat all the rays of magic into the sky. By the time he'd caught the last one, I hadn't even moved an inch. I could only gawk as he saved the day, as if we were teenagers again. That teenager in me begged me to run to him and wrap him in my arms. I fought her back with all the remaining willpower, but when he ran over and gently asked if I was okay, it shattered something in me. Probably my heart again.
My eyes searched his, begging him to give me a reason not to kiss him right then and there. He couldn't give me one. Thankfully, I heard my son start to cry from behind him.
"Hey, angel, you're alright," I said as I crouched beside Artie, whose knee was lightly skinned. I wracked my brain for a healing spell, but none came. Feeling Brandon's eyes on my back, I scooped Artie up and called for Lillie.
Nearby, Musa had finally caught Tess and said, "And that's why we don't play with magic."
"Nice one."
"Thanks," she replied as we walked back into the lab. "Is Artie okay?"
"Yeah, he's a brave boy," I said, squeezing him a little tighter as his cries faded to whimpers. "He just got a little scrape."
"That's going to make a great warrior scar," I heard Brandon say behind me. I tensed up, but I didn't let it stop me as I made my way to the medbay for a bandage.
"Really?" Artie asked over my shoulder, voice just as small and gentle as usual.
"Oh, sure! You'll be able to show it off to everyone!"
Lilly, never one to be outshone, piped up, "I have warrior scars!"
"Do you really?" Brandon asked. Musa shot me a look of sympathy as she turned into the slightly burnt lobby where Bloom was lecturing her twins about not playing with fire.
Lilly ran behind me, presumably to show Brandon all her scars. My heart fluttered in my chest, like a bird with a broken wing desperately trying to fly again.
It had never been harder to put the kids to sleep than it was after we introduced them to magic.
"One more time!" Lilly begged. She was bouncing on the bed and I wanted to curse the Great Dragon for ever even creating magic. She normally fell asleep pretty early, but it looked like Artie was rubbing off on her because neither of them was going to sleep anytime soon.
"No more times," Stella affirmed, laying Lilly back down. "It's bedtime."
A shriek from outside told Stella that Vera had run out of Flora's pod again.
"Can I-"
"No. To sleep."
Lilly grumbled, but she curled up beside her brother and closed her eyes.
Stella sat there on the bedside and staring at the wall. Her life played in her eyes like a movie, memories of the girl she had been. She stated that way for hours until Artie started snoring and startled her out of her reveries. Stella realized she had been crying.
Wow, it has been so long, but here is the Brella chapter that y'all have been begging for. I'm glad people still read my fic and get invested. We're in the home stretch! Five chapters and one new transformation left!
I'll see you all in a few years! (Just kidding! ...or am I?)
Love, Ru😘
