As usual I don't own any of the characters. Enjoy the new chapter.
Dark scars
Chapter 4: What happened?
(Realix realm)
Flora watched in horror as Sky swung his sword down to her best friend's neck. Just before he raised his blade she could she the emotions returning into Bloom's eyes. She could see confusion turning from incredulity into fear and desperation.
This was her, her best friend had returned! This was the real Bloom!
And Sky was about to kill her!
A quick look to her other friends showed her that while reluctant they still accepted what Sky was doing. Or rather, they were too afraid to stop him since he looked like an insane maniac right now. But his arm motioning down snapped her back to her immediate task: Saving Bloom!
"No!", she screamed as she swung her arms forward, a vine growing in front of Bloom, just in time to hit the sword and deflecting it from its original path. It smashed into the ground just centimetres next to Bloom's right foot.
"Yes, everything was real."
Bloom's eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fainted. Flora directed her vines to quickly catch her friend before laying her softly on the ground.
She was barely able to discern the words her friend whispered as she fainted. They scared her. What did they mean? What was real? What did Darkar do to her?!
"What is the meaning of this Flora?! Why are you protecting this traitor from her rightful punishment?", Sky yelled at her as he turned around. Flora's expression darkened at his words, rage showing itself on her face.
"Rightful punishment?! What the hell about this is a 'rightful punishment'?! Not even the worst criminals would the killed without a trial, not to mention that Bloom was most probably under a spell!"
Everyone froze at her words.
"W-Wait, wasn't Lockette's kiss completely ineffective?", Musa asked, eyes wide.
"And she was in her normal outfit too!", Layla yelled, she didn't want to believe what she had almost allowed to be done to one of her best friends if what Flora said was true.
"What spell are you thinking of that could have made her act like this?" Techna asked quietly. While she didn't show as much shock at the others the words still sent her mind spiralling just like the others, she just didn't express it as much.
"A puppetry spell." Flora said silently as she made her way towards Bloom, carefully picking up the redhead and cradling her to her chest.
"I am not totally sure yet but I think that is the most likeliest one. We will still have to ask Ms. Faragonda though. After we brought her to the infirmary. Real friends would have realized this." Everyone but Sky, Riven and Helia flinched at these words.
No one protested when they saw her piercing gaze.
"And none, I really mean none of you are going to get anywhere close to her. Understood?!"
Flora asked while she looked at everyone. The girls looked down on the ground and nodded, ashamed of their behaviour towards their friend. Brandon did the same while Riven still looked suspicious and Helia stepped forward to talk to Flora.
"Let me take her, we still don't know if she really was under a spell or not. She could hurt you when she wakes up."
Flora took a big step back when he came closer to her, holding Bloom tighter while she narrowed her eyes at him.
"No way, you were one of those that couldn't seem to wait to kill her. There is absolutely no way that I will let you take her. By the way Helia, be careful what you say the next few days, our relationship right know is on very thin ice, if not over completely."
He paled and took a step backward when he heard her hostile voice. Her head snapped in Sky's direction.
"And as for you, 'Mr. Prince that already broke her heart once', if you value your life even the tiniest bit you will stay far away from her or so help me god I am going to turn you into a flower and sell you to a flower shop."
With those words Flora turned around and marched out through the gate of the Realix realm. She was bombarded with questions by the pixies when she stepped out of the portal. They were concerned for their friend when they saw her lying pale in the arms of Flora.
"She will be alright, Darkar just hit her with a spell." Flora lied, trying to comfort the little pixies. They will learn the truth sooner rather than later and she preferred for Bloom to have some more silence to rest.
The return was quiet inside the ship. No one exchanged a word, they only exchanged glances with each other or looked at Bloom who was still in Flora's arms. Only Sky and Helia looked at her in clear hostility. Sky because he wasn't able to carry out the sword strike on the person he still thought was clearly cooperating with Darkar and Helia was jealous and mad because of Flora's reaction towards him because of Bloom. He too thought she was still guilty and should be in chains at least. For crying out loud, she was one of the strongest fairies in existence!
Riven just sat in his seat, pondering. His reaction towards Bloom was not because he disliked her or something, he was simply overly cautious since he didn't want his friends to be hurt, especially Musa. But he also didn't condone Sky's behaviour.
Flora didn't miss those not so inconspicuous glances the boys were throwing towards Bloom.
"Alright, that's it", she thought, "I am definitely breaking up with Helia."
She had to admit she was kind of glad for this situation. Otherwise she would have never been able to see what a narrowminded and jealous person her (soon-to-be) ex was. And she knew that with her character she would have probably endured any negative signs in their relationship until it was too late.
Closing her eyes to clear her head she opened them again to look down at the girl in her arms. She was pale -too pale- and her fiery locks were sticking to her sweaty skin. Flora already checked her for a fever, but all she could determine was the fact that her friends' heart was racing. She knew it couldn't be healthy but couldn't do anything at the moment.
When they finally arrived back at Alfea after the probably most uncomfortable thirty minutes any of them ever experienced Flora quickly made her way to the medical wing while sending Chatta to get Ms. Faragonda.
She came in only a few minutes later and was shocked at how pale Bloom was.
"Oh my, what happened to Bloom?"
"She was acting weird during our fight with Darkar an-""What do you mean, 'acting weird', she straight up betrayed us for that skeleton!"
Sky interrupted Flora's explanation which earned him a death glare from Flora. Unaffected he continued recounting everything that happened, conveniently leaving out the fact that he almost killed her. Of course Flora wouldn't just let things stay that way and added her own thoughts to the mix. She was obedient to Darkar, yes, but there was a lack of other emotions and recognition in her face and that she was simply… empty.
"Ms. Faragonda, I think that she had been put under the puppetry spell or something similar. I wanted to ask you if you can check what really happened to her."
"Now, first of all, you young man", she pointed to Sky, "are going to leave this room and go back to Red Fountain, along with all the other boys. I will not keep someone in my school that can't even show the slightest bit of mercy to his former girlfriend and almost killed one of my students. Now!" She added the last word with emphasis when he wanted to open his mouth in protest. Unwilling but forced he grumbled and made his way out of the infirmary.
"Alright Flora, I am going to check for any traces of the puppetry spell now. This requires me to scan her mind since this spell takes the mind of the victim and compresses it in a way before locking it away in the depths of the puppet's mind, inaccessible for any outside interference, which would include a bonded pixies kiss. This procedure can be very uncomfortable so I will need you to hold Bloom down until I am done."
Flora nodded nervously and sat down on the bed and hugging Bloom tightly while not hurting her. Ms. Faragonda put her hands on Bloom's temples and closed her eyes. The hands started glowing and Flora could feel Bloom's quick heartbeat pounding in her chest. She quickly started to move, clearly showing discomfort before whimpering and struggling with a lot of power. Flora strained to hold her still, pressing her arms with the redhead even closer to her.
The struggling stopped after Ms. Faragonda removed her hands with a grim expression. Flora and the remaining Winx members looked anxiously at their headmistress. They knew from her expression that they will not like the result of her examination at all.
"Bloom was indeed put under a puppetry spell. But that is not all. Added to locking up her mind somewhere and replacing it with a puppet personality he was apparently … torturing her as well. Her mind is in complete disarray and radiating a lot of pain."
Everyone present drew in a sharp breath at her words, they didn't want to believe that Darkar would do something this cruel to their friend. But then again they could believe it since he was the evil incarnate and all. The fight was more than enough indication for his sadistic side.
Stella raised her voice, it was trembling. "Uhm, headmistress, d-do you know w-what exactly he d-did to her?"
Faragonda shook her head. "Sadly I do not. What I do know is that our Bloom here needs plenty of rest, so we should leave her alone to recover. But one of you should stay in case she wakes up. She shouldn't be alone when she wakes up."
The Winx nodded before Flora shooed them out, clearly indicating that she would not allow anyone else to stay near the friend they almost allowed to get killed by her ex-boyfriend.
Flora sat down on a chair next to Blooms bed and gently tucked her under the covers after switching her clothes to her PJs with a snap of her finger.
(Alfea's infirmary, three days later)
Flora looked down sadly at her friend, still pale and sleeping. If Faragonda hadn't told her that her body was fine she would have been worried sick as she laid there unchanging. What did change though were the soft linen restrains on her wrists binding her to the bed.
Flora didn't want this to happen, not at all, but Sky apparently told everyone on both campuses that Bloom was a lackey of Darkar and was just pretending to have been under the puppetry spell. Even though the entire Winx Club plus Faragonda (and Brandon, Timmy and Riven) made public statements saying the exact opposite a lot of parents still requested her either gone or restrained.
They could only compromise and restrain her with the softest cuffs they could find.
As for the remaining Winx Club members, it was as if they woke up from a trance when they saw Bloom lying in the infirmary bed like that. They were flooded with regret at what they did to her, mostly not stopping Sky when he wanted to kill her.
Feeling truly ashamed they left her and Flora alone to allow her a better recovery but they were always ready to run over to the infirmary at a moment's notice.
It was around dinner time when Bloom finally started to show sign of waking up. At first it was only a twitch in her fingers but Flora immediately noticed since the was resting directly next to her and saw it in the corner of her eye.
Excited she immediately put the book away and turned to her friend, she didn't want to miss her waking at all costs.
"Come on Bloom, everyone is waiting for you, we want you back" Flora said quietly as she looked over her.
Bloom's fingers continued to get more active as they resumed twitching before her hands and feet started moving as well. Groaning she moved her hands enough to stretch out the string attached to her cuffs. She froze when she felt the all too familiar tug of chains. Bloom started moving rapidly, almost desperately tugging at her restrains, whimpering as she did.
"Hey Bloom, calm down, you are safe here." Flora said with a soft voice and softly took hold of Bloom's hand. Her entire arm immediately flinched back as her eyes snapped open, moving around rapidly to take in her situation.
Then she saw Flora gently smiling at her. She was instantly thrown back into the cell, the moments when 'Flora' would have the same gently smile on her face… before she started whipping her body with her vines, turning her body into a bloody mess.
Bloom started screaming and trashing about in the bed, tugging at her restraints while crying.
"No, please stop! I can't take it anymore, please don't hurt me, please!" Bloom begged the fairy sitting in front of her, too caught up in the flashback to notice the shocked and horrified expression that flickered across Flora's face.
Flora only had one thought in her head, devastated to see her friend in this kind of state.
"Just what did he do to you Bloom?"