Snow huffed in frustration as she watched another fairy team zip past them with a group of nasty-looking witches hot on their heels. Looking over her shoulder, she felt relief wash over her at the sight of a clear sky. At least they had lost the Coven Grimm.

"I'm ready to shriek," Skye groaned, landing on a nearby tree branch. "We've been flying around in circles, no closer to solving this riddle than we were when we started."

"I'm not finding anything on Genesis," Scylla said, scrolling through her phone as she stopped at a different branch.

"That's because there is no Genesis," Ruby complained, floating down to sit cross-legged on the same branch as Skye. She crossed her arms and whined, "Cloudtower just sent us on a wild goose chase."

"I don't even care about beating the witches," Snow groaned. She and Nell sat on an adjacent tree's branches and Bonnie continued to hover in the air. "I wouldn't be able to stand it if the Cabal Knights got there first though."

Just then, the sound of leaves being trampled alerted them to the Heroes hurtling through the underbrush below. They watched them zip by and then a second later, two bright green eyes peered out from a bush. A tall, menacing figure rose from the shrubbery and cast out his hands. Five nearby bushes opened up and five more teenage boys tumbled out. They quickly went in the opposite direction the heroes had gone, but not before Snow heard Reed mention that it was only a few more minutes away.

"Was that Thorn?"

"They know where it is."

Ruby gasped, "They're going to get there before us!"

"Not if we follow them," Snow said, flying up from the branch. "Come on, girls. We're going to win this thing."

She darted off into the woods with her team close behind, hovering close enough that they wouldn't lose the Cabal Knights but far enough that they wouldn't be spotted. True to his word, they arrived at the Mother Tree in only a few minutes.

"Oh my Dragon, we're idiots," Nell groaned quietly, face-palming herself.

"Don't worry," Bonnie reassured her by patting her on the shoulder. "It looks like everyone else is too because we're the only ones here yet."

The Cabal Knights tentatively approached the tree and surveyed the tourist signs.

"What now?" Ray asked.

"Follow my lead," Snow whispered to the other fairies as they touched down on the clearing. She declared loudly, "Finally, you're here."

"Don't even," Marin said. "We were here first."

"Whatever you say," Skye said with a smirk. "Let's just get this over with."

"You fairies are so infuriating," Marin grunted in response. Skye only winked and turned to Snow.

"How was that?"

"Perfect," the leader answered quietly. Turning to address the group, she said, "So let's get to the bonding."

"Ew, bonding?" Reed spat.

"Bonding of the gems, idiot," Snow answered with just as much spite.

"Watch it," Aidan threatened. He took a step forward between Reed and Snow. Snow turned up her nose and pulled out Alfea's gem quarter as well as Red Fountain's quarter. Electro did the same with their quarters.

"So how are we gonna do this?" Thorn asked as he strode over to the group once he surveyed the perimeter.

"A simple bonding spell should do the trick," Ruby replied, rubbing her hands together as she summoned her magic.

"Wait."

Snow held up a hand to stop her and then pointed to the tree.

"The sap."

"What sap?"

"The tree sap. Duh," Electro replied, shooting Nell an irritated look for her stupid question.

"Hey, you didn't guess it either."

"Guys, oh my Dragon, shut up," Aidan groaned. Looking to Snow, he cued her to continue.

"We're supposed to use the sap of the Mother Tree to bind the gem together," Snow said. "I remember this lesson from Palladium's class last year. It can bring together anything, even two warring nations."

"Great. Thorn, get the sap," Ray commanded, pointing him towards the tree.

"Why me?"

"You're the nature guy."

"That's a magic tree," Thorn explained. "I can't just open it up. It requires trust, a bond."

"Ooh! Use the sap to bond with the tree!"

"Ray, I would need the SAP for that," Thorn huffed, crossing his arms.

"I say we just blast it," Skye said, holding up her hands and calling on her magic.

"No, Skye!"

But it was too late. The blast hit the tree and the shockwave reverberated through the forest, throwing the fairies and warlocks backward.

"Great. Now everybody knows where we are," Aidan grunted as he sat up, gingerly rubbing his shoulder.

"What are you doing?!" a squeaky voice cried. "What did you do to the Mother Tree?!"

Aidan waited for the world and the floating green ball to come back into focus. That's when he saw the pixie. She was small- obviously- with green hair, slanted pink eyes, and an outfit just as frilly and ridiculous as the Magix Club's Winx transformation. Her cherubic face was screwed up in contempt in a way that sickeningly reminded him of Snow.

A baby pixie floated out after her, this one sporting a reverse hair and eye color scheme and a cowboy hat.

"Poota pa toota?" the baby asked.

"No, everything's fine, little sis," the older pixie said, brandishing a wand threateningly at the group of teenagers still lying on the floor after that shockwave. "Go back inside."

Marin rubbed his head tenderly as he sat up.

"Great. As if Alfea pixies weren't bad enough, now we have to deal with actual pixies."

Snow sat up but the second she laid eyes on the pixies, all the pain of the blast disappeared from her face.

"Oh my Dragon, you're so cute!"

The pixie flew over to Snow and fluttered in front of her.

"Are you okay? That shockwave didn't hurt you, did it?" the pixie asked worriedly. Aidan looked at Thorn, who looked just as confused as he felt.

"No, no. I'm fine," Snow assured her. "I'm Snow, Fairy of Ice."

"I'm Vignette, Pixie of Springtime," the green-haired fairy replied with a smile.

The two were enveloped in a blinding light. Aidan and the others looked away or shielded their eyes from it. When it finally died down, Snow was standing and talking to Vignette. At this point, the baby pixie flew over.

"Oh, Snow, this is my little sister Villanelle," Vignette introduced.

"Wait, Snow," Bonnie said in a low voice. "Did you just bond to a pixie?"

"I guess I did."

"Congratulations!"

They all started chattering excitedly. Aidan saw Electro roll his eyes and Ray groaned loudly.

"Ladies!" Ray called, making them all shut up. "The mission?"

The girls all glared at him before Snow turned to her pixie and asked, "Is there any way you could help us get sap from the Mother Tree?"

"Anything for you," Vignette replied, zipping back to the tree. "Be right back!"

They stood around awkwardly for a few minutes, some of them wandering off and others talking about who knows what. Some of the fairies started playing with the baby pixie that Aidan had already forgotten the name of. Snow was standing at the base of the tree, staring up at its impossibly tall canopy.

Thorn came up to Aidan with that look on his face like he was about to say something the pyromancer would not want to hear. He braced himself, but that didn't stop him from feeling uncomfortable when the brooding warlock finally spoke.

"Talk to her. You've been staring at her this whole time and you've obviously got something to say."

"I have not and I do not."

"Aidan."

"Fine. Whatever."

He trudged over to the winter fairy, who jumped and spun around when she saw his shadow looming over her.

"What do you want?" she spat, craning her neck to look up at him with those giant blue eyes.

"Nothing. Congrats on the pixie or whatever."

She looked surprised.

"Oh, thanks."

"Do you think we're going to win?"

"I'm surprised we even got this far."

He nodded in agreement, surprised at his ability to be civil with her for that long. Of course, it wouldn't last because he couldn't ruin his reputation.

"I'm surprised you guys even found your way to the tree."

Her nose scrunched up and her pale cheeks started turning red, but then she took a deep breath and blinked up at him, throwing him for a loop.

"Me too, considering that we followed you guys here."

He chuckled despite himself.

"Why, Snow, was that an insult?"

She shrugged and replied, "I guess you're just a bad influence."

Now, crucify him for thinking this, but he liked the way that sounded on her lips. Thorn called them over and broke the awkward staring contest the two were having. Aidan coughed and hurried over to the group. Immediately, he sensed something was wrong.

"Oh my-"

Skye gagged and turned away from the huddle. Aidan and Snow shoved their way to the middle, only to gasp in shock. On the floor in front of them was another dead body. The witch was slit at the throat and had tears streaming from her open, glassy eyes.

"No," Scylla whispered, shaking her head and backing up into Reed. He caught her by the shoulders, but she just jumped and pulled away.

"When did this get here?" Aidan asked, looking around at the twice-traumatized group of teens. Bonnie was straight-up bawling and Ruby was trying to comfort her while fighting back tears of her own.

"I don't know, man. It's just here," Marin answered.

"We need to call the police," Snow said, taking a step back from the group.

"Are you crazy?" Aidan said, rounding on her. "We'd be caught twice in a week with a dead body. Let's just fix the gem and get out of here."

"Are you kidding?" Nell asked, looking near tears. "That is a girl who was on the very same mission as us. That very well could have been one of us. We can't just leave her."

"So you'd choose a random witch's dead body over your own?" Electro said with a derisive snort.

"Yes."

He fell silent. Nell sniffled.

"You guys can go if you want. But I'm not leaving," Snow said, standing her ground. Aidan rolled his eyes.

"They could still be out here, Snow."

"Who?"

"The murderer."

A visible chill ran up her spine at his words.

"It's a big forest," Electro added, looking at Nell pointedly. "He could be hiding a few feet away and we would never know."

"Guys."

Everyone looked to Scylla, who was frantically tugging on Reed's sleeve and staring at the ground in abject horror.

"It's happening again."

Tears started streaming fresh from the witch's dead eyes. It flooded onto the floor, forcing them all to back up. The body was encased in its own tears. This time, instead of shrinking, it started dissolving, melting into the grass.

"Holy shit," Thorn muttered, taking another step back and knocking into Ray, who all-in-all looked unfazed.

"Dude, that's sick," the sunburnt warlock said, pulling a disgusted face. Then the body was gone.

"I don't care about the mission anymore," Ruby muttered, dropping the gem fragment on the ground. She backed up and fluttered above the ground. "I just want to go home."

"No, Ruby, we can't just-"

"Who cares?! Let the police take care of it!" she cried, flying away. Snow sighed and looked at her friends.

"I'll go," Nell suggested, shooting a scathing look at Electro before shooting off into the sky.

"Dude, you really got under her skin this time," Ray said, raising his hand into the air for a high-five. Electro glared and Ray slowly lowered his hand.

"Okay, I can't take this anymore," Skye said, covering her mouth. She looked a little green in the face. Bonnie gave her a sympathetic look and came up under her cousin's shoulder.

"Come on. I'll take you back, Skye."

"Wait, Bonnie," Scylla said, reaching out for the tiny girl's shoulder. "The body-"

"Is gone," the fairy of darkness finished. "Let's focus on what we can change."

She flew away with Skye..

"Bonnie's right," Snow said. "Scylla, grab the gems."

Scylla reluctantly collected the gem fragments. Suddenly, the witches burst into the clearing.

"Release the gems!" Janus cried, pointing a finger threateningly.

"Not now, Jan," Aidan sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"What's going on?" Alexandra asked at the same time Janus announced loudly, "You don't tell me what to do, Aidan!"

"There... we had- it was another murder," he explained, shaking his head to clear his thoughts.

"Oh my dragon, are you serious?" she asked, taking a step forward.

"Yes, I'm serious," he snapped. She flinched back. "Jan, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"No, it's fine," she assured him, visibly deflating. "I just… so where's the body?"

"Disappeared," Scylla muttered.

The witches' eyes snapped to the crumpled looking fairy.

"And what are they still doing here?" Charybdis asked accusingly, glaring at the two fairies left behind.

"The mission," Snow explained, holding up the gems in her hand. Just then, a boy pixie with a shock of red hair and pale skin flew down from the tree with a vial in his arms.

"Are you the fairies 'Nette was talking about?" he asked. His eyes were a cold black and his clothes were hidden by a darkly shimmering cloak, like oil on water. "Here's the sap."

He gave the vial to Snow and that's when his eyes connected to Scylla's.

"Hi," she said as he flew over. "I'm Scylla, Fairy of Constellations."

"You have stars in your eyes," he said in awe. Clearing his throat and blushing, he said, "I'm Mercury, Pixie of Astronomy."

A light enveloped them and as they turned away from Scylla and Mercury's bonding, Aidan saw Marin laugh and nudge Reed, teasing, "Looks like you have some competition."

Reed told him to shut up and then the light died down. Another pixie flew out of the tree, hollering for somebody to stop.

"Oh my dragon, more pixies?" Alexandra said in exasperation.

"This is a lot," Electro muttered, rubbing his fingers to his forehead.

The dark-skinned pixie skidded to a stop in front of Snow, sending her intricate blue twist into a mess. She reached up to fix her hair before she jumped, seemingly remembering what she had flown down for.

"Oh, the spell! Mercury, you can't expect them to use this without the spell, can you?" she chastised. Waving her arms and chanting something strange, the vial flowed blue and then returned to an orange color. With a contented sigh, she said, "There. Now pour it on the gem."

"Hold up," Janus said as Snow opened the vial. "You can't just expect us to let you win without a fight."

"Are you kidding me, Jan?" Aidan asked incredulously. "We've been through a lot today. Let's just bind the gem and head back."

"No way. Coven Grimm, form up!" she said in that shrill voice. Alexandra and Charybdis shared a reserved look before reluctantly drawing up their hands. "Moretzi sevil!"

At the words of the spell, the ground disappeared from under Scylla's feet and the fairy was already so tired and afraid that she didn't even fly as she fell into the ditch below.

"Scyl!" Snow cried. She tossed the gems and vial to Electro and flew down to her friend, who was out cold with Mercury tending to her.

"Is she- is she-"

"She's okay," Mercury said. "Just unconscious. She hit her head."

Snow nodded and flew under Scylla's arm, fluttering with all her might to get her topside again, but she wasn't strong enough to carry the fairy's deadweight.

"Take my hand!" she heard as she was halfway up. She looked up and saw Reed's face and outstretched arm as the flashes and bangs of magical battle raged in the sky above. She gave him a skeptical look.

"Come on, Snow. She needs to get out of here. Fast."

Snow reached up and took the small warlock's outstretched hand and fluttered with all her might as they worked together to pull Scylla up. Even Mercury and that blue pixie helped by tugging on Scylla's shirt sleeve as hard as they could. Eventually, they managed to drag her onto the grass. Reed and Snow fell back, panting and exhausted, on either side of her.

"Thanks," she said after sort of regaining her breath.

"Any time," he wheezed.

An explosion to their left made them sit bolt upright and scramble away from the battle. The witches were losing against the five warlocks, but they were putting up a good fight and leaving a fair amount of damage to the clearing as they did. A crowd of other fairies, heroes, witches, and warlocks had started to gather as they watched the fight. As she and Reed half-carried/half-dragged Scylla to the treeline, Snow looked for her brother and the other heroes, but she didn't see him anywhere.

Snow and Reed sat Scylla behind a tree.

"Stay with her," Snow ordered. "I'm finishing this."

"Wait, but I-"

His protest was cut off as a stray spell flew their way and he reflexively put up a shield to stop it from hitting Scylla's reclining form. He nodded at Snow and she took that as her go-ahead to charge into battle.

"Electro, where are the crystals?"

He pointed to the sky where Mercury and the blue pixie were fending off spells to protect a green orb. Inside the orb were the gem quarters and the vial.

She flew up and called out, "Heads up!"

Taking the orb, she hurled it at Electro.

"What am I supposed to do with this?!"

"Figure it out!"

He hugged the orb to his chest and ran to the treeline on his comically lanky legs, nearly colliding into two onlooking fairies as he did so. Apparently, a crowd had begun to gather, but Snow didn't dwell on that. She didn't dwell on much of anything anymore.

Flying fists first into battle, Snow fired off spells at the Coven Grimm. Somehow, she ended up alongside Aidan.

"Are they always like this?" she asked him between blasts.

He looked surprised to see her come up beside him, but he shot off a fireball at Charybdis and replied, "It's pretty much just Janus."

Alexandra's spell nearly took off Snow's head as she screeched and ducked. Aidan blasted a fireball at Alexandra in return.

"Why do they put up with her?" Snow groaned. Aidan just shrugged. Snow rolled her eyes and shot ice crystals at the witches in rapid-fire succession. Suddenly, she was being shoved to the ground. Aidan's weight settled on top of her. His chest was heaving which made her hyper-aware of how close he was. His red bangs brushed against her forehead. He was that close.

"Wha-"

"Stray sunblast," Aidan panted. He didn't move. Snow didn't tell him to move.

He caught his breath, but still, neither of them moved.

"Thanks."

That broke whatever spell was over him as he rolled off of her with a mumbled "Whatever." Jumping back up to his feet, he charged back into the battle, but Snow waited for a second to catch her breath for other reasons.

"I figured it out!" Electro called from the treeline. He held up the whole gem and the Knights cheered. Snow felt weird to be cheering with them, but it was kind of cool to have Marin clap her on the shoulder. Come to think of it, she had never fought alongside the Cabal Knights before. Probably because they were usually the evil force the Magix Club was fighting against.

The witches groaned and retreated, leaving the clearing at the applause of all the bystanders.

Reed helped Scylla walk back to the group with Electro, who was proudly brandishing the gem. Snow somehow found herself back at Aidan's side. He wasn't cheering.

"Who do you think it is?" Snow asked.

Aidan sighed, knowing what she meant.

"I don't know. And why do we keep finding them?"

Snow just sighed and looked up at him. He didn't look back at her. Carding a hand through his hair, he ordered, "Come on, guys. Let's get that back to Magix."

The Knights started walking back to Magix City, but Snow grabbed Aidan's sleeve to hold him behind.

"Seriously, thanks for the save today."

He clenched his jaw and Snow tried not to stare at his jawline for too long.

"Whatever. I don't know what I would have done if Ray had knocked you out. I'm saving that one for graduation," he finished with a smirk, despite his tired eyes.

"Ha, ha," Snow said witheringly, rolling her eyes again, but she was smiling fondly up at him. Everything about the last hour felt totally surreal. "Scylla and I are going to head back to Alfea to get her checked out."

He nodded and watched as she shot off into the sky holding hands with Scylla. Reed jogged over to catch up with him.

"Aidan?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you think is happening?"

"I don't know, Reed. I really don't know."