Again, I'm very sorry for the bold words. I hope you guys don't mind.
Disclaimer: I do not own Winx Club.
After the success in snatching the palace's grand map, the Winx meet with the Specialists in Stella's parlor.
"If you guys don't want to be here," said Brandon, turning to the boys. "It's okay to just get back to your room and get a good night sleep. This is entirely my own selfishness to call you out here anyway."
"Damn right." Riven murmurs with his usual acerbity, and is ready to get out of the door until he receives a fiery glare from his beloved girlfriend.
Musa tugs his sleeve apprehensively, and smiles:
"Yeah, of course our Riven would not mind just giving out a hand to help his friend, right honey?"
The Specialist, half wanting to really get out of this mess and half not wanting to have any more fights with his girlfriend, vacillates a bit, before finally giving in to Musa. Affliction still hangs on his face, but he stays anyway, and just gives out a single nod to Brandon.
"Thank you very much." Answered Brandon gratefully to Riven, but more likely to Musa.
"We would not mind a small adventure." Timmy smiles, raises his thumb up to show the enthusiasm, with the rest of the Specialists acceding to his words.
"Oh wow, look at all the adherents you have!" Sky chuckles, patting his friend's shoulder. "Who would have thought the affiliation would aggrandize so fast?"
Aisha holds up the map, the excitement is tangible in her voice. "I can already visualize the aghast expression on the Countess' countenance. Now ladies and gentlemen, let's get down to business."
When it comes to strategies, no one is better than these students of Alfea and Red Fountain, for they have been lectured and tested over and over about this, to the point that they can easily invade a building even if they close their eyes. Tecna scans the map and spots an annex near the Countess' parlor, which at first glance can be mistaken for an alcove of the room.
"If her theory is true," said Timmy after she has explained. "Then even the possibilities of the underground of the parlor being abysmal are not small. Therefore, keeping a girl down there should be no problem."
"But her parlor abuts the King's, where there are many guards. Would the Countess be so careless?"
Considering Bloom's question, there is a somewhat obvious answer already.
"Don't tell me…" Musa looks up to the girls, hesitating to say her thoughts. She would not want to mention the worst scenario, and words can somewhat be a jinx.
But Flora finishes it anyway.
"The Countess has… alloyed the palace's security?"
"What?" Asked the guys, clearly not able to make out her allusion.
"What she means was the Countess might have controlled the guards around the King already." Musa finally speaks up. "As an accrual to this, we also do not know how many we must fight against. Thus we cannot hurt the innocent."
"True." Tecna nods, placing her device on the table. "We also cannot leave out the possibilities that the number is affixing as well. Who know what kind of people she will reach? Soldiers, then what? Officers? Last time, she has controlled the King, and I doubt she would not do it again this time."
"With Darkar's help." Aisha reminds her friend, causing the tech-savvy girl to look back at her with confused eyes.
"Are you implying…?"
"I would circumvent that possibility. He is probably in the abject prison right now, at the acme of the mountain. Besides, he is acidulous enough not to use a pawn twice, and I believe the Countess would adhere with him after her unwilling abnegation last time with this partner."
Bloom allays her friends. However, she cannot deny that their plan at the moment is still amorphous. If they keep this amble, they would not be able to complete their goal.
"Okay people." Riven sighs, finally join the conversation. "Cut the lengthy part, and stick to the core. What are you going to do now?"
His angular attitude might sometimes set others on fire, but judging the celerity of the circumstances now, it is actually palatable for them.
"We must get into this annex." Brandon answers, hoping that speaking out loud their priority will somehow help a genius plan to come up. "And rescue Stella."
"Then do it!" Riven replies, throwing his hands into the air with a pissed off expression. "What are you waiting for? Who cares about other parties? We will just beat them up. Who cares if there is a master controlling the puppets behind the curtains or not? Just get into the freaking annex! Oh gosh, I cannot even believe you people!"
There is absolute silence in the ambience after the impatient Specialist's acrimonious 'speech'. Everyone seems to be too shocked to even make a reaction. Until Sky cracks a chuckle.
"What?" Clearly irritated, Riven snaps back.
"What adage." Sky smirks while lifting his hands to form a chain of separate claps.
"Oh so now I get a slow clap?"
"No!" Musa giggles and tugs her arms around his shoulder. "It was great! So you actually can say something cerebral!"
With his face adorned in shades of red, he can only mumbles 'whatever' slightly.
"Anyway, what Riven said is absolutely right." Brandon shakes his head, dragging the whole team back to the topic. "We should adhere to the rescue first. Wandering around that would only bring us aftermath."
Suddenly Musa raises her hand before exclaiming excitedly.
"Oh, oh! I know! How about we girls all come to the guards and allure them? I mean, although we do not have Stella by us to help with the clothes thing, but we can still accouter ourselves with something. We are girls after all! We can accost them as if nothing happened…"
"Rejected." Brandon answers. He does not need to consider this a second time. Judging his situation and how it addles him not to being by his girl's side, he doubts if the rest of his friends can endure putting their girlfriends on the frontier.
"Hmph!" Feeling somewhat offended, the purple-headed girl turns away. "You don't have to be so acrid though."
"Don't worry, Musa." Sky smiles, consoling her in his friend's place. "He is just trying to say that you are more suitable for an aggressor. We cannot let you girls do such dangerous things."
"It's not like we are doing some missions like amputating our body or anything analgesic like that. It's just a seducing matter." Obstinate as she is, Musa still gives out her comment, but this would be the last one.
Brandon knows that as well. He does not want the whole group to break into altercation. They are now meager of time, and he would not waste it.
However, just as he is about to speak up again, the wooden door to the parlor opens ajar, and the infamous Countess walks in.
He did not know that one can freely walk in to a princess' parlor like that, but obviously the wicked woman standing over there is indifferent to this.
"Oh?" Raising her voice as if she is surprised, the Countess greets them. "How rare to see all of you up this hour. What could you bunch of strangers be doing?"
If he could, he would say the Countess is the exact archetype of Cinderella's step-mother, except for the fact that Stella is already a princess.
"Nothing much, Ma'am." Bloom slightly lowers her knees to show courtesy, noticing it is now in deed very late at night. "One of our friends is a somnambulist, and she just happened to wake all of us up. If we hadn't been here to stop her, she would probably have ran around the castle and clamored until every single guard is wide awake. It was such a close call."
Countess Cassandra nods her head, though little did disbelief leave her eyes.
"Keep this arcane, ladies." She speaks with a patronizing manner. "We would not want a rumor about the princess befriending some flippant fellows who don't even know how to sleep right."
"Certainly, Ma'am." Bloom nods, still as serene as ever, though her friends behind her back do not feel the same. But they all understand that enduring this is the best choice at the moment.
"One more thing. There will be a caucus tomorrow." Cassandra turns around to look at those who are in the parlor before she decides to leave the room. "Due to the paucity of time, the runaway of the princess shall be put aside, and the officials will now focus on more important events. As acquaintances of the venal princess who has abandoned her responsibilities, you lots are invited to come to the caucus, as the last memories of Solaria before being extradited."
"What?!"
"Good night."
Before giving them a chance to even flout the information, the Countess disappears behind the door.
"Did she just say… that they believe Stella is running away?"
The gang look at each other, confused by the mendacious words they have just heard. None of them is a soothsayer; however, all of them feel that this will not turn out pretty.
"Has she just come over, knowing that we are all planning something, to fluster us?"
Flora asks, as she is not trying to give out any more theories to the situation it is right now, but she cannot help but doubt every single thing. She is not an ingénue to start with. She keeps getting the feeling that the Countess has already known it all, and was just trying to flaunt to them.
"Cannot leave out the possibilities that all the caucus she has proclaimed is faulty, either." Tecna commented, having a not less confused expression on her face. "It could be just a trap to set us up."
"Enough."
Brandon sighs, shaking his head. He cannot take any more than this. Strategies or not, he could care less about what the Countess is up to.
"We are breaking in, and that's final. Whoever steps in our way, we will just have to face them head on. Peccadillos won't matter that much." He infers.
"So you mean we are breaking in like idiots with immense strength?" Timmy paraphrases his friend's words, albeit in a more blatant way.
"What an archaic method." Riven snickers at the back. "But effective."
Catching Brandon's glance to ask for permission from the rest of the group, Sky shrugs:
"Hey, she is your protégé, man. And this is your plan. Whatever you decide, we are cool with it. We will go with you until the end."
"Thanks." Brandon smiles gratefully. "So that's how it is. We will start our break in tomorrow noon."
A/N: Phew, finally another chapter. I feel like I'm squishing my brain, since I have never been able to complete a fiction. Yes. Never. I always started them and then left them somewhere in the twist. But I really want to finish this one (partially because it is related to my studying as well), so I will try to break it down short. Please review if you have any comments about the plot, the writing styles or anything else (including paragraphs, I have been trying to shorten it, but I'm not sure how it went, so please tell me).
Thank you!