Chapter Twenty-Five – Storming Shadow Haunt
With the help of Queen Amenta's guard worm, it didn't take long for the squad ship to catch up to the trog battalion on their way to Shadow Haunt. As Tecna had predicted, the ship was too big to dodge all the stalagmites, stalactites and narrow passages that blocked their path, but the guard worm just ploughed right through them.
"Okay boys! We're through!" Queen Amentia reported as the guard worm broke through the last rock wall that stood between them and Shadow Haunt, and when the worm slid out of the way, the trogs came face to face with a company of shadow monsters that Amentia and her men took on without hesitation.
"Thanks Amentia. Good luck," Timmy replied as he piloted the squad ship through the tunnel. "Amenta's guard worm drilled a path but it's pretty tight."
"Looks like she ran into some of the locals," Sky noted, hanging off Brandon's shoulder as he surveyed the battle as they flew over it.
"I wouldn't worry about her. She seems pretty tough to me," Layla grinned as they flew into Shadow Haunt's main cavern. It looked just like the last time they were there to Sky, Brandon, Layla and Stella, but to everyone else, it was like nothing they had ever seen before. Jagged stalactites and dark cervices created menacing shadows and waterfalls added a chill that reached right into everyone's bones. But there was something else about the cavern that made the hair on the back of their necks stand up and caused shivers to travel down their spines; the evil that radiated from Lord Darkar himself.
"Whoa," Musa gasped staring out at it all.
"Cheery, huh?" Stella muttered sarcastically. "Hard to believe that the Trix would want to spend a year down here, huh?"
"Lord Darkar's fortress is straight ahead," Timmy informed everyone once he had gotten over his original shock of seeing Shadow Haunt for the first time. Gathering his wits, Timmy scanned the fortress for a possible landing, but his search was delayed when a colony of shadow bats flew straight toward them in an effort to disrupt their flight pattern.
"Incoming!" Layla shouted as Brandon scrambled to take aim at the colony with one of the ships side cannons before they hit the screen. A beat later, the squire had a lock and he didn't hesitate to pull the tripper, sending a blast of energy straight into the centre of the colony.
"Gotcha!" Brandon cheered as he hit the heart. There were a few stray bats that had been flying on the outskirts of the colony when he attacked, but a vast majority of them were instantly returned to shadows.
"You're so good with a blast, sweetie!" Stella gushed loudly, throwing her arms around his neck and giving him a tight squeeze that suffocated him for a second, but even that didn't dampen the wide grin that had spread across his face at her praise. But although his attack could easily be called successful, the colony he had just vanquished was in actual fact just a small dropped in a deluge of resistance Lord Darkar had prepared for them in order to hinder any attempt to rescue Bloom and stop his plans for universal domination.
"There's more up ahead," Flora warned, edging closer to Helia. Brandon may have shot down the first wave of bats, but the rest of the colony was hidden in the many caves and crevasses and their numbers dwarfed any army any of them had ever faced before. With an ear piecing shriek, the bats took to the air like a black blizzard, obstructing the ships visual displays and making it very difficult for Timmy to keep a steady flight pattern.
"If we try to land now those things will swarm us," Timmy said as he dodged another wave of shadow bats that was trying to dive bomb them.
"And if we do land, we've got a whole other group of nasties to deal with," Stella reported, peering out of the ship windows. Lurking on the cliffs below, Lord Darkar's army of shadow monsters paced anxiously as they watched the Red Fountain squad ship flying above them, all just waiting for the group to set one foot on solid ground so they could attack.
"Oh my," Lockette quivered.
"Don't worry Lockette," Amore said with a supporting pat on her friends shoulder. "We'll find a way in somehow."
"Even if we have to break all the etiquette rules of storming a stronghold, we'll get inside," Tune added firmly, earning herself a couple weird looks off the others. There were etiquette rules when storming a stronghold? But there was no time to question proper conduct and protocol, because with a sweep of her umbrella, Tune took command of the situation like a general on a battle field. "Battle stations everyone! Brandon! Shoot those flying vermin out of the sky!"
"Yes ma'am," Brandon saluted before taking aim with his cannon and blasting another wave of bats out back into the shadows. But after the third wave was destroyed, the bats started to understand how the ships weapons worked and started to scatter, making it impossible for any of the cannons to lock onto them and take out a whole wave. "They're scattering. We can't get 'em all with the ships canons."
"Timmy! Bank left!" Helia suddenly ordered.
"Got it!" Timmy said even as he was taking action to avoid the large wave of bats that had tried to slam them from one side.
As the ship levelled out, Sky's patience broke. They were right on the doorstep of Lord Darkar's fortress and they were wasting valuable time trying to get past a colony of bats when they needed to be rescuing Bloom. Who knew what that Darkar freak was doing to her? All year Lord Darkar and the witches had been focused on stealing the four pieces of the Codex in order to enter the forgotten Realm of Realix and obtain the Ultimate Power, so why the hell was he suddenly interested in kidnapping Bloom? It just didn't make sense to Sky, but he sure a hell wasn't going to sit around dodging bats when he could be saving his girlfriend from that freaks clutches.
"I'm going to the Red Wing," Sky announced as he got to his feet. "Riven, Helia. You guys get up to the battle bridge. We've gotta take those things out so we can land safely and get the fairies into the castle."
Riven and Helia had gotten to their feet even before Sky was finished explaining what he wanted them to do, and they both looked as if they were getting fed up with all this messing around too. "This is what I've been waiting for," Riven practically purred as the three of them moved off.
Red Fountain squad ships were built to be small and practical. They basically only consisted of two rooms; the main cockpit and a small cargo bay that held a couple emergency supplies and their levi bikes. That was pretty much all they needed for most missions and everyday transportation, but there was times when they needed something more, which was where the squad ship carrier pod came into play. The carrier pod was made for combat situations, so it had was loaded with a lot more weaponry and defence armaments than the standard squad ship and was equipped with a hanger large enough to house one or two of Red Fountain's single seater jets; the Red Wing. The carrier pod was usually latched on to the squad ship to act as an extension, but it was also possible to detach the carrier pod from the squad ship and fly on its own accord provided someone was piloting from the battle bridge. If the squad ship and the carrier pod were separated and with Sky out in one of the Red Wings, then they tripled their chances of taking out all the shadow bats and monsters standing in their way. Riven and Helia could take out a bulk of the shadow army with the weapons on the carrier pod while the squad ship and the Red Wing could get in a take out the monsters in places too tight for the carrier pod to get to.
"Launching Red Wing," Sky announced as the Red Wing he had climbed into dropped out off the hanger and took flight.
"Detaching carrier pod," Timmy informed everyone as he separated the squad ship from the carrier pod. In a matter of seconds, Riven and Helia had the ship completely under their control and overtook the squad ship. The carrier pod may have been larger and required more piloting skills, but Helia was an excellent flyer and Riven knew his weaponry, so between them there was nothing they couldn't handle. But that didn't make Timmy any less anxious about separating their friends when they were so close to Lord Darkar's stronghold. "Good luck you guys."
But with all the flight training Red Fountain crammed into its students, Sky didn't need luck. With well trained skill Sky flew effortlessly through the air and fired at a group of bats before swooping off. The poor bats never even knew what hit them. "Wahoo! I just took out twenty-three of those things on my first pass!"
"Twenty-three?" Riven scoffed, not at all impressed with his friends attack. "Ha! Watch this." As Helia focused on not running into any stalagmites, Riven got the carrier pods cannons on line and entered in the codes to fire them. The carrier pod had several cannons located on various places of its body, and at Riven's command the front two fired, taking out a whole group of shadow bats. "We're going to catch up to you in no time, Ace."
Sky laughed to himself at Riven's old name for him. It had come about when they had been paired up during their elementary flight simulations in freshmen year. Sky had remembered it because it had been the only nickname Riven had given him that year that wasn't meant to be insulting. "You haven't called me that in ages."
"Well, we haven't had a situation that deserved the name being used in ages."
"Would you two stop reminiscing and focus on what you're doing, please?" Helia asked pleasantly as Sky almost clipped a stalactite. Focusing his thoughts, Sky shot down another wave of bats, but shadow bats were about to be the least of their worries, because unbeknown to them, the Trix – under Lord Darka's orders – were concentrating their gloomix powers to try and cause the rescue mission to fail.
With a sudden blast, the Trix sent up a tempest of dark magic into the air, catching all three ships and causing them to all shutter violently in the air. Timmy and Tecna managed to keep the squad ship steady, but that still didn't stop their friends from freaking out.
"Oh-my-gosh! Oh-my-gosh! Oh-my-gosh! Oh-my-gosh! Oh-my-gosh! Oh-my-gosh!" Lockette whimpered, her hands covering her eyes and her entire body trembling. "Make it stop! Make it stop!"
"Just hang in there, Lockette," Timmy told her as his fingers flew over the controls. He may have been able to keep the ship flying steady, but the dark magic was scrambling his display screen and messing with all his monitors. And one the carrier pod, Riven and Helia was having the same problems with their controls.
"Sky!" Helia called over the radio. "Is this hitting you too?"
"Yeah," Sky answered through gritted teeth. Sky was a pretty good Red Wing pilot, but even he was having difficulties flying his jet with all this interference going on. His display screen was so scrambled that he was basically flying blind, which is why he never even knew he was flying straight towards a large stalactite that was hanging down from the cave ceiling.
"Sky! Look out!" Timmy tried to warn him, but by that stage, it was too late. Clipping the stalactite with one of his wings, Sky's Red Wing got thrown into a spin that blurred his senses and made his stomach flip. Resisting the urge to throw up, Sky struggled to regain control over his jet. Gritting his teeth, Sky strained the controls against the pull of the spin and shakily started to level out the jet only to discover that he was on a direct collision course with Timmy and the squad ship.
"Shit!" Sky cursed, jerking the controls to narrowly avoid hitting the ship. "Sorry about that. I think I've levelled out now."
"That's good. Just be careful," Timmy told him in a slightly shaky voice.
"For all our sakes," Brandon mumbled in a quiet voice, but Stella still heard him. Even though her best friend had been kidnapped and they were being swarmed by shadow monsters, she couldn't stop herself from shooting him an amused little grin, but that grin quickly turned into a scream when something hit the ship, causing it to shake violently.
"Where did those blasts come from?" Tecna asked as soon as the shaking stopped. Her first thought was that the Trix had started attacking them directly, but she could see no sign of them on the ships monitors.
But Layla could see the culprits, and for once, it wasn't the witches. "The monsters. Up there on the rocks."
"They must have been power up by some kind of spell," Tecna guessed as the monsters tried to blast them again.
"Hang on!" Timmy ordered them all before swerving to avoid another attack.
"Sky, all the shadow bats are either destroyed or in hiding, but there's a battalion of shadow monsters coming from the east chasm," Riven reported to Sky over the radio. "Helia and me are gonna go deal with them before they have a chance of joining the others but you need to go back up Timmy. Our ship's too big to get through some of those gaps."
"Got it," Sky nodded, flying after the squad ship as it dodged some more of the shadow monsters blasts and managed to shoot one monster that was standing out in the open on a natural rock bridge.
"You okay, Piff?" Layla asked as she scooped her bonded pixie off the ground where she fell during the attacks and the efforts to avoid them. The baby pixie babbled at her in baby talk, but Layla understood that she was fine.
But there were one person on the ship who weren't feeling okay, and she wasn't afraid of letting her discomfort be known. That person was Stella. "Timmy!" she snarled as if this whole thing was his fault. "You think you can hold off on the flips and the impact stuff? I'm getting a little – "
Her rant was cut off however, when another blast hit the ship again, causing it to shake and making them all scream. The monsters would have gone in for another shot if it suddenly wasn't blasted back to the shadows thanks to Sky in his Red Wing. Falling in behind the squad ship, Sky tailed after them to help protect them. "Right behind you Tim," Sky radioed his friend. "You've got monsters throwing rocks."
"Rocks?" Timmy repeated.
"Well, boulders," Sky corrected. "Big ones."
Layla – like everyone – was quickly losing patience with these constant delays. First they had wasted all that time gaining Amentia's support and now they had to deal with these damned shadow monsters. "We've got to get in there. I'm worried about Bloom."
"I'm sure Bloom's okay," Chatta assured her, but Lockette didn't agree with her.
"I sense Bloom's going into total darkness," Lockette predicted in a panicked voice. "Ah!"
Chatta did not look impressed at her friend's negative attitude. "I was trying to be positive but okay. Go ahead and worry."
"Chatta, don't be like that," Flora said sternly. "There's no need to get Lockette worked up like that."
"I'm sorry, but everyone needs to keep thinking positive," Chatta reminded everyone.
"We're trying, but these monsters are really testing us," Musa said as Brandon and Sky continued to keep shooting monsters with their ships cannons.
"Incoming!" Tecna warned as she studied her hand held computer.
"Starboard, Brandon," Timmy ordered.
"Don't worry. I'm on it," Brandon said, focusing his guns on the right side of the ship to take out the monsters that were trying to take them down.
"What's Sky doing?" Layla asked. He was supposed to be backing them up and yet he had gone off on his own to take out any monsters that crossed his path. "Is he trying to take out all the shadow monsters single-handedly?"
"I wouldn't put it past him," Brandon told her without taking his eyes off the monsters he was trying to shoot down. "He'd fight every creature in the Under Realm – shadow monster, trog, witch, impostor paladins and Shadow Phoenix – in order to rescue Bloom."
"Well he's gonna get blasted out of the air if he keeps this pace up."
But Sky wasn't about to slow down anytime soon. Even though the squad ship and the carrier pod did have more weapons on it than the Red Wing, he was outstripping both of them in the number of shadow monsters he took out. Zipping in and out of caverns like a bat, Sky picked off shadow monster after shadow monster. Riven and Helia had managed to secure the east cavern and destroy the monsters that had appeared there, but as they were returning back to Lord Darkar's fortresses main entrance, Sky shot out from underneath them, cutting them off in order to take out a group of shadow monsters.
"Wahoo!" Sky cheered as he did a flip with his Red Wing. "Direct hit!"
Riven and Helia, however, were less than impressed. "That show-off almost clipped us," Helia noted angrily.
"Yeah. Enough with the air show, Ace," Riven snarled.
Sky laughed. "Sorry."
"You ain't now, but you will be."
"Riven, focus," Helia said, causing Sky to grin like a child who had just managed to avoid getting into trouble. But that smile faded slightly when Helia added, "You can beat him up after we save Bloom and stop Lord Darkar from obtaining the Ultimate Power and enslaving the universe."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"Okay Timmy, enough flying around. Find a place to land so we can get inside and rescue Bloom," Stella ordered.
"I don't think that's gonna be as easy as it sounds," Timmy told her regretfully as he continued to dodge the shadow monsters attacks. "There are too many creatures around the castle's main entrance. I can't land."
Musa had to agree with him. "If I'm reading this little monitor thingy right, those creatures are everywhere."
"There's got to be some place to land," Layla said, refusing to believe that there was nothing they could do.
"Lockette, you're the Pixie of Portals," Tecna reminded her, causing the little pixie to panic slightly, but Tecna pushed on. "Can you sense which entrance to the castle has the least amount of monster guarding it?"
Lockette continued to freak out of a few more seconds, but eventually her desire to rescue her bonded fairy outweighed her panic so she reached up and removed the chip that was in her hair and transformed it into her wand. Hovering in front of her, the wand spun around in a circle like the arrow of a compass before settling and pointing off in one direction "Over there!"
"Thanks Lockette. I'll send Sky the coordinates so we can attack together," Timmy said. Sky got his massage and started to fly back in their direction, but as he ducked under a rock bridge, two shadow monsters jumped off the side of the bridge to try and land onto the Red Wing below. One hit the wing before sliding off and falling to its doom, but the other landed on the body of the jet and managed to grip on. As soon as it had its footing, the monster started hitting the jet with its massive paws in an effort to sabotage the jet and cause it to crash. "Sky's in trouble!"
"Oh no!" Tecna gasped. "Can we do anything?"
"I don't think we'll be able to get there in time."
"We gotta do something!" Brandon stressed, panicked at not being able to help is friend. He was Sky's squire. It was his job to help protect him, but there was absolutely nothing he could do as he watched Sky struggle to keep the Red Wing steady and try to get the shadow monster off him.
"I can't shake this hitchhiker," Sky radioed as the monster punched his display, scrambling its picture.
"Sky! Be careful!" Timmy stressed as if it would help, but they all watched in horror as the monster continued to pound on the jet and the Red Wing started to go into a spin. Stella screamed loudly and all the pixies covered their eyes as the Red Wing continued to flounder. The shadow monster lost its grip and slid off the jet, but even without that hindrance the jet was still spinning. "Sky! Can you hear me? Sky!?"
"Can't . . . control the ship," Sky radioed through gritted teeth as he struggled to level out, but nothing he was doing was making any difference.
"Come on. Let's fly over there and recuse him!" Layla ordered.
"I'm not equipped to do an in-flight ship to ship repair," Timmy told her regretfully, and there was no way Sky could land the jet in their cargo bay. It just wasn't big enough. Just then, Sky's left engine caught fire, making everyone panic further as they tried to come up with a plan to help him.
The only one not panicking was Sky, who had a clear picture of what the others needed to do. "Guys, just forget about me. Just rescue Bloom."
"What do you mean forget about you?" a calm voice asked and although his monitors were a bit on the frits, Sky could tell that the carrier pod was flying in alongside him. "Did you ever forget about us?"
"Riven! Boy, am I glad to hear your voice!" Sky grinned widely. The squad ship may have been too small for him to land in, but the carrier pod's hanger was just what he needed right now. "My wing is shot."
Riven and Helia quickly exchanged a worried look. This was not going to be easy, but it was the only way. "We're opening the hanger bay. If you're gonna crash, crash in here, Ace."
"That's a great way of putting it," Sky commented as he let the Red Wing drop under the carrier to get into position. He saw the hanger open, now all he had to do was land inside it "Too bad we haven't got to emergency landing in flight class yet."
"Ah, how hard can they be?" Riven waved off.
"Easy for you to say," Sky grumbled quietly to himself before focusing on the task at hand, but no matter how good a pilot he was or no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't line the Red Wing up correctly. He just couldn't see what he was aiming for. "My display's all out of wack."
"It's not gonna work," Riven growled before looking over at Helia. "Can you think of a way to reel him in?"
"I can do it," Helia told him confidently, getting to his feet and heading towards the door.
"What? With your bare hands?"
"No. With my laser gloves. The strings support all the weight that I myself can't pull. How else to you think I held back that Lio Dragerus at the start of the year?"
"You know, I never really thought about it 'till now (1)," Riven confessed. "Now go get Sky."
The air in Shadow Haunt was warmer than Helia would have expected, but there was still something about it that set a deep chill down into his very bones. The warmth of his blood seemed to be stolen away the second he had step out into the open hanger, and always there was a dark malice pressing on the edges of his mind. And then, on top of all that, the air was perfumed with the damp smell of the underground and shadow monster filth. No wonder people had described Shadow Haunt as the heart of all evil.
Clearing his mind of dark thoughts, Helia readied his body and made sure he had a firm footing. One wrong move and he and Sky had a long way to fall. With his mind and body focused, Helia released the strings on his left hand and latched hold of the Red Wing. He watched as the jet started to steady out and then Helia began the task of guiding it in. They took it slow to avoid making any mistakes and with his display still on the frits, Sky was forced to rely on Helia's guidance entirely. But slowly, bit by bit, the jet made its way toward the hanger entrance to safety.
Suddenly, a colony of bats that had hidden themselves away from the guns burst out of a nearby crevasse and flew head long into the Red Wing, knocking it off course. Helia was unexpectedly thrown forward to land on his stomach painfully before being dragged across the hanger floor towards the edge of the ship. By a stroke of luck, Sky managed to stop the fall just as Helia made it right to the edge. Wasting no time, Helia started pulling on his laser strings again, crying out in the effort. Finally, Helia gathered all his strength and leapt backwards, dragging the Red Wing into the hanger where it landed with a heavy crash.
"We got Sky," Riven quickly radioed to everyone who cheered loudly.
Retracting his laser strings, Helia grinned to himself as the hanger door closed and Sky hopped out of the busted Red Wing. "You okay?"
"Thanks to you," Sky replied, grasping Helia's shoulder fondly. "You know for a pacifist, you make a pretty good hero."
"That's what I've been trying to tell you guys but you wouldn't believe me," Helia joked, making Sky grinned widely.
"Yeah well, I'm believing you now. Thanks man."
"Anytime."
"Okay, now that Sky's safe, can we please focus on trying to get inside the castle?" Stella asked. She was as relieved as anyone of them that the prince was safe, but there was still one of their friend's that was in danger, and so far they had gained no ground in rescuing her.
"It's not going to be easy with the entrance being guarded like this," Brandon pointed out to her. "These powered up monsters are too strong for our blasters."
"Let us take care of 'em," Musa told him, itching for a fight.
"Yeah!" Stella agreed instantly. "We'll go out there and undo the spell that powered 'em up."
"Okay," Timmy agreed. "But only if you promise not to stay out there for too long."
"And why exactly is that?" Tecna asked. Surely they had proven enough times in the past that they were more than capable of managing anything that was thrown at them.
"Because Tecna, even though I know you can handle it, I'd rather you weren't out there for too long because I care so much about you, okay?" Timmy confessed. Lost for words, all Tecna could do was blush, while behind her, the rest of their friends were grinning widely at Timmy's forwardness. After all, it was what she wanted.
"Hey guys, the girls are gonna head out and try and unspell the monsters," Brandon radioed to the rest of his squad. "Once they've powered down, we'll hit 'em with everything we've got, got it?"
"Yeah. I'll cover you guys as the girls go out," Riven offered.
"And I'll head out in the second Red Wing," Sky told them.
"What?" Riven exclaimed. "But you just broke the other one!"
"Which is exactly why we have the second one," Sky shot back. He could almost feel Riven seething from his place at the battle bridge, but he also knew that it was the best course of action. The Red Wing was small enough to get in places that the other ships couldn't. They needed a jet out there.
"I bet you anything Saladin's gonna find a way to blame this on me," Riven muttered under his breath. "Helia! Get back up here!"
Sky saw Helia roll his eyes, but he headed back up towards the battle bridge like Riven had told him to. Grinning slightly to himself, Sky settled himself inside the second Red Wing and readied it for launch. It wasn't long before Sky was back in the air again, and he went about helping Riven and Helia clear an area to allow the fairies a chance to get outside safely. But it was the carrier with its large supply of weapons that managed to take out most of the monsters.
"Alright, the area is clear," Riven reported to Timmy.
"You ready girls?" Flora asked the rest of the Winx Club who all responded with a unified and enthusiastic 'yeah!' In a flash of bright light made up of many different colours, they all transformed into their winx form. The second they had wings, the girls threw themselves out the squad ship out into Shadow Haunt, and from there, they all activated their charmix's.
"You gotta admit, for a bunch of sophomores, they're pretty good," Brandon commented to Timmy as he watched Layla and Stella combined an attack to form a glowing orb up in the sky. Once that was completed, the girls all joined hands and focused their magic in convergence. "And Stella looks so hot in those short!"
"Focus, Brandon. Focus," Timmy said. He watched as the Winx Club's spell started to glow as brightly as the sun, and in a wave of positive energy, the shadow monsters not only lost the power boost the Trix had given them, but they also became weakened in the presence of the light. "Yeah!"
"Let's take 'em down, boys," Brandon grinned widely, taking aim with his cannon. With the combined attacks of the squad ship, the carrier pod, the Red Wing and the fairies spell, the shadow monsters guarding the castle were easily defeated. In a matter of minutes, the squad ship and the carrier pod had been reconnected and the undamaged Red Wing was back in its hanger. Timmy remained in the ship to keep an eye on the monitors while the rest of his squad went down to see the girls off.
"Once you're in, we'll guard the entrance and make sure none of the creatures come in after you," Brandon explained to the girls. They had been able to get all the shadow monsters that were out in the open, but there were no doubt more of them lurking in the shadows, just waiting for them to turn their backs.
"You're not coming with us?" Stella asked in a small voice. She knew her and her friends were more than capable of handling anything, but she liked to have her boyfriend with her in these situations, for nothing more than so she could keep an eye on him.
"No," Riven told her. "We should stay out here."
"But we'll be with you in spirit," Brandon added. He didn't care how corny that sounded or that his friends were giving him odd looks. All his attention was on his beloved girlfriend. Wordlessly, the two of them moved towards each other and he gathered her hands in his. "Be careful, Stella. You are the light of my life."
"That's the cheesiest thing you've ever said," Stella said, pulling her boyfriend into a tight hug.
"I guess I've become a cheesy guy," Brandon laughed. "You kinda bring that out in me."
"You be careful too," Stella whispered, kissing his neck.
"Times like this make me wish I had told you earlier how I felt, Helia," Flora admitted. The two of them hadn't had a chance to properly discuss the next stage in their relationship what with Bloom being kidnapped and all. "I can't believe how much time I've wasted."
Cupping her face in his hands, Helia lifted her face up to look at him. "Forget the past, Flora. We have a future to think about."
Any chance for Flora to respond was cut off when Helia pull her face towards his and cover her lips with his. Despite being incredibly pretty, Flora had never actually had any boys interested in her before and although she had never admitted it to any of her friends, Flora had actually never been kissed by a boy up until that point. It hadn't really bothered her, but the second Helia's lips touched hers, it triggered a feeling that she had never experienced before. Her bones seemed to melt and she fell against his body, but she still managed to return his kiss with more passion than she thought she had in her.
Meanwhile, Timmy was forced to observe his beau though the ships monitors, but to him, even that didn't diminish how stunning Tecna looked to him. "Tecna, you're so beautiful," Timmy whispered quietly to himself as he let his fingertips brush of the picture of her on the screen, and when he saw a soft smile grace itself across her lips, he knew that on some level, she understood what he was thinking.
One fairy who had absolutely no idea what her crush was thinking, however, was Musa. She had been straight up about how she felt about him and he had kinda reciprocated but in typical Riven fashion he had still been hesitant about speaking plainly with her. Musa was almost positive that he liked her, but then a little voice in her head would point out that he obviously didn't like her enough to make a move, leaving her stuck in a position where she didn't know what to think.
"I'm sure you don't wonna do the whole mushy good-bye, good luck thing, right?" Musa asked, and when Riven failed to even soften his expression or unfold his arms from across his chest, Musa got her answer. All she had to do now was act as if it didn't bother her. "Right. Just making sure."
In order for her to avoid letting Riven see the disappointment in her eyes, Musa turned her back to him and went to leave, so she never saw his stony front fail him. He had been trying desperately to keep his expression schooled, but when Musa turned her back on him, a strange tightness had wrapped around his chest when he realised that it was possible that he might never see her again. There were no certainties in life – especially when you're going up against the Shadow Phoenix – and the thought of just letting her leave like that was more that Riven could bear. Acting on impulse, Riven quickly reached out and caught Musa's wrist before she had moved too far from him. Her navy eyes widened when she was jerked back to suddenly find herself pressed up against Riven's powerful chest and wrapped in his strong embrace.
"Promise that you'll come back to me," Riven whispered quietly into her ear, and the sound of his deep voice and the feeling of his hot breath so close to her skin caused Musa to break out into goose-bumps. "I don't know what I would do without you Musa, okay?"
The songstress was shocked beyond words, so all she could do was move deeper into the hug, knowing that Riven was able to communicate with more than just words.
Sky had been saying all year that he wasn't one to get jealous, but there was no denying that he was envious of his friends at this particular moment. He just couldn't help it. His guts twist as he grudgingly watched Brandon and Stella whisper sweet nothings into each others ears as they clung to each other. He was resentful of the way a flushed and beaming Flora grinned widely at Helia. He envied Timmy when he saw Tecna staring off at the squad ship. And he was slightly bitter when he saw Riven of all people engaged in a tender embrace with Musa.
He wasn't upset about the fact that his friends had found someone to make them happy, but he was resentful of the fact that he too had found it, and was now facing the possibility that it was gone forever. There was still so much he wanted to do with Bloom and to show her. And there was still so much he needed to tell her, things now that he might never get to say. Frustrated and angry, Sky clenched his fists and hoped that no one noticed his suffering.
But someone did.
"Sky!" Layla said suddenly, jerking Sky out of his dark thoughts. "Don't worry about Bloom. We're gonna bring her back, trust me."
Sky gave her a small smile, but he was still worried. "Thanks Layla."
"Sorry you guys, but it looks like we've got some incoming monsters," Timmy informed them over the loud speaker.
"Go girls!" Brandon ordered, and with one final look at him, Stella flew off into Lord Darkar's fortress and the rest of the fairies followed.
"Wait for us!" Chatta called flying after their fairies.
With the fairies and pixies now gone, the boys quickly pulled out their weapons. Sky had his sword ready while Brandon had his broadsword out. Riven had swapped is sabre for his morning star and long knife and Helia of course had his laser string gloves. Timmy remained in the squad ship to use the ships cannons to take out some of the monsters that weren't yet too close to his friends.
"Alright, let's do this," Sky said as the shadow monsters moved in.
"I seriously don't know what's worse; having to sit an exam and write an essay so long that it results in your hand cramping up before you're even halfway through it, or having to fight a whole army of stupid, spiky, drooling shadow monsters!" Brandon spat bitterly, sinking to the ground as Sky felled the last of said shadow monsters. "I mean, come on! There has got to be an easier way to end the school year, right?"
Sky ignored his squire's comments and focused on scanning the caves and tunnels that surrounded his squad for any shadow monsters which may had eluded his blade. But when he failed to find any, he shifted his attention to other matters. "Come on. We need to go find the girls."
"Give us a minute," Riven snapped, breathing heavily. He and the other boys were uninjured, but it was obvious that they all needed a moment to catch their breath before they ran off to the next challenge.
"We don't have a minute!" Sky snapped, glaring at his friend angrily. "We don't have time to be just standing around like this! We've got to find Bloom before Lord Darkar gets his hands on the Ultimate Power and we lose her forever!"
"We know that Sky. We didn't just follow you down here in the hopes of finding a Shadow Haunt Gift Shop," Riven snarled, accepting a bottle of water off of Timmy. He had come out of the ship to hep them when the fighting had become to close for him to use the cannons without running the risk of hitting one of his friends.
"Let's just catch our breath before we move out again. You've no use to Bloom half dead from exhaustion. Just remember that you just came back from that whole deal with the Trix in the Resort Realm and you don't want to burn yourself out before we even locate Bloom, now do you?" Helia pointed out in a tone of voice that no matter how hard he tried Sky couldn't find an excuse to get angry with.
"Fine!" Sky hissed, folding his arms across his chest angrily even though he was well aware that what Helia had said made perfect sense. "I'm just worried about Bloom, is all."
"We know," Timmy said sympathetically.
"We all are," Brandon added from his place on the ground.
"You should be more concerned about yourselves," a dry hiss of a voice said from somewhere in the darkness above them. Five heads jerked upwards and the specialists quickly scrambled into their fighting stances when they saw their new enemy leering down at them.
Perched in an alcove with a stance so low it almost looked as if he was lying on his stomach, was the being that had infiltrated Alfea under the guise of their new professor of magiphilosophy in order to earn Blooms trust and then hand her straight into Lord Darkar's clawed clutches. His arms were reached out in front of him for support, making him look like a giant spider and his wings were fully extended, highlighting his closeness to the rocks he was perch upon. His legs were tucked underneath him in a deep crouch and his long, steel blue hair swayed slightly in a soft, underground air current as it hung over one shoulder. And his face – which the fairies had described as handsome several times in the past – was now contorted into a hideous mask due to jagged, horrible tattoos, coupled with a murderous grin and insane glint in his eyes.
"Avalon!" Sky spat, glaring up at the man he had always disliked. He had never really trusted Avalon, and now he knew of the danger the traitor had been placing Bloom in all year, Sky was fuelled with an anger that would only be quenched when he had finished plucking the last feather off of that oversized pigeon lifeless body.
"That's not Avalon," Brandon reminded his prince. "This guy's an impostor."
"Correct," Lord Darkar's pawn hissed with a delighted grin. "You knew all along that there was something not quite right about me, didn't you, Prince Sky? That little digital fairy sensed it too, but in the end it made no difference. My master shall be victorious and this world shall fall. It's too late to stop it now. He had all the pieces of the Codex and the powers of darkness and light. The Ultimate Power is his."
"Who are you?" Timmy demanded to know, furious that this creep continued to torment them.
"I am Lord Darkar's most loyal and faithful servant," the creature told them, tilting his head to one side and staring down at them in such a way that they all got the feeling that there was very little sanity behind that once handsome face. All that remained there now was a deep wickedness and blind obedience. "Who I am and what life I lived beforehand is of no importance now. I am merely an extension of my Lord's will. But if you must know, there once was a time when I was the cloud spirit called Dusja (2)."
"But cloud spirits are completely pure beings," Helia noted in shock. Back at Ossacip, one of his professors had been a cloud spirit and she had been one of the most caring, compassionate, pleasant and peaceful individual that Helia had ever met. She had had similar ideals on pacifism as Helia, so he found it hard to believe that any of her kin could be anything less than saintly. "How can you work for Lord Darkar?"
"I've been down here longer than any of you children have been alive. Master is very good at wiping people's memories and even better with his torture techniques," Dusja told them all before locking his gaze directly onto Sky. "As I'm sure you little girlfriend would have found out by now."
"You bastard!" Sky growled. His blue eyes narrowed and the phantom blade in his grip shock in anger. But his anger only seemed to entertain the tainted cloud spirit, who laughed callously.
"But enough talk. Let's see what the honour of Red Fountain can do."
And with a cat like hiss, Dusja, Lord Darkar's most loyal and faithful servant, launched himself into the air and swooped down at the teenagers below.
(1) I hadn't thought about it until then too, but I needed to come up with a way so that the idea of a high school student being able to drag a jet with his bare hands was believable
(2) Dusja is an anagram. Rearrange the letters and you get the name Judas
Oh-my-gosh, oh-my-gosh, oh-my-gosh, oh-my-gosh, oh-my-gosh! Twenty-five chapters down. One to go. We're getting down to the business end of this thing now. Stay tuned for the final episode with special guest appearance for the Shadow Phoenix himself; Lord Darkar of Shadow Haunt.
TBC. Oh, last time saying that!