Note: I'm going to try and be more active in this chapter than in the last. I'm not used to speediness, which isn't so good (my fics have been dragging lately…), but I will remedy this ASAP! Thanks to the reviewers, and enjoy!

Chapter Five: Dead Zone

"You get anything?"

"Nope."

"What if you go to your left?"

"Nothing."

With a dejected sigh, Timmy and I both stuffed our cellphones back into our pockets and glowered at the scenery and our luck. "I can't believe this," I muttered. "I cannot believe you got us stranded here."

"That bird flew in the way!" my husband protested. "If it hadn't—"

"If it hadn't, then we wouldn't be sitting here, trying to get phone service?" I replied bitterly. "Just let me use my winx, Timmy, and we can leave here just as quickly as we arrived. Please."

And, for the thousandth time that hour, Timmy shook his head.

A long, long time ago, my husband and I had come to the Resort Realm on a mission for the then-sophomore Winx Club to "reconnect." I'd like to point out that the weakness I had then with my winx is exceedingly different than any I'd have had as a full-fledged fairy, and the sooner Timmy recognized it, the happier I would be. "I don't want you to hurt yourself," had been his excuse. "I don't want you to waste your energy carrying me. Who knows how much you'll have?"

Amore had declared it romantic. Digit had declared it logical. I had declared it a royal pain.

"So we'll be staying here overnight?" I stated, giving the ruined levabike a dirty look.

"Looks like it," Timmy nodded. And without a word, we both got up to make some sort of shelter.

Now, I'm going to be honest: roughing it in the outdoors is not my forte. Perhaps Layla, Flora, or even Musa could have been a Pixie Scout, but me, I was lucky to toast a marshmallow without getting it burnt to a crisp. So building a shelter from scratch—without winx—was pretty much laughable.

Timmy, on the other hand, had trained for this his entire life. Before I knew what was happening, my husband began ordering me to help lift logs, to make notches with his blade, and to follow his movements as he created something out of these twigs and bark. Digit and Amore watched silently, our conversation interesting enough to merit their attention:

"Tecna, carry it over here."

"This?"

"No, the log, Tecna—now put it this way gently…gently…gently, Tecna, gently!" His arms pulled the wobbling wood from my reach and steadied it, my cheeks hot in embarrassment. "Maybe you should stick to using the knife, huh?"

Sulky, I did so, grumbling, "I don't know how you can remember all this useless information, Timmy. The last time I built any sort of house was out of gingerbread at Bloom's winter party."

Timmy laughed at that, his spirits a good deal higher than mine. "That could be useful. We're going to have to eat, too, you know."

"Are you suggesting I'm going to have to cook?"

"No offense, Tecna, but I think I'll handle that."

So while basically being a useless bump on a log (Get it? Log? We're hauling logs? …You know, someday someone is going to have to laugh at my jokes), I sat there, biting my lip against anything particularly rude or of the complaining-nature. Digit, being easily bored, had taken out our cellphones and was playing with them by trying to reestablish their signals. This left Amore by my side, and she refused to let up on her love advice.

"Tecna, I think you should have a real heart-to-heart with Timmy," the pixie decided. "I want you to tell him all your special feelings, and then give him a big hug. That'll fix everything!"

I imagined Musa and Riven having such a talk and chuckled. "I'm not that confrontational," I admitted finally. "I mean, lately I feel as if I've been getting more aggressive, but it only seems to land me in more trouble. The last thing I want to do is jeopardize that further. Besides, I…I don't know what I'd say."

Amore patted my hand reassuringly. "Then write it down. And when the time comes, you will know."

Now, I won't lie to you: I thought the idea to be very provincial and silly. I sat alone on my little corner of grass and laughed to myself over it once she'd left—write all my problems down, indeed! What was I, a silly schoolgirl? Honestly. Why, to write down my problems would be so immature. I knew my problems well enough, didn't I?

…Didn't I?

Suddenly a horrifying thought echoed in my mind: I didn't know why I was unhappy. Terror seized me, and I shook my head, desperate for any answer but this. Wasn't it easier to say this was all brought about by Timmy, by his lack of romance? But no, he'd been improving, slowly but surely. He'd been nothing but sweet, well-tempered, lovely, and…and perfect.

So what, then, was wrong?

"I'm going to go for a walk," I announced to no one in particular, standing up. I stretched my arms and began to go at a light jog, all the while not even wondering how I'd find my way back. I jogged, and jogged, until all the trees were the same, until my poor weakened legs could take it no more. A river came into sight and I stared at it, thoughtfully, before deciding what I needed right then and there was a bath to shake all this stress off.

The water was cool, refreshing against my skin. My clothes fell in a puddle on the ground, and I shivered at the river's touch before easing myself in its depths. Sunlight danced on its surface, and I stared upon it, watching my reflection become distorted with flashes of color.

"What do I want?" I whispered to myself. "If Timmy's fine…then what's wrong with us? What's wrong with me? Why can't I …why can't I just be…happy?"

Such a simple wish. And yet, so illogically founded.

A yelp stole my attention from my worries, and I turned my head to see the scarlet face of a man I knew to my husband. His freckles stood out against a blushing background, and he stammered out random things, all sounding to be some sort of "I'm sorry to interrupt" and "I didn't know you were bathing."

"I'm so sorry!" Timmy finished awkwardly. "So, so sorry, Tecna!"

I watched him fidget and stammer, then stood, shaking the water from my hair. "Why?" I challenged. "Why should you be? We're married, aren't we? There's nothing bizarre about seeing me like this." My eyes bored into his, and receiving no answer, I slowly clothed myself and sighed, coming to his side. "Why are you afraid of me?" I whispered, and the words came out choked, strange. "Why, Timmy?"

I took his hands in my own, and he averted my gaze, staring at the ground instead. "Afraid?" Timmy repeated. "I don't know, Tecna. I don't know what to think of you anymore, that's all. I'm not afraid of you. I'm just…I don't know what you want from me."

The wind sang in the silence, unspoken answers trailing alongside it. Me too. I don't know what I want, too. I need answers, answers, answers. I closed my eyes, and I let different scenarios play in my mind: how Sky would react, how Helia, how Riven, how Nabu and Brandon would reply to such a rift. Then I opened my eyes to see Timmy before me, and I couldn't for the life of me guess what he, of all people, wanted me to say.

So what came out was the truth: "I want us to be in love again."

Timmy almost smiled, and as his mouth opened louder, he began laughing. He shook his head, glasses sliding, and said, "Do you really, Tecna? Because it feels like you don't. It feels like you want to unravel everything we've got left, you know? I love you, but…love is a two person thing. And I don't know what exactly I've done to make you so unhappy. Just tell me, Tecna. Tell me."

"I don't know!" I screamed at him, and I could feel my body shaking, my eyes somehow becoming wet. "For the love of Magix, Timmy, I don't know! I thought I was happy, and then…and then you started seeming so different, so odd. Videogames, Timmy? Is that what our love is founded on: technology?"

"Of course not—"

"So why the airship, then? Why did you think I'd want a rusty piece of useless air-garbage?" I challenged. "Maybe I wanted to go to that new quiet café on Main Street, or—or walk on the beach hand-in-hand, or maybe kiss in the moonlight in a secluded forest! Maybe I wanted that!"

"Fine, we can do that—"

"Stop interrupting me and just listen, would you?"

"Listen to yourself, Tecna!" Timmy protested. "Do you have any idea what you're complaining about?"—I opened my mouth, but he cut me off—"This has nothing to do with technology. You're mad at me because I can't read your mind. And Tecna, that's the most illogical argument I've heard in a long, long time."

Rage coursed through me; Timmy wasn't supposed to be fighting back. This was the part of the argument in which my husband apologized, and then I felt guilty and blurted out a thousand apologies to cancel out his. Since when did he talk to me like that—treat me like that?

"Y-you haven't the foggiest idea what you're talking about!" I sputtered.

"If you haven't noticed, neither do you!"

"I can't believe this. I simply cannot believe this." I shook my head and let out a short, hysterical laugh. "I don't know why I even bothered. You're so…so…pig-headed to even think that this could be my fault."

"And it isn't?" Timmy challenged. "Look, honey, I love you, but this is just ridiculous. I haven't done anything wrong here. If I had, I'd apologize, but for not knowing what you were thinking? That's not my fault." He extended a hand in offering, and I glowered at him. "I'm going back to the shelter. Will you come with me?"

It should come as no surprise that I swatted his hand away and announced, "I have my own shelter, thank you."

"If you hadn't been arguing with Timmy, this never would have happened."

"Shut up."

"It's true, though."

"Don't you have even the tiniest shred of sympathy hiding in your heart?" I moaned, rainwater slipping through the cracks of my very shabby, very pathetic shelter. "I don't need this now, Digit. Really, I don't."

I'd be lucky to have gotten a minute of sleep the night before, huddled in the corner of this tepee of palm fronds. I barely fit in there as it was, and with Digit crowding me, I could barely breathe.

Of course, immediately following my little dispute with Timmy, I was racked by indescribable guilt and pain. It took a good deal of wounded pride and nursed anger to keep me away from that snug, cozy little shelter by the levabike's remains.

And so, now, I was living in the result of my determined frenzy.

"I don't get why you're so high-strung, though, Tecna," Digit stated. "I mean, clearly, there is something physically wrong with you. My Tecna wouldn't spaz out over a completely rational reply."

"Your Tecna is a married woman, and therefore entitled to lose her mind every once in a while." I laid my head on my knees and sighed. How had this happened, exactly? How had I let our first real attempt at communication these past few months blow up in my face so completely? "I want to go home, Digit. So terribly."

"Then use your Enchantix."

"But then I strand Timmy."

"So take him with you."

"Have you not been paying attention these past two days?" I snapped. "I can't do that, not when he's being so…so…oh, you know what I'm talking about."

Digit raised her eyebrows. "Not really."

"Why did the levabike have to break?" I moaned. "Why, oh why, oh why, Digit? I'm in the middle of a technology-free world, and nature is stifling me with its pathetic roofs."

"So go to Timmy's shelter."

"Digit—!" Furious, I stood up, the tepee uprooting along with me. The palm fronds slipped off my head and fell into a sopping wet heap on the ground and I let out a single, furious cry as Digit tut-tutted and shook her head.

"You shouldn't have done that."

"I'm very well aware of that!" And kicking my shelter's remains, I stomped off.

Rain, rain, rain. My hair stuck to my face and my clothes clung to my body with their cold, moist fabrics. Of course I'd have chosen to wear the fireproof outfit, and not the water-resistant one. Whoever says women don't suffer for fashion is clearly in denial.

Well, my first order of business was to make a new shelter, of course. So I pulled at slippery wet tree branches, grunting and groaning until my hands pulled them free. I whimpered at the blisters but did this again, and again, until I had more splinters to worry about than blisters. I did this so often, and got so deaf to the sound of cracking wood around me, that I almost didn't hear the scream.

My whole body stilled, and it took me mere moments to determine that the sound was human. Timmy. I didn't think about all the arguments we'd had. I didn't think about the rain, the blisters, the splinters, the effect this place had on my power.

I simply flew.

It's a surge of power shooting through you, a charge similar to adrenaline, a rush. Like fire, it spreads through you, transforming you into something powerful and strange. I felt the soft touch of my lengthening hair against my cheek, and I felt the familiar shudder of wings sprouting from my back.

All this happened in mere moments, and soon I was racing the raindrops, fighting to find the source of that sound. "Timmy?" I called over the wind. "Timmy? Timmy!"

And there he was, just an hour's walk from his shelter. His sword was drawn, and before him stood a hulking shadow of a beast—something not native here, that's certain. Its four legs dragged against the ground, and its horns jabbed forward threateningly towards my spouse, swiping and roaring at his tiny, darting form.

"World wide web!" I screamed, and boxes of green light trapped Timmy's attacker in place. "Timmy, what are you doing? Attack him now! Do it!"

"Tecna?" he murmured, and my poor, stunned husband let a smile spread across his face before heeding my words. The thing collapsed under his blade and I dropped to the ground, indignant.

"Where did this come from?" I shouted. "Why didn't you stop it? Why is it that if I couldn't have come here—?"

"You came back." His arms wrapped around me, and all my complaints were silenced by his arms. "Oh, Tecna, you came back."

Came back? I blinked, his meaning seeping through. "I—I just thought you were hurt," I insisted. "And I was right. You could have died, Timmy!" Died. And if he had died, what then? What would I have done without him?

"Tecna—"

"Don't you ever scare me like that again!" I demanded, shaking. "Don't you ever, ever, let yourself get in danger like that right after we've been fighting! Timmy, don't you dare!"

I don't know if it was rain, or tears, that poured down my cheeks as I buried my head in his shoulder. But either way, it was Timmy who brushed them away, and whispered, "I promise. Do you…" He paused, running his fingers through my hair. "Do you want to go inside? You don't have to, but…it's raining. And I don't know how far away your shelter could be."

It's a compromise, I realized, and I could see Digit floating behind him, nodding her head emphatically. "I could always leave tomorrow when the sun comes up," I replied in a whisper.

"It's your call," Timmy assured me, and pulling our arms away slowly, we walked towards his shelter, both too preoccupied to wonder how exactly such a monster wound up here, anyway.

For now.