okay so two months since i've updated....sorry! but my finals are finally over so i am hoping to finish the rest of the story soon.

So I'm not excatly in love with this chapter, but nothing really happened to Musa in this one - so here's a shorty - sorry for the wieght.

The Search for the Flame

In every brochure and booklet that Musa was given about Alfea, she had always felt a certain calm about the school. It was near one of the most beautiful cities in the magical universe and the weather was never cold. It was like eternal summer here and while academic rigor was strongly emphasized, Musa always thought that she would be in some endless party of fun and friends while she was here. So looking around at what the school had become was definitely not was she was expecting.

She walked from what was left of her room down to the quad where most of the students were. While everyone was trying to pass the time in their own way, but a heavy feeling of anxiety and worry filled the air all over the campus and it was nearly impossible to escape it.

Musa walked to Flora, who was sitting with Kiko and Pepe, and looked up to see Techna and Timmy walking toward them as well. They had been working day and night trying to fix the warning system that was put in effect a few years back, it served to predict future threats towards the school, while it was usually used to catch students that were breaking the rules, it also served a more useful purpose. "How are things looking?" Musa asked when the two were in talking distance.

"Umm well," Timmy said nervously, making Musa's hope for the situation fall flat.

"Are Stella and Bloom going to be okay?" Flora asked with concern.

"The numbers don't exactly look good," Timmy said nervously as he scratched the back of his head. "Actually, they look pretty bad,"

"How bad?" Musa demanded knowing Timmy was easy to crumble when pushed. He may have been a prodigy with a computer, but when it came to face to face confrontation, he was as steady as Ali in 4 inch heels, after a long night of partying.

"We haven't been able to successfully reinstate the warning system that was in place before the initial attacks, but the makeshift model is having some success," Timmy began. "Although, some of the variables are extraneous and certain phenomena cannot be explained readily – ,"

"In a language normal people would understand," Ali cut in with a distasteful smile, rather rudely, earning a sour look from Techna. She had never been the one to mince words and if there was a particular quality she didn't like about you, it was a safe bet that she would tell you. And with Timmy it was his over analysis over everything. "If you would,"

"The models aren't perfect," Techna cut in see the uncomfortable look on Timmy's face after Ali's clear jab at him, whatever Timmy was about to say was swiftly cut off by the anxiety of having to get into a verbal squabble with Ali. "But even with them, things don't look too good," Techna said in a lower voice as she delivered the grave news. "The odds are against Stella and Bloom,"

"This stinks," Flora complained.

"Don't worry girls, I know the odds are against them, but they were against you guys making it back from Sparx," Timmy pointed out before turning to answer Saladin's call for him to report his findings. As Musa watched Timmy walk away she tried to take comfort in the fact that they were never ones to follow the odds. But she was still feelings restless.

"We should have been allowed to go," Musa pouted as she took a seat on the grass and folded her arms. This was so like Faragonda, put Bloom in the line of fire, but the rest of her friends were far too delicate. Musa may not have been trained in combat, but Bloom hadn't even used her powers until she got here. The protected, damsel in distress role was one that Musa felt like she had been playing all of her life. For once she would have loved it if someone let her do something without sending in back up. It even happened in her circle of friends, she had always been the youngest and that warranted everyone looking after her as if she were a child. And while their sentiments were always in the right place, the fact of the matter was that she sick and tired of being underestimated. "They could use our help and there is no way that sending Sky and Brandon was a better idea than sending two of us,"

"That's not true, the boys could be helpful for navigation," Flora pointed out calmly. While she knew that she had a point, the idea didn't seem to go over to well with the musical princess, who said nothing but gave her a betrayed glare. "Besides you were injured, you would have been put in even more danger," Flora defended once again.

"That's not the point,"

"Then what is,"

"Aren't you worried that the army of decay is recharging while we're sitting here," Musa complained as worry pushed heavily on her shoulders.

"Well the only thing we can do is be ready, right?" Flora encouraged. Everyone was a bit edgy but Musa couldn't sit still, she hated leaving things undone, she wanted this mess to be over. Of coarse that couldn't happen until they figured out how exactly they were going to defeat the army of decay, brute force was obviously failing miserably. You didn't have to be a Red Fountain student to know that a strategy of attack usually worked better than simply attacking.

"This whole thing is majorly whack," Musa spat, unhappy with Flora's answer.

"You said it,"

"Seriously, the semester is almost over," She complained on. It was the end of the spring semester, although in Magix was summer all year round. If she had been back at Devon she and her friends would be preparing for the annual Sunset Ball, the social event of the season that officially started summer. The Alfea equivalent was prom and while her friends at home were off buying ball gowns and planning who would be attending with whom, she was here fighting to save the magical universe from utter destruction. "This time of year we would be getting ready for prom,"

"Just forget prom," Techna advised. "We'll never have an opportunity to do something this important every again," (1)

"We are in a critical point in time, think about it the fate of the fate of an entire dimension is in our hands," Techna went on, adding more passion an rhetoric to each word she said, as if trying to persuade them to not be sick of the fighting and sleepless nights. "This is much more meaningful and exciting than prom -,"

"Not the way I had it planned," Ali complained as she joined the group.

"This is history," Techna went on ignoring Ali's comment.

"Who cares about history if you're not around long enough to tell about it," Amaryl spat as she walked toward the fairy. "And stop dissing prom; I'm on the committee,"

"I wasn't dissing prom," Techna corrected. "I find that our responsibility to our school is more important than anything else,"

"Look around!" Amaryl shouted. "What school do you see? Because all I see are a bunch of students running around pretending that they can save the world!"

"We can if we try!"

"What fairytale are you living in!" Amaryl shot back. "Last time I checked, no fairy god mother was going to swoop in and save us at the very last minute,"

"Guys! We need to stop fighting," Flora said trying to stop the belligerent fairies. Everyone was on their last nerve and it seemed that it was hard to have a conversation without someone loosing their cool, well for the girls anyway. The boys were trained to stay calm in these kinds of situations, so they were off trying to get some sleep, or in many boys' case, hitting on some the Alfea girls.

"She's right, we need to stick together," Musa defended. "Especially now, who knows what those witches are going to throw at us next?"

"Whatever," Amaryl huffed and walked away.

"I'm going to go run through the calculations a few more times, maybe we can get the warning module working this time," Techna said as she turned around swiftly and stomped off in the opposite direction.

"Well that leaves us," Musa said looking at Flora, Priscilla and Ali. All four of them had been doing basically the same thing all day; they had been sitting around, thinking about what was going to happen.

"I can't sit here and think about the army of decay anymore," Priscilla said frustrated. "I'm going to go insane,"

"We could play truth or dare," Ali suggested with a daring looking as she turned her head slightly and gave a sly grin to particular boy she had been eyeing. "To pass the time,"

"Ali, just go over and talk to him," Priscilla said through an exhausted tone. "Or stick or tongue down his throat or whatever it is that will make you shut up with these stupid ideas,"

"Seriously," Musa said as she rolled her eyes. Flora had even gotten up and left, knowing that whatever Ali had planned was not going to be too much fun for her. "Sometimes I cannot understand you at all, we are in the middle of a panic and that's what you think about?"

"Fine, I'll be back," Ali said, obviously not listening to what they were saying.

Ten minutes later Ali had returned and she brought….entertainment, as she put it.

"Ladies," Musa heard from behind her and turned to see one of the Red Fountain seniors staring her down and behind him were a few other boys and behind them was, of course, Ali. "Since we can't really do anything, how about -,"

"Yeah," Musa said cutting him off before he attempted to lay down some pathetic pick up line. "No thanks," Musa then proceeded to walk away.

"Well Daniel is over," Ali pointed out. "And you've made it clear that you don't want Riven; dead or alive, it's time you look at other boys,"

"Have you been talking to Stella?" Musa groaned as she continued to walk away from Ali and the rest of the group. "

"Stop being such a wet blanket," Ali complained and ran in front and stopped Musa's stride away from her. "Can you loosen up for once, stop being so freaking insecure, and pull the stick outta your ass for a second,"

Once again Ali forgot to filter what she was thinking and what she was saying. And even though she had hit her mark perfectly, this was probably not the best time to give Musa a slap of reality. "Musa….I didn't -"

Musa stopped and looked at Ali with venom in her eyes. "We are in the middle of very serious situation and I know you absolutely hate taking anything seriously, expect of coarse sex, boys, and having fun, but maybe for one second, you could act like your age and take some responsibility," Musa spat out, that was the thing about being friends with someone, you get to know their faults and most friends try to help you work on those faults. But when there was an arguments, those faults were used a weapons and Musa was becoming really good at defending herself, but she hated how blunt she was with someone she had gotten so close to.

The two fairies stood face to face, silent, for a few more seconds before Ali spoke up. "Fine, I'm going to go have some fun before reality sets in and we have to start fighting…again. You can sit here and worry, try not to have a heart attack,"

Musa looked back and pouted before she walked off to see where Flora had run off to. She found her in their room with Mirta once again. "Want some help?" Musa asked as she walked up to Flora, who seemed to be in a state of depression when she thought about Mirta.

"Maybe if we can defeat the witches…." Flora said with a sideways smile of hope as she continued to look through her book of spells for vegetation.

"Yeah," Musa said trying to make Flora feel a bit better. It was all she could do seeing as everything else seemed to be out of their control.

1. until next year that is

Okay, so I know its not the most interesting chapter, but it had to be done. Promise the next one will be more action packed.

xoxo,
princessm