Now, I don't know about you, but I think it's about time I added a new chapter to this story. Alright, this one was a little on the shorter side, but don't worry, the next one will be longer for Bloom has a lot to see when she goes through that portal.

Chapter 3:

Realizations

"What?" Bloom felt stunned. She had anticipated that there was the possibility of Sky marrying Diaspro, but never had she considered that he would end up finding someone else. She most definitely would suspect Karina last of anyone.

From what she could remember, Karina was nobility from Miragia, the realm of illusions. She had chin length chocolate brown hair and often dressed in maroon. But, her beautiful looks didn't agree with her true colors.

Karina often was known to be one of the most stuck-up fairies at Alfea. Bloom could recall a lot of girls calling her and the rest of the Winx Club about Karina messing with their minds and putting them under illusion spells for her own personal entertainment. But, even this wasn't the true reason that Bloom hated Karina.

The reason was because when Bloom had been in her sophomore year, Karina had personally targeted her as one of her victims. She hadn't told the girls or Sky because she didn't want to be reminded of it.

She remembered it ever so well. She had pretended to dress up as one of the girls(she thought it was Musa) and that she was in trouble. Bloom transformed to go save her, but ended up realizing it was only a cruel sick joke by the prankster herself, Karina.

"What is your problem Karina?" She'd demanded fiercely, feeling the Dragon Fire burn within her.

The other girl smirked. "Oh, I was just having a little fun. See you later princess of a dead-planet-nobody-remembers."

Bloom nearly growled. "It's Sparx!"

"Whatever." She yawned, leaving.

Bloom knew that if she ever found her messing with her life again, she'd unleash all the power possible.

Now once again in the flower shop, would Bloom be willing to do just that, but risk giving up her chances with Sky forever?

Flora looked at her strangely, and shook her head. She thrust the bill at her. "I'd like my purchase, please."

"Huh?" Bloom, it seemed, had forgotten that Flora had come here to buy something. But why?

"Maybe I should just go," Flora said, taking her purse back. She held it and turned to leave.

"No Flora, wait!" She walked over the greatly confused flower fairy and handed her the flowers. "On the house."

She seemed confused. "Are you sure?"

Bloom nodded. You'd do the same for me. Just like how I gave you Kiko.

Bloom thought about Kiko; her old gray, fuzzy little rabbit. Since Flora was heading with Helia back to Linphea after Sparx was saved, it seemed fitting that he go with Flora so he could explore the beautiful nature-filled realm. Bloom handed him over with no hesitance. She knew her friend would take good care of him. Scratch that-she'd take wonderful care of him, and had been according to what she'd last heard from her a few weeks earlier.

"Thanks." Flora said, smiling a bit and walked out of the store. She seemed slightly different than what Bloom remembered. Her hair had gotten shorter and her eyes no longer sparkled in the same way. It was almost as if she were a new Flora, a new flower fairy. And now that Bloom thought about it, why was she on Earth anyway?

The princess of Sparx thought long and hard on what to do. On one hand, abandoning her job would show carelessness, and her mother already thought she was behaving strangely. But, on the other hand, if she stayed here, she would probably never find the answer to her questions.

Finally, she looked over to the clock on the wall and knew that this was generally about the time her mother closed up shop for the day anyway. Vanessa had left about an hour earlier to finish dinner, so what was stopping her now?

Nothing. She realized. She gripped her key and finally said aloud, answering her unspoken question, "There's only one way to find out."

She flipped the light switch on the wall and grabbed the keys. She stepped out the door, switched the "Open" sign to "Closed" and locked the doors. Now there was just one more thing. Which way did Flora go?

Having roomed with Flora for three years, Bloom had a good idea on that. "She must've went to the wood," she decided. "Where else would she go?"

And so for the third time in one day, Bloom headed toward the Gardenia woods. It was a pleasant little area, and she'd went there hundreds of times back before she'd met Stella. In fact, if she hadn't of met Stella, she and Kiko would've simply tossed around an acorn, like always.

Then something hit her. But I didn't meet Stella that day. If I had, I wouldn't be here. I'd still be on Sparx, getting ready for the dinner and the visit from the other girls…Oh my god, the other girls! If Flora's here and Sky's married to Karina, what happened to the rest of them?

She'd find out later, she told herself. There was no time to be thinking about that. She could think about it all another time. In two hours perhaps, but right now, she had to focus on locating the fairy of Linphea.

People looked at her strangely, which she thought was odd. But, hey, Vanessa had said that she rarely left the house, so people were probably surprised to suddenly see her running out of the house a lot.

Finally, she was there and ran through, frantically searching for the timid fairy of nature. That is, she at least thought she was. Flora seemed ever so different. If this is how Flora was acting, then how different was Stella? Musa? Layla? Tecna? The guys?

"How different am I?" she asked herself aloud. Clearly from what most people had proven correct, she was acting a lot different than the Bloom they knew. How was this Bloom? How was she not? Would she ever get back to her normal life?

Ha-normal life. That was so ironic. Just before she'd fallen asleep she'd wished for that normal life, and now that she had it, she would give anything to be a princess again and have her friends and Sky back. Why had she wanted to be normal, anyway?

"Because it all seemed to unrealistic," she muttered under her breath. "Well, at this point, I'd take unrealistic any day over what I'm having to suffer through right now. Where's Flora?"

She was rewarded when out of the corner of her eye, she spotted brown hair. She turned her face and saw that yes, Flora was walking into a lonely area of the woods. Perfect. She followed her, carefully attempting to be discreet.

Flora stopped and set her bag down. Bloom did the same, and hid behind a tree, peeking out. "If only this whole thing wasn't my job," she heard the nature fairy say. She sounded bitter and quite unlike the roommate she'd come to know and love.

What does she mean, "my job"? Was she asked by someone at home to pick up Earth flowers or something? Bloom was getting more confused by the minute, but continued to watch.

Flora took in a deep breath and Bloom knew what was coming next. As she expected, through bolts of pinkish light, Flora changed into her fairy form, and settled on the ground. Only, something was wrong.

Why is Flora in her winx instead of her Enchantix? We all earned them…didn't' we?

That question startled a revelation within her. If she never had met Stella, that meant all the adventures they'd went on, including to earn their Enchantix powers, had indeed, not happened.

If we didn't save the universe, than who did?

Bloom kept her thoughts out of her head as she realized that Flora was casting a spell now. She focused her winx and in a matter of seconds, a blue portal appeared in front of her.

Bloom's eyes burst open. Flora was leaving the planet! This was her only chance. She had to get through that portal and into the Magical Dimension, or she'd probably never figure out what was going on.

She saw Flora jump inside with her bag. Bloom ran toward the portal and was about to jump through when it disappeared right into thin air because she could get inside. She landed down on the ground, hard.

She rubbed the back of her neck and felt tears welling up in her eyes. That was her last chance. Now she'd never figure this out. She was stuck in this horrible life, with no one left to help her.

"That's not true…"

Bloom looked up and realized that the woods no longer surrounded her. Instead, it almost was as if she was at Lake Chrysalis, like when she'd gone back in freshman year to discuss her destiny with Daphne. Wait a minute. If she was here, than that meant…

"I'm here?" The familiar voice asked.

Bloom looked, and as she thought, there was Daphne, as radiant as ever. "Daphne! It's so good that you're here. Everything's wrong! Sky married someone else. Flora didn't earn her Enchantix. Sparx is frozen. What am I going to do!"

"It's okay, Bloom." Her sister said, smiling. "Don't worry. You're not alone. I'll help you. Now, what is the first you think you should do?"

"Well," she said, "I was about to do that, but the portal Flora opened just closed on me before I could get inside. That was my last chance. Now I'll never get back to the Magical Dimension and figure this out."

"It's fine. You can open another one."

"What?" she gasped, looking at the nymph with surprise. "But, I can't use my powers. The Dragon Fire…it's-it's gone."

"It's not gone. It's always inside you. Remember your freshman year at Alfea? You thought Icy took it, but it was with you all along, and it still is."

"But, how am I supposed to open a portal? I couldn't even cast a spell on Mitzi." She admitted, ashamed.

"Don't worry Bloom," Daphne assured her tenderly. "I'll help. Just close your eyes, believe in yourself, and focus your powers."

The red-haired fairy gulped. "Alright, here goes." She closed her eyes, tried to believe in herself as best as she could, and focused all the winx she had within her, which didn't seem like much.

Then, Daphne said, "Open your eyes Bloom! Look!"

She did as she was told, and looking, she saw a portal, almost identical to the one her friend had created. She smiled, her eyes brightening. "Thank you Daphne."

"You're welcome Bloom. Now go. There's not much time. You must hurry and figure this out. But, I will help you along the way."

Bloom nodded and swallowed again. She walked toward the portal, took one look back, and stepped inside.

As always, reviews are welcome. I love to know what you think.