Author's Note: Hey guys! All right, so last time, we had the girls decide to hide Layla at Cloud Tower for a little while and Professor Griffin agreed to keep her for three days. Well, I already told you she wouldn't last three days. She doesn't even make it through Day 1. This chapter is it! The big one, the one we've all been waiting for! This is the most pivotal chapter in the entire Quest for Power Series. Please leave a review and tell me what you think afterwards. Happy reading!
Chapter 6: The Witch's Tale
Layla didn't sleep well that night. She kept tossing and turning in her bed, having dreams of Nezaro finding her, dragging her back to Fergal and marrying her there. She was walking down the aisle against her will. She could feel a spell on her, forcing her to do it, though she didn't want to, and she knew it wasn't the right thing. And worst of all, he was making her friends watch the ceremony. They were watching with sad looks on their faces, powerless to stop it and poor Jason, he wasn't even looking at her. He was staring at the floor, not bringing himself to raise his eyes to look at her. He wanted to stop it, but knew he couldn't. He had given up hope completely. Then it was time for the kiss and as Nezaro was leaning in, Layla jerked awake.
She almost screamed, but all she did was give a small cry of alarm. She looked at her clock and saw that it was 3:00 a.m. She started to cry into her pillow, afraid that the dream would become a reality and she would eventually be forced to marry Nezaro. The idea scared her, never seeing any of her friends or Jason again. She wondered why Nezaro would want to marry her anyway and how he had convinced her parents to agree to it. He must have spelled them, that was the only explanation. She kept having these thoughts until she got so tired from crying, that she went back to sleep.
When she woke up later that morning, she found a breakfast tray at the foot of her bed. She took off the lid and saw a few pieces of bacon and three biscuits on the tray. She tried to eat, but she could barely swallow, thoughts of the dream still flying through her mind.
"I hope this doesn't last much longer," she said. "I couldn't bear it if I had to be with anyone but Jason." She looked at the books on her bookshelf and saw they were all full of dark magic and records of several dark families. She pulled one book off the shelf and started flipping through it. She stopped when she came to one page and as she read through it, comprehension dawned on her face.
"So that's what's going on," she thought to herself. "It's all starting to make sense. Quickly she pulled out her journal, now very glad she'd thought to bring along, and began to transcribe the relevant passages into it. She kept flipping through the book and as she turned the pages, more things began to fall into place. On one of the pages, she found family trees of several dark wizards, both in the past and in the present and Nezaro's family was among them. When she saw the Realm of Fergal listed as a dark realm, she was shocked at first, but then realized it was obvious. Everything started to come together in her mind's eye.
"So that explains why I've never been to Fergal," she thought. "If it's a dark realm, no wonder Mom and Did didn't want me there. They wanted to protect me from an evil influence. So why did they accept Nezaro's proposal to marry me? Answer: they wouldn't, unless he put a spell on them so they'd have to do it. He wants my powers, that's why he's doing all this."
She read further and found a family tree with his name on it. She traced back his heritage and saw that he was descended from a long line of dark wizards.
"I've heard of all these guys," said Layla. "They've all attempted to control all the realms. That's apparently where Nezaro got his bad attitude. But, wait a minute…what's this?" She gasped when she recognized a few of the names that were on the sheet and again when she recognized the name they all traced back to. In fact, every single family tree traced back to this one name, a name she'd hoped she'd never hear outside of history classes. She started to cast a spell that would copy the family tree into her journal, then remembered she couldn't do magic, so she quickly began copying the genealogy tables by hand, which was long and tedious, but worth the effort.
Layla finished copying the relevant passages from the book into her journal and placed the book back on the shelf. There weren't very many books on the bookshelf, so she grabbed them all, quickly read through them and copied the relevant passages from them into her journal. She then read through her journal again and wrote more into it, connections and links starting to form inside her head.
"I think I'm starting to figure out what's been going on," she said. "This also explains what Nirvana told us while Musa was under Rancor's control, about how Paritho came to visit him." She wrote down all these thoughts in her journal, before she could forget them. Suddenly, she felt a chill run down her spine, and she knew at once what that feeling meant.
"I'm not alone," she thought to herself. "Something's coming, coming for me. And it's not Jason or my friends either." She hurriedly walked back to the bookshelf and set the journal on it. She knew that if she managed to escape the evil, she could show it to her friends, and knew if she were captured, at least one of her friends would go through the room.
Suddenly, she felt a cold blast of air flow through the room, a frigid blast that paralyzed her entire body for a few moments. "I seriously hope that wasn't what I think it was," she said.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" came a voice from somewhere around her.
"A little pixie, all alone and scared," said another voice.
"There's nothing I love more than a scared pixie," said a third voice.
Layla recognized those three voices instantly. It was Icy, Darcy and Stormy. "What are you three doing here?" she asked, as the three witches appeared in front of her.
"We thought we'd stop in and see how you were doing, pay one of our least favorite fairies a little visit," said Icy. "And maybe capture you for our friend Nezaro while we're here."
"You know he misses you," said Darcy. "He's been wondering where you are."
"I gotta admit, it was a crafty idea trying to hide out here," said Stormy. "I'd have never thought you or any of your other pixie friends would ever come here if it wasn't on a mission."
"How did you find me?" asked Layla.
"Well, we knew you were in Magix somewhere and that you couldn't be in any other realm," said Darcy.
"So, after letting Nezaro's dumb scouts search over every inch of land in, around and under this realm, we had to figure out where the only other hiding place was," said Icy. "This was the only place they didn't look, so it was kinda obvious you were here."
"So are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?" asked Stormy. Layla didn't know what to say to that. If she transformed Nezaro would come and take her away, but if she didn't fight the witches, they would capture her too. She backed up against the wall, her hand behind her back and using a small, undetectable spell, typed a text message to Jason's phone, calling for help. Now all she had to do was stall the witches long enough for her friends to arrive. But that, like all other things, was easier said than done.
"What makes you think I'll just leave with you?" asked Layla.
"Because if you don't, all I have to do is walk up to your little boyfriend, cast a simple spell and he'll be gone," said Darcy. "I know almost every dark spell there is to know, I can get rid of him at the drop of a hat."
"You wouldn't, you couldn't," gasped Layla.
"I can and I will," said Darcy.
Layla was getting very angry now, and was not going to let the witches go anywhere near Jason or their friends. She didn't care if Nezaro found her, she just wanted to teach those witches a lesson. She transformed and started attacking the witches with everything she had.
"Ocean Blast!" she yelled, sending one of her stronger wave attacks to them.
"Is that the best you can do?" asked Stormy, laughing as she dodged it. "Cyclone!"
In that small room, there was no way Layla could defend herself against the cyclone that was spinning at her. She found herself caught up in the currents of wind, pummeling her from all sides. She was buffeted this way and that and she couldn't get her wings to work properly and fly herself out. The twister sent her colliding into the wall and she landed on the ground with a thud. But that didn't stop her from getting back up.
"Why do you annoying little pixies always have to be so darn persistent?" asked Icy.
"It's what we do," said Layla. "And for the hundred thousandth time, we're fairies!"
"Could've fooled me," said Darcy. "Optical Darkness!"
"Ice Crystal Barrage!" said Icy. Layla was about to dodge the darkness attack, but the ice crystals hit her with such force that she was sent flying against the window. The glass shattered under her weight and she flew right through it, landing hard on the ground outside Cloud Tower.
"You don't honestly think you can win do you?" asked Icy, flying up to her.
"As long as I still have hope, I can win," said Layla.
"One or two more attacks and a transportation spell right into Nezaro's arms and you'll be whistling a different tune," said Stormy. "There is no hope, when will you pixies realize that?"
"Probably when you give up trying to attack us," said a voice. Layla turned around and smiled as she saw Jason running towards her, the rest of the Winx Club and the heroes behind him. Jason jumped in front of her, acting as a shield between her and the witches.
"Leave her alone!" he said commandingly.
"You losers always know when to spoil a perfectly evil moment don't you?" asked Darcy angrily.
"Let's cut the chit-chat and kick their buts!" said Stormy. "Psycho Cyclone!"
"Sound Blast!" yelled Musa.
The girls all fired their strongest attacks at the witches and surprisingly enough, they retreated. The girls went to stand with their boyfriends, none of them powering down their Winx. They each had a bad feeling something was wrong.
"Why do I get the feeling we've walked into a trap?" asked Musa.
"Because the witches gave up way too easily," replied Sky.
"They never retreat just like that, unless there's some ulterior motive for the attack," said Tecna.
"Why do you think they…" began Jason, but he stopped and gasped, seeing something flying towards them. "Layla, look out!" he yelled pushing her out of the way of a large net. It landed right at her feet and disappeared.
"Oh no!" she said. "That's the trap! They wanted to lure me out so Nezaro could find me!"
"And it worked," said a voice above them. She looked up and saw Nezaro flying towards them. The look on his face showed anger beyond belief. "I knew you were here somewhere Layla, and I can't believe my scouts didn't think to look for you at a witch's school. If you think you get away from me again, you're wrong. You can't escape me that easily."
"I can try!" she yelled and fired an attack at him, but he deflected it.
"It'll take more than that!" he yelled.
"Fortunately, we've got more!" yelled Bloom. The girls surrounded him and each fired their strongest attacks, the ones with their full power, unleashing it all. A large ball of energy formed around him and for a moment, they thought they'd beaten him. But the energy ball suddenly condensed and within a few minutes Nezaro had absorbed every last bit of it.
"No way!" said Guinevere.
"We didn't even make a dent!" said Nirvana in disbelief.
"What's it gonna take to beat him?" asked Stella.
Nezaro laughed and said, "you call that power? Try and handle this! Dark Obliteration!"
The attack was similar to one of Darcy's attacks. The area was covered in darkness, inhibiting everyone's sight and completely disorienting them all. There was no sense of where anyone or anything was, leaving them at Nezaro's mercy.
"This isn't good," Layla muttered to herself.
"Oh but it is," said a voice from behind her. "For me at least."
Layla gasped but it was too late to do anything about it. Before she knew what was happening, Nezaro had grabbed her by the elbow and half a second later, she felt the wind blowing around her, which she recognized as a transportation spell.
"No!" she shouted over the roaring wind, but there was nothing she could do. "I have to fight this!"
"But you can't!" she heard him say.
The next instant, she found herself standing outside the palace in his home realm of Fergal. For the first time, she was able to get a good look at the realm and she hated what she saw.
"No wonder my parents never wanted me here," she thought to herself. The entire place was dark, no sun, no stars, no moon, and there just seemed to be an evil aura emanating from every single square inch of territory. The buildings were decrepit and falling apart, the people all had looks of hostility on their faces and the palace was a large black castle, with a wrought iron gate and many guards all over the place.
"Why is it that all evil realms seem to look the same?" she asked herself, remembering Rampara and Angelicas before she and the rest of the Winx Club had freed them. She suddenly felt her heart start aching and she couldn't figure out what was causing it.
She let out a gasp of pain as she felt Nezaro's fingernails digging into her arm. He then twisted her arms behind her back and held her wrists with one hand, while wrapping the other arm around her waist. She grimaced as he did this. Just in being in this close proximity to him, she could feel dark magic pulsing through his veins and soon realized that he was putting a spell on her. She tried to struggle and get away from it, but she soon realized with a jolt that she couldn't move.
"What's happening here?" she asked.
"You can't move unless I want you to," replied Nezaro. "Nor can you use your powers for the moment. Now walk."
Layla looked down at her clothes and saw that she had transformed back into her regular outfit. She got the terrible impression that her Winx wouldn't be able to regenerate for hours; in fact in this realm, they probably wouldn't at all. She was so busy worrying over this that she almost didn't catch what Nezaro was saying to her as he forced her towards the palace.
"Welcome home," he said. "For this time tomorrow, this will be your new home."
"Tomorrow?" she asked fearfully, hoping against hope she'd heard that wrong.
"Yes," he said. "Tonight's our wedding and tomorrow, Fergal will be your home."
"No," she whispered, tears starting to well up inside her eyes.
"Yes," he said. "Once we get inside the palace, you won't be allowed to leave it. You must remain inside at all times. If you leave, I'll know and you don't want to know what I'll do to you if I catch you trying to escape. Now, since you're a fairy and not a witch, I don't expect you to last long in this realm."
"What do you mean?" she asked him.
"What I mean is that you won't be able to live in a realm of darkness and evil for very long," he said. "There is a spell on Fergal, so that anyone of non-magical and dark magic descent can live here, but anyone with good magic cannot. How long they last depends on the fairy and how much good magic that fairy has inside of her. The more good magic, the quicker the spell will work. I would say you'll only last a week or two, before the dark magic here will destroy you. That's why we have to get your powers quickly."
"I knew it," she said. "You just want my powers!"
"Yes I do," he said, as they reached the palace. "And once I have them and once the darkness finishes you off, I'll be able to find a witch to sit on the throne of this realm with me. Now get inside!" He shoved her into the palace walls, the gate closing behind them. She could almost hear her freedom and her hope go flying out the window.
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Back at Cloud Tower, the darkness was finally beginning to dissipate and the group was beginning to get their bearings back again. A few rays from Stella's staff helped as well. When they were all able to see again, they realized instantly that one of their number was missing, the one that really shouldn't be missing.
"Oh no!" said Flora fearfully. "Nezaro got Layla!"
"We have to find her!" yelled Jason. "There's no telling what he might be doing to her!"
"Jason, calm down," said Sky. "We can't go charging after them without a plan."
"There might not be time for a plan," said Jason. "We have to find them now!"
"Going after them right away won't help Layla," said Bloom. "If we follow them without a plan, we'll just get defeated all over again and Layla will be doomed to whatever fate Nezaro has planned for her. We have to decide what our next move's going to be."
"Then let me give you a suggestion as to where to start," said a voice in the shadows. Professor Griffin was walking towards them. The boys looked at her distrustfully, but the girls were willing to accept any help she could give them.
"What is it, Professor Griffin?" asked Bloom curiously.
"Before Icy, Darcy and Stormy attacked, Layla found something in her room that I think you may find interesting."
"Where's her room?" asked Guinevere.
Professor Griffin cast a quick spell, so they were all inside Layla room. "I was checking on her and I found her looking at something in this room. It shocked her greatly, but then she got a look on her face that said she ought to have realized it sooner. She left a clue for you in this room, but finding that clue is a job I'm going to leave to you." She walked out of the room and back to her office, the fairies and the heroes looking after her disgruntled.
"Where do we start?" asked Nirvana.
"Everyone take a section of the room and start looking," said Brandon. They searched every inch of the room, but they didn't find anything that looked like it might help them find Layla.
"I guess there's nothing here," said Stella. "Maybe the witches got here first."
"Maybe, but I don't…" started Guinevere, but she stopped. She had seen something on the bookshelf that caught her eye.
"Guinevere, what is it?" asked Andrew, but she held one hand up to get him to be quiet. She walked over to the bookshelf and ran her finger along the books, looking for the one she wanted.
"What are you doing Guinevere?" asked Flora. "Those books are all full of dark magic."
"Not all of them," she said, finding the one she was looking for. She pulled out a book with a turquoise-colored spine and back cover and a design of waves on the front cover. "This journal, it's Layla's."
"How do you know?" asked Nirvana.
"Because I've seen her writing in it a few times," replied Guinevere. "The night we got Musa out of Rancor's control, Layla stayed up later than I did because she was writing in here. She had it out again about two weeks ago. I haven't seen it since. I keep meaning to ask her about it, but I know she won't tell me. It's strange though, she doesn't strike me as the journal type."
"That's because she's not," said Musa. "I've never even heard her say the word journal."
"Let me see that," said Tecna. She started flipping through the pages, her eyes widening as she read. She sat down on the bed, continuing to read it, her face showing avid fascination. "Oh my gosh," she whispered.
"What is it Tecna?" asked Timmy.
"It's a record Layla's been keeping of all our adventures," replied Tecna. "It includes everything from the exam last semester to defeating Rancor. It's amazing."
"Come on Tecna, give us details," said Stella. "What does she say in there?"
"Let's see, everything from the events last semester all the way to us defeating Paritho is just vague suspicions. Then there's this one entry, after we broke that evil spell Rancor put on Musa. Listen to this:
We finally managed to save Musa and things are all right for the moment. But there's something that's been bothering me ever since this afternoon. Nirvana got here and said that Rancor came to visit Paritho on Angelicas. How would those two know each other? There's something strange going on here, more than what we think it is. Up until now, it's just seemed like random villains were going after our powers, but now, I'm beginning to think they're all teamed up and want our powers together. But if that were the case, then Guinevere attacking us would have been pure coincidence. She was under a spell, she's not descended from evil.
Ms. Faragonda did say that we had more power than we think we did and that we would all be in great danger, but I wish she would have warned us about this. I wonder if I should tell the others about this idea. No, not just yet. Until I'm sure of what's going on, I'd better keep my suspicions to myself.
"So Layla's been suspecting something from the start, but wasn't sure what it was?" asked Jason.
"That's what it sounds like," said Riven.
"What does it say after that Tecna?" asked Helia.
"More things on what happened between Musa and Rancor and then it starts up on her and Nezaro. There's some things on how shocked she was when she found out about the engagement and how her cousin and mermaid friends helped her escape. And then, oh my gosh."
"What is it?" asked Sky.
"The most recent entries were written just this morning," said Tecna. "It looks like she took all those books over there and copied certain passages from some of them."
"Why would she do that?" asked Musa.
"Because she found things in them that might help her figure this matter out," replied Tecna. "She even looked through one of the spell books. And in it, she found the spell Paritho used to put me under his control and some of the spells Rancor used on Musa. Then, all the others were stories and history of dark magic. She even copied a family tree in here."
"A family tree, what for?" asked Bloom.
"I'm trying to figure that out, just a minute," said Tecna, looking it over. She followed the lines back up the tree with her finger, but stopped when she saw what they led back to. The look on her face was one of pure horror. She brought one hand to her mouth to stifle her scream, dropping the book out of surprise.
"Tecna, what's the matter?" asked Stella. "Nirvana, what's the matter with you?"
Nirvana had been reading over Tecna's shoulder for several minutes and the look of fear and horror on her face was equal to the one on Tecna's. She stooped down and picked up the journal, hoping her eyes had deceived her, but that turned out not to be the case.
"Angel, what is it?" asked Carlos worriedly.
Nirvana took a shaky breath and said, "All names on here lead back to one, Dracona." All the other girls except for Bloom gasped, Flora had to stifle a scream. Bloom, however, didn't see what the big deal was. She looked at Sky, but he just shrugged. None of the boy's knew that name either.
"Uh, I don't wanna sound dumb here, but who's Dracona?" asked Bloom hesitantly.
The girls looked at her as though she was nuts.
"You're kidding right?" asked Guinevere. Bloom shook her head. Fortunately, Nirvana decided to take pity on her.
"It's the first thing every single fairy learns when she's a little girl. In magical history, the first thing she learns is the story of Dracona, the most powerful witch that ever existed. Millenniums ago, she tried to conquer everyone and everything, gradually gaining power as she went. Then a small group of fairies stood up against her and defeated her. Everyone thought that was the end of it at the time. Then a few months later, someone spread the rumor that before she started gathering power, she'd had a child. The identity was never found out. I wouldn't be surprised if half the evildoers in the world were her descendants."
"Rather more than half by the looks of this," said Tecna, her hand over her heart still trying to calm it. "There are dozens of names on there." She gestured at the journal, still in Nirvana's hands and said, "take a good look at the last page the family tree is on Nirvana. Any names look familiar?"
Nirvana looked over the chart and gasped, "oh my gosh, Paritho is on here. So is Rancor and there's Nezaro and Icy, Darcy, and Stormy."
"Even Lord Darkar," said Bloom, looking over Nirvana's shoulder at the family tree.
"So, what do they all want with our powers?" asked Stella.
"Layla's answered that too," said Nirvana. "Listen to this:"
If all our enemies are descended from Dracona, they would do just about anything to rule the realms. And anything includes stealing our powers. One of the books on that bookshelf also told in detail what really happened to Dracona all those years ago. The full story was lost centuries ago, but apparently, Professor Griffin knows it and I'll bet Ms. Faragonda does too. And when I read that story…well, let's just say the girls would never believe me if I told them all this.
Apparently, Dracona had conquered all realms but one: The Realm of Elements.
"The Realm of Elements?" broke in Guinevere. "I thought that was a myth."
"I assure you, it's as real as the ground we stand on," said Nirvana.
"How do you know?" asked Stella.
"Because I've been there, that's actually where I met Carlos."
"It's true," said Carlos. "Angelicas is the only realm that's on any sort of relations with Elements. I was there for a few days and so was Nirvana, out with her friends for a day."
"I shouldn't be surprised Dracona saved that realm for last. It was at one time the strongest of all the realms. Now they've secluded themselves. Queen Alexandra never did tell me why." She turned back to the journal and kept on reading about the legend of Dracona, the pieces beginning to fall into place the further she got.
She went to Elements, knowing she'd have to be on her guard. The realm's forces put up a huge resistance and for awhile, it looked as though she'd been defeated. But she came back strong and took out all the royal forces with one blow. Then a group of nine fairies from some of the different realms she'd conquered stood up to her. When they'd heard that Elements was the last untouched realm, they'd gone there and formed a plan. Each fairy was either the princess or queen of her realm and they were ready to take back their realms whatever the cost.
One of those nine fairies was the Queen of Elements, Aria. This is how Dracona knew she'd have to be on her guard. The Queen carries a pendant called the Evenstar, which contains all the power of the realm inside. The only two people who can wield it are the Queen and the princess who's destined to become Queen. Dracona knew all she'd have to do was get that pendant and she'd have complete power over everything. But Aria wasn't going to let her have it without a fight and anyway, even if someone else did get hold of it, they can't bend it to their will without an exceptionally strong hex.
The nine fairies unleashed their power into one big attack on Dracona and finally she was defeated, but at a terrible price. Aria used up so much of her energy that she didn't survive the blast, the only one of the nine who didn't walk away from that fight and return home. Her husband had already been killed in battle, so her sister, Juliana, ruled as kind of a caretaker until her daughter, Magdalena, was old enough to be crowned Queen. The realms went back to normal and details of what had happened were lost with time.
And here's the part I can't believe, no matter how many times I read it: all the princesses were our ancestors. They came from our realms, had the same powers we do, and when I saw pictures of them in that book, even had similar Winx outfits! There's one that's the spitting image of Guinevere and another that looks like she has Stella's taste in fashion. That also means that another fairy is going to join the Winx Club. There are eight of us at the moment, and the story said that nine fairies stood up to Dracona. So basically, a Princess of Elements is going to come to Alfea pretty soon, I just know it!
And here's why there are bad guys right and left trying to get our powers. Dracona was defeated, but she wasn't killed. She was imprisoned with no way of escape. The only way to release her is to use the same power that trapped her. If her descendents get a hold of our powers, they can use them to set her free.
Nirvana looked up, her face was as white as a sheet. "You guys, we're in way over our heads here."
"That's putting it lightly," said Bloom. "We have to do something!"
"Don't you think we should rescue Layla before concentrating on anything else?" asked Jason. They all nodded. Timmy summoned a ship from Red Fountain and they left immediately for Fergal, all wondering just how they were going to rescue Layla.
Author's Note: All right, so we have Layla captured (not good) and her friends don't know how to rescue her (even worse). But on the plus side, they now know what's going on with them. So how many of you saw something like that coming? What did you think? Did I explain the story well enough? I planned this out so carefully. See, Layla had a gut feeling she wouldn't last the entire three days, so she placed the journal where she knew the others would fine it. And Guinevere was the natural one to find it since she's seen Layla writing in it. And I came up with the story of Dracona because I have to tie all these stories together somehow and that worked perfectly. Next chapter is going to be the start of the mission to rescue Layla. Please leave a review and as always, stay tuned!