The first half of this chapter is me just making up stuff to delay the others getting to them. I mean, they've got all this equipment and the Pixie of Portals and they still can't find them in time, so I had to come up with a few hurdles for them. So all that crap about pixies and planet's life force is just a bunch of bull to waste time. To be honest, the pixies annoy me. I just don't like 'em. Lockette's a wuss, Amore's so lovey dovey its sickening. Digit looks cool, but I want to strangle her with her know-it-all attitude. Chatta . . . argh! She's so loud. Tune looks good as well, but she'd a real stick in the mud and a bossy boots. And then there's Piff . . . what is with that thing. It does nothing! I've got problems with the pixies. If fact they kind of varnish towards the end of this story.

Completely varnished, like an old oak table.

Go Black Adder!

Chapter Thirteen – The Atropa Curse

After Darcy had kidnapped Musa, the Winx Clubs first plan of action was to inform Mrs. Faragonda and get in contact with the Red Fountain boys. There was no way they would be able to track Darcy down on their own and they might have needed some back up when they finally found the witch. Their search started out slow since they were relying on the boys for transport and they had to travel from Red Fountain. Stella had nearly ripped into the boys for their tardiness, but she decided cut them some slack when she saw that they were just as anxious to find their missing friends as the girls were. Mrs. Faragonda and Headmaster Saladin accompanied them in case Darcy proved to be difficult to handle.

Since Darcy had magically covered her tracks so well, their best course of action had been to try and follow Riven's movements. Timmy managed to track down a recent trail of Riven's bike, but he soon lost the signal which he gravely pointed out was a sign that the bike had likely been trashed some how. The trail had led them into the woods, so the boys had made low sweeps of the forest to see if they could spot them from the air, but the thick tree canopy made it impossible for them to find anything. Flora tried to connect with the Voice of Nature, but for some reason she said the trees weren't letting her communicate with them. Lockette, the Pixie of Portals, proved to be the best source of direction, though even her magic didn't seem as reliable as it usually was which had flustered the pixie greatly.

"I don't understand!" Lockette half wailed as her wand was suddenly veered in the opposite direction of where it had been pointing before. "It's like there's something throwing my sense of direction off."

"Can that happen?" Bloom asked, getting more worried for her friends by the second.

"It sure can!" Chatta told them in a rather out of place enthusiasm. "But don't worry! We'll find them!"

"Part of a pixies power comes from a planets life force. If something alters that force, our power can become some what unreliable," Digit explained to them evenly. Virtually everyone found her answer to be better than Chatta's.

"How can you alter a planets life force?" Brandon asked, fiddling with his uniform in an effort to try and keep his mind busy. It wasn't working very well.

"By creating something that isn't meant to exist or is an abomination against the universe," Amore answered. "There are some things that should not be tampered with and some acts that should not be committed under no circumstances. A planet or a realm has a life of its own and can be affected by deeply by certain things."

"I guess that my magic's being thrown off by this planet hurting," Lockette sighed.

"But what could be hurting it?" Sky questioned from his place in the pilots seat. Timmy and Helia were both better fliers than he was but they were both more useful on the radars that were scanning for their quarry.

"I believe it might have something to do with Flora not being able to connect with the Voice of Nature," Faragonda said gravely as she stared out of the window trying to find some sign of the missing students. With no real other option, the ship continued to go in Lockettes uncertain navigation and they continued to come up empty handed. Everyone started to become irritable as time continued to slip by until Tunes head suddenly shot up.

"Stop!" she ordered briskly and rather rudely, but there was no time for etiquette when her fairy was missing. She pointed her umbrella back the way they had come. "They're over there. Turn around! Go back!"

"How do you know?" Timmy questioned, but he was already programming the ship to turn back the other way.

"Didn't you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Tecna asked the Pixie of Manners.

"That attack. It was Musa. I am certain of it," Tune informed them with such confidence that everyone couldn't help but take her at her word. "While I admit I've never felt her conjure that attack before, it's her. I know it."

Timmy's fingertips flew over the control panel as Sky steered the ship in the direction Tune was pointing them. It took Timmy a few moments, but he was soon able to bring up three individuals on the ships thermal camera. "There they are. Just up ahead. We should be able to get there in – "

Suddenly the ships controls jerked madly out of control and the ship shuttered as a strange wave of energy hit them. The control panels sparked and then went dead, causing the ship to plummeted towards the ground.

"Quickly girls. We need to create a shield and keep this ship in the air," Mrs. Faragonda ordered, already gathering her power. With the power of the Winx Club and their headmistress, the ship was cocooned in a protective bubble in the sky. The only limitation was that they weren't able to continue moving forward until the magical storm passed.

"What is it, Mrs. F?" Stella asked, watching the multi-coloured lightning outside. It was like nothing she had ever seen and after battling Stormy, Stella though she had seen a fair share of magical lightning storms. These bolts of energy were red, indigo, purple and a chilling black and they cracked and sizzled against one another almost as if they were fighting each other.

"I don't know," Mrs. Faragonda confessed. "But I don't like it. Boys! I want this ship ready to fly as soon as this storm dies down!"

"Yes ma'am."

"Can't we just fly out there and go help them?" Layla asked, ready to rip Darcy's hair out.

"No. I want no one out there with this kind of energy flying around. There's too much distance between us and the others and I will not allow you to expose yourselves to this kind of danger trying to get to them."

"But they could be in trouble!" Flora objected.

"And you could be to if you go out there," Saladin pointed out. "What's the point of a rescue mission if it's the rescue party that needs rescuing?"

The students would have probably strangled the old wizard despite his logical thinking if a sudden explosion hadn't rocked the air. The protective bubble failed and the ship was hurled backwards before crashing to the ground. By the time everyone was confirmed to be uninjured and the boys got the engines back on line, everyone had gotten that sinking feeling that something wasn't right.

"The trees are so angry," Flora shuttered as they stepped out into the woods not far from the last confirmed location of the three figures. The full moon continued to light their night, but it was eerily quiet.

"I've got a really bad feeling," Bloom admitted. She was grateful Sky had come with her when they had split up into search groups. Reaching through the darkness, her hand found his and gripped it for reassurance.

"Heroics 101; always keep a positive attitude," Sky told her though he had the same feeling as she did.

"What was that?" Flora suddenly gasped.

"You heard it too?" Helia questioned, but the others quickly shushed him. Faintly, the four could make out the sound of someone crying somewhere in the dark.

"Musa!" Bloom called out. Forgetting about any threat that Darcy might offer, the Keeper of the Dragon Fire took off towards the sound with the others close on her heels. Half of her hoped Darcy was still here so she could make that witch suffer for everything she had done, but Bloom knew the main thing was finding Musa and Riven and getting them safe. "Musa! Answer me!"

"Bloom?" a voice called back weakly. Bloom continued to head towards the voice, ignoring the way the tree branches scratched into her skin. And when she thought she saw a clearing in front of her, she found Musa standing just inside the tree line.

Musa's hair was a mess and the clothes she had worn to her date with Riven were ripped and singed. Her eyes were red and her cheeks were tearstained. There were several cuts and scraps on her body, but none of them seemed large enough to account for all the blood that was on her front. With a low cry, Musa rushed into Blooms arms and broke down into deep, tearing, hysterical tears.

"Shh. It's okay sweetie. We're here now," Bloom cooed as she tried to comfort her friend, but it seemed useless. The other three also tried to calm her down, knowing that all their attention needed to be focus on the broken fairy despite the fact that they were still missing one student. And then, out of Musa's crying, she began to babble. At first it was so incoherent no one could follow it, but was her words became clearer, they all felt their blood freeze.

"I-It's all my f-fault! M-My f-f-fault! I'm so sorry! I should have known! I didn't mean it! Darcy! D-Darcy . . . It's my fault. H-He's not waking up!" Musa wailed before breaking down again. Sky was the first to react. Turning towards the clearing, he bolted away from the hysterical fairy, praying she was wrong but then he saw Riven's still body and blank eyes, causing the Prince to freeze in pure horror.

"No. N-No," he stuttered, refusing to accept what was lying before him. "I-It can't be."

Suddenly Helia was there, crouching down alongside his roommate, his fingertips searching his throat desperately for a pulse. Sky watched the whole thing too deep in shock to even properly comprehend what was going on around him. He barely noticed Timmy and Brandon join him while the girls were off dealing with Musa. Brandon put a supportive hand on Sky's shoulder, but it did little to comfort both of them. With trembling hands, Timmy gently brushed Riven's unseeing eyes closed, unable to bear looking at them any longer.

Helia felt sick as he continued to search for a pulse. It wasn't possible. It wasn't fair. How could Riven be there one minute and gone the next? How could he look fine earlier that night when he had left to go pick up Musa and then end up like this? It wasn't fair! It was –

Helia's breath caught as he felt a faint fluttering against his fingertips. It was only light and somewhat uneven, but there was no denying what it was.

"I've got a pulse!" Helia exclaimed, shaking Sky out of his shock. Helia looked up and his friends, his eyes swimming in tears of relief. For the rest of his life, Sky would never forget the way Helia look or the way he said the next two words. "He's alive."

Their jubilation was brief, however, as Saladin marched in and ordered them to give the boy some air. He glanced at the more major wounds Riven had and then commanded the boys to treat him with the first aid they had learned in class. Brandon was ripping his cape into bandages as Saladin placed a hand on Riven's bloodied forehead. With a hiss, the headmaster removed his hand quickly as if burnt.

"What's wrong?" Mrs. Faragonda asked, walking over with her students following, Musa cradled in their arms. Saladin didn't respond, but rather looked at her gravely. Faragonda's eyes narrowed and then she place her hand on Riven's forehead in the same way the wizard had done. Instantly, her hand was also snatched back and the headmistress's face was suddenly livid. "That's disgusting! How could anyone do that to a person? I thought those witches had at least some restraint! How did she even learn to do that?"

"What did she do?" Helia demanded, he usual politeness forgotten.

"Darcy put a spell on him," Faragonda said, her eyes blazing. "The Atropa Curse."

"I've never heard of that curse before," Tecna admitted.

"I doubt you would have. It's one of the few spells that are forbidden by law to conjure. It traps its victims within their own minds, tormenting them with things that they can't separate from reality since their mind makes it real. These nightmares will torture them constantly, eventually either driving them mad or killing them from exhaustion. Physical torture is sometimes deemed more humane than that curse."

"You can fix it? Right?" Musa begged, both sounding and looking incrediablly small and broken. Faragonda looked at her hard.

"It is fixable, but I think you need some rest," she suggest with a slight flick of her wrist. Musa's eyes rolled back into her head and she would have collapsed if her friends hadn't caught her. "Girls, take Musa back to the ship and wait for us there. You boy should probably go with them. Most people find this treatment rather distressing."

"We're not going anywhere," Brandon said stubbornly and the rest of the boys nodded in agreement. The girls already started back towards the ship, carrying an unconscious Musa between them.

"It's your decision," Saladin told them. "Now please move back a bit. We don't need you getting hurt accidentally. And I think you boys should be warned; this may not be enough to save his mind."

Brandon gasped, the urge to throw up almost overwhelming. "But you just said – "

"I know what I said," Faragonda interrupted sternly. "My concern was Musa's wellbeing. She was hysterical enough as it is and I don't need to cause her any more distress. Now if you excuse me, I have more pressing matters."

The first thing Faragonda did was to strengthen Riven's pulse and breathing. She took a strip of Brandon's cape that they were using for bandages and gagged Rivens mouth with it to avoid him accidently biting his tongue. And then Saladin placed his hand on Riven's forehead and kept it there this time.

Riven's reaction was immediate. His body went ridged and started to seize. None of the Red Fountain boys had ever actually seen anyone have a seizure before, so it freaked them out much more then they expected it to. It was scary to see their friend's body thrashing uncontrollably looking as though it was going through an exorcism. Both Saladin and Faragonda seemed calm, which only seemed to add to the four boy's distress. It continued on like this for sometime and no matter how badly the boys wanted to look away from their friends suffering, they couldn't avert their eyes. Riven's face was contorted into a look of agony and his seizures become more and more aggressive.

"Stop it!" Timmy finally snapped, his voice wavering. "You're hurting him."

"It has to be done. It's the only way," Faragonda told him, her eyes not leaving the convulsing boy. She knew Saladin needed to break Riven's mind from the curse and that the curse was not going to release its victim without a fight. Sweat was gathering on Saladin's forehead and his breathing was become ragged.

And then, with a deep sigh, Saladin pulled back and almost collapsed. Riven stopped seizing, though his hands and neck continued to twitch slightly. His friends were instantly by his side, searching his face for some kind of life. And then, briefly, his eyes half opened and his unfocused violet eyes glanced about him before they closed again.

So she didn't kill him after all - yay! - but did you guys honestly think I would do that to him? I'm not that cruel. Whenever I borrow something from someone I always return it in pretty much the same condition I got them in. I thought I'd just give you all a bit of a fright and blame it all on Musa's exhausted and hysterical mind. But just because I didn't kill Riven, doesn't mean we'll have a fiary tale ending, now does it?

Originally I had a longer version of this chapter where the mind link becomes aware of its existence and materializes itself in Rivens mind so Saladin and Faragonda have this huge, psychic battle in battle on the mental plain with something that is basically the love child between Riven and Darcy's mind. But when I was writing it I got confused and if the author has no idea what they're talking about what hope does the audience have? The only thing I really like about it was the image I had in mind for the link which I named Deadly Nightshade. It was an androgynous being with hair the same length as Darcy's but with Rivens colour. And it's left eye was golden and the right eye was violet. But like I said, I liked the idea of it but it just didn't work and I'm pretty sure you just want me to come up with an ending and stop putting Riven and Musa though all forms of suffering. So, I content with putting Riven through a seizer, which are pretty freaky things to watch.

And if all of you remembered all the pointless information I've been feeding you, you'll all know that I named the Atropa Curse after Atropa belladonna, which is the scientific name for that plant dead nightshade. TBC.