Chapter 9
"Listen Bloom," Stella said after a few moments of silence.
Bloom turned to look at her friend sitting nearby.
"I think that we should stop trying to help Roxy."
"How could you say that?" Bloom yelled.
"All of us have almost been killed while we tried to get these items to help her," Stella said without turning her vision toward her friend, "We have even lost a good friend because of her." The sun fairy then turned to look at her friend with tears in her eyes, "You have even lost Sky the man that you loved, and I know that you two would have worked through your problems."
"I don't know if we could have Stella." Bloom replied.
"Even so, I…I just don't know if it is worth it to continue to try and help her."
"What if it was me?" Bloom questioned.
"What do you mean?"
"What if I was the one that needed help?" Bloom asked, "What if I was the one that could die."
"If it was you it would be different." Stella replied.
"No it wouldn't," Bloom said, "She is our friend and we should do anything that we can to help her."
"That bitch is not our friend," Stella yelled. "She could have killed Brandon."
"Yes she could have," Bloom replied as she turned her head away from her friend. "But she is not in control of her emotions right now."
"That's what Layla said." Stella said with sadness in her voice, "But still she didn't have to attack him."
"Maybe not," Bloom replied, "But are you willing to lose a friend over something that she could not control?"
"No, I…I," Stella stuttered as she thought.
"I know that it hurts," Bloom said as she forced a smile on her face. "But I will not let what happened to Sky and Galatea break our group up. When Roxy is freed from this drugs influence she is going to need all of us to help her through what is next."
"I just don't know whether I can do it," Stella sighed, "Whether I can treat her the way that I used to before, when we were friends."
"It will take time," Bloom agreed, placing a hand to her shoulder. "But we can do this, I know we can."
Layla and Flora landed at the edge of Magix. Both fairies were worried about where their friend could have gone or done. After activating her Tracix to show what happened they could see that Roxy had walked into a crowd of people before losing sight of her. They were relieved when they noticed that she was not heading toward the teleport station but now they were worried about where she was heading.
"I hate this…what bad did Roxy ever do to anyone before all this? Why did those witches have to come and mess with us again? Why can't they leave us the hell alone?"
"I don't know Layla," Flora replied as she looked at her friend, "but we need to find her so she does not do anything to herself or anyone else."
"You're right," Layla nodded, "We can figure all this out when she is safe and back at Alfea."
Suddenly a young man, about eighteen years of age ran in their direction. Reaching the two he bent down. "Thank heavens, some fairies to help us!"
"What's wrong?" Flora asked.
"I saw someone standing on the edge of a tall building from my apartment window." He replied, "She seemed that she was thinking of jumping off of the edge. Someone needs to get there to stop her."
"Can you show us?" Layla asked.
"Yeah follow me." He replied before running in the direction that he had come from.
"Could you tell us what she looked like?" Flora asked as she flew behind the man.
"Sure," He replied. "She had pink hair that reached the middle of her back, a pink shirt, black jeans and pink boots."
"Do you think he's talking about?" Layla asked as she looked over at Flora.
"We need to get there now!"
Swooping down Layla wrapped her arms around the young man and lifted him off of the ground. "What's happening?" He asked as his feet left the ground.
"Sorry we need to hurry," Layla explained as she continued to fly. "This might be our friend that you saw." The young man looked up to see the worried look on Layla's face, "Which way do we need to go?" she asked.
"That way," the man said as he pointed.
Noticing the large group of people standing at the foot of a building Layla landed letting the man go, turning her head she could see that Flora had landed right next to her. The two fairies looked up to see a person standing at the edge of the roof. Straining her eyes Flora gasped when their suspicions were confirmed.
"Roxy!" Flora yelled as she noticed the young fairy slowly start to lean forward.
Layla didn't hesitate, she launched from the cement, her wings pushing desperately against the air as Flora followed, quickly overcoming her shock. "We're not going to make it!" She exclaimed, noticing how quickly Roxy was plummeting to earth. "Yes we will!" Layla yelled, refusing to give in.
Layla reached out her right hand grabbing the young animal fairy by the right wrist as Flora grabbed onto the left wrist. The three continued falling down toward the ground for a few moments before the fluttering of the two fairies wings slowed everyone down. After their momentum stopped Roxy looked up at the two fairies with tears freely flowing from her eyes.
"Please just let go of me." Roxy yelled as she tried to pull herself free from her friends grasp.
"Roxy were not going to let you go." Flora replied with a saddened voice.
"I…I don't want to hurt anyone else."
"And you think killing yourself would not hurt anyone?" Layla asked as she and Flora lifted Roxy up toward the top of the building.
Layla and Flora slowly placed Roxy on the roof of the building. Flora let go of her friends wrist while Layla continued to hold on to the animal fairy to make sure that she did not try to jump off of the building again.
"I…I just can't take it anymore," Roxy replied. "I just want all of this to end."
Quickly spinning Roxy to face her Layla slapped her friend across the face.
"Listen to yourself." Layla said harshly, "Do you think this is what Galatea would want to hear you saying after she saved you?"
"I didn't ask her to do that." Roxy replied as tears continued to flow from her eyes.
"No you did not," Flora said as she wrapped her friend into a comforting hug, "She did that because she did not want to see you hurt."
"She shouldn't have!" Roxy pushed against Flora, forcing her to the ground before she ran. Layla moved her hand making a Morphix rope tie itself around her ankles before she fell onto a quickly formed mattress. "You okay?" She asked Flora who nodded and climbed back to her feet. Roxy tried to pull the string away from her feet with her hands, her face contorted with pain. "Roxy-"
"Get away from me! You should have let me die!"
"No one deserves to die!" Layla snapped. "Who do you think you are?"
"What?" She asked as Flora placed a hand on Layla's shoulder trying to calm her down. She shook it away, sick and tired of Roxy's behavior.
"What right do you have to put everyone through so much pain!"
"I haven't! I was trying to fix that!"
"You would have made it worse!" Layla snapped, tears in her own eyes.
"We have so many friends trying to save you! Bloom, Sky, Riven and Musa are risking their lives as we speak to save you and you want to throw all their effort back in their faces!"
"I caused all of this!" Roxy screamed, making it her feet though standing unsteadily. Her shoulders quivered, her breathing hitched and for a moment she felt like she couldn't breathe. "No you didn't." Flora sighed.
"But if I…" Roxy began to say before being cut off by Flora wrapping her arms around her friend again.
"Roxy you did not cause this," Flora replied with a calming voice, "It was the Trix that did this."
Flora helped Roxy back down onto her knees as the young fairy continued to sob into her shoulder. She could feel the strength leave her friends body as they sat there. Layla slowly walked over to her two friends and placed her hand on Roxy's shoulder causing the young fairy to look up at her with her blood shot violet eyes.
"If you're so worried about Galatea lets head to the hospital to find out how she is doing."
Roxy nodded her head before Flora helped her to her feet. After she was standing again Roxy could feel a small amount of energy wrap around her wrists. Looking down she could see a small rope of Morphix wrapped around her wrists just like her ankles. She turned toward Layla with a confused look on her face.
"This is to protect you from yourself." Layla replied before placing her hand on Roxy's shoulder.
A few seconds later the front of the hospital appeared before Roxy's vision. "Now I am going to release the Morphix around your legs." Layla said as she took her hand off of Roxy's shoulder, "Now don't run okay." The young fairy nodded her head toward her friend before feeling the energy that was around her ankles dissipate.
Walking obediently beside her friends the three of them approached the main desk and asked where they could see Galatea. The nurse looked to the computer for a moment and picked up the phone, dialing a number.
Layla's eyebrows furrowed together with confusion as she looked to Flora who returned the glance. "If you proceed down this hall to your right, take the elevator to the fourth floor and proceed to the central desk someone will help you."
She didn't look cheerful or helpful though Roxy and the others said thank you and followed her commands. They took the elevator silently and when it opened saw Ophelia standing at the desk.
There was something strange in the air, Flora noticed, something unhappy. Roxy stormed ahead, her hands shaking slightly against her restraints as she went. Layla and Flora arrived to her side a few seconds later.
"Where is she?" Roxy asked and Ophelia looked to Layla. Instantly she knew what was happening and her lips parted as she took a sudden breath. Flora felt the same.
"What?" Roxy asked, looking to the two girls on either side, both with tears forming in their eyes. "What's going on?" her voice quaked and quivered as her eyes met that of Ophelia who was desperately trying not to cry again.
"Galatea…she didn't make it."
"What?"
"We did…everything that we could. But her injuries were too severe." Roxy stopped breathing and the air around her felt thin.
She started taking shorter breathes, barely getting enough oxygen into her lungs with each breath. Her skin suddenly paled, her forehead felt warm, her chest began to hurt and her eyelids began to close.
"Roxy?" Flora sighed, noticing the way she started to sway on her feet before unconsciousness took over and she fell. "Roxy!"
Layla reacted in time, stopping the animal fairy from hitting her head on the hard white tiles below.
"Roxy? Can you hear me?" Ophelia asked, finding the pulse point in her neck.
"What's wrong with her?" Layla asked. "Was it just shock?"
"I'm not sure," Ophelia sighed, the pulse too fast for her liking. "Someone get a gurney now!"
Sitting in a dark room Icy and Darcy looked into a mist showing what was happening at the hospital in Magix. "That must have been a shock to her system." Icy laughed.
"Yeah," Darcy agreed as she stepped away from the picture, "Now Icy tell me why we didn't go and attack those fairies while they were in small groups?"
"Because my dear Darcy I wanted them to get those items."
"What?" Darcy asked, "You wanted them to get those four items that they had gone to get to heal that fairy?"
"No sister," Icy replied, "I wanted them to get those items because there is a secondary effect of the spell that they will be casting."
"What effect?" Darcy asked.
"It is in that book over on the shelf." Icy replied as she pointed toward a shelf.
Darcy walked over to the shelf that Icy had indicated. Reaching out she grabbed an old looking book and flipped to the page that was marked. Reading the spell a small smile appeared on her face.
"So we will be receiving a power boost instead of letting them heal that fairy."
"Who said we?" Icy asked.
Darcy lifted her head to see Icy glairing at her with a blade of ice in her hand. Before she could react the witch of darkness felt the blade enter into her stomach. A smile appeared on the ice witches face as she watched blood slowly flow from the corner of Darcy's lips.
"You traitor." Darcy struggled to say.
"I am no traitor," Icy replied as she took a step back letting Darcy fall to the floor. "I just don't need you any longer."
Darcy could hear Icy laughing as she walked out of the room. Glancing down at the page a small smile appeared at the warning written at the base. Her eyes closed as a final breathe passed her lips.
'You never take your time to read a full spell do you Icy? That one has a nasty side effect.'
Please Review