Demons and Fairies

Chapter 9

Tragedy at Cloud Tower

Hiei was waiting by a well while Bloom said goodbye to the Winx, they might not be seeing each other again but they were avoiding that possibility, "well this is it, I'm sorry and I wish I could help you, but we've already discussed it, you'll be more useful here," Bloom stated to them.

"Same old story, you're stubborn as a mule," Musa commented, she wanted to go and be with her friend, Hiei and Bloom couldn't really blame her, any of them really, but this needed to be done in as few people as possible, and they were already pushing it with the amount they had.

"Oh, Musa," Bloom said as she went to hug her and Flora, Stella got in on the hug as well while Tecna shed some actual tears, for a moment Hiei wanted to make a comment that the robot girl was leaking fluid from her eyes, but he chose not to for his own safety from Bloom.

"Are you sure we can't call Kurama to help out as well, we could use him to fight as well," Flora asked, the married couple couldn't tell if it was an actual reason or she just wanted to see her boyfriend, they chose to ignore the second option for now and focus on the first.

"Kurama needs to stay on earth, the Trix could easily move in to conquer it if they wish without people there to stop them, Kurama and the detective as well as a few others should be enough to stop the witches if it comes to that," Hiei explained, but he should be enough to deal with the Trix.

Brandon popped out of the well Hiei was standing next to, "Excuse me, girls, but time is wasting and Knut has found the right path," it was about time, now they could get this suicide mission over with, Hiei went ahead and jumped down into the well and waited at the bottom for Bloom.

Hiei stuck out his arms as if he was carrying something and Bloom dropped down into them, he set her on her feet and they both began to walk to where Knut had a torch and searching his memory before walking in a direction, they trusted in the ogre's instincts and memory to know the way. Stella was about to say something when Hiei took Brandon's hand and put it over her mouth, basically a quiet way of telling her to shut up so the ogre could concentrate, after about half an hour they came across three tunnels, "come on Knut, think, you have a great sense of smell, right," Bloom asked.

Knut sniffed and began leading them down the middle one, they began walking for a while before having to backtrack some from slime monsters, then a flood, then a sticky lake, then living vines, then bugs, they stopped in a passage to catch their breath, well the others, Hiei and Bloom were fine. "'Oh yeah, we'll get out of here no problem' right," Stella mocked before stomping her foot like a child, but what did you expect, this cave is full of smells, and only Knut was familiar with the passage enough to get an idea of where they were, but obviously couldn't tell which smell is which.

"It's not my fault, this place is full of smells," Knut stated while putting his hands on the wall before taking a few sniffs, "hang on a second, I know that stink," the wall gave in and he fell through a hole his weight probably caused, he was sliding down a ramp of some kind.

The others followed since it was likely that what Knut smelled could lead to somewhere, whether it was of value remained to be seen, when they reached the bottom, they found Cloud Towers, though not like they were expecting, "I think this is the Castle's garbage dump," Brandon commented.

"Blech, what a stench, yuck-o," Stella exclaimed while pinching her nose, "we've got to find a way out of here and back into the castle itself," she took on a pose that screamed princess, Hiei struggled, really struggled not to role his eyes as he aided Knut out of a trash pile.

They were about to be surrounded by some giant bugs, but Hiei took his sword that he had given Bloom for a moment and in a flash cut them all to pieces, "we should be able to kill them as long as we don't use magic or energy, that way the witches won't sense anything," Hiei said.

Hiei handed his sword back to Bloom who gave him a kiss on the cheek for saving them, he smiled at her before sensing someone approaching, "now why didn't I think of that," a man came out from the shadows in a trash suit with a hood, he took it off and revealed Riven to them.

They talked as they walked, trying to get into the tower, now with another addition to the team, one with a tale to tell, "I escaped from the dungeon that the Trix were holding me in, but to tell the truth, I didn't get to go very far, up there, past the dump, the witches set up a protective shield. If I had gone one step further, they would have captured me, but I managed to escape the tower itself by jumping out of the high tower window I was absolutely sure it was all over for me, but then a buttress broke my fall and I slid all the way down into the dump. I had to immediately pull myself back together, the place was teeming with beetleroaches, I laid low and looked for camouflage and most importantly, a weapon, the rest of my stay her hasn't been particularly exciting," what do you know, Riven was actually being modest.

"You kidding, you had to put into practice everything we learned at Red Fountain, Survival in a zone totally infested with creatures of the dark, do you remember Codatorta's lesson, never hide downwind and keep your fingers out of your nose," Brandon complimented, they shared a laugh.

Riven turned sad for a moment, Hiei guessed what he wanted to say but now wasn't the time, "hold your apology to Brandon for the things you've done until after we've completed the mission, which I'm assuming you're joining us on so let's go," he said and Riven nodded.

"Alright then, let's get a move on, Knut has found the tunnel that leads right into the castle, unfortunately this doesn't mean we're out of the woods just yet, but something tells me our little visit here won't be a walk in a park," Bloom stated as they continued to walk.

They continued to walk a for a while, wordlessly following Knut until they entered the castle where he put his finger to his mouth to be quiet, there was a guard close by, but they were to where Knut knew so he searched for the concrete block to press in and opened a door, they followed. They came out in the Trix old dorm room, it was poorly decorated according to Stella, he silenced her upcoming comment with Brandon's hand again, "from here we have access to the castle, and getting out of this room is not a problem, I've learned to move about without being noticed. First we need to go down a couple of stories, the tunnel leading us down is through there," Knut pointed to a mirror on the wall, he opened it up and they all walked through, well Hiei and Bloom walked first, then everyone else, Knut closed it up as the last one through.

They walked down a spiraling staircase before going down even more stares beyond an archway, or a labyrinth of stares before reaching the bottom, Hiei sensed something and disappeared for a moment to kill the eye drone that would have reported back to its master of their presence. They continued to walk further into the castle until they came to where the Tix keep their secrets, Brandon and Riven broke off to go free the prisoners and Knut led them to where the Trix supposedly most likely would keep Bloom's dragon flame.

Something wasn't right to Hiei though, he couldn't sense the dragon flame, so when they got to the door, he narrowed his eyes as they stepped through the door, that flame didn't feel like the dragon flame power at all, so when Bloom got close to it, it froze thanks to the Trix appearance. The others were blown back leaving only Hiei and Bloom standing by frozen flame "surprise, that's not your flame Bloom, your flame is out of your reach, deep in our entity, and you could never get it back, hehehe you lose fairy," Icy declared, clearly missing Hiei being there.

Bloom growled as Darcy stepped forward before Hiei stepped in front of Bloom and blocked her path, "see, we're stronger than either of you now, but you'll never be able to tell anyone," Darcy said with a dark smile, they were at a disadvantage, especially with only Hiei as reliable counter.

Icy came up and pushed Darcy out of the way, "and do you know why you will never tell," she asked thinking they were obviously stupid, "because Cloud Tower will be your grave," before all three of the witches started to cackle like mad witches, that obviously set Hiei off.

Before he could act however, a green light came in and blasted the witches across the room, the couple looked to the entrance and saw Griffin coated in a green outline from a power up, "take that as a warning, you three deserve the worst kind of punishment for what you've done."

The witches were free, but there was no way they would be able to escape with the Trix on their tail, "take the others and go Griffin," Hiei ordered and the elder witch turned to him with surprise, "I'll hold off the Trix and block their intent to capture you again, leave, now," he ordered.

Bloom came up and gave him a kiss, "come back, you hear me, come back to me," she ordered and he nodded, "I want your word that you'll come back, not a nod, not a grunt, I want your word that you will come back no matter what, say it," she ordered with pleading eyes.

"Very well, you have my word that I will return to you no matter what," Hiei told her and she smiled at him before giving another kiss, "now go, this is going to be quite the fight," he ordered and she left, she still had pleading eyes as if asking not to fight but knew that he had to cover them. He noticed that after she was clear that Griffin cast a spell to seal the witches and him inside for a while, probably as extra insurance that they'll all escape, meaning that Hiei can fight them long enough to divide their attention in controlling the army of darkness.

"Well wasn't that romantic, a final lovers goodbye, to bad you had to lie to her," Icy mocked as her sisters snickered, "I can't wait to wipe your stain from existence," she was the first to attack with an ice blast that he put up a wall of fire to burn away the blast before charging them. Darcy went out a pulse of her illusion magic to try and give him vertigo, but he was use to feeling such effects thanks to his training so it was of little help, only made his movements a little slower, but Stormy was there to help out where her sister was lacking. She sent out a wave of dark lightning that made him roll out of the way before making a dash for the two, but Icy coated her form in ice and crashed into him, he flew back some and rolled with the hit until he was on his feet and kept going with a fire coated fist. Stormy sent some more lightning his way while Icy froze the floor, he jumped up in the surprisingly large room and made it to behind Darcy, who turned invisible and tried to roundhouse kick him, he ducked and spun on his heel to kick her instead but left himself open to take dark lightning. Hiei slammed into the wall from the strong force the lightning brought before Icy again slammed into him with her body coated in Ice, Darcy kept giving him vertigo and Stormy sent some more lightning his way, so he produced flames from his body and forced them back.

Hiei slammed his hands into the ground and pillars of fire erupted from it being sent directly for the witches, they managed to fly out of the way, but they separated, he used his speed to attack Darcy first by flying into the wall behind her and using that as a springboard to get to her. He grabbed her ankles and flipped her along with himself twice before slamming her into the ground, using the momentum of the flips he propels himself over to a stunned Stormy where she was grabbed by the right leg and arm before spun three times before being implanted in the wall. Icy at least saw him coming and reacted in time to send dozens of ice shards his way and forced him to dodge by running along the wall at a good speed before getting to the barrier set up by Griffin, using that as another springboard to reach the ceiling and over an incoming wide ice blast. When on the ceiling, Hiei dropped down and brought the heel of his foot onto her head and sent her dropping to the ground, of course this only seemed to add more fuel to their burning hate for him since it broke her nose a bit, thus making all three very mad.

The Trix all rose to their feet and ran to get close to one another, Hiei didn't want to let that happen so he dug his hands into the ground again and used the same move as before, only for it to all be frozen over by Icy and her magic, so he was left with only using his speed. Darcy knew this was going to happen so she gave him a sense of vertigo while Stormy created a loud thunder clap enough to make him lose his balance even more do to his naturally sensitive ears ringing, and giving the three of them just enough time to join together. They used their combined power to draw it inward and than in one quick movement, shot it out in a sudden burst of magical energy, literally blowing the roof off the building, now all they had to do was fly up and out and away from the demon a little ways. Hiei wasn't going to let that happen though, so while they were floating up to the top of the hole they made, Hiei was jumping from wall to wall as fast as he could and reached it just as the Trix did, so it was easy to make fire blast form him in a spiral to knock them down to a platform.

They ended up in a pile, but were slowly getting back up, "you know, if you would just come to our side then all four of us could have ruled this universe," Icy commented on her left knee with her left hand on the ground and right hand on her right knee, she looked to be out of breath.

"We'd have loved to share someone as strong as you, not that we're usually into that sort of thing, but we're flexible," Darcy said on both her knees and hunched over, they never expected the demon to be so tough to beet, but that didn't mean they won't win, just take a little longer.

"Could have had three beautiful women all to yourself for the rest of eternity, probably share you by passing you around a month at a time, wouldn't that be nice," Stormy was just hunched over but standing, who knew the crush they had developed on him all this time would come into play.

"I'm flattered, but I already have a loving wife that I love back, so you can take your offer and shove it," Hiei said while in a ready stance, he raised his arms and focused fire in between them, it created a sphere that would explode on impact, he shot it towards the Trix hoping to end this. Icy focused on her magic and created a large ice barrier to block the sphere and resulting explosion while Stormy charged up her powers with the sky darkening over and becoming like a thunderstorm, using that energy, when the wall was destroyed, she unleashed her power on him. Lightning was striking close to him left and right while he dodged those that almost hit him, then he felt the dizzying effects of vertigo and saw Darcy was using her old trick, but it was long enough for a lightning bolt to strike him, then another and then another until he was smoking.

"Looks like we might just kill you rather than have you be our concubine, what a shame it has to end this way," Icy said as she charged up an ice attack while Darcy kept him off balance with her mental powers, Stormy was readying an even more potent storm blast. This just wasn't shaping up to be his day was it, he got up and forced his mind to focus, it wasn't a physical attack, it was mental, so it should be easy to stop, especially when he brought the Jagan into it, he focused and sent a psychic wave that knocked Darcy for a loop. Icy and Stormy were done charging their power though, so they sent a large wave of ice coming form the front while a large lightning storm struck above him, so he did the only thing he could think to do, he unleashed the energy he had stored up to that point.

With Bloom

For Bloom and the others, they were all being attacked by the army of darkness while Griffin had started a spell to transport them to Alfea, she was doing good with nothing but a sword to use against the creatures, ducking and cutting them up as the witches and Stella destroyed what's left. After slicing one in half, they saw the lightning storm start striking the first time, on one of the many platforms of Cloud Tower stood Hiei going against the Trix, and it looked like he was losing, but only for a moment as the next he was up and knocked Darcy back with an invisible force. Just as Icy and Stormy began to unleash another attack, Hiei unleashed his own power and erupted with a huge wave of power that burned almost everything in the area, it was able to knock Bloom into the portal screaming his name, "HIEI," her shout reverberated until they were back to school.

She landed with a thump back on the grounds and just laid there, thinking over what she just saw, her own husband basically blew himself up just so they would have a chance to defeat the Trix, tears started to form in the corners of her eyes as reality of what happened caught up. The explosion from Hiei's sacrifice would weaken the Trix, weaken their hold on the army of darkness, and most importantly, enrage Bloom into doing something she'd been putting off, visiting her sister at the lake, she thought she could do it only with Hiei, but not now.

In truth, she was also afraid, nature vs nurture was debatable, so what if Daphne didn't approve of her marriage to Hiei, Daphne was raised as a pure princess from a great land, Bloom was raised by two earthlings who taught her to see the best in every living being until they proved not. So Daphne could have always been against the marriage from the start, raised to believe that all demons were evil and beyond redemption, though the nature of fairies were to be good and pure and protect all life in a way, so it was also a possibility that the fairy nature trumps nurture. Now she had to go and risk that since Hiei was no longer by her side, all because of the Trix, the evil witches that would sooner destroy everything and rule over a grave yard than trying to understand one another, rule unremorsefully instead of living peacefully, be bad instead of good. Now though, it didn't really matter one way or another, Bloom was going to that lake, meeting her sister again, and for the final time, she was going to go to battle with the Trix, and one of the them was going to die, only Hiei could stop her now, so now there was no one to stop her.

She rose up from her lying position and began walking with dead eyes, the rest of the Winx looked to be about to run up to her and comfort her at what just happened, but she just turned back and glared at them, they stopped at that moment, it looked like Hiei's, so much like his. She gripped his sword tighter and tighter as she began walking again, the others really wanted to say something, to comfort her, console her in any way they could, but they just couldn't, for the first time in a while, they were afraid of their friend, it was no telling what she'd do now.