AN: Set before/concurrent to Chibi's Chapter one.
Disclaimer: Own nuthin' but my OCs.
Passing the Torch
Chapter 1: Breaking The Habit
On Endor, especially inside the royal palace, excitement and anticipation seemed a tangible quality. Everyone felt it, but it held greater impact on the younger three royal children. Today was the day the acceptance letters from Magix's best schools were delivered.
Amethyst, the eldest of Sapphire and Topaz's four children, graduated from Cloud Tower a year prior. However, instead of staying at home to practice ruling the kingdom, Amethyst chose to apply once again to Cloud Tower—this time as a teacher's aide and resident advisor rather than a student. Her acceptance letter arrived nearly a week before the student letters.
Yes, all was exciting on Endor, but not all was happy.
"I can't believe this!" Amber exclaimed loudly, glaring at her older twin sister. "Tell me this is some kind of practical joke!"
"I'm afraid it isn't, Ambi." Lapis said, flicking a stray lock of indigo hair behind her shoulder. "I'm transferring to Alfea this year."
Thought not identical, Lapis and Amber were quite near inseparable as children. They did everything together and had a sibling bond that enabled them to sense if the other was in danger. Hence, no one was surprised when the twins decided to attend Cloud Tower the year before. This year, however…
"You can't possibly consider going to the pixie school!" Amber roared. "It's treason!"
"Quit being such a drama queen; it's unbecoming a lady." Lapis snorted. "And it's far from treason. Grandma and Aunt Bloom are fairies. Aunt Daphne was a fairy before she turned into a nymph. Heck, Mom took flight classes there when she sprouted wings!"
"But it goes against the Crystal family tradition!" The golden-eyed witch protested.
"Yeah, at tradition of arranged marriage, hunger for power, and poor judgment." Her sister scoffed. "There's nothing you can say that will change my mind. I never did find a place to fit in at CT; maybe Alfea will give me a chance to do that."
"You have to get there first!" Amber hissed, seizing Lapis by the arm and dragging her into Amethyst's room. "Amy, fix her!"
Amy had been busy packing her bags when her younger twin sisters burst into her room and was none too happy to be interrupted. "I don't care if the house is burning down, don't come barging into my room!"
"But it's a matter of life or death!" Amber whined. Amy rolled her eyes.
"I seriously doubt that. And why do you have your sister in a death grip?"
"She's overreacting, as usual." Lapis stated calmly. "I don't know why she's blowing this out of proportion. Mom's okay with it."
"Uh huh." The violet-haired witch said, fixing the twins with an annoyed glare. "Amber. What do you have to say for yourself?"
"You have to stop her." The shorthaired girl stated. "She can't go through with this!"
"Go through with what?" Amy demanded.
"Going to Alfea!" the fire witch exclaimed. "It's not tradition and I don't like it."
Amy sighed. It wasn't like she hadn't seen this coming. Lapis was their mother's mirror image, powers and all, and inherited bat-like wings in her witch transformation. This made her a bit of an outcast at Cloud Tower. Unfortunately, since neither Amy nor Amber ever sprouted wings, they were unable to offer her more than their sympathies and assurances of retribution when Lapis had been bullied. "This is something she needs to do, Ambi. It's her decision. Let her go to it." Of course, deep down she was tap dancing with the joy of not having to teach both of her annoying little sisters, but she wouldn't say that aloud…at least not in front of family.
Ambi frowned. "I still don't like it."
"You don't have to." Lapis said. "I need to spread my wings, literally."
On Eraklion, Kyle and Luna were ecstatic to hear that their son Raphael had been welcomed back to Red Fountain for a second year. In the rush to see that he filled out his application correctly, Luna never bothered to check where her daughter Twila had applied. And when Twila's acceptance letter arrived, it wasn't at all what her mother was expecting.
"But Mom! Alfea's a great school! One of the top magic schools in the universe!" The platinum-blond girl tried to reason. "You said you wanted me to have a good education!"
"Yes. A good witch's education!" Luna exclaimed. Alfea? Her darling daughter applied to the pixie school? How did she go wrong in raising this child? "Why do you want to go to the fairy school? No one in this family has ever been a fairy! What if you don't grow wings at all?"
"Mom, I know you loved CT, but Alfea's got a much more intensive and encompassing curriculum. Plus, all my friends are going there. I don't wanna be the only girl in my school to become a witch!"
"That's just it: It shouldn't matter at all!" Luna stated. "You should make you own decisions based on what you want to do, not because your friends do it."
"How is that any different than making a decision based on what your family's expectations are?" Twila folded her arms. "I've already been accepted at Alfea, and it's too late to send in an application to Cloud Tower. Looks like I'm going to Alfea whether you like it or not!"
Luna's lips contorted into a pout. This definitely wasn't what she'd had planned out for Twi…but it was her own fault in not checking the applications. She looked over at her hubby, who offered a shrug and an "I'm sorry" smile. She groaned aloud before fixing a glare on her daughter. "One semester. I give it one semester, and if you don't sprout wings by then, it's off to Cloud Tower. Understand?"
"Yes, Mom." The younger blond nodded solemnly before walking back to her room. Luna shook her head as the girl departed.
"What am I going to do if she really does sprout wings?"
Russell Lowe looked at his son, his only child, with an expression of utmost pride. This year, the boy had been accepted to his Alma Mater, Red Fountain School of Heroics. Granted, Dusk had been a little on the obsessive side about the idea of sending her only offspring of to tame dragons and play with swords… "Are you ready to head out, son?" he asked, his brown eyes glistening with joy. His redheaded son nodded.
"Yeah. Just promise you two will keep each other in line while I'm gone." His mother nodded, trying to remain professional about the idea of seeing her child off.
"We will." She said softly, then threw her arms around him. "You behave, understand? No starting fights; no breaking rules…"
"And no girls in my bedroom. Got it, Mum." He replied, hugging her back.
"Ahem." Russell cleared his throat, causing Dusk to blush and release her son. "Take care, Doug."
"You too, Dad." The soon-to-be hero replied, picking up his bags and stepping onto the inter-realm shuttle. As the shuttle doors closed and the craft took to the sky, Dusk shot her husband a worried glance.
"Did we do the right thing? Sending him off like this?" Russell nodded, wrapping the Shadow witch in a comforting hug.
"Yes, we did. He needs to learn about more than music and science, Dear."
The violet-eyed woman let out a sigh. "I guess so." She leaned her head on his chest and let him lead her back to their levi-car.
Lorelei Murray toyed with a lock of onyx hair as she contemplated how best to explain to her father her choice in schools. He'd been perfectly fine with her brother applying to Cloud Tower, as Jason was a wizard and hardly the first to be admitted as a student. But female RF students were unusual; so unusual that they had to go through a fitness test before their application could be approved or rejected. She thanked the great dragon that her mother agreed to let her go take the silly fitness test. Daddy would have locked her in the house and refused to let her go.
The front door opened and shut, signaling her father's arrival home from work. Sighing, she got up and went to meet him at the door. "Hey, Dad."
"Hey, Rory." He replied with a smile. "What's up."
"I got my acceptance letter today." She smiled brightly
"That's great!" He grinned. "Cloud Tower will be a wonderful fit for you!"
"Actually, I'm not going to CT." She said nervously. "I've been accepted to Red Fountain."
Anakin's smile quickly turned into a shocked gape. Red Fountain? The Heroes school? No, this had to be a mistake. Specialists were a handful enough around girls at other schools, as he learned when his younger sister Aradia wound up pregnant in the middle of the spring semester of her freshman year. What horrors could they inflict on a girl within their own school? "No. Absolutely not." He shook his head. "You cannot go to a boy's school!"
Rory rolled her blue eyes. "It's a co-ed school now, Dad. Cordatorta changed the rules when he took over as Headmaster."
Oh gods, that just made it worse! "No! There are boys! Dirty, lusty, crude…"
"Do I look like some kind of damsel in distress to you?" She growled. "I can handle myself in a fight, Dad. Just because I have plant-based powers doesn't make me a delicate flower!"
"But you can't!" It went against everything he ever knew about raising kids. You kept a teenage girl away from a pack of boys, not sent her running headlong toward them!
"Why not? You're letting Jason go to a school that's predominately female. Why can't I go to a predominately male school? Besides, I'll be sharing a room with the other girls who have been accepted. We get our own dorm wing and everything."
He hadn't even thought about that…but Jason wasn't a trouble maker and knew how to treat a lady with respect. Rory had always been the one getting into arguments and coming home with scrapes on her arms and legs. All the more reason not to send her! "No." He said firmly. "I won't allow it."
"Ani." Both father and daughter turned to see Thorn walking into the room. "Why are you so opposed to this? I think it's a good thing that she wants to learn to defend herself without magic. I thought you would be proud of her. Or are you still hung up on your sister's faux pas?"
"It's too risky for her." The blue-eyed blond protested.
"I'm an adrenaline junky, Dad. Risks are what I live for." Rory said. "And you of all people should know that I'm nothing like Aunt Ari. You're blowing this all out of proportion."
"Listen to her." The green-eyed plant witch pleaded. "You know what an honor it is to be accepted to Red Fountain. How much more an honor will it be to see one of only a handful of female students pull through all four years in order to graduate?"
Anakin let out a ragged sigh. He wasn't happy at all with this tag-teaming business….but the two women had a lot of valid points. "First sign of trouble, you'll be transferred to Cloud Tower, got it?" He stared at his daughter, who nodded excitedly.
"Thank you Daddy!" She grinned, pouncing him and wrapping him in a tight hug.
The first day of school is always filled with excitement and anxiety, especially when your only child is starting at a boarding school several realms away. Hence why Lucy Giovanni of Geos was holding so tightly to her daughter.
"I don't want to let you go!" The green-headed Light witch whispered, tears running down her face as she clung onto her little girl like her own life depended on it. Gods, she didn't think it would be this hard to say goodbye!
"Mom! There are people here!" Miranda said, realizing what a stuffed animal felt like in the hands of a five year old. "And I'm going to be late for orientation if you don't let go!"
"Lucy, she's a big girl now." Lance Giovanni, the man responsible for teaching Lucy to trust others and respect herself, placed a hand on his wife's shoulder. "Let her have her own adventures."
"But Cloud Tower…she could get hurt! Those seniors don't care who they crush so long as they get what they want!" She remembered her own experiences that first year. Wanting so badly to fit in; making deals with the Trix to do just that; being used as a pawn in their games. She couldn't bear to see her girl go through that hell.
"Mom, I know that." Miranda said, fixing her chocolate-brown eyes on her mother's nearly black ones. "I've been waiting my whole life to get into CT! Don't take this chance away from me because you're scared! This is something I have to do on my own."
Lucy squeezed her eyes shut and gave her daughter one last bone-crushing hug. "I just don't want to lose you, baby."
"I'll come back on holidays, Mom." The brunette rolled her eyes. "And you'll get to spend more time with Dad, now that I'm out of the house."
"Honey, we have to leave. Freshman orientation is about to start." Lance said, giving Lucy's shoulder a squeeze.
"All right." She sighed, reluctantly releasing her child. "Be careful, Mira!"
"I will, Mom. Don't worry." The young witch smiled. "I'll see you soon!" She waved as she ran into class.
The Light witch watched her daughter run through the pack of incoming freshmen, tears still leaking from her eyes. As soon as Mira was out of sights, she buried her face in Lance's shoulder. "What if we never see her again, Lance? What if she doesn't come back?" she whispered.
His brown eyes, the same shade as his daughter's, focused on his beloved. "Don't you think you're being just a little melodramatic? Luce, there hasn't been an attack on CT in over a decade. I'm sure she'll be fine."
"And what if she's not?" Lucy questioned, looking up at him fearfully. "What if she gets sick? Or worse…what if she gets injured in an attack?"
"Then I'm sure the school will alert us." He soothed, using his left hand to push her long green bangs behind her ear. "She's safe here, and she seems to be happy. And if she decides she wants to leave, she'll let us know."
Lucy sighed, wiping her eyes. "I guess you're right."
He smiled warmly back at her. "Come on, let's go find something else to do while we're here." She nodded, and the pair walked away from the intimidating gates of Cloud Tower Academy of Witchcraft.
While that little exchange of devotion was taking place, three Senior witches strode onto campus. Where they went, people scattered, for these were three of the meanest witches Cloud Tower had yet to produce. Veronica Slade, Electra Novak, and Leila Dunham formed the Black Heart Coven, and shared a bond that, to an outsider, seemed unusually strong for three seemingly unrelated women.
What most of the students, and indeed the new headmistress, remained unaware of was that the three witches shared a common bloodline, the Trix bloodline. Using the last names of their absent fathers, the three cousins managed to enroll in Cloud Tower. Their goals were simple: Graduate, and gather enough power to exact vengeance on those who killed their Aunt Darcy and exiled their mothers. Since it was now senior year, the same year that the original Trix witches had been expelled, they made a pact to always be on their guard.
"We have to keep our identities secret now more than ever." Ronnie told her relatives as they entered the safety of their dorm. "If the headmistress finds out now, we get kicked out and all our hard work is for nothing."
"I'm surprised that little miss Ryder hasn't spoken up about it." Leila mused. "She could have expelled us all last year."
"Yes, but that would mean admitting to the rest of the school that she's also a Trix's daughter." Lex stated. "She's saving her own hide with that, not ours. Besides, her inability to act gives us an opportunity to look for those three artifacts that the summoning spell calls for."
"We know where the Solarian Scepter is." Leila yawned. "Why don't we just take it?"
"And risk being noticed and defeated? I think not." Ronnie huffed. "No, we wait until we have at least one of the other objects to take the Scepter. And once we have all three, it'll be game over for Magix."
It's all in Chibi's hands now. Be kind; review.