Verboten
Chapter 9

Monday, June 22, 2009

Disclaimer: I do not own the Winx Club.

"I can't believe you called me 'Astrid,'" Asta scoffed, "I can't believe you, Sky. I thought we used to be friends."

"We are—still!"

Sky was seated at the computer panel of the magical reality chamber that Asta had just created. It was not as big or as fancy like the one at Alfea as it was meant for intense combat like the ones at Red Fountain. Asta was leaning on the computer panel beside him.

The Winx Club, Roxy and most of the guys except for Brandon because of his responsibilities towards Sky's safety had gone on home. Night was falling and there were still many things to do before the warehouse was the impenetrable fortress he imagined.

The little spat from earlier was left open-ended after Stella's screeching became unbearable and Sky had told her to take Bloom and go home. He could not stand to see Bloom anymore that day. What shocked and scared him the most was the fact that he had hit Bloom. What was wrong with him? Why could Bloom not just be quiet and let him do the talking? She always had to have to last word and be on top—why?!

The blond king laid his head and closed his eyes for a blissful moment of reprieve and darkness. He wondered how his kingdom was. How were his mother and his father? What was the news on Yoshinoya and his syndicate to overthrow the monarchy? What about his cousin Diaspro? Was she safe from the threat of Yoshinoya? He might have not married her but he still cared enough to make sure that any consequences of his choices did not put her life in danger.

"You're an idiot," she said plainly.

"Can you harp on me about something else, Asta?!" Sky replied angrily. He was just not in the mood to deal with her attitude.

"Fine!—since when were you the kind to hit women?"

Sky straightened up at that question. He did not want to answer that question and remained silent.

"You've never hit Diaspro, Sky. Even when you were angry, you never hit her. What made you start now?" Asta said in a harsh inquisitive voice. She stared at a bit of wall behind Sky. She was pulling out old memories from deep inside him. "You used to be the nastiest guy I knew around at school but you never resorted to physical violence. You might've been uncaring and ignorant of people's little problems but you never hit women. You knew what was right and fair, even though you showed it in an odd way, Sky. I don't know you anymore. You can't just forget your old friends for new ones, Sky. It doesn't work like that."

"But I didn't—!"

"We don't know you anymore, my king."

Sky turned to face his lieutenant, "Asta—!"

With that, a door closed shut and she was gone.

-

It was Monday again and that meant that it was whole new week full of possibilities for people. Ordinary people, that is. Roxy was not one of them anymore. At least, that's what she felt. There was no returning to simple life that she once had at the bar now that she knew that her coworkers were absolutely and explicitly from a different planet—several different planets, too. She was bound to slip up and talk to them about something magical at some point during work in front of her dad. She wished she could tell him but would that make him safer or only endanger him even more? And what would he think of her new friends and coworkers? She was sure that he would have a heart attack.

It was mid morning and Roxy was putting away the dishes while the guys served customers. Not so surprisingly, Sky was not there but Brandon was. She assumed that the girls had opened up their shop as well. Love&Pet and their set of exotic magical pixie pets was this whole new phase that seemed to make the town livelier again and even Roxy had fallen for the trend. She had four pixie pets and counting!

She wondered: how was Bloom? Being slapped must not have been easy to take, especially from your own fiancée. She hoped to never know.

And what about Brandon?! How was he? It must not be easy to get back on your feet when you throw yourself in front of your girlfriend's line of attack.

And Stella?! What about her?

And…and…who is Diaspro?

Or the Trix?

What was that Asta chick's problem? Where the hell had she come from with those accusations?

Roxy let go of her breath as soon as she realized that she was holding it tensely. There were too many questions with not enough answers. The answers would come in time, she hoped. Right now, she had to focus on putting away more dishes.

Business was coming in slowly at the moment and so Roxy did not worry too much but what had happened yesterday plagued her mind terribly. It must have shown on her face very much because Helia came to ask her. He sat on a stool at the bar area. Roxy had her back to him as she placed glasses on the shelves.

"Something wrong?"

Roxy jumped and yelled, "Omigod!" She almost dropped the slippery glass in her hand but caught it before it fell. She placed the glass on a table and turned, her heart going a hundred miles an hour. "Don't—ever—do—that!"

"Sorry," Helia gave a slight smile as he could not help but enjoy her reaction, "What's on your mind now, Roxy?" He gave a friendly smile and flicked his pen for taking orders in his hand.

Roxy threw her dish rag on the counter, "What are you?! My psychiatrist?!"

"I've studied and written papers on psychological warfare if it makes you feel any better." For some reason, it felt like he was joking, like he knew what he just said would not help her at all but she was not sure. At the same time, she felt like he was telling the truth about the psychological warfare. That sounded like some heavy stuff.

"Whaa?—Is that all you guys think about? War and combat?! What kind of school did you go to?! Unbelievable!" She waved her hands about her to show her disbelief.

Putout by her response, Helia answered, "Okay, fine. I have a minor in psychology. Happy?" He sounded slightly childish. He had obviously been egging her on.

"Seriously, what do you study at that school of yours?" She attempted to put the glasses away.

In a straight voice, he said, "I study what I need to excel in my field of work." That answer sounded awfully evasive. That could have meant a lot of things. Roxy knew that he had a certain amount of skill in the martial arts, gymnastics and escape tricks but what did that all amount to? His main weapon was barely a weapon: laser string gloves with the occasional taser gun function.

The first thing that came to mind was some sort of bounty hunter but that came from playing one too many video games. Roxy probed further, "What kind of work?"

Well, what kind of work was there for a mercenary in the magical dimension? Even though the boys minus Nabu called themselves specialists, Roxy thought of them as more as mercenaries upon finding out that they got paid for some missions.

She watched him carefully. She looked for any signs that might betray the answer. He had straightened up and his cheerful smile was gone. His hair was pulled up into a ponytail again for work-related reasons and she could see his whole face. His lips were in a tight line and his stare was unerring. He had changed from warm and social to stone cold.

Roxy saw the bar around Helia in startling clarity as if time had stopped and everything that was happening seemed inconsequential. His sapphire eyes were powdery blue compared to at night when they were like blackish blue. How had she never noticed that his pupils were not completely round like everyone else's? They had a slight soft oval shape threatening on being diamonds. He looked…sad.

"That's for me to know, Roxy, and for you to never hopefully find out." He gave a dangerous smile.

"But why?!" she whined.

"Drop it, Roxy," the artist said in a deadpan voice.

"But—!"

"Drop it." Helia voice quietly resonated, like a myriad of lyrical voices in one saying the same thing. Roxy thought that she felt the ground tremble under her feet as he said those words.

In all seriousness, she did not continue the subject anymore and promptly went back to putting away the glasses. It was a few moments later before Roxy turned around to see Helia was still at his same spot. He was so childishly moody sometimes. Half the time it looked like an act but sometimes, she felt like it was real.

She had another question, "Helia…" She was not sure if he was the right person to ask, "What happened yesterday?"

"What do you mean?"

"Who's Asta? And why did Bloom call Asta, um, a witch?"

Helia quirked an eyebrow as if he did not believe her. "Ah, so they didn't tell you?"

"Who didn't tell me what?"

"Did any of the girls tell you about the Trix, Darkar or Valtor?"

"The Trix? Dar…kar?"

"So they didn't then." He looked around the bar at the amount of customers, "I've got time to kill. I'll tell you what happened." Helia looked extremely happy to tell the story like he wanted to corrupt her mind. "It was the stuff of nightmares. Everything was in chaos! It all started when Bloom's home planet of Sparks was attacked by the Three Ancestral Witches…"

-

It literally sounded like the stuff of nightmares and it wreaked havoc on Roxy's mind as she tried to focus doing her chores at home. She had gotten off work after lunch and needed to clean the house for the all of Artu and the pixie pets' hair. She was vacuuming the living room when it all became too much for to think about. She turned off the vacuum and sat on couch wearily.

How did a group of sixteen year olds plus on seventeen year old defeat an army of monsters and three then super powerful witches? Roxy looked at her hands for the answers. She could not imagine herself doing that at all. She would probably wimp out at the idea of having the weight of the world on her shoulders. She was brave, but not that brave. Or the way they fought off Darkar's monsters was frightening. She could not imagine someone so evil could do such things. Darkar was officially tied with Adolf Hitler on her list.

The way Helia wove his words about how they stormed Darkar's castle sounded like a true horror story. He did not spare her the gory detail of how they severed monsters in half and he seemed to truly enjoy her reactions as he described the bone-crunching, stomach-churning detail when he almost dislocated his arm trying to reel Sky's fighter ship by pulling it into the hangar bay while in flight. She felt like barfing at the idea (even though, inside she knew he was exaggerating a little—she hoped). Ewww.

Roxy ran a hand through her hair and looked at the forgotten vacuum. There was no way she could finish her chores and with details of gore stuck in her mind. She knew though that she needed to finish her chores but how?

Magic.

Of course.

Roxy perked up at the idea of going through the book and ran for her room to retrieve it. She blasted through her bedroom door, scaring her pixie pets at the same time, and dove under her bed where she hid it from her father. (Worst case scenarios about her father finding the book and screaming "Witch!" at always came to mind.) She flipped through the pages, skimming over descriptions of charms. She came to a halt on one particular spell in the first chapter of the book.

It was an extremely basic charm termed as one of the basic functions in magic almost bordering a command rather than a real spell. It was called the 'Move Function.' Roxy felt like she was going back to computer class as she read the basic description. Her pixie pets hovered over her shoulder curiously as she read and walked back down to the living room.

She closed the book firmly in her hand and stared at the vacuum, determined to make it work. She focused her mind, imagining it moving forward.

"I can do this. I am a fairy." She pointed at the vacuum, "Moven!"

The vacuum glowed neon green for moment but turned back to normal. Nothing happened for several moments and she tried again with more force in her voice.

"Moven!"

It glowed green again and moved several inches forward, slowly picking up the pace. It bumped into the wall.

"Yes! It worked!" she congratulated herself. She went to turn on the vacuum which made the pixie pets flutter away scared.

Artu stared at his owner for a moment on his chaise and went back to napping. The pixie pets were sniffing and flying around the vacuum handle.

Ten minutes passed before Roxy got the hang of it and learned to steer it with her mind. She figured that as long as it was in sight and focused on it, the spell would work. It was another ten minutes before realize that the phone was ringing. She looked at the vacuum cautiously before she left the room to go get the phone. It was Dad.

"Dear, how are things at home?" he asked worriedly. He was just checking on her.

"It's great, Dad. I'm fine, really. I wish that you would stop calling on me so often," she whined.

"Well, okay. Roxy, did you vacuum the house?"

"I'm doing it now, Dad!" Roxy could still hear the vacuum running in the other room. That sounded like a good sign.

"Well, okay. I'll be home late, okay? 'Love you."

"'Love you, too!"

Roxy put the phone back on the receiver and went to go check on her vacuum. She found it still moving but this time on the ceiling going on its merry way. She freaked out.

Latter Note: Yes, well, a lot happened in this chapter, huh? Sky has apparently traded in his old friends for new ones and Helia has a way with words when it comes to horror stories. And Roxy found the vacuum on the ceiling? Oh dear.