Verboten
Chapter 14
Friday, August 28, 2009
Disclaimer: I do not own.
Fore Note: No one died. Geesh, calm down. Do you really think I would kill Klaus?
By the way, mild swearing.
Roxy found herself in the engulfing darkness again. She could her hands clearly in the darkness. Suddenly there was a symphony of deafening explosions as she covered her face with her arms. She felt the explosive waves of forces surround as if real bombs were going off and she started to run.
A sense of dread consumed her mind like she was drowning and one particularly close explosion went off behind her as she ran. She found herself diving into a pine needle littered floor of a sparse grey forest. Roxy found herself clawing at the floor trying to get up. Up again, she started to run forward to be forced back by another force wave that pushed her back down to the forest floor. She slid on her back down the hilly crest. Pine needles caught in her hair and pricked at her neck.
Breathing heavily, Roxy rolled over on to her hands and knees as she tried a look of her surroundings. The sky above her was blue but everything around her seemed to be dead or charred to a crisp. There was the occasional caw of a bird and then the sounds of zeppelin ships roaring above her. Something exploded in the distance.
She sat on her haunches and realized that her hands were scraped bloody and smudged with dirt. Her hair was tied in a ponytail and that she was wearing green camo pants and boots with a thick fading black sweater. Her breathe was visible as white vapours and tentative touches to her face confirmed her face was scratched.
Where was she now? Was it another insane dream with that companion of hers? She found herself conscious enough think on her own as well as feel pain so it had to be one of those.
She turned to see if someone would come. Someone did.
A swarm of golden monarch butterflies seemed to come from every direction along with the smell of fresh baked bread and some type of heavenly meat roasting. Roxy found her stomach growling as she sniffed the air for all its worth.
The gold butterflies seem to settle into one ominous floating mass and dispersed into a gentle shower golden light as the light settled into a petit blond woman. The forest started to glow golden and suddenly the trees were growing moss and needles. Plants seem to charge in a steady line as they began to grow in waves. There was an autumnal glow about it.
Roxy stared unsure.
The woman was built but not so much that it took away from her admirable figure. She had waist-long locks of golden blond hair that cascaded over her shoulders. It had a windswept look to it that framed her face and made her orange hazel eyes stand out. She looked like an industrious woman with hardened eyes but a soft smile. She wore an all black outfit of knee-length shorts, a black vest with an ankle long trail in the back, shoes with leather fingerless work gloves. In essence, she looked younger than Roxy but maybe around Asta's physical age.
"Who are you?" Roxy said nervously.
The woman pointed at herself in surprise but did not make a sound. She looked around for something and then to pointed to a spot on Roxy's right. Suddenly, a lion came bursting out of the ground roaring while the foliage and pine needles fell off its back and sides. Roxy screamed as she tried to back away from the beast.
The woman was honest to God going to kill her!
As if sensing her thoughts, the blond went to stand in defense of the lion and cradle the head of the lion as it were a pet and pointed at herself meaningfully.
"What…?"
The blond pointed between herself and the lion again.
"Li-lion?"
She nodded but pointed at the neck joint where there evidently was no mane characteristically grown on males.
"Lion…ness?"
She nodded behemothly.
"Your name is Lioness?"
She nodded again. Then she placed her head to the lioness's ear and the lioness turned to pad quietly into the forest. The woman known as the Lioness then went to Roxy and made her stand up. Lioness than waved her hand suddenly, there was knee rock growing out of the ground. Lioness urged her to seat down it.
All the while, Roxy felt like 'child' could best describe the way the Lioness acted and she found it rather endearing.
Then the lioness came back but holding a furry bundle in its jaws. The feline placed the kitten in Lioness's lap and coddled the kitten with its muzzle until it was stirring.
Roxy recognized it immediately as the kitten she had found behind the trash can when she ran from the Black Circle the first time. The kitten mewled charmingly and Roxy's heart melted at the sight.
Lioness held the kitten up and put it front of Roxy's face like she was giving the kitten to her.
"M-mine?" Roxy asked surprised.
Lioness nodded.
Roxy took the kitten into her lap and petted him while the Lioness made all sorts of arm gestures that expressed what she meant.
"But I found her behind a trash can? How can you be giving her to me?"
Roxy mind was assaulted with mental images again. In her mind's eye, she saw Lioness walk down a street in a hurried pace while carrying the kitten in her arms. She placed the kitten in the middle of the sidewalk just between the front of a house and a couple of garbage can and pull out a handful of hard cat food. She placed it in front of the kitten and kitten attacked the food ravenously.
Roxy recognized the place immediately as where she had sat down and rest after she had ran away from the Black Circle. The very place that she found the kitten. Roxy then understood that the images in her mind were Lioness's memories seen at a distance.
"You gave me the kitten?"
She nodded.
"Why?"
Lioness shook her head and put a finger to her own lips as gesture of silence.
Then there was the chiming of bells in the distance and Lioness listened to it carefully. She made an apologetic face and conjured an oversized bouquet of flowers and shoved them into Roxy's arms roughly.
Lioness then stood up and shot a hand into the air as the illusion of the golden autumn forest began to break. A swirl of golden light formed from her hand as it dispelled the illusion. The burned and gray pine forest returned at an alarming rate as Roxy suddenly fell down on her butt. The rock she had been sitting on was gone and the kitten in her lap as well. With a wave of goodbye, Lioness burst into a clump of burnt needles and rotting leaves.
Then the explosions came back and a ghostly scream pierced the air as Roxy found a wraithlike white clothe floating on a gray mist fly through the air. There were evidences of sleeves on the white clothe and wrinkled gray-skinned arms. It had barbed yellowish fairy wings and a face with haunting red eyes. A mottled mass of black oily hair floated ethereally about the being.
A feeling of terror and bloodlust enveloped Roxy and made her want to retch. Images of battlefields drenched in horrifying amounts of blood with dismembered bodies scattered everywhere. Some of them wailed for death and to take the pain away while some screamed for a quick death. Some bodies twitched eerily.
"I will have my revenge!"
Then the vengeful specter shot itself at Roxy going for her throat with claw-like hands. Roxy screamed.
-
Roxy woke up startled and sweaty and found Artu be nipping at her fingers. She scratched behind his ear. Sunlight spilt in from the windows and turned her room yellow. She looked down at herself in her pajamas. Something felt wrong and she could not quite put her finger on it. She checked the time on her digital clock: 12:45PM.
"Ho shit!" Roxy screamed. Why hadn't her father woken her up yet or even called at least? She ran across her room and into her father's. "Dad?!" she shrieked. The bedroom was empty and the curtains were closed.
No, no, no, no! It was all a very bad dream! She was sure of it and that was all to it!
"DAD?! DADDY?!" Roxy ran into every room screaming. Doors slammed shut behind her as she went to the next room. Empty, empty, empty! She started to run down the stairs—
"Hey, hey, hey! Calm down!" Asta jumped out of a hallway to the foot of the stairs.
—and she smacked into the girl at the foot of the stairs. They were a pile of limbs as they tried to figure out what was what.
"ASTA, WHERE'S MY DAD?!" Roxy eyes were tear-stained as grabbed the witch's shoulders painfully.
"Roxy, calm down, okay? Your father's fine but he's in the hospital."
"Th-that's impossible!"
The two girls sat facing each other on the floor as Asta tried to reason with the pink-haired fairy.
"Roxy, listen to me. You're father is in the hospital. He's alive!"
"But—!"
Obviously annoyed, Asta slapped the girl in the face. "Honestly, will you listen to me?! You're father is fine! He's healing!" Asta shook her by the shoulders.
"He's…he's r-really in the hos-hospital?" Roxy sobbed out.
Asta nodded and Roxy wailed loudly. She cried until her cheeks were wet with tears. Asta pulled the crying girl into her arms in a protective embrace. The black-haired girl cooed soothingly into her ear while Roxy refused to accept the truth. Her words were empty as she knew what had really happened.
Asta pulled Roxy together with a sort of blunt practical attitude promising that they would visit Klaus. She told Roxy to shower and dress and Roxy did. Asta somehow prepared for her a warm lunch using the foodstuff already in the fridge and Roxy took a moment to wonder how had Asta managed that? Didn't Earthling food seem in the least bit strange to her or was food in Eraklyon about the same? Roxy pondered it for moment as she looked at the plate of leftover spaghetti and salad. The plate was split right down the middle to an almost precise line of division between the two foods.
"What? Did I do something wrong?" Asta asked annoyed at girl. Of course she was annoyed; Roxy was staring at the plate as if something from going to come to life from it or something.
"N-no!" She began to eat in earnest after she found herself ravenous.
When they stepped out of the house with Artu in tow a half of an hour later, Roxy's breathe was caught in her throat as she saw the silver-striped black luxury car parked in front of the house.
"This is yours?" Roxy gasped. She suddenly felt underdressed to even ride in the thing. All she wore was jogging pants and a hoodie. Maybe it was the overall shininess that was making her gasp but sure did look like a very expensive car. Asta who always seemed to be dressed in all the envy-inducing brand names, like she was now in a revealing black corset, white jacket and delicately stained dark jeans and stilettos, was just doing that seem like some rich bitchy Earthling with a lot of money and time (seeing as she spent most of her time flirting with boys at the bar).
"No, actually, Sky's letting me borrow it just to get to your place," the girl said modestly.
"But what about the red car—?"
"A cover, of course. Sky's a fan of antique vehicles that run on wheels rather than anything with float stones or hover engines. He has a whole parking floor devoted to these things at home."
Home…home to Sky was probably a castle. Sky probably had a battalion of these things then.
"Are you coming in?" Asta was already in the driver's seat starting the engine. The car roared to life and Roxy suddenly felt worried for her life as she put Artu in the back while she sat in the passenger.
The new fairy suddenly found herself going at 200 miles per hour in less than a second and Roxy screamed as she held onto the dashboard. Instead of a klutzy blond fairy with no sense of direction or attention to the road, Roxy had found herself with maniacal laughing black-haired speed demon who was going to kill her.
"OMIGOD! SLOW DOWN!"
Asta laughed a girlish laugh and slowed down gradually to a stop in front of an intersection.
"That got your heart running, didn't it?" Asta said cheerily.
"Don't. Ever. Do. That. Again!"
"I won't," Asta said and then added, "It's so much more fun when you're on a levabike." The witch then began to drive at a steady and safe speed like a regular person.
They passed by the Frutti Music Bar and Roxy stared at it longingly. The police were there closing it up with yellow tape as they searched it for whatever they wanted. Business would be dead for the next couple of days. Ten minutes later, they arrived at the hospital and Roxy recognized the chair she had fallen asleep in and all the horrible waiting.
They went through the usual administrative business and then after a set of complicated directions, Roxy found herself in front of her father's bed where he quietly dozed with a serene look about his eyes.
"Dad…?" she whispered.
Asta stepped out of the room to give her room.
Klaus stirred slightly and Roxy became unsure of what to do. She looked about the room and noted the personal touches. There was a stack of get well cards and when her eyes fell upon a familiar looking oversized bouquet, her hands went flying to her mouth. Lioness had given such a bouquet in her dream just before leaving her in the horrifying wasteland with the exact same types of flowers.
"Kid…?" Klaus said in a drowsy voice. He squinted his eyes at her. "Roxy…?"
"D-dad?"
"I'm here, kid."
Roxy eyes swelled with tears and she sobbed as she hugged him tightly. She was never going to let him go!
"Roxy, calm down. I'm alright."
"Dad…" she sobbed, "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" She repeated those same words over and over.
Klaus put an arm around her as she cried into his chest.
Her father could have died. That sent an icy chill to Roxy's heart and she held him even tighter. What would she have done? How would she have gone on? Roxy cried harder and thanked God that He did not take him away from her. She never thought that she could have lost her father so easily and something so stupid as a robbery. Her father supposed to be this rock-solid figure in her life. Nothing could bring him down.
"I'm so sorry...I'm so sorry…" she whimpered.
"It's okay. Everything's fine. No one's hurt and I'm alive…"
"No, it's not alright!" she sobbed.
"There, there…" he cooed gently.
It was a good twenty minutes before Roxy ran out of tears. She sat in the chair beside his bed sniffling. Then a doctor entered and drabbled on about Klaus's health and recovery for a while.
-
Asta sat in hosfpital cafeteria sipping a cup of tea while reading a heavy-looking book. She wondered. Could she use last night's events to get a hand on Roxy? She probably could but what affect would that have on the Winx Club? She could try but nothing too chancy. Just say hi, put a smile on and hug the girl when she cries. Right now, it was better to work on the circumstances that Roxy faced everyday and somehow insert herself into that to make herself a permanent fixture in the girl's life.
She looked down at her almost empty cup of tea. Screw it. She was ordering a large espresso this time, much to her chagrin. She had not slept much since last night's, or this early morning's event, as she was constantly doing something since she had left the bar.
First, Timmy had arrived at the bar to help and apparently Sky left him in charge at some point. She and Timmy using her car drove everyone to the warehouse where they got checked by a physician and were forced to sleep despite the adrenaline running through them.
All except Asta who had taken it upon herself to locate and go to the hospital and check up on Sky. She had then promptly brought Artos and Sky back to the warehouse and broke into Roxy's house to put the girl in her own bed. It was until maybe five that she got to sleep on Roxy's living room couch.
She wondered how today would turn out. Living on a foreign planet was fun and all but it got awfully annoying when you had to learn the planet's customs on your own. Even worst when you were on an undercover operation. She wondered what time would bring. The bar was going to be definitely closed today and possibly for the rest of the week as its staff tried to pull itself together. Klaus could work for at least several weeks and all the staff at the bar would definitely need some days to cool off.
"Asta." Roxy's small voice punctured through the witch's bubble of awareness.
She looked up immediately. "Yes?"
Roxy stood awkwardly beside the table as if not wanting to disturb her reading. "My father wants to see you."
"Me? Why?"
"I don't know," she said meekly.
"Oh, okay. While we're still here," Asta waved at the cafeteria, "Would you like some coffee? I need another cup anyways. I'm paying."
Roxy agreed with a nod. She looked mindless and tired again with glazed eyes and a red nose. Asta concluded that maybe she should bring her to the warehouse to get her checked by the physician.
A few moments later, Asta entered Klaus's room alone, espresso in hand, with Roxy sitting outside with her own cup of frothy French vanilla cappuccino. Her heels made that delicate cloppity-clop-clop sound on the waxed floors.
"So, you're Asta?" Klaus said. His bed was reclined a little so he sat up.
"Yes. Is something wrong?" She did not bother sitting.
"Very blunt, aren't we? I'm Klaus, manager of the Frutti Music Bar."
"Asta Stryker."
He gave a strange look. "Tell me, who are you?" he said as if suspected something. "You're at there almost every morning for at least a few hours drinking tea and you flirt with my waiters as if you know them. You're too young to be in college. You should be in high school or something still."
"I'm not here to discuss my personal life, sir. What I do on my own time is my business. What do you want?"
"Fine." Klaus was clearly frustrated with her bluntness. "I know that something is up. Those boys are not ordinary exchange students from Greece and I'm suspecting that you're not an ordinary customer either. All of you have taken a particular interest in my Roxy."
"Oh, what would make you think that, sir?" Asta dodged innocently.
"Young lady, I'm not blind. I saw that fight even though I was on the floor. I saw Riven climb through the rafters and I saw you kick those men and throw that knife. Least of all, you treated my wound like it was an everyday occurrence. Tell me what is going on."
"I admit that I have medical training," she said curtly.
"Yes, but since when do college kids know how to treat a bullet wound." Klaus dared the girl to give him an answer.
Asta sighed. There was no point really in hiding it. He was Roxy's after all and had a right to know something. "Fine. Something is going on but that's all I'll tell you."
"I'm her father! I deserve to know what is going on!"
"Sir, don't yell. You'll open the wound."
"As soon as you give me an answer."
"As soon as you're healthy enough, sir. I'll explain as much I can once you're all fixed up," she promised and turned to the door. "It won't do you good to into an apoplexy."
"Please, God…" the man sounded broken and Asta turned to see a slouched man. He had bugged eyes and was sweating profoundly. "Is it the mafia?"
"What are you talking about, old man?" Asta asked, sounding confused. She was part of a mafia but it was nowhere near Earth. Surely, the man was going insane. "I'm not from Sicily. Look at my name. Nowhere near Italian." She knew that much about Italy. Were they that much of a serious threat to these people? She told herself to look into that. "We're not here to take her from you, sir. We're just thinking in her best interest."
Asta turned and left the room. She turned to Roxy who was still looking over her cup of coffee. "Say goodbye to your father, Roxy. We're going to the warehouse."
It was ten minutes later before the girls got into the car and drove off for the wharves.
-
Riven paced back and forth around the warehouse restlessly. He could not sleep at all even though he tried. There was a buzz-like sensation going through him and he itched to do something to put his mind off the last night's events. He reprimanded himself for making minute mistakes.
To be frank, he was shaken.
Guns. Frigging guns. They were frigging everywhere and that included backwater planet Earth.
He had stared down the barrel of one as he disarmed a man and to be blunt, he hated guns. Guns usually meant you had to dive to the ground and hope that you did not get hit. What the hell did he just do?
He was utterly confused and wondered when all of this insanity would end. He ran a hand through his hair and left to go outside. Autumn was slowly encroaching upon the city and he wondered briefly what the seasons looked like on Earth. He walked along the wharves with his hands in his pockets. The air was stale from the sea salt and seagulls could be heard gawking from above. The city was already in full swing as it was the afternoon.
He stopped and took a deep breathe as he turned to lean over the railing of the wharf that overlooked the beach. Behind him, traffic buzzed and people chatted. His mind was still cloudy with thoughts of regrets and fears. What would have happened if the man had gotten him in shoulder? What would have happened if it was anywhere vital? Would he be like Klaus? In the hospital idly resting? Or dying?
Guns were such an ingrown fear to him. In even his oldest memories, there was the sound of gunshots ripping the air. He had grown to ignore them while he grew up but it did not lessen the fear of being shot. He had learned to react differently in Red Fountain. Instead of just ducking and dodging, he also learned to move forward on the aggressor to disarm them.
Still, guns.
Being shot at still shook him a little.
The redhaired specialist found his stomach rumbling and he stumbled into a small traditional grocery to look for something to appease his hungry body. He went up and down the aisles looking at the strange yet familiar foods. Where did he start? He an idea what some vegetables and fruits tasted like but he still was not sure. Fruits, he thought, was the better option.
The store was rather small and rustic or archaic compared to the rest of the city. It was nothing like those mega supermarkets. It had mainly the essentials and most of its vegetables were displayed outside. Most of the fruits were in the inside (which was small, too) and there was a teenage girl about his age stacking pears. She turned to him with a smile.
"Hi!" she said brightly.
"Hi."
The custom in some parts of Italy was usually to not touch the produce for fear of offending the shopkeeper. You were either supposed to tell them what and how much you wanted or they would hand you a bag to serve yourself. Apparently, the girl was not going to give a plastic anytime soon.
He told her his order of two apples and she promptly gave them to him. He turned towards the cash register and got a bottle of soda at the same time. He looked at the shelves behind the register as the girl stepped in to work the cash. It was lined with several brands of cigarettes.
He was tempted to them. It had been a long time since his last smoke. Would he start again?
"A pack of Marlboro Gold, please," he pointed and paid for his purchases. He told him himself 'just in case.' The cashier greeted him goodbye as he stepped out onto the boardwalk. He found a solitary bench and ate.
"Didn't I tell you to sleep? Honestly, it's not hard." At the end of the bench stood a medium high tanned woman with black hair with her hands at her waist. She was the snooty physician who had ordered him to sleep. He felt no worry about her getting mad at him. He vaguely remembered that her name was Chandra. She looked to be about thirty.
"I can't sleep."
"Something that you would like to talk about?" she took it upon herself to sit beside him and stare at the waves with him.
"Not really," he said as he bit into his apple. He found staring at the waves somewhat relaxing.
"Fine, then. I'll start," she said as if to strike a conversation. "My name is Chandra Sri Bisette-Richelieu. I'm a psychologist."
Riven choked on his soda. "You're shitting me? What the hell are you doing acting like a medic then?"
"With medical training! Let me finish!" she dared him. After a moment, "Actually, that's it."
"Riven," he said curtly.
"I already know your last name and where you're from. Don't bother hiding it." She looked rather bored and crossed her arms. "You're illegally travelling the galaxy."
Riven really did not like this woman at all. She knew too much for his comfort and all she was saying was true. He was illegally traveling the galaxy.
"Why can't you sleep?"
He did not answer her.
"Don't make me read your mind and shuffle through your memory 'cause I can do it."
Let the woman read his mind for all he cared if she even could.
He continued to bite at his apple. It was tasteless compared to some that he had eaten in Magix or at home but it satisfied his hunger. He suddenly found himself missing his home terribly. The last time he had gone home was three years ago and that was just a small trip to get some of his stuff to school. He wondered what it briefly looked like now. What did everyone look like?
He briefly saw the perfect cerulean blue ocean with the blinding white sand when it was safe to go outside in his mind's eye.
"Homesick," Chandra noted.
Riven jumped at the statement. This woman was starting to become infuriating.
"I can read minds. I know where you're from and I don't blame you a single bit. After all, it's none of our fault."
"Our?" he said suspiciously.
"I have no home on that planet," she said with a hint of sad sarcasm. "My parents were taken away from me from the war, too."
"How do you know anything about me?"
"Name me one person's parents who weren't taken away during the air raids, Riven."
A faint smile pulled at him as he considered the woman's know-it-all attitude.
"What are you then?"
"Pyschai."
"Engel."
Something inside Riven told him that he was going to become friends with this lady.
-
Roxy sat on a stool as Asta tossed her white jacket to the side rummaged through the industrial-sized fridge. The kitchen looked extremely out of place in the high stucco-walled warehouse. Actually, it was probably the stucco walls that made everything not match. The floor was still cement but someone took the liberty to tile the kitchen floor and its surrounding area. It was a mishmash of different styles colliding in the warehouse and she wondered if there would ever be a unified style.
The 'computer' in the middle of the warehouse was a large raised platform with stairs leading up to it. On it was a circle of computers with assorted functions and chairs. Above it was a scary-looking monstrosity of a technological stalagmite that glowed green from assorted slots in the metal. It had a Star Trek kind of feel to it, Roxy thought. It was not as dazzling white or clean like the one in the show but it looked just as awe-inspiring.
Asta began throwing assorted strange foods on the kitchen counter before Roxy and Roxy looked at them curiously.
"So what are you going to do, Roxy?" Asta asked she pulled out a large stew pot and set it on the stove.
For the most part, Roxy had just been following Asta around seeing as she had nothing better to do or even a car to drive so she was thankful for the lift. As for the bar, she was not sure what would happen. It was more than likely that it would close for the rest of the week as everyone tried to recover.
Then there was the Black Circle to deal with and she did not know when they would come back. They still had the White Ring to discuss but what did she know about magic?
"I don't know."
"What did the doctor say?"
"The doctor said that they were going to keep him for a week. They said that healing will take at least three months and he might need a sling."
Asta nodded as she began to peel purple-coloured potatoes. "I'm sure that we can do something about."
Roxy's heart stopped. "Can you?"
"I know some medical applications of magic, Roxy. I've had my occasional bumps and scraps. I'm sure that we won't kill him. Now, about your bar…"
"Oh…I don't know…I think that…"
As if sensing her thoughts, Asta said, "Roxy, you're his daughter. I'm sure you're capable of running the bar for at least a couple of weeks."
"But we'll have to close it for a bit to let the others recover."
"Of course."
"Hey, where are the guys anyways?"
"Sleeping, I hope."
"Sleeping?"
"Forcedly. They encountered unexpected combat and it had them frazzled last night. Technically, Sky should not have been driving you to the hospital last night because something like that makes fighters act drunk from all the adrenaline."
"Oh, and what about you?"
"Same thing."
"So, shouldn't you be sleeping?"
"It doesn't matter. I don't have a day job like Sky so I'm not as concerned. Plus, I slept at your house."
"Oh, you did?!" Roxy blushed. She had assumed that Asta had just gotten there somehow. "Wait, what happened last night?"
"After the fight, we got the specialists to sleep here but I went to the hospital to check on you, Sky and Artos. I dropped the guys here and then went to your place. You have an awful a lot of pixie pets flying around."
Roxy became flushed and started to stare around again. The kitchen that Asta was working in was set up similarly to the one in the bar. There were work counters everywhere, implements hung from the ceiling or under the tables and a large stove and grill side by side under a ventilator. Just beside the kitchen area was a large dining table with mismatched chair.
She wondered, how did a kitchen work with magic? How did everything thing work? Was the same way on Earth? A billion culinary questions bubbled in her mind and she wanted to ask every single one of them.
"What are you making?" she asked excitedly.
Asta quirked an eyebrow at her. "Purple ria stew with bison meat."
"What's a ria?"
"This." Asta held up the purple potato she was peeling to Roxy's face. "It's as hard as stone and just as heavy but once you boil it in water, it's as soft as an Earth potato but much more sweeter. It's very good for throwing it at people when you're mad." She said the last part as if she had experience.
Brandon then loped out of the barracks stretching the kinks out of his back and yawning. "Morning…" he said to Roxy. For a minute he had a blank look on his face as if thinking. "It's not morning is it…?"
"It's almost dinner, you dufus," Asta said snippily as she peeled more rias.
"Really…?"
"Why would I be making stew then?"
"Oh, okay." Brandon shrugged and went behind the counter to rummage in the fridge. He still looked half-asleep.
"So," Asta said, "Would you like to eat dinner with us tonight, Roxy?"
Roxy looked into the simmering pot with the purple rias with a queasy look.
Brandon saw the pink-haired girls face as he pulled out a jug of juice. "I promise you Roxy that it'll taste just like a regular stew. Her cooking's actually good, believe it or not."
The witch threw a good-sized purple ria at the squire. "What do you mean 'believe it or not?!'"
"Ahh! Domestic violence! I'm telling Sky!" Brandon ducked as some of the rias hit him squarely in the stomach. They fell to the ground with a thud.
Roxy snorted at the absurdity of the scene and agreed to stay for dinner.
-
Roxy learned that rias were extremely heavy after peeling two of them. To her right, Asta was peeling more strange vegetables and seasoning huge chunks of what she assumed was bison meat. Brandon rummaged through the fridge still until he plopped a huge stainless steal bowl with a clothe towel over it.
"Roxy, I suggest that you back away," he said as he took off the towel. It was a blob of bread dough. Brandon rolled his hand into a fist and delivered solid punch into the middle of the dough. It deflated instantly and the usual rank smell of yeast ensued. He then started to knead it on a flour counter and making small biscuit-size balls.
"Ewww!" Roxy pinched her nose.
"That was bread?! I thought that was somebody's really bad attempt at Earth-cooking!" Asta yelled in a ironic tone while fanning her hand. She knew very well that it was bread.
The trio fell into a small routine. Asta prepared the meat as Roxy peeled, chopped or slice alien vegetables while Brandon prepared bread.
Asta sipped the stew broth and gave offered it to Roxy. "What do you think if we added some Earth vegetables? I don't think it'll be very bad."
Roxy put her lips to the spoon and found the blackish red viscous liquid sweet but mellow. "Carrots…?" she suggested.
"We have some of those." Asta went through the fridge.
Roxy turned to Brandon. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"What happened with you and Stella?"
"You weren't there, were you?" he said to himself. The specialists face was strained with thought as he kneaded the bread. "I don't know. One day, she's like her usual self and the next, she's mad at me for being near Mitzi. Mitzi gave me a kiss on the cheek to thank me and then Stella got mad at me. After that, I have no idea."
"Oh," Roxy said as Asta passed her the carrots and began peeling them. "I think she's being a little harsh. Mitzi kissed you on the cheek, right? What's wrong with that?"
"Personally," Asta interrupted without turning from the simmering pot, "I think that you can do a lot better," she said obnoxiously.
"Do you two know each other?" Roxy turned to Asta.
"High school," Brandon said.
"I still think you can do better!"
Brandon blew a raspberry to her back. "Anyways…" he sighed. "I want to talk to her but she's always avoiding me."
"Honestly, just corner her in a room and lock the door," Asta suggested with a questionable tone.
Brandon's face became crimson. "Some days…"
"Don't worry. I'm sure she'll come to her senses eventually," Asta reassured. "She'd have to be an idiot of the highest order if she didn't. If not, I'll hit her over the head."
"I'd prefer if you didn't."
"Of course you would."
Brandon rolled more biscuits and then tossed them on a pan heading towards an oven. It was then when the rest of the specialists came out of the barracks. Helia sat on a stool watching the others cook while Sky annoyingly reached over Asta shoulders to see the contents of the stew. Timmy appeared and went to go look at the super computer and Nabu watched with Helia.
Obviously, all of them were used to each other and were indifferent when they bumped into each other. There was a sort of family togetherness feeling as they all wove through the kitchen.
"What's cooking, good lookin'?" Sky said humorously as he sniffed the pot. He was rewarded with an elbow jabbed into his ribs and went off to prepare the table. The guys laughed at him goodheartedly.
Roxy sat with Helia and Nabu. They talked for a bit but avoided last night's events.
"Do you all know each other?" she asked to everyone in general.
"I've known everyone here mostly from high school," Sky said.
"I went to the same high school as Sky but I only knew Asta and Diaspro. I only met Sky after graduation," Brandon said. "Which is ironic because I keep wondering how I never noticed him."
"Who's Diaspro?"
"Sky's ex-fiancée," Asta answered. "Bloom doesn't like her. Right, Sky?" She said the last part with acid.
"That's enough, Asta," Sky retaliated with a strained face.
"I'm not the one who lost her, was I?"
"I said 'that's enough,' Asta."
"Hmph!"
"What happened?" Roxy whispered to Helia.
"It's complicated."
Soon, more than a dozen people sat at the table while Asta served the stew. Some of them were still strangers to Roxy but she made friends with them quickly. Roxy dove into the stew with relish. It really was not that bad. She enjoyed it but her demeanor felt subdued as she ate with the people who risked themselves for her and the rest of the people around the bar. She felt especially awkward talking with Helia remembering as he pushed her to ground to dodge bullet would have surely hit her. Then came the serious business. A woman named Chandra had taken Roxy aside to small separate room that looked like a doctor's office.
Chandra was a nice-looking woman and she had a bossy attitude to her that felt very motherly. She wore simple and plain clothes but she had a regal air about her. She had chin-length black hair and brown skin like Flora. Her eyes were a curious violet that had a knowing gaze in it. She had Roxy sit on a chair.
"First of all, I'm a psychologist, not a psychiatrist," she said. "But I do know what's important. Roxy, I don't want you to watch yourself. Your father has suffered a serious wound but I want you to focus on the positive side. He's alive and he's expected to recover. Don't go around thinking what would have happened if it had been worst. You'll go crazy if you do—!"
Suddenly, there were people screaming outside and the sound of arguing was prevalent. Ceramic was being broken and even heavy thuds could be heard.
"Stay here," she ordered and left the room.
-
"Brandon!!!" Stella wailed as she threw herself at Brandon who was holding a stack of dirty plates.
Brandon dropped the plates causing them to shatter on the floor and the duo fell on the floor. Stella hung on to him from his neck. Without forethought, Brandon used his hand to catch himself on the floor to only meet a shard of crockery that slashed his hand parallel to his fingers.
"Oh Gods, I heard on the radio Brandon and I'm so sorry—!" she screamed, unaware of the mess she had just created.
"Fuck!" Brandon swore as he felt the ceramic dig into his hand. "Stella, get off of me!"
Stella stared at him enraged. "Why you ungrateful little—!"
"Get off of him you dumbass!" Asta pushed Stella off of Brandon. "Merciful Dragon, how do you always keep getting hurt like this Brandon?! Look at this!" Asta said indignantly and roughly pulled the man up to look at the bloody gash in his palm. She dragged him to the kitchen and ran the cold water. "Artos! I need you here with the first aid."
The rest of the Winx girls slowly entered the warehouse with wary and worried looks.
"We heard on the radio about the bar and the robbers and Klaus…" Bloom let the last part hang on. She gave Sky a meaningful look. "Roxy's not at home so we thought that maybe she was here with you guys."
"Klaus's fine," said Sky as he put down a stack of dishes before he was in the same state as Brandon. "Roxy's with Chandra."
"And what about you guys?" Tecna asked clinically as she found Timmy at the computer.
"We're fine except for Brandon, right now."
Stella guiltily fretted over him but Asta told her to bug off as she was getting in the way. Artos appeared with a first aid kit from under the counter and started to disinfect Brandon's hand.
"Mother of…I better be getting a bonus for this," Artos muttered. "Do you mind?!" he asked Stella.
"Sorry…" the blond said meekly.
"Engels' tears, can you people go through one night together without any drama?!" Chandra strode into the middle of the scene fuming. "For college graduates, you act like high school students. I would have expected a lot more maturity from all of you," she reprimanded all of them. "You!" she pointed at Stella. "Sweep that mess up. Don't you dare give me lip, young lady! I know your mother, Luna! She had great expectations of you and you failed her just to live with your ever doting father."
Chandra waved her hands and a set of couches came sliding from around the warehouse to make a circle at where she pointed. "Everyone, clean up and take a seat. We are going to have a nice family discussion about a lot of things."
-
Clearly, everyone was confused or angry or both. When Roxy stepped out of the nice lady called Chandra's office, she had found four long couches arranged in a square facing each other. Everyone sat with mixed emotions on their faces and Roxy sat just between Asta and Layla. Obviously, things were not going well with everyone. That was nice and all but it did not seem that Chandra was going to talk about everyone's relationship. Chandra stood on up on a small table for a podium as if she was giving a grand speech.
"All of you have seem to forgotten their purpose for coming to this forsaken planet," Chandra started. "We are here to find the last fairy of Earth and others that might have escaped the Fairy Holocaust. We are here to keep her alive. We are here to eliminate any and all threats that trying to eliminate her or otherwise compromise her state. Those are our three objectives." The psychologist counted on her fingers. "We have accomplished only one task out of three. This is not a vacation. We do not have all year to do this. The longer the Wizards of Black Circle are alive, the more we endanger Roxy."
"What?!" Tecna asked. "How are we endangering her?!"
"Young lady, we are an expanding world. Communications to not only planets but to other galaxies is steadily becoming easier and easier thanks to you and your Zenite technology. You should be proud but remember, as much as technology is good, it can be used for evil as well."
"So you're saying that the wizards are pick up a cell phone to call up their childhood buddies to help them capture Roxy," Stella said sarcastically.
Chandra shrugged, "Why not? Nothing's stopping them. Lots of people have stakes in this."
"What do you mean 'stakes?'" Bloom asked cautiously.
Chandra made a rubbing action with her fingers. "Money, darling. Not everyone is nice. There are corrupt people out there and people would kill to have Roxy, by her choice or not."
"What do you mean 'have?'"
"Slaves, Bloom," Layla answered with a hand at her mouth as if she was going to retch. She backed into her chair, afraid. Nabu put an arm around her but it did not comfort her.
"Exactly my point, Princess," Chandra pointed out. "Roxy is prime real-estate up for grabs. The longer the wizards are alive, the more they can spread the word. Remember what happened to Diaspro when she was eight, Layla? She was kidnapped and on her way to Whisperia. I know that that's what you're thinking about."
Bloom listened intently but Sky's face darkened and was hidden in his hands. "Why'd they kidnap her?"
"Honest to—!" the tanned woman screamed outright. "Can you think for yourself?!" Chandra said exasperated, "Diaspro is the Fairy of Jewels and Gemstones! If she really wanted to, even the Fairy of Gold and Metals! Gold! Freaking gold! I've seen her create gold out of quartz when she was six, young lady. What kind of child has that kind of power? The woman is a walking Philospher's Stone! She could create mountains of emeralds with a whim and a castle out of rubies. Can you imagine how much all that emerald and ruby would cost? A solid mountain of emeralds! A castle made of rubies! Why do you think everyone fusses over her?!"
Bloom became quiet immediately seeing the obvious value of Diaspro's powers.
Roxy listened as much as could understand but found that Chandra was referring to her more as an object than an actual person. She wrapped her arms around herself and hid her head in it. A slave…what would life be? What would they do with her? What would they to her? Diaspro would have been subjected to such treatment. Would they have raped her and treated her no better than an animal? Traded and sold her like an object? Roxy shuddered at the thought and waved it away. Chandra had told her to always look on the positive side.
Bravely, Roxy asked, "What happened to her?"
"We got her back but we had to play with her mind a bit. Anyways, our objective has changed from protecting you Winx girls who were to suppose to find you"—she pointed at Roxy—"to only protecting you. We also have our King Sky here but that's the usual. As long as he doesn't throw himself in the line of fire, we're all happy. From now on, we have no obligation to protecting the Winx Club. You've done your part."
"What do you mean 'played' with her mind?" Roxy cut in.
"Modified, altered, changed, implanted false subliminal suggests, whatever you want to think it is, Roxy," Sky said lowly. "They probably did all of it just to keep her unaware of how she could use her powers." Sky's face was wracked with worry and guilt as he spoke. He had kept his head low or hidden for the most part of the discussion.
Bloom gave a helpless look.
"You say that you have no obligation to us?" Tecna asked diplomatically.
"It's exactly that. You're free to leave Earth if you so choose to."
"That's it?"
"Yeah," Chandra said nonchalantly.
"That's ridiculous!"
"I know," Chandra seemed to relish the fact. "It's more incentive to leave so that you're not in our way."
"Who told you that?!" Tecna said enraged. "Who gave you those orders?!"
"Eraklyon," Chandra pointed at Sky who was now in serious thought. "I do this out of loyalty to my king."
"B-but…?" Tecna refuted and stared at Sky did the rest of the girls. "What do you mean?"
"It's exactly as she said it. This isn't a mission where we represent the specialists of Red Fountain or the fairies of Alfea. We're graduated so our student passports and temporary citizenship in Magix has expired for most of us. We all went back to our original affiliations with our planets the moment we left Magix last June. Most of us have enlisted in our respective militaries. I am not longer an enlisted specialist of Red Fountain but an air force Lieutenant Colonel and Wing Deputy Commander of all the wings in the 2nd Regiment. That's more than a thousand men and women under my belt if the Regiment's commander falls and the people around me are only one flight out of one wing from the regiment."
Roxy did not understand the military terms that Sky was saying but she understood the gravity of the situation he was in slightly. He had a thousand people to watch yet those people were in charge of watching him. It was a confusing relationship that she did not understand.
"As an Eraklyonite citizen, I have no ties to you people politically except for Bloom who is my fiancée and the future queen of my planet. As an Eraklyonite soldier, I have no obligations to you unless you're in mortal danger. As a person, you are my friends who I would die to protect you."
"That's impossible!" Stella said.
"It's the truth," Timmy said while glancing to the side guiltily. "I'm an Acting Sub-Lieutenant back home the moment all of this is done. The same thing applies to me."
All the guys nodded silently.
"We all have our respective militaries but we're doing this one last mission together because Faragonda, Griffin and Saladin pleaded to the Council in Magix who then requested to our separate planets to withhold our official reenter into the ranks. For all we know, I could be the one who sends Timmy's ship hurdling into the ocean on a battlefield in ten years," Sky said with a hint of irony. "Imagine that."
"Ahh, but you won't know until all of this is over, won't you?" Chandra pointed out from her table-podium.
"But why is everyone here from Eraklyon?" Tecna asked.
"It's because he's the only one of us all capable of rounding up people," Layla answered. She did not look well and Nabu held her tightly. "I have a rank too but it's no better than Timmy's. I can't issue orders unless it's a state of emergency. I don't have three thousand people to do my bidding. All of us have ranks that basically make us junior officers but Sky is a senior officer with enough authority to deploy enough people to start a war. Being king makes it even easier. He kicks our asses, no questions asked."
"And I think that we've boasted enough about our ranks," Chandra quickly wrapped up the subject. "Right now, we need to get rid of the Black Circle asap before it worsens like a bad infection. Next thing we know, we have Yoshinoya and the Wrong Righters on our tail again. We cannot let them catch on that something happened to Klaus or else they will use him against us."
Roxy's heart froze. "Use my dad for what?!"
"They might use him as leverage to get to you. Maybe ransom him for you."
Roxy's heart sunk as she realized that her father was in even more danger than before even with just not having magic.
"We need to inform Klaus as soon as possible but first, he must heal. It'll strain him if we tell him now. Me and him"—Chandra pointed to Sky—"have already arranged a unit just to watching him. We need to find out everything about the Black Circle and somehow find a way to kill them."
"I suspect that that won't be easy considering that they've been alive for at least a thousand years," Nabu said.
"You can work on finding a way then, wizard. Tell us when you find a solution. Lastly, you girls…" Chandra fixed them a serious stare. "Are you going to stay or you going to leave?"
"I'm staying," Flora said with resolve.
Tecna nodded with serious intent. "As am I."
The other girls agreed.
"Fine, but we're not responsible for lost of life or limb. You are responsible for yourself."
It was momentous moment as Roxy realized that these people were doing all of this just to keep her one puny life alive. She fell into tears. She suddenly wished that she was not a fairy.
"I-I don't want to be a fairy, anymore!" she cried.
Latter Note: Oh...a lot happened here.
Who is Lioness?
Klaus thinks that Asta is from the mafia? He knows that something is wrong.
Riven has something against guns and who is Chandra to go and start bossing everyone?
Brandon can bake?
An explanation for Diaspro ditziness even though she is complete moron to us? Is she really that powerful? She needed mental modifying? I wonder why.
By the way, the ranks that I'm refering to are the Canadian kind. I have my books from cadets to explain them but I'll give you a page from Wikipedia to show you the difference in power: http : // en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ Canadian _Forces _ranks _and _insignia
The only thing that I admit is wrong is the number and power that Sky has. I'm exagerating a little.
Asta here is a little more social to Roxy but not the Winx because of obvious social standings.