Verboten
Chapter 15

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Disclaimer: I do not own.

Fore Note: Okay, this is the beginning of an alternate version of episode nine because Roxy's father is still in the hospital but in the show, he's obviously perfectly fine.

Again, mild swearing.

Everything came hurdling into one seemingly unsubstantial moment as hundreds of facts speed through her mind. Her father was in danger; the boys were real soldiers; Chandra made it clear that the Winx Club would only get in the way; they had to kill the Wizards of the Black Circle lest they take her. So many facts and motives and hidden agendas. Not only that but the fact that were possibly more people who might be interested in the Roxy and not simply because of her well-being. Some of them wanted her as an object or tool for who knows what.

Being a fairy had been so hard to accept yet the most amazing thing to discover in her entire life. She accepted the danger but she just thought that there was just the Black Circle to deal with. She knew that her father and everyone that she loved would be endangered but to hear in such a methodical and practical tone terrified her. It was as if Klaus being kidnapped would only hinder their plan to Chandra. As if Klaus was expendable. She did not really care about Klaus like Roxy did.

Being a fairy had been the most amazing discovery in her entire life. She had met these amazing people with these extraordinary stories of valor and glory and magic and suddenly, it did not seem as…amazing. Her life was in danger and she was being uprooted from the comfortable life she had once lived. Klaus was never supposed to be in danger just for being weak from a bullet wound. She admitted that a robbery was in all retrospect, a normal thing and getting hurt was a part of life but the weakness that it caused Klaus…it was all her fault. If she had never found out that she was fairy, none of this would be happening.

"I-I don't want to be a fairy, anymore!" she cried.

"That's just too bad, isn't it?" Chandra said pointedly.

Roxy had a hand to her mouth as if she was about to retch. Her heart was painfully clear in her ears and tears blinded her eyesight. "I never asked for this! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO TELL ME I'M A FAIRY?!" Roxy screamed at the top of lungs.

The Winx Club and the boys stared at her helplessly until Asta spoke up.

"Do you think you would have been better off not knowing?" Asta said coolly.

"YES!"

"Really now…?" Asta stood up to full height. She looked regal and imperious with her black corset that accentuated her small waist and full bosom that seamlessly merged with her long dark almost black as midnight jeans. Her hair toppled on top of her head in a delicate spiral of chignons with the loose ends and spikes of her hair making a thorny crown. She grabbed Roxy by her chin and with incredible strength and sharp manicured nails until she was almost standing up. Then she slapped right across the face.

"If we had never told you that you were a fairy, not far down the road, you might have killed your own father by accident, you ungrateful child! Is that what you want?! Your father dead from your hands!" Asta's voice reverberated through the warehouse. "I know that Helia taught you the concept of magical overdose so listen to me and think about it carefully. If you had gotten so angry at your father one day for some little reason like not liking the way you dressed or the colour you dyed your hair, you might have overdosed on magic from your anger and if you did not know how to control your magic, instead of magically amplifying your voice, you might've done something even more dangerous that could have killed your father. Maybe hit him with a blast of energy straight to the chest and stopped his heart. Is that what you prefer? A life where you could accidentally kill your own father just out of anger like a little child?!"

"N-no!" Roxy sobbed. Asta's dug in her chin and cheeks painfully but the realization that she put upon her was even more painful. She could have killed her own father so many times in her lifetime already and it was just luck that he was still alive. She recalled every time she never got a toy that she wanted, every time she called him a bastard, every time complained she needed him to be there for her when he had work to do.

Asta stared straight into Roxy's teary eyes. The witch's voice was very soft and motherly when she spoke. "You are very lucky to be who you are, Roxy. Very lucky. I promise you that. You have so much more potential than these fairies around us. You have a lot of potential to do the universe a lot of good but you have to be willing to take in not just the good but the bad as well because magic is neither good nor bad. It is what you make of it but if you act like an ungrateful little child, you are no better than some of these girls." Asta let go of Roxy and waved her arm at the Winx Club.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Stella said indignantly.

"It is as I said." Asta turned back to Roxy. "As a fairy, you have a duty to do your very best for the universe. As a person, you have every right to accept or not accept your magic. You can learn and control your magic and never let harm fall upon your father if follow either path. It is either learn magic and vow to never use it again or learn magic and use it to do what you think is right in the universe. Those are your choices. Either way, you will have to learn magic."

-

It was several days later since Asta's laid down Roxy's choices. She was thankful for the slap in the face although it did hurt very much. The bar had reopened just a day ago after dealing with the insurance and the authorities but it was only the small parts like the café and dining area that were open. The alcohol bar had remained closed much to the dismay of customers but more out of Klaus's sake. It was not right without him behind the counter nor would he have wanted Roxy to start serving alcoholic beverages without his watchful eye. Klaus was still in the hospital and Roxy visited him everyday thanks to Asta who drove her there every afternoon. Klaus was noticeably uneasy in Asta's presence, Roxy noticed after a several visits. She asked about it.

"Why doesn't my dad like you?"

Asta was busy driving the same car. It seemed that Sky had given her almost permanent ownership while they were on Earth. They swerve in and out of traffic as they tried to get to the boulevard on which the Frutti Music Bar was located. A ringing ambulance came into view and Asta moved to another lane to give it the right of way.

"It's been like that since the first time we visited. He thinks that I'm part of the mafia. I told him that I wasn't but he doesn't believe me. He knows that we, as in he thinks the guys are in it too, have an interest in you."

Roxy was silent as she contemplated it. "Isn't it better if told him then if he knows that much?"

"Yes, but he's healing. A gunshot takes at least three months to heal depending on where he was hit. You know that his clavicle is shattered and the muscle was torn. At the rate that hospitals work on Earth, it'll take him a year at least to get back to normal. He'll wear a sling and have to do some therapy to get rid of the atrophy and the muscle has to attach to the bone properly. He'll be visiting them a lot to make sure everything is in the right place. Artos could do something to make it go faster but it's just as dangerous. It's all very complicated. Just be there for him and help him around and let me and the rest of us take care of it."

The biological terms flitted in and out of Roxy's mind as she tried to grasp what Asta was saying.

"Your father told me to beware of 'those boys' girlfriends.' He says that the boys are good men by he doesn't trust the girls."

Roxy remembered her father's speech the night he was hurt. He had accused of shady business but she knew inside that he was doing it to keep her safe. "Oh! It's because of—"

"I know already. You don't need to explain it to me, Roxy."

"Wha…?"

"You don't want to know," Asta said ominously as she turned left.

"Magic?"

"That's up to you."

Silence fell upon the girls as Roxy took to staring out the window again. Nothing was the same anymore. Asta was the strangest yet nicest and most sympathetic person she had met yet. She told her things the way they were and was frighteningly blunt about it. She was mean in own sense but not because she was spiteful or hated anyone. She was in a mess of own with the Winx Club who apparently hated witches by creed.

"Hey, um, if you don't mind me asking…why doesn't Bloom like you or why don't you like the Winx girls? You don't need to answer if you want to—"

"I'll tell you. It's very complicated but you've heard about their…adventures, right?" Asta said rather sourly.

Roxy nodded.

"People have a tendency of looking at things at face value. Now, that's not a bad thing entirely but it has its faults. The Trix are witches of Cloud Tower and they wanted to rule the universe. They failed and got captured. Simple, enough. The next year, some idiot decided to reawaken Darkar, a being just as powerful as Bloom and born from the Shadowfire. It's one those forces like Bloom's Dragonfire. Darkar broke out the Trix and used them as his minions. Remember, they are witches working with one of the evilest forces on the planet. He wanted to get into the forbidden realm of Realix."

"What's Realix?"

"I can't tell you that because I'm not sure. I'm curious about it myself," Asta stopped and sipped her tea, "As I was saying, Bloom had gone to the dark side for a moment but that was narrowly avoided by Sky saying he loved her and brought back to her senses—which is really strange to say the least and extremely cheesy." Asta did find the last part in the least bit funny. "They defeated Darkar and left him in Realix but the witches escaped to only be captured and sent to Omega. You know what Omega is, right?"

"Yeah, a planet where they freeze their prisoners."

"Something on Omega happened because another idiot, it seems like the universe is filled with them, decided to defrost Valtor and he somehow got the witches to join him in his schemes. By the way, Valtor is a wizard created by the three Ancestral Witches of the Trix using the Dragonfire or gene material of the Royal Family of Sparks as some rumours go. Again, the Trix who are witches are in another nefarious plot to conquer the universe. It's always been like that. Three years in a row, the Trix come back to try and conquer the universe. I love their dedication to their cause and their never-ending determination but the fact that they always keep coming back puts witches in bad light. It's even worst when it's a bunch of fairies who beat them consecutively." Asta searched Roxy's face for comprehension while she drove. Roxy herself had a hard time understanding the concept.

"Damn, I know that I'm not explaining this right…it's like racism by skin colour that you have on Earth. You Italians repeatedly see dark skinned people as some type of social I-don't-know… Infection, maybe? You seem to see black people as danger when they enter some public establishment depending on how they dress. I hear that it's because of gang violence on the street but I know that not every black person is involved in gang violence because that would be ridiculous—"

Roxy cut in suddenly understanding. "We assume that since we see black people doing gang violence, we assume that all black people are violent?" she suggested. It really was a simple theory. How did she not see that before?

"Exactly."

"Well, you're not exactly proving that you're better than that if you keep hating Stella," she quipped.

"I don't like Stella by reputation, Roxy. I didn't need to meet her to say that I don't like her."

"Oh…how come?"

"Roxy, you're surrounded by at least four fairy princesses. Bloom, Stella, Layla and Tecna."

"Tecna's a princess?"

"Yes, but it's only a title. Anyone can be a princess. She's more of a daughter of a really good politician who happens to be a duke. Bloom is not someone that you want as a role model and Stella is even worst. I'd prefer Tecna and Layla. Point is that it always has been a fairy-witch conflict ever since Bloom came stumbling in. No, that's wrong." Asta took a long moment to think and concentrate on driving. "The conflict has always been there. It's just that Bloom brought it to the spotlight and put fairies in favour. Wizards have it easier because it's the whole gender thing that makes everything complicated. Plus, it's still a biased and archaic society. I don't like it but I have to live it. If I have to work with the Winx Club because my king says so, I will grudgingly do it. I can complain but I have to do it."

"I…I'm so sorry." Roxy looked to the side. Suddenly, Asta started to sound like those helpless students of the Freedom Writers. Living in a strange sort of world with such strange forms of racism and doing what you can to live. The magical world was obviously not the utopia she had suspected but then why was she hoping for it to be? "Why do you have to do it?"

"Because the military is the only safe and respectable place for someone like me to have a job, first of all. I need money to live. I've know Sky since we were babies and I thank him for everything that he has done for me. If he asks me to do something, I will do it no questions asked because I owe him a lot. Obviously, I don't treat him too well sometimes but we always discuss it afterwards. I went into the military the year I graduated with Sky and I wanted to go to university in Magix to take advantage of the plan that military had offered me. The year Valtor was taken down, I dropped out of my five-year plan because I was in danger of getting stalked and beaten in the streets. I went back to Eraklyon and completed the military college instead. It's not what I wanted but it was the safest thing to do then."

"But that's not right! Aren't there laws and rights in Magix?"

"Roxy, Magix is the center of trade and commerce for this part of the galaxy. Meaning that a lot of planets have embassies in the city. The problem lies in the fact that planets run differently from one to another and their laws can coincide and cause conflict. The Realm of Tides might have this law against chlorinating water because mermaids consider water their home and it would have disastrous genetic consequences but here on Earth, or Italy at least, your water is so chlorinated that we have to either drink bottled water at the warehouse or filter it ourselves. Now, this also affects the rights of mermaids because water is air to them. We're cautious of polluting air because we need air. Mermaids are cautious of polluting water because they need water. Get what I mean?"

"But you said that they were going to beat you?!"

"Beat me, not kill me. There's a difference."

"WHAT?!" Roxy's eyes widen in horror. She swallowed hard.

"It's exactly that. There are laws for killing but there are no laws against hurting me, mentally. Or physically, in some cases because of my sex or my heritage. It all depends on where it happens anyways. Like it or not, it would have been me to kill them if it had escalated. I'm the soldier. The people after me were only civilians enjoying the thrill of chasing witches since it's a national pass time now. Either way, it would have never worked out. The law in Magix is a skeleton compared to your United Nations' charters here on Earth."

"I'm so so so so sorry…" Roxy sobbed. She felt tears threaten to fall from her eyes. "I didn't know and I…"

"It's fine, Roxy. I can finish my degree another time. Right now, you are my priority."

"But that's not fair!"

Asta parked the car in front of the bar and turned off the engine. "Nothing's fair in life. Now, you have to go work at the bar. We both have jobs to do."

Ten minutes later, Roxy started her shift. The bar was in a rather subdued mood seeing as all the customers had heard about the incident on the news. Quite a few regular patrons dropped Roxy a word or two or even a get-well card and small bouquet for her father. Asta had presumable left to the warehouse because if it would be strange if she stayed at the bar all day like had no life. In her place, the painfully short Artos sat on a stool at the counter drinking a soda.

"What's up?" he asked casually. He stirred his soda with a straw.

"I have to ask," Roxy said while wiping a glass, "but how old are you?" As a last minute thought at his appearance, she tossed in, "Are you albino?"

Artos was, after taking a close inspection of the boy, almost ethnically Japanese or some type of Asian just by facial features. He had shock-white hair and red eyes. He dressed like an Asian rocker or J-pop artist of sorts with their wildly spiked hair and creative clothes. He wore carefully ripped jeans with chains and loose suspenders about his waist and a black graphic t-shirt. He also wore studded wristbands and fingerless gloves.

"Why does my age matter?" he asked back.

"Well, you're in military, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"Aren't you a little young to be in the military?"

Artos gave her a confused look. "I joined the military when I was ten as a cadet. You realize that things are not run the same way in Eraklyon as it is on Earth, Roxy. There are differences, no doubt. Is it so strange for you to see me like this?"

"Well, yeah. Don't you find it wrong? You're younger than me, almost." She placed a glass under the counter and began to wipe another.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't get the wrong idea. Roxy, it's not as if I did it unwillingly. I just found that I had better chances if I joined the academy rather than regular school. I never actually went into battle if that's what you're thinking. It's just a school run by the government rather than the city."

"Oh."

"Roxy, I'm fifteen. I'm training to be a doctor under Chandra right now to get a feel for the psychology of everything."

Roxy froze. On Earth, normally one did not do that until they had graduated university with several degrees accompanied by old age. There went her veterinarian career. "Already?!"

"Yeah," Artos said like it was an everyday occurrence for his age.

"Y'know what? Forget that I even asked. Let's talk about something else. My head hurts from the idea."

"Roxy!" Stella squealed as she placed her bag on the counter. The rest of the Winx Club followed suite while Roxy's eyes widened in horror. She looked to the nearest guy which happened to be Nabu who quirked his eyes. She was in trouble.

-

Asta sat on the slanted and rusted roof of the warehouse and let the wind run by her. She let her knee-length hair loose and ran a hand through it. Birds had roosted on it before but she did care very much. They had as more rights to be up there than her. Right now, there were a dozen crows dozing on the roof about her. She was wearing short shorts and a t-shirt again and took on the appearance of a teenager.

Her plans for Roxy were working better than she had suspected but that was fine. Helia was in charge of that. Nothing major would be happening in those schemes and so she put that out of her mind for now.

"Would you like to explain yourself?" Sky gracefully leapt onto the roof and Asta glared at him. "I'm not going away, lieutenant." Sky wore a blank but determined face.

"Fuck off, mutt. It's none of your business."

Sky brushed off the insult. "Asta, you know why I'm here. I know that you did not join this mission without certain conditions."

Asta stared at him arrogantly from her seat on the roof.

"Dijana," he warned.

"Go away."

"Not until you tell what the in the world is wrong with you, Dijana." Sky did not plan on moving from his spot as he planted his hands in his pockets.

"It has nothing to do with you."

"Bullshit," Sky gritted out. "Tell me now before I force it out of you."

"Are you going to hit me?" Asta cooed acidly.

"If I have to. I have much more effective ways than physical violence. You are far less delicate than Bloom."

Asta muttered something under her breath.

"Is that what this is again? You don't like Bloom? That's just too bad, Dijana. You made this clear for four years and I'm sick of listening to you like this."

"She's not worth the trouble she caused."

"You can think that all you want but you know she did nothing to merit your anger."

"And if you had never met her, none of this would have happened!" Asta screeched. "I would have completed my degree! I never had to watch my back before she came along! I could have been a teacher or a fashion model or a forensic scientist like I wanted before!" She stood up and waved her arms around her frustrated. "Least of all…least of all—"

"Least of all what, Dijana?! Are you saying that everything is my fault?"

"Yes! If you didn't have to go and preach undying love to her in Shadowhaunt, none of this would have happened!"

"Is that what you really think?" Sky said in a clear and cool tone, almost remorseful.

"YES!" she screeched at the top of her lungs. Asta's shoulders trembled as tears began to softly fall down her face. "I would still have my best friend, at least," she sobbed.

Sky looked at her with unreadable eyes. "Asta, I have a shift that starts in twenty minutes. I'm going." The wind rustled about them gently as he turned.

"Your father is coming," she said in between sobs.

"How do you know?" he asked. He stopped and turned his head to listen.

"I heard him on the wind… He's on Earth already. He's not happy."

"As usual."

"He's looking for the seal."

"Of course. I hope he realizes that I have the fake." Sky leapt off the roof's edge.

Latter Note: Due the length of this note, it has been moved to my forum, in the thread Verboten Rants.