Verboten
Chapter 27

November 1, 2009

Disclaimer: I do not own the Winx Club.

The tension was insurmountable. An impossible wall that blocked their future. It was drowning and hopeless. Time had slowed to crawl, only living in the moment.

Everyone filed into the tanned woman's office nervously, unsure of how to act. The office was a square room with two desks, some chairs and the walls were covered with bookshelves and locked cabinets of medicine. Chandra nodded to Artos to fetch Flora and she joined Winx and boys with a face that betrayed a weird sort of emotion between peace and chaos. Sky was nowhere to be found and Bloom was in the MIR with Helia. Nabu and Timmy came in soon after Flora while Artos remained outside.

All sorts of emotions were boiling in the room and Chandra stared them down defiantly.

"First of all, it has been determined that Andy knows about us—the magic part of us." Chandra let the information settle into everyone's mind. There were some mumbles of anxiety with the idea. "Bloom told him in bits and pieces and even witnessed her transform and resist capture using magic. He doesn't know everything but there is no way that we can lie about our purpose on Earth."

"What does that mean then?" Timmy asked.

"It depends. He can be a liability and if he refuses to cooperate. On a legal level according to the Galactic Accords of Warfare, he is considered a political refugee but universal law probably means nothing to him on Earth and vice versa for us and Earth laws. In short, we can't keep him locked up here forever. We can only keep him for at most two weeks unless something happens."

Andy had not been truly locked up in a real jail cell but rather an empty and locked barrack that was guarded.

"And Bloom?" Stella asked.

Chandra took a deep breathe. The woman's stare narrowed at the Brandon and Riven's arms and neck. "I don't like what she did to the people she sent to the MIR. There are two people in there with hypothermia and three of them with severe burns as well as one who is seeing white spots in his vision. Bloom is in the MIR because of the sedative she was shot with. At the moment, I'm not feeling very generous even if she is my future queen," the woman seethed icily.

The colour in some of the girls drained as they listened. "What are you going to do with her?"

"I'm not sure. Families will obviously want some type of compensation later. Anyways, she can't do any more harm because I had her collared with a chastity collar to block any magical build up and she's handcuffed to her bed."

"What?!" Tecna said alarmed. "That's not all necessary!"

A chastity collar was a magic-blocking device that prevented most forms of magical building up. It was a torturous choking device that sometimes led the wearer to magic overdose, i.e. death.

"Until I can trust her enough to not throw fireballs at Sky—"

"Bloom never did—!"

"Ask Sky about it."

Everyone looked at each other confused.

"And Sky is where?" Brandon asked slightly concerned.

"Dealing with business. What I really want to get at is Roxy. Roxy is barely awake in her mind and I'm starting to worry. Normally, I would have given her a week at least but time is short and we're going to have to try to wake her up ourselves. I don't like it, you won't like it but I'm not going to wait a week to only find that she's a vegetable and will never wake up again."

"What are we going to do then?"

"What I want you, the Winx Club, to do is bring Klaus to me first thing tomorrow morning. Get Mike and Vanessa, too. We are going to have to tell them the entire truth."

"We can't do that! The mission, the Black Circle—?!"

"This is for Roxy's sake." Chandra statement was followed by a silence.

"But how are we going to wake her up then?"

"Sky knows the details. What is basically going to happen is that we're going to go through Roxy's mind, find out what's wrong, fix it and hope for the best."

"But we need an extremely skilled telepath for that," Tecna noted. "Do we have one? And even then, we need a diagnosis and…"

"Yes—Asta."

There was a knock at the door and it swung open to let in Asta. Everyone stared at her uncomfortably, at least the girls did. The witch waved a hand slightly, "Hi…why are you staring at me?"

"I'm getting to the part where we wake up Roxy."

"Oh."

"It involves you."

"I'm flattered?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Asta," Chandra reprimanded.

The witch was slightly taken back. "Sorry."

-

"Bloom." Sky stood at the edge of a dividing curtain, tentatively looking at Bloom.

Bloom's glare pierced him deeply but Sky brushed it off as best as he could and took a seat beside her bed.

"I want to talk."

Bloom clenched her fists tightly. The last time he wanted to talk and make up, he had ended up berating her and her ability to act while she threw a fireball at him. Here he was again, attempting something and something restless inside Bloom stirred. Something defensive with a sense of righteousness embedded deep inside.

She did not care as to why she was handcuffed or what the strange objet around her neck was. All she wanted were answers.

How had events ended up like this—a cruel twisting monster with no end in sight?

"Look, I want to apologise to you for the slap. I know that this is late but I feel like this is how it should start. Good gods, I was so pissed at you." Sky had taken to staring at the adjacent curtain to Bloom's right. "Bloom, the fight at bar on the first night I told you to forget about pride. Even then I was pissed because you got so mad at me for trying to help you. You made me feel like a piece of shit for caring about you. I'm not sure if that was what you intended but it happened anyways."

Bloom swallowed hard. Dignity. She would sit up straight and betray no emotions. Be the image of the queen he expected her, royal and dignified.

"Look, Bloom, I love you but you have to be willing to let me in. I know that we did not really get to know-know each other in Magix during school."

Her image shattered immediately. "What? What do you mean?" the fire fairy said in a small voice. What did he mean know-know?

"Going on dates on the pretence of not knowing if we'll ever see each other after graduating is not dating, Bloom. At least to me. I never expected to meet you or to drop Diaspro. I've never really dated anyone besides you and this is sort of a first for me. I never really started seeing you as like a prospect until the Invasion of the Army of Decay."

"A pr-prospect?!" Bloom said incredulously. Her wrists tested the length of the cuffs on the bed, alarmed.

"Dating is so much more different on Eraklyon. I really don't understand half the time what you're expecting from me. Am I just supposed to stand back and let you do everything? The point is, I wish you would let me in, not just because we're on the same mission."

"But I try!"

For the first time, Sky looked her in the eye, testing her and Bloom turned away. "You're so stubborn sometimes, not willing to listen. I might not be on the same page as you even though you tell me how you feel. All you ever do is talk to me sometimes about how you feel but never what we could do to make it better. I'm here with resources to make your life easier but you never ask or tell me what you want as if I'm not apart of this at all. This is just like when we were at Alfea or Red Fountain. I'm there for you to talk to yet I can't do much to help you." Sky held his hands out before, offering. "Bloom, I'm here to help you. I'm here to watch your back but you have to let me rub backs with you. You have to accept that. This is not only your mission where you're off to save your world. This is my mission, too."

Sky's scrutinising and harsh confessions forced Bloom silent as her will was battered down. Something bit her with guilt and regret. Years worth of it. Years worth of trust built, confidence gained, the worth of time shared come crumbling in an instant. Her mind went into overdrive as years worth of memory came crashing through her. Everything for nothing, to come crumbling down so easily over a few misunderstandings. That was it; he was building up all this tension, all of these reasons and moments and feelings to leave her, to break up with her.

"Right now, I don't even know where we stand anymore."

Yes, he was going to break up with her. It was inevitable. They had driven each other away in the space of a few months over so many little misunderstandings and petty fights. Bloom's Earth life had caught up with her and her partner in the roller coaster of life and Sky was getting sick, hating the unexpected turns, the unforeseen loops.

She had not meant to drive him away. She wanted to show him the life she had had before going to Magix, the way Earth ran, the way she had lived without magic for so many years but she had never expected that Sky would be so riled up about a boy she had dated in high school. Sky was so much more than Andy. Sky could probably kill him with one hand if he wanted to but why did Andy bother him so much? Andy was nothing compared to him, so why?

"I can't even be sure if I want to undo your cuffs. Shit, I'm terrified of you half of the time."

"Are you breaking up with me?" Bloom cut him off, voice weak. "I didn't mean to throw the fireball!"

He was terrified of her. He was scared of her?

Sky paled.

"You're going to break up with me. Why?" she whined pitifully.

"I never said—! Do you want me to break up with you?!" he said truly distraught.

"No! How is it that I'm is bully here, Sky?! Why am I the stupid one here?! I didn't do anything! Okay, I did something wrong but this isn't all my fault! I didn't know it would do that to Roxy, I didn't know!" Bloom's voice shrilly rang in the room. There was the constant beeping of a heart monitor in the distance. Sky was hunched over his lap in his chair.

Sky did not speak for a long time.

"Answer me, Sky!" Bloom yelled harshly and tested her cuffs again.

"Bloom, I don't want to break up with you. I love you…do you want me to…?" Sky downcast his face with his voice hoarse.

"Then why are you telling me this? And let me out of these cuffs. Why am I in these cuffs?! What's around my neck?! Sky, why are you doing this to me?!"

Sky cringed. "It's a precaution. It makes the others feel safer if you're…like this."

"What do you mean safer?!"

"Bloom," Sky said in a broken voice, "I don't know what you did out there but I have two people dying next to you."

-

"No-no! W-who?!" Bloom could not believe her ears and she would have covered them had it been for her cuffs.

A man named Perihelion Xylander and a fairy, Silversun Gentlemist. They were in the thralls of hypothermia after suffering from a terrifyingly high fever and their body temperatures were going down too quickly.

"I'm sorry—I didn't mean to!" Bloom's heart seized up at the thought of consequences of her actions. Her eyes started to fill with tears and she sniffled. People were suffering from her power. She had never meant for it to hurt anyone. She had only wanted to get away but she did not think she would hurt anyone.

"Bloom, are you listening to me? I said Helia is dying of hypothermia."

"No, Sky, get me out of these cuffs! I'll heal him and the other girl! I'll use the Dragonfire to heal them! I'm not going to let them die!"

Sky was startled by her sudden resolve to action as she struggled against the cuffs. "I can't let you go."

"But I brought you back from the dead when Icy killed you! Do you honestly think I'll do something bad?!"

An argument seemed to pass behind Sky's eyes as he contemplated letting her out and for a moment—Bloom doubted herself.

"Sky, you don't actually believe—?!"

"No, I don't."

Sky straightened and suddenly, Bloom was startled as she saw a completely different man come out of his strange reverie. He stood tall with resolve. His face was intent to do the right thing. He unbuckled the leather cuffs. He knew Bloom would never have meant it. She was a pure being, filled with a glowing enviable righteousness. She stood for all that was right in the universe. She had faced her universal opposite in the underground realm of Shadowhaunt and even stood up to her very equal in magic and in creation, the dark wizard Valtor. She had had her momentarily lapses into the murky sea of drowning darkness and suffered from the sins but she struggled to do what was right still.

Bloom jumped out of bed to only find herself clutching her rips. Her back burned and ached. Sky slipped an arm under her and helped limp. A flash of memory reminded her of Helia's silk-like laserstrings that had been tightly wrapped around her and the nets that had tangled her wings.

Helia had not meant it. He had only been doing what he was told to. She could not hold it against him nor could she hold it against the fairy who was also suffering. Sky held Bloom firmly do his side and helped her walk, briefly brushing his lips against her temple.

"I wish all of this never happened," he confessed. "I wish I never heard of Roxy. I'm supposed to be at home taking care of business but here I am on some forsaken planet galaxies away from home saving a girl I would have never cared for. I'm sorry."

Yes, that was what he felt. There was the constant fear of not knowing, of waiting, of hoping for the best that he had lived with for four years since he had met Bloom. It was a worn out feeling that he had grown up with and he was deathly sick of it now. The constant battle-ready feeling of expecting the worst to happen but living with it for four years after the Trix's Invasion, Darkar's break into Realix and Valtor's magicide, he had had enough of it. All he wanted to do was get back to a normal predictable, probably boring life at home in Earklyon and take care of his realm. Most of all, he wanted to wake up not fearing the worst every morning. Living like he was at war everyday did something to him. It had changed him into something he had never wanted.

In that moment, he felt tired and old—much like a war veteran.

"I can't do this anymore, Bloom."

-

Bloom braced herself as Sky helped her walk. The sight was so unbearable and frightening yet…normal. There was no blood, there was no heart monitor going a million miles an hour, there were no doctors mumbling syllabic commands to nurses while performing cardiac surgery. It almost looked like Helia and a petite girl were sleeping peacefully had it not been for the cocoon of blankets and dozens of heat packs surrounding them as well as being wired up to steadily beeping heart monitors and masks feeding them pure oxygen. Their oxygen masks were slightly misted over and they were sickeningly pale, even for Helia who was white as snow, with coloured cheeks.

Sky pulled back the dividing curtain and place a chair in-between the beds. He was eerily silent after his confession, almost ashamed. Bloom reached for Helia's hand on her left and then for the fairy's on her right.

"Your collar," Sky said and pointed at her neck. Without being told to, Sky bent down and reached for her neck, moving her hair at the same time.

Bloom shivered at the closeness and when the collar came off, she felt like she was shot with a cup of caffeine and she was alive again. The horrible thing was off—whatever it was. The collar was made of blue leather with a silver buckle and engraved with symbols that made Bloom look away like it was the plague.

Then she concentrated. She would need more energy than usual to bring these two back. She brought herself to that familiar blackness that was herself. And then her mind went whizzing past stars, galaxies and worlds.

In her mind's eye, she saw herself floating into the black void of space, barely illuminated by stars and galaxies. She was in a sort of place where time was frozen and in the distance she saw an arcing red serpent dancing around stars. She remembered this place from the time she had revived Sky. It was a cold and uninviting place that gave the feeling of being watched and she did not care for it very much. The red serpent came closer and closer until it spiralled around her threateningly as if looking at her like she was dinner. Its golden serpentine eyes glared at her and it growled. A warm breath heated Bloom up and blew her away some distance.

"Great Dragon, I need your h—"

"Am I some bottomless pit of energy for you use at anytime, fairy? Do you not think that I have sentience?" the Great Dragon roared inside her mind and punctuated it with a lion-like roar from its muzzle. "You cannot abuse your power!"

"But I need—!" Bloom was aghast. This was the first time the Great Dragon spoke back to her and her bones were trembling. The very essence of the universe was talking to her!

"Silence!"

Bloom broke into tears immediately. More resistance. She was trying to do the right thing but she only encountered more resistance every time. This was not fair. Now, the Great Dragon was against her?! Why?!

"But I never meant for them to get hurt! Please, help me! I never meant any of it!"

"You are not exempt from the rules of the universe, fairy. The law of return is not to be played with."

"The law of what?"

The glowing red dragon coiled itself dangerously around Bloom and snorted in her face, almost breathing fire. "You are a poor fairy if you do not know the law of return—the three-fold law! Whatever you put out into the universe will come back you for better or for worst. You made a thoughtless decision to attack those poor people who were only doing what they thought was best and you're suffering for the pain you've caused them."

"But I never meant it! You helped me bring Sky back before. Why not now?!"

"Because that man is needed for the future as you and the Earth fairy are."

"I don't get it. Is something going on?!"

The Dragon snorted again. "How naïve. I am regretting my choice in choosing you as my vessel."

"Please, just tell me."

The Dragon stared at her unnervingly, daring her to step down. "The future is only a select few to know. You are not one of them yet."

"Fine, then! I don't care about the future!" Bloom said snippily. "I just want to bring them back! They never deserved to get hurt!"

"It is too late for the man. His mind is ready to leave his body. The fairy is contemplating death right now."

"WHAT?! No! Bring them back! Send them back to their bodies or whatever!"

"Why should I? Death is death."

"It was an accident! I never meant for them to get hurt. I don't know my own strength half the time!"

"Their deaths should be more incentive for you to learn then, no?"

"Stop wasting my time! If you won't help me, I'll do it myself!" Bloom screamed defiantly.

"You will kill yourself if you do."

"Then let it kill me!"

The Dragon roared angrily as Bloom pulled herself out of that dark void. The stars and galaxies when whizzing past her. "You are impossible!" she heard him roar.

Pouring her energy into her belly and then up her spine through her arms into Helia's and the other fairy's, Bloom closed her eyes and said her familiar edict, "Force of life."

In the back of her mind, she heard the Dragon roar angrily again as she felt a stronger and purer white-hot energy that was clearly not her own go through her body into the artist's and the fairy's. The Dragon was pouring his energy into hers, Opening her eyes, she saw Helia's face return some colour and his hand twitch in hers and the fairy cough behind her mask and struggle in her cocoon of blankets.

That was one thing right. Now there were other things. She did not want to face them but running from her problems would solve nothing. She looked up at Sky. In the back of her mind, the Great Dragon roared again. Roxy.

-

Everything was a blur of events and Bloom found herself back in bed after being carried bridal-style by Sky. She had just closed her eyes for a moment and suddenly she was surrounded by her friends each wearing worried or grim faces. That psychotic witch Asta was standing right at her side while Chandra was glaring at Sky.

"You let her out. Why?" the tanned woman said.

"Does it matter?" Sky said harshly.

"It's a breach in protocol. You should have told me first."

"Protocol, my ass. You would have said no!"

Sky then started to swear in another language rapidly that sounded harsh and soft like Gaelic but filled with a lot of hissing sounds. Bloom had no idea what he said but it sounded like he got a load off his chest judging by the way Asta, Brandon and some of the others were giving afraid looks. Then Chandra nodded to Asta and stepped out. Inwardly, she felt happy for Sky and she blanked out again.

She cracked her eyes open again and screamed, "Andy?! Where is he?!"

After a moment, Sky, surprised, said, "He's fine."

"Sure is!" Asta said in a sunny voice that was obviously fake. "You just had to tell him everything, didn't you?"

"But you were going to kill me! I had to tell him!"

The entire ordeal came crashing back into Bloom's mind and she curled deeper into her bed as she flanked by both Asta and Sky. They both had questions on their faces.

"Don't lie to me! Andy heard you talking about killing me in the grocery two days ago," she accused. She turned to Sky.

Normally, Sky would have cringed but he did not. Instead, he held her gaze steadily. "Yes, I said that on the pretences that you got too dangerous to handle."

"Dangerous?!"

"Yes, dangerous. Okay, I admit I've been a jackass for who knows how long but, Bloom, you have the Dragonfire. I can't throw people at you and hope that they come back in one piece! Look at Brandon and Riven!"

Bloom took a careful inspection of the two and suddenly realised that their neck and arms were covered with bandages and the looked battered and weary. "Oh God, I'm sorry!"

"Oh, no hard feelings at all," Riven said sarcastically.

Bloom looked around at everyone and took in everything for the first time. Everyone was in a ragged state. Flora was hiding behind a curtain and Bloom was suddenly wracked with guilt. She cast down her eyes in shame.

Bloom then turned to Asta was idly looking at the ceiling and tapping her foot. "You…"

"Oh, I was doing what I was told. Blame it on him." Asta pointed to Sky who gave an incredulous look.

"You suggested it!"

"You would have come to the same conclusion!"

Asta blew a raspberry and Sky snarled. Bloom backed away into her bed instinctively and unsure. The two stared at each other defiantly.

"So, Roxy?" Bloom said.

"Comatose," Asta answered.

"At the moment, I'm in charge of all decisions regarding her health," Sky added. "Klaus is unable to make informed decisions so it falls to me."

Asta briefly explained the state of Roxy's mind and told her what is going to happen. "As soon as Klaus is here, I'm going to go through Roxy's mind and figure out what's wrong."

"I'm going through it with you then." Bloom said bravely.

Asta froze instantly at the suggestion and made a face that said "Hell no," to Sky.

"I'm not taking a tagalong. I can barely stand the noise in this room, let alone someone who holds so much power in one hand."

"No, I'm coming," Bloom argued. "I did this to Roxy and I'm going to get her out of it."

Asta stared at Sky for an answer.

"She's going with you, Asta."

"Then you're coming with me, Sky."

-

Hours later

Flora wrapped herself tightly in the woollen blanket and crisp white linens as she stared off into the darkness of the room. At first, all the girls had gone home except for her because she wanted to stay with Helia. She had only gotten a glimpse of him before being whisked off into Chandra's office. He had been pale as stone with his black blue hair contrasting. It was as if he was really dead and that terrified her immensely to see him like that. Had it not been for the slight rise and fall of his chest, she would have thought that he was dead for real.

Helia's life had almost gone out just like that. He had almost slipped through her hands until Bloom had brought him back with her Dragonfire. The flower fairy curled deeper into her cocoon and sniffed. What would have happened if Helia had died? Granted, hypothermia was not necessarily a terminal death but just because Bloom had the Dragonfire was enough to make her worry. Flora cried deeply.

She told herself that she would go and apologize to him straightaway. There were so many things that she wanted to do with him but she never thought that death could take him away from her so easily or so quickly.

Only a few rays of yellow light spilt in through under the door but other than that, the room was completely dark. Sky had offered her to sleep in the barracks because it was so late and she was nearly insensible around the MIR. Now that she was in bed and by herself, a pervading dark and calm sense of loneliness came.

Her pillow was adequate but not quite fluffy as she wanted it. The bed was a little stiff and sheets crisp, like they were never used. The overall furnishings of the room were scarce, leaving no sense of personality or individuality. Before turning off the lights, Flora had noted that the room was occupied by one other who was gone as evidenced by a few pairs of shoes under the bunk and the padlock on the black barrack box at the foot of the bed.

Suddenly, the door opened and Flora closed her eyes as light bathed her. The door gently clicked close and there was the sound of shoes silently padding the floor and then the sound of metal creaking under weight. Flora opened her eyes to see Asta sitting on her bed taking off her shoes. A headlight was turned on.

"Sorry!" she whispered as she began to change into a plain uniform-like grey t-shirt and shorts.

Flora averted her eyes, embarrassed.

Wait, wait, wait—she was sleeping in the same room as a witch?! Something inside her told her that this was severely wrong. Flora couldn't actually name why it was wrong but it was quite unsettling. Too late now, anyways.

Asta kneeled on the floor in front of the barrack box, working the combo lock. She pulled out various clothing tossed it about looking for something. Some clothes went flying into a sort of hamper full of dirty clothes in the corner and others unto the foot of her bed to be worn for tomorrow.

Then the lights turned off totally and the sound of metal creaking came as Asta shifted in her bed.

"You can't sleep."

Flora jumped in her bed and looked over to Asta in the darkness.

"I can tell that you're not going to sleep easily tonight."

The flower fairy took a ragged breathe.

"Save it. I can understand why. Do you want to talk instead?"

"Okay, sure."

"Can I be honest?"

"Uh…okay."

"I'm Helia's ex-girlfriend."

Latter Note: Oh God, I'm so happy I got that out. (The last line, I mean.) Asta is not going to try and get back Helia is something that I should emphasis now.

By the way, Stratford was awesome but Cyrano de Bergerac bored the crap out of me and Colm Feore as Macbeth was a little unsatisfying. To make up for that, I went to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and bought a chocolate-covered brownie on a stick. Yum!

Next chapter, Silent Hill meets the Winx Club? That's what I'm planning anyways.