Verboten
Chapter 34
February 22, 2010
Disclaimer: I don't own the Winx Club. If I did, I would be completely floored. I also don't own Star Ocean.
Fore Note: CassandraofLight and sarastarr, thank you for reviewing.
Roxy cried and cried and cried. Chandra provided ample boxes of tissues for her and a chair for her father who sat beside the bed. The Indian-like woman nodded and stood in the background. There were so many things that wanted to be said but they needed to take this slowly. Klaus was still reeling from the last week. These weird teenagers and their supernatural powers, this military operation and the surreality of it. What was he supposed to make of it all? Had all of this started because of his daughter?
He had been brought up to speed about the Black Circle and their intentions so far for his daughter and he felt helpless about the entire situation. Why was this happening to his daughter? Why his family?
Klaus moved to sit beside Roxy and placed his good arm around and rubbed her back. It was all he could do. At first, he had been righteously angry that Roxy had not told him about this but he could see how she would have hesitated. Now, he just wanted to be there for her. To tell her he loved her.
Roxy wrapped her arms around her father tightly, desperate for comfort. "D-daddy…!" she stuttered.
"It's okay, Roxy. I'm here."
"I-I-I…I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—! Bloom and Sky and everyone, I didn't, I don't know how—"
"Shh, shh, shh, it's fine. I know everything."
"I-I-I…but I didn't want…"
"Roxy, your life is my business. You're still my child, fairy or not." Klaus motioned for her to take another tissue and clean her face. "I love you"
"You're not m-mad?"
"No," he said softly. "I don't know how it happened but I know you're my daughter. Everything will be alright, kiddo, I promise."
Chandra let the father and daughter settle their problems for a good while. She wanted to talk to them immediately but her conscience said that they needed this and so, she left, only coming back to offer dinner and finally, a bed for the father to sleep in overnight.
-
"What do you mean Sky bought the shop?!" Bloom wailed. "We can't be closing! What about the business?!" The fire princess had been debriefed on the going-ons of the shop while she had run away after she had explained her strange journey in Roxy's mind.
They had concluded that the historic Black Death had killed all of the magical beings, which also explained the name Black Circle. The bubonic plague was characterized with buboes, swelled lymph nodes that looked like dark rings from the dead cells after necrosis.
"Bloom, listen, he is ready to forcibly throw us into the next portal if he has to," Tecna reasoned.
"But why?!"
"It's because of what happened to Roxy."
"But it wasn't supposed to happen! I didn't mean to give it to her! And you let him buy the store?!"
The Winx Club girls were all huddled on couch away from the busy stations of the warehouse. So many things were happening that it was hard to keep up. Sky had bought the shop's building and he had wanted them off-planet as soon as possible. What the hell?!
"The city records were tampered, Bloom. Sky probably had it hacked."
"What is he thinking?! Can't you hack it back? How is he going to defend Roxy without magic?"
"Sky isn't exactly without magic, y'know," Brandon interjected carefully. The squire walked up to their motley group, accompanied by the other specialists Timmy and Riven and the musician Andy. It seemed like they were escorting the guitarist.
Andy was in a fairly confused state but he was physically fine. He was not handcuffed or anything but he knew better than to resist the specialists.
Brandon continued. "And you don't need a store to protect Roxy. The wizards already know who you are so there's no point in hiding. Sky has witches and wizards working for him. And not to be mean but some of them are actually trained to fight with magic. We do think, though, that you need to say something to this guy."
Timmy pointed to Andy who looked even more confused than ever.
"Jesus, um, it's not…"
"Ohmigod, Andy! I forgot about you! I-I—" Bloom stuttered.
"Really, it's okay." Andy held up his hand. Suddenly, he saw everyone in different eyes. No one was human, or from Earth at least. They were all alien but they all looked so human.
"Seriously though," Riven started, "Try being a little more vague with the details next time."
"There won't be a next time right, Bloom?" Brandon said, as if pushing her into a precarious situation.
"Brandon?!" Stella said. "Let off! You know it wasn't her fault. What do you need to pressure her for?"
"Because we don't want it to happen again. Do you know what the highest penalty breaking the UP3?"
UP3 stood for Underdeveloped Planet Protection Pact. The UP3 was a treaty aimed at protecting planets with civilisations that were not yet fully developed; a prime example was Earth whose magic capacity was non-existent. Laws strictly prohibited contact with such civilisations unless there was an emergency. The UP3 was put in place because contact with higher civilisations would greatly alter the history and culture of the planet.
"Death. Death for tampering the development of a society. Earth is nothing, barely even a newborn child in its potential to grow," Brandon said.
"But Andy is one person!"
"And it better stay like that."
"Are you threatening me?" Bloom raged.
"Only making you clear of the law."
"Yeah, well what about us, staying on this planet right?! Aren't we breaking the law, too?"
Riven rolled his eyes, like he expected the typical response. "Bloom, we don't exist. We are invisible. The pact doesn't apply to us because it's voided in our favour. We're here on a mission to stop the Black Circle, as Sky said, from achieving immortality which is considered unnatural unless it's given to you by the Dragon itself. The wizards can travel to Magix which puts them as superior and smarter than the rest of Earth. If they're bent on world domination by using technology and magic not from Earth, it's breaking the UP3. We're here to prevent that. You can say goodbye to any Earth history if that happens."
Bloom's face became somber as she took in Riven's harsh truth. No matter the fact that Earth was her home, it had a rich culture and history that would only be destroyed in a nanosecond if it ever caught whiff of Magix. Earth would just assimilate the culture there and history would just stop being written. Earth was nothing compared to Magix and all the other planets she had visited. Modern Earth was primitive in the race for superior technology.
"Bloom, there are much more important things than your business venture on Earth," Brandon said.
Bloom stayed silent for a minute. After futilely running away for a few days, the problems had only worsened.
"I just can't believe he did that," she said.
"It's not the end of the world," Stella reassured. "We can always come back."
On a purely feminine level, Bloom felt like she was being controlled by a man and she hated it. When she got to know Sky in Magix, he had something that was a little bit of an annoying gallant side him. He seemed to be of the mind that females, mainly the witches and fairies of CT and Alfea, were of the weaker sex sometimes because they seemed so reliant on magic to solve their problems.
On a purely feminine level, she had been charmed by his chivalrous personality that she thought was shining through that, mistaking it for some type of archaic upbringing.
"He's doing so that there aren't future problems. You can't run a business while on a mission. It just doesn't work like that. If you want to help Sky or even Roxy, he needs you on call anytime of the day," Brandon said.
"And what about your jobs?" Musa countered testily.
"They're only a front to stay near Roxy. We don't really care if we get fired," Riven replied.
"You're not serious?"
Timmy interrupted abruptly. "Well, my job at Google is only so that I have easier access to information on this planet. I get the best publically available maps all over the world. Most of the worlds pertinent information is digital so I can hack it or piggyback a live stream. Information changes daily and the first place to notice it is usually on Google seeing as how a lot of Earthlings are dependent on it. Since I'm familiar with the Earth system, I don't really need to stay with them anymore."
"Whoa, you work for frickin' Google?!" Andy exclaimed.
"…yeah." Timmy glanced to the side, slightly uncomfortable.
"Anyways, it just makes our stay on Earth much more easier," Brandon continued.
"But what do we do when we leave? Go back to Alfea and keep teaching while guys are here? You can't expect us to do that."
"Then go home and wait for us to come back or go back to school and get stronger," Sky said. He came striding across the concrete floor with his brows arched angrily and lips in a thin line. "You saw it yourself that Griselda's magical defense classes aren't going to cut it against the wizards. They're over seven hundred years old at least, a lot older than Icy, Darcy and Stormy's twenty-four and a lot more powerful."
"Ugh! Sky, take a freaking pill!" Musa yelled. "We know what we're up against! We know when to fight and when to run. We're not stupid, especially after dealing with Baltor and Mandragora. Could you give us women some credit and be positive for once in your bleeping life?"
"Oh funny, Musa. I am being positive. In fact, this is the most positive I've ever been all week ever since the super computer got turned on and received a galactic signal an hour ago. And guess what?!" the king said in a preppy sarcastic voice, "I got to check my email, my voicemail and even my actual mail that my person assistant in Eraklyon scanned and emailed to me! The Trix are easy picking compared to the Black Circle."
"What?" Musa said. Everyone turned to Sky in unison.
"What do you mean 'are?'" Riven said.
"I have wonderful news."
Latter Note: Oh God, what am I doing? I can't even come up with a comment for the hell or awesomeness (debatable?) that I'm about to unleash. I wanted to tie up that loose end anyways ever since season four disappointed me with their lack of appearance.
And do you know how embarrassing this it that I'm still writing this continuously every night for the last ten months? Look where it is now! Gawd, I don't have a life at all.
The UP3 is straight from Star Ocean, the game. Awesome game.
Now, I'm going to blatantly pimp two forums that you should visit if you want to become a better writer: Winx Writers Anonymous and Winx Fiction Tips and Advice, both forums are by Stills and Photographs. They can be found in the forums for Winx Club. Everyone is pretty much a seasoned writer who knows what they're talking about when they say, "It's a good idea." I think most of us are over the age of seventeen (me being the youngest, I think besides Secret Keys).
For writers who are starting out, I suggest that you bounce your ideas off real people who are very devoted to writing. Not good at it, but DEVOTED to it. (Your best friends and family don't count.)
For your first story, don't expect to write something as epic as Verboten. It just won't happen. What I have written here in the last thirty-four chapters is an accumulation of my experiences so far in life (including the military aspects of this story).
Please, feel free to browse all my older pieces of work (that I consider crap and should be burned) to get an idea of my evolution as a writer. Some people delete their stuff, I keep mine painfully in my face to remind me of what I was. I don't even know what I was doing when I was thirteen sometimes. I was a very moody slightly suicidal child at the time so beware.