Chapter 14- Allied

The clearing was silent for seemingly endless seconds. Even the wind and the trees surrounding the clearing seemed to cease their natural noise in response to the gravity of the situation Everyone, with the exception of the distressed Aetheria, was frozen where they stood expressing feelings of shock and confusion. Helia's own mind raced to register the meaning behind the strange fairy's outburst. Before he could come to a conclusion, Sky suddenly broke free of his shock and strode over to the girl crouched on the ground. He roughly grabbed the girl by the shoulders and dragged her to her feet, shaking her. "WHERE'S BLOOM!?"

"I… I don't know!" Aetheria stuttered, her wide, blue eyes glittering with tears. She made no effort to fight back as she hung limply in his grasp. "I… I failed!"

"Sky!" Helia watched as Layla rushed up and grabbed Sky's arm. She determinedly yanked at him to break his grasp on the distraught girl. "Let her go, Sky! She was trying to protect Bloom! Didn't you hear her?" When Sky didn't respond, Layla's voice got low and ominous and Helia felt a shiver rush down his spine. "Let her go, Sky."

Sky released the girl from his clutches and she fell limp to the ground before him. He clenched his shaking fists at his sides and bowed his head with his eyes closed. "What do we do now? What can we do now? What the hell is going on?" He opened his eyes and glared accusingly down at the girl before him. "TALK!"

"Sky, quit!" Layla shoved him hard, then knelt before the shivering girl. She cast an angry glance back at Sky. "Let's be rational. I know it isn't your strong suit, but try anyway!"

"How can anyone be rational about this!?" Sky fumed. "This girl has had a hand in Bloom's disappearance! Baltor is back! He and Diaspro are working together! Damn it all Layla! We've got a crisis on our hands!"

Layla got to her feet and gave Sky a steely cold look. Helia could've swore he heard the ocean roaring in the air about them. "To think that you're the future King of Eraklyon doesn't give me much in terms of confidence Sky. You can't react like this every time a disaster strikes. A good ruler needs to keep their feelings in check and assess the situation. We need to talk calmly to Aetheria, not shake her senseless and reduce her to a teary mess."

"You're one to talk about keeping feelings in check! What did you do when Nabu died? Let's see, go all out on a revenge streak?" Sky snapped angrily.

Sky's statement stirred up all the guys and the girls. They all shifted nervously and shared fearful glances with one another. Sky had just crossed a line with unpredictable consequences. Helia kept his eyes locked on the scene before him, silently hoping the situation would resolve itself before things got too bad. "Don't you start with me…" Layla warned, her tone low and dangerous.

"Don't get in my way!"

Helia's hopes remained hopes as the tension snapped and Layla marched straight up to Sky and jabbed him in the chest. " Look! I sympathized with how you felt before but now you're taking things too far! Now you're just pissing me off!"

"Good! A reaction this situation deserves!" Sky snarled.

The look the two gave one another made Helia think the fight was about to get physical so he decided to finally step in. "Alright!" Helia got between the two and held them apart. "This is not helping at all! Sky walk it off! Layla take a breather! Let me talk to Aetheria. I'll get to the bottom of this. We'll stop Baltor and Diaspro. We'll save Bloom. Everything will work out." Silently praying his effort was worth the risk, he slowly dropped his hands and watched as the two held their angry glares for moments more. Then they both stomped away.

Helia felt relief flood him and he saw it also swept through the rest of the group. "Whew… That would've gotten ugly." Musa commented. "I mean… I wouldn't want to be around to watch those two fight! They both have mad skills and all…"

Flora inched forward leaned down toward Aetheria. "Hey… you were trying to help Bloom, huh?" When Aetheria didn't answer, Flora continued, invoking a friendly tone to ease Aetheria's silent mourning. "Thank-you for trying. She's one of our good friends and we need to get her back. We're really afraid for her."

"Anything you could tell us would be helpful." Musa added as she too stepped forward. She wrung her hands as she looked down on the despondent fairy. "We need her."

"I just want my best friend back!" Stella said pleadingly. "I'm so scared for her."

Helia carefully crouched down next to Aetheria, gently placing his hand on her slender shoulder. "You did what you could to stop them, I'm sure. You wouldn't be this sorry if you hadn't. If you hadn't tried as much as you could, you wouldn't care this much." Aetheria looked up at him then, her blue eyes wavering, but less teary than before. Helia wracked his memory for something to draw questions from. "You said something about aspects before… Is that what Diaspro snatched from your neck?"

Still shaking, Aetheria took a small breath and nodded slowly. "Yes… The space aspects are my charge. I was chosen by the gods to protect these aspects that reside in the fabric of space. I'm one of several entity fairies who ensure that the natural laws that keep the universe from imploding aren't broken. Certain… phenomena cannot reside together so to speak. They must be kept apart at all costs."

"Such phenomena being what exactly?" Tecna questioned, her skepticism evident in the tone she used.

"In this case, time and space. They meet eventually I suppose. When the two phenomena meet, events of cataclysmic proportion would ensue. But within the extent of our magical universe we work to prevent such a meeting. It's why everything is."

"You mean you're responsible for the universe not collapsing in on itself and imploding?" Tecna said with disbelief.

Aetheria glanced at her as if the question surprised her. "Well, yes… I suppose my sisters and I are."

"Deep." Musa said. Her brow furrowed as she addressed Aetheria again, "So you all kinda work like the Golden Kingdom?"

"No." Aetheria shook her head. "We don't consider situations that disrupt the balance of power within the universe. We don't work to keep balance inside the magical universe. More or less, we watch the borders and the general running of the phenomena associated with the universe. We don't work individual cases like this either."

Timmy frowned and pushed his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose. "There's a flaw in your logic. Bloom would be an individual case, so why would you take an interest in her disappearance?"

Aetheria blinked and looked at Timmy as though the answer was obvious. "As her friends you should know why. She's done so much for the magical universe. To remove her thread from the tapestry would unravel practically everything in a manner of speaking."

"Whoah, whoah! Let's not go unraveling any threads now!" Musa interjected.

"It cannot be helped now. Diaspro and Baltor have both the space and time aspects." Aetheria shook her head. Everything as you know it is about to be undone… some of you may not even exist after this, not if you are younger than the date of her conception."

"But Bloom's destiny has been foretold for centuries." Tecna said quietly. " Remember what Bartleby cited from the Book of Fate? There was a prophecy about us entering Obsidian and freeing Domino. Everything back to the point some seer predicted Bloom's destiny would be undone."

Helia felt his heart drop as he watched Aetheria's eyes widen and shine with trepidation. She made some motion with her hands, as if to ward off evil or draw divine favor. "Gods help us…" she whispered.

"How in the universe could this have happened?!" Stella held her head in her hands and closed her eyes tight. She slowly shook her head as though she were trying to rid her mind of all the overwhelming thoughts. "It's too big this time… I mean it's the unraveling of time and space we're talking about here! Everything as we know it is about to fall apart!"

"Not if we can help it."

Helia turned and saw Sky walk up with Layla, looks of grim determination set in their expressions. The two didn't appear to be harmed in any way and Helia let loose a sigh of relief. "I see you two have sorted out your issues." he commented.

"Not yet we haven't." Layla looked at Aetheria, her eyes dark with doggedness. " Everything will have been sorted out once we've kicked Baltor and Diaspro's rears and reclaimed all aspects of Bloom. There's got to be a way to stop them."

Aetheria bit her lip. "I… I'm still a relatively new keeper. I don't know all the facts behind the legends and myths of life's aspects. Eilian knew more than I did. I do know where they have to take the aspects in order to force them to meet however."

"Where?" Roxy ventured, her voice wavering ever so slightly with a nervous caution. Helia was surprised the young girl was able to hold herself together throughout all of this. "Where do they have to go?"

"The Dais of Chaos." Aetheria said slowly.

"Don't like it already." Musa muttered. She looked to the sky. "For once could we not go someplace eerie and evil? I've got some suggestions! What about Candy Mountain or the North Pole?"

"Who are you talking to?" Riven asked.

"Forget it. How the hell to we get to the 'Dais of Chaos'?" Musa said in exasperation.

A strange voice answered her from across the clearing, "You don't."

Kerrin glowered at the group of individuals standing before her. About half of them were fairies donning exquisite Enchantix outfits. The rest of the group consisted of a group of armed men in uniform and a young fairy who wasn't transformed. But Kerrin disregarded them after she answered the blue-haired fairy's question. She focused her dark gaze on the form of the girl sprawling on the ground at the center of the group. "Aetheria…"

"Kerrin!" Aetheria sounded hopeful as she unsteadily rose to her feet. The Guardian Fairy of the Expanse of Space looked worse for wear as she met Kerrin's gaze. "My sister…"

"You broke your oath." Kerrin said flatly, cutting Aetheria off. "I'm surprised the gods haven't decided to smite you yet." she stated nonchalantly.

"Perhaps its because they saw how dire the situation was as well." Aetheria said quietly. "Kerrin… I had to do it."

"Eilian put you up to it. How typical of her to cause trouble. She must figure if she isn't the only one breaking the rules then the gods can't punish her." With her black robe flowing about her like living darkness, Kerrin walked toward Aetheria. Aetheria flinched and fell back amongst the crowd of fairies and men. "Come Aetheria. Confess and face judgement. If you recount what Eilian has done then perhaps the gods will show you mercy."

"We need to stop those who stole the aspects!" Aetheria cried out. "They took the aspects of a young girl who…"

"Enough." Kerrin felt her anger peak. "We leave now and have you and Eilian dealt with accordingly. Meira and I…" Kerrin was cut off by a gentle voice.

"…will aid you in this mission, Aetheria."

Kerrin whipped around and saw Meira calmly approach. "But they betrayed their vows to the gods!"

"But not to one another." Meira gave Kerrin a stern look, her silver eyes flashing in the sunlight. With her pale blonde hair and pure white cloak, Meira appeared to be angelic in comparison to Kerrin. "She and Eilian made an oath as sisters to forever protect one another. Eilian did not have to pressure Aetheria. Aetheria willingly removed that aspect at Eilian's behest. We too made vows with them. To break them now after the amount of time we've had with one another would be sacrilegious."

"You could incur the wrath of the gods!" Kerrin cried, her shock and anger making her shrill. "The gods, Meira."

Meira didn't even think on what Kerrin had said. She turned from Kerrin to the group and made the slightest nod at them. "I will help you, Aetheria. Call upon Eilian. We'll need to hurry if we hope to catch up to those transgressors who hold the aspects." She then turned back to Kerrin. "Make your choice, sister. Which oath will you uphold? The one to those who command you or the one to those who've loved you and stood by you for centuries?"

Kerrin slowly backed away from Meira, shaking her head. Her black curls bounced about her face as she shook her head. "You are asking me to choose between honor and friendship." She turned from Meira then, and she felt her inner turmoil peak, bidding her to go back. She ignored it and took several more paces before she stopped and drew a slender, black blade from beneath her cloak. She reached out to the shadows of the trees and they dragged away from the roots and coalesced before her to form a black sphere. Before she entered the shadows she turned back to the group behind her. "Traitors. All of you." She thrust her sword into the heart of the black orb and entered the dark sanctuary of the portal, leaving her sisters to their doom.

Author's note- Helia deserves a round of applause for breaking up that tense situation between Layla and Sky. Meira and Aetheria have chosen to work with our beloved Specialists and Winx. The clock's not only ticking for Bloom, but for much of the past and the present as well. Here's hoping our beloved Winx and Specialists will be able to stop Diaspro and Baltor in time. It took me forever to finish this chapter, but it was fun. Hopefully you'll all enjoy it.