Disclaimer: I don't own Winx Club.
Alright, time for some answers. After a segment from my new favorite secondary character.
Vasyl, I have a quick question for you. Who is Angelique? This is the first I've heard of her. In any case, Umbra and Corona weren't inspired by her. They were inspired by this series's continuing fascination with opposites. Seriously, there's opposites out the yin-yang! (Groan. Why do I write these puns?)
Also, Cyborg, it was kind of supposed to.
Moving on. The popular question of the day seems to be how all these people ended up in Altivix. Well some were born here, such as Umbra and Corona, some came here on a mission, such as the Classix, while others, such as Nocta, came here by accident. Altivix used to be a lot easier to get to, until someone put the planet that houses its entrance into a deep freeze.
Anyways, on with the story!
The inside of the building was a sharp contrast to its exterior. While on the outside it appeared to be a log cabin of sorts, the inside was a stark, hospital-like environment. The entrance stretched into a long hallway, smaller rooms on either side. A set of stairs lay to their right. Several other people rushed about, carrying herbs and pots of ointments.
"This way." Vivian said, beckoning the others towards one of the larger side rooms. Perdi, Artis, Corona, and Umbra followed, carrying the four unconscious fairies with them. Luminé brought up the rear.
"Set them down on the tables." Vivian said. The room held five examination tables and a trio of chairs by the door. The walls were covered in cupboards and shelves stocked with various medicines and other healing supplies. One girl was placed on each of the first four tables as Vivian went about gathering various supplies.
"If we're not needed here, we should get back to patrolling." Corona said.
"Yeah, there's been rumors of Drekyar Striders to the north." Umbra said.
"Go on you two." Luminé said. "But wait for me outside." She called after them as they fled the building.
"Your granddaughters are as impatient as ever." Vivian said.
"Tell me about it." Luminé said. "I'd better go. Thanks for taking care of these girls."
"Not a problem. You know how much this means to me."
"See you later." Luminé said as she followed her rambunctious grandchildren out.
"Now, let's see what we have here." Vivian said. She walked over to Nyssa. "Hmm, you're just sleeping. I think I'll let you keep sleeping."
She continued on to Dhalia. "Ah, magical exhaustion. A simple problem."
"But I thought magical drainage was one of the hardest injuries to treat." Perdi said.
"I said simple, not easy."
"Oh."
"Fortunately I have just the thing." She said, grabbing what looked like a bottle of literally sparkling water. "Fairy dust blended with vinegar and herbs!"
Oblivious to the looks of disgust on the two girls' faces, she administered a small portion of the noxious liquid to Dhalia. Even unconscious, she grimaced as it went down. "And now a quick burst of magic to activate it!" She pushed some of her power into Dhalia who glowed for a moment, then returned to normal. "Ah, that should do it."
She moved on to Amelia and Reyva. "Mild electrocution. Mild burns. An easy fix." She grabbed a small jar of ointment and smeared it on the girls' burns. She also sprinkled some powder on them. Once again, she used her power to activate the medicines.
"Now for the two of you." She turned to Artis and Perdi. "You've both suffered recent injuries." She pointed at Perdi. "Let's start with you." She began grabbing small balls of light out of thin air with her right hand and collecting them in her left. "Your shoulder was injured by a cutting weapon, likely a sword. It healed quickly, but in a natural manner. Probably due to magical assistance. "
"How do you know all this?" Perdi asked in confusion.
"Healer's Sight my girl." Vivian grabbed one final orb and gathered them all together. With both hands she formed them into a ball the size of a small orange. "Even with magical assistance, natural healing can be imperfect. I expect you've been suffering some low-grade pain from your shoulder, maybe some twinges when you try to move or use it."
"I hadn't really noticed."
"Ah, you're one of those, oblivious to the pain. Well, you've suffered some permanent damage to the muscles there. I can fix that." She took the orb and let go of it, leaving it hovering it midair. Using nothing but magic, she turned it into a string, twisted it into a spiral, compressed it back into a ball, pulled it out into the shape of a butterfly, turned the butterfly into a ribbon, tied the ribbon in a knot, unraveled the ribbon into a dozen little strands that flew back together to form the ball. She squished the ball down to the size of a grape, placed it on her hand, then flicked it into Perdi's chest. Perdi glowed for a moment, then went back to normal. The whole time Vivian had a slightly alarming smile on her face.
"You have way too much fun with your job." Artis accused.
"Guilty as charged." Vivian's grin got even wider. "Your turn."
"What? But there's nothing wrong with me!"
"You recently suffered a heart attack and a severe shock, neither of which does good things to your body." Vivian said, pulling more orbs out of the air. "Although I can't figure out why you had a heart attack. You're in fairly good health, no underlying conditions, no real reason."
"I'm not going to explain it to you, so don't ask."
"Alright then." Vivian repeated the process with the orb, now with even more theatrics. "There, good as new."
"You're insane." Artis said.
"No, I just enjoy what I do. There's a difference."
"Where did you learn all this anyways?" Perdi asked.
"Some of it I learned here, but most of it I learned at the Cloud Tower School for Healing."
Perdi and Artis stared at her. Cloud Tower School for Healing?
"Of course it was still new at the time, but it was such a wonderful place. Witches from all over the Magic Dimension coming together to learn to heal, or, at one of the other wings, how to defend innocent people from the fairies."
Fairies? Defend? WHAT?
"Particularly those three Ancestral Fairies. They were the worst, always spreading chaos and misery."
Perdi and Artis looked at each other. This woman was clearly off her rocker.
"I'm not crazy. It's the truth.
"But fairies are the ones who defend the peace, not witches." Artis complained.
"Not in my day. In my day, fairies were a menace. We witches were the only ones who could stop them."
"But the Ancestrals weren't fairies." Perdi said. "They were witches."
"I'll let Luminé explain the true nature of the Ancestrals to you. After all, she's the one who cursed them."
"What?"
"Oh, look at the time, I really must be going." Vivian bustled about putting things away. "It was nice to meet you two, uh..."
"Artis."
"Perdi."
"Artie and Perdis. Got it. Nice meeting you." She bustled out of the room.
Artis and Perdi stared at each other for a moment. "I guess we wait for them to wake up?" Artis said.
"I guess so." Perdi replied.
Artis sat waiting for the other girls to wake up. Including Perdi. The girl had fallen asleep with her head in Artis's lap. It had been a long day, and the other Classix just didn't have the same magic reserves as she now possessed. Artis stubbornly dragged her thoughts back to the present before she could go back down that rabbit hole. She was back with her friends. They were going to stop Eclipsis. Everything would work out.
She was brought out of her reverie by Amelia sitting up.
"Hey there."
"Artis? Where are we?"
"Melivon."
"How'd we get here?"
"Why don't we wait for the others to wake up before we start explaining things?"
"Alright. What happened to Perdi?"
"She's just tired."
"She looks so cute when she's sleeping."
"Yeah..." Artis smiled gently at the sleeping girl.
"You really should tell her."
"I should."
"But you won't?
"Probably not."
"Your loss." Amelia glanced around. "I guess we just wait for the others to wake up?"
"Yep."
"Okay then."
An hour later and all five of the Classix were awake. The sun was starting to sink towards the horizon as the Classix gathered for a quick meeting.
"So that's how we got here." Reyva said as Artis finished her explanation.
"Pretty much." Artis said.
"Alright then." Dhalia said. "Our next step is to find Eclipsis. Hopefully these people can help us."
"They probably will." Perdi said. "They seem like nice people."
"Good. Then tomorrow-" Dhalia was cut off as a faint sound came from Nyssa's direction. The Classix hurried over.
Nyssa slowly awoke from her sleep. Once again, she'd have spend the night trying make up for what she'd done during the day. Like she always did. Trying to make up for her lack of control.
What had she done during the day? It was all a big blur. She opened her eyes. Then immediately closed them again. It was so bright! Where was she? She opened her eyes slowly, giving them time to adjust.
She was in a building. She was INSIDE a building. She hadn't slept in a building in ten thousand years! What was going on? And why was she Nyssa when it was still light out? That didn't make any...sense.
The events of the past day came rushing back to her and she bolted upright.
"You're awake." Dhalia's voice was hard and brittle. She was stating a fact. Nothing more.
"I...I..."
"Are you okay?" Amelia asked. Unlike Dhalia's, her voice held an edge of emotion. She seemed actually worried about her.
Nyssa stared at Amelia for a long moment. Then she tackled the girl in a powerful hug. "Thank you!"
"Easy there. You're crushing my ribs. I still need those."
"Sorry."
"So, I believe you have some explaining to do." Reyva said. If Dhalia's voice had been brittle, Reyva's was an icicle. Cold, hard, and unforgiving.
"I...Yes, I owe you an explanation."
"Then tell."
"I...I am Sasha. That's my real name."
"We figured that one out."
"Well, Allanya gave me a pair of earrings that let me be a fairy. When I'm a fairy, I can control myself."
"And when you're not?"
"...I can't. I'm so angry I can't control my own actions. I...I do horrible things." Nyssa said, tears forming in her eyes.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Artis's voice was soft. It wasn't exactly friendly, but it wasn't hostile either.
"Would you?"
"...No, I guess not."
Nyssa turned back to Amelia. "How did you figure it out?"
"There were clues everywhere. When you said you were the fairy of Night, you tripped up and almost said you were the fairy of Night and what I guessed was Day. Then I saw you with an earring just like the one I'd lost. We never saw you and Sasha together. It seemed strange that Sasha only appeared during the day. Most monsters are stronger at night. And the fact that Sasha saved us from Koroboras. That was strange. And then you both described your life in Altivix as 'half a life'. And you knew so much about the Ember Blades and the Ember Stones. Like you had firsthand experience with them. And then, the night before our last encounter with the Ember Blades, I saw you holding a small box. You pulled out another, broken earring, and it all came together. After our last fight with the Ember Blades, I scanned you as Sasha. I found the magical signature of the earring, confirming it. I also figured out how to use my old earring to duplicate the power of yours."
"You really were paying attention."
"If I had really been paying attention I'd have figured it out before Artis paid the price."
"So now what?"
"Now, we get an explanation from someone else." Amelia turned to the other girls. "We're going to contact Allanya. And she's going to tell us everything this time."
A/N: Well then, explanations all around. I just noticed, this is chapter fifteen. If we're following tradition, then this is the second to last chapter. Good thing we're not following tradition. Next chapter is probably going to end up as the midpoint for this book, so we still have quite a number of chapters left to go. Next chapter will mark the end of the first story arc for this book though. Sixteen chapters just to resolve Nyssa/Sasha. I'm looking forward to seeing how she works as a member of the team.
For those who think Nyssa was a little soft in this chapter, I remind you that she hasn't seen the light of day in ten thousand years. She's been trapped as a monster during the day every day for ten millennia. She's entitled to a little emotion.
I hope to have the next chapter up soon, preferably by Friday. It's an interesting conjunction of a full moon and Friday the thirteenth. Statistically speaking, this only happens once ever sixteen and a half years or so. So why not use this time to reveal the full story of my main villain, Eclipsis? See you all next time.