A/N: Sorry if it takes me a while to update, the semester already started and I have classes lol but I´ll do my best to update as soon as I can!
Chapter 5: Motives
"You want me to break that old curse? Isn't it just a legend?" Tritannus asked him, confused.
"Of course not, you fool. The curse that was placed on Sirenix by the three ancient witches is very much real. So you decide", he said crossing his arms, grinning.
"Do we have a deal?" he asked, Tritannus stared at him for a moment, as if trying to make sure this was all really happening.
"How do I know you won't fall back on your word, Valtor?!" he demanded,
"It's simple Tritannus, I´m a man of my word. I take my business very seriously. But just so there's no doubt left in you, I´ll give you just a small taste of what I´ve offered you. The rest of it you´ll receive once you´ve kept your side of the deal", Valtor told him sternly. With that he extended his hand in Tritannus´s direction and the cell door flew open, setting him free. At the same time, he casted upon the triton the small amount of power he offered. A blue light flew from his hand and into Tritannus.
"My son…please do not follow him!" his father yelled,
"Brother!"
Tritannus took one final look at each of them. Why were they so concerned now? He always thought his parents preferred his brother over him. On that very same morning, he found out that King Neptune would indeed name his brother the crowned prince of the oceanic kingdom. And not him. Meaning he would always continue to come in second. His brother was the favorite, the prodigy. Never would he obtain the place of privilege that he desired. They hadn't even considered him as a possible king. So why were they asking him to stay? Of course, he would have the power they could never have. He would rule the infinite ocean with the help of Valtor, and they would not. That had to be it.
"Goodbye" he said, before turning to face the wizard,
"Are we leaving this place or what?" he asked,
"Of course", Valtor responded, and Tritannus followed, not once looking back.
The meeting had taken a few hours but it looked like they were getting results. By now, most of the royals had agreed to form an association and aid each other in case of another attack. Since the separation of the company of light twenty years ago, there hadn't been another association to protect the magical dimension from threat, although there hadn't been any threats in years, not since the destruction of Domino. The troubles began once again with the return of the dragon flame. Or so it was said…
The only royals who weren't all too willing to cooperate with the establishment of this association were Diaspro´s parents, King Xander and Queen Luciana. That was until King Erandor attempted to reason with them. They weren't too friendly considering they too had high hopes of Sky marrying Diaspro, but they understood the seriousness of the matter nonetheless.
Diaspro stood alone, leaning on one of the pillars while King Radius and the other royals went over the details of their plan. She stared at her expensive silver diamond watch, why hadn't Valtor contacted her yet? What was taking him so long? She gazed at Sky who was now laughing at something his pathetic friends said.
"Sky…where did we go wrong?" she thought. They had been so close to getting married. He had been hers. She had the ring to prove it… she watched as Sky put an arm around Stella and continued laughing.
"It won't be long now Sky, you´ll make up for the dishonour you caused me",
"Diaspro, is everything alright? You seem rather distracted today", her mother said suddenly,
"I´m fine mother, this just isn't my…kind of event", she said, displeasured.
"I know dear, but it's for the good of the dimension, that's the only reason why we´re here, remember that", the queen told her. She looked in Sky´s direction, following Diaspro´s gaze.
"I know what you must be thinking darling but worry not, it was the king´s loss after all. He missed out on one of the dimension´s most poised princesses, they´re fools! You´ll find someone worthy of you, and even wealthier, you´ll see", her mother told her. Diaspro had listened to her mother´s every word since the breakup, but alas, she was just as stubborn as her parents were. And moreover, her heart had never listened to reason, and today it would be no different.
"Your ex´s parents are really hard-headed Sky", Stella said, with a bit of annoyance. She knew how hard her father was working to try and bring all of these people together.
"Yeah, tell me about it", he said, rubbing the back of his head.
"Well, look on the bright side. Now our chances of defeating Valtor are even greater, he won't stand a chance against all of us", Layla said, almost enthusiastically.
"Let us hope so", Sky said.
"I still wonder what he intends with all this, what is really after?" Stella wondered. It just didn't make any sense to her,
"I mean he attacked Andros and tormented its people, yet unlike the trix, he didn't take anything with him", she thought. Sky only nodded in understand,
"That's true, my parents and I noticed the same thing, but we don't have a clue", Layla told them,
"Might it have anything to do with the Kraken?" Sky asked,
"The what?" Stella asked, not understanding.
"The Kraken, it's a very powerful creature that lives deep in the ocean of Andros, Stella. And no I really don't think it does", Layla answered them. They all listened as King Radius continued to speak,
"And if Valtor were to attack, we now all know the signal which we must emit if needed. King Neptune has already agreed to leave an army of Tritons to guard the portal of the Omega dimension to avoid any other prisoner from escaping. Until further notice, every realm must prepare, if the wizard returns, we´ll be ready", the King said. Queen Luna only nodded in agreement beside him, despite their differences, she was and would always be there to support both her ex-husband and daughter and their home realm. She was proud to know that this had been Radius´s idea, and that he had taken the initiative. Gathering the rulers of every single realm wasn't an easy task, let along coming to an agreement with them all.
Soon the conference came to an end and the royals all started heading back to each of their realms. Stella and Layla had gone to see how Layla´s parents were doing while Sky spoke his mother. Soon enough, Queen Samara and King Erandor also departed, and Sky waited for the girls near the entrance,
"Sky…" Diaspro´s voice came. He turned around immediately,
"It was great seeing you again", she said placing her hand on his shoulder.
"I really hope this isn't our last encounter", she said,
"Oh, thank you Diaspro, who knows", he said, trying to make very little conversation out of the fear of giving the wrong idea. She came closer to him and hugged him, giving him a kiss on the cheek, Sky froze. Immediately, he place his hands over both her arms in an attempt to push her farther from him, but before he could she leaned in to whisper in his ear,
"I´ve really missed you Sky, I´ll see you again…say hello to Bloom for me"
Musa sat at her desk working on an assignment professor Avalon sent for homework. The dorm room was pretty quiet without the girls. Tecna was at the library, Bloom was on the phone with her adoptive mother, Vanessa, and Flora was doing some research on magical plants for a herbology project. She set her pen down, sighing. There was a knock on her door.
"Musa! Someone came to see you", Flora sang to her, smiling.
"Who?" she asked, completely oblivious.
"You´ll have to see for yourself, he´s waiting for you downstairs", Flora told her, shutting the door. Musa couldn't imagine who it was, she left her room and made her way downstairs.
"Jared?" he turned around, putting his helmet underneath his arm.
"Hey Musa", he greeted, giving her a kiss on the cheek. Musa gasped almost inaudibly, taken by surprise.
"I´m sorry for stopping by without asking you first, but, I wanted it to be a surprise", he said blushing.
"A surprise?"
"Yeah, well, I was wondering if you could come with me, just for a little bit. There´s something I want to show you. I thought you might like it", Jared told her nervously. She knew how hard it must have been for the poor guy to come and talk to her like this, especially since she hadn't been all that friendly towards him the last time. She smiled.
"Alright, let's go", she told him. He stared at her, almost not believing she accepted. He handed her another helmet before climbing on his hover bike with her and taking off.
Soon enough, they reached a beautiful meadow, filled with flowers of all sorts of different colors. It was the same meadow Sky had taken Bloom to. Jared heard it was also a quiet and calm place. He had a strong feeling a girl like Musa would enjoy a place like this.
"Well, we´re here", he told her as they got off his hover bike. Musa stared in wonder,
"This place is amazing Jared…how´d you find it?" she asked, turning to look at him. He smiled,
"I heard about it from someone and I just had to see it for myself. And when I did, I thought of you", he told her. Musa was loss for words. They began walking slowly amongst the flowers, the cool breeze diffusing the scent of lavender.
"I know my mother would have loved this" she thought,
"So…do you like it?" he asked shyly.
"Mmm, I really do", she told him with a small smile.
"Thanks for bringing me here",
"Umm…would you like to sit?" he asked, she nodded and took a seat on the warm grass.
"Oh, wait a minute!" he said and ran back to his bike, opening the back compartment. Out of it, he pulled a blanket and a basket, and returned to her.
"Here you go", he said, laying the blanket over the grass for her to sit on. He placed the basket on top of the blanket and opened it, handing her a sandwich.
"Oh! Thanks Jared", she said. He laughed nervously,
"I just hope you like it Musa. I hope you're not too disappointed once you taste the sandwich" he said laughing. She couldn't help joining in. Never in her life had a guy made such a nice gesture towards her. The only ones closest to her were her father and now the winx who had practically become her family, and Riven of course. She shook those thoughts away, she was trying to start over, to move on like Riven had.
Flashback
"Are you sure you wanna ride this thing Mus?" Riven asked her, she grinned. He was trying to hide it but she knew him too well, it was obvious he was scared of letting her drive his hover bike. More than his fear of her ruining his precious bike, he was afraid of her causing their deaths.
"There's only one way to find out!" she told him, flipping her long pigtails back as she got on the bike. Riven climbed onto his hover bike, sitting behind her and wrapping his arms firmly around her waist for dear life. Musa laughed at his expression.
"Relax Riven, have a little faith in me, will you?"
"I´m trying", he muttered. And without warning she turned on the bike and hit the gas. She was aware of Riven holding her tightly at first, but little by little he began loosening up. She was actually a pretty decent driver.
She drove all the way from Alfea College to Lake Rocalucce, or close to it at least. And she enjoyed every minute, the sensation it gave her was thrilling. Now she began to understand why Riven loved his hover bike so much, besides the fact that he needed it to fight sometimes of course. The hover bike came to a stop as she slowly hit the brakes and parked it neatly. They both took their helmets off, and Riven was grinning slyly,
"Not bad at all, is there anything you don't know how to do?" he asked,
"Not as of yet", she said, feeling overconfident at his words. He took her helmet out of her hands and placed it on the hover bike along with his.
"I´m proud of you Musa", he told her and leaned in to kiss her. She returned his gesture, wrapping her arms around his neck as he held her waist.
End of flashback
"Musa? You okay?" Jared asked, bringing her out of her thoughts.
"Oh I...I´m fine Jared" she said taking a bite out of her sandwich.
"Was it the sandwich? It was wasn't it?" he asked, causing her to laugh.
"Actually it's one of the best I´ve ever tasted! Your good at this", she said teasingly. Although it really was tasteful.
She tried thinking about the people closest to her besides Riven, like the Winx Club. She still remembered the day Bloom had come up with that name. It was during their first year at Alfea College, sometime during their first couple of weeks, when they quickly started growing close, and even closer on the day they all had to comfort Bloom after she found out she was adopted. The day they met was when their crazy adventures all started, she was thankful for the way fate had brought each of them together. Before them, growing without her mother, she had always been a bit of a tomboy, never really considering a change in her style since she felt perfectly comfortable with it. But looking through photo albums, she could see how different her mother was in that way. A tall, elegant woman. She may not have had a lot of money, or brand name clothes but she always dressed like a lady, she looked so delicate.
But being with the winx, it changed her for better without her even realizing it. No matter how Stella annoyed her at first, or how many arguments they got into, she had actually grown used to Stella´s dressing them up in amazing outfits and her touches of fashion on their everyday styles.
"Musa, there's something I´ve been meaning to tell you. I know you may not want to talk about this, and- well, I just wanted you to know that, you´re the coolest girl I´ve ever met. I heard you sing at Red fountain last year and I was really impressed. I think you're really talented, and you´re one of the greatest people of I´ve ever met, and I just…if you don't mind, I´d like the chance to get to know you better. I really like you Musa", he said,
"Jared, I don't know what to say, really", she said looking away. She wanted to be honest with him and tell him she wasn't ready, but was she? What if she wanted to get to know him as well?
"I´m sorry, I don't mean to rush you or anything. I just want us to know each other a little better, spend some time together from time to time, like this…just relaxing", he said to her soothingly. No rush…just friends spending time together, it didn't sound so bad…
"Well I guess that's fine, just…don't get your hopes too high, alright?" she said reluctant, he smiled.
"I won´t",
Icy, Darcy and Stormy transported to pixie village. As the first task, Valtor had asked them to acquire the key to the gates of Obsidian. Everyone knew how bad Obsidian was, it was the worse known realm. So whatever his reasons were, they were guaranteed to be disastrous, and they enjoyed that very much. The sisters began walking through the village and as soon as they did, they found exactly what they were looking for.
"You have no business here! So go away!" A tiny pixie´s voice came out from behind a tree, her name was Nalani.
"Not what we want…but rather what we need!" Icy said and extended her hand toward the pixie, freezing her in place.
"Stop it! Help! Please help!" she yelled unable to move. The sisters came close.
"We´ll let you go under one condition", Stormy told her. Immediately a band of pixies emerged from within the forest but Icy was quick enough to freeze them all completely,
"What?!" Nalani demanded desperately,
"Enter the tree of portals and get us the Key to the Obsidian dimension. Do that and we pinky promise to leave you alone", Darcy said to her. It was clear how frightened Nalani was so they didn't consider her as a threat of think she would put much resistance.
"I can't do that! I´m not allowed to hand anyone any of the keys! Especially the one that leads to the obsidian dimension, why would you possibly want to go there?!" she asked, truly worried.
"I´ll tell you this one last time pixie! You wearing my patience thin! Do as we say or we will destroy all of pixie village! You decide, you don't want to see your village disappear do you?" Icy asked, Nalani simply shook her head, as Icy unfroze her and let the pixie lead them to the tree of portals. Nalani entered the tree and retrieved the Key to the gates of Obsidian and agreed to give it to them as long as she and her friends remain unharmed.
"Here you go, now please don't harm pixie village" she whispered.
"Believe us, we couldn't care less about this place", Stormy said rolling her eyes. And with the key in hand they disappeared, leaving a very distraught Nalani.
After they left, all of the pixies were automatically unfrozen. Lara, pixie village´s head pixie put a hand on Nalani´s shoulder.
"We must inform Faragonda", she said sadly.
"Valtor…here's what you asked for", Icy said excitedly as they transported to his cave on Andros. Tritannus looked at them surprised…specifically at Icy.
"Who are you?" Icy asked Tritannus, feeling intrigued.
"Icy, meet Tritannus…our newest recruit", Valtor said laughing. Tritannus took Icy´s hand and kissed it, not once breaking eye contact with her.
"It's my pleasure, Icy", he told her, mesmerized. Valtor took the key from Icy´s hand,
"Now you all stay here. It's important no one sees any of you! Stormy you come with me, I´ll be back", he said sternly,
"What? And where exactly are you going?" Icy demanded,
"Yeah and why can Stormy go?" Darcy asked, a tinge of jealousy in her voice.
"That is for me to know! Now unless you all want to receive your part we will do as I say…" he told them darkly.
"Stormy!" he yelled as she ran by his side and without further warning, they both disappeared.
Obsidian….Marion and Oritel…here we come….